Tuesday, October 05, 2010

How a dealer allegedly stole a painting from the National Portrait Gallery

About ten days ago, artist Margaret Bowland received an email from a design firm in Santa Fe, NM telling her how thrilled they were to have received her painting that had been hanging in the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, where it won the People's Choice Award.

Portrait of Kenyetta and Brianna by Margaret Bowland


Portrait of Kenyetta and Brianna, Oil on linen, 2008. 80 x 72 in. (203.2 x 182.9 cm) by Margaret Bowland

As of today, the NPG's website shows the magnificent painting as "Collection of the Artist."

Bowland says that she has a heart condition, and that when she received that email her heart "started racing so hard I had to lie down on the ground in a public square until I could manage to get on the subway and get home. I raced to the computer and told the firm writing to me that I did not have any awareness of who they were and I had never received one dime for my painting and had been expecting its return to me here in NY." Subsequently, the design firm ceased communication with Bowland.

Bowland writes that she then wrote the NPG "frantically begging... to find out why these people had my painting and what was going on?"

According to Bowland, the NPG quickly stopped communicating with her. She writes that "I thought these people [the NPG] were friends of mine. But immediately they slammed shut in communicating to me at the direction of a lawyer."

She adds that it then required "days of begging and emails to various people" to begin to untangle the mystery. Eventually the Santa Fe buyer called Bowland because as she states: "he said he felt pretty awful about it."

Awful because he had purchased the painting from Bowland's former Santa Fe dealer for $37,500 dollars and he still owed six grand on the painting and was in the process of discovering that he was in possession of a bill of sale for a stolen painting.

How did all this happen?

Here's what Bowland says:
Three years ago I was in a group show at the Klaudia Marr Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. I found out during the short time that I was in her show that my painting had been accepted at the NPG for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.
So Bowland arranged for the NPG to pick up the painting from the gallery in Santa Fe.

She continues:
A few months later... [the NPG] called and told me that Klaudia Marr wished to have the painting as it was hanging in the NPG attributed to a man she said had bought the painting or was in the process of buying the painting. I told [the NPG] absolutely not.

I had never received one dime for the painting and had no expectations of receiving money for the piece. [The NPG] called again and said that [they] well understood and... we spoke for a bit about the horror of thieving dealers. By now the word had gone out that the Marr gallery was stealing from its artists. She had been running the gallery as a ponzi scheme and when the bottom fell out of the market she started lying to people and stealing their art. A friend in the gallery had contacted me and told me this and I had moved very fast to send a shipper in to grab my art. At the time I felt quite fortunate. My friend lost 9 paintings to her. But with this call from [the NPG] I felt that I was safe in the protective hands of the Smithsonian and what could be safer?
Apparently Bowland was wrong.

As the NPG exhibition ended, she notes that the NPG "could not reach me on the telephone. I was in Amsterdam for two weeks." Bowland also notes that the NPG "tried to reach me twice on an email account that has not functioned in almost two years."

Bowland never worried too much because she had received plenty of emails from the NPG (to her correct email address) on other issues: "numerous emails from three separate people there." She had also received "numerous mailings from the Museum at my address, an address I have held for 20 years."

At some point, after trying to contact Bowland on the phone while she was in Amsterdam, and via email to an old email account, but never via regular mail, and for unknown reasons, the NPG contacted the Santa Fe dealer, clearly looking for a place to ship the painting. Apparently having never emailed Bowland to her correct email address, or spoken to her on the phone, or sent her a note in the mail. Bowland adds that:
Ms. Marr seized the opportunity to steal the painting and told the Museum to send the art on to the man from whom she had taken money for the painting. When talking to him later on the phone he told me that the picture showed up "out of the blue" that he had "long ago written the painting off as a loss when he could no longer find the dealer who had gone to ground."
So far, from this story, it seems to be clear from these alleged facts, that the criminal here is possibly an art dealer allegedly intent on stealing a work of art. An art dealer bold enough to allegedly involve a federal museum in the theft.

