Carolyn Witschonke: I call myself an Artist

Interview By Shauna Lee Lange, Art Addicts

Lange: You graduated from Marymount College with a BA in French language and literature. Your MA is from Central Connecticut State University in French poetry, and then you went on to earn a BFA from Corcoran College of Art and Design. Recently, you've stated art that is your passion; a very good friend that never leaves. Tell us about the juxtaposition of continuing education, French literature, fine art, friendship, printmaking, and painting.

Witschonke: All these aspects of my life led me to who I am today and to what I choose to express through art. Languages and how words are used to express ideas can be a parallel art form, not just a means of communication. For me, whatever medium I choose to use becomes a vocabulary of expression and communication. Just as I use languages to explore meaning and expression, I use painting, printmaking, and encaustic to visually explore and express meaning. Art has been my friend since I can remember. It has taught me things I needed to know and consoled me at times when a constant friend was needed. Below is Solo Poppy, oil.

Lange: Can you speak to the challenges and the rewards of being a full-time freelance artist? How do you divide your time between making art and selling art?

Witschonke: Being a studio artist is what I have chosen to do full time. It takes lots of time and the monetary rewards are minimal compared to the efforts put forth, but I get to do something I really love. I work in my painting studio in Arlington, or in Printmakers Inc. at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria. I rarely sell my work myself; I prefer to use galleries or art spaces. This allows me maximum studio time. Doing this of course means usually paying large commissions to the selling agent but then I don’t have to do both jobs. I do have a website at www.carolyn4art.com.

Lange: Being fairly well traveled and having lived in Germany with adventures throughout Europe, what are some of the subtler ways travel, journey, location, and exposure to European masters helped shape your current work?

Witschonke: My European experiences directly influenced my art, especially printmaking. In my earlier work, the European style of painting and aesthetic is, I believe, evident. Vermeer and Degas especially influenced me. Seeing the various cultures and how people and their mores ultimately manifested into the art and culture of the times influences me even today. The history, myths, and traditions all contribute to my ideas and what I choose to do in my artistic expression.

Lange: As an oil painter and print maker, your recent work focuses on interconnectivity, choice making, and universality of humanity. How do you best bridge the gap between the artist's vision and communicating that vision for juries, competitions, award venues, and the general public?

Witschonke: In my latest show in the Solo Artist Gallery in the Art League, this very subject was its content. With a title and brief artist statement I like to introduce the viewer to my concept. After that, I hope the viewers’ own experiences will enable them to interpret and appreciate my efforts. In creating this series, I was careful to choose materials, and in most cases, colors that have significance enough to support and express my ideas.

Lange: What major differences do you find between exhibiting in 2000 at the Newport Museum of Art in Newport, RI; the '98 - '99 show at the Resurgum Gallery in Baltimore; and the 2000 exhibition in the Bridge Gallery of Dublin, Ireland?

Witschonke: As far as exhibiting in these venues, mainly the logistics presented the most challenges - particularly shipping... very practical aspects.

Lange: When you call to mind the great printmakers throughout time, who most inspires you? Of living artists in the DC area today, who do you expect to see rapidly rise in the art world?

Witschonke: The printmaker that has most inspired me is Jim Dine. As for DC, there are so many fine artists who don’t get much recognition because they are not well known. A sample print entitled Deep Forest Green:



Lange: Your collections span the Library of Congress, The National Institute of Health, and the Philip Morris Companies (quite divergent enterprises). What responsibilities do artists have in monitoring where, when, and how work is exhibited and to what end their personal ideology allows for commercialism?

Witschonke: If my art is purchased for a collection and is bought for its own sake I don’t discriminate buyers. As far as doing commission work directly related to a cause or enterprise, it is up to the individual artist to decide.

Lange: Can you tell us a little about growing up in the small town of Litchfield, Connecticut, and your journey to becoming an artist (how you shifted to art, when you knew you wanted to "art", how it was sharing that vision with family, how it's been to realize the vision, what you're looking to accomplish in ‘07)?

