Out of Order at MAP: Drive-by review

Yesterday I got to MAP's Out of Order fundraiser auction art drop off a little earlier than last year, but by the mid afternoon there were already 270 pieces of art hung on MAP's wall.

So it seems that they're well on their way to top last year's numbers of over 600 works of art auctioned off for MAP's benefit, with 50% of the silent auction proceeds going to the artist.

When I got there and was filling out my forms, I had to do a double take on the artist who came after me. He was Michael O'Sullivan's (WaPo art critic) doppleganger, little glasses and all.

On closer examination he was a little older, but whoever this gent was, he really looks like O'Sullivan.

I stopped staring and went back to filling out my paperwork.

"Do you think this piece is too pornographic to hang in this show?" I heard the doppleganger ask the young MAP attendant. I turned and looked.

He had a painting well wrapped; he unwrapped it and showed it to the young girl. She looked a little confused and told him that it was OK. He asked if she was sure.

She then referred him to Julie Ann Cavnor (I think), the young MAP Executive Director, who was sitting behind the gallery's desk.

I couldn't resist, so as he walked to the desk, I stood up and strategically placed myself by the side of the desk, pretending I was studying the piece hung behind it, so that I could steal a look at the potentially offending work of art.

The doppleganger came to Cavnor and asked the same question. She looked at it, and over her shoulder, so did I.

I didn't see her face, but heard her telling the guy that it was OK. She did this in a very nice way.

Former Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Potter Stewart once wrote that that "hard-core pornography" was hard to define, but that "I know it when I see it."

I think that Stewart and I, plus all the MAP personnel and I suspect every person on this planet would agree that there was no pornography in the work that the doppleganger was so anxious about.

Puzzling in fact.

The piece appeared to be an oil painting, sort of a naive style mixture of abstract and representational elements, thick paint application and sort of a New Ageish kind of look to the (ahem) finished product.

No naked bodies that I could discern with my quick stolen glance, no erect penises, no penetration of any orifices, no sucking of any kind, no genitalia that was recognizable as such.

No pornography; at least not on planet Earth.

Bypassing this distraction, I hung my work and moved on to look at the work that had preceded it.

Here's what I liked and what should be acquired during the auction:

There's an untitled lovely seascape watercolor by Patrick Klugh (#220) that will go fast. There's also a gorgeous tempting graphite work by photographer Elena Volkova (#59 and titled "Waterlines) almost next to it. This piece is a very minimalist rendition, clearly influenced by Volkova's equally minimalist photography. It is one of the best pieces in the show.

On the opposite end of the drawing spectrum, there's a very strong charcoal drawing by Matt Bergsbauer titled "Distortion #4 (it's work number 94) that reminded me a lot of Uruguayan artist Javier Gil's work. I also liked McKenzie Lefstein's woodcut titled "Trash City." That piece is number 65.

Two interesting nudes, a little too high for me to determine their media (could be drawing or digital), but with a lot of Vargas and Currin in them were next to each other (numbered 171 and 169 respectively) and seemed to come from the same artist's hand, but identified them as Brenda Brookind and David Wilson.

Number 44, "Hold Both Handles," a cool collage by M. Jordan Tierney was also quite good and should get a decent set of bids, as will Melissa Sue Mauro's appropriation of Hello Kitty in her "Distant Childhood Memories" (#72).

Candace Linthicum's pastel of a nude woman, #27 showed powerful skills with that very difficult medium, adn I also liked Diane Burnett's wire sculpture titled "The Eternal Struggle."

Right around the area where the Burnett sculpture is located, the O'Sullivan doppleganger was now engaged in conversation with a tall gent, and had his painting (wrapped again) under his arm.

"Do you think it's too pornographic?" I heard him ask the gent as I passed by.

The last piece that I will mention in this early look is David Herman's oddly titled "Untitled, Ocean." A powerful oil painting of a seascape that will get many bids, but David, is it untitled or is the title "Ocean"?

As I headed out the door, the doppleganger had returned to the receiving desk, and was once again quizzing once of the volunteers about the pornographicity of his work.

Molly, the fair attendant taking care of him, was being very nice, and I restrained my desire to jump in and ahhhh... ask him which part of "no" was fuzzy to him.

The Auction & Gala starts at 8pm, Friday, April 3, 2009. Go buy some artwork!

Things are not always as they seem

This elusive concept haunts the periphery of three distinct artists’ works, and for the month of April, Projects Gallery (which also sells my work) has three simultaneous solo shows of disparate artists who are united under the umbrella concept of Perception : Reality.

