New DC Art Site

Tracy Lee, a superb photographer whose photos are simply too sensual for any DC art gallery to handle (so far), and who is now in the middle of an MFA program at GWU, has a new (to me) and really interesting online journal.

Visit it often; great insight on the mind of a creative photographer struggling to keep her identity through a seminal academic photography program.

I say that Tracy's work is too sensual for any DC gallery to handle simply because of the fact that her work has (so far) explored the sensuality of the nude figure, and we all know what kind of reception nudes get around here (read this and also this).

Artnet Reviews 2005

Walter Robinson has an excellent, sexy review of the 2004 art year at Artnet.com.

Opportunities for Artists

Deadline: January 28, 2005
Bethesda Fine Arts Festival

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is currently accepting applications for the 2005 Bethesda Fine Arts Festival. The event is scheduled for Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, May 15, 2005. The deadline for submissions is January 28, 2005. 150 artists will be invited to exhibit, and last year around 40,000 people attented the inaugural festival, and more are expected this year. This is an excellent opportunity for artists to bring their artwork directly to the public (I did this show last year and plan to do it again). Only original artwork, photography, fine crafts, sculpture and hand-made furniture allowed. $2,500 in cash awards, and breakfast and lunch is provided for exhibiting artists. Download the application form here or call 301/718-9651 or send a SASE to:
Bethesda Fine Arts Festival
c/o Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814

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Deadline: February 3, 2005
Louisiana Watercolor Society 35th International Show.

A juried exhibition of original waterbased media on paper is open to water media artists. Paintings must be unvarnished and executed in the last three years. Up to five slides can be entered. The first three are $14/per slide. Download or send a SASE for a prospectus. Slides must be postmarked by February 3 or hand delivered by February 7, 2005.
Louisiana Watercolor Society
P.O. Box 850287
New Orleans, LA 70185-0287

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Deadline: February 3, 2005
Fourth Annual Bethesda International Photography Prize

Exhibition dates: March 11 - 6 April, 2005. Open to all photographers 18 years and older. All photography not previously exhibited at the Fraser Gallery. The maximum dimension (including frame) should not exceed 40 inches in any direction. Iris or Giclee entries are acceptable. All work must be presented professionally to conservation standards. Juried by Connie Imboden. $950 in cash awards, plus Best of Show winner will receive a solo show in 2005. First, Second and Third Prize winners and the three Honorable Mention winners will be invited to exhibit in one of the the gallery's various group shows in 2005. An entry fee of $25 U.S. Dollars entitles the artist to submit three slides. For the prospectus, visit the website, or call 301/718-9651 or send a SASE to:
Bethesda International Photography
Fraser Gallery
7700 Wisconsin Avenue
Suite E
Bethesda, MD 20814

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Deadline: February 4, 2005
15th Annual Faces of Woman Show

March 4-April 1, 2005. Faces of Woman 15th Annual National Juried Art Show. All art media. Original works exploring some aspect of the feminine symbolic or representational form, completed within the last two years. $1,000 in cash prizes of awarded. Open to all amateur and professional artists. Entries (slides) due by February 4, 2005. For registration form and info send legal SASE to:
Las Vegas Arts Council
Box 2603
Las Vegas NM 87701
Phone: 505.425.1085

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Deadline: February 25, 2005
16th National Drawing & Print Competitive Exhibition

Gormley Gallery/College of Notre Dame of Maryland 16th National Drawing & Print Competitive Exhibition. A minimum of $1500 available in purchase prize money. Drawings and prints (not photography) in any medium are eligible. A non-refundable entry fee of $30 entitles the artist to submit up to three slide entries. Slide entries and fee due February 25. For prospectus visit their website or SASE to:
National Drawing and Print Competitive Exhibition
Attn: Geoff Delanoy
College of Notre Dame of Maryland
4701 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21210
Contact: gormleygallery@ndm.edu

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Deadline: February 12, 2005
2005 Alexander Rutsch Award and Exhibition For Painting

For US based artists 19 years of age or older. All work submitted to competition must be available for exhibit May 6-June 19, 2005. Entry fee is $20 and all accepted work must be ready to hang. The prize winner will be awarded a solo exhibition and a cash award of $5,000. For more information, call (914) 738-2525, email, or visit the website.

