The Last ArtRomp

ArtRomp XX - the Grand Finale - opens this Friday at the soon-to-close/move Warehouse Gallery in DC. Opening party is 6pm til late. This last show includes work by all the artists who have exhibited in past ArtRomps over the years. Through Sept. 30, 2007.

Smaller and Smaller

As I've noted before, lately I've been drawing in a very small scale - and I showed you this drawing ("A Rabbi, slightly upset because he's just been told that his glasses are very trendy these days").

Below is "Eyes of John Fitzgerald Kennedy," which is is about half an inch high by one inch long.

"Eyes of John Fitzgerald Kennedy"
Charcoal on Paper, c. 2007 (0.5" x 1")
F. Lennox Campello
It was picked up last weekend by a private collector who was visiting my studio.

New Gallery Opens this Friday

Oerth Gallery, located at 420 S. Washington Street in Old Town Alexandria and owned by sisters Lorraine Oerth Kirstein and Linda Oerth Musselman, has its grand opening this coming Friday from 7-9PM with works by Ross Merrill. Merrill is a popular DC area art teacher, and conducts workshops throughout the United States. He also works as a Conservator at The National Gallery. The paintings will be on display from September 7 to October 28, 2007.


The gallery includes a first floor crafts gallery, a second floor fine arts gallery and a pottery studio. The building itself is an important historic property in Old Town, because it is the only freestanding Victorian building of its kind in Old Town.

Artists interested in portfolio reviews should contact Linda Musselman at 703-836-3784.

DC Gallery Moves

Leigh Conner and Jamie Smith have announced the purchase of 1358-1360 Florida Avenue, NE, Washington, DC as the new location for Conner Contemporary Art and *gogo art projects.

The property, a former auto body shop, is a 12,000 sq. ft. complex with two interior levels as well as an enclosed outdoor area for the exhibition of large-scale sculpture, video projections and installations. Conner Contemporary Art and *gogo art projects will occupy the 6500 sq. ft. ground floor space featuring two exhibition areas and a permanent video/sound room. The 4300 sq. ft. second-floor space is currently being developed.


During the renovation work this fall season, they will be open by appointment Monday through Friday 10am-6pm, while concentrating on participating in art fairs (Pulse London: October 11-14, 2007 and Pulse Miami: December 5-9, 2007).

The new gallery is accessible from the New York Avenue and Union Station Metro stations. On-site parking will be available by reservation and complimentary shuttle service will be provided from Union Station during certain hours.

$100M

"Damien Hirst, the U.K.'s wealthiest artist, is selling his diamond skull to an investment group for $100 million, said Frank Dunphy, Hirst's business manager.

The platinum skull, studded with 8,601 diamonds, has been on the market at least since June 3, when it went on show at London's White Cube gallery.

Dunphy, reached by telephone, said the price hadn't been discounted and would be paid in cash, though he wouldn't say over what period, or identify the investment group."

Read the story by Bloomberg's Linda Sandler here. By the way, I think that the title of the "U.K's wealthiest artist" does not belong to Damien Hirst, but to Scottish bad boy painter and worldwide king in the world of posters Jack Vettriano, but I could be wrong.

Scotland is planning to "devolve" from the British union and regain its independence one of these days, but so far, as far as I know, they are still part of the U.K.

In The Flesh

The new art shows and openings coming up over the next two weeks are so numerous that I will try to list 3-4 everyday for the next few days.

In Alexandria's Target Gallery, Tim Doud, who is in the Art faculty at American University has selected a show titled "In the Flesh" that opens Sept 13 from 6-8pm and runs through October 13, 2007. It includes work by DC area photographer Danny Conant, who is without a doubt one of the most innovative photographers in the region, and whose work has been often (in the past) an inspiration for several of my own drawings.

"Tearing the Sky"
Polaroid Transfer by Danny Conant

Ask a silly question...

The WaPo's freelance galleries critic writes in a review of sub-text at Randall Scott Gallery:

At Randall Scott, Caitlin Phillips's work proves particularly enervating. She's an attractive woman, slender and young, and she takes pictures of herself. In one picture she wears a simple dress and cute shoes and holds a tea set while looking blankly at the camera. In another, she stands on a beach, masked and perfectly still, dressed in a flowery shift. In a third, she's nearly naked, in curlers and hose, pouting for the camera.

What possesses a woman artist to denigrate herself like this? Photography, in its many forms, dominates artmaking. But can artists use it wisely?

Here's the question that her editor should have asked the critic: "Since you are asking the readers this question, did you ask the photographer?"

Of course not, Dawson's vitriol is generally reserved for the written word, and as most DC area gallerists know, and in my experience, she rarely asks questions when visiting a show, or even speaks, other than the social "hello," when she first arrives, and the occasional "ahah" when spoken to.

In the past this lack of asking questions (that she clearly has about the work, even rhetorical questions easily answered) has bitten her back, evidenced by some rather monumental errors in her writing, and in this case the answer to her question was easily available in the gallery's website and the obviously un-read news release about the exhibition; Caitlin Phillips writes:

During the summers when I was seven, eight, nine, I remember waking next to my grandmother in her heat soaked room, the bedding scarce, as we had tried to cool ourselves the night before. These humid mornings, which I recall vividly, were often spent admiring the photographs and the painted portraits that lined the faded wallpaper of the bedroom. Elegant, Victorian women gazed back from the walls, their pale skin accented by feathery dresses, my grandmother’s room, a modest representation of her own Victorian ideals. These summers spent at my grandparent’s home, my sisters and I feverishly practiced and displayed the ladylike talents my grandmother instilled and insisted upon us, naively mirroring our companions hung on the wall.

My photographs and videos attempt to discuss my current notions of lineage and posterity through deliberate manipulation of memory and dissection of my personal history. The imagery creates a mise-en-scene derived from personalized romance and girlhood nostalgia. It is a visual investigation of the conflicted self: a state of reflection glimpsing into the progression of feminine identity through years of experience, growth and longing.

Does that sound like a woman denigrating herself?