Blake Gopnik's Art History Challenged (Again)

Last year, the Washington Post's Chief Art Critic Blake Gopnik's art history was challenged by William Woodhouse.

William Woodhouse scolded Blake in a Letter to the Arts Editor, for "being misled" about the importance of Toledo in El Greco's Spain as described in Gopnik's review of El Greco at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

In his review Blake anchors much of El Greco's unusual success with his odd realism upon the fact that El Greco was working "in the safe isolation of a provincial Spanish town" and essentially the locals didn't know any better. But William Woodhouse corrected Gopnik's perception of Toledo by pointing out that "it is a mistake, however, to characterize the ambiance of 16th-century Toledo as 'the safe isolation of a provincial Spanish town' vs. the court of Philip II in Madrid."

Woodhouse thus delivered a big hole in the review's central theory. But I defended Blake by pointing out that his Oxford Anglo-centric education probably gave him a skewed and flawed view of European history, especially of England's arch enemy, Spain.

But now Kurt Godwin, who is an Adjunct Art professor with Virginia Commonwealth University and a lecturer at Catholic University of America, writing in the new (and excellent) Signal 66 Gadfly makes a series of powerful points in reference to Gopnik's recent review of Gerhard Ter Borch and reveal a lot about Gopnik's surprising art history weakness and even more about his use of his pulpit to preach his own personal art history agenda.

Godwin writes:

Why Seer Jeers Vermeer Remains Unclear

Blake Gopnik begins his review of the Gerhard Ter Borch exhibition that recently opened at the National Gallery proclaiming this artist's superiority over his more familiar contemporary Johannes Vermeer (Washington Post, Style section 11/7/04).

Intrigued to see how this conclusion was derived I looked forward to finding a solid argument supporting this declaration. While, alas, this wasn't to be found other notions expressed proved to be real head scratchers.

To wit: Crediting Ter Borch with introducing the Netherlands to the supposed Velasquez "bare bones" means of portraiture Gopnick forgets that Hans Holbien the Younger perfected this method almost one hundred years earlier in neighboring Germany. Ter Borch could have easily been caught up in the sway of such readily accessible influences.

Gopnick continues to enthuse that Ter Borch's paintings in small scale are "almost as impressive" as Velazquez's large-scale work. Such a statement begs for further analysis.

Perhaps we'll be clued-in some other day.

Despite Gopnik's assertion otherwise, many of these paintings are narrative driven using such classic allegorical metaphors as letter reading and writing, the faithful dog, as well as playing card symbolism. Discussing the genre painting "A Gallant Conversation," Goethe is presented as an interpreter of that painting's implied narrative. Mysteriously, Gopnick refers to the German philosopher's novel not by title but solely by its publication date of 1809.

If famous authors serve as any sort of aid to art criticism, for good measure, let us not forget Marcel Proust's reference to Vermeer's "View of Delft" that played such an important role in the classic novel "Remembrance of Things Past."

The admiration Gopnik bestows on Ter Borch's supposed lack of narrative or allegorical pretensions is because, as he states, it favors "a kind of uninflected realism like cryptic reality itself." He goes on to chastise Vermeer for his "hint of portentous, poetic mystery." It's hard to imagine much of a chasm between describing a portrayal of life either as "cryptic reality" or "poetic mystery."

Later he refers to this artist's rendering of life as "captured in all its cryptic contingency." The repetitive use of this adjective is very cryptic indeed.

In his description of Ter Borch's innovative techniques and discoveries Gopnik offers this explanation: Observing "light bouncing from form to form and then into our eye, then coming up with surrogates for them using a handful of pigments."

With the exception of two painting done with collaborators, these paintings are rather dark. Vermeer's subtle, light infused paintings are their antithesis. What Gopnik has described is the painting process in generic terms rather than some unique 17th century development.

Continuing he exclaims the kind of "micro-bravura" (a phrase that seems to be an oxymoron) that Ter Borch provides should thrill us as much as the "macro-virtuosity" of a Hals or Rembrandt.

What these terms mean I can't attest to. Except for the fact they are all of Dutch origin lumping together these artists with such different painting styles is unclear.

To solidify his case for Ter Borch's superiority over contemporaries like Vermeer, he suggests it necessary to put ourselves in the shoes of a "17th century art lover."

Whoever that may be.

If we have to do that, and as he states, "rejecting modernism's hackneyed taste for the capricious," we are dealing with an artist who cannot transcend his own era much less achieve the timelessness and universal appeal that is the acknowledged mark of a true master. In other words we can't just merely be our selves to fully appreciate this art. We must have the specific perspective of an "art lover" four centuries ago. Maybe he's just suggesting that may help.

It is Gopnik's prerogative to champion anyone. Pairing two painters like a couple of racehorses might have proved interesting if a case was made.

Painting isn't a competition anyway. Perhaps posterity's fickle spotlight will further illuminate this particular artist's reputation. Despite Gopnik's wish I have a hunch there won't be long lines eager to gain entry to see this show unlike exhibitions in the recent past by a couple of other dead Dutch guys.

Professor, Therein lies the key to Gopnik's attempt to bring Vermeer down a notch or two: The public loves Vermeer and lines up for hours to see his paintings. In the mind of old-fashioned elitists like Gopnik, if the public likes something or someone, then it can't be any good.

Bravo Godwin!

DC Art News reader Nathan Martin, in response to my question about the Kennedy Center honors, passes that "unfortunately, the Honors aren’t given to visual artists, nor are they given to poets, novelists or playwrights. Given that it’s the Kennedy Center "for the Performing Arts" it makes a certain amount of sense. Here’s the description from their web site:

"The Honors recipients are recognized for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts: whether in dance, music, theater, opera, motion pictures or television. The primary criterion in the selection process is excellence. The Honors are not designated by art form or category of artistic achievement; the selection process, over the years, has produced balance among the various arts and artistic disciplines."

He also suggests that "if visual artists were eligible, though, it would have to go to relatively respectable, late-in-their-career types like Jasper Johns, Wayne Thiebaud, Rauschenberg, etc. Maybe Joseph Stella or Louise Bourgeois in sculpture. Philip Johnson in architecture, maybe Gehry, Venturi and Graves in 10-15 years."

Good nominations! My question now: So what's the equivalent of the Kennedy Honors for visual artists? Should the National Gallery of Art institutionalize something? Do we even need it?

I recall that one of my art school professors, Jacob Lawrence, received a Presidential Medal of Freedom (I think) in the 1980s from Pres. Reagan. And yet he was and has been ignored by the NGA for a retrospective, although the Phillips Collection did organize a great one a few years ago.

One of the main reasons that the WaPo Style and acting Arts Editor have for reducing their “Galleries” coverage by 50% is the unexpected quitting of Glenn Dixon. It is thus apparently “too hard” for them to look for a replacement freelancer to augment Jessica Dawson’s coverage.

“Lack of available print space” was an older excuse that the Post hierarchy once gave me when I challenged them as to why they only had one “Galleries” column a week, while they have extensive multi column coverage of theatre, opera, performance, movies, dance, books and music.

And yet, yesterday's Post was a good example of the kind of pap that the Style section offers its readers and which takes up valuable print space.

No, no, I am not referring to their orgasmic coverage of the Kennedy Center awards; well-deserved and my congratulations to all the award winners (are visual artists eligible for these awards? Has any visual artist ever been nominated? If not, who could we nominate?).

Back to the pap:

One is a piece by freelancer Jennifer Silverman titled “Swinging Singles, Lost in a Forest of Smug Marrieds,” and the other beauty is by freelancer Martha Randolph Carr titled “That Wonderful Glorious Summer of Perfect Hair.”

They don't even deserve a hotlink.

Makes my head hurt…

I'm on the road, presently in San Diego. My laptop is acting up and I have a busy schedule, but I will be posting sporadically and at odd times. I have several last AOM Top 10 Lists from AOM artists, plus some more commentary on the Post, plus the adress of a new restaurant in San Diego which makes the best mole in the world!

The Writing is on the Wall

Everyone seems to be predicting the end of newspapers as we know them.

Today the WaPo has a story by Amy Argetsinger titled California Enclave Tires of Being Artsy. It discusses a story first published here and in other Internet art sites and BLOGs several weeks ago, but just making it to the newsprint pages of the WaPo. Chances are that quite a significant percentage of the Post’s readers may have been already exposed to this story.

