Memorial Day
Have a grand Memorial Day!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Rik Freeman at GRACE
If you a collector or lover of good, solid narrative painting with a focus on African American or blues themes, then you gotta go see Rik Freeman's current show at the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, Virginia. Meanwhile, below is a quick video walkthrough of the show:
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Richard Misrach at the NGA
Richard Misrach, one of today’s most prolific photographers, will be giving an artist talk at the National Gallery of Art on the work featured in his exhibition opening on May 25. Accompanying the traveling exhibition is the one-of-a-kind Aperture monograph, Richard Misrach: On the Beach.
Misrach will discuss the spirit of his images and sign copies of his book.
Talk & Book Signing: Sunday, June 8; 2:00 p.m.
Exhibition on view: Sunday, May 25 — Monday, September 01, 2008.
AOM
I will be discussing my Artomatic finds later on - I visited twice and still managed (I think) to miss a whole floor - but meanwhile I have a little Artomatic history here. I would love if you would add in the comments section there your own anecdotes and stories about past Artomatics.
Also next Saturday, May 31, starting at 4PM at the Cabaret Stage in AOM, I will be having a discussion with artists about anything that you want to talk about: how to get affordable framing, how to get a review, how to price your art, how to expand your resume, the who's and what's of DC and Philly art galleries, website design, press, museums, copyright, contracts, artists' success stories and how they did it... anything and everything that you want to ask or talk about.
Afterwards I will also be available to personally criticize and give you feedback on your work (bring thick skin). This is all free and open to anyone,not just AOM artists.
A lot of panels spend a lot of time talking and then at the end people have tons of questions, so this time we will start with questions and move on.
Remember, this will take place at the Artomatic Cabaret Stage, 1st Floor instead of the Education Room. AOM is doing this in order to accommodate more people, so come early; it starts at 4PM.
See ya there!
Friday, May 23, 2008
Affordable Art Fair
Organized by the same outfit that presents the Pulse Art Fairs, in my opinion the Affordable Art Fairs are one of the prime international art fairs to explore... if you are a new or beginning collector, or a collector on a limited budget.
From my past experience loads of experienced collectors also attend and buy, since the artwork ranges from $100 to $10,000 for original artwork from around 80 galleries from around the world are invited to exhibit. Click on the image below for details or visit this website. The fair will be in NYC on June 12-15, 2008.
If you want a free pass to the fair, send me an email and I will send you one.
See ya there!
ARTtistics
A while back I teased you with some big news to come... OK so it is big news for me.
I'm going national!
Not "Daily Campello Art News" - we're staying here and we're gonna be here for a long time, but I have joined a three person team of visual art bloggers over at ARTtistics to begin something new and interesting in the visual arts blogsphere.
Together with Annette Monier from Philly's Fallon & Rosof artblog and Connecticut's Bill Gusky, we've been fotunate enough to have been invited by Mind's Eye to begin a new blog that will allow us to be funded to travel around to see exhibitions and artists around the nation, review them, interview them, discuss them, etc.
I will be posting there often, so make sure that part of your daily ritual, after you check in here, is to visit Arttistics every day.
Goin' Nat!
Another art scam revealed
Email received this morning (no editing, displayed as received):
From: jack tom (tjacktom@hotmail.com)My response:
Hello
How are you doing? my name is Jack tom i live and based in australia i am interested in ordering some of your artwork and ship them to me here in australia my method of payment is via my credit card details kindly let me know if you can assist me with the order ,kindly get back to me with your website address or photos of some of your works you have instock so that we can proceed with this transaction I will await your prompt response as soon as you receive this mail,i will be be very glad if you treat this email with good concern
Thanks with Regards
Jack tom.
Dear Jack,Let's see if he bites.
Thank you for your interest. I am honored by your interest in my work.
I must advise you that I am very choosy as to whom I allow to own my work, and will need to know a little about you and your family and also where you intend to display and hang my art. I also need to know how you intend to frame it.
My prices range from $1,000 to $100,000 - what price range are you interested in?
Before I decide to allow you to own one of my pieces, and you can only buy one per family, I'd like to know a little more about you and what you do in Australia.
Have a G'day!
The Lenster
Penis Guy
Amanda Hess of the Washington City Paper has an interesting article about an even more interesting controversy at the current Artomatic.
Seems like Eduardo Rodriguez, a DC area artist who has been known as Artomatic’s "Penis Guy," had a rules issue in nearly rule-less AOM. Hess writes:
Why did Penis Guy take down his penis pictures? The controversy originated in the spot adjacent to Rodriguez’s now-abandoned space (at NW B1 on the 9th floor) where Moore Photography, a mother-daughter team, exhibit their work. Photos of flowers, butterflies, and fireworks are carefully matted and labeled with titles like “Reflections,” “Delectable,” and “Simply Elegant.” Rodriguez’s Cocksure Series was a bit different: neck-down nudes, mostly male, with message-inscribed torsos — easy to swallow reads one. Another: i am not hung.Read the whole article here.