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Deadline: February 25, 2005
Bethesda Artists Market
The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is currently accepting applications for the June 12 and July 10, 2005 Bethesda Artist Markets. I usually exhibit at this venue, which has been getting more and more visitors each time it is held. The spaces are juried by slides and there's no entry fee and a $50 booth fee for accepted artists. The artists markets are held about six Sundays a year. Download the application here or send a SASE to:
Bethesda Artists Market
c/o Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814

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Deadline: March 11, 2005
Bethesda Painting Awards

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced the inaugural Bethesda Painting Awards, a juried competition honoring four selected painters with $14,000 in prize monies. Up to eight finalists will be invited to display their work from June 10 – July 6, 2005 in downtown Bethesda at the Fraser Gallery. The 1st place winner will be awarded $10,000; 2nd place will be honored with $2,000 and 3rd place will be awarded $1,000. A "young" artist whose birth date is after March 11, 2005 will also be awarded $1,000. Artists must be 18 years of age or older and residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. All original 2-D painting including oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, encaustic and mixed media will be accepted. The maximum dimension should not exceed 60 inches in width. No reproductions. Artwork must have been completed within the last two years and must be available for the duration of the exhibition. Selected artists must deliver or ship artwork to exhibit site in Bethesda, Maryland. Each artist must submit five slides, application and a non-refundable entry fee of $25. The Bethesda Painting Awards has been established by local business owner Carol Trawick. To download a complete submission form, please visit this website or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:
Bethesda Painting Awards
c/o Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814

The Power of the Web

A while back, Thinking About Art was rightfully so ranting about artists not responding to his online project and how some artists and a lot of dealers do not understand the power and importance of having a web presence.

I agree with J.T., and every once in while I try to point out just what the Internet can help to accomplish in the business of art business and establishing a foot print as an artist.

An immediate and personal example is through my current exhibition in Georgetown. In the last couple of weeks, of the 20 or so drawings in the exhibition and others, 9 drawings (and two prints) have so far sold. Of those sales, six have been through the Internet, and four drawings are heading to Ireland!

Update: AJ brings to light a a study by PEW/Internet that adds evidence to the importance of the web for artists.

2004 Gallery Report

This past weekend we met with our accountant to review 2004 and the galleries' business.

Two years ago, Sotheby's decided, without much warning, to end its online art business. We were one of only two or three DC area galleries who were Sothebys Associates, and very quickly Sotheby's became our largest sales process, accounting for well over 60% of our art sales for three or four years in a row.

Then they decided a couple of years ago to end their online business (don't even get me started on how Sotheby's screwed this all up) and we held our breath!

Somehow we recovered, and I am happy to report that 2004 was our best year ever!

In 2004, with the exception of Sandra Ramos, whose Georgetown show sold out, and Aimee Garcia Marrero, whose Georgetown show sold quite well, the vast majority of our business took place in the Bethesda gallery and about a third of the business was strictly an online affair.

In 2004 we had three reviews in the Washington Post, two reviews in the Washington Times, six reviews in the Washington City Paper, three reviews in the Gazette, two reviews in the Georgetowner and six reviews in other national and international magazines and newspapers.

It is clear to me that our area's visual art scene is growing in leap and bounds, and even the business of art seems to be growing. Any other area gallerist who'd like to share some words as how 2004 was for them, is welcomed to email me and I'll publish it here.

2005 opens on January 14 in our Bethesda gallery and on January 21 at our Georgetown gallery with two group shows of the best of Art-O-Matic 2004 from our perspective.

See ya there!

Dan Flavin, minimalism, store-bought art materials, flourescent light bulbs, the seduction of money, provenances, and the Dark Side of Success (thanks Jesse).

"One factor in valuing a Flavin, however, dwarfs all others: the certificate that accompanied its production. To those who wonder what the difference is between a Flavin and the lights in their office, the certificate, more or less, is the answer.

Each of the more than 750 light sculptures that Flavin designed - usually in editions of three or five - were listed on index cards and filed away. When one sold, the buyer received a certificate containing a diagram of the work, its title and the artist's signature and stamp. If someone showed up with a certificate and a damaged fixture, Flavin would replace it. But without a certificate, the owner was out of luck. Today, Christie's won't even consider a Flavin sculpture unless it's accompanied by an original document."

Read Greg Allen's whole article here.

Update: Todd Gibson points out that Allen followed up the NYT article in his BLOG with excerpts from two additional interviews (curator and collector Emily Rauh Pulitzer and son Stephen Flavin, who now controls the Flavin Estate) that took place after the Allen article went to press.

Final Art-O-Matic Top 10 Artists List

Happy 2005!

As most of you know, during the recent Artomatic exhibition, I received quite a few lists by artists, gallery owners, curators and art critics.

These lists detailed their "picks" as the most notable artists (in their view) of DC's giant Artlovefest. Since the lists came out, six area galleries have already scheduled exhibitions (and some of them already on exhibit), and there are more coming in 2005, for many more Artomatic artists based in part from these lists.

I had also promised to gather a list of the top 10 Artomatic artists who appeared the most in all the lists submitted to me. I recorded all the artists, and the number of times that his or her name appeared on the lists.

