Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: October 18, 2010

This competition has an interesting twist to it. It features figurative and Fine Art Nude photography with a twist of fetish to celebrate Halloween. It is titled the "Halloween Fine Art Nude/Figurative Photography Show" and it is being held at the The Carriage House Studio and Gallery in DC. All entries are submitted online.

Submission Guidelines: Content may be any image in the realm of fine art nude photography. Winners will be selected and exhibited in the following categories:
1) best figurative image
2) best costume/fetish image
and two special exhibits
3) best figurative/fine art nude image shot on film and
4) best image of Nika (www.modelmayhem.com/853632), who is returning to to Washington DC from Germany and will attend the show as their Feature Model.

The images for the exhibit will be selected by three judges with background in fine art photography, who will be announced shortly. The top selection in each category will receive a complementary shoot at the Carriage House studio during the 60 days following the exhibit. Participants whose work is not selected will also have their work displayed on a wide-screen display.

All images must be received by 11 pm on Mon, October 18th. You may send up to 5 jpegs (1200 px x 1200 px max) for consideration.

All the details are here. The show will be at The Carriage House Studio and Gallery, a new arts cooperative in Washington, DC, located in the historic Logan Arts Circle District. The studio is located in a historic landmark 1860's carriage house.

ARCH's Artist Residency Program

Deadline(s): December 1, 2010 and March 1st, 2011

This artist residency program is:

"an opportunity for artists to pursue their creative projects amid DC's vibrant and diverse urban environment. Two residencies (for up to 4 artists each session) are offered; spring and fall. The residencies are approximately 8 weeks each.

Each artist will work closely with the creative staff at the Honfleur Gallery and The Gallery at Vivid Solutions to determine the parameters of the residency and needs of the artist in advance of their arrival. These parameters will focus primarily on details of the artists' project, but are also about how to best connect to the local community, foster dynamic interaction and develop exposure to the resources of the greater DC cultural community."

The program will offer free housing and free workspace to participating artists. Application fee $25.

* Winter/Spring: DEADLINE December 1st, 2010 - The Winter/Spring Residency will run from February 21st - April 22nd 2011 and is open to any type of visual arts.

* Summer DEADLINE March 1st, 2011 - The Summer Residency will run from May 30th - July 22nd 2011 and is open to any visual arts.

More details on how to apply:
www.honfleurgallery.com/news.html
www.vividsolutionsdc.com/gallery/newsgallery.html

Questions: arts@archdc.org

Wanna go to an artists' talk tomorrow?

Charlie Dale and Rosemary Luckett invite you to a free artist's talk about the creative processes and how they arrived at the works in their current solo exhibits.

The artist talk is Sunday, October 17, 2 pm at Touchstone Gallery.

RSVP to info@touchstonegallery.com

The Power 100

Art Review has their "Power 100" list up.

It would be fun to come up with a Power 100 list for the DMV.

I think I will start working on that just for fun and see what trouble I can get into.

Meanwhile here's the list and guess what? 3% of those on this list own one (or more) of my drawings!

Is that cool or what?

Now I need to work on the other 97.

