Battle of Agincourt

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, where in 1415 a modern assessment estimates that 7,000 - 9,000 English archers and soldiers faced 12,000 French soldiers on St. Crispin's Day on this epic battle of the 100 Year's War. Contemporary English assessments of the times had estimated 6,000 for England and 20,000 - 30,000 for France.

History and legend credit the Welsh bowmen under Henry V's command for swinging the tide of victory to the English king.

Legend has it that this battle is where flipping the finger(s) as a sign of contempt emerged. As the English army was composed mostly of longbow men, and the archers needed his first two fingers to use the longbow, it is claimed that the French threatened to cut the fingers off the English longbow men.

In a contemptuous gesture, before the battle started, the English showed their two fingers to the French to show them that they still had their fingers. That legend would explain why in Britain the gesture of flipping the bird still uses the first two fingers of the hand reversed.

The battle is, of course, the main theme and the center piece of the play Henry V, by William Shakespeare.

Wanna go to an opening tomorrow?

SOFAlab

How and where do art and science - two seemingly disparate disciplines of intellectual inquiry - overlap? And, at that confluence, what can practitioners of both disciplines learn to expand their unique fields of knowledge and to affect consciousness?

SOFAlab on Nov. 5, 2009.

SOFAlab's keynote speaker, Tod Machover - Professor of Music and Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, the inventor of Hyperinstruments, a trained-Juilliard musician, and, the man Los Angeles Times deemed, “America's Most Wired Composer” - will bring his boundless knowledge of creative technology to the discussion. With each of Machover's innovations, such as his Hyperinstruments, Hyperscore, Brain Opera, Toy Symphony and MMH (Music, Mind and Health), he has intentionally explored the space where science and art collide and in doing so challenged traditional perceptions of both fields.

Expanding the discussion further, SOFAlab's panelists will include Maria Barbosa, Professor of Biology and a DC-based installation artist, Ernesto Barreto, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy and the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University, and Brandon Morse, Professor of Digital Media at the University of Maryland and a DC-based video installation artist specializing in 3-D environments and animation software.

SOFAlab takes place on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 - 6pm reception, 7pm keynote address & panel at the Carnegie Institute of Washington, 1530 P Street, NW, Washington, DC. Free and Open to the Public.

For more information please contact the organizers: Helen Frederick, Shanti Norris, or Paul So, or view the event website at /www.hamiltonianartists.org/sofalab.

The Reconquista of Lisbon

Today is the anniversary of the fall of Lisbon in 1147 to the siege Crusade armies of Alfonso Henriques, who eight years earlier had become Alfonso the First of the new kingdom of Portugal, which up to then was a troublesome county that was part of the legendary Kingdom of Leon.

The new king not only achieved independence from Leon, but also doubled his new country's size by reconquering lands in Moorish control. Surrounded on its borders by the huge kingdoms that would eventually become Spain three centuries later, Portugal looked to the ocean for exploration and trade and Portuguese explorers sailed all over the world. At one point, the imperialistic tiny kingdom had more colonies around the planet than any other European country and today Portuguese is the sixth most widely spoken language in the world, just a few million speakers behind Arabic.

Happy anniversary to beautiful Lisbon and the nation of Portugal.

PS - Today was also "Black Thursday" in 1929.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Nov. 20th, 2009

If you read this blog then you know that I've been always very impressed with the BlackRock Center for the Arts gallery's 1500 square feet of exquisite gallery space. With its high white walls and beautiful windows strategically placed, this gorgeous gallery allows in just the right amount of natural light. BlackRock Center for the Arts is located at 12901 Town Commons Drive Germantown, MD in upper Montgomery County, about 20 minutes from the Capital Beltway (495).

They currently have a call to artists and the call is open to all artists residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC over the age of 18.

Original artwork only. All work must be ready for sale and to be presented in a professional manner to the public at the time of delivery.

