Gallery Anniversaries
Longview Gallery near the Convention Center in DC, and Project 4, also in DC, are celebrating second year anniversaries. Sometimes it is clear to me about how little people who are not gallerists understand about what a business-heroic task it is to run a gallery successfully. Congratulations to Drew Porterfield and Anne Surak.
Longview Gallery's next show is work by West Virginia painter Mary Chiarmonte and Jessie Mann (daughter of photographer Sally Mann). The Opening Reception is Friday, February 8, 5-8pm and the show goes through March 15.
Project 4 celebrates its two-year anniversary with an exhibition of new works by a selection of their artists as well as a preview of artists being introduced this year. The Opening Reception is Saturday, February 2, 2008 - 6:00pm - 8:30pm. The exhibition goes through March 1, 2008 and features work by one of my favorite DC area artists: Margaret Boozer, as well as work by Beau Chamberlain, Christine Gray, Amy Kaplan, Ani Kasten, Tricia Keightley, Lisa Lindgren, J.J. McCracken, Rich MacDonald, Amy Ross, Rene Trevino Paul Villinski and Laurel Lukaszewski.
You may recall that Laurel Lukaszewski was my prediction during the last Artomatic to emerge as that massive show's art star, and Lukaszewski has done spectacularly well both locally and in various galleries in other cities as well.
By the way, Anne Surak will be co-curating New Waves for the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia (CAC). New Waves 2008 is open to Virginia artists and will be on view April 11-June 15, 2008 in Virginia Beach. The exhibition will be seen during CAC's huge Boardwalk Art Show & Festival, which draws 350,000 visitors annually. The deadline for New Waves 2008 is February 1, 2008. Details here.
And another by the way, I will be also curating an exhibition titled "Early Look" for Longview Gallery later this summer. The exhibition will feature art by undergraduate art students from the Mid Atlantic who are enrolled in an accredited undergraduate art course. More on that later, but I plan to do a lot of art school visiting over the next few months. That exhibition will be from June 6 through July 5, 2008.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
I gave you an early heads up last year... for the whole background read this.
And now the official news release:
The Georgetown Business Improvement District (Georgetown BID), in partnership with Artomatic, Inc., the Office of the Secretary for the District of Columbia, and Sunderland City Council, is proud to present an international fine arts glass exhibit, entitled Glass3, hosted by The Shops at Georgetown Park (3222 M Street, NW).This international show again underscores something that has been brewing and growing under the noses of DMV area museum curators and that has ironically been recognized first nationally and now internationally: the Greater DC area has become a hot spot (pun intended) for contemporary fine arts glass and is clearly leading the way in delivering a new conceptual, narrative and even technological boost to fine art glass.
Glass3, which opens to the public on Thursday, February 21, debuts as the first Artomatic international collaboration. Located on the lower level of the mall, the three-story space contributed by The Shops at Georgetown Park will soon present vibrant glass work, glass blown sculptures, as well as narrative glass work through etching, writing, and video projection.
Glass3 is the first international glass exhibit for Artomatic. The exhibition will feature international glass artists represented by Cohesion Artists from Sunderland, England, national artists organized by the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo from Toledo, Ohio, and Washington, D.C.-based artists represented by the Washington Glass School. Through invitation only, each arts organization selects the artists presented in the three-week long exhibit.
The show will be open through Sunday, March 9, and is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
You all know that I am not objective about this issue, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this seminal work with glass as the kernel for creativity become the basis for the most significant new art movement in the DC region since the halcyon days of the Washington Color School. I don't know who will be in this show from the UK and from Ohio, but I suspect that we may see a lot of really terrific vessels from those artists and perhaps then DC area eyes will see how different the work of our locals is when compared as to what the rest of the world is doing.
Call for Redemption, c. 2007 Tim Tate
Blown glass, cast glass, video projection, speakers and motion sensors
Wanna tour the DC City Hall Art Collection?
At 12 p.m. on Thursday, January 30, the public is invited to the Wilson Building for a guided tour through the City Hall public collection of art on permanent display on floors 1-5 of the Wilson building. The tour will be lead by the talented Ellyn Weiss, whose work is included in the collection.
This is a unique chance to meet with local artists featured in the collection and have a discussion on being an artist in the Nation's capital and to see a rich cross section of local artists (both established and emerging). This will be a bi-monthly occurrence. This is the richest and largest permanent exhibition of the work of local DC area artists in the city, featuring a broad range of work, from internationally known artists such as Jacob Kainen, Sam Gilliam, Tim Tate and William Christenberry, to work by most of the artists of significance working in the capital region area now.