Canadian Ross Bonfanti creates his popular "concreatures" (if you've ever been to an art fair anywhere, any art fair... you've seen them) by rescuing cute, stuffed animals from thrift stores and ripping the stuffing out of ‘em.

The empty vessels are then filled with concrete. Once cured, the fur skin is peeled away, leaving a disarming "concreature" in place. Textured with the underside of the fabric, with fur embedded in the exposed seams, these sculptures retain their plush appearance and original features, including button eyes and noses.

The resulting sculpture is a constant juxtaposition between the expected and the actual.

Philadelphian Lauren Lyons is widely regarded for her photography of bands in highly stylized shoots.

She has photographed artist portraits and cheeky scenarios for illustrious clients such as Interscope Records, PETA, HBO, and Philadelphia Magazine. Celebrated for her accentuation of the artifice of her subjects, Lyons’ work exemplifies a contraction; she captures the visual evidence of the veneer.

Her carefully constructed images provide elusive glimpses at the truth, enough to ‘whet the palette’, ultimately creating a composed stylized truth.

Fellow Cuban Alex Queral’s carved phonebooks usually receive the “how’d-he-do-that?” attention wherever they are exhibited. His lushly detailed carvings are created from the soft material of phonebooks. Using classical carving techniques on an unexpected material, Queral brings forth the individual from the faceless masses. Queral crafts recognizable visages, vaguely familiar but elusively foreign, as well as evoking his own cast of characters from the bound sheets of paper.

Projects Gallery presents these three divergent artists from different regions of the continent. Each will be given their own exhibition space to focus on the individual artist, but the thematic thread connects them all. Popular in their own right, Perception : Reality invites the viewer to discover what lays beyond the first impression of these three artists’ works.

Perception : Reality will be on display April 6 - 25, 2009. There will also be an artist reception on First Friday, April 6th from 6 - 9 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public. Projects Gallery is located at 629 N. 2nd St. in Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties section.

Wanna go to an opening in Frederick, MD this weekend?

The Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center has an openning reception, on Saturday, April 4, 2008, 3-5 pm for married artists William “Skip” Lawrence and Diane Santarella, who have simultaneous shows in April, at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center Center in Frederick, Maryland.

Large canvases with rich layers of color will fill the Delaplaine’s F&M Gallery in “Homecoming”, recent paintings by William “Skip” Lawrence. "States of Mind" , by Diane Santarella, is showing in the Delaplaine’s Gardiner Gallery. Santarella’s paintings explore the graphic, visual experience of meditation, migraines, dreamscapes, and the organization of mental minutiae.

Sandberg at Conner

In Washington, DC, Conner Contemporary celebrates their first decade with concurrent solo exhibitions of new work by three gallery artists: Erik Thor Sandberg, Dean Kessmann and Isaac Maiselman.

I consider Erik Thor Sandberg to be one of the best painters that I have ever met.

His natural skills and his work ethic combine to deliver an artist who is somewhat of a throwback to the great age of painting, but also an artist whose consummate skill is also married to a very contemporary dialogue.

Conner describes Sandberg as an artist who "calls forth the regenerative powers of nature in Cyclical Nature, his third solo exhibition with the Gallery. Viewing the artist's latest series of large oil paintings on canvas elicits as much pleasure as he evidently took in painting them. Freeing figures from interior settings of his previous compositions, Sandberg opened magnificent landscape vistas as sites for the enactment of life, death and regeneration. In his inventive allegories, people and animals negotiate a tenuous balance between knowledge and irrationality. Sandberg reconciled the unsettling eventualities of his protagonists' actions by grounding them in vital elements which assert nature's boundless forces of reclamation and rebirth."

Dean Kessmann furthers his exploration of unusual ways of seeing familiar architectural spaces in Architectural Intersections, his third solo exhibition with the Gallery. In his first solo exhibition with Conner, artist Isaac Maiselman critiques political exploitation of religion in the video installation Entre el Dios, El Diablo.

The openings are on Saturday, April 4 from 6-8PM. If you are a lover of great painting, do not miss this show.

AIPAD report

One dealer, when asked what she’d sold, replied: “Off the record? Nothing. On the record? Nothing.”

Kris Wilton reports in artinfo.com.

Do this tomorrow

Tomorrow, Maryland Art Place (MAP) will be accepting artwork for their annual Out of Order silent auction.

Last year, 425 artists participated in Out of Order and several hundred guests attended, making it one of Baltimore’s most important and memorable art events! Check out my drive-by review of that exhibit here. My Best in Show pick last year was Hadieh Shafie, who won one of the major Baker awards a few days ago! Does the kid have an eye or what?

