Delaware Arts in Trouble?

Maureen Milford, writing for the News Journal, has an excellent article about the state of arts organizations in Delaware. Read that article here.

As an aside, I've yet to find one independently owned fine arts commercial arts gallery in Wilmington, If there's one, someone please let me know.

Randi Hopkins on Campello



Boston's Randi Hopkins at The Phoenix discusses the current exhibition Ozspirations at at the New England School of Art & Design and mentions my How Dorothy Killed the Witch.

"How Dorothy Gale really killed the Wicked Witch of the East"
Read it here.

Amy Lin Preview

I don't know how tonight's opening of Amy Lin's solo at Heineman-Myers Contemporary in Bethesda, MD went, but I dropped in yesterday to take a look at the work.

Buy Amy Lin now.

Wanna go to a Philly Opening this Friday?

Damian Moppett's After the Fall, which will run from November 16, 2007 - February 17, 2008 opens at the Temple Gallery in the Tyler School of Art. The openingr eception for the artist is Friday, November 16, from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibition will be accompanied by several programs; for more information visis this website or call 215.782.2776.

Some good lots

Rago Arts and Auction Center has a Post-War and Contemporary Art Auction on November 17, 2007 (exhibition starts today) and as usual there are some great "estimated" deals to be had...

- A Gene Davis color pencils on paper.

- This Wolf Kahn pastel

- Also a great deal on this Teo Gonzalez.

- A signed Rauschenberg print for under a thousand and also this screen print for under a thou.

- A Sol Lewitt drawing for under $500. Also litho for under a thousand.

- Four huge William Christenberry Polaroid transfers in one lot estimated at around $800 each ($2K - $3K for the lot).

- Jenny Holzer estimated at $2,000.

I have conveniently not mentioned the lots that I am bidding for, but there are a lot more "estimated" deals to be had.

The Other Woman

Steven Earl Weber, the co-director of Kelly & Weber Fine Art in Philadelphia, will be guest curating a series of four shows in conjunction with the Coral Street Arts House.

The first of these exhibitions will be a duel site exhibit of the artist collective, The Other Woman.

The Other Woman consists of Darla Jackson, a sculptor, Laura Graham, a photographer, Laura McKinley, a painter, and Aubrie Costello, who works in various mediums. For this dual site exhibition Kelly & Weber Fine Art will be exhibiting the works of Darla Jackson and Aubrie Costello and the Coral Street Arts house will host the works of Laura McKinley and Laura Graham.

View a video interview with these artists filmed on a set built for one of Laura Graham's recent photographs and hear what they have to say for themselves and their artwork here.

Wanna go to some DC openings on Friday?

It's the third Friday of the month coming up and thus the extended nights and openings for the Canal Square Galleries at 31st Street, NW and M Street in Georgetown. While there check Rackie Diankha Diallo's work at Parish Gallery.

Danielle O'Steen on DC

Danielle O'Steen pens a really good over view of what's going on the DC area for artinfo.com.

Read it here.

Delaware Area Artists' Sale

Creative Wilmington has 115 Regional Artists on exhibition that want collectors to purchase artwork directly from them priced at $250 or less. Exhibition is Saturday, November 17 from 10AM - 5PM at Creative Wilmington.

