SELECT Tickets
SELECT Gala Party Tickets on Sale Today!
A limited number of SELECT party tickets are now on sale!
Tickets are $150 and include silent and live auction bidding, open bar, dessert, and coffee starting at 8:30pm.
Purchase party tickets today on this website here or contact Christopher Cunetto at ccunetto@wpadc.org or 202-234-7103 x5 for more information.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Albert Sangiamo
Next Monday February 27, a number of former MICA students, which includes Jeff Koons and Philadelphia's Frank Hyder, will be assembled at MICA in Baltimore to celebrate the retirement of Albert Sangiamo, who was their first mentor.
The list of artists attending is very impressive; Sangiamo was chair of drawing at MICA for more than 40 years. He was a student of Joseph Albers and was hired to help make the Institute a first class art school.
Jeff Koons will be making a presentation at noon, followed by a luncheon.
Fresh Flowers and Furry Friends
I would have picked somewhat of a better title for the show, but watercolors by Barbara Bell, collages by Merry Lymn, digital work based on photographs of flowers by the very talented Bert GF Shankman, fused glass portraits of dogs by Shirley Hendel and ceramics featuring cats by Leigh Partington all make up the next show at Potomac's Gallery Har Shalom (located at Congregation Har Shalom, 11510 Falls Road, Potomac, MD) and because we're neighbors, I really want to make sure that this gallery gets some attention! And here's an opening that starts at 11AM! Washington City Paper, Gazette, Potomac News... now you can find out if your art writers ever get up before noon!
Opening Reception: Sunday, March 4, 2012, 11am - 1 pm
Exhibit dates: Friday, March 2 - Monday, April 30, 2012
Call for hours and directions: 301-299-7087
Barbara F. Bell uses her own photographs as a major resource for her watercolor paintings. She focuses in this exhibit on regeneration and renewal in the natural world, her palette reflecting the early light and gentle colors of May along the riverbanks, and in the forests and fields of England and America. Barbara began her formal training in art while on academic leave from university teaching. She worked in studio arts at Montgomery College (Rockville) in the 1980s. Retirement from teaching in Montgomery County Public Schools twenty years later afforded her the time to resume her artwork. See www.bellslessons.com for more information.
Merry Lymn began taking formal collage classes in October 2008. In 2009, she was juried into her first art show, and since then she has been juried into several others. She divides her work into five subject areas--landscape, still life, people, Judaica, and wildcard. For this show, the pieces are exclusively flowers for which she created special Jewish flowers including a Shin Flower, a Vase with Shin Flowers, a Shofar Flower, and a Lily from the Song of Songs. See www.artlymn.com for more images.
Bert GF Shankman presents his Flemish Series of flowers in this show. He first saw this technique of painting when he minored in Art History for his AB at Case Western Reserve University. He practiced this style, called Chiaroscuro, when he studied at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. These pictures use light and dark to model the shapes and forms of the flowers and vases. They are done digitally starting out with photographs of flowers which he grows in his garden. Though decidedly different, they give a feeling of 16th century Flemish art. Visit www.cameraflora.com for more details.
Shirley Hendel was an award-winning decorative painter for many years. Several years ago she was introduced to fused glass and became fascinated with the possibilities for expression that glass materials and techniques offer. She now works exclusively in that medium while trying to maintain the perspective that decorative painting provides. She specializes in pet portraits, especially dogs, but also other creatures both real and whimsical. Her fused glass portraits (you could almost call them caricatures) are not based on actual dogs and cats as much as they are reminiscent of the lovable mutts and house cats that we grew up with or may still be in our lives. Just like these mixed-breed pets, these portraits come in assorted shapes and colors; no two exactly the same.
Leigh Partington has been doing ceramic art for over 30 years. Her work has evolved to include a combination of whimsical wheel-thrown and hand-built pieces that emphasize her love of and appreciation for animals, birds and nature in general. As a feline fancier – cats have always been a part of her life, she portrays them as functional pieces and decorative objects. She combines different clays for a marbled effect in some of her pieces. All pieces are bisque-fired. Then she adds detailed illustrations painted on with Speedball underglazes and dips the pieces in a transparent glaze. She uses a combination of overglazes sponged on the exterior for mottled color effects. The pieces, including ceramic pitchers, garlic keepers, egg separators, ocarinas, and platters, are then oxidation fired in an electric kiln.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Danger Artists, Danger!
Artists are often colorful personalities. This one, though, comes across as cool, precise and metallic – and is anything but extravagant. No wonder – after all, it’s an industrial robot, one that will convert the Fraunhofer stand at CeBIT into an art studio. Its artistic genius only emerges if someone takes a seat on the model’s stool positioned in front of the robot: first, its camera records an image of its model; then it whips out its pencil and traces a portrait of the individual on its easel. After around ten minutes have passed, it grabs the work and proudly presents it to its public. This robot installation was developed by artists in the robotlab group, at the Center for Art and Media ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, some of whom are now employed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Karlsruhe.(Via) Details here.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Art for Humanity AuctionI am honored to be one of the invited artists to participate in the first ever Art for Humanity Auction & Cocktail Reception 2012, which is the first annual fundraiser to support the work of Habitat for Humanity in Washington, D.C. It will take place on Thursday, March 29, 2012.
DC Habitat will be honoring Peggy Cooper Caftritz for "the significant role she has played in advancing the arts and education in Washington, D.C."
Produced in collaboration with artnet Auctions, the Art for Humanity Auction features a collection of work by prominent contemporary artists from the local, national and international communities, including yours truly.
The event will take place at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, a "spectacularly modern space designed by award-winning architect Mark McInturff and Theatre Projects Consultants. Located in the heart of Washington’s Penn Quarter, at the corner of 7th and D Streets, NW, the theatre is easily accessible to parking garages."
Music by The Washington Jazz Arts Institute Ensemble.
Details here.