Bowland notes that:
the part of this that still stuns me the most, however, is that the NPG is agreeing that I was the owner of the painting but is not trying to help me retrieve it or offering to pay me for the loss. They will not even contact law enforcement to try to prevent this from happening to others.
Because this theft crossed state lines, it seems to fit the requirements for the FBI's Art Theft Program. But even that has yielded little hope for Bowland. She notes that
When I contacted the DA [District Attorney] in Santa Fe they told me to go to the FBI. I did so, but I am astonished that they care so little for a thief operating in their own state.
The FBI may still get involved in this, although from what they told Bowland:
They are interested in larger numbers than my ... dollar theft... A very nice young woman at the FBI has also basically told me that my numbers are too small but she is going to try for me.
It appears to me from the facts that I have, that:

1. The only alleged criminal here (so far) from the facts as presented is the art dealer in New Mexico seizing the opportunity to allegedly steal a painting.

2. Someone at the NPG got bamboozled by the dealer.

3. The buyer thought that he had lost over $30,000 when suddenly the painting shows up out of nowhere with an NPG provenance.

4. The artist is not getting answers or help from anyone.

5. There's a former art dealer in Santa Fe who needs a little attention from Law Enforcement to clarify this issue, and I am shocked that for a city whose tourist industry is so aligned with its arts presence, LE is so lax in protecting the rights of artists.

Furthermore, if all these facts are correct, what I don't understand is why the NPG, as a federal institution, is not cooperating with the artist to assist Bowland in dealing with this alleged crime. Why are they not communicating with her? Why are they not helping her in dealing with a recalcitrant FBI? After all, it's not just Bowland who got ripped off, but also some innocent person at the NPG who got allegedly snowed by an alleged criminal to assist in the commission of an alleged art theft, and all the tax payers who fund the NPG and who are unwilling participants in the nauseating alleged act of ripping off a damned good artist.

I've asked the NPG to comment on these questions. So far the path to the right answer seems simple: assist Bowland with the Santa Fe DA and/or the FBI to make the only possible criminal in this story accountable.

Bowland ends by stating:
I am crushed by this. Never in one million years could I have imagined that participating in the show at the NPG could result in such pain and loss.
Neither could I. Ball is on your court NPG; do the right thing.

Artists' Websites: Heidi Fowler

Heidi Fowler
Heidi Fowler has twice been a finalist in the Bethesda Painting Awards (and a second prize winner) as well as a semifinalist for the Trawick and has exhibited widely around the region, most recently at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, in Virginia Beach. Check out her extensive and diverse portfolio here.

Monday, October 04, 2010

MPAartfest yesterday

As you know, yesterday I participated at the MPAartfest, juried by Trudi Van Dyke, who selected forty-four artists to participate in the fourth iteration of this show.

The show was terrific for me. I sold seven drawings, including my three largest (and most expensive) ones. One of the pieces is going to the permanent collection of the American Federation of Government Employees, while another piece went to the permanent collection of one of the DMV's top art collectors.

Because of its size, I had to deliver this second piece to the owner's gorgeous McLean address. When I dropped it off at her house, she said that she was going to call a hanging crew to hang it right away later this week.

I told her that she didn't need to do that. I added that I had hanging gear in my toolbox in the van and that it would take me five minutes to hang it; if she had the space already in mind.

She was delighted and let me into her house.

The substantial walkway to the main home was full of Washington Color School paintings and I began to wonder how my figurative drawing, large and monochromatic as it was, would fit in such an abstract and colorful collection.

The living room (I think) was sort of a transition point. There was not one, but several Gerhard Richters in the room - both his abstract stuff and his representational monochromatic work. Also paintings by Hirst, Bedia, Kuitca (I think) and what appeared to be a sculpture by Ana Mendieta; but we just passed through and I was somewhat dazzled and very tired.

The second large room past that room had a large David Hockney painting from the swimming pool series, and several gorgeous Hockney figurative drawings all around it and other artists as well. There was a large open spot on the wall, where something had been removed, and she pointed me to it.

To the right was a Hockney drawing and to the left was one of those silly Marcel Dzama root beer bear drawings. I was a little stunned and tried a joke.

"Do I really have to hang my piece next to this silly Dzama?" I asked. She took it seriously (maybe I meant it).

"No, no!," she replied. "We can take it down..."

Now it was me who was saying "no, no! - I was only joking!"

She didn't seem too convinced. "I am honored to be in this room with all these Hockney drawings," I added. "He was one of my inspirations in Art School."

"I knew it!" she said triumphantly. "This is the perfect spot."

