Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: March 13, 2009

UNICEF is seeking artists of all levels (beginner to professional) to contribute artwork to promote the Tap Project — a campaign to provide clean drinking water to children around the world. All of the works submitted will be eligible for a $500 juried prize and exhibition during World Water Week, March 22-28, at the Pepco Edison Gallery located at 701 Ninth St., NW in DC. Submissions will also be considered for use in print and online advertising in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

During World Water Week participating restaurants will ask diners to voluntarily pay $1 for the tap water they would usually enjoy for free. For every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days.

All artwork should pertain to drinking water. Due date is March 13. Details here.

At the D'Art Center in Norfolk


In the many years that I have been jurying or curating art exhibitions around the nation, I have never ceased to be impressed each and every time by the diversity of the human mind when putting pen to paper, or brush to canvas or chisel to stone, or eye to camera view finder.

And yet, after well over 300 exhibitions in which I have had a hand in orchestrating, I can say with an enthusiastic attitude that the recent exhibition for Norfolk's D’Art Center (which opened last Friday) provided me, the juror, with one of the most pleasant and interesting and intelligent juried competitions that it has been my honor to put together.

Hundreds of artists from 17 states submitted work for the competition, so the talent pool was diverse and geographically diverse.

My first pleasant surprise in jurying this exhibition was the high number of really good entries from which I was to select the exhibition, or better said, competition. Those artists which I selected really brought their best to the show and competed well. And having said that, there were at least a dozen more artists, had space allowed it, that could have been included.

My second surprise was the significant number of really good three dimensional entries in the pool of submissions. I express this as surprise because generally, most of these national level jury shows are comprised of 90% two-dimensional work and a handful of sculptures or other 3D pieces.

The 3D pieces competed well, also a pleasant change of pace for me and my experience on this subject. Super entries such as Lesley Hildreth’s “Hares, multiplying like rabbits while waiting for the Tortoise,” a remarkable clay piece with multiple sculptures which marry oddly zoomorphic imagery with intelligent composition and design and a superb title that would have made Barnett Newman proud of the often ignored art of titling art.

Or in an almost 180 degree artistic U-turn, Sarah Haven’s elegant and minimalist “Ideal,” a ceramic, glaze and decal sculpture which uses clues to have the viewer interpret her work, rather than forcing her ideas upon us.

Another unusual surprise came to me in the work of Virginia painter Mark Miltz, whose trompe l’oeil work is very familiar to me. In his sculptural installation “Game,” Miltz brings something new to me, and certainly sure to raise some eyebrows in Norfolk, or anywhere else for that matter.

Mark Miltz. The Game. Sculptural Installation
Having said all that, the two dimensional artists represented themselves very well in this competition, from Chris Register’s superb “Vespa,” one of the best examples of how pen and ink can really flex its artistic muscles in the hands of a talented artist, to Art Werger’s flawless work, which really showcases what the art of printmaking can deliver in the gifted hands of a master printmaker.

In this postmodern world in which sometimes ideas and concepts receive more attention than the art itself, and where technical virtuosity is sometimes denigrated, Werger is a great example of how a real contemporary master can marry technical virtuosity with ideas, composition and creativity to deliver artwork of the highest caliber.

To those of you chosen for the exhibition, my congratulations on a well deserved accomplishment – it was a tough decision in a tough competition against your fellow artists. To those of you whose work did not make the show, I applaud your continued development as an artist and your desire to compete and show your work. It has been my honor and pleasure to look at all of your work.

Jury Duty

Deadline: March 27, 2009 (postmark).

I'm going to be jurying an art show for The Fine Arts League of Cary in North Carolina, and they are seeking entries for its 15th Annual Juried Art Exhibition to be held from May 8th to June 27th, 2009 in Cary/Raleigh, NC. Show awards and purchase awards will total over $5,000. Entries can only be mailed via CD. The postmark deadline for the mail-in registration is March 27, 2009.

Full details and a printable prospectus are available on the web here or call Kathryn Cook at 919-345-0681.

Goldberg: The Woman Behind the Flame at Zenith Gallery

By Rosetta DeBerardinis

“Art is truth,” declares Margery Goldberg, the owner of Zenith Gallery in Washington, DC’s Penn Quarter who yesterday closed ONLY the doors to her downtown store front, but not her business. And, if it is truth you want, she is your lady. Ms. Goldberg is one of the most honest and outspoken members of the Greater DC art community.

“When you own your own business there is no sabbatical,” she sighs. “You work all the time.” She wants to make it perfectly clear that she is NOT closing her business, but merely changing the way she does business. The success of Zenith has been reliant upon her visibility and her relationships with the artist and art patrons along with its ties to the community. “I haven’t had a day off in years,” she declares. “I am exhausted!”

