Synergy

Synergy is an exhibition of artwork by the Torpedo Factory's 2011 Visiting Artists - who were selected this year by yours truly!

Exhibition Dates: August 11 – 28

Reception: August 11, 6-9pm during Second Thursday Art Night

Location: Site 2 and Site 3 Galleries, Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union Street, Alexandria, VA

Additional information: To learn more about the Visiting Artist Program click here.

The Torpedo Factory Art Center presents this summer’s 2011 artists in the Visiting Artist Program in an exhibition entitled Synergy. The Visiting Artist Program, the Torpedo Factory Artist Association’s residency program, invites artists both emerging and experienced from around the nation to become a part of its art-making community for a summer. This year’s juror, F. Lennox Campello, international award-winning artist, author of leading art blog Daily Campello Art News, curator, art critic, and writer in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, PA, chose 11 artists for the 2011 summer program. This residency awarded these artists with the opportunity to create in a Torpedo Factory studio from June until August for one, two, or all three months.

This year’s selected artists are: Mark Thomas Anderson (Arlington, VA); M. Chava Evans (Baltimore, MD); Allison Long Hardy (Woodbridge, VA); Katie Latona (Champaign, IL); Heather McCaw (Washington, DC); Emily Moorhead (Cincinnati, OH); Linda Morrell (Castleton, NY); Liza Myers (Brandon, VT); Drew Parris (Stevensville, MD); Fierce Sonia (Alexandria, VA); Kazaan Viveiros (Alexandria, VA).

Synergy stems from the cohesive objective expressed by the visiting artists to fill their time at the Torpedo Factory Art Center (TFAC) with new audience exposure, fresh inspiration from within the TFAC and abroad, and productive studio time that, in totality, amounts to an influential and wholesome experience. Conversely, their synergy translates into quite diverse works that ranges from detritus-based installations to graphite renderings. The exhibition Synergy is centered on this aspect and displays artwork created by each artist during residency and presents interviews conducted at the start of summer on each as well. The exhibited imagery portrays each artist’s perspective and the questionnaire conveys each artist’s anticipations and aspirations for the program in a literary art form. The visiting artists’ unique creativity and individuality permeates through while collectively they comprise this summer’s 2011 Visiting Artist Program.

Join us August 11th from 6-9pm for the opening reception to Synergy held in conjunction with the Torpedo Factory Art Center’s (TFAC) Second Thursday Art Night. Come visit Site 2 and 3 Galleries on the second and third floors of the art center and view synergized art, read insightful interviews, and talk to the visiting artists!

See ya there!

Chris Shea in the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian American Art Museum acquired three furniture pieces in forged iron and cast glass for its permanent collection of notable American craft and decorative arts. The two Cafe Chairs and Arthropod Side Table by Maryland Artist-Blacksmith Chris Shea will be on exhibit at the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC beginning October 1, 2011.


Smithsonian Curator Nicholas Bell commented, "Over the past 15 years, Chris Shea has developed a compelling design language that combines traditional furniture forms, muscular ironwork, and luminous cast glass in ways that are at once unexpected and oddly organic.”

The Cafe Chairs have become a signature piece for Shea, with a form derived from traditional bentwood furniture but executed in hot-forged steel, with joinery details more common to large architectural ironwork than fine furniture. The seats are cast in thick contoured slabs of translucent green glass set directly into the iron. The table is of similar design, with the name “Arthropod” referring to the phylum of creatures (such as insects and crustaceans) known for their hard, segmented organic structures.

Chris Shea designs and creates furniture, sculpture, and architectural metalwork at his forge and studio outside Washington, DC. In addition to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Galllery, his work has been shown at Wexler Gallery in Philadelphia, Woodson Art Museum, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, the National Ornamental Metals Museum, and at SOFA Chicago with Maurine Littleton Gallery. A native of Marblehead, MA, Shea studied at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Tennessee and at Penland School. He holds a BA in English from Cornell University. Chris Shea's glass work is created in association with the Washington Glass Studio and it's damned amazing in my opinion.

