Second Thursdays and Second Fridays in Philly

This Thursday is the second Thursday of the month and thus time for gallery hopping in Philly's Second Thursdays gallery openings event.

And then on Friday is the city's ever growing Second Fridays gallery openings and extended hours.

Bethesda Art Walk

This next Friday, May 11, is the second Friday of the month and thus it's the Bethesda Art Walk with 13 participating venues and with free guided tours.

My old gallery will host the opening for two of the hottest Cuban artists on the planet: Sandra Ramos Lorenzo and Aimee Garcia Marrero, both coming off highly successful museum shows in Latin America and Europe. Details here.

"Interposed" Oil on Linen, Thread, Stones by Aimee Garcia Marrero, 2006

Both these artists had their American and DC debut shows with Fraser Gallery a couple of years ago, and both the exhibitions sold out.

New American Paintings

The CP's Mark Athitakis lists the DC area artists who have been selected by Stephen Bennett Phillips, Curator, The Phillips Collection, for the most recent edition of New American Paintings (No. 69, May 2007).

They are: Rachel Jeffers, Courtney Jordan (who will have her next solo exhibition at Irvine Contemporary this coming July), Kevin Kepple (currently on exhibit at Supple), Amy Lin (currently on my "Buy Now" list), and Renee Stout.

Wanna go to a Middleburg, VA opening this weekend?

From Friday, May 11 to Sunday May, 13, 2007 Trowbridge-Lewis Galleries in Middleburg, VA has landscapes and abstracts works by Vander Zee. Artist receptions Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:00 PM.

Montpelier Arts Center Jurying for Studio Space

Deadline: Tuesday, May 15, 2007.

The annual jurying for studio space at Montpelier Arts Center is currently taking place. The Montpelier Arts Center is located on the beautiful grounds of the Montpelier Mansion in Laurel, Maryland.

Current resident artists include painters, printmakers, sculptors, ceramicists, a fiber artist and a jewelry artist. Space is rented to qualified artists at the rate of $8.00/square foot per year ($9.30 for artists residing outside of Prince George's and Montgomery Counties.)

Interested artists are encouraged to visit the Center. Resident artists who have studios at Montpelier are also eligible for solo exhibitions in the Resident Artists Gallery on a rotating basis and have access to their studios seven days a week. The deadline for delivering work to be reviewed is Tuesday, May 15, 2007. Call (301) 953-1993 for a studio application or download a PDF version at this website.

McNatt on Black Masters Show

The Baltimore Sun's Glenn McNatt delivers a really good review of the current "Black Masters" show at AU's Katzen Arts Center. The show runs though May 27, 2007.

Read the review here.

MCGOPA is looking for new members

The Montgomery County Guild of Professional Artists (MCGOPA) is an artist-run group for artists around the Philly area and they're currently accepting applications for membership. The jurying takes place the 3rd Thursday of the month, October through June. Visit this website for more info.

Eastern Market Fundraiser

As most of you know, DC's Eastern Market burned down last week. Now, local residents and bar owners are teaming up on Tuesday, May 8th to host happy hour fundraisers across the District to raise money and rebuild Eastern Market.

Each bar will donate between 5% and 10% of the nights proceeds to the Capital Hill Community Foundation rebuilding fund.

There are over a dozen bars participating in the fundraiser on Tuesday night so feel free to make a night out of it. And if you are interested in hosting a fundraiser at your favorite neighborhood bar please do. To get more involved please visit this website.

Supple at Warehouse

Perhaps one of the biggest voids between art critics and the other side of the fine arts equation (artists, gallerists and curators), is that most art critics seem to be fond of always giving the other side advice.

This advice is generally not only wrong, but often naive to the extreme of being laughable. Such as the art blogger who once wondered online why most galleries didn't publish nice fancy catalogs with each exhibition, and recommended that gallerists did this in order to be taken seriously by art critics.

Gallerists who read this advice immediately filed it in the round file while at the same time they try to balance the gallery books using magic in order to pay all their bills on time.

So I think that it is a good thing when an art critic, or an artist tries his hand at organizing an art show from idea to exhibition, including dealing with other fellow artists and/or art critics.

And so we come to the exhibition titled "Supple" and organized by fellow DC area blogger J.T. Kirkland, who for the past few years has developed before a worldwide online audience into an artist, a writer, an opinion voice of other artists' works, a critic of exhibitions and now a first-time curator.

