Free Ivan Fernandez Depestre

The brutal and racist Cuban dictatorship has once again shown its true colors.

Cuban political prisoner Ivan Fernandez Depestre has been brutally beaten and placed in a small, inhumane punishment cell (known as a "tapeada") in the infamous Guamajal Prison of Santa Clara.

Fernandez Depestre, held without charges or trial since July 30th of last year, has been designated by Amnesty International as a "prisoner of conscience."  

He had simply protested against the brutal beating of two fellow black inmates by the Cuban prison authorities.

Once again, I call upon the Black Congressional Caucus to stop treating the racist dictatorship of the Castro Brothers with kid gloves and step up pressure on the Cuban regime to release this brave man and all other prisoners of conscience!

Walk a mile

“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.”

 Jack Handey

East DC Open Studios

A Shared Universe: The Art of Comic Books

Since I have now been curating exhibitions focused on comic book Superheroes for the last four years for the Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach, Scope Art Fair in New York, Affordable Art Fair, also in NYC and last December at the Context Art Fair in Miami, I am looking forward to this exhibition.

All it takes is more than 130 works and some Wham! Bam! Kapow! For Strathmore to explore the world of comic books—interstellar, terrestrial, and beyond—in A Shared Universe: The Art of Comic Books, on view in the Mansion at Strathmore from Saturday, April 12 through Sunday, June 8, 2014. 

Ever since Superman kicked off the superhero comic genre in 1938, the medium has influenced fine and performing arts as well as pop culture. A Shared Universe charts the rise of comic book culture, the evolution of the art form and its influence on the visual art medium, and peers into the future. The show features a collection of original paintings, graphite and ink-based drawings, prints, comic book covers from the Library of Congress, web-based comics and works by undergraduate Sequential Art students who are shaping the genre in new and imaginative ways. 

A free Opening Reception will be held Thursday, April 24 from 7-9 p.m. For more information, call (301) 581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

Artists Inspired by Comic Book Culture
The first floor of the Mansion illustrates how comic books have influenced other visual artists who incorporate compositional attributes, stylization or heroic themes into their works. JD Deardourff creates abstracted comic book images by silk screening. Compositionally and in their coloring his works resemble comic books, though the pieces themselves lack words or narrative structure, leaving the viewer to prescribe their own story. Mark Newport knits colorful, multi-patterned superhero “uniforms,” complete with names, bios and narratives for the masked crusaders who would wear his clothing. In addition to his outfits, the exhibition features a film of Newport in the process of creating a piece. Inspired by COSPLAY and identity roles, DMV favorite Andrew Wodzianski projects a superhero persona onto everyday people in his Fanboy series of large oil paintings—a man wearing a Ninja Turtles mask or emblazoned with the signature Cobra logo from G.I. Joe—hinting that everyone has a hidden persona of some type.

Comic Book Culture: Past, Present, Future
The second floor of the Mansion is dedicated to ever-expanding comic book culture. Viewers are primed for their experience in the Reading Room, with more than 300 comic books to thumb through that provide a survey of different artistic and narrative styles. The reading Room is furnished by local retailer Beyond Comics, which is opening a pop-up shop in the exhibition beginning Thursday, April 24. The exhibition next features artists Bob McLeod and Joe Rubenstein, both famous inkers and members of comic’s old vanguard, having worked with the industry’s most recognized and celebrated publishers. On loan from Geppi’s Entertainment Museum in Baltimore, five works by the late Warren Kremer provide examples of a different rounded brush style of illustration that defined the appearance of characters from Richie Rich to Casper the Friendly Ghost—originals of Kremer’s character “Stumbo the Giant” will be on view in A Shared Universe.

Meanwhile, Kate Beaton and Phil and Kaja Foglio represent the evolving Web-based comic universe. Prints from Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant series and originals from the Foglio’s Girl Genius comic represent the changing, extended narrative that Web-based comics enjoy, as well as the trendy “steam punk” or “gaslamp fantasy” artistic style popular in this medium. Gene Luen Yang, author of the critically-acclaimed American Born Chinese graphic novel, represents this literary niche born from comic book art. Luen Yang’s was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the first to win the American Library Association’s Printz Award. Graphic artist and New Illustration Chair of California College of the Arts Owen Smith bridges the divide between illustration and narration with his cover images for The New Yorker, as well as Sports Illustrated, Time, and Rolling Stone. Anthony Fisher, Dean of the School of Communication Arts and Chair of the Sequential Arts Program at Savannah College of Art and Design, melds comic strip and comic book art with an ink and colored pencil work that is humorous and ironic.