Another Bethesda Gallery Closing

Friday, July 15th was closing day for Anne and James Kim, who’ve run the Orchard Gallery and Framing shop on Norfolk Avenue for the past 10 years. Orchard Gallery was part of downtown Bethesda’s Art Walk, a monthly event whose participating galleries will now number at just eight, (and that’s including shops Bella Italia, Waygoose Redux and restaurant California Tortilla). “Though people appreciate the art, they are cautious about buying,” says James Kim, reflecting a trend that’s caused the demise of other Bethesda galleries, including the Fraser Gallery in March.

The art displayed in his gallery was all local. “There is no need to get national or international art. There are plenty of good artists here in Maryland, Virginia and D.C.,” he says.

Read the report in Bethesda Magazine here.

MOCA DC Responds to WCP Article

The following email from MOCA DC's Director David R. Quammen (posted here with his permission) complains about this article by Kriston Capps (does that sound familiar?) and asks for readers to comment on the issue:

I apologize for sending this so soon after the Sunday night email, but the City Paper has a bad reputation for doing schlock journalism; This is the 2nd time I've been victim of it - last time was in 1996 -- the article that hatchet-man Kriston Capps put a link to in his piece.

So my reason to send this now is to ask you to Send a Message to Michael (Schaffer - editor of City Paper) if you agree that I and MOCA DC were wrongly raked over the coals - I have threatened to sue, and Michael is looking into it. But a few messages here and there might make him clean up the collective City Paper act. Say what you want, but please do it now. go to this article, then let Michael know how you feel.

Michael Schaffer Email: mschaffer@washingtoncitypaper.com

Also, my email has been hacked and several messages were lost - so if you sent one and I didn't respond to it - please send it again and I definitely will reply - I always do, just out of common courtesy.

Thanks for whatever support you care to give on this.

David R. Quammen

Update: The WCP responds to the MOCA issue: Read David's letter and the CP response here (scroll to the bottom).

ArtSee debut

ArtSee, DC's new fine art community, has just opened its online doors. ArtSee, the brainchild of founder and CEO Elizabeth Grazioli, will be offered in major cities that will provide arts enthusiasts with the “who, what, where, when, and how” of the art scene.

ArtSee is a full service community providing the opportunity for artists and art enthusiasts to discover news, events and information, exchange art and their ideas about art and hire ArtSee to promote art in their local communities. ArtSee’s motivated professional team will also provide creative promotional and event coordinating services for artists to help their presence grow within their communities. Through social media updates and a subscription to a monthly ArtSee e-newsletter, anyone can stay up-to-date with the art scene in the city where they live.

This past weekend, ArtSee held its launch reception and inaugural art exhibition at Hillyer Art Space to celebrate its arrival in DC and the work of artists Kristin Lubsen, Blair Sutton, and Wil Scott. The event was a huge success with a turnout of over 120 supporters of the new community. Guests enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres while engaging with the artists about their work.

Of the night’s success, Grazioli says “This was a great opportunity for the artists to meet art lovers in the DC community and in doing so they made valuable contacts and had a venue to sell their work. ArtSee aims to be accessible and affordable for all artists and provide high quality promotional services and I think that this event accomplished all three of these missions.”

To find out more about ArtSee please visit www.artseedc.com and to explore the work of the three featured artists please view their website www.kristinlubsen.com, www.wil-scott.com, and www.blairsuttonart.com

Book Release Party Pics

Artists Alexa Meade, Victoria F. Gaitán, Alberto Gaitán and gallerist Andrea Pollan

Artsee's Elizabeth Grazioli, and artists Judy Byron anj J.J. McCracken with ubercollector Steven Krensky in the distant background

Artists Jeff Spaulding and Ben Tolman

Artists Lisa Montag Brotman and Margarida Kendall-Hull

Artist Amy Lin (foreground) and photographer Lida Moser, ubercollector Fred Ognibene and photographer Colin Winterbottom in the background

The amazing photographer Lida Moser

Artists Rosetta deBerardinis and Carolina Mayorga

Artists Victor Ekpuk and Helen Frederick signing books

Video sculptor Tim Tate and artist Michael Janis (background), artist Helen Frederick signing the book for ubercollectors Gisela and Benjamin Huberman


At the end of the party... a gorgeous piece of art - part of Conner's current Academy 2011 show.
A million thanks to Leigh and Jamie: This is what community is all about and this is what DC is all about!

Release Day

The 100 Washington, DC Artists book is officially out today!

Tune in later for pics from the book release opening party at Conner Contemporary.