Thursday, September 22, 2016

New Altar piece heading to Texas

The Affordable Art Fair is in New York City next week (send me a note if you'd like some passes). And the Texas Contemporary Art Fair is in Houston also next week and at the exact same time! (send me a note if you'd like some passes). 

In New York we will debut new work by Mexico's amazing photographer Dulce Pinzon and in Texas we will showcase her epic True Superheroes series

Also in NYC, there will be new work by the very talented Lori Katz, Elissa Farrow-Savos and Alma Selimovic!

In Texas we will also showcase work by the superbly gifted artists Jodi Walsh and Georgia Nassikas.

The below new piece is heading to Texas... it has several hundred digital files of artwork randomly selected from the web using Google Images and script that does random search on parameters such as "famous artist", etc. The digital image changes every five seconds.

“At the Altar of Modern Art" by F. Lennox Campello
2016. Charcoal, Conte and Embedded Electronics. 36 X 18

“At the Altar of Modern Art" by F. Lennox Campello
2016. Charcoal, Conte and Embedded Electronics. 36 X 18

“At the Altar of Modern Art" by F. Lennox Campello
2016. Charcoal, Conte and Embedded Electronics. 36 X 18

“At the Altar of Modern Art" by F. Lennox Campello
2016. Charcoal, Conte and Embedded Electronics. 36 X 18

“At the Altar of Modern Art" by F. Lennox Campello
2016. Charcoal, Conte and Embedded Electronics. 36 X 18
 

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Opportunity in the other Washington

 Deadline for application: Monday, October 17, 2016

The City of Auburn is seeking artists and/or artist groups working in two-dimensional media to exhibit their work at three City of Auburn gallery spaces during 2017. Galleries are within City operated buildings including City Hall, Auburn Senior Center (Cheryl Sallee Gallery) and Community and Event Center. Artists and/or artists groups of diverse mediums are encouraged to apply, including but not limited to: paint, ink, pencil, mixed media, textiles, mosaic, glass, recycled materials, photography, calligraphy, collage, fiber art, etc.

Details here.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Opportunity for Artists

The City of Mountain View’s Visual Arts Committee is inviting artists and artist teams working in a variety of media to exhibit public art in the lobby of the Center for Performing Arts for the 2017 season.

This year the Visual Arts Committee is requiring a theme of Global Cultural Art. Global Cultural Art is described as how cultures and communities have defined and derived their art, art representitive of different cultures. All artwork must be able to be hung on the Center for Performing Arts system per the requirements listed under Installation on the Floor/Site Plan.

The rotating exhibits are approximately nine weeks in length and are viewed by thousands of people visiting downtown Mountain View and attending shows at the Center for Performing Arts. The Visual Arts Committee would like to encourage exhibits by all local professional artists residing in the 11 San Francisco Bay Area counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano and Sonoma) and, the City will provide insurance, installation and will offer a small stipend to help defray costs.


Apply here - No fees!

Monday, September 19, 2016

Artomatic in Baltimore!

CALL FOR ARTISTS: Artomatic@Baltimore!

Artomatic@Baltimore is happy to announce the Call For Artists! 
 
 Be a part of the first ever Artomatic event of its kind to be held in Baltimore, within the historic Montgomery Park building. 

Online registration starts today Monday, September 19th!

Sunday, September 18, 2016

In process

Two new drawings in process and which will be hopefully ready for the Affordable Art Fair in NYC in two weeks...
The Batman Naked and The Boy Wonder Naked - unfinished - by F. Lennox Campello, c. 2016
The Batman Naked and The Boy Wonder Naked - unfinished - by F. Lennox Campello, c. 2016

Saturday, September 17, 2016

31st Annual Mayor's Arts Awards special honorees and finalists

Mayor Muriel Bowser and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) have announced the special honorees and finalists of the 31st Annual Mayor's Arts Awards.

My good bud, printmaker and visual artist (and DMV treasure) Lou Stovall will receive the Mayor's Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement. Stovall is the founder of Workshop, Inc., and it a master printmaker who has been commissioned to print works of such noted artists as Josef Albers, Peter Blume, Alexander Calder, Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, Loïs Mailou Jones and others.

Theatre producer Julianne Brienza will receive the Mayor's Arts Award for Visionary Leadership. Brienza is a founder and current president and chief executive officer of Capital Fringe, which connects multi-disciplinary artistic experiences to over 40,000 audiences annually and has grown to become the second largest unjuried Fringe Festival in the United States.

