Bethesda Painting Prize winners

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District announced the top three Bethesda Painting Awards prize winners on Wednesday evening during the exhibition’s opening at Gallery B. Tanja Softic of Richmond, VA was awarded “Best in Show” with $10,000; Richard Levine of Falls Church, VA was named second place and was given $2,000 and Amy Sherald of Baltimore, MD received third place and was awarded $1,000.

 

Tanja Softic studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Sarajevo and earned her Master of Fine Arts in printmaking from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. She works across the media of printmaking, drawing, photography and book arts. She is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Grant, National Endowment for the Arts/ Southern Arts Federation Visual Artist Fellowship and Soros Foundation - Open Society Institute Exhibition Support Grant. Tanja’s work is included in numerous collections in the United States and abroad, among them New York Public Library, Library of Congress Print Department and New South Wales Gallery of Art in Sydney, Australia. She participated in 12th International Print Triennial in Cracow, Poland and won a First Prize at the 5th Kochi International Triennial Exhibition of Prints, Ino-cho Paper Museum in Kochi, Japan in 2002. She completed print projects at Flying Horse Press, Tamarind Institute and Anderson Ranch's Patton Print Studio. She lives and works in Richmond, VA, where she is Professor of Art at the University of Richmond.

 

The eight artists selected as finalists are:

 

John Aquilino, Rockville, MD

Katie Baines, North Chesterfield, VA

Amy Chan, Henrico, VA

Andy Karnes, Baltimore, MD

Richard Levine, Falls Church, VA

Erin Raedeke, Montgomery Village, MD

Amy Sherald, Baltimore, MD

Tanja Softic, Richmond, VA

 

A public opening will be held on Friday, June 10, 2016 from 6 – 9pm in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk. Gallery B is located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E in downtown Bethesda. The work of the eight finalists will be on display from June 3-27, 2015. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday from 12 – 6pm.

Entries were juried by Dorothy Moss, Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the National Portrait Gallery and Director of the Triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition; 

Dr. David Park Curry, Senior Curator of Decorative Arts, American Painting & Sculpture at the Baltimore Museum of Art and Megan Marlatt, award-winning painter and Professor of Art and at University of Virginia.

 

The Bethesda Painting Awards was established by Carol Trawick in 2005. Ms. Trawick has served as a community activist for more than 25 years in downtown Bethesda. She is past chair of the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, past chair of the Bethesda Urban Partnership, Inc. and founder of The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards.

".art" domain to launch this fall

UK Creative Ideas Limited (UKCI) signed an agreement with ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, in late March, to launch and be the exclusive operator of the new .ART top-level domain (TLD). Launching in late fall 2016, .ART is new, undeveloped Internet real estate dedicated to serving the arts and culture communities by providing the infrastructure to enhance and preserve the art industry’s online presence. With more name choice, shorter names, exact match for searches, and immediate identification with the arts, the global art world will have a new opportunity to meaningfully connect to their audiences in the digital realm.

“We are very fortunate to have secured .ART for the long-term,” states Ulvi Kasimov, Founder of UKCI. “We are at the beginning of an exciting new phase of innovation for art online, and .ART will be an important facilitator for existing and future players within the arts and culture community.”

“Our goals are to support existing museums, galleries, artists, auction houses and others in protecting and enhancing their brands, to inspire new organizations to build on .ART real estate, and to make domain names available to younger players to the art scene whose names are no longer available in other TLDs and want to immediately be identified with the art world,” states John Matson, CEO of UKCI.

The process of securing .ART began in 2012 when UKCI submitted an application to operate .ART to ICANN, the global nonprofit responsible for regulating and overseeing the Internet’s domain name policy. In 2014, ICANN expanded the number of generic top-level domains including major cities such as .nyc and .london, industry-specific domains such as .luxury and .guru; as well as brands like .axa, .bmw, and .google. Now with this new contract in place, the launch of the .ART domain will take place in late 2016.

To request a .ART domain or to learn more about .ART, please visit the website at www.dotart.domains.

Airborne

Heading to Miami to see my mother...

Last Friday the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) launched a new eMuseum that makes the District's fine art and public art collections available to the public in digital format for the first time.

