Shame on Springfield, MA

Art censorship covers all sides of the social spectrum in this great nation. Throw in a nude (or in this case, not even a nude) in most public settings around the US and something is bound to go wrong. Even in the Soviet Socialist State of Massachusetts. From the Legal Satyricon:

Censorship — its not just for rednecks

I often rant about the censorship minded former confederacy — but I must admit that my home state of Massachusetts has its share of censorship monkeys. The censorship monkey of the day — the city of Springfield, MA and Gina E. Beavers, director of the Springfield Arts Initiative for the Springfield Business Improvement District (SBID).

Read the entire post with all the details here.

Congrats!

To Renee Stout, the 2010 winner of the High Museum of Art's David C. Driskell Prize, which recognizes Stout's original and important contribution to African-American art.

Stout's show Renee Stout: The House of Chance and Mischief opens Saturday, September 11, 2010 with a public reception from 6:30 - 8:30PM at Hemphill.

Welcome!

To Dafna Steinberg, who is the new Gallery Director at the Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center. Their next show is an exhibition of works on paper by artist Miriam Mörsel Nathan. The exhibition, curated by Steven Cushner, will be on display from September 15 through December 17, 2010, with an Opening Reception from 6:00 to 8:00 pm on September 14.

Working from pre-World War II photographs, Mörsel Nathan searches for details of family members, most of whom she has known only through photographs and stories. In working with these images, she creates hauntingly beautiful and provocative works. By piecing together fragments of information collected from family documents, notes on photographs and oral histories, Mörsel Nathan’s work reveals an elusive story of personal history and ascribed memory, acknowledging what she does not know about the people in these images.

Mörsel Nathan explains, “Only after completing these pieces was it clear to me that my way of working–making it difficult to see the images–was very much a part of the story. That’s how it is with memory, even an inherited one. It can be hard to retrieve. It is often non-linear. It can be vague or unclear or incomplete or hidden.”

The exhibition includes a series of multi-colored monotypes and screen prints based on a photograph of her aunt Greta; a wedding series of her Uncle Josef’s wedding, complemented by a video chronicling the original images from the wedding; and her version of a pre-war “family album.”

Curator Cushner says, “Miriam Mörsel Nathan has been able to take her particular experience and transform it into a language that speaks to all of us. This is the magic of all good art–to create a bridge that can connect the personal and private, with the universal and communal.”

The three-month exhibition will be accompanied by myriad of special programming, including panel discussions, film screenings, literary, musical and theatrical events. Miriam Mörsel Nathan’s work for the exhibition Memory of a time I did not know… is supported in part by funding from the Montgomery County government and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.

Airborne

Heading back home today early in the morning... too early.

Studio Space Available

Pyramid Atlantic is currently offering a private studio space for an artist (or artists) to share. The 10 X 12 studio space has large windows, natural lighting and free WiFi access. Rent is $300 per month. Monthly rental fee includes 24 hour studio access, parking and utilities.

Artists working in the mediums of paper-making, printmaking, book making and digital media are encouraged to apply. Unlimited use of printmaking facilities and equipment is available with studio rental for an additional $100 a month.

Artist interested in applying for the private space should submit:

* A resume of artistic experience,
* A typed one-page Artist Statement,
* Up to 10 images saved in jpeg format,
* A sheet identifying the name of each image, medium, dimension and date created

All materials may be emailed to jdominguez@pyramid-atlantic.org or mailed to:

Jose Dominguez
Executive Director
8230 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring MD 20910.

All applications must be received by Sept 12, 2010

Read and weep some more

He's Britain's most talked-about young artist. His paintings fetch hefty sums and there's a long waiting list for his eagerly anticipated new works.

It has all happened so quickly — he's still getting used to the spotlight — and Kieron Williamson fidgets a little when he's asked to share his thoughts on art.

"Cows are the easiest thing to paint," said Kieron, who has just turned 8. "You don't have to worry about doing so much detail."

