Brandon Wetherbee on Artomatic

"The 2012 iteration of Artomatic is the largest to date, with more than 1,100 artists participating. That number will increase with each day of the monthly installation. The sixth floor of the building will be an "Art Reactor," a space where visitors will be able to create their own art with supplies provided by the space."

Read the whole piece on the HuffPost here.

John Anderson on Artomatic

"Walk through Artomatic for two hours and the effect is what you might expect: It's dizzying. Draining. Eleven floors, 10 of them busting with artworks from 1,300 contributors. Some floors are labyrinthine; others are wide-open displays of sculpture and installation, interrupted by a stage and bank of chairs. Like the last time Artomatic was in Crystal City, this year's show is housed in an old office building. The carpet looks cheap; the drop ceiling feels cheaper. The lighting is mostly fluorescent. It is everything a museum or a gallery shouldn't be. And that's the point, because it is neither.

Consider what it is: a six-week event by local artists for local artists, run almost entirely by volunteers in a vacant building. There are the stages: poetry on the 11th floor; Heineken (one of the sponsors) has stages on the 10th and eighth floors; the ninth floor has a dance stage. If it isn't the largest volunteer-run arts organization in the country, it's probably near the top"

Read the whole article in the WCP here.

AOM: The biggest art party of the year is tonight!

The show that both right-wing neocon and left-wing nuts art critics love to hate and that all other art lovers embrace and love opens tonight! Do not miss the art opening party of the year, and in the DC Art News AOM tradition, I will be publishing anyone and everyone's Top 10 List!

Send me your list of your top ten AOM artists and I will publish all of them throughout the duration of this art-battery charging event.

1851 S. Bell Street, Crystal City, Virginia

Doors open 6 p.m. on Friday, May 18!

1,300 artists and performers take over an 11-story building and turn it into
DC's biggest creative event.

Plan your visit -- directions, hours and more.

Artomatic opens tomorrow

1851 S. Bell Street, Crystal City, Virginia

Doors open 6 p.m. on Friday, May 18!

1,300 artists and performers take over an 11-story building and turn it into
DC's biggest creative event.

Plan your visit -- directions, hours and more.

If or If

Get ready for RSVP...

Bustin' Loose

D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities' Executive Director, Lionell Thomas released the following statement on the passing of Go-Go music legend, Chuck Brown.

"The DC arts community mourns the passing of music icon, Chuck Brown. Chuck was a musical legend that helped shape the musical identity of this city. His music touched the lives of generations of Washingtonians, and he will forever be known as the Godfather of Go-Go. Our condolences go out to his family and friends. May he rest in peace."

Europe's oldest rock art depicts a...

The oldest rock art ever found in Europe reveals an interest in the female form — and the type of décor that the first Europeans preferred for their living spaces.

The new discovery, uncovered at a site called Abri Castanet in France, consists mainly of circular carvings most likely meant to represent the vulva.

Read more: here.

Peter Plagens on Art and Age

As you get older, in the art world as elsewhere, you"re confronted with some choices about how to conduct yourself. You can, for instance, stay locked in the style you strutted when you were younger and hipperthat is, continuing to wear a ponytail and tight cowboy shirts with mother-of-pearl buttons long after you"ve gone bald on top and acquired a gut. Or you can try to keep up with today"s younger people by copying their fashions: Shave your head, wear small, expensive blue Italian sunglasses and a shiny suit over a black T-shirt and try to blend in with the 30something critics and curators. Or you can just give up altogether on trying to wax contemporaryand wear bow ties, tweed jackets with elbow patches, and take your proud place as a naysayer who thinks that this time the art world really has gone to hell in a hand basket.

I find myself thinking about this stuff lately because I"m now almost 70 an age I seem to have reached suddenly, and quite unjustly, overnight.

Read the whole thing here.

Are you from PG County and in Artomatic this year?

Let M-NCPPC's Department of Parks and Recreation know. They might buy your art.

M-NCPPC's Department of Parks and Recreation in Prince George's County continues to support the arts in their County - Read on: 

We are annoucing our intention to make significant purchases of artwork by Prince George's County artists at this year's Artomatic. Our County artists have long played an active, vital role in the regional art community, and have traditionally had a strong presence in Artomatic- the region's largest art festival. Through this art purchase program, it is our intention to highlight, showcase, and promote Prince George's artists, so that attention to their work is equal to their talent and impact on enriching the lives of our communities. It is also our intention to demonstrate the long-term benefit of supporting and showcasing Prince George's artists by using these purchases to build our collection of County artists' work and to display their artworks in our public facilities.  

