Sunday, June 13, 2010

Book Report

As I noted a while back, I have been retained by Schiffer Publishing to edit and create a coffee table size art book titled “100 Washington, DC Artists” as part of their series on national artists.

The book will cover 100 key artists working in the Greater Washington, DC area which encompasses the District and surrounding suburban areas of Maryland and Virginia.

Like all Schiffer art books, this will be a high quality book which will be available nationally and online, as well as available locally at museum gift shops and local area bookstores. Each artist will have a two page spread, with 3-4 images of their work, a small head shot, and a 300 word essay about their work.

So far I've spent a lot of free time editing, cutting and pasting the captions to about 1,000 images for the book. On the good side, I am astounded as to the depth and breadth of artistic creativity in our area. Anyone who says that DC area art is traditional and/or conservative needs to take a look at the 21,000 slides in the collection of the WPA (as I did for "Seven") or to about 1,000 recent images of work by the top 100 artists in our region; then come talk to me about "traditional" and "conservative."

Richard The Great Pryor

On the bad side, I can't believe how many artists can't follow simple directions such as "write this in the third person." I actually had a college professor ask me what the "3rd person" was. Don't even let me get started on how many variants of writing a caption there are out there. Just in case, the basic elements of a caption are: title of the artwork, year created, media, and size.

Back on the good side, I am honored to be working with such a talented and motley crew. The book will be available in the Spring of 2011; I've already entered into discussions with the publisher for a second book with another 100 DMV artists.

Talking about books: Scored another giant deal on multiple signed modern first editions to add to my collection! Sad when used book stores close though...

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Mr. President, please do something...

BP oil disaster by F. Lennox Campello

Congrats!

To DC's Matt Sesow, whose new solo show with Access Gallery in Denver, Colorado, opens with 41 new paintings, yes 41, next Friday.

Meet the Artist Reception: Friday, June 18, 6:00 – 9:00 pm

Live Painting and Gallery Talk: Friday June 18, 12:00–4:00 pm

Family Art Day: Saturday June 19, 10:00–1:00 pm

First Friday Reception: July 2, 6:00 – 9:00 pm

Facebook campaigning

The CP's Jonathan L. Fischer picks up on the Facebook campaign to get the Hirshhorn to pay attention to DC video sculptor Tim Tate.

We can make this happen! Add your voice here!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Artisphere

Artisphere, the metropolitan-DC area’s newest cultural center, is set to open in Arlington on 10-10-10 with multiple venues, including: a 4,000 square foot ballroom space, a wi-fi lounge, a cafĂ©, three distinct gallery spaces, as well as three flexible theater/performance spaces!

There are also three job openings as Artisphere is now accepting applications for the following positions:

1. New Media Curator ($43,804.80 - $72,425.60 Annually)
2. Program Director ($53,580.80 - $88,545.60 Annually)
3. Executive Director ($56,700.80 - $116,708.80 Annually).

There's also a call for exhibition proposals (due June 15). All proposals must be submitted via arlington.slideroom.com. You can download the proposal submission form here.

Working hard

Hard work always has a payoff for artists. And one of the DMV's hardest working artists is my good bud Tim Tate. The dude has has three openings coming next week alone!

- Swanson Reed Gallery, Louisville, KY. Opening on Friday evening, June 11.

- Fuller Museum, Brockton, Mass. Sunday afternoon, June 13. There's a 1pm lecture and a 2pm reception.

- Scope Art Basel, Switzerland with San Francisco's Micaela Gallery, June 15-20, 2010.

Join the Facebook group We want to see Tim Tate's video art work in the Hirshhorn Museum!! here.

Tomorrow: Grand Opening of new gallery in Loudoun

The Gateway Gallery is a new artists' owned and run cooperative gallery located in the Hill High Orchard Building, just west of Round Hill on Route 7 and certainly a landmark for western Loudoun.

The Grand Opening is Saturday, June 12 starting at 6PM and there will be demos from several of the 30 artist members. Look for the work of Suzanne Lago Arthur to stand out.