Some of the emails so far...

As of this morning I've received over 1,000 emails from female artists from the DMV who'd like to be considered for the 2025 "Women Artists of the DMV" survey show, which (so far) will open around September 2025 at the American University Katzen Art Museum in DC, the Athenaeum in Alexandria, Artists & Maker Studios in Rockville, and the Strathmore Mansion Galleries also in Rockville, MD.

So far I've extended an invitation to be part of the show to about 40 artists. 

Being the exceptionally gifted person that I am, cough... cough... I expected some responses like the below and in a variation or another; I've received five so far along these lines... cough... cough...

From: ____________________________________

Date: Fri, Nov 29, 2024, 6:11 PM

Subject: RE: Invitation to participate in the 2025 Women Artists of the DMV show

Dear Lenny,

Thank you for inviting me to be part of this historic show and thank you for all your hard work in assembling it.  If not too much to ask, I want to be clear that I expect my work to be in the Katzen Museum for the show, as I believe that my artwork over the years merits being in the Katzen instead of any of the other venues.

Please confirm and let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you, 

My response to the artist:

Thank you for your note.

As of this point I have not assigned exhibition venues to artists and cannot guarantee the Katzen or any other venue to anyone... sorry.

If it's the Katzen or nothing, please let me know soonest.

I am still in the process of trying to add one more DC space to the show, as the overwhelming number of interested women far exceeded what I originally thought, which is a good thing. As such I have approached the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) to see if they can schedule a portion of the show there - fingers crossed!

If I work it out with the NMWA, then that should make it easier to consider the Katzen for more artists, such as you. In that case, I will note that you'd prefer the Katzen.

More later...

Lenny

Less than a minute later:

From: ____________________________________
Date: Sat, Nov 30, 2024, 9:11 AM
Subject: RE: Invitation to participate in the 2025 Women Artists of the DMV show

If the NMWA opens up, I'd rather exhibit there than the Katzen!

Thanks

Sent from my iPhone 

And then there's the below offer of sex!  Not the first time that something like this has happened to me here and there - but usually when I was in the outdoor art show circuit and used to do 20+ shows a year all over the country... 

Maybe 40+ years ago I would have been young enough, and stupid enough, and single enough to take this offer... cough... cough...

From: ____________________________________

Date: Tue, Nov 26, 2024, 10:57 PM

Subject: Your FB post about Women Artists of the DMV - I want to be in it!

I just read about the show that you're curating and organizing for female artists from the DMV.  I want to be in this show.

My website is _______________ and I am 29 years old and if you pick me, there's pussy and/or a blow job as a reward. There are photos of me here at ______________________.

I am serious and I am cute.

My cell is ____________

I am a good artist, and I need this exposure.

Kisses,

My response:

Dear ______________,

Thank you for your note and offer.

With all due respect, I must decline your offer.  All my selections will be based solely on my very subjective approach to curating group art shows, and based solely on the quality of the artwork and the presence and impact (or need for) of the artist.

 Best,

Lenny

PS - Part of me admires your all or nothing attitude, but be careful out there.

And the passive aggressive approach...

From: ___________________________

Date: Wed, Nov 27, 2024, 8:49 PM

Subject: Women Artists show for DC/DMV

Mr. Campbello,

I appreciate your idea for a show focused on DC women artists, it is about time, why hasnt this been done before?

Black women and other BIPOC women should be the majority of this show, considering the area that the show will cover.

My website is _________________ and below are my list of BIPOC women artists that you need to include in your show.  

Please call me when you have a chance 

_________________ (202) ***-****

And my even more passive aggressive response...

Dear ______________

I hope that it's OK if I refer to you by your first name? Please let me know.

And before I forget: my last name is Campello, not Campbello! No worries, not the first time (or five thousandth) time that has happened.

Thank you for your suggestion! I appreciate it when people take the time and effort to help other people refine and retune their ideas!

In response to your suggestion (it was a suggestion... right?), while I appreciate it, ahhh.. no!

I have no idea what the majority - speaking in racial terms, or ethnic terms, or national terms (about 200+ or so) - will be the "majority" in the final selection, as I intend to pick the artists based on their artwork (mostly) rather than any other non-artistic criteria.

