Old dictators never must die...

The Castro brothers with Sadam Hussein
Since they don't fade away either...

Cover Me

Mo Ringey was sick and tired of the dwindling arts coverage by her local Amherst, Massachusetts newspapers; so she decided to do something about besides complaining:

At first glance, Mo Ringey seems an unlikely figure to rally the Pioneer Valley arts community. She is tiny, just over 100 pounds, and has a chronic condition - five herniated discs in her neck - that forces her to hang in a traction machine for an hour a day.

But thanks to a knack for networking, Ringey finds herself the spokesperson for a group of artists unhappy with how much - or little - local newspapers write about the arts. Their frustrations have been channeled into "Cover Me," an exhibition Ringey has curated at the Hampden Gallery at the University of Massachusetts.

Read the whole story here. I think we need a Mo Ringley in most major American cities, most desperately DC.

Things that make you go ????

Is the art sky falling?

So far the only shift dealers are reporting is in the middle market. “In the past six months, clients are no longer willing to take a chance on younger artists priced at $15,000 to $20,000,” said David Maupin of the Lehmann Maupin gallery with both Chelsea and Lower East Side premises. He reported a 50% drop in sales in that category over the past six months with buyers focusing instead on higher priced works by established artists like Tracey Emin who have had museum exhibitions. “I have far more people I can call for a $75,000 to $100,000 work than the lower-priced artists,” said Mr Maupin.

Read the Art Newspaper article here.

Virtual Gallery = Real Art Party

Virtual art resource Raandesk Gallery of Art returns to Washington, DC with "Emergence 2," a two-day art party and temporary exhibition of contemporary artworks on February 21 and 22, 2008.

"Emergence 2" will feature a variety of painting, drawings, photography and art furniture by six emerging artists from the Raandesk collection in a suite at The Flats at Union Row on 14th Street, NW in Washington, DC. Both art party evenings are free and open to the public and all artwork on view will be available for purchase.

New York City-based Raandesk Gallery has established a reputation for expanding the notion of art collecting through unique art partnerships and events like "Emergence 2."

Raandesk-hosted exhibitions and events offer new collectors an opportunity to view and purchase contemporary artwork in workplaces, restaurants and lounges, in collectors' homes and in other commercial spaces for a more accessible settings. "Emergence 2" is the second such event in Washington, DC, the follow up to a similar successful event last fall.

WHEN: Thursday, February 21, 6:00-9:00PM and Friday, February 22, 6:00 – 8:00PM

WHERE: The Flats at Union Row
2125 14th St, NW, Suite 417,Washington, DC (U St metro)

Other "Emergence 2" participating artists / media include:

- Washington, DC-based Jeff Huntington, "whose oil paintings contain intensely vivid images of orchids and still life arrangements depicted with a hint of surrealism and oddity, completely removed from discernible context."

- Jennie Barrese, "a graphic artist and photographer, creates colorful abstract digital images to magnify subtle forms and lines, creating perspectives with appeal to the design-oriented collector."

- Photorealist oil painter Jason Bryant "captures cinematic visions and snapshots of life through large-scale cropped portraits of celebrity faces, clothing and movie stills where subjects are depersonalized to spotlight dramatic moments in everyday life."

- Matt Kern's work "uses an old-school Polaroid camera to create collage assemblages with many layers of images, text, drawings and other elements embedded in wax, resulting in a richly textured surface that reveals more with each inspection."

- Abstract artist Jeff Leonard "uses the unpredictable nature of liquid resin to create beautiful and rich paintings on wood. Lush pools of color and light form in organic shapes on the surfaces, the most interesting forms are in the smallest detail."

- Raandesk Gallery's newest artist, Anne Unierzyski "handcrafts highly sculptural functional art / furniture pieces with unique geometric forms with a bit of color with natural wood finishes for an interesting, contemporary look."

Artists' Websites: Freya Grand

"Connemara." Oil on canvas, 48x60, c.2007 by Freya Grand

Freya Grand is a DC-based artist working out of her Dupont Circle area studio. One of her pieces was recently selected by Kathryn Wat, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC for the upcoming WPA Gala Art Auction.

Visit Freya Grand's website here.

Washington Times Art Critic gone sick

Update: The below news tip was false. I am told that Shaw-Eagle was very sick and that someone is covering for her, but that she has not been fired. Before I published the note below, I emailed the Times to confirm, but my email was ignored.

I learned today that Joanna Shaw-Eagle, who has been the chief art critic for the Washington Times for many years, and who has been writing about art since before I was born, was let go today from the Washington Times.

This sounds like one hell of an art party

This is the event that Dr. Claudia Rousseau was talking about earlier today on the Kojo Nnamdi show.

Heineman Myers Contemporary Art in Bethesda is doing an all nighter on February 23 and 24 with an "Inside Outside All Night Art Party from 10pm to 10am."

Combine good art, food, music, booze and aural readings and you gotta be there!

For starters they are having graffiti artist Tim Conlon and crew paint on a 16 ft x 7ft surface during the party outside in the courtyard. Conlon’s work has been recently installed in two local DC art spaces: The National Portrait Gallery's “Hip Hop” and at the Arlington Arts Center's “Collectors Select.”

