Camilo Sanin at Orchard Gallery

Camilo Sanin, who is currently a graduate student at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and also the winner of prestigious 2009 Bethesda Painting Award, is currently showing in an exhibition titled Underlying Structures at Bethesda's Orchard Gallery.

The opening reception, part of the Bethesda Art Walk, is tomorrow, September 3rd from 7-9pm.

Dupont Gallery walk tomorrow


Lori Anne Boocks and Jan Willem van der Vossen open at Studio Gallery with receptions on Friday 9/3 from 6-8pm (for the Dupont Circle galleries First Friday openings) and again on Saturday 9/11 from 4-6pm.

Wanna go to an opening this Friday?

The Gallery at AYN Studio in the Penn Quarter neighborhood, will present an exhibition of collage and assemblage creations by artists Jamea Richmond-Edwards and Amber Robles-Gordon entitled, “Pretty Things, Little Treasures and Hidden Meanings”. The exhibition will open on Friday September 3, 2010 with a public reception from 6:30-8:30 pm. The exhibition will remain on view by appointment until Friday September 17, 2010.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: November 12, 2010

Gallery West in Old Town Alexandria has a call for artists for their 14th Annual National Juried Show (Exhibit Dates: February 9–March 6, 2011).

The all media show will be juried by yours truly and awards to total $1,000. Click here to download the prospectus.

Maxwell MacKenzie at Fraser

Scary Spider


I've got a black spider in my back yard which has the scariest looking spikes on it body and a mean looking stinger underneath... I've been staying away from this beautiful, mean looking machine.

I've never seen a spider which also has spikes on its body. My poor attempt at macro photography without getting too close to this dude is above. A better image of what it looks like is here.

20 Works of Art Missing or Destroyed

There’s a sad truth to art museums that’s not often talked about: sometimes, things just disappear. Over time, countless works of art have gone missing for one reason or another, whether it’s damage, theft, poor stewardship, natural disaster, or the tragic effects of war. For every hundred or thousand paintings or sculptures, there’s one that’s been lost to the ages. Some exist in reproductions or sketches, but some are gone for good. This list is just a small sample of those works of art that can be seen only in photos of what used to be.

Read it and weep here.

Life After Art School

Carrie M. Becker just received an MFA in sculpture and she's trying to figure out where to go from there:

Transition is a terrible thing. The transition from life in art school to life in the Great Big Out There. How can it work? As I try to write this, “failure” is the only word to come to mind. Failure. But where to go from there?

Failure perfectly describes my state of mind right now. Three years after art school, three states, four jobs, and thousands of dollars of debt later, I’m still nowhere. I once sauntered through the hallways of my alma mater as a god (in my mind at least), and have now been forced, years later, to crawl like a begging dog to interview after interview with no success and no foreseeable future. I wince every time I open my email – surely another rejection is sitting there, mocking me.

Read the entire series here.

Top 20 Movies for Art Buffs

Capturing the creative process on film is almost impossible. Artists work inside their own heads as much as with physical materials, which is why a number of films about artists fall short of the mark. But sometimes, filmmakers get it right, creating rounded portraits of fascinating men and women driven by their passions to create something amazing. Some of the films on this list will be familiar to readers, especially those who've studied fine art at the college or master's degree level, but they're all worth watching no matter your profession. These are the movies that come closer than any others to re-creating the moment of inspiration in an artist's life.

Check out the 20 choices here.

One year old today!


Anderson Lennox Franklin Lars Timothy Angus Pict Eric Florencio Brude James Tiberius Campello Anderson Cruzata Jaspersen Alonso Zaar Marrero Karling Comba Noren Dalke Hartsell y Lennox is one year old today!

That's a lot of names, and thus why sometimes I call him Anderdingus!

Wanna do something fun tomorrow?

Tastings: Sample a variety of organic wines and samples of locally grown snacks

Topic: Getting Your Hands Dirty: Food Acitvism in Metro DC, a discussion with the Neighborhood Farm Initiative (NFI)

Date/Time: Sunday, August 29th from 2:30-5:00 PM

Place: Fountain Framing, 3311 Rhode Island Avenue, Mount Rainier, MD 20712

Cost: No charge

What is the alternative food movement and what are people in our area doing to support food activism? Maureen Moodie and Bea Trickett of the Neighborhood Farm Initiative will discuss food access and food security in the metro DC area. NFI recognizes our concern for food security, food access and healthy living and will also discuss ways to successfully grow organic gardens at home. They will bring in produce grown from farms at Fort Totten and Fort Dupont for your sampling. Tax-deductible donations to the organization are greatly appreciated. For more information about NFI, please see their website at www.neighborhoodfarminitiative.org or contact neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com

Opportunity for Artists

Applications are now being accepted from artists interested in participating in the Dupont Circle Fine Arts Show taking place on Sat, Sept 25, 2010, from 2 to 6pm on 17 St., NW.

This event is being sponsored by the Dupont Circle Citizens Association (DCCA) in conjunction with the Area Neighborhood Commission2B (ANC2B). Interested artists should go to this website and download an application form and informational sheet.

Opportunity for DMV Artists

Deadline: October 30, 2010

The BlackRock Center for the Arts has a huge gorgeous gallery space and their call for artists for the 2011 art season is now up.

The 2011 Call to Artists is open to all artists residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC over the age of 18 for original artwork only. This call will cover exhibits in the gallery from October 2011 through August 2012. An exhibit may include on applicant or a combination of applicants, based on the judgement of jurors. The jury panel is comprised of Kathleen Moran, Jack Rasmussen and yours truly.

Details here.

The Curious Case of Todd Crespi

Last week the New York Times had this article about the artwork of DC area artist Todd Crespi.