I suspect that the show will end up reflecting the immensely rich and diverse visual arts tapestry that is the DMV's art scene!

Best,

Lenny

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this asswipe trying to rip off artists:

From: Jordan Bushell - jordanbushell6@gmail.com -

​Your collections are unique and amazing; I'd like to know if you ship to Switzerland. Do you accept credit cards as a mode of payment? And do you accept pickups from your location by my shipping agent? Please advise.

Thank you.

Jordan Bushell

Women Artists of the DMV - Update!

As I noted a couple of days ago, the "Women Artists of the DMV" show is on! 

So far, as of the publication of this post, I've received over 800 emails/DMs/texts with female artists wanting to be in the show.

Update 1: If you'd like me to consider your work, please email me your website to lennycampello@hotmail.com - no calls, texts, DMs, Facebooking, etc.

Update 2: Due to the overwhelming number of interested artists, I've added a 4th venue to the show: the gorgeous first floor gallery at The Mansion at Strathmore.

All four shows will open in September 2025 and run for about 8-9 weeks at the American University's Katzen Museum in DC, the Athenaeum in Alexandria, and Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville and now also Strathmore.

The openings will be staggered: One museum, two non-profit art spaces, and one terrific woman-owned independent commercial fine arts gallery! All great parts of the DMV's (an acronym that apparently I invented by accident according to the Washington City Paper) visual arts tapestry.

I'm also still working on a potential book deal with the same publisher for whom I did 100 Artists of Washington, DC over a decade ago... fingers crossed.

One more time: if you'd like me to consider your work, or if you'd like to recommend someone's work, please email me the artist's name and her website.

I'm also crowdsourcing some of the opportunities by asking several of the DMV's visual arts illuminati and the cognoscenti (curators, museum directors, art space directors, art collectors, gallerists, etc.) to nominate up to 10 "must have" women.

Pass it on!

1979 Frida Kahlo at auction

This huge 32x40 inches painting of Frida Kahlo that I did as a class assignment at the University of Washington School of Art in 1979 is being offered by the son of the recently deceased owner for 1/10th of appraised value! 

At https://www.ebay.com/itm/305931344185

Women Artists of the DMV - the show is on!

The show it's on! It will open middle of September 2025 and run for about 8-9 weeks at the American University's Katzen Museum in DC, the Athenaeum in Alexandria, and Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville - one spot in each of the components of the DMV! The openings will be staggered: One museum, one non-profit art space and one woman-owned independent commercial fine arts gallery! One is each of the foot prints of the DMV (an acronym that apparently I invented by accident according to the Washington City Paper).

I'm also working on a potential book deal with the same publisher for whom I did 100 Artists of Washington, DC over a decade ago.

More later! Here's the original proposal first discussed in 2023 here.  Read ALL the way to the bottom of this post for important updates!

Proposal: Women Artists of the DMV

According to the research done by the Washington City Paper in 2017, the term “DMV”, which is used to refer to the District, Maryland and Virginia first appeared in a DC ART NEWS blog post that I wrote in 2003 – And yes! I therefore do claim that I invented it!

The Greater Washington, D.C., capital region (the DMV) is not only home to some of the best art museums in the world, dozens of art galleries, non-profit art spaces, alternative art venues, and art organizations, but it also supports and fertilizes of the best and most creative visual art scenes in the nation.

This scene is kindled and ignited to a large extent by female artists of all ages, races and ethnicities – an artistic female universe significantly more diverse than just about any of other major city on the planet. By the same logic and path, the artwork created by these fertile minds examine every possible corner of the visual arts genres and creative corners.

Celebrating this art scene, which spreads across the three areas that make up the DMV, I propose to curate an exhibition of 100 works by 100 women artists comprised of both leading and established female artists plus talented emerging contemporary female visual artists who represent the tens of thousands of women artists working in this culturally and ethnically diverse region in order to assemble a group show to showcase the immense power of the visual arts being created by these artists.

Let me repeat myself: Equally diverse as the artists, are the artistic styles and media you will see in this curated exhibition, the first of its kind for the capital area.

