Kirkland does DC

JT over at Thinking About Art has been hitting the key shows around the District and has several interesting reviews:

Five Shows at the Katzen.

Trawick Prize.

David FeBland at Fraser Gallery.

Robin Rose at Hemphill.

William Wegman at Adamson.

Robert Creamer at Heineman-Myers.

Nicholas and Sheila Pye at Curator's Office.

Conservative Berkeley and Rocky

Chris Gilbert, the former curator of art at the Baltimore Museum of Art (and a past Trawick Prize juror I believe), a while back resigned his position as a curator at the Berkeley Museum of Art & Pacific Film Archive and has now quit the "system."

Gilbert resigned over disagreements caused by the exhibition "Now-Time Venezuela: Media Along the Path of the Bolivarian Process".

In his statement Gilbert states:

"...they have said they wanted "neutrality" and "balance" whereas I have always said that instead my approach is about commitment, support, and alignment -- in brief, taking sides with and promoting revolution."

Gilbert then discusses

"...the fact that the museum, the bourgeois values it promotes via the institution of contemporary art (contemporary art of the past 30 years is really in most respects simply the cultural arm of upper-class power) are not really those of any class but its own. Importantly the museum and the bourgeoisie will always deny the role of class interests in this: they will always maintain that the kinds of cultural production they promote are more difficult, smarter, more sophisticated -- hence the lack of response to most contemporary art is, according to them, about differences in education and sophistication rather than class interest. That this kind of claim is obscurantist and absurd is something the present exhibitions make very clear: the work of Catia TVe, which is created by people in the popular (working-class) neighborhoods of Caracas, is far more sophisticated than what comes out of the contemporary art of the Global North."

So what this once "insider" offers to us is the opinion (backed by his experiences) that popular artwork is inherently better than most museum-level contemporary artwork, and that the reason that contemporary museum shows are not generally accepted by the public is then rationalized by the museums and art elitists as a result of the public not being educated and sophisticated enough to understand what the artwork is all about.

But this elitist operating mode of thinking will always be denied.

Interesting; Gilbert continues:

"...it is too weak to say that museums, like universities, are deeply corrupt. They are. (And in my view the key points to discuss regarding this corruption are (1) the museum's claim to represent the public's interests when in fact serving upper-class interests and parading a carefully constructed surrogate image of the public; (2) the presence of intra-institutional press and marketing departments that really operate to hold a political line through various control techniques, only one of which is censorship; finally (3) the presence of development departments that, in mostly hidden ways, favor and flatter rich funders, giving the lie to even the sham notion of public responsibility that the museum parades)."

Now take Rocky.

In the Greater Philadelphia area, and elsewhere through newscoverage and blogs, a lot of discussions and opinions have been aired about the public return of the Rocky Balboa statue to a new spot at the foot of Eakins Oval next to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The statue, which re-creates one of the most famous scenes from the original Rocky movie (and was introduced in Rocky III), was installed initially many years ago at the top of the museum steps, but was removed just a few months later when "museum officials and art aficionados argued that it was merely a movie prop and that its 'exaggerated proportions and caricature' would sully the internationally renowned museum's image."

And now the Philadelphia Arts Commission recently voted 6-2 to move the 2,000-pound, 8 foot, six inches bronze out of storage and install it permanently at the foot of Eakins Oval.

This decision has divided public opinion faster than Mrs. Clinton.

On one side of the public opinion, there's... ah... the public, which seems to me to like having its Rocky statue back as sort of a visual and touristy symbol of this blue collar, working class city.

"We're thrilled," said city Commerce Director Stephanie Naidoff. "What more wonderful a symbol of hard work and dedication is there than Rocky?"

On the other side are art academics and elitists and some art bloggers.

The two "no" votes from the Arts Commission came from Prof. Moe Brooker, an abstract painter from the Moore College of Art and Design and from Miguel Angel Corzo, the President of the University of the Arts.

"It's not a work of art and ... it doesn't belong there," said Brooker.

Corzo has suggested that he might resign from the commission over the vote, saying that "placing the pugilist near the museum goes against the commission's desire to 'raise the standards of the city.'"

I wonder what side Chris Gilbert would take: the side shuddering at the thought of the Italian Stallion sullying the image of the museum, or the masses, rushing up the 72 steps to the museum only to find that the statue is not there and then having to ask where the Eakins Oval is.

By the way, according to Google, the words "Conservative Berkeley" have been used together only just over 100 times in the billions and billions of pages that make up the web.

Yo Adrian!

