Opportunity for Artists: Wallmountables
The District of Columbia Arts Center (DCAC) has announced the return of 1460 Wallmountables, DCAC’s annual open exhibition. On Wednesday, July 21 DCAC will open its doors at 3pm, beginning a three-day installation process during which artists can purchase up to four 2' x 2' spaces to hang their work.
Spaces sell on a first-come, first-served basis for $15 per square, with DCAC members receiving one free space and brand new members receiving four spaces for their membership fee of $30. It’s not unusual to see returning participants lined up outside DCAC’s door by 2:30pm, patiently waiting for installation to begin with an eye towards grabbing the gallery’s prime wall space. Work is accepted from a wide range of media created by artists at various stages in their careers. There is no curating; if it fits, it shows.
To sweeten the deal, a $100 “Best Use of Space” prize is presented during the opening reception to the artist who makes the most innovative use of their 2’ x 2’ squares. Since the first Wallmountables in 1990, the exhibition has become a celebrated summer tradition at DCAC. One of the center’s most important fundraising events, the open exhibition runs from July 22–August 28.
The Facts:
1460 Wallmountables 2011
July 22 – August 28
Installation: Wed., July 20, 3–8pm; Thur., July 21, 3–8pm; Fri., July 22, 3–6pm
Opening Reception: Friday, July 22, 7–9pm
Contact: info@dcartscenter.org, call 202-462-7833, online at 0
comments
Friday, June 24, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Lori Anne Boocks at Delaplaine
Saturday, July 2 from 3 to 5pm is the opening reception for The Distance Between from Germantown artist Lori Anne Boocks.
Using varying lengths of rope to mark both time and emotional space between opposing or related concepts, this installation invites viewers to consider where these intersections occur in their own lives.
The Distance Between builds on her on-going series of paintings called textscapes that incorporate the written word.
The Delaplaine Visual Arts Center
July 2 – August 21, 2011.
Tomorrow - BITE: Identity and Humor
Wilmer Wilson IV, one of the artists in the Strathmore Mansion mentorship program that Susana Raab, Tim Tate and yours truly has been working with, will have video works, film stills, and a sculpture in an exhibition entitled BITE: Identity and Humor, curated by Jefferson Pinder, at the Greater Reston Arts Center.
The show will be up from June 23 to July 29. There is an opening reception on Saturday, June 25, from 5-7p. In addition, my good friend Phillipa Hughes will moderate a dialogue in conjunction with the show on July 11 at 7:30p.
See ya there!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
The Hotel Room Art Intervention Project
For PLANNING PROCESS at the Arlington Art Center, I've tried to re-create a hotel room (and I am very grateful to the Hilton Garden Inn Rockville-Gaithersburg and to the Hilton Garden Inn Washington DC Downtown for loaning me all the various hotel peripherals used in this installation). Both of these hotels are gorgeous and their rooms look nothing like this installation, and in fact, they are decorated with real artwork from local artists.
Below you can see what my hotel room installation looks like so far...
Note that one piece of the "wall decor" has been removed from the "hotel room's walls" and is on the bed, waiting to be intervened upon...
And here it is, waiting for the magical transformation from wall decor to fine art; this transformation will be taking place throughout the exhibition, although typically I do this all in one night in a real hotel room.
“PLANNING PROCESS” as well as the concurrent exhibition “Damsels & Daemons” are on view June 22 – Sept 25, 2011. The opening reception for both shows is tomorrow, Thursday, June 23, 7 – 9 pm.
See ya there!
Arlington Art Center
3550 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22201
703-248-6800
Go to this opening tomorrow!
For PLANNING PROCESS at the Arlington Art Center, juror Helen Allen — formerly of PULSE art fairs; currently planning D.C.’s first-ever (e)merge art fair, opening this September — selected 12 artists from across the mid-Atlantic region who were willing to reveal the ways they think and problem-solve in the studio (or in my case, in a hotel room).
