The place to be tonight is...

I know that I've been nagging you to death over this, but if you miss it, you'll hear about it and wish that you'd gone.

It's not just me... so far the Daily Candy, Penn Quarter Living, The Washington Post, The Gazette, The Express, The Hill Rag, and a few others I had not even heard of until recently all say that the place to be tonight is at Flashpoint in DC, for the opening reception from 6-8pm of Andrew Wodzianski's House.

Let me re-start with a warning: this exhibit is not for the faint of heart, or the weak of constitution.

If you choose to attend, then you take your chances, there will be food and drink and ghosts... and an opening like no art gallery or artsy folks have ever seen before.

See ya there!

Winston-Salem, you've been Jenkins-ed

DC's own Tape Dude does it again... check out the Winston Salem Journal report here.

"That's Jenkins as in Mark Jenkins, a famous artist who has stopped pedestrians around the world midstep with his life-size, life-like packing-tape casts of bodies positioned in sometimes strange, sometimes normal, always weird ways.

The commotion in Winston-Salem started about 1:15 p.m. yesterday, when police and medics rushed to the corner of Eighth and Trade streets downtown. They'd gotten a report that a woman's body was draped on top of a billboard. They got there, looked up, saw the body and started to climb.

When they got to the top, they found not a person needing rescuing, but a plastic "mannequin," put there as part of one of Jenkins' public art exhibits."

Mark has gone around the world and certainly has become one of the planet's premier street artists while virtually ignored by museum curators in his own city.

Remember the life-sized car that he made for his Fraser Gallery Georgetown solo show in 2005? Or these below that he installed outside the Warehouse Gallery for "Seven" also in 2005?

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Saturday, October 10, 2009

Hurry! the deadline is this Saturday, October 10, for IMAGE/PROJECT, the Arlington Art Center's juried show for photography and video. Juror: Taryn Simon, a photographer who's shown at the Pompidou, the Whitney, the Met, and many other places.

The entry can be found here.

Congrats!

To my good friends Susan Jamison and Akemi Maegawa.

Susan Jamison will have a solo exhibition at the Taubman Museum, Roanoke, VA, in March, 2010.

Akemi Maegawa's work will be featured in a special installation at the NADA art fair in Miami Beach, "Hello Daruma, Hello Modern," sponsored by the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

They are both represented by Irvine Contemporary in Washington, DC.

First anti Rockwell salvo

The first shot at the guaranteed to be a very popular mega museum exhibition of Norman Rockwell's artwork in the collection of two very successful, and very progressive major contributors to the Democratic party have been fired.

When I announced the coming Rockwell exhibition opening at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on July 2, 2010 I wrote:

Now for some easy predictions: the high brow elitist critics will all unite in one front and all hate this show. The public, being far more progressive and democratic in their acceptance of what is art (without silly obsolete notions of "high" art and all other art, and without ingrained notions of "illustration" versus "high art") will line out to see the exhibition and continue to love Rockwell as they have for decades.

Boom! the first shot came across the bow of the exhibition a few days ago.

Boom! In an otherwise quite good and interesting article on the future of photography, the Washington Post's Oxford-educated (yields an Anglo-centric perspective on the world) Chief Art Critic writes that "It's not that art museums never show "low" painting. The Corcoran has shown Norman Rockwell..." It is the classic and antiquated (and uniquely American traditional view) critical perspective of high art and low art.

Separate everything; label everything, put everything and everyone in a box with a label: high art, low art, fine art, illustration, Hispanics, Latinos, Scots-Irish, Jewish-American, Cuban-American...

And don't let Rockwell get away with it; it's not high art, it's not high art, it's not high art.

The Obama Art List

Here's the Obama art list. After reviewing this list a little more carefully, and realizing that no politician ever does anything without some political reason, I now think that the Gopnikmeister may have been more on the ball on some of his thinking here than I gave him credit for.

Awright... he was right mostly and I was wrong... mostly. And I didn't know that Morandi was a fascist, but I bet that by now the Obamas do! Good job Blake.

One last thought: For a real political coup, what the President should have done, in a truly populist move, should have been to mix into the selections about a dozen works by emerging/mid level artists (rather than all museum level artists) and pick a dozen works from the vast holdings of the Arts in Embassies inventory. This is a missed PR opportunity for a PR-hungry White House. Imagine the impact on those artists' local media markets if a local artist would have been picked to adorn the walls of the White House? Whoever advised the Obamas on this caper missed a truly great chance to add votes to the move. By the way, my earlier advice was published here.

