New Christenberries

William Christenberry: New Sculpture, Works on Paper, and Photographs opens at Hemphill Fine Arts in DC with an opening reception on Saturday, September 13, 2008, 6:30 - 8:30 PM. Through October 25, 2008.

Minah at Fusion

Baltimore-based abstract painter Greg Minah recently spent a month in the Mojave Desert completing the 2008 Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency program. Minah was one of nine artists from around the world selected for this year's residency. The light, landscape and isolation of the high desert profoundly influenced Minah as he completed the 14 new paintings currently being exhibited at Fusion Gallery in Collingswood, New Jersey.

Sunstorm: Recent Work by Greg Minah is the artist's second solo showing at Fusion Gallery this year. Fusion Gallery is located just minutes outside of downtown Philadelphia in historic Collingswood, New Jersey. The show runs from September 11th through September 27th with an opening reception on Saturday, September 13th from 6-10 pm.

Metamorphosis at Arlington, VA

I am a big fan of art shows in alternative art venues and you can find exceptional art and food under one roof as Arlington's Willow Restaurant hosts the Fourth Annual Metamorphosis Art Show on Sunday, September 14 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The show will feature art for sale by 25 local and regional artists of all mediums, live music by many local musicians including singer - song writer Ken Wenzel, Star F.K. Radium, and Adrianne Krygowski from the Differents. Willow chefs Tracy O’Grady and Kate Jansen will provide complimentary gourmet food to art show guests. A portion of the artists’ proceeds will benefit the Non-profit Reading Connection of Arlington's Special Project "Imagination Blooms." Admission to this event is free.

“We are delighted to host this event again because we feel it is very important to support the local arts community” said the show’s creator and Willow’s wine director Alison Christ. “Willow is a natural location for an art show because our décor and our cuisine is representative of art.”

This year’s chosen charity is the Reading Connection.

The Reading Connection is dedicated to improving the lives of at-risk children and families by helping them create and sustain literacy-rich environments and motivation for reading.

Febland at Fraser

One of my favorite New York painters on the planet is David Febland, and this Friday he has an opening of new paintings at Bethesda's Fraser Gallery.

When I was with the gallery Febland was usually our best selling painter, and over the last couple of years his work has rocketed due to major success in Germany and London solos and the European art fair circuit.

An opening reception for the general public will be held in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk on Friday, September 12 from 6pm - 9pm.

Ted Reed at the Art League

I think that DC area painter Ted Reed is one of the supreme masters of the technical aspect of classic realism.

They don't get much better that Reed when it comes to delivering superbly crafted portraits and representational work at the height of realism.

But technical wizardry is not all that makes a great painting (although it is damned well ahead of whatever is in second place), and Reed also has the mastery of many other tools that a successful painter needs: composition, creativity and that arcane ability to grab something from the subject beyond just its likeness.

The vast majority of contemporary art critics seem to have an agenda that does not include contemporary realism in its portfolio; I'm not one of them.

The Art League Gallery in Alexandria, VA, will hold a solo exhibition of Ted's recent works, entitled "Presence." The show features both portraits and paintings with broader narrative content and a wider emotional range than most portraits but that still focus on people as subjects. The opening reception will be on Thursday, September 11, 6:30 - 8:30PM and the show goes through October 6, 2008.

Ted will also present several oil-painting demonstrations in the Gallery on:

o Saturday, September 13, noon - 3:00 pm

o Saturday, September 20, noon - 3:00 pm

o Sunday, October 5, 1:00-4:00 pm

The Opening Reception on Thursday, September 11, coincides with the Old Town Alexandria's Second Thursday Art Night gallery hop, when most Old Town art galleries remain open until 9:00, many restaurants offer deals, and there's live music. Click here for more details.

Arts and DC

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Germanosity

If it is somehow possible to photograph “the Germans,” (or any other nationality)then I am told that Stefan Moses has done a pretty good job. Nobody can really describe what “German-ness” is, but to glimpse one photographer’s interpretation, stop by the Goethe-Institut Washington September 10 – October 31, 2008 to view “German Vita”, a selection of fifty of his photographs.

