Congrats!

To Marsha Ralls, founder of The Ralls Collection in Georgetown in DC, who together with Seth Goldman, President and TeaEO of Honest Tea, were honored recently by The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) for their commitment to increasing education and economic opportunities for low-income youth, at NFTE’s 15th Annual Salute to the Entrepreneurial Spirit Awards Dinner in New York City.

Anne W. McNulty, JBK Partners, introduced Marsha Ralls (right) at the Awards' Dinner
Ms. Ralls chaired NFTE Greater Washington DC’s most successful Dare to Dream gala to date, helping the organization raise nearly $1 million to support its work in low-income communities.

Congrats Marsha!

Plexiglass House

Kriston responds to my rock here (missing the point a little, I think); no more on this subject from me unless a get together is arranged somehow.

But I'm not sure that I'm not gonna twitch the next time that he reviews the gallery that he curated a show for.

Update: OK, OK... one more thing here.

Opportunity for artists with disabilities

Deadline: Friday, July 11, 2008

Sponsored by VSA arts and Volkswagen of America, Inc. Open to emerging artists with disabilities, ages 16 -25, living within the U.S. Fifteen (15) artists will receive a total of $60,000 in cash awards. No entry fee.

"Green Light" challenges artists to pinpoint the motivation behind their work and the infinite possibilities that creativity provides. Eligible media include: paintings and drawings (oil, watercolor, acrylic, pencil or charcoal), fine art prints (lithographs, etching, intaglio, or woodcuts), photography, computer generated prints and two-dimensional mixed media - any media that may be represented in two-dimensions. Artwork should not exceed 60 inches in either direction.

New This Year: Sculpture and time-based media (video, film etc.) will also be considered. Sculpture should not exceed 24 inches in any direction. Fifteen (15) awardees will be honored at an awards ceremony on Capitol Hill during the Fall of 2008, and their artwork will be displayed in a nation-wide touring exhibition that debuts at the Smithsonian during September 2008.

To learn more about last year’s program, visit: www.vsarts.org/driven For additional information and to access the application, please visit: www.vsarts.org/VWcall or contact Jennifer Wexler at 800.933.8721 x3885; email: JCWexler@vsarts.org. Alternative formats of the application are available upon request.

Art Deals

Wanna get a Colby Caldwell for a $100 bucks? How about a Tim Tate for $100 Samolians? or an Amy Lin? or Melissa Ichiuji? Susan Jamison? Joshua Levine? Akemi Maegawa? Linn Meyers? Marianela de la Hoz?

Those blue chip artists and a ton more artists' works will be on display at the Corcoran first ever Art Anonymous fundraiser, benefiting the Corcoran College of Art + Design’s BFA Scholarship Fund.

Leading DMV contemporary artists will offer for sale original works alongside the creations of students, faculty, and staff of the Corcoran College of Art + Design and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. All works are only $100 —- the catch: all artwork is signed on the back, so the identity of the artist will remain a mystery until after the purchase.

Hard to disguise a Tim Tate or a Linn Meyers though...

Saturday, May 10, 2008 - 6 p.m. Preview and Raffle, 7 p.m. Bidding Opens; Drinks and dancing until 11 p.m.

You have to RSVP for this event by May 1, 2008. For more information and to register, please click here or call (202) 639-1753.

