"The response has been slow"

Joel Sternfeld's panoramic photos of Manhattan's High Line railway and Yellowstone National Park have been acquired by Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank AG and ING Belgium SA.

His new large-scale color prints capturing the seasonal changes of a field in central Massachusetts are having a tougher time finding buyers. The turmoil in the financial markets appears to be keeping clients from doling out $50,000 for Sternfeld's 5-foot-by-7-foot (1.5-by-2.1-meter) works exhibited at Luhring Augustine gallery in Chelsea, New York's hub for contemporary art.

"The response has been slow," says Natalia Sacasa, the gallery's senior director. Six out of 13 works have sold since the show opened on Sept. 6. "There isn't the frenzy we all have become accustomed to."

What? At $50K a pop, most gallerists would give their left nut for having a show that sells half the exhibition at those prices.

Perhaps a little insight into the differences between a power NYC gallery's expectations and view of the art world, and (ahem) the rest of the art world. Read the Bloomberg article here.

Philadelphia Open Studio tours this weekend

The 9th Annual Philadelphia Open Studios Tour (POST) is what I call a well organized, city-wide oppen studio tour!

Opens art studios is not only one of the best ways to spend a full artsy weekend and at the same time see a lot of artwork at all levels of the economic scale, but also a key way to acquire original artwork and finally replace those nasty posters on your walls and this tour is a good one with more than 290 professional visual artists in 16 neighborhoods opening their studios to the public to show and sell artwork.

The tours are spread over two weekends and they start this weekend (Oct. 4-5) with studios West of Broad Street and continue next weekend (Oct. 11-12) with studios East of Broad Street. The artists will have their studios open from 12-6PM each of those weekends.

You can plan your studio tour here, and all events are open and free to the public. Go buy some artwork!

MPAartfest

MPAartfest is Sunday, October 5, from 10 am - 5 pm at the McLean Project for the Arts' Central Park, (McLean Community Center in case of soggy park) 1234 Ingleside Avenue in McLean, Virginia. Work by 40 artists and craftspeople will be available for purchase.

Buy art!

Wanna go to a Maryland opening tomorrow?

The Crossing of the Creatures is the title of Marta Pérez García's new color woodcuts and paintings opening at H & F Fine Arts in Mount Rainier, MD tomorrow. Curated by Marvette Pérez & Tonya Jordan the exhibition goes through November 1, 2008 with an opening reception on Saturday, October 4, 2008.

Master woodcut artist and painter Marta Pėrez García will exhibit her latest prints, paintings and drawings exploring space, performance, movement and the translocations and transformations of creatures.

This is a blue chip artist as Marta Pérez García is winner of the 2001 Grand Prix Latin American & Caribbean Biennale of Engraving and has exhibited at the Grand Palais, in Paris, France.

Unfuckingbelievable

For years now I have been bitching about the visual arts coverage decline in the Washington Post, which started many years ago and which was essentially destroyed while Eugene Robinson was the editor of the Style section.

But this piece on KISS's Paul Stanley will be remembered as the proverbial camel backbreaker:

Perhaps it was inevitable. Paul Stanley -- known for wearing red lipstick, white foundation and a black star over his right eye -- has transferred his makeup skills to canvas. The Kiss frontman has a booming art career, to the tune of $2 million in sales last year, and will visit the D.C. area next week when his paintings go on display at Wentworth Gallery in Tysons Galleria.

I am embarrassed the the nation's capital has a newspaper that allows the distribution of drivel like this:

An original Paul Stanley can sell for about $70,000; a small print goes for $1,000, though Stanley insists on calling it a " 'limited-edition giclée,' because 'print' sounds like something you tore out of a magazine." His customers range from Kiss diehards who don't go to art galleries often (or ever) to collectors who wouldn't dream of attending a metal concert. He has had about 18 gallery shows over the past 18 months.

This is not an anti Paul Stanley rant, whom I suspect is an adequate painter clearly employing his celebrity status to hawk artwork, nor is it a dig at the article's author, whom I am sure responds to the paper's pressure to write articles (in an art column) that focus on celebrities whenever possible. This is certainly not a dig at the hardworking and highly successful Wentworth businesses, all 31 of them across the nation. If you want wall decor by Peter Max, Alexandra Nechita, Paul Stanley, Charles Fazzino, David Schluss and Grace Slick, they're your place!