How can the WaPo and other lamestream media survive the future? it is not a matter of if, but of when, and the future (as George Carlin said) is just now becoming the past.

But the WaPo (and some other newspapers) can (and must) adapt and they will survive if they do so.

The WaPo has made two smart moves already, but a third, and very important one is needed if it is to check-mate its own future demise. I will tell them, by the end of this posting, what they need to do.

The first good move that they made was their decision to go online a few years ago. Incredibly enough, that decision (I am told) was made pretty much against the will of the corporate hierarchy, which thought that going online was a waste of money and would shrink newspaper subscriptions. It’s a good thing that more visionary thinkers won that battle and that the WaPo went online. Subscriptions to the Post have declined substantially, but that is a trend that has affected all newspapers, regardless of website presence.

Now their website receives near a million visitors a day, and generates substantial income for the paper through banner advertising and those annoying pop-up ads.

The second smart move was to create the Express, which although free, is widely read by the morning commuter crowd. It is made of short, quickly read, stories, highlights, etc. As I’ve discussed here before, it is interesting to me that a small mention of an exhibition in the Express generates substantially higher number of inquiries and attendance than a full fledged review in the Post.

So how can the Washington Post prevent their imminent dismissal as a source of news, information, opinion and culture (cough, cough)?

Simple: Marry the two concepts!

Actually, not just marry the two concepts, but expand on them! Have the marriage yield a child, an issue; a WaPo Saviour, if you will.

This is what they have to do: Expand the printed version of the paper, with its army of editors stuck in “this is how things have been done” land, with a fresher, rawer, online version. Not just an online version of their print version, but that plus online-unique content.

For example, in their much criticized and anemic coverage of the arts, they could augment the various fields and genres of art with online columns, reviews, commentary, photography, and yes even BLOGs! All the major cable news programs and cable newscasters are already doing this – it is the lamestream media that doesn’t seem to get in step with the 21st century.

And this can be done without reproducing their bricks and mortar hierarchical structure that publishes their old fashioned newsprint edition. An online Post writer – freelancers all of them, I would assume – would never have to set foot inside 1150 15th Street, NW. No need for secretaries, no need for assistants, etc Just online editors whose job would be editing and editing alone; the software handles the rest.

Biggest obstacle in this idea (other than the mindset of an old fashioned business empire rapidly declining?): The unions, I suspect.

The Gallery at Flashpoint Call for Proposals

Deadline: Friday, January 21, 2005.

The Cultural Development Corporation (CuDC) is requesting proposals for exhibitions in the Gallery at Flashpoint for the September 2005 to August 2006 season. This request is open to artists, independent curators, arts organizations, private galleries or anyone choosing to present contemporary work in any medium. Deadline for proposals is 6pm Friday, January 21, 2005.

For a 2005-2006 Request for Proposal application, please visit their website or email them

ArtHelps Charity Art Auction

Faith Flanagan passes that ArtHelps will be having their Fourth Annual Art Auction and Reception for Charity with DCAC as one of its beneficiaries. The auction is on Wednesday, December 8, from 5:00pm to 10:00pm. It will be held at JAM Communications, 1638 R Street, NW Suite 400, Washington, DC 20009.

Please take a moment to view the ArtHelps website and download a donation form, and you can designate DCAC as your charity. If you have any questions, please give Faith a call at 202/744-8770.

Marilyn Banner's Top 10 AOM List

DC area artist Marilyn Banner is an exhibiting AOM artist and the is co-founder and co-director of Washington Musica Viva, a popular new music, poetry, and visual arts performance series which takes place in her Kensington, Maryland studio.

Greg Minah
Dylan Scholinski
Ira Tattelman
Elena Patino
Gina Marie Lewis
Louise Kennelly
Sheila Crider
Anne Marchand
Matt Sesow
Joyce Zipperer

WPA/C Anonymous Returns

The WPA/C concept of ANONYMOUS returns with an opening preview reception on Thursday, Dec. 9, 6:30-8:30pm and the first day to purchase artwork is Friday, Dec. 10, 6-8pm.

This is a second installment of this popular show concept featuring all new artists and curators. 100 artists create two feet by two feet works of art to be sold for $500 each. Buyers will not know the artist until the work has been purchased. No works will be sold at the preview reception and only one piece is allowed per patron. Curated by: John Aaron, K.B. Basseches, Mary Del Popolo, Djakarta, Chawky Frenn, David Jung, Prescott Moore Lassman, Anne Marchand, Marie Ringwald and Alan Simensky.

Sales will commence on Friday, December 10 at 6:00pm. One piece per patron. You may send a proxy if necessary. Cash, checks and credit cards accepted. First come, first served. The show hangs until December 23, 2004.

Location: 1027 33rd Street, NW (Georgetown)
Times: Thursday & Friday 12pm-8pm
Saturday & Sunday 12pm-6pm

New Transformer Show Opens Next Saturday

Transformer celebrates the work of six artists furthering a new and engaging fashion sensibility in Washington, DC with Rejoice! This new Transformer show Features dynamic visual creations by Washington DC area artists and designers Jess Feury, Sarah Hagen, Jennifer Potter, Karie Reinertson, Valerie Soles, and Justin Spivey.

Opening Reception: Saturday, December 11, 2004 7-9pm. The show runs until January 22, 2005.

Blake Gopnik Buys Artwork

"At first glance, any big survey of contemporary art is likely to come across as an anything-goes mess of unrelated objects. But hang around in the art world long enough and you start to notice that a certain sameness, built around a handful of recurrent themes and strategies, underlies all that variety."

Gopnik does a pretty good mini-review of Jennifer Dalton's PowerPoint presentation at Curator's Office and buys a CD ROM of Dalton's piece.

Bravo Blake!

Postcards from the Edge

Why doesn't somebody in Washington do this?

Postcards from the Edge is an annual Visual AIDS benefit and this year it is being hosted and held at Brent Sikkema in New York City. I have participated for several years and encourage all artists to join us next year.

The Preview Party is tonight Saturday, December 4, from 6-9 PM. $50 cover at the door (Participating artists get in free) Door cover includes one free raffle ticket. Additional raffle tickets are $20 each. Special Host: Alan Cumming. There's also an open wine bar sponsored by Wine & Spirits Magazine.

This is the only opportunity to get a sneak peek at the entire Postcards From the Edge exhibition. No work will be for sale on the Preview Night. One lucky raffle winner will be able to select any artwork that evening before anyone else!

Postcard artwork is hung anonymously, so come to the preview party and scout your favorites early!

Benefit Sale: Sunday, December 5, 2-6 PM
First-come, first-served - No entrance fee
Postcards sales only $50 each.
Cash and checks only – ID needed for checks

Over 1400 original postcard-sized works. This exhibition is famous within the art world as the most exciting and affordable way to build a collection of work by internationally renowned artists as well as young and emerging artists. Postcards are displayed anonymously and the artists' names are only revealed upon purchase. A collector might end up with a work by a famous artist or someone they don't yet know. Either way, they walk away with a great piece of art while supporting the programs of Visual AIDS.