Poet and literary activist E. Ethelbert Miller will receive the Mayor's Arts Award for Distinguished Honor. Miller is the author of several collections of poetry, and his anthology "In Search of Color Everywhere" was awarded the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award in 1994. He has been the editor of Poet Lore, the oldest poetry magazine in the United States, and was founder and director of the Ascension Poetry Reading Series, which presented African American poets and poets of color to the general public.

"Our three special honorees represent some of the brightest, most accomplished talents in the District of Columbia," said Arthur Espinoza, Jr., Executive Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. "The impact of their work is felt locally, nationally and internationally. They, along with all this year's award finalists, represent the incredible richness and depth of our city's creative communities."
In addition to the special honorees, awards will be presented to DC-based individual artists and organizations in the following categories: Outstanding New Artist, Excellence in the Humanities, Outstanding Student, Excellence in the Arts. Excellence in Arts Teaching and Excellence in the Creative Industries.

The 2016 Mayor's Arts Award finalists are: Story District, Michael Janis, DC Jazz Festival, Washington Improv Theatre, Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital, Washington Performing Arts, DC Shorts, Pan American Symphony Orchestra, Post Classical Ensemble, Cory L. Stowers, Falun Dafa Association of Washington, Carolyn Malachi, One Common Unity, Sandy Bellamy, Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, Dance Metro DC, Stone Soup Films, Leron Boyd, DC SCORES, Project Create, Amanda Swift, LifePieces to Masterpieces, Washington Performing Arts, Dawn Johnson, Inner City-Inner Child, Young Playwrights' Theater, Split This Rock, Max Tyler Gibbons, Tara Campbell and Maverick Lemons.



My bet is on Michael Janis... of course!

The 31st Annual Mayor's Arts Awards will be presented on Thursday, September 22 at 7:00 PM at the Historic Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U Street NW, Washington, DC. Admission is free and open to the public. This year, the annual awards are presented as part of 202Creates, a new initiative of Mayor Bowser's that showcases the diversity of the District's creative economy. For more information, visit
www.dcarts.dc.gov or call 202-724-5613.

Friday, September 16, 2016

Aubrey Beardsley at auction

A series of drawings that launched the professional career of fin de siècle artist Aubrey Beardsley (1872-98) are up for sale at Swann Auction Galleries in New York on September 29.

Chapter ornaments for a publication of Thomas Mallory’s medieval masterpiece, Le Morte d’Arthur, the drawings carry motifs that were to recur in Beardsley’s work throughout his short-lived career, as well as displaying the individual style that took him from the Arts & Crafts movement to the Aesthetic movement and Art Nouveau.

Fresh to the market after nearly 30 years, the works will appear in Swann Galleries’ Illustration Art auction. They are not just the accomplished creations of an emerging artist, but important historical documents casting light on a seminal moment in art history.

In his 1988 article Thomas Mackenzie and the Beardsley Legacy, art historian Colin White describes how, in 1893, the newly established publishing house JM Dent commissioned the 21-year-old Beardsley to illustrate the 12-part edition of Mallory’s work, instructing him to use woodcuts by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Coley Burne Jones as inspiration.

So successful were Beardsley’s initial drawings, says White, that they enraged William Morris, the leader of the Arts & Crafts movement, in whose Kelmscott Press volumes the Burne Jones woodcuts had appeared. Morris saw Beardsley’s work as little more than plagiarism of the Kelmscott house style.

Eventually overcome with enormity of the task ahead of him, Beardsley started to fill in areas of detail with black, emulating Japanese woodblock prints, an exercise that led him to experiment with a new style and direction in his work.

With a provenance directly back to JM Dent, this is the first time that the drawings offered in the Illustration Art sale have appeared at auction since 1988.

The first up for sale is Rose Bush, an ornamental device for Book VI, chapter VI of Le Morte d’Arthur. In pen and ink on paper, it comes estimated at $3,000 to $4000. The rose is a recurrent symbol for decadence in Beardsley’s work, and the almost abstract nature of this design shows the mastery of his hand.

The following lot is another ornamental device, this time of Three Stylized Clematis Flowers, created for Book VI chapter XVIII, and it carries the same estimate.

