For Leo Villareal’s second solo show at Conner Contemporary, gallery owner Leigh Conner has completely sealed off her rectangular gallery space in neutral paper, essentially gift-wrapping all the sources of outside light in order to deliver the best possible viewing atmosphere for Villareal’s sculpture exhibition.

And although a bit disorienting at first – in the sense that one first thinks (at least I did) that the gallery was closed or between shows – it sets a perfect viewing stage for an artist who is having a well-deserved meteoric rise and attention in the rarified atmosphere of high art.

Conner’s preparation of her space continues as one opens the door and enters the gallery, to be immediately confronted by Horizon, a 24 inch installation of tubes of light.

Floating away from the gallery’s main wall, they are starkly and severely displayed, allowing for perfect viewing and the thinking required to arrive at a full understanding of the artist’s multi faceted skill set in creating this and all the other sculptures in the show.

In creating Horizon, by the necessities of the art genre that he is slowly but surely re-inventing, Villareal must master not only the creative assemblage of the piece itself, but obviously must also possess significant technical skill to deliver the color messages that is one of the end goals of this piece. This is important, very important in fact, as contemporary art continues to “re-discover” a once ignored talent: technical skill.

And the description of the technical skill required to deliver this elegant, minimalist work is dizzying! Let me try.

Each of the nine plexiglass tubes of light is filled with red, green and blue light emitting diodes (or LEDs – the same LEDS that make up your PC’s plasma screen or your Gameboy screen, etc.). Horizons' diodes are each individually modulated, each capable of producing over 16 million colors.

How the colors shift and change are dictated by software created by Villareal, using a set of autonomous software agents that are constantly traveling through the software rules within a matrix, encountering each other, creating new rules, and reacting to different situations. If this all sounds like you need a Master’s degree in Computer Science or a Doctorate in Geekdom, then it does. Autonomous software agents are now an invisible and common part of our daily life; either in data mining for Google, or adapting and learning and pushing us towards full automation of common, but difficult events.

Or in Villareal’s case: Creating a nearly inexhaustible and ever refreshing display of the art of color and form.

And because we are visual creatures, our common minds are enthralled, entertained, hypnotized and fascinated by the play of the light – ever changing, and creating new impressions: video games, organic, space, stark, warm, rich.

But the “art” is not just in the light movement, or the set of 16 million possible colors, or the eloquent delivery vehicle worthy of a Marfa installation. It is all that and more.

The key to truly understanding and enjoying (and recognizing) Villareal’s contribution to contemporary art, is to realize that this digital sculptor’s chisel and hammer are the autonomous software agents that he created and which now deliver for their creator, the work that he claims in his name.

And Villareal’s nearly infinite digital atelier never tires, and is always delighted to take a new path, try a new combination of colors, deliver a new visual sensation. Tireless, efficient and blissfully ignorant of the effect (positive or negative) that their color and form displays elicit from the viewer.

Digitalism gets a powerful push in this show and Leo Villareal and his digital atelier are doing the shoving, in countless directions at once.

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Leo Villareal is at Conner Contemporary until June 26. The gallery is at 1730 Connecticut Avenue, NW (Second floor). Phone is 202/588-8750.

For photographers...

Deadline June 27, 2004

Want to have your photographs viewed by over 500,000 people? New Photography is looking for high quality, exciting work to exhibit in the photography galleries of the Millard Sheets Gallery at the L.A. County Fair. Each year more than 500,000 people view this exhibition with some of the finest examples of contemporary photography. A panel of 4 jurors will award a total of $5000 in prizes. Download a prospectus and registration form online at this website or send a SASE to:
New Photography Competition
Fairplex
Box 2250
Pomona CA 91769

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Opportunity for artists...

Deadline July 1, 2004

National Juried Art Exhibition - Will's Creek Survey - Saville Gallery.

Exhibit Sept 2 - Oct 8, 2004. Awards: Best of Show:$1000, $4000+ in additional awards. Juror is Elizabeth Thomas, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, Carnegie Museum of Art.

Two slides:$25. For entry form and prospectus contact:
Allegany Arts Council
52 Baltimore St
Cumberland MD 21502

or call 301-777-2787 or visit their website

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For glass sculptors...

Deadline: August 5, 2004

2nd Annual Eugene Glass School Drinking Glass Juried Art Glass Competition, $1,000 Award for Best-of-Show, $3,250 in additional awards with five categories.

