See ya tonight!


Tonight is the opening for my first substantial exhibition in the DC area in four years. The show is at the School of Art & Design at Montgomery College's King Street Gallery, located in the beautiful Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center at 930 King Street in the Montgomery College, Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus.

The opening is tonight, Thursday, September 23, 5:00 – 7:30 pm. I hear there will be a TV crew at the opening, so it sounds like a fun night. There will also be an artists' panel on Monday, Sept. 27, at noon, for one hour. I will be available at the panel and after the panel to discuss and answer any questions that you may have about anything dealing with the visual arts, career, galleries, etc.

Top 6 mustaches in local arts

Can I just say Yay!

My mustache has just made the it to the "Top 6 mustaches in local arts"!

Check it out here.

My dear mustache is a "come and go" mustache these days... I keep growing it and then taking it off, then I grow it again, then I take it off...

I've had a mustache since I was like 16 or 17... and I hate shaving; especially my upper lip. Every time that I shave it this happens: I am well asleep and then I turn over and my naked lip hits the cold pillow and it wakes me up.

Arrrrgh!

Between somewhere in 1972-3 and 2009, the only time that I didn't have a mustache was when I was in Navy bootcamp.

And between 1974 and 1983 I had a full beard, which returned sporadically (such as when I served temporary exchange duties in the British Royal Navy in 1987-1989).

Then full again a beard from 1997-1999 when I sort of went Bohemian for a while again.

The Lenster in 1997
And then around 2004/5 the now classic waxed mustache made its initial appearance. And off and on from there on...

And it has had its payoff for me: I once got a free burrito at Chipotle because the lady making the yummy food really liked my bigote (Spanish for mustache) and gave me a free burro.

Congrats to fellow artists Adrian Parsons and Andrew Wodzianski, who also made the list... and BTW... please note how the "Arts" mustaches kick ass versus the politicians' mustaches.

Coolio Julio Jenny Rogers!

P.S. Emmett Burns (Clarence Thomas doppleganger at the bottom here), you need a new picture dude; a little smile would get a few thousand more votes next time!

There are those who build and those who destroy

(Via) Unfortunately, those that destroy remain in power in Cuba. Meanwhile, Cuban-Americans have just lost one of the greatest from those who build.

Last week, Ysrael A. Seinuk passed away in New York.

Seinuk, a worldwide authority on the design and construction of high-rise concrete and steel buildings, was a native of Cuba and a graduate of the University of Havana before going into exile in 1960.

Amongst his most notable New York projects are the Trump World Tower, Bear Stearns World Headquarters, Time Warner Centre at Columbus Circle, Trump's Riverside South apartments, the New York Mercantile Exchange, Four Time Square, 515 Park Avenue, the "Lipstick" Building, Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, the Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium in Flushing Meadows, 7 World Trade Center, The Galleria and the landmark 450 Lexington Avenue.

And those were just his New York projects. From Mexico City to Dubai, his work remains a testament to his unique talent. Yet, Cuba always remained prominently in his heart.

During a 2005 interview with the BBC, Seinuk was asked:

If you had the opportunity to return to Cuba tomorrow and were free to build something, what type of building would you erect and where?

His answer:

"Well, the key word in your question is freedom. Assuming things would take a normal path, towards democracy, I would go to Cuba even if it were to only build a small hut."

May he rest in peace.

The place to be tomorrow is...

First Campello gallery exhibition in DC area in 4 years!

Tomorrow is the opening for my first substantial exhibition in the DC area in four years. The show will be at the School of Art & Design at Montgomery College's King Street Gallery, located in the beautiful Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center at 930 King Street in the Montgomery College, Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus.

There will be all new drawings in my constant exploration of using the human figure to deliver social, historical, satirical, mythological and political messages. The show also includes work by the immensely talented Johanna Mueller, who was one of my top picks from the last Artomatic and whom I predict will steal the show, as well as Leah Frankel and Leslie Shellow, both of whom are new artists to me.

The show is curated by Dr. Claudia Rousseau and is:

An exhibit of works on paper depicting mythical themes, or themes connoting transformations—mythical, magical or organic.

The exhibit will include prints, drawings and installation works employing paper with wax and other media.

The opening is tomorrow, Thursday, September 23, 5:00 – 7:30 pm. I hear there will be a TV crew at the opening, so it sounds like a fun night. There will also be an artists' panel on Monday, Sept. 27, at noon, for one hour. I will be available at the panel and after the panel to discuss and answer any questions that you may have about anything dealing with the visual arts, career, galleries, etc.

