BLOGger Tyler Green writes about DC artist Ian Whitmore on artnet.com. Its near the lower part of the page.

Whitmore is one of my favorite painters too. He came to my attention a while back when I reviewed him for DC One Magazine. It was the Strictly Painting show at McLean Center for the Arts.

He is now represented by Fusebox Gallery.

Jessica Dawson visits six spaces in today's Galleries column in the Post.

I like this mini-review approach that the Post has implemented in the last couple of years or so. In fact, a few years ago - before Dawson replaced Protzman as the Post's galleries' critic - I had suggested this mini-format directly to John Pancake (the Post's Arts editor) as a way to "spread the wealth" of the Post's very small print space dedicated to gallery reviews.

This is hard work on Dawson, who has to visit a lot of galleries, all over the city, just to produce one column. Too bad that the Post's online art pages, which used to run its own set of gallery reviews independent of the print section when John Poole used to be its Arts Editor, no longer does so.

This is puzzling to me, as at one point, when Poole was the Online Arts Editor, he had several additional writers (including Dawson) "augment" the print version of galleries and museum reviews with several freelance writers.

When Poole moved up the food chain and was promoted, his job was left vacant for a while, and when the Arts Editor job was finally filled a year later or so, whatever funds were available to pay the freelancers had probably been snatched by another department or cut, and thus the current Online Arts editor (Maura McCarthy) no longer has the luxury of augmenting the Post's meager gallery criticism with additional online writers.

LEXMARK EUROPEAN ART PRIZE 2004
Deadline: 31st March, 2004

The Lexmark European Art Prize is open to all artists of all painting genres. Launched in 2002, the Lexmark received over 2,000 entries from 33 countries in its first year. Designed to support the renaissance in painting, the Lexmarkis judged by an eight person panel of judges from across Europe chaired by Professor Brendan Neiland, Keeper of the Royal Academy.

The competition extends Lexmark's significant investment in the arts which
includes the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the French Réunion des Musées
Nationaux and Lexmark's Art Education Program which introduced fine art to over 600 schools in the US

Entries are accepted until March 31st 2004. Visit the website here.

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WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR COMPETITION
Deadline: Friday, 2 April 2004.

The aims of this competition are to find the best wildlife pictures taken by photographers worldwide, and to inspire photographers to produce visionary and expressive interpretations of nature. The judges will be looking first and foremost for aesthetic appeal and originality, and will also be placing an emphasis on photographs taken in wild and free conditions. With digital images now being accepted, the competition judges will also be looking for images that are a true representation of life on Earth. For the first time, the competition will be accepting digital images submitted on CD.

The competition is open to anyone, amateur or professional, of any age and of
any nationality. Full details and entry forms are available here

For Photographers Looking for Gallery Representation
Multiple Exposures Gallery is looking for a new photographer to join its unique cooperative. The gallery, located at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia, and represents fourteen award-winning photographers from the Washington area. For more information call 703-683-2205. Applications with portfolios are due April 25th, 2004.

FOR WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS
The next Secondsight meeting will be held on Friday, March 26 at 6.30pm. The guest speaker will be Ferdinand Protzman, former art critic for the Washington Post and author of Landscape; Photographs of Time and Place, a beautiful new book that investigates the ongoing evolution of landscape photography.

If you would like to reserve your signed, first edition copy, please call 301 718-9651. The book costs $50. Secondsight is an organization dedicated to the advancement of women photographers through support, communication and sharing of ideas and opportunities. For more information, visit www.secondsightdc.com.

Looks like both the Washington Post and Art & Antiques Magazine are picking up the Sandra Ramos visa denial story and will be publishing articles on the subject soon.

Art & Antiques had previously done a story on Cuban art, American art collectors and mentioned Sandra Ramos' works specifically.

Photoworks in Glen Echo Park has an upcoming series of "Digital Dialogue Evenings." . The first is with Jim Steele at the Photoworks Studio on Thursday, April 8 at 7:30 pm for the first in this series of conversations that will explore the realm of digital in the art of photography. Below is other scheduled speakers and dates.

"Digital Dialogues: Photographers Discuss Why Digital for their Art?"

Thursday Evenings, 7:30 - 8:30 pm at Photoworks Studio
April 8, Jim Steele
April 15, Eliot Cohen
April 22, Judy Karpinski and Patty Lake
April 29, Grace Taylor
May 6, Craig Sterling
May 13, Danny Conant

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Capitol Arts Network presents "The Human Figure" curated by Eric Westbrook. The show runs from April 9 - May 5, 2004 at The Washington School of Photography.

Not having seen the show yet, and at the risk of being very unfair to all the other accepted photographers, I nonetheless will tell you that this talented photographer, who seldom exhibits in the DC area (and should exhibit more) will probably steal the show.

I'll review this show later.