Obama on Cuba

Recent events in Cuba, including the tragic death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the repression visited upon Las Damas de Blanco, and the intensified harassment of those who dare to give voice to the desires of their fellow Cubans, are deeply disturbing.

These events underscore that instead of embracing an opportunity to enter a new era, Cuban authorities continue to respond to the aspirations of the Cuban people with a clenched fist.

Today, I join my voice with brave individuals across Cuba and a growing chorus around the world in calling for an end to the repression, for the immediate, unconditional release of all political prisoners in Cuba, and for respect for the basic rights of the Cuban people.

During the course of the past year, I have taken steps to reach out to the Cuban people and to signal my desire to seek a new era in relations between the governments of the United States and Cuba. I remain committed to supporting the simple desire of the Cuban people to freely determine their future and to enjoy the rights and freedoms that define the Americas, and that should be universal to all human beings.

- President Obama

A little background on Las Damas de Blanco here, a brave group of Cuban women who appear to be spear-heading what I hope to be the end of the world's longest and most repressive dictatorship.

Sesow in French press

Local artist couple Matt Sesow and Dana Ellyn are in Europe having solos in France and Spain. Matt's solo in Albi, France, which had received a huge number of pre-opening sales, was just reviewed in the French press. Read it here.

Opportunity for emerging artists

Deadline: June 1, 2010

Conner / *gogo emerging art projects is accepting submissions for their 2011/2012 seasons.

Emerging artists (individual or collaborative groups) are encouraged to send proposals for a new project, a new performance, or an exhibition of new work in any medium, which utilizes the gallery's outdoor area, or media room, or gallery B space.

The duration of the show may range from a one night event up to an 8-week exhibition.

Please include:

> a concise written description of the project, one page or less
> a visualization of the project in the space
> Five low-res jpgs of current works
> CV and biography of the artist(s)
> your website(s)

Deadline: June 1, 2010

Send to: info@connercontemporary.com, Attn: Jamie Smith, curator

Proposals will be reviewed by September 1, 2010.

Mellema on Lin

"It's hard to argue with the notion that Amy Lin gets more press coverage than any other artist in the greater Metro area."

That's the beginning of a most excellent review by Kevin Mellema of the Amy Lin show currently at Addison Ripley in Georgetown. Read the whole review here. Mellema is right, Lin has received tons of press and critical attention in her past and current exhibitions.

It's also hard to argue with the puzzling fact that so far the Washington Post's Jessica Dawson, whose job is to write about DC area galleries, is one of the rare important critical voices who has so far managed to avoid writing anything about this artist. Lin has managed to capture the attention of nearly every art critic and writer in the region but Dawson's.

Says something about having a "finger on the pulse of the DC art scene" doesn't it?

I really hope that Dawson proves me wrong and plans to review this current Lin show and bring one of the District's top visual arts voices to the attention of the WaPo's readers.

On the other hand, me bitching about Jessica's review choices (or lack thereof) could result in a permanent poisoning of the well and guarantee that Dawson will black list Lin forever.

Still on yet another hand, in 100 years no one will know who Jessica Dawson was, but Amy Lin's artworks will still be around and being enjoyed for centuries to come.

The place to be tonight is...



a pop-up project has it s grand opening tonight and hosts the first of many pop-up group exhibitions, lectures and events at venues throughout the DC area. For its inaugural exhibition a pop-up project will open I Dream Awake from March 18 to May 28, 2010 in the former Numark Gallery space located in Penn Quarter at 625-627 E St NW.


I Dream Awake is a curated selection of works that presents original artist expressions which explore the link between awakened realities and unconscious dreams.

The exhibition includes artwork in various media by New York artists, Mikel Glass, Kenichi Hoshine and Margaret Bowland; Los Angeles artists Vonn Sumner and Susan Burnstine; and local artists Rosemary Feit Covey, Laurel Hausler, Lizzie Newton and Tim Tate.

The formal opening reception with the artists in attendance is tonight, Friday, March 26th from 6 - 9pm.

See ya there!

Wanna go to a couple of openings in DC tomorrow?

Start at Irvine Contemporary, who has a couple of favorites of mine opening: Susan Jamison: Swallowtail: New Paintings and Susana Raab: American Vernacular: Photographs. Opening reception with the artists: Saturday, March 27, 6:00-8:00PM.

Then head to U Street, where Katherine Mann, Christian Benefiel and Michael Sirvet also open on Saturday, March 27, from 7-9 PM at Hamiltonian Gallery.

