Congrats!

To the superbly talented and innovative Alexa Meade, whose work is part of the next show opening at the Saatchi Gallery in London this coming Thursday!

I am told that supposedly Kate Moss and Mick Jagger are confirmed to be on the guest list for the private viewing.

Meade will have five prints exhibited in the show as well an installation with a live model on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

WPA 2011 Artist Directory

Deadline: February 1, 2011

The Washington Project for the Arts has announced a call for submissions for its 2011 Artist Directory.

Published bi-annually, this four-color, 8.5 x 5.5 inch directory is the definitive listing of established and emerging contemporary artists throughout the Washington region. It is seen by more than 2,000 galleries, curators, art consultants, and interested art patrons. Copies are distributed to selected art critics and other members of the press, and to museums both in the region and outside the area. The 2011 Artist Directory will also be available for sale on the WPA website and at select area retail locations at the price of $9.95.

Each participating artist will be featured on a full page (8.5 x 5.5 inches). The page will include the artist's name, a color digital image of their work, their studio address and phone number, email address, web address, and their gallery affiliation.

All current WPA members are eligible for publication in the Artist Directory. There is an additional registration fee that includes a copy of the Artist Directory. Participants who submit before December 1, 2010 can pay a discounted early registration fee of $65. After December 1, the registration fee increases to $75. The final registration deadline is February 1, 2011. No submissions will be accepted after this date.

All submissions will be handled through an online registration form on the WPA's website.

Each participating artist can upload one image to be featured on their page. Images must be submitted as .eps or .tif files in CMYK format. They must be 300dpi and as close as possible to, but no smaller than 6 inches on the longest side.

If you have any questions regarding the 2011 Artist Directory, please contact Blair Murphy, Membership Directory at bmurphy@wpadc.org or 202-234-7103 x 1.

Folded Christ

"More than 60 people turned out Friday morning to protest one piece in an art exhibit at the Loveland Museum/Gallery in a city nationally recognized for its art-friendly culture.

Holding signs decrying the museum and the City Council and calling the exhibit pornographic, some protesters prayed the rosary out loud while others waved as cars drove by on Lincoln Avenue, honking their horns.

The image in question is a depiction of Jesus Christ involved in what some say is an act of oral sex.

Part of a folded-paper lithograph and woodcut panel depicting cultural icons, the piece, "The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals," was created by California-based artist Enrique Chagoya, a professor at Stanford University."

Ahhh... the never-ending easy artistic shortcut to get attention: somehow screw with the same Christian imagery that Serrano, Offili and countless other artists have used to get some attention.

The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals by Enrique Chagoya. Color lithograph/woodcut. 7½" x 90". Ed. 30. $3400
You can buy it online here and you can read the full Coloradoan article by Maria Schmitt here.

This piece (which has been exhibited before I gather) now gets the professor national attention. For his next panel, if he wants to get international attention of a diverse nature to say the least, I dare him to do a similar Muhammad panel.

Lo que no mata, engorda.

Sandra Ramos solo show in Norfolk

Havana-based Cuban artist Sandra Ramos is in many people's opinions, the leading contemporary Cuban artist in the world, and later this month, her solo exhibition titled Exodus, running from October 23 - December 27, opens in Norfolk's leading independently owned commercial fine arts gallery: Mayer Fine Art.

MFA, which also represents my work, is by far the top fine arts venue in the Tidewater area, and its hardworking owner, the talented Shiela Giolitti, daughter of the legendary comic book artist Alberto Giolitti has been preparing for this, Ramos' second ever solo show in the USA, for a long time.

Sandra Ramos. Flying to Miami. Charcoal and Acrylic on Digital Canvas Print. 130 x 90 cm. Circa 2010
The opening is Saturday, October 23rd from 6-9PM.

Additionally, Ramos will be leading a printmaking workshop at the Chrysler Museum on Oct 23 and 24th. You can register for that workshop here.

Then, on October 26th at 7PM, Sandra Ramos will present a lecture on contemporary Cuban art at the Baron and Ellin Art Galleries of Old Dominion University in Norfolk. Free and open to the public.

I'm driving down for this opening; see ya there!

TBD Arts Entertainment Calendar

Here is the form to submit your arts event to TBD.com

Come to the MPA ArtFest today

MPAartfest juror, Trudi Van Dyke, has selected forty-four artists to participate in the fourth annual MPAartfest, which is today Sunday, October 3, 10:30 am - 4:30 pm in McLean Central Park.

Ms. Van Dyke, an independent curator and fine arts consultant said "As always, the MPA is a magnet for all good things art and the applications submitted to MPArtfest were no exception. It was both an outstanding opportunity and awesome responsibility to select from a broad pool of artists. I am looking forward to joining the community in attending this great festival." Of the selected artists, twelve are from the McLean/Great Falls area and sixteen are new to MPAartfest.

