Jenkins on Steinhilber

Guest Review by Mark Jenkins

I work beside Numark Gallery and have been passing by this exhibit daily and so thought to contribute a brief piece about my reaction to it in this blog -- just for fun.

The first work that grabbed me in this show is a large canvas on the ground tilted against the wall with a small orange ball centered on its edge that seems to light up the wall behind it. The friend I was there with wondered if it was a light as I’m sure many will.

I won’t ruin the secret of it, but if you can jump as high as me -- I barely dunked a basketball some years ago, but that was some years ago -- you’ll see it too. It was this act -- perhaps a reward for my effort and for not caring if I looked a little bit like a fool -- that enabled me to begin to understand the way Steinhilber’s mind enjoys reality. He does so by creating or uncovering simplistic enigmas of the everyday item.

I remember in one of the Dune books Frank Herbert said something about a character The Changer: "He illuminates the banal in a way that terrifies."

While Steinhilber hardly terrifies he certainly illuminates the ordinary in a way that gets you thinking. The caterpillar made from forks and plates, the cardboard boxes that seem like a family of acrobats, the sorrowful kite riled by a fan like a chained canary, and a small tape metropolis with one tower deconstructing itself, all share this Changed spirit.

One other thing to mention or rather advise -- go to the show on a full stomach or you’ll find yourself seriously considering taking a bite out of the giant cheeto.

Kirkland on Steinhilber

JT's review can be read in DCist here.

For next week...

Creating from Within by Tricia Ratliff, Silvia Santiago and Shannon Chester is an exhibition of original paintings, collage and photography to create awareness about EP's innovative public art project- Synergy!

The opening is this coming Wed. April 27 , from 6-8 p.m. at Karma Lounge (19th and I Street in DC). Artwork will be on view through May 14th.

This showing is a fundraiser for Synergy. With each purchase, you'll receive free ($40) tickets to The Artists Reality Show, a very unique performance event to be held on May 14, at The Dennis and Phillip Ratner Museum, in Bethesda, Maryland.

Tickets and information about The Artists Reality Show will be available at the opening.

Katzen Arts Center

American University's Katzen Arts Center is about to open, and it includes a new gallery with 30,000 square feet of exhibition space, which is certain to become one of the key exhibition venues in the whole Eastern seaboard.

This will be a great new addition to our area's art scene, and lucky for us, it will be guided by a steady and experienced hand in the person of Jack Rasmussen, who as most of us know, is a highly experienced arts professional with a very deep knowledge of the DC area and Blatimore area art scenes.

And Jack steps into the new job with a brand new BLOG! Is that cool or what?

Visit the new BLOG here.

The Thursday Reviews

In the City Paper, Louis Jacobson reviews Barbara Probst at G Fine Art and also Maria Friberg at Conner Contemporary.

In the WaPo, Jessica Dawson has her usual third Thursdays set of mini reviews. Also in the Post, Jacqueline Trescott has a story on The National Endowment for the Arts' "scaling back" their initiative to "send the best of American culture around the country and is starting with only a tour of visual arts." Trescott reveals that the "NEA announced yesterday that it is giving the Phillips a grant of $100,000 to support a traveling exhibition of 20th-century painter [and my former art professor] Jacob Lawrence."

In DCist, Kirkland reviewed Victor Schrager at Adamson and JT tells me that later today DCist will have his review of Dan Steinhilber at Numark.

In the Gazette, Karen Schaffer has an article on Sandra Pope's Colour Art Studio and Gallery, a new art space in Silver Spring.

Also in the Gazette, a byline-less article discusses that as part of the Montgomery College annual Holocaust Commemoration program, Montgomery College Professors Jon Goell and Brian Jones, former Montgomery College students John Hoover and Susan Maldon Stregack, and Holocaust survivor Nesse Godin will discuss their participation in the exhibit "Portraits of Life."