These will be in the President's residence:

· Josef Albers -- "Homage to the Square: Elected II" (1961) -- Hirshhorn Museum

· Josef Albers -- "Homage to the Square: Midday" (1954-57) -- Hirshhorn Museum

· Josef Albers -- "Study for Homage to the Square: Nacre" (1965) -- Hirshhorn Museum

· George Catlin -- "A Crow Chief at His Toilette" (1861-69) -- National Gallery of Art

· George Catlin -- "Camanchees Lancing a Buffalo Bull" (1861-69) -- National Gallery of Art

· George Catlin -- "Mired Buffalo and Wolves" (1861-69) -- National Gallery of Art

· George Catlin -- "Cheyenne Village" (1861-69) -- National Gallery of Art

· George Catlin -- "Grizzly Bears Attacking Buffalo" (1861-69) -- National Gallery of Art

· George Catlin -- "Grassy Bluffs" (1861-69) -- National Gallery of Art

· George Catlin -- "Game of the Arrow-Mandan" (1861-69) -- National Gallery of Art

· George Catlin -- "A Foot War Party in Council-Mandan" (1861-69) -- National Gallery of Art

· George Catlin -- "Ball-Play Dance-Choctaw" (1861-69) -- National Gallery of Art

· George Catlin -- "Buffalo Chase, With Accidents" (1861-69) -- National Gallery of Art

· George Catlin -- "Catlin and Indian Attacking Buffalo" (1861-69) -- National Gallery of Art

· George Catlin -- "K'nisteneux Indians Attacking Two Grizzly Bears" (1861-69) -- National Gallery of Art

· Edward Corbett -- "Washington, D.C. November 1963 III" (1963) -- National Gallery of Art

· Edgar Degas -- "Dancer Putting On Stocking" (c. 1896-1911) -- Hirshhorn Museum

· Edgar Degas -- "The Bow" (c. 1896-1911) -- Hirshhorn Museum

· Richard Diebenkorn -- "Berkeley, No. 52" (1955) -- National Gallery of Art

· Nicolas De Stael -- "Nice" (1954) -- Hirshhorn Museum

· Sam Francis -- "White Line" (1958-59) -- National Gallery of Art

· Winslow Homer -- "Sunset" (c. 1875) -- National Gallery of Art

· Jasper Johns -- "Numerals, 0 through 9" (1970) -- National Gallery of Art

· William H. Johnson -- "Booker T. Washington Legend" (c. 1944-45) -- Smithsonian American Art Museum

· William H. Johnson -- "Children Dance" (c. 1944) -- Smithsonian American Art Museum

· William H. Johnson -- "Flower to Teacher" (c. 1944) -- Smithsonian American Art Museum

· William H. Johnson -- "Folk Family" (c. 1944) -- Smithsonian American Art Museum

· Glenn Ligon -- "Black Like Me #2" (1992) -- Hirshhorn Museum

· Giorgio Morandi -- "Still Life" (c. 1955) -- National Gallery of Art

· Giorgio Morandi -- "Still Life" (c. 1955) -- National Gallery of Art

· Louise Nevelson -- "Model for 'Sky Covenant' " (1974) -- National Gallery of Art

· Susan Rothenberg -- "Butterfly" (1976) -- National Gallery of Art

· Mark Rothko -- "Red Band" (1955) -- National Gallery of Art

· Edward Ruscha -- "I think I'll . . ." (1983) -- National Gallery of Art

· Alma Thomas -- "Sky Light" (1973) -- Hirshhorn Museum

· Leon Polk Smith -- "Stretch of Black III" (1961) -- National Gallery of Art

· Unknown Artist -- "Chief Jumper of the Seminoles" (possibly 1837-1838) -- National Gallery of Art

Loaned art that will be in the West Wing

· Frank O. Salisbury -- "President Harry S. Truman" -- Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Mo. (in the Cabinet Room)

· Lucy M. Lewis -- Vase (1962) -- National Museum of the American Indian (in the Oval Office)

· Jeri Redcorn -- Bottle, "Intertwining Scrolls" (2005) -- National Museum of the American Indian (in the Oval Office)

· Steve Smith -- Jar (c. 1980) -- National Museum of the American Indian (in the Oval Office)

· Maria Poveka Martinez -- Jar (1959) -- National Museum of the American Indian -- (in the Oval Office)

· Samuel F. B. Morse -- Telegraph Register patent model (1849)-- National Museum of American History (in the Oval Office)

· John A. Peer -- Gear Cutter patent model (1874) -- National Museum of American History (in the Oval Office)

· Henry William -- 1877 steamboat feathering paddlewheel patent model (1877) -- National Museum of American History (in the Oval Office)

Loaned art that will be hung in the East Wing

· Alma Thomas -- "Watusi (Hard Edge)" (1963) -- Hirshhorn Museum

Acquired, location yet to be determined

· Mark Rothko -- "No. 17" or "No. 15" (1949) -- National Gallery of Art

Spanish chocolates and Spanish photographs

Spanish Ghosts: Spain's Abandoned Architecture - Photographs by Mark Parascandola

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 8, 6:00-8:30. Free Spanish chocolate and wine tasting!

