Visiting Artist Program at the Torpedo Factory Art Center

Deadline: February 28, 2010.

The Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria Virginia has opportunities for
one, two, or three-month residencies between June 1 and August 31, 201.

Visiting Artists will be provided with studio workspace, and will be able to
display and sell original work to the public.

Download the prospectus and application form from this website.

There is no application fee. The deadline for application is February 28,
2010.

Juror: Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator of the American University
Museum at the Katzen Art Center.

Send questions to: vap@torpedofactory.org. No telephone calls please.

Little Junes has a tooth!

Anderson Lennox Franklin Lars Timothy Angus Pict Eric Florencio Brude James Tiberius Campello Anderson Cruzata Jaspersen Alonso Zaar Marrero Karling Comba Noren Dalke Hartsell y Lennox (a.k.a Little Junes, or Anderdingus, or Anderson Pooper)
Circa February 19, 2009. Flesh and Blood and one tiny tooth. 28.5 inches by 21.5 lbs. NFS.

American Art Collector

The Lenster has a nice mention in the March issue of American Art Collector magazine. Thank you Sheila!

Artists' Websites: Alexa Meade


Wait until you discover the really cool paintings on flesh by DC area installation artist Alexa Meade.

Alexa Meade's innovative use of paint on the three dimensional surfaces of found objects, live models, and architectural spaces has been incorporated into a series of installations that create a perceptual shift in how we experience and interpret spatial relationships.

Visit her website here.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: March 31, 2010.

The Greater Reston Arts Center, in collaboration with Initiative for Public Art Reston (IPAR) and the Washington Sculptors Group (WSG), is pleased to present a juried exhibition of three-dimensional sculpture, installation, video and new media from June 25 through August 14, 2010.

Juror Vesela Sretenovic, Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art at The Phillips Collection, will select indoor and outdoor works that explore the theme of "gaps" as in-between states, stops, or pauses.

Click here for a full prospectus. Deadline for entries is March 31, 2010.

Yesterday's Jury Duty

Yesterday I juried the Gateway Arts Center grand opening exhibition of artists who live or work in the Gateway Arts District.

The Gateway Arts Center at Brentwood looks great after its refurbishing - it used to be the former Brentwood Arts Center.

It's located at 3901 Rhode Island Ave., Brentwood, MD. The art shows will be at the 2500 s/f gallery space on the ground floor and there is 900 s/f classroom on the first floor as well. The remaining 1700 s/f of space on the first floor is available studio space. The second floor has 5500 s/f of studio space for rent with a 450 s/f gallery that will be managed by the Gateway CDC. There are already several artists working there and there are two studio spaces currently available. Contact them for details.

I was amazed by the large number of blue chip artists from the District who actually live or have a studio in the area. Wait until you see this grand opening show! The grand opening is next April 10.

Jury Duty

I'm jurying the Gateway Arts Center grand opening exhibition of artists who live or work in the Gateway Arts District.

The Gateway Arts Center at Brentwood is a gorgeous new visual arts center located at 3901 Rhode Island Ave., Brentwood, MD. There is a 2500 s/f gallery space and a 900 s/f classroom on the first floor. The remaining 1700 s/f of space on the first floor is available studio space. The second floor has 5500 s/f of studio space for rent with a 450 s/f gallery that will be managed by the Gateway CDC.

Rubells buy Randall School Building

A press release from the Corcoran College of Art and Design has announced the sale of the former Randall School (which used to be the Millennium Arts Center), which sold for $6.5 million to Telesis Corporation and CACB Holdins LLC. The Corcoran bought the school for $6.2 million in 2006.

The Corcoran had bought the space four years ago to use the 80,000 square feet of space for studio, exhibition and classroom space. Back then the Corcoran's Paul Greenhalgh said that "Part of our strategic plan is to grow the student base and make the college more competitive." And then there was this idea that:

Once the municipal reviews are completed, Greenhalgh said, the Corcoran will sell the property for $8.2 million to Monument, which will manage the building. The profit, said Gentry, will go to the city's public-school modernization fund.

I don't know what happened to that plan, but Don and Mera Rubell, owners of CACB, will apparently convert the school (located at 65 I Street, SW) into a new contemporary art museum for the DC area, a hotel and perhaps even a private residence?

More evidence of the Rubells' deep and growing interest in the DC area visual arts scene. This is more great news for DC artists and our cultural tapestry.