Witschonke: I’ve been lucky. Even though I loved art and did art sporadically as a child, the fine arts were not encouraged as a profession. I studied violin for many years but when it came time to make a career decision, I chose teaching with the concentration in French. I had many youthful and idealistic ambitions. I married at 23 and moved to Germany. Inspired by the setting the need to do art resurfaced. Through the years as a military wife I was able to take many art classes, travel, and visit museums until I ultimately earned a BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design. Even though my parents did not support art as a career choice, they were artistic and creative people. Both of my sisters are artistic as well; one works with textiles, weaving and quilting and the other is a painter. It is wonderful to have them to share my art with. My husband has been very supportive of me, especially on two pivotal occasions, the first when I decided to abandon my teaching and concentrate on art and the second when I wanted to attend art school full time and earn a degree. For 2007 I will continue to expand the Passages series as well as print and continue a series in encaustic, From Line to Shape.

Lange: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is credited with having said, "You come to nature with all her theories, and she knocks them all flat." Can you speak to your interpretation or experience with this theme?

Witschonke: Ah, nature, the wonders of it. The inconsistencies of it supply us with its mysteries and keep us intrigued and guessing.

Lange: Your love for nature, trees, and flowers, using a variety of mediums and techniques, is well catalogued in your works. It is true today there are a variety of opinions about the reality and the growing concern of global warming, environmental health, and the necessity to save mother Earth. Do you view your work as chronicles of these politics, and if so, how? What differences would you like to effect?

Witschonke: My work is not political. The environment is extremely important to me but does not constitute political commentary in my work. My love of nature comes from more of a spiritual and philosophical basis. Alpha to Omega appears below:

Lange: Carolyn, what new or inventive art related non-profits are you involved in? We are always interested in highlighting causes using art to achieve goals. Lastly, if you could be director of the National Gallery (or other DC National Museum) for one day - what immediate change(s) would you implement? If you couldn't create art, what would you do instead?

Witschonke: I am not directly involved in any innovative non-profits. Printmakers Inc is my closest involvement. Participating with this group at the Torpedo Factory enables me to make myself directly available to the public, informing them about original printmaking processes and art. Having children’s groups and tours are especially rewarding. Many schools are limiting students’ exposure to art and this is an exciting way to stimulate their interest. I really don’t know anything about running a museum so I wouldn’t be able to make a productive change. If I couldn’t create art... hmmm... I am not sure that’s possible!

This sounds interesting

*gogo art projects is pleased to announce Matthew Sutton’s The Kudzu Project. For this dynamic installation, Sutton is planting kudzu in the front window of Conner Contemporary Art / *gogo art projects. Kudzu, indigenous to parts of Japan and China, is known throughout the Southern United States for its rampant, invasive and widespread growth. The plant was originally imported to the United States primarily as a government initiative to help control erosion, but it quickly became known as “the vine that ate the south”.

The Kudzu Project will be on view until August 1st, 2007. *gogo art projects is located at 1730 Connecticut Avenue, NW – 2nd Floor, Washington, DC 20009.

Opportunity for Artists

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is currently taking submissions for Bethesda’s June and July Artist Markets. Selected artists will be invited to participate in the Bethesda Artist Markets on Saturday, June 9 and Saturday, July 14, 2007 from 10am-5pm.

Deadline for application and slide submission is Wednesday, February 28, 2007 by 5pm. Participating artists will be selected by members of the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District Advisory Committee.

Details here.

Artomatic is on!

Just in! There will be an Art-O-Matic this year!

The location is the Old Patent Building in Crystal City, Virginia from mid April to mid May, 2007. The installations will take place at the beginning of March.

I am also told that there will also be a second AOM within the district itself later in the fall.

Two Art-O-Matics in 2007.

Woo Hoo!

Whitney Biennial Curators Announced

Because the 2006 Whitney Biennial was without a doubt, and by far, the worst museum show that I have ever seen, I was curious about the direction of the 2008 Biennial.