Studio B at Biagio Fine Chocolate
1904 18th Street NW (between T Street and Florida Avenue)
Washington DC

The landscape of Spain is dotted with abandoned structures, ghosts of a multi-layered history. Preserved in the arid climate, these architectural remains reveal the impact of time, weather, and transient visitors who have left their own mark. The subjects in this series of photographs include the Carabanchel prison in Madrid, a salt-eroded church on the coast of Almeria, leftover "spaghetti western" film sets, and the Cortijo del Fraile, the site of events that inspired Federico Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding. The exhibit will be on display in Studio B at Biagio Fine Chocolate at 1904 18th Street NW throughout the month of October.

The exhibit and reception are part of a month-long series of activities planned by SpainDC to highlight Spanish culture in the Washington DC area.

Join them on Thursday, October 8, from 6:00 – 8:30 pm, to view the photographs, sample chocolates from Spain, and enjoy a tasting of three award-winning Spanish wines!

Spain has more vineyard acreage than any other country in the world. Tradewinds (Tradewinds Specialty Imports is Spanish wine import company based in Washington DC) will be sharing "three top-rated boutique wines they have hand-selected from family-run, estate-vineyards, across Spain. The wines being tasted, ranging from the more well known, to more secret, regions of Spain, are all available in Washington DC and are exclusively distributed by Tradewinds." Mark Parascandola is a photographer based in Washington DC with family roots in Almeria in the south of Spain.

Gopnik on the Obama's art taste

This is perhaps the most elitist art opinion article that I have ever read, and the reason why populists distrust and dislike the arts intelligentsia's brutally off putting look at everything from a left side of the brain perspective.

Gopnik is way off base on some of his perspectives on the artwork the Obamas have been choosing. Or is he?

I still think that he is a decent art critic, but he would make one shitty collector, if he really wastes brain cells like he does in this piece

Working with curators at the White House and at the local museums that made loans, the First Couple selected some works whose politics are explicit, and mild. They seem to redress past imbalances in the nation's sense of its own art. There are works by African Americans (seven paintings from three artists, out of a total of 47) and by Native Americans (four artists contributed three modern ceramics and one abstract painting). There are also 12 paintings depicting Native Americans, by the 19th-century ethnographic artist George Catlin.

But there are still only six works by women, vs. 41 by men. And there are no works at all by Latinos. (A work by the deceased Cuban American artist Félix González-Torres would have filled the gap perfectly, and added a nod to the country's gay culture. The Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum has one that could have been borrowed.)

Unless the brilliant Gopnikmeister is fucking with us and he's really writing this piece to get picked up by the AP and UPI and distributed all over the world.

Even the most positive of gestures made by the new White House loans can have complications wrapped around them. One of the African Americans with pictures in the Obamas' residence is William H. Johnson, a sophisticated artist who trained in Scandinavia in the 1930s. After returning to the United States to bide out World War II, however, he made pictures of Harlem that can seem falsely naive, as though buying into then-standard notions that "genuine" black culture was "simpler" than the culture of white Europeans. Why did one of the new White House Johnsons, showing impoverished parents and children in a modest room, get titled "Folk Family"? Did being poor and black make you more "folky" than other Americans?

As for the Catlin Indians, should we think of them as a positive nod to the original peoples of this continent, or are they all about a white colonialist gawking at exotic conquered peoples? Paul Chaat Smith, who curates contemporary art at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, says that even he and other native peoples aren't sure of the answer. "They're not us, they're not for us," he says, but they're also "part of how we think about ourselves."

In today's art world, these kinds of debates and complexities are where you want to sink your teeth. In those terms, the Obamas could hardly have done a better job of choosing their loans.

Mmmm... maybe Gopnik is shooting for a MSNBC or Fox or some other divisionist network guest appearance.

Smart guy.

