Raye Leith in “Blueprints”

The Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center will open a solo exhibit the works of artist Raye Leith in her show, Blueprints, on display in the Forum and Passage galleries from Friday, July 29 to Sunday, Sept. 11.

An artist’s reception is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6.
Leith has been painting and drawing the human figure for five decades. She is fueled by a basic desire for connection and communication. Leith is an eclectic artist who also has experience in theatre design.

“In these drawings I call ‘Blueprints,’ I’ve interwoven larger-than-life portraits with miniature cityscapes and expansive landscapes,” Leith explained. “I’ve skewed the portraits to express a sense of gravitational disorientation, and I’ve juxtaposed them with soaring expanses and apocalyptic disasters. Minute detailing in the pocket spaces between human forms creates unexpected shifts of spatial perspective.”

Leith’s individual portraits that will be on display in the Passage Gallery are developed from her weekly model studies. “I do the drawings on Lanaquarelle 300lb paper using indigo- and ivory-colored NuPastels. I’ve favored these pastels for three years for the unique way the crystalline dust absorbs and refracts light to create an especially rich and deep blue,” she said. “For me this blue is soulful — spiritual and expansive. It also brings to mind an earlier age of architectural blueprints and cyanotype photography, two media with which I feel a kinship.”

The Forum Gallery is on the first level of the Schlesinger Center, and the Passage Gallery is on the second floor outside of the Margaret W. & Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery. The galleries are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday and during events in the concert hall.

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund

Deadline is September 15, 2016 (postmark date)


Call for grant applications. The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund invites grant applications from visual artists who are aged 40 years and over and who live within 150 miles of Washington, DC. Artists working in performance, video, and film are not eligible for Bader Fund grants.


To download an application form, visit the Bader Fund website. In 2015, the Bader Fund awarded nine grants totaling $135,000.


Details: 202-288-4608 or http://www.baderfund.org or grants@baderfund.org.

Pink a Cherry Blossom Fantasy

DMV artist Liliane Bloom is working on a joyous installation entitled "Pink a Cherry Blossom Fantasy" that is opening Dec 2nd in Rockville.

Check it out at the link

http://www.lilianeblom.com/pink-a-cherry-blossom-fantasy/

Art as Politics at Touchstone

Touchstone Gallery’s timely exhibition, Art as Politics, puts together something that is such a Washingtonian art genre: political art! Artists from across the nation who want their visual arts opinion to be heard along with the current two rather unlikable characters running in the 2016 election cycle.


"The fact that there is a lot riding on this election is the understatement of the century,” says juror and hard-working DC gallerist Jayme McLellan, “And the pressing--perhaps crushing--social problems plaguing the United States are brought to the forefront by the artists in this national juried exhibition at Touchstone called ART AS POLITICS. Gun violence, immigration, border walls, climate change, homelessness, racism, #BlackLivesMatter, rape, women’s rights, net neutrality, the psychology of candidates and elected leaders including Hillary, The Donald, Bernie, Obama, and more– it’s all in here.“ 


McLellan selected 127 works from the several hundred submitted. It’s an all media show including wall pieces, video installations and sculpture. Artwork for the exhibition will be traveling to D.C. from California, Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Maine, Ohio, Iowa and many other states.

“Art represents the time and epoch in which it was created,” McLellan continues, “and if artists are the antenna of the masses, this exhibition reveals much about our present moment.  It contains a broad swath of talent and reflects a collective social consciousness that is telling and sometimes hard to endure.  As a whole, the exhibition can produce anxiety, some is downright hard to look at, but there is also beauty in there, and hope.  The show paints a picture of what it means to be in this melting pot of America right now.  For better or worse, this is our shared reality.  And as art gatherings build community, it is our chance to dialogue together as we move into the future.”


Touchstone’s August exhibits include both Art as Politics in the main gallery and Touchstone Member’s Summer Sampler Summer Sampler works in the Annex gallery. At the Opening Reception on August 5, 6 - 8:30pm prizes will be awarded to three of the participating artists.


The artists selected by McLellan are:


MARY ELLEN (M'EL) ABRECHT, MICHAEL AUGER, BE/CAUSE - COLLABORATION BETWEEN ROSSANA JERAN AND MARTIN DIGGS,GINNY BAUGHMAN, RON BECKHAM, MARY BISHOP, STEPHEN BORKO, JILL BRANTLEY, KELLY BURKE, TAYLOR CALLERY, AUGUSTINE CHAVEZ, CHRISTOPHER CHINN, KATHRYN CIRINCIONE, JOHN H. CLARKE, MISTY M. COLE, K. M. COPHAM, JIM DESSICINO, EILEEN DOUGHTY, JULIA DZIKIEWICZ, JOHN FIGURA, MICHAEL FISCHERKELLER, CONSTANCE FLERES, FUENTES, RIC GARCIA, KEVIN GRASS, TRISHA GUPTA, AMANDA MARIE HARNER, KRISTEN VICTORIA HARNER, E. SHERMAN HAYMAN, DAN HILDT, ERIN HOFFMAN, MICHAEL PATRICK HOLT, LORRI HONEYCUTT, MARCUS HOWELL, ROBERT S. HUNTER, ED HUTCHINS, JINNY ISSEROW, JUDY JASHINSKY, R. JAY  JAY JOHNSON, TIMOTHY JOHNSON, ERIC JOHNSTON, GLEN KESSLER, SALOMON KHAMMI, HALLIE KROST, MICHAEL LANG, JEFF LASSAHN, AMANI LEWIS, ASHLEY LLANES, GEORGE LORIO, SHELLEY LOWENSTEIN, PATRICK A. LUBER, ROSEMARY LUCKETT, BONNIE MACALLISTER, CATHERINE C. MARTIN, PENNY MATEER, PETE MCCUTCHEN, IAN MCDERMOTT, MARLA MCLEAN, REBECCA MCNEELY, MIKE MCSORLEY, CHARLES MENDEZ, RAM - RASHAD ALI MUHAMMAD, DAVID NELSON, KASEY OBOYLE, MARY OTT, SANDI PARKER, GAIL PEAN, JAMES PENFIELD, JOHN PUNSALAN, MICHAEL RICHISON, FEDERICO A. RUIZ, CINDY SACKS, MEG SCHAAP, STEPHEN SCHIFF, JENNIFER L. SCHMIDT, DAVE SEILER, TOM SEMMES, ALI ONUR SENGUL, JANATHEL SHAW, ANNE H. SHIELDS, JAMES SHUMATE, JANOS SOMOGYI, MAUREEN SQUIRES, ANN STODDARD, BYRON TAYLOR, DORRI THYDEN, PATRICIA TURNER, SHAUN VAN STEYN, ANDRE VELOUX, RUBÉN ALEJANDRO LEBRÓN VILLEGAS, NAOMI VOGELS, CATHY WILKIN, CLARE WINSLOW, JENNY WU.


Touchstone Gallery

901 New York Ave NW

Washington, DC 20001

(202) 347-2787

The Veterans Administration and art spending

“Yet, in the midst of these horrific failings the VA managed to spend $20 million on high-end art over the last ten years—with $16 million spent during the Obama years,” Andrzejewski said.

Sigh... bully the artsy kid when the VA sucks from top to bottom... Read the piece here. 

Pittsburgh visuals

We're in Pittsbugh, which surprisingly enough, at least to me, seems to be quite a cool city, in fact a small city with an enviable big town feel, and bridges everywhere.

We're here because the Professor is presenting some paper on the Arts in Special Education at a conference here... but since our hotel is next to the Convention Center, and since we saw some cool costumed geeks walking around the area, Little Junes and I sniffed it out and discovered that the ReplayFX Convention is going on at the Center.

Also going on at the joint was a Hillary Clinton rally, and by noon all the Clintonites, and all the protesters were already lining up. It occurred to me that there might develop some interesting photographic visuals once all the Bernistas, Clintonistas, and assorted protest-everything left wingnuts mixed it up with light saber wielding Star Warriors, Trekkies, and Mario characters... cough, cough.

Review in the WaPo

The WaPo's Mark Jenkins reviews the current shows at The Katzen Museum at American University, including The Looking Glass: Artist Immigrants of Washington, in which I am honored to participate.

Read the review here.

Airborne

Heading to Pittsburgh for the weekend...  DCA flight delayed for three hours!

Call for Artists

UNITED in Passion and Pride.

September 10 - October 22, 2016

 

39th Street Gallery/Gateway Arts Center, 3901 Rhode Island Ave. Brentwood, MD 20722 (Second floor, 39th Street entrance)

This call for visual art is in response to the mass shooting that took the lives of 49 people at the Pulse Night Club, a gay bar in Orlando Florida, in the early morning hours of June 12, 2016.  We are deeply saddened by this attack on the LGBTQ Community and our thoughts are with the family and friends of the people we lost. This tragedy is multi-layered and as such, this call is open to your interpretation of the title and theme. All artists are encouraged to enter work.

The 39th Street Gallery is located in Brentwood Maryland, a quarter mile from the Washington DC Line, in the heart of the Gateway Arts District. The Gateway Arts District strives to be a diverse community that is inclusive to all.

 

Please submit up to 3 pieces (both 2-D and 3-D works will be considered),

Entry Requirements:

1.) All submissions must be sent electronically to be considered.

