Artomatic Rumor Department

The CP's Jessica Gould discusses the Artomatic rumor that I alluded to last week.

Informal research on the part of the Mid Atlantic Art News investigative department has failed to nail potential ubercollectors willing to admit that it is their dastardly plan to bring blue chip artists to AOM under unknown artists' names in order to see if the blue chip art gets a positive response from the public when juxtoposed with the more other-colored chip artists' work.

Our blue chip artist identification department has swept AOM attempting to identify any possibility of a super famous artist(s) being present at AOM, and although so far we have found at least one artist channeling Alexander Calder's work, the closest that we can come is two wild guesses which we will reserve until a later time.

The idea itself is quite brilliant! Start a fun rumor that even as it is blatantly nearly impossible to accomplish, it nonetheless brings home an interesting point.

artDC benefit

The opening night of the District's first major art fair, artDC, will benefit the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington.

Thursday, April 26, 2007
Washington Convention Center , Hall E
800 Mount Vernon Place, NW, Washington DC

5:30-7:30, Drinks and Hors d' Oeuvres - Tickets are $100
7:30-9:30, Cash Bar - Tickets are $30
For tickets call 312-587-8124 or email jrabion@dc-artfair.com

A view of Art-O-Matic after one visit

How does a writer cover an arts extravaganza of the size of AOM once the eyes and mind become numb after the 200th artist, or the 400th or the 600th?

As an art critic, I once started a review of a past AOM by complaining how much my feet hurt after my 5th or 6th visit to the show, in a futile attempt to gather as much visual information as possible in order to write a fair review of the artwork and artists.

Over the years I have discovered that it is impossible to see everything and to be fair about anyone; the sheer size and evolving nature of the show itself makes sure of the impossibility of this task. And often I see fellow writers who fall prey to this attempt to see everything at once and then gather thoughts about the artwork. But AOM is not just about the artwork.

I have visited the 2007 AOM once, and soon I will return for a second, longer visit.

Nonetheless, often first impressions are the most memorable, and thus some early thoughts on the artwork itself follow.

Like all previous Artomatics, this version of the open mass art show started in 1999 continues to evolve up the food chain of both art and business. AOM is now an official 503(c), and this location in Crystal City is by far the best one so far, as the dozens and dozens of small, well-lit offices make excellent art galleries.

The art itself, like any huge group art show (open or juried) falls into three categories: very good, very bad, and (the vast majority) adequate.

And yet, the least of the adequate original artwork, by its creative process itself, beats any mass-produced poster. AOM is a Mecca and a magnet for beginning collectors; if you can't find art that you like from such a vast and diverse group of artists, then perhaps you should stick to collecting action figures or pre-Columbian artifacts, or baseball cards framed as art.

As a gallerist, I also have visited AOM looking for new talent amongst the mind-numbing numbers of artists who come together under one roof. Over the years, together with my fellow DC area gallerists, we have plucked many artists from the ranks and files of AOM. Artists who since their first appearance at past AOMs have now joined the collections of museums and Biennials and have been picked up by galleries nationwide. Names like Tim Tate, the Dumbacher Brothers, Kelly Towles, Kathryn Cornelius, Richard Chartier and that amazing worldwide phenomenon and best-selling author Frank Warren of PostSecret fame. But AOM is not just about the emerging superstar artist.

More on that later; now let me give you a peek into the artists whose work stood out during my first look:

Maria Mandle was the first artist to make my list. I've never heard of this artist before, and thus she's "new" to me. I liked her strong graphite drawings.

I've seen Jesse Cohen's photographs develop (good pun uh?) and grow through the last few years, and the cynotypes and X-rays images at AOM, where Cohen struggles with his own identity through his father's X-ray imagery, are memorable and strong, and Cohen's best work so far.

Same thing for Shannon Chester, whose work often pops up in DC area art shows. This diminutive photographer has an excellent eye for capturing a suble eroticism in unusual circumstances and locales. Check out her beautiful photographs.

