This weekend at Reston

It is time for the 18th Annual Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival this weekend on the streets of the Reston Town Center in Reston, Virginia, right off 267 (exit 12).

The Festival is produced by the Greater Reston Arts Center, and it is a top-rated annual juried outdoor street fine arts and fine crafts festival held in the heart of the elegant and bustling Reston Town Center. This two-day event attracts over 50,000 patrons and provides an interactive experience to view, purchase, and experience art directly from the unique and talented artists who have created it.

The 2009 festival is this weekend (May 16-17) and will feature more than 220 artists from around the nation as well as outstanding music and entertainment, activities for families, (all free) and delicious food.

See ya there! Swing by booth 835!

Gals' Birthdays: The place to be in DC this Friday

Join a couple of DC's uberartchicks (am I gonna catch hell for that or what?) on Friday, May 15th for an art and dance night to celebrate a couple of arty gals' birthdays.

My good buds Heather Goss from Ten Miles Square and Jayme McLellan from Civilian Art Projects flip over another year this May and want you to come party at Critical Mass, a one-night only art show featuring 20+ talented D.C. artists, followed by a straight-up dance party with DJ KC from Fatback and DJ Nite Krawler from Moneytown.

In addition to Civilian Art Project's ongoing solo exhibitions featuring Erick Jackson and Ken D. Ashton in the gallery, Ten Miles Square will host a salon show in the office space gallery, including well-known artists like Michael Janis, Tim Tate, Cory Oberndorfer and Billy Colbert, along with TMS regulars (and soon-to-be well-known names!) John Ulaszek, Cesar Lujan, Kyle Gustafson, and many more.

Every piece in the office will be available for under $150 that night - a downright steal that is our artists' gift to us and all our guests. And much of the work in the Jackson & Ashton exhibitions is priced at below $300 to boot!

Arrive between 9 and 10 p.m. for some mingling and art viewing. At 10 p.m. their arty birthday party will reach Critical Mass as DJs KC and Nite Krawler take over for a gallery dance party.

And who knows, the Lenster might be there as well...

Wanna go to a DC opening this week?

Artists' Websites: Henryk Fantazos

Blood for Toys by Henryk Fantazos
Henryk Fantazos is an artist with a very acute insight into what makes us all move and what makes a society tick and tock under a layer of sanity barely covering the rage of a humanity barely a breath away from barbarity. He writes:

In one of his poems Salvatore Quasimodo called the night I was born – the eighteenth of January 1944 – the darkest night of the war. The little town where I was born was in the Nazis bloody hands, then the Russians’. The homicidal scowl of Stalin declared that our town was never to be part of Poland again. Providence agreed with Stalin, and we had to move to settle in Upper Silesia, an agglomerate of coalmines, steel works and other heavy industries that produced unrestricted clouds of acrid, fetid smoke. Greasy soot covered every blade of grass. My father was a watchmaker and a jeweler. My mother took care of three children.

I escaped trice from two kindergartens and solidified an indestructible sense of being special. I painted and drew from the time I was a small child.

I am really taken by this artist's works and I think that his work is a prime candidate by DC or Philly galleries looking for a little danger in their exhibition schedule.

Hey DC: Grant time

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is renewing its commitment to supporting local artists and arts organizations through its distribution of grants for the fiscal year 2010 grant season. According to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, the District of Columbia ranks first among states in per capita investment in the arts.

“The creative industry is one of the most prosperous business sectors in the District, in workforce numbers, ticket sales and tax revenue generation,” said DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Executive Director Gloria Nauden. “We also boast of more than 460 non-profits in the city that self-identify as arts, humanities or cultural organizations.”

Executing world-class arts and cultural programming requires a joint effort of the Commission and the non-profit organizations it serves. The Commission is dedicated to growing and retaining the city’s artist-community base by offering free grant writing assistance. Resources include an online instructional video; one-on-one appointments with program coordinators; technical assistance workshops on “Workshop Wednesdays” with webinar access; and a new public resource center with computer workstations located within the Commission’s office that are available weekdays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

“One of our priorities for disseminating the grants is to ensure that the process is demystified. Our staff is available to help artists and arts organizations develop the most effective grant application possible,” Nauden added.

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities provides grants, programs and educational activities that encourage diverse artistic expression and learning opportunities, so that all District of Columbia residents and visitors can experience the rich culture of the city. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is an agency funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information on grant opportunities or to receive a grant application, visit their website or call 202-724-5613.

Happy Birthday

DC's influential Washington Glass School celebrates its 8th Anniversary with a huge Open House & Studio Sale.

Over 4000 students have attended classes/seminars/workshops at the WGS. On May 16th artwork by instructors and artists of the glass school will be on exhibit and for sale, together with music, jewelry, etc.

Visit surrounding arts studios who are the WGS' neighbors - Red Dirt Studios, Flux Studio, Sinel/Stewart/Weiss Studios and many more!

The Gateway Arts District also has its annual Open Studio Tour and the Mount Rainier Day Festival kicks off the events with a big parade right past the school!

Saturday May 16th, 2009
From Noon til 6 pm
Free and open to the public
Washington Glass School
3700 Otis Street
Mount Rainier, MD 20712
Tel: 202.744.8222

Affordable Art Fair New York: Final Report

Home at last, tired (more like exhausted) after five days of hauling artwork up and down to the 11th floor and schlepping it for five days at AAFNYC.

Overall it is my impression that most galleries at this fair sold very well. Perhaps it is an indication that the art economy is taking a tiny advance, or perhaps it is a simple sign of the times where people are looking at affordable art more closely?

In my personal sphere, I sold a lot of my own drawings (around 30 of them), and the gallery showing my work (Mayer Fine Art of Norfolk, Virgina) also did exceptionally well, practically selling out of Sheila Giolitti's paintings on Friday and Saturday, and essentially selling out all 12 of Matt Sesow's paintings that they brought, and had they brought more, they could have probably sold another dozen. I bet Matt's website experiences a "surge" of interest after this fair, as Mayer Fine Art must have given out a couple of hundred business cards with his details to interested buyers.

Sale of a gorgeous Tim Tate audiovisual sculpture to a major San Francisco collector, and a large Cirenaica Moreira photograph to a well-known collection of Cuban art also helped to push MFA's numbers.

Across from us, New York's Emmanuel Fremin Gallery had a slow start, but by Sunday they had quite a few red dots, mostly accomplished by multiple sales of Drew Tal's gorgeous photography.

And Montreal's Arteria continued to do well, with the roster of young Canadian artists whom they represent.

DC area galleries also seemed to do well, and I continued to see folks from Honfleur and Fraser bring works to the wrapping station.

And finally, tear down was not the nightmare that I thought it was going to be. The fair ended on Sunday at 5PM, and by 8PM we were out of there and stuck in the gridlock traffic for the tunnel to New Jersey.