From Univision

Reporting stuff that gets reported in Spanish language newscasts that never makes it to the mainstream media: There are "elections" coming up in Venezuela in a couple of days.

During the last "elections", the opposition to Hugo Chavez skipped them, because of fraud accusations ahead of the elections. This year they are apparently going through the paces, although they are still claiming that Chavez is rigging the "elections" to favor his continued elected dictatorship.

The fucker is not even trying to hide it. According to Univision, of Venezuela's 17 million registered voters, one million of them were born on the exact same day.

Paying for art

Here’s an unhappy scenario: a young gallery, with nearly empty coffers, hasn’t collected payment on six of the seven sales the dealer closed at a June satellite art fair in Basel. The dealer—who paid all fair-related expenses months ago—needs to cover his rent and overheads. He can’t pay the artist, who needs money for his own bills plus materials for an autumn show. To make matters worse, the dealer must remain calm and detached, while trying to extract payment. “It’s this old-school gentleman thing,” the dealer told me. “You don’t want to appear desperate.”

Lindsay Pollock in the Art Newspaper; read it here.

Head North...

Andrew Wodzianki's Super! will open at the BlackRock Center for the Arts on Wednesday, September 29, and will run until Monday, October 25 with an artist reception schedule for Friday, October 1, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

"We are thrilled to have the edgy, fun, thought-provoking and talked-about work of Andrew Wodzianski in the BlackRock Gallery,” said Gallery Coordinator Kim Olney."

In an interview with the Gazette newspapers, Wodzianski said, “I just started to play on my fantasy, which was to gender bend [the figures].” For instance, one image shows Clark Kent in a dress with heroic Lois Lane carrying him through the air and another depicts Alice in Wonderland investigating the skirt of Wonder Woman.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: November 12, 2010

Gallery West in Old Town Alexandria has a call for artists for their 14th Annual National Juried Show (Exhibit Dates: February 9–March 6, 2011).

The all media show will be juried by yours truly and awards to total $1,000. Click here to download the prospectus.

Losing Hope

The artist whose poster of Barack Obama became a rallying image during the hope-and-change election of 2008 says he understands why so many people have lost faith.

In an exclusive interview with National Journal on Thursday, Shepard Fairey expressed his disappointment with the president -- a malaise that seems representative of many Democrats who had great expectations for Obama.

Read it here.

Cuban gay activist arrested

Last Friday, the Castro dictatorship arrested gay activist Aliomar Janjaque Chivás, president of the LGBT Reinaldo Arenas Foundation, for collecting testimonies that documented abuses against the gay community in Cuba.

The testimonies were to form part of a legal proceeding initiated at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague against the Castro regime for "crimes against humanity." They were subsequently confiscated by the Cuban authorities.

Janjaque was arrested while interviewing various men who had been interned in labor camps due to their sexual orientation.

New Drawing

I've fallen in love with the drawings, paintings and prints by 19th century German artist Ida Teichmann. Below is my homage to one of her best known works: Sleep.

Sleep (Homage to Ida Teichmann). Charcoal and conte on paper. 4 x 26 inches


Detail