This call will cover exhibits in the gallery from September 2010 through August 2011. An exhibit may include one applicant or a combination of applicants, based on the judgment of jurors (i.e., 1 or 2 wall artists may be combined with a pedestal artist). A jury will select the artists and create eight exhibits to be included in the exhibit year. The jury panel is comprised of my good friend and gallerist Elyse Harrison, Jodi Walsh, and yours truly.

Jurying: First Week of December
Notification: Early January
Exhibit Year: Sept. 2010 – Aug. 2011

How to apply: All correspondence will be done by e-mail, so contact Kimberly Onley, the Gallery Coordinator at konley@blackrockcenter.org and ask her to email you a prospectus.

Don't wait to the last minute! Get the prospectus now!

Copyright and Contract basics

Washington Project for the Arts and Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts (WALA) invite you to a No Artist Left Behind workshop on Copyright and Contract basics at the Arlington Art Center.

John D. Mason, an attorney at The Intellectual Property Group, PLLC., will share valuable information about contemporary issues in copyright law that artists need to know, followed by a question and answer session.

John D. Mason is a Washington DC/Maryland-based art and entertainment and intellectual property attorney. His practice focuses on copyright and trademark matters, litigation, contracts, and commercial matters. He works with writers, artists, and creative people and companies to protect and promote their work and is also a literary agent. He sits on the Board of Directors of the Washington Lawyers for the Arts.

No Artist Left Behind is a series of professional development workshops offered by Washington Project for the Arts providing resources to help artists succeed both inside and outside the studio.

This event is free and open to the public. Attendance is limited to 50 people. Please RSVP to agriffiths@wpadc.org

Location:
Arlington Arts Center
3550 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA 22201

Wanna go to an opening tomorrow?

In his premiere exhibit at Addison/Ripley Fine Art in Georgetown, photographer James Osher presents an exhibition that examines subject matter which is derived from historic paintings in several museums, including, most recently the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

As the artist states, "My work explores the transitory aesthetics of contemporary art viewing." By basing the work on the paintings of Masters and Old Masters, the artist is able to examine culturally assumed "value" as it pertains to "priceless" objects. Osher's work "allows viewers to experience these masterpieces in entirely new ways, forming fresh conceptual relationships with historically relevant works of art."

The opening reception for the artist at Addison/Ripley is this Saturday, October 24 from 5-7PM. The exhibition goes through December 5, 2009.

Studio space available

Only two individual artists studios remain in a wonderful new visual arts building! Located on Rhode Island Avenue just across the DC line in the Gateway Arts District, the Gateway Art Center building has a total of 12 visual art studios and multiple galleries.

The last two available studios are right off the loading dock at the 39th street entrance. Studio 207C is 418 sf and rents for $348 per month PLUS utilities and Studio 207D is 432 sf and rents for $360 per month PLUS utilities.

This warehouse was completely rehabilitated and has really turned out beautifully. With all new walls, windows and heating/cooling system you need to see it to believe it. There are eleven (11) artists, one arts nonprofit and one government-sponsored arts program starting to move in. Come be a part of this great community!

To see a space right away call John at 301-864-3860 ext. 3.

Philadelphia artist takes the inaugural $150K Wolgin Prize

You already know how I bitched about the fact that the jurors for this very generous prize really screwed up in their lazy elitism and ignored the fact that this prize was supposed to go to an emerging artist. Instead, as announced tonight in Philly and discussed in Philly.com:

Ryan Trecartin, a young Philadelphia painter and sculptor whose psychedelic, desultory, kitschy video work has found love among critics and collectors, has been given the first $150,000 top award in the Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts - one of the richest art prizes in the world.

... Trecartin's works have attracted wide attention, appearing at the 2006 Whitney Biennial, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Saatchi Gallery in London and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. He recently was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, which carries a $60,000 cash award.

... Glahn said the competition would likely undergo refinement for its next round; it might be hard to call any of the three finalists an emerging artist, since all three have exhibited widely.