It took me less than five minutes to measure, re-use their hanging devices and put up my drawing between Dzama and Hockney.

She loved it, although as we walked back out, she glanced back, and I had this feeling that Marcel was going down soon afterwards.

Congrats!

Alexa Meade workTo the superbly talented and innovative Alexa Meade, whose work is part of the next show opening at the Saatchi Gallery in London this coming Thursday!

I am told that supposedly Kate Moss and Mick Jagger are confirmed to be on the guest list for the private viewing.

Meade will have five prints exhibited in the show as well an installation with a live model on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

WPA 2011 Artist Directory

Deadline: February 1, 2011

The Washington Project for the Arts has announced a call for submissions for its 2011 Artist Directory.

Published bi-annually, this four-color, 8.5 x 5.5 inch directory is the definitive listing of established and emerging contemporary artists throughout the Washington region. It is seen by more than 2,000 galleries, curators, art consultants, and interested art patrons. Copies are distributed to selected art critics and other members of the press, and to museums both in the region and outside the area. The 2011 Artist Directory will also be available for sale on the WPA website and at select area retail locations at the price of $9.95.

Each participating artist will be featured on a full page (8.5 x 5.5 inches). The page will include the artist's name, a color digital image of their work, their studio address and phone number, email address, web address, and their gallery affiliation.

All current WPA members are eligible for publication in the Artist Directory. There is an additional registration fee that includes a copy of the Artist Directory. Participants who submit before December 1, 2010 can pay a discounted early registration fee of $65. After December 1, the registration fee increases to $75. The final registration deadline is February 1, 2011. No submissions will be accepted after this date.

All submissions will be handled through an online registration form on the WPA's website.

Each participating artist can upload one image to be featured on their page. Images must be submitted as .eps or .tif files in CMYK format. They must be 300dpi and as close as possible to, but no smaller than 6 inches on the longest side.

If you have any questions regarding the 2011 Artist Directory, please contact Blair Murphy, Membership Directory at bmurphy@wpadc.org or 202-234-7103 x 1.

Folded Christ

"More than 60 people turned out Friday morning to protest one piece in an art exhibit at the Loveland Museum/Gallery in a city nationally recognized for its art-friendly culture.

Holding signs decrying the museum and the City Council and calling the exhibit pornographic, some protesters prayed the rosary out loud while others waved as cars drove by on Lincoln Avenue, honking their horns.

The image in question is a depiction of Jesus Christ involved in what some say is an act of oral sex.

Part of a folded-paper lithograph and woodcut panel depicting cultural icons, the piece, "The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals," was created by California-based artist Enrique Chagoya, a professor at Stanford University."
Ahhh... the never-ending easy artistic shortcut to get attention: somehow screw with the same Christian imagery that Serrano, Offili and countless other artists have used to get some attention.
The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals

The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals by Enrique Chagoya. Color lithograph/woodcut. 7½" x 90". Ed. 30. $3400

You can buy it online here and you can read the full Coloradoan article by Maria Schmitt here.

This piece (which has been exhibited before I gather) now gets the professor national attention. For his next panel, if he wants to get international attention of a diverse nature to say the least, I dare him to do a similar Muhammad panel.

Lo que no mata, engorda.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Sandra Ramos solo show in Norfolk

Havana-based Cuban artist Sandra Ramos is in many people's opinions, the leading contemporary Cuban artist in the world, and later this month, her solo exhibition titled Exodus, running from October 23 - December 27, opens in Norfolk's leading independently owned commercial fine arts gallery: Mayer Fine Art.

MFA, which also represents my work, is by far the top fine arts venue in the Tidewater area, and its hardworking owner, the talented Shiela Giolitti, daughter of the legendary comic book artist Alberto Giolitti has been preparing for this, Ramos' second ever solo show in the USA, for a long time.

Sandra Ramos, Flyin to Miami


Sandra Ramos. Flying to Miami. Charcoal and Acrylic on Digital Canvas Print. 130 x 90 cm. Circa 2010

The opening is Saturday, October 23rd from 6-9PM.

Additionally, Ramos will be leading a printmaking workshop at the Chrysler Museum on Oct 23 and 24th. You can register for that workshop here.