Mike Weber and Philippa Hughes jumping in front of Tim Conlon’s work at the National Portrait Gallery
Inside the gallery see the light installations, photography and videos of Miami-based Cuban-American artist Ivan Toth DePena in his current solo show “Synthesis,” which closes February 24th.

There's more!

Chill to groovy tunes of a guest DJ; there will be complimentary Aura readings by Hyun Martin of Be You Bi Yu Spa; and for all you alkies, personalized beverages in the evening, and as far as chow, there will be personalized omelettes in the morning from 6-10am.

Also See the latest from SCION, and meet the “Little Deviants.”

You gotta RSVP to info@heinemanmyers.com by February 20th. That means that you have to tell them ahead of time that you are coming so that they can have enough booze and food at hand...

Sounds like a load of artsy fun... maybe I'll see ya there.

Other art fairs calling it quits

Just a day after Art Cologne announced that it was doing away with its new sister fair on the Spanish island of Majorca, DC Duesseldorf Contemporary, which premiered last April, announced that it too was closing its doors, reports Blooberg.

The fairs' organizers cited low sales... read the article here.

In case you missed it...

You can hear the Kojo Nnamdi radio show that aired earlier today here.

Good discussion about the arts.

For the artist named Helen who called the show and took me to task for not putting more attention on individual artists' websites... email me yours and you'll be the first in my promise to increase my coverage of individual artists.

On the air today

I'll be on the Kojo Nnamdi Show this afternoon discussing the Greater Washington area visual arts issues and artists and art stories as I usually do several times a year.

Tune in to WAMU 88.5 FM around noon.

If you have any questions or art issues, you can call Kojo during the show at (800) 433-8850 or you can email him questions to kojo@wamu.org.

Gray area

Seattle's Jen Graves has a fascinating story on what happens when artists' works and ideas begin to look just a little too mcuh like other artists' earlier works and ideas.

Read the story about "Gray Area - Why Does Some Work by Lead Pencil Studio Look So Much Like Work by Other Artists?"

Then read this and then read this and tell me if "remarkable confluence" is not the category for all of these look-a-like works.

Artist "A" circa 1999-2000


Artist "B" circa 2005-2006

Frida Kahlo in Philly

Below is a short video walk through the massive Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I took it during the press preview last week - the show opens on Feb. 20th.

I will review it here later this week... but it is definitely worth the drive to Philly to see upclose some of the most famous Kahlo paintings in the world (many seen for the first time in the US) as well as loads of intimate photographs about her.

The video is set to the amazing music of Lila Downs.

McNatt on African American Portraits

The Baltimore Sun's chief art critic Glenn McNatt reviews Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits, the National Portrait Gallery's monumental survey of nearly 100 photographic portraits of black leaders past and present.

McNatt was also present at the Deborah Willis Salon Talk at Millennium Arts Salon in DC on February 2nd. which features ongoing exhibit of photos by Denee Barr, Barbara Blanco, Adrienne Mills, Michael Platt, Michael Parker, Henry Ferrand, and Jonathan French through February 28th.

Good to see the Sun's art critic popping into DC once in a while.

Art Collectors Talk

Pencil this in - On Saturday, March 8th, 4:30 – 5:30 pm over at the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA, there's a gallery talk featuring the curators of their current exhibition, "Collectors Select" — consisting of six separate themed galleries, each designed by a notable local collector. The show continues to be on view through Saturday, March 29th.

Join them on Saturday, March 8th, from 4:30 to 5:30 pm, for a lively discussion about collecting contemporary art and have a glass of wine and tour the exhibition space with Henry L. Thaggert, Heather and Tony Podesta, Daniel Levinas, Philippa Hughes, and Philip Barlow. Hear firsthand about their favorite artworks, their thoughts on the local arts scene, and the process of assembling their own shows at the AAC.

You can see many images of the exhibition here.


Then stick around for another event immediately following the talk — from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in the Jenkins Community Gallery. The collaborative international arts organization, Take Me to the River, will have a free reception at which their limited edition print portfolio will be on view and available for sale. The portfolio features dynamic 11” X 14” prints by 18 different artists — some regional, some international. Featured local artists include David Carlson, Y. David Chung, Billy Colbert, Richard Dana, Judy Jashinsky, Maggie Michael, and Randall Packer.

Naked Roman

Did you know that some of the centurions guarding DC's Union Station are nekkid beneath their shields?

The story starts in 1907.

Apparently when the sculptor, Augustus Saint Gaudens -- who was a pretty popular public art and monument sculptor at the turn of the century -- received the commission for the centurions, he asked if he was to make the Roman soldiers historically accurate.

He was told yes.

When Saint Gaudens delivered the models for the sculptures, Washingtonians on the arts panel were a little shocked to discover that some of the centurion maquettes were fully nude in uncircumsized splendor for all to see.

And so a hundred years ago Saint Gaudens was told to cover them up. In the arguments that I am sure followed, the solution came in the form of shields (which to me look historically inaccurate by the way), which would cover the Italians' willies. They remain naked beneath them.

