Artists' Talk: DC

Artists Novie Trump and Elizabeth Burger will discuss influences that led to their works currently on exhibit in "Immersed In The Natural World" at the Healing Arts Gallery at Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts.

The discussion will occur Friday, June 6, from 5:30 - 8:00pm at 1632 U Street N.W., Washington, DC 20009. All are welcome to attend. This exhibit is up through June 27, 2008.

PMA Director dies

Anne d'Harnoncourt, 64, the formidable, high-spirited personification of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and an indefatigable advocate for the arts as central to the city's identity, died late Sunday night.

Read the news report here.

AOM and AU

A big thank you to all of you who came by yesterday to my question-answering session at Artomatic... even after two hours, when the band kicked me offstage, people were asking questions!

Afterwards I went to the multiple openings at American University's gorgeous Katzen Arts Center, easily one of the most beautiful art spaces in the Mid Atlantic. There are some really interesting shows at the Katzen, none more bipolarly attractive than Joe Shannon and Noche Crist sharing the third floor of the Katzen.

Review coming on the Shannon-Crist coming together... let's just say that after seeing how those two most unlikely of art partners coupled together, I am now a believer that anything can happen... even a Obama-Clinton ticket!

Talk to me

Today, starting at 4PM at the Cabaret Stage in Artomatic, I will be having a discussion with artists about anything that you want to talk about: how to get affordable framing, how to get a review, how to price your art, how to expand your resume, the who's and what's of DC and Philly art galleries, website design, press, museums, copyright, contracts, artists' success stories and how they did it... anything and everything that you want to ask or talk about. Just ask questions... no fluff.

Time permitting, afterwards I will also be available to personally criticize and give you feedback on your work (bring thick skin). This is all free and open to anyone,not just AOM artists.

A lot of panels spend a lot of time talking and then at the end people have tons of questions, so this time we will start with questions and move on.

Remember, my stuff will take place at the Artomatic Cabaret Stage, 1st Floor instead of the Education Room. AOM is doing this in order to accommodate more people, so come early; it starts at 4PM.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: July 1, 2008

Virginia's Arlington Arts Center seeks contemporary fine artists working in all media for solo exhibitions in their 2009 season. Ten to fifteen artists will be chosen to show in our seven separate galleries — or on our grounds, in the case of outdoor sculpture.

Jurors include: Anne Ellegood, Curator for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and Philip Barlow, the tall and notable Washington, D.C., art collector.

Deadline for applications is July 1st; notifications will go out no later than September 30th, 2008. For more information and a prospectus, visit their website at www.arlingtonartscenter.org. Or send a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to:

Arlington Arts Center
3550 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22201

Modern Love

Opening on June 27 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Modern Love celebrates "the stellar group of contemporary works of art donated to NMWA by prominent Washington-based collectors Heather and Tony Podesta."

The exhibition features more than 50 works by internationally-renowned artists such as Cathy de Monchaux, Candida Höfer, Elizabeth Turk, and Jane and Louise Wilson as well as others.

Early Look Peek

Here's another early peek at another student whose work I've selected for the "Early Look" student exhibition at the Long View Gallery in DC next month.

Her name is Catherine Badger and she's a graduating senior at Moore College of Art & Design in Philly.

Psychedelic Sausage Factory, mixed media on Yupo by Catherine Badger
The show opens at Long View Gallery DC on June 7 with an opening reception from 5-8PM. Come and meet the undergrads and recent BFA grads and me...

A question for AOMers

See this and then respond.

Congrats!

To DC area artist and art critic John Blee, whose paintings open in a solo show in Paris, France's Jane Roberts Fine Arts on June 11, 2008. The show runs through 11 July 2008.

Gallery owner arrested

An East Hampton art gallery owner was led away in handcuffs Saturday after she refused to stop serving drinks at an opening bash for a celebrity photo exhibit.

Read the story here.

Opportunity for Artists and Curators

The Arts Center of the Capital Region has a call for curatorial proposals and artists’s slides. Often there are specific thematic exhibitions called for in addition to an open call. The open call is used to support a slide registry for future curators, possible residency projects and one-person exhibitions for regional artists in the President’s Gallery. Artwork is called for in any and all media including installation and video. Selections are made by a committee.

Details here.

