Opportunity for Artists: Bethesda Fine Arts Festival

Deadline December 15, 2005

The Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, takes place next May 13-14, 2006 and it is a great opportunity to exhibit, see and buy great original art from 160 artists from all over the nation.

I know this first-hand, as I've now done it twice and have sold a lot of work, and I guess about 35,000 to 40,000 people came to this year's festival, and I bet more will come next year as the word gets out. The time to prepare is now! as you will need slides, displays, etc.

Send a SASE to:

Bethesda Urban Partnership
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814

For more information call the festival Director, Catriona Fraser at 301 718-9651. Download application form here.

Openings this week

Tomorrow, Warehouse Gallery hosts the opening for Where is the Peace?, an exhibition by mostly DC area artists where the artists examine war and peace in our world through painting, sculpture, photography, installations and video. The exhibition runs from September 8 through October 2, 2005 and the Opening Reception is Thursday, September 8th from 6-8pm.

Also on Thursday, the Arts Program Gallery at the University of Maryland University College in Adelphi, MD has an opening reception from 5-7PM for glass sculptor Alan Binstock's solo exhibition titled "A celebration of glass, steel and stone." The show runs until October 2, 2005.

On Friday, September 9, 2005, it is time for the Bethesda Art Walk, with 13 participating galleries and art venues. A free guided tour is also offered. See details of the tour here. Tours will begin at 6:30pm. Attendees can meet their guide at the Bethesda Metro Center, located at the corner of Old Georgetown Road and Wisconsin Avenue. Attendees do not have to participate in tours to visit Art Walk galleries. Noteworthy this Friday is the fact that the $14,000 Trawick Prize(s) will be announced at the finalists' exhibition at the Creative Partners Gallery in Bethesda. The announcement ceremony and catered reception will be from 6-9PM. Also noteworthy is Neptune Gallery's solo exhibition for Scott G. Brooks titled "Jumping Through Hoops." Reception for Scott is from 6-9PM. We will host the return to the DC area of former area artist (now living in Philly) Michael Sprouse, who returns with an exhibition of new paintings. The catered reception for Sprouse is from 6-9PM.

Also opening on Friday, Sept. 9 is Julee Holcombe at Conner Contemporary in DC. The exhibition, titled "Homo Bulla (Man in a Bubble)" opens with a reception from 6-8PM and runs until Oct. 22, 2005.

Kendall Buster's "Model City" opens at Fusebox on Saturday, Sept. 10 with an opening reception from 6:30 - 8:30PM. The exhibition runs until October 22.

Also on Saturday, Transformer has video artist Jason Zimmerman' "Fair Game." This is Zimmerman's first solo show and he has taken footage from over 150 episodes of Fox TV’s reality show "Cops" to create a looped video projection of foot chases edited into one continuous sequence. According to Zimmerman: "the fast paced movement, and rough-cuts of each clip, stream endlessly into one another creating a scenario where the police and the criminals are caught-up in an endless game of cat and mouse." The opening reception is Saturday from 7-9 PM. Zimmerman will also have an artist's talk on Saturday, October 1, 2005, starting at 2PM.

Still on Saturday, Photoworks Gallery at Glen Echo has guest artists joining the Photoworks faculty in exhibiting their work in the Photoworks Gallery. Representing a range of media and artistic perspectives, the Faculty/Guest show is a celebration of the broader Washington area arts community and offers a window on the local artistic influences that have shaped the work of Photoworks photographers. Artists will be on hand at the opening reception to answer questions and discuss their work. Opening Reception Saturday, September 10 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm, and the exhibition runs until Sept. 28, 2005.

And Hemphill Fine Arts also has an opening on Saturday, from 6:30 - 8:30PM, when they host Renee Stout's Fragments of a Secret Life and Joseph Mills' Anarch Angel. The exhibitions run until Oct. 29th. George will also host a book signing and cocktail party (you must RSVP ) for Mills' book Loves of the Poets, on Tuesday, Sept. 20 from 6:30-8:30PM and an art talk and conversation with Renee Stout and Stephen Bennett Phillips (Curator of the Phillips Collection) on Saturday, Oct. 1 from 10-11:30PM (RSVP required and $12 per person).

And David Adamson has an opening for an old schoolmate of mine, Chuck Close (no, not same class, geez). The exhibition is titled A Couple of Ways of Doing Something and opens with a reception on Saturday from 6-8PM.