The tour is free; however space is limited. Please RSVP to beth.baldwin@dc.gov with the number in your party. Meet at the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance — the building is located at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW. ID is required to enter the building.
Opportunity for Artists
Deadline: March 1, 2008
The Innovators Combatting Substance Abuse Program has a call out for artists for original art to appear in a forthcoming book on art and addiction to be published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
Open to all artists and all media, including video on the subject of drug addiction, including alcohol, and recovery. A panel of jurors (I'm one of them) will select finalists, and each finalist will receive a $200 honorarium, with the top five receiving an additional $500, copy of the book, and inclusion in exhibitions in Maryland and Puerto Rico.
No entry fees!
Download entry form here.
Philadelphia Biennaleing
"The Philadelphia Museum of Art is pleased to announce the selection of Bruce Nauman (b. 1941) as the artist to represent the United States at the 2009 Venice Biennale. The State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs selected Nauman following the unanimous recommendation of the Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions (FACIE) that reviewed proposals received through an open competition. Carlos Basualdo, Curator of Contemporary Art, and Michael Taylor, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, will serve as the U.S. Commissioners and will organize the exhibition from the Philadelphia Museum of Art."
Thursday, January 24, 2008
London Blues
In this cruise that I just came back from, we all had a lot of fun in one of the bars singing drunken karaoke songs (I know... I know...) and it reminded me of something from my past.
Sometime around 1988 or so, I lived in England for a few months, and back then a lot of the English pubs were really into karaoke. And even though I am not a Texan, one of my past roomates is from Texas and he used to play "London Blues" all the time and I used to really love to sing it in English pubs.
Scary uh? A guy from Brooklyn singing a Texas song...
Unfortunately the cruise ship didn't have it in its inventory, but upon getting back I got myself a couple of Jerry Jeff Walker CDs and it brought back memories of the song that I think may be the greatest Texas song of all time --- and yes, I know that I've just made a zillion Texans disagree with me... or maybe not.
Listen to Barry P. Nunn sing it here the way that it's supposed to come out... lyrics below.
Well, when you're down on your luck,
And you ain't got a buck,
In London you're a goner.
Even London Bridge has fallen down,
And moved to Arizona,
Now I know why.
And I'll substantiate the rumor that the English sense of humor
Is drier than than the Texas sand.
You can put up your dukes, and you can bet your boots
That I'm leavin' just as fast as I can.
I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
The friendliest people and the prettiest women you've ever
Seen.
Well, it's cold over here, and I swear
I wish they'd turn the heat on.
And where in the world is that English girl
I promised I would meet on the third floor.
And of the whole damn lot, the only friend I've got
Is a smoke and a cheap guitar.
My mind keeps roamin', my heart keeps longin'
To be home in a Texas bar.
I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
The friendliest people and the prettiest women you've ever
Seen
Well, I decided that I'd get my cowboy hat
And go down to Marble Art Station.
'Cause when a Texan fancies, he'll take his chances.
Chances will be taken, that's for sure.
And them Limey eyes, they were eyein' the prize
That some people call manly footwear.
And they said you're from down South,
And when you open your mouth,
You always seem to put your foot there.
Repeat chorus 'til the cows come home.
And thank God they also didn't have Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mothers.
Openings in C'ville
Charlottesville, Virginia holds a dear place in my arts heart - back in the mid 90s when we were hunting for a place to open a gallery, I focused a lot of attention on Charlottesville before the space in Georgetown fell in our lap. I also seem to have a lot of collectors of my own work in that area for some odd reason.
Anyway... two interesting exhibitions taking place there.
At the Second Street Gallery, Rob Tarbell's appropriated stuffed animals that he usually finds at Goodwill assume new forms as their stuffing is replaced with porcelain slip and then fired in a kiln.
There will be an opening reception for Tarbell (who teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University and Piedmont Virginia Community College) on First Fridays, February 1, 6:00 - 8:00 pm, with an artist talk at 6:30PM for Rob Tarbell: The Struggles Play Nice.
Currently they have the acrylic paintings of University of Mary Washington art professor Stephen L. Griffin in a show titled "Strata."
That show goes through Feb. 15, 2008.
Then check out the cool schedule of exhibitions coming down the road, including a Washington Glass School show.