1. Larry Gagosian
2. Hans Ulrich Obrist
3. Iwan Wirth
4. David Zwirner
5. Glenn D. Lowry
6. Bice Curiger
7. Sir Nicholas Serota
8. Eli Broad
9. RoseLee Goldberg
10. François Pinault
11. Adam D. Weinberg
12. Jeffrey Deitch
13. Ai Weiwei
14. Agnes Gund
15. Alfred Pacquement
16. Anton Vidokle, Julieta Aranda & Brian Kuan Wood
17. Bruce Nauman
18. Marc Glimcher
19. Beatrix Ruf
20. Dominique Lévy & Robert Mnuchin
21. Iwona Blazwick
22. Marian Goodman
23. Marc Spiegler & Annette Schönholzer
24. Barbara Gladstone
25. Jay Jopling
26. Mike Kelley
27. Cindy Sherman
28. Dakis Joannou
29. Franz West
30. Gavin Brown
31. Peter Fischli & David Weiss
32. Steven A. Cohen
33. Tim Blum & Jeff Poe
34. Anne Pasternak
35. Marina Abramovic
36. Bernard Arnault
37. Victor Pinchuk
38. Eugenio López
39. Takashi Murakami
40. Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
41. Matthew Slotover & Amanda Sharp
42. Okwui Enwezor
43. Matthew Higgs
44. Tino Sehgal
45. Maja Hoffmann
46. Monika Sprüth & Philomene Magers
47. Jeff Koons
48. Nicholas Logsdail
49. Sadie Coles
50. Brett Gorvy & Amy Cappellazzo
51. Tobias Meyer & Cheyenne Westphal
52. Ann Philbin
53. Damien Hirst
54. Emmanuel Perrotin
55. Gerhard Richter
56. Nicolas Bourriaud
57. Matthew Marks
58. Udo Kittelmann
59. Michael Ringier
60. Kasper König
61. Daniel Buchholz
62. Anish Kapoor
63. Daniel Birnbaum
64. Toby Webster
65. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
66. Christian Boros & Karen Lohmann
67. Germano Celant
68. Maurizio Cattelan
69. Neo Rauch
70. Boris Groys
71. Helga de Alvear
72. Thaddaeus Ropac
73. Ralph Rugoff
74. Victoria Miro
75. Jerry Saltz
76. Anita & Poju Zabludowicz
77. Massimo De Carlo
78. Maureen Paley
79. Yana Peel & Candida Gertler
80. Roberta Smith
81. Charles Saatchi
82. Tim Neuger & Burkhard Riemschneider
83. Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi & Maurizio Rigillo
84. Johann Konig
85. Caroline Schneider
86. Johnson Chang Tsong-zung & Claire Hsu
87. Dimitris Daskalopoulos
88. Rirkrit Tiravanija
89. Wolfgang Tillmans
90. H.H. Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi & Jack Persekian
91. Massimiliano Gioni
92. Magnus Renfrew
93. Nicolai Wallner
94. Stefan Kalmár
95. Christine Tohme
96. Gregor Podnar
97. Elizabeth Dee
98. Richard Chang
99. Bruce High Quality Foundation
100. Margot Heller

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.

Easton and Cambridge

I'll be in Easton and also in Cambridge, Maryland this weekend, relaxing with the family and checking out some of the local art spots and galleries. Too bad I wasn't there on a Wednesday, otherwise I could have hung around the Wednesday Morning Artists:

Wednesday Morning Artists is a diverse group of local artists with a common desire to engage our community in experiencing the arts while cultivating the growing artist community in Cambridge, Maryland and surrounding areas.

Is that cool or what?

More later from Cambridge and Easton.

Another artist complaint against Klaudia Marr Gallery

Steven Kenny is an artist whose works are well-known to me; he's a former prizewinner at one of the Fraser Gallery's former competitions at the original Fraser location in Georgetown. He writes:

You can add my name to the list of artists who have been robbed by Klaudia Marr. In October of 2009 she returned my paintings to me after moving her gallery to a new location. One painting was missing and it took her a month to reveal that it had been sold although she claimed not to know when or to whom. She admits to owing me $2,475.00 but has continually claimed to be unable to make any payments.

After I learned of my undisclosed sale I decided to see how widespread the situation was. It seems I am one of the lucky ones. I contacted 10 artists who were represented by Klaudia Marr Gallery and five replied that they were owed money.

Regards,
Steven Kenny

Sandra Ramos' workshop

Havana-based Cuban artist Sandra Ramos is in many people's opinions, the leading contemporary Cuban artist in the world, and later this month, her solo exhibition titled Exodus, running from October 23 - December 27, opens in Norfolk's leading independently owned commercial fine arts gallery: Mayer Fine Art.

MFA, which also represents my work, is by far the top fine arts venue in the Tidewater area, and its hardworking owner, the talented Shiela Giolitti, daughter of the legendary comic book artist Alberto Giolitti has been preparing for this, Ramos' second ever solo show in the USA, for a long time.

