Talk and party at the Katzen this Saturday

This is the last week to see Tim Tate's spectacular video show at the Katzen Museum at American University. 

There will be a talk this Saturday at 4pm led by yours truly discussing the meanings and importance of the installation and of Tate's work. 

It is followed by a closing party from 5 to 7 - free and open to the public. 

I hope you get a chance to stop by. 

And here read Tony Harvey's review of the show.

We Don’t Need Monet—We Need Money!

Gentry liberals—university profs, cutting edge art mavens, foundation executives—like to think of themselves as the key, leading members in the blue coalition. But as the money runs out and the civil war heats up, there’s a tendency to throw the gentry liberals under the bus. This has been happening for years now when it comes to the battles over university education in states, as funds for higher ed keep getting cut back. The fight over paying pensions versus hanging on to Van Goghs brings this tendency to the fore.

Read the whole piece here.

Art Scam Alert!

Ignore emails from this mutant trying to rip off artists...

From:	JUSTIN LIND (justin0lind28@gmail.com)
Sent:	Mon 8/05/13 8:06 PM
To:	lenny@lennycampello.com

Hello . How long does it take you to ship out if an order is completed with you ? . Kindly email me your current website so that i can pick my choice of order for you to quote me . I love your handwork . Thanks

Keep it this way!

Who needs the Hirshhorn Bubble when we got this new asskicking Washington Monument?

The WM is looking both like some Medieval weapon as well as a super-modern glass and lights and steel brutal sculpture -- and also like some new Christo and Jeanne-Claude art project - in fact, making all their previous projects looking a little lame by comparison.

I say, let's keep the Monument like this!

Who's with me?

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: August 16, 2013

 

John Paradiso, artist and curator for the 39th Street Gallery, and Tim McLoraine, artist and independent curator based in the Gateway Arts District, invite emerging and established artists to participate in the Jewel Box Pop Up group exhibition during the month of September.  

 

The Jewel Box is a 2300sf former jewelry store located at 3104 Queens Chapel Road in Hyattsville, MD.  The Jewel Box will advertise and promote the exhibition and host an Opening Reception and other programming during the run of the show.  

Approximately 25 artists will be selected and be given a 10' section of wall (Art-o-Matic style) with 4' of floor space.  We also encourage 3 dimensional works to be displayed throughout the space. 

If interested, please send contact information and 3 work samples (or link to your online portfolio) by August 16th to jewelboxpopup@gmail.com

Deferral at the Corcoran

Starting August 7 and lasting for four days, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design presents Deferral, a site-specific performance by Mary Coble that addresses the Food and Drug Administration’s policy of refusing blood donations from men who have had sex with men since 1977. 

The performance is the latest in the NOW at the Corcoran series – the Gallery’s contemporary art program dedicated to showcasing the work of emerging and mid-career artists. NOW Performance addresses issues central to the local, national, and global communities of Washington, D.C. 

Over four days, Coble and her collaborators encode the curtains of an anatomical theater—formed by hospital curtains in the Corcoran’s Atrium—with text and images from blood donor campaigns, regulations, and debates. The artist writes using her own blood, drawn onsite, while her collaborators work with thread as a stand in for their “illegal” blood. 

Over the course of the performance, their actions create an increasingly tangled web, enveloping and impeding their shared space while reclaiming the image of the male hero. 

Deferral is a reaction to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration policy of refusing blood donations from men who have had sex with men (MSM). The FDA’s deferral policy started in 1983, and since 1992 the FDA has permanently deferred MSM donations, explaining: “A history of male-to-male sex is associated with an increased risk for the presence and transmission of certain infectious diseases, including HIV…” 

Non-monogamous heterosexuals who have knowingly engaged in intercourse with an HIV/AIDS-positive partner are subject to a one year deferral before they may donate blood. 

For Coble, Deferral is a commentary on the FDA policy and marketing slogans from blood donation campaigns that laud donors as “heroes” and as “special” while calling those who do not donate “wusses.” According to Coble, “gay men are never allowed to be heroes.”

Connecticut Avenue as canvas

It’s not every day that a busy sidewalk on Connecticut Avenue becomes an artist’s concrete canvas, but the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (BID) is doing just that with its “Explore Our Neighborhood in Chalk” project, Monday, Aug. 5 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (If it rains, the project will be moved back each day Aug. 6-8 until the weather permits.)

 

The chalk mural will be drawn by Whitney Waller who will transform the Connecticut Avenue Overlook into sidewalk scenery for commuters, office workers and tourists to enjoy. The Connecticut Avenue Overlook is located at the top of the Golden Triangle in the semi-circle above the underpass, near Dupont South Metro Station.  

 

Whitney Waller, of Virginia Beach, is currently a Bachelor of Fine Arts student at the Corcoran College of Art + Design.  She teaches for the Corcoran’s Aspiring Artists and Camp Creativity programs. She is also one of the Corcoran’s Summer Saturdays chalk artists, as she recreates gallery pieces on the front steps. She has previously studied at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts.

 

Waller will use chalk to recreate iconic destinations that are located within the 43 blocks of the Golden Triangle neighborhood, including the National Geographic Museum, St. Matthew’s Cathedral, the Heurich House Museum and the Tiny Jewel Box, located in a historic building on Connecticut Avenue.

 

While the chalk art project is temporary, the Golden Triangle BID has other permanent public art displays that have made the central business district one of the city’s most vibrant commercial areas. Last year, the BID unveiled the second phase of the Connecticut Avenue median, complete with colorful plants and a display of lights, pattern and movement programs that change the avenue into a magical scene at night.

 

“This chalk art project is part of the Golden Triangle’s ongoing effort to create interest and add texture and excitement to Connecticut Avenue,” said Leona Agouridis, executive director of the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District. “We’re using this chalk art project to showcase our treasured buildings, special events and numerous services. Our public art program is another way we’re promoting vitality in this neighborhood.”