 

The site will catalogue more than 2,800 pieces of the District's Art Bank fine arts collection, as well as public artworks commissioned by the DC government. Users will be able to search by different criteria, including artist name, media and year of creation.

 

"Using technology in this way allows us to make these artworks accessible to a larger group of the population," said Arthur Espinoza, Jr., Executive Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. "The District has acquired an impressive collection of works by local artists over many years, and we want to make sure that our residents and visitors have the opportunity to see and engage these pieces."

 

The new site is part of innoMAYtion, Mayor Muriel Bowser's month-long initiative that showcases DC's innovation ecosystem.

 

The Art Bank is the District's fine art collection, managed by DCCAH. Each year, DCCAH takes submissions from local artists to be included in the collection. Submissions are reviewed by an independent panel that makes purchase recommendations. The artworks are then displayed in public areas of District government buildings.

 

Currently, 40% of the collection is available to view online. The total collection will be online by the end of 2016. Public artworks commissioned by the District will also be viewable online.

 

Visitors to the site will have the option to register for a free account to save their favorite works, as well as share artworks on social media networks.

 

For more information, visit: www.dcarts.dc.gov.

Memorial Day

Have a grand Memorial Day! Our grateful thanks to all those who have served and their families, and our gratitude to all the soldiers, airmen/women, marines, and sailors currently serving all over the world and at sea.


We've got your back!

RESPECT: Unsung Heroes in Uniform Art Exhibit at Del Ray Artisans Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday, June 3 from 7-9pm

Show Dates: June 3-26, 2016

When one is in uniform, people tend to see the uniform but not the individual. Let’s take a moment to give respect to ALL unsung heroes in uniform: coaches, teams, nurses, doctors, dentists, vets, food and restaurant workers, janitors, maintenance employees, retail service workers, gym instructors, landscape workers, bus and train drivers, police officers, and security personnel... just to name a few!

Visit Del Ray Artisans gallery in June to see how area artists chose to show their respect. Some artists expressed their point of view, depicted something funny or thought provoking, or honored a loved one. There will also be a small memorial section in the gallery where visitors can reflect, contemplate or remember. The exhibit runs June 3-26, 2016.

 

Please join uthemfor the opening reception on Friday, June 3 from 7-9pm, and check Del Ray Artisans website calendar for other events scheduled throughout the month.

 

The RESPECT exhibit is at Del Ray Artisans gallery in the Colasanto Center, 2704 Mount Vernon Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia 22301. Gallery hours are: Thursdays 12-6pm, First Thursdays (April-September) 12-9pm, Fridays 12-9pm, Saturdays 12-9pm, and Sundays 12-6pm. The gallery is free, open to the public and handicap accessible.

For more information, please visit www.TheDelRayArtisans.org or contact the curator, Tracy Wilkerson, at RecycledWorks@yahoo.com.

Tim Tate

What has DMV uber artist Tim Tate been up to in the last few?






A Century Of Longing
9 x 9 x 1 inches
Cast Ploy-Vitro, Video

This piece's video shows the first time in history that two men were filmed dancing together. It is 1898 in Thomas Edison's studio. Just as the way we perceive these two men has morphed over the last century, and so too has the way we view new media. They could never have known that the three minutes they stood and danced together would become an iconic image for a new age

Aubergine Infinity
Cast Poly-Vitro, Glass, Lighting
16 x 16 x 3 inches

Bellows Interrupted
15 x 23 x 4 inches
Wood, Video



Crimson Infinity
16 x 16 x 4 inches
Cast Poly-Vitro, Glass, Lighting



I See How Far I've Wandered
9"rd
Poly-Vitro, Video

 Video is of a woman, writing on a chalkboard, "I See How Far I've Wandered" forwards and backwards

On These Magic Shores
Blown and Cast Glass, Found Objects
26 x 10 x 10
The small figure on the top finial dreams of childhood memories. The title comes from a quote from Peter Pan



She Was Often Gripped With The Desire To Be Elsewhere..
Blown and Cast Glass, Video
25 x 10 x 10

Inside the dome, a young woman holds a video screen showing a girl in a pleated skirt and saddle shoes confidently carrying a suitcase into her unknown future. The top finial is of a cast glass hand holding a compass.