Provided that the logistics are worked out, these artists in the final list will be invited to exhibit their work by a gallery in Canada.

The lists were sent in by:

JS Adams
James W. Bailey
Marilyn Banner
Philip Barlow
F. Lennox Campello
Kriston Capps
Jesse Cohen
Jean Lawlor Cohen
Leigh Conner
Sarah Finlay & Patrick Murcia
Anne C. Fisher
Faith Flanagan
Catriona Fraser
Rob Goodspeed
Pat Goslee
Elyse Harrison
Kristen Hileman
Matt Hollis
Milena Kalinovska
Nevin Kelly
J.T. Kirkland
Angela Kleis
Natalie Koss
Anne Marchand
Adrianne Mills
Michael O'Sullivan
Fred Ognibene
Donna Robusto
Claudia Rousseau
Tim Tate
Krystyna Wasserman

And here is the final Top 10ish List (in order of number of appearances in the above lists).

1. Linda Hesh
2. Kelly Towles
3. Kathryn Cornelius
4. Chris Edmunds
5. Tim Tate
6. Thomas Edwards
7. Syl Mathis
8-10. Dylan Scholinski
Ira Tattelman
Joyce Zipperer
Allison B. Miner
Amy Martin Wilber

Some clarifications: Hesh and Towles had the same number of mentions by the list-makers, and were the top two most mentioned artists.

Cornelius and Edmunds, coming in second, also shared an equal number of lists between them.

Third most mentioned were Tate, Edwards and Mathis and they also had equal appearances.

Scholinski, Tattelman, Zipperer, Miner and Wilber round up the top set of artists, and they also had equal appearances as the most often listed artists.

Congratulations!

These artists should immediately contact Richard Dana, who will bring them up to speed on the Canadian exhibition. As soon as that deal is finalized, I will announce the details here.

New Timeout

The current Timeout 2004 guide for Washington, DC has really good coverage of DMV art galleries; in fact it is the only DC guide that offers any decent "guiding" to Washington area galleries.

It is written by Jessica Dawson, who also pens the "Galleries" column for the Washington Post.

Read her introduction (you'll need an Amazon password) here and her favorites here under "Names of the Game."

Jessica nails it when she recognizes in her intro that a new "optimism" is kindling a really good art scene in our region.

Throughout the pages dedicated to the galleries, and as it is to be expected, there are quite a few comparisons to New York this, New York that all over the place.

And reading through Jessica's descriptions of the various galleries also offers an honest and rare insight as to how this critic evaluates and views (she seems to have something about "safe art," whatever that is) most of our region's art galleries. For example Dawson praises Zenith Gallery's Margery Goldberg for her "tireless activism," but describes the gallery as "while influential in the neon art scene, consistently shows mediocre painting and craft."

Addison/Ripley is praised for selling "high-calibre paintings, photography and prints," but "their selections, while lovely, are awfully safe."

Cheryl Numark is "Washington's power dealer", while Leigh Conner shows work by the "kind of cutting-edge artists that Washingtonians usually travel to New York to see."

MOCA is "DC's answer to the hip, alternative galleries of New York."

We "concentrate on photography, but occasionally shows innovative sculpture and work in other media," while our Bethesda outpost is a "bright, glass-walled gallery [that] exhibits realist painting and photography."

Hemphill Fine Arts "plays host to many of Washington's strongest artists," but "the art here tends towards the decorative."

Fusebox is "sharp and savvy," and has "raised the bar for visual art in Washington," and their openings are "events to see and be seen at."

Does anyone know why Jessica has never reviewed Fusebox in her "Galleries" column? Fusebox is easily one of our top area galleries, and I'm curious as to why it is so nicely praised in Timeout, but (so far) avoided in Dawson's bi-weekly column at the WaPo.

Anyway... Bravo Timeout!

More galleries to open in 2005

One strong sign that the Greater Washington area "art scene" is really strong and gathering more heat is evidenced by the significant number of new galleries that opened in 2004, and the news that a few more will open in 2005.

I hear of a "Plan B Gallery" opening soon at 1530 P Street, as well as a second gallery (don't know name) being opened by a former Fusebox intern at 12th and U Street. If anyone has details on these two new spaces, email me.

And Zoe Myers is still looking for a large space so that she can open a gallery. If anyone knows of a substantial available space, then email her with details.

The Power of the Web

Yesterday I posted James W. Bailey's clever marriage of DC's top visual art shows with the cultural contributions of the mighty state of Mississippi.

Within a few hours, Bailey had received phone calls from the Directors of the Mississippi Arts Commission and the Mississippi Museum of Art thanking him and DC Art News for publishing the piece.