Unlike that disaster, which was "curated" by two European-born curators (who had both been living and working in the United States), according to the NYT's Carol Vogel, the 2008 Biennial will go back to locals: leading the effort will be two Whitney curators: Henriette Huldisch and Shamim M. Momin, and Donna De Salvo, the museum's chief curator, will oversee the curatorial effort.

Three outside advisers will help: Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem (and a former curator at the Whitney); Bill Horrigan, director of the media arts department at the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University; and Linda Norden, a curator and writer who was the commissioner of the United States pavilion for the 2005 Venice Biennale, where she organized an exhibition on Ed Ruscha that traveled to the Whitney.

I am excited that there's a non New Yorker in the pack of advisors, and sincerely hope that this Whitney Biennial finally recognizes that there's artwork being produced in the few thousand miles that exist between New York and LA. However, I'm already gloomy, as the fact that Horrigan is the director of the media arts department at a major midwestern University already prejudices my opinion in that here we'll have yet another guy who still thinks that videos are "new."

And to make it even more likely that this will turn out to be yet another New York-centric artists' home movies exhibition, consider that Henriette Huldisch was responsible for coordinating the film and video program for the 2006 Biennial and Momin was one of the three curators for the 2004 Biennial.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Feh!

WPA/C Auction

Judging from the small number of works that remain available, the WPA/C Auction was a resounding success.

Details on work that is still available here.

New blogger

Tracy Lee has a new visual arts blog. Visit her often here.

New Baltimore Gallery

Gallery 211 just opened last week in Baltimore. They will be featuring contemporary and traditional fine art of emerging and established artists.

By now we're used to it

Only Blake Gopnik, the intelligent and erudite Chief Art Critic of the Washington Post could get away with writing an introduction to the Spring Arts Preview for the Greater DC area for a Washington, DC newspaper and then tell his readers that "If you've decided it's finally time to come to terms with current creativity, this summer is the time to do it and Europe's the place."

If you read Gopnik's writing over the years, it is easy to detect that he has a special personal antipathy (amongst many) towards two subjects: painting, and especially portraiture.

He's also embarked on what seems like a critical personal crusade against the National Portrait Gallery, and in writing about the coming "Portraits of Sandra Day O'Connor," opening in late March at the National Portrait Gallery, he not only tells us that he will do his best to miss this coming show, but also labels the work of two of the portrait artists in the show that he will apprently never see, as "insipid" and "toadying made flesh."

Gopnikmeister strikes again. Read him here.

On the positive side, the WaPo's listing of visual art shows had for the last few years degenerated into a listing of museum shows, and almost excluded area galleries from the mix. A while back Gopnik told me that he was trying to include more and more galleries in the preview listings, and he has delivered on that promise, as the local exhibition calendar is jam packed with good exhibitions, both museums and galleries, to catch this spring.

A well done to Gopnik for this refreshing and important change!

Save this page and refer to it often.

PS - Gopnik also has a really good article on the Corcoran and its new direction in which we find out all about the future that Greenhalgh is planning (and also that he skipped a traveling Frida Kahlo show over the coming "Modernism" exhibition - AAAARGH!). Read it here.

Mathematics

Much has been written about the rather newish phenomenom of art fairs as the new salons of the 21st century, as magnets where galleries congregate and collectors and curators and the illuminati go to see and buy art. Furthermore, anecdotal figures from the major fairs seem to confirm that a lot of artwork is being sold by some galleries at the fairs. My own experience with them confirms this fact.

Soon the District will have its own taste of its first major "art fair" with the upcoming artDC, and we will see if the model works in the Greater Washington area, which historically has a certain degree of apathy when it comes to actually buying art.

And yet... an idea that I have been mulling in my head for years now keeps bugging me.

Stick with me here.

There's another "world" out there of fine art fairs that, because of the curious high brow attitude of the "high art" cabal, never really gets any attention from the art media, etc.