Alison Sigethy has won eight gold medals as a kayaker, and probably because of her outdoor nature, the environment is very important to her. And thus it is no surprise to see this talented DC area glass artist be one of the first ones to bring glass to the new, emerging "green art" movement that recycles art into new art, as Sigethy does with her beautiful new works. Another cool "green" artist, also working with glass (trust me, glass artists have a lot of work eligible for recycling, as anyone who has dumpster-dived into the Washington Glass School broken glass and trash dumpster knows!), is Erwin Timmers, whose work I mentioned yesterday.

I also liked Joe Granski's painterly, fun and exciting work. This is also a "new" artist for me, as is Joseph Merchlinsky's work, which at first I saw as attractive, abstracted super pixalated works, until I realized in horror that they were imagery from Sept. 11 of people jumping from the WTC. Once this discovery is reveled, it is amazing to see the breathtaking reel-back reaction of the viewers high atop Crystal City, with a spectacular view of the airport and the city. It is proof again of the never-ending ability of the visual arts to deliver thoughts, agendas, ideas, history and presence as no other form of the fine arts can.

Ditto for liking Ruth Trevarrow's signs, and also the no-name photographer in Gallery 6R09 on Corridor R, with a set of sensual photos of a woman's feet in the bath, turning the tap on in a series of sexy photographs that echo Frida Kahlo's "What the Water Gave Me" painting.

I also discovered some artists exploring new directions, such as Andrew Wodzianski's giant leap into a blend of his enviable figurative skills with a modernist approach to illustration as art. Note to Andrew (and fifty gazillion other artists at AOM): Put your effing prices up so that people can make an instant decision to buy when they see it or immediately know if they can afford it.

Other artists exploring or pushing new directions are Pat Goslee and Lynn Putney, both of whom share a gallery and whose work is refreshingly minimalist and (in Goslee's case) sensual in an odd way that I can never put my finger on.

Talking about separated at birth, two other artists who share a gallery and whose work really works well together is Matt Sesow and Dana Ellyn.

Oh yeah... the image that most-likely will be the most memorable and perhaps popular, is the terrific photo by Susana Raab titled "Tofu Dog, Playboy Bunny, PETA Protest, Washington, DC", or as the no-holds barred press crowd dubbed it last Friday: "Lettuce Lady." Raab has an exceptional ability for capturing the unsual in the everyday common.

The event itself is perhaps the nation’s most powerful incarnation of what it means to be a creative community of hundreds of working creative hands all aligned to not only create artwork, but also to put together a spectacular extravaganza that re-charges the regional art scene as no museum or gallery show can.

AOM is a community of artists employing the most liberal of approaches to art that there exists: the artists are in charge, and the artists make it work, and the artists charge the city with energy and zeal. And these descendants of those brave souls who challenged the academic salons of the 19th century face the same negative eye from the traditional art critics and curators of our museums, who challenge not only the artwork itself, but also the concept of an open, non-juried, most democratic of art shows: a community of artists in charge of energizing the community at large.

And it is certainly the easiest and most comprehensive way to discover contemporary art at its deepest and also at its newest roots. This is where both the savvy collector, and the beginning collector, and the aspiring curator, and the sharp-eyed gallerist can all come to one place with a sense of discovery in mind. And the ones that I missed in the past, and who were discovered by others, are ample evidence of the subjectivity of a gargantuan group art show.

Viva AOM!

On Saturday April 21, 2007, School 33 in Baltimore will host its annual Lotta Art Benefit.

This is the school's largest and most popular fundraising event. You are invited to attend an evening of art, food, and fun! More than 100 local artists generously donate works in all mediums and styles to benefit School 33 Art Center's exhibition and education programs.

At the event, a lottery-style drawing is held and each ticket holder brings home a work of art. Attended by more than 250 persons, Lotta Art is considered by many to be one of the most exciting and unique special events in town!

