Congrats!

To DC area art wunderkind Jenny Davis, whose work we've been following since she was 13 years old, and who is currently in Art school and whose work and a profile of her will appear in next month's American Watercolor magazine.

New (virtual) gallery

Jessica Porter is launching Raandesk Gallery of Art a virtual gallery and art consultation biz in DC (among other places) and it starts with an art event next week.

The "Emergence Art Party" is sponsored by Raandesk Gallery of Art and there are two events over two nights (Thursday & Friday next week). The events are free with lots of contemporary art, including work by DC local Jeff Huntington.

The event will be in a very, very new and very empty condo in the Flats at Union Row (14th & V Streets, NW, just off U). Thursday is an RSVP-required preview (RSVP required, wine & cheese, limited attendance, et al) and Friday is a general opening for anyone and everyone.

Details here.

Bethesda Art Walk today

Today is the second Friday of the month and thus its time for the Bethesda Art Walk with 13 participating venues and with free guided tours.

My picks are Michael Janis at Neptune Gallery, Michael Fitts at Fraser Gallery and Mexican artist Gerardo Bravo Garcia at Heineman Myers.

And of course the Trawick Prize finalists at Creative Partners Gallery!

Baltimore opening

Tonight, Friday, September 14th is the opening reception for DC artist Michael Enn Sirvet's "Restructuralist Sculpture" solo show at the Touchet Gallery in Baltimore.

The reception is from 6 to 9 p.m. and the gallery is located on the corner of Fleet and S. Ann Streets in Fells Point, Baltimore.

New Benjamin

A new 9-foot bronze sculpture of Benjamin Franklin is to be dedicated at 4th and Arch Streets at 10 a.m. on Oct. 5 by the city of Philadelphia.

The work is by Philly sculptor James Peniston, and it incorporates more than 1,000 keys that Peniston collected while giving talks at local elementary schools about Franklin. The schoolchildren also donated nearly 1.5 million pennies to help fund "Keys To Community," which also received funding from the city and the Philadelphia Fire Department.

More details here.

Olga Viso to leave the Hirshhorn

Came home tonight to find an email from yesterday from Hirshhorn director and my good friend Olga Viso announcing that she will soon be leaving as director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in order to take over the reigns of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

And today Carol Vogel in the New York Times has a very readable story on Viso and the move to Minneapolis:

"After a six-month international search, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis said yesterday that it had appointed Olga Viso, director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, as its new director.

Ms. Viso, who is to assume the post in January, succeeds Kathy Halbreich, who has led the Walker for 16 years and is retiring in November."

Viso has been at the Hirshhorn for over a decade, working her way up the ranks to her current position. In a story in the WaPo, Blake Gopnik writes:

During her 12 years at the Hirshhorn, first in various curatorial positions, then for two years as deputy director under Ned Rifkin and finally as director, she has had a notable commitment to experimental, even difficult, contemporary art...

Coming seasons at the Hirshhorn, planned during her tenure, are notable for their lack of easy crowd-pleasers and for a commitment to investigations of some central issues in contemporary art...

Viso's time as director coincided with a particularly troubled period in Smithsonian history, culminating in an accounting scandal that led to the resignation of Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small in March. Viso feels she was able to keep momentum going and morale strong at the Hirshhorn "despite the troubles that the Smithsonian has faced." Brougher said she kept the Hirshhorn staff from feeling the effects of those "storms."

Olga Viso's move is a loss for the Hirshhorn and also for Washington, and a terrific coup and brilliant move for the Walker.

Viso not only steered the Hirshhorn confidently during the turbulent period described by Gopnik, but also took the Hirshhorn to a new level in the arena of contemporary art, bringing to Washington world-class artists and exhibitions that brought the nation's capital back into the forefront of the contemporary art dialogue.

And during her period as curator for the museum, she not only brought us great exhibitions such as the long-awaited retrospective of Cuban American artist Ana Mendieta, but also became the first Hirshhorn curator and director to begin looking to the museum's own backyard for Washington area artists, and the first museum director to actually make an effort to visit local galleries and meet local gallerists and artists.

She leaves behind a city brimming with new art galleries opening every other month and joining established and emerging art spaces, and a vibrant, ever-changing art scene full of talented artists, a few barely emerging collectors, a set of terrific museums and in spite of a moribund paper press, a savvy (mostly online) art press.

And she will bring to chilly Minneapolis not only an international reputation and flair, and an enviable work ethic and vision, but also the deep elegance, presence and good looks that come from her solid Cuban genes.

Awright, so I am a little prejudiced in the last few words.

We will miss you Olga.

Lest We Forget

"Studio View, 9/11"
Oil on Canvas c. 9/11/2001 by David FeBland