Many of the readers of this blog were not born yet when Ms. Goldberg opened the doors to her first gallery on 14th Street in 1978. There she rented a 50,000 sq. foot industrial space and nurtured and supported 50 artists. She relocated Zenith Gallery to its present location on Seventh Street in 1986. Many of the artists who began their careers with her remain affiliated with the gallery or return to exhibit in her annual anniversary show. When asked why she wanted to be responsible for the career and welfare of fifty artists, she shot back, “I always take care of everybody”. And, her care-taking extends to her family, her dog Max and to the needs of her now deceased father.

“This is a bitter-sweet moment,” she laments. “I have wanted to do this for years but I waited until I hit a good round number. Thirty is a good one, much better than 18 or twenty-five. I wanted to do it on my terms.” The petite woman with coiled hair, a boisterous voice and one of the best sock collections on the East Coast, is a tough business woman with a big heart.

She is concerned about the impact the closing will have on the downtown business district. “Zenith is more than a gallery is a close-knit part of the community,” she explains. When Zenith moved on 7th Street, it was not the upscale real estate district that it is today. The million dollar condos and the yuppie chains did not exist and the rents were reasonable. Today, it another part of the city where artists have pioneered through urban blight and can no longer afford to remain.

However, Zenith is not moving because of the absorbent rent increases. That is something Ms. Goldberg wants to drive-home. Unlike other downtown landlords and developers, hers has been most supportive and wishes the gallery would stay. Zenith is leaving its brick and mortar because its owner needs a rest and believes there is a new way to operate in the art world. Most of the staff will remain on the payroll and so will the majority of the artists it represents. Although, she did admit that this is an excellent time to sever ties with those artists who are either difficult to deal with or whose work isn’t in demand.

“When I first opened, I had this motto: Genius, good-looks and money are not an excuse to be an asshole,” she says laughing. So, if you are one of those she recommends that you find another gallery, not hers. In addition to her disdain for prima-donnas, she has no great admiration for urban developers, D.C. Mayor Fenty or the Washington Post critics since Paul Richards. She accuses the developers of raising rents sky-high making downtown real estate too expensive for small business owners and that the District of Columbia offers little support for its small businesses, especially the arts. Her mantra is, “I am mad as hell and can’t take it anymore!”

As artists continue to whine about declining sales, the absence of press coverage and high commissions few understand or care about the responsibilities of the art dealer or gallerist who is chained to a storefront operation from opening to closing, answering calls from artists and customers, paying the rent on the white cube and mounting show after show each year. She predicts that storefront commercial galleries will begin to disappear. “Nobody can afford the rent and it’s not safe anymore,” she says. It was surprising to learn that Zenith is robbed almost once a week. No, they don’t break the large glass windows that would be too obvious. Instead the thieves snatch a small piece or sculpture, a cell phone on a desk or a wallet buried deep inside an employee’s purse. Ms. Goldberg attributes the lack of police presence as part of the problem. And, when she calls the police they claim to be unable to find the gallery.

Since art dealers and gallerists are a pivotal link between artists and their public and between sellers and collectors, her prediction about the disappearance of storefronts will have a definite impact upon the local art market. If she is correct, art galleries will soon become destination points and few will be able survive in obscurity. Nor does she believe chain galleries can survive in there. When asked why so many galleries fail, she provides a direct and honest response. “Anyone can open an art gallery,” she admits. “But, they have no freaking idea how hard it is- the hard work and the hours. It is for people who need to make money, not for the rich. It is for those who need to earn a living and who have a fire in their belly.” According to Ms. Goldberg, even rich contacts are a restricted audience because patrons only purchase a limited amount of art annually. Then, there is the daily grind which is so demanding and that most people simply don’t want to work that hard, despite their love for art.

When she closes the doors to the glass fish-bowel this week, Zenith gallery will begin to operate its new format. With most of the staff continuing and the construction of a gallery in her home, Ms. Goldberg intends to cast her entrepreneurial net far and wide. She will continue to work with her stable of artists and retain a relationship with the 20,000 people in her database. Watch out, she is taking her show on the road doing traveling exhibitions, studio visits, art tours, promoting her foundation, producing and exhibiting more of her own sculpture and dreaming about the 100-acre art community she hopes to develop. She may say she is tired but her ‘to-do list’ is quite long. I predict that Margery Goldberg will sleep late a few mornings here and there and take off a day or two once in a while, but this woman with fire in her belly will remain a noticeable flame.

Airborne


Heading home from Sedona... big news to come!

Artists' Websites: Kathryn Cornelius

DC uberartist and my good friend Kathryn Cornelius was once described snarkely as a "barely emerging artist." But the snarky comment backfired and success is the best revenge, and Cornelius has become one of the district's best known and most ubiquitous artists.

