Mayer Fine Art Relocation Show

My Virginia dealer is the very hardworking art gallery Mayer Fine Art, which also represents several other DMV artists and who is one the Commonwealth's hardest working art dealers, as Sebastian has been doing art fairs all over the nation (and soon overseas).

They are moving to a new location in Norfolk and their grand opening show for their exciting new space is March 22nd from 7-9 PM.

Mayer Fine Art
801 Boush Street 
Norfolk, VA 23510

Featured Artists:
Matthew Fine • Alexey Terenin • Judith Peck • Victoria F. Gaitán • Jose Antonio Sorolla Gallen • John R. G. Roth • Sheila Giolitti • Tanja Softic • Lenny Campello • Erin Schwinn • Blade Wynn • Mark Chatterley • Michael Fitts • Elizabeth Ryland Mears

ABMB: It's all over!

This is what the DMV airports need: a little Cuban in them!

The ABMB art fairs are over and done with, and as usual, some galleries did great, most did OK and some lost their pants.

At Context Art Miami the crowds were phenomenal all week, and we ended up doing really well, with multiple sales by Simon Monk, Audrey Wilson, Dulce Pinzon and yours truly.

Art fairs are always more than just about sales, and Context once again proved that! Pinzon, Monk and I have been invited to participate in a Superhero show being organized by a major Los Angeles gallery. Additionally, we are working a major double commission for Simon Monk by the studios currently filming the new Superman and Batman movies. Furthermore, we made a good connection with Telemundo's local Spanish-language TV station to do a segment with Dulce Pinzon. As if all that is not all good stuff, a local major collector has given a West coast University the green light to select one of my video works for the university's permanent collection (more on that when it develops further).

Other DMV artists at Context seemed to do well too: Mark Jenkins sold out all his sculptures, and Tim Tate had sales and his California gallery is still working a major multiple deal even as pack-out was taking place.

I also heard from some dealers at Aqua Art Miami: Virginia's Mayer Fine Arts reported their "best art fair ever." That included a whooping sale of 14 different pieces by different artists to a major California collector.

Now heading back to the DMV to do all the paperwork, pay all the taxes, and re-group for Art Wynwood in a couple of months!

Miami report

Although as usual I'm always stuck at whatever art fair that I'm doing, and seldom have the chance to explore other art fairs, DMVers in Miami for the fairs, as well as fellow dealers are always reporting to me.

I'm at Context Art Miami, which so far has been doing very well for us. We have DMV artists Ric Garcia and Audrey Wilson (and my own brilliant work, of course). Wilson, who will have her first solo show coming up in DC soon (more on that later) has been especially doing well, both in sales and commissions, as well as curatorial attention. The key here is that DC collectors need to buy Audrey Wilson now, as soon as she has that first solo show.

Also at Context are DMV artists Tim Tate, showing with California's Seager Gray Gallery and Mark Jenkins, showing with LA's Fabien Castanier Gallery.

Context is easily the best art fair that I have ever been to - the level of artwork is right up there with the top of the art fairs food chain. There is powerful diversity at Context - both in artwork as well as geographic distribution of the galleries. It's clear to me that this art fair made a powerful debut last year and now has made an even more powerful statement in its second year.

Scope had a great opening night on Monday with strong sales on their previews, but just like Untitled, they are now facing the same challenges as Untitled because Ocean drive in Miami Beach is down to one lane because of constructions. Also the hike between the two was tough (either across the beach or all the way back to Ocean Drive). Scope's VIPs had free rides from Fiats, which was a good coup as they could get rides around; I hear that the Fiat Pop was a delightful car.

DC's Project 4 is showing at Scope. Also at Scope you can find DMV artist JT Kirkland with New York's Blank Space. I am also told that Miami's Emerson Dorsch Gallery in Untitled has an arresting video program that is that highlight of that fair. Victoria Fu's "Belle Captive II" video has been getting rave reviews from some key video collectors that reported to me.

Some think that "Aqua is struggling," in part because "the young, quirky galleries have mostly been replaced by established galleries and replaced by Art Miami galleries," said to me one collector. There is also some sort of "art project" sign hanging near the entrance to Aqua that is causing some consternation to some galleries, as the sign (which again, is an art project) delivers the "impression that Aqua is where one goes to get cheap art for the office." On the other hand, Norfolk's Mayer Fine Art Gallery is reporting booming sales (she's also exhibiting DC's Victoria Gaitan's gorgeous photography). DC's Morton Fine Arts is also showing at Aqua, and some DMV artists, such as Eric Finzi and Barbara Januszkiewicz, are also there with other galleries.

