New DC Art Site

Tracy Lee, a superb photographer whose photos are simply too sensual for any DC art gallery to handle (so far), and who is now in the middle of an MFA program at GWU, has a new (to me) and really interesting online journal.

Visit it often; great insight on the mind of a creative photographer struggling to keep her identity through a seminal academic photography program.

I say that Tracy's work is too sensual for any DC gallery to handle simply because of the fact that her work has (so far) explored the sensuality of the nude figure, and we all know what kind of reception nudes get around here (read this and also this).

Artnet Reviews 2005

Walter Robinson has an excellent, sexy review of the 2004 art year at Artnet.com.

Opportunities for Artists

Deadline: January 28, 2005
Bethesda Fine Arts Festival

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is currently accepting applications for the 2005 Bethesda Fine Arts Festival. The event is scheduled for Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, May 15, 2005. The deadline for submissions is January 28, 2005. 150 artists will be invited to exhibit, and last year around 40,000 people attented the inaugural festival, and more are expected this year. This is an excellent opportunity for artists to bring their artwork directly to the public (I did this show last year and plan to do it again). Only original artwork, photography, fine crafts, sculpture and hand-made furniture allowed. $2,500 in cash awards, and breakfast and lunch is provided for exhibiting artists. Download the application form here or call 301/718-9651 or send a SASE to:
Bethesda Fine Arts Festival
c/o Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814

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Deadline: February 3, 2005
Louisiana Watercolor Society 35th International Show.

A juried exhibition of original waterbased media on paper is open to water media artists. Paintings must be unvarnished and executed in the last three years. Up to five slides can be entered. The first three are $14/per slide. Download or send a SASE for a prospectus. Slides must be postmarked by February 3 or hand delivered by February 7, 2005.
Louisiana Watercolor Society
P.O. Box 850287
New Orleans, LA 70185-0287

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Deadline: February 3, 2005
Fourth Annual Bethesda International Photography Prize

Exhibition dates: March 11 - 6 April, 2005. Open to all photographers 18 years and older. All photography not previously exhibited at the Fraser Gallery. The maximum dimension (including frame) should not exceed 40 inches in any direction. Iris or Giclee entries are acceptable. All work must be presented professionally to conservation standards. Juried by Connie Imboden. $950 in cash awards, plus Best of Show winner will receive a solo show in 2005. First, Second and Third Prize winners and the three Honorable Mention winners will be invited to exhibit in one of the the gallery's various group shows in 2005. An entry fee of $25 U.S. Dollars entitles the artist to submit three slides. For the prospectus, visit the website, or call 301/718-9651 or send a SASE to:
Bethesda International Photography
Fraser Gallery
7700 Wisconsin Avenue
Suite E
Bethesda, MD 20814

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Deadline: February 4, 2005
15th Annual Faces of Woman Show

March 4-April 1, 2005. Faces of Woman 15th Annual National Juried Art Show. All art media. Original works exploring some aspect of the feminine symbolic or representational form, completed within the last two years. $1,000 in cash prizes of awarded. Open to all amateur and professional artists. Entries (slides) due by February 4, 2005. For registration form and info send legal SASE to:
Las Vegas Arts Council
Box 2603
Las Vegas NM 87701
Phone: 505.425.1085

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Deadline: February 25, 2005
16th National Drawing & Print Competitive Exhibition

Gormley Gallery/College of Notre Dame of Maryland 16th National Drawing & Print Competitive Exhibition. A minimum of $1500 available in purchase prize money. Drawings and prints (not photography) in any medium are eligible. A non-refundable entry fee of $30 entitles the artist to submit up to three slide entries. Slide entries and fee due February 25. For prospectus visit their website or SASE to:
National Drawing and Print Competitive Exhibition
Attn: Geoff Delanoy
College of Notre Dame of Maryland
4701 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21210
Contact: gormleygallery@ndm.edu

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Deadline: February 12, 2005
2005 Alexander Rutsch Award and Exhibition For Painting

For US based artists 19 years of age or older. All work submitted to competition must be available for exhibit May 6-June 19, 2005. Entry fee is $20 and all accepted work must be ready to hang. The prize winner will be awarded a solo exhibition and a cash award of $5,000. For more information, call (914) 738-2525, email, or visit the website.

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Deadline: February 25, 2005
Bethesda Artists Market
The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is currently accepting applications for the June 12 and July 10, 2005 Bethesda Artist Markets. I usually exhibit at this venue, which has been getting more and more visitors each time it is held. The spaces are juried by slides and there's no entry fee and a $50 booth fee for accepted artists. The artists markets are held about six Sundays a year. Download the application here or send a SASE to:
Bethesda Artists Market
c/o Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814

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Deadline: March 11, 2005
Bethesda Painting Awards

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced the inaugural Bethesda Painting Awards, a juried competition honoring four selected painters with $14,000 in prize monies. Up to eight finalists will be invited to display their work from June 10 – July 6, 2005 in downtown Bethesda at the Fraser Gallery. The 1st place winner will be awarded $10,000; 2nd place will be honored with $2,000 and 3rd place will be awarded $1,000. A "young" artist whose birth date is after March 11, 2005 will also be awarded $1,000. Artists must be 18 years of age or older and residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. All original 2-D painting including oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, encaustic and mixed media will be accepted. The maximum dimension should not exceed 60 inches in width. No reproductions. Artwork must have been completed within the last two years and must be available for the duration of the exhibition. Selected artists must deliver or ship artwork to exhibit site in Bethesda, Maryland. Each artist must submit five slides, application and a non-refundable entry fee of $25. The Bethesda Painting Awards has been established by local business owner Carol Trawick. To download a complete submission form, please visit this website or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:
Bethesda Painting Awards
c/o Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814

The Power of the Web

A while back, Thinking About Art was rightfully so ranting about artists not responding to his online project and how some artists and a lot of dealers do not understand the power and importance of having a web presence.