Currently on exhibit through May 12 at the Warehouse Gallery complex on 7th street, NW in DC, "Supple" is an interesting example not only of the curatorial process itself, but also of the evolving nature of what it takes to be a good curator.

"Supple" is an excellent exhibition, packed to the rafters with an enviable "Who's Who in DC" of a particular nuance and sense and genre of art that has a direct link back to the curator's own work in the way it looks and feels.

The fact that a first-time curator, with no previous curatorial experience under his belt, or even that deep of an exhibition record as an artist, was able to put together a really good exhibition of several of the DC area blue chip artists speaks volumes both about the curator himself, and his work ethic, and also about the power of the web.

I know that Kirkland worked his virtual and real ass off in working to put this show together. Kirkland smartly aligned the exhibition to coincide with DC's first major international art fair, and I would bet that as artDC returns in 2008, we'll see a "Supple II" return, becoming the defacto first "satellite" show to artDC. I also know that Kirkland was able to extend his online connectivity (as a well-known blogger) to reach both artists, gallerists and writers to make "Supple" take place.

As we all know, a near disaster almost took place when Supple's original landlords somehow pulled out at the last minute and caused a show cancellation almost immediately followed by an offer from the good folks at Warehouse and a new home for the show.

By the time the exhibition opened, I am sure that young Mr. Kirkland had both a few few gray hairs and also a tremendous amount of valuable new experience and insight under his belt that 90% of art critics and writers lack.

My original plan was to attend Supple's opening last week, but as I walked out of ArtDC, I was absolutely exhausted from being on my feet all day since 4AM, and thus I headed home while I waved goodbye to Tim Tate, who was heading to the opening.

The next morning at artDC, the whole place was buzzing about Adrian Parsons' circumcision at the opening. That's his foreskin in the image below, so get it out of your system and let's move on.


Later that day I visited both Supple and the No Representation show at Warehouse (review on No Representation coming soon), and got a tour of the exhibition by Adrian Parsons.

I wanted to return on my own, and paid a second visit, a little more quiet and away from the whole sensationalist issue of Parson's penis art event, and because I wanted to give the other artists the perspective, time and effort that they deserved.

As I have noted, Kirkland did something really smart in putting his first curatorial effort together; he showcased some really talented folks who need little introduction.

People like Robin Rose, Colby Caldwell and Graham Caldwell.


He put them together with proven talent from the likes of Linn Meyers, Adam Fowler and James Huckenpahler.

And then he added some new, emerging talent such as Laurel Lukaszewski (who is emerging as the new star of Artomatic) and the forementioned Adrian Parsons.

And on a quiet visit to the show, in my opinion, the newcomer, Laurel Lukaszewski steals the show.

Her piece "Cascade" (image to the left) was created to be exhibited in this show.

It is as perfect for this earthy gallery space as a work of art can be.

Lukaszewski's piece has a hard-to-define sense of organic sensuality that seems to more often than not, find a place in porcelain in the hands of a master.

It is so fragile and so delicate that we want to blow on it to see if it moves, while at the same time being afraid that it will come crashing down.

Graham Caldwell's untitled piece is another one of my favorites in this exhibition. Every time that I see a new Caldwell I glow in the knowledge that the DC area is so lucky to have not one but two of the best of the new breed of glass artists who is dragging glass away from craft and firmly planting it into the fine arts.

When the history of glass in the 21st century is written, historians will discuss the profound effect on the new directions in glass, so different from each other, that the two DC glass geniuses, Tim Tate and Graham Caldwell, cast for the genre while working in the same city.

For "Supple" Caldwell has presented a piece that, much like Lukaszewski's, has a subtle sense of being organic and fragile, but unlike that porcelain work, Caldwell's glass and steel sculpture is also (and paradoxically) strong and almost moving.

I say moving in the sense that the piece reminds me of a powerful arterial work, with life giving power coursing through the delicate glass, married to the powerful steel. It is this paradox, glass and steel, fragility and strenght, life and death (part of the artery is detached from itself) that makes this an "Oh WOW" work of art and a key element of "Supple."

I am a big fan of both Linn Meyers and Adam Fowler, but for both these two talented and hard working artists I have one piece of advice: Mondrianism.