The article, by Adam Liptak, presents points of view on Crespi's art (he specializes in courtroom artwork), trying to figure out if Crespi crossed ethical lines in the way that he represented his artwork to his clients.

Essentially: did he create the artwork live and in the courtroom, or did he create later in his studio? The discussion extremes in the article range from:

Mr. Crespi has no Supreme Court press credentials, and artists who work at the court regularly say they never see him. It has been years, they say, since he sat in the alcove reserved for artists near the justices and advocates, the only place in the courtroom where art materials are allowed.

“Todd does not come to the court,” said William J. Hennessy Jr., a freelance artist whose work appears on several television networks. “I have not seen him at the court for at least five years.”

Another artist, Dana Verkouteren, agreed. “He’s never in the courtroom,” she said. Instead, she said, Mr. Crespi works from a standard background, adding images of the advocates based on photographs.

To quotes like:

But Art Lien, an artist who works for NBC, said he was “not very critical of Todd.”

“If they know what they’re getting,” he said of Mr. Crespi’s clients, “why not? Artists have been doing that forever.”

Ms. Verkouteren, another colleague, said of Mr. Crespi: “He might be a genius. He might be a wacky genius.”

Crespi responded yesterday with a Letter to the Editor clarifying that

In the absence of a specific media assignment, I attend the session (like any citizen willing to queue at 6 a.m.), then produce meticulously rendered paintings based on many years of experience as a court artist and portrait specialist.

So according to Crespi, he does attend the court cases; just not as a media assignment (and thus why he's not seated with his colleages). But in any event, is there a valid issue in Liptak's original argument? For the final product: does it make any difference if he produces the artwork right there in the courtroom or later in his studio?

Plein air artists have a valid distinction between a landscape painted on the spot and one painted later in the studio from photographs or sketches. But does this logic apply to courtroom artwork?.

I realize that the main issue with the Liptak article centers around what Crespi tells his clients - not necessarily the final product. But my question deals more with the process itself. I am also clear that creating and marketing the artwork under the impression that it was created on the spot inside the courtroom (as Liptak says Crespi is doing), when it's apparently created from a combination of both courtroom and studio work, does have ethical issues associated how the artwork is "marketed" to potential clients. No one will argue with that. My question is about the process itself, and only about the process.

By the way, Crespi is also an accomplished filmmaker and

Crespi’s film work in FUGAZI’S INSTRUMENT has been seen around the world at such venues as The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Kennedy Center, and the Whitney.

Todd Crespi currently has an exhibition of "New Beach Paintings" at Dupont Circle's Studio Gallery, although curiously there's nothing about the exhibition in the gallery's website.

Comments?

John Gossage: The Pond

John Gossage's remarkable photographic series will be at the Smithsonian American Art Museum from Aug. 27 – Jan. 17, 2011.

“John Gossage: The Pond” celebrates the recent gift to the museum of this remarkable photographic series and the re-issue of one of the most influential photography books of the past three decades. John Gossage (b. 1946) photographed a small, unnamed pond between Washington, D.C., and Queenstown, Md., from 1981 to 1985. The title recalls Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, but Gossage advocated a more allembracing view of the landscape, exploring the less idealized spaces that border America’s cities and suburbs. Although many of the images in “The Pond” appear unruly or uncared for, Gossage found moments of grace and elegance in even the most mundane of places.

The complete portfolio of “The Pond” was acquired by the museum in 2007. This exhibition marks the first time the complete series of 52 gelatin silver prints has been on public display. Gossage lives and works in the Kalorama neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Toby Jurovics, curator of photography, is the curator of the installation.

A conversation between Gossage and Jurovics is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. in the museum’s McEvoy Auditorium.

When bad dealers bite

Yet another lawsuit, this one filed in New York State Supreme Court in 2008 by the Daughters of Mary Mother of Our Savior, an order of nuns in Round Top, N.Y., alleges collusion between a local art appraiser and a Santa Fe, N.M., dealer in the sale of an 1889 painting by William Adolphe Bouguereau titled "Notre Dame D'Anges" for $450,000.

The painting, a gift from a parishioner, had hung in a chapel, and the buyer promptly resold it to another dealer for $2 million, splitting the profit with the appraiser, the suit alleges.

Read the WSJ piece (for some lamentable horror stories of the art world) here.

Lori Anne Boocks at Studio


Lori Anne Boocks and Jan Willem van der Vossen open at Studio Gallery with receptions on Friday 9/3 from 6-8pm (for the Dupont Circle galleries First Friday openings) and again on Saturday 9/11 from 4-6pm.

Peck & Elsner at BlackRock

Two immensely talented artists, Judith Peck and Rita Elsner, share the beautiful gallery space at the BlackRock Center with an exhibition that opens Friday, Sept. 3 from 6-8PM.

Opportunity for DMV Artists

Deadline: October 30, 2010

The BlackRock Center for the Arts has a huge gorgeous gallery space and their call for artists for the 2011 art season is now up.

The 2011 Call to Artists is open to all artists residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC over the age of 18 for original artwork only. This call will cover exhibits in the gallery from October 2011 through August 2012. An exhibit may include on applicant or a combination of applicants, based on the judgement of jurors. The jury panel is comprised of Kathleen Moran, Jack Rasmussen and yours truly.

Details here.

Museum futures

There's no shining line separating the generations, of course. Some directors have been preaching the "populist" gospel for years, often translating that into exhibitions about guitars, hip-hop or "Star Wars" paraphernalia and live music nights with cocktails, DJs and dancing.

Current thinking goes much deeper. Many young directors see museums as modern-day "town squares," social places where members of the community may gather, drawn by art, perhaps, for conversation or music or whatever. They believe that future museum-goers won't be satisfied by simply looking at art, but rather prefer to participate in it or interact with it.

Read the WSJ article by Judy Dobrzynski here.