Wanna go to an opening in Richmond this week?

THINKSMALL5 the fifth biennial International Miniature Invitational Exhibition at art6 and artspace galleries located in Richmond, Virginia.

500 local, national, and international artists who have been invited to consider this challenge by the co-curators, Shann Palmer, Gallery Coordinator, art6 Gallery and Jessica L. Sims, Vice-President, artspace Gallery.

Exhibition Dates: Friday, November 6 through Saturday, December 20, 2009
Preview Reception: Thursday, November 5, 2009, from 7 to 10 pm
Exhibition Opening: Friday, November 6, 2009, from 7 to 10 pm

Some of the Participating Artists include Alan Entin, Anne Savedge, Annette Norman, Beth Beaven, Burton Tysinger, Cary Loving, Catherine Johnson, Chuck Scalin, Debbie and Andrew Campbell, Diego Sanchez, Emma Lou Martin, Foust, Gloria Blades, Hazel Buys, James Miller, Jane Vaught, Jessica Sims, Judy Anderson, Kathleen Westkaemper, Margaret Buchanan, Marian Hollowell, Martin McFadden, LRPS, Matthew Lively, Mim Gulob Scalin, Nancy Smith, Noah Scalin, Page Moran, Paul Kehrer, Rob Tarbell, Robin Ryder, Santa Sergio De Haven, Shelia Gray, Susanne Arnold, Tricia Pearsall, Virginia Tyack, Yvonne Cook and yours truly.

Congrats!

To Potomac-born and raised (and now Austin, TX resident) and my good friend Desiree Ficker, who finished 10th in the NYC marathon over the weekend!

Is that awesome or what? Des also finished second in the Ironman in Hawaii a couple of years ago.

Super athlete.

Such a huge example to others

If you read this blog consistently then you know that over the years I've raved about the generosity of my good friend Carol Trawick, not only the sponsor of the annual Trawick Prize, easily the region's most coveted and prestigious art prize, and also the sponsor of the Bethesda Painting Awards, but also the guardian angels of the arts in the Bethesda area where she resides.

And last week, Bethesda's Imagination Stage accepted a $2.5 million personal donation from Carol Trawick and her deceased husband, Jim. The gift was announced at Imagination Stage’s 30th Anniversary Gala at on Saturday, October 24. First Lady Michelle Obama was Honorary Chair of this event. According to Bradford Pearson in the Gazette:

For Imagination Stage, elation reigns supreme.

"We were all overjoyed," said Brett Ashley Crawford, managing director of the theater. "Just in awe."

Imagination Stage has theater and arts programs for children of all ages and abilities. The donation will be spread over 10 years, Crawford said, and will go toward paying down a $4 million debt, incurred when the group moved into its location in 2003.

The gift is the largest the theater company has ever received, according to founder Bonnie Fogel. Previously, the largest amount was $1 million from The Annette M. and Theodore N. Lerner Family Foundation.

"I felt that if we could relieve a little of the burden of worry about debt, the extra money could be applied to programs for the children," Carol Trawick said. "Just think how much more energy can go towards working with those kids."

In honor of the contribution, Imagination Stage's building on Auburn Avenue will be named after the Trawicks.

Carol Trawick, on behalf of all the artists and actors in the Greater Washington region: thank you!

What to do today

What: Reeb Hall Artists Annual Open Studio Event

Who: Visit the Resident artists and participating artists: Sally Kauffman, Jessica van Brakle, Lee Vaughan, Mark Giaimo, Shahla Arbabi, Anne McGurk, Cynthia Young, Phil Loiterstein, Irene Clouthier, Alice Whealin, and Linn Woloshin.

When: Sunday afternoon, November 1, from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Where: Reeb Hall, 4451 First Place South, Arlington, VA 22204

Reeb Hall is located near the southwest corner of the intersection of Route 50, (Arlington Boulevard service road) and South George Mason Drive. It is next to the U.U.C.A.

