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Images of Children at Widener University
"A Photographic Treasury: Images of Children by Master Photographers from the Reader's Digest Collection," currently at Widener University Art Gallery in Chester, PA (through March 1, 2008), is not only a very focused exhibition on the thematic subject of the title, but also an exhibition that really merits the use of the word "Master Photographers" in its title.
Disclaimer: My wife teaches at Widener, and I often eat at the school cafeteria, which makes really good cookies and has a top notch salad bar. I also own a Widener coffee mug.
Curated by Nancy Miller Batty, this 105-work survey includes many classic and familiar vintage photographs of children by major American, Latin American and European photographers from the late 19th century to the present.
The works are arranged thematically to present views about childhood that have existed over the last century or so. It begins with a romantic view of childhood, and then progresses to the relationships between children and adults.
This is definitely a Who's Who in world photography, and there are pre-WWI early works by Edward Sheriff Curtis, Alfred Stieglitz, Heinrich Kuehn and others. Post WWI photographers are also full of all the major names, such as Andre Kertesz, Imogen Cunningham, Henri Carrier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, Aaron Siskind, Weegee, Paul Strand and many others.
The post WWI and contemporaries are equally well-represented by the likes of Sally Mann, Adam Fuss, Ilse Bing, Gary Winograd, Irving Penn, Diane Arbus, Nicholas Nixon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Carry Mae Weems, Sebastian Salgado and many others.
Adam Fuss' blank untitled photogram of a child in profile is one of the few failures in an otherwise show full of jewels in every frame. The minimalist white photogram, comes across like a collegiate art school assignment when surrounded by the works of the other masters; it just fails visually from the first glance and through the second and third opportunity for redemption.
Across from it is one of the reasons for its failure: the gorgeous "Pamela" (Plate 23) from Joel Meyerowitz's odd and highly successful series on redheads. The subject is radiant and full of color, smiles and the essence of happy childhood - it casts a bright and bold set of sunrays all over the room, essentially eclipsing Fuss' blank experiment. 
It's tough to pick the brightest diamond when you are surrounded by the best photographic gems of the last 125 years, but some works stood out even among giants.
One such piece was Frederick Sommer's "Livia," a 1948 sensitive treatment of a very pretty child, where the girl's luminous blue eyes are like magnets not only to the camera but also to us. It delivers the sort of hypnotic quality that recent digitally enhanced shots sometimes offer.
I also like Robert Mapplethorpe's "Bruno Bischofberger's Daughter," a cousin photograph to Sommer's earlier work and a work that shows the occasional pornographer's talent as a portraitist of all ranges and types.
I was less interested in Tina Barney's claustrophobic "Marina's Room." Maybe there is some compositional success in delivering a photograph with fear of empty space.
But neither scale (48 x 40 inches), nor its horror vaccuii saves this piece from being a little puerile.
Wanna go to a Baltimore opening tomorrow?
Eureka: Happy Accidents & Exquisite Failures; a group exhibition curated by Suzannah Gerber at Load of Fun gallery in Baltimore. Featuring works by the following artists:
Liz Albertson, Julia Arredondo, Jordan Faye Block, Tom Brown, Ryan Emge, Rachel Faller, Andrew Farkas, Karly Hansen, J. Gavin Heck, Michelle Herman, Juliet Hinely, Katherine Mann, Greg McLemore, Katherine Nammacher, Michael Northrup, Christine Ricks, Reed Sayre, Kayla Shea, Brady Starr, Daniel Stuelpnagel, Vanessa Viruet, Jessica Wang, Todd Welsh, Monica Wuedel-Lubinski and more.
Call for DC "Aerosol" Muralists
Deadline: Friday, March 21, 2008 at 7:00pm
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) in collaboration with the Executive Office of the Mayor (EOM), and DC Department of Public Works (DPW) seeks "artists, artist teams and youth organizations to design, create and install aerosol murals or aerosol inspired murals in identified locations throughout the District of Columbia for a new project entitled Murals DC."
More...
"Murals DC has been created to replace illegal graffiti with artistic works, to revitalize sites within the community and to teach young people the art of aerosol painting. The goal of this initiative is to positively engage the District's youth by teaching proper art techniques, providing supplies, and a legal means to practice and perform their skill in a way that promotes respect for public and private property and community awareness. Site selection is based on areas of the District with high incidence of illegal graffiti as identified by the DPW, Mayor's Office of Community Relations and Services (MOCRS) and other agencies. Each mural will reflect character, culture and history of the neighborhood."Download an application here. For further questions email Deirdre Ehlen at Deirdre.Ehlen@dc.gov or call 202-724-5613.