The slightly smaller ornamental device for Book VI chapter XII is of Four Large Lillies and is guided at $2,000 to $3,000, while the final lot, encompassing two slightly cruder ornamental devices, Dog Roses, and Three Stylized Leaves, for Book II, chapter VI and VII are being offered together at $1,200 to $1,800.

By coincidence, the sale also features a stunning watercolor illustration by Thomas Mackenzie (1887-1944), the greatly admired Bradford-born contemporary of Beardsley.

Mackenzie illustrated works such as Arthur Ransome’s Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp in Rhyme and Arthur and his Knights, by Christine Chaundler. He landed his first commission, The Crock of Gold, an Irish folk tale by James Stephens, after the intended illustrator, Arthur Rackham, died.

Mackenzie’s richly colored, dreamlike illustrations evoke a sense of magic and other-worldliness that echo both Rackham and Beardsley. The lot on offer shows why he is ripe for rediscovery by a wider audience.

He saw Cairilin Ni Murrachu walking a little way in front comes from The Crock of Gold and is a watercolor and pencil on board. At 15¼ x 10 inches, and dated 1925, the signed image is estimated at $3,000 to $5,000.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Colin Kaepernick doesn't know this...


Wanna know about one of the world's most racist dictatorships? Click here.

Also, I believe that 400,000+ heroes buried at Arlington Cemetery is more than 400,000 reasons to stand for the national anthem.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Top 100 Art Blogs in the world

Hi Lenny,
 
My name is Anuj Agarwal. I'm Founder of Feedspot.

I would like to personally congratulate you as your blog Daily Campello Art News  has been selected by our panelist as one of the Top 100 Art Blogs on the web.


I personally give you a high-five and want to thank you for your contribution to this world. This is the most comprehensive list of  Top 100 Art Blogs   on the internet and I’m honored to have you as part of this!

Dulce Pinzon "Historias del Paraiso"




Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Monday, September 12, 2016

Del Ray Artisans Presents Vibrant “Local Flavor” Art Exhibit

Opening Reception: Friday, October 7 from 7-9pm
Exhibit Dates: October 7-30, 2016

This October Del Ray Artisans presents a collection of artwork from member artists that highlight the things they adore, crave, and experience in their unique and beloved neck of the woods. The art exhibit is called Local Flavor and celebrates the special touches found in community. Come to the opening reception on Friday, October 7 from 7-9pm to meet many of the artists, vote for the “Peoples Choice” award winner, and enjoy all the warm and welcoming artwork. Special thanks to local businesses Rosemarino d’ Italia, Taqueria el Poblano, and Let’s Meat on the Avenue for sponsoring artist awards.
 
The opening reception will also be your first chance to place your bids in the “Birdhouses of Del Ray” silent auction. Artisan birdhouses are being auctioned from October 7 until October 25 at 9pm. Winners will be notified to pick up their prized birdhouses during regular gallery hours. Proceeds from the silent auction benefit Del Ray Artisans.
 
The Local Flavor exhibit will run from October 7-30, 2016. The curator, Dawn Wyse Hurto, also invites the public to drop off donated children’s costumes for the neighborhood Halloween Parade. Costumes will be collected at the gallery from October 7-28. The parade is organized by the Del Ray Business Association and will be held on Sunday, October 30 starting at 2pm.
 
Del Ray Artisans is a nonprofit arts organization in the Del Ray neighborhood located in the City of Alexandria. Del Ray Artisans members fashioned this creative community group using their talent, sweat, and love; host at least 10 art exhibits annually; and organize many ongoing programs and special events. During the month of October mark your calendar for:
  • Partners in Art: Monday, October 10, 2-4pm
  • Life Drawing Clothed Session: Wednesday, October 12, 2-5pm (Short/Long Poses)
  • Life Drawing Regular Sessions: Wednesday, October 12, 6:30-9:30pm (Long Poses); Sunday, October 23, 9:30-11:30am (Gesture); Wednesday, October 26, 2-5pm (Short/Long Poses) and 6:30-9:30pm (Long Poses)
  • Annual Member Meeting/Board Elections: Tuesday, October 25, 7-9pm
  • Come Play with Collage Cut Ups: Thursday, October 27, 7-9pm
  • Cat-urday Toy Making: Saturday, October 29, 10am-12pm
The art exhibit, reception, and events will be at Del Ray Artisans gallery at the Colasanto Center, 2704 Mount Vernon Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia 22301. Gallery hours are: Thursdays, 12–6pm; Fridays and Saturdays, 12–9pm; and Sundays, 12–6pm. The gallery is free, open to the public and handicap accessible.
 