This rant is a vomiting on the leadership of a newspaper that does not understand, nor wishes to understand, the reasons that many people like me, feel that they have failed miserably to execute their role and mission when it comes to the arts. Read the article here.

And if you think I am being tough on the WaPo, you should see what madman Bailey is saying. Read it here.

Paul Stanley on his art...

Wanna go to a Maryland opening tomorrow?

Drawn to Washington, a juried exhibition celebrating the work of Mid-Atlantic printmakers, has an opening reception on October 4, 2008 in the Main Gallery at Pyramid Atlantic.

The exhibit showcases the work of thirty-one printmakers from the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The opening reception is from 6-8 pm, Saturday October 4th and will feature a talk by the juror, Shelley Langdale, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

One artist from the exhibit will have their print selected by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints for the Library of Congress and will enter the permanent collection of the Library of Congress. The Washington Print Club is a co-sponsor of the exhibit and makes the purchase for the Library of Congress.

The exhibit runs through November 20th. Pyramid Atlantic is located at 8230 Georgia Ave. Silver Spring, MD.

Tim Tate opens in LA

Tim Tate: A Look Into a Video Mind opens at Billy Shire Fine Arts with an opening reception on Saturday, October 11th, from 7-10 pm.

This will be Tate's solo debut in Los Angeles. You can see some of the videos online here.

And the week after that Tate opens in London in his solo debut in London.

Tate is also currently showing in a three person show at Maurine Littleton in DC and a solo at Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia and at a major group show at VisArts in Rockville, MD.

You know what I've been telling you about Tate for years...

More tiny drawings

And I continue to create small drawings. These are about and inch or two in either direction.

"Christabel and Geraldine"


"Ophelia Alive"


"Ophelia Drowns"


"Eve and The Lilith"


"Support System"


"Elf"


"Elfin"


"First Time"

First Fridays Everywhere!

Philly's great First Friday openings happen tomorrow night... and so far I can testify that Philadelphia's First Friday openings pack the streets around Old City, and the average age of the gallery aficionado is about 20 years younger than in DC. Details on all the Philly area gallery openings here.

DC also has their First Friday gallery openings going on for the galleries around Dupont Circle. Also generally from 6-8PM. Details on DC openings here.

I think tonight is First Fridays in Fell's Point in Baltimore too, but their website was not updated when I checked (shame on Baltimore).

Update: Also Richmond, VA! Details here.

Wanna go to an opening in Easton, MD?

I love Easton - it is such a gorgeous little artsy Maryland town... anyway, the South Street Gallery is having an opening reception for two classical realism masters this Friday.

Ed Ahlstrom lives in Frederick County, Maryland, is a professor in the Art Department of Montgomery College where he teaches classes in landscape painting, portraiture, and watercolor. Texas-born, Louis Escobedo now lives in Baltimore County, Maryland. Louis received his BFA from Sam Houston University. His paintings have received numerous awards, including the Best of Show from the National Oil Painters of America.

Opening Reception Friday, October 3, 2008 5-9-pm.

Cubans are coming

A few months ago I curated an exhibition of Cuban artists in Norfolk which received rave reviews in the Norfolk area press, and next month I will be curating a group show exhibition of contemporary Cuban artists at H&F Fine Arts, located just outside of DC in the new Gateway Arts District of Mount Rainier, Brentwood, North Brentwood and Hyattsville, Maryland.

Titled "Aqui Estamos" or "Here we are," the exhibition brings to the DC region some of the key Cuban artists working both in Cuba (such as Sandra Ramos, Aimee Garcia Marrero, Los Carpinteros and others), as well as other Cuban artists from the Cuban Diaspora, including Magda Campos-Pons, Roberto Wong and Marta Maria Perez Bravo.

The opening reception is Saturday, November 8 from 5-8PM.

And next spring I will have these same artists in a Philadelphia gallery; more news on that later.

Come see some exceptional artwork and say hi at the H&F Fine Arts opening.

