I like this

I really like the way the WCP has been letting Lou Jacobson review all kinds of shows besides photography... read some recent reviews here.

When you really, really love a piece of art...

When you really, really love a piece of art... You get it tattoed onto your body, right? Here's my original drawing, "Coming up for a breath", circa 2004 or so, and etched into 18 intaglio etchings, all of which sold out in that year. And here's the hip tattoo done by a fan of the drawing, to celebrate a special achievement in her life: All I have to say is that I am honored...

Strauss Fellowships

The Arts Council of Fairfax has announced the fifth annual Strauss Fellowships for individual artists.

These grants recognize professional working artists’ achievements and their demonstrated history of accomplishments; they promote artists’ continued pursuit of their creative work. Artists in all disciplines including visual arts, creative writing, theatre, dance performance and choreography, film and new media, music composition and performance are eligible to apply. Applicants must reside in Fairfax County.

Named for Bill Strauss (1947-2007), gifted writer, co-founder of the Capitol Steps and the Cappies, the Strauss Fellowships are an investment in the sustained growth and development of the arts in Fairfax County as well as a way to honor artists’ commitment to an artistic discipline, their professional activity in Fairfax County, and their contributions to the quality of life in Fairfax County. This is the fifth year the fellowships will be offered. Guidelines and application materials are available online at www.artsfairfax.org.

The application deadline is January 18, 2012. The Arts Council will hold a free grant writing workshop for interested applicants on November 12, 2011 from 10am to 12pm at 4022 Hummer Road, Annandale, VA 22003.

The Strauss Fellowships are awarded through a competitive grant program and recipients are determined by their work’s merit. No specific project needs to be carried out with the funds granted; Strauss Fellowships award outstanding achievement for work already completed. Awards range from $1,000-$5,000, and in previous years, up to eleven fellowships have been awarded.

NYC NOW in Bethesda

NYC NOW is an exhibition of new work by 5 contemporary artists living in New York City and it is Morton Fine Art's (MFA) fourth *a pop-up project.

The exhibition features new artworks by nationally renowned, New York based, contemporary artists Margaret Bowland, Kenichi Hoshine, Choichun Leung, Jules Arthur and Jason Sho Green. *a pop-up project will be on display from November 11th through December 6th 2011 at Gallery B located at 7700 Wisconsin Ave # E, Bethesda, MD 20814-6530. The opening reception will be held on Friday, November 11th from 6 - 9 pm. Images can be previewed online at www.mortonfineart.com and www.apopupproject.com.

Artomatic Frederick

Artomatic Frederick

I finally made it to Artomatic Frederick, all 27,000+ square feet of space at the former FCPS Central Office building at 115 E. Church Street, Frederick, Maryland and like all Artomatics of the past, I was not disappointed in the trek, and like all previous Artomatics, I think that I've discovered some new artists whose work is new to me, and whom I think have the potential to use AOM Frederick as the initial stepping stone into other art things.

As an artist, art dealer and critic, I think, well... I know, that I am better equipped and trained and experienced than most "regular" art critics to visit a gargantuan art extravaganza such as the AOM shows are.

The real reason that most "regular" critics don't like AOM is because they lack the formation and depth to see beyond what is hanging on the walls. Because their experience is often limited to reviewing or visiting a gallery or a specific show in a museum, their sensory capacity is quickly overloaded when they pass the 100th or 200th artist with less than noticeable work in a postmodern world where everything and anything is art. Thus once those senses are overloaded, it all looks in the same puerile category to them and they fail to see what most of us see. After a rookie critic is exposed to 20-25 photographers doing close-ups of flowers, all in one show, it is actually quite hard for those same tired critical eyes not to be poisoned into giving all photographers a failing grade.

Not all critics lack the mental capacity and visionary depth, but most do - including the guy who once gave AOM a horrible review on air in a radio show and later it was discovered that he had actually never seen the show... remember that?

By past AOM scales, this Frederick version is small, only about 27,000 square feet and about 300 artists; by most art scales, this is a gigantic art show, with extremes as diverse as the crazies on the left and right of the political scale in the USA... well, maybe not that extreme.

Every AOM I try to pick someone whom I think is the rising star of that AOM, if you search through this blog you will find names whom are now well-known DMV area artists and who once took their initial steps via AOM.

It didn't take me long to find this AOM's top pick - his work is on the ground floor - and after patiently walking through all floors and basement, I am sure that the singularly unique video work of Richard Schellenberg wins my first vote for top pick of AOM Frederick.

