As some of you may know, there are several kinds or flavors of galleries.

For example, there are commercial fine arts galleries, which are privetely owned and for profit businesses. In our area, examples of that type of galleries include Fusebox, Numark, Conner, Parish, ours and many others. In order to pay the rent, utilities, advertising, staff, etc., these galleries must sell work as that's generally the only source of income for any business. Anything that you make after paying the artists and all the bills is a profit. Once you pay taxes on that profit, it's all yours to keep.

There are also cooperative galleries, which are also for profit businesses, but usually owned by a group of artists who share the expenses (and sometimes duties) of running the gallery. Some of those in our area are Spectrum, Gallery West, Creative Partners, Touchstone and others. They also have to sell artwork in order to pay bills. Artists usually pay a monthly fee or a small commission on sales and keep the bulk of their sales.

Then there are public art galleries, which are usually supported by a combination of public taxes and public and private grants. These are non-profit and usually directed by a board, which works with a paid director to make all the gallery decisions by committee. Some of those around our area include Mc Lean Center for the Arts, Ellipse, Rockville Arts Place, Target, and others. Additionally, public art galleries may also sell work and charge exhibiting artists a commission on sales. Some of these are good art jobs, for example, the paid director of the Ellipse Gallery has a salary of around $65,000.

There are also private non-profit art galleries, which also receive generous tax exemptions, and are eligible for public and private grants. These are also usually run by a director who must by law work together with a board and together, with the approval of the board, decide on shows, and major decisions concerning the gallery, etc. Samples of private non profit art galleries in our area include Transformer, DCAC, Flashpoint and a couple more. These private non-profits can also raise funds, in addition to grants, dues, etc. from the sales of artwork. Some of these are also very good paying jobs for its directors - usually for large, national non-profits - I know of at least two private non-profit art spaces in our area that pay its director above $80,000 a year.

Both of these last two type of institutions are known as 503 (c)'s under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code and are required by law to have a governing board - which is required by law to meet at least once a year -- and also to have all their paperwork always available to the public on request, as they receive tax exemption status from the IRS and most states require them to have three directors. This is to prevent any one individual's abuse of the tax exemption status. No profit is to be made and public records of all meetings and decisions are to be kept by law.

The current issue of the Washington City Paper has the second of Bob Lalasz's "Show & Tell" columns, all about the insider news scoops in the DC art scene. The WCP doesn't have an online version, so go and get a copy and read it.

And Lalasz has a muckraking bombshell of a piece with a spectacular admission amongst the three pieces in this article. A piece that confirms a rumor that has been going on around DC art circles for a couple of years and which is certain to get people to nod their heads and say "I knew it!"

Go read it.

Congratulations!

Area artist J. W. Carter recently won the Lorenzo Il Magnifico Prize in competition at the International Biennale of Contemporary Art of Florence.

The Florence Biennale in Italy, is one of the world's most comprehensive exhibitions of contemporary art, representing 891 artists from 72 countries. The international jury that awarded the Prize was made up of ten authoritative critics of modern and contemporary art and curators of leading contemporary art museums from the US, Spain, UK, Austria, Italy, and Mexico.

Carter has previously won several important international competitions, including the UNESCO award to create the American Peace Monument in Ravenna, Italy. In Florence, Carter presented three artworks of polychrome cast stone relief and glass mosaic: The Observer, Green Life Disc, and Pegasus.

Dr. John Spike, Director of the Biennale, said of Mr. Carter: “He could have been a physicist or astronomer. But he wishes to use the metaphor of art to deal with the issues of biosphere degradation and the future of life. His exhibit is like a scientific demonstration.”

Tomorrow is the second Friday of the month, which means that it is time for the Bethesda Art Walk. Several galleries and art establishments participate, light food and refreshments are provided, as well as a free shuttle bus to take visitors around the galleries.

More good stuff from Annie Adjchavanich...

For the last year, Trevor Young sent more than 500 embellished envelopes with images of urban landscapes, portraits, cartoons, all autobiographical over the course of a year to Annie Adjchavanich.

