Hirst leaving his dealer...

But “these superstar artists are self-propelled machines,” said Tobias Meyer, director of Sotheby’s contemporary art department worldwide and its principal auctioneer. “Just as actors left their studios in the 1950s, artists have become bigger stars than their galleries. The world is their oyster, and they know it.”

Read the NYT story here.

When modern art baffles

"If you've ever stared at a piece of modern art and felt you just didn't "get it," you're probably among the majority.

The Smithsonian is trying to change that. The American Art Museum has begun hosting discussions aimed at helping museum-goers grasp the meaning behind some of the museum's more enigmatic works."

Read the whole story by WTOP's Madeline Tallman here.

Wake effect continues

Remember me harping about the "wake effect" of art fairs?

Review: The "wake effect" is akin to the wake that a ship leaves behind as it sails through the water. In artfairese, it is what happens (sales, contacts, articles, etc.) after an art fair is over.

Since Aqua ended, we've closed a deal for four 30x40 photographs by the amazing Dulce Pinzon - all to be sent to a major private collection in NYC which although "private" is open to the public.

And ballsy Cuban photog Cirenaica Moreira will be the focus of a profile article in VOGUE magazine.

And yours truly has been offered his first museum solo!

Yay!

Blake Gopnik Laid Off at Newsweek

Former WaPo art critic Blake Gopnik, who escaped the sinking ship known as the WaPo's Style Section for Tina Brown's nearly submerged Newsweek, has been fired ; according to NY Magazine:

Also leaving Newsweek/The Daily Beast amid substantial layoffs is art and design critic Blake Gopnik, he confirmed to Daily Intel. Gopnik joined Tina Brown's magazine from the Washington Post in 2010, along with Robin Givhan, the first and only fashion writer to win a Pulitzer Prize. Givhan was let go in the downsizing as the company kills its print edition. "It's been a wild ride, and a strange one," Gopnik said.

Before he left, the Blakester had this great article on the coming explosion of the art market bubble... I sorta agree with him. Read that here.

Yoga

In this work, the digital imagery completes the narrative of the visual image. 

We see the woman’s mind begin the effort to clear the mind of all things and achieve the perfect state of a blank mind. 

Her struggles are followed through the digital imagery of food, drinks, candy, space, Mr. Spock and other images before settling on a perfectly blank mind. 

Furthermore, the buyer of this piece has the option to request to have me add some specific “distracting” digital images to the piece, if so desired, and thus become a “contributor” to the work.

Yoga

Charcoal and Conte on Paper with Embedded Electronics

© 2012 F. Lennox Campello

 

Newtown

FROM OUR CHAIR, JUDITH TERRA AND  EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LIONELL THOMAS  on behalf of the entire staff...    As our nation returns to its week of work and plans for the upcoming holidays, the hearts and minds of all of us remain with the community in Newtown, Connecticut.  In the arts, the process of creation, separation and renewal is a continued reminder of the majesty of this life and of its, at times, fleeting and, at other times, uncontrolled nature.  Our songs, images, dances and writings, now and in the future, will have moments of either sadness or joy but will always contain our story and shared history. In this way, the arts will always honor the community that so suffered this past weekend and in this way will so participate in its healing and future.  We join in the shared expression of grief through the United States and will hold the same solemn promise to never forget in the unique and singular way that only the arts can do.

Opportunity for Artists

BlackRock Center for the Arts Call to Artists 2014
BlackRock Center For the Arts is accepting entries for exhibits January - December 2014. You can download the prospectus by clicking the link to the right or go to www.blackrockcenter.org Deadline:  Friday, December 21, 2012 Entry Fee: $35 check or money order made payable to BlackRock Center for the Arts Eligibility: Open to all artists 18 years and over residing in  Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC.  Special Consideration: Artists who are willing to conduct a lecture or workshop for a BlackRock standard fee will receive special consideration during the selection process.     About the Gallery BlackRock Center for the Arts gallery is 1500 square feet of gallery space.  Its high white walls and beautiful windows allows in just the right amount of natural light. We take pride in the outstanding artists we have exhibited over the years, which have been reviewed by Claudia Rousseau, Lenny Campello, and other art critics in the area. Eligibility The Call to Artists is open to all artists residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC over the age of 18 for original artwork only. All work must be ready for sale and to be presented in a professional manner to the public at the time of delivery. (See Terms for Exhibit for details.) Pedestals are available for three-dimensional work. Selection Process This call will cover exhibits in the Gallery from January to December 2014. An exhibit may include one applicant or a combination of applicants, based on the judgment of jurors (i.e., 1 or 2 wall artists may be combined with a pedestal artist). A jury will select the artists and create eight exhibits to be included in the exhibit year. This season, the jury panel is comprised of Lenny Campello (artist, writer, blogger), Marsha Staiger (artist, Torpedo Factory), and Tim Tate (artist, Washington Glass School). In addition, the panel will have an alternate juror, Krista Bradley (Executive Director of BlackRock).	CLICK HERE FOR PROSPECTUS Send to: BlackRock Center for the Arts Call to Artist 12901 Town Commons Drive Germantown, MD 20874 Questions? Contact: Kim Marshall Gallery Manager kmarshall@blackrockcenter.org All correspondance by e-mail, no phone calls please.