Artwork by Lynette Ashby, Jennifer Marano, Kinga Baransky, Karen Mason, Larissa Baransky, Helen Miller, Jo Bellamy, Joe Miller, Frank Bielsky, Kelley Morris, Teresa Bland, Nick Mowers, Charles Bowden, Monique Mueller, Kim Bowman, Gaye Murphy, Mike Bryand, Nicolle Nicolle, Robert Bullock, Elizabeth Norton, Lauren Caddell, Christine O'Connell, Stephen Cai, Gail O'Neil, Todd Carignan, Maria Ortado, Kate Cathey, Karen Pait, Macon Cathey, Peter Patterson, Deborah Cavenaugh, Lori Payne, Robyn Chapman, Brooks Pearce, Sarah Collier, Candy Pegram, Francisca Dekker, Brian Peterson, Lois DeWitt, Deborah Petoskey, Timothy Dols,Courtney Pickett, Karen Domaney, Nancy Ping-Robbins, Jamie Dorfman, Wendy Pittillo Rae, Jude Eden, Michael Polomik, Jay Edge, JG Priestly, Jennifer Elder, George Rabito, Daisy Faith, Dennis Reifsnider, Paula Fitzpatrick, Kay Robbins, Gina Gambony, Loraine Scalamoni, Kit Garfield, Lara Schuhmann, Wade Giddens, Mick Scott, Cape Fear Camera Club, Donna Simpson, Pamela Kim Hartman, Florence Simpson, Lisa Haskins, Stephanie Smith, Barton Hatcher, Lee Spivey, Steven Heiner, Dixon Stetler, Deborah Hendricks, Polly Tait, Geoffrey Henshall, Sarah Tector, Jack Hernon, Sue Thompson, William Hubbard, Nii Narku, Rebecca Huntzinger, Nia Thurber, Julia Jensen, Clay Trotter, Angela Johnson, Laura Venters, Mitzy Jonkheer, Sandra Vigneri, Jennifer Joyner, Maike Walbrecht, MZ Julee, Gail Beavers Walls, Sharon Kane, Cindy Weaver, Michelle Kaskovich, Tracy Weaver, Rachel Kastner, Travis Weller, Doug Kazantzis, Sarah Westermark, Mary Kate Kennish, Kee Wilde-Ramsing, Aiden Kenny, Rhonda Willett, Gloria Madill, Mike Williams, Beth Maisonpierre, Amy Winston, and Mossy Wynn.

Wanna go to some Baltimore openings on Saturday?

Not only famous for its diverse art, but also for its sushi and good wines at their openings, Baltimore's Light Street Gallery opens its "Small Works Exhibit" on Saturday, November 17 from 6-9PM.

Also on Saturday, from 6-9 p.m. there's an opening reception at Gallery 211 for Washington, DC landscape artist Freya Grand. A catalogue of the show will be available at Gallery 211, with an introductory essay by Jack Rasmussen, Director of the Katzen Art Museum at American University in Washington, DC. For details phone 410-244-1340 or visit www.gallery211.net.

Wanna go to a Bethesda opening this Saturday?

Osuna Art Gallery in not-Brooklyn Bethesda opens The Washington Women Show with an opening reception from 5-8PM on Saturday, Nov. 17. The exhibition includes work by:

Nan Montgomery (painting)
Carol Brown Goldberg(painting)
Renee Butler(video installation)
Joan Danzinger (sculpture)
Dalya Luttwak (sculpture)
Nizette Brennan (sculpture)
Francie Hester (multi media)
Bernis von zur Muehlen (photography)
Dale Loy (painting)
Jean Meisell (painting)
Manon Cleary (painting)
Wendy Ross (sculpture)
Polly Kraft (sculpture)
Patricia Forrester (painting)
Lisa Brotman (painting)
Yuriko Yamaguchi (sculpture)
Andrea Way (painting)
Deborah Kahn (painting)
Sharon Fishel (painting)
Sherry Sanabria (painting)
Judy Jashinsky (painting)
Brece Honeycutt (painting)
Lisa Marie Thalhammer (drawing, mixed media)
Claudia Smigrod (photography)
Janet Fries (photography)
Jae Ko (sculpture)
Annette Polan (painting)
Emilie Brzezinski (sculpture)
Linn Meyers (drawing)

Ford Bell Responds

A few days ago I was puzzled by the answer given by Ford Bell, the new president of the American Association of Museums, to a question posed to him during an interview. Read all that here.

In response to my question, Mr. Bell emailed me a clarification:

Lenny:

Here is the context for my answer. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough.