"What might change is our definition of what emerging is," he said.

Right... fit the mistake to the error so that from now on an "emerging artist" is someone who appears at the Whitney Biennial, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Saatchi Gallery, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, etc.

That's much easier to do (change the definition of emerging artist so that the next set of jurors picks another artist at the blue chip well-known level of Trecartin) than actually do what Mr. Wolgin wants and have the prize go to a fucking emerging artist.

Tyler University and Temple Gallery and Jack Wolgin: How about making the 2010 jurors work for real and earn their jury money so that from now on a prize supposed to go to emerging artists go to emerging artists. If you need to know how to do this, call me.

And congrats to Trecartin, who has no fault in this mess of a first year for the Wolgin Prize; at least the loot stayed home for Philly.

Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 Winner

Tonight the National Portrait Gallery announced the winner of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 at the opening reception and the winner is photographer Dave Woody from Ft. Collins, CO. The exhibition will open to the public tomorrow Friday, Oct. 23 and will remain on view through August 22, 2010.

Erik by Dave Woody
Congrats to Dave Woody! You can see his portraits here.

The Killing of Dub

The Killing of Dub(h)
Charcoal and Conte on Paper Panels c.2009
10 feet by 4.5 feet
At ten feet long this is by far my largest drawing ever and (since it was a private commission) heading to a collection in San Diego (but I do have the much, much smaller study available for sale).

The drawing depicts the drowning of the Celtic witch Dub or Dub(h). She was married to the elf Énna and was very jealous. Upon learning that her husband Énna had taken a second wife named Áíde, Dub cast a spell on the second wife and drowned Áíde and all of her family. Seeing this, Áíde's servant threw a rock at Dub, hit her on the head and Dub fell into the same pool and also drowned. Dublin is named after the place where she drowned. Lin or Linn in Gaelic is "Pool" ("Dub" means "Black"). Thus Dub + Lin equals Dublin or Dub's Pool.

Click on the image for a larger version.

JRA and Washington Craft Show

Deadline to register: October 30, 2009

Join the James Renwick Alliance from Noon to 5:30pm on November 7, 2009 for an afternoon of craft and design with artist and collector-led tours of the Washington Craft Show that explore the criteria used to look at glass, ceramics, fiber, metal/jewelry, and wood as genres of collecting and for increased appreciation on the art form.

Participants will begin at a nearby gallery featuring work by an artist involved with the new textile design project that will be visited later in the afternoon. Artist and collector experts in specific craft mediums will give brief 3-point "this-is-what-to-look-at" talks about ceramics, glass, fiber, metal/ jewelry and wood before going to the Washington Craft Show. Light refreshments will be served.

Participants will then walk to the Washington Convention Center to tour the Washington Craft Show as part of a medium specific group. Each group will visit the booths of 2-3 artists working in that medium who will talk about their work. The tour part of the afternoon concludes around 2:45pm allowing the participants to enjoy the craft show and show events on their own.

From 3:30pm to 5:30 pm, participants are invited to a private reception near the Convention Center to view a private collection of studio furniture and ceramics, and to see the results of a three-week textile design experiment. Representatives of the sponsoring gallery and the artist will talk about the project concept.

Price: $30.00 for JRA members and $35.00 for non-members. Both prices include a ticket to the Washington Craft Show. $10 of registration fee supports JRA programs and is tax deductible.

Deadline to register: October 30, 2009
Group sizes are limited

To register please contact the James Renwick Alliance office.

Wanna go to a gallery opening tomorrow?

Time for Formula!

In 35 seconds check out Anderson Campello's right uppercut

Who will win $150K tomorrow? Not an emerging artist...

The new Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts, at $150,000, is the largest juried prize in the world, and it is supposed to go to an individual emerging visual artist.

Philadelphia banker and real estate mogul Jack Wolgin is a very generous man who wants the prize to be awarded annually, and he wanted it to be "intended for an artist who has not yet received widespread recognition outside of the art world and whose work breaks new ground by crossing traditional boundaries."

