Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Bethesda Painting Awards


Thanks to the generosity of Bethesda area businesswoman and arts activist Carol Trawick, and the sponsorship of the Bethesda Urban Partnership, our Fraser Gallery of Bethesda presents an exhibition of the eight finalists of the first annual Bethesda Painting Awards.

Opening on Thursday, June 8 through July 6, 2005, the exhibition features works by eight finalists selected by the three independent jurors.

On opening night (Friday, June 10) the jurors will announce a $14,000 Best of Show prize, a $2,000 Second Prize, a $1,000 Third Prize and a $1,000 Young Artist Award.

The competition was juried by Churchill Davenport, Professor of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA); Chawky Frenn, an accomplished painter (represented by us) and Assistant Professor of Painting at George Mason University and Dr. Claudia Rousseau, a contemporary art critic and Professor of Art History at the School of Art & Design at Montgomery College. More information on the jurors is online here.

The eight finalists are: John Aquilino, Rockville, MD, David R. Daniels, Silver Spring, MD, Inga McCaslin Frick, Washington, D.C., Joe Kabriel, Annapolis, MD, Catherine Lees, Baltimore, MD, Sue Ousterhout, Chevy Chase, MD, Dominique Samyn-Werbrouck, Alexandria, VA, and Andrew Wodzianski, Washington, D.C. (represented by us). More information on the finalists is online here.

An opening reception, free and open to the public, will be held on Friday, June 10 from 6-9PM as part of the Bethesda Art Walk.

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Bailey Strikes Again

Bailey, the Quran (Koran), Art, and Hypocrisy on World Net Daily.

Read it here.

Tuesday Arts Agenda

DCist's Tuesday Arts Agenda is out.

Read it here.

Secrets in the New York Times

Another opportunity for all of those who dissed Art-O-Matic to eat crow.

Today's NYT has a piece by Sarah Boxer mostly focused on Frank Warren's PostSecret project, which made its first debut at the last AOM, then here with people's Top 10 lists, then at the Anne C. Fisher Gallery in G'town as part of Anne's Top 10 AOM list, and so on...

One of the best ways to prove negativity-driven mouthpieces wrong (just one of many ways), is success.

Congrats to Warren, and I know that this is not the last that we've heard of his project.

Congratulations


Olga Viso

To Olga Viso, the Hirshhorn's new director.

Read the news release here.

Es un gran honor para Olga y para nosotros...

Monday, May 30, 2005

BLOGer in the News

ANABA's Martin Bromirski is in the news. Read it here.

Gopnik on Portraits

Blake Gopnik comes across with a really excellent piece on portraiture. Read it here.

On June 1, the National Portrait Gallery is launching its first nationwide portrait competition, borrowing an idea from its British counterpart. Photography isn't being allowed in. But even if some truly interesting painting or sculpture emerges when the winners are announced next year, it's hard to see how it could touch the hermetic world of official portraiture. Unless a picture looks a fair bit like the portraiture that's come before, it doesn't fill the peculiar social and political roles its patrons have in mind for it.