Summer Anthracite
Cast Poly Vitro, Video
9" round

 Video is a stop motion of tulips opening and closing

The Awe Of Imagination
24 x 18 x 4
Cast Glass, Video

The Guardian/The Watcher
Cast poly Vitro, Video
18 x 24
There are two videos in this piece: One left, one right. Each is of an eye peering through a peephole, the other a girl in negative, spinning in a dress

The Next 50 Years Begin Now....
Blown and Cast Glass, Found Objects, LED
25 x 14 x 8

Inside the smaller dome are shards from the original piece. On top of that is a small man holding a large video screen, playing that video. The finial on the outer dome is a bust of Dale Chihuly. The surface of the outer dome has been etched with the history of Dale Chihuly, his importance to the arts, and ends with his lawsuit against his former assistant for knocking him off.




The Oculus Of The Titanic
18 x 16 x 2
Cast Glass, Video

The imagining of an intricately carved porthole in the Titanic and the view from today



The Sea Always Filled Her With Longing
15 x 23 x 4
Wood, Glass, Video

The cast glass panel in front is cast with lenses, each one refracting the video image of the gently rolling sea behind the glass.

The Shadow Nation
Cast poly Vitro, Video
18 x 24

 There are two videos in this piece: One left, one right... each is of an eye peering through a peephole, presumably at each other



Tread Softly, You Tread On My dreams
16 x 16 x 4
Cast Poly-Vitro, Video

This piece writes then unwrites over and over this line from the famous poem, making each work important... and mesmerizing to watch.



Violet Infinity
16 x 16 x 4
Cast Poly-Vitro, Glass, Lighting

An entirely illuminated infinity piece

Art Walks America ap

More than 25 million Americans attend thousands of art walks, gallery openings, and other arts events every year ... and now they will have an app designed specifically to meet their needs and enrich their experiences. Launching July 4, 2016, Art Walk America (AWA) will be available in both an ad-supported free and a $1.99 version. AWA is a product of its parent company, MOV!


AWA beta tester sign-ups are being accepted now at www.ArtWalksAmerica.com prior to the Independence Day launch. The initial version of the AWA app will feature 8-10 major cities across the United States, with a wider focus planned in stages throughout the third and fourth quarters of 2016. For more on the Art Walk America app, go to https://youtu.be/IJ720rYaOyo.


Art Walk America is the brainchild of MOV! CEO and Art Walk America Creative Director Gloria J. Fredricks, who is an oil painter, sculptor and interior designer: "As an artist who seeks to connect with fellow artists and others who appreciate the arts, I have been keenly aware for years now of the need for a means by which the arts and the public can come together more fully and with greater ease. Not only will Art Walk America bring more people to the arts, it also will provide important opportunities for those who support the arts to demonstrate that and, perhaps most importantly, for artists to find a market for their works."


The primary appeal of AWA is simple: A user-friendly way to search, find and make the most of art-related events, including art walks, gallery showings, and other culinary, fine arts, music, and fashion events.


AWA will feature live streaming video from art walk events, as well as AWA user submitted photographs, reports, and reviews. Event organizers will be able to self-submit content about their events and the featured galleries and artists. Additional content will be curated by AWA, sponsors, event organizers, and AWA users. Supported by The Hastings Group, Art Walk America will make use of the latest in technology to bring together the public, events, artists, event organizers, and sponsors. 
 
The ad-supported Web site and free app will feature events searchable by city and personal location, as well as dates, times, maps, gallery information, and other content. The $1.99 version will be ad free and offer such enhanced features as live, step-by-step maps, a "concierge service" (restaurants, B&Bs, parking), special gallery tours, talks by artists, access to special events, and other premium features.


Gloria Fredricks said: "No one should ever have to wonder again whether or not there is a local art event available to them. No one should ever have to feel like a stranger when they show up at an event. And no one should ever have to worry that they didn't have the richest and fullest experience as an attendee. Our goal is to make Art Walk America a win for everyone ... the general public, event organizers, sponsors, gallery owners ... and, most importantly, the artists who make all of this possible."


MOV! is currently beginning to speak to organizations interested in supporting the mission of Art Walk America, including planned foundation activity such as art in the schools, art camps, art competitions, and the promotion of art around the world.