Texas collector Ardis Bartle noted that "Aqua traditionally brought in an University or college art program and the emerging artists out of that program, and as a collector I would always buy one those pieces, and it gave the University (last year it was Atlanta University) a chance to shine."

"This year," she noted, "they curated two emerging artists who looked like the rest of the show: it was somewhat banal." She added: "Bring back the Universities."

Art Basel apparently has added a lot of new, upcoming artists from all over the world, that there seems to be a new wave of newer artists (Claire Morgan's name was mentioned to me) in addition to all the multimillion dollar blue chip artists.

I went to the grand opening of the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) last night, which could now possibly be the most spectacular museum architectural design on the planet -- the video by Yael Bartana that they were playing on the screen at the opening was breathtakingly beautiful and full of raw power.

PAMM's grand opening was packed to the gills - I mean thousands and thousands of people! Everyone and anyone who is someone in the arts world seemed to be there, as well as thousands of people who had previously probably never set foot in a museum... cough, cough...

I'm a little worried about the PAMM's ability to stand a strong hurricane though... there are a lot of wood floors! I wish them the best of luck - it is a spectacular museum at an even more spectacular location.

At Pulse I hear that "it was too crowded! They need to do something about the bathrooms!" Being too crowded if a good thing most of the time. I hear that Sabrina Gschwandtner's quilts of 16mm film are the true find of Pulse - at least two major collectors passed that info to me.

Art Miami across the way from Context is also very impressive - DC's Connersmith is there (they are also at Context).

Ardis Bartle noted that the Zoom In video halls were impressive, but "it's too hot inside those tents during the day to stay in there long!" Good advice from a very intense collector!

More later!

Miami bound... but a note about art fairs

As I write this for later posting here, we're flying to Miami to participate in the annual Art Basel week of art fairs. As I've written many times before, this is the world's "big dance" when it comes to the visual arts; this is the big party and everyone is invited. However, it is a matter of getting here that's the issue.

Art fairs are very expensive. As I've noted before, many galleries risk everything to come to Miami, and I suspect that many are financially destroyed at the end of the week. And yet, many do well and return year after year.

Between my years with the Fraser Gallery and now with AAAP, we've been returning to Miami for many years now. Other DMV and regional galleries that keep coming back are my good buds at Connersmith, Hamiltonian, and Virginia's Mayer Fine Arts. They consistently take the financial risk and venture to Miami (and in some cases all over the US and Europe). Some newer participants are Morton Fine Arts and Adah Rose; both galleries did their first art fairs a year or two ago and both are enthusiastically now doing art fairs all over.

Others have tried a year or two, crashed and burn and never return to the party.

Is there a formula to this? What the the magic that makes this work for some and not for others?

I know of at least two galleries in the Mid Atlantic who have "financial backers" who absorb most or some of the financial risk involved in doing an art fair. Since these sort of galleries are very limited (who wouldn't love to have a financial backer?), they are the "outlayers" in the formula for clicking the right button in the art fair game.

Some non-profiits have the economic stability to play consistently in the art fair game; and to make it easier for them, many art fairs have special, lower pricing for non-profits. So they are also a special case, I think, because in most cases, the financial risk is absorbed by the state of their income-gathering to stay afloat as a non-profit.

It is a mystery to me why not more DMV area non-profits go to the art fairs. Hamiltonian is a notable exception, as is Honfleur Gallery in Anacostia. And the WPA does participate in our own (e)merge.

But I would submit that there are several area non-profits that could, and should participate in Miami and New York art fairs as part of their business model; if a local non-profit can afford to pay $70-$80,000 a year to its executive director (and several DMV non-profits are in that range), then it can certainly afford to budget $12-18K to participate in an art fair outside of the DMV. I think this anyway... As an outsider to the money shell game that running a non profit must be (I tip my hat to them).

I'm not saying that all visual arts non-profits should do this - I am sure that the mission of some of them are strictly focused on "local" only, rather than expanding their artistic presentations outside the capital region.

But that still leaves several key ones that (if I was the DMV art dictator) should be in NYC and Miami during art fair times.

This also applies to some of our large membership-based visual arts organizations and cooperative galleries, such as The Art League.

I'm a big fan of The Art League, and when I lived close to Alexandria I was a member for many years, and I have been honored multiple times by being selected as a juror for them.

And thus I am going to use them as an example, but this example applies to the multiple "other" art leagues, groups, clubs, cooperatives, etc. that exist around our region and which are important and significant components of our cultural tapestry. I could just as easily have picked the Rockville Art League, or the Reston Art League, Gallery West, Touchstone, Fairfax Art League, CHAW, etc.