For more information, please visit www.DelRayArtisans.org, or contact the curator Dawn Wyse Hurto at dawn@dawnds.com.

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Lest we forget



Studio View, 9/11 Oil on Canvas c. 9/11/2001 by David FeBland

"Studio View, 9/11"
Oil on Canvas c. 9/11/2001 by David FeBland
 

Maurine Littleton Gallery presents  “Echoes of Leaves and Shadows”, a solo exhibition of new glass works and sculptures by Washington, DC artist Michael Janis opening Friday, September 16, 2016. 


Janis is clearly one of the DMV's blue chip artists, and in the many years of my seeing thousands of artists' works at art fairs all over the planet, I've yet to see anyone whose work comes close to Janis' enviably distinct approach to a very difficult technique.

He has developed and refined an intuitive technique over many years, creating detailed imagery by manipulating glass powder. His illustrative works in glass are dreamy and beautifully stylized. His moody glass panels feature partially obscured people submersed in nature or seemingly dissolving beneath colors and patterns. His work explores the unseen sides of life, longing and loneliness, juxtaposed with fragile beauty. The atmosphere in his subject matter is often presented as if in a dream or limbo-like state, with elements of surrealism. 

Michael Janis: Echoes of Leaves and Shadows
1667 Wisconsin Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20007

Sept 16 – Oct 15, 2016 
Opening Reception Friday, September 16, 6-8pm 

ABOUT THE ARTIST 
Born in Chicago, IL, after a 20 year career as an architect in the United States and Australia, Michael Janis returned to the US with a focus on working with glass. In 2005, Janis became a Co-Director of the Washington Glass School and Studio. Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2012, Janis went to England's University of Sunderland and taught at the UK's National Glass Centre where he became an Artist-in-Residence at the Institute for International Research in Glass (IIRG). The James Renwick Alliance (JRA) named him as their Distinguished Glass Artist in 2014, and he presented and lectured about his work at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) recently advised that they had selected Janis as a finalist in "Excellence in the Arts" category of the 31st Annual Mayor’s Arts Award .

The honors will be awarded September 22, 2016 at the Historic Lincoln Theatre.

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Academy 2016

CONNERSMITH has announced ACADEMY 2016, the 16th annual invitational survey of outstanding work by MFA / BFA students in the Washington / Baltimore area. This year's exhibition will be held online on their website as they complete construction on their new gallery space at 1013 O St., NW, Washington, DC, in the heart of the Shaw Historic District. 
 
Exhibition founder and curator Dr. Jamie Smith invited the following artists to participate:
 
Artists: Sara Al Haddad, Eames Armstrong, Sutton Demlong, Carey Francis, Kyle Kogut, Lydia Lee, Rosemary Markowski, Rea Martin, Calli Moore, Alex Schechter, Michael Schiffer, Josh Sender, Elizabeth Elsie Shannon, Andrew Windham, Dane Winkler, Jowita Wyszomirska.
 
Representing Institutions: American University, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, George Washington University, Maryland Institute College of Art, University of Maryland.


The exhibition runs September 8 - September 30, 2016

Friday, September 09, 2016

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: September 15, 2016.


No submission fee, up to three entries. Bloomsburg University invites artists to submit work in all mediums for an upcoming exhibition, (De)constructing Our Identities to coincide with the Ninth Annual Mid-Atlantic LGBTQA Conference in Bloomsburg, PA. This year’s conference deals with navigating and (de)constructing our identities. Our aim for the exhibition is to feature artists who explore how all facets of a person’s identity impacts their lived experiences as members of LGBTQA communities. Artists who explore the various complications of queer identities and how those identities are constructed or deconstructed are encouraged to apply. https://www.bloomu.edu/LGBTQA/Conference/Art

Thursday, September 08, 2016

DC's first Minister of Culture

Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) has announced SHELDON FOR DC, a public art performance directed by the artist Sheldon Scott. The citywide performance revolves around the campaign of a candidate -- referred to simply as "Sheldon" and played by a half-dozen actors -- who is running to become DC's first Minister of Culture. It will unfold over the next two months in the form of rallies, door-to-door campaigning, meet-the-candidate social events, and an 8-Ward whistle-stop tour.
 