Smith and Fisher, both artists, administrators and educators, segue into a portion of A Shared Universe dedicated to the enterprising and imaginative young minds that will forge the future of comic books. Works by 26 students from Sequential Art degree programs will forecast where comic books might be heading, with the proliferation of Web-based comics, online marketplaces for comics, and independent presses allowing infinitely more freedom for these young artists. Four educational institutions are represented: California College of the Arts, Savannah College of Art and Design, the Center for Cartoon Studies, and The Kubert School.

Education Programming
Strathmore will enhance the visitor experience of A Shared Universe: The Art of Comic Books with public education programs. Strathmore brings together a panel of experts for Beyond Text and Line: A Discussion on the Art of Comic Books on Sunday, April 27, 2014 at 2 p.m. Moderated by Greg McElhatton, former Executive Director of the Small Press Expo (SPX,) a founding freelancer for Wizard, and a current reviewer on iComics.com. The discussion includes Emily Gillis of Wayward Studios; JD Deardourff, a local comic-inspired artist; Rafer Roberts of Plastic Farm Press; and Monica Gallagher of EatYourLipstick.com. Admission is $5.

On Sunday, April 27, 2014 at 4 p.m., Strathmore presents Stripped, a feature film documentary illustrating the lives of the world’s best cartoonists. Admission to the screening is $10.

On Saturday, April 26, 2014 at 10:15 a.m., a Children’s Talk & Tour invites children to explore the exhibition and exercise their creativity through a hands-on arts activity led by professional comic illustrator Mark Mariano. At the 1 p.m. Art Talk & Tour, adults learn about the artwork in the exhibition from curator Harriet Lesser. Both events are free. Reservations are required for the Children’s Talk & Tour and can be made online or by calling (301) 581-5100.

Sperm Man

Remember that scene in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask where the sperms are lined up and ready to "shoot" out?

Sperm Man. Charcoal and Conte on 300 weight paper. 10x8 inches. 2010 F. Lennox Campello

Opportunity for artists

Deadline May 1, 2014

Nature’s ARTcade –  A Regional Art Exhibition at Flag Ponds Nature Park – on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay.  June 7 – June 29, 2014.  Indoor Gallery.  $2,000 in Prize Money. 

Curator:  Margaret Dowell, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, College of Southern MD.  

Prize Jurors:  Jayme McLellan, founder/director Washington DC’s Civilian Art Projects and Tom Horton, author and former environmental editor for the Baltimore Sun.  

Artwork may be any aesthetic, size and year of completion.  Artworks should in some way reflect inspiration from the natural world typical of the Southern Maryland Region.  

Entry  information at www.calvertparks.org/callforartists.  

Questions – call Anne Sundermann (Executive Director, Battle Creek Nature Education Society) at 301-204-4730.

Art Scam Alert!

It is amazing to me how clearly scammish these emails are, and yet still how many artists bite and lose work to these mutants... Beware of this art scammer, who apparently lives in the new US state of Stockholm:

From:     Mr Edwin Martez (allanbarry964@gmail.com)

Good day

We are interested in your Goods which you displayed in the site and we want to
purchase some of the products on this site for our ref. please send us more
information about your company for our ref. please send to our company
official email: address:

Best Regards

Mr Edwin Martez
Purchasing Manager
Edwin Associates
Address: 479 Allen Avenue,
By Charles Walter,
State : stockholm
Country : United States
Mobile Phone : 1-330-3436799
purchasing@gbpharrn.com

Gateway Arts District in jeopardy

The Dept of Housing and Community Development in Prince George's County have stated that they will not give a community development block grant to what have proven to be very effective arts and economic organizations in the Gateway Arts District.

County Council meetings are coming up Tuesday, Apr 8.

Even if you don't live in Prince George's County, this is the time to spend a few minutes and support an arts endeavor which has visible results.

Please sign here and say why you like visiting the Gateway Arts District.I've already done it!

