Tonite in Philly

Tonite, starting at 6PM at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Print Center is sponsoring a lecture by internationally renowned camera obscura artist Abelardo Morell.

He will discuss his career and the recent work he has made in conjunction with The Print Center and The Philadelphia Museum of Art. A book signing of his recent book, Abelardo Morell published by Phaidon Press, will immediately follow the lecture. Books will be available for purchase in the Museum Store.

Abelardo Morell transformed Gallery #171 in the Modern and Contemporary wing of The Philadelphia Museum of Art into a camera obscura. Through a small hole in one of the gallery’s windows the image of the museum’s East Entrance becomes a piece of art on display along with The Soothsayer’s Recompense (1913) by Surrealist artist Giorgio de Chirico.

When I lived in Scotland in the late 80s, one of my favorite places to visit when in Edinburgh was the 1850's Camera Obscura in the Outlook Tower, which shows constantly rotating panoramic views of one of Europe's most beautiful cities.

New DC gallery

Galerie Myrtis announces its grand opening with an exhibition featuring works by African-American and African artists including: Selma Burke, Ed Love, Folusho Akomlede, Sylvester Mubayi, Joseph Holston, William Tolliver, Edward Chiwara, Velphia Mzimba, Lois Mailou Jones, Danny Simmons, Ben Macala, Hargreaves Ntukwana, Viola Burley Leak, Charles Sebree, Thokozani Mathobela, Winston Saoli, Samella Lewis, Ellen Powell Tibernio, and David Mbele.

Date: October 20, 2006
Time: 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Location: Galerie Myrtis
500 9th Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003

RSVP: Phone: 202/548-7575
Email: collectors@creativeartisans.net

Please RSVP by October 10, 2006

Warren Craghead at GRACE

New work from Warren Craghead opens tomorrow, Friday Sept. 29 at the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, Virginia, easy to find right off the Dulles Toll Road. The Opening Reception is tomorrow, Friday September 29, 6pm - 9pm with an Artist's Talk at 7PM.

Craghead likens his studio to "a bomb crater where pieces of notebook paper, cardboard, post-its, and foam lie in piles surrounded by scraps of pen and pencil drawings, string, plastic, old junk mail, and magazines."

Also showing is "The Suburban Excavation Project: Recent Work by Adam Grossi."

Kudos to GRACE, whose exhibition program this past year has been vigorously renovated and has certainly offered some exciting new work. Don't miss this show!

Miya Ando Stanoff at Ligne Roset

Bay area artist Miya Ando Stanoff's minimalist works on steel canvas make their DC area debut with an exhibition at Ligne Roset DC.

There will be a champagne reception for the artist on September 30, 2006 from 12-6PM. Ligne Roset is at 3306 M Street NW, Washington DC 20007.

Miya is a graduate of UC Berkeley and attended Yale University where she studied East Asian Buddhist Iconography. Half-Japanese and half-Russian, she was raised bilingually and in two cultures, living both in her family's Buddhist temple in Japan and in Northern California. She comes from a tradition of metalworking, as she is the descendant of Bizen sword maker Ando Yoshiro Masakatsu.

Freedom at Heliport

In an exhibition titled "Freedom," Gateway's Heliport Gallery in Silver Spring, Maryland, features the works of four artists that have left their respective countries due to socio-political strife. According to the news release, the exhibit is not overtly political, nor does it shout oppression. On the other hand, it shows four artists at different stages in their careers that have each used art and their new found freedom as a means for emotional release and chance to redefine themselves.

An example is Dr. Kyi May Kaung. While growing up in Burma, Dr. Kaung was only allowed to paint realistic images because the government could understand them. Abstract art was more or less forbidden. Conversely, now living here in the US, Dr. Kaung is now exploring the boundaries of abstract art for the first time.

The exhibit includes work by Machyar Gleunta, Dr. Kyi May Kaung, Win Pe and Hatim Eltayeb Mahmed Ali Elmaki.

The opening reception is Friday, October 6 fro 6-9 PM.

Ellyn Weiss at Nevin Kelly

The Nevin Kelly Gallery will host a solo exhibition of new works by Bethesda artist Ellyn Weiss from October 4 until October 29, 2006. The exhibition, titled "Circular Reasoning," includes two series of new works. The first is a series of oil bar paintings on wood that shares its title with the show itself. The second is a series of woodblock monoprints on paper called "Bioelectronics." An opening reception with the artist will be held on Thursday, October 5 from 6 until 9 o'clock p.m. The public is invited. The gallery is located at 1517 U Street, NW, Washington, DC.

Sydney McGee

I've spent all day in the DC area, and when I returned home tonight I had my inbox full of emails from readers asking if I had seen this.

Sydney McGee is an art teacher (with 28 years of experience) who has been fired by the Frisco, Texas school board because this Fisher Elementary School art teacher took 89 fifth-graders on a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art last April and then some of the fifth graders reported to their parents that they had seen "a nude sculpture at the art museum."

Then the parents "raised concern..."

And then she was put on paid administrative leave...

And now the Frisco, Texas school board has voted not to renew her contract after 28 years.

[Anger]

Does the Frisco, Texas school board realize that these actions appear to put them a century or two ahead of the Islamofascists that I am sure they all abhor?

According to the Dallas Morning News:

Ms. McGee, who has taught in various Texas districts for 28 years, said she visited the museum and spoke with museum staffers before the trip to ensure that it was appropriate for the fifth-grade class. Ms. McGee said she does not know which piece of art offended the parent, and the district did not identify it.

Ms. McGee said principal Nancy Lawson called her into a meeting the day after the trip to admonish her about the parent's complaint. Shortly thereafter, she received a negative review and a series of directives about displaying student artwork and creating lesson plans.

"You have to start somewhere when you've seen things you don't believe are in the best interest of the students," Superintendent Rick Reedy said.

Quick to appear to shift the blame, "board members said there were other performance issues in question beyond the trip complaint."

Aw Texas... can't take you anywhere...

Options:

1. Frisco School Board immediately should prohibit any and all school trips to any museums or any other venues where any art nudity or nudity in any other form is present.

2. All Texas museums within school bus driving distance of Frisco, Texas should immediately (a) get rid of all nude artworks or (b) cover them up whenever the Frisco kids show up.

3. Frisco voters should fire all these Friscidiots on the Board.

Here's what we can do:

Email a note of support for Sydney McGee to Buddy Minett President of the Frisco School Board. Or write to him at:

Buddy Minett
President
8548 Scott Circle
Frisco, TX 75036

If you write, be courteous and intelligent.