Recycled Glass Arts Workshop


Click on the image for more details...

Bailey at it

Pubic art - against, or for? Everyone has an opinion. However, what about public art that's allowed to just fall apart? Here's Bailey's story about one such piece at the Reston Town Center.

Here we go again

Remember when I told you about this truckdriving lady and her $5 Jackson Pollock find?

Now:

As executive vice president of Azusa Pacific University, David Bixby fields lots of calls. But one that came through last March was a stunner. Howard Kazanjian, a film producer and university trustee, had come across a trove of paintings by a giant of 20th century art that might be donated to the evangelical Christian university.

The good news was that the works were said to have been made by Jackson Pollock, the Abstract Expressionist known for his "drip and splash" style. The bad news: This was yet another batch of undocumented paintings attributed to the artist.

Read the Los Angeles Times story here.

Public Art Futures: A Panel Discussion

Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 2 p.m. at The American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. Offered in conjunction with the exhibition, "Close Encounters: Facing the Future," and the arts initiative BrushFire.

Expected to be a:

"A fascinating discussion about the intervention of art into public space. With several leading participants in the field, we will hear about the potentials for new social dialogue spurred by artists who are moving away from traditional art venues in order to make an impact both on local communities and on mainstream culture at large. What are the social conditions behind this insurgence and what will support its future development? What are the perils and potentials of this new strategy?"

Wanna go to a Virginia opening tomorrow?

Washington Project for the Arts and the Ellipse Arts Center will have Uncommon Beauty, juried by my good friend Sarah Tanguy opening tomorrow (and on exhibit through December 13) at the Ellipse Arts Center (4350 N. Fairfax Drive. One block west of the Ballston Metro, in Arlington, VA).

Featuring: Kay Chernush, Mary Coble, Frank Day, Jason Horowitz, Lucian Perkins & Athena Tacha.

* Artists' Talk and Opening Reception: Thursday, October 2,
5:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Artists' Talk: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Reception follows
Dress: Your interpretation of "Uncommon Beauty"
Parking is free and open late the night of the reception

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?



The exhibition features 25 works -- paintings, sculptures, prints, collages -- that interpret elements of the periodic table through verses incorporated into images.

A preview is available on the Studio Gallery website here.

Littleton Opening

I missed yesterday's opening at the Maurine Littleton Gallery in DC, but have already heard good stuff about it and below some images of the show:

Opening Night at Maurine Littleton Gallery


Tim Tate wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition


Alegra Marquart wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition


Michael Janis wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition

At PASS Gallery in DC


Opening Reception: Friday, October 3, 7-10pm
PASS GALLERY Fall Exhibition
1617 S. St. NW, WDC, 20009 (Rear Entrance- by way of the alley). The exhibition continues through October 28.

Wall Streeting at -778

It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane -
Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -
world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs. Feed it up a knock,
speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height,
down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for
hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies
breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered
crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population,
common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its
own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the
reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright
light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn,
return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning,
blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle,
light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh,
this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament,
a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite.
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic,
slam, but neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...

(It's time I had some time alone)

At the Hirshhorn this Friday

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will have my good friend Mark Cameron Boyd giving a talk as part of the Friday Gallery Talks on Oct. 3, 2008.

He will speak about John Baldessari's work, Exhibiting Paintings, in Currents: Recent Acquisitions. Meet him at the information desk at 12:30 pm.

Winkler at Washington Printmakers Gallery

Recent Prints by Ellen Verdon Winkler, one of my favorite DC area printmakers, opens at Washington Printmakers Gallery with a First Friday Reception, October 3, 5-8pm and then an Artist’s Talk and Reception, Sunday, October 5, 2-4pm.

For this exhibition, anticipating a possible move from the DC metro area, Winkler was determined to get to know the city better. She began bicycling through the neighborhoods just north of Dupont Circle and was delighted by the visual richness and architectural detail of often over-looked places. She also encountered remnants of the past and the imagined history of the places she explored. She watched as parts of the city were stripped away for redevelopment and felt the fragility of our communities and our lives. She responded to these discoveries through visual and written language, on view this fall. Ellen Verdon Winkler intends to create a book consisting of these images and her new poems. This exciting project is a work in progress and only four of the poems and their corresponding images appear in this show.