A Formidable New Presence

When I first reported the news about a new art space to open at the former Numark Gallery space in DC, some of the emails that I received back generally said something along the lines of "about time!" After all, the award winning space (the space won its architectural designers an award for gallery design when it opened a handful of years ago) had been empty since Numark's sudden and unexpected closing a couple of years ago.

I dropped by a pop up project, which is the new art space at the former Numark space at 625-627 E St NW, in Washington, DC, and I am relieved to report that, judging from their first exhibition, and from meeting the enthusiastic and experienced owner, I am going to predict that the District is about to have a formidable new visual arts presence in its cultural tapestry.

The owner is Amy Morton, an experienced curator with a lot of background working with auction houses, art associations, and galleries in Los Angeles, CA, Boston, MA and the DC area. As many gallery owners are, she is also a collector, and is sure to bring her own collecting sensibilities to the mix. Unlike some gallery owners, Morton brings a refreshing, bright, and smiling personality which is far removed from the cool, aloof demeanor that some art dealers like to portray. And it is clear to see that her personality is also displayed in some of the subtle innovations that she is bringing to the gallery business; more on that later.

The inaugural exhibition, titled "I Dream Awake", brings together some of the artists either collected by Morton or whose work she has followed and admired over the years. The exhibition includes artwork in various media by New York artists, Mikel Glass, Kenichi Hoshine and Margaret Bowland; Los Angeles artists Vonn Sumner and Susan Burnstine; and DC area artists Rosemary Feit Covey, Laurel Hausler, Lizzie Newton and Tim Tate.

Immediately upon entering the gallery the visitor is confronted by what can best be described a sculptural painting installation by Mikel Glass. A Victorian frame, surrounded by original radio tubes and assorted seminal electric paraphernalia, hosts a painting which is a copy of Richard Rothwell's 1840 portrait of Mary Shelley.

The steam lines, antique doll's head and other assorted brass found objects, which of course include a brass Frankenstein head, gives the viewer an immediate clue about the work which is confirmed by the title: Machine in the Garden - Steampunk Shelley.

Glass explains:

A re-telling of the Frankenstein myth from a feminist perspective inspired Steampunk Shelley. In The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein, Elizabeth and Victor were raised together from childhood in order that they form an alchemic union that would allow Victor to achieve his full potential. Along the way, however, Elizabeth is beset by the strenuous limitations imposed upon her by a rigid, male-dominated society which eventually drives her into the arms of a Wicca coven.

In the original Frankenstein, Elizabeth had many autobiographical qualities of Shelley. In Steampunk Shelly I represent Shelley herself as Elizabeth. Her torment in the re-telling had much to do with the fact that, as in Shelley’s life, Elizabeth struggled to conceive a child. She finally succeeds, but ironically simultaneously to Victor’s scientific breakthrough – he realizes that he needs the tissue from a living baby to animate his creature. The moment depicted in the painting is intended to evoke the terrible choice that confronts Elizabeth: loyalty to the husband she worships versus personal fulfillment.

The background imagery and the frame are inspired by the Steampunk aesthetic, which is a combination of Victorian imagery with industrial technology. The frame is intended as an homage to Frankenstein and the society that he came from which, unfortunately, repressed women. The frame and all of its attributes were scavenged from various sources. For example, the valve that distributes the steam to each portal was salvaged from a defunct cow-milking machine. Frankenstein’s head was found in a scrap metal yard.

Long before I ever set brush to canvas my roots in art were germinated in the nurturing soil of found object sculpture. After moving to New York City for art school about twenty years ago, I pursued painting for logistical reasons - it took up less space. And while my heart never strayed from the abundant objects I coveted all around me in the city, I focused on trying to represent them in two dimensions. Over the years I’ve only infrequently allowed myself the indulgent transgression of pursuing expression through sculpture and performance. But Steampunk Shelley potentially represents a turning for me where I am comfortably exploring the intersection between all three. It’s a comfortable place for me, and I hope to spend a great deal of time there

I depress the brass Frankenstein head, hold it down a second or two, and the piece, like the monster, comes alive.

Wheels turn, the gas tubes light up, and then unexpectedly, we discover individual steam portals that deliver soft plumes of steam to the painting. It is a riveting homage, and I am sure that sooner or later, someone during the exhibition will include the triumphant "It's Alive!" Frankensteinian shout that is the climax of the monster's birth.


The main gallery is dominated by the works of Margaret Bowland (whose work was a finalist for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and is currently also on display at the National Portrait Gallery). The large pastel pieces show not only a remarkable technical facility made even more remarkable by the sheer scale of her works, but also an enviable mastery of a deep psychological agenda delivered by her works.


