Wanna go to an opening tomorrow?

Wanna go to an opening this Sunday?


Friday, November 20 – Sunday, January 10
Where: DCAC, 2438 18th St. NW Washington, DC 20009
Opening Reception: Friday, November 20, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Artists Talks/Closing Reception: Sunday, January 10, 5:00 pm-7:00 pm

Jurors: Renee Stout, Blake Kimbrough, and Marvin Bowser
Curator: Amber Robles-Gordon
Co-Curator: Daniel T. Brooking
Judges: Teresia Bush and Eugene R. Vango

Featuring work by John Earl Cooper, Arcmanoro Niles, Cedric Baker, Jacqueline Lee, Valentina Andaya, Akili Ron Anderson, Viola Leak, Bruce McNeil, Gloria C. Kirk, Stanley Squirewell, Claudia Gibson-Hunter, Michael Platt, Sonya Clark, Ann Marie Williams, Alec Simpson, Daniel T. Brooking, Amber Robles-Gordon, Prelli Williams, Kristen Hayes, Serinity Knight, Anne Bouie, James Brown, Jr., T. H. Gomillion, Adjoa J. Burrowes, Deidra Bell, Willard Taylor, Carlton Wilkinson, Constance Porter Uzelac, and Juilett Madison.

Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium Networking Social

Thursday, November 19, 2009
6:00pm - 9:00pm
Blackfinn Restaurant & Saloon
4901 Fairmont Ave, Bethesda, MD

Join other emerging arts leaders for a networking event at Blackfinn of Bethesda.

For a suggested $10 donation to the Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium, you will be able to schmooze and socialize with other area young professionals who share a passion for the arts. All while enjoying great free appetizers and specials. To RSVP join the event on Facebook.

Blackfinn is located near the Bethesda Metro stop along the red line. Walk north on Old Georgetown Road, take a right onto Fairmount and join the party! Street and garage parking are available in the area as well.

The Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium, now in its third year, is an annual meeting for young professionals who work in the arts, held at American University. It is an opportunity to discuss the issues, unique or universal, that affect arts organizations, with students, peers, and experienced professionals. For more information click here.

New DC gallery

Artists/Owners Natasha Mokina and Victor Pakhomkin envision their recently opened gallery, Winter Palace Studio, as "a sanctuary for realist art that combines classical craftsmanship and contemporary concepts." The gallery will exhibit paintings by Mokina and Pakhomkin and group shows by local and international artists who share the gallery's philosophy. It will also hold realistic painting and drawing classes, workshops and seminars.

The two artists have worked in the Washington, DC area for nearly twenty years creating highly realistic oil paintings, murals, portraits by commission and teaching academic painting and drawing in their studio in Bethesda. Natasha Mokina is also on the faculty of the Corcoran College of Art and Design.

“It still feels like a dream to see ourselves and our paintings in this beautiful historic courtyard, says Natasha Mokina. This is the prettiest place in Georgetown. I just cannot get over the sense of this fantastic mix of times and places: the C&O Canal reminiscent of canals in St. Petersburg (our birth place), old brick buildings of Georgetown evoking “The Little Street“ by Vermeer… ”

Winter Studio Contemporary Realism gallery is located at “Galleries 1054” in Canal Square at 1054 31st Street NW. The gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday 12:00 to 6:00 pm.

The opening reception for a new exhibition ”Black Kitchen Magic, Etc” featuring the paintings by Natasha Mokina and Victor Pakhomkin is Friday, November 20, 2009 from 6 pm to 8 pm.

Staged History

It's the iconic photo that captures the essence of the Spanish Civil War: a soldier falling to his death, arms splayed out behind him, gun still in hand, after being shot on a grassy hill.

But new evidence now claims to prove once and for all that the camera does lie - and Robert Capa's famous Falling Soldier was faked.

Read the fascinating detective story in the Daily Mail here and then read George Will's take on the whole issue in the WaPo here; Will writes:

Capa was a man of the left, and "Falling Soldier" helped to alarm the world about fascism rampant. But noble purposes do not validate misrepresentations. Richard Whelan, Capa's biographer, calls it "trivializing" to insist on knowing whether this photo actually shows a soldier mortally wounded. Whelan says that "the picture's greatness actually lies in its symbolic implications, not in its literal accuracy."

Rubbish. The picture's greatness evaporates if its veracity is fictitious. To argue otherwise is to endorse high-minded duplicity -- and to trivialize Capa, who saw a surfeit of 20th-century war and neither flinched from its horrors nor retreated into an "I am a camera" detachment. As a warning about well-meaning falsifications of history, "Falling Soldier" matters because Capa probably fabricated reality to serve what he called "concerned photography."

I'm still debating what side to take on the whole issue... it does seem to deflate the whole image a bit... any thoughts on the subject? Leave me some comments.

And speaking of comments, like almost everything in the nation these days, this photographic issue has become a barbarous debate between the vast right wing conspiracy and the equally vast kooky left wing nuttery. Read the WaPo's comments to Will's point of view here and have fun with the kooks from the extreme right and the nuts from the extreme left.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Nov. 20th, 2009

If you read this blog then you know that I've been always very impressed with the BlackRock Center for the Arts gallery's 1500 square feet of exquisite gallery space. With its high white walls and beautiful windows strategically placed, this gorgeous gallery allows in just the right amount of natural light. BlackRock Center for the Arts is located at 12901 Town Commons Drive Germantown, MD in upper Montgomery County, about 20 minutes from the Capital Beltway (495).

They currently have a call to artists and the call is open to all artists residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC over the age of 18.

Original artwork only. All work must be ready for sale and to be presented in a professional manner to the public at the time of delivery.

This call will cover exhibits in the gallery from September 2010 through August 2011. An exhibit may include one applicant or a combination of applicants, based on the judgment of jurors (i.e., 1 or 2 wall artists may be combined with a pedestal artist). A jury will select the artists and create eight exhibits to be included in the exhibit year. The jury panel is comprised of my good friend and gallerist Elyse Harrison, Jodi Walsh, and yours truly.

Jurying: First Week of December
Notification: Early January
Exhibit Year: Sept. 2010 – Aug. 2011

How to apply: All correspondence will be done by e-mail, so contact Kimberly Onley, the Gallery Coordinator at konley@blackrockcenter.org and ask her to email you a prospectus.

Don't wait to the last minute! Get the prospectus now!

Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna Lynch

“ASEre ¿SI o NO?
6x16 in. framed to 14x22. Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 2009.
F. Lennox Campello
Asere is a Cuban street slang word that means something akin to dude, or friend, or buddy, or "bro"... you get the drift. In this drawing, the wall graffiti asks "Asere, Yes or No?" while the question itself answers by the capitalization... and Che laughs.