Congressional Arts Report Card

The Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC has produced the 2008 Congressional Arts Report Card to help you make arts-informed decisions at the ballot box in November. The report contains carefully evaluated legislative benchmarks that form a detailed arts record, including a numerical score and letter grade, for each Member of the House based on numerous arts and arts education issues.

Read it here. Neither McCain nor Obama are members of the Senate Cultural Caucus.

At the MFA

Quick video of the 8th Annual American Landscapes show that I just juried at the Maryland Federation of Art in Annapolis.

More like 29

Surprised to find out that my good buddy Philippa P.B. Hughes is 39; I had her pegged at 29.

Read the WaPo story here.

Photography at Black Rock

I've been hearing good things about the current photography exhibition at Germantown, Maryland's Black Rock Arts Center. They have B&W photography by Joanne Miller and Lauren Henkin through September 19. Their work pairs the natural world vs. the urban landscape of Charleston, West Virginia.

Their next exhibit, Portraits of Life (Artist reception: September 27, 5:30–7:30 p.m.) also sounds quite interesting: Portraiture consisting of 36 panels, providing visual imagery and personal histories of Holocaust survivors from Montgomery County. Each 24" x 36” panel contains photographs and a narrative of the individual survivor's story.

Iconic Trompe-l'oeil at Rehoboth Beach

Contemporary trompe-l'oeil work by Michael Fitts and Victor Spinski will be showcased at Gallery 50 in Rehoboth Beach September 18 – October 14. An artists' reception will be held Saturday, September 20, 5-8 p.m.

Michael Fitts is one of my favorite trompe-l'oeil painters around and is originally from Washington D.C. and now resides in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Why isn't Diebenkorn famous?

"Consider the case of Richard Diebenkorn, whose paintings are passionately admired by countless collectors and connoisseurs of modern art, not a few of whom place him close to the top of the short list of America's greatest artists. But Diebenkorn, who died in 1993, has never quite made it into the pantheon of American modernism. MoMA owns a half-dozen of his paintings and works on paper, all of them first-rate. And how many are hanging there today? Not a one.

Why isn't Diebenkorn famous? Because his work doesn't fit into the standard narrative that many critics, scholars and museum curators use to explain the history of 20th-century art. For openers, he was a West Coast artist who spent most of his adult life in California when New York was universally regarded as the creative center of American art. And though he started out painting boldly colored Abstract Expressionist canvases that made perfect sense to the critics of the early '50s, he took a sharp turn off the smooth road of history in 1955 and returned to figurative painting, producing an even more remarkable series of portraits, still lifes and suburban cityscapes."

Read this excellent WSJ article by Terry Teachout here.

ABMB stays in MB

Art Basel Miami Beach will stay in Miami Beach:

Art Basel, the country's biggest contemporary art show, will return to Miami Beach through 2011 under a hard-fought deal with the city that gives the show's owner a financial stake in the Miami Beach Convention Center.

The center's four-day art show has exploded into a week of festivals from the mainland to Miami Beach, with a global following paying sky-high hotel rates and generating a stream of private jets that tourism officials say rivals a Super Bowl.

But until now, Art Basel had refused to commit to the show for more than one year, leaving city officials to ponder losing the tourism draw to another U.S. location in their annual negotiations with Basel executives.

That changed Wednesday when city commissioners ousted the management of the convention center in favor of a partnership between Global Spectrum, a Comcast subsidiary, and Basel parent firm Messe Schweiz. The deal calls for Global to manage the facility and Messe Schweiz to market it abroad.

Read the Miami Herald story here.

Celebrations

Celebrations: African American Portraits of Beauty will be on exhibit in Harford Community College’s Chesapeake Gallery in Bel Air, MD from September 18-November 3.

The exhibit will showcase the works of artists including Romare Bearden, Ernie Barnes, Paul Goodnight, Maurice Evans, Joseph Holston, Bernard Stanley Hoyes, Cynthia St. James, Ted Ellis, Woodrow Nash, Frank Morrison, LaShun Beal, John Holyfield, Varnette Honeywood, Sylvia Walker, and Leroy Campbell.

The public is invited to meet featured artist Larry “Poncho” Brown on Thursday, October 16, at a free luncheon and lecture, 1:30-3:00 PM, in the Student Center, Room 243, or at a reception featuring music by former HCC student Danton Whitley and Mosaic Sound, 6-7:30 PM in the Chesapeake Gallery located in the Student Center. An RSVP for lunch is required; call 410-836-4224.

Woody Allen

"Woody Allen as an old Rabbi."
2007, charcoal on paper, 2.5 x 1.5 inches.
By F. Lennox Campello (from the Rabbi Series).

Today in Annapolis

Later today I will be in Annapolis to present the awards to the award winners at the 8th Annual American Landscapes Competition at the Maryland Federation of Art.

This was one of the toughest art competitions that I have ever juried, with around 700 entries from all over the nation. The show goes trhough Oct.12, 2008.

I could have easily put together two shows.

Anyway, the opening is from 3-6PM and I will present the awards at 4:30PM.

See ya there!

Today through Tuesday in DC


Refreshing new art by 14 young artists - and I hear that it is all very affordable.

