Read it here.
Many times over the last few decades I’ve used this column to send a shout out to hard working artists who do not wait to be “discovered”, but who are always on the move, taking advantage of opportunities both around the DMV and elsewhere – they follow the maxim that the best place for art that one creates in on someone else’s walls.
This column is all about art - until I find a great restaurant to recommend to you constant readers (getting close to seven million!).... drumroll!!!
This place is out of control!!! In a good way! No... in an amazing way!
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| I am about to eat this little Alien |
We went for lunch - the son unit and I, around 2:30pm or so - I note this because I am told that there are usually long wait lines closer to real lunch/dinner hours.
It's an everything buffet, not just seafood: sushi, lots of seafood, lots of meats, lots of a variety of Asian cuisine (Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, etc.), fresh fruits, soups, ice cream, desserts (Asian and western) and a hot pot section that is even better and fancier than most specialty hot pot restaurants.
The service is impeccable, with an army of waiters!
Our waitress was Fiona (pretty sure not her real name) and she was really good! Friendly and hard working! And ahhhh... suspect that Fiona is not her real name... cough... cough...
The sushi is constantly being made and is fresh and of a huge variety, including some that I'd never seen before, such as sushi with avocado stripes? It was DA BOMB!
As a "cobarde" for hot foods, these giant shrimp looked delicious but probably at the nuclear level of spicy!
There were at least three or four shellfish dishes for lunch! Mussels, clams, etc. There were also crab legs and full, whole crabs, snails, etc.
When I lived in Spain, one of my fave dishes were these guys below - an I am happy to report that the way that Umi cooks them is delicious!
As noted a few days ago, according to the WaPo's freelance art critic Mark Jenkins, his "Galleries" column of August 25, 2024 will be the last one, as the WaPo "editors" have decided to terminate that newspaper's only remaining column dedicated to the local capital area's galleries.
While this may be surprising and disappointing to many, it now concludes the saga of the WaPo's inexorable march, which started in the 1990s, to reduce, and now eliminate its miserly attention to the capital region's galleries art scene.
In 1999 I wrote them an old fashioned letter, published here and completely ignored by the paper. Here's that post again, now that the WaPo has essentially killed its DMV gallery coverage - now ALL the coverage is gone - Wanna do something about it? Scroll to the bottom:
In 1999 the Washington Post sent out a letter to all their subscribers detailing some major changes in the paper which were designed to improve the newspaper itself.
The letter, signed by Donald Graham, the publisher of the Post, asked for feedback and opinions, and so I wrote them the below letter. In the letter I not only expressed what I thought were shortcomings in the WaPo's arts coverage, but also gave the WaPo several ideas for improvement.
Sadly, since then coverage has only become worse. The "Galleries" column is now published about 20 times a year instead of weekly, and "Arts Beat" is also no longer weekly, but apparently ad hoc.
All of the names mentioned in the letter have since left the Post, retired, or been replaced, but by a freelancer and by a chief art critic who does not write about Washington, DC art galleries and artists.
If you don't get it, you don't get it.
January 27, 1999
Donald E. Graham
Publisher
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Mr. Graham,
Thank you for your letter dated January 24, 1999. I'm eagerly looking forward to the new "improved" Washington Post.
Since you asked me for my opinion on how the new, improved Post can serve its readers better, I'm hereby sending you a few comments and some facts which may be of interest to you, and which may in fact help you in the future as you continue to improve the Washington Post.
One area of the newspaper, which continues to receive local attention and acute criticism, is the Post's lack of coverage of the metropolitan visual fine arts scene. While the Style section and the Weekend magazine combine to deliver a complete, in-depth coverage of many of the genres which make up a city's cultural life, (such as music, movies, theatre, opera, architecture and our museums) the Post continues to ignore largely the visual arts as defined by the art exhibited and the artists of the Greater Washington, DC area.
The immediate gut reaction of the Style editor might be "but Ferdinand Protzman covers the galleries on Thursday?" Yes, that is true and that answer may reflect the lack of understanding to the key to the problem. Not Protzman, but the fact that his weekly column is the only mention which local galleries and artists routinely get in the Post.