They will be on exhibition January 8 - 31, 2004 at Flashpoint in a show titled "Trevor Young has gone postal" which is Flashpoint's second gallery show. Trevor also scanned them before sending them and thus discovered that a couple of dozen envelopes are missing and were never received by Annie (and may be framed and adorning some postal employees homes?). Those images will be printed out and put in a "missing in action" section. The opening reception for the artist is tonite, Thursday, January 8, from 6 - 8pm.

The annual WPA/C Art Auction is online. The exhibition, which raises funds for the WPA/C, will open with a preview celebration on Thursday, January 22, 2004, at the Corcoran. This event, which is free of charge, allows guests to take an advance look at the artwork available, meet the artists, and hear the curators discuss their selections. The auction actually takes place on Saturday, January 31, 2004. See the details here.

This is a "curated" auction and the artwork then is contributed by area artists (although this year there are some very nice pieces from some very well known non Washington artists as well, such as Spencer Tunick and former porn star turned into a damned good artist Annie Sprinkle) who have been pre-selected by the curators, which this year are: Chan Chao, 2002 Whitney Biennial artist and Adjunct Professor of Photography at the Corcoran College of Art & Design (who also donated a piece); Andy Grundberg, Administrative Chair of Photography at the Corcoran College of Art & Design; Paul Roth, Associate Curator of Photography and Media Arts at the Corcoran Gallery of Art; Virginia Shore, Chief Curator of the Art in Embassies Program at the US Department of State; and Grady T. Turner, independent curator and critic.

A bit Corcoran-heavy in the curating department, but all for an excellent cause, as the WPA/C and its tireless leader, Annie Adjchavanich, is one of the cultural jewels of this area.

Some of the better known artists in this year's list are: Richard Misrach, Spencer Tunick, and William Christenberry. Some of the locals invited to donate a piece include: Graham Caldwell, Andres Tremols, Trawick Prize finalist James Huckenpahler, Judy Jashinsky, and Colby Caldwell.

My favorite piece in the auction is this very funny and sexy photo by Lucien Perkins.

In today's "Galleries" column Jessica Dawson destroys a couple of local shows, including one of the McLean Project for the Arts' shows that I briefly mentioned yesterday.

And some local shows that you may not hear about and which may be interesting not only for the art, but also because they are in venues usually out of the mainstream:

At Goodwin House West's Gallery West in Falls Church, which is managed by Allison Miner, herself a pretty good artist, Ira Tattleman has a solo show titled "Ruminations: Photography Rethought, Regrouped, and Imagined" and runs from January 15- March 1, 2004, with an Opening Reception: Thursday, January 15 from 7 - 9pm.

And Miriam Martinez Zapata has a solo titled Zapata's Portraits at Kramer's & Afterwords Café in the heart of the Dupont Circle area. Opening on Tuesday, February 17th, 2004 From 6:30-8:30pm. Light refreshments will be served and drinks will be at happy hour rates. The show will be up from February 9th-March 7th, 2004. Half of all personal profits will go to Mercy Corps which is providing immediate relief efforts to help the 100,000 people left homeless by the earthquake that hit southeastern Iran on December 26.

See more work by Miriam here.

McLean Project of the Arts has three interesting exhibitions that can be caught all at once in that very nice Virginia non-profit space. They are all there until Jan. 17.

First is the MPA/Corcoran Student Show at the Ramp Gallery and it features many of Barbara Januszkiewicz's students. Barbara is a one-woman tornado - she's an exceptional artist, a terrific teacher, an award winning television producer of an arts program and a key arts activist in our area.

At the Emerson Gallery they have "Plastic Memory," feauturing work by Greg Carbo, Susan Crowder, Craig Pleasants, Lynn Schmidt, Jeff Spaulding, M. Jordan Tierney and Rex Weil.

Weil is the person who often reviews DC shows for ArtNews magazine, although generally he seems to only review museums, while I've noticed that Louis Jacobson (who also reviews for the City Paper) does galleries. Weil is also an Adjunct Professor at the Corcoran School of Art where he has taught painting and theory.

At the Atrium Gallery is "Holding Places" by Marie Ringwald.