Words count. When I first announced the establishment of this new art prize in this blog back in 2008, I wrote:

This is great news for visual artists all over the world and even greater good news for the Philadelphia art scene. I will immediately comment that I am hoping that their selection panel will have the cojones to look truly to nominate artists at "a critical professional juncture" and not just xerox out a bunch of names of the usual suspects.

I remember fondly the days when museums like the Whitney and others would take chances on "new" artists, and as a result in the 80s they would give artists their first museum show ever (from memory I think both Fischl and Schnabel got their very first museum show, both while in their 30s, at the Whitney).

The days when museum curators want to be "first" are long gone, and seldom do we see a major museum take a chance with a "first" anymore. The same lack of cojones seems to have infected the major art prizes of the world, and I for one hope that Tyler and its selection jury get some brass into their system and make a statement with this new and generous prize.

Wishful thinking on my part!

The initial award set of jurors picked to award Mr. Wolgin's money: Ingrid Schaffner, Senior curator at Philadelphia’s Institute for Contemporary Art, Paolo Colombo, adviser to the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, and Melissa Chiu, director of the Asia Society in New York, have all taken the expected lazy interpretation of the focus of the competition and have selected Ryan Trecartin, Sanford Biggers, and Michael Rakowitz from a larger pool of only 14 nominees.

The nominees were selected by "a group of nine prominent international art world figures from museums and educational organizations, representing the range of media eligible for consideration. The 14 nominees were then invited to submit an application, which was reviewed by the three-person jury."

Ryan Trecartin, Sanford Biggers, and Michael Rakowitz are all terrific and highly accomplished artists, but in my opinion are all artists who have exhibited far too widely (I think that by the time you get to exhibit in London's Whitechapel alongside Shahryar Nashat, you're waaaay past emerging) and are too well known to fit into the category envisioned by Mr. Wolgin.

Remember this prize is supposed to go to "emerging artists."

"There was a great deal of discussion about the term ‘emerging artist,’ ” said Ingrid Schaffner, referring to the competition’s main criteria. But after the lazy jurors had defined their terms, she admitted that they “surprised everyone by coming to a consensus fairly quickly.”

Very lazily if you ask me. I hope that Temple University’s Tyler School of Arts, who hosts the prize, is as pissed off at paying jurors that don't do the expected work, and that Temple has learned a very valuable lesson from this initial go around and realizes that seldom does a museum curator or an advisor to any museum (whatever that is?) is really at the leading edge of knowing who is really an "emerging artist."

In fact, one of the criteria if a museum curator is ever selected for the jury pool again should be: "Have you ever given an artist his/her first museum show?" And maybe even: "How many artists' studios have you visited in the last five years"?

Back in the 80s museums such as the Whitney in NYC used to give artists their first ever museum show. That was the last time that most museum curators actually were deep in the weeds of who was really an emerging artist.

Let's hope that this outrageous failure to focus Mr. Wolgin's initial prize money on the intended pool of emerging artist recipients will put this generous prize back on its intended path. And 2010 jurors, the intended recipients are supposed to be emerging fucking artists!"

The three finalists' work is on view at at the Temple Gallery through Oct. 31, 2009. The prize will be announced tomorrow; personally I am rooting for Ryan, so that at least the $150K loot stays in Philly.

My hopes for 2010 remain grim. Unless Temple learns this lesson, this $150K will continue to go to the usual suspects because it takes a lot of work to do the job right.

How hard? An independent survey sponsored by The International Art Materials Trade Association (NAMTA) and American Artist magazine recently reported that there are 4.4 million active artists in the United States alone (600,000 professional artists, 600,000 college art students, and 3.2 million active recreational artists). That's a lot of artists, 99.9999999999999999% of whom are emerging artists, and at least 16 of them (more than 14 anyway) I bet are breaking "new ground by crossing traditional boundaries."