These are the outdoor art fairs that some of us know well, and many of us think we know well even though they've actually never been to any of the good ones. I am talking about the outdoor art festivals that get ranked as the top ones by Sunshine Artist magazine, fairs such as the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver, or the Ann Arbor Arts Festival (actually four separate art fairs that draw over half a million visitors), and of course, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in Miami, which will attract about 150,000 visitors next weekend in Miami.

Immediately the clueless sap esso tutto who have never been to one of these will think and imagine what they visualize as an outdoor art market: dried flowers, teddy bears and watercolors of barns. Don't get me wrong, there are thousands and thousands of these type "art" fairs around as well - but those are NOT the ones that I am talking about.

I am talking about the cream of the Sunshine Artist Top 200 list. These are shows where only original art, not reproductions, are allowed, and photography has very severe rules (must be done by the photographer, limited editions only, signed, archival processes only, etc.). These shows are highly competitive to get in (they're juried), and usually offer quite a lot of money in prizes for the artists. The jurors vary from museum curators (people like Terrie Sultan, Jonathan Binstock, and other local museum curators have in the past juried some of them).

I guess I'm saying that there's some curatorial legitimacy to them as well, for the elitista amongst you.

But the destination to which I am driving here is attendance.

Hundreds of thousands.

Locally in our area, there are only two good ones of these fine arts outdoor festivals: The Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival attracts around 80,000 people, and the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, which is still growing, but already attracts around 40,000 people to the two-day event.

Consider the median income in either Bethesda or Reston, and what you get out of it is a lot of disposable income.

Art price tags at these two local fairs range from $200 to $20,000. So there's a somewhat comparable universe of prices to the DC area gallery market, as an example.

And I submit that a lot of the people who attend one of these outdoor fine art festivals do not have the "formation," as a Communist would say, to dare set foot in a white cube gallery.

If Mohammed won't come to the gallery, then bring the gallery to Mohammed.

So here's the issue that has been brewing in my head:

All of these huge and highly successful outdoor arts festivals (as far as I know) only allow individual artists to sell their work at the fairs. Why doesn't an enterprising fair organizer go one step further and add a whole new angle to the arts festival and set aside a whole section for independent commercial fine arts galleries?

Because the entry price point is a substantial fraction of what it costs to sign up for a gallery art fair like Art Basel Miami, or Scope, or even AAF, the financial mathematics of this idea make sense to both sides of the equation.

For fair organizers, they could offer the gallery a basic price tag of $1500 for the weekend, which would include a 10 feet by 20 feet double tent and display equipment. Or, and this is a big or, the organizer, in order to attract the art galleries, could offer them zero entry fee and instead a 10% commission on all sales. This may get a little sticky in the monitoring of sales and unreported sales by art dealers who lack ethics and scruples, so a flat fee is probably the best and easiest idea.

For the gallery it would offer them an opportunity to expose their artwork to possibly thousands of new potential collectors, exposing most of them, for the first time, to an art gallery.

It's all in the numbers.

No art gallery that I know gets 80,000 visitors a year, much less in a weekend. Would any of them turn down an opportunity, for a reasonable amount of money (much, much less than it costs them to advertise in an art magazine that will only reach a few hundred people in their local area), to expose themselves to a few hundred thousand people?

You do the math: 1% of 1% of 80,000 people is 8 new sales over a weekend. Not even to mention the possible future sales of new people who become exposed to the gallery at the festival, and start attending openings: new blood collectors.

I would do it.

Now let's see some enterprising art fair organizer run with this.

Changes

As some of you know, I've had some significant changes, both professional and personal, since I sort of moved from the DC area... sort of.

Because of the move and other things, I no longer own a gallery, and for the first time in ten years, I have a little more time in my hands to do other things.

Like... looking for a gallery space in Philadelphia!

Now that I finally sold my house in Potomac, which was costing me around $5,000 a month in mortgage and utilities for an empty house, I've been slowly but surely exploring the city little by little, although the recent tundra like weather has certainly put an end to that. Nonetheless I will continue to look at areas of the city where art galleries have already establish a presence, and continue to chat with gallery owners and local art bloggers so as to learn more and more about Philly's art scene and locations, etc.