Sandra Ramos. Flying to Miami. Charcoal and Acrylic on Digital Canvas Print. 130 x 90 cm. Circa 2010
The opening is Saturday, October 23rd from 6-9PM.

Additionally, Ramos will be leading a printmaking workshop at the Chrysler Museum on Oct 23 and 24th. You can register for that workshop here. Hurry! There are only three spots left!

Then, on October 26th at 7PM, Sandra Ramos will present a lecture on contemporary Cuban art at the Baron and Ellin Art Galleries of Old Dominion University in Norfolk. Free and open to the public.

Ramos is in the permanent collection of MoMa, MFA Boston, Dallas Museum, Miami Art Museum and many other US, European and Latin American art museums.

I'm driving down for this opening; see ya there!

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: December 3, 2010

The Foundry Gallery has a "Call to Artists" for their January 2011 show which will have "Celebrate Gay Marriage" as its theme. The Foundry Gallery is located at 1314 18th Street, NW, 20036 near Dupont Circle. The deadline for entering is Friday, December 3, 2010, 5pm. To obtain the pospectus go to this website and click on the link to "Call to Artists".

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: October 17, 2010

The Greater Reston Arts Center is requesting proposals for solo and/or group exhibitions for periods of approximately 4-6 weeks during the 2012 season.

GRACE's gallery is one of the most beautiful and flexible contemporary art spaces in the metropolitan area. With moveable walls and an open, hexagonal floor plan, the space is reconfigured for each show.

New this year - proposals will be accepted from artists living or working in a wider geographic area: Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Virginia.

Deadline October 17, 2010

All proposals for exhibitions at the Greater Reston Arts Center must be submitted online through this this website.

Morton Fine Art to present its second *a pop-up project

The exhibition, titled Ritual: Form, Script, Gesture, is a selection of artworks by national and international artists Sally Curcio, Ethan Diehl, Sungmi Lee, Choichun Leung, Julia Fernandez-Pol and Hadieh Shafie.

*a pop-up project will be on display from October 23 through December 18, 2010 at:

Wash Art (formerly Osuna Gallery)
The Artery Building
7200 Wisconsin Ave
Bethesda, MD

The opening reception will be held on Saturday, October 23 from 5 – 8 pm.

Images can be previewed online at www.apopupproject.com

Opportunity for DMV Artists

Deadline: October 30, 2010

The BlackRock Center for the Arts has a huge gorgeous gallery space and their call for artists for the 2011 art season is now up.

The 2011 Call to Artists is open to all artists residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC over the age of 18 for original artwork only. This call will cover exhibits in the gallery from October 2011 through August 2012. An exhibit may include on applicant or a combination of applicants, based on the judgement of jurors. The jury panel is comprised of Kathleen Moran, Jack Rasmussen and yours truly.

Details here.

Howard County Cultural Arts Showcase 2011

Deadline: November 5, 2010.

The Howard County Arts Council is now accepting artist applications for its annual Cultural Arts Showcase presented in partnership with the Recreation & Leisure Service Branch (RALS) of the Maryland Recreation & Parks Association (MRPA).

The event will be held at Howard County Center for the Arts at 8510 High Ridge Road in Ellicott City on March 3 & 4, 2011. Showcase is a program designed to assist school and civic organizations in identifying performing, visual and literary artists for workshops, performances, demonstrations, and in-school residencies. Attendees of Showcase include cultural arts representatives, PTA Representatives, festival and special event coordinators from Recreation and Parks and other members of the community.

For artist application information, please contact the Howard County Arts Council at 410.313.2787 / MD RELAY 711 or visit them on the web at www.hocoarts.org.

