Just read the ARTnews "City Focus" article in the December issue of ARTnews. It's a very good piece by Ferdinand Protzman, who used to write the "Galleries" column for the Washington Post, and is now a cultural writer and a contributing editor of ARTnews. He also recently published Landscape : Photographs of Time and Place.

Protzman's talks about the buzz growing around Washington area artists, first making the case that area artists and galleries have long been overshadowed by the local museum's "blockbuster exhibitions of famous dead artists."

Ferd also reveals that three prominent galleries (Hemphill, G Fine Art and Conner Contemporary) will be moving soon to 1515 14th Street, NW - to a building renovated specifically for galleries by well-known local art developer and artist Giorgio Furioso.

A few days I ago, I posted about how to get some well-known name art for $50 while at the same time raising funds for a really good cause.

But this "unknown art sale" is apparently the ancestor of them all and should be a terrific idea for a local visual arts (or other) non-profit to raise funds through the visual arts. This British sale is expected to raise about $150,000.

In ARTnews, Linda Yablonsky looks at artists doing self portraits or incorporating their images into their artwork. I am particularly interested in this theme, and some area artists, such as John Winslow, or Joe Shannon or Manon Cleary, or Chawky Frenn have for decades used their images as part of the story they tell though their paintings.

Another fascinating issue that artists (especially in the US) explore is race. If you want to catch up on the latest scientific evidence of what "race" means, then I suggest this Scientific American article.

December issue of ARTnews also has a focus on Washington, DC.

In case you missed it, Jessica Dawson looks at a very good show at DCAC.

DCAC is one of the great cultural jewels in our city.

We're spending Thanksgiving with Sheila Giolitti, who is not only a brilliant artist, but also a great cook!

She's the most recent Best of Show winner of the 48th Annual Boardwalk Art Show, which attracts about 200,000 visitors each June and is organized by the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia. This show has $23,000 in cash prizes recognizing outstanding artistic achievements and it is highly competitive, with artists from all over the country applying for selection. Selected artists get a 11' x 10' feet space on the Boardwalk concrete surface. It's hard work, but a great opportunity for artists to sell their art directly to the public. Details and deadlines here.

This is how one lucks out in a NYC gallery onto an original Ida Applebroog, or John Baldessari, John Dugdale, Marcel Dzama, Tony Feher, Milton Glaser, Kiki Smith, William Wegman and many other talented artists (including quite a few DC area artists) for $50.

Keep an eye on the website as they do it every year and it's for a great cause.

Gallery plug:

William F. Stapp, who served as the National Portrait Gallery's first curator of photographs (1976-1991) and is now an independent curator and consultant will jury the 2004 Bethesda International Photography Competition. Most recently he curated the traveling exhibition "Portrait of the Art World: A Century of ARTnews Photographs."

The Bethesda International Photography Competition is our worldwide annual call for photographers. Nearly $1500 is cash prizes are awarded as well as a solo exhibition in our Georgetown gallery for the Best of Show winner. The exhibition will take place in our Bethesda Gallery from March 12 through April 7, 2004.

The 2003 juror was Philip Brookman, Curator of Photography and Media Arts at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The 2003 Best of Show winner was Bay Area photographer Hugh Shurley, who will have a solo exhibit in our Georgetown space in 2004.

Prof. Margarida Kendall Hull, who taught for many years at George Mason University and exhibited locally at Gallery K (now closed), just had a very successful sold out exhibition at Galeria Sao Mamede in Lisbon, Portugal.

And another area artist, Andres Tremols has an ongoing exhibition of his new glass pieces at the America's Collection Gallery in Coral Gables, one of the Greater Miami area's best galleries.

The Gazette newspapers, which are owned by the Washington Post, have a front page story about the "controversy" caused by Scott Hutchison's large paintings of nude women in our Bethesda space.

What goes for "shocking" in art around here is quite different from what goes for shocking in NYC or LA.

Anyone ever heard of Nadin Ospina? Look at his stuff here.