So far I am leaning towards the area around North Second Street where Pentimenti Gallery and others are located. In fact there's a really nice space almost next to Pentimenti that's looking real good.

Another interesting development that has happened to me professionally since I moved, is the fact that I have been retained (initially by one and now by a second) ubercollector to "acquire" work for their collections.

This sounds like a lot of fun, having a five figure budget a month to acquire artwork for others, and in a way it is. However, as I settle down to the nuts and bolts of doing this properly, I'm finding out that I am being a helluva lot more careful with other people's money than I would be with my own.

I think that as I settle down and do this more and more, it may be easier, and certainly all of my acquitisions for them have so far been met with great enthusiasm and acceptance, but nonetheless I am still "involving" them a lot in the decision(s), which I think that (in at least one case) is the rigth thing to do, but in the other case, the collector may really want me to go solo in the decision process, which is a lot more pressurized for me.

Then there's the whole issue of "my artists," as I intend to soon re-surface as a private dealer (website coming soon!) while I continue to search for a gallery space. There's a fine ethical line there, as one of my predecessors was in fact "fired" for pushing too many of the artists that the dealer represented. The trick is to balance ethics and business, which a reputable art dealer needs to do anyway.

Enough for now; heading to the Poconos this weekend for a little fun in the snow.

Around the Mid-A Reviewsphere

DC

Jeffry Cudlin in the WCP reviews "Seen" at Transformer Gallery.

Also in the WCP, Anne Marston has an interesting profile of photographer Susie J. Horgan and her show at Govinda Gallery.

And lastly for the WCP, Kriston Capps does Jenna McCracken’s carving up cuts of preserved pottery at Dupont Circle’s Meat Market Gallery.

In the WaPo, Michael O'Sullivan also reviews "Punk Love" at Govinda Gallery. Susie J. Horgan, the photographer, was also online yesterday at the WaPo answering questions - read the transcripts here and has a nice photo gallery of her photographs here; score one for the WaPo... more please!

Baltimore

Deborah McLeod in the Baltimore City Paper checks in with an intelligent review of Winter: Jarrett Min Davis / Courtney Jordan at the Creative Alliance.

The Sun's Glenn McNatt (himself a photographer) reviews the DC area's Amy Lamb's exhibition at the Steven Scott Gallery in Owings Mills.

DC's Thiking About Art visits Baltimore and reviews "Between the Lines" at Maryland Art Place.

Philadelphia

In the Philadelphia City Paper, Mary Wilson reviews "Emerging Artists Series: Christopher Hartshorne and Hiro Sakaguchi," at the Woodmere Art Museum.

In the Philadelphia Inquirer, Edward J. Sozanski reviews Daniel Garber at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Also in the Inquirer, Edith Newhall reviews "Rocks-n-Glocks" by Ron Ribant and Veleta Vancza at Bambi, and she also reviews the photographs of Serge J-F Levy at at Gallery 339.

In the Philadelphia Weekly, uberblogger Roberta Fallon reviews "Locally Localized Gravity" at the ICA.

In artblog, Libby Rosof reviews Amy S. Kauffman's installation at the Painted Bride.

Who Knew?

Grandma's painting was expected to fetch a few thousand bucks at auction. Instead it sold for $600,000 dollhairs. Read the story here.

Congrats!

To Mid Atlantic Art News DC area contributor Shauna Turnbull, whose marriage now gives her the cool new name of Shauna Lee Lange.

Congratulations

To Transformer Gallery in DC and DC artist Kelly Towles, who just received a joint $20,000 grant from Greater Washington Creative Communities Initiative and The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region.

The $20K is to support "The Grate Project," which is "a series of murals painted on roll-down security gates. Towles will hold block parties to engage community residents in painting each piece."

