Ober, Bailey, McNatt, Gopnik, and now Capps

Kriston Capps from the WCP confirms that there appears to be a dealer angle on the whole "Bailey as Ober" exhibition controversy in Baltimore and even makes a good case for the potential "adjustment" of the context and focus and word-spin of this show after the fact; here's the original news release on the show - there's nothing on Ober.

Read Capps here.

Here's an idea: how about some institution in DC or Baltimore sponsor a panel where Bailey, Block, Gopnik, McNatt, and Ober all sit down and chew this out and respond to the good questions raised by the visual arts blogsphere and take questions from the audience?

Maybe the BMA, or MICA, or School 33, or MAP, can step up and offer the place to host the discussion?

I'll moderate it for free.

Numbers

Between January 2007 and December 2007, this blog received 715,265 visits/page views, an all time new record for DC Art News, Mid Atlantic Art News, Daily Campello Art News.

Evidence of the huge thirst that exists for information and writing about the visual arts.

"If you don't get it, you don't get it"
- Washington Post ad slogan

Thank you!

This Saturday

On February 2, O'Neill Studios will be hosting a Party, Art Show and Silent Auction to benefit Autism Speaks. Their past events have attracted hundreds of people and raised thousands of dollars for important charities, all while showcasing the best of the DC art community. Around nine artists will be painting live as attendees party around them. All guests are invited to eat, drink, dance, buy artwork, and bid on some cool items. Special performance at 9 p.m. featuring the legendary DC band, the LivelyStones.

WHO: Art lovers, partygoers, charitable contributors, DC metro community

WHAT: Post-Holiday Party, Art Show and Silent Auction to raise money for Autism Speaks

WHEN: Saturday, February 2, 2008 6 p.m.- midnight

WHERE: LeftBank, 2424 18th St, NW, Washington, DC 20009

CONTACT: Christine Hamershock, christine@oneillstudios.com, tel: 301.530.9030

On Museums

Opinions are like assholes; everyone has one.

And depending on everyone's points of view and depth of knowledge, and agendas, and interests, when you're wrong, you're wrong, but also, when you're right, you're right, and this one is right on (thanks Rosetta!)

Luna & Summerford

Carlos Luna: El Gran Mambo opens today at DC's beautiful American University's Katzen Arts Center and runs through Monday, March 17, 2008.

Luna is a Cuban-American artist who is "a storyteller and social chronicler, merging themes of fables and mysticism, eroticism and prejudice, and religiosity and anthropology, all of which are organized, disbanded, interwoven, and reorganized in the iconographic discourse he creates. "

Also beginning today is work by Ben L. Summerford a Professor Emeritus from AU. "Ben Summerford has been a major influence on Washington art for over 50 years as an artist, teacher, and cofounder of the Jefferson Place Gallery."

There's several other shows opening early next month, including work by William Christenberry (his Klan Room Tableau makes their first appearance in DC), Roger Brown, Elena Sisto, and others.

An opening reception for all of the above shows will take place on Saturday, Feb. 16, from 6 to 9 p.m. All shows will be open for viewing. In addition to the artist’s reception, a Gallery Talk on Roger Brown with Curator Sidney Lawrence will take place on Saturday, Feb. 16, at 4 p.m. and then a second Gallery Talk with Carlos Luna will take place the same day at 5 p.m. as American University Museum's Director Jack Rasmussen leads a conversation with artist Carlos Luna about his work.

Afghanistan Has World's Oldest Oil Paintings

Buddhist images on the walls of central Afghanistan's Bamiyan caves are the world's first oil paintings, Japanese researcher Yoko Taniguchi says. Taniguchi, an expert at Japan's National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and a group of Japanese, European, and American scientists are collaborating to restore the damaged murals, the Daily Star reports. The Los Angeles-based Getty Conservation Institute analyzed 53 samples from the murals that date back to about 650 A.D., concluding that they had oil in the paint. "My European colleagues were shocked because they always believed oil paintings were invented in Europe," Taniguchi said. "They couldn't believe such techniques could exist in some Buddhist cave deep in the countryside." The Bamiyan Valley is known for two huge 1,500-year-old statues of the Buddha that were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

Read the whole story here.

Southerning

I'm down South for a few days... more later.

But meanwhile, if you are a DC area sculptor looking for a great bunch of creative folks to hang around with, the Washington Sculptors Group is having a Sculptors Happy Hour, tomorrow, Tuesday, January 29, 7:00 pm at Busboys and Poets in DC.