Museum attendees, boards, staff, and volunteers do not reflect the diversity of our society. In Minneapolis, where I am from, we have the largest population of Somalis in the United States, the second largest population of Hmong, the largest population of Tibetans, and substantial populations of Hispanics and Native Americans. However, these ethnic and racial groups are substantially (almost completely) underrepresented on museum boards, and are not users of museums. I think it is incumbent on museums in this country to "demystify" museums, to make them less "white", both physically and programmatically, and to reach out to minority communities with creative, and relevant, educational, social and cultural programming. In the increasingly pluralistic society in which we are fortunate to live, museums will struggle if they are unable to reach out to different communities in meaningful ways.

In regard to the question, "Why would someone who has been elected to Congress in 2037 or 2047 have less 'experience' than someone elected in 2007 simply because they are from a different ethnic group?" I would submit that the vast majority of people now serving in Congress have experiences with museums, in fact, have visited museums since childhood. Today, school districts don't have the money for field trips, and school children don't go to museums in many states they way they did when I was a child. Will childhood trips to museums depend now on parents? And if the parents don't speak English, and/or are illegal immigrants and/or work three jobs and/or don't know what a museum is, are they likely to take their child to a museum?

AAM is committed to conveying - to funders, legislators, policymakers - the importance of museums to communities large and small, across the United States. We are committed to carrying the message that museum experiences are important for school children of all ages, and that these experiences contribute significantly to their educational progress and intellectual development. And, we hope to work with museums, our fellow museum service organizations, and museum professionals and educators to help insure that museums are welcoming and relevant to everyone in the community and that they resemble the community at every level - boards, staff and volunteers.

I hope that helps. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to clarify my answer.

Best wishes.

Cordially,

Ford

Stories

As the first African American museum built by a major American city, the African American Museum in Philadelphia is a pioneering institution that is dedicated to "Celebrating the Life and Contributions of a People." The museum focuses on what is unique about the African American experience, and does so by illustrating the intimate intertwining of one people's heritage, culture, and contributions throughout the fabric of the American experience.

Opening on November 15 and through January 21, 2008, they will host Kimberly Camp's "Stories." Camp’s paintings and dolls are a reflection of family and tradition, and have been shown throughout the United States and abroad in over one hundred prominent solo and group exhibitions.

Camp, a native of Camden, New Jersey, has also pursued a dual career as a museum administrator for the Barnes Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution and the Charles Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.

RSVP to kcamp@kimberlycamp.com.

Open Studios in Arlington

On Saturday, November 17th, from 6:00-9:00 PM, the artists at the Columbia Pike Artist Studios in Arlington, VA will open their studios to the public - there will be art, food, wine, and many fine artists.

Wanna go to a Bethesda opening on Wednesday?

For a couple of years now I have been recommending to collectors that they should acquire art by Amy Lin.

On Wednesday, November 14th, Amy Lin’s "Silence" opens in Bethesda's Heineman-Myers. A reception for the artist will be held from 6 to 9pm and Amy will speak about her work at 7pm. This will be Lin's commercial gallery debut after a couple of highly successful solo art shows in non-profit art spaces around the DC area.

Besides my attention, Amy Lin has received considerable recognition for her work, including a terrific show recently at the District of Columbia Art Center curated by National Gallery of Art's curator Anne Collins Goodyear and a very positive review of her work in the WaPo for her solo at Northern Virginia Community College last year and a very cool profile by the Washington City Paper last December.

And Apple Computer company recently selected Amy’s work for their one-word campaign, which will showcase her work on college campuses across the US. Furthermore, Washingtonian Magazine recently picked Amy in their 2007 “40 under 40 to Watch.”

Buy Amy Lin now.

Wanna go to an Alexandria opening tomorrow?

Travels - Paintings by Jessie Mackay will be on exhibition November 11 - December 9, 2007 at Alexandria's beautiful Athenaeum, the only Greek revival building in the city.

William Zimmer, the contributing art critic for The New York Times has written that Jessie Mackay "is recognized in the art world as an artist who can go to the most desirable tourist destinations in Europe -- to the impoverished heart of Africa -- and the ability and desire to capture the colors of both places, as well as the people, with a great deal of sympathy, is a welcome, valuable resource."

The Opening reception is Sunday, November 11, from 4 to 6PM. When you get there, walk around this beautiful building and discover one of the hidden gems in the DC area.