The "Arts Beat" column, which also appears on Thursdays, does on occasion cover a visual arts event, but that is the exception, rather than the rule. If we switch over to the Weekend magazine, it does not take a lot of research to discover that in the last few years (yes years) the "On Exhibit" section, although having a masthead which proclaims it to be about "Galleries, Museums and Art Spaces" has not covered a single fine art gallery in this city in years. It is devoted exclusively to museum shows in our city and other cities.
This lack of "participation" in the development of our city's visual art scene is shameful in a city which boasts over 200 art galleries and which once had one of the most vibrant local visual art scenes in the nation. What makes it even more astounding is the brilliant coverage that the other cultural genres receive from the Post.
Museums (or "dead artists" as living counterparts often refer to them) get brilliant coverage in the Post and I applaud this! With one of the best museum scenes in the world this is commendable. Thus, three of your art critics (Jo Ann Lewis, Burchard and Paul Richards) all write about museum shows and on very, very rare occasions write something which is "local" in nature. This is the exception, rather than the rule; it may happen once or twice a year. They even cover museum shows in other cities. These writers do not write about local art galleries -- only Protzman, and we must wait for his words to be decanted once a week, to read and breathe local visual arts.
Movies are reviewed or discussed nearly every day in Style and it is not unusual for the same movie to be written about (by different authors) in Style and in the Weekend section on Fridays. The same goes for theatre; even though there are more art galleries than theatres in this city, and the public is more exposed to them than to the theatre, every play in every recognized theatre gets exposure and reviews. The same goes for music, be it live, stage or recorded. This is all good, but it again highlights the huge differences in the coverage as compared to the local art galleries and visual artists.
Why is this phenomenon unusual? Because other major newspapers, especially papers as powerful as the Post do not act in the same manner. The Post is the only major newspaper that I know of which does not have a galleries art critic in its staff (as you know Mr. Protzman is a freelancer). I have been told that the New York Times has eleven gallery critics writing for them, The Seattle Times four, the S.F. Examiner three and the L.A. Times four.
Washington artists and art galleries deserve better. In fact, they deserve equal print space. Art criticism and art reviews are not easy to write; yet a variety of skilled critics do exist in our city, so the writing talent is here; this is not an excuse.
Your reading public deserves better. Mr. Protzman's weekly piece is just not enough and it's only one point of view. This is not healthy for our artists and for our art scene.
Several weeks ago, at the Art Symposium sponsored by the Washington Art Dealers Association, one of the representatives from the Post made the statement that the "reason that art galleries do not get reviewed in the Post is because they don't advertise." I refuse to believe, even in today's austere economic environment, that this could be the reason.
What is the reason for this lack of coverage -- especially when compared to the brilliant job which the paper does for the "other" local arts in general? In my opinion the reason is that the editors of both Style and Weekend do not feel that your reading public is interested in art galleries and local artists. They want to publish "only" what they feel their public wants to read. Even if this were correct, which I doubt it is, I think that this is not the attitude and goal for one of the world's greatest newspapers.
Why does this concern me? Three months ago I was contacted and commissioned by an ad hoc group of local artists who commissioned me to do a one year study on the coverage of the Washington Post to local art galleries and then quantify that coverage in terms of proportion to other arts coverage. The initial results, some of which I have mentioned in this letter, have been particularly astounding.
Secondly, I am deeply involved in the city's art scene. I am a member of the D.C. City Arts Projects Program Advisory Panel, an artist, a gallery owner and a regularly published regional art critic.
As such, I encourage you to perhaps think about refocusing more attention to our Washington artists and galleries. There is a variety of ways in which this can be done and my suggestions are:
(a) Assign one week out of the month to local gallery coverage in Weekend's "On Exhibit" section (or take 'Galleries' off the masthead).
(b) Keep Mr. Protzman's weekly "Galleries" column on Thursdays.
(c) Nicole Lewis' "Arts Beat" should not echo what has already been covered by music critics or theatre critics, etc. Devote at least 50% of that column, which runs concurrently with "Galleries," to visual arts. Keep Thursdays focused on Art Galleries (which it's supposed to be its focus anyway).