The money part is always an issue, but when the money part can be divided into several (rather than one) entities, then the financial risk is reduced, because it is spread, rather than concentrated into one (the independent commercial gallery) bank account.

So let's proceed with this possible example using The Art League.

They have several thousand members and run a very successful and important program at their space inside the Torpedo Factory and assorted classrooms all over the area.

So the issue is, how does The Art League (again, you can fill in any of multiple DMV area membership-based art organizations) pick or select the 3-5 artists to take to an art fair?

The "good" art fairs are nearly always tightly juried. There are many art fairs where one just pays and anyone and everyone can go - those usually suck and in about a week or so, some DMV galleries and many DMV solo artists will unfortunately discover this.

And thus for Miami/NYC fairs I am thinking (in no particular order) about Art Miami, Context, Aqua, Pulse, NADA, Affordable Art Fair(s), Scope, Miami Project, Frieze... some of these are very, very hard to get in, but they're listed nonetheless, because there is a "food chain" of art fairs, and the bottom-feeders usually spell disaster for the participants.

And thus The Art League would need to establish a process to pre-jury its membership to 3-5 artists and apply with those artists to an art fair. I would start with The Affordable Art Fair in New York. They are close by and they are a "proven" fair. I have done it many times and consistently recommend it to any gallery that asks me about art fairs in general.

And thus redux The Art League would need to canvas their membership and find out who's interested in being juried for possible selection for further jurying into an art fair. I would make this process independent from the Art League itself - just like they do for their monthly juried shows, and have interested artists bring their work in to be juried by an independent juror.

That juror has to be a very special juror - in fact 98% of your standard-issue visual art juror (art professors, art critics, art writers, art center directors, artists, etc.) would guarantee a disaster to this process. In the DMV the jury pool for this process is very limited and its members are only those gallerists who have participated in multiple art fairs. In fact I can't think of anyone better to jury this part than me!

Back to the generic process... In the next post... Or soon... All DMV (and nationwide visual arts non profits/co-ops and clubs should be reading this...).

DMV area galleries heading to Miami

I probably don't have a complete list, but from what I've gathered, the usual group of DMV and neighboring cities' galleries are heading south next week for the Art Basel Miami Beach week of fairs around the Greater Miami area.

We are heading to the Context Art Miami fair in Wynwood - come see us in booth E-82.  Connersmith, C.Grimaldis and Goya Contemporary will be next door at Art Miami; Adah Rose and Adamson are heading to Pulse; Mayer Fine Art, Ghostprint, Hamiltonian and Morton Fine Art are all heading to Aqua Art Miami (where we were for the last three years and had our best fairs ever!); Project 4 is in Scope, and Randall Scott Projects is at Miami Project.

As I've noted many times before: if you are a 21st century gallerist or artist, you gotta go to the dance.

There's a truckload of more art fairs... check them out here.

Artists and art fairs

If you are a visual artist or art dealer/gallerist in today’s ever changing visual art world, and you’re not aware or know about the Miami art fairs that take place each year-end and are clustered around Miami and Miami Beach, then you have a problem that needs urgent attention.

Almost a decade ago, the founders and organizers of a European art fair called Art Basel (which of course, takes place in Basel, Switzerland), decided to try an American version of their successful European model and started an art fair in the Miami Beach Convention Center and they called it Art Basel Miami Beach or ABMB for short.

This was nothing new in the American art fair scene, as even in Miami art fairs such as Art Miami had been going on for years. But whatever right timing and combination of European flavoring added to Miami's Cubanized international art scene did was spectacular and ABMB took off like Meat Loaf's second album's title.

In the halcyon days of the healthy economy of those days, the art fair proved to be a spectacular success, with millions of dollars of artwork by the blue chip names of the art world exchanging hands at ABMB as collectors from all over the world congregated in Miami’s balmy December to be seen at the sharp point of the spear of the contemporary art world.

ABMB’s success soon spawned other art fairs, which are called “satellite fairs”, since they all revolve around ABMB’s dates and presence on America’s coolest and most international beach city. The evolution of these satellite fairs was fed by the fact that ABMB focused almost exclusively on European galleries and a handful of the top tier American New York galleries.

In those days, even if you were the best gallery in Chicago, or LA or Miami itself, you had zero chance to be invited to ABMB.