Sprouse opens in Delaware

Former DC artist Michael Sprouse opens in Delaware's Philip Morton Gallery (in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware) with an opening reception on Friday, September 12 from 5-8PM.

Michael Sprouse worked in DC in the 1990s and early 2000s, and he and his partner ran the eklektikos gallery in Georgetown and then on 7th Street before they moved to Delaware where Sprouse has continued to paint and grow nationally.

Conner reopens

Leigh Conner and Jamie Smith will reopen their DC gallery at 1358-60 Florida Avenue, NE at the end of September as the new home of Conner Contemporary Art and *gogo art projects with an opening solo exhibition of new work by Leo Villareal and a group exhibition of recent work by gallery artists.

Yay!

They renovated the 7,000 sq ft. ground floor area into two galleries, a dedicated media room and an outdoor exhibition space.

Transmodernocean

"Transmodernocean," curated by my good friend J.W. Mahoney opened last week in Norfolk's Mayer Fine Art and will host an artists and curator reception on Sept. 13, from 6-9PM. The exhibition runs through Sept. 22.

Mahoney has selected work by Ian Chase, Sheila Giolitti, Betsy Packard, Jeffry Smith, Champneys Taylor, Paul Thomas, Charles Winstead and himself.

Paint Annapolis

You may recall how excited I was about Plein Air Easton earlier this summer (where I was a featured speaker), and I've now just found out about the Seventh Annual "Paint Annapolis," an event taking place the weekend of 18-21 in Annapolis, MD.

Included in Paint Annapolis is "Dueling Brushes," a Saturday morning open air painting competition which brings more than 75 artists to downtown Annapolis to paint from 9 to 11 a.m. on Sept. 20. Right after they are finished and framed, judging starts at noon at Susan Campbell Park at City Dock, where artwork will be for sale right off the artists' easels and if my Easton experiences repeat here, most of them will fly off the easels. The juror is Mark Karnes, a professor at Maryland Institute College of Art for almost 30 years. If you want to register for this event, the deadline is Sept. 19 and details are here.

All through the weekend, members of the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association and area high school art students will join the 30 juried artists in this event and all of them will paint throughout the weekend and then hang their wet and framed canvases at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts for exhibition, judging and sales on Sept. 21.

On that day, a ticketed VIP "Collectors' Preview" champagne reception will be held from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the Chaney Gallery. At 4PM the general public gets a crack at the paintings and they can cast their vote for the "People's Choice" award and attend the public reception, which is free, from 4 to 6 p.m.

An information tent will be located by the Market House, and schedule updates can be found at www.paintannapolis.com.

If you want to get a taste of plein air panting, check out the below video from the similar plein air event in beautiful Easton, Maryland earlier this summer.

Tate at Pentimenti: Steampunk

Last night I went to see my good friend's Tim Tate make his Philadelphia solo gallery debut at Philly's Pentimenti Gallery. Since the show was installed a few days ago, a review has already come out and art critic R. B. Strauss of the Philadelphia Weekly Press already has a superb review of the start of the new art season and writes about Tate:

"Video Reliquaries: A Look Inside a Digital Mind" yields tight surprises by Tim Tate. What is this artist? Sculptor, videographer, glass artist? Why all three, of course.

Various handmade glass vessels, like weird scientific instruments of well over a hundred and fifty years ago, contain tiny video monitors. Because of the work’s old feel, it resonates as steampunk, a thread of science fiction where the Victorian impetus holds fast a greater melancholy than we had, amid a strangely alien technology.

Indeed, the overall Victorian feel here is only partly deliberate, as this is not our Victorian era but one of a parallel or alternate universe that could be fascist, with the monitors spy devices, and with the lenses feeding them everywhere.

Strauss set of new eyes looking at Tate's latest work does indeed reveal a new and really appropriate label for Tate's work: Steampunk!

Of course! Steampunk!

According to the New York Times,steampunk is

"a subculture that is the aesthetic expression of a time-traveling fantasy world, one that embraces music, film, design and now fashion, all inspired by the extravagantly inventive age of dirigibles and steam locomotives, brass diving bells and jar-shaped protosubmarines. First appearing in the late 1980s and early ’90s, steampunk has picked up momentum in recent months, making a transition from what used to be mainly a literary taste to a Web-propagated way of life.

