Will 2014 be the end of the Castro dictatorship?

A while back the brutal and racist Castro Brothers' regime released an unbelievable (for people who live in free societies that is) video, where it depicts the leader of The Ladies in White, Berta Soler, who is Afro-Cuban, as some sort of "ignorant gorilla" character.

The Ladies in White are a peaceful democracy movement composed of the wives, daughters, mothers and relatives of Cuban political prisoners. Many of the members of this valiant group are Afro-Cuban women.

Why is a dictatorship so afraid of a group of mostly elderly women?

Because these courageous Cuban mothers and grandmothers refuse to back down in spite of being beaten, jailed and smeared. They know that they are perhaps the seed to the end of the world's longest existing dictatorship.

This video (below)  is part of the Castro regime's heavy-handed efforts to smear and destroy courageous pro-democracy women leaders such as Berta Soler and Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez.

This racist video should be not only condemned internationally, but also adds more evidence to the disturbing racist heavy boot of the Cuban dictatorship. I call for President Obama and the Congressional Black Caucus to make the treatment of Afro-Cubans and all Cubans one of their top International Human Rights policy priorities for 2014!

Hours away...

#Cuba We are hours away of commemorate a live corpse, the so called Cuban #Revolution , a zombie that was fed with ourselves
                                                      — Yoani Sanchez (@yoanifromcuba) December 31, 2013

Happy New Year's to all of youse!

Dulce Pinzon at Art Wynwood

MARIA LUISA ROMERO from the State of Puebla works in a Laundromat in Brooklyn, New York. She sends 150 dollars a week.

This and all other photos from Dulce Pinzon's historic Superheroes series will be at the Art Wynwood Art Fair in Miami this coming February.

On PBS

PBS Newshour has a very cool interview that features Sebastian Stant, the very young New York-based entrepreneur who is also the owner of Mayer Fine Arts (which represents my artwork); check it out online here.

Jody Mussoff

Legendary DMV artist Jody Mussoff is offering all kinds of terrific vintage artwork (including some brilliant ceramics) at great prices... Check them out here.

Her amazing work was included in the exhibition Graphic Masters III, held at the Smithsonian Institution's American Art Museum in 2010, and has been exhibited at many museums and galleries, including:

• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• National Museum of Women in the Arts
• Kunsthalle Nürnberg
• Orlando Museum of Art
• Princeton University Art Museum
• Tokyo National University of Fine Arts

Great idea

From Jesse at ardc... another most excellent idea:

I love buying art. It's an exhilarating experience to find a work, learn about the artist, and make an educated decision to purchase a work of art. I find it to be equally exciting to see a work, and make a crazy gut leap of faith and pull out my credit card and buy it! Oh beleive me yes, I do have a list of artists who I need to buy from, that I haven't yet!

So you're asking, are you going to buy my art? If you read these emails, there's a small possibility. If you are involved in the exhibitions and art projects we develop, the possibility gets higher. If you make amazing work, the chances are even higher.  That said, those who know me, understand my volume of art purchases are limited. I buy what I can afford, and I think that's an interesting fact that many of us share in common. Art collection is no longer an "elite only" experience. Everyone can own a work of art.

Before this note runs on into a confession, or another pitch, I'd like to say that I really do think the acquisition of art is a valuable and very important experience.

I've wanted to share this mentality with the world, which is why I started the site www.artacquired.com .  It's time for the site to grow!

I'm looking for people who buy art, small or large, affordable, or expensive. 

No, I don't want to sell art to you. (Well ok, if you see something, in one of our shows, I'll be glad to help). I need to find a few people who buy art, and would like to write about the experience on artacquired.com 

I'm not looking for a scholarly tome, but a few thoughtful paragraphs about the art work that you've recently purchased, and some images of the work. 

 

I'd expect that the writing would be relatively well written. I do think this is a fun and exciting process, or I wouldn't do it. There's something great about sharing the passion about acquiring art.

 

Take a look at my site, and let me know if you are interested, and we can talk further about expectations.  To start, the focus should be on contemporary art, the process of acquisition, who you bought it from, the artists, and links to the gallery and artists.