New Grant Programs for Women Artists in the Philadelphia Region

Deadline: February 19, 2007

The Leeway Foundation, which supports individual women artists, arts programs, and arts organizations in the Greater Philadelphia region, has announced the Leeway Transformation Award and the Art and ChangeGrant, two new funding programs designed to celebrate the power and vision of women artists creating change in the Philadelphia area.

Details here.

Mid Atlantic Artists at Arlington

This Friday, Feb. 9, from 6-9 PM, the Arlington Arts Center in Virginia presents "Equinox: A Juried All-Media Exhibition" that features the work of 22 Mid-Atlantic artists. Works were selected by Lorie Mertes, Independent Curator, formerly of the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia and the Miami Art Museum. Equinox includes large scale sculpture, video, and installation and the human figure.

The Center also has the “Eye on Arlington” exhibition (that’s their series featuring local artists) by Ellipse Gallery Director (and blogger!) Cynthia Connolly. Her photography show is called "See All 15 At Once!" and studies roadside signs across Alabama. Connolly’s constructed an indoor “front porch” with rocking chairs and fans, so that viewers can relax and watch the world go by.

BosmaDance will perform at 6:30—inspired by works in Equinox.

"I Hate You" Ex Outs Herself

The woman whose break-up emails were the subject of Doug Sanford's now famous "I Hate You" photographs outs herself in this angry letter to the WCP.

Read her letter here.

Openings

As usual, I am sure that I have skipped some important openings, if so, please email me the details.

DC

Feb. 7 - "Zenith in III-D." Reception to meet the artists: Wed, February 7, 5-8pm. Showing at 1111 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Wash. DC. (Corner of PENN & 12 th ST NW). More info: 202-783-2963 or www.zenithgallery.com

Feb. 9 - Touchstone Gallery's 9th Annual All-Media Exhibition, juried by my good friend Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator of the American University Museum. The opening reception is 6-8:30 pm, Friday, Feb. 9. 3rd Thursday gallery walk is on the 15th from 6-8 pm. Exhibition continues through March 3.

Feb. 9 - “Progressive Art,” an exhibition of new sculptures by Gary “Chris” Christopherson opens at GChris Sculpture Studio/Gallery (3144 Dumbarton Street NW, Georgetown, DC). Opening – 6-10 pm.

Feb 10 - Knew Gallery in Georgetown at 1639 Wisconsin Ave, NW. Opening 5-10 PM. Art fundraiser for Latin American orphans.

Feb. 13 - "Duane Hanson: Real Life," an exhibition of 15 startlingly lifelike, mixed-media sculptures of everyday people by the famed realist Duane Hanson (1925-1996), plus 75 never-before seen photographic studies by the artist, opens Tuesday, Feb. 13, at the American University Museum at the Katzen. There will be a free Artists’ Reception, open to the public, on Saturday, February 17, from 6 to 9 p.m.

Feb. 13 - "Public Display of Affection" opens right before Valentine's Day at Gallery 42 in UDC. The participating artists include a variety of disciplines: painting, printmaking, photography,sculpture, ceramics, and glasswork. The Love-struck artists include: Michael Platt, Jay Davidson, Sean Hennessy, Michael Janis, Meredith Rode, Chuan-chu Lin, Dan Venne, Mare Dianora. The opening reception for the show is Tuesday, February 13, from 6-9 PM. Informal artists talk at 8 PM on opening night. Gallery 42 is at the University of the District of Columbia (4200 Connecticut Ave NW, Building 42, Room A12, Washington, DC 20008 202-274-5781).

Feb. 15 - The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden presents "Refract, Reflect, Project: Light Works from the Collection," a new installation of works created by international artists from the late 1950s to the present. The exhibition is on view from Feb. 15 through April 8 and features objects from the collection in which light—as substance and subject—is central. Among the international artists featured are Giovanni Anselmo, Jordan Belson, Chryssa, Dan Flavin, Hiroshi Sugimoto, James Turrell, Thomas Wilfred and Gregorio Vardanega. The exhibition also highlights recent acquisitions by such artists as Olafur Eliasson, Spencer Finch, Christoph Girardet and Iván Navarro.