Then, on October 26th at 7PM, Sandra Ramos will present a lecture on contemporary Cuban art at the Baron and Ellin Art Galleries of Old Dominion University in Norfolk. Free and open to the public.

I'm driving down for this opening; see ya there!

TBD Arts Entertainment Calendar

Here is the form to submit your arts event to TBD.com

Come to the MPA ArtFest today

MPAartfest juror, Trudi Van Dyke, has selected forty-four artists to participate in the fourth annual MPAartfest, which is today Sunday, October 3, 10:30 am - 4:30 pm in McLean Central Park.

Ms. Van Dyke, an independent curator and fine arts consultant said "As always, the MPA is a magnet for all good things art and the applications submitted to MPArtfest were no exception. It was both an outstanding opportunity and awesome responsibility to select from a broad pool of artists. I am looking forward to joining the community in attending this great festival." Of the selected artists, twelve are from the McLean/Great Falls area and sixteen are new to MPAartfest.

MPAartfest transforms McLean Central Park into a lively art gallery featuring the sale of the fine arts and crafts of 44 artists. MPAartfest includes fun activities for both children and adults, as well as live music and refreshments. There is no charge to attend MPAartfest, although a donation of $5 is greatly appreciated which helps support McLean Project for the Arts and this special community event.

MPAartfest artists for 2010:

Banks, Jill -- oil painting
Barbieri, Ann -- abstract painting and drawing
Brown, Tavia -- jewelry
Bucci, Thomas -- printmaking monoprints
Burke, Cynthia --painting
Burris, Eric -- mokume gane jewelry
Campello, F. Lennox -- drawing
Cassidy, Katie --oil and acrylic painting
Ciminio, Lisa --jewelry
Deans, Karen -- oil on panel
Emrich, Hanna -- mixed media and collage
Farrow-Savos, Elissa -- sculpture
Fields, Laurie -- mixed media paintings
Ganley, Betty -- traditional watercolor
Green, Michele -- landscape painting
Grisdela, Cindy -- quilting
Hachey, Hilary -- jewelry
Hatfield, Jennifer Bernhard -- whimsical ceramics
Hubacher, Karen -- mixed media paintings and collographs
Jensen, Jill -- handpainted and handprinted wallhangings, scarves, journals
Jolles, Ronni -- layered paper and pastel
Katz, Lori -- clay
Knott, Greg -- photography
Lansaw, Julie Lea -- landscape paintings
Lester, Cherie -- painting/collage
Mahan, Val -- nature photography
McGihon, Marty -- mixed media
Michelle, Jenae -- fiber -- one of a kind handbags
Nimic, Gisele -- ceramics/collage
Paredes, AnaMarie -- metal sculpture
Peery, Laura -- ceramics
Reiber Harris, Kristin -- drawings/monoprints
Rosenstein, Lisa -- mixed media paintings -- white on white
Rosenstein, Loren -- silk scarves
Rubel, Erika -- mixed media
Saenger, Peter -- ceramic
Singh, J.J. -- jewelry
Slack, Connie -- abstract paintings
Staiger, Marsha -- abstract collage
Trump, Novie -- sculpture
Tsai, Irene -- chinese watercolors on rice paper
Vardell, Mollie -- oil paintings
Williams, Ann Marie -- abstract paintings
Woody, Curtis -- mixed media paintings

For more information about McLean Project for the Arts and MPAartfest, please visit www.mpaart.org or call 703-790-1953.

See ya there!

Saturday, October 02, 2010

On the firing of Rick Sanchez

A couple of days ago CNN fired Cuban-American newscaster Rick Sanchez following his controversial and stupid comments on a radio show Thursday. He took some jabs at Jon Stewart (who has been taking a lot of jabs at Sanchez for a long time), but essentially, Sanchez was fired for suggesting that CNN and the rest of the media is run by Jewish people.

I find this Sancheztupidity even more offensive because Sanchez, who wears his Cubanosity very close to his heart, should know that there hundreds of thousands of Cuban Jews all over the world, and in fact most of them are concentrated in Miami (where Sanchez was raised). I have been told that Cuban-American Jews call themselves "Jewbans." As a Cuban-American, I am embarrassed by Sanchez's remarks and by his own cultural ignorance of his own people.