With 100 works of art potentially available for curatorial selection, this exhibition will offer a primer for both the experienced art eye and the beginning art aficionado, highlighting a selection of talented artists who usually deserve more attention on a local, regional and national scale.

100 works of art take a lot of exhibition space, and thus this curated exhibition could either be:

(a)    Fully staged at the Katzen or;

(b)    Would be concurrently spread across three separate venues in the DMV: At the Katzen in the District, one non-profit in Northern Virginia and one independent gallery in Maryland.

 i.            For Northern Virginia I have obtained an approval for the exhibition from The Athenaeum in Alexandria.

ii.            For Maryland, I have obtained an approval for the exhibition from The Artists & Makers Gallery complex in Rockville.

I have the experience to curate a large, multi-space art survey exhibition. In 2007 I curated “Seven”, a seven-gallery exhibition in the District that surveyed the thousands of artist members of the Washington Project for the Arts (WPA). Over 6500 slides (remember slides?) were reviewed and a couple of hundred artists selected for the multi-gallery show, which received multiple reviews in the press, both local and national.  In 2001 I curated “Contemporary Realism: A Survey of Washington Area Realists” for the Athenaeum in Alexandria – another show that exhibited over 60 artists and received wide reviews in the regional and national press.  Those are just two of hundreds of curated shows since 1996.

My curatorial process for this large proposal will also involve “community input”, as I intend to approach the DMV artistic community to be able to propose up to 15 of the 100 final artists. 

I also have ample experience running this “community input” process, as in 2011 I authored the book 100 Artists of Washington, DC (published by Schiffer Press), which in part included “community input” to ensure that the diversity of the 100 artists – both in style, age, genres, etc. – was truly representational of the Greater DC area.

I understand that a significant lead time is needed by American University to schedule approved Alper shows, and stand ready, willing and able to tackle this opportunity, regardless of the time frame.

Finally, I have started the tentative process of getting artists’ commitments to the exhibition, with the goal of aligning the leading female artists of the region to help “move” this proposal and so far have obtained enthusiastic “yes” from Margaret Boozer, Lisa Montag Brotman, Shanti Chandra Sekar, Irene Clouthier, Rosemary Feit-Covey, Claudia Gibson-Hunter, Carol Brown Goldberg, Janis Goodman, Muriel Hasbun, Melissa Ichiuji, Akemi Maegawa, Joey Manlapaz, Anne Marchand, Jody Mussoff, Teresa Oaxaca, Amber Robles-Gordon, Renee Stout, Helen Zughaib and 60+ other DMV female artists.

Let’s go!

Update 1: If you'd like me to consider your work, please email me your website to lennycampello@hotmail.com - no calls, texts, DMs, Facebooking, etc.

Update 2: Due to the overwhelming number of interested artists, I've added a 4th venue to the show: the gorgeous first floor gallery at The Mansion at Strathmore.

Update 3: I've been asked, sooo:

• There are NO fees
• Agreements will be between the chosen venue and the artist
• Artwork CAN be for sale except for those chosen to hang at the Katzen 
• One work per artist

Update 4: Due to the even more overwhelming number of interested artists, I've added a 5th and 6th venue to the show: the immensely important McLean Project for the Arts in McLean, VA and the equally respected and key part of our area's art tapestry, The Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center in Hyattsville, MD!

Under $2500 is today!

UNDER $2500 Benefit - Exhibition and VIRTUAL Sale to benefit the Maryland Art Place (MAP) in Baltimore is this weekend! https://e.givesmart.com/events/F9z/

Last Chance (physical): Saturday, November 23 | 2 to 4 pm

Virtual Exhibition & Sale: Saturday, November 23, 10 am – Black Friday, November 29, 12 am

To view the virtual exhibition click: https://e.givesmart.com/events/F9z/
Live on Saturday, November 23 @ 10 am

Eve staring at the apple tree

She couldn't help but stare at it wondering...

Eve, staring at the apple tree
2024, Graphite on reclaimed, broken unfired Bisque by Florencio Lennox Campello

Eve, staring at the apple tree (detail, side view)
2024, Graphite on reclaimed, broken unfired Bisque by Florencio Lennox Campello