Arte Latino at Queens University

Queens University of Charlotte, NC has a terrific virtual art, writing and performance exhibition titled ARTE LATINO.

In the past I've participated with my artwork, but this year I contributed a written piece about my childhood neighborhood in Guantanamo.

You can see the exhibition and artists here - click on my image to read my story:

Saatchi Art’s The Other Art Fair

The Other Art Fair, a leading artist fair for discovering emerging artists, today announced its 2021 exhibition plans. The 2021 schedule includes plans to re-introduce in-real-life events once it is safe to do so, as well as the launch of corresponding six-day Virtual Reality (VR) editions.

DMV artist Anne Cherubim is participating and so we have an insider in the fair! She notes:

Among the various interactive activities for this virtual experience, there are curator led tours, a painting class, short films, a talk on art collecting by Saatchi's Rebecca Wilson, a sound installation I'm looking forward to, you can have your portrait drawn -- just a heap of fun things to do virtually.

One of my limited edition Recycled Art Project pieces is part of the Director's Picks:

https://www.saatchiart.com/art-collection/Fair-Director-s-Picks-The-Other-Art-Fair-Los-Angeles-Virtual-Editions/320013/407958/view?page=2

One of my smaller paintings is highlighted in the $500, or thereabouts, section.

I'd be remiss not to tell you to come check it out. I'm in Room 2, apparently diagonally across from Brandon Boyd of the band, Incubus. Today was the first day of the fair, and it continues 'til Sunday, April 4th.

There are videos telling you about each artist at the front of each booth, along with a guestbook you can sign, and a way to schedule video appointments to chat with us, for those wanting to share comments, or who have questions about work. 

See my video here: https://youtu.be/uxOzze_MxHU

Visit the fair here. The Fair Program will point people to all the different activities.

An open letter to DMV area universities

There are several important, major universities in and around the DMV area. In most cases each is working, as most universities do, their own, individualized visual arts exhibition program, which is normally mix of exhibitions by their students, faculty, and sometimes invited artists.

Almost without exception there is very little coordination between the different university/college venues, which in some cases boast some of the nicest exhibition spaces in the area - none better that American University's spectacular Katzen Arts Museum. 

This "little coordination" is not unusual, as I imagine that in most cities this is also the same case, as the focus of the university gallery is in fact the university itselg.

And here is where we can make a major change, and use the extraordinary resources afforded to our area by these venues, and their academic standing, to help Washington expand its worldwide visual art standing.

What we need to happen is for one of the local university art school chairs, or college deans, or even university gallery directors, to take the initiative to start coordinating a joint effort to create one annual combined, joint exhibition that synchronizes a focused exhibition that is spread throughout the Greater Washington area.

Imagine a national survey of art, with a good title and perhaps even a good, donated chunk of money as a prize. Say we call it “The Capital Art Prize” (OK, OK we’ll have to work on the title) and because good ideas sometimes attract funding, maybe we can convince a major local company like Lockheed Martin or Marriott or Booze Allen and Hamilton, or (be still my beating heart), The Washington Post (owned by the planet's richest Cuban-American), to help fund it on an annual basis.

This synchronized event can be modeled somewhat on what the Whitney does, but better. The Whitney Biennial’s Achilles heel is its over-reliance on hired curators. Unless an artist lives and works in NYC, LA or SF or is already in the local radar of one of the curators for that particular year, chances are slim to none that the artist will come to the attention of those Biennial curators. Hence great art and potentially great artists may and often are ignored.

And the Whitney Biennial is not what it used to be... not even close.

In addition to the use of invited curators, also imagine that this event puts forth a national call for artists, independent and museum curators, schools, art organizations, and galleries to submit works for consideration - all to be done online, of course, and without an entry fee.

Anyone can submit and in a fair selection process, since art is truly in the eyes (and agenda) of the beholder, anyone can be selected to exhibit. A truly American concept for a national American art survey that will leave the Whitney and other continental Biennials in the dust.

And because the exhibition venues are spread around the capital area region, in galleries at Georgetown, George Mason, George Washington, American, Catholic, Howard, University of Maryland, Montgomery Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, and the many others I am sure to be forgetting momentarily, we could put up one of the largest, most diverse, and influential American contemporary art surveys in the nation.

This will take a lot of work to set up initially, as one key university person needs to take the lead and emerge from the pack of largely unknown, anonymous group of academics currently running our area’s university art programs. On the other hand, this could be an exhibition that can and will put names and faces on the international art world map, much like the Whitney Biennial sometimes elevates its curators a notch above the rest

Some universities will resist, as the easiest thing to do is to do things as they have always been done, and not really create “new” work. But given that a strong leader among our academic community emerges and takes the lead for this idea, then even if we start with a set of four or five venues, in a joint, coordinated effort, others will follow.  When it all else fails to get an university or college to play along, then they must be hit via the Board of Trustees of that University.

Boom! A trustee drives the idea and the university will suddenly pay attention!

This will not be an easy job to do, and as it grows, so will the bureaucracy around it. But starting it up will be the hardest part, and as momentum grows, things will become easier. Whoever, if anyone, takes this idea and runs with it, will face many huge obstacles and many negative people. He or she will need to convince other university/college gallery directors to participate (unless a Trustee is involved). They in turn, will have to convince their superiors, who will, in turn have to approve (and perhaps help kick-start the funding) the joint project.