2.) Images should be submitted in JPEG format, ideally 4" x 6"image size

3.) Any selected work MUST BE READY to Hang, Any pieces selected that arrives not ready to hang will be returned to artist upon delivery

4.) Work should not exceed 60" in any one dimension.

5.) Number and Label all images with the artist's last name and title in the JPEG file (Example: 01_Jones_Untitled.jpeg

6.) Include a corresponding image list with JPEG file name, artwork title, medium, year, size, and price.

 

All work needs to be hand delivered or shipped at the artists expense including prepaid return shipping.  

 

The gallery will not take any commission on sales from this exhibition.

 

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE - Important Dates:

September 10 - October 22, 2016 -- exhibition dates

August  12-- deadline to apply

August 19 -- notifications of acceptance

August 20-27-- shipped artwork to arrive at the gallery
August 27, from 12-3PM -- hand delivered artwork to arrive at the gallery (or by appointment)

September 10, 5 pm - 8 pm -- opening reception

October 22 -- last day of the show

October 23- 27- artwork pick up and shipping (pick up at gallery by appointment)

 

Jurors:

1. John Paradiso, Artist, Curator of Programs, 39th Street Gallery

2. Margaret Boozer, Artist, Founder of Red Dirt Studio

3. Tom Hill, Artist, Senior Advisor, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration

For more information please write or call John Paradiso, 202-487-8458. Email: artprograms@gatewaycdc.org

John Paradiso

39th Street Gallery

Gateway Arts Center/CDC

Curator of Programming 

202-487-8458

Lori Katz at the AAFNYC

Lori Katz
Wall of Squares
55” x 45” x 2.5"

Stoneware with slips, underglaze, glaze, and mixed media including high-temperature wire,
oil paint, cold wax, metal leaf

You will be able to see this piece and many others works by Katz in New York at the coming Affordable Art Fair.

This Friday: Arts and Humanities Fellowship Program Visual Arts Exhibition

 

Opening Reception

Friday, July 29, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

RSVP here.

DC Commission on Arts and Humanities
200 I (Eye) Street, SE
Main Gallery
Washington, DC 20003

Exhibition closes August 31

Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

200 I (Eye) Street SE, Washington DC

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities presents a  visual arts exhibition featuring some of the District's finest visual artists applying for the FY 2017 Arts and Humanities Fellowship Program (AHFP). Each artist has submitted a piece that represents their body of work and artistic perspective. This exhibition captures the broad scope of the District's dynamic art scene and provides an opportunity for the artists to express their visions directly to the panel of peer reviewers evaluating their applications and to the public

Opportunities for Artists

Non-DCCAH Calls for Artists (lifted from the DCCAH website:

• Center for Fine Art Photography, Deadline is July 27, 2016

• BWI Marshall Art and Exhibits, Deadline is July 29, 2016

• Anacostia Arts Center, Deadline is August 1, 2016

• Events DC, Deadline is August 1, 2016

• Linus Galleries, Deadline is August 3, 2016

• Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center, Deadline is August 10, 2016

• Hera Gallery, Deadline is August 12, 2016

• City of Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs, Deadline is August 14, 2016

• Linus Galleries, Deadline is August 17, 2016

• Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center, Deadline is August 18, 2016

• National Opera Center America, Deadline is August 31, 2016

• Digital Fabrication Residency, Deadline is September 1, 2016

• Greater Denton Arts Council, Deadline is September 30, 2016

• Strathmore, Deadline is September 30, 2016

Washington Area Visual Artists Registry

From Bill Roseberry:

Dear D.C. Artists,

I am in the very initial stages of compiling an historical comprehensive registry of Washington Area Visual Artists from pre-1800's to the present.

Besides names and dates, I wish to focus particularly on studio locations in and around the D.C. Metropolitan area, the neighborhoods they lived and worked, and other cultural and educational affiliations artists had or participated in.

I understand that this will be a very large project. But it is my wish that with enough individual responses and support I can demonstrate the need for institution support and funding in desire to create a larger centrally-located, interactive database with links to individual artists archives.

It simply seems to me that we need a shift in the balance the focus of research and funding in the arts from the end-product (objects on display and in collections) to the artist and his or her active community and primary means of moral and creative support.

To this end I have created this short survey to fill out and return:
https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSdQBHw5oMN8wNmxn…/viewform…

Please feel free to copy and share the form to as many D.C area artists (including former and current art students) you know and have contact with and ask them to return it. The more responses there are the better likelihood we can revive and reinvigorate the culture of artists in D.C. to fill the cracks and holes in the shared legacy that we've all contributed to create.

If you have ideas and suggestions please email me at bill.roseberry@gmail.com

I would very much appreciate your feedback.

If you know of a deceased artist and can enter the following information please feel free to do so on a separate form.

Also visit and invite artist friends to visit https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonDCAreaArtistsHistorical…/ for updates.

Thank you.