Artomatic 2008

The real reason that most art critics hate Artomatic is that they get visual overload very quickly. After all, how does a writer cover an arts extravaganza of the size of Artomatic once the eyes and mind become numb after the 200th artist, or the 400th or the 600th?

Artomatic has returned to the Greater Washington, DC region. It opened in May and runs through mid June.

By freeling accepting anywhere from 600 - 1,000 painters, sculptors, printmakers, actors, musicians and bartenders and then finding an empty building and filling it with artwork, stages, theatres, parties, lectures and controversy, the AOM model has managed to incite the dislike of most art critics and the love and passion of thousands of artists and art lovers.

They also create the Greater Washington DC’s uber arts event of the year – it happens irregularly every couple of years or so. About 40,000 people will visit the event.

As an art critic, I once started a review of a past AOM by complaining how much my feet hurt after my 5th or 6th visit to the show, in what at the time was a futile attempt to gather as much visual information as possible in order to write a fair review of the artwork and artists.

No one can do that.

Over the years that I have visited past Artomatics (and I have seen them all) I have discovered that it is impossible to see everything and to be fair about anyone; the sheer size and evolving nature of the show itself makes sure of the impossibility of this task. In fact, I think that I may have missed a whole floor so far.

We know that art critics tend to savage Artomatic; they demand a curatorial hand; they want order; they want “bad” art out and only “high art” in; and year after year, they all miss the point!

AOM is not just about the artwork, it is about the artistic energy that it radiates, it is about community, it is about a free for all, it is about controversy, it is above all, about art of all ranges and tastes and quality.

The current AOM is at a gorgeous location at the Capitol Plaza I building at 1200 First Street, NE in DC. There are seven, maybe eight, floors of artwork all the way up to the 11th floor, in many mini galleries with spectacular views of the city. The main impression at this year's AOM: space.

Plenty of space yields a really decent opportunity to display your work well, and one interesting maturity factor in this AOM is how well many artists are displaying their work. On the other side, all the space also yields a significant number of really bad "installations" with all sorts of furniture and stuff.

Each AOM has produced amazing artistic discoveries for art lovers, art collectors and dealers. People like Tim Tate, Frank Warren, Kathryn Cornelius, the Dumbacher Brothers, etc., all showed at AOM; some still do.

And so part of the fun is “discovering” who will be the 2008 AOM emerging art star. In that spirit I will ignore all the well-known names who are exhibiting this year at AOM and try to find artists whose work is new or little known to me. In this review I will create a sort of short list based on two trips; on my third trip I will finalize my initial picks for emerging art stardom.

On the 4th floor I quite liked the work of Amanda Engels, who is showing a series of portraits that work well in capturing a sense of time and presence about the subject. I also liked Genna Gurvich’s painterly and almost surreal work, especially her innovative and intelligent take on the often visited Campbell’s soup can. My key artist on that floor is Cristina Montejo, whose quirky and sexy drawings stand to draw attention from collectors. Keep an eye on Montejo, and buy some of this artwork now.


On the 5th floor I liked the severe abstract paintings of Matthew Langley and on the 6th floor Holly Burns’ pen and ink drawings on napkins are a treasure trove for beginning art collectors. They are fresh and young but also superbly done and I bet that we’ll hear about this artist again and again; she seems perfect for Curator's Office in DC.

I also like Michelle Chin’s over simplified bug cut-outs and Nancy Donnelly’s glass dresses. The latter are elegant, simple pieces that should attract a gallerist or two to them.

Shannon McCarty’s inventive set of burned iron marks reveal the surprising achievement of minimalism when employed smartly. Also minimalist are the hi tech (looking) works by Paul So. Also visit Keith Thomas on that floor.

The 7th floor is a treasure trove of good artists amongst the masses. Nana Bagdavadze is somewhat channeling Amy Lin to the third dimension as she takes the small circle to an illusion of three-D. Teague Clare’s small but very cool pieces are also quite good as are Juan del Alamo photographic test strips. Both these artists also know how important presentation is and have done well in maximizing their space while giving it a clean look. Also visit Damien Gill’s elegant digital works.

I know Rania Hassan’s works, but in this AOM she re-invents herself in a very elegant installation that goes from 2D to 3D right before our eyes. It is sophisticated and elegant, and a clear indication of the level of maturity that AOM has achieved over the years.