Both Fowler and Meyer's works in Supple are superb examples of their current artistic presence; in Meyer's case another one of her delicate ink and colored pencils on Mylar, and in Fowler's case another one of his amazing (hard to find another word to describe his process) hand-cut graphite, multi-layered works on paper.

In both cases, the process to create their work is so unique, and their individual styles so singular to the artists, that a Fowler is immediately recognized as a Fowler, and so is a Meyers.

And thus the potential trap of Mondrianism, or I defined it many years ago, the danger of an artist getting stuck on a very successful process to deliver and create work, and failing to explore alternative venues once that process and its associated imagery has been exhausted.

Having said that, it's far from that point (yet) for both these artists, and their contributions to Supple also add to make Kirkland's first venture into the gray-hair-making process of curating an art show a very successful debut, making us looking forward to "Supple II."

Wanna go to a Manassas, VA opening tomorrow?

Area artist Lou Gagnon, together with Susie Slabaugh White and Brook Forrest White from the Flame Run Glass Studio from Louisville, Kentucky open at the Center for the Arts' Caton Merchant Family Gallery (9419 Battle Street, Manassas, Virginia 20110, 703.330.2787).

The Opening Reception is May 5th, 6-8 pm and there's also a Spring Gallery Walk today, May 4th, 6-9:30 pm.

Gould on the DC tax hike pinch

The CP's Jessica Gould delivers a really good report on the effect of the DC property tax hike on the Warehouse Gallery and Theatre complex and other arts establishments in the neighborhood.

Looks bleak.

Supple issues

The WCP's Kriston Capps reviews the "Supple" exhibition at Warehouse Gallery in the current issue of the CP. The curator, J.T. Kirkland has some issues with "three inaccuracies in the review, each of which could be damaging to my [Kirkland's] repututation as a curator."

Read Capps' review here.

Read Kirkland's Letter to the WCP Editor here.

Comments on this later...

Artomatic Party Tonight

If you've been putting off going to AOM, tonight all of the exhibiting artists are setting up a second opening party with munchies and drinks. In addition to a full cadre of artists, May 4th promises to be as energetic as Opening Night, which saw over 3,500 people attend. In addition to the artists, there are over 15 events on the schedule.

The party starts at 6PM and goes to 1AM. Parking is free after 4PM and the entire multi-floor party is free and open to the public.

It's not my chob, man

The American Association of Museums has selected Ford Watson Bell as its new president.

Bell then stated that the troubled Smithsonian remains "a great institution," which is not too debatable. But he then added, "I have no advice for them."

Good start.

Here's Bailey's take on the subject.

O'Sullivan on Artomatic

Washington Post art critic Michael O'Sullivan has been writing about art for the WaPo longer than the other two active critics at the Post (Blake Gopnik and freelancer Jessica Dawson). Like Gopnik, O'Sullivan is married to a DC area artist, but unlike Gopnik, O'Sullivan knows the DC area art scene probably better than Gopnik and Dawson combined.

As such, when O'Sullivan goes to review the so widely maligned Artomatic, I feel that he does so from the perspective of someone with a long history of knowing some of the artists there; someone who has been to every Artomatic and to almost every museum show in the DC region in the last 15 years or so, and to a ton more DC area art galleries than Gopnik has ever set foot in.

So O'Sullivan comes prepared with a set of critical eyes and mind that do not visit an open show like AOM with a predisposed mind like nearly every other DC area art critic does. And tomorrow's WaPo will have O'Sullivan's review of AOM which includes this piece:

So let me say this before I get in too deep: I come to praise "Artomatic," not to bury it.

To anyone familiar with "Artomatics" past, it will come as no surprise that there's more to loathe than to love. But you know what? The ratio is no worse than at an off-price store like Syms, where you have to pick through racks and racks of stuff you'd never wear before -- maybe -- stumbling across that one amazing find. The long odds haven't stopped anyone from shopping there, and they won't keep me away from "Artomatic."

Read the review here.

There's also a lesson in this review to all the young Turks who in their 20s or early 30s already think that they can spew out constant words of critical dismissal in tuto for nearly everything they see, ignoring all the lessons that they are yet to learn from what they have not seen.

It's a very transparent mistake of young pens and combative minds seeking to always try lift the scab rather than deliver constructive criticism that has both teeth and substance. I have done it myself, and learned from it.

Bravo O'Sullivan!