Tucked away in a corner of the first floor, Schellenberg has two videos playing in two old, vintage TVs. In one of them, a young boy tells a dream story of his dream involving flying on Superman's shoulders and directing the Man of Steel's movements. The storytelling is addictively odd and grabs the listener, but it is the video that stops viewers on their tracks. In a very sophisticated marriage of video morphing, Schellenberg has created a young boy riding on the shoulders and arms of George Reeves, the Black & White Superman from the TV series of the 1950s who was either murdered or committed suicide in 1959.

Schellenberg's technical mastery of video morphing, coupled with the odd, but sensitive storyline, as well as the vintage presentation, make this one of the best works of video art that I have ever seen.

Also on the ground floor I liked the sensitive portraiture of Jamie Gerhold. They are superbly executed technically, but also manage to grasp that unique sense of personality from each subject that is so difficult to achieve in this most challenging of art genres. Note to Jamie: You need to enter the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and the deadline is Monday!

Still on the first deck, I liked the large charcoals and painterly pieces by Walter Bartman, Director and Founder of the Yellow Barn, and certainly not an "emerging artist" in a sense, since he has taught art in the Bethesda, Maryland area for over thirty years and his work is in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Scupture Garden Library Collections.

Painter Phyllis Mayes also stands out by her very well executed set of self portraits, nearly all of which explore some odd facial expression.

They are a genuine delight to the eye, both as a painterly exercise and also as an intelligent delivery vehicle for highly personal imagery presented for us to admire.

Note to Phyllis: You too need to enter the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and the deadline is Monday!

Last cool find on this floor was David Hagen's funny illustrations depicting all ranges of subjects, including my favorite, a rather large sized Batman, possibly after the Dark Knight discovered carbohydrates.

The second floor was a little tougher for the critic in me. There is some very decent pottery on this floor, and some very cool and interesting ideas, some delivered better than others. Among the best are Roger Cutler's brutal and funny assault on postmodernism.

His "Domestic object with natural patina" at $10,000 can easily be visualized in the top white cube galleries of New York and London, and even in the early days of Art Basel Miami Beach and Pulse Art Fair, before those fairs' directions were rudely re-directed by the tough economy and they both made an U-turn for art that stands a chance of actually being acquired by a collector - or am I the only one who has noticed how both ABMB and Pulse are now dominated by figurative/representational art?

Deborah Winram collects objects and then presents them in jars - as a set, they offer a powerful image. The presentation reminded me of a very similar display at the second AOM ever - the one that was held at the former Lowe's space in Tenleytown - where an artist whose name escapes me had a whole wall of jars with these cool transparencies of her photography inside each jar.

Wingram's power also lies in the presentation, which as a whole give us an insight into the found or collected objects displayed as art. I must wonder, however, on the dilution of this powerful piece if the pieces are meant to be acquired individually, as that would seem to dilute its associative presence.

The third floor's favorites were started by Keyleigh Montgomery's back lit photographic landscapes, but it was Jenny Wallace who wins this floor with a super flexing of artistic installation skills with her multi-effect installation in a very cool, somewhat macabre odd room to the left of the performing stage.

The basement is dominated by the exceptional work of Margaret Dowell and here she displays her "Sidi Flowchart" series. In these powerful pieces, Dowell depicts the effects of alcohol addition and eventual recovery on her friend Sidi, from childhood to the present. In the hands of a master painter such as Dowell is, the storyline delivers a punch to the visual senses that is hard to forget.

AOM Frederick is on through November 6 - go see it this weekend! The hours are Wednesdays & Thursdays, 11 am - 9 pm, Fridays & Saturdays, 11 am - 12 am and Sundays 12 pm - 6 pm.

Do this this weekend

Go to Artomatic Frederick.

Victoria F. Gaitán at Conner

With 35 new images from one of the most talented new artists around, this is sure to be a mind-popping exhibition - plan to be there!

Exhibition Dates: November 5 - December 17, 2011
Opening Reception: November 5th @ 6 - 8pm

Exhibition / Opening Location:
Conner Contemporary Art
1358 Florida Ave, NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: 202/588 - 8750
info@connercontemporary.com

Kristin Skees at MFA

He sez it may be Karma

What happened to my good bud John Anderson has to be on your reading list - so read it here.

Wake effects

When a ship moves across the water, depending on a variety of factors, it leaves a wake that can be discernible, in some manner or form, for a very long time and through a very long distance.

Doing an art fair is the same, and art fair wake effects can sometimes take over a year to settle down.

At the recent (e)merge art fair, my Virginia dealer, Mayer Fine Art (who did really well at the fair), sold my top piece in the room - an embedded video piece - to a very well-known DMV area art collector couple.