Review of Alma Thomas

Thomas, who died in 1978, at the age of eighty-six, was a junior-high-school art teacher in Washington, D.C., whose own paintings were modernist and sophisticated but of no special note until she retired from teaching, in 1960, and took up color-intensive abstraction.

Read Peter Schjeldahl's review here.

Call for Artists: Shockoe Artspace

Shockoe Artspace’s mission is to provide a vital platform for both student, emerging and professional artists from local and regional backgrounds as well as international. 

We are looking to promote a diverse array of works and exhibitions. Furthermore we exist to cultivate community through various forms and outlets that will deeply impact our city. We think it is vital to generate new and relevant dialogue surrounding the arts of all kinds that stimulates growth in the artist and increases interest and appreciation from patrons and supporters.
Through a diverse array of exhibitions, forums, and open critiques, we hope to extend the already flourishing artistic foundation and culture here in Shockoe Bottom and Richmond as a whole.

Submissions:

Artist submissions are welcomed. Submissions will be reviewed several times a year. If upon review, we have further interest, we will be in touch with you directly. Artists should include a C.V., and artist statement, along with a personal web address and or 5 to 10 jpeg images with captions. Submissions must be emailed to submissions@shockoeartspace.com.

Art Scam Alert!!!

This scam alert came from a mutant con artist attempting to rip off artists - the email is revd.henry@gmail.com: 

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this rip off mutant!

From: Aaron Cooper (aaroncooper425@yahoo.com)
Sent: Thu 7/21/16 5:46 PM
Hello,
I am making inquiry if you sell and ship international, specifically to our location here in New Zealand and also do you accept card payment?..In addition, I will appreciate if you return to me by email with your price list.
I had a look on your website already and you have a very good collection on there.
Looking forward to your quick response.
Aaron Cooper

Opportunity for artists of LA area African ancestry

Deadline: August 15, 2016
Fee: $15

Through the Emerging Artists Program, MoAD (The Museum of the African Diaspora) is committed to providing local LA artists the opportunities to generate and exhibit work reflecting the cultural and artistic richness of the African Diaspora... Bummer that it's just artists from the City of Angels...

The EAP is a call for artists to submit a solo exhibition proposal of their work. Competitive proposals will present innovative artwork to activate the salon space. 

This multipurpose space is the heart of the museum where they hold public programs, education workshops, and events. 

Four final artists will be selected. Each artist will have a 2 month solo show as part of the Emerging Artists Program to display their work in a solo exhibition.

We will hold two information sessions to review the application process and to answer any questions. These sessions will be held on June 1st and June 29th at 6pm in the MoAD salon and include a gallery tour.

Selected artists will be notified on August 31, 2016, after which artists will then work with the exhibitions team at the museum and have 2 months to finalize and prepare work.

JT Kirkland at Shockoe Artspace

Shockoe Artspace is hosting a gigantic exhibition in Richmond titled Space within, Space without; it is a large scale exhibition of new and recent work from my good bud (and former legendary DMV art blogger)  J.T. Kirkland. The show  surveys the visual developments of his dually minimalist and expansive paintings, and it's on through September 16, 2016.




Kirkland resides in Sterling, Virginia and has an extensive exhibition record, including several exhibitions along the East Coast in 2016.



Kirkland notes that...

Over the past six years I’ve created a series of paintings called Subspace, which most commonly are executed with house paint on plywood. Although the works in the series are seemingly disparate at times, there are common themes consistently present: formal and rigorous compositions, use of readily available materials sourced solely from home-improvement stores, playful and open-ended conceptual interests, a literally reductive approach to art-making.

I strive to collaborate with wood such that my artistic gesture serves to bring attention to the wood’s natural beauty and complex visual patterns. I’m interested in exploring the area where painting meets sculpture; fine art meets craft, and space inside meets space outside.

I've heard all kinds of good things about this expansive art space in Richmond, including all the hard work that its owner, Ryan Lauterio, is pouring into the space. 


The gallery is located at 12 North 19th Street, Richmond, VA 23223 and online at http://www.shockoeartspace.com/

Gallery B accepting applications

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and Bethesda Urban Partnership are accepting applications for Gallery B 2017 exhibitions!

This gallery, located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E in downtown Bethesda, is available to interested artists and arts organizations for one-month rentals. All media including, but not limited to, painting, photography and sculpture is eligible to use the space. Gallery B does not take a commission on any artwork sold during the exhibition.  

 

We are seeking applications from local artists and arts organizations for month-long exhibitions in 2016. Gallery B has approximately 1,500 sq. feet of available exhibition space. The deadline for submission is July 29, 2016.

To be considered for a solo or group exhibition, and to review the gallery requirements, please complete this application.

 

Questions?  Please send them an email to artist@bethesda.org.