Monday, May 09, 2022

Art Clinic Online

 Art Clinic Online - Saturday, May 28 from 10:30 -11:30am

Join me at the Art Clinic Online for a discussion and Q&A about nearly everything you wanted to know about being an artist, grants, resume-building, approaching galleries, etc.

About Art Clinic Online (ACO)

The Art Clinic Online community aims to create a friendly artsy environment and bring together artists who may have taken classes with us before or who are contemplating it and want to learn from one another in an online community-based setting. As such, they are not didactic sessions but a forum for the equal exchange of art ideas and art information as well as an opportunity to share art challenges and breakthroughs. 

The Stone Tower resident artists created the ACO after hearing the need for such a forum expressed by many of their students. If you are interested in joining, click the button below and email Mariana to join! Yes, it's still FREE.

Location: Glen Echo.

Caitlin Berry to be named director of The Rubell Museum

I am told that former Hemphill Fine Arts alumni art dealer Caitlin Berry will be the director of the new Rubell Museum in Washington, DC. This is the 32,000 sq. ft DMV museum that will open to the public on 29 October this year!

Berry was previously the director at Hemphill Fine Arts.

That's me with Mera when she visited my studio a few years ago to select a work for a show that she was curating for the American University Museum.

Lenny Campello with Mera Rubell


Sunday, May 08, 2022

Rockville Arts Festival

I walked through the 10th Annual Rockville Arts Festival in downtown Rockville today - as usual it is a terrific show with loads of good artists, food and entertainment!

I love the fact that every booth is a corner booth - thus maximizing the exhibition space for each artist! This show is always good and reflects the hard work of its director Robin Markowitz.

As usual, my two bits on some of my faves from this show.

I liked Bob Friedenberg's fantasy line drawings and Matthew Miller's paintings.

I also admired the paintings of Richard McMurry, who told me that he's somewhat new to the outdoor art circuit; he's clearly a painter at the top of his form!

Detail of a painting by Richard McMurry
Detail of a painting by Richard McMurry

Also new to the outdoor art circuit is Yolanda Prinsloo, an exceptionally skilled painter and teacher - her booth was full of multiple and different art explorations, as she seeks to find her place in this demanding art niche... she will do well!

From my earlier look at artists who will also be at this weekend's Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, I ran and proved my exceptional eye and breathtaking ability to jury via online images, by actually verifying in person that Tanya Tyree and Sandra Sedmak Engel are really, really good artists!

Painting by sandra sedmark engel
Painting by Sandra Sedmark Engel

Sculptures by Tanya Tree
Sculptures by Tanya Tree

Saturday, May 07, 2022

Bethesda Fine Arts Festival next Saturday

Get excited for art, entertainment, food & more at the annual Bethesda Fine Arts Festival on Saturday, May 14 (10am - 6pm) & Sunday, May 15 (10am - 5pm)! Stroll Norfolk & Auburn Avenues to see 100+ artist booths, listen to great music & enjoy food, wine & beer for the perfect weekend in downtown Bethesda.

All free and also plenty of free parking!

Details here.

You can see the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival 2022 artists here.

You know what's coming next - my awards for top artists in the show.  As a brilliant juror, I can use my experienced eye from the thumbnails and website visits to award the Campello awards.

For the painters I liked  Zhiyi Li (from Enfield, CT) in Booth #66, and Thomas Williams (from Chicago, IL) in Booth #78.  

All three printmakers in the show are exceptional -- I've written a lot about Joseph Craig English from Washington Grove, MD (Booth #84) - in this show John Pernell and Michael Nemnich are also quite good.

For Mixed Media, my top pick was Sandra Sedmak Engel, whose sensual work is a pleasure both to the eye and the eros that outdoor shows usually try to eliminate.

There are a lot of talented photographers in the show. See them all here. James Richmond from Titusville, Florida (Booth #76) went to Cuba and has the mandatory photos of old 1950s cars in Havana, as I understand that the Cuban dictatorship will not allow tourists (and photographers especially) to depart from the jailed island unless evidence is presented at the airport that photographs of the vintage cars have been taken.  

Pet peeve aside, Richmond has an exceptional eye for capturing the grace that is human kind, all the way from Portuguese card players in Old Europe to gorgeous indigenous women in Panama, to Cuban farmers in the brutalized Castro Brothers' Workers Paradise.

Cuban farmer by James Richmond
Cuban farmer by James Richmond

It is a wonderful photograph, capturing the essence of the Cuban guajiro, his ancient Basque bloodlines still quite cleaning running through his veins as evidenced by the telltale ear lobe, a wide smile for the American tourist on his thin lips, and a hand-rolled Habano in his mouth, the envy of every smoker millionaire around the planet.

In the category of sculpture, Tanya Tyree caught my attention as her sculptures struggle between talented efficiency and a bit of whimsy. What is clear is a straight and unique vision being delivered by the (I suspect) very strong and skilled hands of this artist.

And the Campello pick for Best in Show?

It goes to painter Cassie Taggart from Rehoboth, DE in Booth #51.

Parachutes by Cassie Taggart
Parachutes by Cassie Taggart

While anyone can immediately see that Taggart's work explore surrealism, what she has brilliantly done is to deliver a new 21st century version of surrealism, where her skilled painting talents marry it with fantasy, and the fantastical (which is different) as well as a healthy dose of narrative storytelling.  