Zero Dark Thirty

As I've noted before, I am not really sure why I continue to get passes to many press previews of movies, but every once in a while, I do have the time and interest to go see one ahead of time and I saw Zero Dark Thirty and came away entertained, but as usual disappointed as to how Hollywood distorts historical events in order to make a film... ahhh... entertaining.

My basic issue with Zero Dark Thirty, and almost every single Hollywood movie allegedly representing a historical event, is that I am a pedantic Virgo, who tends to over notice little "wrong" things about celluloid history... little things such as a military ribbon out of place, an uncovered salute from a sailor, a wrong line.

To start, the very start of the movie is made up and never happened. But even before the start of the movie I have an issue.

"How can you have an issue before the movie starts, Lenster? ", you ask.

The title is wrong.

No one in the military says "Zero Dark Thirty."  The statement used to depict a very early hour in the day is "O Dark Thirty" -- "O" as in the letter; not "Zero" -- and I understand that this may confuse some folks who never served, but if I'm going to be pedantic, then I might as well start with an erroneous title.

Back to the start of the movie.

There were only three people terrorists who were water boarded by the CIA in their effort to gather intelligence from the bad guys (and thousands of US military people as part of the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE) school - at least when I was in, being water boarded was part of the school curriculum); the dude being water boarded in the movie was not one of them, so why make that up?

That's two strikes already, and we're not even finished the first few minutes of the film, but Hollywood has already seeded suspicion about nearly everything that follows and that bugs the pedantic me.

The vast left wing nut house is going bananas over this film because it thinks that it is too flattering to the CIA, to the US Government, to whatever... they also rightly complain about perceived historical inaccuracies (although I didn't recall any such complaints on equally intellectually dishonest efforts such as Oliver Stone's "W" or Michael Moore's pick any documentary).

As a work of historical fiction, the film was splendid in its entertainment factor... and Hollywood will tell you that it is a "film and not a documentary." The problem is that a lot more people will see this film, and take it for a full, true story, than will ever read the actual facts about the OBL hunt.

Art Purchase Awards

Heading out to hand out some art purchase awards from the Prince George's County Arts and Cultural Heritage Division... congrats to Robert W Kincheloe, Ric Garcia and Celestine Ranney-Howes!

Aqua Pics from ABMB

Carol Goldberg reception tomorrow

NT9, 2011, acrylic on canvas, with pulverized glass, 84 x 72 inches

  CAROL BROWN GOLDBERG

paintings & sculptures

December 7, 2012 - January 11, 2013

OPENING RECEPTION FOR THE ARTIST
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 5-7PM

When governments fund art...

Government support of the arts allows art to become definable by the state. That is, if the government is going to give tax breaks, grants, or funding to organizations or businesses that sell art, they have to define what art is. 

Read the whole piece by Lauren Galik by clicking here.

Art2Art Auction

TO PURCHASE TICKETS & MORE INFORMATION CLICK HERE.

Online bidding of featured artwork in the show ends at 10 p.m. on December 20, 2012. Click here to visit the website.

All proceeds from artwork sales will support the DC Collaborative’s flagship program, Arts for Every Student, which provides arts experiences for 30,000 DC public school and public charter school students each year to attend Washington’s world-class art and cultural institutions.

What to do this Saturday?

The Washington Glass School is having their Holiday Open House on Saturday, December 15th, 2012.  The opening is around Noon, through 5:00pm on Saturday. 

As I've noted many times before, this is one of my favorite places to do some Christmas shopping for special people! What better present than original art?
 

Works by DMV uberstar artist Tim Tate will be available.

The artists and instructors of the glass school will be exhibiting artworks.