Read it here.

Jessica's Finalist No. 6: Chloe Watson

Great choice! Check it out here.

VARA in action

The news release from artist David Ascalon reads:

"When artist David Ascalon's towering Holocaust memorial, just blocks from the Pennsylvania state capitol, was dedicated in 1994, he could not have imagined that a dozen years later, his name would be stripped away from the sculpture's base. Nor could Ascalon have envisioned that his most cherished creation - one which he designed to honor the millions who perished at the hands of the Nazis - would have been mutilated through drastic modification at the whim of a bunch of Harrisburg bureaucrats. But that is precisely what happened.

Ascalon, however, was unwilling to permit this violation of his moral rights to go unchecked. Through his attorney, Jason B. Schaeffer of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, he has filed suit under Congress' Visual Artists' Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) - a law enacted to protect against such destruction - in Federal District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Through this action, Ascalon seeks to compel restoration of this important public artwork to its original design."

Here are some before and after pictures, including ones that show the artist's signature completely ground away. A copy of the complaint is here.

I don't know who the artist was, or even the name of the piece was, but does anyone remember that huge piece of shiny, fluttery, metal public art that used to be above the Bethesda Metro stop for years? The thing was massive; then, all of a sudden it was gone!

I wonder if that artist, whoever she or he may be, even knows that his work is no longer there.

The perils of public art... I guess.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: September 6, 2010

CoolClimate Art Contest. The purpose of the contest is to engage the creative community on behalf of producing an iconic image that addresses the impact of climate change and spurs participation in the climate change debate. The contest is being judged by notable art experts and celebrities such as Philippe Cousteau, Van Jones, Jackson Browne, Chevy Chase, Agnes Gund, David Ross, and Carrie Mae Weems. Winners will be voted on by the public on Huffington Post. Submissions are due September 6 and can be posted online here.

Hot Foot

I rarely hang my own work in my house, but I have a recent version of Superman Flying Naked temporarily hanging in my house while the art piece that goes there is on loan for an exhibition. The other day I noted that the way the sun was striking the glass made it look as if the Man of Steel had incandescent feet.

Tax Free Bennies

In addition to her $877,000 compensation package, Ellen V. Futter, president of the American Museum of Natural History, lives rent free in a $5 million East Side apartment that the museum bought when she came aboard.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art houses its director, Thomas P. Campbell, in a $4 million co-op that it owns across Fifth Avenue from the museum.

The director of the Museum of Modern Art, Glenn D. Lowry, may have the best deal of all. In addition to the $2 million in salary and benefits he earned last year, he lives in a $6 million condo in the tower atop the museum.

Read the NYT story here.

Cudlin Goes Yard

Sometimes it seems like the only way for D.C. artists to get a little respect is to leave town. Take Dan Steinhilber, an artist who lives and works in the District, and is represented locally by G Fine Art. In his Style section piece this past Sunday, WaPo chief art critic Blake Gopnik praises Steinhilber, noting that his art has “earned him solos from Baltimore to Houston and group shows from Toronto to Siena. This summer, they’ve also earned him a residency at Socrates Sculpture Park, on the waterfront in Queens.”

Yes, Steinhilber has spent the summer making art in New York. He’s been asking passers-by in Queens to lay down in a large sand box and move their arms and legs back and forth, creating what can only be described as sand angels—which the artist then casts in concrete.

But Gopnik doesn’t mention one important detail: This New York residency is actually a D.C.-funded project.

Read how Jeffry Cudlin tells you what the Washington Post should have told you last week. Read it here.

Congrats


Congrats to our own Rosetta DeBerardinis, whose "Erotic Contemplation" is now part of the permanent collection at PNC Bank's regional headquarters.

