Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this scam artist:

From:	Alison McCoy (a.mccoy009@yahoo.com)
Sent:	Mon 9/09/13 10:26 AM
To:	lennycampello@hotmail.com (lennycampello@hotmail.com)

Hello,

My name is Alison McCoy.  I found your profile on the internet. I am interested in purchasing an artwork from you for the decoration of my guest room at my new residence in Munich, Germany. Would appreciate if you can send me few pictures of the works you have available for sale so that I can make an easy choice of mine. Better still, send me a web link where I can have a view of your recent works.

I look forward to read back from you.

Thanks.

Alison.

36 STUDIOS - PART 2 (Charm City Edition)

Remember when Mera Rubell kick started a sudden new interest in DC area artists with her studio visits? If not, read all about it here.

Anyway - it's all about to happen again in B'more!

Mera Rubell, co-founder of the Rubell Family Collection and co-owner of the  Capitol Skyline Hotel and the Lord Baltimore Hotel, will be conducting studio visits of Baltimore-area artists in a 36-hour marathon session from 6:00 am Saturday, October 26 through 6:00 pm Sunday, October 27, 2013.

Ms. Rubell will be conducting the studio visits in her role as a curator for SELECT 2014, Washington Project for the Arts' 33rd annual art auction exhibition, taking place at Artisphere in Rosslyn, VA from February 27 through March 21, 2014. (Artwork will be available for purchase the night of the SELECT gala, March 22, 2014. Check WPA's website next month for details.) Rubell, who is based in Miami and New York, but frequently visits Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD for 36-hour periods to visit her hotel properties, is known for her passion for contemporary art and her deep commitment to artists. Since the family's acquisition of the Lord Baltimore Hotel in the spring of 2013, Rubell has been increasingly interested in the vibrant Baltimore art scene and engaging with artists there.

In 2009, Rubell and WPA Executive Director, Lisa Gold, conducted a similar studio visit marathon when Rubell participated as a curator for WPA's 2010 auction exhibition, selecting works by 16 artists from the DC region and generating a substantial buzz in the art community. While 36 straight hours of looking at artwork may be considered extreme by some people, Ms. Rubell and her husband, Don, often conduct brief, intense studio visits during their collecting trips to China or Europe, so this project is just business as usual for the Rubells.

"We are thrilled that Mera is set on exploring and discovering the artists of Baltimore, " says Lisa Gold, who will again be accompanying Ms. Rubell on her studio visit marathon. "I was so impressed with Mera's focus and intensity during the entire duration of our last adventure. I'm sure she'll bring it all back to Baltimore so these artists better have their game on!"

Artists will be invited to sign up for a studio visit appointment via an open call. Any practicing artist with a studio in the Baltimore area (inside I-695) can submit their name, contact information, studio address, and website URL to WPA through the WPA website by midnight on October 1 to be entered into a lottery for studio visits. 36 artists will be selected and their studios plotted on a map which will be used to determine appointment times beginning at 6:00 am on Saturday, October 26. From these visits, Rubell will select 12-15 artists whose work will be included in the SELECT exhibition and art auction gala.

Reporters interested in joining a portion of the 36 Studios tour may contact Lisa Gold at lgold@wpadc.org to make arrangements. For more information about 36 Studios, SELECT 2014: WPA Art Auction Exhibition and Gala, or Washington Project for the Arts, please contact Blair Murphy, Program Director, at 202-234-7103 x1 or bmurphy@wpadc.org.

At Gallery Har Shalom...

Gallery Har Shalom announces the opening of "The Power of Color,"  an exhibit that includes acrylic paintings by Alexandria artist Ana Elisa Benavent, blown glass by Bethesda artist Jane Callen, fiber art by Bethesda artist Floris Flam, and photography by Richard Paul Weiblinger of Laurel, MD.

Benavent (www.anaelisabenavent.com) explains that she paints emotions in colors.  In her words, " . . . large fields of colors start talking to and playing with each other, layer over layer . . . ."   She exhibits at The Art League Gallery at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria and at Foundry Gallery in Washington, DC.

Callen (www.ncagg.org/gallery/callen) blows glass in clean shapes inspired by nature's colors.  Her intention is "to maintain a beginner's heart and mind: open, no assumptions except love."   She blows glass at Glen Echo Park and has also studied at DC Glassworks/Sculpture Studios and Corning Museum of Glass.

Flam (www.florisflam.com) enjoys using a wide range of fabrics and quilting threads and often incorporates her own dyed and painted fabric. She discovered the world of art quilts in 1986 and, since 1991, has studied design and technique at workshops at the Quilt/Surface Design Symposium in Columbus, OH.

Weiblinger (www.weiblingerphotography.smugmug.com) prefers images with chromatic strength and notes that photography allows him to "pursue the art of transforming everyday objects into images that progress from 'everyday' to art."  A self-taught photographer, his work has been shown in numerous juried exhibits and included in magazines such as Smithsonian Zoogoer and Audubon Naturalist.

Gallery Har Shalom, located at Congregation Har Shalom, 11510 Falls Road, Potomac, MD

Opening Reception: Sunday, September 22, 2013, 11am - 1 pm
Exhibit dates:  Through Monday, October 28, 2013
Call for hours and directions:  301-299-7087

For further information and directions to Gallery Har Shalom, please call the Har Shalom office at 301-299-7087.

Enough...

Ladies and gentlemen, enough with dictatorships, with the last dictatorship of the Americas. Stop supporting the Castro government. Enough. Whomever supports the Castro government dirties their hands with blood.