Proceeds from artwork sales will be split 50/50 between MAP and the artists and will directly support MAP’s exhibitions and programs throughout the year. For submission guidelines, please view the artist prospectus here.

I plan to donate work once again.

Out of Order
Auction & Gala: 8pm, Friday, April 3, 2009

Hanging Dates & Times: 24 non-stop hours beginning 9am, Wednesday, April 1, 2009.

Artists' Websites: Janis Goodman



Janis Goodman is not only an accomplished artist, but also one of the key figures in the Greater Washington, DC art scene. Goodman is a Professor of Fine Art at the Corcoran College of Art + Design, and one of the Arts Reviewer for the PBS/WETA, Channel 26, Around Town program. Visit her website here.

Robin Rose at Hemphill

One of Washington's most influential artists, Robin Rose, opens at Hemphill Fine Arts in DC with a show titled Endeavor. The opening reception is Saturday April 4, 2009 from 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm. The show runs through May 30, 2009.

Wanna do some body painting this Friday in DC?

Here's a party you won't want to miss! The closing of the annual 2009 Erotic Art Show at MOCA DC Gallery will begin at 6 pm on April 3 with very special contests for models and body painting enthusiasts and prizes totaling over $1,000 in value.

Models from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, and as far away as Delaware and New Jersey will be on hand wearing the erotic costume of their choice. A panel of judges will select the top three costumes judged on both originality and erotic flare. First, second and third place winners in the model/costume competition will each be awarded an "in-studio," two-hour portfolio-building photoshoots with one of three of the best known DC-area fashion, glamour, and fine art photographers.

Each of the winners will also be awarded a one-hour make-up session with one of three top-notch professional make-up artists! MOCA DC is fortunate to have Jerry Harke of JR Harke Photography, Inc. (Annandale, VA), Mike Cary of Mike Cary Photography (Fredericksburg, VA), and John Korb from John Korb Photography (Fairfax, VA) donate two-hour photoshoots to the winners. And, the three top notch make-up artists are donating their services to the winners.

Winners of the body painting contests will be awarded a cash prize of $50 for the best body painting artist and $50 for the best human canvas.

MOCA DC is located at 1054 31st St. NW in Canal Square in Georgetown, Washington DC, right next to a few other galleries in the Canal Square complex. For details, email Dave Quammen at mocadc01@comcast.net or call 202.342.6230.

Barbaccia and others at Delaplaine

Joseph Barbaccia's "Resonance" opens Saturday, April 4th at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center's Side Gallery in Frederick, Maryland. The show goes through May 17, 2009.

Included are 12 mixed media sculptures created by Joseph Barbaccia, supported by a portrait of the artist holding one of his works by painter Margaret Dowell. Barbaccia and Dowell set an artistic mirror up to the creative personality by reflecting and revealing the artist through their own work, as well as through another artist’s eyes.

At the Center's Kline Gallery, don't miss Linda Plaisted's "The Arborist: Roots, Resilience and Rebirth" (through April 26). Plaisted "layers her original photographs of the trees of Frederick County with textures from her paintings and collected ephemera. The result is a painterly series of work that share a lucid quality illustrating the natural cycle of birth, growth, death and rebirth."

And at the Gardiner Gallery you must also see "States of Mind" by Diane Santarella (through April 26). This series of paintings explores "the graphic, visual experience of meditation, migraines, dreamscapes, and the organization of mental minutiae. Santerella works in mixed media on paper and canvas with a distinct mark that recalls Zen calligraphy and graffiti. The resulting paintings are quiet, complex and subtly challenging."

The Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center
40 South Carroll Street
Frederick, Maryland 21701

Reclaimed at Target

Reclaimed, an exhibition at Alexandria's Target Gallery focuses on everyday common objects that are reclaimed, recycled, reinterpreted and transformed into art.

From Marcel Duchamp’s “ready-mades” to Robert Rauschenberg’s “combines”, artists have been for years recycling and reclaiming everyday common objects and transforming them into something new and unique. This exhibition was open to all artists nationally and internationally to submit work that has been reclaimed and transformed into their own personal artistic statement. The jurors for this exhibition are gallery owners and collectors, a husband and wife team, my good friends Steven and Linda Krensky.

The exhibition opens on April 1 and goes through April 26, 2009. The opening reception is April 9, 6-8pm and there will be a gallery talk at 7pm.

Another art scam artist...