Before you laugh, one of his cute sculptures just sold at Sotheby's for almost $17,000 while surprisingly enough (to me anyway) was the fact that this tiny Frida Kahlo oil came in at $150,000 under its low estimate of $1.5 million, although still a huge amount of money for a very early, but small (7.2 x 5.7 inches) painting.

Opportunities for Artists:

Deadline: March 15, 2003. The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA is currently seeking portfolios and/or slides and resumes from artists who do work related to Latin America, the Iberian Peninsula in Europe, or Latinos in the U.S.

Work from all styles and traditions, except for freestanding sculpture and installations, will be considered. Open to all artists with interests in Latino/Latin American/Iberian issues. Latino/a artists and artists from Latin America and Europe (Spain and Portugal) are particularly encouraged to apply. The Center will select a limited number of artists to exhibit for the 2004-2005 academic year. Artists may submit a maximum of 10 slides with SASE for return.

Work cannot exceed 70 lbs. Only hanging work that is properly framed, wired, and ready to hang will be considered.

Send to:
Jose L. Falconi, Art Forum Coordinator
DRCLAS Latin American and Latin Art Forum
Harvard University
61 Kirkland Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

For my view on "Latino" art visit Cultureflux.

---

For Photographers:

Deadline February 1, 2004. Alexia Foundation for World Peace: Annual Photography Award of $15,000 is offered for the production of a proposed project. The Alexia Foundation seeks to "provide the financial ability for a photographer to produce a substantial picture story that furthers the foundation's goals of promoting world peace and cultural understanding."

For more information contact David Sutherland at dcsuther@syr.edu or on the web at Alexia Foundation.

Last year, local photographer Stefan Zaklin from Arlington, Virginia was one of the three finalists. Zaklin also won first prize in Poynter's Magazine Portrait competition with this image.

---

And this is really an interesting one...

Creative Art Technologies is looking for original Pop Art style art work and images to license and reproduce digitally in the form of oil paintings, murals, and corporate art - artwork and images in the style of Warhol, Lichtenstein, Max, etc. They are looking for original Pop Art artwork owned completely by the artist only.

All artwork must meet copyrights standards prior to being used. Artists retain the copyrights of their work. Royalties are paid in accordance with each agreement. For more information on their licensing program and where to send a sample of your work contact Creative Art Technologies (561) 832-8055, e-mail: info@catstudios.com or visit their web site. Full information will be sent to artists whose samples are of interest. They are also looking for digital artists to convert photographs and portraits to a pop art style.

Molly Rupert, from Warehouse Gallery passes that she has a group show now until December 15 titled "Artex: Off the Clock." It's work created by artists who support themselves by working in the fine arts community.

There are 22 artists included and I particularly like Brad Rudich, whose daytime job is exhibit preparation, installation, and nearly every aspect of artifact care and handling for most of our area museums. I own one of Brad's pieces that I bought at last year's Art-O-Matic.

Warehouse Gallery, Theater and Coffee Bar is one of the really great cultural assets in our area, and they've been one of the anchors of the revival of the Shaw area.

The Jackson Art Center is hosting their Open Studios next Sunday, December 7 from noon to 5 PM. They are located in the historic Jackson School opposite Montrose Park and near Dumbarton Oaks. There is ample street parking nearby. Food, wine and soft drinks will be served. For further info contact Sue DuFour (301) 986-1386 or Liz Naden (301) 424-9440 or visit their website.

Faith Flanagan organizes MUSE, which is a monthly art salon at DCAC. Each session is an opportunity to talk about contemporary art at a monthly get-together. Each salon features a discussion with a member of the local arts community, followed by a chance for audience members to show slides or samples of their work.

The next MUSE is December 7, 2003 at 7:30 P.M. when the guest will be Anne Corbett, Executive Director, Cultural Development Corporation. A new MUSE will be organized the first Sunday of each following month. For more info email Faith at salon@dcartscenter.org.