"This is a campaign with a real agenda, which is, simply put, about putting artists first in the policies that impact our city's culture," says Peter Nesbett, WPA's executive director and Sheldon's Campaign Manager. "That is why it is so well aligned with WPA's interests. It doesn't much matter that the office of Minister of Culture doesn't yet exist."
 
SHELDON FOR DC promises a brighter, more creative future for DC. The campaign seeks to unite and rally hundreds of actors, artists, dancers, designers, musicians, and writers into a potent, vocal, political force. If it achieves this, SHELDON FOR DC could become a movement, with a life that extends well beyond this election cycle. If it doesn't, it will be understood, retrospectively, as an episodic piece of performance art.
 
The campaign kicks off with a rally at The Big Chair in Anacostia on Saturday, September 17, from12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Additional events can be found on the campaign website at www.sheldon4dc.org.
 
Situating a project like SHELDON FOR DC within the history of art is not a particularly easy task. Few visual artists have held political office in the U.S. since the painter George Caleb Bingham was elected to the Missouri legislature in 1848. Ad Reinhardt famously ran and lost in the race for New York City mayor in the 1930s, as did Patrick Brill (aka Bob & Roberta Smith), who ran for Parliament in London in 2014. But this project, with its fictitious basis, obviously isn't about winning or losing an election. Instead, it is about mobilizing a constituency. It is about listening and giving voice to DC's artist community, imagining a city where artists have a seat at the table in local government and cultural planning, and forging a vision for DC culture in the future.


For that reason, WPA is complementing the campaign-performance with events that reflect on the relationship of art and politics:



Kate McGraw on How to Run for Political Office
Thursday, September 22, 6:30 p.m.
 
Artist and former DC resident Kate McGraw is running as an Independent for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Come learn what Kate has picked up along the way, how being an artist has informed her political thinking, and how you too might start your own campaign.
 
Born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Kate McGraw earned a BFA from Penn State University and a MFA from CUNY Brooklyn College. She has exhibited at Curator's Office, Washington, DC; Katzen Art Center, Washington, DC; Zentral Bibliothek of Zurich, Switzerland; among other venues; and has received grants from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. McGraw currently works to give voice to sustainable agricultural issues and animal welfare awareness in the arts

Ellen Lupton on Campaign Identities, with Christian Dutilh of Composite Co.
Wednesday, October 26, 6:30 p.m.

Curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City, and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Ellen Lupton is one of the pre-eminent design curators and editors in the U.S. Join us for an evening on the history of campaign identity design. She will be joined by Christian Dutilh, co-designer of the SHELDON FOR DC platform.

Ellen Lupton is 2007 recipient of the AIGA Gold Medal, one of the highest honors given to a graphic designer or design educator in the U.S. Her publications include Thinking with Type (2004), Design Your Life: The Pleasures and Perils of Everyday Things (2009), and Graphic Design Thinking (2011).

Christian Dutilh is Principal of Composite Co., a branding and design studi
o.



For more information on these events and SHELDON FOR DC, please visit

Wednesday, September 07, 2016

Two new curators at SAAM

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has enhanced its curatorial staff with two new appointments--Sarah Newman and Melissa Ho--who will bring fresh perspectives to the museum's collection, and future exhibitions and acquisitions.


Newman is the museum's James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art. Ho is the curator of 20th-century art. Each will be responsible for research, exhibitions and acquisitions related to the museum's collection. These two join nine curators currently on staff or film and media arts, photography, sculpture, contemporary craft, folk and self-taught art, Latino art, 19th-century painting, a chief curator who specializes in 20th-century art and a curator of contemporary interpretation.

Ho began work Aug. 22. Newman began at the museum Sept. 6.
"These new curatorial voices will add terrific energy to the museum's initiatives and will engage contemporary audiences who are interested in how America became the country it is today," said Betsy Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
"I am delighted to welcome Sarah and Melissa to the museum's curatorial team, and look forward to their building the collection to reflect the experience of Americans today with an emphasis on global connections," said Virginia Mecklenburg, chief curator.