Goell and Jones acted as project leaders and chief photographers of the exhibit, photographing and interviewing local Holocaust survivors in their homes. The professors were assisted by Montgomery College adjunct faculty member Rollin Fraser, students and former students, who acted as photo assistants, interviewers and photographers. Jane Knaus, the college's creative services director, designed the exhibit and coordinated its production.

More than 30 Holocaust survivors have been photographed for "Portraits of Life," creating a lasting legacy of their lives and their stories of survival.

The "Portraits of Life" photography exhibit will be on display at the college's Communication Arts Technologies (CAT) Gallery. It will officially open at the Holocaust Commemoration event and will remain on display through the end of April.

Arts Talk Today

Curator Susana Torruella Leval, Director Emerita, El Museo Del Barrio, New York, will lead a roundtable discussion on "Latin American" Art: Expectation and Reality, today at the Arlington Arts Center starting at 7PM. Free and open to the public.

The exhibition "Art with Accent: Latin Americans in the Mid-Atlantic States," which was curated by Torruella Leval, is currently on exhibition at the Center and showcases work by Aldo Badano, Juan Bernal, Gute Brandao, Mark Caicedo, Ana Cavalcanti, Irene Clouthier, Pepe Coronado, Gerard de la Cruz, Felisa Federman, Luis Flores, Eva Holz, Tamara Kostianovsky, Rosana Lopez, Carolina Mayorga, Lara Oliveira, Alessandra Ramirez, Victoria Restrepo, Helga Thomson and Maria Velez.

The 6th annual Bethesda Literary Festival starts tomorrow, Friday, April 22 through Sunday, April 24, 2005 throughout downtown Bethesda's art galleries, bookstores, restaurants, arts organizations and venues and retail businesses.

The festival will bring together novelists, poets, journalists, nonfiction writers and children's authors and illustrators who represent the rich diversity of modern literature. The Bethesda Literary Festival also features essay contests, poetry slams, kids' and youth book parties and the 2nd annual Play In A Day.

On Saturday, April 23rd from 1-2PM we will host Alexandra Robbins, author of Quarterlife Crisis and its sequel Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis and Jen Chaney, the Washington Post's DVD and movie columnist. Robbins and Chaney will join together to share their insight on modern day living.

And then, on that same day from 2:30-4PM, we will host authors Jim Grimsley (Comfort & Joy); Susan Leonardi (And Then They Were Nuns); Michael Mancilla (Love In The Time of HIV: The Gay Man's Guide to Sex, Dating, and Relationships); and Kathi Wolfe, a local poet. The authors and poet will offer a look inside gay and lesbian literature.

See ya there!

Opportunity for Artists

Call for entries, Gateway Georgia Avenue, and Jesse Cohen's Artdc.org Art in Transition.

Info here, Although you have to log in to read it, but it only takes a second or two to create an account. Below is the gist of the call for artists.

An Artdc.org proposal has been accepted, and they have received permission from the owners of a Georgia Avenue property near Takoma Park to conduct an art show and exhibition.

This show will allow them to represent all or most of Artdc.org’s membership, that they can fit. It will present the opportunity for a semi-curated show. All those who apply will be allowed to hang at least one piece on a first come first serve basis limited by the space available on the install date.

The works will be hung in salon style to take advantage of nearly 1300 square feet of open office space. There is the opportunity for use of a balcony for 3D and other weather proof or performance art. If artists have ideas for an event, please contact Artdc.org. They are interested in developing master classes, studio days, and music events. The more the ideas, the better.

The call for entries will be 100% digital. Submit via CD, images must be at least 4" by 6" at 300 dpi. They are interested in all types of art. 2D, 3D, and more. Submit at the meeting this coming weekend; exact time, date and location TBA.

What: Gateway Georgia Avenue, and Artdc.org--Art in Transition

Where: Off of Georgia Avenue, MD in Raw Transitional but Empty Office Space.

When: Install May 14, 2005 Opening May 21, 2005 Closing June 17, 2005

Theme: What does it mean to EMERGE!