MPAartfest transforms McLean Central Park into a lively art gallery featuring the sale of the fine arts and crafts of 44 artists. MPAartfest includes fun activities for both children and adults, as well as live music and refreshments. There is no charge to attend MPAartfest, although a donation of $5 is greatly appreciated which helps support McLean Project for the Arts and this special community event.

MPAartfest artists for 2010:

Banks, Jill -- oil painting
Barbieri, Ann -- abstract painting and drawing
Brown, Tavia -- jewelry
Bucci, Thomas -- printmaking monoprints
Burke, Cynthia --painting
Burris, Eric -- mokume gane jewelry
Campello, F. Lennox -- drawing
Cassidy, Katie --oil and acrylic painting
Ciminio, Lisa --jewelry
Deans, Karen -- oil on panel
Emrich, Hanna -- mixed media and collage
Farrow-Savos, Elissa -- sculpture
Fields, Laurie -- mixed media paintings
Ganley, Betty -- traditional watercolor
Green, Michele -- landscape painting
Grisdela, Cindy -- quilting
Hachey, Hilary -- jewelry
Hatfield, Jennifer Bernhard -- whimsical ceramics
Hubacher, Karen -- mixed media paintings and collographs
Jensen, Jill -- handpainted and handprinted wallhangings, scarves, journals
Jolles, Ronni -- layered paper and pastel
Katz, Lori -- clay
Knott, Greg -- photography
Lansaw, Julie Lea -- landscape paintings
Lester, Cherie -- painting/collage
Mahan, Val -- nature photography
McGihon, Marty -- mixed media
Michelle, Jenae -- fiber -- one of a kind handbags
Nimic, Gisele -- ceramics/collage
Paredes, AnaMarie -- metal sculpture
Peery, Laura -- ceramics
Reiber Harris, Kristin -- drawings/monoprints
Rosenstein, Lisa -- mixed media paintings -- white on white
Rosenstein, Loren -- silk scarves
Rubel, Erika -- mixed media
Saenger, Peter -- ceramic
Singh, J.J. -- jewelry
Slack, Connie -- abstract paintings
Staiger, Marsha -- abstract collage
Trump, Novie -- sculpture
Tsai, Irene -- chinese watercolors on rice paper
Vardell, Mollie -- oil paintings
Williams, Ann Marie -- abstract paintings
Woody, Curtis -- mixed media paintings

For more information about McLean Project for the Arts and MPAartfest, please visit www.mpaart.org or call 703-790-1953.

See ya there!

On the firing of Rick Sanchez

A couple of days ago CNN fired Cuban-American newscaster Rick Sanchez following his controversial and stupid comments on a radio show Thursday. He took some jabs at Jon Stewart (who has been taking a lot of jabs at Sanchez for a long time), but essentially, Sanchez was fired for suggesting that CNN and the rest of the media is run by Jewish people.

I find this Sancheztupidity even more offensive because Sanchez, who wears his Cubanosity very close to his heart, should know that there hundreds of thousands of Cuban Jews all over the world, and in fact most of them are concentrated in Miami (where Sanchez was raised). I have been told that Cuban-American Jews call themselves "Jewbans." As a Cuban-American, I am embarrassed by Sanchez's remarks and by his own cultural ignorance of his own people.

And he is probably not culturally aware that there is a very strong possibility, given his last name and European lineage, that he (as are most Sanchezes) is quite possibly descended from a marrano or force-converted Jew in medieval Spain.

According to MisApellidos.com (which in Spanish means "My last names.com") one of the ancestral origins of the surname Sanchez is:

El apellido es de judios sefarditas convertidos al catolisismo, se acentarón en la región de España y desienden de Aarón.

Translated this says:

The surname is of Sephardic Jews converted to Catholicism, they settled in the region of Spain and are descendants of Aaron.

Genealogy Forum.com asserts that:

Sanchez is a Jewish name. It is a Sephardic (Spanish) Jewish name... Ez or es means "eres Zion" or "eres Sion", which means "Son of Zion/Sion", or "Son of Jerusalem", or children of Israel, or Children of G_d. So Sanchez - means Sanch means sanctified and ez means eres Zion, so then Sanchez is "The Sanctified of Zion". Which means the ones that keep the Laws of G_d from Jerusalem, Israel. The Commandment Keepers of Zion. Sanchez is Hebrew, Israelite, and jewish of the tribe of Judah.

Cultural ignorance is not a pretty thing.

Adios and Shalom Rick...