This leader will also have to coordinate the approach to get a local giant to fund this effort, but I suspect that once he has aligned a few colleges and universities, this may become easier (it’s never easy) as the “buzz” and need for the event develops.

This is all a lot of work, and initially, until a bureaucracy is established around the annual event, many, many volunteers will be needed. I hope that some of these can be drawn from the school’s student body, alumni who are artists, and other local artists, much like Art-O-Matic draws from the collective muscle of our area’s significant artist population.

Our area universities and colleges already have significant media resources at their disposal, to help spread the word. They run school newspapers, radio stations, etc. and also provide a constant flow of new blood to our major mainstream media.

The goal (or perhaps “the dream”) would be a national level survey of art, which may look, review and/or jury the work of maybe 50,000 artists around the nation, and select perhaps 100 each year, showcase their work around a dozen academic galleries, and award a $100,000 cash award as the Capital Art Prize, plus various other awards (Emerging Artist, Young Artist, etc.). Art of a nature and scale that will attract visitors to the university galleries, attention to our area, piss some people off, excite others, create interest, discussion and buzz around Washington and our art scene.

I initially proposed this idea locally about two decades ago - and everyone ignored it.

In a weird way that the the Covidian Monster could have never predicted, the potential end of the Covidian Age may be in fact offering us the time for this idea to spring.

There’s nothing more empowering than an idea whose time has come.

Best Art Blogs in the World

For like the 18th year in a row, my blog has been ranked as one of the "Top 100 Art Blogs in the World" and "Top 100 Art Blogs, Websites & Influencers in 2021"

I'd like to influence you to buy some of my artwork! Look into my eyes!

The book that saved my art life

The number one spot in my top ten most influential books (on me) of all times has been occupied since 1977 by The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe.

I think that this book should be required reading for all art school freshmen across the nation, as it will prepare and armor them against all the bull that the art world will be about the heave at them. If you have not read it, please do.

Below is the text of a review of the book that I wrote for Amazon:

Can I start by saying that this book "saved my art life"?

Let me explain. In 1977 I started art school as a not so impressionable 21 year-old with a few years as a US Navy sailor under my belt. But in the world of art, there's a lot of molding and impressions being made by a very galvanized world. And although I was a few years older than most in my class... I was probably as ready as any to swallow the whole line and sinker that the "modern art world" floats out there.

Then I read this book - it was given to me by Jacob Lawrence, a great painter and a great teacher --- although I didn't get along with him too well at the time. I read it (almost by accident and against my will --- it was a get-a-way "love weekend" with my then-girlfriend - it went sour). And this book OPENED my EYES!!! It was as if all of a sudden a "fog" had been listed about all the manure and fog that covers the whole art world.

I used it as a weapon.

I used it to defend how I wanted to paint and feel and write. And it allowed me to survive art school.

And then in 1991 - as I prepared to look around to start my own gallery - I found it again, in a gallery (of all places) in Alexandria, VA. I read it again, and to my surprise Wolfe was as topical and effervescent and eye-opening as ever!

Wolfe has a lot of bones to pick with the art world -- 25 years ago!!! He destroys the proliferation of art theory, and puts "art gods" like Harold Rosenberg, Clement Greenberg, and Leo Steinberg (who have ruined art criticism for all ages - by making critics think that they "lead" the arts rather than "follow the artists") into their proper place and perspective. He has a lot of fun, especially with Greenberg and the Washington Color School and their common stupidity about the flatness of the picture plane.

Here's my recommendation: If you are a young art student or a practicing artist: SAVE YOUR LIFE! Read this book!

Studio space available

As of July 21st, 2021, 1/2 of studio 17 (in section B1 by the galleries) will be available for lease on Parklawn Drive in Rockville, Maryland. This 1/2 studio share rents for $195/month. Get in touch now for jurying to reserve!

What's a print? What's a reproduction?

The most misused word in the world of art is the word "print," as used in defining work as "limited edition print," etc.

In the narrow, but true art definition of what an original art print is, a print is a work of art produced from an image worked by the artist on another material, usually a metal, plexiglass, wood, linoleum, plastic plate, etc.

Everything else is a reproduction.

And lawsuits will happen if suddenly a collector discovers that their "print" or "original" is in fact a reproduction.

So if an artist paints or draws an image on any medium, and then has multiple images made from that original by an electro-mechanical or mechanical process using photographic or digital images (such as Iris or Gyclee), those images are reproductions - not prints.

However, because it would really be hard to market an artist's work as "limited edition, signed and numbered reproductions," the word "print" has been kidnapped by the marketers of art to apply to any set of multiple images - regardless of how they came to be, or what part the artist played in its creation.

It gets a bit murky when it comes to digital art - that is artwork that is created from scratch through the use of a computer or a photograph taken with a digital camera.

Once the file is done and finished and saved, then one can say that the image that comes out of the printer is the "print" in the true sense of the narrow art definition - much like the negative in traditional photography produces the photographic print.

However, a photograph that is taken, developed, printed in the darkroom and then scanned so that Giclees or Iris "prints" can be made from the photographic image means that those are reproductions made from the original photograph. 

But a photograph taken with a digital camera and then has Iris/Giclees or any other digital prints made from the digital image in the memory card is a "real" print!

So a digital medium like Giclee/Iris can be either a reproduction or a real print - it all depends on what the original source of the image is!

Printmakers are especially sensitive to the misuse of the work "print" to market reproductions of artwork. One of the best places in town to buy true prints from very talented printmakers is the Washington Printmakers Gallery in the Dupont Circle area.