Requirements to show:

-Must be registered at Artdc.org with completed profile including username, interests, webpage if available.

-Must live with in 150 miles of Washington, DC.

-Must submit a CD of at least 1 to 5 images of available work. They will select at least one image. (4" by 6" at 300 dpi or larger).

-A $20 dollar Hanging Fee which will be applied to marketing costs, show maintenance, and possibly the development of the next show.

-Volunteer time to gallery sit or help install and de-install, Canvas neighborhoods, or develop programs. (They are flexible 3-6 hours total or more if you like).

-A resume and/or artist statement with completed application.

-Most important, include a paragraph or poem to be displayed with your work about the meaning of emerging within the art world, and the effect it has had on you. Be personal.

-You may consider yourself emerging or established to apply.

-Self promotion and flyer posting. Each artist should post at least 10 flyers for the event.

-Artists should attend the openings.

-Please limit the size of your work to allow room for other artists.

MOCA Opening this Saturday

"Forgotten Memories" opens with a reception this coming Saturday at MOCA in Georgetown's Canal Square from 6 to 9pm. The exhibition includes Michael Dax Iacovone's Experimental Photography and Ben Premeaux's Mixed Media Paintings. The Exhibition runs Saturday, April 30th.

Craghead on Bailey on Botero

Warren Craghead's excellent Drawer has a counterpoint to Bailey's Botero Letter, and also a couple of comments by Bailey. Read it all here.

Bailey on Botero

That word-processing living machine known as J.W. Bailey responds to my call for reviews and art commentary with the below open letter in response to AP reporter Dan Molinski’s article, "Botero’s Latest Muse: Abu Ghraib," as published in the Washington Post. Comments welcomed:

"The Deconstructed Portrait of a Postmodern Art History Teacher"
By James W. Bailey

The postmodern art theorists (translate: anti-American French and wannabe French "art philosophers") must be having a field day around the world preparing their glowing reviews of Colombian artist Fernando Botero’s new series of propagandistic Abu Ghraib paintings in which he predictably pours gasoline on the exaggerated horrors of the unfortunate documented abuses of some Iraqi prisoners by a handful of American soldiers.

One can easily picture Botero’s sycophant leftist art fans standing at the ready outside museums in Paris anxiously awaiting the arrival of this vapid artistic pabulum while passing the time muttering their memorized anti-Bush screeds in clever but meaningless French art speak phrases, with lit Gitanes cigarettes hanging from their cynical lips prepared to flick them onto the inflammable canvas of art and politics that Botero has composed for his choir.

Botero is quoted by the AP as saying the following: "No one would have ever remembered the horrors of Guernica if not for painting." What self-serving deluded narcissistic tripe! Only the relativist philosophy of postmodernism would be so bold as to ludicrously encourage us to believe that wrapping a female panty around a male Iraqi prisoner’s head equates to Franco and Hitler conspiring to kill more than 1,700 innocent people in the Basque region of Spain by bombing and shooting them to death.

But then again, only such a shallow philosophy as postmodernism could inspire an aging super-famous mega-wealthy artist living in an ivory tower penthouse who longs to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize before he dies to say something like that and expect it to be taken seriously by anyone but a burned-out religious convert to the fraudulent philosophy of postmodernism in the first place.

However, to play Botero’s art history game: If Botero is so concerned about horrors being preserved and presented in art so that it can serve as a leftist platform for politically correct history lessons, where are his paintings of the innocent Iraqis who dared to dissent with the ruling elite and were tortured to death by Saddam Hussein and his gang of thugs? Where are his paintings of the Kurds being gassed to death? Where are his one million paintings of the one million Rwandans being hacked to death while Bill Clinton and his gang of State Department cronies diddled around trying to parse the United Nations’ international definition of genocide?