Postcards from the Edge exhibiting artists include: Karen Abato, Samira Abbassy, David Abbott, Joshua Abelow, Rachel B. Abrams, Vito Acconci, Diyan Achjadi, Irina Adam, Faith Adams, Raymond Adams, Suzanne Adams, Chuck Agro, Ruben Ahumada, Tatiana Akoeva, Yasmin Al-Mutawa, Norman Alcantara, Susan Alden, Meredith Allen, Antonio Allotta, Jacie Lee Almira, Carol Alonge, Alonys, Barbara Alper, Cristina Alvarez, Jose Alvarez, David Ambrose, Blanka Amezkua, Shannon Amidon, Mohammed Aminyar, Emma Amos, Marie Anakee, Joseph Anastasi, Chad Andrews, Stephen Andrews, Jonn Angelbeck, Larry Angelo, Victor Angelo, William Anthony, Tijana Antonic, Polly Apfelbaum, Tomie Arai, Joan Arena-Mastropaolo, Goil Arm, Karen Arm, Bill Armstrong, John Felix Arnold III, Yelena Aronson, Andrea Arroyo, Mike Asente, Dotty Attie, Dominick Avellino, Patricia Ayala, Alice Aycock, Nancy Azara, Aziz + Cucher, Franny B, Adam Baer, Ralph Baginski, Kayode Bahard-Adowa, Sung Baik, Allison Bailey, Bradford Bailey, Patrick Michael Baird, Francis Baker, Paul Baker, John Baldessari, Ranjan Banerjee, C. Bangs, Gerard Barbot, Perry Bard, Sarah Barker, Burt Barr, Byron Barrett, Frank Barrett, Katie Barrie, Megan Barron, Rita Barros, Mark Barry, Michael Barry, Beth Bartholomew, Hugo Xavier Bastidas, Larissa Bates, Virginia Batson, Hilary Batzel, Amy Bay, Kristin Beal-Degrandmont, Robert Beck, Michael Bedlin, Guy Beining, Adam Bell, Andrew Bell, Caroline Bell, Tom Belloff, Stuart Bender, Barton Lidice Benes, Garry Benet, Robert A. Benevenga, Brian Benfer, Lynda Benglis, Andrew Sumner Benson, Stefany Benson, Kermit Berg, Katherine Bernhardt, B. Berrner, Adriana Bertini, Victoria Bevan, Stephen Beveridge, Rebecca Bird, JoAnn Bishop, Darla Bjork, Jill Blagsvedt, George Blaha, Nayland Blake, Julie Blattberg, Ross Bleckner, Meryl Blinder, Theresa Bloise, Deborah Boardman, Marcelle "Malka" Bock, Marion Boddy-Evans, Daniel Bodner, Sarah Jane Boecher, L. Webb Boles, Debby Boman-Lawrence, Helen Bonham Short, Jerome W. Bono, Chakaia Booker, David Borawski, Dane Borda, Frank Boros, Michael Boroskey, Desiree Borrero, Filip Bosevski, Matthew Bourbon, Louise Bourgeois, Jacqueline Bovaird, Susan Bowen, Astrid M. Bowlby, Aaron Bowles, George Box, Mark Bradford, S. Kendall Bradford, Meghan Brady, Maea Brandt, Dana Brauckmann, Mai Braun, Susan Breen, John Breiner, Corey R. Breneisen, Nancy Brett, Val Britton, Ann Brody, Mona Brody, Nancy Brooks Brody, Candyce Brokaw, Molly Brooks, Alana Brown, Miriam Brumer, Matthew Buckingham, Trang Bui, Amy J. Bullano, Ann F. Bunn, Christopher Burke, Kathe Burkhart, Tim Burns, Nancy Burson, Scott Burton, Dietmar Busse, Preot Buxton, Kit Callahan, Michael J. Cambre, Mary Campbell, F. Lennox Campello, Maria Capolongo, Rene Capone, Suzanne Caporael, Marina Cappelletto, Karlos Carcamo, Claudette Carino, Luis Carle, Arnold Carlson, Joel Carlson, Victor Carnuccio, Kate Carr, Mary Ellen Carroll, Mark Carter, Rob Carter, Amelia Caruso, Diane G. Casey, Janice Caswell, Andrew Catanzariti, Corliss Cavalieri, BJ Cavnor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Cawley II, Celso, Bindu Chadaga, Mark Chamberlain, Anthony Champa, Richard Lang Chandler, Wade Chandler, Jennifer Chapek, Christiane Chaponniere, Alejandro Chavez, Amy Cheng, Julia Chiang, Michael Chiarello, Kim Chivers-D’Amato, Soyeon Cho, Cecile Chong, Alice Jee Chung, Amanda Church, Diane Churchill, Vincent Cianni, Kate Clark, Stephen Taro Clark, Nuala Clarke, Rob Clarke, Robert Clarke-Davis, Christopher Clary, Veronica Jay Clay, Judy Clifford, Aaron Cobbett, Colin Cochran, Jon Coffett, Orly Cogan, Susan Colgan, Cecy Colichon, Chris Collicott, Sarah Colligan, C.J. Collins, Greg Colson, Matthew Liam Conboy, Ernest Concepcion, Elisabeth Condon, Rhys Conlon, Graham Connell, Emily Conover, Lauren Cook, Monica Cook, CB Cooke, Cyndi Coon, Marcia Cooper, Pam Cooper, Stuart A. Copans, David Correa Muñoz, Margarida Correia, Jose Luis Cortes, David Corwin, Geraldine Cosentino, Eileen Costa, Fiona Couldridge, Erika Cramer, Peter Cramer, Fred Cray, Brian Crede, Kathleen Creighton, Elizabeth Crisman, Judith Croce, Jerstin Crosby, Ave Maria Cross, Sarah Crowner, Albert Crudo, Pedro Cruz-Castro, Janet Culbertson, Alan Cumming, Daphne Cummings, Megan Cump, Amie Cunningham, Doris Currier, Anne Cypcar, Peggy Cyphers, Brita d’Agostino, David Dalessandro, Amanda Dalmat, Harriet F. Damianakes, Priyanka Dasgupta, Edgerton Y. Davis, Eric Davis, Reginald Davis, Xiomara De Oliver, A. De Shong, Blase DeCelestino, Elisa Decker, Gloria DeFilipps Brush, Cezar Del Valle, Brent Delf, Tom DeLooza, Jason Deneault, Dustin Dennis, Priscilla Derven, Susan Deseyn, Anjali Deshmukh, Yoko Devereaux, Denise DeVone, Uday Dhar, Max Diel, Erica Dietrich, James Diffin, Denise Segreti DiGiovanna, Simone DiLaura, Danielle Dimston, George Dinhaupt, Scott Dolan, Rory Donaldson, Todd Doney, William Donovan, Elissa Dorfman, Jessica Doyle, Jeffrey du Vallier d’Aragon Aranita, Melanie Ducharme, Daniel Dueck, Beth Duerr, Jeffrey Dugan, Lauren Dunkle, Heather Dunn, Jeanne Dunning, Chad Durgan, Julie Durkin, Matthias Duwel, Annie Dwyer Internicola, Marcel Dzama, Michael Eade, Brent Nicholson Earle, Janae Easton, Jonathan Easton, Mat Eaton, Brad Eberhard, Marlene Eckhardt, Adam S. Eckstrom, Melissa Eder, Allison Edge, Cynthis Edorh, Frank Egloff, Per Eidspjeld, Eric Elias, Fredrick Elms, Elise Engler, Donna Jean Engstrom, Joy Episalla, Mitch Epstein, Patricia Erbelding, Christa Erickson, Yvonne Estrada, Dore Everett, Branden Ezell, Joan Fabian, James Fackrell, Lisa Fain, Chris Fang, Neil Farber, Adriana Farmiga, David Faulk, Nicholas Fedak II, Tony Feher, Josh Feldman, Wynn Fermin, Ramon Fernandez-Bofill, Eliza Fernbach, Brad Fesmire, Suzanna Fields, Angelo Filomeno, Janet Filomeno, Hannah Fink, Michael A. Fink, Brian Finke, Lisbeth Firmin, Christina B. Fischer, Joseph Fisher, Louise Fishman, Jacques Flechemuller, Mark Fleming, Sean-Michael Fleming, Robert Flynt, April Fontaine, Roy Foo, Jean Foos, Tom Foral, Juliana Forero, Taylor Forrest, Alison Foshee, Johnston Foster, Nicole Fournier, Bradley Fox, Mark Fox Morgan, Tara Fracalossi, Audrey Frank Anastasi, Travis Frazelle, Christopher Frederick, Sharon J. Frey, Sabra Friendman, Steven Frim, Gina Fuentes Walker, Adam Fuss, Felipe Galindo, Kristen Galvin, Asha Ganpat, Arturo Garcia, Laurel Garcia Colvin, Milton Garcia Latex, J.J. Garfinkel, Joy Garnett, Yvonne Gaspar, Alexandra Gates, Bob Gates, Jeff Gauntt, Paul Leroy Gehres, Asya Geisberg, Madeline Gekiere, Terri Gelenian-Wood, Amy Geller, Mike Geno, Timothy W. Gerken, Elena Mercedes Getto, Cris Gianakos, Eric Gibbons, Sam Gibbons, Byron Gibbs, Haya Gil-Lubin, Stacy Gilinson, Eric Ginsberg, Frances Giron, Luis Gispert, Christopher Glancy, Judy Glantzman, Milton Glaser, Marilyn Glass, Robin Glassman, Sybil Gleaton, Angela Glennon, Virginia Glessner, Godforbid, Michele Godwin, Monika Goetz, Anthony Goicolea, Jo Going, Kenneth Sean Golden, Keren Golden, Michael Golden, Ellen Goldin, Ben Goldman, Lance Goldsmith, David Goldstein, Ana Laura Gonzalez, Maria Elena Gonzalez, Kathy Goodell, Alicia Goodfarb, Johnny L. Goodwin, Kay Gordon, Lee Gordon, Kalika Gorski, Alyce