Hey! A contemporary realist has won this year's Turner Prize!

Transvestite potter Grayson Perry, who creates vases depicting representational subjects like death and child abuse, has won this year's Turner Prize. He beat the favorites, the Chapman Brothers, who had entered a piece titled "Sex," - a sculpture depicting bodies being eaten by maggots. Another Chapman work, called "Death," was a Seward Johnson-like painted bronze sculpture of a pair of blow-up dolls having sex.

Shock, gimmick, kitsch, art or all of them?

Next Saturday the 13th, at the Millennium Arts Center (located at 65 I St., SW, Washington, DC), 20 or so artists will host open studios from 1-5 PM. From there you can go to Transformer Gallery from 7-9 PM. They have an opening reception for "The Out-of-Towners."

BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown, MD recently received an $80,000 gift from Mid-Atlantic Petroleum Properties, LLC, a company headquartered in Germantown that owns, operates and supplies over 50 gas stations, convenience stores and property investments in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia.

More local area businesses ought to follow MAPP's example under the leadership of company President Carlos Horcasitas.

Next Saturday Saturday December 13, from 7-9pm Transformer Gallery has an opening reception for "The Out-of-Towners" with site-specific installations by Laura Amussen, Lily Cox-Richard, Harrison Hayes, George Jenne and Michele Kong.

Transformer Gallery has really been hosting some very exciting shows and has very quickly become one of the key non-profit visual art spaces in our area.

Jayme McLellan and Victoria Reis have really done a spectacular job with the gallery. Goes to show you what hard work and dedication can accomplish.

The A. Salon Artists’ Cooperative, located in Old Town Takoma Park, will host a Holiday Open Studios and Sale on Sunday, December 14, 2003 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The address is 6925 Willow Street, NW, Washington, D.C. (across from CVS).

The event will feature four floors of professional artists and artisans, including: Ed Brooks, Fashions by Clintonia, Anne Cook, Robert Debbane, Matt Fasone, Tim Flatt, Judybeth Greene, Kathy Karlson, David Kliger, Katherine Knight, Giliah Litwack, Fred Limbach, Janet Matthews, Richard Moy, Bev Ringel, Alice Robrish, Sercan Sahin, Ann Saunders, Carol Schumm, Milena Spasic, Hillary Steel, Ira Thompson, Krista Weiss Tretick, Liz Vail and Amy Watson.

A. Salon is a fifteen-year-old artists’ cooperative offering affordable studio space to artists in the D.C. metro area.

Photographer and video artist Darin Boville checks in with some ideas in response to my post commenting about how do we make the Protzman ARTnews "buzz" about DC artists into a roar:

Darin writes:

Here are a few of my thoughts on the DC scene:

1) I think there are a lot of people out there--artists, potential collectors, writers, etc.--who have long ago decided that the emperor has no clothes, as far as contemporary art goes.

2) I also believe that there is something hardwired through evolution within humans that creates a desire and a need for both seeing art and creating it.

Tell those two facts to any first year MBA student and their eyes would light up and their lips would silently mouth the words "market opportunity."

--We need to create an atmosphere in DC where it is seen as a place to buy art. Think of New York as Microsoft. Think of the DC scene as a start-up firm. We can't challenge them. They may have weaknesses, they may not put out a good product, but we are deluding ourselves if we think we can offer a broad alternative.

--Thus, we need to specialize. Fill a niche that is not fully served by the big gorilla.

--Think about the market for art. Right away we think of the big news auctions with those Van Goghs, those Warhols. Forget about it. Focus on contemporary art by living artists. Think about New York and the fact that it has become less of producer of art than as a marketplace for art--could you really have guessed a few years ago that many of todays hottest photographers would hail from...Dusseldorf? Dusseldorf, for Christ-sakes. Think London. Who knew?

--Bill the DC scene as a hotbed of artistic activity, a new Athens (don't laugh, please, I'm just getting rolling), a center for an American Renaissance. Lord knows we need one. Pick four areas of contemporary art. Start pointing out that we are great in areas w, x, and y and--don't you see--world-class in ____ (fill in the blanks). Identify artists that are hot now on the world scene who have some sort of DC connection. Start a whispering campaign--let others say it for us!--that the DC area is not only hot in its own right but a stepping stone to the international, top-tier art world. Those in the know get it here early and, wink, they get a deal.

--Take a breath. Then pick a dozen or so area artists. Pick ones whose work can be connected to DC in some way, however tenuous. Exciting stuff. These will be our YBA's. Our Spice Girls. Piss a lot of local people off who want to be Spice Girls. The art world is tough that way.

--Once we see what we have, invent a "new direction in art." People do this twice a week in the art world so it can't be too difficult. Something that will serve as an alternative to New York Art (you see, our plan is to attack Microsoft and become the new Dark Lord, after all). So we have our Spice Girls and our New Direction.

--We're generating excitement. We're getting the Washington Post and the follower-types in all the local art institutions (which are filled with follower-types) interested. We have journalistic "hooks" upon which to hang stories--not just dead-boring, preaching to the converted "reviews" of shows. Who gives a shit about those. (Name the last time a "review" had any effect in the non-art world).

--Stop. Think of all that money out there. Think of all that money out there controlled by lawyers. Think of all that money out there controlled by electrical engineers turned software programmers. Think of all the art classes they never had. Think Star Trek. Think of the environmental-lite lifestyle. Our engine needs fuel. We need money. We need to get that money, expand our market. Stop competing on Microsoft's turf. We need to go where no man has gone before.

to be continued...

--Darin

For women photographers of our area: there's a new BLOG in town just for you!

It's maintained by Secondsight. Secondsight is an organization dedicated to the advancement of women photographers through support, communication and sharing of ideas and opportunities. Secondsight is committed to supporting photographers at every stage of their careers, from students to professionals. Each bi-monthly meeting includes an introductory session, a guest speaker, portfolio sharing and discussion groups.

The new BLOG is full of great info, such as opportunities, meetings, discussions and info on their guest speakers.