Cinco de Mayo

This Saturday people will be drinking tequila and Mexican beer on a planetary scale, celebrating the fabled "Cinco de Mayo" date.

I always have fun asking people what "Cinco de Mayo," celebrates, and some of the answers that I have gathered over the years have been hilarious. Here's a quiz in fun:

Cinco de Mayo celebrates:

- May 5, 1810 - Mexico declares independence from the Kingdon of Spain. Eleven years later the Spanish soldiers get the memo and leave Mexico forever.

- May 5, 1848 - With the fearsome Spaniards gone, the United States goes to war with Mexico and grabs a huge chunk of land from the former Spanish colony. The Mexicans invent the term "gringo" to refer to the Americans.

- May 5, 1862 - The pissed off Mexican Army, under the command of Texas-born General Zaragosa whips the French Army at the Battle of Puebla. The shamed French Army never ever gets any respect on any other battlefield and becomes the practice runs for the German Army.

- May 5, 1900 - Tijuana bartender Jose Cuervo is horrified to discover that somehow an agave worm has been bottled accidentally in a tequila bottle that he was about to open. Disgusted he throws the bottle in the garbage. It is picked up by six drunk US Navy sailors on liberty, who drink the whole bottle and then get into a fist fight as to who gets to eat the worm. Cuervo notes this bizarre event and takes notes.

- May 5, 1938 - Mexican actress Margarita Carmen Cansino changes her name to Rita Hayworth and becomes an instant Anglo sensation in Hollywood.

- May 5, 1969 - Mexican-Americans decide that from now on they are be called "Chicanos."

- May 5, 1972 - The Nixon administration decides that Mexican-Americans are to be called Hispanic from now on. Other Americans of Latin American ancestry are also rounded up under this cultural name.

- May 5, 2000 - Hispanics decide that from now on they are to be called "Latinos" because Europeans from Spain and Portugal have joined the gravy train and have been declared "Hispanics" as well.

- May 5, 2025 - At 12 noon, with a majority population of Mexican-American ancestry, the state of California secedes from the United States of America and re-joins the Estados Unidos de Mexico.

- May 5, 2025 - At 12:45 PM Mexico declares its intentions to begin drilling for oil off the coast of California and begins moving the Mexican Army to round-up the Hollywood crowd.

- May 5, 2025 - At 1:00 PM California secedes from the Estados Unidos de Mexico. The Mexican Army promptly deserts and become instant residents of California. At 1:30PM, California asks to be re-admitted into the Union. The United States declines to take them back and begins building a wall along the California state line.

All in fun!

Be safe drinking and celebrating out there and Viva Mexico!

Loads of gallery openings tomorrow

Tomorrow is not only "Cuatro de Mayo," but also the first Friday of the month, and thus tons of galleries in DC and Philadelphia will have extended hours and new shows openings.

Details on Philly openings here.

Details on DC openings here.

The Personal Picture Plane

The Personal Picture Plane is an exhibition by Philadelphia and New Jersey based artists Ellen Abraham, Jim Brossy, Aurora Deshauteurs, Richard Elzo Dunn, Jessica Makin, Louise DeSalvor Masi, and Carol Taylor-Kearney. The exhibition is curated by Carol Taylor-Kearney and it was recently exhibited at the Gloucester County College's College Hall Gallery and is currently on exhibition at StrataSphere Exhibition Space in Philadelphia through May 27th.

Wanna go to another DC opening today?

The Independent Artists Forum presented by the Art Group of the Staff Association of the Organization of American States has an exhibition by The Independent Artists Forum: Ethel Bustamante, Haydeh Rastin, Marjolein van Milligen, Marion van Ruiten and Wendy Plotkin-Mates. The Opening Reception is today Thursday, May 3, 2007 from 5:45 to 8:00 p.m. At the General Secretariat Building (1889 F St., NW Terrace Level, Washington, DC 20006).

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?

"Roman Vishniac’s Berlin" opens May 3 at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue (600 I Street NW in DC) with a reception at 6:30 pm. Opening remarks by special guests Mara Vishniac Kohn (daughter of Roman Vishniac), Klaus Scharioth (Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany), and Aubrey Pomerance (curator of the exhibition and archivist of the Leo Baeck Archives at the Jewish Museum Berlin). RSVP to 202-408-3100 or info@sixthandi.org.