And get this... Bailey has even received a phone call from Governor Hally Barbour's Chief of Staff acknowledging that the Director of the Mississippi Museum of Art had forwarded the piece to the Governor's office.

O'Sullivan's Top 10 DC Art Shows

The WaPo's excellent Weekend section art critic checks in with his top 10 visual art shows for 2004:

1. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend." Sewn together by craftswomen from rural southwestern Alabama from scraps of denim work clothes, corduroy of many hues and whatever else was lying around the house, these boldly cockeyed quilts, on view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, could have gone head to head with anything from the museum's collection of contemporary abstract painting -- and won handily.

2. "Douglas Gordon." From a video depicting the fingers of a man's hand appearing to, er, copulate with his own fist to "24 Hour Psycho," in which the Hitchcock thriller is slowed down to two frames per second, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden's exhibition of the contemporary Scottish artist's conceptual yet eye-catching work demonstrated the strangeness of the familiar.

3. "Drawings of Jim Dine." There's nothing pure about Dine's drawings, which incorporate bits of sculpture and painting, pop and classicism. Still, as the contemporary draftsman's show at the National Gallery of Art proved, there's something in Dine's blend of virtuosic technique and dark, smoky romanticism that lends his work on paper a surprising, enduring heft.

4. "Samuel Mockbee and the Rural Studio: Community Architecture." The National Building Museum's examination of the Auburn University architecture program, co-founded by the late artist, architect and educator -- whose students are taught that building solutions should come from within the community, not without -- was full of examples of design featuring wit, good sense and boundless imagination.

5. "Sally Mann: What Remains." Death is a difficult subject. Its ugliness, its frightening beauty, its inevitability are enough to make anyone squirm. Mann's show at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, with its photographs of decomposing human remains, Civil War sites, the bones of a beloved family pet and portraits of the artist's children, stirred up thoughts about mortality -- hers, mine and ours -- even as it spelled out a message about the endurance of love that cast these predictably disturbing images in an oddly reassuring light.

6. "Thinking Inside the Box: The Art of Andrew Krieger." The Washington-based artist's retrospective featured more than 100 drawings, etchings, box constructions and surreal "mail poems" squeezed into the Rotunda of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. While it could feel a little like a bric-a-brac shop at times, the crowded, flea-market flavor of the room underscored Krieger's themes of fading memory, miscommunication and the inadequacy of technology.

7. "Kerry James Marshall: One True Thing, Meditations on Black Aesthetics." Featuring photography, painting, sculpture, video and installation, the MacArthur "genius" grant winner's topic-hopping exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art was, despite its title, neither singular nor especially true. That is to say, it tackled themes of slavery, multiculturalism, gentrification, cultural assimilation and art, offering up not answers but questions that you were challenged to answer on your own.

8. "Calder Miro: A New Space for the Imagination." The subtitle of this artistic pairing at the Phillips Collection is intended to be taken both figuratively and literally. On one level, it refers to the creative interchange that went on between these two longtime friends, while on another it refers to the museum building itself, whose renovated Goh Annex makes the perfect setting to see both of these familiar modernists in a new light. Through Jan. 23.

9. "Treasures." In a year when the notion of "nonhegemonic curating" (to use the New York Times' wonky phrase) took center stage with the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, the National Museum of African Art's latest exhibition -- the first in a series showcasing works from the permanent collection and other private collections -- shows how to do the label- and context-free thing right. That is to say, in moderation, and with an eye for clean, contemporary gallery design that lets visitors savor each and every object for the gem it is. Through Aug. 15.

10. "Cai Guo-Qiang: Traveler." The two-part show, featuring the rotting carcass of a boat resting on a sea of broken white porcelain at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, and large-scale drawings, in burnt gunpowder, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, references two kinds of traveling: time and distance. The work, by the Chinese-born, New York-based artist whose projects often involve explosives and fireworks, is impressive, in a monumental, big-idea kind of way, yet there's as much here to chew on as there is to look at. Through April 24.

The Art of Investing in Art

(Thanks AJ). According to this article, yearly art sales are now reaching an estimated $10 billion in the United States alone, and "While money invested in the stock market's S&P 500 Index -- a conservative bet on Wall Street's top 500 companies -- has earned an annualized 11 percent return over the past decade, that same money sunk into the contemporary art market would have produced a whopping 29 percent return."

That's impressive, but I want to know where the figures to determine these claims come from? Secondary art market sales? Examining the IRS returns of all art galleries in the US? Reviewing all the appraisals of artwork done over the past decade?

And I got my answers to those questions; not from the article but from doing a bit of digging on the web.

This all comes from a team of Wall Street analysts behind Fernwood Art Investments, a new firm with offices in Boston, New York, and Miami (I can understand New York and Miami, but Boston?).

