(e)merge now accepting applications

(e)merge, the new, DC-based art fair focused on emerging artists and galleries with emerging art, just announced that it is now accepting applications from galleries, nonprofits and artists without gallery representation.

The Fair will take place September 22-25, 2011, at the Rubell family's Capitol Skyline Hotel in Washington, DC.

Applications are available on (e)merge's Web site and the deadline to apply is Monday, May 2nd and acceptances will be sent out by early June.

It is clear to me that this is a prime opportunity for unrepresented DMV area artists (well... any unrepresented artist!). In fact, my advice to every single one of you who is not represented by a gallery and who thinks that their work merits to be examined and vetted, is simple: do not miss this golden opportunity.

Why?

As an experienced art fair participant, art fair visitor, art fair rejectee, and art fair observer, I know that this fair model is a new model. This is something new... the goal here, as implied by the cool fair title with the even cooler parenthesis around the (e) - I must find out whose brilliant idea that was - is to put the loupe on galleries who show emerging artists and on unrepresented artists.

What is the ultimate goal? I would guess that at least a partial goal would be to expose (maybe (e)xpose?) the huge numbers of highly talented and original artists out there whom are unrepresented and who may do well with the right gallery.

I am such a fan of this novel idea. Remember when I curated "Seven" for the WPA in 2005? That was one of my goals as well, and one that in my not so humble opinion I succeeded beyond my wildest expectations.

I selected 66 artists for "Seven" - the vast majority of whom had never (or rarely) exhibited in the DMV - I then took my then fellow gallerists in personal tours of the huge exhibitions in the seven galleries of the Warehouse complex... by my last count, about a dozen then unrepresented artists found gallery representation because of that show, including a couple which arguably have become the art star of their respective galleries.

Of course, I scored the biggest hit of them all... I found my wife and the love of my life because of that show...

See what can happen when you mix good people, good thinkers, and good ideas with art?

No one ever did this before

I've invented some new descriptors...

Spitoidal Glucosoids is what I call whatever substance seems to always clog up one of the two basin drains in my bathroom.

According to Google, that combo of words (as a descriptor) does not exist at all in Al Gore's internet.

From now on, whenever some geek types Spitoidal Glucosoids into Google (or any other search engine) it will only come here!

The Lenster just invented Google Word Searchartism....

Who'd thunk it? The Beatles were wrong!

Weekend duties

Tomorrow night: Meet the various artists selected for the Strathmore Fine Artist in Residence Program Mentorship. Those artists are:

Minna Philips (drawing/installation)

Wilmer Wilson IV (mixed media/installation)

Brittany Sims (painting)

Solomon Slyce (photography)

Saturday & Sunday: Review the work by the 43 artists from all over the USA and Scotland who have applied to the Torpedo Factory Art Center's Visiting Artists Program of one, two, or three-month residencies between June 1 and August 31, 2011 - then select about a dozen for the residencies.

Tonight: Mirror art at ARTiculate Gallery

There's a cool upcoming exhibition opening tonight at VSA's ARTiculate Gallery. The show, "Reflections" was inspired by local artist Bob Benson and his work at the American Visionary Art Museum.

Benson worked with the artists in the ARTiculate Program (which provides artistic and vocational training to youth and adults with special needs) to create "mirror art" using glass-cutting techniques in a variety of styles, and the artists have created a unique body of work.

The opening will take place tonight Thursday, March 10th between 5:30 and 7:30pm at the ARTiculate Gallery, located at 1100 16th St NW. The reception will be free, open to the public, and light refreshments will be served.

WCP's last word on Fraser Gallery closing

For Catriona Fraser, the Fraser Gallery’s decade-and-a-half run in Georgetown and Bethesda ended on a simple note: “Nobody was buying any artwork from me.”

Case in point: the 10th Annual International Photography Competition, one of the gallery’s best-known feature exhibitions, which just closed at Fraser’s remaining outpost in downtown Bethesda.

The work is affordable, with most of it priced under $500. The work has been seen: The opening reception, Fraser says, was “heaving with people.” And the work is good: Washington City Paper called the exhibit “impressive.”

Yet Fraser did not make a single sale. And so on March 1, following several Bethesda galleries that have recently met the same fate, Fraser Gallery announced it is closing at the end of the month.

Read the article by Kriston Capps and Lou Jacobson here.

Update: Here's the whole text of my email to the CP in response to their request for input:

When my then wife Catriona and I opened the first Fraser Gallery in 1996 in Georgetown, our first two shows almost sold out, we got a huge article in the Washington Post, and I recall Kate and I saying, "WOW, this is gonna be easy."

It wasn't and as we learned, building an art gallery required not only an immense amount of hard work, but also realizing that it is a labor of love, and that more often than not, your finances are getting by (if you're lucky) by the skin of your teeth. Our mantra always was: "the artists get paid first, then the bills."

Catriona was 24 years old when we opened Fraser in Georgetown in 1996; perhaps the youngest ever gallery co-owner in DC history, and she applied herself to the task of co-running Fraser gallery with a ferocity and gusto that was a key ingredient to Fraser's success over the next 15 years.

In my opinion we established a very distinct gallery presence from day one. When we announced that we would focus on contemporary realism - which we described back then as "realism with a bite" - and photography, every one told us that we'd be closed within a year, and that first year, in spite of the great success of those two initial shows, was very tough and more often than not we were using our financial backers (Mr. Visa and Mr. Mastercard) to pay the artists and the gallery's bills.