Gottesman, Meira Gottlieb, Shaun Gough, Michelle Grabner, Leor Grady, Deborah Grant, Garry Grant, Robin Graubard, Joanne Greenbaum, Holly Greenberg, Rodney Alan Greenblat, Meryl Greenblatt, Kira Greene, Sarah Greer Mecklem, Stan Gregory, Peter Griffin, Michela Griffo, Samantha Grimm Hallenus, Ellen Grossman, Katrin Grotepass, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Edgard Guanipa, Patricia Guardiola, Lynn Gufeld, Carl Gunhouse, Sophia Guntherz, Juan Pablo Gutierrez, Hans Haacke, Theresa Hackett, Patricia Haemmerle, Bill Hall, Lavonne Hall, Katy Hamer, Harmony Hammond, Jane Hammond, John Hampshire, Victoria Hanks, Kim Hanson, John Hardy, Allison Harkavy, Joann M. Harrah, Dike Harris, Pamela Harris, Mary Beth Harry, Keira Hart, Dominic Harvey, Ellen Harvey, Peter Harvey, Michael Harwood, Naj Hasani, Ava Hassinger, Skowmon Hastanan, Sarah Hauser, Stuart Hawkins, Tom Hawkins, Joseph Hayes, Karen Heagle, Valerie Hegarty, Mary Heilmann, Mara Held, Amy Helfand, Neddi Heller, Miranda Hellman, Thomas Hellstrom, Doug Henders, Sarah Henderson, Geoffrey Hendricks, Jon Hendricks, John Hendriks, Ed Herman, Molly Heron, Matthias Herrmann, Valerie Herteen, Alex Hetherington, Corin Hewitt, Laura Heyman, Amy Hill, Jan Hilmer, Juan Hinojosa, Bryan Hiott, Annamarie Ho, Sarah Hoddy, Jim Hodges, E. Featherstone Hoff, Chet Holcomb, Anamika Holke, Kim Holleman, Frank Holliday, Andrea Holt, Joel Holub, Gregg Hoover, Rinaldo Hopf, Brooke Horne, Jarrod Houghton, Joel Hoyer, Mary Hrbacek, Amanda Huang, Arthur Huang, Heather Hudson, Robert Huff, Kat Hughes, Morgan Hughes, David Humphrey, Sheryl Humphrey, Jennifer Hunter, Yolanda Hunter, Adam Hurwitz, Nancy Hwang, James Hyde, Nash Hyon, Jessica Iapino, Shigeno Ichimura, Ijeoma D. Iheanacho, Jasmine Imperial, Ketta Ioannidou, Shaun Irons, Carmen Isasi, Junichiro Ishida, Anna Jaap, Alfredo Jaar, Tim Jablonski, Sandra Jackman, Clarke Jackson, Derek Jackson, Georgia Jackson, Jackson Photografix, Brooke Jacobs, Bill Jacobson, Jimmie James, Matthew Jankowski, Benjamin T. Jarosch, Allison Jarvela, Janusz Jaworski, James Jaxxa, Jim Jeffers, Bill Jensen, Gerry Jensen, Tom Jezek, Jiro, Lennon Jno-Baptiste, Jessika Joe, Simen Johan, Laura Johansen, Chris Johanson, Christine Johnson, Eric Anthony Johnson, Erick Johnson, Hasan Johnson, Holly Johnson, Liz Johnson, Paddy Johnson, Bill Jones, Darrell Jones, Darren Jones, Rula Jones, Ken Jones Jr., Michael Joo, Saskia Jorda, Jovani, Michael Joyal, Emily Joyce, Jenny Jozwiak, Roberto Juarez, Miranda July, Paul Justice, Patricia Kaegi W., Ellen Kahn, Kai, Indra Karpaviciute, Elaine Karton, Marie Christine Katz, Andrew Kaufman, Betsy Kaufman, Jessica M. Kaufman, Pat Kaufman, Dionisios Kavvadias, Eleni Kavvadias, Takeshi Kawashima, Ameer Kazmi, Judy Kazmi, Marya Kazoun, Darra Keeton, Betsy Kelleher, Marthe Keller, Jamie Kelty, Sebron Kendrick, Michael "Misha" Kennedy, Shirin Khaki, Swati Khurana, Hee Sook Kim, Heige Kim, Jaesung Kim, Jingyung Kim, Jullian S. Kim, So Jung Kim, David King, Kelly King, Marcy King, Matt King, Susan Kirby, Michael Kirwan, Barbara Klein, Rosanne Kleinerman, Elisabeth Kley, Lucretia Knapp, Barbara Knight, Elizabeth Knowles, Woon Won Ko, Viktor Koen, Philip Kogan, Carol Kohn, Francine Kohn, Kathy Koller, Thomas Koole, Fran Kornfeld, Aaron Krach, Kara Kramer, Michael Krasowitz, Andre North Krauss, Fawn Krieger, Larry Krone, Liliana Krynska, Louis Kunsch, Melissa Kuntz, Michelle Kurlan, Allison Kurtz, Anita Kushner, Michael Kwiecinski, Ben La Placa and Mary Klie, Eliot Lable, Jaclyn Labozzetta, David Lachman, Stephen Lack, Miles Ladin, Thomas Lail, Emily Noelle Lambert, Lehni Lamide Davies, Lisa LaMonica, Marc Landes, Klara Landrat, Eve Andree Laramee, Erin Lareau, Larian, Kristin Larson, Catherine LaSota, Heidi Lau, Ayala Laufer-Cahana, Louis Laurita, Shelley Lavell, Glenda Lavin, Louise Lawler, Beatrice S. Lebreton, Roberto Lebron, Amanda Lechner, Charlie Ledbetter, Marjeta Lederman, Cal Lee, Deanna C. Lee, Margaret Lee, Brian Lemond, Taliah Lempert, Zoe Leonard, Barbara Leven, Les Levine, Barbara Ann Levy, James Levy, Georgina Lewis, Sol LeWitt, Julia Lichtblau, Daniel Licul, Michael Liddy, Edward Lightner, Glenn Ligon, Yuki Lim, Alexandra Limpert, Conner Limpert, Nicole Limpert, Tai Hung Lin, Nikki Lindt, Martha Link, Megan Lipke, Marcia Lippman, Lump Lipshitz, Jackie Lipton, Frank Liu, David Livingston, Luis A. Locarno, Patricia Lofgren, Amy Lombardo, Tim Lonergan, Jason Longchamps, Aimee Louchart, Chris Louchart, Whitfield Lovell, Gina Lovoi, Michael Lownie, Robert Ludwig, Cecilia Lueza, Vera Lutter, Annica Lydenberg, Holly Lynton, Noah Lyon, MacDermott and MacGough, Mary Macey, Marci MacGuffie, Megan Maguire, Charles Werner Mahal, Jr., Jennifer Mahlman, Rebecca Major, Sakura Maku, Luis Mallo, Linda Mangan, Craig Manister, Ed Manner, Erica Mapp, Philomena Marano, Mitchell Marco, Harriet Regina Marion, Thom Markee, China Marks, Sandy Marostica, Adria Marquez, Norma Marquez Orozco, Christopher Marquis, Kathleen S. A. Marquis, Charlotte Marra, Mary V. Marsh, Kerry James Marshall, Katy Martin, Trevor Martin, Max Carlos Martinez, Magdalina Martinez Franco, Bob Marty, Amy Mascena, Scott Massarsky, Christina Massey, Thomas Matsuda, Amy Matthews, Kegera Matthews-Lawrence, Mary Mattingly, Meghan Matuza, Brooke Maxwell, Esperanza Mayobre, Michael Mazzeo, Xanda Mc Cagg, Emma McCagg, Maureen McCarron, Melissa McCarthy, Paula McCartney, Mark D. McComb, Peter McCoubrey, Janice McDonnell, Tim McDonnell, Sarah McEneany, Dominic McGill, Alison McGoran, Thomas McGovern, Conor Mcgrady, Paul McHale, John Mckaig, Craig McKenzie, Anne Q. McKeown, Chuck McKinney, John McLachlin, Mark McLoughlin, Meridith McNeal, Sarah McNulty, Jamie McPartland, Beverley McQuillan, Bill Mcright, Justin McSimov, Lisanne McTernan, Michael Meads, Roberto Medina, Russel Mehlman, Julie Mehretu, Linda Meisenhelder, Brad Melamed, Derick Melander, Margery Mellman, John Melof, Ann Messner, Lucia Alba Mettler, Chris Metze, Michael Nathaniel Meyer, Mica, Maggie Michael, Ellen Miffitt, Holly Miller, Judith S. Miller, William H. (Billy) Miller, Shizuka Minami, Marilyn Minter, Elizabeth Miseo, Kenneth Mitchell, Michael Mitchell, Tadashi Mitsui, Joseph Modica, Sharon Molloy, Jorge Luis Moncayo, Sean Monesson, Sarah Monroe, Gregory Montreuil, Cindy Moore, James Moore, Jessica Moore, Nik Moore, Randy Moore, Paul Moran, Tom Morbitzer and Gail Amornvivat, Janet Morgan, Andrea Morganstern, Lora Morgenstern, Ricardo Morin, Juri Morioka, Amy Morken, James Morrison, Leo Morrissey, Arezoo Moseni, Adrienne Moumin, Carrie Moyer, K-- Mroczek, Roger Mudre, Fred Mugford, K. Muldoon, Matt Mullican, Vik Muniz, Margaret Murphy, Elizabeth Murray, Kevin Muth, Pieter Myers, Jeremy Nadel, Stefanie Nagorka, Andrew Nance, Chuck Nanney, James Nares, Antonella Natale, Marcia Neblett, Joseph Nechvatal, John W.M. Neely, Rodrigo M. Negreira, Heidi Neilson, David Nelson, Laura Nelson, Diogo Neto, Brandon Neubauer, Chyna Ng, Christian Nguyen, Sophia Nilsson, Martha Nilsson Edeheit, Michelle Nixon, Liz Nofziger, Nick Normal, Scott Norris, Emily North, Mardi Nowak, Paul Nudd, Robert O’Donnell, Elin O’Hara Slavick, Veronica O’Hern, Carrie