Newman was curator of contemporary art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art from 2008 to 2014. While at the Corcoran, she developed "NOW at the Corcoran," a series of commissioned exhibitions and performances by emerging and midcareer artists including Mia Feuer, Spencer Finch, Ellen Harvey, Chris Martin and Enoc Perez. In 2011, she organized "30 Americans," a survey of contemporary African American art, and she curated "Washington Color and Light: Works from the Washington Color School" (2010). Most recently, she has been a guest curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, where she is organizing "Theaster Gates: The Minor Arts," scheduled to open in 2017, and at the Katzen Arts Center at American University, where she curated a midcareer retrospective of Washington, D.C.-based painter Maggie Michael in 2016. Newman earned a bachelor's degree from Williams College, and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005.
Ho comes to the museum from the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, where she was a curator from 2011 to 2016. Recent exhibitions include "Shirin Neshat: Facing History" (2015), which she co-curated with Melissa Chiu, "Salvatore Scarpitta: Traveler" (2014) and "Barbara Kruger: Belief+Doubt" (2012). Her current project, "ONE THING: VIETNAM, Art and Engagement, 1965-1975," explores the interaction between the American war in Vietnam and art; it will open at SAAM in 2019. She earned a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005 and completed coursework for her doctorate. Her thesis examined Hong Kong-born American photographer Tseng Kwong Chi.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: September 17, 2016.


The Miniature Painters, Sculptors & Gravers Society of Washington, DC announces a call to artists for a juried art exhibition at the Mansion at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD, November 20 - December 31, 2016. Juror: Judy Lalingo, Professional Artist. $7,000 in awards. Miniature artwork only. $25-$45 entry fee. Deadline: September 17, 2016.


More information visit, http://mpsgs.org Contact: email nancy@miniartsupply.biz or call 301-977-2190.

Tuesday, September 06, 2016

31st Annual Mayor's Arts Awards

You're Invited!   

31st Annual Mayor's Arts Awards

Thursday | September 22, 2016 | 7:00 pm 

Historic Lincoln Theatre
1215 U Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
Doors Open 6:00 PM
Reception following Awards

Creative formalwear suggested 

The Mayor's Arts Awards are the most prestigious honors conferred by the city on individual artists, teachers, nonprofit organizations and patrons of the arts.
Special Honorees
Lou Stovall
Lifetime Achievement

Julianne Brienza
Visionary Leadership

E. Ethelbert Miller
Distinguished Honor

Individuals and Organizations will be recognized in six categories: Excellence in the Arts, Excellence in the Humanities,
Excellence in Creative Industries, Outstanding Student Award, Excellence in Arts Teaching, and Outstanding New Artist


2016 Mayor's Arts Award finalists:
Story District, Michael Janis, DC Jazz Festival, Washington Improv Theatre, Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capitol, Washington Performing Arts, DC Shorts, Pan American Symphony Orchestra, Post Classical Ensemble, Cory L. Stowers, Falun Dafa Association of Washington, Carolyn Malachi, One Common Unity, Sandy Bellamy, Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, Dance Metro DC, Stone Soup Films, Leron Boyd, DC SCORES, Project Create, Amanda Swift, LifePieces to Masterpieces, Washington Performing Arts, Dawn Johnson, Inner City-Inner Child, Young Playwrights' Theater, Split This Rock, Max Tyler Gibbons, Tara Campbell,
Maverick Lemons

Admission is free, RSVP here
www.dcarts.dc.gov | 202-724-5613

Monday, September 05, 2016

New book by Sharon Louden

Artist Sharon Louden has a new book out!
I am also excited to announce that my new book, The Artist as Culture Producer, is now available to pre-order at a discount until October 1st (use code PRARTIST).  
To support the release of the book, we are now raising money for an extensive conversation tour across America and abroad that will connect contributors of the book with other regional artists and community stakeholders.  
Please support our community building efforts by donating here:
http://www.livesustain.org/donate

Sunday, September 04, 2016

Lisa Yuskavage censored

The cover of Australian art magazine Vault, which features a painting of a naked pregnant woman, has been censored for newsagencies, raising questions about perceptions of the female body. 
The painting, titled Brood (2005-2006), is by well-known New York artist Lisa Yuskavage, whose sought-after work sparks million-dollar prices.
Read the story here. 

Saturday, September 03, 2016

The Dying Gray Lady

Texas Contemporary

We'll be at the Texas Contemporary Art Fair September 29 - October 2, 2016 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. Showcasing Jodi Walsh, Georgia Nassikas, Dulce Pinzon and The Lennythron!


