Artists' Talk This Saturday

Many of the artists from the current Compelled by Content II exhibition will deliver an artists' talk, sponsored by the James Renwick Alliance at the Fraser Gallery on Saturday, May 20, 2006 at 2PM.

The talk is free and open to the public and will also offer an opportunity to learn more about the Renwick Alliance.

Artists on Artist

Open Studios This Weekend

The Mid City Artists are having their joint open studios this weekend May 20-21, 2006.

Details and map here.

Transformer Changes

As reported by Adrian Parsons a few days ago, Transformer’s Board of Directors has announced the appointment of Victoria Reis as Executive Director of Transformer as of May 16, 2006.

Jayme McLellan, who co-founded Transformer together with Reis in 2002, resigned from her position as co-director of Transformer to become the Interim Executive Director of Women & Philanthropy - a national leadership organization of grant-makers.

Good luck to both!

Schafer on Bisese

Karen Schafer discusses Ed Bisese at Neptune Gallery.

Read it here.

Louie The Fish

I've received at least a dozen emails from readers telling me that they've also received emails from Louie The Fish.

And this one:

Hi Lenny,

I was just now going to post to you about the scam.

I, too received email from the same person (who calls himself Mclaren Welis from the UK) beginning in April (and I have art on the MD State Arts Council website).

I don't know if I'm the person that is refered to in your posting today. I think not since I didn't recognize the postmark, only that the stamps were from Benin (a country next to Nigeria).

I was skeptical as well from the first contact in April, but via email, he said the same thing, interested in purchasing several of my artworks. I'm so glad you've posted the warning.

The person who manages the MD State Art Council's website is aware of this, and posted a warning to artists who are on the registry. (Well, that was before I got the check yesterday -- also for an additional $3000, which I suspected was phony).

I talked to the manager at the bank, and he called the bank that the check was written on, and of course, its no good. The manager said they would have deposited it in my account, not knowing it was phony, made the funds available to me. And, a week later, when they would have learned that it was a bad check, would have debited my account.

I'm sure the person "Mclaren" would have contacted me and asked me to send him the extra $3000, or an amount just under, saying something like, he could make it profitable to me... or for my troubles, keep an extra $500 or whatever.

The bank manager said this past month another customer came in w/a similar check. That person was contacted by email from someone supposedly interested in renting an apartment, and received a check for thousand/s more than the agreed amount.

The police advise me to not respond to any email from this Mclaren Welis and not to return the check. I just got another email from Mclaren today asking for a response.

Thank you again for posting to your blog about this creep.

Be careful!

Art Fraud Alert

Received the following from a DC ART NEWS reader:

A DC area artist and I were both contacted by a Mclaren Welis with a yahoo account -- supposedly from 36 Greenfield Wrexham UK LL11 2NR (Wales) to buy our artwork -- that he discovered on the Maryland State Arts Council website.

I thought it was legitimate because I googled the address and found an artist who lives nextdoor at 34 Greenfield, a glass artist by the name of Chris Bird-Jones who is affiliated with the Arts Council of Wales... so my brain made the connection that Chris Bird-Jones had introduced Mclaren Welis to arts council databases and Mclaren was out to buy directly from artists.

The other DC artist received a check today that is for exactly $3000 more than the cost of her artwork and the shipping fees. The check came in an envelope with a very weak cancellation mark from Dubai (United Arab Emirates).

These scams have come to be associated in the public mind with Nigeria due to the massive proliferation of such confidence tricks from that country since the mid-eighties, although they are often also carried out in other African nations, including Togo, Cte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Liberia, Sierra Leone and South Africa, and increasingly from European cities with large West African populations, notably London, Amsterdam and Madrid, and lately also Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and Canada.

So I finally emailed Chris Bird-Jones who informed me that there is no 36 Greenfield.

Chris Bird-Jones, whose work is displayed on the Arts Council of Wales website was recently a victim of a similar scam where a person with the name Lineaux Swave wanted to buy Bird-Jones' artwork... a fradulent check (aka Akwukwo, chekere, pepper in Nigeria) was sent to Bird-Jones and the matter is now in the hands of the police and the bank.

We fall mugu (To be fooled, to become victim of advance fee fraud); Supposedly a check is in the mail to me

This must be going all round the Maryland State Arts Council website; it's called an Advance Fee Fraud or a 419 scheme.

And just today I received an email from someone named Luis that says:

From: Luis Mackarel
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 5:53 PM
To: lennycampello@hotmail.com
Subject: Paintings

Hello,
I came across your paintings from maryland state council website and i will appreciate it if you can let me know if the works displayed on the website is still
available and prices of eachwork.
Regards,
Luis

I intend to answer Louie The Fish and at least make him waste the envelope and some stamps as he sends me my Akwukwo check.