Cuba as the focus of art
Re-discovering these watercolors from my 1981 art school project has re-triggered that art school interest of Cuba as the focus of work and I've returned to watercolors for a couple of new pieces which I intend to take down to the fairs in Miami in December.
Bird on Cuban Art
Michelle Bird, who is a Curatorial Assistant at the Department of European Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, pens a gorgeous article on collecting Cuban art for Caribbean Art World Magazine.
Many years ago at Rutgers University, through research for a paper on Wifredo Lam, I learned that Alfred H. Barr, Jr., visited the island in the early 1940s. In addition to purchasing works of art by Cuban artists, he also organized an exhibition called “Modern Painters of Cuba” in 1944, bringing the island and its arts to the attention of the international market. During this period, he acquired Lam's "The Jungle" for the Museum of Modern Art. It was hung near Picasso's Guernica, to which it was compared. The relationship barely had time to produce little more than name recognition for its author and his native country when the connection was severed by the 1959 Revolution and subsequent political changes. By the mid-eighties, the painting was hanging in a hallway leading to the museum's coatroom. This single action shows how easily Cuban art was marginalized and made inaccessible to the public.Read the article here and buy Cuban art here or here.
Braggin'
I know that this is just braggin' and name throwin', but I get to go to a black tie gala tonight (the Lab School's 25th Annual Gala honoring Outstanding Achievers with Learning Disabilities) and not only is George Stephanopoulos the MC, but Vice President Biden is the Keynote Speaker.
Now where is that tuxedo again?
Thank you!
To all US veterans, both those who have served and those who are serving in all corners of the planet while we're home with our families. A well-deserved thank you to all the soldiers, sailors, airmen/women, Marines and Coasties.
This Veteran's Day is especially somber in view of the terrible terrorist attack executed by Dr. Hasan in Ft. Hood last week and we should be even more thankful to those who wear and who have worn the uniform with honor.
Below is Petty Officer Third Class Lenny Campello back in 1975!
And then Lieutenant Commander Lenny Campello back in 1992!
Portraiture 2.0
Portraiture 2.0, curated by Michael Pollack, and part of FotoWeek DC opens this coming Thursday November 12th from 6:30-8:30PM at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center’s Main Gallery, 8230 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910-4511, and runs until December 5th 2009.
Work by Victoria F. Gaitán (that's her work above), Chan Chao, Matt Dunn, Nicholas Pye & Sheila Pye, Paul Vinet and Josh Yospyn.
Novie Trump at MPA
Titled "Uncharted Sky: Recent Sculpture by Novie Trump", the exhibition that just closed at the McLean Project for the Arts certainly charts a new path for this talented DC area artist and in my opinion can be considered as the breakthrough exhibition by Trump.
At McLean Trump flexes her artistic muscles in 11 works in ceramic, porcelain, glass, found objects, metal, stoneware, cork and an elegant assortment of porcelain bees. She also joins an emerging new movement centered around the Greater DC area that is breathing artistic life into genres of art historically associated with craft rather than high art. It is clear to see that over the years, artists like Margaret Boozer and the various artists working out of her Red Dirt Studio, as well as the wondrous Laurel Lukaszewski have begun to do to clay and to porcelain what the artists of the Washington Glass School, DC Glassworks and others have been doing to glass over the recent last few years. They are all the Alfred Stieglitzes of their genres.
And you can add Novie Trump to that select list of new revolutionaries dragging clay and porcelain away from the "crafts only" realm and erasing the lines that segregate craft from high art.
The exhibition is not only a triumph of technical skill, an inherent part of the genre itself, but sheer minimalism begins to emerge from some of the work as well. In "Out of the Fire," a gorgeous porcelain set of wings installed in a row on the wall, Trump uses the repetitive motif of the wings to set a sense of order to the piece and extend that sense of order and alignment to the rest of the show. It is the key work in the exhibition, the simplest and inherently the most elegant. It was also red-dotted, and so it will soon adorn a collector's home somewhere in the area.
And the award goes to...
On Saturday I dropped by the Potomac Valley Watercolorists annual exhibition at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Arlington, VA to select the awards for the show.
It was a lot more difficult than what I had anticipated, as the talent and skill was abundant in nearly every member of the PVA and I spent quite a lot of time walking around and debating with myself.
In the end the award winners that I selected were:
OUT Auction NYC 2009
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is staging their 8th annual OUTAuction NYC - their annual art event to celebrate established and emerging artists, while recognizing GLAAD’s Top 100 Artists.