O’Neil, Leah Oates, Angelo Ocasio, Dustin Odgin, Sun-Duck Oh, Eri Oishi, Nancy Olivier, Ron Omlin, Soner On, Tomomi Ono, Yoko Ono, Patricia Onorato, Christian Oppel, Richard Orjis, Dianne Orkin Footlick, Novella Osuorah, Tom Otterness, Michael Ottersen, Vivian Outlaw, Joe Ovelman, Rachel Owens, Tori Pace, Carol Padberg, Enrique Padilla Jr., James Paladino, Kelsey Palmer, Marcy Palmer, Ruby Palmer, Wilna Panagos, Nicole Parcher, Eung Ho Park, Jung Eun Park, Jennifer Parker, Margo Parker, Robert Miles Parker, Suellen Parker, Charles Parker Boggs, Sam Parks, Avani Patel, Laura Paulini, Sarah H. Paulson, Jim Pavlicovic, Manuela Paz, Junanne Peck, Carol Peligian, Elisabeth Pellathy, Claudia Pena, Sheila Pepe, Keith Perkins, Quimetta Perle, Jules Perlmutter, Perry, Daniel Perry, Gilda Pervin, Lamar Peterson, Kyriakos Petropoulos, Christina Pettersson, George Pfau, Laura Sue Phillips, Sisavanh Phouthavona, Doug Piccione, Tracee Pickett-Armoni, Pietrapiana, Mary Pinto, Kim Piotrowski, Drew Pisarra, Joe Piscopia, Jesus Polanco, Anne Polashenski, Bekky Pollack, Ben Polsky, Nuno Pontes, Sabrina Pooler, Dayna Poon, William Pope L., Tara Popick, Amy Jean Porter, Chuck Potter, Maggie Prendergast, Lily Prentice, Jennifer Presant, Mel Prest, Rhiannon Price, Rick Prol, Amy Pryor, Susan Prytherch, Dianne Purdy, Antonio Puri, Matthew Pych, Wayne Pyle, Michael Raaum, Svetlana Rabey, Magdolena Rachwel, Dean Radinorsky, Carol Radsprecher, Helaine Rainier, Christina Ramirez, Paul Henry Ramirez, Debra Ramsay, Lisa Ramsay, Fernando Rangel, Jessica Rankin, Meryl Lynn Ranzer, Rappel, Kaylyn Raschke, Moriah Ray, Lisa Reddig, Erwin Redl, Catherine Renae, Richard Renaldi, Andreas Rentsch, Reto, Cynthia Rettig, Barbara Jo Revelle, Paolo Reverbel de Souza, Miguel Angel Reyes, Reynolds, Eric Rhein, Alice Rice, Barbara Richards, Robert W. Richards, Brian Riley, Joyce Riley, Brooke Ripley, Meg Ripley, Barbara Ritz Jenny, Greg Rivera, Daniele Robbiani, Dale Roberts, Daniel H. Roberts, Marie Roberts, Sandy Lee Robertson, Andrew Robinson, Steven Robinson, Roberta Rocca, Gabriel Rocha Z., T.M. Roche-Kelly, Dorothea Rockburne, Debbie Rodenhauser, Anthony Rodriguez, Tim Rollins & K.O.S., Dan V. Romer, Roncallo, Yarminiah Rosa, Francisco Rosado, Matthew Rose, Kay Rosen, Michael Rosen, Rob Hugh Rosen, Robin Ross, Phyllis Rosser, Alfredo Rossi, Arnold Roth, Ryan Roth, Andrew Roy, Lisa Rubin, Christina Sitja Rubio, Donna Ruff, Mayda Rumberg, Lisa Rundstrom, Thomas Rupich, Arlene Rush, Dan Rushton, Craig Russell, Ellen Ryan, Betye Saar, Ken Sahr, G. Sampson (Bieberich), Joel Sanders, Toni-Lee Sangastiano, Edward Santalone, Carmine Santaniello, Santiago, Katia Santibanez, Nelson Santos, Jennifer Sarkilahti, Gordon Sasaki, Anthony Satori, Amelia Saul, Richard Sawdon Smith, Joe Saxe, Denise Schatz, Sebastian Schaub, Dimitri Scheblanov, Irys Schenker, Carolee Schneeman, Kenny Schneider, Mira Schor, Collier Schorr, Susan Schwalb, Molly Schwartz, Sandra Scicchitani, Chris Scroggins, Greg Seagrave, Christinea Seely, Anson Seeno, Analia Segal, Jessica Segall, Joan Semmel, Luciano Senger, Gregory Sengletary, Christina Serchia, Jennifer Serchia, Emily Severance, Paul Kent Sewell, Grant Shaffer, Don Shanley, Amy Edith Shapiro, Norman Shapiro, Denise Shaw, Dr. Gerald Shaw, Emma Shaw, Herb Shaw, Marc Shaw, Nancy Shaw, Patrick Shaw, Renee Shaw, Erica Shearer, Frank Sheehan, Mark Sheinkman, Kate Shepherd, Rudy Shepherd, Etienne Latour Genore Hughes Sheppard, Kayo Shido, Taki Shimura, Heesun Shin, Jean Shin, Sangah Shin, Ellen Shire, Peter O. Shire, Kiriko Shirobayashi, Shmuel, Allison Shockley, Alyson Shotz, Joyce Siegel, Amy Sillman, Tawnie Silva, Kelly Simbirdi, Ellen Singletary, Sonita Singwi, Carri Skoczek, Jennifer Skoda, Tom Slaughter, Susannah Slocum, Aminah Slor, Oren Slor, Wendy Small, Michael Smit, Clifford D. Smith, Lory Smith, Louise Smith, Michael Smith, Eleni Smolen, Bambilee Snyder, Dorothy Snyder, Christopher T. Sojka, Deanne Sokolin, Lori Solondz, Hector Solorio, Thomas R. Somerville, Mario Sostre, Jeff Soto, Lisa C. Soto, Beverley Southcott, Teddy Spath Jr., Maria Spector, Nancy Spero, Gary Speziale, Margot Spindelman, Jered Sprecher, Francis Stallings, David Staniunas, Tamara Staples, Jessica Steele, Barry Steely, Pat Steir, Joshua Stern, Lindsay Stern, John Michael Stevison, Michael Still, Rae Stimsom, Mark Stockton, Steve Stone, Claire K. Stringer, Michelle Stuart, Bobbi Studstill, Christine Stuht, Kelly Anne Sturhahn, Pablo Sue-Pat, Kunie Sugiura, Ilene Sunshine, Rachel Sussman, Ferenc Suto, Rilette Swanepoel, Jane Swidzinski, Edward Swift, Liam Swon, Betty Sword, Paul Szabo, Radek Szczesny, Don Tabler, Barbara Takenaga, JD Talasek, Herb Tam, Jeff Tambussi, Sam Tan, Joey Tang, Kim Rae Taylor, Morgan Taylor, Steed Taylor, Sonia Tedsen, LaVerne Telles, Mary Temple, Austin Thomas, Gwenn Thomas, Sharon Thomas, Emily Thompson, Lex Thompson, Mark Thompson, Chrissy Thomsen, Brenda Thour, Michael Tice, Elizabeth Tillotson, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Zdravko Toic, Jutka Tolcser, Mette Tommerup, James Tomon, Anne Marie Torrez, Jennifer Toth, George Towne, Bill Travis, Richard J. Treitner, Becky Trotter, Daniel Trout, Janaina Tschape, Marina Tsesarskaya, Arlene Tucker, Colleen Tully, Spencer Tunick, Chris Twomey, Type A, Kako Ueda, Christopher R. Ulivo, Penelope Umbrico, Alex Umen, Peter Urban, Urbanthropologie (Carol-Anne-Ryce-Paul), Maria M. Valez, Teressa Valla, Marc Van Cauwenbergh, Kathryn Van Steenhuyse, Chris Vander Schans, Maura Vanderpoorten, Sharon VanStarkenburg, Marsha Vaughn, Tony Michael Vecchio, Alberto Velasco, Jayastree Venkatadurai, Guido Vermeulen, Alejandra Villasmil, Grazia Vita, Don Voisine, Bruce Volpone, Anna Von Gwinner, Natasha von Rosenchilde, Leonard Von Webb, Whitney Vosburgh, Elysa Voshell, Melanie Wadsworth, Lori Wakefield, Robert Walden, Glen Walls, Shelton Walsmith, Lucia Warck-Meister, Jeff "Jeffu" Warmouth, Tom Warren, Rebecca Wasserman, Jack Waters, John Waters, Rose Watts, Mary Weatherford, Hannal Weaver, Patrick Webb, Tenesh Webber, Joan Weber, William Wegman, Theres Wegmann, Ellen Weider, Louise Weinberg, Dan Weiner, Lawrence Weiner, Ejay Weiss, Barbara Weissberger, Alan Wells, Carolyn Weltman, Kimmy Wentling, Frederick Weston, Dirk Westphal, Charmaine Wheatley, Stuart Wheeler, Jojo Whilden, Ken Whitbeck, Lili White, Mark Wiener, Veronica Wilkinson, Darrell Wilks, David M. Williams, Diane Williams, Shane Williamson, Emily Piah Wilson, Fred Wilson, June Wilson, Kate Wilson, Letha Wilson, Albert Winn, Edie Winograde, Sue Winton Parrish, James Wodarek, Ann F. Wong, Colby Wong, Virgil Wong, Thomas Woodruff, Aicha Woods, Cindy Workman, Suzanne Wright, Jennifer Wroblenski, Brooke Wyatt, Tamara Wyndham, Noel Wynn, Rob Wynne, Cathy Wysocki, Junko Yamada, Lynne Yamamoto, Carrie Yamaoka, Chin Chih Yang, Bernard Yenelouis, Maria Yerman, Leyla Yildiz, Bo Sung Yoom, Sunhee Yoon, Irene Young, Laurence Young, Penn Young, Candice Yu, Kosuke Yuki, Carlo Zanni, Patricia Zarate, Valerie Zars, John Zaso, Richard D. Zauner Jr., Jody Zellen, Emna Zghal, Chuck Zimmer, Alice Zinnes, Anthony Zito, Katherine Zuckerman, Nina Zurier, and Gary Zyra.