Closer to his native land, where are his paintings of innocent Colombians being blown to bits in Medellin by wealthy drug lords? Are they still in the hands of wealthy private collectors locked away for private viewing? (Some of Colombia’s cocaine barons have no doubt long been enamored of Botero’s strained ruminations on the invented mythology of America’s endless abuse of power throughout the world because their own rabidly anti-American positions on international terrorism seem to dovetail so nicely with his – considering that Botero has already painted a sympathetic portrayal of Pablo Escobar being killed by Colombian police, they’re also probably on his collector’s list as every true mass-murdering gangster longs to be celebrated in art by a famous sympathetic artist at some point in his life, or death.)

I find it quite interesting that Botero, in a classic postmodern art theorist move, has numbered his Abu Ghraib series from 1 to 50, rather than taking the time to research the names and identities of those prisoners he painted that he claims were "tortured." Undoubtedly, Botero’s international art attorney advised him that to attribute names to the faces in his paintings would raise the troubling issue of exploitation of unlicensed imagery for financial gain – that is, royalties might have to be paid out of Botero’s back pocket to those "victims" he's so concerned about.

Of course, good postmodern art theory does not allow for the "innocent victim" of a right wing government to object to their image being used by a leftist artist without their permission if such use advances an exploitative anti-American opinion that intersects with an impending world museum tour – no, such theories better suggest that the leftist artist in question just keep the names, identities, facts and truth out of the whole picture... and keep all the profits once that fraudulent picture is sold to the world by a compliant media all to himself.

But God help you if you happen to be a real innocent victim of a left wing government – the true French postmodern art theorists will never remember your death because they are not about to condone, let alone critically review, any artist that would dare to stray from the party line and paint that aesthetically confusing picture. They would much prefer that history lesson never be remembered and taught through art.

Sincerely

James W. Bailey
Experimental Photographer
Force Majeure Studios

Opposing views on this subject:
Mike Whitney at Counterpunch and also at Al Jazeerah.

Elizabeth Nash at The Independent.

Tuesday Arts Agenda

DCist's Tuesday Arts Agenda is here.

Kirkland on Schrager

J.T. Kirkland reviews Victor Schrager at Adamson Gallery on DCist.

Correcting Green

From Tyler Green's Modern Art Notes:

Here in DC I've noticed that people are doing less talking and more writing. DCist, part of the often poorly-behaved -ist empire, has rounded up a few arts bloggers and encouraged them to review area shows for publication on DCist. Sure, DCist had a false start or two -- notably a gallery owner and dealer wrote reviews until blogger Kriston Capps called DCist on it --

Sigh...

I am the linkless "gallery owner and dealer" that Green mentions (he conveniently omitted blogger), but considering that Green once wrote that "I [Green] make sure that items... are accurate before they go up on MAN. It doesn't go on MAN if it is wrong, could be wrong or might be wrong. It only goes on MAN if it is solid and accurate. I check things."

Mr. Green: I've never written a review for DCist.

What I did do for DCist, for about four or five weeks, was to provide them with a listing of gallery openings and visual arts events cut and pasted from the many news releases that the galleries send me. It was an attempt on my part to help spread the word, through DCist's huge reading public, about the DC art scene.

What Green regurgitates today is that last March blogger Kriston Capps on G.P. wrote that:

"It's bitchy of me to say— and I don't know the extent to which Lenny Campello of DC Art News contributes or what Cyndi Spain [the DCist Arts Editor] has to say on the subject— but I twitch whenever I see a feature with Lenny's name attached on DCist about work on display at the gallery he operates. I don't doubt the conviction Lenny clearly feels about the art he represents or enjoys, and I don't think that it's unreasonable that he writes about artists he represents on his own blog. But you really can't don the critic's cap when you're a producer in the community."

Rather than drag DCist through an unwarranted ethics debate, I immediately quit contributing directly to DCist, who published this statement.

After nearly sixty back and forth comments in response to that G.P posting, including several by Green (including a childish one on March 14 at 7:40PM), I believe that some issues had been ironed out, and I did and still disagree with the premise that a gallery owner cannot write art criticism (which I never did for DCIst) is flawed and ridiculous.

