Angry

Greg Allen reports on the Running for cover(age) panel discussion that took place a couple of weeks ago.

As I said last night, the Washington )#$%ing Post has absolutely no critical credibility with anyone in the art world outside of DMV. And it should be obvious from last night, too, that many people in DC feel the same way.

138 people showed up on a freezing night! DMV stands for DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Read his report here.

Pink Line also reported on the panel and her report also is a good read.

Many people who attended the panel discussion were upset that the Dawson article wasn't thinky enough for them. It wasn't meant to be thinky! In fact, I'm not so sure any of the writing in a newspaper is meant to be thinky. Several suggested that we need a publication dedicated to art reviews in DC. Not a bad idea! It would fill the gap that a paper like the Washington Post can't fill. Wish there were a way to make such a print publication financially viable. Perhaps an online forum would do the trick?

Some were upset that the article was too negative and didn't uplift our art community. Kriston [Capps] said newspaper writers do not have a responsibility to uplift an art scene and build community. Their job is to write stories that people want to read. When writers pitch stories to their editors, the stories must have an angle or a hook that will compel people to read the paper. This is the nature of journalism.

Read the Pink Line report here.

Benefactor Strikes Again

Remember the "Benefactor" and his DC artworld antics? Well... he's back.

Check his latest antic here.

Maryland Symposium

Online Registration is now open for the upcoming symposium co-sponsored by the David C. Driskell Center and the University of Maryland University College

Autobiography/Performance/Identity: A Symposium on African American and African Diasporan Women in the Visual Arts - March 5 and 6, 20010

Featuring a keynote address by Lorraine O'Grady, and a performance by my good friend and Boston Cuban-American artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons and more.

See the program online here and register for the symposium online here.

For more information contact
David C. Driskell Center
1214 Cole Student Activities Building
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
TEL 301-314-2615
FAX 301-314-0679

On the subject of titles

I'm sort of a title fanatic when it comes to artwork, and often as the artwork itself develops, it reveals a title to the artist - unless that artist is a lazy bum with a propensity for "Nude #9" or a myriad of "untitled" as titles.

A perfect example of this is my drawing Woman on the Moon about to be swept off her feet by a Flying Bald Man.

"Woman on the Moon about to be swept off her feet by a Flying Bald Man"
Charcoal on Paper, c. 2005. 6 x 4.5 inches
When I started this drawing, it was just the female figure with her arms wide open. As I introduced the dark charcoal around her, a flying figure revealed itself amongs the layers of charcoal and I grabbed the kneaded eraser and worked the charcoal to reveal a figure of a flying bald man. Titling the drawing was then super-easy.

In Facebook, Jerry Salz posted:

What are good titles for works of art. Damien Hirst is a bad artist with good titles: The Shark is "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living." The crappy skull is called, "For the Love of God." There's always, Courbet's "The Origin of the World;" Morton Schamberg's "Portrait of God;" and Picabia's "Portrait of Cezanne."

And do far he's received 154 responses.

Cool question uh? So let me copy Jerry's interesting question and ask: what are some good titles? Let me know in the comments.

Time for the Trawick!

Deadline: Friday, April 9, 2010

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is accepting submissions for The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards. The annual juried contemporary art competition awards $14,000 in prize monies to four selected artists. Deadline for submissions is Friday, April 9, 2010 and up to 12 artists will be selected for a group exhibition during the month of September.

The competition will be juried by Harry Cooper, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; Robert Haywood, Deputy Director at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, MD and Emily Smith, Curatorial Fellow in Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA.

The first place winner will be awarded $10,000; second place will be honored with $2,000 and third place will be awarded $1,000. A “young” artist whose birth date is after April 10, 1978 may also be awarded $1,000.

Artists must be 18 years of age or older and residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. Original painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, fiber art, digital, mixed media and video are accepted. The maximum dimension should not exceed 96 inches in any direction. No reproductions. Selected artists must deliver artwork to exhibit site in Bethesda, MD. All works on paper must be framed to full conservation standards. Each artist must submit five slides or five images on CD, application and a non-refundable entry fee of $25.

Details here.

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

Sixteen writers and sixteen visual artists from Washington, D.C., and beyond have paired to create artworks that resonate with each other for a new exhibition, Call + Response. The show, which includes the work of a Guggenheim fellowship recipient and seven Hamiltonian Fellows, will run from January 23 until February 13, 2010, at the Hamiltonian Gallery. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, January 23, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Call + Response's participants have given a new twist to the term "call and response" (a succession of two distinct phrases played by different musicians in which the second phrase comments on or responds to the first). For each pairing, the writer has provided the call and the visual artist has created the response. The result is paired works that resonate with each other, building a bridge between two distinct but fertile communities.

The writers each wrote several short pieces, which were then distributed to the artists. One at a time, each artist selected a piece to respond to without knowing the identity of its author, until every author was paired with an artist. At the gallery, each artwork will be displayed together with the written piece to which it responds.

One pairing brings together writer Matt Klam and artist Anthony Dihle, both residents of D.C. Klam, the author of the short story collection Sam The Cat and a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, a Whiting Writers' Award, a National Endowment of the Arts grant, and a PEN/Robert Bingham Award, contributed a new story entitled At Donna's,Thanksgiving 1992. Dihle, who earned his BFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and curated a show of D.C. indie rock concert posters at Civilian Art Projects in June 2009, is responding to it with a series of oil paintings.

Another pairing matches poet Eleanor Graves with artist Lam Vuong. Graves has been teaching poetry, literature, and composition since coming to the D.C., area in 2003. She received an MFA in poetry from George Mason University and is a recipient of the Mary Rinehart Award in Poetry, with poems appearing in Phoebe, Practice, and Hayden's Ferry Review. Vuong was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi, to Vietnamese refugees. His photography, watercolors, and installations deal with the nuances of loneliness and confusion in dating and Asian American culture. He started his MFA at CalArts last fall and is responding to Graves' new poem Gorgeous Evasions with a photographic work.

Call + Response is co-curated by William Bert and Kira Wisniewski. "So many writers and artists live in D.C., and we wanted to get them talking to one another and sharing work," says Bert. "We knew that what they produced would be something special."

"Collaboration and communication are at the root of this project, and we hope that the paired works spark dialogue beyond the participants and into the community," explains Wisniewski.

As a part of their Support Local Creativity campaign, independently-owned Flying Dog Brewery, based in Frederick, Maryland, will provide sponsorship in the form of world-class, locally-produced American craft beer, available complimentarily at the opening.

H&F Fine Arts Gallery Closing

From their news release:

After 3 years of support from the Metro DC area, we have made the difficult decision to close. The past year has been very challenging for our local arts' communities. Several galleries in the metropolitan area have closed and unfortunately we will follow suit.

The past 3 years have been an incredible experience. Great exhibitions curated by J.T. Kirkland, Lenny Campello, Tonya Jordan, and Marvette Perez. The excitement of our first Washington Post Review! Exhibitions with artists Alan Binstock, Kristen Copham, Dana Ellyn, Andrew Krieger, and Michael Platt just to name a few.

Thank you to everyone that supported our exhibitions. Many of you traveled from DC, VA, and many areas of MD. We always appreciated the support!!!

Sincerely,
Karen Handy and Cheryl Fountain

H&F Fine Arts was a beautiful space and will be sorely missed.