Dale Hunt’s monster art is also fresh and reflects a clear AOM trend for young, hip, simple art that is deceptively complex beneath the first visual impression. There is a lot of this "young art" in AOM this year, as well as a lot of tattoo art. Also visit Brad Taylor and see what an artist can do with those tabs in beer and soda cans.

The 8th floor brings us Michael Auger’s day glow mini paintings – like Dale Hunt, this artist fits into that young, smart art that is both attractive, simple and yet appealing to the visual senses; at $35 for an original, they’re also a helluva good deal.

The DC area is a Mecca for world class glass and its leader in bringing glass to a higher place and away from the craft world. David D’Orio’s works join that new emerging movement and are very good. I also liked the fresh skill in Todd Gardner’s portraits. This floor also brings you Matt Sesow and Alison Sigethy.

The 9th opens with the very cool mini photos by Erin Antognoli, really good work by Jeanette Herrera and Barbara Johnson-Grener.

Also Kim Reyes’ ceramic wall figures caught my eyes as a good find for sculpture lovers. On this floor you’ll also find Andrew Wodzianski and Kirk Waldroff (OK, OK… so I know them).

The 10th floor has the key find for AOM. And it is not a single artist but a highly sophisticated multi-artist exhibition titled “Coincide.” This is the AOM find of the year.

If you are a harsh critic of AOM’s free for all art approach, and don’t want to look at the work of 800 artists, just drive up to AOM, go to the 10th floor and look at the work of the 17 artists in “Coincide.”

Using Star Trek technology, we can teleport this entire massive contemporary ceramic art installation to any gallery or museum in the world and no one would blink an eye. It is a triumph of severe presentation and talented artists, and it is also a giant leap forward in the maturation process of AOM itself.

These are skilled, innovative, ordained ceramic artists, whose work is as far from “amateur” – the usual adjective applied wholesale to AOM – as Warp 9 is far from 55 MPH.

Big names like Laurel Lukaszewski, who shows locally at Project 4 Gallery (one of the best, fresh new galleries in DC) and nationally at other various venues are complemented by (new to me) artists like Leila Holtsman (whose piece I hereby select as the best single work of art in AOM and should be immediately picked up by Habatat Gallery), Novie Trump, Ani Kasten, Kate Hardy (gorgeously displayed) and others in this spectacular group.

Leila Holtsman at AOM
Also on that floor I quite liked the brilliantly yellow installation work by Bryan Rojsuontikul, who joins the tradition of artists working with common materials (in this case yellow and silver Duck tape) to deliver breathtaking minimalist works of art. Also check out Alexandra Zealand.

On the 11th floor visit Krissy Downing and Gregory Ferrand and marvel at Veronica Szalus floor sculpture of painted ball objects. Also on this floor be prepared to be quite taken by Tracy Lee’s familial installation of family memorabilia (and I just broke my rule again, since I know Lee’s work well, but this installation doesn’t fit with her previous set of photographs). Since I broke that rule, also on this floor, super sexy abstract work by Pat Goslee and representational by Candace Keegan.

If you want a quick video walkthrough AOM, check out the video below. The music has been married to this video on purpose from the perspective of AOM dealing with art critics. The art that pops up when Lennon first sings "they're going to crucify me" is bordering on being one of the art world's oddest coincidences, since I didn't time the music to video to pre-arrange for that art to pop up at that time... it is worth viewing the video just for that!



AOM is free and open to the public and runs through June 15. All the info that you need is online at www.artomatic.org.

Early Look

Mark your calendars for this opening:

Artomatic reviewed

Read my first review here. Video is below.

Collectin 101: Inspiration and Passion

AOM Panels

The Pink Line Project has been presenting a series of panel discussions to educate the emerging and experienced art collector at Art-O-Matic. Click on the image below for details.



On Saturday, May 31 at 2 pm Phillipa will be moderating Collectin 101: Inspiration and Passion with collectors Minna Nathanson, Veronica Jackson, Mel & Juanita Hardy and Brian Aitken & Andrea Evers.

After that's over and starting at 4PM at the Cabaret Stage in AOM, I will be having a discussion with artists about anything that you want to talk about: how to get affordable framing, how to get a review, how to price your art, how to expand your resume, the who's and what's of DC and Philly art galleries, website design, press, museums, copyright, contracts, artists' success stories and how they did it... anything and everything that you want to ask or talk about.