 

I'd like to see a bit of a track record. That is, email me a bit about your collection.  Take a look at the link above to read more about mine.

 

Drop me an email to talk further about this.  Food for future thought, are owning art and collecting it the same thing? If you have a friend who you think might be into this, please do forward this note.

 Cheers and thanks,

 

Jesse

@artdc

Coming down to Miami

"Despite the ignorance of others, she knew that inside they were all the same" by Elissa Farrow-Savos will be at Art Wynwood in February.

Next in the next year...

Getting ready with the preps for Art Wynwood as we return to Miami for yet another art fair!

A Chihuly for Xmas

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts board of trustees has voted to acquire the work Red Reeds, by Dale Chihuly which was created for the Anne Cobb Gottwald reflecting pool outside the Best Café. The internationally renowned artist created over 100 red glass reeds as part of the Chihuly at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, October 20, 2012- February 10, 2013. Since that time Red Reeds has been on loan to VMFA.

This dynamic, site-specific work by Dale Chihuly was an instant success at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,” said Alex Nyerges, director.”It is beautiful in every season, and is a wonderful addition to the Lora Robins Sculpture Garden. I am especially pleased that this is the first site-specific outdoor installation by Chihuly to be acquired by an art museum.”

Red Reeds was purchased with private funds from the Arthur and Margaret Glasgow fund. Private funds are always used for art acquisition, but upon purchase the work becomes the property of the Commonwealth of Virginia for its ongoing care. 
The reeds were blown by team Chihuly at the Nuutäjarvi Glass Factory in Nuutäjarvi, Finland because of the excellent clarity of glass there and to take advantage of their annealing ovens, the largest in the world. The annealing process facilitates the curing of these large-scaled elements, which are as much as 10 feet in height. Also, the red glass in Finland has a particularly brilliant quality, due to the ruby red pigment and the added chemical element neodymium.

 Details here.

On this Christmas we demand freedom for this heroine

Today, we remember Sonia Garro, who is currently spending her second Christmas in a political prison and is another example of the targeted repression of the world's longest lasting dictatorship; not only against all of its enslaved people, but also even more venomous against Afro-Cubans.

Sonia Garro, a member of The Ladies in White pro-democracy movement, has been imprisoned by the Castro regime -- without trial or charges -- since March 18th, 2012.

In the wave of repression leading up to Pope Benedict XVI's trip to Cuba, Castro's secret police raided her home, shot her with rubber bullets and imprisoned her.

She has been repeatedly abused and beaten in the infamous Manto Negro women's prison.

Garro's husband, Ramón Muñoz González, was also imprisoned on that day.

He is being held -- without trial or charges -- in the Combinado del Este Prison.

Demand their freedom now.

Merry Christmas!

Nochebuena

Since tonight is Nochebuena, I usually prepare the classic Nochebuena Cuban feast for the night.

Cuban Roasted Pork
Mariquitas with Mojo Sauce for Dipping
Sweet Corn Tamales
Broiled Yucca with Garlic Mojo
Broiled Ňame with Olive Oil
Moros y Cristianos (White Rice and Black Bean Soup)
Cuban Nochebuena Salad

For 2013 I will substitute Ropa Vieja instead of pork... and yeah, I will use a lot of ajo (garlic)...

There is a long cultural tradition assigned to the Moros y Cristianos side dish, and even its Cuban Spanish name (Moros y Cristianos or "moors and Christians") tell you something about the dish (rumored to honor the 100th anniversary in 1592 of Queen Isabella's final victory over the Moors in 1492). 

And (at least in Oriente province) Ropa Vieja is a dish attributed to Cuban Jews, so we'll have a cool culinary diversity night encompassing all three major world religions on Nochebuena!

For once, Christians, Jews and Moslems will work together, in this case in my belly... cough, cough...

And from our family to all: a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Terrific 2014 to all!

Funny Faces

I've got this ever growing collection of funny faces that get captured on TV when you press the pause button... heh, heh...

This proposes legal changes to copyright laws...

