DC area studio space

Several folks from ArtDC.org would like to band together to start another studio. And they've found a location: 4500 square feet, exposed brick walls, big windows, heat, electric, a bathroom and more.

They envison first finding 10 founding members. They're talking about 250 square feet for each artist dividing up the room with an open atmosphere; no walls.

Then each of these 10 artists get a storage closet designed specifically for storing art materials. They will call these artists their charter members or artists in residence. They will have 24 hr access.

There are two stair wells and possible access to an industrial elevator 17 feet deep, and there's a standard ceiling height of just over 8 ft. A cost of $275 per artist plus a small fee of around $25 a month for utilities and liability insurance for the space as a whole is envisioned.

There will then be a group area with items like a press, a framing area, possibly a dark room, and a work area.

For more details contact Jesse at admin@jessecohen.com.

Wanna go to a Univ. of MD Opening tonight?

The University of Maryland’s Union Gallery has "Midpoint: Second Year MFA Candidates" at the Union Gallery opening tonight and on display through May 21, 2007.

"The exhibition presents installation, sculpture, drawing, painting and video pieces by six artists – Christian Benefiel, Mahwish Chishty, Sarada Conaway, Ellington, Aniko Makranczy and Meg Mitchell – all halfway through the University’s three-year Master of Fine Arts program.

Opening recption is Thursday, April 19, 5-7 pm. Fear the turtle.

MFA Thesis Exhibition at Katzen

You all know that I am a big fan of collecting student art (I started selling my own artwork regularly at Seattle's Pike Place Market while I was a freshman at the University of Washington School of Art), and starting on Saturday, April 21, and running through Sunday, May 27, 2007, the Katzen Arts Center has an exhibition of AU’s two-year Master of Fine Arts degree students, featuring abstract and representational painting and sculpture as well as installation art (some directly on gallery walls) by Graham Childs, Tom Debari, Ellen Ann Gallup, Rebecca Johnson, Max Kuller, Kelly Ulcak, David Waddell, Jenny Walton and Marty Weishaar.

Gould on Artomatic

The WCP's Jessica Gould has an article in today's issue of the CP highlighting some Artomatic hiccups (and it also has a cool illustration by Emily Flake).

Read the article here.

Multimediale Opens tomorrow in DC

Multimediale is a four-day multimedia DC area arts festival that brings together artists from the Washington, DC region centered around the theme: Capturing the Capital!

This festival of Art, Politics, and New Media runs from April 19 - April 22, 2007.

Multimediale seeks to energize the DC arts community with new ideas about art, society and politics. Visit their Web site at www.multimedialedc.org for news and dialogue and info on city-wide events. Multimediale is organized by Randall Packer and curator Niels Van Tomme. All events are free and open to the public.

And check out the video shot by John James Anderson:

Tim Tate sculpture - uh oh. Where'd it go?

This Artomatic photo from Tracy Lee says it all...

Read Tracy Lee's thoughts on Artomatic here and also see her great images of some of the AOM artwork here.

Artomatic Rumor Department

The CP's Jessica Gould discusses the Artomatic rumor that I alluded to last week.

Informal research on the part of the Mid Atlantic Art News investigative department has failed to nail potential ubercollectors willing to admit that it is their dastardly plan to bring blue chip artists to AOM under unknown artists' names in order to see if the blue chip art gets a positive response from the public when juxtoposed with the more other-colored chip artists' work.

Our blue chip artist identification department has swept AOM attempting to identify any possibility of a super famous artist(s) being present at AOM, and although so far we have found at least one artist channeling Alexander Calder's work, the closest that we can come is two wild guesses which we will reserve until a later time.

The idea itself is quite brilliant! Start a fun rumor that even as it is blatantly nearly impossible to accomplish, it nonetheless brings home an interesting point.