The artists below (including yours truly) will exhibit preparatory drawings, computer models, and even notes scribbled in the margins of newspapers next to the finished artworks those starting steps inspired—including traditional paintings, sculpture, installation, earthworks, and even neon.
“PLANNING PROCESS” as well as the concurrent exhibition “Damsels & Daemons” are on view June 22 – Sept 25, 2011. The opening reception for both shows is this next Thursday, June 23, 7 – 9 pm.
Andrew Wodzianski shows a portrait project in which he compares members of his family to the crew of the Pequod in “Moby Dick.”Gallery hours: Wed – Fri, 7 – 9 pm; Sat + Sun, Noon – 5 pm
John James Anderson reveals his scheme to print blank newspapers as a prank—and how this ultimately led him to erasing the front pages of found newspapers by hand.
F. Lennox Campello offers a mock-up of a typical hotel room in order to demonstrate his ongoing project: defacing (and thereby improving) the tacky hotel art he encounters whenever he’s on the road.
R.L. Croft shows large-scale metal sculpture next to one of the R. Crumb-like pen and ink drawings that inspired it.
Craig Kraft reveals how he transforms notes and careless doodles in the margins of newspapers into wall-filling neon sculptures.
Magnolia Laurie uses her quirky pictorial language—referencing makeshift structures, natural disasters, and rubble—to create related works in recycled paper, foam, tiny pen-and-ink drawings and large finished paintings.
Jessie Lehson transforms one of AAC’s experimental galleries into a sort of giant soil mandala: an ephemeral meditative space composed with minimalist-inspired patterns.
Ephraim Russell tracks his own movements using his own homemade hand-held GPS device—and uses that data to create various drawings, printouts, and videos.
Samuel Scharf invites viewers into an unexpected encounter with deep saturated color in a small enclosed environment—an 8 foot cube with a small doorway and a lone LED lightbulb inside.
Dan Tulk creates giant minimalist grids directly on the walls of the gallery using threaded rods, string, and brightly colored yarn.
Jessica van Brakle creates hybrid graphic black and white images in which sublime landscapes are dominated by giant construction cranes.
Tom Wagner shows through a series of four studies how he melds images of contemporary architecture, figures from renaissance art, and the energy of Futurist painting.
Arlington Art Center
3550 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22201
703-248-6800
Sondheim Prize: Bet on Mark
A while back, five artists (two photographers, a sculptor, a film director, and a multimedia artist) were selected to compete for this year's $25,000 Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape prize.
The five are Baltimoreans Stephanie Barber (multimedia), Matthew Porterfield (film) and Rachel Rotenberg (sculpture), and Washington area photographers, Louie Palu and Mark Parascandola.
The Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts and the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) will present a special exhibition of the five 2011 finalists at the BMA. Finalists’ works will be exhibited in the Alvin and Fanny Blaustein Thalheimer Galleries of the BMA from Saturday, June 25 through Sunday, August 7. The winner of the prize will be announced on July 9.
My bet? Mark Parascandola; for the competition he will:
For the competition, Parascandola presented his current body of work: photographic prints of abandoned constructions in Almeria, Spain. Almeria was discovered by European and American filmmakers in the 1960s, when they began using the area for building its impermanent backdrops and fake towns. “Lawrence of Arabia” and Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns, for example, were filmed there. The artist is connected to the area through his mother’s family. Because of this personal attachment, he is compelled to document its stark desert landscape.Go Mark!
On exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art will be 12 photographic prints, chosen by Parascandola, mixing images of the western movies sets along with some images of the surrounding landscape and more recent constructions to provide context. The larger pieces are constructed from multiple images to create a single panoramic image.
The show will examine two atypical versions of the ghost town. Today some of the elaborate movie sets remain in the desert. While select few have been fixed up for tourists, others remain largely in ruins. The artist is also presenting his works that examine the empty residential enclaves and vacation developments along the Almerian coast. These properties were abandoned or left empty after the economic crisis and real estate crash.
