Gift from the Heavens

Woman Being Lowered from The Heavens
Charcoal and Conte on Paper
17.5 x 7 inches, circa 2013

Galleries 1054 Opening in G'town

Alchemical Vessels Benefit

Join me for this exclusive benefit event at the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery and add one of the 125 Alchemical Vessels works to your own collection! Opening is Friday, May 17 from 7-9 PM.

This unique exhibition will feature the work of 125 artists, hand-selected by 16 invited curators (including yours truly) , to engage in a community dialogue on healing and transformation through the arts. Each artist will transform the ceramic bowl by means of his or her own personal aesthetic and medium, drawing inspiration from the bowl as a place of holding, open community, a circle of care, sacred space, nourishment, and even the alchemical vessel.  

100% of the ticket sale proceeds will go to support Smith Center’s life-enhancing work and programs for people living with and recovering from cancer.

Ticket information:

- Benefit tickets $125: 125 Benefit tickets will be sold, and each ticket holder at this level will be given the opportunity to select a piece of art. Priority will be given by the order in which the tickets were purchased—so the first to buy a ticket will be awarded first pick of the 125 works, and so on. All 125 works will remain in the show until after the closing of the exhibition on June 7, at which time the new owners can pick them up.

- Supporter ticket: $50: This price level is good for entrance to the Benefit only. Ticket holders at this level do not get to keep a piece of art.

If you have trouble purchasing tickets, please call 202.483.8600 or email them at outreach@smithcenter.org. 

See the Facbeook Event for more photos from the Artists!

Benefit attendees will also be invited to the Artists' Closing Reception for Alchemical Vessels on June 7, 2013!

My donation to this event is below. I debated what to create, and in the end, I gessoed the bowl and once again delivered the visage of the most transformative artist that I know: Frida Kahlo.

The Secret Substance of Frida Kahlo
Charcoal, conte and graphite on gessoed ceramic

Seldom has human history seen an artist so transformed by destiny, events and the agony of constant pain as Frida Kahlo. When Kahlo's young body was nearly destroyed and re-arranged by a horrible accident in her youth, where the young art student was impaled on a handrail that pierced her vagina and emerged through her chest, her agony transformed her into another being who then proceeded to gift onto the world some of the most spectacular portraits of pain that we've ever seen.

The intense brutality of pain transformed Kahlo with the same intensity that a thermonuclear reaction transforms its surroundings. She became a being submerged in constant pain for the rest of her life, both physical (she underwent dozens of surgeries) and mental (she experienced many miscarriages and was never able to have a child). And that transformation was the catalyst the propelled her to paint her own image as a mirror of the pain in her life, and in the process to become one of history’s great artists.

In the process, Kahlo transformed all of us, as a little bit of her artistic alchemic powers infect all of us who become hypnotized by her portraits; the power of her gaze, the eloquence of her eye brows and the intensity of her face, all leave a little bit of the secret substance that changes artistic matter from the mundane to an aspiration to the sublime.

WPA Artist Directory Launch Party

WPA 2013 - 2014 Artist Directory Launch Party

Date: April 20, 6-9pm

Location: Capitol Skyline Hotel, 10 I (eye) Street, SW

Washington, DC 20024

The 2011-2012 WPA Artist Directory launches on April 20!

Join them for a free Launch Party at WPA's new home in the Capitol Skyline Hotel to celebrate their new space and the launch of their latest Directory! And stay through the evening to celebrate the WPA's move to the Capitol Skyline at Sleepout, a poolside sleepover party! The Directory launch party is free, but Sleepout is a ticketed event. Purchase tickets here. 

This will be the very first opportunity to see and purchase this full-color guide to WPA member artists that serves as a reference tool for curators, gallerists, patrons and artists. The 2013-2014 Artist Directory is available for $9.95 plus tax. Pre-orders and artist copies will be available for pick up the night of the event. Additional copies may also be purchased. 

David Gregory: DC Asshole of the week

I know that this is very City Paper of me, but this story about TV talking head David Gregory (D-NBC) throwing a fit over parking issues in his "this is where the rich people live in DC" neighborhood really makes the "Meet the Press" host a perfect choice for my inaugural DC Asshole of the Week.

Hopefully it will be another few years before another one is awarded to some idiot who doesn't understand what "public" means in reference to a street and parking.

Gregory flatly denied warning the show-house folks that he “knows all the politicians in town,” as witnesses claim.

"Witnesses" (Plural) -- What a schmuck!

Rousseau on Grand

A great essay by Dr. Claudia Rousseau about the work of Freya Grand for the current exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

 

It was posted on the site in two parts.

