Rice on Duane Michals

The Philly City Paper's Robin Rice with an excellent review of Duane Michals at the Sol Mednick Gallery, Univ. of the Arts, in Philly.

The Poet decorates his muse with verse, c.2004 Duane Michals
Read it here.

52 O Street open studios this weekend in DC

I alerted all of you a while back, and DCist's Lynne Venart now has an excellent walkthrough of the studios.

Read it here and then go buy some art... somewhere.

Lotta Art is tomorrow in Baltimore

Inaugural Exhibition

I've been remiss in failing to mention the inaugural exhibition of the new Lillian and Joseph C. Duke Gallery at the Community Arts Center of Wallingford, PA - the nearest art gallery/center to my own home!

On exhibit is the Philadelphia Watercolor Society juried members' show of works on paper and the show ends today. The juror was Geraldine McKeown, NWS.

By the way, Media Pennsylvania is known as "Tree City, USA," but I have a new name for them: "Allergy City, USA."

A rarity coming up

Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist presents "the first nationally touring retrospective of Aaron Douglas (1899-1979), one of the most influential visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance. This exhibition brings together more than 80 rarely seen works by the artist, including paintings, prints, drawings and illustrations."

The show opens at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC on May 9, and runs through August 3, 2008.

I really hate the segregation of art by race or ethnicity, but once in a while something stands out so grossly out of synch that it must be pointed out.

This coming show is also a rarity for the DC area museums: an exhibition by a black artist.

Example: As far as I know the National Gallery has only hosted one exhibition in its entire history by a black artist, in this case African American artist Romare Bearden.

The Corcoran has done a little better, most recently hosting Sam Gilliam's first retrospective. Jonathan Binstock, then the Corcoran curator, had done his thesis on Gilliam, so I am sure that this helped get this DC art star a long overdue museum show in his own city. And the Phillips Collection certainly has paid attention to my old professor Jacob Lawrence with a couple of traveling exhibitions.

But some black artists are way overdue for the kind of exposure that an NGA show can afford an artist. My first suggestion is Wifredo Lam.

Any others? Feel free to comment.

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?

DC's Studio Gallery has an opening Saturday night April 26 from 5-7PM. They are featuring the work of Roberta Thole in the upstairs gallery. Her works "allude to classicism and the environment and are mixed media with paint, copper and emulsion."

Downstairs gallery has two emerging artists who "use paint in a very bold, abstract way." Katya Kronick "draws her inspiration from nature directly" and Andrew Acquadro "abstracts everyday images in a very bold and dynamic way."

Artists' talk: Alexandria, VA

Amy Lin will be discussing her work at the Art League Gallery in Old Town Alexandria on Saturday, April 26 @ 3:30pm.

Buy Amy Lin now.