Trekkie Sues Christie's

Hee, hee... you gotta read this.

Brent Spiner as Mr. Data

Zulma Aguiar Favorite Artwork

Zulma Aguiar is at the leading edge of a new wave of electronic art talent now beginning to establish itself as the 21st century approaches the end of its first decade. And Zulma responds to my call for readers' favorite artwork. She writes:

Indigurrito by Nao Bustamante

Its a performance art piece where she strapped-on a burrito to her loins and called for white men to come up on stage, take a bite out of the burrito and absolve themselves of 500 years of the white man's guilt.

There was no shortage of enobled participants, who knelt in front of the protuding offering, some taking delicate bites, others deep-throated chunks.

Bustmante was quoted as saying, "This year I was told any artist of color must complete a performance based on 500 years of oppression in order to get funding."

Indigurrito Performance by Nao Bustamante

Happy New Year's

From the snowy Poconos: I hope that 2008 bring all of you loads of good and positive things.

2008 will be a super busy and interesting year for me. In addition to several art fairs where I will be participating, I will be also curating four exhibitions for four separate art venues in the Greater Washington, DC area, as well as potentially working a seminal project with a major gallery in London, plus having at least one solo show of my own work in Virginia later this year, plus several speaking engagements throughout the Mid Atlantic.

For me 2008 starts with "Color Invitations" at the new R Street Gallery in Washington, DC.

A while back the gallery's owner approached me, interested in exhibiting my newly revived interest in painting with a series of works based on my military decorations - a series that I started back in 1999-2000 as detailed here.

Because of the fact that these works have been selling quite briskly, and due to the timeline of the proposed exhibition, I declined the opportunity for the solo, as I didn't have enough works for it, and instead proposed to I curate a show for the gallery centered around a concept of artists working issues of color, texture, and some diverging from the type of work which they had been doing in order to explore color.

And thus on January 10, with an opening reception for the artists on January 16, 2008 from 6-8PM, the exhibition "Color Invitations" opens at the R Street Gallery with new work by Maggie Michael, Jeffry Cudlin, Amy Lin, Andrew Wodzianski (who also has a solo show opening at the Rodger Lapelle Gallery in Philadelphia this coming Friday, January 4, 2008), John Blee, Steve Lapin and myself.

On exhibition I will have some preparatory watercolors that I did in 1999-2000 in preparation for this this show at the McLean Project for the Arts, as well as a brand new painting from the series.

Expeditionary Service Medal, Watercolor on Paper, c. 1999
2.25 x 7.5 inches by F. Lennox Campello
The paintings themselves have shifted slightly in focus and technique. While the first few ones were essentially exploded pixillated huge oils of my Navy ribbons and medals, the new works "invent" new decorations and medals for imaginary, or predicted new military campaigns, perhaps as dreamed about, or envisioned by our political leaders in our nation's future, and as shaped by a visionary perspective on world events.

And thus at R Street Gallery, in addition to the prep work for the earlier pieces done circa 1999-2000, there will be a new oil painting depicting the "Iranian Campaign Medal," which will be awarded to American sailors, Marines, soldiers, airmen and Coast Guard personnel for participation in the future military campaign in Iran.

A second new oil painting on gessoed paper titled "Multinational Peacekeeping Force Medal for Service in Cuba," depicts the ribbon for the United Nations medal to be awarded to military and naval personnel who will be taking part in the peacekeeping occupation of Cuba as directed by the United Nations as that Caribbean island descends into chaos in a post Fidel Castro era.

The latter is part of my proposal package for a Cintas Foundation grant package that I submitted a few months ago, in which I propose to create a dozen new paintings, all depicting future campaign medals and ribbons associated with the imminent arising issue of the mess that is certainly to drag the US and the UN into Cuba once the brutal Galician dictator finally dies and his alcoholic brother fails to institutionalize a familial dictatorship in the style of Haiti's Papa Doc Duvalier or North Korea's Kim Il-Sung.

So pencil in January 16, from 6-8PM and come by the R Street Gallery, located at 2108 R Street (second floor), NW Washington, DC in the Dupont Circle gallery cluster.

The Power of the Web

A while back I put out a fun request as a call for this blog readers' favorite artworks, based on an idea triggered by the Washington Post's art critic Michael O'Sullivan's "Conversation Pieces" in which he listed some A-list folks' favorite art in the Greater DC area.

Since then I have been slowly but surely publishing them -- to those who have sent them in: patience! I am way behind and on holiday in the mountains.

And today I received an email from a publishing house interested in pursuing the effort in a book form, with an expanded format to be discussed!

I will be mulling that idea for a while, as I have a super busy January coming down the pike, but I am pretty sure that I will do the project if I can fit it into what's already looming as a super-busy 2008 for me.

Is that great or what?

More later...

Martin Irvine's Favorite Artwork

DC area gallerist Martin Irvine quickly established Irvine Contemporary as one of the leading Mid Atlantic art galleries and has led the way in bringing the super hot Chinese art to the DC region. He responds to my call for readers' favorite artworks and writes:

I was just in the NGA-East and was impressed by the nice little suite of works they have up from 1962, the turning point year in pop. I love Andy Warhol’s “200 Campbells Soup Cans” (1962): it’s entirely hand painted with some cut stencil work, and made before the now iconic soup cans from silk screens. Andy started silkscreening in 1963 after learning it from Gerard Malanga. The 200 hand painted soup can painting on canvas seems even more subversive because he made a painting that looks commercially made, a repetitive series of logos and product graphic design ubiquitous in every supermarket, but rendered back into a painting made by hand. The outrageousness of that — in 1962!

200 Campbell’s Soup Cans, (detail) 1962 (Acrylic on canvas, 72 inches x 100 inches), by Andy Warhol

Art Job

The Mint Museums, comprising the Mint Museum of Art and the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte, NC, is looking to hire a Director to oversee responsibilities for the development, care and presentation of one of the finest collections of contemporary craft and design within the United States.

The collection's history begins an exciting new chapter as The Mint Museum breaks ground for a 145,000 square foot building that will be the centerpiece of a thriving cultural district in the city of Charlotte. The anticipated opening of the new facility is fall 2010. The museum will provide over 18,000 square feet dedicated to the Craft and Design Collection and special exhibitions

The successful candidate should have a minimum of five years professional curatorial/management experience within a museum environment. Salary and benefits shall be commensurate with experience. Submit application letter and resume to: Caroline Schuster caroline.schuster@wachovia.com (Job Code Reference: MM0107).

Fun with art