I agree with J.T., and every once in while I try to point out just what the Internet can help to accomplish in the business of art business and establishing a foot print as an artist.

An immediate and personal example is through my current exhibition in Georgetown. In the last couple of weeks, of the 20 or so drawings in the exhibition and others, 9 drawings (and two prints) have so far sold. Of those sales, six have been through the Internet, and four drawings are heading to Ireland!

Update: AJ brings to light a a study by PEW/Internet that adds evidence to the importance of the web for artists.

2004 Gallery Report

This past weekend we met with our accountant to review 2004 and the galleries' business.

Two years ago, Sotheby's decided, without much warning, to end its online art business. We were one of only two or three DC area galleries who were Sothebys Associates, and very quickly Sotheby's became our largest sales process, accounting for well over 60% of our art sales for three or four years in a row.

Then they decided a couple of years ago to end their online business (don't even get me started on how Sotheby's screwed this all up) and we held our breath!

Somehow we recovered, and I am happy to report that 2004 was our best year ever!

In 2004, with the exception of Sandra Ramos, whose Georgetown show sold out, and Aimee Garcia Marrero, whose Georgetown show sold quite well, the vast majority of our business took place in the Bethesda gallery and about a third of the business was strictly an online affair.

In 2004 we had three reviews in the Washington Post, two reviews in the Washington Times, six reviews in the Washington City Paper, three reviews in the Gazette, two reviews in the Georgetowner and six reviews in other national and international magazines and newspapers.

It is clear to me that our area's visual art scene is growing in leap and bounds, and even the business of art seems to be growing. Any other area gallerist who'd like to share some words as how 2004 was for them, is welcomed to email me and I'll publish it here.

2005 opens on January 14 in our Bethesda gallery and on January 21 at our Georgetown gallery with two group shows of the best of Art-O-Matic 2004 from our perspective.

See ya there!

Dan Flavin, minimalism, store-bought art materials, flourescent light bulbs, the seduction of money, provenances, and the Dark Side of Success (thanks Jesse).

"One factor in valuing a Flavin, however, dwarfs all others: the certificate that accompanied its production. To those who wonder what the difference is between a Flavin and the lights in their office, the certificate, more or less, is the answer.

Each of the more than 750 light sculptures that Flavin designed - usually in editions of three or five - were listed on index cards and filed away. When one sold, the buyer received a certificate containing a diagram of the work, its title and the artist's signature and stamp. If someone showed up with a certificate and a damaged fixture, Flavin would replace it. But without a certificate, the owner was out of luck. Today, Christie's won't even consider a Flavin sculpture unless it's accompanied by an original document."

Read Greg Allen's whole article here.

Update: Todd Gibson points out that Allen followed up the NYT article in his BLOG with excerpts from two additional interviews (curator and collector Emily Rauh Pulitzer and son Stephen Flavin, who now controls the Flavin Estate) that took place after the Allen article went to press.

Final Art-O-Matic Top 10 Artists List

Happy 2005!

As most of you know, during the recent Artomatic exhibition, I received quite a few lists by artists, gallery owners, curators and art critics.

These lists detailed their "picks" as the most notable artists (in their view) of DC's giant Artlovefest. Since the lists came out, six area galleries have already scheduled exhibitions (and some of them already on exhibit), and there are more coming in 2005, for many more Artomatic artists based in part from these lists.

I had also promised to gather a list of the top 10 Artomatic artists who appeared the most in all the lists submitted to me. I recorded all the artists, and the number of times that his or her name appeared on the lists.

Provided that the logistics are worked out, these artists in the final list will be invited to exhibit their work by a gallery in Canada.

The lists were sent in by:

JS Adams
James W. Bailey
Marilyn Banner
Philip Barlow
F. Lennox Campello
Kriston Capps
Jesse Cohen
Jean Lawlor Cohen
Leigh Conner
Sarah Finlay & Patrick Murcia
Anne C. Fisher
Faith Flanagan
Catriona Fraser
Rob Goodspeed
Pat Goslee
Elyse Harrison
Kristen Hileman
Matt Hollis
Milena Kalinovska
Nevin Kelly
J.T. Kirkland
Angela Kleis
Natalie Koss
Anne Marchand
Adrianne Mills
Michael O'Sullivan
Fred Ognibene
Donna Robusto
Claudia Rousseau
Tim Tate
Krystyna Wasserman

And here is the final Top 10ish List (in order of number of appearances in the above lists).

1. Linda Hesh
2. Kelly Towles
3. Kathryn Cornelius
4. Chris Edmunds
5. Tim Tate
6. Thomas Edwards
7. Syl Mathis
8-10. Dylan Scholinski
Ira Tattelman
Joyce Zipperer
Allison B. Miner
Amy Martin Wilber

Some clarifications: Hesh and Towles had the same number of mentions by the list-makers, and were the top two most mentioned artists.

Cornelius and Edmunds, coming in second, also shared an equal number of lists between them.

Third most mentioned were Tate, Edwards and Mathis and they also had equal appearances.

Scholinski, Tattelman, Zipperer, Miner and Wilber round up the top set of artists, and they also had equal appearances as the most often listed artists.

Congratulations!

These artists should immediately contact Richard Dana, who will bring them up to speed on the Canadian exhibition. As soon as that deal is finalized, I will announce the details here.