Get your tickets here or call 410.396.4641.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: June 8, 2007

Does Gender Still Matter? Purdue University Galleries (West Lafayette, Indiana) invite entries for a national exhibition examining the role of gender in contemporary society, including constructs of masculinity, femininity, androgyny, etc. The exhibition will be presented in the Robert L. Ringel Gallery from October 22 through December 2, 2007. Elizabeth K. Mix, contemporary art historian at Butler University, Indianapolis, the Gallery director and advisory panel will select artwork. There is no entry fee, but exhibiting artists will be responsible for shipping. All media eligible, including new and emerging technologies. Interested artists should send examples of current work (up to 10 slides or jpegs on CD; DVD for time-based media), resume, artist statement, and SASE to:

Craig Martin, Director
Purdue University Galleries
Physics Building Room 205
525 Northwestern Avenue
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2036

More info: Email cdmartin@purdue.edu, or call (765) 494-3061. Show prospectus is available for download here or by e-mail request.

Green Art

There's a new movement emerging around the nation that recycles art into new art (and it has also apparently absorbed artists who recycle materials into art) and it's been dubbed "green art." They are sartist concerned with environmental and social issues in their themes or in the techniques that they use. It's not just the finished product, but also the process to create the art.

Erwin Timmers, is one of the DC area's leading 'green' artists (His work in sustainable design are seen in some of the large public art projects he has just completed, including this project for the EPA.

Many EPA Potomac Yards staff will be joining the tour that Erwin has organized of other artists at Artomatic that also use recycled materials and are part of the region's growing number of "green" artists.

Date/Time: Wednesday April 17 at 2.30pm
Location: Starts on Level 6 of Artomatic
2121 Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA
Metro stop: Crystal City
Free admission

Also, Erwin has a solo show at Studio Gallery in DC opening May 23rd, where his works on Environmental concerns are the central focus. Put that on your calendar!

Tim Tate's AOM Top 10

DC uberartist Tim Tate with his Top 10nish AOM List:

1). Laurel Lukaszewski - beautiful Japanese inspired ceramic installation pieces

2). Katie McKelvie - how can you not love art made from Tic-Tacs?

3). Alison Sigethy - her recycled glass bowls and great new direction for her.

4). Allegra Marquart and Cheryl Derricotte - Both artists have stretched their limits and produced their best work ever.

5). Alison Duval - I love the photo emulsion tranfer collages.

6). Novie Trump - I actually want to own one of her incredible ceramic sculptures... trade?

7). Pat Goslee and Lynn Putney - Not only is the work great in this room, but its been sparingly hung, which makes it one of my favorite room for actually being able to see art.

8). Ruth Trevarrow - Her "Chicks Dig Me" road sign made me smile all day. I dig her too!

9). Sean Hennessey, Rania Hassan and Kirk Waldroff - This is my favorite group room... they have truly pulled together a great gallery effect... plus I love the work.

10). Sondra Arkin and Ellyn Weiss - Please visit the "Weiss/Arkin" Gallery as they call their room. Its a great start to the Washington Color School Remix tour!

Artists at War: Pro & Con

MOCA DC has a superinteresting call for artists to put their creativity to work into delivering artwork both pro and con the Iraq War.

It's interesting to me, because as far as I know this is the first ever artists' call and exhibition where we may actually see pro war artwork, rather than immediately know ahead of time that all political artwork is against the liberation or invasion (depending on your point of view) of Iraq.

Will anyone have the cojones to enter, and then for MOCA to exhibit, pro war artwork? The left has little patience for things that it doesn't like, and this may put it to a test, while the right often tends to paint (no pun intended) any dissident view as anti-American.

Details here.

Collecting the Work of Emerging Artists

On Wednesday, April 18, 2007 from 6:30 – 8pm, DC's Transformer, in partnership with Civilian Art Projects, will present FRAMEWORK Panel #6 – Collecting the Work of Emerging Artists. This event will take place at Civilian Art Projects, 406 7th Street, NW, 3rd Floor (7th & D Streets).