Can't wait to see this: In 1946 Salvador Dalí did a cartoon for Walt Disney titled “Destino." It was never finished until recently, when computer-generated images finished the last few frames. Read the entire story and see some clips from the cartoon at NPR.

Also lots of good images from the cartoon here.

The former Art Editor for the British newspaper The Guardian discusses how and why a newspaper should have a high commitment to supporting the arts.

The interesting point in this article by Ian Mayes is that fact that he discloses that between the Guardian and the Observer (owned and run by The Guardian), they employ about 60 art critics backed by a similar number of editors and subeditors!

And they made a deliberate effort to provide arts coverage in spite of the fact that "...the commitment is not simply or primarily a commercial one. In terms of revenue for the paper, many areas of the arts would not pay for the coverage."

I would guess that our own Post, which has a daily circulation of around 600,000 printed papers, and gets around two million hits a day for its website, and owns several other newspapers, is probably about twice the size of the Guardian newspapers.

Does anyone want to count the number of Post critics and see if they employ or use more or less than the Guardian?

Linda Hales takes a look at the Freer Gallery's "Mr. Whistler's Galleries: Avant-Garde in Victorian London," which opened a few days ago. This is a "different" show in the sense that the Freer has attempted to re-create two famous Whistler London shows -- "Arrangement in White and Yellow" (1883) and "Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Grey" (1884) -- to show how Whistler revolutionalized the then standard rules of displaying art and set a new style for exhibiting artwork in gallery shows that is still in use to this day.

Some people think that Whistler's unorthodox use of acrid colors was perhaps due to the fact that he may have been partially color blind.

Artists looking for studio space should contact The Blue Elephant Art Center. They are a cooperative artist studio/gallery in Frederick, MD featuring over 3000 sq. ft. of gallery spaces and 10 studio spaces. Two full studios and one shared studio are available now.

Cost is $200 a month for the full studio and $100 for the shared studio, all utilities included. Studios are roomy and have large windows. Group and solo shows at the Blue Elephant are available for all members. Currently on exhibit is a Blue Elephant group show. Please send contact information (name, address, phone, email), some images of your work and one page statement of work and artist intent to Brian Slagle, Blue Elephant, 4a W. 5th St., Frederick, MD 21701 or call him at 301-663-7809. Email address is blueelephantart@aol.com.

---

Deadline: Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Touchstone Gallery on 7th Street is having a call for artists for its 6th Annual juried competition. The show will be curated by my good friend Joe Shannon, easily one of the best painters in our area. Joe, who is a retired curator from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and currently teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He is also a reviewer for Art in America and writes art related stories for The Washington Times and sometimes also for the Post.

Prospectus can be downloaded from the gallery website, or send a SASE to Touchstone Gallery, 406 7th St., NW, Washington, DC 20004. For further information contact Camille Mosely-Pasley, Director, Touchstone Gallery, 202-347-2787, or info@touchstonegallery.com.

Last night was opening night for the four Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown. It was pretty good, with around three hundred people showing up over the three hour period.

Parish Gallery had a particularly interesting photography show, which featured some very arousing photographs by Alex Downs. It's rare to see an erotic photography show in Washington, and Downs manages to capture several highly sensual photographs of women while also investigating SM imagery.

We have a show of new figurative assemblages by Katie Dell Kaufman, who teaches at the Corcoran.

No matter how hard I try, I just don't get this guy and I now I am puzzled as well as to why the chief art critic of the New York Times Michael "Dia" Kimmelman, suddenly likes him so much.

Kimmelman writes that "Mr. Currin is among other things a latter-day Jeff Koons, trafficking in lowdown humor, heartless kitsch and ironic smut, while offering up dollops of finesse, beauty and brains. The combination is disorienting and, at its best, thrilling."

I'm disoriented by the review! Not in a million years would I have speculated that the same critical mind that loves the minimalist nothingness of most Dia:Beacon artists, would also find John Currin "thrilling."

If you like Currin - do you also like Lisa Yuskavage?

Live and learn.