Friday, November 25, 2016

Money for art

Congrats to Jefferson Pinder

Each year, United States Artists (USA) awards $50,000 fellowships to the country's most accomplished and innovative artists working in the fields of Architecture & Design, Crafts, Dance, Literature, Media, Music, Theater & Performance, Traditional Arts and Visual Arts. Former DMV artist (now living in Chicago) and one of the 100 in my book about DC artists, Jefferson Pinder is the recipient of the Joyce Fellowship in Performance and Theater. 

Fellows are selected through a rigorous, highly competitive process involving hundreds of experts, scholars, administrators and artists. USA Fellows spotlight the importance of originality across every creative discipline, celebrating the broad diversity of American artistic practices from coast to coast, cultivating a creative ecology that is diverse in age, race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation. Past recipients of USA Fellowships include visual artists Glenn Ligon, Kara Walker, Theaster Gates and Catherine Opie; cartoonist Chris Ware; designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy (of Rodarte); performing artist Meredith Monk; jazz composer Jason Moran; ballet dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied; choreographer Bill T. Jones; and writers Annie Proulx and Sapphire.

For more information about USA Fellowships, click here.
Jefferson Pinder's work provokes commentary about race and struggle. Focusing primarily with neon, found objects, and video, Pinder investigates identity through the most dynamic circumstances and materials.  Through his meditative exploration with light and sound or his intensely grueling corporeal performances, he delves into conversations about race. His exploration of sound, music and physical performance are conceptual threads to examine history, cultural appropriation, and portrayals of exertion and labor. Creating collaged audio clips and surreal performances he under score themes dealing with Afro-Futurism and endurance. 

His work has been featured in numerous group and solo shows including exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, Showroom Mama in Rotterdam, Netherlands, The Phillips Collection, and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.  At present, Pinder is preparing for the 2016 Shanghai Biennale, and has just finished a sculptural installation at the new Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture. Pinder resides in Chicago where he is a Professor in the Sculpture department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 
For more information on Jefferson Pinder, click here
 
For available artworks by Pinder, who is represented locally by Curator's Office, click here.

Jefferson Pinder is ALSO representing the USA in the current 11th Shanghai Biennale with a work entitled Black Portal (2015). The exhibition is called "Why Not Ask Again: Arguments, Counter-arguments, and Stories" and takes place at the Power Station of Art, the first state-run museum dedicated to contemporary art in mainland China. It was curated by Raqs Media Collective and co-organized by Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi.

For more information about the 11th Shanghai Biennale, click here.

Context Art Miami - here we come!

Polarizing Mist Gun, 2016 Audrey Wilson
Polarizing Mist Gun
2016, Audrey Wilson
Glass, neon and found objects


Come see us in booth 326 at the Context Art Miami art fair Nov 29 - December 4, 2016.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope that you all have the luck to spend today with your families... and I ask that we all think a thought for all of those who can't do that, especially our men and women in uniform stationed all over the world, and our sailors and Marines at sea.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Help to fund Alma

From hardworking and super-talented DMV area artist Alma Selimovic:
I am an artist who lives and creates in Mount Rainier, Maryland. I work with metal, but experiment with other materials such as plaster, digital media, photo transfers, fiberglass, etc. I have my own studio and I am involved in my local community, teaching art to kids at Art Works Now.

Six years ago, I would have never thought my life would have taken this direction. As one of the more prominent LGBTIQ activists in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I faced violence and threats. In late 2009, I came to the USA where I was granted political asylum.

I was new to USA, hardly making a living, struggling with language and barely making basic connections with other artists. For me, it was hard to imagine going to graduate school, having my own studio, and working endlessly.
But, here I am. Seven years later. I feel blessed to have a life I have. And, I would like to give something back. I took an opportunity to be an artist in residence at the INSTITUT FÜR ALLES MÖGLICHE, for two months (May and June, 2017) in Berlin, Germany. My focus there will be to create live digital drawings of people from Eastern Europe who are queer, trans and/or gender neutral. At the same time, I would like to record their life stories and incorporate them in the final work. I want to capture each person’s uniqueness and give their stories a different kind of voice. Incorporating visual and sound in my work is experimental for me and I am really excited to take that step. My drawings/instalations will be exhibited in Berlin, Bosnia, USA and potentially at a few other locations.

Where your money will go?

I would like to compensate travel and time of all of my models. Most individuals are transitioning or struggling in far worse ways than I ever did. I am turning to you for help. Please donate as little as you can or as much as you want. In return, you will become a part of this project and monitor its progress. You will also get a copy of my work, mailed to you upon my return to the US. If any of my work is sold during the exhibitions, part of the profit will be donated to LGBTIQ organisation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Please help me help others tell their stories. Please help me make these stories count. Only together we can make change.

If you are not familiar with my work you can chek it out at www.almaselimovic.com.

Thank you,
Alma

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Hurry!!!! Last minute call for artists!

Not much time... act now!
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, through the work of its Employee Resource Groups (ERG), supports local organizations in different ways such as volunteering our time, sponsoring tables at fundraising events, and holding events to promote their work. This year, Latinos in Philanthropy, one of the five foundation ERGs, is hosting ArteFest  on Thursday December 8th at 2:00pm, as a way of promoting the work of local Latino artists, such as yourselves. This event aims at promoting your work but also our culture among foundation staff and supporting our local Latino arts community.

This event is an opportunity for you to promote your work and make yourself known to an audience who may not necessarily be familiar with your art.   You are welcome to bring your business cards and any other promotional material you would like to distribute.

It will not be possible to hang paintings in the conference room where the event will be held.  Instead, we will provide you with easels as it has been done for past events.  We understand that the standards you may be used to are different due to the high quality of your work; therefore, we thought it was important to communicate this information as soon as possible.   On a personal note, prior to joining the Gates Foundation, I spent 15 years working with many of the area’s museums and galleries and private collectors, focusing on the accessible display of all types of works.   I am happy to address any questions or concerns that you may have, pertaining to the set-up, logistics, and display at this small event.    I may have even installed your work(s) in the past, in one of the public offices in DC, through a partnership my former company had with the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.

Because of the foundation’s nonprofit status, we are also not allowed to compensate you for your time; however, we can refund you for transportation expenses, if necessary.

The foundation is located at: 1300 I Street, NW (near the McPherson Square metro stop). 
If you're interested, please email Laura Casey by Friday, Nov. 26th!

Her email is   Laurie.Casey@gatesfoundation.org

“Unprecedented” Van Gogh Sketchbook Controversy

Two respected art historians ignited controversy on Tuesday when they proclaimed 65 ink drawings in a newly revealed sketchbook to be authentic works by Vincent van Gogh. But the Van Gogh Museum responded swiftly with a wholehearted rejection of the claim. So what are the opposing stories and why are art world experts describing the faceoff as “unprecedented”?
Read the fascinating article by Abigail Cain here.