Participating artists include: Irene Abdou, John M. Adams, Dana Aldis, Geoffrey Aldridge, Shahdeh Ammadi, Alida Anderson, Tim Anderson, Sondra N. Arkin, John Aquilino, Geoff Ault, Patricia Autenrieth, Jennifer Axner, Malena Barnhart, Jessica Grace Bechtel, Diane Blackwell, Lisa Blas, Raya Bodnarchuk, Tanya Bos, Richard Boswell, Mark Cameron Boyd, Joseph Bradley, James Brantley, Courtney Bratun, Lindsay Bratun, Julia Braun, Jean Brinton- Jaecks, Andrew Brown, Jason Bulluck, Renee Butler, Craig Cahoon, Colby Caldwell, F. Lennox Campello, Julie Carrasco, Stevens Jay Carter, Julie Casey, Gloria Cesal, Sarah Chamberlain, Amy Chan , Natalie Cheung, Nannette A. Clark, Lauren Clay, Michael Clements, Genevieve Cocco, Cindy Ann Coldiron, Tim Conlon, Bryan Conner, Sarah Coombs, Ellen Cornett, Patricia Correa, Adger W. Cowans, Robert Creamer, Christopher Cunetto, Emily Cunetto, Christopher Cunningham, Jasmine Daraie, John Deamond, Adam de Boer, Marianela de la Hoz, Rosetta DeBerardinis, Francks F. Deceus, Kate Demong, Jennifer DePalma, Rosanna Dixon, Nancy D. Donnelly, Joel D’Orazio, Katie Drenga, Nekisha Durrett, Steven Eson, Lori Esposito, Steven E. Frost, Lee Gainer, Lacey Gentry, Casey Goldman, Janis Goodman, Pat Goslee, Liz Gordon & Anna (Na Kyung) Ahn, Melissa Green, Tom Green, Lauri Hafvenstein, Mohamed A. Hamo, Rion Harmon, Carol Harrison, Jonathan Hartshorn, Stephen Hay, Sean Hennessey, Dayan Herrara, Randall C. Holloway, Jackie Hoysted, Michal Hunter, Melissa Ichiuji, Megan Irving, Ema Ishii, Harry L. Jaecks, Chris Jamison, Susan Jamison, Ian Jehle, Ryan Carr Johnson, Sue Johnson, David Jolkovski, Adam Jones, Coty Jones, Benjamin Gray Jones, Courtney Jordan, Mila Kagan, Margaret Kepner, Amy Kincaid, Marti Deppa Kirkpatrick , Nick Kirkpatrick, Katherine Kisa, William Knipscher, Steve Lakatos, Nick Lamia, Joshua Levine, Gina Marie Lewis, Katie Lewis , Amy Lin, Heidi Lippman, Carol Lukitsch, Raymond MacDonald, Akemi Maegawa , Dana Maier, Susan Makara, Isaac Maiselman, Isabel Manalo, Joey P. Manlapaz, Katherine Mann, Nathan Manuel, Anne Marchand, James Marshall (Dalek), Madeline Marshall, Myra Maslowsky, Leah Matthews, Cory May, Lisa McCarty, John McDaniel, Joseph McSpadden, Robert Mellor, Ashleigh Nicole Meusel, Trace Miller, Adrienne Mills, Elizabeth Lundberg Morisette, Camille Mosley-Pasley, Marci Nadler, Otto Neals, Emilia Olsen, Kerry O’Neil, Jonathan Ottke, David Page, Paulette Palacios, Chul Beom Park, Annie Peters, Brian Petro, Pamela Phillips, Ryan Pierce, Michael B. Platt, Nick Popovici ,Antonio Puri, Carole Rabel Nicoteri, Camden M. Richards, Marcel Richter, Charlotte Riley-Webb, Emily Rockwell, Andrew Roda, Lisa Rosenstein, Michael Knud Ross, Ron Rumford, Anna Samaha, Nancy Scheinman, Kahn & Selesnick, Mike Shaffer, Joanna Silver, Kristy Simmons, John Simpkins-Camp, Kerry Skarbakka, Paul So, Judy Southerland, Ashley A.. Sullivan, Lynn Sures, Zach Storm, Erik Swanson, Jordan Swartz, Tim Tate, Steve Taylor, James Stephen Terrell, Katurah L. Thomas, Kevin Tierney, Erwin Timmers, Susan Powell Tolbert, Patricia Truitt, Alexia Tryfon, Nicholas Tryfon, Katie Tuss, Linn Meyers and Bert Ulrich, Jessica van Brakle, Izel Vargas , Oliver Vernon, Ivi Volanska, Christopher Walker, Cheryl Warrick, Ellyn Weiss, Moon Young Wohn, Sharon Wolpoff, Antoinette Wysocki, Thomas Xenakis, Lindsey Nicole Yancich, Michelle Yo, Trevor Young, and Toopy Zerotree.