Collecting the Work of Emerging Artists will be moderated by DC area ubercollector and arts enthusiast Philip Barlow, and will feature several area art collectors including James Alefantis, Monica Bussolati, Allison Cohen, Melvin L. Hardy, and Dr. Michael Pollack. The panel will focus on how each participating panelist "developed his or her current art collection, the importance of collecting the work of emerging artists, as well as where the panelists look to purchase work."

Attendance for this event is free, but seating will be limited. Rsvp your attendance to info@transformergallery.org or call 202-483-1102.

A Secret History of the Washington Body School

Save this date: Friday May 11, 2007 from 7-9pm. That's when Ian and Jan: The Undiscovered Duo, A Secret History of the Washington Body School, featuring Jeffry Cudlin and Meg Mitchell opens at DCA in the District.

Cudlin and Mitchell will stage an art historical intervention, weaving an alternative history for Washington art.

While Washington celebrates the Washington Color School through the multi-gallery Colorfield.remix project, Cudlin and Mitchell will mount a retrospective for their alter egos, Ian and Jan — a fictitious husband-and-wife performance art duo.

According to the exhibition’s premise, "Ian and Jan led the Washington Body School , a group that, in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, exhibited their body art alongside the work of prominent Washington abstract painters.

Ian and Jan: The Washington Body School will provide humorous commentary on Washington ’s cultural legacy, on revisionist art historical agendas, and on gender bias and power politics in the arts. The show will include photographs, drawings, props, and videos of the couple in action."

Does that sound cool or what?

PS - Oh yeah... the previously mentioned Cudlin skinny buttocks is viewable below! :-)

Art-O-Matic Saturday Sked

AOM is in full swing and in addition to the great and the not-so-great artwork, there are loads of free music events and dancing scheduled for Saturday.

Today's schedule is here and it includes live music by Circus of Saints, Mary Shapiro, Opposite Sex, Layne Garrett, The Mesmers, Hailcon, Alona, Medium Underground, and Jeremy Parker.

Free and open to the public.

The model as the star

My recent readings of various Georgia O'Keefe biographies bring to mind that the young O'Keefe career received an interesting boost through the lenses of Alfred Steiglitz, whose series of nude photographs with O'Keefe as the subject caused quite a sensation during the first decades of the 20th century and made the young painter a household name amongst American art aficionados duirng those halcyon years for American art.

Fierce Sonia is a young Greater DC area model and photographer, whose work I included in "Seven" (and it sold well) when I curated that mammoth project for the WPA/C.

And now Fierce Sonia is making waves of her own on the web as a model working with professional photographer David Allio.

The second new art exhibition of 2007 by David Allio brought nearly 10,000 viewers to the online gallery on opening day. The ten-image exhibition entitled "A Day with Sonia" is an artistic twist on a more-traditional photojournalistic look at one day with a professional figure model.

"The concept of following a single subject for one day is nothing new to a photojournalist. But, a few of the rules of traditional photojournalism were bent slightly for artistic effect," Allio admitted.

"My primary challenge for this exhibition was to find the right model to be featured in this creative collaboration. The project was discussed with several potential feature models. But, Sonia was the first person to bring to me both the fierce desire and commitment to balance her creative insight, strength, charisma, and confidence with a trust of my skills and vision in this artistic collaboration."

This was Sonia's fourth artistic collaboration with David Allio. Artworks from previous projects have earned the duo an OMP Fine Art Showcase Award and Best Picture Award from Japan's Photo Unlimited.

Exhibition is online here.

Wanna go to an Alexandria opening tonight?

Gallery West, the member operated fine art gallery at 1213 King Street in Old Town Alexandria, VA has a solo show of hand turned wood pieces by Alan Becker showing from April 4 - May 6, 2007 and the opening reception is tonight Saturday April 14, 2007 6-9PM.

After that go and check out Art-O-Matic, as there are several parties and events going on there until 1AM.

Art-O-Matic is Rockin' Now

Just back from my first quicklook at AOM, and the 2007 location is just amazing and wait until you see the views that one gets from the 6th and 8th floor of 2121 Crystal Drive.