And thus satellite art fairs with names like Scope, Red Dot, Bridge, Pulse, NADA and others began to appear around Miami at the same time as ABMB. Soon, someone came up with the novel idea that these art fairs could also take place in hotel rooms, and the “hotel fair” was born. Many of these also began to appear, none better than the Aqua Art Fair, now called “the best hotel art fair in the world.” Having just done Aqua, I can testify brother, that the Aqua organizers have it down, and in my limited opinion, this is indeed the best hotel art fair in the world.

Back to my story... by 2010, even with the economy in the doldrums that refuse to go away, there were 25 art fairs going on around Miami starting roughly around November 28 through the first Sunday of December.

Yes dear readers, 25 art fairs at once! Some developed a tight focus, such as for Asian art or photography, others tried to establish an artist-oriented focus, but in general, all recognized that something special happens each December in Miami.

By now the figures are mind blowing: I am told by Miami journalists from Rumor Control that during that week of the ABMB art fairs, roughly 20% of all the art work sold in the world exchanges hands in Miami.

Furthermore, as the magnitude of the event grew, so did the attendance by both the “need to be seen” crowd and by even more worldwide collectors and, just as importantly, the press.

Thus now the news media not only discusses what’s new or who’s hot in the art world, but also they let us know who Sly Stallone or other Hollywood stars of all magnitude are acquiring. It has become cool for Hollywood stars and wannabes to collect art, which in most Einsteinian dimensions is a good thing.

The concentrated press reporting has also made celebrities out of mega collectors, such as the Miami based Rubell or DeLaCruz families.

Most of the art fairs are gallery-focused; that means that it is art galleries, as opposed to individual artists, who exhibit artwork. The prices for the booths are spectacularly expensive, and generally, a small 200 sq. ft. booth can start at $10,000 or more, and a large booth can run as high as $100,000. And this is before a gallery adds other associated costs such as shipping costs of the artwork, transportation to/from Miami, customs, food, car rental, hotel and salaries.

For most galleries around the world it is a daunting economic investment, which can turn into a financial disaster if sales fail to materialize.

Around the DMV, only a handful of local area galleries took the risk over the last few years. Spaces such as Conner Contemporary, Civilian Art Projects, Hamiltonian Gallery, Fraser Gallery, Irvine Contemporary, and a precious few others, took the venture out to Miami. One local dealer, Art Whino, began its own model and sets up its own ABMB space in Miami during that week.

“I meet more art collectors that week in Miami than the entire year in DC,” related one local art dealer.

“Over the years,” added another, “about 80% of my sales take place at, or because of art fairs in Miami, New York, LA, etc.”

The opportunity to actually sell art is a powerful magnet to tempt art dealers to take the economic plunge. “My openings in Norfolk are always packed, and the shows get good press coverage here,” notes Norfolk’s Mayer Fine Art’s director Sheila Giolitti, who has been also going to Miami for the last few years (disclosure: she represents my work), “And yet, the Norfolk area has a very limited market for contemporary art. If it wasn’t for the art fairs, keeping a gallery in this area would not be a viable option.”

Read: "Because of Miami and other art fairs, I wouldn't be able to have a gallery in Norfolk." Norfolk should be grateful to Miami...

Individual artists have also begun to use the Miami opportunity to showcase their own approaches. None of these have been as cool or successful as Calder Brannock’s Camper Contemporary.

Camper Contemporary is a mobile gallery created and curated by Calder Brannock. According to the artist, “It is a fully functional art gallery set up inside an altered 1967 Yellowstone camper. Camper Contemporary gallery poses a solution for many problems a gallery faces in the modern art market. It allows the gallerist to showcase work in a clean controlled gallery environment without being tethered to rents or a geographic location. The mobile gallery model allows the gallerist to maintain a physical space where work can be displayed with all the benefits and gravitas of a traditional gallery while easily reaching collectors at art fairs and other large art markets.”

So how does an artist get to Miami if he/she is not represented by a gallery, or their gallery doesn’t do art fairs or chooses not to bring your work to the party?

Some ideas next later...

You won't believe this...

Hardworking Norfolk art dealer Sheila Giolitti is the owner of Norfolk-based gallery Mayer Fine Art.

MFA is not only Norfolk's best art gallery (in my biased opinion since they represent me), but also the only Norfolk-based gallery and one of 2-3 Virginia art galleries that does art fairs around the US and overseas.

This morning Giolitti woke up to the news that her gallery website had been hacked into by an extremist Muslim group who filled her website with anti Jewish, hate-filled slogans, causing her account to be suspended.

Who knows why the website was targeted, unless some idiot thought that the "Mayer" in Mayer Fine Art means that it is a Jewish-owned gallery, which it isn't.