It is "otherworldly" artwork deeply anchored in data which lives hidden in our ancestral brain.  This is work which once you buy it and hang it in your house, will dominate everything else which you have hung on those walls.

Go outside and see some artwork this weekend, talks to artists and artisans, eat some bad-for-you food and listen to some outdoor music.

The Hopper Prize is now accepting entries

$3,500 Grants - All Media Eligible

Deadline: May 17, 2022

The Hopper Prize is now accepting entries for the Spring 2022 artist grants.

They are offering $3,500 and $1,000 grants to artists and photographers around the world.

Grants will be awarded through an open call art competition juried by leading contemporary curators. Current Jurors:

— Jody Graf, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1

— Pamela Meadows, Curator, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art

The Hopper Prize was established in order to increase the recognition of artwork created by artists and photographers. Their aim is to advance artists' careers by providing them with unrestricted financial support that is coupled with a platform for increased visibility. They accept submissions twice a year via an open call.

They are currently accepting submissions for the Spring 2022 grant cycle.

Program Highlights

Total Awards: $11,000.00 USD for visual artists

• $3,500.00 – 2 artists will each receive a $3,500 (USD) grant

• $1,000.00 – 4 artists will each receive a $1,000 (USD) grant

• 30 artists will have their work archived at hopperprize.org

• A selection from the submissions will be featured on their Instagram feed @hopperprize

• Additional exposure will be available to winners through their Journal: Insights into Contemporary Art

Connect with Curators

They collaborate with contemporary curators holding prominent positions at major institutions in order to select our grant winners. The open call provides you with a direct path to get your work in front of these forward thinking exhibition makers. Jurors for the current awards are:

Jody Graf

Assistant Curator

MoMA PS1

&

Pamela Meadows

Curator

Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA)

The jurors will be selecting 6 artists from the open call who will each receive an unrestricted cash grant.

2 artists will win $3,500 and 4 artists will win $1,000.

The jurors will also select a shortlist of 30 artists who will have their work archived here.

Grant awards are unrestricted and may be used any way the recipients choose.

When submitting your work, you will have the option to opt-in to be considered for possible Instagram features on our feed @hopperprize, where we currently reach an audience of over 65k. Our editors will be featuring select submissions on a rolling basis prior to the application deadline.

In addition to grant awards, their shortlist, and Instagram reach, we will be providing an additional platform for exposure via the online Journal Insights Into Contemporary Art. They launched this digital publication to give artists a new channel to amplify their voice while providing an in-depth look at their work, practice, and background. Grant recipients and shortlisted artists will all receive the opportunity to publish an interview to include any work of their choosing as a means of providing continued support beyond the open call.

Eligibility

The Hopper Prize is open to all artists age 18 and older working in any media. There are no restrictions on genre, subject matter, or media. They welcome entries in all media.

They are committed to supporting artists from diverse cultural backgrounds at all stages of their professional careers. All artists are encouraged to apply.

Deadline

May 17, 2022

Simple Application

They've made the grant application simple to reduce the stress of submitting your work and save you time. The application is short and can be completed in under 20 minutes.

To apply for a grant, you only need to submit this information:

• Name & Email

• Instagram Username (optional)

• Up to 10 Image or Video attachments

• Artwork captions

• Artist Statement & Biography (optional)

• $40 submission fee

Apply Now - HERE

Friday, May 06, 2022

Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grants

Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grants

Deadline: August 2, 2022

This program provides one-time grants of up to $5,000 for recent unexpected medical, dental, and mental health emergencies to artists in financial need who are practicing in the visual arts, film/video/electronic/digital arts, and choreography.

Apply here.

There is a new mural at Glen Echo Park!

There is a new mural at Glen Echo Park! The Bumper Car Pavilion now has an original J. Jordan Bruns mural donning its facade. After a solid week of painting, and countless revisions, it is completed. 

The Bumper Car Pavilion Mural at Glen Echo

The Bumper Car Pavilion Mural at Glen Echo

Also join Jordan for the opening reception of Tadaima, his solo show at Artists and Makers Studios. The reception is this Saturday, May 7, from 11:00 - 3:00pm. The following week on Sunday, May 15 from 1:00 - 3:00pm, he will be hosting a discussion of the ink wash technique featured in the show.

Tadaima is a phrase that means “I’ve just come home now” in Japanese. J. Jordan Bruns, a long time Glen Echo Park resident artist has returned from a three-year sabbatical in Tokyo, Japan. 

“Tadaima” will highlight some of the work created during his sabbatical as well as work created since his return.  On display will be Bruns’s ink wash paintings of Japanese Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines. These works are made using acrylic ink, as a substitute for more traditional Sumi ink, in monochrome of either blue or gold. Each piece has areas of high resolution around the focal points and abstract ink splatters or uncontrolled washes in other areas to balance the realism.  

Bruns will host a demonstration and discussion titled “Working in Ink Abroad” on Sunday, May 15th from 1:00-3:00pm. This event will allow attendees to see his sketchbooks from three years of travel in Asia and Oceania. Bruns will also discuss and demonstrate how the technique used in plein air ink sketches relates to his more resolved ink washes in the studio.  

Tadaima

At Artists & Makers Studios 1 11810 Parklawn Dr Ste 210, Rockville, MD 20852

Opening Reception:

Saturday, May 7 from 11:00 - 3:00pm

Artist Discussion: “Working in Ink Abroad”, Sunday May 15, 1:00 -3:00pm