Airborne today and heading to La Florida to spend New Year's someplace sandy and warm... more later when I settle in...

And while I was gone, Alexandra Silverthorne had a few things to say about my current exhibition at Fraser Gallery Georgetown.

Read them here.

Barlow's Top Ten

Philip Barlow is easily one of DC's best known and more involved art collectors and an avid gallery goer who gets around to more galleries than many people who write about DC art and artists. Barlow advises that:

Below is my list of the top ten gallery shows from DC in 2005. This year seemed even more difficult than last year, I had an original list of about ten others shows. The list is in order.

Nepotista caveats: I am on the board of DCAC and I purchased work from some of these shows.

1. Barbara Probst “Exposures” – G Fine Art – (4/2/5 – 4/30/5)
2. Chip Richardson “Set” – Fusebox (11/5/5 – 12/17/5)
3. Linn Meyers “Current” – G Fine Art – (10/29/5 – 12/10/5)
4. Jiha Moon “symbioland” – Curator’s Office – (9/10/5 – 11/15/5)
5. Noelle Tan “Latent” – District of Columbia Arts Center – (4/8/5 – 5/15/5)
6. Andrea Way “New Works” – Marsha Mateyka Gallery – (2/19/5 – 3/26/5)
7. Teo Gonzales “Recent Work” – Irvine Contemporary – (4/22/5 – 5/28/5)
8. The Empire of Sighs – Numark Gallery – (9/16/5 – 10/29/5)
9. Mary Early “Sculpture” – Hemphill Fine Arts – (11/5/5 – 12/23/5)
10. Nooni Reatig “All Real, All Steel” – NNE Gallery – (4/28/5 – 6/15/5)

I also wanted to note a couple of photography exhibits that were great for letting us see some of the Washington art world's movers and shakers in their earlier years:

Mary Swift’s Washington: The Arts Scene, 1975 – 2000 – Flashpoint Gallery – (7/21/5 – 8/27/5)

Wrinkle Free – Viridian Restaurant – October 2005

Keep emailing me your Top Ten lists and I will publish them as time allows.

They're coming...


From yesterday's WaPo (and my posting a while back)

Fifty terrapin statues will soon appear on the streets of Washington and its suburbs in honor of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the University of Maryland.

The 100-pound turtles -- like the panda, elephant and donkey statues displayed on city streets in recent summers -- will be decorated by local artists and auctioned next fall. The money will go to student scholarships.

Let the ranting and raving begin!

Poconos

Lack of posting due to a quick get-a-way to the Poconos, and heading to Florida tomorrow for the New Year's!

More later before I leave and sporadic posting from Florida.

What Your End-of-the-Year Top 10 List(s) Says About You

If you include more than three shows by artists who are also bloggers... then you must be a blogger too!

If more than six of the shows on your list are museum shows, then you have been seduced by our great DC area museums and need to get around more often.

If three or more of the shows on your list are from the same gallery or museum, then you're not getting around as much as you should before making lists.

If three or more of the shows on your list are from the same commercial gallery, then you are a hidden nepotista or a nepotista wannabe.

If all ten of your shows are from the same three or four spaces, then you don't have a clue.

If your list includes more than one show from a library or restaurant, then you're definately getting around more than I do, or you have no idea where the galleries are.

If your list only includes shows that were within walking distance of a Metro stop, then you don't have a car.

If list list includes more than one show in Bethesda, Reston, Rockville, Alexandria or Arlington, then you live in one of those areas.

If your list includes more than three embassy gallery shows, then you're going there mostly for the good food.

If your list only includes photography shows, then you are Louis Jacobson (photography critic for the City Paper).

If your list is based on which shows has the best food, then you are a grub.

If your list has more than three video shows, then you must be a Hirshhorn Museum or Whitney Biennial curator.

If all the shows on your list are by non Hispanic white male artists... well, you know what you are.

If your list does not include a single DC area show, then we know who you are.

Merry Christmas & Feliz Navidad!

Christmas Art Wish List

1. For the WaPo to do as promised (I have the emails from the editors) and hire a second freelancer and return the Galleries column to its previous weekly format.

2. For most of our area's museum curators to realize that the Greater Washington, DC area is actually part of the United States of America, and for them to take a cab to a DC area art show or artist studio once in a while.

3. For the Corcoran to give Manon Cleary a retrospective.

4. For the Hirshhorn to give Joe Shannon a show.

5. For the Phillips Collection to give Lida Moser a retrospective.

6. For the WPA/C to find a permanent exhibition space somewhere in the city.

7. For Washingtonian magazine to add a regular gallery review column to its monthly format.

8. For one or two of our local TV stations to add one minute a week to their local news hour programs on the subject of area visual arts exhibitions.

9. For some of our area's huge corporations (AOL, Lockheed Martin, Giant Foods) to follow Carol Trawick's example.

10. For a lot of people to get their head out of their ass about the Christmas vs "Holiday Season" issue.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and everything else that says I wish all of you and yours a terrific good wish for everything on your life and your art. Keep creating!