Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: January 15, 2008.

The 4th Annual National Painting, Drawing and Printmaking Competition at the Palm Beach Community College, Lake Worth Campus. Visiting Juror/Awards of $2000. For a prospectus, send SASE to the below address or download here:

Palm Beach Community College
Attn: Kristin Miller
Gallery Manager
Division of Humanities, MS15
4200 Congress Avenue
Lake Worth, FL 33461

Grants for Artists

The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation offers funding to emerging American artists and craftspeople through a biennial award. Selection process is made through nomination by Foundation trustees, previous recipients, artists, critics, and museum professionals in the U.S. Awards are granted in the following media: painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, video and crafts.

For more information contact:

The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation
c/o Artists Space
38 Greene St., 3rd Fl.
New York, NY 10013

Al Lerner

Abram "Al" Lerner, the first director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC has died at age 94.

Lerner was initially a painter who then became the art adviser to Latvian immigrant Joseph Hirshhorn. Hirshhorn opened the museum on the National Mall in 1974 and appointed Lerner as the museum's first director from 1974 - 1984.

Wishful Thinking...

"The fever for graffiti art continued last week at the opening of an exhibition of 130 original works by American street artist Shepard Fairey.

Within hours of the opening at the Stolen Space gallery in Brick Lane, east London, everything had been sold, with prices ranging from £1,500 to £30,000.

'Over the weekend, between 6,000 and 7,000 people came to see the show,' a spokesman for the gallery said."

I am not sure what to be more impressed about: the fact that Fairey's show sold out within hours, or that so many people came out to the exhibition. Details here.

Wanna go to a Baltimore opening on Thursday?

The The Rosenberg Gallery at Goucher College in Baltimore opens ID with the work of sculptors Anthony Cervino, Jason Ferguson, Ronald Gonzalez, Rob Neilson and Melissa Ichiuji - all challenging the conventions of representational self-portraiture.

The opening is Thursday, November 8, 2007 from 6-8 PM.

Jenny Holzer at SAAM

"For SAAM" by Jenny Holzer
The Smithsonian American Art Museum debuted a major site-specific light sculpture by Jenny Holzer last Saturday. Holzer is an internationally renowned artist best known for her work incorporating texts into light-based sculptures and projections. The sculpture, titled "For SAAM," is on public display in the museum's third floor Lincoln Gallery with other contemporary artworks from the permanent collection.

I've always liked Holzer's work, due mostly to my interest in text in art.

I am however, more a fan of Jim Sanborn and one of my favorite DC area works by Sanborn on public diplay is Lingua, which is perfectly located in the Grand Lobby of the new DC Convention Center, which by the way, was "supposed" to continue to add art to its vastness and (as far as I know) never has since its grand opening.

Shauna Lee Lange on Going West at The Renwick

By Shauna Lee Lange

We weren't the only ones who couldn't gain admission to the Corcoran's exhibits on a late Saturday afternoon, so if you're headed for the Leibovitz/Adams shows, get there early in the day!

All wasn't lost... the Renwick is a few short walking blocks away and we comfortably strolled through the Going West exhibit without any elbow bumping. The Renwick Gallery is a fine, first rate museum in its own right; it houses a diverse collection of American contemporary craft, art, and design spanning the 19th - 21st centuries.

Featured in the Going West exhibit are about 50 rare quilts from the first quarter of the 19th century to the 1930s. If you can imagine embarking on the journey out west, and having to bring along only a few cherished keepsakes, then your appreciation for the sentimentality of these items will be right on key. Or better yet, imagine the life of a woman newly established in her prairie home, and her need to create items not available at the local Target.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and the Going West quilts prove that there was a deep focus on recording family history, using available objects (see the quilt made out of neckties), the irrefutable strength of the creative spirit, and the desire to commemorate important anniversaries in the lives of community members. It's interesting to consider how these quilts might have represented efforts in journaling or even fundraising. And from a crafts perspective, well... they are just inspiring.

If you plan to visit the gorgeously detailed quilts, we'd like to suggest a method of viewing. To really appreciate the work, materials, and time invested in the craftsmanship, the trick is to stand as close to the quilt as the museum curators will allow. Isolate a six inch square, or a series of six inch squares, to really see the art embedded in the various cloths and stitches.

A quilt is a collage, a composite whole of smaller unrelated parts. And although the whole can be quite stunning, the devil is in the detail with a careful examination of the pieces. Considering assemblage, construction, color selection, and composition help to transport one back to the Wild West. Quilts from this exhibition are a fine example of a continuum along the tradition of useful textiles. They provide insight to the essential role that quilts and the making of quilts played in the lives of women on the frontier. They are a testament (in my mind) to feminism even, in their own sort-of-quasi-political-way.

The Going West exhibit runs to Jan 21, 2008. The Renwick Gallery is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and is located on 17 th Street & Pennsylvania Ave, NW. Admission is free. Hours: Daily, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., closed December 25. Tours and General Info: 202-633-8550. Special event scheduling: 202-633-8534. Be sure to check the calendar, as the Renwick hosts a series of crafts demonstrations, lectures, receptions, and musical performances in its mission to collect and preserve the finest in American crafts.