J.T. Kirkland, over at "Thinking About Art," has a very valid point about Glenn Dixon's first ever "Galleries" column review of Alison Clay at Numark Gallery.

J.T. writes:

"Is it too much to ask for an opinion? Sure, he's working with tight space constraints, but couldn't he say "I liked it" or "it works"? In all honesty, didn't he just re-word the press release? Wouldn't it be cheaper for the Washington Post to just print the press release of the show?"

And he's right! After reading his posting, I went back and re-read Dixon's review and Kirkland nailed him with one of (our shared) pet peeves: the "review" that describes a show rather than offering a critical opinion.

Somewhat surprising coming from Dixon, who is (in my experience) one of the most opinionated and one-sided critical writers in our area. Perhaps it is the seminal signs of the "Washingtonpostizing" of his work as opposed to the more aggressive style of writing usually employed by WCP writers.

Kirkland's own and earlier review of the same show can be read here.

Dr. Jonathan Binstock tells me that the artists for the 48th Corcoran Biennial have been selected by him and Associate Curator for Contemporary Art Stacey Schmidt.

The list will be announced soon.

But I already know that the list includes area artist and Corcoran alumni James Huckenpahler.

Huckenpahler is represented locally by Fusebox Gallery and was the Second Prize winner for last year's Trawick Prize. He is a former faculty member of the Corcoran College of Art and Design, and a former member of the Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran Advisory Board.

Huckenpahler, trained as a painter, now works primarily on a laptop. Congratulations to Huckenpahler and well deserved!

Former Washington City Paper Arts Editor (and then their former art critic), Glenn Dixon made his Washington Post Galleries column critic debut today.

Dixon reviews the National Academy of Sciences and Numark Gallery in his first column.

Elsewhere in the Post, in Arts Beat, Jonathan Padget profiles photographer Joan Marcus.

Want to have your artwork (or nearly any image for that matter) on a U.S. Postal stamp?

Photo Stamps allows anyone (within certain constraints) to make up and put nearly any image into an official United States stamp! I can already imagine the explosion of artwork that we will begin to see soon adorning and paying for snail mail letters as this service develops and catches on.

This will be hell for stamp collectors to keep up with!

And thanks to AJ for this related Wired article on the subject.

I can already visualize some exhibition somewhere in the future of artist-designed stamps.

Thanks to painter Pat Goslee, who emailed me this jewel of a link: Overheard at Art Shows.

A few years ago, I was at an opening for Catriona Fraser's photographs, which are B&W Infrared landscapes of Scotland, when I overheard a young man tell his date: "WOW! I didn't know everything in Scotland was black and white!"

John Blee, who is a very talented area painter, and gallerist-in-charge at Spectrum Gallery in Georgetown, as well as the galleries art critic for The Georgetowner has an exhibition of recent paintings opening this coming Friday the 13th at One World, located at 14th and S Street, NW in DC. Opening reception from 7-8:30 PM.

Art.com allows artists to post up to 16 images of their work and sell them at no cost or commission. Go here for more details.

They also have a Call for Artists for a Special "The Impact of War" Online Exhibition. It is being curated by D. Dominick Lombardi, who is an Art Critic for The New York Times. There is no cost to artists and the work can be for sale. Details here.