And he is probably not culturally aware that there is a very strong possibility, given his last name and European lineage, that he (as are most Sanchezes) is quite possibly descended from a marrano or force-converted Jew in medieval Spain.

According to MisApellidos.com (which in Spanish means "My last names.com") one of the ancestral origins of the surname Sanchez is:

El apellido es de judios sefarditas convertidos al catolisismo, se acentarón en la región de España y desienden de Aarón.
Translated this says:
The surname is of Sephardic Jews converted to Catholicism, they settled in the region of Spain and are descendants of Aaron.
Genealogy Forum.com asserts that:
Sanchez is a Jewish name. It is a Sephardic (Spanish) Jewish name... Ez or es means "eres Zion" or "eres Sion", which means "Son of Zion/Sion", or "Son of Jerusalem", or children of Israel, or Children of G_d. So Sanchez - means Sanch means sanctified and ez means eres Zion, so then Sanchez is "The Sanctified of Zion". Which means the ones that keep the Laws of G_d from Jerusalem, Israel. The Commandment Keepers of Zion. Sanchez is Hebrew, Israelite, and jewish of the tribe of Judah.
Cultural ignorance is not a pretty thing.

Adios and Shalom Rick...

Call for Artists

Deadline: October 22, 2010.

The 39th Street Gallery and Project Space at the Gateway Art Center @ Brentwood is currently seeking proposals from artists and curators nationwide for an exhibition to take place January 8 to February 26, 2010.

Proposals may be for a self-curated solo show or a curated group exhibition. All original artwork in any media, including installations, will be considered.

For complete guidelines and more information, go to gatewaycdc.org or contact John Paradiso at 301-864-3860 x3 or john@gateway-cdc.org.

35 Years!

Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) will present Catalyst, its 35th anniversary retrospective exhibition, at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC, from November 9 through December 19, 2010.

Using three floors and the outdoor sculpture garden of the museum, Catalyst will be a dynamic, narrative 're-collection' of the WPA legacy, showcasing selected artists, exhibitions, programs, and events from its 35-year history. Curated by longtime WPA member, artist, writer, curator, and art professor J.W. Mahoney, Catalyst will include both recent and period artworks, documentation in both still and moving media, with a fully illustrated catalogue to accompany the exhibition.

In a statement provided by Mr. Mahoney, "Catalyst is intended to demonstrate the uniqueness, the resilience and the authentically catalytic power of a truly successful alternative arts organization that has survived for more than three decades." Divided chronologically into three major sections of the museum, the exhibition will feature works by over 150 artists in a variety of media. Through the presentation of selected works and narrative text, Catalyst will demonstrate the integral role WPA has played in the history of contemporary visual art in Washington, DC.

Catalyst is not intended to be presented as a traditional historical retrospective and it, by practical restrictions on space and time, can present only a glimpse of the depth and breadth of WPA's 35 years of creative production. It is intended to communicate the idea of WPA as a catalyst - as an organization that has meaningfully encouraged and supported the creative spirit of artists - and to demonstrate that artists continue to practice and thrive here in our region.

The exhibition catalogue features an introduction by American University Museum and Curator Jack Rasmussen, an illustrated timeline of selected moments in WPA history; essays by curator J.W. Mahoney, former WPA Executive Director Jock Reynolds, and former Bookworks Manager Robin Moore; and an illustrated exhibition checklist. It is available for $35 on the WPA website and in the American University bookstore.

WPA will also produce an interactive website for the exhibition which will invite artists and individuals associated with WPA throughout its history to contribute stories, artifacts, and information about the organization. The site www.wpadc.org/catalyst, which will include a timeline, comprehensive artist list, and exhibition and performance history of the organization, will be live November 1, 2010.

An opening reception will be held on Saturday, November 13, 2010 from 6-9pm at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20016. A ticketed benefit opening will take place on Tuesday, November 9 from 6:30 to 9:00 pm. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact esmitherman@wpadc.org. Individual tickets are $75 for WPA member artist and $150 for individuals. Proceeds will benefit WPA's 35th anniversary exhibition season.

WPA will also host a series of related performances and public programs leading up to, and during the exhibition dates. Exhibition curator J.W. Mahoney will lead a tour of the exhibition on Saturday, November 20 at 4pm. Further details on the exhibition and related programming will be available at www.wpadc.org in the coming weeks.