Unlike Green's own writing career, which started four or five years ago and was succinctly profiled by the Washington City Paper, I've been writing about art since 1977 (and about DC art since 1993) and have no intention of stopping on his or anyone else's account. At the time, I thought that my contributions to DCist, which were simply listings of other galleries shows, would be good for our art scene.

You see, what a self-proclaimed elitist, and an arts newbie and gallery-world outsider like Green does not know yet (he'll learn with experience), is that the best thing for art galleries, is more art galleries.

And in order to have more art galleries, then all galleries have to do well, and then a city's cultural tapestry grows and becomes stronger. In helping to promote other galleries via what I do here at DC Art News and what was being used by the DCist Arts Editor to publicize openings, etc., I had hoped to help expand our area's gallery scene and this helps all galleries, including mine.

But now Green, who although living here in DC, generally manages to avoid informing his 900 or so daily online visitors about anything dealing with the DC art scene, other than the DC museum show here or there, or bitching about pandas and Corcoran conspiracies, has wasted his precious informative online resources to add unwarranted negativity aimed at DCist and at me.

I've never met Tyler Green and have no idea what he looks like; I've corresponded with him via email and even once or twice invited him out for a beer.

Enough niceties; I hope that I never meet him and will avoid doing so, for at any given place the plebian Brooklyn in me may resurface and he may now be one beer away from a well-deserved ass kicking.

Kino Jewels

The New York Times' Carol Kino has a couple of really good pieces in the New York Times. User ID is logos and password times (thanks to Bugmenot.com).

In the first article: Trendy Artists Pick Up an Old-Fashioned Habit, Kino reveals the surprising list of contemporary artists returning to live model drawing.

In the second piece: When the Work Is a Workstation, she discusses that "if you buy a work from Lucas Samaras's current show at the PaceWildenstein and Pace/MacGill galleries, you'll need $15,000 - and a small moving truck. For your money, you'll get not just 4,432 photographs and 60 movies, but also the Mac Mini computer on which they're stored (as iPhoto and iMovie files), an Apple Cinema HD display, an Ikea Hannes desk and two Design Within Reach chairs."

New Kids on the Block

Most of the area's universities have their senior and MFA Thesis exhibitions hanging right now. This is a good opportunity for an early look at this year's crop of art students and graduates. There are shows at American University's Watkins Gallery, and at GWU's Dimock Gallery, and a new show opens at Catholic University's Salve Regina Gallery on Thursday.

Wanna go to an Opening Today?

The League of Reston Artists Annual Judged Fine Art Exhibition has an opening reception today from 2-4 pm, with a musical performance by Just Friends.

The reception is at the JoAnn Rose Gallery, Reston Community Center at Lake Anne. The exhibition runs until May 3, 2005 and is free and open to the public. Info and direction here.

Another choice is at Photoworks at Glen Echo Park, where "Creative Digital Printmakers" feautures six artists showing scrolls, frescoes and prints on handmade paper and glass. The artists are Rona Eisner, Sandy Lebrun-Evans, Carol Leadbetter, Sheila Meyer, Dorie Silber and Grace Taylor. The exhibition runs until May 23, and the reception is today from 2-4PM. At Glen Echo Park, 7300 MacArthur Blvd.

Use me

Once again I'd like to renew my offer to have anyone email me area art reviews, comments on our area arts, interviews, etc. for publication here.

Sent a letter to the Arts Editor and it never got published? Send them here and provided that it contributes to our area's art dialogue, I'll publish them here.

Last Night

Last night I went with Tim Tate to the Renwick Alliance fundraising auction.

I was very pleasantly surprised at the generosity of the bidders, as I often find that most art fundraising auctions end up being give aways. Not with this crowd (a lot of whom came from as far as Los Angeles for the function). In fact, a set of Tate's reliquiaries went for over $6,000, and a piece by William Morris broke $60,000.