According to their website Fernwood Art Investments is a

"...research and investment company focused on the art economy. We are the first independent firm to develop a comprehensive suite of art-focused investment research, advice, financial products and services for sophisticated investors and collectors. Our work generates new ways to participate in the art market and, in the process, brings significant new capital to the art economy.

In short, Fernwood is employing rigorous portfolio management techniques traditionally applied to equities, bonds and commodities, in combination with academic and art trade expertise, to derive investable art insight. We invite you to explore our vision of art investing."

Anyway, their website has some pretty impressive, if Wall Streetish sounding documentation and references and studies and words that show me that these guys seem to know what they are talking about.

And yet "investing" in art is such a fungible science (at best). I mean, basic investment means buy low sell high. Or to be safe, buy a steady, safe investment and keep it for a loooooong time and then sell it.

In art, to me that means something akin to buying a Cindy Sherman set of photos 20 years ago (and sell them now!), or a Jack Vettriano painting in 1989 (when I was offered one for 300 pounds) and selling them now for a couple of million... you get my point? The buy "low" is done at the early point in an artist's career, when more often than not, he or she is under the "radar" of most people that I imagine as "investing in art."

And the "safe art guys" are the masters, and they are already pricey, so only investors with bucks could buy a Picasso, or Van Gogh, or Renoir, etc. Buy one one, keep it for 20-30 years and it is certain to increase in price (less the 10% auction house commission).

And this is where it gets intriguing.... because, maybe... and just maybe... if a firm like Fernwood could gather a dozen rich investors, and acquire a Picasso oil with their funds, and then hold it for them, and when the time was right, sell it at a good profit... then this could work!

But the hard work for Fernwood will be to identify the up and coming emerging artists about to make it big, and buying their artwork early on, and holding onto it while it increases in price. That's a formidable task.

My tip to them? If anyone from Fernwood is reading this: Buy Tim Tate.

James W. Bailey's Top Five DC Shows of 2004

Leave it to James W. Bailey to take a simple listing of the top visual art shows from our region and end up with several thousand words on the subject.

Bailey’s had quite a good year in 2004 himself, with several national level group exhibitions, plus his premiere Washington, D.C. area solo exhibition, "The Death of Film," which opened in August of 2004 at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center in Alexandria, Virginia. Bailey’s "Rough Edge Photography" will also be featured in two solo exhibitions in 2005: "Stealing Dead Souls," which opens in January at the Black Rock Center for the Arts in Germantown, Maryland, and, "Burnversions," which opens in August in Reston, Virginia. Bailey will also be curating a found photography exhibition, "i found your photo," that will open in November of 2005 in Reston, Virginia.

Bailey won three major national art awards in 2004: An Honorable Mention Prize for "Circle Theatre – New Orleans" at the 3rd Bethesda International Photography Competition, awarded by William F. Stapp, the first Curator of Photography for the National Portrait Gallery; The Albert J. Turbessi Award at the 47th Chautauqua National Exhibition of Art for "Woman at the Tomb," awarded by Dr. Donald Kuspit, considered as one of America’s leading art critics and art historians; The Juror’s Choice Award at the Peninsula Fine Art Center Biennial 2004 for "Angel of Death," awarded by curator for the High Museum of Art, Carrie Przybilla.

Here's his Top Five List:

2004 – The Year a Small Army of Mississippi Rebel(lious) Artists Invaded Washington, D.C.

For the last couple of years I have enjoyed some success (well, some might say so!) as a critically acclaimed experimental photographer who has been exhibited across the country, internationally, as well as right here in the Washington, D.C. area. As a native son of Mississippi, I have been proud and honored to represent my home state with my art.

I currently live in Northern Virginia and my wide range of artistic activities keeps me in constant contact with many independent visual artists, as well as with a large number of arts professionals who work with some of the most important museums, art centers and art galleries in the country.

Wherever I travel to exhibit my photography, my Mississippi background seems to quickly become the subject of intense conversation. Art knowledgeable people outside the South are fascinated by Mississippi; yet, the question I get asked most often lately by non-Southern art elites goes something like this: "How did an open-minded liberal white artist like you ever manage to develop in such a backward state that is on the bottom of every list that is so steeped in racist attitudes with such a hate filled history and populated with so many ignorant conservative Republican Christians?"

Of course, the art sensitive people who ask the above question are usually far too sophisticated to use such crude and direct language (the way we routinely do in the South!) so I’m forced to try and translate their unspoken thoughts... but I’m sure you get the point.

The negative stereotypes about the people of Mississippi are incredibly pervasive in the cosmopolitan world of high art. Many educated arts professionals that I deal with in the Washington, D.C. area seem to operate under this absurd media induced stereotype that the average white Mississippian is a dangerous gun-toting NRA member NASCAR-fan racist redneck Republican who drives around in a beat-up pick-up truck with Rebel Flag bumper stickers plastered all over his vehicle cruising the back roads of the state looking for liberal democrats to beat up.