OK folks... I need you lawyer types to read, interpret and report the gist of this new report ASAP!

Channeling Pollock Part II

Remember that proposal for a piece of art for a new cruise ship being constructed? It was part of the (e)merge art fair "wake" effect... Details here.

Anyway... seems like we're past the first stage and now they've requested some additional amplification and thus the two rough sketched of what the actual piece would look like.

Morris Louis (cough, cough) finds a home

In 1980 I did this piece as part of an assignment at the University of Washington School of Art. The assignment (and the class) was to create work in the style of the "masters" which at the U-Dub included modern masters... I did some "easy" ones such as Pollock, most of the Washington Color School stripe painters, Willem de K, etc. plus some really tough ones, such as El Greco.

Anyway... “Preparatory Watercolor for the Frida Kahlo Inside a Morris Louis Assignment” is an original watercolor painting on 300 weight paper. The painting measures 9.5 x 13.5 inches and it is signed and dated on the verso, and it is now heading to a collector in Crystal Bay, Nevada - 33 years after it was painted!

There is a companion piece to this work somewhere in New York.

An Abbreviated History of Moca DC

MOCA DC as we have known it for 21 years will end this week... There is a farewell party at Art Overnight - at 2328 Ontario Rd in Adams Morgan on Saturday, Dec 21st starting at 6 pm. Be on the lookout for the Grand Opening of Big Moca in the Sky.

Here is a guest post by MOCA's director David R. Quammen:

December 1, 2013

An Abbreviated History of Moca DC

Part One: 1992 to 2004 – The Formative Years

I’ve been sifting through records and media accounts of Moca DC from the time that Michael V. Clark started it in 1992, except he called it Clark & Company. That changed in 1995 after he married Felicity Hogan and they incorporated it as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit corporation, naming it the Museum of Contemporary Art.

It has always been a gallery, never a museum so over time the name was shortened to MOCA DC, since it’s a bit of a stretch answering the phone or discussing it in any other context. Michael changed his given name to Clark Hogan, later shortening it to Clark when he and Felicity split in 2003. He was going to close the gallery December 31^st, 2004, having a tough time keeping it going, what with health issues and the divorce. He now calls himself Clark V. Fox, a name chosen when he was a co-exhibitor at a gallery in Houston.

I started modeling Halloween day 2000, shortly after turning 60; I enjoyed being part of a creative process but there were no directions for a novice and no list of places to model so I accumulated as much information as I could and started publishing a newsletter, Artists & Models, in February, 2002. It was well received but I published only 6 issues, terminating it after finding that it was going to take $300 a month to publish and deliver; I closed it the same month that the Figure Models Guild was formed.

In 2002, Clark let me use the gallery to form the Guild; the first formal meeting was in July of that year, a resounding success with about 50 models and artists in attendance. It continued to grow to the point that most of the colleges, universities, schools and groups from Baltimore to Annapolis and Winchester to Richmond were using it as a guide for their models. I told Clark that I would guarantee the rent and operate the gallery. He owned a condo in New York, so he agreed, moved to New York and on January 1, 2005 my status changed from model to model-gallery operator.

Part Two – 2005 to 2010 – A New Horizon

David R. Quammen

The end of MOCA DC

MOCA DC as we have known it for 21 years will end later this week... There is a farewell party at Art Overnight - at 2328 Ontario Rd in Adams Morgan on Saturday, Dec 21st starting at 6 pm. Be on the lookout for the Grand Opening of Big Moca in the Sky.

Rosemary Feit Covey's retrospective coming in 2014

In March 2014, a retrospective of the last fifteen years of Rosemary Feit Covey's work will be on display at Johns Hopkins University's Evergreen Museum in Baltimore. Covey is one of the great, master artists of the DMV.

Featured artwork will include engravings, paintings, mixed media and installations. A catalog with commentary by curator James Abbott will accompany this exhibition.

Rosemary Feit Covey will also be a featured artist in MFA's group exhibition Focus Africa which will open at the gallery April 25th, 2014. Included are artworks inspired by the artist's South African heritage.