What can you do to have your artwork considered?  

First, you must be 18 years of age or older and live, work, study, or maintain your art studio in Prince George's County, Maryland.

Second, you have to let us know who you are and where your space is within Artomatic. Call the Brentwood Arts Exchange, at (301) 277-2863 or email Phil Davis, Acting Director of the Brentwood Arts Exchange, at phil.davis@pgparks.com. Make sure you let us know why you qualify as a Prince George's artist (live here, work here, etc.). Make sure you give is your contact info so we can get in touch if your artwork is selected.

Third, we will provide you with a small, yet easily visible, label that declares you a "Prince George's Artist." Put the label up in your space so it's easy for us to see throughout the duration of Artomatic as we make purchases. Identifying yourself as Prince George's artist during Artomatic will not only help us find your artwork, but also builds solidarity among County artists and reaffirms the County's reputation as a creative community and source of exceptional artistic talent.

Glass Doors

The Washington Glass Studio (WGS) has started the creation of the new cast sculptural glass doors for the Library of Congress (LOC) in Washington, DC. The design of the project started in 2004, when the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) first asked WGS about advise on their initial proposal to replace the original historic bronze door.

Details here.

New Art Scammer: Rip Off Alert!

 If you are in the WPA Artfile, expect to hear from this scam artist...

From: michealjohn218@yahoo.com

Date: May 14, 2012 7:07:57 AM EDT

Subject: ArtFile Online: enquiry to buy

**This following message was sent to you by a person who found your artwork on Washington Project for the Arts's  ArtFile Online website. artfile.wpadc.org Please report any problems or concerns regarding this email to
artfile@wpadc.org

Hello am micheal and am interested in one of your paintings, i just want to buy it for one of my daughter because she loves art paintings a lot, and i will like to pay you through cheque and i hope you dont mind beacause that,s the most preferable method for me and i hope you will be able to bear with me. Thanks

Tim Tate Re-Invented...

Ever since his debut at the old Fraser Gallery in Georgetown, for years we have been following Tim Tate’s work, its extremely distinctive and unique look: Victorian bell jars hiding mysterious videos…each one very thoughtful and complex and full of clues, meanings and arcane paths.  

Then suddenly this year, Tate’s work veered.  

Fewer domes, larger works, almost "sweet" in theme.  There were certainly commercially successful, but so different in feel to the older, edgier work.  When asked about his new work, Tate would change the topic or say “I have a soft side too, ya know.” 

Perhaps the DMV's best-known artist claimed to be working on "secret projects"...  And he would not talk about them. 

Well, maybe he does have a "soft side", but I've never hidden the fact that I love and admire those deeply thoughtful and complex pieces that he has become so well-known for; that was my favorite Tate and several of those pieces hang in my home.

Well….this week Tate will unveil what he has been working on under wraps for the last six months…..and it was worth the wait!  Expanding on his video fascination and leaving the domes behind, Tate offers an innovative and revolutionary new format to showcase his video work.  The first of these new pieces, the first of many to come, will be shown at the upcoming Artomatic show to give it a test run. 

Here is what's coming: Tate takes a 42” flat screen TV, and then frames it with an ornate Empire frame….and then, as if that wasn't enough, he paints the frame with a Charles Rennie Mackintosh satin black. This gives the TV a slightly Gothic / Steampunk look, while at the same time also making it look as fresh and contemporary as any shown at ArtBasel. 

Tate’s video work has also been refined completely. Now working in high definition (HD), and in color, his richly textured and multi-layered video has morphed more into the vein of a surrealist dialogue of contemporary realism than his older work; but abstract enough to be compelling and mysterious.

The title of the first seminal piece is “Reforged Each Morning, My Fate My Own.” It is a collaborative work with Tate’s long time photographer (and a very gifted one at that) and friend Pete Duvall. This initial piece highlights the skills of both artist and technician. As it unfolds, seduces and hypnotizes the viewer, you can’t take your eyes off of it. 

Why? It references early Maxfield Parrish in a way….with the deep rolling clouds that deliver the ever shifting texture. Add inverted glass objects coming into the frame; smashing and reconfiguring over and over: You cant take your eyes off of it!