Many people in the rarified heights of the art world don’t know, and don’t really want to know, anything about the real Mississippi. That’s a shame because this place called Mississippi, with a population less than 3 million, has produced more creative people than any other place in the United States of America.

But despite the condescending comments mouthed by those art snobs who soar in the thin air of high altitude art with the rest of the enlightened and seasoned cultural elite, the meaningful cultural legacy of the grounded dynamic multi-cultural vibrancy of artist heritage of Mississippi will be around long after these people have passed into historic obscurity and, indeed, long after the United States of America even ceases to be united. And no matter what happens in this world, no matter how bad things get, the creative energy of artistic Mississippians will continue to be one of the major forces of passion, hope and love of life that will inspire the world to be a better place.

Black or white, race doesn't matter, artists from Mississippi have a deep love for the world and have longed shared their talents (talents born from a reality that many of the elites in the world of high art will never understand) in a genuine effort to make the ordinary genuine person who lives in every neighborhood in America, and in every neighborhood of every country in the world for that matter, laugh or think or smile or cry.

This is what being a passionate liberal Mississippi artist and proud conservative Southern person is all about for me.

If you don’t get it, you never will... I guess it’s just a Southern thing.

There were 4 deceased Mississippi artists who have had a profound artistic impact on the world who were exhibited and/or noted in a major way in Washington, D. C. in 2004.

There was also a 5th living Mississippi artist/photographer who may have had (some are saying he did!) a certain impact in the D.C. area as well; I will let someone else comment on that fella’s contributions, if any, when that glorious day arrives:

1. Samuel "Sambo" Mockbee - "Samuel Mockbee and the Rural Studio: Community Architecture" at the National Building Museum.

"A true architect practices all three professions simultaneously. The role of an architect/ artist/ teacher is to challenge the status quo and help others see what the possibilities can be." – Samuel "Sambo" Mockbee

Only in the South could a white man get away with insisting that he be referred to as Sambo!

Sambo worked in architectural practice for many years prior to founding the Rural Studio. In 1977, immediately after completing his internship, he founded Mockbee Goodman Architects with friend and classmate Thomas Goodman. The firm quickly built a regional reputation for utilizing local materials in its exceptional designs, winning more than 25 state and regional awards in four years.

Architect Samuel Mockbee was convinced that "everyone, rich or poor, deserves a shelter for the soul" and that architects should lead in procuring social and environmental change. But he believed they had lost their moral compass. The profession needed reform, he believed, and education was the place to start. "If architecture is going to nudge, cajole, and inspire a community to challenge the status quo into making responsible changes, it will take the subversive leadership of academics and practitioners who keep reminding students of the profession’s responsibilities," he said. He wanted to get students away from the academic classroom into what he called the classroom of the community.

Architecture students enrolled in the Rural Studio actually live in and become a part of the community in which they are working. This "context based learning" format teaches them critical architecture skills with an eye towards social responsibility. It is said that to his students, Mockbee presented architecture as a principle that must be committed to environmental, social, political and aesthetic issues.

Samuel Mockbee was awarded the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant in 2000 shortly before he died at the age of 57. He was post-humously awarded the 2004 AIA Gold Medal by the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects.

I considered Sambo to be a friend, an inspiration, a humanitarian and a consummate artist.

2. Walter Inglis Anderson – "Walter Inglis Anderson: Everything I See is New and Strange" at the Smithsonian Institution's Arts and Industries Building.

"I am continually arriving from some strange place and everything I see is new and strange." – Walter Inglis Anderson

Southern museum goers and art collectors have known of Walter Anderson for more than 50 years. They were introduced to him in 1948, when Memphians John and Louise Lehman persuaded Louise Bennett Clark, director of what was then the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, to mount the first show ever of Anderson’s work. Art critic Guy Northrop, writing in The Commercial Appeal, instantly declared him a "genius." Memphians saw that genius at work again in 1950, when the Brooks focused on Anderson’s block prints, watercolors, and ink drawings, and again in 1967, when the museum put together a major retrospective.

Southern artists knew of Anderson too. Burton Callicott, painter and instructor at what would become the Memphis College of Art, traveled to Ocean Springs in 1948 for a crash course in pottery under Peter Anderson, the artist’s brother and head of the family’s business, Shearwater Pottery. (Walter’s "gift" to Callicott? A mound of clay, no note attached, one morning at Callicott’s door.) MCA students still camp every summer on Horn Island, Anderson’s Gulf Coast retreat 10 miles offshore from Ocean Springs, and the work they do there is still exhibited at the start of every school year.