Of the organizations that this affects and that is mentioned in the petition, and the PGC organization that I personally have had the most contact and sexperience with is the Gateway CDC, and I can testify that this hardworking lot already has had a profound positive impact not only on their surrounding community (already one of the largest concentration of artists' studios in the DMV) but also has become a key player in the visual arts tapestry of the DMV.

We need the CDC to keep working to improve PGC. Check out their web page for more info at : http://gatewaycdc.org/

Also, come to the Open Studio Tour 2014 on Saturday, May 10th. Also, organized by Gateway CDC, it features 100+ artists. It's just one of the many things the Gateway CDC is behind.

Philly

View from the hotel in Downtown Philadelphia... Right on Market Street...

Alchemical Vessels

Photos by the very talented DMV artist and Art Advisor Sharon Burton - they are images of the Alchemical Vessels show at the Joan Hisoaka Healing Arts Gallery in DC. Year after year this is one of the coolest shows of the DMV art season and it's not only a Who's Who of DMV Artists, but also an amazing and powerful proof of what gifted minds can create with just about any substrate.

At $125 a vessel, it is also a steal and for a great cause... Go buy one!

Details here.

And (of course) my contribution...

Suddenly, She Wasn't Afraid Any Longer. 2014 Charcoal on Vessel by F. Lennox Campello.

Asshole of the Week: Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

(Via) U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) appeared on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell slamming U.S. efforts to provide Cubans with a Twitter-like social media network.

This was part of a broader, global Obama Administration program to provide connectivity to the censored citizens of closed regimes.

As a matter of fact, Senator Leahy has been a champion of these programs throughout the world, but apparently feels the Cuban people aren't worthy of the same support merited by Syrian, Iranians, North Koreans and the victims of other repressive regimes.

Here's language from Leahy's very-own 2014 State, Foreign Operations Appropriations bill:

SEC. 7072. (a) Of the funds appropriated under titles 8 I and III of this Act, not less than $44,600,000 shall be made available for programs to promote Internet freedom globally: Provided, That such programs shall be prioritized for countries whose governments restrict freedom of expression on the Internet, and that are important to the national interests of the United States: Provided further, That funds made available pursuant to this section shall be matched, to the maximum extent practicable, by sources other than the United States Government, including from the private sector.

Thus, we ask Senator Leahy:

Is Cuba not a government that restricts freedom of expression on the Internet?

Is Cuba not important to the national interests of the United States?

Or, are Cubans just second or third-class citizens less deserving of Internet freedoms?

In Leahy's false outrage on MSNBC, he also stated:

“If you’re going to do a covert operation like this for regime change, assuming it ever makes any sense, it’s not something that should be done through USAID."

Really, Senator?

So how come your very own bill states:

Funds made available pursuant to subsection (a)  shall be—made available to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for programs to implement the May 2011, International Strategy for Cyberspace and the comprehensive strategy to promote Internet freedom and access to information in Iran, as required by section 414 of Public Law 112–158.

Senator Leahy should be commended for his global commitment and leadership on Internet freedom. However, Senator, be consistent -- for Cubans are no less deserving of these freedoms.

 And to the left (of course) that's Leahy all smiley with one of the Castro brothers, heads of the one of the most racist, repressive and brutal dictatorships in the world.

Go see this MFA show

Adrienne Gaither's MFA fine art thesis defense is on Wednesday, April 16, 2014 @ 6PM. It will be hosted by Deep Space Arts at The Warehouse (411 New York Ave, NE: 3rd Floor). This location is metro accessible (NOMA) and there is parking available. 

You want to go see this MFA show and you want to buy one of these paintings now...

Please RSVP by Friday, April 11, 2014.

This is why galleries do art fairs

Nassikas on the way to a collector's wall

That DMV artist Georgia Nassikas taking one of her paintings to get wrapped at the VIP Preview of the Affordable Art Fair last night.

That painting is now hanging on a wall of a very happy art collector in NYC.

If you want some passes to the fair this weekend, send me an email.

Go to this opening tomorrow!

"Suddenly, She Wasn't Afraid Any Longer"
Charcoal and Conte on Provided Clay Vessel
2014 by F. Lennox Campello

Opening April 4, 2014, the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery will host the return of Alchemical Vessels with an opening reception from 7-9 PM. Above is the image for the vessel that I've created and donated for this effort... Last year my piece went really early (first 10 or so)... just sayin'... cough, cough.