I'm personally glad that the Rubells have taken over this building, as I think that it may be better for the DC art scene.

400+ Underground Artists from Around the World Coming to DC area

An unprecedented gathering of underground artists convenes in the Washington, DC metro area (in Crystal City) this spring. In an artistic interpretation of the G-20 political summit, G-40:The Summit will occupy 75,000 square feet of exhibit space on four floors of an empty office building in Crystal City.

Each region-themed floor will have 10-30 featured artists who will activate the space with murals and installations. G-40: The Summit is curated by Art Whino.

The mission of G-40: The Summit is to bring the leaders of the New Brow genre of contemporary underground art together in an effort to explore, discuss and grow this movement, which features influences like comics, graffiti, skate and surf culture and punk art to push the edges of artistic expression and appreciation. Different hubs of the New Brow movement will be showcased at G-40 including DC, New York, and California, in addition to international work.

Throughout the month of the exhibit, G-40 will host musical and visual performances, lectures, and more. From live mural painting to resident DJ’s, G-40:The Summit presents a dynamic new gallery experience bringing visionary artists from across the world together.
What:

G-40: The Summit – a dynamic, contemporary, art exhibit featuring curated works from artists around the world. There will also be visual and musical performances.

Five floors of exhibition space, including a lobby lounge, New York gallery, Washington, DC gallery, California gallery and an international gallery.

Who: Over 400 contemporary artists from across the country and around the world.
Where: 223 23rd St. Arlington, VA 22202

Metro Accessible – Crystal City
Distance from Washington, DC: 2 miles
When: March 3 – 27, 2010
Wednesdays & Thursdays: 5-10 p.m.
Fridays: 5 p.m.-12 a.m.
Saturdays: 12 p.m. -12 a.m.
Sundays: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Mondays & Tuesdays: Closed

Public Preview with Live Painting: Wednesday, March 3rd 5-10 p.m.
First Friday: Friday, March 5th 5 p.m.-12 a.m.
Grand Opening: Saturday March 6th 8 p.m. - 12 a.m.
Tickets: No ticket is necessary - the event is free and open to the public

The Many Friends of Jerry Saltz

Jerry Saltz and Roberta Smith, two of the most powerful art critics in New York, spent Valentine’s Day together seeing a few art shows—nothing out of the ordinary for the couple, married 18 years, who visit dozens of museums and galleries every week in service of their respective columns—hers in The New York Times, his in New York magazine. Among their stops on Sunday afternoon was the Guggenheim, where they spent three hours wandering about before going to the museum’s new cafe. Mr. Saltz got some cinnamon-ginger cookies and sat down across from his wife.

Then he made a confession. In a moment of passion and uncontrollable excitement, he said nervously, he had posted a link to her latest article for the Sunday Times on his Facebook wall.

Cool article in the NYT by Leon Neyfakh describing the Facebook following that art critic Jerry Salz has built via Facebook.

Mr. Saltz, whose Facebook picture shows him standing next to Bill Clinton, has a lot of “friends”—4,970, to be exact—and he’d have even more if Facebook didn’t impose a limit on how many one user can have. The 58-year-old has been accumulating them steadily since November 2008, when a former student of his registered an account on his behalf, even though Mr. Saltz, a self-described technophobe, didn’t really know or care what it was.

In the year or so since, Mr. Saltz’s Facebook page has become a phenomenon, having undergone an unlikely, organic transformation that turned it from an inconsequential personal profile into a highly trafficked, widely read discussion board about the art world. Populated by dedicated and predominantly serious-minded artists, curators, gallerists and assorted art-world denizens—many of whom check the page compulsively and post their thoughts multiple times a day—the page has become home to a vibrant community and an essential extension of Mr. Saltz’s practice as an art critic.

Read the article here.

At NYC: Artist Talk this Thursday

I've been hearing good things about the Adrienne Moumin photography exhibit that opened this past Sunday in NYC. Read an excellent profile on Moumin by Amber Parcher in the Gazette here and check out some photos here.

The DC area's artist's talk will be held this Thursday, 2/18, from 6:30-8:30 pm, all details are here.