I hope that Mr. Wolgin is as pissed off as I am; I intend to mail him a hard copy of this post, and then call him, and I hope that he then picks up the phone and tells Temple to get their act right with his prize money in 2010.

Shame on you Ingrid Schaffner, Paolo Colombo, and Melissa Chiu.

WPA Announces New Program

WPA has announced Information Exchange, an informal partnership with the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, NY.

WPA will bring international curators to Washington to discuss ideas and projects in a public forum, followed by a day of one-on-one critiques or portfolio reviews with WPA member artists. The goal of the program is to expose artists and curators to each other's work, spurring new and continuing conversations, ideas, relationships, and projects which will carry on long after the initial exchange. WPA will launch the program's pilot season with a visit by Miguel Amado of Portugal.

Miguel Amado is curator at the Fundação PLMJ in Lisbon, where he develops a collection of Portuguese contemporary art and organizes its exhibition and publication series. Recently, he served as a Curatorial Fellow at Rhizome at the New Museum in New York. Miguel is an adjunct curator at the Centro de Artes Visual in Coimbra, Portugal, where he organizes its Project Room exhibition series and special projects. He is a regular contributor to Artforum and his critical writing has also appeared in magazines such as Flash Art and numerous books and catalogues.

Admission to the public talk is free and open to the public

Artist Meetings at WPA offices Friday, November 13:
Artists who wish to meet with Miguel must email membership director Adam Griffiths at agriffiths@wpadc.org by November 9. They will randomly select 6 artists from email requests. Artists should bring no more than 5-10 CURRENT samples of work to discuss with Miguel.

Artist-Curator meetings will last between 30 and 45 minutes and will begin on the hour starting at 10:00 am. If artists have a preferred meeting time, please note in the email along with a phone number.

Information Exchange
Public Talk: Thursday, November 12, 6:30 – 8:00pm
Artist Meetings: Friday, November 13, starting at 10:00am
Location of events: WPA, 2023 Massachusetts Ave, NW, WDC 20036

Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009

This week the National Portrait Gallery will announce the winners of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 at an opening reception taking place on the evening of Oct. 22. The exhibition will open to the public Friday, Oct. 23 and will remain on view through August 22, 2010.

The show has been juried from 3,300 entries, down to 49 finalists from around the country. Of those 49, seven have been selected for the short list of cash prizes. The top award will win $25,000 as well as a separate commission from the Portrait Gallery. (In May, the museum unveiled Mrs. Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s portrait by David Lenz, Lenz won first prize in 2006). The exhibition will display the works of the 49 finalists.

“The second Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition represents a significant milestone for the National Portrait Gallery,” said Martin Sullivan, director of the museum. “We opened the entries to all visual arts media and received a wonderful response.”

The competition happens only once every three years and demonstrates the new ways artists are working with the figure and creating portraits. External jurors for the competition were Wanda M. Corn, professor emerita in art history at Stanford University; Kerry James Marshall, artist; Brian O’Doherty, artist and critic; and Peter Schjeldahl, art critic for The New Yorker. Jurors from the National Portrait Gallery were Martin E. Sullivan, director; Carolyn K. Carr, deputy director and chief curator; and Brandon Brame Fortune, curator of painting and sculpture.

Portrait Competition Finalists and Shortlisted Artists (the asterisk denotes the artists on the shortlist):