The wake effect from that sale just reached me, as I am now in the process of closing a sale with another art collecting couple (not a DMV area collector), who saw that work at the home of the buyers, inquired about it, got a glowing recommendation and now I am about to be acquired by someone on the list of the top 200 art collectors in the world.

In case you are wondering: yes... I am bragging and thanks USS (e)merge!

Alexandra Silverthorne

For the past three years, my good friend Alexandra Silverthorne has been working on MidNights, a series of nocturnal photographs exploring ideas around space, landscape, and proprioception. In November, she will be exhibiting a selection of these photographs at harmon art lab (HAL) in Washington, DC. This exhibition will coincide with a book launch of MidNights: photographs + writings.

The Exhibition
Opening Reception: Friday, November 11, 6pm-9pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, November 19, 2pm-3pm
Book Launch: Wednesday, November 30, 7pm

The exhibition will run from November 11-December 3. MidNights will be exhibited in the solo space while installation artist/architect Ira Tattelman will be taking over HAL's project space.

The Book
This 76-page book presents the complete collection of the 41 MidNights photographs along with the series of short writings. The writings are based on personal experiences and touch upon the different ideas that fueled the project. The book also includes an introductory essay by Jayme McLellan as well as a conversation with Rebecca Duclos.

The book can be previewed and purchased online here or at harmon art lab in Washington, DC during the run of the exhibition.

Calling all curators

This is an opportunity to submit a group proposal for exhibition, workshops, programs, and lectures at the Howard County Center for the Arts in Ellicott City, Maryland.

Here are the submission details for the galleries and black box theatre. They are especially interested in multi-cultural themes that would appeal to the diverse and global community in Howard County, Maryland.

Additional inquiries can also be directed to Coleen West, Executive Director Howard County Arts Council/Howard County Center for the Arts. email: coleen@hocoarts.org and phone: (410) 313-ARTS. They are always open to collaborative programming and partnership relationships as well at the Howard County Arts Council.

FotoWeek DC = Free Corcoran

In association with FotoWeek DC, the Corcoran Gallery of Art will be offering free admission, and will remain open on Monday, Nov. 7 and Tuesday, Nov 8 from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. - usually the Corc would be closed those days.

The Corcoran will also host two of the FotoWeek launch parties. FotoWeek itself begins at 5 p.m. at 1800 L Street and then moves on to the Corcoran at 8:30 p.m., with a cocktails, food, and music party.

For photographers who would like a professional commentary of their work, Portfolio Review Sessions will be held at the Corcoran on Nov. 12 between 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.- 5 p.m. The reviews will be done by curators, professional photographers, and photo editors, each taking 20-minute sessions to review individual portfolios.

More info on the reviews here.

Tickets for the Portfolio Review Session are $75 (student discounts available)and tickets to the launch party are $55 and include admission to both the opening parties at FotoWeek Central and the Corcoran.

Aqua Art Fair

Pretty psyched that my video drawings will be at the Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach this coming December - almost right across the street from ABMB.

Anybody who will be in Miami for the art fairs and wants a free pass, please drop me an email.

Kristy Simmons at ACP

Artist Reception:
5:30pm - 7:30pm, Monday, November 7th

Artist Talk - 6:30pm, November 7th
Show ends May 4, 2012

See it live at show or order online:here.

American Center for Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740

O'Sullivan on Artomatic

Read it in the WaPo here.

Illustrators at Montgomery College: Brad Holland Talk!





Brad Holland is one of the most influential illustrators of the 20th Century. The New York Times, in nominating him for a Pulitzer Prize, wrote that his work goes "beyond the moment to illuminate a general condition universal in space and time. The images are sometimes brutal, but the feeling is almost always compassionate." The Washington Post has called him "an undisputed star of American Illustration," and the editors of RSVP, the artists' directory, voted him "the one artist, who in our opinion, has had the single greatest impact on the illustration field during the last twenty five years." Writing in Print magazine, critic Steven Heller concluded, "as [Jackson] Pollock redefined plastic art, Holland has radically changed the perception of illustration."

In recent years, Brad Holland has emerged as the seminal voice illuminating the complex and shifting business landscape for illustrators and their diminishing control over their copyrights and businesses. He is one of the founders of the Illustrators’ Partnership of America (IPA), the first organization in the history of American visual authorship to seek to implement a rational collective rights clearance administration for illustrators’ copyrights.

WHEN: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2011, 8 - 9 p.m.

WHERE: Montgomery College School of Art + Design (Takoma Park Campus)
The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center Auditorium
930 King Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910

Tomorrow night: Percy Martin

Georgetown's Parish Gallery will showcase one of the DMV's most venerable and influential printmakers, Percy Martin, whose exhibition entitled “Bushmen Dreams” will open with a reception from 6:00 – 8:00 pm on Friday, October 21st and will run through November 15, 2011.

