Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Airborne
Airborne today and heading to California... more later.

Openings

April 19. "Drawings" at Robert Brown Gallery. Works by William Kentridge, Trawick Prize finalist Linn Meyers, David Nash, Kojo Griffin and others. Opening reception on Wed. April 19 from 6-8PM. Through May 13, 2006.

April 20. "For Women By Women" Photo Exhibit from Turkey at Warehouse Gallery. Reception for the benefit of a Women's Shelter in Urfa as part of the "For Women By Women" Photo Exhibit. Reception/Happy Hour on Thursday April 20, 2006 6 - 9 pm. Space is limited. Please RSVP by 19th of April at fwbw@art4development.net or call 877/580-6670.

April 21. Norman Parish will open the fourth of six group exhibitions commemorating the Parish Gallery’s fifteenth anniversary in Georgetown. Opening reception on Friday, April 21, 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Artists in this group show include Carreno, Elliott, Garemedhin, Farrell-Johnson, Lesser, Piechocinski, Plotkin-Mates, Miller, Roberts, Stuelpnagel, Underwood, Van Esso, Van Helsland, Woodson, and Young.

April 21. "Russian Realism 2006" at Principle Gallery in Alexandria. Reception Friday, April 21 from 6:30-9PM. Forty contemporary and Soviet era realist works.

April 21. "Adam Ross: Recent Work" at Numark Gallery. Opening reception on Friday, April 21 from 6:30-8PM. Show goes through May 27, 2006.

April 22. "MFA Thesis Exhibition" at American University's Katzen Arts Center. Reception 6-9PM on Saturday, April 22 and open studios 4-9PM. The exhibition goes through May 7, 2006.

April 22. "Crossings." New photo collages by Judith L. Smith at Gallery West's new location in Old Town Alexandria. Opening reception on Saturday, April 22 from 6-9PM. Show goes through May 22, 2006.

April 22 and 23. "Art and Artifacts Show." Featuring the art of Penny Ross Burk and Afrika Midnight Asha Abney and hosted by The Culture Shop. On April 22nd and April 23rd from 11am-5pm. Info: 202-726-2211 or email them at customerservice@cultureshop.com

April 23. "Place and Time." New works by Juan Bernal, Mary Ott and Stanley Wenocur at RAP, temporarily located in Gaithersburg while their new space is being finsihed in Rockville. Opening on Sunday, April 23, 2006 from 3-5PM. The show goes through May 20, 2006 and there's a panel discussion (and dessert!) on Sunday, April 20, 2006 from 3-5PM.

May 6. Amy Lin is an amazing minimalist artist whose work has grown in leaps and bounds over the last year. Her very first solo show ever opens at the Rachel Schlesinger Concert Hall & Arts Center's Gallery in Alexandria with an opening reception on Saturday, May 6 from 4-6pm . The exhibition goes through June 10, 2006.

May 7. "Bobbi Pratte: Lotus" at the Art League in Alexandria. Opening reception on Sunday, May 7 from 2-4PM. Through June 5, 2006.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

When artists buy art

When an artist buys original artwork by another artist, I think that it is a special honor. At least I am always highly honored when I sell one of my drawings to a fellow artist.

So you must understand that I am not only honored, but somewhat dazed to find out that Ida Applebroog has bought one of my drawings for her collection.

New name

The Rockville Arts Place, which has been temporarily located in Gaithersburg, MD while their great new space in being built in downtown Rockville, will be renamed VisArts once the move takes place.

The new space looks terrific, and will certainly be one of the key exhibition spaces around the Greater DC area.

Congrats

To DC's former JET Gallery's co-owner, Thomas Robertello, who has just opened the Thomas Robertello Gallery in Chicago.

Good luck Tom!

Printmaking

Union Printmakers Atelier announces that registration is now open for Traditional Printmaking Classes. Sign up to study Lithography (stone and plate), Intaglio (etching, aquatint, drypoint), Relief (wood or linocut) and monotype; methods, techniques, materials and histories will be covered.

For more information or to register please contact Scip Barnhart at 202/277-1946 (sBarnhart@corcoran.org) or Jenny Freestone at 301/408-0660 (freeston@erols.com).

Union Printmakers Atelier is located near the new convention center at 926 N Street Rear, Blagden Alley, Washington DC 20001.

Art in Embassies

Established by the United States Department of State in 1964, the Art In Embassies Program is a global museum that exhibits original works of art by U.S. citizens in the public rooms of approximately 180 American diplomatic residences worldwide.

To submit images to the Art In Embassies Program staff for consideration in upcoming exhibitions please e-mail .jpg or .gif images of your works no larger than 50k in size, to: artinembassies@state.gov. Website: www.aiep.state.gov/index.cfm.

Survey

ArtDC.org is conducting an online artists survey. The goal of this survey is to gain a deeper understanding of the DC area art scene from the artists' perspectives.

Take the survey here.

Monday, April 17, 2006

The Creative Successes of American Arts Funding

Having lived for many years in Europe, I have direct experience with the great benefits and astounding shortfalls of many of those nations' heavy-handed governments, where the massive burocracies of socialist minds are involved in nearly every facet of daily life, including the arts.

Local GMU economist Tyler Cowen has an interesting look at this issue. Cowen is the author of many books, including Creative Destruction: How Globalization is Changing the World's Cultures (Princeton) and In Praise of Commercial Culture.

He is the Holbert C. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University, and his most current book is Good and Plenty: The Creative Successes of American Arts Funding.

Cowen argues that "American art thrives through an ingenious combination of small direct subsidies and immense indirect subsidies such as copyright law and tax policies that encourage nonprofits and charitable giving. This decentralized and even somewhat accidental--but decidedly not laissez-faire--system results in arts that are arguably more creative, diverse, abundant, and politically unencumbered than that of Europe."