Another Thorny Crown. Margaret Bowland. Charcoal and pastel on rag paper, 60x48 inches.
The abundance of visual references makes this work a lesson in history and also a critical pitfall in trying to decipher and understand all of them. The child's gaze is hard and well beyond her years. They are old eyes and they are the key that opens up the dialogue to the other clues in the piece: the cotton crown wrapped around her head in a blunt reference to the crown of thorns worn by Jesus during His crucifixion. Cotton was the key driver for the slave trade in the American South; the white face painted on the child is an even harsher aim point at some of the racial realities and perceptions of a Black culture in a White society.

This is mostly an American painting. It is anchored deeply in American sensibilities and history, but it is also a powerful ancestral reminder of all Africans in the New World. Had this painting been done by a Caribbean artist, the child would have been crowned by a crown made up of razor-sharp sugar cane leaves, but the memories in her gaze would be the same. It is a brilliant narrative piece, and by far my favorite piece in the show.

There is also some excellent work by the several local area artists in the show. A new video piece by Tim Tate is sure to be a hit with animation buffs, and his classic "I hear the Siren's call" remains one of the sexiest videos around. Rosemary Feit Covey exhibits a terrific set of her better-known engravings, including her signature piece "Nkonde", which is almost out of print in an edition of 60.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, Morton's open and bright personality comes through in the way in which she has presented the work. The gallery is hung minimally, without overcrowding the work, but it is in the way that information about the work is presented, that she comes through even a little more open and clearly innovative.

I have never been a fan of hiding information in art galleries (such as the whole way of using pins or tiny numbers rather than labels to identify the work). In fact I would submit that the more information that is afforded the viewer, without the viewer having to ask for it, the higher the chances that a "connection" to the work will be made.

Morton uses labels, and that's good, and lots of galleries also use labels to identify the work, the artist, the media and the price. And then she goes beyond that. In addition to the title labels, small circular labels also inform us a little more about the artist. Information such as "This artist is currently on exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery" or "This artist is in the collection of such and such museum."

There's more. Slim floor displays hold cards that add more information about a particular piece. They are clearly a derivative of the well-known museum "wall text" information, but cleverly accommodated to gallery size and space. I think that this is a superb idea and that it will have payoffs for the gallery.

The formal grand opening reception (with the artists in attendance) will be held tomorrow, Friday, March 26th from 6 - 9pm. Don't miss it - it will mark the debut of an important new art presence in our region.

See ya there!

Final Report

"Age of Obama - Nobel Peace Prize" Charcoal on Paper. 16x12 inches.
I am happy to report that the above piece, selected by Mera Rubell for the WPA Auction at the Katzen Museum, drew furious multiple bids and sold for 170% above the high estimate.

And it sold to a VP for Sotheby's who was nice enough to send me an email to tell me how much he liked the work!

Herstory at the Art League

While I was at the Art League gallery recently, I also had a chance to see Herstory, an exhibition juried by Barbara Rachko.

The term "herstory" refers to history ("his story") written from a feminist point of view, with emphasis on the role of women, or with the story narrated from a female perspective.

Rachko gave the Jane Coonce Award to a gorgeous painting by CM Dupre titled "Alice is Decorated." It is permanent proof that in the hands of a skilled artist, any subject matter can be revisited and still yield something new.

I also liked "Ann's Secret" a very good oil painting by Rena Selim, and "With Wine as Accomplice" by Soline Krug, a new artist (new to me anyway) that takes on the difficult challenge of oil leaf and succeeds admirably. Krug's work also takes a somewhat artist-abused subject (wine) and does something not only technically challenging, but also compositionally interesting, and somehow also manages to douse a generous dose of sexuality into the work. It was my favorite piece in the whole show!

Both these pieces are $650 each, framed and are a great deal at that price; someone should go buy them now.

Avec le Vin comme Complice (With Wine as Accomplice) by Soline Krug
Also quite enjoyed "Guardian of Things that Roar in the Night" by Charlene Nield.

The show goes through April 5, 2010.

Free Art Business Seminar for Artists

On April 10, 2010 from 1-5pm, Gateway CDC in partnership with MNCPPC will be hosting my well-known “Bootcamp for Artists” seminar at no cost to the artists.

This seminar is suitable for all visual artists interested in taking their careers to the next level.

Ever wondered how to maximize the attention your work gets from the press, galleries, and museum curators? How to present your work in a professional manner and save money in the process? How to tap into grants, awards and residencies?

Then this is the seminar for you! This program is free, but space is limited so please email John@Gateway-cdc.org or call 301-864-3860 ext. 3 if you would like to attend. Hurry!

This program will be held in MNCPPC’s Brentwood Arts Exchange on the 1st Floor of the Gateway Arts Center, 3901 Rhode Island Avenue, Brentwood, MD 20722, just over the District line on Rhode Island Avenue.