For Women Artists

The National Museum of Women in the Arts has Archives on women artists. Eligible to women artists who have had at least one solo show in a museum or gallery. Files may include biographical information, resume, and up to 20 images (slides, transparencies, or photos). $10 fee. Send a SASE to:

Archives on Women Artists
The Library and Research Center
Nat’l Museum of Women in the Arts
1250 New York Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20005

Legal Seminar for Artists

November 15, 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 pm

Maryland Art Place (MAP) and Maryland Lawyers for the Arts (MLA) will present on Thursday, November 15, an Artists' Practicum: a guide to the basic legal knowledge necessary for artistic survival in the marketplace.

The session will cover contractual issues in the creative industry, copyright for nonlawyers, and the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990. The panel includes MLA Board President Michael Yang, Esq., and board member Cynthia Sanders, Esq. The practicum will be held within MAP’s galleries. Admission is free and open to the public, but reservations must be made by calling 410-962-8565.

Grants for Philly Area Artists

Deadline: January 7, 2008 (Folk & Traditional Arts and Painting)

The Pew Fellowships in the Arts, a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage established by the Pew Charitable Trusts, awards grants to artists working in a wide variety of performing, visual, and literary disciplines. The grants provide financial support directly to the artists so that they may have the opportunity to dedicate themselves to creative pursuits exclusively.

PFA makes awards to artists working in twelve different discipline categories, which rotate on a four-year cycle. In 2008, applications are being accepted in the areas of folk & traditional arts, painting, and playwriting.

Fellowships may be awarded to artists at any stage of their career development, from early to mature, and to artists working in a wide range of aesthetics and traditions. Fellowship recipients are determined according to two primary criteria. First, and most important, applicants are judged on their artistic accomplishment and future promise. Second, panelists consider the impact that a fellowship will have on the applicant's career and artistic development.

Applicants must be practicing artists of demonstrated commitment and professional accomplishment, and must have resided in the five county Philadelphia area (Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery) for at least two continuous years at the time of application.

Up to twelve fellowships are awarded annually. As of the 2008 award cycle, the fellowship amount has increased to $60,000 from $50,000.

Visit the PFA website for complete program information.

Shauna Lee Lange on Andrea Reed's Sweet Struggle at The Target Gallery

Power Seeks a Vacuum

By Shauna Lee Lange

Years ago when I was working in Newport, Rhode Island, I had a mentor with whom I could safely share some of the idiosyncrasies of working with certain personalities. And I still remember what he said.

Power seeks a vacuum.

Meaning that power goes to where there is a void, to where the void can be filled by a personality larger than itself, and to where there is no competition.

And so it is with artwork that arrests us in its riveting, shocking, and disturbing elements. Powerful artwork causes one to shift entirely. And when that powerful artwork is directed at a subject that exists in everyday life, that we all walk around living with, but no one seems to really want to squarely address, well that's power seeking a vacuum.

Andrea Reed's problem, if she has one, is that she does not yet fully recognize the potentiality for the vacuum sucking up the her work or its message. If I had her here with me at this moment, I'd be doing some serious career planning with her and not just career planning the art world.

She's Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson reincarnate. She's Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman and Grandma Moses and Salvador Salgado, but she doesn't know it.

I wonder what's more dangerous: having the power, hitting the mark, daring to speak the communication, or doing all of that and not having any inkling of what you've accomplished.

I imagine it's kind of like sitting at a slot machine when you're an inexperienced gambler and then you hit the jackpot and you're not really sure what actually happened or what comes next. It's amazing, you're happy, you're thinking about the money; but you have no clue what it is you've actually done or how rarely it happens.

Several times during last night's opening reception at Alexandria's Target Gallery, one could hear the words, “powerful,” “disturbing,” “brave,” and “raw.” And all those adjectives are all true.

Reed seemingly does not completely recognize the timeliness of her black/racism/social condition message in a day of Duane Chapman, Don Imus, and Michael Richards and the controversies over demeaning language, its use, its application. Nor does Reed realize the power of an introspective and respectable examination of black stereotypes, black societal problems, and the black experience. She’s timely, she’s ahead of her time, and she’s behind the times all at once, it’s incongruent and it’s fascinating.