Valko at the Corcoran

Only two days left to catch Marissa Valko's Fine Art Senior Thesis I (through March 23, 2008) at the Corcoran's Gallery 31 in DC.


Next is Nicholas Carr from March 26–30, 2008.

Scotland's Rocky Statute?

If we were accountants or lawyers, I am sure our professional advice would be taken seriously but when it comes to art, everyone is suddenly an expert.

So complains Richard Calvocoressi, the director of the Henry Moore Foundation and until recently director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, who packed up his toys and went home over the fact that the Scots apparently want a particular statute in front of their Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, and it's by an artist who was not one of the five that he and the rest of the body which recommends art for the Scottish Parliament invited to submit proposals.


Read the Guardian story here.

Wha's Like Us? Damn Few And They're A' Died

End of Nature

I've heard good things about the "End of Nature" show at the Warehouse complex in DC. Loads of good photos here and then read the City Paper review by Maura Judkis here.

School 33

Jody Albright has stepped down as director of Baltimore’s city-owned School 33 Arts Center. It's the second School 33 to to resign abruptly in the last four years. Read the story here.

Congrats

To DC's Isabel Manalao's Studio Visit blog , which has been selected by the City Paper's staff as DC's "Best Art Blogger" in the current "Best of DC" issue of the Washington City Paper.

See the other staff picks here and visit Isabel's blog here.

Video Art World

A new website designed to showcase video art and make it available to video collectors has made its debut at www.VideoArtWorld.com.

Galleries can sign to show brief clips of videos they represent for various fees starting at $95 a month for three clips.

Glasshouse shattered

From Kriston Capps in 2005:

"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."

Back then three years ago I didn't think that Capps was right, but just in case I quit immediately contributing gallery openings information ( which is the only data and info that I ever contributed) to DCist.

But now Washington City Paper art critic and many other outlets' contributor Kriston Capps has become a "producer" himself when he curates the current show at Project 4 in DC.

Will I twitch now or whenever I see a future Project 4 feature in the Washington City Paper or any of the other freelance outlets that Capps writes for?

I don't think so, because inside me I think that those outlets, like DCist was in 2005, and it is now, know how to separate themselves from unethical procedures. And because Project 4 is a terrific gallery in the DC art scene and deserves attention. And I sort of hoped that Capps would have had the same "inside me" feeling about the data that I was contributing to DCist back then... but he didn't and perhaps rightly so, lowered the ethical limbo pole for "art producers" who are also art critics or writers.

Inside me, I know this is not 100% the case, and that the art universe has plenty of room for critics who want to be curators and vice versa. And it is not Project 4's fault or the WCP's, or any of the other places that print Capps' eloquent words, that this unwarranted ethical attention has been brought onto to them by Capps' actions, as it wasn't DCist's faults that the unethical spotlight caused by my gallery openings contributions was focused onto them in 2005 by Capps.

But words count, and we Cubans tend to have long memories, and I recall being pointed out for something that was almost smelling unethical in Capps' words, without the courage to say so, and so I took the high road and quit contributing to DCist.

Right away.

Not writing reviews for DCist -- mind you... I never wrote a review for DCist as some less than accurate bloggers erroneously reported -- but just being associated with DCist at all... just in case Capps' ethical testing strip might have a tiny chance of being right...

But now I think that it is time to throw a stone at that Kristonian ethical glasshouse, and put Kriston to the same limbo test that he put me three years ago when he was not a "producer" as he is now as a curator for a gallery show in the city where several of the freelance outlets that he writes for... ahhh... cover.

"It's bitchy of me to say — and I don't know the extent to which Kriston Capps contributes or what Mark Athitakis [the Washington City Paper Arts Editor] has to say on the subject — but I twitch whenever I see a feature in the City Paper about work on display at the gallery that employed Kriston as a curator. I don't doubt the conviction Kriston clearly feels about the art he curates or enjoys, and I don't think that it's unreasonable that he writes about artists [that] he curates on his own blog. But you really can't don the critic's cap when you're a producer in the community."

I was never, ever a critic for DCist.

