DeBerardinis

I've been hearing good things and hope to drop by soon to see "Pictures of Nothing: Abstraction," new paintings by Rosetta DeBerardinis on exhibit through Feb. 28 at Ozmosis Gallery, 7908 Woodmont Ave., in Bethesda. Gallery hours: Tues. - Sat. 12:00 - 6:00 PM and by appointment. For more information go to www.ozmosisgallery.com or call 301-664-9662

Wolov on Interface

Nekkid with a Camera checks in with a review of Interface at our Bethesda gallery.

Read that review here.

Congratulations

Jiha Moon has a wonderful review of her recent show at the Curator's Office by George Howell in the Jan/Feb issue of Art Papers. Unfortunately, it's not online.

If Howell emails me a copy of the review, I'll post it here.

New art blog

Darn Knit is a new DC art blog.

Visit it here.

Tapedude gives DC streets a sugar rush

Mark Jenkins has been at it again.

This time he has transformed the parking meters around the Department of Energy into huge lollipops.



See them all here.

"Who Do You Love?"

Ian Jehle is moderating a series of art panels at DCAC and it's time for round two this coming Sunday.

On Sunday he's moderating the second panel of the four part panel series "Who Do You Love?" This one will focus on abstraction. The scheduled panelists are: Jonathan Bucci, Isabel Manalo, Jiha Moon, Jack Rasmussen & Robin Rose.

The event starts at 7:30 in the theater at DCAC. Thanks to everyone you made it to panel #1 and to the first group of panelists: Richard Chartier, Kathryn Cornelius, Jeffry Cudlin, Brandon Morse and Jefferson Pinder.

7:30 pm, DCAC, 2438 18th Street NW, Washington DC 20009 - (202) 462-7833

Jan 22 - Part 2: Abstraction, not Abstraction - panelists: Jonathan Bucci, Isabel Manalo, Jiha Moon, Jack Rasmussen, Robin Rose
Feb 5 - Part 3: Using the Figure - panelists: Lisa Bertnick, Nekisha Durrett, Allison Miner, Michael O'Sullivan, Erik Sandberg
Feb 12 - Part 4: Installation, Site-specific - panelists: Mary Coble, Jayme McLellan, Ira Tattelman

Talking points will include:
- "Who's your great grand daddy?" - artistic lineage: personal and public
- "Within these hallowed halls" - public museums as the apex of the art venue pyramid
- "Raphael is my copilot" - technique, refinement and presentation vis-a-vis the Old Masters
- "The boys and girls of spring" - the influence of major collectors (Phillips, Mellon and others)
- "What's not to love" - gaps in the DC artistic paean
- "And now ..." - where does individual practice and our local art scene intersect the contemporary art world?

Scheduled panelists include: Lisa Bertnick, Jonathan Bucci, Richard Chartier, Mary Coble, Kathryn Cornelius, Jeffry Cudlin, Nekisha Durrett, Isabel Manalo, Jayme McLellan, Allison Miner, Jiha Moon, Brandon Morse, Michael O'Sullivan, Jefferson Pinder, Jack Rasmussen, Robin Rose, Erik Sandberg & Ira Tattelman.

Campello Comes Down Tomorrow

My current exhibition at the Fraser Georgetown space comes down tomorrow.


Below is the review of the show published in the last issue of the Georgetowner newspaper by John Blee:

The Obsessions and Duende of Lenny Campello

F. Lennox (Lenny) Campello, one of the lynchpins of the DC art scene, is having a show in Georgetown at the Fraser Gallery (1054 31st St. NW, Tues. - Fri. Noon - 3pm, Sat. Noon -6pm).

Campello renders mythic scenes with mystery. He has complete mastery of his medium and works on a ground that seems to come from deep dreaming.

Campello writes on his dcartnews.blogspot.com, the premiere art blog of DC, "For some reason snowy days seem to inspire me to get down and draw. And I was up and early this morning and finished (a) somewhat silly drawing."

The drawing, "Woman on the Moon About to be Swept Off Her Feet by a Flying Bald Man," has a relation to Goya's darkness, or duende. Unlike Goya, Campello does not offer a social or political message. Like Goya, he creates enigmatic juxtapositions of figures or figure and space (as in "Another Obsessive Jackie Kennedy Portrait"), hinting at something disquieting.

Campello states "Myth is one of the driving forces in my work! I love it when someone discovers a bit of legend, or history or religion through one of my works."

Being a gladiator at heart, Lenny takes on some of the major myths from Marilyn to John the Baptist to Frida Kahlo to Saint Sebastian. He is fearless.

His Frida Kahlo is an homage to the Mexican artist and icon. The work presents a calm Kahlo, but in its off-placement on the page there is something that makes it not quite rest-in-peace. It is Campello's uneasy atmosphere of dream that is as much the subject of the work as the stormy Kahlo herself. Campello has been drawing Kahlo since 1977. He has also done hundreds of portraits of Marilyn and Che.

In his "Saint Sebastian" it is the flight of the arrows that is as much the drama as the piercing of the flesh of the poor saint. The enclosure and evocation of the space in the drawing is again the subject as much as the arrow's fight and their unfortunate trajectory.

Campello's drawings from the female nude, including "An Unmarried Woman" and "Woman Thinking of the Sun" present a different aspect of this artist. Here there is a quiet and devout sensuality: a worshipper at the source. (through January 18, 2006)