All Postcards from the Edge proceeds support the programs of Visual AIDS. Founded in 1988, Visual AIDS strives to increase public awareness of AIDS through the visual arts and supports artists living with HIV/AIDS.

Why doesn't somebody in Washington do this? In fact I'm going to contact the organizers and see if there's interest in staging one of these here next year!

Adrienne Mills Top 10 AOM List

Adrienne Mills is not only a woman of mystery, but she's also a very talented photographer, a participating AOM artist and body painter extraordinaire. She told me that she has "walked AOM at least 50 times," and thus her list (and her comments) comes after miles of re-visitng these works (the links lead to Mills' photos of the AOM artists' works):

Christopher Edmunds (I came to the realization that I have a head fixation).
Kathryn Cornelius then and now (I luuuuv you! ...I guess you had to be there before it was shut down.)
Sherill Anne Gross
Rob Vander Zee (The heads behind Bryan T)
Erwin Timmers (I like his stuff way better than Tim's but Tim gets all the press and play).
Thomas Edwards (I want to lick you! ... you can't imagine how many times I've thought that about different people. It's good to know I'm not the only one).
Lisa Schumaier (I like cats. Maybe that's why I want to lick people).
Jared Davis (even better when he has the music going).
Video guy (I don't remember his name).
Joyce Zipperer
*Amy Marx* (Amy gets the "close, but no cigar" award. The black fabric stretched on the frames was a bit ragged but I still like the overall effect. I would bump Sherill if the black fabric was in better shape).

More AOM Lists coming...

Artists are finally sending me their Top 10 AOM Lists. I'll be posting Marilyn Banner's and Adrienne Mills' later today.

For the next two weeks I'll be on the road; traveling to Miami and to San Diego. Nonetheless I will still be posting from the road, including my final mathematical compilation (from all lists) of the Top 10 AOM artists, whom will then be offered a group show at a DC area gallery in 2005. I am working the details with that gallery and will announce it all next week.

By the way, four other galleries that I know of (both Fraser Galleries, the Anne C. Fisher Gallery and Gallery Neptune) are also offering shows to AOM artists based on some of the DC Art News AOM lists. Is that great or what!

Whole Foods and art

I love shopping for food at Whole Foods, and how there's always all kinds of foods, cheeses, dips, etc. around to taste and eat as you shop. If the grubs knew about this, I am sure they may stop attending art gallery openings and start hanging out at Whole Foods.

But I digress... Every Whole Foods store has a resident artist, and several of them (such as Kelly Towles) are also exhibiting artists at this year's Artomatic.

And the Whole Foods area management sent all their employees the below email, encouraging them to attend the final weekend of Artomatic.

Bravo Whole Foods!

Time to Vote!

My good colleage J.T. Kirkland, over at Thinking About Art has been nominated for a WebLog Award for his terrific Thinking About Art BLOG.

Let's help him out by pretending we're Chicago Democrats or any and all Louisiana voters and by voting as often and as many times as possible here.

JS Adams' AOM Top 10 List

Artist JS (Jim) Adams sends in his AOM list of his favorite artists and makes the point that he "respectfully excludes several long-time favorites and peers whom are well documented on other's lists (Brooks, Tattelman, Tate, Seesow, and Miner)" and adds that he is also purchasing one of James Calder's photographs and a piece from Louise Kennelly.

James Calder, photography
Alan Callander, video
Kathryn Cornelius, installation
Linda Hesh, mixed media + photography
Louise Kennelly, painting
Syl Mathis, glass
Nicholas Syracuse, photography
Bridget Vath, phobic fashion
Jeff Wilson, painting
Dennis Yankow, mixed media + photography

Tonight is the first Friday of December and thus the extended hours for the Dupont Circle area galleries. Meet the artists, see new shows, have a glass of wine and buy some art.

Openings from 6-8 PM generally. If you make the gallery rounds, do not miss Erik Sandberg's current show at Conner Contemporary. Sandberg is one of the best painters in our area and this show is my top pick for the month. Read the Michael O'Sullivan review of the show here.