Alchemical Vessels brings together 125 local artists and 20 invited curators for a community dialogue on healing and transformation through the arts. Each artist will transform a simple 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, sacred space, and even the alchemical vessel. The show is an amazing grouping of Who's Who in the DMV art scene.

The ceramic bowl was selected as the fundamental element of the exhibition to symbolize creating a space where healing can take place—an idea at the heart of Smith Center's work and mission. Metaphorically speaking, Smith Center—the space and the work we do within our walls—resembles an alchemical vessel. People bring their everyday burdens, fears, and pains to us, and in this place of holding, we help transform those toxic elements into hope, light, wisdom and strength.

The Alchemical Vessels exhibition will open at the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery on April 4th and run through May 16th, 2014, with the opening reception on Friday, April 4th, 7-9pm. The Alchemical Vessels Benefit will take place on Friday, May 2nd, with doors opening at 7pm. With a $125 Benefit-Vessel Contribution, guests will be admitted to the event and will select one of the 125 works on display to add to their own collections. 

For more information about the Alchemical Vessels 2014 Benefit, please visit www.smithcenter.org/benefit.

Artists: Eames Armstrong, Sardar Aziz, Karen Baer, Beth Baldwin, Michele Banks, Joseph Barbaccia, Carolyn Becker, Jessica Beels, Joan Belmar, Lori Anne Boocks, Anne Bouie, Amy Braden, Julia Brown, Karen O. Brown, Larry Brown, Amanda Burnham, Lenny Campello, Shanthi Chandrasekar, Mei Mei Chang, Peter Charles, Asma Chaudhary, Travis Childers, Eunmee Chung, Wesley Clark, Michael Corigliano, Sheila Crider, Candy Cummings, Anna U. Davis, Rosetta DeBerardinis, Tamara De Silva, Elsabe Dixon, Joel D'Orazio, David D'Orio, Chelsea S. Dobert-Kehn, Thomas Drymon, Nekisha Durrett, Victor Ekpuk, Laura Elkins, Dana Ellyn, Erica Benay Fallin, Felisa Federman, Jeremy Flick, Suzi Fox, Barbara Frank, Nancy Frankel, Shaunté Gates, Dawn Gavin, Bita Ghavami, Aziza Claudia Gibson-Hunter, Melissa Glasser, Janis Goodman, Pat Goslee, Sherill Anne Gross, John Grunwell, Nelson Gutierrez, Kristen Hayes, Eve Hennessa, Sean Hennessey, Linda Hesh, Matt Hollis, Leslie Holt, Jessica Hopkins, Karen Hubacher, Monica Jahan Bose, Barbara Johnson, Wayson R. Jones, J'Nell Jordan, Mila Kagan, Sumita Kim, Joan Konkel, Yar Koporulin, Walter Kravitz, Kate Kretz, Randall Lear, Heather Levy, Yue Li, Nathan Loda, Armando Lopez-Bircann, Laurel Lukaszewski, James Mahoney, J.J. McCracken, Donald McCray, Jayme Mclellen, Tendani Mpulubusi El, Komelia Okim, Amie Oliver, Luis Peralta, Michael Platt, Maryanne Pollock, Lynn Putney, Maria-Lana Queen, Beverly Ress, Kim Reyes, Glenn Richardson, Marie Ringwald, Amber Robles-Gordon, Pam Rogers, Lisa Rosenstein, Nicole Salimbene, Samantha Sethi, Matt Sesow, Amy Sherald, Shahin Shikhaliyev, Ellen Sinel, Casey Snyder, Susan Stacks, Dafna Steinberg, Jennifer Strunge, Lynn Sures, Lynn Sylvester, Ira Tattelman, Christine Buckton Tilman, Erwin Timmers, Ben Tolman, Novie Trump, Shinji Turner-Yamamoto, Laurie Tylec, Michael Verdon, Jodi Walsh, Jenny Walton, Ellyn Weiss, Stephanie Williams, Audrey Wilson, Sharon Wolpoff, and Carmen C. Wong.