My own experiences with the WPA have been terrific and go back many years. But clearly the most important one was in 2005, when I had perhaps the most difficult and most fun curatorial job ever. And at the end, it delivered the most wonderful gift of my life.

This happened when I was retained to curate the massive "Seven" exhibition for the then WPA/Corcoran. My goal in curating the show was to expose WPA artists who rarely, if ever, got any attention from previous curators and pair them up with some well-known names. In order to do that I reviewed 24,000-plus slides in the WPA/C Artfile, plus about a 1,000 digital submissions - the first time that the WPA had used digital entries for a show!

I reviewed all those slides and files not once, but twice over a six month period of trips to the Corcoran, where the WPA lived at the time.

"Seven" got its title because it filled seven different spaces at the Warehouse Theatre and Gallery complex on 7th Street, NW. At the time it was the largest WPA exhibition ever, and it was the WPA's best-selling show up to that time (nearly 70% of all the artwork from 66 artists sold, including two Sam Gilliams, three Chan Chao photos, a major Tim Tate glass piece, huge Graham Caldwell glass piece, Cornelius videos, Jamison painting, etc.) and about a dozen WPA member artists without representation got picked up for representation by galleries from that show (as I took groups of gallerists for one on one tours of the show). These dealers then picked up new artists for their galleries... such as Susan Jamison by Irvine Contemporary.

It was a huge opening with estimates of 600-800 people all spilling out onto the streets. We had a live nude drawing class during the opening show, with the model posing for several artists who created drawings on the spot. They were in what I had dubbed the "Nude Gallery," which was hung with the work of artists who focused on the nude.

We also had opera singer Hisham Breedlove, who had been body painted ahead of time by Adrianne Mills, singing around the galleries as a walking, living work of art. On the top floor gallery, Kathryn Cornelius conducted a performance several times that night. All of this was going on at the opening.

The show got major reviews by the DMV press with coverage in The Washington Post, the City Paper, Georgetowner, and all the (then) new art blogs. It was even covered by local TV as well as covered by CNN - It was the first WPA show ever covered by CNN!

The show was the buzz of the town for the whole month and it accomplished what I had intended to do: expose as many "new" artists to the DC art scene as possible while getting the WPA some buzz and selling some artwork. It did all of that and more.

And most important for me: I met the woman who eventually became my wife at the curator talk that I gave during the show! I challenge anyone to beat that success story!

Friday, October 01, 2010

Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America

The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson is the one single person at the WaPo that I hold (the most from a larger group of troglodytes, I am sure) responsible for the destruction of the visual arts coverage in the Post, in his case in the Style section while he was editor of Style a few years ago. Robinson allowed the decimation and destruction of what was left of Style's gallery and visual arts coverage to take place and for that I hold him responsible.

Robinson did it; or at least he didn't stop them from doing it: arts coverage killer.

But he is also a pretty good book author who picks damned interesting topics for his books - always somewhat prejudiced by the poison, passion and spice that is the American obsession and cultural misunderstanding of race.

His Coal to Cream: A Black Man's Journey Beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race is one of the most interesting books that I've ever read on Latin American racism, if somewhat acutely flawed by his American viewpoint of race that often doesn't apply anywhere else but America.

One of his other books, Last Dance in Havana was also near and dear to my heart and quite interesting, if again curiously naive in attempting to speak for Afro-Cubans from an American perspective that was agonizingly patronizing.

Robinson's newest book, Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America , returns to Robinson's obsession with race (which is richly reflected in his opinion columns in the WaPo) and I am really looking forward to reading it.

It makes its debut in four days with an Amazon Bestsellers pre-release rank of #57,201 in books (today), so it looks like I am one of five people on the planet who will actually buy and read this book, so I will let you know what I think of it once I am finished.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this clear-eyed and compassionate study, Robinson (Coal to Cream), Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist for the Washington Post, marshals persuasive evidence that the African-American population has splintered into four distinct and increasingly disconnected entities: a small elite with enormous influence, a mainstream middle-class majority, a newly emergent group of recent immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean, and an abandoned minority "with less hope of escaping poverty than at any time since Reconstruction's end." Drawing on census records, polling data, sociological studies, and his own experiences growing up in a segregated South Carolina college town during the 1950s, Robinson explores 140 years of black history in America, focusing on how the civil rights movement, desegregation, and affirmative action contributed to the fragmentation. Of particular interest is the discussion of how immigrants from Africa, the "best-educated group coming to live in the United States," are changing what being black means. Robinson notes that despite the enormous strides African-Americans have made in the past 40 years, the problems of poor blacks remain more intractable than ever, though his solution--"a domestic Marshall Plan aimed at black America"--seems implausible in this era of cash-strapped state and local governments.
Buy the book here.

