Unfuckingbelievable

For years now I have been bitching about the visual arts coverage decline in the Washington Post, which started many years ago and which was essentially destroyed while Eugene Robinson was the editor of the Style section.

But this piece on KISS's Paul Stanley will be remembered as the proverbial camel backbreaker:

Perhaps it was inevitable. Paul Stanley -- known for wearing red lipstick, white foundation and a black star over his right eye -- has transferred his makeup skills to canvas. The Kiss frontman has a booming art career, to the tune of $2 million in sales last year, and will visit the D.C. area next week when his paintings go on display at Wentworth Gallery in Tysons Galleria.

I am embarrassed the the nation's capital has a newspaper that allows the distribution of drivel like this:

An original Paul Stanley can sell for about $70,000; a small print goes for $1,000, though Stanley insists on calling it a " 'limited-edition giclée,' because 'print' sounds like something you tore out of a magazine." His customers range from Kiss diehards who don't go to art galleries often (or ever) to collectors who wouldn't dream of attending a metal concert. He has had about 18 gallery shows over the past 18 months.

This is not an anti Paul Stanley rant, whom I suspect is an adequate painter clearly employing his celebrity status to hawk artwork, nor is it a dig at the article's author, whom I am sure responds to the paper's pressure to write articles (in an art column) that focus on celebrities whenever possible. This is certainly not a dig at the hardworking and highly successful Wentworth businesses, all 31 of them across the nation. If you want wall decor by Peter Max, Alexandra Nechita, Paul Stanley, Charles Fazzino, David Schluss and Grace Slick, they're your place!

This rant is a vomiting on the leadership of a newspaper that does not understand, nor wishes to understand, the reasons that many people like me, feel that they have failed miserably to execute their role and mission when it comes to the arts. Read the article here.

And if you think I am being tough on the WaPo, you should see what madman Bailey is saying. Read it here.

Paul Stanley on his art...

Wanna go to a Maryland opening tomorrow?

Drawn to Washington, a juried exhibition celebrating the work of Mid-Atlantic printmakers, has an opening reception on October 4, 2008 in the Main Gallery at Pyramid Atlantic.

The exhibit showcases the work of thirty-one printmakers from the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The opening reception is from 6-8 pm, Saturday October 4th and will feature a talk by the juror, Shelley Langdale, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

One artist from the exhibit will have their print selected by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints for the Library of Congress and will enter the permanent collection of the Library of Congress. The Washington Print Club is a co-sponsor of the exhibit and makes the purchase for the Library of Congress.

The exhibit runs through November 20th. Pyramid Atlantic is located at 8230 Georgia Ave. Silver Spring, MD.

Tim Tate opens in LA

Tim Tate: A Look Into a Video Mind opens at Billy Shire Fine Arts with an opening reception on Saturday, October 11th, from 7-10 pm.

This will be Tate's solo debut in Los Angeles. You can see some of the videos online here.

And the week after that Tate opens in London in his solo debut in London.

Tate is also currently showing in a three person show at Maurine Littleton in DC and a solo at Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia and at a major group show at VisArts in Rockville, MD.

You know what I've been telling you about Tate for years...

More tiny drawings

And I continue to create small drawings. These are about and inch or two in either direction.

"Christabel and Geraldine"


"Ophelia Alive"


"Ophelia Drowns"


"Eve and The Lilith"


"Support System"


"Elf"


"Elfin"


"First Time"

First Fridays Everywhere!

Philly's great First Friday openings happen tomorrow night... and so far I can testify that Philadelphia's First Friday openings pack the streets around Old City, and the average age of the gallery aficionado is about 20 years younger than in DC. Details on all the Philly area gallery openings here.

DC also has their First Friday gallery openings going on for the galleries around Dupont Circle. Also generally from 6-8PM. Details on DC openings here.

I think tonight is First Fridays in Fell's Point in Baltimore too, but their website was not updated when I checked (shame on Baltimore).

Update: Also Richmond, VA! Details here.

Wanna go to an opening in Easton, MD?

I love Easton - it is such a gorgeous little artsy Maryland town... anyway, the South Street Gallery is having an opening reception for two classical realism masters this Friday.

Ed Ahlstrom lives in Frederick County, Maryland, is a professor in the Art Department of Montgomery College where he teaches classes in landscape painting, portraiture, and watercolor. Texas-born, Louis Escobedo now lives in Baltimore County, Maryland. Louis received his BFA from Sam Houston University. His paintings have received numerous awards, including the Best of Show from the National Oil Painters of America.

Opening Reception Friday, October 3, 2008 5-9-pm.

Cubans are coming

A few months ago I curated an exhibition of Cuban artists in Norfolk which received rave reviews in the Norfolk area press, and next month I will be curating a group show exhibition of contemporary Cuban artists at H&F Fine Arts, located just outside of DC in the new Gateway Arts District of Mount Rainier, Brentwood, North Brentwood and Hyattsville, Maryland.

Titled "Aqui Estamos" or "Here we are," the exhibition brings to the DC region some of the key Cuban artists working both in Cuba (such as Sandra Ramos, Aimee Garcia Marrero, Los Carpinteros and others), as well as other Cuban artists from the Cuban Diaspora, including Magda Campos-Pons, Roberto Wong and Marta Maria Perez Bravo.

The opening reception is Saturday, November 8 from 5-8PM.

And next spring I will have these same artists in a Philadelphia gallery; more news on that later.

Come see some exceptional artwork and say hi at the H&F Fine Arts opening.

Recycled Glass Arts Workshop


Click on the image for more details...

