Irvine move

By the way, it's official; the most fair gallerina Heather Russell of Irvine Contemporary not only bought some terrific artwork at WallSnatchers' opening last night, but also announced that the move of Irvine Contemporary to the fomer Fusebox space is now official.

Wallsnatchers Photos

More on Wallsnatchers later (the opening was packed!), but for now some photos:

Opening night crowd

WPA/C's Kim Ward and GMU's Chawky Frenn

Curator Kelly Towles (with glasses)

Ubercollector Steve Krensky and Photographer/Blogger Alexandra Silverthorne

Whitney Biennial Scoop

Anon Female Artist seems to have an insider story about the potential (actually highly visible) conflict of interests with one of the Whitney Biennial's curators and his choice of artists.

According to AFA: "Philippe Vergne is co-curator of the 2006 Whitney Biennial. His partner, Sylvia Chivaratanond, is Partner and Director at Perry Rubenstein Gallery. Six artists who are represented by or have been in recent exhibitions at Rubenstein were chosen to participate in this year’s Biennial."

Read the whole story here.

This story ought to make the front page of every newspaper's art section.

Keep Your Eye On

Keep an eye on emerging artist and emerging curator Lisa McCarty.

The work of Lisa McCarty is currently featured in "Figured Out" - a George Mason University Art & Visual Technology Department Women's Invitational show that is being held at PG Community College's Marlboro Gallery through March 9, 2006.

The opening reception is Friday Feb 24 from 6 to 8 pm - see Lisa's senior project here.

You might also recall that Lisa's work was featured in Strictly Painting 5 at the McLean Project for the Arts.

Lisa McCarty will be also the first participating apprentice curator in DCAC's new curatorial initiative funded by the Warhol Foundation. Lisa is apprenticed to seasoned curator JW Mahoney. Their curatorial effort "Hystoria" runs at DCAC from March 3 through March 26 and features the work of Geoff Bell, Julee Holcombe, Betsy Packard, Jeffery Smith, and Champneys Taylor.

Goss on Sugimoto

Heather Goss delivers an intelligent and succint review of Hiroshi Sugimoto at the Hirshhorn, as the new visual-arts friendly DCist suddenly comes through with a couple of decent writers to cover our area's visual art scene.

Read it here.

More please!

Openings

Remember that Wallsnatchers opens today. Details here.

Some Places, a body of new photographs by Doug Hall opens Friday, February 24th, with a reception from 6:30 - 8pm at Numark Gallery.

Trace, a body of photographs by Gen Aihara opens at Shigeko Bork's mu project in Georgetown. The opening reception is Saturday, February 25, 5 - 7pm. There will also be a Sake tasting sponsored by Joto Sake.

Anna U. Davis's solo exhibition "Sashimi Me" at Studio One Eight in Adams Morgan has a reception this Saturday from 7 - 10pm. There will also be a artist talk at 8pm the same evening.

Project 4, DC's newest gallery, opens this Saturday, Feb. 25 with a reception from 6-8:30 PM. Details here.

More later...

Wilson Building Art Collection

Deadline: This Friday!

As I mentioned here, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is currently accepting applications for the Wilson Building Public Art Collection and the deadline is this Friday.

The Wilson Building is located downtown at 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW in our capital.

The historic building serves as the headquarters for the Mayor and City Council for the District of Columbia. The works purchased through this call for entries are specifically designated for permanent installation in the Wilson Building.

And this is a very big building, with some very art-friendly walls, is just waiting to be filled with artwork. Only DC, Virginia and Maryland artists are eligible, and I believe that DC residents have some priority.

And as I've said before, I really think that this collection stands a chance to become a very strong and significant opportunity to put together (in one place) a very good sampling of Washington, DC regional artists.

And (of course) this being a public art collection, it immediately leaves out all nudity and any remotely controversial subject - but that's not the Commission's fault, nor the curator's; it's just an unwritten rule in American public art.

Nonetheless I think that this opportunity is as good as any as they come because:

(a) There's no cost associated (entry fees, etc.)
(b) It's easy to enter (you can send slides or CD ROM)
(c) You have a month to prepare (deadline is Feb. 24, 2006)
(d) The curator (Sondra Arkin) is actually someone who has really deep roots in the DC art scene, and knows what makes it tick - artists, galleries, dealers, schools, etc.

No excuses!

And I sincerely hope that some of my fellow gallerists encourage some of their big name area artists (just as we have) to apply and submit to this call, and hopefully be included in the closest that we'll have in this area to a permanent DC artist exhibition.

Download the application here.