Fridge Burn

The Fridge was never going to be an easy fit for Barracks Row. The art gallery-cum-classroom-cum-performance space opened in an alley off of 8th Street SE in September 2009, and immediately caused minor, NIMBYish ripples in its the well-heeled Capitol Hill neighborhood. Over the last year the outre-minded space has mostly enjoyed a tentative peace with its neighbors.

But when the Fridge had to scale back its ambitions last month, kow-towing to neighbors registering noise complaints, it didn’t involve the usual suspects—no scrappy devotees of street art, no mind-scraping experimental musicians. It happened in August, when, with Congress in recess and the summer quickly bleeding days, the neighborhood can feel like a ghost town.

The culprits? Noisy new agers.
Read the rest of Erin Petty's article in the WCP here.

Head for Art

Just discovered this supercool, new DC-based art site: Head for Art. In it, the fair Aleid Ford has a "365-day project that started Jan 1. The premise is simple: every day this year I take one art work from DC’s National Gallery of Art and discuss it in an interesting and enlightening way."

The site rocks and is a refreshing new presence in the DMV's art scene. Check it out here.

Congrats!

To my good bud and DC uberartist Tim Tate, who will be having his first first museum solo exhibition at Virginia's Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia next May-Aug.

The show will focus primarily on video. It will be called "The Waking Dreams Of Magdelena Moliere."

Stay tuned...

Strauss Fellowships

Deadline: November 6, 2010

The Arts Council of Fairfax County announces the FY2011 Strauss Fellowships. These individual artist grants recognize professional working artists’ achievements and their demonstrated history of accomplishments; they promote artists’ continued pursuit of their creative work. Artists in all disciplines including visual arts, creative writing, theatre, dance performance and choreography, film and new media, music composition and performance are eligible to apply. Applicants must reside in Fairfax County.

Named for Bill Strauss (1947-2007), gifted writer, cofounder of the Capitol Steps and the Cappies, the Strauss Fellowships are an investment in the sustained growth and development of the arts in Fairfax County as well as a way to honor artists’ commitment to an artistic discipline, their professional activity in Fairfax County, and their contributions to the quality of life in Fairfax County. This is the fourth year the fellowships have been offered. Guidelines and application materials are available online at www.artsfairfax.org. The application deadline is November 6, 2010.

The Strauss Fellowships are awarded through a competitive grant program where the recipients are determined by their work’s merit. No specific project needs to be carried out with the funds granted; Strauss Fellowships award outstanding achievement in work that has already been completed. This year Amy Lin, Foon Sham, Blake Stenning, and Ann Marie Williams all were awarded Visual Arts Fellowships.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Seen on Univision

Funny TV commercial for a furniture store in the DMV: A woman is acosted by two men wearing INS uniforms ("la migra"). They corner her against the wall and demand her "papers."

She laughs at them and informs them that to buy furniture at such and such, you "don't need any papers."

Badges, we don't need no stinking badges...


Tomorrow at Hillyer

Guest curator Lou Stovall selected work for the October Members Show in Hillyer Art Space.

Exhibiting artists are: Anne Marchand, Carol Barsha, Cianne Fragione, Ellen Weiss, George Tkabladze, Helen K. Anne, Paula Stern, and Wayson Jones. The opening is tomorrow, Friday, October 1st, 2010, 6PM-9PM as part of the First Friday Openings at Dupont Circle area galleries.

Tomorrow

Andrew Wodzianki's Super! opened at the BlackRock Center for the Arts last Wednesday, September 29, and will run until Monday, October 25.

The artist reception is tomorrow Friday, October 1, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. If you haven't been to the gorgeous huge gallery at BlackRock, this is a perfect opportunity to check it out.

By the way, the BlackRock 2011 Call to Artists is open now 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. The deadline is Oct. 30.

Details here.