And it has been a busy couple of months for her... in February she exhibited with Your Last Neighbor and Transformer at VIDEOYO! in DC... This exhibition has since travelled to Delaware, and the opening of VIDEYO! Part Deux! is at the New Wilmington Art Association tonight, 6-10pm. The show/s are curated by Breck Omar Brunson and feature DC, Philly, and NYC-based artists.

Also in February, artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer and Cornelius put on a performance event called Soup Kitchen.

The piece was a part of Transformer's Summer Camp series. You can see pics on Transformer's site here and on their Facebook profile.

Also, in December she was profiled in the DC Modern Luxury magazine (along with some other great DC art folks!).

Also, if you are in DC, next Thursday evening from 6:30-9:30pm, she will be giving an artist talk entitled "IDEAS ART FREE," presented by Meat Market Gallery as the inaugural event in their Red Tape: Artist Talks series.

My good friend Jeffry Cudlin, Director of Exhibitions at the Arlington Arts Center (and the author of Cornelius' 2007 Curator's Office solo show essay), will give an introduction and she will share some of her past works, discuss a few of the major themes explored, and give a sneak preview of a few new pieces. Please RSVP to redtape@meatmarketgallery.com if you can make it.

Visit her new website here.

Free Artists' Webminar

I'll be giving a free 30 minute artists' webminar next Tuesday, March 10 at noon. Click on the image below for more info. The webminar starts at 12PM and will cover a whole host of subjects.

Power of the Web

"The Age of Obama," my first drawing of 2009 and currently on exhibition at Projects Gallery in Philadelphia as part of their Obama-rama exhibition (which may be traveling to a few American cities and the subject of a book), through the wonders of the internets has been acquired by an Irish collector and will be on its way to Ireland at the end of the exhibition.

World History Series: The Age of Obama
F. Lennox Campello
Charcoal on paper, c. 2009
13 x 9 inches matted and framed to 24x18 inches

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: April 30, 2009

Philadelphia's Projects Gallery has announced a call to artists for its June-July 2009 Juried Art Exhibition entitled “Summer in the City”. The steamy summer months often prompt Philly residents to flee; but for the segment that remains, there is a certain magic to the sticky days and long nights. Emerging from their wintry cocoon, Philadelphians take to the streets and stoops, bikes and bars, parks and playgrounds.

They want art that captures that unique sensibility of summer in the city with a distinct Philadelphia flavor. Entrants may present work of any media or subject, but artists must be located in the greater Philadelphia and Delaware Valley region.

They are looking to discover emerging, established and/or outsider artists with a mixed media approach and urban sensibility. The show will be displayed June 5 – August 1, 2009 at Projects Gallery in Philadelphia.

Eligibility: Open to all artists who reside in the greater Philadelphia and Delaware Valley area. Work must be original and completed within the past 2 years. Works for consideration may be of any media but must be no larger than 36” W. All work must be available for sale. Gallery commission on sales is 50%. An artist statement and resume will be required from all accepted artists. Artist is responsible for transportation of work to and from gallery. Accepted video artists must supply viewing equipment.

Prizes: A “Best In Show” prize of $300 will be awarded by artist Frank Hyder.

To Enter: There is a non-refundable entry fee of $25.00 (U.S.) per artist for up to five entries. Additional detail images are permitted. Digital files of artist statements, resumes and/or bios must be included with image entries. Submissions must be digital 300 dpi at least 8” jpg, gif or tiff format on a CD or DVD. CD/DVD will not be returned. Do not send original artwork. No slides. Please include a list of entries with the following information: artist name, titles of images, media, dimensions, date and retail price of work submitted. All entries must be received no later than April 30, 2009. Make checks payable to: Projects Gallery. If any of these requirements are not met the submission will be deemed ineligible.

Mail entries, list of entries, entry fee to:
Projects Gallery
629 N 2nd St.
Philadelphia, PA 19123

Calendar
• April 30, 2009 deadline for entries
• May 10, 2009 entrants notified
• May 30, 2009 accepted works due to gallery
• June 5, 2009 opening reception
• August 1, 2009 exhibition closes
• August 3-5, 2009 pick-up work or prepaid shipping returned

Work will be juried by Projects Gallery’s Associate Director Sequoia Medley. In addition to the exhibition, press releases and images will be sent out and the exhibition will be highlighted on the gallery’s website. Please forward this to all interested parties.

Questions? Contact info@projectsgallery.com.

At the Artists' Gallery in MD

New Baltimore Gallery

Nudashank is a new independent, artist-run gallery space in Baltimore, Maryland. Their mission is to showcase young artists. Founded by Seth Adelsberger and Alex Ebstein, Nudashank "hopes to bring new blood into the Baltimore scene, benefiting the regional artists, and providing a new venue for national and international artwork."