Friday, September 02, 2016

How to give artists life after they die

An artist’s estate is successful when it is able to keep the work alive: when subsequent generations of artists draw inspiration from it and when curators, researchers and collectors continuously find new ways to approach it. This goal is achieved when the estate initiates dialogue and exhibitions, contextualises the work, and makes it accessible to contemporary artists. Reaching it, however, requires a quantity of high-quality works as well as financial resources. Furthermore, a vast array of knowledge and skills, ranging from an art-historical understanding of the work to managerial and business know-how, are crucial to the success of this endeavour. Thus, heirs often devote a significant portion of their lives to this work.
Read this fascinating advisory article here.

Thursday, September 01, 2016

Trawick Prizewinners announced!

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, a juried art competition produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, announced the top three prize winners last night during the exhibition’s opening. Lauren Adams from Baltimore, MD was awarded “Best in Show” with $10,000; Sarah Irvin from Springfield, VA was named second place and given $2,000; and Ben Marcin from Baltimore, MD was bestowed third place and received $1,000.

Lauren Adams and Carol Trawick
Lauren Adams, who earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina and her Master of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University, mines the histories of power, labor and material culture to make surprising connections that resonate with current sociopolitical issues. Her work has been featured at ConnerSmith in Washington, D.C., The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD, Contemporary Applied Arts in London, UK, Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, MO and the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, PA, among others. She attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and held residencies at the Cite in Paris, France and the Jentel Foundation in Wyoming. She received the Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Award in 2007, was a finalist for the Janet and Walter Sondheim Prize in 2014, and was recently named a 2016 Pollock Krasner Foundation grant recipient.

2016 Trawick Prize Finalists


Lauren Adams, Baltimore, MD
Cindy Cheng, Baltimore, MD
Leah Cooper, Baltimore, MD
Sarah Irvin, Springfield, VA
Dean Kessmann, Washington, D.C.
Ben Marcin, Baltimore, MD
Tony Shore, Baltimore, MD
William Wylie, Charlottesville, VA



The work of the finalists will be on exhibit at Gallery B, 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E, until September 24. The public opening reception will be held Friday, September 9 from 6-8pm. Gallery hours for the duration of the exhibit are Wednesday through Saturday, 12 – 6pm.

Entries were juried by Stéphane Aquin, Chief Curator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Hasan Elahi, Associate Professor, Department of Art at University of Maryland and Rebecca Schoenthal, Curator of Exhibitions and Co-Interim Director at The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia.

The Trawick Prize was established in 2003 by Carol Trawick, a longtime community activist in downtown Bethesda. She is the past Chair of both the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and Bethesda Urban Partnership, and also the Founder of the Bethesda Painting Awards. In 2007, Ms. Trawick founded the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation to assist health and human services and arts non-profits in Montgomery County.

The Trawick Prize is one of the first regional competitions and largest prizes to annually honor visual artists. To date, The Trawick Prize has awarded $205,000 in prize monies and has exhibited the work of more than 130 regional artists. Previous Best in Show recipients include Richard Cleaver, 2003; David Page, 2004; Jiha Moon, 2005; James Rieck, 2006; Jo Smail, 2007; Maggie Michael, 2008; Rene Trevino, 2009; Sara Pomerance, 2010; Mia Feuer, 2011; Lillian Bayley Hoover, 2012; Gary Kachadourian, 2013; Neil Feather, 2014 and Jonathan Monaghan, 2015.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

#artscam

As many of you know, I love busting the mutants who are perennially trying to separate artists from their artwork through a scam.

#artscam on Twitter is also a great place to visit every once in a while to see who's been busted through TweetLand.

Monday, August 29, 2016

Sunday, August 28, 2016

The Last Copy of The Constitution

From my obsessive drawings series (where I repeat the same theme ad nauseum). This work will be at The Affordable Art Fair in NYC, booth 1.36 next month.

"The Last Copy of The Constitution" by F. Lennox Campello 19x12 inches.Charcoal on Paper. Circa 2016
"The Last Copy of The Constitution" (detail) 19x12 inches.Charcoal on Paper. Circa 2016
"The Last Copy of The Constitution" by F. Lennox Campello 19x12 inches.Charcoal on Paper. Circa 2016
"The Last Copy of The Constitution" 19x12 inches.Charcoal on Paper. Circa 2016

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this bastard... I've contacted Marriott and they've confirmed that this mutant is not who he says:
From: Ahmed (ahmed@mcgeoch.com) 

Good day,
We are interested to place a trial order.
Attached please fine our company caralogue, i specified the required items by making them with blue ink
Confirm The items you have in stock and quote us the following
1. Your Best Price for the Item selected
2. Minimum Order quantity
3. Payment term
4. Delivery Time.
Hope to establish a very good business relationship with you.
 
