SITE Santa Fe

Today I'll be exploring SITE Santa Fe's Sixth International Biennial: Still Points of the Turning World curated by Klaus Ottmann.

Santa Fe

In my first visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a couple of quick impressions (lots more to follow later):

- At around 70,000 people, Santa Fe is a lot smaller that I imagined.

- It is a charming and beautiful place, and Gerald Peters deserves a lot, in fact most of the credit, for turning this amazing place from a little town full of "cayote" art spaces into the third largest art market in the world.

- There are a lot of art galleries here, at least 500% more that I had imagined.

- There are a lot of art galleries here that still deal in "coyote" art, but I am told by a couple of local art dealers that met with me yesterday that there's an equal huge number of galleries that offer good contemporary art in all the other genres.

- One of the good ones that I discovered yesterday was Chiaroscuro. More on them later.

- Loads of good restaurants as well. Last night had exceptional nopal leaves and carnitas and great live music at Los Mayas.

Church Rock

Is where I got married today! See the Rock here.

Airborne today and heading West to New Mexico. I'll be back Monday night but then leaving immediately for New Hampshire!

I'll try to continue to post, so keep checking!

Gould makes her CP debut and Rousseau nails FeBland

I am in New Mexico... but back in the DC area:

Jessica Gould makes her WCP debut with a really nice piece on the new Wilson Building Art Collection, in Washington, DC making an excellent subtle point on the lack of nudity in American (not just the Wilson's) public art. Read her colum here.

DC's other large public art collection (at the Washington Convention Center), as far as I recall, does not have a single nude in its roster, and precious few figurative works.

This new collection at the Wilson Building is the closest that we now have to a "DC Artists Collection" and curator Sondra Arkin deserves a lot of kudos for her hard work in putting it together.

In the Gazette (which is owned by the Washington Post), Dr. Claudia Rousseau reviews David FeBland's fourth solo at Fraser Gallery.

FeBland's is Fraser's best-selling artist, but that success has not come without a lot of hardwork from FeBland himself. Not only from an enviable work ethic, but also from a very savvy approach to the artworld.

Path of Escape by David FeBland

Gehry for Philly

The Philadelphia Museum of Art today announced its selection of Frank O. Gehry as architect for a 10-year master plan to "dramatically expand the Museum."

According to the news release, "In a departure from the sculptural buildings for which the architect is best known, Gehrys challenge at the Philadelphia Museum of Art will be to create dynamic new spaces for art and visitors alike without disturbing the classic exterior of a building that is already a defining landmark in Philadelphia. The project will add expansive new galleries for contemporary art and special exhibitions by excavating under the Museums east terrace on the hill of Fairmount, and will renovate the Museums existing interiors to create additional space for the display of its renowned collections. A total of 80,000 square feet of new public spacea 60 % increase is anticipated."

At the Board of Trustees meeting today, H. F. "Gerry" Lenfest, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, stated: "We have asked one of the world’s most respected architects to expand this world-class museum, and we look forward to working with Frank and his talented staff to realize a project that began as a dream and that today, in partnership with the city and the state, can begin to move full steam ahead."

A warning note to Anne d’Harnoncourt, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Corcoran.

What Gives?

I read somewhere the other day that in the last year, the US economy grew at such a healthy pace that its growth alone was like creating a brand new economy the size of China's entire economy. And every day I hear about how the stock market is setting new records. And everyday I hear about how the unemployment rate is the lowest that it has been in ages.

And yet, I've managed to pick the worst time in recent history to try to sell my house in Potomac, MD.

So, I have now reduced it in price by over $175,000 from its initial price and its "comp" value and by almost $200,000 from what HouseValues.com says that it is worth.

Buy the house here.

Opening at Vastu

Another DC area art venue that showcases original art is Vastu, located at 1829 14th Street, NW in DC, and tomorrow they will have an opening from 6-8PM for "Artworks," which is an exhibition by Greg Minah and Yao e. odamtten.

The exhibition goes through Nov. 6, 2006.

Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: 29 December 2006

The Fraser Gallery (which I used to co-own) is hosting their Annual Bethesda International Photography Competition. Details and entry forms here or call the gallery at 301/718-9651.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: December 13, 2006

Washington, DC's Touchstone Gallery has a Call for Artists for its 9th Annual All-Media Exhibition. It will be juried by my good friend Jack Rasmussen, who is the Director and Curator of the American University Museum, in Washington, DC. Details and prospectus here.

Shauna Turnbull Joins Mid Atlantic Art News

When I began splitting my time between PA and DC, I announced that I would be getting help in covering the Mid Atlantic span between Philadelphia and the Greater DC region by a couple of additional writers.

Below is the first contribution by Shauna Turnbull, who will be helping me to cover the Greater DC area's art openings and art events. This piece by Shauna will be hopefully the first of many.

---

Annie Leibovitz: Politics and Prose Bookstore – October 17, 2006

By Shauna Turnbull, Art Addicts

The good folks over at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Northwest DC had us packed in like sweltering sardines and the standing room only crowd gathered for one of the store’s most exciting author events ever. You never knew so many people could fit into such a cramped space without the fire department rushing in, but none of us cared very much.

We were all there (some of us up to three hours early) to stake out our own personal square footage just to see, hear, and be in the same room as American born celebrity photographer and portrait artist Annie Leibovitz.