 

http://womeninthearts.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/thoughts-on-freya-grands-minding-the-landscap

 

and 

 

http://womeninthearts.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/thoughts-on-freya-grands-minding-the-landscape-part-2-of-2/ 

MFA at Gallery B

Morton Fine Art and its mobile fine art gallery, *a pop-up project, will be showing"Fair Focus," an exhibition of work by artists MAYA FREELON ASANTE, OSI AUDU, KESHA BRUCE, ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY, NATHANIEL DONNETT, VICTOR EKPUK, KATHERINE HATTAM, WILLIAM MACKINNON, JULIA FERNANDEZ-POL and VONN SUMNER at Gallery B in Bethesda.

New wood engravings/paintings by one of the world's greatest living printmaker, Rosemary Feit Covey will be featured. Join her at the opening reception this Friday, April 12, 6-9pm.

Exhibition dates: April 4-27, 2013

Gallery location & hours:
Gallery B
7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E
Bethesda, MD 20814

Hours:
Wednesday - Sunday, 12pm - 5pm

New fountain sculpture in B'more...

There will be a major art gathering on April 17 in Hopkins Plaza in downtown Baltimore sponsored by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts and the Downtown Partnership from 6:00 - 8:30 pm.   The reception will include performance art, music and refreshments and will feature the formal dedication of Wendy Ross's fountain sculpture "Flora", a 40' x 40' x 18' installation in the central fountain.

Congrats to Wendy!

NYC breakfast

Breakfast in New York City at Gramercy Cafe, corner of E. 17th and 3rd Ave

Artist at the Altar finds a home in NYC

This work made its debut at the Affordable Art Fair in New York City and it is now in the collection of a major, major, New York collector... that's what I'm talking about!

Artist Worshiping at the Altar of Modern Art (Version II)
17 x 35 inches. Watercolor, acrylic, charcoal and gesso on paper.
2013 by F. Lennox Campello

One of the critics from ArtNews magazine who has been following my work since the last Miami art fairs and who was here for the press preview told me that I need to make these electronic pieces much larger... which is exactly what my gallerist from Ireland advised.

Walk about the Affordable Art Fair NYC

At LivAspen Art, Boulder, Colorado

At White Cube, London, UK

At Fraser Gallery, Bethesda, MD

Pink Dude walking around the AAFNYC

As soon as you enter the fair spaces...

At Nine Gallery, Gwangju, South Korea

At DECORAZONgallery, London, UK

Seen in NYC

Look who I ran into at the Affordable Art Fair in New York?

The amazing artist known as Clark V. Fox, founder of MOCA DC and one of the DMV's former residents (living now in LA, Texas and Havana).

By the way, he"s squatting down a little - he's still taller than me and looking good.

Today we sold five or six of Greg Knott's photographs (as well as getting him a commission), plus one large drawing of mine, one Jeannette Herrera painting and working a major acquisition deal for Carla Goldberg with a local university!

AAFNYC Thursday

Today three shiny Carla Goldberg sculptures found new homes in the NYC area as well as four of my drawings as the Affordable Art Fair heads to the weekend...

Catwoman finds a home in NYC

Opening night at the Affordable Art Fair in NYC was so packed that it was hard to actually see the art... weird uh? In any event... Catwoman Naked found a home at an address in Central Park West.....

Catwoman Naked by F. Lennox Campello. 7 x 21 inches. Charcoal with embedded video. 2012
In a private collection in NYC

Ratner canceling shows?

I'm hearing from artists who have received a call from the Ratner Museum telling them that all shows after September have been cancelled?

Anyone know what's going on?

Artist Opportunities Spring 2013

Visual Arts: One Million Bones

Deadline: Ongoing

One Million Bones is a large-scale social arts practice, which means we use education and hands-on artmaking to raise awareness of genocides and atrocities going on around the world, this very day. We are collecting artwork bones for a collaborative installation of 1,000,000 bones on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. from June 8th-10th, 2013. This installation will serve as a collaborative site of conscience to remember victims and survivors, and as a visible petition to raise awareness of the issue and call upon our government to take much needed and long overdue action. We need more bones! We are looking for individuals, groups, and organizations to host bone making events! For more information, contact Kathleen McEuen at Kathleen@onemillionbones.org

 

Visual Arts: Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood 2013

Deadline: April 5, 2013

Chesterwood, a National Trust Historic Site, calls for entries for Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood 2013, a juried exhibition of outdoor sculpture in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Glenn Harper, editor of Sculpture magazine, is the guest juror of this group exhibition, which will be on view from Saturday, June 22 to Thursday, October 31, 2013. Chesterwood is the country home, studio and gardens of America’s foremost sculptor of public monuments, Daniel Chester French (1850-1931). This year marks the 35th anniversary of Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood. Sculpture proposals may be in any medium but must be suitable for long-term outdoor exposure and of an appropriate outdoor scale. Please read the complete call for entries for instructions on how to apply online.