Since 2002, GLAAD has produced this annual fund raising event to support their programmatic work. Part art auction and part glamorous cocktail reception, I am told that OUTAuction NYC is one of those NYC "must attend events" of the fall season. Vanessa Williams, and others are on this year’s Honorary Committee and will be there that night as will the brilliant artist Ross Bleckner, who will be there to accept their "OUT In Art" award that will be given on the night of OUTAuction.
This is a great cause. You can view the works online and bid for them here.
And I have been honored to have been invited and selected as one of their 100 artists this year, which include:
Joshua Abelow, Liam Alexander, Ron Amato, Jennifer Andrews, Dee Ann and Tom McCarthy, Drora Bashan, Mark Beard, Jazzmine Beaulieu, Mikeal Beland, Bruce Bellas, Matthew Benedict, Bob Brisley, JaclynBrown, Jessica Burke, F. Lennox Campello, Luis Carle, Marc Van Cauwenbergh, Michael Cavayero, K-soul Cherix, Chad Chisholm, Meagan Cignoli, Juliette Conroy, Cesar Cornejo, Francisco Correa-Cordero, Aaron Czerny, Gabriel Dawe, Guerra De La Paz, Peter Doig, Favi Dudo, Troy Dunham & Jeff Eason, Dan Elhedery, Jeff Elliott, Hugo Fernandes, Eric Freeman, Ted Gahl, Gina Garan, Keith Haring, Hugh Hysell, Chasen Ingleheart, Leslie Jenchel, Wassily Kandinsky, Justin Kim, Michael Kirwan, Steven Klein, Lars Klingstedt, Aaron Krach, Enrique Limon, Marc Lodovico, Aimee LoSecco, Frank Louis, Richard Lund, Jane Martin, Caroline McAuliffe, James McKissic, Patrick McMullan, Trevor Messersmith, Emmy Mikelson, Matthew Miller, Adia Millett, Joan Miro, Daniel Monteavaro, Dave Muller, Kenneth Nadel, Math-You, Namie, Patrick Neal, Olek, Stephen Olivier, Kenneth Pietrobono, Pedro Pena, Adam Pendleton, Haq Qureshi, Benjie Randall, Gina Raphaella, Akili Richards, Pau Richmond, Herb Ritts, David Rohn, Kay Rosen, Lisa Ross, Heidi Russell, Andrew Salgado, Jamison Sarteschi, Chris Schiffelbein, Laurie Schorr, Larry Schulte, Jay Shinn, Deborah Sosower, Deborah Standard, Greg Stephens, Christopher Stout, Rivka Tabak, Nikki Terry, Jeffrey Teuton, James Totulis, Glenn Tramantano, Matteo Trisolini, Ryan Turley, Joel Voisard, Corey Willis and Becky Yazdan.
Check it all out online and bid for artwork here.
I have this piece in the auction... it would be nice if it stayed local and one of you would put up a good bid for it.
What to call this dish?
It started with about two pounds of pork chops... I deboned them and cut the pork meat into strips.
Meanwhile in a big frying pan I heated some olive oil... a generous portion, and added salt and pepper to the oil. Once it was hot I put the pork strips in the pan and browned it in the hot oil on high for a few minutes.
Once the meat wasn't raw on the outside, I added a few shakes of paprika and a few generous shakes of La Cena brand Adobo seasoning plus a few good shakes of powdered garlic and a couple of dashes of Lawry's seasoned salt. I then turn the heat to low, covered it and cooked it for about 15 minutes.
Once all that was reduced, I added a few shakes from a bottle of lemon juice, turned the heat really low and covered it and let it cook for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile I cut some leftover baked potatoes into cubes and threw them in. Mixed everything in, stirred it and covered it all up.
Then I got a box of cleaned, sliced mushrooms and threw them in. Mixed everything in, stirred it and covered it all up. Cut up a huge Walla Walla sweet onion and threw that wonder of Nature in there as well.
I tasted it and it was really good so far.
Things were getting a little dry, so I added more lemon juice, and stirred everything up.
Cut up a lot of cilantro and added it to the mixture.
Heat down to minimum... it's ready to eat now essentially, but I want some starches and thus I cook some white rice and cook up some Cuban black beans (that recipe will be up soon... my shortcut is super fast and easy).
The pork was amazing! I am sure this is a new discovery, at least for me. And so what should I call this new pork recipe?
Let me know in the comments.
Things We Find in the Move One of the great things about moving (probably the only good thing) is that we often find things that we'd forgotten about. These pieces below are from a set of about 100 small watercolors that I did for one of my senior year exhibition projects at the University of Washington School of Art in 1981. Probably 40-50 of these have sold over the years. They all have the map of the island of Cuba as the focus.