I don't know if there's a relationship, but I am also aware of the fact that several artists' email accounts around the Tidewater area have been recently hacked into and hate-filled emails sent out, and this morning my own personal account had been shut down (for unknown reasons so far) and I had to go through a laborious process to restore it and hope that it was all a precautionary step from MS.

One word to those whose heart and actions are filled with hate: you reap what you sow.

And the openings begin: ABMB Day One

Tonight was the openings for Art Miami, Scope, Red Dot and some other fairs, and I had a chance to stroll through those three and chat with some gallerists and artists.

Over at the Art Miami press lounge, the buzz, from some journos and locals, other than the street trees being "decorated" in shirts and tops, was Art Basel's "contraction" or how ABMB had reduced the number of galleries at last year's ABMB.

"I'm not sure if this is was a result of the economy," said a savvy Miami art writer, "Or ABMB throwing a bone to the satellite fairs."

He must have seen the quizzical Klingonesque forehead expression in my face, because he expanded by adding that the economy seems to have had a profound impact on the number of galleries applying to the satellite art fairs, as more and more galleries stay home due to lackluster sales.

"I know of a local Miami gallerist who sold a million dollar painting at ABMB last year and this year he didn't get invited back," he postulated, "And so he went to the next best fair, Art Miami."

Heads nod. "And yet, ABMB week has a record 260 art galleries this year," someone says.

"What's the art fair food chain looking like this year?," I asked. By that I meant to ascertain as to which ones were the top fairs. Another journo chimed in and noted that she thought that after ABMB, Art Miami was the best satellite art fair, followed by Pulse and Scope.

Heads nod.

"But Scope is in a real down spiral," noted yet a third voice, this time belonging to a local artist whose gallery is at Art Miami. Several heads nodded in agreement looking like a Nirvana video.

"And Red Dot is surprisingly picking up former Scope galleries left and right," added the guy who had coined the term "contraction."

"Uh?... why is that?", I asked, recalling that one of my own dealers had turned down an invitation from Scope and chosen Red Dot.

"I'm going to check this out over the next few days," he expanded, "But I'm told that Red Dot more than doubled its size from last year and that a lot of 2010 Scope galleries are now showing at Red Dot, especially a lot of Asian galleries."

"Free booze and food at opening night..." commented a new voice.

While there is free booze (all kinds of wines, Herradura Tequila and Finlandia vodka non stop) and food (be ready to fight) at Red Dot's opening night, in my opinion there's also a huge change for the better over the last few years. In fact, I would opine that this is the best Red Dot that I've ever seen and I know that Scope now realizes that Red Dot is breathing down their neck when it comes to the art galleries' food chain... and Red Dot has food and booze... heh, heh...

The two fairs, next to each other, still have huge differences. Scope seems to be stuck a little in a presence and feel that was cool and popular when everything that hanged sold; that's a thing of the past. Red Dot booths hang a lot of artwork.

And while the minimalist look of the Scope galleries may still show a once cool approach to art fair presence, the lack of crowds and lack of red dots and alleged mass exodus to its neighboring art fair, where hanging is a bit more relaxed (read that a gallery can hang more artwork in their booths), plus the fact that this year's Red Dot's booths are quite a bit taller than usual (affording more vertical wall space), may reflect the realities of the new art fair world.

"I think the days when an art fair director could dictate to a gallery what artist to hang are rapidly coming to an end," opined a local art blogger.

"What about Art Miami?" I asked.

"Art Miami has become the second choice if a gallery can't get into ABMB" was the consensus opinion, and my own walk-thorough showed a highly sophisticated art fair with a very good blend of art galleries and a sharp, elegant presentation in most of them, with a clear and surprising lack of trendy art and more of a lean towards commodifiable artwork.

I haven't seen Pulse yet, thus I asked about Pulse.

"I think Pulse has learned the Scope lesson and is making an U-Turn on its brand," opined someone and heads nodded.

I Klingoned my forehead and the opiner expanded, "Pulse is doing a great job of still appearing cool and trendy while its galleries shift to more traditional artwork that can actually be sold... check out how all of a sudden realism is all over Pulse."

The next few days will tell... meanwhile, over at Scope, I had heard some good buzz over Trawick Prizewinner David Page's performance; he's there with Baltimore's Jordan Faye Contemporary. Page's unique work really stood out at Scope. A couple of other DMV are dealers are also at Scope: Hamiltonian, Civilian and first time Scoper Heiner Contemporary, who was showing the amazing work of (e)merge wunderkind Avery Lawrence plus Elizabeth Huey, David Kramer and Jon-Phillip Sheridan.