 

Visual Arts: Mezz Gallery at Artisphere Call for Entry, 2014-15

Deadline: April 28, 2013
Proposals will be accepted from individual artists, arts groups, organizations, and curators who live, work, study or maintain a studio in Arlington County. Jurors are Jackie and Philippe Loustaunau, collectors, and Sarah Tanguy, curator and independent curator and arts writer.

Visual Arts: 2013-2014 Annual Grants Program Application, Pasadena, CA

Deadline: May 15, 2013

We are pleased to announce that the 2013-2014 Annual Grants Program Application and Guidelines are now available online. All applications are due to the Cultural Affairs Division office by 5:00 pm on Wednesday, May 15. The Annual Grants Program provides opportunities for local arts and culture organizations and individual artists to reach the Pasadena community through interesting, relevant and high quality programs. For more information about the Annual Grants Program Application, Guidelines and free Technical Assistance Workshops, please visit the Cultural Affairs Division online or call (626) 744-7062.

 

Artists Residency: Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA)

Deadline: May 15, 2013

The VCCA is a year-round community that provides a supportive environment for superior national and international visual artists, writers and composers of all economic and cultural backgrounds to pursue their creative work without distraction in a pastoral residential setting.

 

Visual Arts: (e)merge art fair > Now Accepting Artist Applications

Deadline: May 18, 2013The third edition of the (e)merge art fair will take place October 3 – 6, 2013, in Washington, DC, at the Rubell Family’s Capitol Skyline Hotel. Last year, 80 exhibitors presented rising talent from the Americas and Europe at (e)merge. More than 5,500 art supporters engaged with painting, sculpture, digital media, performance and installation works by 152 artists from 24 countries in both our gallery and our artist platforms.  (e)merge is the only art fair that gives free exhibition space to artists without gallery representation. If you are an artist who is currently unrepresented by a gallery and has not yet had a solo exhibition in a major museum or Kunsthalle, (e)merge is your forum for discovery. Artists whose proposals are accepted by the selection committee will be provided with exhibition space at the Fair free of charge.

 

Visual Arts: VSA 2013 Emerging Artists Program – Call for Art 

Deadline: June 9, 2013
A national juried exhibition of emerging artists, ages 16-25, with disabilities. Sponsored by Volkswagen Group of America, In/finite Earth aims to showcase artwork that illuminates innovative viewpoints at the intersection of environmentalism, creativity, and disability. This call for art asks artists to engage in the physical, emotional, and creative ties we share across our planet, and present their artistic perspectives regarding the natural world, sustainability, and our collective future. Fifteen artists will be selected for an exhibition in Fall 2013 and will share $60,000 in cash awards.

Visual Arts: Call for Artists:  A Matter of Time at the National Watch and Clock Museum

Deadline: August 30, 2013

The National Watch and Clock Museum of Columbia, PA invites artists to respond to the concept of timekeeping and how it is represented today. Special consideration will be given to those works that
are functional timekeepers as well. So how do you as an artist respond to the concept of timekeeping? This exhibit will be located in the special exhibit gallery in the museum and take place in fall 2013. There is no entry fee.
Visual Arts: 100 Survivors
Deadline: September 2, 2013

Call for submissions for 100 Survivors, a collaborative, web-based photo and video project for women currently in treatment for breast cancer or diagnosed in the past three years. By featuring up to 100 women and their work, 100 Survivors hopes to inform and inspire by looking beyond "awareness" and "supporting the cause" and focusing on the experiences of actual women with breast cancer. Unique perspectives on breast cancer and identity are welcome and encouraged.

VSA & Accessibility

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

202-416-8898

vsainfo@kennedy-center.org

Capital Art Fair

The 2013 Capital Art Fair will take place in Arlington, VA, at the Holiday Inn-Rosslyn Westpark Hotel during the first weekend of April. 

A successor to the Washington International Print Fair and the Washington Print Fair, the Capital Art Fair is now in its fourth year of bringing collectible and desirable art to the Washington, DC, area. This year, the fair boasts over 20 distinguished art dealers from across the United States and Canada.

Visitors to the fair will find thousands of works on paper from great master prints to cutting edge, contemporary pieces. The original prints, paintings, drawings, and photographs span over 500 years of creative expression, offering an impressive and expansive selection to DC art collectors.

