Book on Ebay stores

For some reason, some of you are having issues getting the 100 Artists of Washington, DC book on Amazon - an alternative is Ebay, where a few book dealers have the book now and it ships free! Check them out here.

In the WaPo

Check out the 100 Artists of Washington, DC book release party great photos by the Washington Posts's Rebecca D'Angelo for The Scene column - see the photos here.

Things we confirmed at the book release party

Last Saturday, as I scanned the large crowd that had braved the extreme heat to gather at Conner Contemporary’s gorgeous gallery space to celebrate the release of the 100 Artists of Washington, DC book, I also absorbed a dozen conversations going on at once, and soaked in a potent sense of artistic community that is the perfect evidence of how wrong some of the art writers around this town are when they describe our artistic community as the visual arts’ world equivalent of the Island of Lost Toys among other negative things.

Powerful and vibrant artistic community, emanating from the space itself, a spectacular gallery setting doing what art galleries have done for many of the District’s neighborhoods: leading the way towards the urban renewal of an entire community.

Intelligent and groundbreaking artistic community, rising from the directors of that space as well; Jamie Smith and Leigh Conner, not only hardworking gallery owners and directors, but forward thinkers who are in the middle of putting Washington, DC on the international art scene via the (e)merge art fair.

Talented and sharing artistic community, spilling from all the artists who came to the event and the many who sent in their best wishes. In that event we saw not only many of the artists in the first book, but also many others who were there to help celebrate the occasion itself.

Caring and generous artistic community, showcased by the multiple offers from other art spaces to host book signings and events related to the artists in the book.

I had not intended for this event to be a book sale event, but rather a celebration of the book itself, and only brought a handful of books with me, expecting that most folks would show up with their own copies, ordered online. For whatever reason, online outlets such as Amazon had quickly run out of their pre-publication orders, and most people had not received their copies, and thus the ones that I had brought with me, which I had purchased from the publisher directly, sold out within a few minutes.

I am told that Amazon has now begun shipping orders and have been re-stocked by the publisher. You can order a copy here or though your local neighborhood bookstore.

I also plan to have a couple more book signing events in the near future; stay tuned for locations.

Thank you to all of you, and now the work for volume two is about to begin!

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Friday, October 28, 2011

The gorgeous BlackRock Center For the Arts is accepting entries for their October 2012 - August 2013 exhibit season.

You can download the prospectus here.

Eligibility: Open to all artists 18 years and over residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC.

Special Consideration: Artists who are willing to conduct a lecture or workshop for a BlackRock standard fee will receive special consideration during the selection process.

About the Gallery: BlackRock Center for the Arts gallery is 1500 square feet of exquisite gallery space located in Germantown, Maryland. With its high neutral walls and beautiful windows strategically placed it allows in just the right amount of natural light. The windows are located above the walls which makes it an ideal space for fiber art. BlackRock Center for the Arts takes pride in the eclectic group of artists we have exhibited in the gallery since 2002.

Jurors: Jack Rasmussen: Director and Curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC.

Jodi Walsh: mixed medium artist, curator, national speaker, owner and Gallery Director of Gallery 555 in Washington, DC.

Carol Brown Goldberg: professional fine artist and lecturer, Carol has been exhibiting her work locally and internationally over the past 36 years.

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.