New writer at the CP

From Erik Wemple (WCP editor):

Dear Colleagues:

Allow me to announce that Washington City Paper has hired a columnist for our S&T column. Her name is Jessica Gould, and she comes to us from the Northwest/Dupont/Georgetown Current.

She has a wonderful and direct writing style and her passion is arts reporting [underlines are mine], which she's eager to do in a column format for Washington City Paper. She's used to writing up to five stories a week, so she can crank news copy like no one's biz.

She starts on Oct. 12.

We all welcome Jessica!

Looking Through a Lens

"The eruption in the media and on photo blogs last week over an image taken on 9/11 by the German photographer Thomas Hoepker--and the glib interpretation put upon it by Frank Rich in the New York Times--has proved once again that we don't need Photoshop to doctor the meaning of an image."

Art critic Richard Woodward discusses in the WSJ the war of words triggered in the blogsphere by this photograph depicting five young Brooklynites on the Brooklyn waterfront seemingly engaged in a fun and relaxed conversation while the WTC burns in the background.

As reported by David Friend in his book "Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11," Herr Hoepker, who never spoke to his subjects, saw the New Yorkers in the photograph as "totally relaxed like any normal afternoon. They were just chatting away. It's possible they lost people and cared, but they were not stirred by it. . . .I can only speculate [but they] didn't seem to care."

Read here what happened next.

In Latin America

Just finished doing a massive piece for a chain of Latin American newspapers covering the fine arts scene in the Greater Washington, DC region. I'm now hoping to sell them on doing the same thing for some of the other major art scenes in the Mid Atlantic.

More later...

Philly Art Falls Guide

...the town that birthed Thomas Eakins is pushing paint again this fall.

Roberta Fallon, writing in the Philadelphia Weekly, gives us a preview to the visual arts highlights coming this fall. Read it here.

In her superb co-blog, Roberta also visits the newest gallery in Philly.

Cerulean Arts is owned by Michael Kowbuz and Tina Rocha, and located at 1355 Ridge Avenue. Their grand opening show includes work by Astrid Bowlby, Pat Boyer, Eric Brown, John Bybee, Alexander Cheves, Michael Kowbuz, Nancy Lewis, Yuri Makoveychuk, Meg McDevitt, Hiro Sakaguchi, Mark Shetabi and Kevin Strickland.

According to Fallon, the gallery's "exhibition program is not locked down yet but the pair said they'd have six-week shows, not month-long. Artists who will be featured in upcoming solo or group shows are Sara Roche, Alexander Cheves, Jeffrey Tritt, Binod Shrestha, Hiro Sakaguchi and Yuri Makoveychuk."

Wyeths

Went to the Brandywine Museum to see Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat and will be writing a review for a couple of newspapers and also a review here. Stay tuned.

While there I was lucky enough to run into the fair Victoria Wyeth, grandaughter of Andrew and niece of Jamie, who gave us all a terrific tour of the museum with a lot of great personal insights into the Wyeth family.

Black Artists of DC

Black Artists of DC (BADC) is a community of artists formed in 1999 whose purpose is to "promote, develop and validate the cultural and artistic expressions of artists of African ancestry in the Washington, DC metropolitan area."

The exhibit "Convergence of Vision: The Power of Art," showing at the Prince George's Community College's (PGCC) Marlborough Gallery from September 18th through October 12th will be the group's first showing at a public venue and will feature the work of 34 of the group's artists.

"As a group, BADC seeks to engage and educate our community in the history and value of Black art," says Claudia Gibson-Hunter, BADC facilitator. "There is such a wealth of artistic talent in the Washington metropolitan area, and we want to expose our community to the hidden treasures they have right in their own backyards."

Details here.

Bummer

No Artomatic this year. The NOMA building that they were negotiating for has not come through, despite their best efforts. The AOM crew is working hard to make AOM happen in 2007.

Detail here.

Trashball

Chris Goodwin has started a blog called Trashball! that documents some of the stuff that he finds (much of it in his PT job driving a dump truck). Much of the trash that he finds will end up in one of his two Trashball! machines: One is currently at Warehouse on 7th Street and the other at Busboys and Poets on 14th street in DC.

Visit Trashball! often!

Survey

The Indianapolis Museum of Art announced today that it is planning the first full-scale survey of the critically acclaimed Afro-Cuban artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons.

New Baltimore Studios

A dozen artists or so have been renovating around 24,000 feet of the former Lombard Office Furniture spaces located at 122 West North Avenue (at Howard Street) just across the Howard Street bridge from MICA in Baltimore.

They're having their first event on Saturday, January 28th from noon to 4:00pm. RSVP to Daniel Stuelpnagel at danstuelpnagel@yahoo.com or call him at 415/203-7739.