Enrique Chagoya Opens in DC today

The Bing Stanford in Washington Art Gallery will host Collisions Between Historical Visions: The Art of Enrique Chagoya. This exhibition of paintings, drawings, sculpture, and prints "highlights cultural clashes of religious iconography, ethnic stereotypes, ideological propaganda, and pop culture" by the Stanford University professor whose work recently caused the nationwide furor for his depiction of Christ in a show at Colorado's Loveland Museum.

Enrique Chagoya was born in Mexico and attended the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México where he contributed political cartoons to student and union newsletters. In 1977 he immigrated to the United States and received a BFA in printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute and a MA / MFA at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded a fellowship at Monet’s Giverny Gardens and was in residence at the Cité international des Arts in Paris. Chagoya’s art commonly addresses cultural clashes over both space and time. He currently serves as a Professor of Art and Art History at Stanford University and has been chosen as the 2010 Navigation Press distinguished visiting artist at George Mason University. From October 11 to the 15th Mr. Chagoya will work with School of Art students to produce a new etching. He will present a lecture in the Harris Theater on Thursday October 14th as part of the Visual Voices lecture series

.The Bing Stanford in Washington Art Gallery is located at 2655 Connecticut Avenue, NW; Washington, DC 20008. Red Line to Woodley Park-Zoo / Adams Morgan. Hours are 9:00-7:00 M-F, 12:00-6:00 Sat & Sun.

The exhibit runs from October 12, 2010 until January 2011. The opening reception is today from 5:30 - 8PM. RSVP required to Meghvi at 202/332-3247.

For more information please call 202-332-6235 or visit this website. Admission is free.

Poconoing

Spending the long weekend in the Poconos. Heading home tomorrow.

Farm near Sugarloaf, Pennsylvania, October 10, 2010


Little Junes at Maylath Farms, Sugarloaf, Pennsylvania, October 10, 2010.

EJ Montgomery

Coming out of the woodworks

I've got yet another former Klaudia Marr Gallery artist writing to me with a horror story about his relationship with the former Santa Fe gallerist. More on that as I dig around.

Since I first started digging around this storyline, I've called Ms. Marr and left a voice mail, and also sent her emails to get her side of the story on all of this, any corrections, clarifications, explanations, etc. but so far she has ignored me.

This makes me wonder; are there any artists in the DMV who have been ripped off by any of the DMV's art dealers? Or gallerists ripped off by artists? (it happens both ways). If so, drop me an email.

Update: Here's the Better Business Bureau current rating for the Klaudia Marr Gallery: F.

Folded Mohammed? Nope: Another Folded Christ

Steve Miller claims to have found a whole new angle to the story about the piece in an art exhibit at the Loveland Museum/Gallery which apparently depicts Jesus Christ involved in what some say is an act of oral sex.

The piece is a folded-paper lithograph and woodcut panel depicting cultural icons. Titled "The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals," it was created by California-based artist Enrique Chagoya, a professor at Stanford University.

The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals by Enrique Chagoya. Color lithograph/woodcut. 7½" x 90". Ed. 30. $3400
You can buy it online used to be able to buy it online here, but now it's gone, so maybe it is sold out!

I blasted the professor for taking easy short cuts to Serranoesque/Offiliesque shock art and challenged him that "For his next panel, if he wants to get international attention of a diverse nature to say the least, I dare him to do a similar Muhammad panel."

But apparently, the professor had done this already! And no one has mentioned it, as far as I can tell. According to Steve Miller in a comment in my original post: "None of the talking heads seem to have noticed that Mohammed IS portrayed on one of the panels. He seems to be kneeling before a pair of pigs dressed up like hookers in one of the panels."

See it in the bottom panel? It's the second scene.

Can someone verify this? I will try to email the professor and also the print shop where the piece was made and also the museum.

If this is correct, then my kudos to the professor; he's got some big cojones and I stand corrected.

Update: Prof. Chagoya responded to my request for verification and passes that it is not Mohammed in that panel but another representation of Christ; he says:

First of all there are no representations of the prophet Mohamed. In my book my original source is actually coming from a representation of Jesus in a Persian Manuscript from the 17th Century reproduced in an [Newsweek, March 27, 2000] article by Kenneth L. Woodward in March 27 2000. In my book it represents the spiritual (represented by the Persian illustration of Jesus) protecting himself from temptation with flames around him (the pig ladies are the symbol of temptation in my book). In the online version there are no illustrations but the article matches the hard copy.

