Sunny in Reston for the art fair!

Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival, Reston, VA 2018

Target Gallery’s Newest Exhibition Creates Utopic Fictional Landscapes

Caroline Hatfield: Unearthing
May 25 – July 15, 2018

Opening Reception: Friday, May 25, 7 – 9 pm; Artist Talk at 8 pm

Target Gallery, the contemporary exhibition space for the Torpedo Factory Art Center, explores concepts of utopia and the science-fictional sublime in a new solo site-specific exhibition featuring Baltimore artist Caroline Hatfield.

Caroline Hatfield: Unearthing is on view May 25 through July 15, 2018. In the show, Hatfield creates sculptural landscapes within Target Gallery. Composed of industrial materials like cast aluminum; rocks, coal, and other geological formations; as well as mutable boundaries like sand and salt, the combined objects accumulate into forms and recall a cycle of transformation. Through site-specific installations and photography, her work references the awe-inspiring natural experiences of our world while referencing a shift outward towards a science-fictional sublime.

Environmentalism and land use has a lot of personal significance to Hatfield, who grew up in a Southern Appalachian coal-mining community. They recall the region’s ironic juxtaposition of protected wilderness and mined land as a major influence on their work.

“This exhibition presents the idea of unearthing in a literal, metaphorical, and speculative sense,” Hatfield said. “The process of unearthing asks: What are we uncovering? We dig to find history, time, and energy. As a metaphor, it often refers to finding an elusive, hidden substance or truth. Finally, we could consider ‘un-earthing’ in a speculative sense. Our potential is becoming less tethered to this planet through scientific advancement and ecological destruction.”

Hatfield was selected from more than 150 applicants as part of Target Gallery’s annual Open Call for a Solo Exhibition. Jurors were: Jarvis DuBois, independent curator; Carolina Mayorga, D.C.-based artist; and Victoria Reis, co-founder and executive director of Transformer.

“Caroline Hatfield’s art speaks to timely environmental concerns of noticeable climate changes, fracking, and deforestation wreaking havoc across the globe,” said DuBois. “Their landscapes—created from untraditional materials such as aluminum powder, tar paper, sand, and coal slag—are otherworldly yet eerily reminiscent of terrains found after a natural disaster or in a science-fiction movie. They should be read as urgent harbingers of what could happen to our Earth if we continually neglect her.”

“Based on their individual experience of growing up in an Appalachian coal mining community, Caroline’s exhibition offers a unique perspective on issues affecting the environment and our relation to land,” said Mayorga. “Their work transforms the gallery space into powerful and aesthetically pleasing landscapes that comment on industrial practices and questions the viewer’s relationship with their immediate surroundings. I find Caroline’s work both personal and sincere, yet universally relevant to our current time.”

“I was immediately drawn to Caroline's very sophisticated and thoughtful use of materials to convey concepts of utopia and science fiction,” said Reis. “Caroline adeptly conveys an otherworldly experience that completely draws in audiences, taking us on a journey that is both wondrous and confounding. Their innovative re-contextualizing of current environmental circumstances through beautiful yet haunting installations provides an important and engaging viewpoint to our relationships with land uses and our evaporating natural resources."

Caroline Hatfield: Unearthing runs Friday, May 25, through Sunday, July 15, 2018. The opening reception will be Friday, May 25th, 7 – 9 pm, with Hatfield’s comments at 8 pm. Target Gallery will host a second reception and juror talk on Friday, June 15 at 8 pm, as a part of the Torpedo Factory Art Center’s monthly Late Shift event. Target Gallery is open daily from 10 – 6 pm and until 9 pm on Thursdays.

My choice for Best of Show at Reston

Suzy Scarborough at Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival
Reston Town Center, booth 231
and represented locally by Zenith Gallery!

This weekend in Reston

May 18--- 20, 10am--- 5pm 

The annual Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival returns for its 27th year with some exciting updates! Balducci's Food Lovers Market joins this year as Title Sponsor; Festival Friday kicks off the weekend of activity; and the Festival Party is on Saturday night. Some things, of course, remain constant: the quality of the 200+ artists from 35 states; the enthusiasm of our fantastic crowds (typically averaging 30,000+); the phenomenal support of our sponsors; and the invaluable contributions of our nearly 300 volunteers.

2018 ARTISTS

Free parking is available on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of festival weekend,
courtesy of Boston Properties.

Art Scam Alert!

This dweeb keeps trying to rip off artists by sending the same email with different originator emai address - don't fall for it!