The gallery hosts approximately 6 exhibitions per year, featuring group and 2-person shows. Their goal is to have a large inventory of available works including drawings, paintings, zines, and prints. The 1000 square foot gallery is located on the third floor of the H&H building in downtown Baltimore, which already houses the Whole Gallery, Gallery Four, and Floristree.

Sedonaing...

Done with some private family matters... done with some exhausting hiking (more to come)... done with some archeological visiting... done with loads of Mexican food eating (how come no East Coast Mexican restaurant offers nopalitos or carnitas?)... and now ready for some gallery hopping.

Memo to frozen East Coast: It's nice and sunny here.

Wanna go to an artist talk in DC tomorrow?

Artist Talk: Mark Cameron Boyd
Host: Hamiltonian Gallery
Start Time: Wednesday, March 4 at 7:00pm
End Time: Wednesday, March 4 at 8:30pm
Where: Hamiltonian Gallery

Habatat for Healing

Habatat for Healing is running from Thursday, March 05, 2009 to Tuesday, April 07, 2009.

Virginia's Habatat Galleries' wants to make a difference. With help from the art community, they have put together an exhibition that raises money and awareness for Leukemia & Lymphoma.

For more information on how you can help their campaign, please contact Lindsey Scott at 561-213-0793 or lindseyscott@mac.com and check out the exhibition online here.

The Trawick Prize

Deadline: Monday, April 20, 2009

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is now accepting submissions for The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards. The highly respected annual juried art competition awards $14,000 in prize monies to four selected artists. Deadline for slide submission is April 20, 2009 and up to fifteen artists will be invited to display their work from September 4 – September 28, 2007 in downtown Bethesda at Heineman-Myers Contemporary Art.

The Trawick Prize is without a doubt, the key fine arts competition available to DC, MD and VA artists and has already produced some spectaculaer results for its winners.

The first place winner will be awarded $10,000; second place will be honored with $2,000 and third place will be awarded $1,000. A “young” artist whose birth date is after April 20, 1979 may also be awarded $1,000.

Artists must be 18 years of age or older and residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. Original painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, fiber art, digital, mixed media and video are accepted. The maximum dimension should not exceed 96 inches in any direction. No reproductions. Artwork must have been completed within the last two years. Selected artists must deliver artwork to exhibit site in Bethesda, MD. All works on paper must be framed to full conservation standards.

The Trawick Prize was established by local Bethesda business owner Carol Trawick. Ms. Trawick has served as a community activist for more than 25 years in downtown Bethesda. She is the Chair of the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and past Chair of the Bethesda Urban Partnership. Additionally, the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation was established in 2007 after the Trawicks sold their successful information technology company.

For a complete submission form, please visit www.bethesda.org or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to the Bethesda Urban Partnership, Inc., c/o The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, 7700 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, MD 20814.

Not sure when the jurors will be announced, as the website still lists the 2008 jurors.

Get yer stimulus loot

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is beginning the application process to award the $50 million appropriated to the NEA as part of the federal economic stimulus packages. By law, 40% of the $50 million will be passed on to the 56 state, territory and regional arts agencies.

The NEA will award the remaining $30 million through competitive grants. Individuals and organizations can apply.

I am hearing that all applicants must be previous NEA award recipients in good standing from the past four years, which doesn't make sense to me, but the NEA's forthcoming Recovery Act grant guidelines will provide details - we hope. If this is indeed a requirement, it is not only unfair, but it is divisive and unless I am missing something, quite perplexing.

Synopses of the guidelines are scheduled to be posted at grants.gov by March 8 with complete application guidelines scheduled to be posted on March 18.

Applicants must be registered at grants.gov.

The NEA urges applicants to verify their registration. If you are not registered please begin the process now as it can take up to two weeks.

To register please click here.

Full text of the latest NEA announcement follows:

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $50 million to be distributed in direct grants to fund arts projects and activities which preserve jobs in the non-profit arts sector threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn.

Forty percent of such funds will be distributed to State arts agencies and regional arts organizations and 60 percent of the funds will be competitively awarded to nonprofit organizations that meet the eligibility criteria being established for this program.

Application guidelines for two funding programs are being developed and will be posted as soon as completed and approved by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

Synopses will be posted on Grants.gov by March 8; full guidelines on our site by March 18.

Applicants will be required to submit their applications electronically through Grants.gov, the federal government's online application system. All applicants must be registered with Grants.gov in order to submit their application.

If you have already registered with Grants.gov, renew/verify your registration with Grants.gov and make sure that all of your information is current before you apply. Organizations that are not already registered should allow at least two weeks to complete this multi-step process.