Afterwards I will also be available to personally criticize and give you feedback on your work (bring thick skin). This is all free and open to anyone,not just AOM artists.

A lot of panels spend a lot of time talking and then at the end people have tons of questions, so this time we will start with questions and move on.

Remember, my stuff will take place at the Artomatic Cabaret Stage, 1st Floor instead of the Education Room. AOM is doing this in order to accommodate more people, so come early; it starts at 4PM.

DeBerardinis on Malone

Once Lost, But Now Found at Zenith Gallery!

By Rosetta DeBerardinis

Once in awhile, Margery Goldberg from Zenith Gallery, a major gallerist in Washington, D.C., a dynamic woman who has far exceeded the historical curve for art galleries nationwide by celebrating its thirtieth year; exhibits work that blows your socks off. Several years ago, while working as the DC art tour guide, I recall Ms. Goldberg disclosing her criteria for selecting artists. “The work has to give me an orgasm,” I recall her declaring. Figuratively of course!

Chris Malone, a mixed media artist in the current two-person exhibit “Drama Queens” with Shelly Laffel, obviously did just that. My response was not as personal as Ms. Goldberg’s; however, it compelled me to view the work twice.

Malone, a self-taught D.C. artist with exceptional talent creates large-scale soft sculptures influenced by the different tribes of Africa and New Guinea. Work that is too sophisticated to be classified as "dolls." He uses soft materials, e.g. fabric, kapok rope, canvas to define his shapes from a genre made popular in the 60’s by artists such as the Claus Oldenburg (Sweden) and Robert Morris (American).

Malone, reared in the Midwest, was once a zookeeper at the National Zoo, caring for the giant pandas Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling. He now sits and sews together pieces of fabric from Pakistan, Africa and other nations.

Colorful feathers, beads, yarns, mirrors adorn the textile surface and the extremities of the clay figures, with twinkling prosthetic eyes; twist, turn, sway, shout and even some pray with hands outstretched to the heavens.

For years, I have been in search of my ethnic past and looking to different tribes of Africa and New Guinea has brought a peace in me. - Chris Malone, from Zenith press release

This exhibit marks Chris Malone’s introduction at Zenith Gallery. And, I doubt now that he’s been discovered by Margery Goldberg, that he will ever be lost again.

Drama Queens through June 1st
Zenith Gallery
413 Seventh Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 2004
Information: 202-783-2963
www.Zenithgallery.com
art@zenithgallery.com

Memorial Day

Have a grand Memorial Day!

Rik Freeman at GRACE

If you a collector or lover of good, solid narrative painting with a focus on African American or blues themes, then you gotta go see Rik Freeman's current show at the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, Virginia. Meanwhile, below is a quick video walkthrough of the show:

Richard Misrach at the NGA

Richard Misrach, one of today’s most prolific photographers, will be giving an artist talk at the National Gallery of Art on the work featured in his exhibition opening on May 25. Accompanying the traveling exhibition is the one-of-a-kind Aperture monograph, Richard Misrach: On the Beach.

Misrach will discuss the spirit of his images and sign copies of his book.

Talk & Book Signing: Sunday, June 8; 2:00 p.m.

Exhibition on view: Sunday, May 25 — Monday, September 01, 2008.

AOM

I will be discussing my Artomatic finds later on - I visited twice and still managed (I think) to miss a whole floor - but meanwhile I have a little Artomatic history here. I would love if you would add in the comments section there your own anecdotes and stories about past Artomatics.

Also next Saturday, May 31, starting at 4PM at the Cabaret Stage in AOM, I will be having a discussion with artists about anything that you want to talk about: how to get affordable framing, how to get a review, how to price your art, how to expand your resume, the who's and what's of DC and Philly art galleries, website design, press, museums, copyright, contracts, artists' success stories and how they did it... anything and everything that you want to ask or talk about.

Afterwards I will also be available to personally criticize and give you feedback on your work (bring thick skin). This is all free and open to anyone,not just AOM artists.

A lot of panels spend a lot of time talking and then at the end people have tons of questions, so this time we will start with questions and move on.

Remember, this will take place at the Artomatic Cabaret Stage, 1st Floor instead of the Education Room. AOM is doing this in order to accommodate more people, so come early; it starts at 4PM.

See ya there!