Wanna go to a DC opening tonight?

Michael Janis, Allegra Marquart, and Tim Tate will open at Maurine Littleton's power gallery in Georgetown with a rare opening reception to meet the artists today, September 28, 5-7PM.

As far as I know, these are the first local DC area artists picked up by Littleton in the many years that her gallery has been in business and their subsequent national success represent an interesting example of what happens when a recognized power gallery in a particular field brings some attention to an emerging or mid career artist

The exhibition goes through October 18. If you haven't been keeping on with the glass revolution being ignited right under our noses, do miss this show.

Next month Tate makes his solo debut in London by the way...

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Feburary 9, 2009

Seminole Community College Fine Arts Gallery is conducting a search for artists for the 2009-2010 academic year. To be considered for an exhibit, please send proposal, resume, 15-20 high resolution images, and artist statement prior to February 9, 2009.

How to Apply: To be considered for an exhibit, please send proposal, resume, 15-20 high resolution images, and artist statement prior to February 9, 2009. Send information and CD in a manila envelope lined with bubble wrap and marked in bold letters as follows: FRAGILE DO NOT BEND. Address envelope to:

Lucinda Gonzalez
Gallery Curator
Seminole Community College Fine Arts Gallery
100 Weldon Blvd
Sanford, FL 32773-6199

CD images will not be returned to artists as they are permanently archived in the college. For further information please call Gallery Curator at: 407-708-2704.

Rubles for Art

Buyers from Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union account for almost 50 percent of total global sales at Gagosian Gallery, the art world's global leader in exhibition space, said one of its directors.

Read the story by John Varoli here.

Wanna go to a closing reception tomorrow in Philly?

On Loss and Memory - Closing reception, September 27, 3-5 pm. Join Aurora Deshauteurs, Hannah Dumes, P. Timothy Gierschick II, Kay Healy, Geoffrey Hindle, Michelle Provenzano, and Angela Washko, for the closing reception. Fun, food and drink to be had by all.

StrataSphere
1854 Germantown Ave.
(Corner of Berks St. & Germantown Ave, across the street from Cousin's parking lot) in the Old Kensington section of Philadelphia.

Righty Lefty

I asked the question Is there such thing as right wing political art? and my good friend Jeffry Cudlin offers his opinion here.

Mark Dion wins Lucelia award

The Smithsonian American Art Museum announced today that Mark Dion is the 2008 winner of the museum's Lucelia Artist Award. He was selected by an independent panel of jurors for "his prolific creativity and impressively varied body of work, which includes mixed-media installations, sculptures and public projects that explore the relationship among art, science and history through pseudoscientific methods of investigation and display."

Dion is the eighth annual winner of the $25,000 award, which is intended to encourage the artist's future development and experimentation. The Lucelia Artist Award is part of the museum's ongoing commitment to contemporary art and artists through annual exhibitions, acquisitions and public programs.

The five jurors who selected the winner are Mark Bessire, director of the Bates College Museum of Art; Allan McCollum, artist and senior critic in sculpture at the Yale University School of Art; Nancy Princenthal, senior editor at Art in America magazine; John Ravenal, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, director and chief curator at the Aspen Art Museum.

Congrats to Dion!

Art gallery raid charges dropped

The ACLU of Michigan said today that the City of Detroit has dropped loitering charges against more than 100 people who were detained and ticketed by Detroit police during a raid at Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit in May.

Details here.

Whaling Wall coming to DC

Marine life painter and conservationist Wyland has been cited in the Congressional Record as, “the finest environmental artist in the world.” Beginning September 26, the California-based artist will have one of his monumental murals, “Hands Across The Ocean” – the 100th and final work in his “Whaling Wall” series – installed on the National Mall for 8 days.

The 7 block-long piece can be viewed opposite the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Wyland began his “Whaling Wall” series in 1971, and it is the largest environmentally themed public art project ever. The first 99 “Whaling Walls” are seen by an estimated one billion people annually at permanent installations in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, Palau, Mexico and France. Following its exhibition on the National Mall, "Hands Across The Ocean" will tour the U.S. before finding a permanent home.

