Elizabeth Ward: The Virtue of Strathmore's Visuals

In DC, Strathmore is usually where one goes to listen to the incredible Baltimore Symphony, experience contemporary dance, or even take in a popular musician’s concert. But Strathmore is not just for the performing arts anymore. In fact, one big reason to take a visit to Strathmore is to get to know Strathmore Fine Art and its Fine Artist in Residence (Fine AIR) Exhibition.

Yes, Strathmore has fine visual art! Its Fine AIR program cultivates local visual arts talent in the DC area by pairing emerging artists with established professionals in the community. Here’s how it works: For six months, these young artists build an audience, hone their craft, and premiere a new body of work – all while being guided, critiqued, and taught by stellar local mentors.

Read the piece at the Pink Line Project here, and check out the exhibition here, and then come to the opening this Friday from 7-9PM!

Book Release Party: 23 July

The 100 Washington, DC Artists book should be available at most DMV area bookstores very soon and the book release party will be July 23rd at Conner Contemporary in DC.

The book release party is by invitation only, so please RSVP to me at lenny@lennycampello.com if you'd like to be added to the invite list or RSVP on Facebook here. Most of the artists will be there, so this is your chance to get your copy signed by them. You can bring your own copy or a very limited number of books will be available for sale at the party. If you'd like to reserve a book, please email me, as I am only bringing a limited number and a lot of them have been reserved already.

The book is also available online at the usual sites (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, etc.) or directly from the publisher.

If you want to support your local bookstore, you can have them order it for you here.

Location
Conner Contemporary Art
1358 Florida Ave, NE
Washington, DC

Date: Saturday, July 23, from 3-5 PM

Kuba Kuba in Richmond: Fail!

I had heard a lot of good things about this restaurant from my Richmond friends, so a while back, while delivering some artwork to a local collector, I dropped by and had dinner.

The atmosphere is very trendy and somewhat hip, which is something different from most Cuban restaurants outside of NYC. It looked like a very cool restaurant which happened to serve (I was told) great Cuban food.

I knew that something was wrong when I was served a basket of chips and salsa as soon as I sat down.

I rationalized it as the fact that in Richmond, even a Cuban restaurant has to "normalize" and come down to the fact that a lot of people think that Mexico starts south of the border and there are no other culinary traditions elsewhere in the twenty-something other nations in the Americas... maybe they got tired of people asking for chips and salsa.

Notice to Kuba Kuba: Cuban food does not include chips and salsa... perhaps a serving of mariquitas (fried, thin chips made out of plantains), but not Mexican tortilla chips - in a Cuban cuisine, a tortilla is an omelet.

I ordered the most basic of Cuban dishes, which of course, came with the staple of Cuban food: white rice and black beans.

There is a long cultural tradition assigned to this dish, and even its Cuban Spanish name (moros y cristianos or "moors and christians") tell you something about the dish (rumored to honor the 100th anniversary in 1592 of Queen Isabella's final victory over the Moors in 1492).

I was horrified when my moros y cristianos was brought to me with the black beans piled atop the white rice.

HUGE cultural gaffe! These two parts of this key Cuban dish are always, always, always served in separate dishes and only the eater can mix them, if he/she desires to mix it.

When cooked together, a different dish, called "congri" is the result: Different dish, different flavor, different recipe.

Overall, the food was acceptable, but far from stellar or memorable, although it is probably one of the few variants of Latin American food available to Richmonders... too bad the owners (I am willing to bet they're not of Cuban ancestry) miss the rich cultural tradition that goes along with proper Cuban food.

Fail!

New Drawings

Woman Resting at Last. 4x20 inches. Charcoal on Paper, c. 2011

Woman Resting at Last. Detail
Queen of Tarts. 4x20 inches. Charcoal on paper, c. 2011.

Swinger: The Lifestyle. 36 x 8 inches. Charcoal on Paper, c. 2011

Swinger: The Lifestyle (detail).

Back Cover



Here is the back cover of my 100 Artists of Washington, DC book.

I am told that Amazon has been telling all those of you who pre-ordered the book that it will arrive to you either (1) this weekend or (2) mid August. Not sure what the deal is, but it is available now directly from the publisher and they ship it right away.

I will have 20 copies that I've ordered (and received right away) for sale at the book opening party (July 23rd from 3-5 at Conner Contemporary, RSVP required), and some of those have already been reserved, so if you'd like me to reserve one for you for the opening so that you can get it signed by the attending artists, send me an an email.

Things we see in Ebay

This seller has lucked out in discovering a trove of "after" unknown works by most dead blue chip artists on the planet.

He does state in bold words:

SELLER DOES NOT ASSUME ANY LEGAL LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE AUTHENTICITY, QUALITY, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR USEFULNESS OF ANY ITEM

I know what Richard Pryor would have said...

Goldstein on (e)merge

This city long recognized for art that is old and historic is, it appears, becoming a hub for art that is bold and new.

The WaPo's Jessica Goldstein writes about (e)merge; read it here.