The visual irony of a 15-year-old’s flora mounted alongside Rodriguez’s phallic extravaganza wasn’t part of Artomatic’s vision and juxtaposition sets up a vintage Artomatic drama. This one plays out in the following sequence:
• On Wednesday, May 7, the last day of Artomatic’s two-week installation period, Rodriguez enters the Artomatic building at 1200 First St. NE and begins hanging his Cocksure Series.
• The next day, Rodriguez reenters the building, officially closed to artists, to apply some finishing touches.
• In the meantime, another artist notices Rodriguez’s last-minute installation and notifies Moore Photography of the content. The Moore family, unimpressed by Penis Guy’s pedigree, complains to Artomatic without having seen Rodriguez’s work.
• Artomatic officials confront Rodriguez at his space. On the night before Artomatic’s opening, two hours before the building’s close, Rodriguez is asked to remount his penis pictures in another spot, away from a minor.
Even a free for all extravaganza like AOM has a few rules and sounds like Rodriguez may have had his share of ignoring some of them, but I also think that artists should be able to work out things like this between themselves... and by artists I include the hardworking volunteers who run AOM, Rodriguez and the Mom & Daughter team.
So... someone in this mini drama is an asshole. A lot of the commenting masses in the CP think that Rodriguez is the asshole as do a lot of comments at the ArtDC forum... maybe they're right, maybe 80% right... maybe 50%.
The power of representational visual art to offend is immense; it is one of its key ingredients and an easy way to your 15 minutes of fame for a lot of artists. Over the years AOM has had what a lot of people may consider offensive art. I'm familiar with Rodriguez's imagery from past AOMs and it doesn't offend me at all.
But I have seen a lot of visual art imagery of erect and flaccid penises in my lifetime.
But I can also see a mother's desire in delaying her daughter's discovery of penis imagery and thus not desiring to be next to the "Penis Guy." And then again, she should also have known that AOM features all kinds of imagery - in my first visit I saw a lot of penises, a lot of vaginas, and a lot of tits. So her minor daughter is probably going to be exposed to them anyway.
But I can see that mom doesn't want to be "next" to a constant visual barrage of a male's reproductive organ in various states of excitement.
This should have been an easy thing to solve; the two neighboring artists should have worked this out and one of them should have moved. This year's AOM is in an amazing, huge, spacious environment and there are hundreds of great spots open.
If Mom & Daughter didn't want to be next to Rodriguez, then if Rodriguez is the "non confrontational" guy that he says he is, then for penis' sakes, take the fucking high road and move your penis photos to another spot. Rodriguez already screwed up by not following the set-up time rules to start with, so clearly set-up was not an issue for him.
If Mom & Daughter didn't want to be next to Rodriguez, then for daughter's sake take the fucking high road and move your nice photos to another spot.
Problem solved.
An event of the size of AOM always has mini dramas and controversy... some of us recall Kathryn Cornelius' closing her installation at an AOM a few years ago because of water issues and someone destroying JW Mahoney's swastikas on the wall.
Go see AOM and buy some art.
Tonite
I will be judging the Lorton Arts Foundation exhibition at the University of Phoenix, Reston, VA (11730 Plaza American Drive, Suite 200, Reston, Virginia 20190).
The opening for the show is tonight, Friday, May 23rd from 7 - 9pm. Come and say hi...
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Congrats!
To my good buddy Jeffry Cudlin who once again has been nominated as a finalist for an Association of Alternative Newsweeklies award for Arts Criticism.
Opportunity for Artists
Deadline: July 1, 2008
VisArts - the Metropolitan Center for Visual Arts in Rockville, MD has a call for glass artists to exhibit in an upcoming show: “Glass: Evolving” Sept. 14-Nov. 16, 2008.
Open to Mid-Atlantic artists, this content-driven glass exhibit will investigate new ideas, narratives, concepts and directions in regional contemporary glass. Entry fee.
For more information, contact: Harriet Lesser, Director of Exhibitions and Programming, 301-315-8200 or gallery@visartscenter.org
Call for entries deadline: July 1, 2008.
The jurors include Lindsey Scott and Jay Scott of Habatat Gallery, VA and the directors of Washington Glass School.
AOM Visit One
On the way to my AOM panel I did a whirlwind tour through the 700 artists at Artomatic and my very first impressions is that this is the best AOM ever.
I know that this comes from an AOM supporter without objectivity on the subject, but it also comes from someone who has examined and visited every single AOM in details, explored every gallery and every artist since it all started a decade ago.
The work that the ceramicists have self-curated and installed is worthy of being in a museum show, both in quality and presentation.
I will be back with a more detailed visit, my top picks from the show, my "new discoveries" and a review and videos.
Below is a photo from last night's panel, which was very well attended and could have gone for hours! There is soooooo much thirst out there for information!