Gloria J. Fredricks is a resident of Washington, D.C., Minnesota and Arizona. For 10 years, she has been a full-time practicing artist, with a focus on plein air oil painting, figurative drawings, photography, sculpture, fashion design, and the culinary arts. Fredricks ran an interior design firm for 15 years. Her works have been featured in a variety of shows throughout the U.S. and have been sold to collections internationally. She is member of Landscape Artists International, International Plein Air Painters, and a signature member of Northern Plains Artists. 
 
MOV!, the parent company of Art Walk America, is the growing center of a number of new brands and services designed by artists for artists .and those who appreciate the arts. MOV! products and services evoke strong responses from their users. MOV! will move you.


Follow Art Walk America on Twitter at @LaunchAWA and Facebook at www.facebook.com/ArtWalksAmerica/.

Your Body and the Stars

I just tuned into Stephanie Marango’s new book, "Your Body and the Stars," published a few weeks ago by Atria Press, an imprint of Simon and Shuster. It can be purchased at Barnes & Noble or through that little outfit owned by my Cuban peeps... Amazon.

Even though this is an art news outlet, I get a lot of books sent to me to look at... and let me affirm that this is the first book of its kind – a fun, practical and insightful handbook that takes a revolutionary approach to wellness by showing the relationship between the twelve Zodiac signs (e.g. I'm a Virgo) and the specific body region each sign represents (e.g. the Upper Back and Heart). 

Stephanie is a holistic health physician and educator, and her collaborator, Rebecca Gordon, is the resident astrologer for Harper's Bazaar.

Two impressive minds...

While new to modern times, the relationship between health and astrology actually dates back to Babylon and forms much of the history of medicine and science, from Plato, Aristotle and the school of Hippocrates, and all through the history of Rome, and weaves all the way through medieval times. 

How can you apply this ancient wisdom to your life? 

Pick a body part (e.g. neck) or a star sign (e.g. Taurus), and read how to bring your well-being into greater balance including practical tools like self-directed questions and yoga/Pilates/strengthening exercises for an effective result.

And I think that artists can learn a lot from the other arts, especially those with ancient roots, that seem to reach and tickle each individual cell, as though each cell is tied to each floating bit of energy in the Universe.

Even though I get a lot of unsolicited books to review, as you constant readers know, seldom do I wander away from the art world, but this is a good meander -- You can find the book at Barnes & Noble as well as my bud Jeff's Amazon... you can read and enjoy it now... and learn.

Whether or not you believe in astrology, the book’s an exceptional read, weaving in mythology, history and health - and that's how it hooked me in. 

I think that you'll find it a welcome exercise at expanding your perspectives and further opening your mind to "what if?"

Read it! Use it! Art it!

It's the parents' fault...

Two young boys gleefully destroyed a piece of art at a museum in Shanghai last week while adults, presumed to be their mothers, filmed the incident.

Read the story here. 

Color Chords

City of Alexandria to take over the Torpedo Factory

The city’s controversial move last week to temporarily take control of the Torpedo Factory Art Center caught many in Alexandria off guard. While three years seems to be pushing the boundary of what’s truly “temporary,” on face value the action makes sense.

Read that Alexandria Times story here.

 “The expectation now is that if we are leasing directly with the artists, now the city is bringing in that income, so we’re expecting the business model to still be self-perpetuating as it currently is but in a slightly different channel,” Ruggiero said. “Especially since this is a temporary measure, we will set it up within our system as a separate budget so it won’t be absorbed into the office of the arts. It’ll be a separate thing so we can track it better.”

Read that other Alexandria Times story here. 

Artists and art patrons have been expressing concern about the future of the center since a consultant’s report in January excoriated how the Torpedo Factory is organized. The report called the management structure dysfunctional, citing distrust among those involved and a lack of diversity among the artists. It also described the center as “continually hampered by disruptive politics about the distribution of power and authority.”

Read that WaPo story here.

A 5th force discovered?

A laboratory experiment in Hungary has spotted an anomaly in radioactive decay that could be the signature of a previously unknown fifth fundamental force of nature, physicists say—if the finding holds up.