Still from “Reforged Each Morning, My Fate My Own" by Tim Tate and Pete Duvall

This video has all the look of a spectacular painting, but instead of a three-dimensional object, Tate takes the viewer into the 4th dimension... sliding the view through the painting over the next minute or so. Think of it as a painting that is 24" x 48" x 60 seconds. 

Let me repeat: Height by Length by Time: Welcome to the 21st century of art.

This piece, and those that will surely follow, show Tate entering his mature artist phase. For those of us less than subjective fans who have followed his career for this last decade, it couldn’t be more fresh and exciting.

Because it was Artomatic a decade ago who gave Tate his artistic wings, Tate is using Artomatic as a test audience for his newer style, complete with a comment book on the pedestal in front. A "test run" before releasing the new works in the broader contemporary art world.   

Let him know how you feel about it…..I think that this may be his best and most sophisticated work yet.

Artomatic opens  on Friday, May 18 at 6PM with a massive art party.

Sculptural Video Drawing

Later this year in September, the second Courage Unmasked auction will take place at American University's gorgeous Katzen Arts Center. For that event, together with several other artists from around the nation, I was invited to create a mask for the fundraising auction, and for quite a while I have been refining a three dimensional version of my embedded video drawings to make them jump into the fourth dimension with a mask.

Below is the almost finished product. This is tentatively titled "Eyes of  Frida Kahlo" and consists of an assembly of two small LCD screens embedded within the mask and each playing two separate Powerpoint presentations; each has 68 embedded images of Kahlo's self portraits.

The focus of the piece is to envision triumph over pain, as the brave people who have to undergo radiation therapy for head and neck cancer (HNC) have to do.

Eyes of Frida Kahlo (front view)

Eyes of Frida Kahlo, left view

Eyes of Frida Kahlo, right view

Eyes of Frida Kahlo, seen in a dim light

Eyes of Frida Kahlo, seen in the dark

Congrats!

To DMV artist Michael Janis, who is currently not only on the cover of Glass Art magazine, but it also has a very cool article about his work inside.

And as if that wasn't enough, also congrats to fellow Washington Glass School co-founder Erwin Timmers, possibly the DMV's first "green artist" (before we even knew what that was) and who also has a very cool article about working green in the same issue.

CHAL Opening Tonight

I recently had the honor and pleasure of reviewing a lot of gorgeous artwork for the Capitol Hill Art League's May juried competition. As usual, this is hard but rewarding work.

 The opening reception for this exhibition and my juror's talk is tonight Saturday May 12 with an opening party 5-7pm and the juror's talk at 5:30pm.
 

The award winners are:

First Place:  Sonia Robed, Jacqueline Saunders,   Watercolor 

Second Place: Candice No. 100, John Reef, Pigment Print
Third Place: Slumber Party, Fierce Sonia, Photo on Acrylic
Fourth Place: Koan Run, Latex on Wood, Patricia Goslee

Honorable Mention Awards:
Galadi, Russ McIntosh, Digital Photo Illustration
Birth of an Island, Tati Valle-Riestra, Watercolor
 

Sonia Robed, Watercolor by Jacqueline Saunders

Candice No. 100, Pigment Print by John Reef

Slumber Party, Photo on Acrylic by Fierce Sonia

Opportunity for Printmakers

Deadline: May 19, 2012. 

Washington Printmakers Gallery seeks entries for a juried printmaking exhibition, August 1-26, 2012 in Silver Spring, MD. 

First Prize: Solo Show, August 2013. Other prizes awarded. Juror: Brian Garner, Founder and Master Printer, Litho Shop, Inc. Open to printmakers age 18+ nationwide creating hand-pulled prints (no digital or photographic processes) under 170 square inches.  Fee: $30/4 images. 

Visit website for prospectus at: http://washingtonprintmakers.com/programs/small-works-exhibition, or send a SASE to: WPG, attn NSW, 8230 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Questions? Contact Annie Newman at info@washingtonprintmakers.com or 301.273.3660.

Tim Tate Re-invents His Art

Ever since his debut at the old Fraser Gallery in Georgetown, for years we have been following Tim Tate’s work, its extremely distinctive and unique look: Victorian bell jars hiding mysterious videos…each one very thoughtful and complex and full of clues, meanings and arcane paths.  

Then suddenly this year, Tate’s work veered.  