Sarah Palin in Philly Pub

How important is Pennsylvania?

Palin will be at the Irish Pub on Walnut Street [Philadelphia] on Friday night for a public debate watching party, if the debate between John McCain and Barack Obama continues as planned.

And last week, while I was gone to Florida, McCain had a huge rally in my crib in Media, PA. A few days earlier, Biden was also in Media, but his rally was at a local orchard.

By the way, we recently went apple picking at that orchard and now we have a million pounds of apples. I could use some good apple recipes!

Whino Films and an art party

Whino Films is the latest from the innovative minds over at Art Whino. They will be documenting the art Scene in the DMV (DC, MD, VA).

If you missed that opening, then make sure you come out tonight to "Block party 2" from 7-11pm This special event will have music by DJ Munch, and a special appearance by Grammy Winner Tony Rich (Hidden Beach Records). Complimentary beverages, light food, plus giveaways/door prizes provided.

Details here.

Glass Evolving Glistens

Cindy Cotte Griffiths reviews Glass Evolving at VisArts in Rockville.

There's a revolution in fine arts glass going on right now, and many of the guerrilla leaders are right here under our noses in the Greater Washington, DC area.

Go see this exhibition in Rockville (through Nov. 15) and then this Sunday go to the opening reception for this show at the Maurine Littleton Gallery in DC.

PMA names new photography curator

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has named Peter D. Barberie as its new curator of photography.

Barberie is currently a lecturer at Princeton University. He replaces Katherine C. Ware, who is leaving soon to become the new photography curator of the New Mexico Museum of Art.

Stonesifer at the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian Board of Regents yesterday continued to transform its operational structure by electing Patricia Q. Stonesifer, the former chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as the chairwoman of its board.

Read the WaPo article here.

Political art talk tomorrow in Arlington

The Arlington Arts Center, which is currently hosting the exhibit "Picturing Politics 2008," will have a discussion panel tomorrow titled "From the Gallery to the Street."

Josh Shannon, Welmoed Laanstra, and my good bud Kriston Capps will discuss political art and its impact. It all begins at 6:30 PM.

My question(s) to the panel: Is all contemporary American political art on the left wing of the political spectrum? Is there such thing as right wing political art?

More on the Dupont Underground

Yesterday I told you about a new DC initiative to turn the unused Dupont Circle underground into an art venue.

Heather Goss over at DCist has a great report on this exciting subject. Read it here.

Heather also has a great Arts Agenda update on openings and events going on; read that one here.

New DC arts organization

City Artistic Partnerships (CAP) has formed as an arts services organization dedicated to assisting and promoting artists in the Metropolitan Washington, DC area.

CAP’s initial focus will be on the visual arts, performance art, music, and live theater presented in a host of venues around the city.

CAP will host art events, underwrite staged productions, and maintain a website that will include a virtual clearinghouse of links to artists; services; artistic education and career development opportunities; available venues; sponsorships; and funding sources.

Founding Executive Director Matthew “Matty” Griffiths says of the new venture: “CAP will connect artists with vital resources needed to get their work out there. We live in a vibrant arts community, however many artists still need support and are often unaware of where to find it.”

CAP is the first arts services organization affiliate of American Community Partnerships (ACP), a national nonprofit that has developed partnerships in over 35 cities and states, and through those partnerships has provided living-wage career opportunities, and economic and community development benefits to low-income residents. With this new partnership, Griffiths plans to expand ACP’s reach through apprenticeships and career development in the artistic, technical and managerial aspects of various arts professions.

American Community Partnerships Executive Director Ed Gorman says, “There are many careers in the arts industry available to artists and non-artists alike. Matty and CAP understand that, and we are very excited to have them as a new partner.”

I like this

"The Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground announces a campaign to re-open the Dupont Underground as an exhibition and event space for the arts community.