Curators: Peggy Cooper Cafritz, Educator, Philanthropist and Founder of D.C.'s Duke Ellington School for the Arts | Jarvis DuBois, Independent Curator and Principal at J. DuBois Arts | Monica Jahan Bose, Artist and Activist | Anne L'Ecuyer, Arts Management Faculty at American University | Camille Mosley-Pasley, Photographer and Principal at Pasley Place Photography | B.G. Muhn, Professor of Art, Georgetown University | Michael O'Sullivan, Art Critic for The Washington Post | Dr. Frederick P. Ognibene, M.D., NIH Physician, Fine Art Collector and; Past Board Chair, Washington Project for the Arts | Michael Platt, Artist and Professor at Howard University | Jennifer Riddell, Writer and Interpretive Projects Manager at the National Gallery of Art | Adah Rose, Principal at Adah Rose Gallery | Laura Roulet, Independent Curator and Writer | Molly Ruppert, Artist and Gallery Director at the Warehouse Theater | Terry Scott, Cultural Organizer and Independent Curator | Judy J. Sherman, Art Consultant and Principal at j. fine art | Thomas Stanley, Professor at George Mason University | Nuzhat Sultan, Independent Curator | Tim Tate, Artist and Co-Director of Washington GlassSchool | R.L. Tillman, Artist, Teacher and Curator | Dolly Vehlow, Fine Art Collector and Principal at Gallery O on H 

Planning Committee: Helen Frederick, Deborah Lesser, Wendy Miller, PhD, Kim Schelling, Timothy Schelling, and Ellyn Weiss.

VIP Night at AAFNYC

Our booth at the Affordable Art Fair New York City ... See images below.

It's VIP opening night and DMV artist and art fair rookie Georgia Nassikas is the first to break the ice with a pretty nice sale and an hour to go! Great work by Jodi Walsh and Anne Marchand getting loads of attention... drop me an email if you want a free pass to the fair tomorrow and this weekend in NYC.

Vanderbilt NAACP pissed off...

Derek Mason has been the new head football coach at Vanderbilt University for just a few months. For over a generation one off-campus tradition has been to paint a mural of the head coach on the side of a local business. Generally this occurs without controversy. Until, that is, the local chapter of the Vanderbilt NAACP took issue with the painting and started a petition to have it changed. The issue?

Read about the issue here. Personally, I think that the Vanderbilt NAACP should take a chill pill - In my visual opinion, this is not the case of the artist (Michael Cooper) wanting to portray Mason as in the "era in which black people's skin was darkened and their lips were made whiter in order to exaggerate their race in order to put them in a sharp contrast with the white race."

This is just partially a case of Cooper working from a photo (and never meeting the subject), but mostly a really bad mural painting in this Vanderbilt example, as Cooper seems like an otherwise quite apt muralist.

That lady who "restored" that ancient Christ fresco in that church in Spain and made The Christ look like someone from the Planet of the Apes still has the prize for the worst portrait ever...

Who Had Richer Parents, Doctors Or Artists?

A few weeks ago, we were sitting around the office arguing over this simple question: Who had richer parents, journalists or people working in finance? Doctors or artists? More generally: What's the link between household income during childhood and job choice during adulthood?

After some poking around, we figured out how to settle the argument. A government survey has tracked more than 12,000 people for decades. It allowed us to look at the same group of people in 1979 and 2010 — from a time when most were teenagers to the time when they were middle-aged and, for the most part, gainfully employed.

We crunched the data a few ways. First, here's a table that answers our basic question. It links peoples' jobs as adults in 2010 to their parents' income when they were kids in 1979.

Read this fascinating piece by Quoctrung Bui here.

New York next week!

It's the Affordable Art Fair in NYC next week, which year after year (since I've been doing them since 2005) has proven to be one of the most solid art fairs around.

This year we will feature the work of DMV artists Anne Marchand, Jodi Walsh and Georgia Nassikas.

Come and see us at booth 1.28!

New York City April 3-6, 2014 with
Private View on April 2

A fun four-day event hosting 78 galleries and a huge array of contemporary art, the spring edition of the Affordable Art Fair New York City will take place from April 2-6 at The Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea.

Georgia Nassikas "Lift"

Channeling Jackson Pollock is done

I've been discussing the latest video project, which is a commission for a new cruise liner, and the embedded videos are random videos of rock, paper, scissors, with random videos of the pieces that actually go there.

'Tis Finished, 'Tis Over, 'Tis Done!

Channeling Jackson Pollock: Rock, Paper, Scissors
Oil on 8-ply Paper. 27 x 58 inches. By F. Lennox Campello