Mequitta Ahuja, Houston
Jason Shaw Alexander, Los Angeles
Jen Bandini, Queens, N.Y.
Margaret Bowland, Brooklyn, N.Y.*
Benita Carr, Atlanta
Laura Chasman, Roslindale, Mass.
Mark Cummings, Newport Beach, Calif.
Yolanda del Amo, Brooklyn, N.Y.*
Armando Dominguez, Miami
Jenny Dubnau, Jackson Heights, N.Y.
Daniel Mark Duffy, Newtown, Conn.
David Eichenberg, Toledo, Ohio
Gaela Erwin, Louisville, Ky.*
Chambliss Giobbi, New York
David Gracie, Omaha, Neb.
Leor Grady, New York
Anne Harris, Riverside, Ill.
Patricia Horing, Larchmont, N.Y.
Kate Sammons, Los Angeles
Philip Schirmer, Sargentville, Maine
Justin Shaw, Lincoln, Neb.
Satomi Shirai, Astoria, N.Y.
Michael A. Smith, Ottsville, Pa.
Ben Tolman, Washington, D.C.
Jim Torok, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Anna Killian, Pensacola, Fla.
Erika Larsen, Hoboken, N.J.
David Dodge Lewis, Farmville, Va.
Lisa Lindvay, Chicago
Francesco Lombardo, Marshall, N.C.
Perin Mahler, Grand Rapids, Mich.
John Manion, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Bruce McKaig, Washington, D.C.
Pavel Melecky, Arlington, Texas
Sam Messer, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Paul Mindell, Norwalk, Conn.
Matthew Mitchell, Amherst, Mass.
Samantha Mitchell, New York
Austin Parkhill, Arvada, Colo.
Sonia Paulino, Los Angeles
Cliffton Peacock, Charleston, S.C.
Stanley Rayfield, Richmond, Va.*
Emil Robinson, Cincinnati*
Margaret Trezevant, Tampa, Fla.
Lien Truong, Eureka, Calif.
Clarissa Payne Uvegi, New York
Adam Vinson, Jenkintown, Pa.*
Dave Woody, Fort Collins, Colo.*
John Randall Younger, Charlottesville, Va.

I am familiar with the work of the two DC area artists on the list, Ben Tolman and Bruce McKaig. In fact, both of them have exhibited at the Fraser Gallery back in the days when I was a co-owner of those two galleries.

Seeking the scent of a white cube

As I mentioned a while back, we have moved back to the Greater DC area and thus once again I can refer to myself (as The Artists' Blue Book does) as a "active" in the District of Columbia.

So now I would like to re-acquire a local DC gallery to represent my work in the Greater DC area. I already have gallery representation in Philadelphia, PA, Richmond, VA and Norfolk, VA, but the vast majority of my collectors are in the Greater DC area, so it makes sense to re-establish a DC area gallery connection.

Since I moved to the DC area in 1992, away in 2006 and back in 2009, I've had a dozen solo shows (Annapolis, DC and Richmond) in the area, the vast majority of which have sold well or sold out plus have received extensive press coverage from the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the Washington City Paper, the Richmond Style Weekly, the Georgetowner, etc. My work gets the press' attention in one way or the other, even if it is to be described as "heavy-handed and irritating", as the Washington Post once did!

My work has also done well in art fairs in New York, Miami, Toronto and Santa Fe in the last few years. In fact, in my last NYC art fair earlier this year I sold about 20 drawings. At Art Santa Fe, which was a really tough fair because of the economy, and with many galleries not selling anything, my work was the only one that sold at the fair by the gallery that took it there.

So I need and want a gallery in the Greater DC area. If you are a gallerist and interested, drop me an email to lenny@lennycampello.com and let's talk.

Ophelia

Another new drawing from my continuous interest in this subject.

The Killing of Ophelia
Charcoal and conte on paper. 4.5 feet by 2 feet. 2009.
F. Lennox Campello

Quite contrary

Shepard Fairey's claim that he had the right to use a news photo to create his famous Barack Obama "HOPE" poster became a widely watched court case about fair use that now appears to have nearly collapsed.

By Friday night, his attorneys — led by Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University — said they intend to withdraw from the case and said the artist had misled them by fabricating information and destroying other material.

Read the story here. That portrait now sits in the National Portrait Gallery.

The National Portrait Gallery had an easy way out of this mess and I offered them the idea here, and even sent it to them, but all that I heard back was this.

Had they taken my idea and run with it, they would be smelling like roses now, rather than having a work in their collection that allegedly violates copyright law.