Parking: Entrance to the building is next to the parking lot. Parking is free for the open house.

More information: www.reebhallstudios.com

Want some free tickets?

Flamboyant Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli is known for his lavish projects — creating a movie trailer for a movie that didn't exist — and his obsession with celebrities — casting actresses Michelle Williams and Natalie Portman in a commercial for his perfume Greed, which also didn't exist. Now, he's applying his artist prowess to a project that most certainly does exist, but is no less lavish: the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles's 30th Anniversary Gala on Nov. 14.

Read about it here and I've been given a couple of free tickets to the gala and I can't make it. Drop me an email if you want them; first come, first served!
Update: tickets have been given away.

Ann Rodriguez

It is with considerable sadness that I share with you that Ann Rodriguez passed away yesterday after a valiant struggle with cancer.

A thirty year resident of Reston, Ann was active in local arts, civic and business communities. She was a member of the board of directors of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, a member of the Reston Hospital Board of Trustees and served for six years on the board of GRACE, the Greater Reston Arts Center. She was a member of the boards of Virginians for the Arts and the Lorton Arts Foundation. In 2004 she became the President and CEO of the Arts Council of Fairfax County. As their President and CEO, Ann was the "face" of the arts in Fairfax County.

There will be no public funeral arrangements. A true supporter of the arts in Fairfax County, Ann requested that in lieu of flowers a contribution to the Arts Council of Fairfax County would be appreciated. Contributions may be sent to Arts Council of Fairfax County, 4022 Hummer Road, Annandale VA 22003.

Amen to that...

In Detroit, major collector and steel company executive Gary Wasserman says he's stopped buying works by England's Anish Kapoor and China's Yue Minjun so he can focus more on buying "powerfully Midwestern" art by artists like Brian Carpenter, whose $1,000 photographs often feature images of dead deer, Lake Erie nuclear reactors and snowy footprints. Swiss collector Guy Ullens, widely known for his vast collection of Chinese contemporary art, says he's also started buying landscapes by Swiss and German painters like Anselm Kiefer to hang in his home in the Alps. Italian collector Pierpaolo Barzan says the only contemporary art fair he's attending this season starts next Friday in Turin, where he hopes to find work by Roman artists like Nicola Pecoraro and Pietro Ruffo.

"I believe that I can put together a much stronger collection, and make an impact in the art world, by collecting local artists rather than trying to find the next Chinese star," Mr. Barzan says.

Read the WSJ report here.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: January 11, 2010.

The Public Trust of Jacksonville, Florida seeks artists. All participants will electronically submit a detailed pencil drawing of one of the three Le Moyne/de Bry original works, together with 4 other examples of your past paintings so the judges can select the ten best artists to be commissioned.

Artists must also submit an entrance form which may be downloaded from their menu under "Art Contest Entrance Form." No entry fee.

If you are selected as one of the ten commissioned artists, you will complete a painting (sized 24" by 30") by June 11, 2010. At that time you will be paid your $2,500 commission and shortly afterward be featured with your fellow top ten artists in showings of all the new art work at two premier art galleries in Jacksonville.

For complete guidelines, please visit this website. Questions? Contact Andrew Miller at adm@publictrustlaw.org or call (904) 247-1972 ext. 418.

Fake Art as Art

Want to make some acquisitions at Frieze but afraid you'll break the bank? Tried to ask a dealer for a 97% discount — hey, isn't it a recession? — and got laughed out of the booth? Don't despair! Head on over to stand P7, devoted to Philippines-born artist Stephanie Syjuco's project "Copystand: an Autonomous Manufacturing Zone," which is part of the Frieze Projects series curated by Neville Wakefield. Syjuco and several of her artist colleagues have set up a workshop where they're recreating art being sold by other Frieze presenters out of humble materials, such as cardboard. All the copies are for sale, and all are priced no higher than £500 ($820).