There are dozens of parties going on right now even as I write this and there will be a lot of parties this weekend, as well as performances, music and other artistic efforts.

Soon I'll be writing my first take on this amazing show, based on this first walk-through and also tell you about the rumor sweeping through AOM.

As usual there's a lot of great art and a lot of dreck, and a lot of Kelly Towles-wannabes, but already one can feel the palpable great artistic energy that is AOM's true gift to the visual arts community of the Greater DC region.

Wanna go to a Baltimore opening tonight?

The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) highlights eight first-year students in MICA’s graphic design master of fine arts (M.F.A.) program in conjunction with the Graphic Design MFA Thesis Exhibition. First-Year Graphic Design MFA Exhibition provides a glimpse into the work of emerging artists and graduate students in the College’s graduate programs. The exhibition takes place in Bunting Center’s Pinkard Gallery at 1401 Mount Royal Avenue, with an opening reception on Friday, April 13, 5–7 p.m. and open studios on Friday, April 13, 7–9 p.m.

Works by 11 students form the First-Year MFA III Exhibition from Friday, April 13–Sunday, April 22, with an opening reception on Friday, April 13, 5–7 p.m. and open studios on Friday, April 13, 7–9 p.m. The students are Mount Royal School of Art students Lauren Boilini, Michael Burmeister, Andrea Chung, and Ben Steele; Rinehart School of Sculpture students Katie Cirasuolo, Jessie Lehson, and Elena Patino; Hoffberger School of Painting students Osvaldo Budet and Dominic Terlizzi; and photography and digital imaging program students Andrew Buckland and Anna DiCicco.

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow night?

The Randall Scott Gallery in DC, in collaboration with Contemporaria Georgetown will open "The Living Room Show" with a reception tomorrow, April 14th 6-9pm. The exhibition runs through May 19th, 2007.

Art-O-Matic Opens Today

As I am pounding into your heads by now, AOM, the region's most energetic artist-driven visual arts display opens today at 3PM in Crystal City at 2121 Crystal City Drive, just a couple of blocks from the Crystal City Metro station and also boasting plenty of free parking after 4PM. Expect a huge, multi-party at many levels, set of events to start later in the evening.

As there are around 600 artists, plus bars, music stages, performance stages, etc. it helps that ArtDC has an interactive map of AOM here (thanks Jesse!).

Lately I've fallen into the habit of predicting how the regional DC art press, both online and printed, will react (or not) to particularly interesting shows.

- At the last AOM, the WaPo's chief art critic, Mr. Blake Gopnik, brutalized the show in one of the bloodiest art reviews that I have ever read. And yet Gopnik's review had the usual opposite effect, and it in turn galvanized several hundred artists and WaPo readers against Blake and it also probably delivered several thousand extra curious visitors to AOM, so in the end, the Gopnik review was a good thing for AOM. I think that this year, Gopnik will not venture into AOM at all, since he is conceptually against the concept of AOM. It is a shame that the area's largest homegrown arts event will thus be ignored by the world's second most influential newspaper's chief art critic, who tends to forget that it is also a local newspaper. In the unlikely event that his boss (my good friend John Pancake, the WaPo's Arts Editor), actually tells Blake to go and review AOM, I suspect that Gopnik will once again tear it up, as conceptually, his mind is already made up that this most democratic and liberal of art shows is flawed from the beginning by a lack of a traditional curatorial hand.

- Also at the WaPo, we can pretty much count on a review by art and movie critic Michael O'Sullivan, as O'Sullivan is perhaps the only one in that newspaper that understands that AOM is not just about the artwork that hangs and is presented on the walls, but about the spectacular footprint that it leaves upon the region's art scene and the breath-taking success that it has had over the years in bringing art to the public, and artists to the eyes of collectors and gallerists. Leave it to O'Sullivan's keen eye to spot the potential "new" art star to emerge from this year's AOM.