True Stories from the Gallery World

Setting: A group show of 25 or so artists from around the US, Europe, Latin America and the region. A casually dressed couple, having just finished dinner at the Sea Catch Restaurant in Georgetown step into the gallery.

Him: Can we come in?

Me: Yes of course, welcome to the gallery.

Him: Does it cost anything to come in?

Me: Of course not! Come on in and look around, let me know if you have any questions.

They come in, and start looking at the works on exhibit, which as with any group show, include a variety of styles, genres, and subjects.

Her: We didn't know there were any art galleries here...

Him: Are these all by the same artist?

Me: Uh... no, it's a group show by artists from all over the US, some from Europe and some area artists.

Her (pointing to a large etching): I really like this piece.

Me: It's an intaglio etching by --

Him (looking closely at the wall label with title, artist and price info): Is that the best that you can do?

Me: It is the price for the work sir, this etching is an edition of 10, and several pieces have already sold and --

Her (Looking at a small drawing): I really like this one too.

Him: Is that the same artist?

Me: No, that's a graphite drawing by --

Him: How come it is the same price as the other one (pointing to the etching)? That other one is at least twice as big.

Me: This is an original drawing; it is one of a kind, and the other piece that you liked is a limited edition print, and there are 10 of them, although there are only three left in the edition.

Him (looking incredulous): Somebody bought all the others?

Her: I really like both of these... they're much more interesting than all the stuff that you have hanging at the house.

Him: If we buy both of them, will you give us a deal?

Me: Well, they're very fairly priced as they are, but if you buy both of them, we will gladly offer you a 10% collector's discount.

Him (adding up the Math in his head): How about $1500 for both of them?

Me: Sorry sir, that's more like a 50% discount - you wouldn't want to do business with any art gallery that has a price structure where you can obtain "art" at half price.

Him: I always get at least 40% at other art stores.

Me (clearing my throat): We don't exhibit work that can be ethically discounted to those extremes, and most reputable art dealers do not either; it hurts both the artist and the collector.

Her (staring hard at him): I really like both of these; I've never seen work like this before and I really like them.

Him (beginning to get the message): How about 25% off?

Me: With a 10% collector's discount you are getting a very fair price for two framed works of real... art.

Her: Just get them...

Him: Awright... We'll get them if you deliver them to Virginia and that way it will save us the sales tax.

Me (hoping that my eyes are not rolling): Where in Virginia?

Her: Great Falls.

I swallow hard, do the paperwork, and after explaining to them that they'll have to wait until after the exhibition is over, close the sale. A couple of weeks later, I contact them to arrange the delivery.

Using our delivery service (in other words me), I drive to Great Falls, and find their home, or shall I say mansion, one of those monster houses with acres of lawn. I knock on the door.

A Filipino maid actually wearing one of those French maid outfits opens the door. I explain to her that I am delivering two pieces of artwork, and after she stares at me and the two pieces of art, she lets me in, and shouts something in Tegalog towards the upstairs. A second uniformed Filipino maid comes down, and speaking in English says that the owners are out, but left a message for me just to leave the two pieces of art.

I do so, and ask her if it is OK for me to look at the owner's art collection. She nods and leaves.

And I look at wall, after wall full of gaudily-framed decorative work... you know: Impressionistic women in Victorian dresses with umbrellas in the wind, large Parisian scenes in thick, bright oil paints, men and women in hats that cover their eyes playing pool, seductive-eyed vixens staring dreamily into the viewer, Kinkaidian landscapes, and strangely enough at least six huge photos of those dog portraits by Wegman.

I sigh, thinking of all the tens of thousands of dollars spent in "wall decor," and almost feel as if I am leaving two small hostages behind.

The English speaking maid checks up on me, as I leave.

Me: Who usually buys the... uh... artwork?

Maid: These are all Mr. ____'s.

She points to the two that I've left behind.

Maid: Those are the first two that his new wife has bought.

I drive away with a tiny bit of relief; very tiny.