And this weekend is the last two days for Artomatic. Most of the artists will be there tomorrow, and if you want a great tour, the Triangle Artists Group (Metro DC's gay artists collective) will be hosting a site tour of its members "along with other LGBT and queer artists who are participating in Artomatic 2004" on Saturday.

Meet the TAG tour guides tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 4) in the AOM Lobby for guided tours at 2:00 and 3:00 p.m.

Also on Saturday is the Funky Furniture Auction. On Saturday, December 4th, 2004 at 9pm, all of the Funky Furniture works will be auctioned in a must-attend party/auction to be staged at the Funky Furniture display area at AOM. Admission to the cocktail pre-auction reception is $20 per couple, which also gets you a bidding badge.

ANABA makes a good point!

Sometimes it takes someone far from the eye of the hurricane to see clearly that there's calm in the center (that almost sounded like something Dan Rather would say... yuk!).

Martin Bromirski makes an excellent point about AOM, lists and me in his excellent ANABA art BLOG.

So, more artists should email me their AOM lists!

When I started the AOM Top 10 List thing, I invited anyone and everyone to send me their list; so far that has caused a significant (and astounding) response from gallery owners, art critics, art collectors, art curators, etc., but only a few artists have sent in their list.

Only a few days left... the offer is still open!

Artomatic 2004 Review

A slightly different version of the below review will be published by the Crier Media newspapers, which also syndicates it. If it follows the usual pattern, it will also be then picked up by a few Latin American newspapers, translated and published in Spanish.

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Artomatic Energymatic Daggermatic

Art critics, like most writers, usually get paid by the word, sometimes by the article, and occasionally by an infinitesimal percentage of whatever profits their writing generates. And most art critics and writers visit a gallery show or museum exhibition, get a few handouts and spend about half an hour studying the works on the wall before heading home or to the office to pound the word processor’s keys and earn their buck-a-word for the review.

You can’t do that with Art-O-Matic, the huge, almost every two years, open visual arts extravaganza that this year hosted over 600 visual artists and another 400 performance artists at the laberynthic former convent building that last housed the Children’s Museum on 3rd and H Street, NE.

The idea behind Art-O-Matic is simple: find a large, empty building somewhere in the city; work with the building owners, and then allow any artist who wants to show their work help with staging the show and with some of the financial needs. This year, AOM artists paid a $60 entry fee plus worked a few hours assisting with the show.

And this year around 600 visual artists brought their art to the public.

In order to write a proper, ethical review of AOM, a writer must spend hours walking five floors of art, jam-packed into hundreds of rooms, bathrooms, closets and stairs. And I think that this is one of the main reasons that most art critics love to hate this show. It overwhelms them with visual offerings and forces them to develop a "glance and judge" attitude towards the artwork. It’s a lot easier to carpet bomb a huge show like this than to do a surgical strike.

Add on top of that an outdated, but "alive and kicking" elitist attitude towards an open show, where anyone and everyone who calls him or herself an artist can exhibit, sans the sanitizing and all-knowing eye of the latest trendy curator, and you have a perfect formula for dismissing a show, without really looking at it.

This quaint and elitist attitude towards art is not new or even modern. It was the same attitude that caused the emergence of the salons of the 19th century, where only artists that the academic intelligentsia deemed good enough were exhibited. As every art student who almost flunked art history knows, towards the latter half of that century, the artists who had been rejected from the salons (because they didn’t fit the formula of good art) organized their own Salon Des Refuses, sort of a 19th century Parisian Art-O-Matic.

And a lot, in fact, most of the work in the Salon Des Refuses was quite bad, but amongst the dreck were also pearls like Manet's Le Dejeuner sur 'Herbe (Luncheon in the Grass), Monet's Impression: Sunrise, (and we all know what art "ism" that title gave birth to) and an odd and memorable looking portrait of a young lady in white (The White Girl, Symphony in White, No. 1) by an American upstart by the name of James McNeill Whistler.

Everyone who was anyone in the art world hated and dismissed this anti-salon exhibition; except for the only "anyone" who actually counted: art history.

But then somewhere in the next century, the salons and their formulas returned. Only their name and their display styles had changed. They were now called Biennials, Biennales, Bienales, Documentas and their settings were in museums, entire cities or pristine white cubes around the world.

Only their reasoning and misguided logic remained constant: "Only we know what is good art."

And that is why these modern salonists and their acolytes will never respect, like, or understand Art-O-Matic: they recall that the Salons des Refuses almost broke their control over art; it won’t happen again.

And like the poet Marti wrote: "I know the monster well, for I have lived in its entrails." You see, over the last two decades I have been the juror, curator, decision-maker for hundreds of shows. And as a freelance art critic I have written and evaluated hundreds of artists and shows. I have been a minute gear in the world-wide machinations to keep control of what is art and never let a new Salons des Refuses wrest control again.

OK, OK, I know that am going overboard here; but... do you get the point?

But I am also an artist, and I like the concept of Art-O-Matic.

And not just because of the miles of artwork on display, much of which is mind numbing bad art; in fact, so bad that it is sometimes almost good in its exorbitant mediocrity. The main reason that I like Art-O-Matic is the palpable amount of artistic energy that it delivers to Washington, DC every couple of years. It is as if some invisible visual art battery in this ignored art scene comes to the forefront and gets recharged with brilliant white light (made as we all know, of all colors in the spectrum), and 50,000 people who generally would not set foot in a gallery or museum come and see art and artists and absorb the positive energy that only creative minds can generously give away.

So I enter my fourth Art-O-Matic with several preconceived ideas in my very subjective agenda:

(a) It’s going to take several visits and many hours to write my fourth review of Art-O-Matic in as many shows.

(b) There’s going to be a lot of dreck in the show. But art is in the eyes of the beholder; my dreck could be your pearl.

(c) I’m going to find several pearls in the show

(d) I’m going to re-charge my visual arts battery

(e) Our gallery will pick up some new artists from this show

On visit one, during the press preview, glass sculptor Tim Tate (Disclaimer: whom we represent and whom we "discovered" at a past Art-O-Matic) whizzes a group of us through the five floors of the show. It still takes three hours or so, but I have taken notes. Five visits and more than twenty hours later, I feel comfortable to start writing about the show.

A lot of the artists in the show are well known to me, and so I begin to discover "new" ones – at least new to me. Judy Jashinsky, who is one of the firebrand organizers who keeps this (and past) Art-O-Matics running, grabs me and asks me if I’ve seen Mark Jenkins’s pubic hair tapestries.

And Jenkins is one of the first memorable discoveries in this show. Tucked away in a corner space, Jenkins has created two noteworthy entries into the show. First in everyone’s lips are his photographic explorations of close-ups of pubic hair (loupe included in the installation) that through the magic of digital manipulation become interesting designs of elegant abstracted qualities. A second Jenkins emerges from his crowded little room: the tape sculptures.

Jenkins uses common transparent packing tape (yards and yards of it) to create superbly crafted and visually attractive figurative sculptures, as well as the odd, unusual organic shaped one. Through documentary photography, we see what happens when Jenkins places these plastic figures in a public venue. A passing man stares incredulously at a plastic man inside a dumpster; or a beach jogger is surprised by an alien looking tape creature that the sea has washed ashore.

Iver Olson is another talented discovery for me. He gets the award for the best porn in the show, although his display is also peppered with some otherwise just plain sensual photo-collages. It is almost as if there were two Olsons in the show: a really torrid, sensual photographer, and a brilliantly inventive pornographer.

In one of his photos, Olson has a woman with her hand buried inside the vagina of a second woman, who is sitting on a couch, seemingly bored, while her friend is searching inside her vagina, with (as an artist friend of mine put it) a "did a leave my keys in there?" sort of look. Somehow Olson has transformed the hardcore act of lesbian fisting into an almost funny scene of lustless abandon. Other good porn in the show is offered by Eduardo Rodriguez, Alexis Bine and Rudy K.

Another discovery is Ira Tattelman’s installation titled "They taught me to wash away my desires." I don’t know if it is because the building was once a convent, but there is certainly a strange, palpable energy in some parts of the building; people like Stephen King feed on this sort of energy and produce brilliant books; it is clear that Ira Tattelman also absorbed and channeled this energy into his installation.