Of interest to the general public: a closing reception for the Gateway Arts District Show, which I juried a while back will immediately follow the “Bootcamp for Artists Seminar” from 5-8pm. All are welcome!

Separated at Birth?

Am I the only one who thinks that American Idol's Lee Dewyze looks like Rodney Dangerfield's son?

Check's in the mail

The grants were to have been used in the “coming year,” the foundation said when it announced them in March 2009. But the money — more than $100,000 in total — has yet to be received, and recipients who have tried to contact the foundation for information at its New York headquarters have been met by a disconnected number and returned mail.

Read the NYT story here.

Students at the Corcoran

Six Corcoran student artists have their Fine Arts Senior Thesis Exhibition opening at the Corcoran's Gallery 31 on March 25th from 6pm-8pm.

I'm hearing good things about a piece titled il·lu·so·ry, a huge 3.5 ft x 30 ft mixed media illustration by Jessika Dené Tarr.

Hors D'oeuvres and wine will be served in Corcoran's Atrium which is the room directly next to Gallery 31. Show goes through the 28th. Details and schedule here.

Generations in Glass at Glenview

"Generations in Glass" is presented by the National Capital Art Glass Guild. This juried event includes over 130 unique art glass objects, representing over 60 of the DC area's finest glass artists. Several diverse styles will be on display including blown, kilnformed, flameworked and stained art glass. This is a free exhibit and runs through April 27. See below for more details.

March 28 - April 27, 2010
Glenview Mansion Art Gallery at Rockville Civic Center Park
603 Edmonston Drive
Rockville, MD 20851

Meet the Artist Reception: Sunday, March 28 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm. It is followed by a panel discussion.

Contemporary Art Projects Grand Opening on Friday

Remember that I told you that the former award-winning (for gallery design) Numark space was about to be re-used as a gallery space?

Amy Morton of Morton Fine Art will have the grand opening for a pop-up project, a series of innovative, curated art exhibitions and events that “pop-up” at various locations throughout Washington, DC at that space this coming Friday.


The first exhibition, I Dream Awake runs from March 18 to May 28, 2010 at the former Numark Gallery space located in Penn Quarter at 625-627 E St NW.

I Dream Awake is a curated selection of works that presents original artist expressions which explore the link between awakened realities and unconscious dreams. The exhibition includes artwork in various media by New York artists, Mikel Glass, Kenichi Hoshine and Margaret Bowland; Los Angeles artists Vonn Sumner and Susan Burnstine; and local artists Rosemary Feit Covey, Laurel Hausler, Lizzie Newton and Tim Tate.

The formal opening reception with the artists in attendance will be held on Friday, March 26th from 6 - 9pm.

Happy Birthday to the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg

Today is the birthday of Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, who was born in Marianao, Havana, Cuba, to José Antonio Mestre y Alvarez and his wife María Teresa Batista y Falla de Mestre.

She graduated from the University of Geneva in political sciences in 1980. It was there that Miss Mestre met Prince Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

They married in 1981.

We're everywhere...

In town...


Previous Virginia Groot Foundation First Place Award Winners were all in town to to review the submissions for the 2010 sculpture award. From left to right, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Tim Tate, Candice Groot, Stanley Shetka, and Christina Bothwell.

Rosemary Feit Covey at the Art League

I've been following the career of master printmaker Rosemary Feit Covey for years now.

And for years I have been mesmerized by not only her technical skill but also by her powerful and often shocking imagery.

Over the years I've also seen Rosemary do something that my good bud Jeffry Cudlin likes: she keeps pushing and redefining the genre of printmaking to the point that she can no longer be categorized and labeled simply as a printmaker.

In fact, since I brought Cudlin into the discussion, I submit as evidence of my point the exhibition that she had at the Arlington Arts Center (where Cudlin is curator) a while back.

By the way, the gent in that cherry picker installing that massive work of art by Rosemary Feit Covey around the Arlington Arts Center is Cudlin, the Center's curator and the City Paper's chief art critic.

Enough of Cudlin.

But even knowing the enviable artistic reserves of this artist I was not prepared for what she has done with the work currently on display at the Art League Gallery, inside the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria.

Let me tell you early in this discussion: this is the best art show that I have ever seen at the Art League Gallery; ever.

At the Art League exhibition, Rosemary has two distinct sets of artworks that once again move printmaking to a new place: one is a set of "peep boxes" and the second is a set of lighted wall installations.