The Capital Art Fair presents an invaluable opportunity, both in access and convenience, to the seasoned art collector, as well as those looking to break into the market. It is the only art fair in the Washington, DC, area where an extraordinary range of fine art will be available for collectors, museums, and the curious to purchase. It also gives a chance for the vibrant DC art community to interact and talk with exhibitors and dealers who are highly respected in the field, many of whom are well known to the curators of DC museums and established members of the International Fine Print Dealers Association.

Tickets to the 2013 Capital Art Fair can be bought at the fair for $10. The fair hours are as listed below:
Saturday, April 6, 2013: 10 am – 6 pm
Sunday, April 7, 2013: 11 am – 5 pm

The Holiday Inn-Rosslyn Westpark Hotel is located at 1900 North Fort Meyer Drive, Alexandria, VA 22209. It is just over the Key Bridge from Georgetown and only one block away from the Rosslyn Metro stop on the Orange and Blue lines.

More information, including directions and a list of participating dealers, can be found at the Capital Art Fair website: http://www.capitalartprintfair.com/.

Artist at the Altar of Modern Art

Here is my latest work in my evolving marriage of traditional art with electronics. This could possibly be my favorite work of art in my seminal exploration of the marriage of art and technology. It has everything that I strive for: technical skill, narrative, a sense of place and something that really pulls someone into the work.

This piece is watercolors, acrylic, charcoal and an embedded digital player that every five seconds dissolves a new image from the art stock of 20th century masters and near masters... Pollock, Rothko, Mondrian, Washington Color School dudes, Basquiat... and hacks like Still.

It will make its debut next Wednesday at the Affordable Art Fair in New York City. Anyone in need of some passes, send me an email.

I'm confident that this work will find a home in NYC once someone with some sharp eyes for what the future of painting/drawing looks like notices it!

Artist Worshiping at the Altar of Modern Art (Version II)
17 x 35 inches. Watercolor, acrylic, charcoal and gesso on paper.
2013 by F. Lennox Campello

Mmm...

Photographers across the country can breathe a sigh of relief. The U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York dismissed collector Jonathan Sobel’s lawsuit against photographer William Eggleston. The case, art law experts say, has broader implications for all artists who incorporate old photographic negatives into new work — and the collectors who support them.

Filed last April, the complaint alleged that Eggleston diluted the value of Sobel’s collection by printing larger, digital versions of some of his best-known works and then selling them for record prices at Christie’s.

 Read about it here.

It took 32 years to sell this painting...

When I was an art student at the University of Washington School of Art in the world's greenest city, the beautiful Seattle in the other Washington, one of the classes that we had was to create works in the style of "masters."

Back then I was in the ecstasy of having just discovered the works of Frida Kahlo, and being the talented antagonist that I am, I delighted in working the now iconic visage into as many art school assignments as I could.

This drove a lot of my art school professors batty, as control is always part of being a professor of anything, even though in art (at least back then) it was all about about freedom of doing whatever you wanted.

One week, the assignment was to paint a canvas in the style of Jackson Pollock, which as most art hacks now, can essentially be done with you eyes closed in zip time.

I delivered a four foot by four foot square canvas which delighted the Prof. -- him and I having had a few discussions about "following directions..." -- There was no Kahlo visage in sight! No eyebrows anywhere in the dripping of colors.

I got an A for the class.

Here's the painting below... it's actually a mediocre Pollock, but a brilliant drip painting in the style of the guy who was teaching the class and who was a drip painter... cough, cough; but there's more to the story.

Frida Kahlo in a Jackson Pollock Universe
F. Lennox Campello, oil on canvas, 4 ft x 4 ft, circa 1981

Dude should have been suspicious of the title... heh, heh... but usually people want to see what they want to see...

And below is an image of the painting once the hidden flap in the center is removed...

And here's what's in the middle, under a most clever flap...

When I (of course) showed the hack (after grades had been recorded) the "real" work... he was furious at first... and then he laughed and congratulated me on my assholishness...

That painting has had a long and very cool provenance... it was exhibited back then at the University of Washington, and decades later at the Fraser Gallery show Passion for Frida: 27 Years of Frida Kahlo exhibition that got loads of coverage (for the DMV anyway), with a nice review in the Washington Times and a profile on the Washington City Paper.

After that it was everywhere! Santa Fe, New York, Miami...

And then, out of the blue (well... not really) ... it's now heading to a major art collector in Bryn Mawr, PA.

It took Frida and Jackson's marriage 32 years to find a home... but a home they have found!