Slides, CD (jpg), or artwork must be postmarked by August 5, 2004. Maximum 5 entries - $10 per entry, 3/ $25, 4/$35, 5/$40. For details and entry forms: download here or e-mail drinkingglass@eugeneglassschool.org, call 541-342-2959, or send a SASE to:
Eugene Glass School
575 Wilson St
Eugene OR 97402

A delayed but deserved well done! to Simmie Knox, a Washington area artist who was chosen to deliver the official Clinton portrait.

Interesting to note that none of the area newspapers art critics has written anything about Knox, although regular staff writers have written several pieces and even the mighty New York Times.

Yet our area's otherwise vociferous art critics remain silent... perhaps because Knox is an area artist? I wonder if the portrait artist was from New York, or LA?

Congrats Simmie - well deserved!

Following a record number of entries, four artists have been short-listed for the BP Portrait Award 2004, one of Britain's most prestigious and lucrative art prizes.

As discussed here, our own National Portrait Gallery, once it re-opens, will begin its own American Portrait Prize award on a yearly basis.

A couple of years ago, Zygimantas Augustinas, a terrific European painter that we've represented since 1997, won the Second Prize at the BP Portrait Award, and his career skyrocketed in Europe. Hopefully an American Portrait Prize award will have similar impact on the American artist who wins it.

Today is the third Friday of the month, and thus the four Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown (MOCA, Fraser, Alla Rogers and Parish) will have their opening nights, catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant. Starts at 6 PM. Free and open to all.

See ya there!

Louis Jacobson reviews the Contemporary Photography show at Fraser Bethesda in this week's City Paper and Bidisha Banerjee reviews Leo Villareal at Conner Contemporary Art.

Tyler Green with some excellent points on the center of the art world and lack thereof...

A first report on this week's Boardwalk Arts Festival in Virginia Beach.

Kristen Hileman, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden's Assistant Curator for Contemporary Art has just finished jurying the 2004 Georgetown International Art Competition and has selected these artists to exhibit in the show.

Eight of the 21 artists selected are from the area. The rest are from various other states and Europe.

Blake Gopnik reviews the Gabriel Orozco photography show at the Hirshhorn in today's Post.

Unfortunately, this Gopnik review only occasionally lives up to the usual high standards of his writing and lectures. Many of his observations take a much more standard, hackneyed tack. In many of his descriptions and comments on the show, Gopnik prowls the newsprint page and gives us built-in, unaltered moments of epiphany, just as common art scribes have done for about a century.

(Above paragraph has a mirror cousin in Gopnik's review).... fun with Blake and Lenny.

Here's another interesting insight into the mind of this brilliant critic in describing why some of Orozco's photos are not good:

"All of them are striking images, and that's what makes them fail."

So a striking image (and they are striking according to Blake because "these pictures are striking because they point back at well-established notions of what now constitutes an arty picture") is a failure as a good photograph?

Am I the only one who is confused here?

The Sandra Ramos exhibition that just ended yesterday (and her US solo debut) was our most successful exhibition ever.

We had visitors who came to see the show from as far as Europe and South America, and nearly all purchases were made by out-of-towners, although a couple of DC-based collectors did acquire a few major pieces and somewhat restored my faith in Washington art collectors.

We're also working on three separate museum acquisitions. More to come as soon as they are announced.

The show was also a three-peat as far as local reviews, as Jessica Dawson reviewed in the Post, Joanna Shaw-Eagle reviewed it for the Times, and Lou Jacobson reviewed it for the City Paper. Other reviews/articles included a review in Art Cuba, a small review in Cuba Now Magazine, and also reviewed in CubaSi Cultura magazine, and this bit in Art & Antiques.

A New York art forgery story always makes for interesting reading.

Gallery Slye has a Spring Gallery Party & Silent Auction this coming Saturday, June 26th from 6:00 - 9:00 pm.

For those three hours only they will be auctioning off works by Washington, DC artists: Allison Aboud, Eileen Corrigan, Dale Hunt, Joren Lindholm, Isabel Manalo, Marc Pekala, Wayne Peterson and Hilary Stewart.

More details here and RSVP to Catherine Slye at 202/306-0122

Job Opportunity

McLean Project for the Arts seeks Exhibitions Director to curate and implement exhibitions of contemporary art from the mid-Atlantic region and develop adult educational programming. Five years experience, masters degree in the arts or equivalent experience, excellent oral and written communications skills, self-starter, team player, working knowledge of word processing, email, digital media files (MAC desktop).

