More often than not, most conceptual art, and nearly all video art, has a problem with the fact that often the idea behind it all is more interesting than the real or "delivered" art.

There seems to be a new sort of conceptual "art" out there developing among the popular mass of reality in places such as Ebay.

In projects such as this one, the mass participation, and concept behind the project is as interesting as anything that one sees in a highbrow museum.

Thanks to Martin Allen for bringing it to my attention.

Washington's first Art BLOGger, Tyler Green, looks at Jim Dine at the NGA and makes a good point about the NGA being a "living-artist-adverse institution," although his logic on Dine is a bit thin, as I don't think that Dine is a "safe, serviceable artist" but in fact one of the most boring artists to have put graphite or charcoal to paper.

The Post's Paul Richard had earlier reviewed this show and had some different conclusions.

If you're going to pretend to be knowledgeable about DC art galleries and the DC art scene, then you have to get out and go to galleries - not to their websites and not to museum lectures - but to galleries and museums and lectures and artists' studios and university shows, etc.

It takes a lot of time, and a lot of gasoline, and a lot of patience. But then, and only then, can one honestly say that one can write about a city's art scene.

Tonite I went to a well-attended opening at Strand on Volta Gallery in Georgetown, where I saw an excellent and really groundbreaking show by one of our key area artists, Margaret Boozer.

Boozer is one of those area artists whose work immediately grabs you with the thought: "WOW! Just when I thought there was nothing new left in art."

More on that later, as I plan to review her show...

The opening was quite good and well-attended, with many DC area artists in attendance as well as the Post's Chief Art Critic and his lovely wife (my kudos to Blake and we hope to see him at more gallery openings and we hope that his editor (John Pancake) makes him write more about DC area art galleries and terrific DC area artists like Margaret Boozer, so that they can have a chance to go from "DC area artist" to just "American artist" at a national level. Gopnik and Pancake can do it via the Post - but they (and it) have to align to make it happen.

Also present was Dr. Jonathan Binstock, the Corcoran's Curator for Contemporary Art... it's good to see Binstock visiting local galleries and seeing what we're showing... he's a great breath of fresh-air over his predecesor. Binstock wrote his thesis on the art of DC's best-known painter, Sam Gilliam, and hopefully the Corcoran will soon announce when Gilliam's well-deserved and first-ever perspective is held there.

Just had to post this, sent to me by British artist and DCARTNEWS reader Martin Allen

Trawick Prize for Area Artists...

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards. Deadline for slide submission is Friday, May 21, 2004. The 2nd annual juried art competition awards $14,000 in prize monies to four selected artists. Up to fifteen artists will be invited to display their work from September 7, 2004 - October 2, 2004 in downtown Bethesda at Creative Partners Gallery. The 2004 competition will be juried by Jeffrey W. Allison, The Paul Mellon Collection Educator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Peter Dubeau, Associate Dean of Continuing Studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The first place winner will be awarded $10,000; second place will be honored with $2,000 and third place will be awarded $1,000. A "young" artist whose birth date is after May 21, 1974 will also be awarded $1,000 (donated by Fraser Gallery). Artists must be 18 years of age or older and residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. Original painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, fiber art, digital, mixed media and video (VHS tapes only) are accepted. For more information, please contact Stephanie Coppula at scoppula@bethesda.org or call 301.215.6660 ext. 20. Website: www.bethesda.org.

Need to make slides from your digital files? Visit Slides.com

Cultural Development Corporation is currently accepting applications to the Flashpoint arts incubator for residency beginning between June 2004 and January 2005. First priority will be given to applications received by May 14, 2004.

FLASHPOINT RESIDENCY

Flashpoint is an arts incubator designed to assist small, emerging organizations and businesses develop the administrative infrastructure and financial capacity necessary to transition to more permanent facilities. Resident organizations housed at Flashpoint have access to state-of-the-art facilities and greater visibility in downtown. In addition, the residency program encourages professionalism among emerging artists and arts administrators. Residents grow their businesses in a collaborative office space with access to shared office equipment and administrative services.

Flashpoint’s resident organizations have access to technical assistance in key management areas such as administration, fundraising, finance, marketing, and board development. In addition, resident organizations have priority access to onsite rental venues, including a 900 square foot contemporary art gallery, a flexible 80-seat theatre lab, and a dance/rehearsal studio.

Application is available at www.flashpointdc.org.

Please submit completed applications to:
Flashpoint Residency Program
Attn: Julianne Brienza
Cultural Development Corporation
916 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001

For those of you who think there's nothing interesting currently being offered by Washington area galleries my only piece of advice is to get out and actually go visit some galleries.

In Canal Square, Parish Gallery has an excellent sculpture exhibition (runs until May 18) of Argentine sculptor Miguel Van Esso.

Parish next door neighbor to its left is MOCA, and Clark has mounted an interesting exhibit of early work by David Lynch, perhaps the Corcoran's most famous graduate.

Parish next door neighbor to its right is us (The Fraser Gallery) and we also have a very interesting sculpture exhibition by one of our area's most innovative young sculptors, Adam Bradley, whose work we've been showing since he was an undergraduate student at GMU (where he now teaches). Bradley works with found objects, and there's one particularly amazing piece in this show titled "Please" made completely out of discarded objects.

The life-size sculpture has open arms that beckon you for a hug. As you hug the sculpture, two levers on the back control her arms, which pull you in a tight grip and impale you on a host of knives, sharp objects and files which emerge from her stomach.

A couple of blocks up M street is Hemphill Fine Arts where George has another very interesting show: "Vote" - a show of Presidential Campaign photographs featuring work by Abbas, Bob Adelman, Eve Arnold, Cornell Capa, Raymond Depardon, Burt Glinn, Erich Hartmann, Hiroji Kubota, Constantine Manos, Wayne Miller and Alex Webb and also "The Hole Shebang" - with Eduardo Del Valle and Mirta Gomez's works on the subject of the Florida Ballots from the 2000 Presidential Election.