- The WaPo's freelancer charged with covering DC art galleries is the fair Jessica Dawson, currently a graduate art history student at GWU. If history teaches us anything, it is that Dawson has been pretty regular in covering all the previous AOM's, usually led around by the indefatigable Judy Jashinsky. And so I think that Dawson will once again write about AOM, and probably deliver her standard "what I didn't like" report, mixed in with a couple of lukewarm maybes.

- The Washington City Paper will probably give AOM decent coverage, and I'm sure that we'll see a profile of either the show itself or some of the more colorful characters that inhabit AOM. Art critic Jeffry Cudlin is also an artist, and he participated in the last AOM, but since his name is missing from this year's AOM artists' list, I suspect that Jeffry will review this year's AOM provided that he can arrange his schedule so that he can get his skinny buttocks over to Crystal City (Note to Cudlin: start planning the trip now). As usual, we can expect a brooding, intelligently written review, which (since he was an ex-participant), we hope will explore the impact of AOM on the regional art psyche and public, besides the art on the walls.

- The bloggers I suspect have already made up galvanized minds, and if we liked it before, we'll like it again, and those who hated it before, will most likely hate it again, and already do, even before they set foot in Crystal City. Curious to me is how many of them/us seem to focus on the artwork, and completely miss the true impact of AOM. Also curious to me is how writers who are generally lefty pinkos in almost all they profess, become neoconartcritics when it comes to a massive open show organized by artists, lacking a curatorial Big Brother and essentially a 21st century rebirth of the democratic artistic movement that dethroned the academic art salons of Europe back in the late 1800s.

See ya there!

WOW!

WOW is all that I can say in view of the WaPo's spectacular online coverage that they're giving Art-O-Matic.

Here the Going Out Gurus have put together a slide show and all kinds of good stuff about the painters, sculptors, filmmakers, naked people, fire-breathers and other mutants that we will soon be staring at in AOM.

This is the kind of coverage that separates anemic paper coverage and augments it with terrific online coverage.

A cyberspace kiss and a hug and a "well done!" to the GOGs.

O'Keefe

On a recent trip, in the airplane seat pocket, I found Laurie Lisle's biography of Georgia O'Keefe, which claims to be OK's first published bio.

Compounded with all this recent traveling to New Mexico and Arizona, I read it very quickly and it has sort of kindled some interest in this legendary American painter, and I've just picked up Georgia O'Keefe: A Life by Roxana Robinson as well as the huge copy of Georgia O'Keefe in the West by Doris and Nicholas Callaway.

In all my previous light explorations of O'Keefe, such as museum visits, I've never really been too attracted to her work, but after reading an early biography, and re-looking at some of her work, my eyes are now opening to the fact that perhaps O'Keefe's legacy lies more in the conceptual range of painting, coupled with an extraordinary life and a spectacularly O'Keefe-centric personality, as well as pretty good luck in some instances.

She certainly only had ordinary painting skills and ordinary techniques (surprising considering her training), but perhaps more importantly, an enviable work ethic and a superlative eye for the subject matter, as well as a powerful and skilled champion in Steiglitz, easily the world's first art critic + art dealer + curator + gallerist + artist + art cheerleader all combined into one person.

It is thus her life, her aloofness, and her conceptual view of painting that I now have discovered and find somewhat attractive to read more about.

Art-O-Matic Update

As everyone knows by now, AOM opens this coming weekend in Crystal City at 2121 Crystal City Drive, just a couple of blocks from the Crystal City Metro station and also boasting plenty of free parking after 4PM.

Herewith some updates:

- The Right Reverend Bailey challenges the WaPo's chief art critic to give AOM a fair critical eye (good luck with that!). Details here.

- If you see some naked painted people walking around, don't freak out as I am told that there's going to be some body painting going on around the 6th floor of AOM on Friday.

- After 4pm there is free underground parking in the Crystal City Shops across the street.

Artomatic will open to the public at 3pm, Friday, April 13, 2007. It is free and open to the public (donations accepted).