Heiner has one of the best looking art fair booths of all time, courtesy of Lawrence's familial wallpaper, part of his "Moving a Tree" project.

There are no DMV galleries in Red Dot or Art Miami, although AM has two Baltimore dealers in their roster.

Tomorrow the hot ticket is the opening party at Aqua, where yours truly has been busting his keister for the last two days preparing for tomorrow night's opening.

Celebrity sighting: Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman is two booths across from Norfolk's Mayer Fine Art! Jane Seymour's artwork dominates the booth of her gallerist, and paintings, watercolors and sculptures by the actress and artist, who was there tonight, all 85 pounds of her, dominate the booth. Her watercolors are by far her best work...

Wake effects

When a ship moves across the water, depending on a variety of factors, it leaves a wake that can be discernible, in some manner or form, for a very long time and through a very long distance.

Doing an art fair is the same, and art fair wake effects can sometimes take over a year to settle down.

At the recent (e)merge art fair, my Virginia dealer, Mayer Fine Art (who did really well at the fair), sold my top piece in the room - an embedded video piece - to a very well-known DMV area art collector couple.

The wake effect from that sale just reached me, as I am now in the process of closing a sale with another art collecting couple (not a DMV area collector), who saw that work at the home of the buyers, inquired about it, got a glowing recommendation and now I am about to be acquired by someone on the list of the top 200 art collectors in the world.

In case you are wondering: yes... I am bragging and thanks USS (e)merge!

Artinfo on (e)merge

So, will (e)merge return? The nation's capital, according to the fair organizers, has youth, vitality, a "tremendous interest in culture," and, perhaps most importantly of all, wealth (the suburbs of Washington include many of the wealthiest communities in the nation). All that is left is convincing the D.C. upper crust that they should be spending their money on art.

That, it seems, might prove to be harder to do than to say. As Mayer Fine Art's Lenny Campello said during a Friday lull, "A curator here would rather take a cab to Dulles to see an emerging artist in Berlin than take a cab to Georgetown to see an emerging artist at a local gallery." Still, (e)merge was a step in the right direction.

Read the whole article here.

(e)merge day two

Whatever ends up happening with (e)merge - and I think that good things will happen - one issue is clear: they have brought in the crowds.

People were constantly streaming in throughout the day, and very heavy at night. It is clear the buzz of (e)merge has worked in bringing in people to the Skyline Hotel, and the question now is: "is anyone selling artwork?"

I can only discuss what's happening on the third floor, since I haven't had the time or opportunity to escape room 313 and visit the other galleries on the second floor, but today was the first day that red dots began to show up in the rarified upper floor of the fair, as most of the spaces there were selling work today.

My dealer sold a massive 7 feet by 7 feet woodcut by Virginia artist John Miles Runner (currently living in Japan - see image above) to a Baltimore collector. She also sold one of my video drawings (yay!) to a well-known DC art collecting couple who have recently re-located as well as a couple of loose drawings.

That's Tim Tate below reversing the process on art paparazzi and uberartcollector Steve Krensky.



And that's someone checking out two of my video drawings. The one on the left is the one that sold.



Tomorrow is the last day - let's hope it doesn't rain when we all have to compete for the elevators to take the art to the street and reload all the vans and trucks... come see some artwork!

Obama Agonistes

Obama Agonistes. Charcoal on 300 weight paper with embedded video player and continuous loop video. Matted and framed under glass to 16 x 32 inches. Circa 2011 by F. Lennox Campello
The above piece is my latest exploration of marrying embedded video with drawing. You will be able to see this new piece at the coming (e)merge art fair this coming week.

The work is being presented by Mayer Fine Art, who will be in room 313 of the fair. MFA will also showcase works by DC's own Ben Tolman and self contained video installations by Tidewater area artist (currently living and working in Japan) John Miles Runner.

The new video/drawing shows the President, hugging his knees and agonizing over a variety of issues and problems during his presidency - much like the same way in which every President before him and those who will come after him are often brutalized by the weight of the White House. The extraordinary responsibility of being POTUS and the even more extraordinary demands and expectations that we leverage on all who occupy that job, is reflected on the immense internal combat depicted on this piece.

The continuous loop video plays a series of 20 appropriated news clips, cartoons and other material that deliver a conceptual tie-in to the struggling President, almost overwhelmed by his failures as much as by his successes, but nonetheless ready to continue to fight.

Matted in a white pH-balanced, acid free white mat and then framed under glass in a custom-made black wood frame to 16 x 32 inches.


Detail of Obama Agonistes, showing the embedded video being played.