PS - On the Félix González-Torres idea... thank you but no thank you. We'd rather get picked on merit rather than by a need to fill ethnic niches. We Latinos don't like to be segregated or boxed in or labeled. We'd rather be chosen by an art collector or a President trying to get free loaners for the White House for our artistic merit rather than by our ethnicity. How many Italian-American artists are in the Obama collection? How many German-Americans? How many Arab-American? Stop putting labels on Americans. Stop trying to check all the boxes and choose artwork for art's sake.

Silly rabbit.

Wanna go to an arts panel tomorrow?

Thursday, Oct. 8; 7 p.m. Panel Discussion: Remembering the Things Past: A Conversation Celebrating Anne Truitt

On the opening night of "Anne Truitt: Perception and Reflection," join the Hirshhorn for a discussion moderated by Tim Gunn, chief creative officer at Liz Claiborne and a former student of Truitt's. Artist Martin Puryear, filmmaker Jem Cohen, photographer John Gossage and associate curator Kristen Hileman as they share their unique perspectives on Truitt's career as an artist, professor and author.

These friends and colleagues of the artist reflect on her important contributions to 20th-century abstraction and the Washington, D.C. arts community. The exhibition will remain open until the panel discussion begins. Admission is free. Tickets for the talk will be distributed on a first-come basis starting at 5:45 p.m. in the lobby.

Andrew Wodzianski's House opens tomorrow

Tomorrow, Thursday, October 8, 2009, the place to be is at Flashpoint in DC, for the opening reception from 6-8pm of Andrew Wodzianski's House.

Let me start with a warning: this exhibit is not for the faint of heart, or the weak of constitution.

If you choose to attend and take your chances, there will be food and drink and ghosts... and perhaps even a few murders. Of your safety, Flashpoint can make no such guarantee. It isn’t a very warm welcome, is it?

Before the party begins, let’s go over the details.

In this exhibit you will see thirteen artworks, nine of which are paintings. All nine depict interior sets and props used in William Castle’s cult camp classic film, 'House on Haunted Hill’, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

The paintings are a triumph of technical and creative visual minimalism. Still images from the film are manipulated and juxtaposed onto tinted canvas, and obfuscated by multiple layers of white glaze and velaturas.

Do you believe in ghosts? Much like the ones haunting the film, the works themselves appear veiled, slightly threatening and unresolved. Don’t worry, you’re safer at the gallery than anywhere else. And the ghosts in this house will be glad that you came.

Are we all strangers to each another? At the opening is not the time for being alone. For the dearly departed did not shuffle off his mortal life with the intent of doing so alone. No! He wanted – wants – you to experience the art all the more with your presence, your action, your... life? What other funerary comes dressed in white? But I realize this is a very unusual party.

The ghosts are already moving, and that’s a bad sign. But you don’t believe in ghosts, do you?

So why don’t you take a tour through Wodzianski’s House tomorrow evening, and let’s see what happens, shall we?

What’s the use of saying Good Night?

Flashpoint
916 G St NW
Washington DC 20001
202.315.1305

Two more in trouble

Two more DC area galleries are contemplating closing; more later...

Langley Spurlock at Studio

There's a very cool (and highly affordable) exhibition currently at Studio Gallery.

There you will find 100 Paintings, drawings, photos and prints of birds and only birds. Imagined birds; Abstract birds; Absurd birds; Sexy birds; Cocky birds; Fighting birds; Rare birds; Odd birds; Extinct birds, etc. by Langley Spurlock.

There is also The Winged Bestiary, an Illustrated Abcedarium of Feathered Nonsense from A to Zumborouk, a very impressive collaboration with the poet John Martin Tarrat.

There are receptions on Friday, October 9, 6 - 8 pm and on Friday, October 16, 6 - 8 pm.

Who knows the real story about this painting?

At least six bidders do (definitely not the auction house estimator):

An 18th-century unsigned oil painting of the Grand Canal in Venice, estimated at a modest $6,000 to $8,000, sold for $687,125 Sunday afternoon at Sloans & Kenyon auction house in Chevy Chase. It is believed to be the most expensive painting ever sold at a Washington area auction.

Thirteen phone bidders competed against live bidders in the gallery for this work from the "school of" the 18th-century artist Giovanni Antonio Canaletto.

Interesting, nu?

"It is highly probable the painting is by Michele Marieschi," said London art dealer Charles Beddington, who was an adviser to the painting's runner-up, who stopped bidding at $550,000. Marieschi, another 18th-century artist, never signed his work and died young, Beddington said.

Read the WaPo story here.