At the time it was built in 1908, Union Station covered more ground than any other building in the United States and was the largest train station in the world. The building itself is patterned after the Baths of Diocletian in Rome.

Interesting that a century later, we still probably can't put up a work of public art in Washington, DC showing a man's penis.

Reuben Breslar at the Athenaeum

I'm hearing good things about the current exhibition at Alexandria's Athenaeum Gallery featuring the paintings, collages and an installation by Reuben Breslar. The show runs through March 16, 2008.

There's also an upcoming gallery talk that they are having on Saturday, February 23 at 4:30PM followed by some good food and wines. A special feature of the talk is the participation of two important Washington arts presences: Mark Cameron Boyd and Dorothea Dietrich - both of whom made a strong impression on Reuben when he was at the Corcoran.

Closer

I am hearing and reading good things about "Closer" at Gallery Neptune in Bethesda, MD.

Read about it here.

Chalk4Peace

By Shauna Lee Lange

Many in the Washington DC arts community may know Dr. John Aaron, a prior award winning Director and Curator for the Museum of Modern Arf in Arlington, VA.

John's gone on out to California and is now busily spearheading a global non-profit organization called CHALK4PEACE, recently featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy (9/14/06). Since 2006, John's efforts have contributed to over 12 - 14 football fields worth of original, intergenerational, and inspirational temporary art for the sake of peace.

This year, Shauna Lee Lange Arts Advisory is honored to announce we will be working in conjunction with Dr. Aaron and Ms. Marielle Mariano of Woodlawn Elementary School to promote a concentrated Washington DC effort. Our goal is to help expand the work being conducted by CHALK4PEACE. There is simply no better time (prior to elections) and no better location (the Nation's Capital) to educate, communicate, participate, and enjoy this great activity.

Shauna Lee Lange Arts Advisory is seeking collaborative partnerships (at no cost) from metropolitan DC area arts organizations, art galleries, artists, and public/non-profit spaces. If you or your organization can offer a physical forum for chalk activities, we need to hear from you. CHALK4PEACE is an event to be held September 19 - 21, 2008 and is best described from the organization's website text (copied in its entirety below).

More information about CHALK4PEACE is at www.chalk4peace.org or www.chalk4peace.blogspot.com. Information about Dr. Aaron can be found at www.modernarf.smugmug.com and he can be reached at chalk4peace@gmail.com. Shauna Lee Lange Arts Advisory is at www.shaunaleelange.com or shaunaleelange@gmail.com.

From its beginnings in 2003 in Arlington, VA, as a Sunday sidewalk chalk project for children to its recognition by the Arlington Arts Commission, the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities, the DC Mayor's Office, the Humanities Project of Arlington and Whole Foods Markets, CHALK4PEACE has grown through the efforts of hundreds of events organizers, teachers, parents, community outreach coordinators, libraries, arts centers and other peace minded individuals and organizations.

The campaign to make CHALK4PEACE worldwide began on July 16, 2005, the day after the first CHALK4PEACE event at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, DC. John Aaron, the Global Project Founder of CHALK4PEACE and chalk events coordinator, began a print and email campaign, sending out more than 5,000 personalized emails and 6,000 full color brochures about CHALK4PEACE for 2005-6. You may have received one or two along the way...

The global campaign spread coast to coast across the United States, to Cape Town, South Africa and in places in Europe. Last year, more than one hundred individually organized sites with authorized clearances chalked out their messages and visions for a more peaceful planet.

CHALK4PEACE is not encouraged as an anti-war demonstration; rather, it is a creative presentation for young artists of all ages utilizing the theme of Peace.

This year, we expect CHALK4PEACE to grow even larger than last year, as it is now happening on four continents and most of the sites from last year have enlisted others to join in and/or create their own sites. Mr. Aaron is a long time artist, sculptor, painter, educator and events coordinator who is internationally recognized for his contributions to his artforms and for creating the atmosphere conducive to make CHALK4PEACE a global event.

On the air on Monday

On Monday, February 18, 2008 I'll be on the Kojo Nnamdi Show discussing the Greater Washington area visual arts and artists and art stories as I usually do several times a year.

Tune in to WAMU 88.5 FM around noon.

If you have any questions or art issues, you can call Kojo during the show at (800) 433-8850 or you can email him questions to kojo@wamu.org.

After the show I will post here all the websites and information that we discuss on the air.

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.

Marina's Room by Tina Barney

Carrie Mae Weems' untitled triptych depicting a tense mother-daughter-homework scene, whether posed or true, is powerful as a narrative piece can be - full of tension and questions. On the polar opposite of this internal spectrum is Sally Mann's "Virginia Asleep," from 1988.

On the way out I was dragged back in by Seydou Keita "Untitled (Man with Baby)" from 1949, in which a giant of a man tenderly holds a baby. The man sits massive and Earth-like like a male African version of Michelangelo's Pieta.

His enormous circumference dwarfs the world and threatens to overfill the camera's lenses. It is a photograph heavy with fatherhood, happiness and presence.

Overall this is a very strong show and definitely worth a stop for anyone traveling through the I-95 corridor, as Widener is just a couple of minutes off exit 6 on I-95.