Letter to City Paper

The current issue of the Washington City Paper has my letter to the editor responding to Kriston Capps deceptive article published in the previous issue. The letter reads:

The errors and journalist lack of integrity of “The C List: Will Lenny Campello’s 100 Washington Artists Serve Its Subjects or Its Author,” are too many to list in this letter; I will concentrate on the three major ones. To start, Capps lies when he writes that in my blog (DC Art News) I have been “writing for years about artists that he admires (and represents).” A simple check of my blog posts will reveal that 95% of those artists have never been represented by me.

Capps then quotes me out of context when he writes that I said “I have zero commercial relationship with them.” He follows that quote by writing “Not wholly true.” I know of no other meaning of “not wholly true” other than “it’s a lie.” What an ethical journalist would have written is: “But I have zero commercial relationship with them,” Campello says referring to the Fraser Gallery and their artists.” I never lied to Capps, and revealed to him all my artists relationships. I am insulted and embarrassed that he made it appear as if I lied and he “discovered” my lie.

The worst offense in this article, and one that should get the attention of the CP’s editors and publishers and all of Capps’ employers, is the fact that Capps purposefully omitted information which would have destroyed his argument about my ethical issues with this book.

Even though he knew that I had placed a disclaimer in the book, and referred all artists to other dealers so that no referral ever came back to me, he never mentioned the steps that I took to eliminate any perception of conflict of interest. That is unethical and malicious.

Considering that in past CP articles (not once, but twice), Capps own journalistic ethics have been questioned, and considering that he was once dismissed from the CP for issues related to one of his articles, he has huge cojones writing about my ethics when his are the ones on the record as lacking integrity.

Pyramid Atlantic gets NEA Big Read award

Pyramid Atlantic, the cool nonprofit arts center in Silver Spring's arts and entertainment district, is one of 75 nonprofits across the U.S. that is receiving a total of $1 million in grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in connection with the NEA's fifth annual Big Read project, a yearly effort that spotlights reading as a vital element of American culture.

Each grantee receives an award ranging from $2,500 to $20,000. Pyramid, the only Maryland organization to receive a Big Read award, was awarded $17,050. Founded in 1981, Pyramid is “dedicated to the creation and appreciation of hand papermaking, printmaking, digital arts and the art of the book.”

Cyber influences

Americans who participate in the arts through technology and electronic media – Internet, television, radio, computers and mobile devices – are nearly three times more likely to attend live arts events compared to non-media participants, according to a recent report from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

Audience 2.0: How Technology Influences Arts Participation also showed that media participants also attend twice as many live arts events and attend a greater variety of the events. A multi-media version of the report is on the NEA’s web site.

Airborne

Heading down to Florida for one week of R&R with the family. I am mentally and physically exhausted after putting together the first volume of 100 Washington Artists (and then having to defend it); I haven't done any artwork in months; my hair is too long and my shoulder hurts from where that British Marine broke my clavicle in Palma de Mallorca in 1983. Besides, it is time to expose Little Junes to the warm sea.

Banner year so far!

Campello Pinot Grigio is available practically everywhere, most notably at Trader Joe's in those non fascist states where supermarkets can sell wine.

Reviews and comments here. For around six or seven bucks it has been getting rave reviews!

Keep buying!

Busy, busy...

Former Trawick prizewinner Linn Meyers is not only one of my favorite DC area artists, but also one of the area's hardest working. Her show at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., will end in just over 2 weeks. This means that August 22nd is the last day to see the piece before it is painted over and forever gone! And she's got a full schedule ahead of her:

- This September she will create a wall drawing at Paris Concret for the show titled Touch. The show open in Paris, France on October 3rd.

- Next January, 2011, she will have a solo show at The Katzen Museum at American University in Washington, DC.

- In February 2011 she will have her third solo show with G Fine Art in Washington, DC in their new gallery space at 1350 Florida Ave, NE.

- Linn will be making a wall drawing in NYC at The Museum of Art and Design, in 2011, dates to be announced soon.

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

City Gallery is hosting the opening for their First Annual Regional Juried Competition. The opening reception is tonight from 6-9PM.