Memo to Philippa: Let's do this again soon with a 2-3 hour window for questions and discussions - I'm game!
Above: Philippa Hughes introduces the panel: Dr. Fred Ognibene, (me missing and taking photo), Martin Irvine, JW Mahoney and Sharon Burton.
Update: Ann Marchand has a great report and pics here.
Congrats
To DC area artist Dana Ellyn whose solo show in Wilmington, NC is doing really well!
Dana's show at the ERA Gallery is titled "Up For Discussion" and prior to the show, she received two write-ups in two local papers and today a review of the show was published.
Check out all the interviews, articles and review here. The show is up through June 28, 2008.
Silly Rabbit, Myths are for Kids. 22"x28" Acrlylic on Canvas by Dana Ellyn
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Millennium Arts Salon: Scholars Speak
Against the backdrop of the Jacob Lawrence Migration Series (he's one of my former professors and now on view at The Phillips Collection through October 26), three leading scholars on African American art speak:
- Dr. Beth Turner, University Professor at the UVA and curator of two major national traveling exhibitions on Jacob Lawrence, Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (2001-03) and The Migration Series (1993-1995) for The Philips Collection, former senior Phillips curator and vice-provost for the arts at the University of Virginia.
- Dr. Leslie King-Hammond, Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of Art History, at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Chair of the Board of The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture.
- Dr. David Driskell, an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland, College Park where the David C. Driskell Center of African American and African Diaspora Visual Arts and Culture was founded in his honor, artist, collector, and cited as one of the world's leading authorities on the subject of African American Art.
One scholar asks, the others respond. All reflect on artists of the 20th century and look ahead to artists in the new millennia.
Millennium Arts Salon and The Phillips Collection are jointly sponsoring this event, to be held in the Sant Auditorium at The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st Street, NW, Thursday, May 29th starting at 6:30pm. The cost is free with museum admission.
Early Look Peek
Here's another early peek at another student whose work I've selected for the "Early Look" student exhibition at the Long View Gallery in DC next month.
Her name is Deborah Shapiro and she's a student at Virginia Commonwealth University in Virginia. See more of her work here.
The show opens at Long View Gallery DC on June 7 from 5-8PM.
AOM Panel on "how to price art"
On Thursday May 22, 2008 at 7:30PM at AOM. The panel includes Arthur Mason, lawyer and art collector with his wife Jane Mason, Lee Eagle, Eagle Associates, Collector and Specialist in the DC secondary art market, Zenith Gallery owner, Margery Goldberg, Gallery Directors Amy Cavanaugh and Briony Evans from Honfluer Gallery, and artists Joyce McCarten and Matt Sesow.
They will each offer their own unique perspective on the subject of pricing art. Free and Open to the Public. For more information contact Adah Rose Bitterbaum, Studio Gallery, 202-232-8734. Sponsored by the Washington Project for the Arts.
Tonight is the "Information Overload: Finding Reliable and Useful Information About Art Collecting" panel at 7PM.
It will be moderated by DC ubercollector Dr. Fred Ognibene and will include JW Mahoney, Sharon Burton, Martin Irvine and yours truly.
See ya there!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Rik Freeman at GRACE
Last weekend when I was in Reston I had an opportunity to look at the current GRACE exhibition, the Chittlin' Circuit Review which features the gorgeous paintings of DC area artist Rik Freeman at the Greater Reston Arts Center.
They are powerfully painted, sensual imagery of dancing, singing, sweating, moving, shouting... in a sort of visual musical African American experience.
And on Wednesday May 21 from 7:30 - 9pm (Free and no reservations required) you can join artist Rik Freeman for an insightful and very personal evening of discussion about his work, the Chittlin' Circuit Review.
Participants will be taken on an imaginative journey of blues history and treated to a recitation of his original spoken-word poem The Ballad of the Grit Gal.
I like this course
The course "Gallery and Museum Resources for Contemporary Art" is being offered on both a credit and non-credit basis in the School of Art + Design at Montgomery College, Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus in MD. It will be taught by Dr. Claudia Rousseau.
It will meet on Wednesdays, 7/9/08 - 8/06/08, all day. Mornings will meet in the new Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center at 930 King Street (just off Georgia Ave) for a lecture, followed by field trips to galleries in the afternoon.
Here's the course description in the non-credit tab:
Gallery and Museum Resources for Contemporary Art
Field trips to Washington DC and Montgomery County galleries, museums and art centers will provide a working laboratory for this course which will expose students to contemporary art in the area and to the extraordinary range of resources available for viewing contemporary art. The course will focus on developing a critical approach to modern and contemporary art through understanding of its recent history and current trends. The goal is to make students more confident about individual encounters with contemporary art, especially in gallery settings. Tuition waiver applies; seniors pay fee only.
Course: ART041, 5 sessions, Wed., 7/9-8/6.
For credit the course is listed under ART, School of Art + Design
AR285L Individual Workshop Art History, 3 credits.
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