See the step-by-step instructions for registering at Get Registered.

Funding Program: Competitive Grants
One-time grants will be awarded to eligible nonprofit organizations including arts organizations, local arts agencies, statewide assemblies of local arts agencies, arts service organizations, units of state (other than state arts agencies) or local government, and a wide range of other organizations that can help advance the goals of the Arts Endowment and this program.

All applicants must be previous NEA award recipients in good standing from the past four years (NEA's forthcoming Recovery Act grant guidelines will provide details). Listings of grantees from the last four years can be found on our web site.

Sedona, Arizona

While I am airborne heading West to Sedona, AZ, I thought that it may be a cool idea to rehash some of my older thoughts on that area for all the newbies to the blog.

While there's no doubt on the planet that Sedona, Arizona is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, as I discovered while visiting there the last two years, it is also one of the key spiritual magnets to a variety of religions and beliefs, including the significant number of people attracted to Sedona as a result of its "energy Vortexes."

Let there be no doubt that this is an area of profound beauty and full of a palpable sense of energy and power. I have loved it for the last two years and will be back many times, as there are dozens and dozens of trails and vistas to explore. This visit may get interesting as far as hiking, as I am nursing a really sore Achilles tendon (too much basketball); let's hope that massive doses of Advil do the trick.

On my last trip in 2008, I focused some time and comments on the Sedona art scene, a "scene" with some national footprint, regardless of where you stand on the planetary scale of the art world. In fact, within a few minutes of anyone discussing that they're going to Sedona, someone will immediately pop in and describe the city's great art scene.

Last year I approached those views with the prejudiced eyes of the artsy Easterner, accustomed to white cube galleries, minimally presented with austere framing, white matting, and where even title and price labels are often eschewed in preference of a discrete price list on the gallerist's white or light wood postmodern design table.

Let start with the Sedona art galleries from the city's dealers' association, which seems to have shrunk a little in membership since last year - probably as a result of the economy.

But first, extrapolating from the city's website, the city probably has around 12,000 people, and about 90% of them are non-Hispanic whites, and last year came in with a median household income roughly $100,000 less than Potomac, Maryland and paradoxically (also last year) with a median house price about $100,000 more than Potomac's pricey homes. I've been watching those house prices dive bomb both places over the last year, but they're still widely discordant between the two places.

But this dollar discordance is the first of many paradoxes about this gorgeous place.

Depending on who you believe, Sodona also gets between four and five million visitors a year.

The Sedona Visitors Guide tells these millions of visitors that Sedona "not too long ago had 300 residents, now has 300 artists and more than 40 galleries." We also learn from the guide that Sedona averages one gallery per 300 residents, and for every dollar spent on art, the art buyers spend $12 on other Sedona stuff.

I often wonder how the granularity on these statistics take place.

The guide also claimed last year that statistics show that approximately 33% of the city's visitors are attracted there by the art, and that these art aficionados thus spend between $200,000 to one million dollars in various Sedona businesses each day. We thus can extrapolate that around $16,666 to $83,333 dollars are spent each day on art in this small town.

One issue appears to be clear: it's the tourists who buy art, not so much the locals (does that sound familiar?). This makes sense, after all, how much art can 12,000 residents buy from 40 galleries?

Another clear issue is that whoever writes this statement has a wider definition of what makes "art" than from the rest of us; I think. Let's say that I would accept the statistic if it had stated that the money is spent on "arts and crafts."

"Locals don't buy any art," told me last year a former Sedona gallerist, who prior to opening a gallery in Sedona had been a dealer in Chicago. "There are a lot of retired people here [the median age is around 55] and although there are some very large multi-million dollar homes, there are also a lot of modular homes [a fancy way to described a souped-up trailer]."

To the prejudiced and minimalist Easterner eye, the riot of color, subjects and presentation that characterizes most Southwestern art is an assault to long-held visual sensibilities created by the black and white world of the East Coast and Left Coast artworlds and its European and Latin American brethren.

I am shocked to discover that perhaps there's something of an elitist in all of us, as the preconditioning of being an artist, an art critic and an art dealer raised in all those aspects, and mostly along the Eastern states, prejudices my eyes to what I've referred previously as "coyote art."

My better half, who many years ago interned in Santa Fe with the legendary Gerald Peters Gallery (and Peters is credited by many as energizing the interest in Southwestern art and placing Santa Fe and the Southwest in general on the art scene), tried over the last couple of years to educate me somewhat as to the different sensibilities between what she labels "an Easterner, with an East Coast vision of what a gallery should look like, looking at a Southwestern space."

It will take time, but then again, at one point in his life Duncan Phillips hated Impressionism and then eventually was seduced by it and became the American champion for it.