More on the book here.

Taxing Reading

From the tone of these mini-reviews, Jessica must have had a tough tax day last Saturday.

Read at your own risk here.

Parsons on Compelled by Content

DCist's Adrian Parsons reviews our current "Compelled by Content" exhibition.

Read the review here.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Art Deal(s) of the Week

This week's super art deal are these beautiful mixed media Mermaid boxes by Illinois artist Carmen Lozar, currently on exhibit as part of the "Compelled by Content II" exhibition.

Each of these interesting sculptures starts with a found object, in these cases an antique cigarrette or snuff box. Lozar then transforms the object by casting a blue ocean made of glass, and also creates a small glass mermaid that can be rotated through the ocean through a small lever handle that she builds into the side of the box. The inner lid of the box is also a small oil painting of the ocean's horizon. These interactive pieces can then be "rotated," making the small glass mermaid jump in and out of her glass ocean.

Two of the three boxes below are still available for sale. The one below is an old "Maryland Club" tobacco tin measuring four inches long by 2.5 inches deep (closed) or five inches deep open and about three inches high with mermaid in the up position.

Mermaid Box by Carmen Lozar

An a detail looking from the top:

Detail of Carmen Lozar Mermaid Box

The second box is an antique J.G. Dill's Best Cube Cut Plus tin measuring 3.5 inches long by one inch deep (closed), two inches deep (open) and 3.5 inches tall with mermaid in the up position. Each of the sculptures is $600.

Carmen Lozar Mermaid Sculpture

An a detail looking from the top:

Detail of Carmen Lozar sculpture

To buy them call the gallery at 301/718-9651 or email them at info@thefrasergallery.com.

Student Prints

The 21st Annual Corcoran College of Art + Design Print Portfolio is now on view through May 27, 2006 at the Kathleen Ewing Gallery.

This year’s portfolio contains the work of Corcoran College of Art + Design faculty and students from the BFA and Continuing Education programs. as well as guest faculty and artists.

This year they have included work by Frank DiPerna, Claudia Smigrod and Renee Stout.

This exhibit has been titled Thinking Voodoo ; Why? Because as the city of New Orleans is historically linked to the practice of voodoo and the supernatural, Thinking Voodoo seemed an appropriate title for this year’s portfolio following the events of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath of destruction.

One copy of the full portfolio is placed in the permanent collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Corcoran College of Art + Design and the College Printmaking department, however copies of the work will also be on sale.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Compelled by Content Opening

I'll have some pictures of the opening later, but the show looks great and once again artists using glass (among other things) are dragging the genre away from the bowl and vessel and to the fine arts. This is an amazing show.

The preview went well, and a major New York museum commissioned a Tim Tate piece for their collection! More on that later.

The public opening was really packed as well, and in fact so many people showed up for the guided Bethesda Art Walk that two separate walks were done.

I've been really taken by the work of Illinois artist Carmen Lozar, more on her and her work later. I've also been impressed by how much Michael Janis' work has progressed in the last year or so. More on him later as well.

Colloquium on African American Art

Authentic Art has all the details about the 17th Annual James A. Porter Colloquium on African American Art, which will be held April 20-22, 2006 at Howard University.

Agenda, schedule and details here and here.

DC Mayoral Candidates Forum on the Arts

Moderated by Renee Poussaint and featuring all of the DC Mayoral Candidates taking questions on their views of the arts.

Date: Monday, May 1, 2006
Time: 6:00- 8:00pm
Place: Tivoli Theater, 3333 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC.

Free Grant Development Triathlon Workshop

Attend presentations by the experts regarding upcoming funding opportunities and how to respond with competitive proposals. Representatives from the Federal Government, DC Government, and Local Foundations have been invited.

Date: Thursday, May 4, 2006
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Place: Sumner School Museum & Archives
Metro's Red Line to Farragut North

Space is limited and early reservations are recommended. Registrations will be accepted through May 1, 2006. To register, e-mail dawn.mitchell@dc.gov.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Women's Caucus for Art: 2006 Annual Networking Day

Women’s Caucus for Art of Greater Washington DC will be having their 2006 Annual Networking Day, focusing on exhibiting and marketing your Art. I will be presenting a focused shortened version covering marketing derived from our Bootcamp for Artists seminar. Event is free and open to the public.

When: 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Saturday, April 29, 2006
Where: Goodwin House
3440 South Jefferson Street
Falls Church, VA 22041
1.703.820.1488

The Women’s Caucus for Art, a major national non-profit member organization, was founded in 1972 and is an affiliated society of the College Art Association. It is unique in its multi-disciplinary, multicultural membership. WCA members are artists, art historians, arts administrators, museum and gallery professionals, teachers, students, curators, critics, collectors, and others who are committed to WCA’s goals.

For more info call 301.910.1231 or email Authentic_Art@att.net.

See ya there!

Coop Gallery Seeks New Member

The Artists’ Undertaking Gallery, 309 Mill St. in historic Occoquan, has an opening for an artist member working in oil, acrylic, watercolor, collage, art quilts or wall hung fiber arts.

This is a cooperative gallery in its 29th year. Applicants must be able to work in the gallery one day every other week and attend the monthly business meeting. Juried entry is on the first Monday of the month.

Please call Carol Holmes at 703/897-8990 for more information and to make an appointment.

Taxes: Foul Mood

I can't believe how many Samolians I have to send Uncle Sam by tomorrow, and to make matters worse, this year I'm also sending the Soviet Socialist State of Mary's Land a ton of rubles - in fact almost three times as much as Uncle Sam gets.