Maryland Art Place names new Executive Director

Maryland Art Place (MAP) has announced the hiring of Amy Cavanaugh Royce as its new Executive Director. I also know that she is one helluva good cellist!

In her former position as Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of the ARCH Development Corporation in Washington, D.C., Ms. Royce spearheaded the development of four cultural facilities, which now operate as the cultural arm of ARCH organization.

She also co-founded and operated a state-of-the-art contemporary exhibition space, Honfleur Gallery.

John James Anderson and Susan Stacks at Adah Rose Gallery

Adah Rose Gallery (3766 Howard Ave Kensington Md, 20895, www.adahrosegallery.com is a relative newcomer to the DMV art scene, but under the experienced guidance of Adah Rose, it seems to have hit the deck running.

“The Pleasures Here Are Well Known” - work by John James Anderson and Susan Stacks - is their next show, with an opening reception, on Saturday February 11, 6:30-8:30 p.m. (also music by Walker Road).

The printed word and the acquisition of language are the principal ideas in the work of John James Anderson. His first series, “Building Blocks,” adopts the playful vocabulary of pop art with familiar logos and graphics which require reading through a lens that is both nostalgic and cerebral. Mr. Anderson creates a graphic alphabet from the eye-catching lettering of soda cans, candy wrappers and cereal boxes. In his second series, “Out of Print,” language and the evolution of our collective literacy is also explored, this time in the decline of print journalism. Mr. Anderson collected the front pages of national newspapers and carefully erased portions of their content, resulting in graphic and poetic musings on the fate of mass communication.

... Beginning with the unconsciousness of a doodle, but executed with the commitment of surgery, Susan Stacks creates drawings with pencil and pen that are artifacts of a meditative experience. These intricate and elegant works reference landscapes, microscopic forms, and cartography. As Ms. Stacks draws, a twist becomes a tug, a dash a dot. Her influences are as varied as novels, mythological figures, plant and bacterial life, rock stars and vending machines. She refers to her drawings as emotional maps, parasites, friends, and penance.

Artguardian

(Via/Thanks!)

There are an estimated 150 million works of art in the market today – in museums, public spaces and in the holdings of private collectors. Not only because of their material value, but also because of their intangible value they deserve to be handled carefully. However, neither artists nor museums or collectors want to protect artwork from detrimental influences by keeping it in a climate-controlled safe. Art needs the public.

By combining modern technologies from the fields of microelectronics, building physics and information technology, three Fraunhofer Institutes and their partners have now developed a solution that meets the challenges that arise: "Artguardian consists of four sensors invisibly attached to the work of art; they register temperatures, humidity, lighting conditions and any bumps or movements", observes Dr. Stephan Guttowski from the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM in Berlin." It forwards data at regular intervals to a base station located near the work."

Check it out here.

Google's new search by image function

I'm loving Google's new search by image capability. Now you can drop an image into the search box and it not only finds all "similar" images around the Internets, but also all the websites where that image is being used.

Using that function, I've discovered that many of my drawings are being used all over the place without my permission, and I've only researched about a dozen or so pieces.

Example: "Victorious Pict" is a decade old drawing that was part of my Pictish Nation show at the old Georgetown Fraser Gallery.

After using the Google function, I've discovered that the drawing is in use by all these websites all over the planet.

Go play with it.

How to rip off artists?

According to some of the artists whose work is being sold via this website, the fellow human from our northern neighbor who runs it is allegedly ripping off the artists in question, and despite repeated requests to remove their artwork from the site -- from the artists to the website owners -- it has all been apparently ignored.

For all that matters:

Registrant Name: Alex Munin
Registrant Organization: munin.co
Registrant Address1: 172 Vagan Rd.
Registrant City: Toronto
Registrant State/Province: ON
Registrant Postal Code: m6c3a4
Registrant Country: Canada
Registrant Country Code: CA
Registrant Phone Number: +1.6472284753

Lori Earley is one of the artists being allegedly ripped off. Lori's wondrous work has been exhibited in the DMV by the olde Fraser Gallery - decades ago now! Check it out here.

Anybody out there know anything about this? Mr. Munin? Want to respond? (I found his email address and sent him a request for comments).

Any other artists?

We have a possible Comemierda alert.

Update: Looks like the website in question has been taken down since last night!

Heard on Univision

I just heard that the Spanish language TV show Sabado Gigante, a variety show by Chilean-born TV host Mario Kreutzberger Blumenfeld - known to the Latin American television-watching world as Don Francisco - is celebrating its 50th year anniversary.

WOW!

Congrats Don Francisco!

Wanna come to my book signing?

There will be a book signing for my 100 Artists of Washington, DC book on February 16 from 6:30 - 8:30PM at the gorgeous BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown, Maryland.

Bring your own book (buy it at Amazon here) or get a copy from me at the Center (it will be cheaper at Amazon).

Many of the artists in the book will be there, so this is also a good opportunity to get your copy signed by them as well.

I will also be giving a talk about how this book came to be, and the selection process (an update) for the next two volumes.

BlackRock Center for the Arts
12901 Town Commons Drive
Germantown, MD 20874

301.528.2260 (administrative offices)
301.528.2266 (fax)
info@blackrockcenter.org (e-mail)

See ya there!