Bailey at it

Pubic art - against, or for? Everyone has an opinion. However, what about public art that's allowed to just fall apart? Here's Bailey's story about one such piece at the Reston Town Center.

Here we go again

Remember when I told you about this truckdriving lady and her $5 Jackson Pollock find?

Now:

As executive vice president of Azusa Pacific University, David Bixby fields lots of calls. But one that came through last March was a stunner. Howard Kazanjian, a film producer and university trustee, had come across a trove of paintings by a giant of 20th century art that might be donated to the evangelical Christian university.

The good news was that the works were said to have been made by Jackson Pollock, the Abstract Expressionist known for his "drip and splash" style. The bad news: This was yet another batch of undocumented paintings attributed to the artist.

Read the Los Angeles Times story here.

Public Art Futures: A Panel Discussion

Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 2 p.m. at The American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. Offered in conjunction with the exhibition, "Close Encounters: Facing the Future," and the arts initiative BrushFire.

Expected to be a:

"A fascinating discussion about the intervention of art into public space. With several leading participants in the field, we will hear about the potentials for new social dialogue spurred by artists who are moving away from traditional art venues in order to make an impact both on local communities and on mainstream culture at large. What are the social conditions behind this insurgence and what will support its future development? What are the perils and potentials of this new strategy?"

Wanna go to a Virginia opening tomorrow?

Washington Project for the Arts and the Ellipse Arts Center will have Uncommon Beauty, juried by my good friend Sarah Tanguy opening tomorrow (and on exhibit through December 13) at the Ellipse Arts Center (4350 N. Fairfax Drive. One block west of the Ballston Metro, in Arlington, VA).

Featuring: Kay Chernush, Mary Coble, Frank Day, Jason Horowitz, Lucian Perkins & Athena Tacha.

* Artists' Talk and Opening Reception: Thursday, October 2,
5:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Artists' Talk: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Reception follows
Dress: Your interpretation of "Uncommon Beauty"
Parking is free and open late the night of the reception

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?



The exhibition features 25 works -- paintings, sculptures, prints, collages -- that interpret elements of the periodic table through verses incorporated into images.

A preview is available on the Studio Gallery website here.

Littleton Opening

I missed yesterday's opening at the Maurine Littleton Gallery in DC, but have already heard good stuff about it and below some images of the show:

Opening Night at Maurine Littleton Gallery


Tim Tate wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition


Alegra Marquart wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition


Michael Janis wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition

At PASS Gallery in DC


Opening Reception: Friday, October 3, 7-10pm
PASS GALLERY Fall Exhibition
1617 S. St. NW, WDC, 20009 (Rear Entrance- by way of the alley). The exhibition continues through October 28.

Wall Streeting at -778

It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane -
Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -
world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs. Feed it up a knock,
speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height,
down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for
hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies
breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered
crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population,
common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its
own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the
reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright
light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn,
return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning,
blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle,
light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh,
this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament,
a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite.
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic,
slam, but neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...

(It's time I had some time alone)

At the Hirshhorn this Friday

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will have my good friend Mark Cameron Boyd giving a talk as part of the Friday Gallery Talks on Oct. 3, 2008.

He will speak about John Baldessari's work, Exhibiting Paintings, in Currents: Recent Acquisitions. Meet him at the information desk at 12:30 pm.

Winkler at Washington Printmakers Gallery

Recent Prints by Ellen Verdon Winkler, one of my favorite DC area printmakers, opens at Washington Printmakers Gallery with a First Friday Reception, October 3, 5-8pm and then an Artist’s Talk and Reception, Sunday, October 5, 2-4pm.

For this exhibition, anticipating a possible move from the DC metro area, Winkler was determined to get to know the city better. She began bicycling through the neighborhoods just north of Dupont Circle and was delighted by the visual richness and architectural detail of often over-looked places. She also encountered remnants of the past and the imagined history of the places she explored. She watched as parts of the city were stripped away for redevelopment and felt the fragility of our communities and our lives. She responded to these discoveries through visual and written language, on view this fall. Ellen Verdon Winkler intends to create a book consisting of these images and her new poems. This exciting project is a work in progress and only four of the poems and their corresponding images appear in this show.

Wanna go to a DC opening tonight?

Michael Janis, Allegra Marquart, and Tim Tate will open at Maurine Littleton's power gallery in Georgetown with a rare opening reception to meet the artists today, September 28, 5-7PM.

As far as I know, these are the first local DC area artists picked up by Littleton in the many years that her gallery has been in business and their subsequent national success represent an interesting example of what happens when a recognized power gallery in a particular field brings some attention to an emerging or mid career artist

The exhibition goes through October 18. If you haven't been keeping on with the glass revolution being ignited right under our noses, do miss this show.

Next month Tate makes his solo debut in London by the way...

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Feburary 9, 2009

Seminole Community College Fine Arts Gallery is conducting a search for artists for the 2009-2010 academic year. To be considered for an exhibit, please send proposal, resume, 15-20 high resolution images, and artist statement prior to February 9, 2009.

How to Apply: To be considered for an exhibit, please send proposal, resume, 15-20 high resolution images, and artist statement prior to February 9, 2009. Send information and CD in a manila envelope lined with bubble wrap and marked in bold letters as follows: FRAGILE DO NOT BEND. Address envelope to:

Lucinda Gonzalez
Gallery Curator
Seminole Community College Fine Arts Gallery
100 Weldon Blvd
Sanford, FL 32773-6199

CD images will not be returned to artists as they are permanently archived in the college. For further information please call Gallery Curator at: 407-708-2704.