Art Sculpture Walk throughout Downtown Wilmington, NC
Sculptor Carl Billingsley is having two simultaneous exhibitions for his work in the Wilmington, NC area -- "Sculpture: Concept to Creation" at the Art Gallery, Cultural Arts Building, UNCW and also “The Carl Billingsley Exhibition” Pedestrian Art Program in downtown Wilmington public spaces.
For the latter, on Saturday, February, 23rd, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM, the artist is leading a "Pedestrian Art Sculpture Walk" throughout Downtown Wilmington. During this event you can meet and talk to the artist about his large scale sculptures which are on exhibit throughout downtown Wilmington from January – July 2008. There will also be a trolley available to travel between the sculptures.
There's also an opening reception for "Sculpture: Concept to Creation"
an exhibition of drawings, models, and maquettes for large scale sculptures by Carl Billingsley at the Art Gallery, Cultural Arts Building, UNCW on Friday, February 22nd, 6:00 - 8:00 PM.
This is in North Carolina NOT Delaware!
Broken Art
Kriston over at the WCP polices the artDC cancellation with some words from a couple of DC dealers.
More later on just how to make an international art fair work in DC and start setting the new standard for art fairs of the future, to bring 100,000 not 10,000 visitors to the fair; and the District is the perfect setting for it!
Bailey has a problem
Bailey takes issue with this post at the SI's Eyelevel blog; read his issue here.
Hess on Sex
The WCP's Amanda Hess has a fascinating review and discussion of the Sex Workers’ Art Show, a "traveling pastiche of cabaret, spoken word, and performance art put on by prostitutes, porn stars, burlesque dancers, and drag queens."
At the Sex Workers’ Art Show, exploitation is the real fun, and I’ve snagged the best spot in the house. The sold-out crowd has pushed me flush against the stage, setting my sightline precisely at crotch level. Over the course of the night, I come face to face with Dirty Martini’s patriotic vagina; burlesque comedienne The World Famous Bob’s pink-tasseled and rhinestone-decalled vagina; ex-stripper Erin Markey’s American Apparel gold lamé-pantied vagina; and Krylon Superstar’s self-described “duct-taped, dick-back, transsexual queen” package.Read the review here.
artDC cancelled
Just got the email that artDC, the District's only international art fair, has cancelled for 2008; email said:
artDC has made the tough decision to cancel its 2008 show due to uncertainty in the current economic climate. Although dozens of galleries had signed on to attend, this decision has been made in the best interests of exhibitors.
HooGrrl!!!!
WOW! Well deserved congrats to HooGrrl who was recently picked as the primo blogger in Washington, DC by DC Modern Luxury Magazine.
You Won't Believe Your Eyes
The 2008 Corcoran Print Portfolio Show, You Won't Believe Your Eyes: The 23rd Annual Printmaking Portfolio opens on Friday, February 15, 2008, 7-9 pm at Civilian Arts Projects in DC.
Civilian has partnered with the Corcoran College of Art & Design's Print Department to present the works of 31 artists who have made prints for the 2008 Corcoran Print Portfolio under the theme You Won't Believe Your Eyes.
You Won't Believe Your Eyes features lithographs, etchings, screen-prints, letterpress, papermaking, relief and digital prints by: Aimee Anthony, Meaghan Busch, Patricia Correa, Dane Austin Criner, Tracey Cullen, Georgia Deal, Bridget Dwyer, Elizabeth Grusin-Howe, Melissa P. Hackmann, Bethany Hansen, Carolyn Hartmann, Hedieh Ilchi, Ema Ishii, Carolee Jakes, Elizabeth Klimek, Eric Klug, Andrew, Kozlowski, Pepa Leon, Kate Libcke, Kerry McAleer-Keeler, Pierrette Montone, Manuel Navarrete, William A. Newman, Dennis O'Neil with Alexander Djikia, Dan Payn, Tracy Pilzer, Lynn Sures, Paula Wachsstock, Ann-Cathrine Wasmuth, Randolph Williams, and Amy Zaiss.