Corcoran Photography Thesis Exhibitions

All of you know that I am a big supporter of student artwork and that good photography collectors also know that a good eye is developed (pun intended) by discovering good photography at shows like these:

Reception: Thursday February 18th 6-8 pm
Feb.17-21, 2010
Fine Art Photography Thesis Exhibition I:

Carrie Greenwood
Charey Jackson
Kelly Teeling
Justine Tobiasz

Reception: Thursday February 25th 6-8 pm
Feb. 24-28, 2010
Fine Art Photography Thesis Exhibition II:

Vivienne Foster
Julie Granger
Renée Regan
Howard Solomon

All of the above at:
Gallery 31
Corcoran Gallery of Art / Corcoran College of Art + Design
500 17th St. NW
Entrance at NY Avenue
Receptions in the North Atrium

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: May 1, 2010

This is an international open call for artwork to be exhibited in the upcoming summer group show in the Adam Lister Gallery. This exhibition will run from June 4 through July 18, 2010. This open call will be juried by the gallery board of directors and gallery staff. All artists that are selected will be featured in a six week show in the gallery.

The Adam Lister Gallery is located in the center of Fairfax City, and offers a high level of visibility for artists to display their work. We've been recognized as the premier contemporary art gallery in the Northern Virginia area. Working closely with collectors and curators, our goal is to provide an art exhibition space for both established and emerging artists. For this open call we are looking for art done in any medium. Drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, photography, installation, and anything else you work with is acceptable. There are no restrictions regarding subject matter or size (though it must be able to fit through our door 70"x82"). Artists of any age and background are encouraged to submit their work. We're looking for unique and interesting approaches to the idea of art making.

Visit their website here.

Maryland Symposium

Online Registration is now open for the upcoming symposium co-sponsored by the David C. Driskell Center and the University of Maryland University College

Autobiography/Performance/Identity: A Symposium on African American and African Diasporan Women in the Visual Arts - March 5 and 6, 20010

Featuring a keynote address by Lorraine O'Grady, and a performance by my good friend and Boston Cuban-American artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons and more.

See the program online here and register for the symposium online here.

For more information contact
David C. Driskell Center
1214 Cole Student Activities Building
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
TEL 301-314-2615
FAX 301-314-0679

Warhol at the Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery

This has all the characteristics of a terrific re-exhibition:

In 1980, iconic American artist Andy Warhol created a series of silkscreen prints titled “Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century,” which depicted such luminaries as Albert Einstein, George Gershwin and Golda Meir. Warhol was on hand when an exhibition of the works debuted in the Washington area at that time. According to The New York Times, “Critics were appalled and denounced the series as crassly exploitative.” Audiences across the country, however, responded far more favorably.

Thirty years later, the exhibition returns to the nation’s capital along with a new one-man show, Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews? based on the series.

The exhibit, “Andy Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century in Retrospect,” will be on view in the Washington DC Jewish Community Center’s Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery from February 25 through May 2. An opening reception will be held February 25 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

The production, written and directed by DC favorite Josh Kornbluth, will be presented by Theater J March 6-21 in the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater at the Washington DCJCC. A humorous and penetrating take on Warhol’s Jewish portraits, Kornbluth’s show wrestles with the artist’s motives and techniques as well as the spiritual dimensions of his work while, at the same time, revealing Kornbluth’s own suppressed religious identity. A comedic autobiographical monologist based in the San Francisco area, Kornbluth performed his hit show Citizen Josh at Arena Stage in 2008. Tickets to Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews? are available at theaterj.org or 800-494-TIXS.

Looking back from a 30-year vantage point, Susan W. Morgenstein (who curated both the original and current exhibitions) says “‘Ten Portraits’ addresses several important questions: Why is Warhol and his work still popular today, and why do these 10 portraits continue to intrigue viewers?”

History of Exhibition

The 1980 exhibition grew out of discussions among New York and Israeli art dealers and Washington area curators who narrowed down lists of dozens if not hundreds of Jewish figures representing great achievements in the arts, sciences, philosophy, law and politics. Ultimately, they encouraged Warhol to portray:

* Sarah Bernhardt, celebrated French actress
* Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish Justice of the United States Supreme Court
* Martin Buber, renowned philosopher and educator
* Albert Einstein, the great theoretical physicist
* Sigmund Freud, founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology
* Marx Brothers Groucho, Chico and Harpo, vaudeville, stage and film comedians
* Golda Meir, Israel’s fourth Prime Minister and one of the founders of the State of Israel
* George Gershwin, distinguished American composer
* Franz Kafka, eminent novelist
* Gertrude Stein, avant-garde American writer, poet and playwright

The suite of ten prints represented a departure for the famous artist. For instance, it was the first time he had done a series that included portraits of different people (rather than multiple images of the same person). It was also the first time he depicted historical figures.