(d) Pick up a "pool" of local art critics and assign a different one each week (also on Thursdays) to write mini-art reviews to augment Mr. Protzman's more elaborate, in-depth art criticism.
(e) Six times a year assign one of your museum art critics to do a piece on a local gallery show, or local art movement, or local gallery groups, etc. Something flavored by the local arts.
(f) Have local art critics and even Mr. Protzman write more reviews and just "publish" them in your excellent web pages.
There were over 30 pieces written about the van Gogh exhibit by the Post, ranging from front-page coverage to the business section. This shows that someone at the Post recognizes the interest in your reading public about the works of art which hung so vociferously at the National Gallery; I submit to you that this same interest can be kindled for the van Goghs of the future.
Thank you for your attention,
F. Lennox Campello
Don't like it? Send a letter to the editor
The WaPo accepts letters by email and surface mail; however, because timeliness is a critical factor in the selection of letters that they publish, they strongly encourage submissions by email. Submit via their online form. Letters to the Editor may also be sent to letters@washpost.com or to: Letters to the Editor, The Washington Post, 1301 K Street NW, Washington DC 20071.
Below is my letter to the Post:
As the Washington Post has been decimating its DMV art galleries coverage for over two decades now (remember when there was an “Arts Beat” column on Thursdays in addition to the “Galleries” column, and also a gallery review in the “Weekend” section?), it comes to no surprise to the DMV fine arts community that the August 25 “Galleries” column will be the last.
That Mark Jenkins’ column is thus ended is a severe blow to this capital region’s visual arts presence, and catapults the Washington Post into the long list of newspapers which tend to preach one thing, while they do the opposite.
This blow to our capital area’s visual art scene is shameful in a city which boasts many world-class visual art spaces and independent fine art galleries, and an area which has one of the most vibrant visual art scenes in the nation. What makes it even more quizzical is the wide coverage that the other cultural genres in the area, and even nationally, receive from the Post.
The Post’s critics even cover visual art shows in other cities! These critics do not write about local art galleries -- only Jenkins did, and we appreciated for his words to be decanted once a week, to read, and breathe, and document our area’s visual arts.
Movies are reviewed or discussed nearly every day in Style and it is not unusual for the same movie to be written about (by different authors) in both Style and in the Sunday sections. The same goes for theatre; even though there are more art galleries and visual art spaces than theatres in this region!
As such, I encourage you to perhaps think about refocusing more attention to our Washington area visual artists and galleries. There is a variety of ways in which this can be done and my suggestions are:
(a) Keep Mr. Jenkins' weekly "Galleries" column on Thursdays.
(b) Pick up a "pool" of local art critics and assign a different one each week (also on Thursdays) to write mini-art reviews to augment Mr. Jenkins' more elaborate, in-depth art criticism.
(c) Six times a year assign one of your other museum art critics to do a column on a local gallery show.
(d) Is the issue newsprint space? Have local art critics and even Mr. Jenkins write more reviews and just "publish" them in your excellent web pages.
The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards honors visual artists in all mediums from Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC. The finalists will have their work shown in a group exhibition, which opens next month at Gallery B.
August 20, 2024
Dear Florencio Lennox Campello,
The District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH) appreciates your FY 2025 Art Bank Program grant application. This year, we had a record number of submissions. Unfortunately, your artwork(s) was not selected to advance to the second round of review. [M(1] We sincerely appreciate the time, talent, and energy that goes into a grant application. CAH staff and advisory panelists were impressed with the caliber and range of work submitted.
Please know that CAH makes every effort to gain valuable feedback from the advisory panelists and shares that information with applicants upon request. Many applicants have found these comments and insights from panelists helpful in furthering their endeavors, as well as in developing future applications to CAH. You may request a debriefing within 60 days from the date of this letter by filling out this form to express your interest. If you have further questions, please contact Curator Michelle May-Curry.
CAH appreciates your valuable contribution to the arts and humanities community and encourages you to apply to future grant programs. You may wish to consider participating in our grant workshops to obtain information about specific grant programs and best practices for applying to CAH’s grants. Once grants are open, a list of workshops may be found on CAH’s website at www.dcarts.dc.gov.