Now, contemporary art's relationship with fakes has always been a little complicated. You've got your appropriationists, your rephotographers, your art world-approved, official fakers — Sherrie Levine, Mike Bidlo, Richard Pettibone, et al. — and then you've got your unofficial fakers, like Eric Doeringer, who used to set up a folding table outside art fairs and peddle his bootleg copies of works by Richard Prince, Jeff Koons and other household names.

Lately, Doeringer has been hawking his bootlegs inside art fairs, invited by Flash Art magazine, or even a fair itself, as was the case in Miami at the Geisai fair two years ago. And now, enter Syjuco's officially sanctioned project at Frieze, where, on Friday afternoon, she could be found standing next to what looked like one of Mark Wallinger's signature paintings depicting the single letter "I" in bold typeface. Syjuco herself had made this particular copy, which, unlike Wallinger's paint on canvas, is constructed from cardboard, wood, and paper; a pink dot on its label indicated that it had sold.

Read the whole thing by Sarah Douglas at artinfo.com here.

What to do Sunday afternoon

What: Reeb Hall Artists Annual Open Studio Event

Who: Visit the Resident artists and participating artists: Sally Kauffman, Jessica van Brakle, Lee Vaughan, Mark Giaimo, Shahla Arbabi, Anne McGurk, Cynthia Young, Phil Loiterstein, Irene Clouthier, Alice Whealin, and Linn Woloshin.

When: Sunday afternoon, November 1, from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Where: Reeb Hall, 4451 First Place South, Arlington, VA 22204

Reeb Hall is located near the southwest corner of the intersection of Route 50, (Arlington Boulevard service road) and South George Mason Drive. It is next to the U.U.C.A.

Parking: Entrance to the building is next to the parking lot. Parking is free for the open house.

More information: www.reebhallstudios.com

Wanna go to an opening tomorrow?

Oliver Vernon, Double Down and Phil Nesmith: Flight Patterns, two solo exhibitions open at Irvine Contemporary in DC on Friday, October 30, 6-8PM and then on October 31: On site mural painting by Oliver Vernon.

The Summer Of Love

SOFA Chicago is coming Nov. 6-8, but you can check out, get an early peek (and bid) for Tim Tate's latest work here.

This piece will be selling for $12,000 at SOFA, but bidding here will begin at $9500.

Fixation

Last November, Ten Miles Square and the Pink Line Project presented the photography exhibit "Fixation" at Fight Club, which drew over 700 people on opening night.

This year, "Fixation" moves to the growing new art concentration spot that I've been buzzing about around H Street, NE! As usual, they'll feature awesome photographers who document DC's subcultures. Along with great live music and lots of the usual beverages. Skater's welcome!

Fixation -"Photography + Music + Usual Beverage + Your Portraits!"
6-10 PM on November 7 at DC's newest gallery, Industry Gallery (above Conner Contemporary).

Performances:
6-9 PM Music by Yoko K!
7:30 PM ayyoko confidential
9:00 PM Suspicious Package (recently mentioned in Spin magazine!)

Portrait photographs: Have your portrait taken in front of a specially commissioned backdrop created by artist Cory Oberndorfer.

"Fixation" photographers:
Aziz Yazdani
Drew McDermott
Angela Kleis
Pat Padua
Karon Flage
Joshua Yospyn
Amit Mehta
Nicole Aguirre
Jay Westcott

Celebrate DC's newest art center with:

* An opening of Koen Vanmechelen's "Cosmopolitan Chicken Project (DC)" at Conner Contemporary.

* G Fine Art's new space on the same block.

* A first look at the home of the new Industry Gallery, a contemporary design exhibition space.

The Monuments Men

Here’s an amazing video with Doris Kearns Goodwin discussing The Monuments Men, a new book about a small group of unknown heroes, men and women, who volunteered to save the cultural treasures of western civilization from the Nazi’s during WWII.

Among these unique and untold stories, is the story of the greatest heroine of the group -- Rose Valland. This brave woman secretly recorded the movements of stolen art and cultural objects by the Nazis, which was instrumental in the eventual recovery of these great treasures.

