Ofrenda

Ofrenda - Art for the Dead is an art exhibition of local artists' shrines, altars, paintings, music, dancing, and spoken word based on the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) tradition.

Ofrenda remembers the dead and celebrates life (the two emphases of the holiday) with artist-made Dia de los Muertos altars and ofrendas (offerings) that venerate the beloved dead, and draw them to visit their loved ones, feast on their favorite food and drink, and listen to their favorite music.

This year marks the third annual Ofrenda Show and Art Outlet will partner with the Torpedo Factory Art Center for the show.

The event will begin Saturday, October 31 and run though November 3. On Saturday Oct 31, there is a parade starting at 7pm and a mask ball with multiple performances at 8pm during the reception.

This presents an opportunity for artists: Create and show your personal altars, icons, shrines, and offerings (ofrendas). They are seeking 2- and 3-D artwork (any media), which fits the Dia de los Muertos tradition. Art Outlet will curate 1152 square feet of wall exhibition space (18 panels, courtesy of Artomatic) and space for sculpture/media on the first floor of the Torpedo Factory Art Center. They estimate this space will hold 36 two-D and 20 three-D artworks.

Art may include candles or incense, but these will not be burned during the show. There will be a public altar outside the Torpedo Factory that will include candles and incense. They especially welcome 3-D works and installation. The art and activities of traditional El Día de los Muertos celebrations look warmly and humorously on life, death, and the departed. When considering your submission, please be respectful. Art displayed at Ofrendas—Art of the Dead will take place in this same tradition.

Details here.

Fighting over Kahlo

Policing the legacy of artists can be a tough business. Nowhere is it tougher than in Mexico, where the magnetic, self-mythologizing painter Frida Kahlo (1907-54) shot from relative obscurity to iconic status only in the last quarter-century.

The LA Times Christopher Knight with an entertaining article on the fight of Frida Kahlo's newly discovered assortment of work(s). Read it here.

Here's the coffin

Andrew Wodzianski: House

Now I know what the tiny coffins are all about... if you didn't get one: suffer!

A lot more on this later, but pencil in Thursday, October 8, 2009 and Friday October 30, 2009 at Flashpoint. Opening Reception: Thursday, October 8, 6-8pm, House Party: Friday, October 30, 9-12pm.

Andrew Wodzianski: House opens on the 8th of October and his paintings will lift imagery from William Castle’s b-movie horror flick from 1959, House on Haunted Hill, but this is going to far from just being another "painting" show.

OK, OK, this may be a "painting exhibition in its own right," but House will also incorporate the gimmickry and audience participation for which director Castle was legendary for movies. Around DC Wodzianski has becoming an "opening night legend" on his own right (such as showing dressed up as a ninja to an opening reception one time).

Six foot five Andrew Wodzianski as the world's tallest Ninja.
In this exhibit you will see thirteen artworks (not a coincidence), nine of which will be paintings. All nine paintings depict interior sets and props used in William Castle’s cult campy film House on Haunted Hill, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The paintings are a triumph of technical and creative visual minimalism as still images from the film are manipulated and juxtaposed onto tinted canvas, and obfuscated by multiple layers of white glaze and velaturas [literally, there is only white titanium oil paint on a pastel ground]. Much like the 1959 film, the paintings themselves appear veiled and slightly threatening and unresolved.

Visitors to the gallery will be invited to participate in a scavenger hunt (the scavenger hunt, House Hunt DC, will begin October 8 during which the artist will release a series of five clues via Twitter (twitter.com/househuntdc)) and hunters will ultimately have the chance to win paintings from the exhibition. Scavenger hunt winners will redeem their findings to win actual paintings from the exhibition on October 30, during House Party, a costume party and gallery fundraiser.

There will also be a funerary performance by Wodzianski on the opening night of the exhibition (thus the tiny coffins as invites!). I will also have an essay on Wodzianski.

Abra Cadaver, an exhibition of Wodzianski's drawings will be on view concurrently at Fraser Gallery in Bethesda, MD. The exhibition opens October 9 from 6-9pm and runs through November 14.

Again, House Opening Reception: Thursday, October 8, 6-8pm and House Party: Friday, October 30, 9-12pm at Flashpoint.

What Pulse said...

This is what the selection committee at the Pulse Art Fair Miami said to me:

Oh well... there are 24 other fairs to apply to... sigh.

Tiny coffin

I just got a tiny coffin in the mail... will investigate.

Hirst versus the world

And nu... there's an ongoing fight between once poor artist-who-got-famous-real-quick and is now a multimillionaire marketeer Damien Hirst and a 16-year old teenager named Cartrain that he had arrested in a feud that started because the the kid had created some collages, and some of them included an image of the by now famous jewel-encrusted skull that Hirst had made and then sold (for what has been reported as £50 million British pounds which is a fucking lot of US Samolians)), and then Cartrain walked away with some Hirstonian artsy pencils.

Breathe deeply...

Hirst, who is apparently super sensitive about the "issue" (pronounced in BBC British as "easy-uh") that (like the Disney copyright police), he threatened to sue Cartrain and then forced the kiddie to hand over the artwork and to pay £200 British pounds (the British refuse to use Euros because, as explained to me by a drunk Brit in the high seas, they think of "Europeans" as WOGs) to Hirst.

But then a lot of artists got pissed off at Hirst and started creating more artwork using the Hirstonian skull as the subject matter in protest.

And now the whole "issue" gets more more bizarre lately, as Cartrain, probably seeing an Warholian moment, drops by a Hirst exhibition and walks away with a box of pencils that were in one of Hirst's works and leaves a ransom note (is this the DC Collector?) demanding his own artwork be returned.

Has Hirst been "played"?

How much is a box of pencils worth? Fifty pence? £3.99 if the pencils have rubbers on the ends? Well, if they're part of a Damien Hirst art installation, the value is £500,000. That is what 17-year-old graffiti artist Cartrain discovered when he pilfered some pencils from Hirst's sculpture Pharmacy. And that wasn't all – he was arrested, released on bail, and is waiting to find out if he will be formally charged with causing damage to an iconic artwork worth £10m.

And so... the constables now have valued that artsy box of pencils at £500,000 and then arrested the kid.

As the artworld turns...