Welcome to all the new readers who are discovering DC Art News for the first time thanks to the great link from my appearance on the Kojo Nmandi Show earlier today discussing Washington area art and artists.

I have a special opening to attend tonight, but I promise that as soon as I get home I will post here all the links and events mentioned on the air. You can also listen to the show again on the internet by visiting the Kojo Nmandi Show archives. They will soon have the audio of the show online.

The WAMU telephone operators told me that the phones were buzzing and a lot of people waited a long time but were unable to ask their questions. Please feel free to email them to me, and I will try ot answer them.

Later today I'll be on the Kojo Nmandi Show discussing Washington area visual arts and artists. Tune in to WAMU 88.5 FM around 1 PM.

If you have any questions or art issues, you can call Kojo during the show at (800) 433-8850 or you can email me questions to kojo@wamu.org.

After the show I will post here all the websites and information that we discuss on the air.

Everytime that I start thinking that I am too harsh on the Post, they do something to prove to me that they (the corporate they or editorial they who makes decisions as to what is to be covered by their writers) haven't got the foggiest sense of what place they hold in the cultural tapestry of our city and how they manage to mismanage it when it comes to the visual arts.

Read this waste of printspace and weep with me for a newspaper that has some of the smallest art coverage of any major daily in the US and yet devotes the time and effort and space to cover mass produced garbage and use the word "art" in describing it.

Perhaps if more people knew that they could buy original art by emerging artists at the same prices as the "wall decor," they would not waste their time and money buying expensive posters.

"... a growing trend of consumers who buy art -- known in the industry as "wall decor" -- that is made and marketed to coordinate with prevailing trends in home furnishings...

... "People are absolutely buying more art. In the last two or three years, our art sales have doubled," said Becky Weber, Crate & Barrel's accessories buyer, who declined to give specific sales figures.

None of this is lost on artists -- whose royalties are tied to sales -- as they create images of quaint Parisian cafes, jammin' jazz combos, monochrome geometrics and ye olde hunting scenes."

Makes my head hurt.

Elsewhere in the Post, Jessica Dawson, who generally is supposed to review Washington area galleries (I think), treks to Annapolis to review Louise Nevelson: Selections From the Farnsworth Art Museum at the Mitchell Gallery, St. John's College.

I now eagerly await for the Annapolis Capital to send their art critic to DC to review one of our shows.

Oh wait...

City Museum Censors "Funky Furniture" Show.

Area artists Chad Alan and Maggie O'Neill have been organizing an interesting exhibition for the City Museum of Washington, DC titled "Funky Furniture."

Several area artists are involved and have been working for the last few months for this exhibition. I have been made aware by several people of a developing controversy now rapidly revolving around this show.

I am told that entries for the show were brought in over this past weekend, and when viewed a couple of days ago, there were at least six adjudged by the museum management to be "not acceptable" because of sexual and/or offensive content. One of the objectionable ones was an end table with "The bitch set me up" carved with on the surface with a razor blade.

The entire show has been removed from the main floor, and some may be allowed in smaller spaces elsewhere, but the offending six will not appear.

There are apparently ongoing negotiations with the museum management, but this has the smell of art censorship.

In a paradoxical way, this brewing controversy could be exactly what the museum needs to increase its visibility and maybe even get some people to visit it.

Look for Washington Post and Washington City Paper stories in the next few days, but you read it here first.

Target Gallery has a Call for Artists

Deadline December 31, 2004.

Open Call for 2005 Exhibition Proposals at the Target Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. Open to all individual artists and groups in all media in North America.

Jurors: Richard Dana, a well-known and talented Washington, D.C. based artist and arts activist; Millie Shott, Exhibitions Director, Strathmore Hall, Bethesda, MD; and Virginia McGehee Friend, Washington area collector of contemporary Fine Craft.

Deadline for Proposals: December 31, 2004. Exhibition Dates: October 26-December 4, 2005

Fee: $35 for 20 images (slides or JPEG CD) and proposal. For Applications: email them here, or call 703/838-4565 ext. 4, or send SASE to:
Open 2005
Target Gallery
105 N. Union Street
Alexandria, VA 22314

Grammar.police has a really good pre-review preview (police that!) on the Dan Flavin retrospective at the NGA.

Sarah Tanguy is the new head of the Department of State's Art in Embassies program.

Established by the United States Department of State in 1964, the Art In Embassies Program is a global museum that exhibits original works of art by U.S. citizens in the public rooms of approximately 180 American diplomatic residences worldwide. To submit images to their staff for consideration in upcoming exhibitions please e-mail .jpg or .gif images of your works no larger than 50k in size, to this email address.