The Hirshhorn Bubble

The National Mall in Washington has seen all sorts of enterprises over the years, but who would build a translucent, inflatable bubble there, protruding from the doughnut-shaped Hirshhorn Museum and looking, from renderings, like a giant jellybean colored robin's egg blue? And why?

That would be Richard Koshalek, the Hirshhorn's voluble director, who when announcing the 145-foot-tall bubble last December uncharacteristically said little about its purpose other than that it would host four week-long international events, every spring and fall, about contemporary art and culture.

Judith H. Dobrzynski writes in the WSJ about Richard Koshalek's visions for the Hirshhorn. Read it here.

Critical Exposure

Critical Exposure is a DC-based non profit organization which teaches DC public school students the power of photography and their own voices to advocate for school reform and social change.

Their upcoming auction, which is their largest fundraiser of the year, is coming next month. They will be auctioning off works by Mario Tama, Damon Winter, Jahi Chikwendiu and Ed Kashi, (as well as many others!)

The event is October 21st at the DLA Piper Building Atrium (500 Eighth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004). You can buy tickets here or for more details contact:

Emma Scott
Critical Exposure
1816 12th St. NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 745-3745 ext. 20
www.criticalexposure.org
emmascott@criticalexposure.org

Artists' Websites: Johanna Mueller

I first came across the work of Johanna Mueller at the last Artomatic and was immediately seduced by it.

As her website declares, the prints of Johanna Mueller are imbued with personal mythology as she draws from her own narrative, cultural and historical references, pattern and design, and ancient myth and legend. The animals in her work are elevated from beast to mythic status as they take on human emotions and become metaphoric portraits of the artist and others.

You can see some of Mueller's work at the Myth & Transformations exhibition which opens this Thursday, September 23, 5:00 – 7:30 pm. The show is at the School of Art & Design at Montgomery College's King Street Gallery, located in the beautiful Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center at 930 King Street in the Montgomery College, Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus right off Georgia Avenue with plenty of free parking.

Joanna's work is also currently on view at the Arlington Arts Center in the FALL SOLOS 2010 exhibit. Exhibition dates: September 10 – November 7, 2010.

I hope Gaithersburg Germantown is ready for this...

Just noticed

Yesterday I was strolling Little Junes through the quad at American University and we stopped to look at the "Seurat" elephant sculpture by Sam Gilliam which is one of the "Party Animals" public art projects that the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities did a few years ago. As you may recall, artists painted a couple of hundred donkeys and elephant statues which are now all over the city.

The Gilliam elephant is right in front of the School of History building at AU and the poor beast is falling apart. I don't know if this is happening to any of the other "party animals" sculptures (or the similar panda project), but the elephant is riddled with surface cracks, as it appears that the elements have won the battle with the finishing element of the fabrication and the sculpture is cracking all over the place.

A Connie Slack panda across the quad seems to be in good shape, although if I remember right, the "party animals" preceded the pandas. But now I wonder if any other of these outdoor pieces are showing the effects of the DMV's severe weather extremes.

Zappa Sculpture in Baltimore

Mike Licht has some really good background info on the new Zappa sculpture for Baltimore.

Omnipresence

To coincide with the 2010 Congressional Black Caucus, the Black Artists of DC (BADC) were invited to present works at the Mandarin Oriental Public Art Gallery from September 17- Mid October, 2010. This project was sponsored in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Included in this exhibit, "Omnipresence", are a wide array of approaches and disciplines. Established artists such as E. J. Montgomery, Martha Jackson-Jarvis and Michael Platt are presented along side emerging artists, Daniel Booking, whose iconic photo of the black male nude, and Shaunte Gates' quasi graphic painting are both noteworthy.

In this small survey show of black DC artists, there are investigations that range from the conceptual to the painterly and each discipline or point of departure is handled proficiently. The digital divide between the graphic arts and the brush is being bridged. Worth a look-see to find out how the continuum of "AfriCobra" principles translate in the 21st Century, check this show out, which marks the vision of a young and upcoming curator in Zoma Wallace.

Vanity Galleries

A vanity gallery is an art gallery that "rents" its space to artists in order for the artist to have a show. Thus, the main driver in having a show at a vanity gallery is not necessarily the quality of the artwork, but the artist's ability to pay the gallery to host his/her artwork.