Thus, if it was an issue for me to contribute multi-gallery opening data to DCist while being an art "producer," then it definitely is an issue for Capps to contribute to the City Paper or his other art writing outlets that may cover the District, as a writer... while now being a commercial gallery curator, which falls neatly into the set of "producer."

And please do not try to justify it as curators are not producers.

What is the solution?

Sounds like it would make a great topic for discussion at an art panel or over a few beers.... first round on me.

DCAC? AU? AAC?

Smithsonian Official Resigns

The head of the Smithsonian Latino Center resigned in February after an internal investigation found that she violated a variety of rules and ethics policies by abusing her expense account, trying to steer a contract to a friend and soliciting free tickets for fashion shows, concerts and music award ceremonies, according to records released yesterday by the Smithsonian.

Read the story by James V. Grimaldi and Jacqueline Trescott in the WashPost here.

Dia de los Muertos

The German artist Gregor Schneider is planning the ultimate performance piece: showing a person dying as part of an exhibition.

I shit thee not... read about it here.

Artist Talk: Baltimore

Hamid Kachmar will be discussing his inspiration and creative process, at New Door Creative in Baltimore this Sunday from 3-5PM.

Congrats

To DC artist Kathryn Cornelius, who has been included in "Ad Absurdum
Energies of the absurd from modernism till today" running April 18 - July 27, 2008 at the MARTa Herford Museum in Germany. Ad Absurdum is a joint project by MARTa Herford and the Städtische Galerie Nordhorn.

Curated by Jan Hoet, the exhibition includes work by Jost (Jodocus) Amman, Joseph Beuys, Jurgen Bey, Guillaume Bijl, Erwin Blumenfeld, Michaël Borremans, Katharina Bosse, Constantin Brancusi, Sebastian Brant, George Brecht, Marco den Breems, André Breton, Marcel Broodthaers, Veronica Brovall, John Cage, Rui Chafes, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Giorgio de Chirico, Kathryn Cornelius, Philipp Corner, matali crasset, Wim Delvoye, Matthias Drechsler, Felix Droese, Marcel Duchamp, Jimmie Durham, Elmgreen & Dragset, Max Ernst, Nick Ervinck, Robert Filliou, Katharina Fritsch, Dorothee Golz, J. J. Grandville, Kristján Gudmundsson, David Hammons, Al Hansen, Raoul Hausmann, Jürgen Heckmanns, Dick Higgins, Andreas Hofer, Ottmar Hörl, Séverine Hubard, Jan Van Imschoot, Marcel Janco, David Kaller, Tadeusz Kantor, Allan Kaprow, Kristof Kintera, Martin Kippenberger, Milan Knízák, Imi Knoebel, Arthur Koepcke, Surasi Kusolwong, Ulrich Lamsfuß, Le Corbusier, Zoe Leonhard, Via Lewandowsky, Zbigniew Libera, Edward Lipski, René Magritte, Jacques Mahé de la Villeglé, Dirk Martens, Fabio Mauri, Jonathan Meese, Rik Meijers, Otto Muehl, Bruce Nauman, Chris Newman, Honoré d'O, Meret Oppenheim, Eduardo Paolozzi, Anna Lange, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Sigmar Polke, Emilio Prini, Royden Rabinowitsch, Man Ray, Odilon Redon, Tobias Rehberger, Tejo Remy, Thomas Rentmeister, Jason Rhoades, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Mimmo Rotella, Dieter Roth, Michael Rutkowsky, Michael Sailstorfer, Takako Saito, Fabian Sanchez, Wilhelm Sasnal, Sebastian Schmieding, ManfreDu Schu, Thomas Schütte, Kurt Schwitters, Michael Sellmann, Hannes Van Severen, Floria Sigismondi, Nedko Solakov, Louis Soutter, Klaus Staeck, André Thomkins, Rosemarie Trockel, Susan Turcot, Pieter van der Heyden, Koen Vanmechelen, Ben Vautier, Wolf Vostell, Friederike Warneke, Emmett Williams, and Carmelo Zagari.