"They taught me to wash away my desires" is inside a smallish bathroom furnished with a shower, a tub and some archaic 19th-century type bathroom stations (such as an enema station). Tattelman has installed a small pump in one of the stations that keeps re-circulating brownish, brackish water and add a watery sound to the room. To the right, inside and around the dirty tub is what at first sight appears to be a dismembered human body (they're actually some sort of artificial legs).

Put together the Stephen Kingesque feel of the room, the moist sound effects, the outdated chrome and dirty tile bath stations, and the human parts, and you have an installation that would give Hannibal Lechter a nightmare. It’s brilliant and somebody better put police ankle trackers on Tattelman now.

A couple more artists who deserve to be mentioned in the Hannibal Lechter art list are the very good and macabre sculptures by Stephon Senegal: this is a young artist to keep an eye on; in my opinion possibly the best sculpture in the entire show. Some other pieces by very good artists in this new trend of Lechterism are "Joroko" and also the installation "Sun Ray" by retro-recycling master Ray Jacobs.

M. Rion Hoffman really impressed me with her photography negative boxes installed along one of the main hallways. Hoffman’s boxes are delicate and have that ability to bring the viewer in for an intimate, close-up exploration of whatever story this talented artist wants to deliver. However, her large photo-collages, displayed next to her boxes, appear brutish and heavy handed by comparison, although part of me kept being re-directed from them to her brilliant boxes.

Matt Dunn is a mother load of photographic talent with a built-in magnet to attract, discover, capture on silver gelatin film, and then show us, the really interesting, throat-clearing substrata of human society that makes Diane Arbus’ photographs look like Sears portraits. This is a master portraitist in his element.

In the glass room, Washington Glass School directors Tim Tate and Erwin Timmers have created the most professional looking set of rooms in the entire building and provided the means to discover a couple of new talents in that beautiful genre. Another fact that surfaces very quickly is that the Washington Glass School is certainly stamping its own imprimatur, its own "school brand" in a sense, upon many of our area’s young glass artists. I particularly liked the figurative "man" vessels of Michael Janis, where Janis takes Tate’s seminal idea of narrative biographical wall panels and marries it with Tate’s apothecaries (nine of which were acquired by the Renwick Alliance) to deliver a fresh, new set of ideas in glass.

In these rooms I also liked Syl Mathis, who reminds us that the true beauty of glass lies mainly in its simplicity. Mathis delivers a series of pieces exploring the "boat" theme in glass. I preferred the simpler, more elegant forms by Mathis over some of the more elaborate pieces, perhaps made a bit distracting by their complex support stands and crafty materials.

Allison B. Miner is a very talented painter, and at the last Art-O-Matic, where I first discovered her small, in-your-face paintings, I singled her out as one of the best painters in that show. Miner is still one of the best painters in this show, and her talent with the brush and composition is clearly evident to the most casual observer. I do however, think that it is time for Miner to move on and push her enviable painting skills beyond the tight, close-up routine that she has come dangerously close to boxing herself in. This is a very good painter at the beginning of her career and I am sure that we are but seeing but a tiny bit of what Miner can and will deliver.

Joseph Barbaccia is another artist whom I have been observing for the last few years and this year his crayon self-portrait – literally made out of hundreds and hundreds of crayons in a postmodern pointillist style – easily qualifies as one of the best pieces of art in the whole AOM.

Barbaccia is hard to pin down as a painter, sculptor, uh... crayonist? He explores and pushes art in all dimensions.

Staying within two dimensions, and doing a magnificent job of it are three enviably talented painters: Margaret Dowell, Michal Hunter and Jeffry Cudlin. All of these artists have that spectacular technical mastery of the brush that it is so easily dismissed by people who have never tried to mix cerulean blue with Payne’s gray and ended up with mud. Dowell’s paintings show not only extraordinary technical skills, but also a hungry sense of desire and intelligent understanding of her subjects – who are often transgender and cross dressing personages around our area.

Michal Hunter is also a technical virtuoso of the brush, with only one painting in the entire show; tucked away so far and so difficult to find, that had I not run into Hunter while she was on hallway monitor duty, I would have missed it completely. I am glad that I didn’t, as it is a very powerful work by a woman who is slowly re-affirming her once solid place in the Washington, DC art scene.

Jeffry Cudlin surprised me by delivering some very strong compositional works that are really excuses for Cudlin to use a representational subject to offer works such as "Author, Author," that are really more about the intelligent employment of color and shapes and composition. I write that he surprised me because I am not usually a big fan of these sorts of "interior" works. However, because the paintings are all about shape, color and composition, I found myself admiring them for those points, rather than for their subject matter.

Creating a new place for himself is an illustrator named Scott Brooks, who in this new Art-O-Matic incarnation is like a strange, macabre John Currin, but can paint and draw a lot better than Currin ever learned to. A lot of people were talking about Brooks' disturbing images; this is usually a sign of success for any visual artist. Both the police and art collectors need to keep an eye on this talented artist.

But quite possibly the most talked about (well, at least the most listened to) pieces in the show are the two robotic installations by Thomas Edwards.

Located on the main hallway of the fourth floor, Edwards first greets the passerby with an installation of several of those mechanical talking fish that move their heads and sing songs. He has changed the original recordings and instead of a Christmas carol, the fish now beg you to stop eating their eggs or complain that they’re dying, etc. It is funny and inventive. Edwards’ second piece is a motion sensing robotic head that follows you along a wall track and peppers you with irritating questions like "where did you get your hair done?"

Edwards’ installations are intelligent creative and they fit well right into the Hollywoodism tradition of past Art-O-Matics.

There is a lot of channeling of well-known artists in this AOM. Two artists stand out: Mark Stark channels Dan Flavin and Erin Hunter continues to somewhat channel Erik Sandberg.

I also enjoyed Bridget Vath’s very inventive use of Kevlar to design and construct dresses and other clothing apparel; I suspect that Vath could start a very successful line of Kevlar clothing with good markets in Baghdad, Beirut, Bogotá, Atlanta and most of the Balkans.

The funniest piece in the show, other than Thomas Edwards’ annoying talking fish is also one of the most famous paintings in the world.

I am referring to Kayti Didriksen’s now infamous portrait of Bush and Chaney titled "Man of Leisure: King George," where Didriksen has regurgitated Manet’s famous painting Olympia and has Vice President Chaney serving an oil well to a nude Dubya.

This image, a few weeks ago, at the height of the Funky Furniture controversy with the City Museum, was the most downloaded Internet image in the world.

It is a terribly funny, badly painted and highly successful work. Didriksen not only captures Bush’s likeness perfectly but also delivers an interesting expression (that’s perfect for the subject) in the much abused President (abused by a lot of AOM artists that is) and also offers a hilarious VP Chaney with a neck that seems inflamed by gout.

As with past AOM’s, a lot of artists explore the nude human figure in both paintings and photographs. This is a subject not usually seen in Washington area galleries, and I can't recall the last time that I saw an exhibition of nudes in any of our area’s museums. I noted Peggy McNutt, Shannon Chester (especially well done is "No. 10, Chair 2"), Adrienne Mills, Chris Keely, Dana Ellyn Kaufman and Candace Keegan.

Of these, Kaufman and Keegan both use their own bodies to deliver interesting ideas and suggestions. In Kaufman’s case, extremely acidic, caustic and pointed commentaries with provocative titles married to insane figurative paintings. In Keegan’s case, she pushes a lot of moist buttons in our psyche by playing with stereotypical Hustlerian depictions of women: See Keegan suggestively sucking on her necklace; see Keegan in pigtails offer her breasts to the viewer. However, in the end what we do see are two strong women who use their art intelligently and use the taboo nude to converse elegantly with the viewer.

There is a lot of forgettable abstraction at AOM. Two artists who stand out from the masses (and happen to be sisters) are Andrea Cybik and Jan Sherfy. Their work explores colors and action and also stands out by their very professional presentation.

In summary, I’ve been to every single Art-O-Matic ever staged, and I am in the minority opinion that they’ve improved each time, and each time they give us a most precious gift: the energy that only several hundred creative minds working together can deliver. I hope Art-O-Matic grows to become a national level open show and then grow some more and become a worldwide showcase for the world’s largest open international art exhibition and a new dagger to the heart of the 21st century salons.