I wrote this article on vanity galleries over six years ago and it is still getting new comments and an interesting argument between gallery dealers and artists. Read it and comment here.

Dr. Claudia Rousseau on Myth and Transformations

Myth & Transformations opens Thursday, September 23, 5:00 – 7:30 pm. The show is at the School of Art & Design at Montgomery College's King Street Gallery, located in the beautiful Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center at 930 King Street in the Montgomery College, Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus. Here is the essay about the show by its curator, Dr. Claudia Rousseau:

Myth and Transformations

As I was thinking about organizing this exhibition, I was inspired by the work of the four artists who so graciously accepted the invitation to show their work together here. These are Leah Frankel, Johanna Mueller, Leslie Shellow and F. Lennox Campello. All of them have been working and exhibiting in the Washington DC region for some time, and all of them, in one way or another, have shown interest in the themes of mythology and transformation.

Mythology has always captivated me. Since childhood I have loved the ancient stories that so often involve transformations to explain the origins of things, from animals to trees and stars. The ancient Roman writer Ovid’s wonderful book, the Metamorphoses, is all about change, and many of those tales, one might imagine, were, by Ovid’s time, already understood in metaphorical terms. My extensive researches into mythology—first for my master’s thesis into the Celtic legends that served as bridges to the Christian faith in Ireland, and later, for my doctoral dissertation, into astrological lore and tales of the origin of constellations—have filled me with a great love for this most human of practices. Mythology is universal, and many, probably the majority of myths, involve the theme of transformation.

Artistic expression of the concept of transformation, and allusion to mythological themes or archetypes is not limited to existing myths. Indeed, it is not limited to figural styles. The idea of transformation, especially as in so many myths, from some dark place into the light, from animal to human or human to some other form, from one plane of existence into another, can be expressed by abstract means. And, since the archetypes of myth are universal, they can be manipulated into new stories and meanings.

The work of Johanna Mueller fully illustrates this last point. Her work employs a mythical framework, most often without alluding to specific mythic sources. Hers is a personal world of fable, where the lioness is enlightened and the deer are connected by heartstrings. Many animal characters re-appear in her work, sometimes morphing into others. Mueller herself has said, “I want to create something of a ritual space, to create the feeling of the symbolic spirits of my creations moving from one form to another. I think that having these repeating forms take on different shapes and sizes helps to convey that idea.” Thus, the concept of transformation is also a part of her iconography. Mueller’s incredibly detailed plastic plate engravings provoke and resonate in the mind of her viewers, touching on their own mythologies.

F. Lennox Campello’s drawings are more grounded in familiar stories from ancient Greek, Roman and Celtic mythology, and from martyrology and hagiography. Campello’s Minotaur rises up with all the frightening strength that such a hybrid monster can project, dark and menacing. His Witch Dub shrieks in the black water that is the origin of the city of Dublin. The story of St. Sebastian, a favorite subject of artists since the Renaissance mainly because it was an opportunity to represent a male nude in Christian art, has had a new life in contemporary expression as the target of misunderstanding and persecution of all kinds.

On a more organic and less specific level, Leslie Shellow’s installation connotes the mythology of the Great Mother, the goddess who gives forth the life of the earth—plants, flowers, animals, people. Her paper forms and delicate drawings seem to literally be growing in the gallery, taking over the spaces. In this, Shellow’s work expresses both the benevolence of the Goddess, and her dark side as well. While Nature is life-giving, it is also chaotic and unpredictable, irrational and capable of great destruction. Shellow’s sensitivity to the transformational character of growth is evident, and accounts for the surprising power of her work. Simple paper rings are transformed into evidence of being.

Finally, the hand-made paper works of Leah Frankel express the notions of myth and transformation in more abstract ways. Frankel’s Grade is a work that connotes transformation from darkness into light, a theme that is at the core of many myths. Being abstract, the work provides a mythical framework that can carry stories projected on it by the viewer. The myth of Orpheus comes to mind, but so many stories about moving through the darkness to the light, to new life—or, even more fundamentally, the hidden mystery of birth—a theme that goes back as far as human pre-history. The Paperstack also shows movement from bottom to top, gently transforming the piled papers into a moving form. Frankel’s work is open to viewer interaction, providing a space for thought and physical response that is deeply personal.

Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D.
School of Art + Design at Montgomery College
September, 2010

Jerry Saltz on Bravo's Work of Art

But Work of Art reminded me that there are many ways to become an artist and many communities to be an artist in. The show also changed the way I think about my job. Over the ten weeks it aired, hundreds of strangers stopped me on the street to talk about it. In the middle of nowhere, I’d be having passionate discussions about art with laypeople. It happened in the hundreds, then thousands of comments that appeared below the recaps I wrote for nymag.com. Many of these came from people who said they’d never written about art before. Most were as articulate as any critic.

Read Saltz's thoughts on the show here.

MPAartfest Artists announced

MPAartfest juror, Trudi Van Dyke, has selected forty-four artists to participate in the fourth annual MPAartfest on Sunday, October 3, 10:30 am - 4:30 pm in McLean Central Park.

Ms. Van Dyke, an independent curator and fine arts consultant said "As always, the MPA is a magnet for all good things art and the applications submitted to MPArtfest were no exception. It was both an outstanding opportunity and awesome responsibility to select from a broad pool of artists. I am looking forward to joining the community in attending this great festival." Of the selected artists, twelve are from the McLean/Great Falls area and sixteen are new to MPAartfest.

MPAartfest transforms McLean Central Park into a lively art gallery featuring the sale of the fine arts and crafts of 44 artists. MPAartfest includes fun activities for both children and adults, as well as live music and refreshments. There is no charge to attend MPAartfest, although a donation of $5 is greatly appreciated which helps support McLean Project for the Arts and this special community event.

MPAartfest artists for 2010:

Banks, Jill -- oil painting
Barbieri, Ann -- abstract painting and drawing
Brown, Tavia -- jewelry
Bucci, Thomas -- printmaking monoprints
Burke, Cynthia --painting
Burris, Eric -- mokume gane jewelry
Campello, F. Lennox -- drawing
Cassidy, Katie --oil and acrylic painting
Ciminio, Lisa --jewelry
Deans, Karen -- oil on panel
Emrich, Hanna -- mixed media and collage
Farrow-Savos, Elissa -- sculpture
Fields, Laurie -- mixed media paintings
Ganley, Betty -- traditional watercolor
Green, Michele -- landscape painting
Grisdela, Cindy -- quilting
Hachey, Hilary -- jewelry
Hatfield, Jennifer Bernhard -- whimsical ceramics
Hubacher, Karen -- mixed media paintings and collographs
Jensen, Jill -- handpainted and handprinted wallhangings, scarves, journals
Jolles, Ronni -- layered paper and pastel
Katz, Lori -- clay
Knott, Greg -- photography
Lansaw, Julie Lea -- landscape paintings
Lester, Cherie -- painting/collage
Mahan, Val -- nature photography
McGihon, Marty -- mixed media
Michelle, Jenae -- fiber -- one of a kind handbags
Nimic, Gisele -- ceramics/collage
Paredes, AnaMarie -- metal sculpture
Peery, Laura -- ceramics
Reiber Harris, Kristin -- drawings/monoprints
Rosenstein, Lisa -- mixed media paintings -- white on white
Rosenstein, Loren -- silk scarves
Rubel, Erika -- mixed media
Saenger, Peter -- ceramic
Singh, J.J. -- jewelry
Slack, Connie -- abstract paintings
Staiger, Marsha -- abstract collage
Trump, Novie -- sculpture
Tsai, Irene -- chinese watercolors on rice paper
Vardell, Mollie -- oil paintings
Williams, Ann Marie -- abstract paintings
Woody, Curtis -- mixed media paintings

For more information about McLean Project for the Arts and MPAartfest, please visit www.mpaart.org or call 703-790-1953.

Airborne


Heading back home today... busy week next week with an opening and then an arts panel... more later.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: November 12, 2010

Gallery West in Old Town Alexandria has a call for artists for their 14th Annual National Juried Show (Exhibit Dates: February 9–March 6, 2011).

The all media show will be juried by yours truly and awards to total $1,000. Click here to download the prospectus.

E. Carmen Ramos is new SAAM Curator for Latino Art

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has appointed E. Carmen Ramos as its curator for Latino art. Ramos will be responsible for acquiring artworks for the museum’s permanent collection and producing a major exhibition and catalog based on the museum’s Latino holdings for fall 2013. She begins work on Oct. 12.

“I am thrilled that E. Carmen Ramos is bringing her expertise and insights here to help us feature Latino artists who transform personal experiences and cultural heritage into vivid artworks,” said Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “These stories are culturally specific, but also American and universal.”

I'm a little confused by Ms. Broun's comment. It seems to set a niche for what Latino artwork will be collected, specifically those "who transform personal experiences and cultural heritage into vivid artworks."