Start Sept. 1, 2004. Submit cover letter, resume and portfolio of past exhibitions by June 30:

Nancy Perry, Executive Director
McLean Project for the Arts
1234 Ingleside Avenue, McLean, VA 22101
703-790-1953, nperry@mpaart.org
Hours: 28-32 hours a week
Salary range: $28,000-32,000 based on experience

Market 5 Gallery is hosting its 30th Anniversary Exhibition and this is an exhibition of artists selected by Market 5 Gallery's patrons.

In September of 2003, Market 5 Gallery celebrated its 30th Anniversary with an "all hung" exhibition. Guests at the opening reception were invited to select three artists for a group exhibition in 2004.

By popular demand, Elisa McKay, Marguerite Beck-Rex, and Joseph Harrison Snyder were awarded the exhibition.

Market 5 Gallery is located at 7th & North Carolina Ave., SE, Washington, DC 20003, in the North Hall of Historic Eastern Market.

Contact: Camille Mosley-Pasley at 202/581-4114 or here.

In addition to dozens of great art galleries in our area, we are also lucky to have many alternative spaces that still put up terrific art exhibitions. Here are some new shows going up in some of these places:

May-July 31, 2004: Group Show
Common Grounds' Art Exhibit Highlights Work of GMU Artists in CROSS+POLLINATION: art from a shared space

The selection and arrangement of paintings and digital work by five artists from George Mason University explores the intentional and subliminal exchange, adaptation and transmutation of ideas by individuals creating art in a shared environment.
Featuring Natalie Guerrieri, Lisa McCarty, Susan Noyes, Lara Oliveira, and Jennifer Sarkilahti.

At The Common Grounds Coffee and Tea House 3211 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201 703.312.0427

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June 19th- July 19th, 2004: Group Show
FOCUS: Jesse Cohen, Frederic Neumann, Denise Odell, Justin Orndorff, and Andrea Paipa.

This is a group exhibition investigating colors and forms through the use of photography creating new views of everyday objects, still life compositions and urban landscapes.
Opening Reception: Friday, June 18th, 10-11:30pm

Exhibition Hours: Monday - Saturday 10am - 9pm, Sunday 11am - 7pm
Location: 3019 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20007

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June 21-25, 2004: Group Show
Redmont Associates present Two Artists: Judy Hintz Cox and Norman A. Krasnegor.

Hours: 10AM - 5PM, at the Academy for Educational Development, 1825 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20009.

Reception with the artists - Monday, June 21, 5 -8PM. Proportion of sales donated to AED. For information contact Redmont Associates at Redmontart@comcast.net or 703 620-2647.

Tomorrow is the third Thursday of the month, so the 7th Street area art galleries have their extended hours.

And on Friday, the Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown have their new shows and openings from 6-9 PM.

We will have a two person show by John Jacobsmeyer and Margaret McCann.

Jacobsmeyer, who lives and has a studio in Brooklyn, and teaches in Manhattan, has exhibited twice with us. His first show was reviewed by Ferdinand Protzman in the Washington Post and his second show was also reviewed by Jessica Dawson in the Post a couple of years later.

This will be McCann's debut in the DC area.

See you there!

A delayed but well-deserved good bye to Washington area artist Noche Crist, who passed away a few days ago.

Tomorrow and until Sunday is the Boardwalk Art Festival in Virginia Beach.

This show is one of the oldest (now in its 49th year) and most competitive outdoor art festivals in the nation. Over 800,000 people from all over the country and overseas will visit the show, which has around 500 artists displaying their art on the new Virginia Beach Boardwalk.

The show also has around $30,000 in prizes and the jurors for this year's show are Dr. Jonathan Binstock from the Corcoran, Michael O'Sullivan from the Washington Post and Chawky Frenn from George Mason University's art faculty.

The Alexandria Commission for the Arts has issued a call for artists to design a new image for the upcoming Alexandria Festival of the Arts to be held September 11 & 12, 2004.

The winning image will be featured on posters and collateral materials publicizing the event. It will also emblazon t-shirts which will be sold at the Festival with proceeds to benefit the Alexandria Commission for the Arts.

Compensation to the winning artist will be $500 and entries must be received by July 12, 2004. Entries may be submitted by mail to the Commission’s offices or by e-mail to AlexandriaCommissisonfortheArts@verizon.net.

The image should be presented in 8 1/2 x 11” format. Concept statements and examples of multiple image applications are encouraged. Individuals may submit up to three unique designs. Name and contact information should be attached to every entry. Entries will be judged on quality and sophistication of expression, conceptual development, typography (if and where applicable) and flexibility of application.

The Alexandria Commission for the Arts reserves the right to alter or excerpt all entries, and design may be reproduced for multiple uses.