On the other hand, Wisconsin farm girl Georgia O'Keefe, even in her Southwest years always kept her austere black and white world where colors were generally reserved for her paintings.

So for the last two years I have proceeded with as open a mind as I can have, maybe somewhere between Phillips' eventual enthusiasm and O'Keefe's steadfast minimalism in personal tastes.

I am curious to see what changes the economic downturn has wrought, but there were a lot of spaces in and around Sedona that sell artwork. I'm not really sure if there really are 40 galleries, unless one includes a lot of spaces that sell a lot of Native American and Mexican crafts.

Sedona itself is sort of divided into two areas, and as one comes to it from Highway 179, Uptown Sedona is to the right and the other Sedona to the left. Most art spaces are either located on 179 itself or Uptown Sedona.

The first set of galleries one comes across on 179 are located on a shopping area to the right as one enters the city, with a spectacular view (from the shops) of the Sedona rocks and the city itself.

And when you drive up Highway 179 into Sedona, one of the first galleries that you come across is the huge Exposures Gallery, which is located on the right side of 179 as one approaches the city.

Over 20,000 square feet, not including the outside sculpture gardens (I assume) make this the largest art gallery in the state, and probably one of the largest in the nation, perhaps the world.

There's no gallery in the world, in the many, many galleries in nearly all continents that I have visited, that I can compare to this place.

Exposures is a perfect example of what makes most Southwestern art galleries so different from most other fine art galleries in the world; galleries which follow the white cube example of white walls and minimalist hanging styles, coupled with total lack of information about prices, etc.

Not so in the Southwest gallery model, and Exposures is a perfect example of this model for Southwest galleries.

Upon entering the huge spaces, the East Coast gallery sensibility is immediately assaulted by a riot of colors and by a fear of empty space that yields a huge gallery space filled to the brim with art, photography, sculpture, crafts and jewelry. The Greeks called it "horror vaccuii."

This is 21st century salon style presentation married to the joy of colors that is the Southwest.

There are probably a few thousand pieces of art hanging and displayed in this gargantuan space. In fact, so much artwork, and so much variety, that the snobbery of the art world would immediately tend to dismiss this gallery as another "art store" filled with "wall decor."

Not so fast.

There are plenty of art galleries in Sedona that offer wall decor, and the same in the Southwest, and for that matter all over the nation.

Don't be fooled by the sheer scale and invasion of the senses that Exposure offers. This is a very successful gallery which offers some very good artists, some so so artists and some mediocre artists. In other words, just like any other reputable art gallery, but definitely not a cheesy art store. This is a very good Southwestern gallery working flawlessly on that model.

Exposures' success is clearly evident not only in its size, but also in the small army of people that it employs, as well as its history, which essentially repeats the usual gallery story: art-loving couple moves to Sedona, open a small gallery; they do well and open a huge one.

And because Sedona's art buying market is comprised mostly of visitors, this gallery has to operate on the model of exhibiting everything that it has to offer all at once.

It works for them.

So once we get past the fact that this overcrowded gallery space has found its formula for success, and we begin to look at the artwork itself, as I stated before, we find the same mix of great, good, average and mediocre that one finds in any gallery in the world because art truly is in the eyes of the beholder -- or in this case the husband and wife team that picks the artists that they choose to represent and sell.

And sell they do...

On exhibit are works by more than 100 artists; yep, 100... and prices, I was informed, range from $29 to $290,000.

The catchy price range seems to have done wonders for both the artists and the owners.

Not everything is about money and sales; but money and sales make most artists, and definitely most gallery owners, happy. Money may not be everything in the world, but to most people it is damned well ahead of whatever is in second place.

About the artwork itself...

Nearly all of it shares a flawless technical skill and delivery that would make most postmodernists elitists raise their noses a few inches higher. As an admirer of technical skill, I have learned to respect technical skill, but also have learned to then look past it and see content, ideas, context and intelligence in the work.

But before I get to the few artists that stood out for me last year, I must note that the one thing that, in spite of over 100 artists, the gallery lacked was monochromatic or black and white works in this wildly colored universe of art. It could really use a few drawings here and there to break up the dominance of color and painting. But I am biased.

As far as I could see there were only two artists working in drawing. Of the two, the two delicate small graphite drawings by Charles Frizzell stood out like little orphans in an ocean of color.

The charcoal and watercolor pieces by an artist named Yuroz also could mostly be qualified as drawing, but the works themselves were rather forgettable, as Yuroz seems to be channelling several of Picasso's periods -- including a rather mediocre stab at cubism -- in his paintings and drawings. There is too much Picasso in Yuroz, but there is also too much of Yuroz in Exposures, which in economic terms means that someone must be buying lots of his work. I didn't like any of it.

