Virginia Beach police seize photos


Butt crack showed, so the VAB cops seized the pictures photos; read the story here.

Update: Charges dropped! But mission accomplished - this story made headlines all over the world and made Virginia Beach look really moronic!

artDC returns this May

artDC, the District's only major international art fair, returns for its second year on May 16-18, 2008, with an opening night VIP Preview scheduled for May 15.

Read my review of artDC 2007 here.

The New Media section, which I helped to curate last year, also returns for a second year and "this small group of exhibitors will display a variety of digital, sound and installations of mixed-media works, along with other gallery artists."

artDC 2008 will also feature "Art W," which is described as "a project paying tribute to contemporary and historical women artists. As an invitational, Art W will highlight select women artists whose work merits special recognition. Art W will additionally be spotlighted in on- and off-site seminars addressing the topic of women in the arts and in special events with partner institutions in Washington."

They're also featuring SLICE, a special section featuring galleries who focus on "cutting edge art - a slice of the market not normally exposed to the international art market."

I suspect that we will see a lot more Mid Atlantic area galleries represented in this second year, as the relative success of the first year insures some sort of safety net for galleries with a limited art fair budget to do a "new" fair. I know this because one question that I get all the time as I wander through Philly's galleries is "how was artDC?"

And I know that we will see a lot more DC area galleries as well, as the fair's first year success now gives some sort of degree of assurance about the art being exposed to a large body of attendees and collectors.

Details and applications, etc. here.

Opportunity for Sculptors

Deadline: March 15, 2008 (postmark)

"Global Warming at the Icebox" - Philadelphia Sculptors is offering a great opportunity for artists interested in making artistic statements about environmental issues. They are sponsoring a major sculpture exhibition on the theme of global warming during Fall 2008.

"Global Warming at the Icebox" will be exhibited at the large and uniquely appropriate Icebox Project Space in the Crane Arts Building in Philadelphia. They are seeking submissions from artists working in three dimensions who can present original ways of approaching the theme and exploring the diverse ramifications of climate change. Interactive, multi-media, and installation works are encouraged.

The show will run from October 5, 2008 - November 15, 2008. All work must be submitted digitally. Selected artists will receive an honorarium of $750. The jurors are Adelina Vlas, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Cheryl Harper, independent Curator. The entry fee is $15 for Philadelphia Sculptors members and $25 for non-members (or discounted membership and entryfee of $45 for new members.) For prospectus and more information, go to this website or contact Leslie Kaufman at 215-413-9126, lesliekaufman@verizon.net.

Call for Artists

A splendid group of jurors -- including Dr. C. Everett Koop, Dr. Gary Vikan, Mr. Fred Lazarus, myself and others -- will be jurying the artwork for the The Innovators Combatting Substance Abuse Program next month in Baltimore.

The Innovators Combatting Substance Abuse Program has a call out for artists for original art to appear in a forthcoming book on art and addiction to be published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Open to all artists and all media, including video on the subject of drug addiction, including alcohol, and recovery. A panel of jurors will select finalists, and each finalist will receive a $200 honorarium, with the top five receiving an additional $500, copy of the book, and inclusion in exhibitions in Maryland and Puerto Rico.

No entry fees!

Download entry form here.

McCabe on Bailey

The Baltimore City Paper's Brent McCabe closes the chapter on the recent furor over the Bailey-as-Ober appropriation issue and writes that "Bailey's outright copying of a local artist in her peer group is the first of many undercooked choices that makes New Work a brilliant idea with atrocious execution."

Bret makes some excellent points on the issue. Read the review here.

Ass Backwards

My series of works based on real and imaginary military ribbons and medals has created the complete opposite effect in the mind of at least one person who writes in YouTube:

Do you want to kill more innocent Americans with your ribbons. Why don't you campaign for peace?

See the offending work in the short video below...



And here it is finished.


"Iranian Campaign Medal", Oil on Canvas, 24 x 48 inches, c.2007
By F. Lennox Campello (from the Digitalia series)

Interesting show at Salve Regina

Salve Regina Gallery at the Catholic University of America has a really interesting show opening next Thursday Feb. 7, from 6-8PM.

On exhibition will be works by DC area artist Kurt Godwin, and the exhibit promises to be quite interesting, especially in view of the recent furor over the Bailey-as-Ober appropriation issue.


Godwin has been working on a series of "assisted ready-made" mixed media paintings for the last year and a half that works with the appropriation concept on a very different level.

Godwin tells me that because he was temporarily without a proper studio, he came up with the idea of downloading obscure old paintings (19th c. and earlier) by various (often Russian) artists

Finding separate scenes by two different artists with some sort of visual connection - a horizon line, trees that could match up, etc. - two different paintings can be then "fused" into a third situation.

The colors are matched with a variety of materials to solidify the connection; yet perspectives are at times skewed. Godwin says that what appears to be normal -- "looks like art" -- turns out to be oddly disjointed and perhaps eve unsettling at times.

Things don't "add up" in the newly reconstituted works. Inserting rusted out cars, planes, power lines and other sorts of junk into the placid landscapes bring these seemingly antiquated, traditional compositions into our day and age - for better or worse.

Godwin says that in the process of making these things it occurred to him that "over the millions of landscape paintings produced over the years what really is the point in starting from scratch?"

He continues, "with so many to choose from, one just needs a bit of a foundation as a jumping off place to add their own two-bits."

With this accelerated process there was clearly a high production level as the show will feature about 75 - 80 of these 8"x10" works. The show opens next Thursday Feb. 7, with a reception from 6-8PM.

The Salve Regina Gallery
Catholic University of America
620 Michigan Ave NE
Washington, DC 20009
202.319.5282