Sincerely,
Michelle May-Curry, Ph.D.
Curator
From Mark Jenkins, the WaPo's freelance art critic and author of that newspaper's sole and only coverage of the DC area's art galleries and visual artists:
My editors at the Washington Post have decided to end the Galleries column. The last one will run in the Aug. 25 paper. I’m very sorry to send you this news. I’ve enjoyed writing the column, and getting to know so many artists, curators, and gallery owners.
Just got a note from an old friend at the WaPo that the "Galleries" column may be nixed in the next few days.
I sincerely hope not, as this is the only remnant of the Washington Post's miserable coverage of area art galleries and artists.
Over the last two decades I have written extensively about the phenomenon of gallery art fairs as the new salons of the 21st century, as art magnets where galleries congregate and collectors and curators, and celebrities, and the illuminati go to see and buy art. Furthermore, anecdotal figures from the major fairs seem to confirm that a lot of artwork is being sold by galleries at the fairs. My own experience in doing art fairs for the last 18 years confirms this fact - I have my own positive empirical evidence, albeit with the caveat that fairs still seem to be recovering from the Covidian monster..
There's another "art world" out there of fine art fairs that - because of the curious highbrow attitude of the "high art" cabal - never really gets any attention from the art media, etc.
I’m talking about outdoor art fairs that some of us know well, and many more others think they know well even though they've actually never been to any of the good ones. I am talking about the outdoor art festivals that get ranked as the top ones by Sunshine Artist magazine and others; fairs such as the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver, or the Ann Arbor Arts Festival (actually four separate art fairs that draw over half a million visitors), and of course, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in Miami, which routinely attracts about 150,000 visitors in the Miami area.
Immediately the clueless “experts” who have never been to one of these top-of-the-line outdoor art festivals will think and imagine what they visualize as an outdoor art market: dried flowers, teddy bears and watercolors of barns.
Don't get me wrong, there are thousands and thousands of these type "art" fairs around as well - but those are NOT the ones that I am talking about.
I am talking about the cream of the Sunshine Artist Top 100 list. These are shows where only original art, not reproductions, are allowed, and photography has very severe rules (must be done by the photographer, limited editions only, signed, archival processes only, etc.). These shows are highly competitive to get in (they're juried), and usually offer quite a lot of money in prizes for the artists. The jurors vary from museum curators, art center managers, art critics, artists (I’ve been a juror myself many times), etc.
I guess I'm saying that there's some curatorial legitimacy to them as well... for the elitists amongst you dear readers.
But the real point to which I am driving here is the mathematics of attendance: thousands.
Locally in our area, there are several of these exceptional fine art outdoor festivals: The Bethesda Row Arts Festival in Bethesda, the Tephra ICA Arts Festival in Reston, and the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival in the Woodmont Triangle area of Bethesda, also attract those numbers of people and are all highly competitive.
Consider the median income in either Bethesda ($185K) or Reston ($135K), and what you get out of it is a lot of people with a lot of disposable income. As a whole, the DMV itself has a median household income of around $100K – one that ranks among the highest among the U.S.'s 25 most populous metro areas.
Art price tags at these local fairs range from $100 to $20,000. As such, there's a somewhat comparable universe of prices to the DC area gallery market, as an example.
And I submit that a lot of the people who attend one of these outdoor fine art festivals do not have the "formation," as a Communist would say, to dare set foot in a white cube gallery... and have probably never heard of Art Base Miami Beach.
Nearly all of these huge and highly successful outdoor arts festivals (as far as I know) only allow individual artists to sell their work at the fairs, and their entry fees are about 1/100th of the entry fees of the “other” art fairs.
Wanna see one? The Bethesda Row Arts Festival, which is the DMV’s largest outdoor fine arts festival, and one of the best in the country, will take place September 7-8. The show will showcase 185 artists in 14 media categories: ceramics, drawing/pastels, fiber/decorative, fiber/wearables, glass, graphics/printmaking, jewelry, metalwork, mixed media 2D, mixed media 3D, oil/acrylic painting, photography/digital art, sculpture, watercolor, and wood. It is located essentially at the intersection of Elm Street and Woodmont Avenue, two blocks from the Bethesda Metro, and there’s a huge public parking garage within the show itself.