The peep show boxes line up in the center of the gallery, and at first seem a bit quizzical until one realizes what they are: Feit Covey tells us that "in the 18th and 19th Centuries peep show viewing was a popular and innocent form of street entertainment, developing into toy theaters. Using lenses and mirrors, an interior world could be created by peering into the mysterious box. She adds that the "term Peep Show ultimately came be to most closely associated with viewing pornographic films and live sex shows."

In her peep show box series, Feit Covey smartly marries the disquieting secrecy of the act of peeping into the box with the moist trapped sexuality brought about by the contemporary connotation of the term “Peep Show."

She does this by offering us innocent looking Victorian-era type peep show boxes in nice oak colors.

When we bend down and peep into them, we spy a set of suggestive, rather than overtly sexual, engravings. The objectification of the women in the imagery has not reached its climax yet, to be a bit coarse on the issue here.



And yet, by simply placing the print inside a box, she forces us into the tingly role of voyeur and peeper. The height of the stands where the boxes rest also force one to bend down in order to steal a surprisingly clear and well lit glimpse of a set of 10 suggestive etchings.



On the walls Feit Covey has a series of back lit boxes that are lined with dozens and dozens of strips of etchings. The appearance is that of a photographic process in the development stage.



It is a hypnotic installation. We are attracted at first, like moths to the light, to peer close at the imagery that dangles, like negatives in a pornographer's darkroom, inside each back lit box. The engravings are printed on Japanese papers and phone book pages, and then the vertical strips are encased in an encaustic medium.

The subjects on the strips, a young woman and a much older man, play a sexual drama that is riveting and disturbing. Some people, Feit Covey relates, have been offended by what is depicted on the strips, which all through the scenes barely restrain a growl of controlled sexual violence clearly hidden under the surface of the two subjects.

The old man is using the young woman as a captive sexual toy; there's a sharp hint of restrained danger in the images. "They are a real couple," she related to me a while back when I first saw this new series of work being produced. "She is much younger than him, and they have this sexual relationship based on routines and scenarios such as these."

Throw the element of reality into the disturbing imagery and it adds a whole new element of peeping into the dark sexual melodramas of the unusual couple. "They are quite in love with each other," she adds.

I force myself not to think ordinary thoughts. The wholesome and attractive woman and the decaying, wizened old man have discovered a sexual formula that bridges their huge age gap with a slippery and dangerous rope bridge.



In narrating their story, and in bringing the narration out of the mat and frame of the two dimensionality of intaglio etchings, Feit Covey has delivered a self contained installation that reinvents the world of the photographer in terms of the tools of the trade of the printmaker.

In continuing to bring the print out of the frame, and relocating it where it is not just a geographical move but a psychological transformation, she has achieved a singularly unique new direction for this most traditional of genres.

In this Art League show, Feit Covey has also set a new standard for that gallery and a opened up a whole new road for the Torpedo Factory.

In fact, after this show, the usual labels affixed to the kind of art that most people associate with the Torpedo Factory artists no longer sticks. Not that they ever applied to this talented artist.

The exhibition runs through April 15, 2010.

Opportunity for Artists: One Hour Photo

Deadline: March 31st, 2010.

The premise of the show is simple: photographic works, projected for one hour each, after which they will never be seen again, by anyone, in any form. They therefore exist only for one hour, they are "one hour photos," a limited edition of 60 minutes.

In this way, One Hour Photo complicates the myth of photography as preservation, manifests the tension between the permanence of the medium and the impermanence of time, and subverts the profit model of the edition and the print.

Although there are no strict subject matter or stylistic guidelines, One Hour Photo is particularly interested in work that engages in dialogue with the themes that the concept naturally raises: ephemerality, memory, anti-artifact, loss, nostalgia, magic, time, disappearance, dissolution, whispers, traces, ghosts, etc.

To ensure that the works will never be seen, and to document the show, each artist will sign a "morally binding" release form stating that he or she will never reproduce, sell, or show the work to the public after its one hour "exposure." The curators will also sign the release form, and all release forms will be displayed on the One Hour Photo site as documentation of the show. The show itself will contain approximately 120 works curated by Chandi Kelley, or one per hour for the duration of the exhibition's open hours. One Hour Photo will show from May 8 – June 6, 2010 at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, D.C, as part of the Spirat exhibition.

They seek previously unpublished / undisplayed photographs or photographic-based work. Work selected will be projected for exactly one hour during the exhibition, with the understanding that it will not be shown, reproduced or sold from that moment forward.

It can all be done online and there's no fee. Check out the Call to Artists here.

Wanna go to a cool DC opening tonight?

Maria Friberg: transmission and Dean Kessmann: Art as Paper as Potential opens tonight Saturday, March 20th from 6-8pm with the artists in attendance at Conner Contemporary.