Details here. 

Please Touch

Please Touch
Saturday, June 4 – Sunday, July 17, 2016
Reception: Thursday, June 9; 6 – 8 pm with talk at 7 pm

Target Gallery, the contemporary exhibition space for the Torpedo Factory Art Center, encourages people to touch, feel, dine upon, and even lick the artwork in Please Touch, on view Saturday, June 4 through Sunday, July 17, 2016. 

Sixteen national and international artists, including four people from Virginia, were juried into this group show. This all-media exhibition features 20 works with which audiences should engage.

“I chose work that specifically challenged the traditional expectation of experiencing art,” said Cynthia Connolly, Arlington County’s special projects curator and juror for the exhibition. “In this case, one must touch the artwork in order to completely understand, appreciate and experience the intention of the artist.”

For example, Colleen Ludwig’s Pod Field is a series of wooden forms affixed with long pod stalks. The audience is invited to brush against the pods as they walk through the installation, triggering the bamboo chimes. The more people in the space, the more it fills the industrial surroundings of the

Jenifer Hansen’s Project Share is two ceramic dish sets and a social art project. One set stays in Target Gallery for display, the other is for visitors to borrow and use for a meal with a stranger. There is no fee for this project, participants are merely asked to snap a few photos and write a blog entry. (See the blog from a similar project in Columbus, Ohio.) The dishes are a vehicle to engage in conversation over the intimate act of sharing food.

Fumi Amano, of Richmond, Virginia, created one of the most intimate works in the show with Look at Me. An immigrant from Japan, Amano’s work is a reflection of her sense of isolation and the challenges of connecting with others through a language barrier. In her work, visitors sit on opposite sides of a frosted pane of glass, unable to see each other. The person on the frosted side then licks the pane, revealing a face. This intense and visceral act mimics Amano’s own desire to break through barriers and communicate with others.

“We are told not to touch fine art, and definitely never to lick it,” said Kaitlyn Ward, Target Gallery director. “I want the gallery experience to be completely interactive, and for the visitor to feel like he or she is breaking the rules.”

The participating artists are:

·        Fumi Amano – Richmond, VA

·        Marcelyn Bennett Carpenter - Bloomfield Hills, MI

·        Brielle DuFlon – Charlottesville, VA

·        Sherman Finch – Cypress, TX

·        Magdalene Gluszek – Show Low, AZ

·        Jennifer Hansen – West Olive, MI

·        Dana Lynn Harper  – Columbus, OH

·        Tim Harper – Midlothian, VA

·        Katie Hudnall – Indianapolis, IN

·        Young Suk Lee – South Bend, IN

·        Colleen Ludwig – Detroit, MI

·        Charles Benjamin Rosecrans – Sandy Hook, CT

·        Richard Starbuck – London, England

·        Kurt Treeby – Buffalo, NY

·        Art Vidrine – Alexandria, VA

·        Dukno Yoon – Manhattan, KS

(Art)xiomas - CUBAAHORA: the Next Generation

(Art)xiomas - CUBAAHORA: the Next Generation, is an art exhibition at the beautiful Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) which opens June 9, 2016 and displays the work of 15 Cuban contemporary young artists.

It's not that common to have so many Cuban artists together around the DMV - in fact, the last time that I can remember so many Cubanos in one show was when we curated the epic "From Here and From There: De Aqui y De Alla" more than a decade ago at the Fraser Gallery.

That show for the first time brought to the capital region many of today's leading contemporary Cuban artists... a generation or two before the ones that AMA will showcase next month -- many of the artists in that earlier show had strong dissident voices, fueled by Cuba's "Special Period" in many cases, and they were courageously using their artwork to reflect the realities of their life on the island, or as part of the Cuban Diaspora around the world. That show was a spectacular success, and many of those pieces now reside in museums around the United States and Latin America, thanks to the generosity of the collectors who bought the entire show, and then, throughout the years, have donated the work to public institutions.

And now the 

Art Museum of the Americas is showcasing these "new"

young Cuban artists

for this 

exhibit 

at the OAS AMA 

 Art Museum of the Americas

 , 

201 18th St, Washington, DC 20006

.

The show has been curated by Gabriela García Azcuy.