Let me tell you what I did like.

There was some very good photography by Scott Peck, and yet I personally test all flower photography to the spectacular work of Andrzej Pluta, or Joyce Tenneson, or Amy Lamb. In fact if Peck's work is doing well in Exposures, then the art dealer in me is sure that Tenneson, Pluta and Lamb would do even better at Exposures.

Upon entering any business in Arizona that sells imagery, one is bound to find photographs of the desert rocks and formations. By the time that you visit a dozen galleries, one is sick and tired of desert photography.

And yet, one of the most memorable artists in Exposures is a photographer named Martii, whose spectacular desert shots, coupled with superb presentations, make his or her photography one of the best finds in the gallery. And in writing this, I think that another photographer whose work would do well here, would be the split reverse image digitally manipulated split desert photographs by John DeFabbio, who works out of the Washington, DC area. For years DeFabbio has been trekking around the world photographing nearly everything that he sees, then digitally mirroring each half of the image to discover amazing new images in the manipulated work.

But back to Exposures.

The best work in this amazing gallery when I visited last year were beautiful abstract pieces by a Brooklyn-born artist named Eric Lee, one of the rare non-representational artists in the space. Lee creates wonderful reverse paintings in glass that are standouts of skill and delivery. They are fresh and beautiful and add a calming effect to the gallery's riot of color.

There are two galleries in Sedona claiming to have been voted the best gallery in Sedona. I'm not sure who the voters were, but of the two, Exposures is by far the best and certainly one of the most amazing art spaces in the entire Southwest.

And now I have used the example of Sedona's huge Exposure Gallery to discuss what I call the Southwest gallery model -- a gallery packed to the gills with art in a riot of color and fear of empty space -- as opposed to the more standard gallery model of a minimalist white cube for a gallery.

There are a lot of art venues in the Sedona area, nearly all of them, with one notable exception, follow this Southwest model. Most of the better spaces are listed in the Sedona Art Gallery Association website.

Of these, last year Kinion Fine Arts seemed to offer a blend of the two gallery models. In 2008 they had recently moved from the Hozho Center (located at 431 Hwy 179 and home to several galleries) to uptown Sedona, relocating the gallery to a former bank building, safe room and all. The Kinions have divided the gallery into two rooms; at the entrance the Southwest model is in place, but the bank's vault is used for solo shows apparently hung in the cleaner, less cluttered style of the white cube. They're also one of the few art spaces in town where not everything is Southwest art centric.

A new gallery just up a few steps from Kinion Fine Arts, located at Hyatt Pinion Point, is the very beautiful space of the Vickers Collection (there are three of these galleries in total and the one in Sedona is called VC Fine Arts), opened just a year ago and by far the only gallery in the area that fits the cleaner white cube model.

Vickers uses the white cube model, and also offers the most diverse set of artists, not just a heavy-handed focus on Southwest art (as most Sedona galleries do, driven by the tourist art market).

It will be interesting to see if Vickers can survive as the sole Sedona gallery (at least that I've seen) that offers a diverse set of artwork; the type of art that could easily be seen in New York, or Philly or DC. I'll let you know later this week after I drop in again.

At VC I quite liked the bronze sculptures of Bill Starke, a refreshing change of pace from all the bronzes of horses, bears, javalinas, Indians, deer and cowboys that inundate most of this beautiful town's galleries.

I also liked Chris Nelson's smart and intelligent reverse paintings on plexi, which upon further examination are more than just paintings, since the artist also routes the verso of the plexi so that the textured reverse plexi interacts with the acrylic paint to actually create grooves and channels that on the front of the work create smart landscapes. As interesting as this work is, this artist has to be careful that he doesn't fall into a repetitive pattern in his work.

Since I have been in the advice-giving mood, an artist that would be a perfect fir and would actually sell like gangbusters all throughout the Southwest are the amazing storm paintings of the Washington DC area's Amy Marx, who recently had her first solo in New York and whose breath-taking, hyper realism captures massive storms and weather patterns like no artist that I have ever seen.

Another East Coast artist who would be an instant hit in the Southwest is Alexandria's Susan Makara, whose beautiful stacked stones series sell as soon as she is finished with them from her studio in Alexandria's Torpedo factory.

Still in uptown, the Sedona Art Center rounds up a very good artists' run membership gallery of local artists.

There are also quite a few galleries located in a faux Mexican village called Tlaquepaque; after two trips to Sedona, I still can't pronounce it. From there you can cross Oak Creek by foot and visit a whole bunch more galleries on Hwy 179, although the ongoing construction on 179 seemed to be really hurting the gallery business on that road.

Last year I also drove up to Jerome and was very pleased with their galleries.