Beautiful works by Syl Mathis will be on exhibit and for sale!

Get yourself a Sean Hennessey - his work is hot, hot, hot!

Metal artist Chris Shea will be there with his stunning forged iron work

The WGS invites the community to visit and experience a unique DC area arts venue. And there's more: the adjacent studios - Red Dirt and Flux Studios will also be open - a great chance to see whats going on in the very vibrant Gateway Arts District!

Check out Nancy Donnelly's colorful artwork.

See ya there! 
 

Holiday Open House and Sale
Saturday, December 15, 2012, from Noon til 5 pm.
 
Washington Glass School
3700 Otis Street
Mount Rainier, MD 20712

The wake effect begins

I've described the art fair "wake effect" (wake in the sense of the wake that a ship leaves behind when it moves through the water) as a significant reason to attend and be present at art fairs: all the good stuff that happens "after" the fair is over and because of the fair.

First wake effect: Vogue magazine editors saw Cirenaica Moreira's work at Aqua and now we've been notified that they will be doing a feature article on her and her work in the near future!

Aqua: The Last Day

Sunday, being the last day of the fair, is usually a dreadful day - especially bad if you've had a bad fair and now have to face the brutal realities of packing out, the harsh dance of loading artwork on double parked vans, trucks and cars along one of the world's worst traffic streets...

But this art fair has been a great one, and that always makes things - even packing and loading - a little better to swallow. I am also lucky to have had the help of several DMV artists (and their spouses) plus my hard working intern, to make this Sunday pack-out the best one ever.

My cool intern even managed to dance the gallery van into a primo loading spot, once we were ready to haul back and load the van for the drive back to the DMV.

Between my last report on mid Saturday and tonight, sales continued to be brisk, as we sold two nice Jeannette L. Herrera paintings, two of British artist Simon Monk paintings, one more of my video drawings and several other "regular" drawings as well as three paintings by the ubertalented DMV artist Judith Peck.

We also sold a cool Andrew Wodzianski painting as the DMV's leading performancer/interdisciplinary artist returns to painting.

And a last minute sale of a glass piece by the DMV's first green artist, Erwin Timmers, to a Canadian gallery owner, finished what is easily the best (as far as fun and sales) art fair that I have ever done.

Thank you to all the DMV area artists and collectors and dealers who dropped by to say hello during these hectic and fun days.

The gallery intern is driving the van back, we're home safe and now time to think about the New York fairs early next year!

Aqua Day Three

Last night the major score was achieved by DMV artist Cory Oberndorfer, who managed to sell about 19 of his "Donut" series paintings

Corey Oberndorfer paintings of donuts

Yep! That many... I also sold my "T-Subucula Deus" video piece to an art critic from Canada plus about eight more regular drawings through the night.

What are they watching?

These ladies sitting by the hot tub at Aqua...

Are all watching this:

We'll never forget!

Aqua Day Two

Good day at Aqua Art Fair yesterday and decent crowds all day long... also a steady stream of DMV artists stopping by to say hello.

 

Super talented and hard working gallery intern Audrey Wilson (one of the bennies of being our gallery intern is that you get to bring artwork to the fairs) sold her biggest glass piece - Yay! It went to a New York art collector.

 

Also sold a Dulce Pinzon photo - the very last proof piece of her fabulous iconic image from her Superheros series, my largest video piece (remember "Artist Worshiping at the Altar of Modern Art"?), a Cory Oberndorfer donut painting and several of my regular drawings.

 

It's interesting to me that three of my personal sales have gone to other gallery owners; more on that later.

As I've discussed before, there are other perks of doing an art fair - what I call the "wake effect" -- on opening night I connected a major university's museum director with the owner of the vintage Korda photographs of the psychopath Che Guevara - they will be exhibited at the museum in the near future and also become part of a new history course on the Argentinean adventurer.

Also met a NYC art center director who connected me with an unlikely art collector couple (unlikely in the sense that they are known to collect Asian art), who are refocusing their attention on collecting Cuban art and plan to open a museum space in the Big Apple focused on Cuban art; more on that later.

A well-known art collector who owns my work (and who is on the "Top 100 Art Collectors in the World" list, and who bought another one of my pieces on VIP night) also connected me with a young guy who is building a new boutique hotel in the Miami area. Apparently the art collector is the money behind the scheme, as the hotel development young guy was directed to work with me to ensure that the project had real artwork instead of "hotel art"; we traded business cards and chatted about "hotelism" and "real art for hotels."