Emergency Grant applications for Independent Maryland Artists

Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) Emergency Grant applications for Independent Artists are currently being accepted for $2,000 grants! If you have experienced a loss of income due to an emergency scenario occurring after January 1, 2022 that impacts your work as an independent artist, we encourage you to apply. Reach out to Program Directors Laura Weiss at laura.weiss@maryland.gov and Emily Sollenberger at emily.sollenberger@maryland.gov for more information.

Applications accepted on a rolling basis and awarded monthly. Apply now!

More Clay! The Power of Repetition

American University Museum

at the Katzen Arts Center

Gallery Talk (hybrid):
More Clay! The Power of Repetition
Saturday, November 5, 5:00 - 6:00pm
-free-

Join my good friend curator Rebecca Cross for an after-hours Gallery Talk. In this hybrid event, artist Connor Czora will join Cross in person at the museum while artists Walter McConnell, Zimra Beiner, Bean Finneran, Vanessa Ryerse, Kahlil Irving, David Hicks, and Kate Roberts join via Zoom. This event is also available for you to view virtually by registering here. 

More Clay! is a multi-artist exhibition that demonstrates the power of assembling multiples as a compelling vehicle for the artists to express their chosen subject-matter as they transform this humble, sustainable material…dirt! into something monumental in form and content. More Clay aims to physically demonstrate the unifying principle of “out of many, one” a concept absent in today’s fractured society.

Venusian Sigil Crafting Workshop with Jessica Kallista

 Forecast

Venusian Sigil Crafting Workshop with Jessica Kallista

Friday, 5:30pm–6pm

Opening Reception & Artist Talk

Friday, 6pm–8pm

Both events will take place at Tephra ICA at Signature and are free and open to the public. Please RSVP here for the workshop as capacity is limited.

Join them on Friday, November 4 for the opening reception for Forecast, an exhibition "presenting twenty-two image and text works that speak to our collective futures. Far from a singular vision, these predictions span the range from willing the utopic into existence to raising the alarm bells about what may be to come."

The predictions, or “Buoyant Oracles” as they came to be known, were created by a cohort of female identifying artists responding to Sue Wrbican’s public sculpture Buoyant Force, which is located in Reston Town Square Park in Reston, Virginia.  

Buoyant Force is a 50-foot steel sculpture by Sue Wrbican inspired by the paintings of American Surrealist Kay Sage (b. 1898, Albany, New York; d. 1963, Woodbury, Connecticut). In the tradition of the surrealists’ incorporation of magic practices into their art, exhibiting artist Jessica Kallista is offering a Venusian Sigil Crafting Workshop starting at 5:30pm in advance of the opening. The workshop is based on practices created by Peter Bebergal and Gareth Branwyn in the forthcoming book Roleplaying Magic: Gaming the Occult Imagination, and participants will be guided through a series of steps to craft their own pictorial symbols.

Forecast is presented in partnership with Mason Exhibitions from George Mason University. A concurrent exhibition, Cast/Recast, is currently on view at Mason Exhibitions Arlington located at 3601 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA through December 3. Cast/Recast is a group exhibition of photography, video, sculpture, painting, site-specific installation, and live performative work for select programs. Curated by Alissa Maru in collaboration with Hannah Barco and Sue Wrbican.

Forecast is on view November 3, 2022–January 22, 2023

Tephra ICA at Signature is located at the Signature apartment building (11850 Freedom Dr, Reston, VA), and visitors are welcome Tuesday–Saturday from 11am–5pm.

 

Tephra ICA at Signature is an innovative satellite gallery space that presents a year-round schedule of exhibitions featuring work by local and regional artists as selected by Tephra ICA curatorial staff. The gallery is provided in partnership with Boston Properties and Bozzuto, and generously sponsored by Reston Community Center.

In a galaxy far away

Will be at CONTEXT Art Fair in booth A29 during Art Basel Miami Beach week of art fairs in Miami!

