First Fridays Everywhere!

Philly's great First Friday openings happen tomorrow night... and so far I can testify that Philadelphia's First Friday openings pack the streets around Old City, and the average age of the gallery aficionado is about 20 years younger than in DC. Details on all the Philly area gallery openings here.

DC also has their First Friday gallery openings going on for the galleries around Dupont Circle. Also generally from 6-8PM. Details on DC openings here.

I think tonight is First Fridays in Fell's Point in Baltimore too, but their website was not updated when I checked (shame on Baltimore).

Update: Also Richmond, VA! Details here.

Wanna go to an opening in Easton, MD?

I love Easton - it is such a gorgeous little artsy Maryland town... anyway, the South Street Gallery is having an opening reception for two classical realism masters this Friday.

Ed Ahlstrom lives in Frederick County, Maryland, is a professor in the Art Department of Montgomery College where he teaches classes in landscape painting, portraiture, and watercolor. Texas-born, Louis Escobedo now lives in Baltimore County, Maryland. Louis received his BFA from Sam Houston University. His paintings have received numerous awards, including the Best of Show from the National Oil Painters of America.

Opening Reception Friday, October 3, 2008 5-9-pm.

Cubans are coming

A few months ago I curated an exhibition of Cuban artists in Norfolk which received rave reviews in the Norfolk area press, and next month I will be curating a group show exhibition of contemporary Cuban artists at H&F Fine Arts, located just outside of DC in the new Gateway Arts District of Mount Rainier, Brentwood, North Brentwood and Hyattsville, Maryland.

Titled "Aqui Estamos" or "Here we are," the exhibition brings to the DC region some of the key Cuban artists working both in Cuba (such as Sandra Ramos, Aimee Garcia Marrero, Los Carpinteros and others), as well as other Cuban artists from the Cuban Diaspora, including Magda Campos-Pons, Roberto Wong and Marta Maria Perez Bravo.

The opening reception is Saturday, November 8 from 5-8PM.

And next spring I will have these same artists in a Philadelphia gallery; more news on that later.

Come see some exceptional artwork and say hi at the H&F Fine Arts opening.

Recycled Glass Arts Workshop


Click on the image for more details...

Bailey at it

Pubic art - against, or for? Everyone has an opinion. However, what about public art that's allowed to just fall apart? Here's Bailey's story about one such piece at the Reston Town Center.

Here we go again

Remember when I told you about this truckdriving lady and her $5 Jackson Pollock find?

Now:

As executive vice president of Azusa Pacific University, David Bixby fields lots of calls. But one that came through last March was a stunner. Howard Kazanjian, a film producer and university trustee, had come across a trove of paintings by a giant of 20th century art that might be donated to the evangelical Christian university.

The good news was that the works were said to have been made by Jackson Pollock, the Abstract Expressionist known for his "drip and splash" style. The bad news: This was yet another batch of undocumented paintings attributed to the artist.

Read the Los Angeles Times story here.

Public Art Futures: A Panel Discussion

Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 2 p.m. at The American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. Offered in conjunction with the exhibition, "Close Encounters: Facing the Future," and the arts initiative BrushFire.

Expected to be a:

"A fascinating discussion about the intervention of art into public space. With several leading participants in the field, we will hear about the potentials for new social dialogue spurred by artists who are moving away from traditional art venues in order to make an impact both on local communities and on mainstream culture at large. What are the social conditions behind this insurgence and what will support its future development? What are the perils and potentials of this new strategy?"

Wanna go to a Virginia opening tomorrow?

Washington Project for the Arts and the Ellipse Arts Center will have Uncommon Beauty, juried by my good friend Sarah Tanguy opening tomorrow (and on exhibit through December 13) at the Ellipse Arts Center (4350 N. Fairfax Drive. One block west of the Ballston Metro, in Arlington, VA).

Featuring: Kay Chernush, Mary Coble, Frank Day, Jason Horowitz, Lucian Perkins & Athena Tacha.

* Artists' Talk and Opening Reception: Thursday, October 2,
5:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Artists' Talk: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Reception follows
Dress: Your interpretation of "Uncommon Beauty"
Parking is free and open late the night of the reception

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?



The exhibition features 25 works -- paintings, sculptures, prints, collages -- that interpret elements of the periodic table through verses incorporated into images.

A preview is available on the Studio Gallery website here.

Littleton Opening

I missed yesterday's opening at the Maurine Littleton Gallery in DC, but have already heard good stuff about it and below some images of the show:

Opening Night at Maurine Littleton Gallery


Tim Tate wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition


Alegra Marquart wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition


Michael Janis wall at Maurine Littleton Exhibition

At PASS Gallery in DC


Opening Reception: Friday, October 3, 7-10pm
PASS GALLERY Fall Exhibition
1617 S. St. NW, WDC, 20009 (Rear Entrance- by way of the alley). The exhibition continues through October 28.

