New Gallery

ArtSpace 109 is a new gallery venue in the DMV.

The gallery is located at 109 N. Fairfax Street, 3rd level, Alexandria, VA 22314, Tel: 703.548.7729.

Their first show, titled “About a Dog” showcases the painting and drawings by the super-talented Ben Ferry. The opening reception and meet the artist is Friday, November 11, from 7pm - 9pm and the show runs from November 1 thru November 30, 2011.

Back in the good ole days before Eugene Robinson began the destruction of the visual arts coverage in the Washington Post (while he was editor of the Style section), a new gallery opening in the DMV would merit a little ink in the WaPo.

We'll see.

Meanwhile: How about it WCP?

Save these angels

The below two sculptures were part of the Community of Angels Charity in Los Angeles in 2001. The two angels are Angel Virtue by Phoebe Beasley and Angel Peace by Ali Golkar.

Because of some urgent issues, these two life sized sculptures are being offered by the owners to any one who wants them in an urgent plea to save them from being destroyed, as they need to be moved this weekend from their storage space... or destroyed.

The two angel sculptures would make a great art statement not only to an ex-Angeleno, but to any lover of art. Please, help me find a home for these angels in someone's home or backyard or public art space!

Whoever wants to acquire and save these two sculptures would have to pick them up this weekend.

Email me for details! lenny at lennycampello dot com!!

The Art Festival Directory

The most important business decision an artist makes is choosing the art festivals in which to participate. The process can be difficult, frustrating...and time consuming. And trying to compare many festivals can often be a confusing process, with subjective reviews and recommendations that may not relate to an artist's needs.

That's where The Art Festival Directory with Show-Rate comes in.

The Art Festival Directory includes detailed, complete information on more than 1,200 festivals nationwide--and growing daily. The information is provided by the festivals themselves--with up to 50 separate elements in each detailed listing. So local DMV area festival organizers should check this out and ensure their festival is listed.

The Directory's search capabilities are robust: artists can use one or more top-line search criteria, retrieve summaries, then look at each festival's details. Artists can view their search results in listing, calendar and map formats...or all three!

And, yes, it's all completely free!

Each festival that chooses to be included in our exclusive evaluation system also carries in its listing a SHOW-RATE score, from 0 to 100, that tells artists how the festival compares with other festivals in 27 separate categories.

A festival's SHOW-RATE score is calculated by comparing its characteristics with those voted by artists nationwide as their choices for what makes the perfect show. No individual show reviews are included, nor are sales for individual artists.

SHOW-RATE has a single goal: to give artists an authoritative, comprehensive and easily understood tool to use in evaluating festivals for themselves. SHOW-RATE is free, too.

Here's the link: www.theartfestivaldirectory.com.

Opportunity for Performance Artists

Soapbox is a new performance art series at Hillyer Art Space. They host a monthly event, showing 2-3 performances in an evening, with opportunity for additional performances. Their open call is not limited to work that fits in an evening performance dynamic, they encourage all types of performance to submit proposals.

The series seeks to bolster and expand the performance art community in and around the DC area and beyond, based on the idea that if a platform is presented, new performance will be created.

They are currently accepting submissions on a rolling basis, open to all kinds of performance, from individuals and collaborations. There are no prerequisites for submitting work, and they encourage artists of all media to consider their work in terms of performance.

Students are more than welcome to send proposals to our general open call, and they will also host a student performance event in the Spring.

The next Soapbox is on November 17, 6-9pm featuring the artists Carolina Mayorga and a collaboration between Michelle Gomez and Jonathan Wille. Michelle and Jonathan's performance will take place in a set-installation they will construct in a smaller gallery at Hillyer, which will be up through the month of November. They will have additional performances during the First Friday opening on 11/4 and on 11/12, both 6-9pm.

Submissions can be sent to gallery@artsandartists.org and any questions about submitting work or the series can be directed to eamesa@artsandartists.org

For more information visit this website.

Some things never change... but they will!

(Via)

Over 15 Cuban pro-democracy activists have been brutally beaten and arrested outside of a Santa Clara hospital, where the lives of two hunger strikers hang in the balance.

Last week, Rolando Ferrer Espinosa and Alcides Rivera Rodríguez were taken to a hospital in the central city of Santa Clara, pursuant to more than 30 days on a hunger strike demanding an end to the Castro regime's violence against peaceful protesters.

Pro-democracy activists have been camped out in front of the hospital, day and night, concerned for the well-being of the hunger strikers.

Amongst those arrested were Rivera Rodriguez's own wife, Idania Yánez Contreras, as well as Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez), Yris Pérez Aguilera, Damaris Moya Portieles, Julio Columbié Batista and Yanisbel Valido.

The end of the brutal Castro dictatorship is near... they know it too, and it won't be pretty.

Reagan statue will be unveiled today

The 9 foot tall statue of Ronaldus Magnus at DCA was designed by Chas Fagan, who also has created statues of Reagan that stand in the U.S. Capitol, at Grosvenor Square in London and at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

Five gets you ten that art critics will hate it (the statue that is...).

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.