She says it herself: "I was fearful of how people would perceive the work."

And as you age, you realize that all that time you spent worrying about what other people think was time wasted. Why should she care what other people think of her blackface images? It’s honest. It’s true. It’s presented in a nonjudgmental way, almost like a mirror. I want Reed to walk proudly. What she’s done is amazingly brave. She’s worried the black population will see her as airing dirty laundry; she’s worried whites will see her as capitalizing on negative stereotypes; she’s worried about staying true to herself; and she’s swimming in a sea of contemplation. And I want her not to give a flying frog about what anyone else thinks, because when you’re a visionary, you get to stand alone.

And it’s lonely, and it’s scary, and it’s all the more powerful because you’re the only one responding to the call, listening to the drumbeat, answering the higher cause.

And as I was walking through the Target Gallery - and there's a lot of glare from the overhead lighting there - and I was thinking about how the glare in this case actually accentuates the large scale color photographs (a series of 10 diptychs on crimson/blood red background), giving a reflective appearance. It’s sort of like passing through the Vietnam Memorial; you can see yourself looking in at the picture. How powerful is that?

Today, the morning after, I find myself still conflicted about Reed. On the one hand, I feel bad that she herself honestly says, “I’m not exactly sure where I’m going to go. I don’t think the project is over and I want to continue with it.” She needs a serious mentor. She’s talent untapped. She’s it. She’s the real thing. And I’m thinking that Reed may not know where she's going to go, but I surely I have an idea.

I’m reminded of the time I saw Yoko Ono’s work in San Francisco. This is an artist! This is art!

And so it is with Reed. She has difficulty articulating what she’s trying to say, but the thing of it is - she doesn’t need to. It’s clear. It’s blackface. It’s the mask worn. It’s the clownish behavior. It’s the mask of who we are as a people and what we do. And who is behind the mask. We’re ignorant, you know, white and black, all of us – and what do we think about it? Killing each other, gang violence, fatherless homes, selling out in exchange for the big house, broken self esteem, trying to achieve unreachable ideals established by someone other than ourselves, searching through meaning in acquisition of money, and things, and respect, and acceptance. Oh Lord.

On the other hand, I’m so excited about Reed. She admits, “I’m young, I’m still growing, I’m still trying to find my voice.” One of the things about youth, and I would tell Reed this too, is that you don’t know what you had at the time you had it until much later in life. Any of us who goes back to look at a photograph of an earlier self may catch themselves saying, “Damn. I looked good.” But we didn’t really know it at the time, did we?

Reed doesn’t know what she has. She hit the jackpot, the end of the rainbow, the statement and work that takes some artists and photographers a lifetime to achieve. And she has it. She has it now. She could stop. Right here and never do another thing. She could go on tour. She could give lectures.

Commercially, she needs marketing; she needs exposure; she needs mainstream.

Personally, she needs serious representation. She needs mentors.

Reed can be the next voice of the people. Reed’s a revolutionary; she’s a seer; she understands; she gets it; she communicates it; she dares.

I go back through the gallery and I imagine the next life of these works. I’m thinking about redesigning the entire Barbie Doll Headquarters Enterprise. I’m imagining walking into a reception area with Reed’s “Barbie Girl” hanging behind a coiffed and reserved corporate greeter in front of a massively cold marble wall. “Barbie Girl” is an image that shows a young black woman, in hideous blackface makeup, squeezing the waist of a blonde, white Barbie Doll. A figure the woman will never have. A culture the woman will never relate to. And in the interim, the woman is holding her own mid-section. The smallest part of her is ever so enormous compared to the smallest part of the doll. This is what I mean by power.

Reed’s tapped into every woman’s pain. Every woman’s inability to reach Barbie Doll perfection. And it’s not enough that she points to this feminist, beauty, perfection complex, she then adds the experience of being black and being a black woman in this culture on top of it. It’s quiet, yet it yells. It’s subdued, yet it feels like being submerged.