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"Isla Prision (Prison Island)" c. 1980, Ink wash and wood rods on paper In the collection of The Cuban Studies Institute, Miami, Florida |
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| "Isla Prision" Monoprint enhanced with Charcoal and pins, c.1980 In a private collection in New Jersey |
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| "Isla Prision" Monoprint enhanced with watercolor and pins, c.1980 In a private collection in Florida |
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| Isla Encadenada Acrylic on paper with metal chain, c. 1979 |
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| Isla Encadenada Colored pencils on paper with metal chain, c. 1979 |
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| "Isla Herida" c. 1978 |
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| "Donde crece la palma" 1978 |
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| "The Island that Time Forgot" 1981 |
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"Mi verso es un ciervo herido Que busca en el monte amparo" 1979 |
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| "Isla Llorona", oil on board c. 1978 |
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| "Isla Clavada (Nailed Island)" 1980 Color pencils and embedded nails |
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| "Isla Abandonada (Abandoned Island)" Oil and Acrylic on Gessoed Board, 8x10 inches, c.1979 In a private collection in Hialeah, Florida |
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| Nubes Lloronas, Oil on board, c.1979 |
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| "Isla Llorona", oil on board, c.1978 In the collection of Queens' University, Charlotte, NC |
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| Isla Prisionera In a private collection in Miami, Florida |
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| Isla Balsera Location Unknown (Sold at Pike Pace Market, Seattle in 1978-79) |
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| "Isla Balsera (Raft Island)" - Happy Birthday America, Wishing We Were There! Collage on Paper, Framed to 30x40 inches, c. 1976 Was in a private Collection in New Jersey - donated to American University Art Museum in 2015
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Wanna go to an opening this week?
Opening Reception: Wednesday, November 11, 6 - 8 pm
Curator's Office will have the third solo exhibition of Korean-born artist Jiha Moon. For this exhibition, the gallery will
... present works exploring the nature of place and its inspiration on creative output. Works include three square-format Hanji paper over canvas pieces and four horizontal works on Hanji paper. There is a special emphasis on abstraction in many of these works. As Moon is currently an artist-in-residence at The Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia, the influence of textiles is subtly apparent as several works incorporate small embroidered areas, a departure for the artist.
The works in the exhibition were created both in her Korea and Atlanta-based studios. This division in working locations provoked the artist to explore the cultural influence of a precise place in an increasingly dizzying global world. For example, in the ironically titled work, An Exact Place, Moon looked at different national flags and how these vibrantly colored but mostly abstract images try to represent a specific culture. An interchangeable quality emerges for the artist as she notes, "if you change around the positions of some colored stripes, one flag can represent different nations, for example the similarities between Italy and Mexico or France and Russia." She deconstructs the flag stripes and situates them sinuously through the work and its many focal points thereby creating an invented universality where the nexxus of culture and location allows for hybrid cultures to emerge. This visual universality includes stars, moons, suns, animals, plants and weapons -- also derived from specific flags -- but germane to us all.
Another great source of inspiration for the artist is dancheong, an ancient Korean style of decorative painting using 5 primary colors and specific elaborate patterns. Going back more than two thousand years, the murals are found mostly on the exteriors of ceremonial wooden buildings.
Jury Duty today
Potomac Valley Watercolorists artists from the greater Washington metropolitan area will exhibit original paintings at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 4000 Lorcom Lane, Arlington, VA, on Saturday, November 7, 3:00-7:00 p.m., and Sunday, November 8, 12:00-4:00 p.m.
A wide variety of sizes and styles (including both framed and unframed paintings) will be available for sale (cash, check or credit card). Admittance is free, refreshments will be provided and exhibiting artists will be on site.
It will be my honor to award the prizes at this exhibit and to chat with the artists and discuss the work after the awards ceremonies.
Potomac Valley Watercolorists (PVW) is a regional organization of water media painters who have been selected for membership through a highly competitive process. Members have exhibited extensively at the local, national and international levels.
When: Saturday, November 7, 3:00-7:00pm, and Sunday, November 8, 12:00-4:00pm
Details here.
Civilian Moves
Cat's out of the bag about Civilian Art Projects move to the 7th Street, NW block... details here.
Opening in Richmond today
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.
Star Stacking
Last July, President Barack Obama raised eyebrows when he hired actor Kal Penn, best known for his role in the stoner-humor Harald and Kumar movies, as a liaison to the arts and Asian-American and Pacific Island communities in the Office of Public Engagement. Now, a year after his election, he's announced a star-studded lineup for the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, a largely ceremonial group, chaired by First Lady Michelle Obama, that advises the president on cultural issues.Check it out here.
Opening in Richmond todayTHINKSMALL5 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.