Wall Streeting at -778

It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane -
Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -
world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs. Feed it up a knock,
speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height,
down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for
hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies
breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered
crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population,
common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its
own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the
reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright
light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn,
return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning,
blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle,
light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh,
this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament,
a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite.
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic,
slam, but neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...

(It's time I had some time alone)

At the Hirshhorn this Friday

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will have my good friend Mark Cameron Boyd giving a talk as part of the Friday Gallery Talks on Oct. 3, 2008.

He will speak about John Baldessari's work, Exhibiting Paintings, in Currents: Recent Acquisitions. Meet him at the information desk at 12:30 pm.

Winkler at Washington Printmakers Gallery

Recent Prints by Ellen Verdon Winkler, one of my favorite DC area printmakers, opens at Washington Printmakers Gallery with a First Friday Reception, October 3, 5-8pm and then an Artist’s Talk and Reception, Sunday, October 5, 2-4pm.

For this exhibition, anticipating a possible move from the DC metro area, Winkler was determined to get to know the city better. She began bicycling through the neighborhoods just north of Dupont Circle and was delighted by the visual richness and architectural detail of often over-looked places. She also encountered remnants of the past and the imagined history of the places she explored. She watched as parts of the city were stripped away for redevelopment and felt the fragility of our communities and our lives. She responded to these discoveries through visual and written language, on view this fall. Ellen Verdon Winkler intends to create a book consisting of these images and her new poems. This exciting project is a work in progress and only four of the poems and their corresponding images appear in this show.

Wanna go to a DC opening tonight?

Michael Janis, Allegra Marquart, and Tim Tate will open at Maurine Littleton's power gallery in Georgetown with a rare opening reception to meet the artists today, September 28, 5-7PM.

As far as I know, these are the first local DC area artists picked up by Littleton in the many years that her gallery has been in business and their subsequent national success represent an interesting example of what happens when a recognized power gallery in a particular field brings some attention to an emerging or mid career artist

The exhibition goes through October 18. If you haven't been keeping on with the glass revolution being ignited right under our noses, do miss this show.

Next month Tate makes his solo debut in London by the way...

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Feburary 9, 2009

Seminole Community College Fine Arts Gallery is conducting a search for artists for the 2009-2010 academic year. To be considered for an exhibit, please send proposal, resume, 15-20 high resolution images, and artist statement prior to February 9, 2009.

How to Apply: To be considered for an exhibit, please send proposal, resume, 15-20 high resolution images, and artist statement prior to February 9, 2009. Send information and CD in a manila envelope lined with bubble wrap and marked in bold letters as follows: FRAGILE DO NOT BEND. Address envelope to:

Lucinda Gonzalez
Gallery Curator
Seminole Community College Fine Arts Gallery
100 Weldon Blvd
Sanford, FL 32773-6199

CD images will not be returned to artists as they are permanently archived in the college. For further information please call Gallery Curator at: 407-708-2704.

Rubles for Art

Buyers from Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union account for almost 50 percent of total global sales at Gagosian Gallery, the art world's global leader in exhibition space, said one of its directors.

Read the story by John Varoli here.

Wanna go to a closing reception tomorrow in Philly?

On Loss and Memory - Closing reception, September 27, 3-5 pm. Join Aurora Deshauteurs, Hannah Dumes, P. Timothy Gierschick II, Kay Healy, Geoffrey Hindle, Michelle Provenzano, and Angela Washko, for the closing reception. Fun, food and drink to be had by all.

StrataSphere
1854 Germantown Ave.
(Corner of Berks St. & Germantown Ave, across the street from Cousin's parking lot) in the Old Kensington section of Philadelphia.

Righty Lefty

I asked the question Is there such thing as right wing political art? and my good friend Jeffry Cudlin offers his opinion here.

Mark Dion wins Lucelia award

The Smithsonian American Art Museum announced today that Mark Dion is the 2008 winner of the museum's Lucelia Artist Award. He was selected by an independent panel of jurors for "his prolific creativity and impressively varied body of work, which includes mixed-media installations, sculptures and public projects that explore the relationship among art, science and history through pseudoscientific methods of investigation and display."

Dion is the eighth annual winner of the $25,000 award, which is intended to encourage the artist's future development and experimentation. The Lucelia Artist Award is part of the museum's ongoing commitment to contemporary art and artists through annual exhibitions, acquisitions and public programs.

The five jurors who selected the winner are Mark Bessire, director of the Bates College Museum of Art; Allan McCollum, artist and senior critic in sculpture at the Yale University School of Art; Nancy Princenthal, senior editor at Art in America magazine; John Ravenal, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, director and chief curator at the Aspen Art Museum.

Congrats to Dion!