Tim Tate on this Saturday

 

The Trawick Prize: Contemporary Art Awards: 2023 Finalist Announced

Eight regional artists have been selected as finalists for The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, a juried competition and exhibition produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District. More than 300 artists from Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., submitted work to the 21st annual competition. 

As usual, I will review the artwork and predict the winner - over the years since this great prize was institutionalized by the great Carol Trawick, I've been batting about 75% in being able to predict the prizewinner once I "study" what the jurors produce themselves! As usual, Baltimore dominates the finalists with 30% of the finalists being from Baltimore!

The artwork will be exhibited at Gallery B from Sept. 7 – October 1, 2023, located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E. Gallery hours are Thursday-Sunday, 12 – 5pm. A public opening reception will be held on Friday, Sept. 8th, from 6-8pm.

2023 Trawick Prize Finalists

Rush Baker IV, Riverdale Park, MD

Rex Delafkaran, Washington, D.C.

Stephanie Garon, Clarksville, MD

Kei Ito, Baltimore MD

 Megan Koeppel, Hyattsville, MD

Giulia Livi, Baltimore, MD

Charles Mason III, Baltimore, MD

Fanxi Sun, Richmond, VA

The 2023 jurors were:

Brandon Morse, Associate Professor and Chair of the Art Department at the University of Maryland College of Arts & Humanities

Brandon Morse is a Washington, D.C.-based artist who works with generative systems to examine how physical phenomena such as entropy and emergence can function in poetic and metaphorical ways. Through the use of code and the creation of custom computer software, he creates simulations of seemingly complex systems to create video and video installations that seek to draw parallels between how these systems work and how we, individually and collectively, navigate the world around us. Morse received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and his Master of Fine Arts in Art & Technology from The Ohio State University. He has exhibited his work in digital video and sound exhibitions nationally and internationally, including the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington, D.C., the Nanjing Museum in China, the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, and Kunsthalle Detroit. Morse is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Art Department at the University of Maryland.

Jon-Phillip Sheridan, Chair of the Photography and Film Department at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Arts

Jon-Phillip Sheridan is the Department Chair of Photography and Film at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Arts in Richmond, Virginia. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography from the Maryland Institute College of Art and his Master of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2014, Sheridan curated “Expecting Reality,” an exhibition at Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, VA. Sheridan has been exhibited in many solo and group shows, including Anti-Grand: Contemporary Perspectives on Landscape at The University of Richmond Museums. His work was used on the catalog cover. His work has been included in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts collections, Markel Corporation, Capital One, and the Federal Reserve Bank.

Naoco Wowsugi, Associate Professor of Art at American University

Naoco Wowsugi is a community-engaged artist and Associate Professor of Art at American University. Wowsugi’s cross-disciplinary projects range from portrait photography and participatory performance to horticulture, exploring the nature of belonging and inclusive community building; while also highlighting and fortifying everyday communal and interpersonal identities. She has been included in exhibits at Redux Contemporary Art Center, Charleston, SC; Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Honolulu, HI and Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Wowsugi earned her Master of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute and Osaka University of Arts in Japan.

1800s 'Fro

 

Introducing WPA's New Director Travis Chamberlain

WPA's Board of Directors announced a few days ago the appointment of Travis Chamberlain as its next Director. Chamberlain—a curator and director with more than 20 years of experience in museum, non-profit, and for-profit contemporary arts spaces in New York City—will begin his new role on September 1, 2023, becoming the 12th Director of one of the most influential and impactful contemporary arts organizations in the region and the U.S. 

Now in its 48th year, WPA is a trailblazer among the region’s contemporary art institutions, with a dedicated project space, bookstore, and gallery. WPA's mission supports the development of experimental projects that build community through collaborations between artists and audiences, with an emphasis on dialogue and advocacy. Artists are invited to curate and organize all of WPA's programming as an extension of their own intellectual research, and their resulting projects may assume a variety of forms including exhibitions, publications, performances, workshops, symposia, community dinners, and more.