So there are no representations of Mohammed in the piece by Prof. Chagoya.

By the way, some idiot destroyed the work that had been on exhibit in the museum:

A woman armed with a crowbar entered the Loveland Museum/Gallery on Wednesday afternoon and destroyed a controversial exhibit that some said shows Jesus Christ engaged in a sex act.

"The Misadventures of Romantic Cannibals," by Stanford University's Enrique Chagoya, has been the subject of a week's worth of protests by those who claim it is blasphemy.

"It's sad and upsetting," Chagoya said Wednesday night by phone from California. "I've never had this kind of violent reaction to my art. Violence doesn't resolve anything."

The suspect was identified by police as 56-year-old Kathleen Folden of Kalispell, Mont. She is in custody on a charge of criminal mischief, a Class 4 felony with a fine of up to $2,000.

Police said the woman entered the museum about 4 p.m. and stood in front of the exhibit. Using a crowbar or similar tool, she broke the plexiglass protecting the image and tore up the artwork. She also cut herself in the process.

Read the story online here.

One more former Klaudia Marr artist complains

The story so far: As I reported a few days ago, New Mexico art dealer Klaudia Marr allegedly conned the National Portrait Gallery to ship a painting by New York artist Margaret Bowland to a third party who apparently had paid Marr for the painting, even though, according to Bowland, Marr and Bowland had ended their relationship (and Bowland had earlier notified the NPG of this, and claims she has never received a penny from the painting's alleged sale).

A new artist has now emerged from this story, also allegedly victimized by Klaudia Marr.

The artist is Isabelle du Toit and her saga with the Santa Fe art dealer goes back almost a year. Isabelle wrote to me (all the below text and quotes are published with the permission of Isabelle du Toit and is from the text of her correspondence to me):

She [Klaudia Marr] owes me $5000 for 3 paintings she sold but never paid me. I even have her admission in an email that she acknowledges that she owes me this money but her last email to me stated that her business has closed and that there is nothing I can do to collect my money.

What happened here?

We pick up the trail on Monday, May 03, 2010, when du Toit writes to the gallerist and says:

Hi Klaudia,

I left you a message on Friday but you didn't call me back. You said you would pay me for the 3 paintings you sold 6 month ago last month.

Could you please send me the check as soon as possible.

The paintings are the Costa Hummingbirds 16x20, the Red Eyed Tree Frogs 16x20 and the Mice 20x24

Please call me or email me a reply.

Thanks.

Isabelle

From that note we gather that the three paintings were sold around December 2009. Since no payment had been sent six months later, it appears that the gallery is already in financial trouble and keeping artists' commissions in order to stay open. The next day Marr answers du Toit, explaining that she (Marr) "has not forgotten about my obligations to you; this Friday is our first big opening of the season and I am hoping that we will fare well... there just haven't been any sales; it's tough... I am not making excuses, all I can do is move forward to catch up; I am very sorry! you will hear from me when a payment is going out to you, which will probably [be] a partial one..."

From this we gather that Marr is in a desperate financial situation, where she is now hoping to have sales (I guess by other artists) in order to try to pay other artists (such as du Toit) whose works she sold as far back as six months earlier.

That same day du Toit's husband answers Marr:

Your payments has been outstanding for an unreasonably long time now... I also want to know what reasonable partial payments you can make now, and when the balance will be paid for each of them.

This is an unfortunate situation for everybody, but one should take responsibility and do what is right.

Please let me know in writing by responding to this email tomorrow how you plan to resolve this.

If I don't see a prompt and reasonable effort on your side you put this right, you can be sure that legal action will follow!