Fewer domes, larger works, almost "sweet" in theme.  There were certainly commercially successful, but so different in feel to the older, edgier work.  When asked about his new work, Tate would change the topic or say “I have a soft side too, ya know.” 

Perhaps the DMV's best-known artist claimed to be working on "secret projects"...  And he would not talk about them. 

Well, maybe he does have a "soft side", but I've never hidden the fact that I love and admire those deeply thoughtful and complex pieces that he has become so well-known for; that was my favorite Tate and several of those pieces hang in my home.

Well….this week Tate will unveil what he has been working on under wraps for the last six months…..and it was worth the wait!  Expanding on his video fascination and leaving the domes behind, Tate offers an innovative and revolutionary new format to showcase his video work.  The first of these new pieces, the first of many to come, will be shown at the upcoming Artomatic show to give it a test run. 

Here is what's coming: Tate takes a 42” flat screen TV, and then frames it with an ornate Empire frame….and then, as if that wasn't enough, he paints the frame with a Charles Rennie Mackintosh satin black. This gives the TV a slightly Gothic / Steampunk look, while at the same time also making it look as fresh and contemporary as any shown at ArtBasel. 

Tate’s video work has also been refined completely. Now working in high definition (HD), and in color, his richly textured and multi-layered video has morphed more into the vein of a surrealist dialogue of contemporary realism than his older work; but abstract enough to be compelling and mysterious.

The title of the first seminal piece is “Reforged Each Morning, My Fate My Own.” It is a collaborative work with Tate’s long time photographer (and a very gifted one at that) and friend Pete Duvall. This initial piece highlights the skills of both artist and technician. As it unfolds, seduces and hypnotizes the viewer, you can’t take your eyes off of it. 

Why? It references early Maxfield Parrish in a way….with the deep rolling clouds that deliver the ever shifting texture. Add inverted glass objects coming into the frame; smashing and reconfiguring over and over: You cant take your eyes off of it!

Still from “Reforged Each Morning, My Fate My Own" by Tim Tate and Pete Duvall

This video has all the look of a spectacular painting, but instead of a three-dimensional object, Tate takes the viewer into the 4th dimension... sliding the view through the painting over the next minute or so. Think of it as a painting that is 24" x 48" x 60 seconds. 

Let me repeat: Height by Length by Time: Welcome to the 21st century of art.

This piece, and those that will surely follow, show Tate entering his mature artist phase. For those of us less than subjective fans who have followed his career for this last decade, it couldn’t be more fresh and exciting.

Because it was Artomatic a decade ago who gave Tate his artistic wings, Tate is using Artomatic as a test audience for his newer style, complete with a comment book on the pedestal in front. A "test run" before releasing the new works in the broader contemporary art world.   

Let him know how you feel about it…..I think that this may be his best and most sophisticated work yet.

Artomatic opens  on Friday, May 18 at 6PM with a massive art party.

Bethesda Fine Arts Festival is this weekend...

 The ninth annual Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, a two-day event highlighting 140 contemporary artists who will sell their original fine art and fine craft, is this weekend.

The festival is scheduled for Saturday, May 12 from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Sunday, May 13, from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. It is free to the public.

Artists from throughout the country representing 25 states and Canada will showcase painting, drawing, photography, furniture, jewelry, mixed media, wood and ceramics. 

The bible of outdoor arts festivals, Sunshine Artist Magazine, ranked the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival as one of the top 100 Arts Festivals in the U.S. and Best Show in Maryland and Washington, D.C. The festival will be held in downtown Bethesda’s Woodmont Triangle along Norfolk, Auburn, Del Ray and Cordell Avenues, and will feature live entertainment, children’s activities and Bethesda restaurants including Haagen Dazs, BlackFinn American Saloon, Mamma Lucia, Hard Times Cafe and Yamas Mediterranean Grill.

Admission to the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival is free. The festival is located six blocks from the Bethesda Metro station and free parking is available close to the event in the parking garage located on Auburn Avenue.

Annual Spring Open Studio at Flux Studios Tomorrow

Flux Studios Annual Spring Open Studios

Saturday, may 12, 2012

12 - 5 pm

3708 Wells Avenue

Mt. Rainier, MD 20712

(directly behind the Washington Glass School)

www.fluxstudiosdc.com

Artists: 

jessica beels

bianka groves

jeffery herrity

tamara laird

laurel lukaszewski

brittany petersen

novie trump

elizabeth vorlicek