A popular culturist and a modernist, Ms. Leibovitz (born Anna-Lou), was honored in 1991 with a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Her work has received major acclaim and criticism largely centered on the fact she’s concentrated on celebrities continuing since her early work with Rolling Stone Magazine.

Ms. Leibovitz read for about a half an hour from her new, highly praised retrospective "A Photographer’s Life."

The retrospective is a collection of work from 1990 – 2005. It is inspired in part, due to the death of Annie’s long time companion, Susan Sontag, and the death of Leibovitz’s father a mere few weeks after Sontag's death. Both black and white and color images span personality novelties of the rich and famous to more personal and intimate relational works on the author’s family. Of particular note is a photograph of Ms. Leibovitz’s mother in her late seventies, one the photographer loves because of its authenticity and its absence of pretension.

Ms. Leibovitz appeared unpretentiously to be in a mixed state of joy over her young children (she gave birth to her first daughter at the age of 51 and was 8 ½ months pregnant during September 11, 2001), while at the same time also fighting the clutches of resigned and unrelenting grieving. She bares her soul and describes her experience as being not primarily that of a photographer, but rather one as an observer of life.

Most interesting were her perspectives on the effect of engaging a subject in conversation prior to taking a photo. Leibovitz says no matter what you say to a person, it changes their face, changes their emotion, and changes the expression in the eyes. This is one of the reasons she most prefers unstaged and unposed photography.

She’s searching for who the person is – what’s their statement. When asked by aspiring photographers what the key to a successful life in photography is, she quips, "stay close to home."

So it seems the retrospective may be asking – who, where and what is home – does the definition of home change as people die – is home within – and can you find your home through Liebovitz’s expression and years of work?

Interns

The new Randall Scott Gallery in Washington, DC is looking for interns. Give him a call at 202/332-0806.

Two New DC Galleries

Meat Market Gallery opened at the end of September with a group show of its gallery artists. The new gallery is located at 1636 17th Street, NW in DC.

Opening this weekend is Dissident Gallery, located at 416 H Street, NE. The grand opening is Oct. 20 at 7PM.

DCing

I'm in and around DC today. Several posts coming later.

Art Review magazine has gone digital and they're offering six free issues.

Sign up here.

The Evolution of Beauty

Watch this video is you want to know (in part) why our perception of a woman's beauty is so fucked up.

Why Blake is Wrong (Again)

When an art critic hangs his or her entire reputation on joining in early on his writing career with a traditional anchoring art criticism agenda, and for years and years pounds this agenda forth as the true (and only) Gospel for contemporary art, it takes either:

(a) A huge amount of professional courage to realize that the times have left your founding ideas (and the foundation of your agenda) behind as a quaint, and once revolutionary concept, or

(b) Ignore the present, and continue to pound your dated agenda and discredited, once collective ideas and communal concepts as if they're still new, and novel and applicable.

Blake Gopnik, the intelligent and erudite chief art critic of the Washington Post, has told his readers time and time again that:

- Painting is Dead

- Video, Installation Art and Photography are the only contemporary genres worth exploring

- There's something "icky" about nudes

- The holy grail of the art market is a non-existing "new" painting art movement

- Being "up to date" and "new" are key things in contemporary art (nevermind that Video, Installation Art and Photography are quite aged in years now and not the "new kids on the art block" that maybe they once were when Gopnik started writing).

- There's nothing "new" that painting can offer that would have looked much out of place over the past five or ten years in any high-end New York gallery.

- Skill is "banal"

- There's something "icky" about nudes (did I mention that already? Well... he harps on this aversion over and over).

See how many of these Gopnikisms you can find in this traditional Gopnik review of a painting show, in this case his review of "Life After Death: New Leipzig Paintings From the Rubell Family Collection" at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center.

2006 DC Gallery Tally

The capital area's gallery sky is not falling!

As far as I know:

DC Area Galleries that have closed (or will close) so far in 2006:

Robert Brown
Fusebox
Fraser Georgetown (moved to Bethesda)
JET Gallery (moved to Chicago)
Numark
Ozmosis

DC Area Art Galleries that have opened (or will open) in 2006:

Galerie Myrtis
Heineman-Myers
Hillyer Art Space
Long View Gallery
Ninth Street Gallery
Nowuno
Project 4
Randall Scott Gallery
Elizabeth Stone
Woman's Story Gallery

If I've missed anyone, please let me know.

Update: See updated info about Nowuno at ArtDC.org

New Alexandria Gallery

After 15 years in Michigan, Elizabeth Stone has recently relocated her art gallery to King Street in Old Town Alexandria.

The Elizabeth Stone Gallery focuses on children's art, and (as far as I know) is the only art gallery in the Greater DC area, maybe even the whole Mid Atlantic to do so. The gallery specializes in original art, signed limited editions, prints, and children's books by more than one hundred internationally known children's book illustrators.

We'll have a review of the current show later today.

The Most Popular Contemporary Political Art in the World

Came from a DC area artist in 2004!

A handful of readers emailed me commenting on yesterday's post on the issue of political art by DC area art venues and artists, reminding me that the most popular (measured by the spectacular and record-setting number of times the image was downloaded from the Internet and from the worldwide news deluge that it received) political artwork from recent times was this painting by the fair Kayti Didriksen:

I wonder who ended up with this wildly popular work? Kayti: Email me!

Sandberg at Conner

Alexandra has a very good visit to Erik Sandberg's show at Conner Contemporary in DC.

Read it here.