From:  thomasfredy500500@cox.net 

Top of the Morning to you, I actually observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes some of your art piece, I must also say you are doing a great job. I would like to know what inspired that work. I am very much interested in the purchase to surprise my wife. Kindly confirm the availability for immediate art work for sales.(Thomasfred500500@gmail.com) Regards Thomas

A disturbance in the Force

A written trademark assignment filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2007 and obtained by The Art Newspaper seems to bear this out. Designating Kahlo as the assignor, represented by Pinedo through power of attorney, and the Frida Kahlo Corporation as the assignee, it transfers “full and exclusive rights, titles and interests” for a slew of trademarks for the name “Frida Kahlo” as well as the phrase “Pasion por la vida” (a passion for life) and Frida Kahlo-branded tequila. “It is expressly agreed and understood that if The Assignee is the owner of any other trademark application that includes the denomination ‘FRIDA KAHLO’, the instant agreement includes it,” the filing states.

Read the Art Newspaper article on the commodification of the Frida Kahlo trademark here.

American University Chosen to Receive Majority Share of Works from Corcoran Art Collection

Giant art news for DMV:

Under one of the largest free art distributions in U.S. history, American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, part of American University, has been offered nearly 9,000 works from the Corcoran Art Collection.   

“American University Museum is excited about the opportunities to share this rich collection with our students, scholars, the Washington community and beyond,” said Jack Rasmussen, director and curator of AU Museum. “This collection will enhance the museum’s longstanding commitment to exhibiting works by Washington, national and international artists who hail from diverse backgrounds and encompass many artistic styles and ranges.”

The proposed acquisition will include paintings, works on paper, photographs, sculpture and textiles. Works by history’s most masterful artists are represented including Pablo Picasso and Rembrandt. Other prominent artists include 16th-century Italian painter Titian, a contemporary of Michelangelo; German Renaissance painter and printmaker Albrecht Durer; American artists Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Andy Warhol; 18th-century British portraitist Thomas Gainsborough; French Impressionist Charles Francois Daubigny; and American sculptor Louise Nevelson.  

Many other works are by both modern and contemporary Washington artists, including members of the Washington Color School and figurative artists Sarah Baker, Manon Cleary and Claudia DeMonte.

AU Museum, the largest university-affiliated art museum in the Washington metro area, is committed to displaying Washington art. A gift in 2014 from AU alumna and Washington artist Carolyn Alper established the Alper Initiative for Washington Art, which created dedicated space for the display of work by historical and contemporary Washington artists. Working in tandem with the Alper Initiative, Rasmussen focused on identifying and selecting artists significant to Washington art history.

“William Corcoran’s dedication to presenting works by American artists led to his collecting an exceptional body of 19th-century art from Washington D.C., representing the simultaneously national and local identities of art in the emerging capital city,” Rasmussen said.

In addition to 19th- and 20th-century American art, the proposed Corcoran gift would supplement the museum’s collection of work by female artists and artists of color, in alignment with the legacy of the American University Art History department as a leader in feminist art history and the university’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Finally, the AU Museum has been offered the bulk of the Corcoran’s famous works on paper collection, where it would be preserved nearly in its entirety. AU Museum’s willingness to maintain the integrity of important American collections, such as that of William A. Clark, Olga Hirshhorn and many others, will provide opportunities for scholarship and exhibition for years to come.

American University has invested in a new storage facility in AU’s Spring Valley Building at 4801 Massachusetts Ave., NW, that would be home to the paintings, prints, and sculptures that would be utilized most often by the museum, complete with rolling racks and shelving. The university has upgraded its collections management software that would be able to accommodate the collection and would be working with the registrars at the National Gallery of Art to incorporate the data on the collection.

Next Steps

In support of this acquisition, American University has launched a funding initiative designed to update the museum’s exhibition and storage space, to include a redesign of the second-floor galleries. Further investment will also include a study room for use by AU students, faculty, and visiting scholars; and staff capable of assessing and caring for the collection and enhancing public program offerings to share the collection with the world.

The Corcoran Gallery of Art, one of the first private museums in the United States, was established in 1869 and expanded in 1880 to include the Corcoran College of Art and Design. The Corcoran Gallery of Art has closed, and in 2014, the Corcoran transferred the college to George Washington University. A complete listing of artwork and recipient organizations can be found on the Corcoran website at corcoran.org/artdistribution.  

MUSEUM INFORMATION, HOURS, LOCATION: The American University Museum is a three-story public museum and sculpture garden located within the university’s Katzen Arts Center. The region’s largest university facility for exhibiting art, the museum has a permanent collection that highlights the donors’ holdings and AU’s Watkins Collection and Rothfeld Collection. Rotating exhibitions emphasize regional, national, and international contemporary art.

The Katzen Arts Center, named for Washington-area benefactors Dr. and Mrs. Cyrus Katzen, brings all the visual and performing arts programs at AU into one space. Designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in the arts, the Katzen includes the museum, the Abramson Family Recital Hall, the Studio Theatre, a dance studio, an electronics studio, artists’ studios, rehearsal space, and classrooms.