To some, “steampunk” is a catchall term, a concept in search of a visual identity. “To me, it’s essentially the intersection of technology and romance,” said Jake von Slatt, a designer in Boston and the proprietor of the Steampunk Workshop (steampunkworkshop.com), where he exhibits such curiosities as a computer furnished with a brass-frame monitor and vintage typewriter keys.

That definition is loose enough to accommodate a stew of influences, including the streamlined retro-futurism of Flash Gordon and Japanese animation with its goggle-wearing hackers, the postapocalyptic scavenger style of “Mad Max,” and vaudeville, burlesque and the structured gentility of the Victorian age. In aggregate, steampunk is a trend that is rapidly outgrowing niche status."

And, without ever attempting to enter this retro-futurism movement, clear new critical eyes hit the nail on the head with they label Tate's new works as an unplanned new member of this movement.

See a short video of the opening below:

In Afghanistan

Starting September 10th and through October 4th, 2008, the Royal Netherlands Embassy and the Embassy of Afghanistan will present a stirring collection of images that document everyday life in Afghanistan. The photo exhibit by Dutch photographer Hans Stakelbeek, entitled In Afghanistan, will be displayed for the first time in the United States at the Touchstone Gallery in Washington, D.C.

According to the press release, Hans Stakelbeek was commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to document the reconstruction of Afghanistan during ongoing efforts to restore peace and stability to the country. Stakelbeek made four trips there, photographing in Kabul and Uruzgan, as well as other remote areas. Stakelbeek’s photos capture the essence of the people, the country, and the reconstruction efforts.

“The Royal Netherlands Embassy is proud to partner with the Embassy of Afghanistan to bring the ‘In Afghanistan’ photo exhibition to Washington,” said Dutch Ambassador Renée Jones-Bos. “As partners in the reconstruction effort, we are moved by the strength and tenacity of the Afghan people, and their commitment to rebuild their country. These images capture that strength and hope.” added Ambassador Jones-Bos.

Wanna go to a Delaware opening tomorrow?

The exhibition is called "Hispanic Lives, Latin Worlds: Simple Complexities" and the guest curator is Riccardo Stoeckicht, Vice President of Operations at the Rodel Foundation of Delaware.

The opening reception is on my birthday, Saturday September 6th from 5pm-8pm. and the exhibition will be up until the end of September.

More info here and also here.

When critics really confuse

Read this.

Trawick Prizewinners

I'm on the road today, but earlier one I was told that DC artist Maggie Michael had been awarded the Trawick Prize. Congrats to Maggie!

Did I pick it or what?

Her husband Dan Steinhilber was awarded second place.

Did I pick it or what?

And Bernhard Hildebrandt took third and Ryan Browning won the "Young Artist Award."

Congrats to all!

Wanna go to a Philly opening tomorrow?

Over in this neck of the woods we're excited that Washington, DC uberartist Tim Tate is making his solo debut in Philadelphia at Pentimenti Gallery, one of Philly's top galleries (Disclaimer: Tate is our good friend and we were his first art dealer back in DC and we still deal his work at art fairs. We also have his work in our private collection and stand to become fabulously wealthy one day).

If you want to see the future of content-driven, self-contained installation videos, don't miss this show - we won't! The opening reception is from 6 - 8:30 p.m. The Pentimenti Gallery is located at 145 North 2nd Street in Philly.

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?

Shelters and Shadows, work by Sheep Jones, Lynden Cline, Angela Hennessy, and Allegra Marquart, opens tomorrow, Sept. 5 from 5:30-8PM with an Opening Reception and Artists' Dialogue at the newly dedicated Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery in DC's vibrant U Street Corridor.

Curated by Lillian Fitzgerald, the show runs through October 30.

Ober on In Sight: Vision Quest

Baltimore's Cara Ober reviews In Sight: Vision Quest at School 33 Art Center.

Read it here.

Wanna go to a DC opening today?

Coexistence, paintings by Joan Wadleigh Curran at the National Academy of Sciences (2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Rotunda Gallery). Artist’s Reception on Thursday, September 4, 6 to 8 p.m.

Free and open to the public and a photo ID is required.