"We feel very fortunate to welcome Travis Chamberlain as the next Director of Washington Project for the Arts,” said Board of Directors Co-Chairs Ashley Givens, Ph.D. and Jocelyn Sigue. “His decades-long commitment to community organizing through art and his extensive experience as a curator, producer, and institutional leader working at a local, national, and international level will be a tremendous asset to WPA and the greater region.”

Chamberlain assumes the role as WPA’s principal executive leader after five years as Executive Director at Queer|Art, a community-based nonprofit with a mission to connect and empower generations of LGBTQ+ artists throughout the nation. Prior to this position, Chamberlain spent ten years as a curator of performance at the New Museum in New York City. 

“Washington Project for the Arts is an incubator for new art that is unrestrained by discipline and anchored by ideas that seek to inspire positive change in the world,” Chamberlain notes. “The fact that WPA is in DC, so close to the Capitol and all that comes with it, only makes the questions we ask and the answers we explore together all the more resonant for artists and communities everywhere. I am excited to join the staff and board in furthering their commitment to facilitating collaborations between audiences and artists. Through our work together, WPA will also become a catalyst for nurturing an exchange of ideas and resource sharing among creative communities on a more global level, with DC as the hub from which all WPA collaborations will flow.”

Chamberlain’s appointment follows an extensive national search supported by Claire Huschle of Good Insight. His arrival coincides with WPA’s 2023–2024 Season Kick-Off and BBQ on Saturday, September 9. The event will introduce the roster of 2023–2024 Artist-Organizers and the projects they will be producing through collaboration with WPA, invited artists, and local communities. All are welcome to attend!

Anderson Campello at Tallyho

Anderson Campello at Tallyho

 

BlackRock Center for the Arts presents “Mandy Chesney is gaudy”

BEST.NEWS.RELEASE.EVER!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

On view

15 July–10 Sep 202

Tues–Fri: 10:00 AM–6:00 PM

Sat: Noon–4:00 PM

Sun: 10:30 AM–2:30 PM

Reception & Artist Talk: 18 Aug 2023, 6:00–8:00 PM

IN THE KAY GALLERY

Mandy Chesney is gaudy. Mandy Chesney is gaudy is Mandy Chesney’s first solo exhibition. Born spitting into the wind on the bow of a Mississippi riverboat casino, Chesney has known when to hold ‘em since day one. At age 4, she learned glitter magic from the Lion’s Creek Baptist Church organist, Mr. Robert—known far and wide for his lace drawers. At age 15, Chesney graduated from the Chattanooga Coiffer Academy and spent seven years and a month of Sundays as a beautician to the stars. Her talents have gloried the crowns of Marty Stuart, Pat Metheny, Janice Wendell Crouch, and William Lee Golden of the Oak Ridge Boys, among many others. 

But she also knows how to make a home. A master of the Domestic Arts, Chesney cannot be worn slap out. She will split a frog hair four ways, jerk a knot in your tail, and smell great while doing it.

From 2015 to 2017, Chesney graced the halls of the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and she’s lived in Baltimore City ever since. 

Mandy Chesney is not a natural blonde. She’s a 42DD. 

Glitter is a particularly divisive material. Glitter is judged as frivolous in a way that is seen as too feminine, irredeemably low class, and possibly queer… It is loud. Glitter demands to be seen, it steals light. Glitter responds when you move your body, it has a conversation with your eyes. Glitter likes to party, it flirts with the viewer. It winks to something more behind the shine.

—Mandy Chesney, 2021, from an interview with Morgan Everhart for awomensthing.org

IG: @mandychesney

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Sheer genius!!!!

Guess who's in the Washington Post today?

A few days ago I expressed my frustration here about the waste of print space in the WaPo's only column dedicated to our area's art galleries. Today the WaPo published my letter on the subject online and then in print in their Saturday issue.

Read it here.