A consortium of galleries and arts organizations, the Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground, is seeking a long-term lease from the city and funding from a variety of sources to re-condition the old station and its tunnels as an exciting new addition to a constellation of galleries in the District. Uniquely sized and centrally located, the new space is large enough to accommodate up to 3000 people and will provide a critical new social space to catalyze efforts to revive the Dupont Circle area and put the District back on the cultural map of the nation."

The contacts are Julian Hunt, jhunt@huntlaudistudio.com, 202/986-1182 and Adam Griffiths, agriffiths@wpadc.org, 202/234-7103.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: October 1, 2008.

No fee!

Carroll Community College and the Innovators Combating Substance Abuse Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine are pleased to issue a Call to Artists whose work will be selected to appear in the nation’s first regional Art and Addiction exhibition (November 2 – December 12, 2008).

The purpose of this exhibition is to provide a stimulus to change the way America views addiction by using the visual arts to put a human face on addiction and recovery. Creativity and artistic expression play a significant role both in recovery and in raising awareness of the personal toll caused by substance abuse and addiction. Organizers of this event believe that art can help bridge the gap between addiction science and the human experience of addiction; providing insights that will complement the science of understanding and treating addiction.

Artists are invited to submit original artwork on the theme of drug addiction and recovery (drugs include alcohol, tobacco, illegal or prescription drugs). Please note that eligible artists (within 75 miles of Carroll) who entered the Innovators’ National Art and Addiction Book and Exhibition Call in March of 2008 will automatically have their art considered for this show. Deadline for submission is October 1, 2008.

Show information and submission forms may be downloaded from the Carroll Community College website: www.carrollcc.edu or by mailing a self addressed, stamped envelope to:

Maggie Ball
Visual Art Department Chairperson
(Attention: Art and Addiction Exhibition)
Carroll Community College
1601 Washington Road
Westminster, MD 21157

For more information contact Maggie Ball at mball@carrollcc.edu or (410)386-8256.

Studios available at VisArts at Rockville

In the new Rockville Town Center... 188 square feet, about $400 per month. They are searching for painters, ceramic artists and fiber artists at this time.

See their application on line: www.visartscenter.org or call 301-315- 8200 for additional information.

New at the Carnegie

Carnegie Museum of Art Chief Curator and Curator of Fine Arts Louise Lippincott and Deputy Director Maureen Rolla have been appointed acting co-directors of Carnegie Museum of Art, effective November 3, 2008. The pair will fill the leadership role after the departure of Richard Armstrong, The Henry J. Heinz II Director for Carnegie Museum of Art, who was recently named director for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Campello Reviewed

Ahh... not me but my daughter Elise again.

Read it here.

Symposium: Painting in the 21st Century

On Saturday, September 27, 2008, from 10 am - 5 pm The Phillips Collection in DC will host a Symposium titled Painting in the 21st Century.

Participants:

Yve-Alain Bois
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Spencer Finch
Artist, Brooklyn, New York

Jonathan Fineberg
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Blake Gopnik
The Washington Post

Suzanne Hudson
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Dorothy M. Kosinski
The Phillips Collection and Center for the Study of Modern Art

Leng Lin
Pace - Beijing

Joseph Marioni
Artist, New York City

Stephen W. Melville
Ohio State University

Laura Owens
Artist, Los Angeles

Andrea Pollan
Curator's Office, Washington, DC

Richard Shiff
University of Texas

Elisabeth Sussman
Whitney Museum of American Art

Gordon VeneKlasen
Michael Werner Gallery

I find it curious that Blake Gopnik, a well-known acolyte for the "painting is dead" mafia is part of the panel(s). Of course, Gopnik's erudite words could be the Hannity to the Colmes of the panel's central idea. Details here.

Artists Websites: Claire Watkins

"Flock of Needles" (Needles, thread, magnet and rotating motor), in a private collection in Great Falls, Virginia
VCU graduate Claire Watkins, now living and working in NYC, made some brief appearances in the Greater DC area a few years ago on her way to NYC and all of her work was snapped by savvy collectors and her prices have skyrocketed since then and later this year will make her London solo debut.

“The digestive system turns food into eyelashes. I am in awe of the minutiae and delicate actions that make up everyday life. The machines I build reflect this awe and wonder.

