Nice words

A huge thank you to ARTifice for the nice words and comments about this artblog in their recent Top Ten Local-ish Art Blogs list.

They've got somre really good ones on their list by the way - check it out here.

Artomatic is back for 2008

Time for all the art critics and art bloggers who think that an open, all inclusive, unjuried, everything-hangs art show is a bad thing for art to start gritting their teeth.

The NoMa (north of Massachusetts Avenue) Business Improvement District (BID) will host this year's Artomatic, the Washington, D.C. area's homegrown art extravaganza. From May 9 through June 15, 2008, up to 800 local and regional artists will exhibit their works on eight floors of the Capitol Plaza 1 building, located at 1st and M Streets, N.E., just one block from the New York Avenue Metro station.

Held regularly since 1999, Artomatic transforms an unfinished Greater DC area indoor space into an exciting and incredibly diverse arts event that is free and open to the public. In addition to displays and sales by hundreds of artists, the event features free musical, dance, and theater performances; holiday celebrations; films; educational presentations; and much more.

Anyone can become part of AOM. It's a democratic, all open show... and this is what many art critics and writers hate, because they want to see the external hand and discipline of a curator (otr team of curators) applied to such a massive endeavor.

But there's room for both. There are plenty of large curated show and precious little amount of gargantuan art shows such as AOM.

This year’s Artomatic, occupying 200,000 square feet at Capitol Plaza 1, will be the largest to date. Designed by renowned architect Shalom Baranes and owned by an affiliate of The Polinger Company, Capitol Plaza 1 offers 293,000 rentable square feet of Class A office space, with dramatic Capitol and city views from the upper floors.

“We are thrilled to partner with Artomatic in an event that will bring tens of thousands of people to NoMa,” said Elizabeth Price, president of the NoMa BID. “It is a great opportunity to showcase the transformation that is underway in NoMa and infuse it with the energy and creativity of the artistic community.”

"Artomatic has come back to its roots in D.C. with our largest event ever,” said George Koch, Chair of Artomatic. “We are excited about our partnership with the NoMa BID and their help in bringing this new space to our attention. Artomatic 2008 will have an abundance of exhibit and performance space that will be open to all — from recognized artists to undiscovered talents.”

Registration for artists and performers who wish to participate in Artomatic will be open soon. To stay up to date on the event details and schedule, visit www.artomatic.org and sign up to receive the Artomatic newsletter.

Her First Time

Her First Time, Charcoal on Paper. 3 inches x 2 inches. c.2008
By F. Lennox Campello

Celebrity sighting

One of the formerly best-kept dining secrets of Media, Pennsylvania is a terrific Indian restaurant called Shere-E-Punjab. My wife lived in India and is a good arbiter of Indian food, and when we first moved here, she actually wrote a note to the local paper about this modest but most excellent restaurant (the paper had done a Media restaurant issue and skipped the small Indian place).

The paper's food critic then visited Shere-E-Punjab and was so impressed that she wrote a whole article/review on them.

And then earlier this year the Philly Inky wrote a favorable review of it.

Shere-E-Punjab has really good, authentic Indian food at excellent prices.

And yesterday we had lunch there (excellent as usual) and as we were leaving, noticed that several of the key cast members of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," one of my favorite TV shows, came in to have lunch. This is one of the funniest, oddest and most innovative TV shows on cable.

And no... Louie wasn't one of them.

Artists' Websites

"Virgie" by Christopher Goodwin
Former DC area artist Christopher Goodwin is also the creator of the innovative Trashball! art project.

Visit his website here.

Curatorialism

So far this year I've curated/juried a couple of shows (Color Invitations at R Street Gallery in DC and currently "Five Senses" at Target Street in Alexandria, VA).

Loads more efforts to come in 2008.

Next I'm helping to select the artists for the Johns Hopkins book and two city exhibition of the Innovators Combatting Substance Abuse Program next month in Baltimore.

In April I am curating the grand opening show for the new Mayer Fine Arts gallery in Norfolk, Virginia. Titled "Common Ocean: From Havana to Norfolk," the exhibition will showcase the work of four leading contemporary Cuban women: Sandra Ramos, Aimee Garcia Marrero, Marta Maria Perez Bravo and Cirenaica Moreira.

Also in April I am jurying Derivative Composition for VSA arts.

In June I will be curating Early Look, a student show for DC's Longview Gallery.

In September I am doing the jurying for the Maryland Federation of Artists' (MFA) annual Landscape Show in Annapolis.

In November I will be curating "Aqui Estamos" (Here We Are): Contemporary Cuban Art" for Mt. Rainier, Maryland's H&F Fine Arts, showing some very well-known as well as some new and emerging Cuban artists.

And in between all that I am fitting in six art fairs, a boatload of art panels and two solo shows (more on those later).

Mellema on Moser

Kevin Mellema writes an interesting review of the current Lida Moser show at Fraser Gallery.

Moser's work often depicts motion and displays an unusually strong depth of field. Some of her best works include foreground objects that go hopelessly out of focus yet retain all the information we really need. A photo of two Tennessee girls standing beside the road includes the interior car door and window frame. Another shot out the front window of a bus shows a motion blurred man crossing the street before the bus. Both photos would be greatly diminished were they shot in a more typical fashion.

Likely to her detriment, Moser never shot fashion work, but was asked to shoot a fashion portfolio for a young head strong aspiring model named Judy. Moser agreed, as long as she could shoot it on a truck loading dock. During the shoot the two ladies encountered a band of irrepressible, and equally headstrong boys. Not quite being able to shake them off, Moser used them to her advantage and made a wonderful series of shots with Judy posing while the boys mocked her poses. No doubt it wasn't exactly what Judy had in mind, but since Moser was doing the work as a favor she didn't have much choice but to go along with it. Moser recalls that images from the series sold to several magazines, and Judy went on to model ... then setting her sights on marrying a millionaire, did that as well.

Read it here.