In addition to the 40 x 32 inch prints, the current exhibition features reproductions of the photographs on which Warhol based his artworks, media coverage of the original exhibition, and copies of the lists from which the final figures were selected.

Programs

On April 7 at 7 p.m., the Gallery hosts Richard Meyer, author of the catalog, “Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered,” in conversation with Susan W. Morgenstein. An associate professor of art history at the University of Southern California, Meyer examines the exhibition’s controversial premiere, whether or not our views of it have changed since its first showing and why the images continue to provoke books, films, plays and museum exhibitions. Visit washingtondcjcc.org/gallery for more information.

Catalog

“Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered,” a 64-page book featuring color and black-and-white illustrations, is available in the Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery and Abramson Family Foundation Judaica Gift and Bookstore; it sells for $15.

Information

The Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery, a program of Washington DCJCC’s Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts, is open Sunday through Thursday from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm and Fridays from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm (Note that the gallery will be closed on March 30 and 31 and April 5 and 6 for Jewish holidays.) Admission is free.

Theater J is a professional theater company founded to present works that “celebrate the distinctive urban voice and social vision that are part of the Jewish cultural legacy.” A program of the Washington DCJCC, Theater J has been hailed by The New York Times as “The Premier Theater for Premieres.”

The Washington DCJCC, located in the nation’s capital and serving residents of the metropolitan area, is located at 16th and Q Streets, NW, four blocks east of the Dupont North Metro station. For information, contact (202) 518-9400 or washingtondcjcc.org.

Congrats

The my good bud and one of the District's uberartists, Tim Tate, who just got picked up by London's Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

The whole thing started in one of the art fairs in Miami last December. Corbett was showing in Miami, walked through several of the fairs in the city, chatted with Philadelphia's Projects Gallery (which also represents Tate), and that gallery's hardworking owner Helen Meyrick introduced Corbett to Tate's work.

Meyrick then took Corbett over to by Norfolk's Mayer Fine Arts, which also represents Tate's work, and there Meyrick and MFA's also hard-working owner Sheila Giolitti showed Corbett more of Tate's video work and she liked them a lot.

And just recently they closed the deal and now Corbett will represent Tate internationally (she does most of the American and European power art fairs). This is a huge step forward for Tim Tate.

Lesson here? This is why it is important for galleries to do some art fairs, and why it is important for artists to support their galleries' as much as they can. The art fairs are a huge financial risk for the art galleries, but the pay off opportunities, both for the galleries and for the artists whom they take there are huge.

Murmur DC on Antognoli

In today’s digital world, we lose touch of the basic elements of every day life. Photographers like Erin Antognoli bring back us back to earth, with a craft that focuses on the simple life. Her work is formed with a cheap Holga camera, and a heightened sense of her surrounding environments. Instead of choosing to become engulfed with the many features carried with today’s digital cameras, she chooses to become engulfed with the many features in her subjects.

Beautiful post on DC area photographer Erin Antognoli in Murmur DC here.

Dawson on Conner

Freelancer Jessica Dawson has a gorgeous article in the WaPo on the District's powerhouse and uber hardworking dealer Leigh Conner.

Word of advice: Art dealer Leigh Conner is many things -- well-connected, a powerhouse, the District's top gallerist -- but one thing she isn't is laid-back. Never, ever cross her. Trust me, I know.

Read Dawson's really good piece here.

Mellema on new DC gallery?

We've been sitting on an interesting D.C. art scene story, waiting for the situation to develop enough that the telling of it won't ruin it. The situation is still in a state of flux, and still a few weeks shy of full disclosure, but solidifies by the day. We can tell you some of it now.

Speculation at the Daily Campello Art News (www.dcartnews.blogspot.com) has been that someone was looking to sign a short term lease for the much lauded, but still vacant old Numark Gallery space downtown. The educated conclusion being drawn was that a temporary gallery might be going into that space. We can confirm the rumors as being true, as far as they go. The lease was, in fact, signed on Tuesday of this week, so now it's full speed ahead.

Read the very interesting story by Kevin Mellema in the Falls Church News-Press here.

Missing Andy Warhol Link?


Check it out here.