Gordiany's Grille

A couple of nights ago I went out to a Widener University function, and afterwards we drove around looking for a place to eat.

We drove down Baltimore Pike, and eventually ended up in a little restaurant in Clifton Heights, PA called Gordiany's Grille.

Let me summarize this find in one word: WOW!

We expected to find a small, local place, with maybe some decent food. Located at 252 West Baltimore Avenue in Clifton Heights, PA, the place looks nice from the outside, but unassuming and like a regular neighborhood joint.

It is all that, but the food was amazing!

The chef is a beefy guy nicknamed "Zus" - "It's from Hay-Sus," explained Kelly the waitress. "It's Spanish for Jesus."

And the food was divine! And so affordable!

Imagine a place where you can can a huge plate of clams in a wine and onion and Italian sausage concoction for under nine bucks (and I mean huge). It's called "Drunken Clams" and it was great.

The table next to me ordered a steak, and Jesus came out with a slab of meat on a board to discuss how she wanted it cut with the lady who ordered it. They settled on a "butterfly" cut.

When the pasta dish that we ordered came to us, it brough "ooohs" and "aaahs" from the locals at the place, as it was a sight to see, as the crab legs had been arranged is such a fashion that the huge plate looked like a work of edible art.

Unlike the ritzy places that give you three strands of pasta, this dish was also massive, and I ended up taking half of it home.

This was a truly memorable discovery, everything on the meny is under $20, and I look forward to visiting this little jewel many times. They are located at 252 West Baltimore Avenue in Clifton Heights, PA, and their phone is 610/259-4060.

Stephen Wiltshire

I was first exposed to the amazing skills of Stephen Wiltshire when I was living in the United Kingdom in the late 80's.

His first words were "pencil" and "paper," first spoken when he was five. He is called "the living camera."

But this video is amazing.

Tonite: Sandberg at Conner

This week is shaping out to be an extraordinary week to see the best that contemporary painting has to offer to the DC region.

In addition to Robin Rose at Hemphill, and Manon Cleary at Edison Place Gallery, and the New Leipzig Painters at the Katzen Arts Center, and New York's David FeBland at Fraser Gallery (which is selling out as usual), tonight Conner Contemporary Art hosts the opening for Erik Sandberg's newest solo, titled Contrary.

Just like Cleary and Rose are easily some of the best DC area painters of their generation, Sandberg - in my opinion - is amongst the best Washington area painters of his generation. Buy Erik Sandberg now.

The opening night reception is tonight, Friday, September 15th from 6-8pm.

Saturday: 14th Street Galleries

The Galleries of the 14th Street Arts Corridor in Washington, DC launch the Fall Art Season with joint receptions on Saturday, September 16.

Who: Adamson Gallery, Curator’s Office, G Fine Art, Hemphill, Irvine Contemporary, Gallery plan b, Transformer, and Street Scenes: Art Not Ads (a Welmoed Laanstra public art project).

What: Joint Receptions to launch the fall season

When: Saturday, September 16, 6-9 PM

Exchange

Tomorrow is the WPA/C's EXCHANGE: DC @ Baltimore opening at the Creative Alliance (3134 Eastern Avenue, Baltimore, MD). The opening is from 7 – 9pm. Curated by Gabriel Martinez.

Features work by Trawick Prize finalists Molly Springfield and Jason Zimmerman as well as Breck Brunson, Avi Gupta, Nilay Lawson, Carrie Mallory, Isabel Manalo, Piero Passacantando, Solomon Sanchez, and my good friend and former Georgetown neighbor Rocky Wang.

Congratulations

To former Trawick Prize winner Jiha Moon, who was included in the New York Times review of the "One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now" group show at the Asia Society in New York City.

Read the Roberta Smith review here.

From the Reverend's files

"After pickled sheep, unmade beds and painting with elephant dung, some questioned where modern art could go next.

Kira O'Reilly will provide her own answer today by spending four hours naked, hugging a dead pig - at the taxpayer's expense.

The controversial Irish performance artist will invite one person at a time to watch her sit in a specially-constructed set and perform a 'crushing slow dance' with the carcass in her arms."

Details here.

Manon Cleary Tonight

Tonight, from 6-8PM, is the opening for the Manon Cleary retrospective at the Edison Place Gallery located at 701 9th Street, NW (enter from 8th and G).

Without a doubt the leading realist painter in the Greater Washington region, and made nationally famous by HBO a few years ago, Cleary's retrospective is long overdue and it's a huge black mark on the conscience of DC area museums and curators.