My work is intimate, curious and mesmerizing in its gestures. The translation of energy is both a functional and conceptual part of my work. The circular motion of a motor is translated into a gesture that turns peacock feathers into entomological creatures. With movement, I make machines that become creatures.”

- Claire Watkins

And what enviable art creatures they are! Watkins has become a sculptural master of barely discernible movement and fluid energy. Not just the energy caused by the mystery of magnetism, but the new visual discoveries that happen when she marries her assemblies, installations and machines to the magnetic dance of the rotation of the planet as it travels through the Universe.

This fascinating artist's work deliver iron filings that move and dance both to the rhythm of the magnetic poles as well as the flight of our planet through the cosmos; two unepected forces to find driving a piece of art.

The effects of electricity have been curious since its discovery and capture, and electricity also has a powerful visual presence in Claire Watkins work, traveling through metal, lights, wires, motors, lights, microcontrollers and those fascinating city drawings that are today’s circuit boards. Electricity becomes a foundation for her art as she exposes its invisibility and dual citizenship in various incarnations.

Electricity drives her rotating magnet as it in turn commands a harem of needles to dance to the tune of magnetism choreographed by the movement of the Earth. Electricity rearranges her iron filings as they torture us with their minute steps across the metal boards of her acid surfaces. Electricity lights up her filaments as she captures light to create sculpture from photons.

The digestive system turns food into eyelashes and Claire Watkins turns hidden forces into visible art.

Visit her website here.

Black Artists of DC and Obama

“Legacy of Hope Open Studio Exhibitions” is the title of the event that BADC will be hosting with proceeds to support the Obama campaign.

To the left is "Ascension" by DCAN contributor Rosetta DeBerardinis; this piece is in the massive Krensky Collection.

BADC will host a one day “open studios” show and sale of their members’ work in order to raise funds to support Democratic Presidential nominee, Barack Obama and forty DC/Baltimore area artists (with original work that ranges in style, includes all media, and showcases techniques extending from the ancient to the innovative) will open their studios to the public on Sunday September 28, 2008 from 11:00 am -- 5:00 pm to help raise money for the Obama campaign.

The public will be able to purchase original paintings, prints, wearable art, textiles, jewelry, ceramics, photography, sculpture and much more while supporting the campaign. Twenty percent of sales proceeds will be donated to the Obama campaign in the name of the art purchaser.

Details here and to learn about each artist and locate their studio on a map, go here.

Heinz Prize

Ann Hamilton, a visual artist known for her eye-popping installations including paper-sucking machines and a weeping wall, is among the winners of the Heinz Family Foundation's Human Achievement Awards.

Hamilton, 52, a professor of sculpture at Ohio State University in Columbus, won the $250,000 cash award for wildly creative installations that often use items culled from flea markets and warehouses...

The Heinz Award is the latest major prize Hamilton has won. She received a $500,000 ``genius grant'' from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1993. She won fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts...

In 1999 she was chosen to represent the U.S. at the 48th Venice Biennale...

Read the story here.

Last day for DC Arts Expo

Sunday, September 21, 2008, noon - 6 pm
Washington DC Convention Center Expo Hall D
801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC
General Admission Tickets $10.00

Expo is open to the public all day today and closes at 6PM. View the works of over 100 fine artists and galleries from across the country. Enjoy seminars, spoken word and live performances throughout the day. At 2pm, the house will really be rockin’ with the inspirational voices from three different local choirs.

Noon – Doors Open
1pm – Seminar “State of the Art World in America” featuring art collector Paul Jones
2pm – Battle of the Gospel Choirs competition
6pm – Doors Close

Glass Revolutionaries at Maurine Littleton

Michael Janis, Allegra Marquart, and Tim Tate will open at Maurine Littleton's power gallery in Georgetown with a rare opening reception to meet the artists on September 28, 5-7PM.

As far as I know, these are the first local DC area artists picked up by Littleton in the many years that her gallery has been in business and their subsequent national success represent an interesting example of what happens when a recognized power gallery in a particular field brings some attention to an emerging or mid career artist

The exhibition goes through October 18.

Airborne



Heading to Miami... more later. Some posts have been already scheduled for the next few days.