Online here: https://www.bethesdarowarts.org
See ya there! I'll be in booth S104!
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| Janis & Porto at Affordable Art Fair NYC |
_Girls_Night_out_Mixed_Media_2021_24x24x7.jpg "Janis & Porto at Affordable Art Fair NYC") |
| Janis & Porto at Affordable Art Fair NYC |
Just back from the opening at Glen Echo's Popcorn Gallery of WOVEN: Threads of Identity in Abstract Expressionism, an excellent group exhibition by the artists of The Black Art Today Foundation.
The news release reveals that the "show showcases the dynamic and powerful works of contemporary Black women artists who utilize the language of Abstract Expressionism" and...
Abstract Expressionism, a movement known for its focus on emotion, gesture, and individuality, becomes a powerful tool for these artists to explore themes of identity, race, and resilience. Through bold colors, gestural marks, and innovative techniques, they challenge traditional narratives and forge their own visual vocabulary.
This exhibition celebrates the artistic mastery and unique perspectives of Black women in the contemporary art world, while also acknowledging the historical exclusion of these artists from the canon of Abstract Expressionism.
This is a spectacular exhibition, and in my many decades of reviewing and attending art shows, this was of the few group art shows where every single work packs an intelligent punch to the solar plexus of the mind in what the artists - and the aim of the show - deliver!
Both Alida and I were immediately drawn to the paintings of Janet Walters, which are harmonious and fluid, flexing the artistic superpower of watercolors, the most difficult of media, at the hands of a very talented artist. She notes that "color on color creates depth and an ethereal feeling, as well as, little spaces ripe to become secret little vignettes. I strive to give the viewer three ways to see my work; a view from some distance, a closer view that shows more detail and an even closer perspective that reveals those little spaces that let viewers feel that they have come upon a secret space discovered only by them."
Another artist in full mastery of her media is Tommi Blake, whose attractive resin paintings (some done in collaboration with fellow artist Marie Antoinette) are not only powerful abstract works, but also beautifully delivered in technical skill. I especially liked a large work titled "In the Beginning", which almost dominates the side of the gallery where it is displayed.
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| Anita Henley Carrington "Riptide" |
Washingtonian Maria-Lana Queen "Black Girl #11" is another work where the title and the energetic work full of marks and forms planted and floated anchor an image delivered by a very elegant abstract work. The piece seduced me visually and mentally.
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| Dr. Yemonja Smalls "Dream Day" |
On the other hand, Washingtonian Dr. Harriet Smith is a self-taught artist whose striking and colorful paintings, especially the one titled "Seventh Space" are the pure essence of what is Abstract Expressionism in all of its wonder! Another artist whose work delivers and does so with exuberance and clear gusto is Alma Roberts. Her superbly composed paintings - she has six in the show - are abstract gems.
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| Alma Roberts "Interposed" |
My kudos to the curators - this is a powerful show with deep resonance and presence. The show runs through September 29, 2024.
Dear Visual Arts, Design, and Media Arts Community:
Congress is on the brink of devastating cuts to education funding! The House Appropriations Committee's FY25 proposal slashes Title I by 25%, eliminates Title II, and proposes the complete elimination of the Assistance for Arts Education (AAE) program. Their rationale? "Funding should focus on core subjects like reading, writing, and math."
We cannot let Congress strip away critical support for arts education and essential federal programs. We need your voice NOW to protect the arts. Join the VoterVoice campaign to tell Congress why arts education matters to YOU. We encourage you to personalize your message and defend the arts in education!
Act today to ensure Congress hears our support for arts education and rejects these harmful cuts. Together, we can protect opportunities for every child!
Join the Campaign
Today I'm going to thank my parents who had the foresight, strength, and courage to escape the Castro brothers' brutalized island; leave everything behind; leave everything they knew, and raise me as an American.
I am grateful to them.
I am so proud of this nation, and so lucky to be Cuban by ancestry, but American by the grace of God.
Happy birthday USA!