Did Anderson have an "uneasy" life? Yes, to judge from Anderson’s difficulties as a breadwinner and also from the history of his sometimes fragile mental health — periodic verbal and physical violence, sudden disappearances, incidents of self-mutilation, cryptic utterances, and near-catatonic states, until Anderson, in a series of hospitalizations, underwent treatment at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield.

But it was Horn Island that, in a sense, saved him.

3. George Edgar Ohr – "The Mad Potter of Biloxi" by Bruce Watson in the February 2004 edition of the Smithsonian Magazine.

"I am the potter who was." – George E. "The Mad Potter of Biloxi" Ohr

Despite his reputation for eccentricity, George Ohr was a hard worker. In the later part of his life, he produced quality art pottery that will be appreciated and remembered for centuries. George cultivated the idea that he was crazy, calling himself "The Mad Potter of Biloxi." He said that he was "unrivaled" or "unequalled" and was, by his own estimation, the "world's greatest potter." His antics, self-promotion, and playful spirit are what people remember, rather than what was more likely the case, a determined artist who sought to create attention to his creative production through his eccentric character.

Ohr's skills exploded when he became an "artist-potter." His claim there were "no two alike" was true. The pinched, folded and twisted clay forms, thinness of the clay wall, fluidity of form, tendril-like handles, and freshness of Ohr's creations illustrate a technical skill that is still unrivaled. One hundred years later, potters marvel at his skill and cannot rightly say exactly how it was done. Critics of the day praised Ohr's glazes, but as his admiration for pure forms executed in clay increased, he left many pieces unglazed in bisque form. He believed only in this state could the form be clearly perceived.

Ohr's serious creations did not find popularity with the public. And because the Victorian art pottery of the day was carefully controlled and decorated, Ohr’s energetic and expressionistic treatment of clay was too wild even for refined tastes. Ohr was passionate about his work and supremely confident in his talent. He wrote to an art critic, "I am making pottery for art’s sake, God’s sake, the future generation, and — by present indications — for my own satisfaction, but when I'm gone my work ... will be prized, honored and cherished." In l899 he packed up eight pieces and sent them to the Smithsonian Institution. One of the pots was inscribed, "I am the Potter Who Was."

4. Eudora Welty – Passionate Observer: Photographs by Eudora Welty at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

"I traveled the entire state of Mississippi taking pictures. I saw so many people who had nothing.. . . But even as people struggled, I was aware at a deep level of the richness of life going on all around me. I felt something about this time so strongly that the image stayed with me always." — Eudora Welty

Welty’s career as a photographer comprised a brief part of a long life, but it complemented her later work as a writer. In the late 1930s, Life magazine published Welty’s photographs. She also had exhibitions of her more artistic photographs in New York in 1936 and 1937. In the early 1940s, Welty’s career as a photographer for the most part ended after she decided to instead concentrate on writing.

The photographs that Welty took while traveling through Mississippi for the WPA didn’t get published until nearly four decades later in the book "One Time, One Place: Mississippi in the Depression." However, Welty’s photographs were never widely exhibited during her lifetime, besides a few limited-edition portfolios. In fact, most people did not even know of her years as a photographer until after her death in 2001.

5.) GUESS WHO?

The above 4 artists from Mississippi have all passed away and gone on to art heaven. Their living spirits collectively exert a tremendous influence on me and my art and my philosophy of life and art.

As I mentioned above, there was also a 5th Mississippi artist, a certain experimental photographer who will remain unnamed, who also exhibited around and made his presence known in the metro Washington, D.C. region during 2004.

I won’t mention his name or comment on his place in the pantheon of great artists because my Mississippi momma and Mississippi grandmothers raised me to be too humble to be so rude! I’ll leave it to the certified art critics, professional art historians and other credentialed art experts to decide what page, if any, this eccentric Mississippi photographer gets to occupy in the official art canon at the end of his life.

What does it mean to be an artist from Mississippi? Simply this: It means being true unto yourself and your vision and trying to do the right thing.

Where am I going?

What am I doing?

I don't know I don't know

Just try to do your very best

Stand up be counted with all the rest

Cos everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

– Mississippi Goddamn by Nina Simone

New Gallery to open in Dupont Circle area

JET Artworks will be opening January 7, 2005 in Elizabeth Roberts' old space at 2108 R St. NW.

The gallery will feature contemporary paintings, photography and sculpture. Their first exhibition is a group show by several of their gallery artists including Conor McGrady (whose work was seen in the 2002 Whitney Biennial), Gregory Euclide, Greg Murr, Michel Tsouris and Ken Bucklew.

DC Art News sends a welcome aboard to JET Artworks!

Bring in the New Year with ArtRomp!