Body of her email (just as received) below:

Hello.
My name is faith i saw your profile today at (afonline.artistsspace.org) and i love it also became intrested in you,i will also like to know you more,and i want you to send an email directely to my email address so i can give you my picture for you to know whom i am.Here is my email address (faithmbia53@yahoo.co.uk) i believe we can move from here.my love distance or colour does not matter but love matters alot in life.i waiting to recive your lovely reply soon, Yours Love.
Miss faith

New head of PG County Arts Council

(Via Arts & Real Estate) I had heard that my good friend Lionell Thomas had a new job as the head of the Prince George's County Arts Council, but couldn't get the DC Arts Commission (where Lionell worked for many years) to confirm it, and couldn't find anything on the web until now.

Thomas will not only bring a wealth of expertise (much needed by the way) to that Arts Council, but something that money can't buy: energy and true enthusiasm to the arts and to the new job.

2008

I just handed all my 2008 tax paperwork to my CPA and it doesn't look pretty.

Surprisingly though, sales of my own artwork reached an all time high for me. I had not realized this until this week.

In 2008 I had one solo show (of my paintings) and participated in about half a dozen art fairs and about half a dozen group shows.

I seem to do really well in art fairs, where my work has always and consistently sold well in art fairs (although 2009 started with a bummer art fair).

Bottom line: in 2008 I managed to sell nearly 80 drawings! Nearly a third of these were sold in one New York fair.

Most of these were recent drawings, but I also sold a few older pieces to a collector and even several art school works.

2009 started roughly, but I've got some more art fairs already lined up, have work hanging currently in two shows, but I still need to work on a few gallery shows.

Portraitism

With challenging economic times persisting, people are spending more time at home and are looking for affordable luxuries. Portraiture, especially portraits of children is "The New Status Symbol", according to Boston Home Magazine

Absolutearts.com report here and Boston Home Mag's portraits here.

Blue period

Representatives of the arts industries told the House Education and Labor Committee hearing Thursday that the repercussions of the recession go well beyond musicians having to put down their guitars and get "real" jobs. The nonprofit art and cultural industry alone supports 5.7 million jobs and generates $166 billion in economic activity every year, they said.

Read the AP report by Jim Abrams here.

And your art for free

Forbes estimates the personal wealth of Theodore N. Lerner at $2.5 billion, but why spend your own money on art when the taxpayers will commission it for you? The DC Government dead-panned that the baseball art belongs to DC and is only on loan to the Lerners, an assertion worthy of a Larry Neal Award for fiction. The sculpture is site-specific, so saying the art is on loan is like saying you don’t own the fillings in your teeth, you only rent them.

Read Licht on "DC Buys Bronze Bobbleheads for Billionaires" here.

Openness for everyone else but us....

A federal judge in Manhattan has spoken out about a claimant's decision to keep mum about the details of a recent restitution case involving the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Last month, the two museums agreed to a settlement under which they would continue to own two Picasso paintings in their collections and would pay the heirs of the works' original owner, Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, to settle the dispute.

The heirs demanded that the terms remain confidential, a decision the judge, Jed S. Rakoff, questioned when the settlement was announced, citing the museums' public roles and the gravity of the case.

Read the artinfo.com report here.

Baker Artist Award Winners

Congrats to all the Baker Award winners, which were announced yesterday evening in Baltimore.

Carl Grubbs, who is the jazz band director at St. Paul's School in Brooklandville, Hadieh Shafie, a multimedia artist who works as director of career services at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and John Ruppert, a sculptor and chairman of the department of art at the University of Maryland, College Park, were the three winners of the Mary Sawyers Baker awards. The winners were selected through a private juried process and will each receive $25,000.

Another seven artists were named winners of $1,000 "Baltimore's Choice" awards, which were selected by public online voting.

You can see all the award winners here.

When countries go bad...

Yale University has gone to court in a preemptive attempt to protect its claim to an 1888 Van Gogh painting in its collection, Business Week reports.

“The Night Café,” which entered the university collection in 1961 through a bequest from alumnus Stephen Carlton Clark, once belonged to the great Russian collector Ivan Morozov. Russia nationalized his holdings during the revolution and later sold the work.

According to Yale’s suit, Pierre Konowaloff, a Paris-based man purporting to be Morozov’s grandson, last year asserted through a lawyer that he owned the painting and sent a draft complaint of a federal suit. Konowaloff argues that the Soviet nationalization of property was illegal and that the painting is the rightful property of his great-grandfather and his estate.

Read the Artinfo.com report here.

Earlier when I discussed that fact that all the nationalized stolen Cuban artwork which has subsequently been sold by the Cuban dictatorship (mostly to French museums) would one day be subject to claims by the rightful owners, I completely forgot about Russia's earlier nationalizing theft of privately owned artwork which was then subsequently sold by the evil empire.

And in this wide open arena where governments left and right are suing institutions for the return of their national patrimonies, the writing is on the wall.