Wanna go to a GMU opening this Friday?

The work of 22 GMU students and alumni opens this this Friday with a reception from 6 to 9PM. While there check out the work of Ryan McCoy.

FTC'ing bloggers

The Federal Trade Commission will require bloggers to clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products.

It is the first time since 1980 that the commission has revised its guidelines on endorsements and testimonials, and the first time the rules have covered bloggers.

Details here.

Matt Sesow at MFA

I hear that Matt Sesow had a great opening at Mayer Fine Art in Norfolk with loads of sales. Congrats to both!

Wanna go to an Open Studio today?

What: J.T. Kirkland Open Studio

When: Saturday, October 3, 4-8pm

Where: 47762 Mariner Ct, Sterling, VA 20165

New Drawing

The first one in months!

Excuse(s): I've been away (spent all of July screwing around the desert in California), had to make a major move back to DC from Philadelphia, and had my third child arrive a month ago. I'm still unpacking yo! And getting less than 3-4 hours sleep a day!

The Killing of The Christ
Charcoal and conte on paper. 4 feet by 4 feet. 2009.
F. Lennox Campello
I may have to revisit this drawing... I couldn't remember exactly on which side Christ was pierced by the Spear of Destiny used by the Roman Centuriun Longinus.

I've drawn a slight reference to it on His left side, as my Catholic school background seems to recall that side, but since I am not very religious, I can't be 100% sure. I guess I will check the New Testament, unless someone can leave a comment and let me know. Then I will draw the wound.

Andrew Wodzianski's House opens next week

On Thursday, October 8, 2009, the place to be and be seen in the District is at Flashpoint, for the most unusual opening reception from 6-8pm of Andrew Wodzianski's House.

Let me start with a warning: prepare yourself for an art exhibition like no art exhibition that you’ve ever been to, in fact, an art exhibition like no one has ever been to.

Not that novel ideas for art exhibitions are anything new for Andrew Wodzianski, but this one takes the prize.

Years before Twitter, Wodzianski orchestrated a solo show at Fraser Gallery where visitors could use Yellow Arrows (Twitter’s predecessor) to text immediate criticism and comments about his work to an online site.

It was such a new and innovative marriage of art and emerging digital communications technology, that most of it completely went over the heads of art critics and visitors alike: “text what to where?” It did catch the attention of a University curator who gave Wodzianski a follow up exhibition of this novel pre-Twitter concept of immediate digital feedback.

He also once showed up to an opening dressed as a ninja, and once as a woman.

In this exhibit you will see thirteen artworks (not a coincidence), nine of which will be paintings. All nine paintings depict interior sets and props used in William Castle’s cult campy film 'House on Haunted Hill’, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The paintings are a triumph of technical and creative visual minimalism as still images from the film are manipulated and juxtaposed onto tinted canvas, and obfuscated by multiple layers of white glaze and velaturas [literally, there is only white titanium oil paint on a pastel ground]. Much like the 1959 film, the paintings themselves appear veiled and slightly threatening and unresolved.

But there’s a lot of other stuff going on around this exhibition besides these uneasy images. There is a real casket, a haunted house, Andrew’s first “official” art performance, selective mailings, miniature coffins, a scavenger hunt, free artwork, nurses, funeral directors, pall bearers, Twitter feeds, a Halloween after-party, and O yeah… be prepared to meet Vincent Price (star of the film).

And most of all be prepared for an art experience like you’ve never experienced before.

October Art festivals

Lots of great art festivals coming to the area this month, starting this Saturday with one of the area's beat art and craft festivals: Alexandria's Art on the Avenue in Del Ray. Music, food, kids' activities and loads of good, affordable artwork.

Art on the Avenue
Saturday, October 3, 10-6PM
Mt. Vernon Avenue in Alexandria
www.artontheavenue.org

Crafty Bastards Arts n Crafts Fair
Saturday, October 3, 10-5PM
Marie Reed Learning Center on 18th NW St, NW at Wyoming.
www.washingtoncitypaper.com/cratfybastards

Bethesda Art Market
Saturday, October 10, 10-5PM
Bethesda Place Plaza, corner of Old Georgetown Road and Woodmont Avenue.
www.bethesda.org

Lee-Fendall House Art and Craft Show
Saturday, October 17, 10-4PM
Orinoco Street, Alexandria
www.leefendallhouse.org

12th Annual Bethesda Row Arts Festival
Saturday, October 17th from 11am – 6pm
Sunday, October 18th from 11am – 5pm
www.bethesdarowarts.org