Feb. 15 - "African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection" opens Feb. 15 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art. More than 80 superb artworks from one of the world's finest and most respected collections of African art will go on view through Sept. 7, 2008.

Feb. 15 - In honor of the 10th Anniversary of the Washington DC Jewish Community Center at 16th and Q Streets, the Center's Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery is presenting an exhibition of 10 artists with local roots: five nationally recognized figures each of whom has selected another artist whose work will be on view as well. Titled "Five Artists Select Five Artists to Watch," the exhibition opens at the Center on Feb. 15 and continues through May 13. The featured artists are: Sam Gilliam, who selected Jae Ko; John Gossage, who selected Pia Calderon; Martin Puryear, who selected Otho Branson; Dan Steinhilber, who selected Y. David Chung; and Renee Stout, who selected Mary Early. The featured artists are: Sam Gilliam, who selected Jae Ko; John Gossage, who selected Pia Calderon; Martin Puryear, who selected Otho Branson; Dan Steinhilber, who selected Y. David Chung; and Renee Stout, who selected Mary Early.

Feb. 15 - "Double Vision: The Photographic Work of Yanina Manolova and Mark Parascandola" opens at Nevin Kelly Gallery with a reception from 6-9PM. Through March 11, 2007.

Feb. 16 - The five Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown will have their usual Second Friday openings and extended hours from 6-9PM.

Feb. 17 - "All Things in Motion," opens at Randall Scott Gallery, an exhibition of art by artists who employ motion in their work. Exhibition is 6-9PM and show runs through March 17, 2007.

Feb. 18 - Rob Lindsay at Washington Printmakers. Artist's Reception, featuring acoustic music by Jay Rees and Basso Moderno Duo on Sunday, February 18, 12-2 pm.

March 9 - The opening reception for DCist Exposed will be March 9, 6:30pm at the Warehouse Art Gallery. The show will run until March 16. Over 200 local photographers submitted their work through Flickr, and from that pool DCist choose 40 photographs by 38 photographers. All work will be framed to archival standards and for sale. Contact heathergoss [at] gmail [dot] com for details.

Baltimore, MD

Feb. 10 - Light Street Gallery has a catered reception from 5-9PM for artist George Sekkal's "The Politics of War - Maximism," which brings the artist's award-winning anti-war political collages to Baltimore.

Bethesda, MD

Feb.9 - Second Fridays for 13 Bethesda area art galleries and art venues, including a free guided Art Walk on most months (starting in April). Details here.

Feb 9 - Fraser Gallery hosts a ton of photographers selected by Catriona Fraser for the 6th Annual International Photography Competition. Opening reception and awards presentation on Feb. 9 from 6-9PM.

Feb. 9 - Neptune Gallery has "Love Birds" with work by Lisa Brotman, Elyse Harrison, Laurel Hausler, Michael Janis, John Lancaster, Matthew Lawrence, Kirk Waldroff and David Wallace. 6-9PM.

March 9 - My Tender Muse - Oil Paintings by Murman Kuchava (who lives and works in The Republic of Georgia) at Creative Partners Gallery. March 6, 2007 through April 7, 2007.

Philadelphia, PA

Feb. 8 - Second Thursdays multi-gallery openings in the area north of Northern Liberties. Details here.

Feb. 8 - Nexus is reopening in its new spaces and they will we reopen Nexus in their new home and at the same time inaugurate "Second Thursdays," a new monthly event of openings by galleries that are north of Northern Liberties. Second Thursday will be held February 8th from 6 to 9 PM. Their inaugural show in their new digs features two digital exhibitions by Jennie Thwing and Catherine Passante. Through Feb. 25, 2007.

Feb. 9 - "Neighborhood Artists" at Twenty Two Gallery (236 S. 22nd Street (on 22nd between Locust & Spruce Sts. Tel: (215) 772-1911). More than 15 artists from the gallery's neighborhood show works that include: oils, watercolors, pastels, fabric, photography and more! Opening Reception: "Second Friday," Feb. 9, 2007, 6pm to 9pm. Exhibit continues through March 8, 2007.