Detail of Obama Agonistes, showing the drawing part of the mixed media piece

(e)merge announces its exhibitors

The (e)merge art fair has announced its exhibiting galleries and invited unrepresented artists. Check them out here.

Also check out Maura Judkis' take on the issue in the WaPo here and GOG's Lavanya Ramanathan, also in the WaPo, here and Benjamin Freed in the WCP here.

The participants are:
GALLERY PLATFORM > galleries and non-profit art spaces
AUSTRIA: Brot Kunsthalle, Vienna. | BELGIUM: Nomad Gallery, Brussels. | CANADA: Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain, Montréal. | FRANCE: Galerie E.G.P., Paris. | GERMANY: Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt. | ITALY: Jerome Zodo Contemporary, Milan. / Teverina Fine Art, Cortona. | THE NETHERLANDS: Amstel Gallery, Amsterdam. | U.K.: Vane, Newcastle upon Tyne. | U.S.A: ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA. / Art Whino Gallery, National Harbor, MD. / Aureus Contemporary, Providence, RI. / Conner Contemporary Art, Washington, DC. / Corcoran College of Art + Design, Washington, DC. / Curator’s Office, Washington, DC. / Flashpoint Gallery, Washington, DC. / G Fine Art, Washington, DC. / Ghostprint Gallery, Richmond, VA. / Goya Contemporary, Baltimore. MD / Hamiltonian Artists, Washington, DC. / Heiner Contemporary, Washington, DC. / Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, DC. / Honfleur Gallery, Washington, DC. / Irvine Contemporary, Washington, DC. / Jordan Faye Contemporary, Baltimore, MD. / Josée Bienvenu Gallery, New York, NY. / Lu Magnus Gallery, New York, NY. / Mayer Fine Art, Norfolk, VA. / McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA. / Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD. / Mindy Solomon Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL. / monique meloche, Chicgo, IL / Solas Nua, Washington, DC. / The Studio Visit, Washington, DC. / Transformer, Washington, DC. / Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC. / White Columns, New York, NY.

ARTIST PLATFORM > unrepresented artists
CANADA: Tammi Campbell, Saskatoon / Jennifer Mawby, Vancouver. | GERMANY: Christina Kruse, Berlin (+ New York). U.S.A: Chukwuma Agubokwu, Upper Marlboro, MD. / Becky Alprin, Chicago, IL. / Nico Antoniadis + Alexi Stone, Boston, MA. / Holly Bass, Washington, DC. / Kristina Bilonick, Washington, DC. / Calder Brannock, College Park, MD. / Bradley Chriss, Bethesda, MD / Matias Cuevas, Washington, DC. / Double A Projects, Brooklyn, NY. / Jeremy Flick, Tacoma Park, MD. / Free Space Collective, Washington, DC. / Jeremy Haik, Brooklyn, NY. / Terence Hannum, Chicago, IL. / Syed Sibtul Hasnain, Leesburg, VA. / Evan Hume, Washington, DC. / Steven Jones, Baltimore, MD. / Craig Kraft, Washington, DC. / Jacqueline Levine, Washington, DC. / Adam Lister, Arlington, VA. / Katherine Mann, Alexandria, VA. / Nathan Manuel + D. Billy, Brooklyn, NY. / J.J. McCracken, Mt. Ranier, MD, / Patrick McDonough, Washington, DC. / Jonathan, Monaghan, Oceanside, NY. / Kendall Nordin, Washington, DC. / Sean Noyce, Brooklyn, NY. / Peacock, Queens, NY. / Beverly Ress, Washington, DC. / Siobhan Rigg, Washington, DC. / Zach Rockhill, Brooklyn. / Sam Scharf, Washington, DC. / David B. Smith, New York,NY. / Dan Solberg, Washington, DC. / Emma Spertus, Oakland, CA. / James J. Williams III, Brooklyn, NY. / Wilmer Wilson IV, Richmond, VA.

The Amazing Sharon Moody

The current issue of Elan magazine has the spectacular work of DMV artist and Georgetown faculty Sharon Moody. She fools your eye beyond "fooling" with a technical virtuosity that leaves the rest of us panting with envy.



Moody is represented nationally by Mayer Fine Art and in New York City by Bernarducci Meisel Gallery.

AAFNYC: Sunday Report

Yesterday was the final day for the Affordable Art Fair NYC, and the fair was pretty packed with mothers all day long. Sales seemed to be brisk along our immediate area, with the British galleries that surrounded the Mayer Fine Art booth all doing gang buster sales.