Artist Studio Spaces Available at Glen Echo Park, Maryland
Deadline: March 28, 2008
The Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture, Inc. is seeking visual artists and non-profit visual arts organizations to join the Park’s Resident Artists and to lease studio space in the refurbished Chautauqua Tower. Two studios will be available for a 1-3 year lease starting on June 1, 2008. For further details about Glen Echo Park, its resident artists, and to download the Request for Proposals, please visit www.glenechopark.org. Responses to the Request for Proposals are due on March 28, 2008.
"Frida and Me - Common Threads," at Projects Gallery
A quick minute video walkthrough of the exhibition that I reviewed here.
Carlos Luna
Carlos Luna: El Gran Mambo opened at DC's beautiful American University's Katzen Arts Center and runs through Monday, March 17, 2008.
Luna is a Cuban-American artist who is "a storyteller and social chronicler, merging themes of fables and mysticism, eroticism and prejudice, and religiosity and anthropology, all of which are organized, disbanded, interwoven, and reorganized in the iconographic discourse he creates."
This Saturday, Feb. 16, AU Museum curator Jack Rasmussen will lead a conversation with artist Carlos Luna about his work and his exhibition beginning at 5 pm. The conversation is free and open to the public.
New Alexandria, Virginia gallery
New to me anyway, but open since June of last year is DelRay's Blueberry Gallery (gallery website coming soon I am told) in Alexandria, VA.
The gallery is having a closing reception for their current exhibit of works by Nihal Kececi on Feb. 29 from 5:30-7:30PM.
The Art League's Patrons Show
If you were crazy enough to be hanging around Old Town Alexandria about 4 AM on a cold morning last month you would have noticed people forming a long line in the brutal cold outside the Torpedo Factory. They were waiting for a chance to get original art for their collections – or perhaps some brave souls starting to collect art.
"A line for art?" you must be asking, "who is crazy enough to freeze lining up at Oh-dark-thirty just to buy artwork?"
Hundreds.
They were lining up for one of the great art deals of the year: the Annual Patrons' Show. It's very simple: artists donate original artwork to the Art League, who inspects it, selects it and often frames it. It is quality stuff, ranging from huge abstracts to delicate pencil drawings. The Art League represents nearly 1,800 artists in the area, so there's plenty of possible sources of art donated by generous artists.
It is one of the largest art events in the country, with around 600 original works of art finding a new home in one day.
And on Sunday, February 17 at 5PM, people who have a ticket begin gathering into the main floor of the Factory and they bring chairs, tables, food and loads of booze (this is like an art pic nic) as it will be a long, loud, fun, cheery and boozy evening as the tickets are drawn at random; and as they are called, ticket-holders select a piece of art from the work on display on the walls.
Everyone with a ticket is guaranteed a work of art. The tickets cost $175 each - an amazing deal once you see the work that you can get.
The first ticket called gets the first choice and so on - you get to pick the best piece (to you) from around 600 works of art). You better pick one quickly, or the crowds begin to shout and whistle and demand a choice be made.
It is without a doubt, the most sought after art ticket in town, and often incredible acquisitions are made... and I hear that there are some tickets left!
Call the Art League at 703/683-1780.
Curatorial Fellowship in Philly
Deadline: March 28, 2008
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has announced the two-year (first year renewable) Dorothy J. del Bueno Curatorial Fellowship in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, beginning on July 1, 2008.
An M.A in art history or related field is required; the Fellow should have demonstrated a commitment to scholarship in art history and an ability to work collaboratively. The fellowship provides firsthand experience with curatorial work in the graphic arts. Fellows participate in all activities of a large, active curatorial department with a collection of over 160,000 works of art on paper: exhibition and loan preparation; object research and cataloguing; study room supervision and daily administrative tasks. Fellows have the opportunity to organize an exhibition from the permanent collection during the second year of the fellowship. Travel stipend and benefits.
Fellowship for Philly Artists
Deadline March 8, 2008
The Center for Emerging Visual Artists and New Courtland Elder Services (NCES) are offering Philadelphia area artists the opportunity to participate in a new community-based fellowship. Through the New Courtland Artist Fellowship, eight artists will be selected to bring innovative/engaging art-making to residents of NCES.
Artists are asked to develop an intergenerational project that brings NCES residents together with school age children/teens to create an exciting artistic project. Work created during the fellowship will be exhibited with the work of the artists in a large, well publicized exhibition. For more details contact CFEVA at 215 546-7775 x11 or email Genevieve@cfeva.org.