Molly Ruppert announces ArtRomp #17 on December 31 at Warehouse on New Year's Eve 6-9pm. Meet old friends, meet new friends, watch performance and performance art (Performance artists Larkin and Ed at 7 & 8 PM), see art, hear music, see more art. Food, drinks, a picnic in the parking lot. And it's all Free!

Warehouse
1021 7th Street NW
btwn NY Ave and L Street
202 783 3933
www.warehousetheater.com
Metro: Gallery Pl & Mt Vernon Sq.
ArtRomp runs 6-9PM
Warehouse cafe/bar, theaters & music run 9-2am.

I cant wait to read this book

"A Cuban woman who moved to New Orleans in the 1850s and eloped with her American lover, [her name was] Loreta Janeta Velazquez, fought in the Civil War for the Confederacy as the cross-dressing Harry T. Buford.

As Buford, she single-handedly organized an Arkansas regiment; participated in the historic battles of Bull Run, Balls Bluff, Fort Donelson, and Shiloh; romanced men and women; and eventually decided that spying as a woman better suited her Confederate cause than fighting as a man.

In the North, she posed as a double agent and worked to traffic information, drugs, and counterfeit bills to support the Confederate cause. She was even hired by the Yankee secret service to find 'the woman . . . traveling and figuring as a Confederate agent' — Velazquez herself."

This is sort of a Cuban-Southerner-Confederate "Fidelio." I will do some more research on this subject which is sure to become my next series of drawings.

Loreta Janeta Velazquez hereby displaces Cuban Confederate Colonel: The Life of Ambrosio José Gonzales by Antonio Rafael de la Cova and the definitive biography of a Cuban and Confederate rebel; as my next obsessive subject.

Get the book here.

Online statistics are a tremendously valuable tool for anyone trying to do business on the Internet. They can also be seductive and maddening.

For example, our gallery website gets about 525,000 hits a month, but this last October it received a whooping 1,048,825 hits (our first month over one million hits) and 48% of those hits came on October 7, 2004.

I called my ISP to verify that this was correct and not a blip in their stats program, and the stats are correct.

So now I'm going crazy trying to figure out what happened on October 7, 2004 to cause nearly half a million people to come to our gallery website.

And the closest answer that I can come up with, is the fact that on October 7, 2004 I was on the Kojo Nmandi show!

But that fact alone cannot equate to 458,448 hits in one day, and in reviewing the show's audio files, the website is never given out or mentioned. And most of the hits came during hour three of that Internet day, whatever that means. And 36% of the hits that month came directly to the gallery URL, which means that those people knew our website; only about 5% of the hits came through referral from search engines.

Next is for us to review our October sales and see how many Internet sales we had in October.

For Women Photographers

Secondsight's next meeting will be held on Friday, January 28, 2005. The guest speaker will be Connie Imboden.

Secondsight is an organization dedicated to the advancement of women photographers through support, communication and sharing of ideas and opportunities. Secondsight is committed to supporting photographers at every stage of their careers, from students to professionals. Each bi-monthly meeting includes an introductory session, a guest speaker, portfolio sharing and discussion groups. Each photographer will have the opportunity to present their work within a small group of other photographers, ask for constructive criticism, gain knowledge or simply share their artistic vision and techniques.

For more info visit Secondsight's website.

More Questions for our WaPo critic art test

My DC Art Test seems to have raised some interest among some of you.

DC area artist Rosetta DeBerardinis adds the following questions:

1. What is Gallery magazine?
2. Who was DC artist Alma Thomas?
3. What is the group Americans for the Arts?
4. Where is Penn Quarter?
5. Which DC artist is known for his hearts?
6. Which was the first contemporary art museum in America?

While James W. Bailey (as it is to be expected) submits one of the longest questions ever devised for an DC Art SAT:

"If you found yourself being extradited to permanent life-long exile on a remote non-populated island (Navassa Island near Haiti comes to mind) because of a perceived subversive piece of art criticism printed in the Washington Post that severely disturbed the national security interests of the United States, and you could choose to take with you one work of art from any living contemporary artist, or any one work of art from any private or museum collection in the world (including the Mona Lisa from the Louvre), what piece would you choose and why?"

That's an easy one for me. I would take Adam Bradley's lifesize sculpture Please. There's enough knives and hardware in that piece to help half a dozen people survive and even start a small war on that island.

New Gallery in Town

Emma Mae Gallery, founded by Sandra Butler-Truesdale, opened last month in Washington. The new gallery is located at 1515 U Street, NW in Washington, DC. For further information call 202-667-0634 or 202-246-6300

Currently on view there are works by Sandra Butler-Truesdale, John Zaire El-Badr, Afrika Midnight Asha Abney and many others.