MFA sold a few more of my drawings, two more wood engravings by DMV artist Rosemary Feit Covey and a very cool aluminum sculpture by Norfolk area artist and Old Dominion University professor John R.G. Roth.

The two DMV area galleries in the fair (Fraser Gallery and Honfleur Gallery) both reported excellent sales as well, so it seems like this fair paid off for the local galleries as well.

Tear down and packing was the usual nightmare when you have 80 galleries or so all trying to bring all their stuff down one elevator from the 11th floor down to the loading dock on super busy 35th street.

Back to the DMV by midnight and heading out to San Diego tomorrow.

AAF: The Saturday report

Yesterday was another well-attended day, with a good stream of visitors all day long, although they tapered off by 7PM.

Mayer Fine Art sold yet another sculpture by Norfolk artist Christine K. Harris, a wood engraving by DMV artist Rosemary Feit Covey and one more of my drawings.

Today is the last day of the fair.

AAFNYC: The Friday report

Yesterday there were good crowds again; and once again they picked up at night. Mayer Fine Art sold my largest drawing in the show, plus another sculpture by Norfolk artist Christine K. Harris and a painting by Russian painter Alexey Terenin.

Eve, Agonizing Over The Sin.
Charcoal on Paper. 13 x 49 inches.
Now in a private collection in New Jersey

AAFNYC Opening Day

Yesterday was the "official" opening day for AAFNYC and through most of the day the crowds were very thin (some folks guessing that a lot of folks were avoiding NYC during Pres. Obama's visit to ground zero, due to the traffic snarls).

From 6-8PM, entry to the fair was free and the crowds poured in for the last two hours of the show, more than compensating for the thin crowds during the day.

Mayer Fine Art scored some sales, including a spectacular painting by the DMV's Sharon Moody and later in the day they sold my Frida Kahlo video drawing - my first ever sale of the new series of drawings with embedded narrative videos). Later on the night they also sold two more of my drawings.

And check out Maura Judkis' account of the acquisition of one of my pieces by a celeb that I didn't recognize.

AAFNYC Preview Day

Last night it was packed to the gills (in fact I am told that the attendance exceeded the maximum number of people allowed in the building).

Mayer Fine Art broke the ice even before the fair opened up to the public when they sold one my drawings to a member of the press during the press preview.

The rest of the night they also sold a really cool sculpture by Norfolk sculptor Christine K. Harris and a painting by Russian painter Alexey Terenin.

Next Week in New York

Next week is the Affordable Art Fair in New York City, right across the street from the Empire State Building.

The Affordable Art Fair is always a very interesting art fair to me, from the psychological point and from the commercial point of view.

AAFNYC (as it is known, since there are versions of this fair in Europe and Australia as well) is put together by the same people who bring you the Pulse Art Fair, arguably the second best Miami art fair after ABMB.

And I say Miami on purpose to put it geographically in Miami, since there are some top notch European-based art fairs which are clearly higher than Pulse in the art fair food chain. But, when it comes to the first week of December in Miami, after ABMB, Pulse is clearly the number two darling of the art cognoscenti.

AAFNYC has an "affordable" ceiling price for art of $10,000 (used to be $5,000); this tells you a lot about the art world.

This NYC and London versions of this fair have a reputation as really good selling fairs, where galleries do fairly well, in spite of the current economic blues enveloping the world. From my own experience with this NYC-based fair (which goes back to 2005), it has always been a very successful art fair for the galleries that I have been associated with (sorry about the dangling preposition).

And if you review the list of galleries who have exhibited at AAFNYC over the years, you'll discover a lot of blue chip galleries, in fact, some of the same galleries which show at Pulse!

Yet some snooty galleries stay away from it. "I wish they'd change the name of the fair," told me a gallery owner once when I asked her why she didn't do the fair.

Enough said.

And yet, galleries from all over the planet (including a lot of British galleries) will come to New York next week, and a lot of savvy New York art collectors will come to the fair and a lot of artists and art galleries will do very well, since this is the only NYC art fair at this time of the year (among other things).

My work will be there, represented by Norfolk's top independently owned commercial fine arts gallery: Mayer Fine Arts, who will be showcasing work by Sheila Giolitti, John Roth, Alexey Terenin, Judith Peck, Rosemary Feit Covey, Sharon Moody, Rosalie Shane, Joey Manlapaz and Andrew Wodzianski... note that there are several DMV artists in that mix (Peck, Feit Covey, Moody, Manlapax, Wodzianski and I).

If you want some free tickets to the fair, send me an email and I'll make sure that the gallery leaves some free passes at "will call".