Prelli Williams visits the Martin Puryear Exhibition

By Prelli Tony Williams

I visited to the Martin Luther King Library on Friday morning September 5, 2008. I visited the Arts and Literature section. A woman said that she had just received a promotion and was alone for the day in that large division. The person that I came to visit was out that day. She could not find what I was looking for, so I congratulated her and left.

I walked from there to the National Gallery of Art to view the Martin Puryear Exhibition.

A female security guard told me a little history about the artist. Little did she know that what see told me I had read already in the Fall 2007 edition of Valentine New York Magazine and the NGA guides that I had for about two months.

She told me that since she has been an NGA employee she has never seen any artist have an exhibition simultaneously in adjacent buildings except for Puryear. I do not know if that is true but certainty worth finding out. She also mentioned that it is sad that Black DC students do not flock in droves to see a Master Artist of this caliber. She said that it should be mandatory for all DC public and charter school students and Art teachers to see and write about native Washington, DC African American sculptor Martin Puryear, who once was a former security guard for one month at the National Gallery of Art.

After viewing the exhibition, I walked to the US Copyright Office. I arrived at noon to get my art copyrighted. As my luggage cart went through the security’s X-ray machine an officer who looked like a friend of mine yelled in a loud voice, "Sir what do you have in your pockets?"

I replied, "only my keys and an aluminum Altoids mint container." He then scanned me with a wand asking me, "Do you have on Steel toes? (ACG's Nike Boots)."

I replied, "No." He then asked me where I was going. I told him and proceeded to my destination. Funny, I went upstairs first to see a former school friend. Five minutes later while I sitting in his office, an announcement came over the PA system and his desktop and said, “Move towards the center of the building and away from the windows."

I asked my friend "was this for real?"

He said, "Oh yeah." I then sat in my friend’s office for two hours. The office that I needed to get to on the same floor was closed because of the situation outdoors. At 3pm, my copyright was processed.

I went back and sat with my high school friend and saw the culprit on the Internet in handcuffs, an employee said earlier that the gentleman wanted to see his Congressman. I heard that the man was armed but apprehended. I left the building about 5 pm and saw two camera crews a few blocks away. The news confirmed what had happened.

The moral of this story is, never put off what you can do today because tomorrow IS NOT PROMISED. Do not let someone else tell your story. While you can, tell it.

P.S. I attended a Home going of another Eastern Senior High School friend who was an excellent basketball player and artist. They spoke great things about Edward Lomax. What stood out the most was the statement, "Lomax was an excellent artist, but the world will never see his work."

Lomax was a year younger than I was.

- Prelli Williams

Bevelaqua and Wodzianski at King Street Gallery

Trajectories: Paintings by Joan Bevelaqua and Andrew Wodzianski, an art exhibit featuring the work of these two DC area painters, will open and run from September 15 - October 18 at the King Street Gallery at the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center, Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus.

This invitational retrospective exhibit, conceived and curated by my good friend Dr.Claudia Rousseau, professor of Art History, School of Art + Design at Montgomery College, will trace the "trajectories" of these two artists' work over the past decade.

Conceptually, the intent is to demonstrate that a clear trajectory, wherein changes in an artist's style seem to grow from the things that went before, is among the fundamental characteristics of the truly successful artist. An accompanying brochure will be available to document the conceptual nature of the exhibit.

Opening reception: Thursday, September 25, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Wanna go to a MD art brunch reception tomorrow?

Cut and Paste, an exhibit of collages by Kyi May Kaung, Patricia Zannie, and Amy Kincaid, at the Village of Friendship Heights Art Gallery (4433 S. Park Ave in Chevy Chase, Maryland 301-656-2797) will have a brunch reception on Sunday, September 14 11:30 to 1:30 pm. The show goes through Sept. 30.

Baltimore curator to the Walker

Looks like my good friend Olga Viso is bringing familiar faces to her new post at the Walker Art Center:

Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has hired a new chief curator: Darsie Alexander from the Baltimore Museum of Art. Starting Nov. 10, she will replace Philippe Vergne, who also served as the Walker's deputy director before he left in August to head the Dia Art Foundation in New York City.

Read the article here.

DC International Arts Expo opens next week


The Washington DC International Arts Expo is coming to the DC Convention Center next week, the hard work of artist Lisa Jones and The Collective. This will be the second year for the Expo and over 100 artists and galleries from around the country are expected.

Details here.

Art Fair Fatigue

I've written extensively on this subject...

Meanwhile in London, the Frieze satellites are also thinning out. Pulse is not returning this year, and two fairs for young artists have been cancelled. Bridge (in the Trafalgar Hotel) and Year08 (whose third edition was due to be in London’s old Post Office sorting building) have abandoned their plans for this October.

Now read an update on this subject from the Art Newspaper here.

Lest We Forget

"Studio View, 9/11"
Oil on Canvas c. 9/11/2001 by David FeBland

Julia Fullerton-Batten opens in DC


German born, London based photographer, Julia Fullerton-Batten will open DC's Randall Scott Gallery's Fall Season with her first North American solo exhibition, "In Between" opening on Saturday, September 13th from 6-9PM.

Wanna go to a Baltimore opening tomorrow?

Tableau Vivant, Bromoil prints by New York photographer Joy Goldkind are currently at Baltimore's Gallery Imperato (through October 18, 2008).

The artist's reception is tomorrow, Friday, September 12, 7-10pm.