Marr answers that same day, admitting to du Toit that she owes du Toit a $5,312.50 commission and notes that du Toit "can take as many legal actions as you want - there is nothing to gain, unfortunately; you cannot take something that doesn't exist; there is no other way than waiting and I don't know when the money will come but I know that I won't stop until it is repaid; I cannot commit to a timeline nor to an amount since it all depends on sales coming in..." Once again, Marr appears to hope that future sales can be used to pay past commissions. She is pushing the inevitable disaster to the right.

The du Toits then give Marr a month, and a month later ask for an update. On June 3, 2010, Marr responds:

Again, I am sorry our relationship has come to this point. I literally have zero assets and no way to make payment arrangements at this time. I have sold my house, (putting every dime into this business), moved to an inexpensive location and let go of my employee (whom I still owe back wages). Instead of closing my doors and walking away I have chosen to try my very best as the season approaches to make enough to honor all my contracts. Without any sales I cannot make payment arrangements. I do not have the funds.

I understand your frustration. Over the years I have seen many artists who were not paid when their galleries went out of business - and this happened when the economy was good. After fifteen years in business I am determined not to let this economy do this to me or to my artists. You will do what you will, but I would ask you, for the sake of everyone involved, to please let me tackle this season with as much energy as I can muster. I can offer you no other alternative.

Respectfully yours,

Klaudia

From this timeline of communications, it appears to me that at some point around here is when the alleged sale of Margaret Bowland's $37,500 painting (which was hanging at the NPG) took place without her consent or knowledge. (Update: Subsequently it has been discovered that the painting was allegedly sold as early as a year prior to this time). Also at some point in the timeline around here, Marr allegedly contacted the NPG and asked that Bowland's painting be identified on the wall text as "from the collection of ..." clearly implying that the painting had been sold. According to Bowland, the NPG immediately contacted Bowland who notes:

I told [the NPG] absolutely not.

I had never received one dime for the painting and had no expectations of receiving money for the piece. [The NPG] called again and said that [they] well understood and... we spoke for a bit about the horror of thieving dealers. By now the word had gone out that the Marr gallery was stealing from its artists. She had been running the gallery as a ponzi scheme and when the bottom fell out of the market she started lying to people and stealing their art. A friend in the gallery had contacted me and told me this and I had moved very fast to send a shipper in to grab my art. At the time I felt quite fortunate. My friend lost 9 paintings to her. But with this call from [the NPG] I felt that I was safe in the protective hands of the Smithsonian and what could be safer?

What did Marr do with this money from the alleged sale of the Bowland painting? It's a substantial amount, and the buyer of the painting has informed Bowland that he had paid "$37,500 dollars and he still owed six grand on the painting." So Marr has $31,500 in cash sometime around this timeframe from an allegedly illegal sale where she has allegedly played the NPG into shipping the painting to a third party.

None of those funds make their way to du Toit. She writes in mid June:

Klaudia, please let me know what the status is. I am sure you are able to buy food since you are not dead yet and I am sure you are able to buy gas to drive your car.

My patience is running out with you and you are not being fair. I am trying my best to work with you and would accept even a small regular payment to show you mean what you say. If you don't take corrective action very soon, we will hire a debt collector and they are not pleasant.

You need to make this right, right now! This is your last warning!

She follows that with:

We are not making any threats other than to consider legal options against you for payment if you force us to.

Please don't misinterpret what we say. We are just frustrated that you are not paying. Can you really not even pay a small amount just to show you mean to keep your promise?

Thanks

Isabelle

Marr responds:

Isabelle,

at this time I am not even able to give you a small amount; I have explained my situation to you over and over again and I do not feel that you are hearing me; I do not dispute that I owe you the commissions;

I will be in contact with you by September 15; please be so kind and don't distract me from my duties until then;

Klaudia

To try to warn other artists, Isabelle then stood up this website. Since then, more artists have contacted me; their saga next.

Kristina Bilonick

Jessica Dawson of the WaPo goes yard with her 10th and final selection for Real Art D.C.

Read Jessica's piece, which will be in tomorrow's Post, here.