Feb. 9 - Sande Webster opens a new show titled "Refractions," and it runs from Feb. 6th thru March 1st. Reception: Friday, Feb. 9th from 6-8 pm.

Feb. 16 - "Coming of Age: Emerging and Established Wood Artists," at Wood Turning Center. The opening reception takes place on February 16th from 5pm to 7:30pm and will feature a gallery talk by Albert LeCoff, Wood Turning Center Executive Director and a special talk by artist Peter Exton. Artists include Michael Brolly (US), Richard Hooper (UK), Richard Raffan (Australia), Betty Scarpino (US), Mark Sfirri (US), Ben Blanc (US), Peter Exton (US), Louise Hibbert (US formerly Wales), Thierry, and Martenon (France) and Holly Tornheim (US). Through May 19, 2007.

Feb. 17 - JMS Gallery has sculptures by Salvatore Cerceo and Pavel Efremoff and also paintings by Robert Melzmuf opening with a reception on Feb. 17 from 4-7PM. Exhibition through March 24, 2007.

Feb. 22 - "Abu Ghraib Detainee Interview Project: Daniel Heyman" at The Print Center. Reception: Thursday, February 22, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Through May 5, 2007.

Mar. 2 - Third Street Gallery has work by Marge Peterson (also showing Marci Feldman) and the reception is March 2 from 5-9PM. Show through April 1, 2007.

Castro's Deathbed Portrait

When it comes to the brutal dictator who has caused a continuing exodus of millions of his countrymen and women, consistently violated political (and most other) prisoners' human rights, sent thousands to firing squads, jailed and terrorized gay Cubans for being gay, completely banned freedom of expression, and forcibly isolated and segregated anyone in Cuba suffering from AIDS into leper-colony type sanatoriums, I am not very objective.

But as he has done for decades now, this spectacularly intelligent and incredibly lucky man, even on his almost-deathbed still manages to permeate all levels of news and issues, including art.


Last year, this artist in New York apparently had the common "rosy" picture of Fidel Castro and Cuba, that most people who have never informed themselves about the real facts of Cuba and Cuban life under a Communist yoke, usually have.

And so he decided to create a massive Castro bust as a sort of an homage to the Cuban dictator. And he planned to unveil the huge homage to Castro in New York's Central Park. See the initial YouTube video here (by the way, if you look in the background, you see that this is the same artist who gave us the pregnant Britney Spears sculpture).

Those plans then changed.

Plans for an unveiling in New York's Central Park of Fidel Castro on his 'deathbed' have instead turned into plans for the deconstruction of his effigy in Miami, where he will be prematurely laid to rest. Capla Kesting Fine Arts announces the unveiling of "Fidel Castro's Deathbed Portrait" has been reconsidered by the artist, courtesy of the Miami FM morning show El Traketeo on WRTO 98.3 who protested the sculpture and arranged for the artist to come to their studio to hear the testimonies from several dozen Cuban exiles.

A ceremony for deconstruction of Castro's Deathbed Portrait will take place in Miami, November 8th at a time and location designated by WRTO.

[...]

After hearing hours of face to face testimony from Cuban people who have suffered under Castro, Edwards said on the air at WRTO, "I'm only sorry I wasn't aware of all that pain before my project started. After hearing all these painful accounts, in good conscience, as a friend of the Cuban-American communities, I cannot show the sculpture in Central Park."

And so, the colossal scaled clay model for "Fidel Castro's Deathbed Portrait" by Daniel Edwards, was instead "deconstructed" in Miami on November 8, 2006.

And the lesson here, taught to us by Castro in his deathbed, is that political art, which is more alive and well than many realize, can cover both sides of the political spectrum, and even in some cases, such as this one, switch to the right side of a debate, no pun intended.

My kudos to Edwards and to Capla Kesting Fine Art.

Viva Cuba Libre!