And the ubiquitous Mark Jenkins expands upon his current "Storker" exhibition at our Georgetown gallery by setting up an outside installation in the Canal Square (31st and M, NW), where he will set up an entire yard sale of tape sculptures. Jenkins intends to make a variety of the usual objects found in a real yard sale, but made out of tape. As part of the installation and event, Jenkins will then barter with buyers, like a real yard sale, and sell the tape sculptures after agreeing on a price. All proceeds will be donated to charity. The "yard sale" reception will be from 12-6PM. See ya there!

On Sunday, September 11, photographer Scott Lassman opens an exhibition from a new series of photographs entitled "Come Unto Me," which documents life over the past year at All Souls Unitarian Church in Mount Pleasant. The exhibition will be held in Pierce Hall at All Souls Unitarian Church on 16th & Harvard Streets, NW.

Also on Sept. 11, artist G.C. Myers is having an artist's talk at the Principle Gallery in Old Town Alexandria commencing at 1:30 PM.

If I missed anything of substance, email me.

Tate on TV

Well... his pad actually.

If you ever wanted to see Tim Tate's swank artists' condo, it will be appearing on HGTV Thursday night at 8pm on the show "Small Space, Big Style."

More Katrina Art Fundraisers

An update on Katrina Art fundraisers. Also Solarize This has a great listing here.

Matt Achhammer.

James W. Bailey.

F. Lennox Campello.

Warren Craghead.

Catriona Fraser.

Paul Goode.

Duane Kaiser and also here.

J.T. Kirkland.

Tracy Lee.

Heather Levy.

Gary S. Medovich.

Jiha Moon.

Alexandra Silverthorne.

Meghan Taylor

Samantha Wolov.

Medovich for Katrina

Gary Medovich steps up to the plate with two limited edition digital prints, each signed and numbered 3 from an edition of 25. Size is 16x20 inches. Each print is individually available and for sale to the highest bidder with all proceeds donated to the relief fund. Email your bid to Gary here.

The auction will close at noon next Monday, Sept. 13, 2005.

PostSecret

Frank Warren's Secret Project continues to roll!

The PostSecret Book, "PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives," is now available from Amazon.

Currently, it is in the top ten pre-orders on Amazon and is near the top 100 sales rank for all books.

Pre-order the book here.

And next December 15, 2005 through January 8, 2006, the WPA\C presents Post Secrets.

Opening Reception: Thursday, December 15, 2005 from 6-10pm
Fundraiser: Wednesday, December 14 from 6-10pm for Kristin Brooks Hope Center ($10 suggested donation)
Location: Former Georgetown Staples Store, 3307 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20007
Exhibition Hours: Wed, Thurs, Fri 6-10pm, Sat & Sun 2-10pm

Closing the book on Seven

Now that Seven has ended, I wanted to do a littlre recap and toot my horn, and review what was accomplished by this massive show.

One of the goals of Seven was to expose as many new WPA/C artists as possible to the public. At least half of the artists included in Seven had never participated in a WPA/C exhibition before, and 24,000 slides later (twice-viewed) a full third of them were new names to me.

A second goal was as a fundraiser for the WPA/C, and this exhibition has, I am told, become their best selling gallery show ever. Among the dozens of sales made during the show, three of Washington's best-known power collectors and one major corporate buyer came away with artwork from Seven.

A third goal (my goal) was to bring some fellow gallerists to the exhibition, in the hope that they would find some new artists among the lot that I selected for the exhibition. To date, several artists that I know of have been picked up for (or offered) representation by DC area galleries (and one by a California gallery!).

Furthermore, the focus of the "Text" gallery in Seven has become of interest to a couple of area curators, and look for that group of artists to push the theme and focus in an area art venue soon, and later in a Virginia museum.

Seven was widely reviewed in the press, with the expected range of flavors from such a large exhibition, from the expected dismissal by the WaPo, to online reviews by G.P. and by The Artery, to a rousing endorsal of a review by The Georgetowner.

The show was also discussed on CNN and was filmed as part of a new art documentary film.

And, although the City Paper did not review this massive show (tsk, tsk), they did profile several of the artists who came across to their writers and critics' attention through Seven (such as Samantha Wolov and Ben Tolman).

And last but not least, a rousing "well done!" to Kim Ward of the WPA/C for busting her tail in all aspects of this show, as well as to my two co-curators, Sandra Fernandez and Adrian Schneck, and to the the Rupert family for the generous donation of their magical spaces.