Sandra Ramos Lorenzo

Later this year I will be curating two exhibitions of art by Cuban and Cuban-American artists for Mayer Fine Arts in Norfolk, Virginia and H&F Fine Arts in Maryland.

One of my favorite contemporary Cuban artists is Havana's intelligent and courageous Sandra Ramos Lorenzo, whose American commercial gallery debut took place at the original Fraser Gallery in Georgetown a few years ago.

Cuban artist Sandra Ramos is considered by many to be the leading Cuban visual artist of her generation, and it was a surprise in the case of that Fraser show because she was not allowed to visit the US for her opening.

Since she had previously visited the US many times, both for museum shows in other American cities and for museum art conferences (as invited speaker), and since her work is in the permanent collection of many prestigious American museums, such as The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston, it came to her as a shock when her visa to attend her Washington, DC opening was denied a few years ago.

Her work, which often delivers visceral commentaries dealing with taboo issues in Cuban society such as racism, mass migration, freedoms and liberties and the impact of Communism on the Cuban psyche, has placed Ramos at the very leading edge of a group of young Cuban artists who use their art as a narrative medium to describe, criticize and export the harsh realities of Cuban life and the world in which they live and work.

One of Ramos’ most poignant works, in the collection of MOMA in New York best exemplifies the work that has made her famous. Titled in Spanish “The Damned Circumstance of Being Surrounded by Water,” Ramos transforms her image (as a little girl) onto the shape of Cuba, her body pinned to the island by bright red Royal Palms (the national tree of Cuba) changed from its natural color to the color of the Cuban Revolution. This mixed media print sells for $5,000 USD and I am told by Ramos that she's about to run out of the edition (edition of 50 as I recall).

This is one of those key Cuban artists who should become better known once Cuba's Communist sentence ends and Cuban artwork can become easier to obtain and show in the United States.

Buy Sandra Ramos now!

States' Arts funding grows in Fiscal Year 2008

We are being told that the economic sky is falling, but the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies' latest Legislative Appropriations Annual Survey reports that appropriations to state arts agencies currently stand at $359.6 million. Between fiscal years 2007 and 2008, state arts agencies gained $9.5 million in state funds, an increase of 2.7 percent.

Note Florida's massive cuts, accounted for "lower than anticipated state revenues."

Also note that the District of Columbia puts out $9.38M, while cheapskate states like Colorado ($1.5M) appear to barely support the state's arts agencies, and even more amazing, DC puts more money towards the city's art agencies than Virginia (which did increase by almost 27% by the way).

Real cheapskate award: California at $4M.

Spending too much for its own good award: New York state is projected by some to have a 6.3 billion dollar budget deficit, yet the Empire State puts out a whooping $51.8M.

Odd state territory out in the list: tiny Puerto Rico, which has an astronomical unemployment rate and pays no federal income tax, but gets to vote in the Presidential elections - while DC residents do pay and until the 23rd Amendment couldn't even vote - puts out $28.3M!

Phoenix Art Lessons for Cities

Here's a model for cities trying to make the arts work for them:

Freedom is the key to economic growth - The City of Phoenix decided a vibrant arts district would be a nifty idea to revitalize its downtown core. Too often, cities are tempted to achieve such a goal by taxpayer subsidies, eminent domain, tax hikes, or draconian zoning requirements. Instead, Phoenix decided to try a different approach --deregulation.

The City is proposing an “arts, culture and small business overlay” that eases zoning restrictions and increases the number of activities that no longer need a special permit in a small area near downtown. New businesses such as art galleries, bookstores, and restaurants will be allowed to operate without special permission. Restrictions on alcohol sales, musical entertainment, and outdoor dining will be relaxed. The City also will make it easier to rehabilitate existing structures.

Read the article here, then someone please print it and mail to the mayors of Philadelphia, DC, Wilmington, Richmond and Annapolis.

Artists' Websites: Eric Fischl

"Bad Boy" c.1981 by Eric Fischl. Oil on Linen, 66 x 96 inches
Eric Fischl needs little introduction, and is certainly one of the most influential artists of that generation that flowered in th 1980s.

Visit his website here.

Cain

"Cain Son of Adam - From him MacCain, McCain, Ibn Cain, MakkCain, McKane, Fitzcain, Cainish, Cainson, Kanesen, Kanesson."
Charcoal on Paper. 9" x 7" c.2008
By F. Lennox Campello

5,000 frames

I've been offered a super sweet deal on 5,000 custom made frames in a spectacular diversity of sizes, mouldings, styles and colors. Each one is a custom made frame that was a mistake (too big or too small for the custom job). Over a couple of decades, these huge framing shop has accumulated several thousand mistakes and now I can get them all for around $3,500... or maybe even less (I've already talked them down from $5,000).