Jerome, Arizona sits straddling the side of a mountain about a mile high from sea level and less than 30 miles from its more famous cousin Sedona.

"America's most vertical city" -- I am told -- is home to about 400 people, but once boasted 16,000 inhabitants and a brothel madam who was Arizona's richest woman.

Although I think that the whores are long gone, today the town still manages to attract a few million tourists a year, not only for the spectacular views that it affords from nearly every vantage point in this tiny and beautiful town, but also because of a budding gallery scene that although seemimgly having fairly established roots, it only seems to be blossoming out recently with a significant number of art galleries and venues and a rather successful monthly art walk on the first Saturday of the month. With 30 galleries and artists' studios participating in the art walk, it reflects the huge impact of the fine arts in a town of 400.

Most of Jerome's art galleries seem to fit the Southwest style of galleries that I discussed earlier in reference to Sedona. However, and very surprising to me, Jerome's art spaces seem more individual and original -- in most cases -- than Sedona's cookie-cutter model of galleries.

There are several cooperatives that I observed, most noticeably the Jerome Artists Cooperative, where the hilarious (and smart) watercolors of Dave Wilder were on exhibit on that day that I visited in 2008. Full of irony and delivered with superb technical expertise, Wilder flexes well-developed observational skills that challenge the genre of "cowboy art" in a new refreshing manner.




The Spirit Art Gallery, although an independent commercial art gallery, seems to be run like a coop as well, with work by 30 artists on display at once, with some very good talent among them. Last year I was quite impressed by the owner, who was full of energy and zeal for the artists that she represents. I hope that she is still doing well as she had just opened last year.

My Mind's Art Gallery, which features the work of its owner, Ukrainian painter Joanna Bregon, a surrealist artist who has found a home in this unusual little town, also stands out from the cookie cutter cluttered gallery model.

It was refreshing to see diversity in art and rugged individuality in each art space, regardless of how one feels about the quality of the art itself, in some cases.

And then, while walking through the various galleries and talking to some of the owners and artists, it dawned on me that the Jerome galleries and shops is what I had expected to see in Sedona: unique, one-of-a-kind shops, art venues and art galleries.

I also discovered that nearly everyone that I talked to in this tiny town seemed to know everyone else, and also seemed to have a grudge against either the land developers and the expansion of homes in nearby areas (and competition for water) and/or against the Jerome city fathers for a variety of reasons, most dealing with construction issues.

Finally I trekked down to the town's former High School, an ancient multi-story set of buildings that has been converted into artists' studios and workshops - 20 of them.

There the work of Michael MacDonald and Derryl Day really stood out, especially some of Day's older portraiture works, which were exquisite color pencil pieces full of personality and grace, as well as tremendous technical skill. But the key here, with an exception here and there, is that these were all artists in the overall, rounded, sense of the adjective -- not just "Southwest art" artists; it was refreshing and interesting.

As small as Jerome is, it's clear that the town's colorful past, coupled with its amazing location and vistas, and more recently married to a creative artistic community and over-protective city fathers, all act as an irresistible magnet to the hordes of tourists that visit it every year.

It's also clear that there's something special about this place; it can be felt in the air, in its people and in its streets, and the dealer in me wonders if this special spot would not be an ideal place for some sort of very specific and focused art fair - a mini model of my "new art fair model."

Sedona and Jerome are like kissing cousins of the Arizona tourist draw. I think that together, they can also become complimentary partners for an art draw of its own.

As the above words are being published, I am airborne and heading West to Arizona, eager to see what changes have taken place, and what new spaces may have emerged, and in the coyote-eat-coyote world of art, which gallery has closed.

Stay tuned... more later.

Someone still has francs

A painting by Henri Matisse sold Monday for $41.1 million — a record auction price for a work by the artist — at an art sale from the estate of Yves Saint Laurent, Christie's said.

The sale came at the start of a three-day Paris auction of art from the collection of the late French fashion designer that some are calling "the sale of the century."

Details here.

Airborne

Heading to beautiful Sedona, Arizona... art galleries, red rocks, vortexes...

Note to airport designers: The fact that in Philly Airport gate A-11 is right across gate A-2, but gate A-9 is nowhere near gate A-8 may make sense to you, but to the rest of the planet it is a perplexing design silliness.

Wanna be in a PostSecret book?

My good friend Frank Warren is the genius whose worldwide art project, PostSecret, is easily the world's largest public art project by a googleplex of factors.

And Frank just told me about the new PostSecret book that will be released later this year - PostSecret Confessions on Life, Death and God.

This book has been two years in the making, but there is still time to contribute your postcards.


Use this link to watch a personal message from Warren about this special fifth PostSecret book and learn how to mail in your deepest secrets today.