Open Studios: DC

Saturday & Sunday, April 26 - 27, from 11AM- 5PM at 52 O Street NW in Washington DC - website here.
Work by:

Stevens Jay Carter
Brooke Clagett
Betsy Damos
Christopher Edmunds
Adam Eig
Thom Flynn
Cianne Fragione
H2O n2 Wine Films
Andrea Haffner
Peter Harper
Mike Harris
Matt Hollis
Luke Idziak
B. Neal Jones
Micheline Klagsbrun
Raye Leith
Greg McLellan
Brandon Moses
Kendall Nordin
Holly & Ashlee Temple
Lisa Marie Thalhammer
Ben Tolman
Gabriel Thy

Artists' Websites: Diane Ramos

Photography by Diane Ramos

I am hearing good things about Diane Ramos' MFA thesis show at the Latin American Youth Center's Art & Media house on 15th St NW in Columbia Heights in DC. This young and talented artist will graduate from GWU next month.

Visit her website here.

Mellema on Lin

Kevin Mellema at the Falls Church News-Press reviews the current Amy Lin show at the Art League in Alexandria, Virginia and notes:

Alexandria resident Amy Lin has been on the radar screen of the D.C. area arts scene for a couple of years now and was last seen in December 2007 at her solo show in Heineman Myers Contemporary Art Gallery in Bethesda...

... Lin was included in Washingtonian Magazine's 2007 list of “40 Under 40 to Watch.” To be sure this is one rising star in our midst.

Still, I've had my reservations. Not so much on the eventual outcome, but rather the timing of it all. In Lin's last show, I saw too much centered and seemingly static work that didn't quite get up and dance for me. Shafts of brilliance are mixed with moments of weakness, as befits the process of artistic growth. At 29, Lin's best work is most assuredly ahead of her.

The current show in the Torpedo Factory's Art League Gallery is comprised of only six works, yet bears witness to a significant amount of artistic growth in a scant four months' time. While there are still occasional moments of weakness visible, the powerful work to come is clearly breaking out of its shell...

... Welcome the new Amy Lin.

Read this really excellent and insightful review here.

Predicted Mini Controversy

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced a design competition, in partnership with the Joint Committee on the Library and the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, for a statue of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. Commissioned by the U.S. Congress, the sculpture will be permanently installed in National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol Building. The Chrysler Foundation has provided $100,000 to support the administration of the competition.

Chances are that the selected winner will be a classic sculpture to complement the works already there. But, and this may be a bit of a stretch considering the site and the probable set of jurors, if a jury dares to select something a little different from a classical statue, then expect the usual angst and fight over contemporary art.

This event could be an instant career-maker a-la-Maya-Lin and the Viet Nam War Memorial, but only if the jury sidesteps the tradition of traditional statuary (yes, yes.. I know) and selects - as an example - a life size glass reliquary featuring objects that belonged to this amazing lady, plus a running video of her life couple with motion detectors to kick in a little audio when someone stops in front of it.

Details for the competition here, and if I was an art professor teaching some 3D class somewhere, I may just make this a school assignment and have my students each submit a proposal for this call.

Application Receipt Deadline: May 30, 2008
Notification of Semi-Finalists: August 1, 2008

PMA and regional artists

Here's something that you will never see in a Washington, DC museum: This spring the Philadelphia Museum of Art collaborates with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists -one of this region’s artist organizations - to present "Emerging to Established: Twenty-Five Years of the Center for Emerging Visual Artists."

Organized in conjunction with the CFEVA in celebration of this milestone anniversary, the exhibition includes works on paper by 25 artists, including current and former Fellows from CFEVA’s Career Development Program, as well as members of its Board of Artistic Advisors, who select the Fellows. It will be on view through July 6 in the Director’s Gallery.

While the CFEVA program encourages work in all mediums, this exhibition concentrates solely on those making works on paper: drawings, prints, photographs, and mixed-media.

The Center For Emerging Visual Artists, formerly Creative Artists Network, was founded in 1983 by Felicity R. “Bebe” Benoliel to encourage the career development of emerging visual artists. Since then, the organization has worked steadily harder to provide the support essential to talented individuals building careers in the visual arts.