Arts on Foot

Today is the Arts on Foot festival around the Penn Quarter.

Arts on Foot will feature visual and performing artists at multiple venues between 4th and 14th Streets, Pennsylvania Avenue and L Street.

New this year are a preview of the 2006 Capital Fringe Festival, participation at the Canadian Embassy of the DC Shorts Film Festival, sculptor Robert Cole’s street exhibit at Gallery Place, and Woolly Mammoth’s new theatre, which people may take tours of during Arts on Foot.

Edison Place Gallery with an exhibit organized by the YWCA has also joined the list of participants. And the juried Art Market is more than fifty percent larger than last year’s market with many well-known names exhibiting and selling their artwork as part of the festival.

Along with all of the day's scheduled events, 22 area restaurants will be offering "Samplings" of their cuisine at modest prices on F Street between 8th and 9th and celebrated chefs from a number of these and other restaurants will demonstrate their cooking skills.

Details, schedules and directions here.

See ya there!

I went to the opening of "Mirrors: Contemporary Mexican Artists in the United States," last Wednesday at The Cultural Institute of Mexico, and it was packed.

The exhibition, curated by my good friend Santiago Espinoza de los Monteros was absolutely terrific, and if I have time, I will return to it and write more extensively about it.

My top pick for the group was the astonishing work by San Diego artist Marianela de la Hoz, who displayed a set of tiny tempera miniatures that were absolutely breathtaking in detail, composition and intelligent titles that became doors into the psyche of the painting.

"Hoy estuve tejiendo con el estambre de tus ojos"
Egg tempera on board
3.9 x 1.9 in. c.2003

And on Friday...

Numark Gallery has the opening of its fall season with The Empire of Sighs, a group exhibition curated by Andrea Pollan. The Empire of Sighs brings together nine artists: Laura Carton, Sarah Hobbs, Kyung Jeon, Michael Kalmbach, Takehito Koganezawa, Michele Kong, Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz, Roxy Paine and Julianne Swartz. These artists conjure a mood of delicate neurosis, awash with fantasy, obsessiveness, hallucinatory allusions, erotic illicitness, childhood fears, solitude, ethereality, and hints at forces unseen. The reception is from 6:30-8PM and the show will be up through October 29.

In Georgetown, the five Canal Square galleries will host their usual third Friday openings from 6-9PM. We will host the American solo debut of Lithuanian artist Zygimantas Augustinas, whose work we've been showing since he was an art student in Vilnius in 1997, and whose career skyrocketed in Europe when he was one of the prizewinners in the prestigious BP Portrait Prize Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The openings are catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant and go from 6-9PM.

Moved Man by Augustinas
At the Arlington Arts Center, the Fall Solo Exhibitions series open with a reception from 6-9PM, featuring six one-person shows, each in its own gallery. If you're there, don't miss the amazing video paintings by Scott Hutchison and the glass work of Allegra Marquart.

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

"Mirrors: Contemporary Mexican Artists in the United States," opens tonight at 7:00 pm at The Cultural Institute of Mexico.

Details here.

And also opening tonight is That's Not How I Remember It... at Salve Regina Gallery at CUA. This is an exhibition exploring how our identities shape and are shaped by memories. Opening from 6-9PM. The exhibition includes work by:

Beverly Ress
Candace Keegan
Elizabeth Jernigan
John Figura
Judy Jashinsky
Karen J. Topping
Lori Spencer
Matthew Liddle

Salve Regina Gallery is located on the campus of Catholic University, 620 Michigan Ave, NE. Washington DC, 20064 or take Metro’s Red line to the Brookland/CUA. Details here.

WSC Fundraiser

The Washington Sculpture Center is being kicked out of their building in order to build the new baseball stadium.

In order to help raise funds to pay for relocation and set-up expenses at their new site, they are hosting a Sculpture Soiree and Silent Auction on September 22, 2005.

View details and RSVP here.

Opportunity for Artists
Deadline: October 15, 2005.

The Cultural Affairs Division of the city of Las Vegas Department of Leisure Services invites the submission of proposals for individual and group exhibitions for its 2006/07 gallery season screening. Exhibition proposals will be reviewed for programming in two city galleries: the Charleston Heights Arts Center Gallery at 800 South Brush Street or the Reed Whipple Cultural Center Gallery at 821 Las Vegas Boulevard North.

To download a pdf with images and floor plans of these gallery spaces click on "Gallery Floor Plans" under related links at this website.

To participate in the screening, artists/curators must submit a written exhibition synopsis (no more than one page) with 15-20 supporting images (slides or jpegs on CD) with an identification list, artist statement(s), and artist resume(s). Other suitable supporting materials include color prints, exhibition cards and press clippings, all of which are optional. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope for return of materials.

All visual art practices suitable for gallery installations of 10 to 12 weeks will be considered. All applicants can expect notification regarding their proposal by mail by February 1, 2006. Address submissions to:

Catherine Borg
Charleston Heights Arts Center
800 South Brush Street
Las Vegas, Nevada 89107

Call (702) 229-4674 or e-mail cborg@lasvegasnevada.gov for information.

Role Play at Target

The exhibition "Role Play: The Definition of Self in Contemporary Society" is currently on view at the Target Gallery in the Torpedo Factory Art Center. This thought-provoking show was curated by my good friend J. W. Mahoney, Washington, DC, Corresponding Editor for Art in America magazine.

This exhibition looks at the range of societal roles and assumptions placed on individuals in contemporary American life. Mr. Mahoney selected artists from some 200 applicants nationwide. The exhibition goes through October 16.