Glenn Dixon has several mini reviews in today's Post, including one of "Baltimore's Betsy, the Finger-Painting Chimp: A Retrospective of Her Work" at the American Dime Museum.

From New Orleans, photographer James W. Bailey sends me this great link detailing the true story of an artist and a curator and an exhibition cancelled at the last minute.

Read "Why The Exhibit Was Cancelled."

In what I think is one of the most original ideas that I have been aware of in many years, Linda Hesh, whose work eloquently discusses questions of race, ethnicity and gender issues, takes her artwork to a new public level with the "Art Ads" project.

Her pieces start with a photograph of a friend, or couple, taken at a commercial portrait studio, which gives the work a common, commercial look. She then adds a statement underneath the image, or digitally changes the image itself. Hesh’s work has been shown nationally and is in the collection of the Library of Congress. More work can be seen here.

In "Art Ads", Hesh now takes her work to a new national public level and anyone can be part of it and help deliver its important message. To find out how, visit this website.

Today is the 3rd Thursday of the month, so tonight you can go and visit the 7th street corridor art galleries and art venues as part of the 3rd Thursday Gallery late hours.

Also tonight, the The Art Museum of the Americas of the Organization of American States has its inaugural exhibition of the season with an opening reception from 6-8 PM for a group show titled "Artists of the Americas." The exhibit runs until January 16, 2005.

And tomorrow is Georgetown's turn for gallery openings.

I just found out that there's a new gallery in Georgetown's Canal Square and thus we have a new neighbor and now five galleries in the Square.

The Anne C. Fisher Gallery moved from Wisconsin Avenue and its Canal Square inaugural show will be work by Beth Cartland in an exhibition titled "Moving Forward - Looking Back."

The opening reception will be from 6-8 pm on Friday, September 17th as part of the Georgetown Third Friday openings and there will be an artists' talk and reception on Sunday, October 3 at 2 pm.

In addition there will be a workshop: "Cycles of Your Life: An Exploration through Art and Movement" on Sunday, September 26th from 1-3:30 pm. Call the Gallery for registration and information at 202/625.7550.

Welcome to the neighborhood!

When one can't fight the system, then one tries to take over the system.

The well-known and documented dislike of contempory painting by most museum curators and mainstream media art critics infects all levels of the art world.

In Canada, when the first biennial $50,000 Sobey Art Award was announced two years ago, not one of the five finalists were painters, and the 2004 finalists only included the silly doodles of Marcel Dzama.

So what did the Canadians do?

They established the Plaskett Foundation Award, one of the largest visual-arts awards in Canada, with a purse of $25,000 and open only to painters!

We need something like that around here.

Call for Artists - Homage to Frida Kahlo

Deadline: The active dates for submitting artwork to this exhibition are September 15, 2004 through January 31, 2005.

As discussed earlier, Art.com has a call for artists in an Homage to Frida Kahlo curated by yours truly with the sponsorship of the Mexican Cultural Institute.

All entries will be done online. There is no fee for artists and the following prizes will be awarded:

1st Prize: Airfare, hotel and expenses for 3-day/3-night trip for two to the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City , Mexico. (Total package valued up to $2,500.)

2nd Prize: $1,000

3rd Prize: $150 towards a Print on Demand order through Art.com Original Art & Photography

To enter, visit the website here.