Percy Martin is a printmaker and teacher of art who has lived in the Washington, DC area since 1947. For over 25 years, he has been quietly working on a series of lush and technically complex prints detailing the daily lives and rituals of the Bushmen, a mythological people and culture born of Martin’s imagination. He studied printmaking and graphic design at the Corcoran Gallery of Art where he received a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1966. In 1975 the National Endowment for the Arts awarded him with an Artist-in-Residence.

Mr. Martin taught private classes in etching and has been the Director of the W.D. Printmaking Workshop in Washington, DC, since 1947. He taught at the New Thing Art and Architecture Center, University of Maryland, Corcoran School of Art, printmaking to inmates at Lorton Prison, the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and finally the Sidwell Friends School, from which he is now retired.

Mr. Martin has shown his work widely in the U.S., Russia, the Ukraine, and Africa. His works have been in traveling exhibitions of the Smithsonian Institution and are found in numerous private collections and the collections of the Washington Post, University of Maryland, and the National Collection of American Art.

There are a lot of DMV area artists, mostly those who were schooled around here, who received the spark of creativity from this talented artist, and I know that no art collection with any sort of focus on DMV artists, is complete without a Percy Martin in the collection.

Don't miss this show.

Postcards from the Edge



The 14th Annual Postcards from the Edge: A benefit for Visual AIDS
January 6-8, 2012
Hosted by Cheim & Read

PREVIEW PARTY: Friday, January 6, 2012 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM
The only opportunity to see the entire exhibition. No sales. $85 admission.

BENEFIT SALE: $85 each.
Saturday, January 7, 2012 from 10:00 - 6:00 (*Buy four and get a bonus fifth)
Sunday, January 8, 2012 from 12:00 - 4:00 (*Buy two and get a bonus thirdhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif)
Over 1500 anonymous displayed postcard-sized masterpieces.

Postcards From the Edge is a Visual AIDS benefit show and sale of original, postcard-sized artworks by established and emerging artists. All artwork is exhibited anonymously. While buyers receive a list of all participating artists, they don't know who created which piece until after purchased. With the playing field leveled, all participants can take home a piece by a famous artist, or someone who is just making their debut. Nonetheless, collectors walk away with a piece of art they love, knowing that the money raised will support HIV prevention and AIDS awareness.

Click here for more info.

Visual AIDS invites artists to donate a 4" x 6" original work on paper for our Postcards From the Edge exhibition and benefit sale. Painting, drawing, photography, printmaking and mixed media are all welcome. Artists must be 18 years or older to participate. One entry per artist.

Click here for information how you can participate.

DEADLINE: Postmark Friday, December 9, 2011

At Gallery Har Shalom

Gallery Har Shalom announces the opening of the show titled "Abstract and Real, or Not." The show features the work of five artists--Felisa Federman, Potomac, MD; Amy Kincaid, Takoma Park, MD; Julia Latein-Kimmig, Potomac, MD; Nancy Pollack, Columbia, MD, and Joyce Zipperer, Springfield, VA.

The mixed media abstracts of Felisa Federman address the human struggle to understand the natural world around them. The work presents concepts including identity, classification and powerlessness. Her concern with “inventory control” of individuals resonates visibly throughout her work.

Collage abstracts created by Amy Kincaid are experiences in structured improvisation, influenced by and in the tradition of some forms of post-modern dance and performance. They also could be described as mixing or sampling, because they involve combining, reorienting, layering, and altering unrelated snips of existing images with paint and drawing, creating layers that are built, bit by bit, over time.
Julia Latein-Kimmig displays acrylic paintings that focus on a lively exchange of line and form, old and new, plain and color, starting off with a dialogue on canvas. She enjoys the process of introducing neglected, often discarded remnants of art and infusing them with new life by combining them with fresh new line work and brushstrokes.

Nancy Pollack crafts striking wearable necklaces with silver wire using crocheting and knitting techniques, including an antique tool for tube knitting. Her knitted wire work has been published in Belle Armoire magazine. Her current artistic challenge is to see how many different things she can make with a knitted wire tube.
As a sculptor, Joyce Zipperer presents work that focuses on women's shoes and adornments. Her work addresses how women, throughout history, have been lured and influenced by trends in fashion, often discounting comfort and health issues. Using metal to create the shoes underscores an uncomfortable fit of an alluring or humorous style that we simply must wear. The hats of metal and mixed media refer to styles from vintage to present day. Wearable they are not.

For further information and directions, please call the synagogue office at 301-299-7087.

Gallery Har Shalom, Har Shalom Congregation, 11510 Falls Road, Potomac, MD.