Some are huge, some are small, but they are all high quality mouldings.

But I have no room for 2,000 frames much less 5,000. But if I found 3-4 people, or gallerists, or artists, or cooperatives, or schools, willing to go together with me, so that we each get 1,000 frames or so, then I'd be willing to piss off my wife, and use the water tight storage shed and the garage to get this sweet deal.

Email me if you are interested and I'll arrange a viewing and discuss terms.

Secrets Are More Than Just Secrets, Blogger Tells Fans

So said Frank Warren, 43, creator of the blog PostSecret, to a crowd of nearly 800 at the University of Maryland Tuesday night.

Warren is no stranger to secrets. Roughly 1,000 find their way to his Germantown mailbox each week.

Read the article by Michelle Williams here.

BORF's baaaack!

I am quoting "Family + Friends of Daniel McG":

To mark two years since the arrest of environmental activist Daniel McGowan and the U.S. Government's escalation of state repression of environmental and animal liberation activists on December 7, 2005 - the Brian MacKenzie Infoshop, in collaboration with Washington D.C. based graffiti artist BORF; Just Seeds Visual Resistance Artists Cooperative and Family and Friends of Daniel McGowan have coordinated a new fundraising project to benefit Daniel McGowan.

A limited edition and rare five color print entitled 'Support Daniel' by notorious Washington D.C. graffiti artist BORF is being sold exclusively through Justseeds at www.justseeds.org. All proceeds will go directly towards Daniel's commissary and education fund.

Smoking Fumo

If you'd parlevous Spanish then you'd understand what a cool headline the above one is...

The biggest thing in Vince Fumo’s career may well be the one he refuses to take any credit for.

Easy to find, on page 244

In October 2002, allocations of $100 million and $7 million were placed in the pending Pennsylvania capital budget to facilitate the move of the Barnes Foundation to Philadelphia. There was no public discussion and no debate. The allocations were not very prominently displayed; you have to look them up on page 244. The budget was passed on October 30, 2002.

Read Robert Zalles' "Barnes follies (cont'd.): The Fumo connection" here.

Nice words

A huge thank you to ARTifice for the nice words and comments about this artblog in their recent Top Ten Local-ish Art Blogs list.

They've got somre really good ones on their list by the way - check it out here.

Artomatic is back for 2008

Time for all the art critics and art bloggers who think that an open, all inclusive, unjuried, everything-hangs art show is a bad thing for art to start gritting their teeth.

The NoMa (north of Massachusetts Avenue) Business Improvement District (BID) will host this year's Artomatic, the Washington, D.C. area's homegrown art extravaganza. From May 9 through June 15, 2008, up to 800 local and regional artists will exhibit their works on eight floors of the Capitol Plaza 1 building, located at 1st and M Streets, N.E., just one block from the New York Avenue Metro station.

Held regularly since 1999, Artomatic transforms an unfinished Greater DC area indoor space into an exciting and incredibly diverse arts event that is free and open to the public. In addition to displays and sales by hundreds of artists, the event features free musical, dance, and theater performances; holiday celebrations; films; educational presentations; and much more.

Anyone can become part of AOM. It's a democratic, all open show... and this is what many art critics and writers hate, because they want to see the external hand and discipline of a curator (otr team of curators) applied to such a massive endeavor.

But there's room for both. There are plenty of large curated show and precious little amount of gargantuan art shows such as AOM.

This year’s Artomatic, occupying 200,000 square feet at Capitol Plaza 1, will be the largest to date. Designed by renowned architect Shalom Baranes and owned by an affiliate of The Polinger Company, Capitol Plaza 1 offers 293,000 rentable square feet of Class A office space, with dramatic Capitol and city views from the upper floors.

“We are thrilled to partner with Artomatic in an event that will bring tens of thousands of people to NoMa,” said Elizabeth Price, president of the NoMa BID. “It is a great opportunity to showcase the transformation that is underway in NoMa and infuse it with the energy and creativity of the artistic community.”

"Artomatic has come back to its roots in D.C. with our largest event ever,” said George Koch, Chair of Artomatic. “We are excited about our partnership with the NoMa BID and their help in bringing this new space to our attention. Artomatic 2008 will have an abundance of exhibit and performance space that will be open to all — from recognized artists to undiscovered talents.”

Registration for artists and performers who wish to participate in Artomatic will be open soon. To stay up to date on the event details and schedule, visit www.artomatic.org and sign up to receive the Artomatic newsletter.

