Art & Antiques Magazine has an update on Sandra Ramos and her visa denial to attend her current U.S. solo gallery debut at our Georgetown gallery.

City Arts Projects

Deadline: May 27, 2004.

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) City Arts Projects offers funds to encourage the growth of quality arts activities throughout the city, support local artists, and make arts experiences accessible to DC residents.

Projects must provide exposure to the arts and arts experiences to the broader community or to persons traditionally underserved or separated from the cultural mainstream due to geographic location, economic constraints, or disability.

Eligible projects include, but are not limited to: festivals, concerts, visual arts exhibitions, literary readings, and salary support to enhance cultural diversity among the staffs of arts organizations in DC.

Eligible applicants include arts and community organizations that have their principal place of business in DC and have both Federal (IRS) and DC tax exemptions for at least one year prior to the deadline date.

The deadline for applications is May 27, 2004. Grants between $1,000-$15,000 are available. Funds must be matched dollar for dollar. For further information, contact DCCAH at (202) 724-5613; or go to this website.

Pilfered from ArtsJournal: A Chicago art dealer has been charged with attempting to sell fake Picassos in Milwaukee.

I don't know of any DC area art dealer selling fake Picassos, but there are many, many "galleries" that do have a Picasso scam going on - not just in our area, but since many of these "galleries" are actually chain or franchise stores passing as art galleries, the scam goes on all over the country.

You know the type of "gallery" that I am talking about: They sell a lot of "pretty" decorative art, loads of gyclees on canvas by mass production, decorative artists with European-sounding names and "art" by famous people who are not artists or art by Hollywood actors. You can find these "galleries" in expensive rent areas (where a reputable gallery couldn't afford a space) such as M Street in Georgetown, most of La Jolla in California, in malls, and around Bethesda.

The scam is probably not illegal, but it is certainly unethical.

Here's how it works:

Many of Picasso's etching plates are apparently owned by some of his children, and they continue to use the plates to print their father's work ad nauseum. Then, the Picasso offspring sign the work with their last name, which conveniently is also "Picasso."

The sales pitch for the print then describes it as "this is a Picasso etching made from the original plate and it is signed."

They never (unless one asks) tell you that the Picasso signature that you see on the piece is NOT Pablo Picasso's signature but a Picasso son or daughter's signature (which of course now looks a lot like their father's)

So hapless buyers think that they are buying a print signed by the world's greatest artist, when in fact they are acquiring a print from his plate, but signed by one of his children.

Not illegal perhaps - but unethical.

Blake Gopnik finds a weakness in the new WWII Memorial.

I am posting from the Bethesda gallery, where I am observing galleryphobia in full action. There must be three dozen people in the plaza waiting to be called to the Original Pancake House, and nearly all of them are floating back and forth around the gallery's glass walls, peeking in and trying to see Tim Tate's extraordinary show - and yet not one brave soul dares to come in, although I have the gallery's front doors propped open and thus wasting precious air conditioning.

I am here on Sunday (rather than at home mowing my lawn amid the cicada invasion), because I am waiting for a Canadian film maker who is coming to do some filming as he's working on a documentary for Canadian television on the life of legendary photographer Lida Moser, who lives in retirement in Rockville and whose work we represent.

We are in the exhausting process of cataloguing all of Lida's remaining vintage photographs, some of which date back to the 1930s.

Well, it's official!

The Sandra Ramos debut show in Georgetown is now officially our best opening sales show.

We're also working on three different museum sales.

Last night it was also good to see Dr. Jonathan Binstock, the Curator of Contemporary Art for the Corcoran, visiting the various new shows in the four Canal Square galleries. A couple of weeks ago I also ran into Binstock at the Margaret Boozer opening at Strand on Volta gallery. It is refreshing to see a local museum curator taking an interest in our area artists and galleries!

When it rains it pours... after a couple of very rough months, suddenly art sales have exploded for us.

In Bethesda, Tim Tate is selling like wildfire, and most of his new glass sculptures are already gone. There will be a Washington City Paper review of the show next Thursday.

In Georgetown, the U.S. debut of Cuban artist Sandra Ramos, which opens tonight, has already sold most major pieces just from the website. There will be soon a Washington City Paper review of that show as well.