The Home and the World

VASA Online Exhibitions introduces five perspectives by Argentinean artists that "photograph in the streets and at home. In some cases homes are turned into streets and the street becomes a home. In this sense the "street" becomes a performance platform for expressive gestures."

The five different perspectives on street photography is by five Argentinian artists: Patricia Ackerman, Ivan Komin, Jose de Rocco, Sofia Ungar, Diego Wisniacki.

The exhibition was curated by The Home and the World

Diego Wisniacki has some of my favorite images in this show - he certainly has a wide and diverse array of images, ranging from cats to someone on the throne... this subtle and beautiful photograph was my favorite.

He writes:

The house as the street

The confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic turned our family home into the only liveable space. With a lot of time at my disposal, I began to take photos of my family capturing our daily lives. I was in my element, I always liked to portray intimacy and the confinement brought this opportunity to my daily living. As a street photographer I have my camera with me all the time looking for images while reacting to the environment and the new way of living.

Jufre is the story of my family in a pandemic. A family which was already used to a certain isolation during beach vacations in a remote part of Uruguay. This experience facilitated our beginning of the pandemic isolation and made it easier for us to adapt to living together in the same space 24 hours a day. But it was different, it had no expiration date, it was our new reality.

But it is Patricia Ackerman who steals this show -- there's not a single mediocre photo in her large number of entries in this show and her images are by far the most interesting set of images, where Ackerman shows an enviable sense of composition and that critical aspect of a great street photographer: capturing the unusual from an even more unusual perspective.

Her succinct artist statement explains why:

I could stand on a corner or sit in a park for two hours looking up, looking around, trying to find the different constellations we make with the surrounding space and with the others. Everything is changing but at some point it freezes in a fleeting scene. That is what I try to find when I walk anywhere. With eyes with history and new at the same time. Eyes speak.

See the whole show here.

The DNC Plantation is falling apart

Texas GOP Rep. Mayra Flores on Wednesday tweeted that she was denied admission to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC). The CHC was originally founded as a bipartisan grouping of Latino members of Congress. They are all now essentially only DNC plantation Latinos.

I essentially predicted what is now happening... about 20 years ago.... follow the link below:

https://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2005/12/these-things-really-spin-me-off.html

Erwin Timmers at Artists & Makers Studios

Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn Drive in Rockville will welcome invited Artist Erwin Timmers along with Artists of the Washington Glass School for the exhibit “A Show of Hands” with two additional exhibits and an Open Studio event. 

The November 4th First Friday evening opening will run from 5pm – 9pm. Enjoy additional exhibits - “X marks the spot” with Resident Artists, and Gallery 209 Artists exhibiting their latest work. 

Dutch-born Erwin Timmers is the both the co-founder and Director of the Washington Glass School and one of the planet's earliest "green" artists. 

His work "references sociological and environmental issues of concern to him, primarily how we, as a society, consume and discard precious resources. For this topic the choice of materials becomes a more important discussion, so Erwin endeavors to use recycled materials to express concepts and ideas of recycling and use of the environment.  Recycled glass is difficult to use, so he has had to develop new and experimental techniques to exploit the characteristics of this material. A Show of Hands explores personal and cultural traits as they relate to present day social trends. Technological “advances” have changed the landscape in human interaction, and social media focuses on aspects of cultural loss, fake news, mass manipulation, and diversion and division. This series is about the expression of nonverbal and abstract themes like trust, communication, and connection. Erwin’s portfolio showcases the possibility and beauty of recycled material, while encouraging the viewer to consider his or her environmental impact."

“A Show of Hands” with Invited Artist Erwin Timmers along with Artists of the Washington Glass School -- “X marks the spot” with Resident Artists The Artists of Gallery 209.

Opening Reception: 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Friday, November 4th, 2022

Artists & Makers Studios

11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210

Rockville, MD 20852

Artist Discussion with Erwin Timmers – November 12th, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Exhibits for Erwin Timmers, the Resident Artists, and Gallery 209 will run from November 1st through November 22nd. Viewing hours are 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM, Monday-Saturday, and Sundays by chance or appointment.