As I've discussed many times in this blog and many other places before, I am not a big fan of segregating artists by race, or as in this case, by ethnicity.

And if I understand the current meaning of "Latino" these days, it attempts to define people of ancestry links to one of the Latin American nations south of the border and in the Caribbean, while excluding all the nations of British, Dutch or French colonial ancestry (even though the French are technically "Latins"). I'm still a little confused if a "Latino" is an American with Latin American ancestry, or if it also includes people from those Latin American nations. In other words, are Uruguayans "Latinos" or Uruguayans, or both? Certainly Spaniards, Portuguese and Italians (who make up most of Argentina) are not Latinos, since they're Europeans, right?

This is a silly label which falls apart very quickly when truly examined, and actually reveals the huge cultural ignorance that we have about what constitutes and makes up ethnicity and race as opposed to nationality. So if you're born in a Latin American nation, then you're a Latino under this uniquely American ethnic label.

Never mind if your parents were born in Japan and immigrated to some South American nation (there are more Japanese immigrants in South America than in the US), or born in Wales and immigrated to Argentina (there are more people of Welsh ancestry in Argentina than in Wales). Or my personal favorite, the millions of Native American tribes, who find themselves labeled as "Latinos" in the US instead of Maya, or Inca, or whatever Native American nation they belong to.

But that's another issue.

Back to collecting "Latino artists who transform personal experiences and cultural heritage into vivid artworks."

I'm pretty sure that Ms. Broun didn't really mean it the way that this came out, but to me it shows an immensely limited view or expectation of the artwork produced by we have labeled in this nation as "Latino" artists. As a stroll through any major Latin American museum reveals to the most casual observer (just like any museum in Europe or the US) Latin American artists explore all sorts of things for the inspiration for their work, and not all deliver "vivid artworks" and not all use their "personal experiences and cultural heritage" as a driver for their artwork, at least all the time.

Not all Latino artists are Frida Kahloesque in their artwork, and certainly not all Latino artwork is "culturally specific." I'm having a hard time finding a personal experience, or cultural heritage, or even any vividity in the work of (for example) Guillermo Kuitca (soon coming to the Hirshhorn - October 21, 2010 to January 16, 2011).

I know I am being pedantic, but statements like this do reach a niche in my consciousness that tend to bug me more than they should. It is driven by a firm belief that museums should collect artwork based on the merit of the artist and the art, and not on the artist's ethnic, sex or racial background. And I really think that the statement from Ms. Broun have the unintended consequence of revealing a rather galvanized and incorrect view of what drives artists.

I'm not sure if I have made my point clear, as it is a confusing issue. Perhaps the best way to showcase this issue is to pretend that SAAM was hiring a new curator for Nordic art. This would immediately cause some confusion in defining Nordic (as there is confusion in defining Latino). Are Germans Nordic or Teutons? How about Finns? certainly not Laplanders, but they are also Finnish. And Ms. Broun's statement would read:

“I am thrilled that E. Karmen Ramosdottir is bringing her expertise and insights here to help us feature Nordic artists who transform personal experiences and cultural heritage into brooding artworks,” said Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “These stories are culturally specific, but also American and universal.”

In any event, F. Lennox Campello welcomes E. Carmen Ramos to the DMV.

Set aside September 23rd!

First Campello gallery exhibition in DC area in 4 years!

Opening on Sept 20 and through Oct. 15 I will be having my first substantial exhibition in the DC area in four years. The show will be at the School of Art & Design at Montgomery College's King Street Gallery, located in the beautiful Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center at 930 King Street in the Montgomery College, Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus.

There will be all new drawings in my constant exploration of using the human figure to deliver social, historical, satirical, mythological and political messages. The show also includes work by the immensely talented Johanna Mueller, who was one of my top picks from the last Artomatic and whom I predict will steal the show, as well as Leah Frankel and Leslie Shellow, both of whom are new artists to me.

The show is curated by Dr. Claudia Rousseau and is:

An exhibit of works on paper depicting mythical themes, or themes connoting transformations—mythical, magical or organic.

The exhibit will include prints, drawings and installation works employing paper with wax and other media.

The opening is Thursday, September 23, 5:00 – 7:30 pm. I expect to see all of you there to make me look good...

Happy Independence Day to El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala

These nations and others in the new world declared independence from the mighty and most ancient Kingdom of Spain on this day in 1821.