(Art)xiomas includes installation art, video, photography, sculpture, painting, performance, among others.

The meaning of 'axiom' is a self-evident truth. These recent graduates of Cuba’s University of the Arts, now in their 30’s, face their realities with a new gaze, free of political elements that nonetheless penetrate their works, their discourses are more autobiographical than politically contextualized. Moreover, they reconcile their independently managed studios and work with government cultural organizations and international galleries and institutions.

There's a little double-talk in that news release statement, which is a very Cuban thing. They are apparently "free of political elements", and yet those political elements "nonetheless penetrate their works." That's Cubanese for you!

More translation: When they "reconcile their independently managed studios and work with government cultural organizations," that means that they carefully navigate the heavy hand of Cuba's brutal dictators, which curiously enough sometimes seem a little lax when it comes to artwork (unless you're Tania Bruguera, or Danilo Maldonado, a Cuban artist known as "El Sexto," who has been imprisoned since December 26th, 2014)... and I can go on and on.

I am really excited to see this show and will write more about it after I attend the press preview.

(Art)Xiomas will open June 9 at AMA and the opening reception, free and open to the public is Thursday, June 9 6-8pm. Details here.

The artists in this show, as far as I know making their DMV debut are:

Adriana Arronte, Aria

m

na Contino, Adri

á

n Fern

á

ndez, Alex Hern

á

ndez, Frank M

ú

jica, Osmeivy Ortega, Jorge Otero, Mabel Poblet, Lisandra Ram

í

rez, Adisl

e

n Reyes, Roger Toledo, Gustavo del Valle, Josuhe Pagliery, Grethell Rasúa, and Harold García. 

Mabel Poblet Pujol

All of them, except Roger Toledo, are coming for the opening of the show.

I am familiar with the work of several of the artists, such as the skilled paper cut-out works by Ariamna Contino, and the very talented (and sometimes Bettie Page doppelgänger) Mabel Poblet Pujol, and others, but will also be discovering some new talent at this show.

The Looking Glass: Artist Immigrants of Washington

This is my latest work and it is heading to the The Looking Glass: Artist Immigrants of Washington show at the Katzen Museum at American University.

The show, curated by Jack Rasmussen, runs June 18–August 14, 2016, and opens to the public with an opening reception (free and open to the public) on June 18 from 6-8PM.

The exhibition celebrates ten artists who left Latin America for many different reasons over the last sixty years – primarily for safety, freedom, and opportunity – and made their homes, and their artistic careers and contributions, in the Washington region. They include Joan Belmar and Juan Downey from Chile, Carolina Mayorga from Colombia, Ric Garcia, Lenny Campello, and Jose Ygnacio Bermudez from Cuba, Muriel Hasbun from El Salvador, Frida Larios from El Salvador/Honduras, Irene Clouthier from Mexico, and Naul Ojeda from Uruguay. They brought with them artistic traditions that took root and bore fruit here in the United States.

As the show focuses on immigrant artists to the DMV, in this piece, the embedded video component plays a video loop (6.5 minutes) covering my life so far, with a special focus on why my family had to leave the brutal world of the Castro Brothers' Workers Paradise in the 1960s. The small boy to the left is me (as a four year old) running around my grandfather's farm just outside of Guantanamo

As I usually do, I've used the "cracks" on the background wall to employing the Navy's Falcon Codes as the first encryptor) double encrypt a background message... more on the show later... You can see the embedded video here.

American University Museum
202-885-1300     
Fax: 202-885-1140
museum@american.edu

4400 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20016

Admission Free
Tue-Sun, 11:00-4:00
Fully Accessible
See Directions

"Cuban by Ancestry, But American by the Grace of God."
Charcoal and Conte and Embedded Video. 18x24 inches, circa 2016.



"Cuban by Ancestry, But American by the Grace of God."
Charcoal and Conte and Embedded Video. 18x24 inches, circa 2016.

"Cuban by Ancestry, But American by the Grace of God."
Charcoal and Conte and Embedded Video. 18x24 inches, circa 2016.

"Cuban by Ancestry, But American by the Grace of God."
Charcoal and Conte and Embedded Video. 18x24 inches, circa 2016.