But a presence we did establish, and we'd get reviewed 4-5 a year in the Post and 1-2 a year in the Times and it seems like every other month in the City Paper (ahhhh... the good ole days), and in spite of the fact that we stayed tightly focused on our gallery focus, we kept doing better and better each year, and continued to argue against the "norm" that only the almost 100-year-old genre of abstraction was "contemporary" for a cutting edge gallery. What abstraction was instead, we felt, was "safe" and perhaps even easier to sell. Try looking at a Chawky Frenn painting for a while - hard to sell, but deserving of a two-page spread review in the New York Times.

We also began to add focus and presence to a whole new set of local artists. Both Erik Sandberg and Andrew Wodzianski (now well-known DMV artists) received their first solo shows at Fraser, while both of them were still MFA students. And Tim Tate's first solo show (which sold out) was also at Fraser... where he went on to have multiple solos over the years.

We also focused a lot of time on photography, and "rediscovered" Lida Moser's wonderful archives of her amazing photography from the past 60 years. Other noted photographers such as Maxwell MacKenzie, Joyce Tenneson, etc. also had multiple solos at Fraser.

A decade ago, almost by accident we decided to put together a show focusing on Cuban artists, and as result eventually we brought to the DC area some of the best contemporary Cuban artists in the world, usually giving them their first solo shows in the US or DC and placing many of them in US museums.

Fraser was also a leading online pioneer, and to this day has the most extensive online presence of any DMV gallery, with nearly 15 years of archived shows and artwork. As I recall, when we opened in 1996, we were only one of 2-3 DC galleries with a website! A few years later we became one of the charter dealers for Sotheby's during their online ventures and by 2001 we were the second largest Sotheby's online dealer in the world. A lot of DMV artists (including myself) owe their secondary market record to that joint venture between Fraser and Sotheby's.

When the art fairs came into vogue, Fraser was also one of the first galleries to start doing them, perhaps only after the now-closed Fusebox Gallery. To this day Fraser brings its artists to fairs in New York, Boston and Miami, still one of less than 5-6 DMV galleries that take the huge financial risk of doing an art fair.

I left Fraser in 2006 and Catriona has been running the gallery alone since then. For reasons that only she knows, we haven't spoken since, even though we had remained partners until the day of my last show at Fraser in August of 2006 (which the City Paper covered in a huge article). I don't know her reasons for closing the gallery, but I wish her the best in her future endeavors.

This is a huge loss for the cultural tapestry of the DMV art scene. Fraser, for all intents and purposes, was the only remaining art star in Bethesda, as other galleries have been closing in the last few years. The opening of the Bethesda gallery in 2002 made us feel like we had accomplished what no one else had ever done successfully in DC: run two galleries at once, which we did until 2005 for three glorious years of 24 shows a year to organize, curate, hang and publicize.

With the loss of Fraser, Bethesda also loses a champion in the visual arts. It was through the hard work and influence of Fraser Gallery that the Trawick Prize and the Bethesda Painting Awards were created; still the two largest individual art awards in the region. It was through the hard work and influence of the Fraser Gallery that the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival - the highest ranked outdoor fine arts show in Maryland and one of the top 100 such shows in the nation - was created.

And with the loss of Fraser, and ins spite of critics always trying to tell a gallerist how to do his/her business, the sharpest eye in representational art with a bite and social commentary goes away.

Ten years of my life don't go away, because the memories of all the great art, all the great artists, and all the great openings (the DMV will definitely miss that famous Fraser sangria) will live with me forever.

Call me if you'd like to chat about anything else...

Cheers,

Lenny

This coming Saturday, March 12, "Material World" opens at artdc Gallery in Hyattsville

The group show, curated by Stephen Boocks, deals with artistic media & how it relates to the artist's work - why does the artist choose that medium to make their artwork? Does the material support the work or does it get in the way? Do all elements work in concert with each other? And how do they achieve their own balance?

A number of familiar DMV artists are featured - from the 100 Washington, DC Artists book: Marie Ringwald & Michael Janis and from the Sondheim Prize shortlist - JT Kirkland and Hamiltonian Projects Fellow Katherine Mann.

Also featured are the very talented paper artist Sherrill Gross and painter Matthew Langley.

Material World
artdc Gallery at The Lustine Center
5710 Baltimore Avenue
Hyattsville, Maryland 20781

Opening Reception Saturday, March 12 from 6 to 8 p.m. Two artists talks will be held: Michael Janis and Marie Ringwald on Saturday, March 19, and Matt Langley on Saturday, April 2.

Click here to jump to the gallery website.

DCist Exposed

One of the most awesome photography shows of the year, the fifth annual DCist Exposed Photography Show will be at Long View Gallery, running March 15 to 27, 2011.

Out of over 1,000 individual entries, 43 winning images were selected by a panel of judges to be included in this year's DCist Exposed exhibit.

According to the organizers, this year's opening reception "will be twice as awesome, since we’re holding twice as many: Tuesday, March 15, and Wednesday, March 16 from 6 to 10 p.m." This year’s sponsor is Yuengling (America's oldest brewery and makers of the gorgeous Black & Tan beer), and they will provide a selection of their beers, including their Lager, Light Lager, Bock spring seasonal, and the hoppy Lord Chesterfield Ale and DJ Sequoia is back to spin tunes. Wine, soft drinks and hors d’oeuvres will also be provided. Tickets are $10 in advance at Eventbrite, with limited $15 tickets at the door.

To celebrate their 5th anniversary, DCist and Ten Miles Square have produced a special edition magazine featuring the winning photographs from all five years. The issue can be purchased online at MagCloud for $27.50, which comes with a digital version, or at Long View Gallery during the receptions for $25.

Long View Gallery is located at 1234 9th St. NW, just a few blocks from the Mt. Vernon/Convention Center Metro. All photographs displayed at DCist Exposed will be for sale at prices well below traditional gallery shows to encourage new art patrons. Regular gallery hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, 12 to 5 p.m.