Book Page writes,

“an account that moves like a Hollywood action adventure…there are heroes to root for, villains to hiss at and an increasingly pressing race against time…Whether you’re a fan of art, military history or stories of real-life heroes, The Monuments Men is a treasure worth the hunt”

Buy the book here.

Artists' Websites: Ramell Ross



DC based freelance photographer Ramell Ross just completed a photo series that abstractly depicts Washington DC through paper clips. It's quite inventive and minimalist! See it here.

Free Biscet


The man on the left is Dr. Oscar Biscet, a Cuban physician who has been jailed and tortured for simply asking for change in Cuba. Dr. Biscet is a follower of the Dalai Lama, Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and wants to bring democracy and justice to Cuba.

The Spanish words say: "Oscar Biscet - He asked for change and they made him a prisoner. Barack Obama - He asked for change and they made him President.

What’s important to you?

In cooperation with Nevin Kelly Gallery, local artists Sondra N. Arkin and Judy Byron are soliciting the public’s help in creating a collaborative work of art. The work is to be included as the artists’ contribution to a group exhibition entitled “What’s Important Now? that will run from November 19 through December 12 in the gallery’s space at 1400 Irving Street, NW in Washington (Unit 132).

Arkin and Byron are asking the public to answer the question “what’s important to you?” (in 10 words or less) by logging onto www.important2you.com. Individuals can answer as many times as they wish, subject only to the 10-word limit per response.

The public can follow the project on Facebook [Key word: Important2you] and on Twitter @important2you. The final product will be revealed at an opening reception for the exhibition, which will take place at the gallery on November 19 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. The public is invited.

Wanna go to an MFA exhibition this week?

An MFA Thesis Exhibition of works by Patrick McDonough will be showcased at the Classroom 102 Gallery at The George Washington University from Oct. 27th – Nov. 6th, 2009.

Reception: Thursday, Oct. 29th, 2009, 5:30-8:30 pm

Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, 9am to 5pm

Special Saturday Hours: Saturday, Oct. 31st, 11am-5pm [Artist will be present]

Classroom 102 Gallery is located on the first floor of Smith Hall of Art, 801 22nd St. NW, Washington DC, 20052. This location is just one block east of the Foggy Bottom/GWU Orange line Metro station, at the corner of 22nd and Eye Streets NW. Street parking and off-street garage parking is available.

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!

New DC gallery

Industry Gallery, a gallery specializing in 21st century design, yesterday announced plans to open in January 2010. Industry Gallery, based in the Atlas/H Street Historic District of Washington, DC, will focus on international artists who create functional art from industrial materials. The gallery will hold temporary, single artist exhibitions representing a broad spectrum of international design trends.

Industry Gallery will offer unique and limited edition works that blur the boundary between experimental art and practical design.“Many of the artists I will show have works in major museums collections, and are producing pieces that are highly soughtafter by collectors in the rapidly expanding area of contemporary design,” said Craig Appelbaum, director of Industry Gallery, who has been a collector and private dealer.

“In the past decade the field has grown considerably as measured by the increasing number of museum exhibitions, international art fairs such as Design Miami and S.O.F.A., and attention by major international auctions houses including Christie’s, Phillips and Sotheby’s.”

Industry Gallery will occupy 4,300 square feet at 1358 Florida Avenue, NE, in the same building as Conner Contemporary. “Conner has helped make Washington, DC a destination for contemporary art connoisseurs, collectors and curators – my intention is to make this city a destination for aficionados of design, too,” said Appelbaum.

In addition to single artist exhibitions, the gallery will maintain an inventory of works by noted artists such as the Campana Brothers, Shiro Kuramata, and Atelier van Lieshout.

A special event will be held in the new Industry Gallery space featuring Fixation, curated by Pink Line Project and Ten Mile Square, in conjunction with the opening of Koen Vanmechelen at Conner Contemporary on Saturday November 7, 2009 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.