-- Carlos Rafael Jorge Jimenez, Cuban doctor exiled in Brazil, during a presentation to Brazil's Congress, 9/4/13

Opportunity for Artists

EMULSION - The First Annual East City Art Regional Juried Show

Prizes
$1,250 First Place Prize
$750 Second Place Prize
$500 Third Place Prize
Entry Fee
An entry fee of $35 made out to East City Art Media LLC is required
The entry fee must accompany the application for it to be considered complete.
Location
Gallery O on H located at 1354 H Street NE in the heart of the Atlas Entertainment District
Exhibition Dates
Opening Reception Saturday November 9, 2013
Exhibition on view from November 9, 2013 through January 14, 2014
Juror
Lauren Gentile
Contact
For all inquiries please direct emails to editor@eastcityart.com

EMULSION
This call for entry is open to all residents of the Washington-Baltimore combined statistical metropolitan area as defined by the US Census. This is an opportunity for artists from the central Mid-Atlantic to showcase the extraordinary diversity in regional contemporary art.

An emulsion combines two seemingly incompatible ingredients to produce a third yet entirely new substance.  In this spirit, East City Art’s EMULSION seeks to combine the culturally different yet geographically close regions of Washington and Baltimore and to combine a wide array of art forms and mediums from two-dimensional work to performance based pieces.

East City Art envisions EMULSION as an annual event that will exhibit the brightest talent from the Mid-Atlantic region.  We expect EMULSION to grow over time to include more entries, an increase in prize money and visibility beyond the Mid-Atlantic to the national and international level.

Download the prospectus here.

Important Dates

• September 9, 2013 – Deadline for entries (must be postmarked by that date)
• September 27, 2013 – Notification of accepted artists completed
• October 5, 2013 – Last day to respond to notification
• October 7, 3013 – Acceptance list published on East City Art
• October 26-27, 2013– Artwork delivered to gallery
• November 2-3, 2013 – Work Installed by East City Art and Gallery O on H staff
• November 9, 2013 – Show opens to the public
• January 17, 2014 – Exhibition closes
• January 18-19, 2014 – De-installation/Artist Pick-up artwork

And the Trawick winner is...

Congratulations to Gary Kachadourian from Baltimore, winner of the 2013 Trawick Prize and who breaks my string of predictions but continues an established Trawick tradition of Baltimoreans doing well in the Prize competition! Well done!

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, a juried art competition produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, announced the top four prize winners on Friday evening during the exhibition’s opening. Gary Kachadourian from Baltimore, MD was awarded “Best in Show” with $10,000; Adam Hager from Washington, D.C. was named second place and given $2,000 and Mariah Anne Johnson from Washington, D.C. was bestowed third place and received $1,000.

2013 Trawick Prize Finalists

Lauren Adams - Baltimore, MD

Selin Balci - Annapolis, MD

Travis Childers - Fairfax, VA

Adam Hager - Washington, D.C.

Mariah Anne Johnson - Washington, D.C.

Gary Kachadourian - Baltimore, MD

Kate Kretz - Colesville, MD

Caitlin Teal Price - Washington, D.C

The work of the finalists will be on exhibit at Gallery B, 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E, from Sept. 4-28, 2013. The public opening reception was held Friday, Sept. 13 from 6-9pm in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk. Gallery hours for the duration of the exhibit are Wednesday through Saturday, 12 – 6pm.

Entries were juried by Cynthia Connelly, Visual Arts Curator at Artisphere in Arlington, VA; Alexander Heilner, Associate Dean of Design and Media Studies at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore; and Vesela Sretenović, Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.

The Trawick Prize was established in 2003 by Carol Trawick, a longtime community activist in downtown Bethesda. She is the past Chair of both the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and Bethesda Urban Partnership, and also the Founder of the Bethesda Painting Awards. In 2007, Ms. Trawick founded the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation to assist heath and human services and arts non-profits in Montgomery County.

The Trawick Prize is one of the first regional competitions and largest prizes to annually honor visual artists. To date, The Trawick Prize has awarded $126,000 in prize monies and has exhibited the work of over 100 regional artists. Previous Best in Show recipients include Richard Clever, 2003; David Page, 2004; Jiha Moon, 2005; James Rieck, 2006; Jo Smail, 2007; Maggie Michael, 2008; Rene Trevino, 2009; Sara Pomerance, 2010; Mia Feuer, 2011 and Lillian Bayley Hoover in 2012.

For more information, please visit www.bethesda.org or call 301-215-6660.

Xerox copy install by Gary Kachadoriuan

Sculptures by Adam Hager

Installation by Mariah Anne Johnson

Fall for the Arts at AU

American University's Fall for the Arts will bring neighbors, students, faculty, and friends together through art. The visual exhibition opened at the Katzen a couple of days ago.

The day will feature an afternoon of dynamic Courses and Workshops including orchestral conducting, the history of audio recording, a playwriting class, and a discussion of the role of interruption as a catalyst for art, to name just a few. Classes suitable for children are so noted in the descriptions. 

Surprise performances will pop up when you least expect them. The day will conclude with an early evening cocktail reception in the Katzen Arts Center and a Live Art Auction featuring local artists. 

The event is open to the public and an invitation is extended to local residents, patrons of the arts, parents of AU students, and the entire AU community.

Check out the details, the artists, and the terrific artwork here. 

There's an amazing Alan Feltus that someone will get for a steal! Also check out this gorgeous Tim Tate!

You can register here.