Her First Time

Her First Time, Charcoal on Paper. 3 inches x 2 inches. c.2008
By F. Lennox Campello

Celebrity sighting

One of the formerly best-kept dining secrets of Media, Pennsylvania is a terrific Indian restaurant called Shere-E-Punjab. My wife lived in India and is a good arbiter of Indian food, and when we first moved here, she actually wrote a note to the local paper about this modest but most excellent restaurant (the paper had done a Media restaurant issue and skipped the small Indian place).

The paper's food critic then visited Shere-E-Punjab and was so impressed that she wrote a whole article/review on them.

And then earlier this year the Philly Inky wrote a favorable review of it.

Shere-E-Punjab has really good, authentic Indian food at excellent prices.

And yesterday we had lunch there (excellent as usual) and as we were leaving, noticed that several of the key cast members of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," one of my favorite TV shows, came in to have lunch. This is one of the funniest, oddest and most innovative TV shows on cable.

And no... Louie wasn't one of them.

Artists' Websites

"Virgie" by Christopher Goodwin
Former DC area artist Christopher Goodwin is also the creator of the innovative Trashball! art project.

Visit his website here.

Curatorialism

So far this year I've curated/juried a couple of shows (Color Invitations at R Street Gallery in DC and currently "Five Senses" at Target Street in Alexandria, VA).

Loads more efforts to come in 2008.

Next I'm helping to select the artists for the Johns Hopkins book and two city exhibition of the Innovators Combatting Substance Abuse Program next month in Baltimore.

In April I am curating the grand opening show for the new Mayer Fine Arts gallery in Norfolk, Virginia. Titled "Common Ocean: From Havana to Norfolk," the exhibition will showcase the work of four leading contemporary Cuban women: Sandra Ramos, Aimee Garcia Marrero, Marta Maria Perez Bravo and Cirenaica Moreira.

Also in April I am jurying Derivative Composition for VSA arts.

In June I will be curating Early Look, a student show for DC's Longview Gallery.

In September I am doing the jurying for the Maryland Federation of Artists' (MFA) annual Landscape Show in Annapolis.

In November I will be curating "Aqui Estamos" (Here We Are): Contemporary Cuban Art" for Mt. Rainier, Maryland's H&F Fine Arts, showing some very well-known as well as some new and emerging Cuban artists.

And in between all that I am fitting in six art fairs, a boatload of art panels and two solo shows (more on those later).

Mellema on Moser

Kevin Mellema writes an interesting review of the current Lida Moser show at Fraser Gallery.

Moser's work often depicts motion and displays an unusually strong depth of field. Some of her best works include foreground objects that go hopelessly out of focus yet retain all the information we really need. A photo of two Tennessee girls standing beside the road includes the interior car door and window frame. Another shot out the front window of a bus shows a motion blurred man crossing the street before the bus. Both photos would be greatly diminished were they shot in a more typical fashion.

Likely to her detriment, Moser never shot fashion work, but was asked to shoot a fashion portfolio for a young head strong aspiring model named Judy. Moser agreed, as long as she could shoot it on a truck loading dock. During the shoot the two ladies encountered a band of irrepressible, and equally headstrong boys. Not quite being able to shake them off, Moser used them to her advantage and made a wonderful series of shots with Judy posing while the boys mocked her poses. No doubt it wasn't exactly what Judy had in mind, but since Moser was doing the work as a favor she didn't have much choice but to go along with it. Moser recalls that images from the series sold to several magazines, and Judy went on to model ... then setting her sights on marrying a millionaire, did that as well.

Read it here.

Henry Miller

Henry Miller, charcoal on paper. 2 inches by 2 inches. c. 2008
by F. Lennox Campello

Lotta Art

Details here.

MFA Shows at Tyler

Temple University’s Tyler School of Art has a series of solo and two-person Masters of Fine Arts thesis exhibitions, occurring weekly from March 19 to May 24, 2008.

The series includes students from all Tyler departments and an array of media: painting, sculpture, glass, printmaking, metals, graphic design, fibers, photography, ceramics, and more. A listing of exhibitions is located here.

Texas MADE: Spotlight on 10 Texas Based Emerging Artists

ArtWhino, Alexandria's massive art gallery will launch Texas MADE: Spotlight on 10 Texas Based Emerging Artists, on March 21st, 2008 from 6 to 12p.m. The show runs until - April 4th, 2008. Music by DJ SMK.

Texas Made is "a sampling of the prominent, graffiti-based contemporary Texan art culture. For the most part, the artists featured in Texas Made all have graffiti and street art backgrounds and have now broadened their scope to include works on canvas. Keeping in the vein of graffiti, these artists employ much of the same media and techniques one might expect to find outdoors, such as spray paint with stencils."