Fear is a powerful thing. And I suspect Reed is fearful on some subconscious level of what she’s actually achieved. She has the vision of what she wants to say, yet she steps back from really standing firm in her own conviction. And this comes with age, too. She spoke last evening about how the experience of showing at the Target Gallery and the attending the exhibition was a bit overwhelming for her. She stumbles a bit as she speaks. She’s embarrassed when slide photos come up too dark on the viewing screen.

None of it matters.

You, Ms. Reed, overwhelm us! You’ve taken survey. You’ve taken a look around at the black experience. You’ve said this is what’s ugly to me and not only is it ugly to me; it should be ugly to all of us. And you’re right. Completely right.

Reed speaks about using the light in the photographs in an ominous way. And she shares the story behind “Crack Head” and her attempts in San Francisco to acquire a crack pipe for the photograph. She explains she went to several places and honestly communicated what she was trying to do and her vision for the photographs and still was met with resistance, mistrust, or disbelief. She states her own personal experience was altered from this difficult project. One attendee pointed out that the hand of the young man who is holding the crack pipe is dirty and grainy. Reed states this is a result of having each of her models apply their own blackface makeup and the residue resulting from that. And she says interestingly that once the models finished with their masks, there was a distinct transformation and a very different energy in the studio, one she tried to capture on film.

I wonder whether Reed considered not using blackface, and truly I was encouraged by the amount of research and background Reed conducted in approaching the project. The images of the elements of our culture would have been just as powerful without blackface as they are with. The blackface is an added and very strong message about the ridiculousness of such a life – who are we entertaining? Where is the enjoyment? Why is no one laughing?

Reed says she felt she needed to make a statement about how blackface started in the white community and then was an “art form” adopted by black artists. She says she struggles to portray these issues and all of sudden, the lecture space becomes electrified and a little nervous when one attendee asks whether it would have been a different viewing experience if Ms. Reed were white.

What? You have to be black to portray black issues?

You can’t understand what it is for the rich when you’re poor? You can’t understand or portray nature as an artist if you live in the city? My head started spinning; Reed handles the question with grace.

She’s young. She’s introspective. She’s from small town Peoria, Illinois, and she attended Howard University, and now lives in California. Her show features a piece entitled “The Bluest Eye.” It is inspired by Toni Morrison’s novel of the same name. And as I write this, my breathing becomes a little tight, for some reason, I still want to cry. The photograph shows a young woman removing the blue contact from one of her eyes and balancing it so gingerly on the tip of her extended finger. She has a skin condition, and she’s not Halle Berry. This is realism at its best. This is current, contemporary culture. Striving to be something we’re not out of rejection of what we are.

This is all of us, balancing some aspect of ourselves, whether its work, family, health, finances, ever so lightly on the tip of a finger, able to be blown away with the slightest wind.

Fragile.

So fragile and so fruitless this constant struggling to be something else.

Of the ten works, any one of Reed’s diptychs could stand alone. Fully alone in a one-woman show. And she’s clever, that Reed. You’re so fascinated by the semi-automatic pointed to a young man’s head that you hardly even see the weapon has the same embedded line as the young man’s wife-beater t-shirt.

Power. Care. Honesty. Shock.

Reed’s saying, I see it and this is what I do about it. I make it art so others can see it too. I ask the question. And if that’s not a leader, I don’t know what one is.

She speaks about the work from a technical perspective. The feel, the focus, the framing. She shares how she worked with people she knew to create authentic characters, used Polaroids for tests, and opted for the split frame. You see, when power finds the vacuum, power wants to fill it. So Reed split the frames into large format diptychs because she wanted to show racism’s fragmentation. The separation from the whole. And the black frame is impenetrable, a border that cannot be broken.

These are the reasons Reed won her spot on the highly competitive Open Exhibition Competition. I wanted to embrace the gallery management, and believe me; I rarely feel the urge to do that!

The Target Gallery's mission is to challenge perspective, and gallery operatives stated last night’s turnout was one of the best yet. Reed’s work was selected by a blind outside juror panel. The show runs to December 2, 2007.