Best Regards
 
AHMED AL-YURI
____________________________
Al Faisal Holding Co
Purchasing Manager
Marriott Marquis City Center Doha Hotel
Al Wahda Street
22nd Floor
West Bay Area
22466, Qatar
Tel: +974 4422-3888
Fax: +974 4422-3800

Friday, August 26, 2016

A letter from the WPA's Nathalie von Veh

A letter from the WPA's Nathalie von Veh:           
Dear members,


I am excited to officially introduce myself as your new point of contact. I've had the privilege of meeting many of you over the two and a half years I've been working at WPA, but for those of you who don't know me already, I thought I'd take a moment to say hello and tell you a little about myself.


I am a Seattle transplant who craves adventure and salty air. I first moved to the East Coast to study Environmental Policy at American University but found myself spending more and more of my time across campus in the Katzen Arts Center. It became clear to me then that I needed to be working with artists. Six years later, I'm still here because I found you -  the incredible artistic community that calls this region home. I started interning at WPA in January 2014, going to music and art shows in living rooms and basements, and eventually collaborating and organizing projects of my own in my neighborhood in Bloomingdale. Nothing gives me more satisfaction than giving back to the friends and artists that inspire me.


I am thrilled to now have the opportunity to work more closely with you at WPA. Since our move, we've been restructuring our responsibilities and redefining WPA (Whole Pitted Avocados anyone?). We have so many resources to share with you: a street-front project and exhibition space, an online artist registry, and a vast network that stretches far beyond DC. WPA is increasingly becoming more artist-driven, more focused on idea generating/sharing, and more deeply engaged with the community. Together, we can take this to next level. I hope WPA will become (and continue to be) your creative haven, a space where you can expect the unexpected, take risks, get messy, and make valuable friendships.  
 
Over the next couple of months, we will be exploring how artists can use politics to advocate for change. There will be countless opportunities to participate, make a difference, and weigh in on the conversation. As an artist, this project will be all about you. So keep an eye out for more information to be announced soon. 
 
Our door is always open to you, stop by or shoot me an email anytime. I'd love to hear what you're working on, struggling with, and what you're dreaming up.


Looking forward to the road ahead!
All the best,
Nathalie
                                                  


Thursday, August 25, 2016

Art classes anyone?

Registration is open for the fall term of fine art classes at The Art League School in Old Town Alexandria. The fall term begins the week of September 19, with over 200 classes and 40+ workshops to choose from.

Click 
here to browse the course catalog and to register.

Why
register?

  • The Art League offers classes and workshops in painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, photography, jewelry, the fiber arts, printmaking, and more. 
  • The Art League is a non-accredited institution, open to all, that provides instruction to nearly 7,000 students annually. Focus is on personal enrichment rather than a degree.
  • Courses are offered quarterly with 150 of the most talented and well known artists and instructors in the country. 
  • Whether for the novice or a skilled professional, classes are offered for every skill level, ages five and up. 
  • Courses range in cost from $70 to $380. 
  • Weekly classes and workshops meet in our classrooms at the Torpedo Factory Art Center and at our Madison Annex in Old Town Alexandria, VA, convenient to the entire Washington, DC area.

A (Mis)Perceived Physique: Bodyscapes by Three Women Artists,

Target Gallery, the contemporary exhibition space for the Torpedo Factory Art Center, presents work by three women who use the female body to explore issues of equity, power, politics, and memory in A (Mis)Perceived Physique: Bodyscapes by Three Women Artists, on view Saturday, September 3 through Sunday, October 16.
 
Artists Allana Clarke, Lauren Kalman, and Carolina Mayorga implement the body in desperate ways and contribute to a common narrative about body imagery—past and present. These women assert their own agency and address body politics as another construct of power, both internally and externally driven.
 
The trio was brought together by D.C.-based curator Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell, who organized the exhibition as part of Target Gallery’s second annual Open Call for Curatorial Proposals competition.
 
“History surrounds the viewer in this exhibition, as the past is made present and the present reflects the woes of the past,” said Bryant-Greenwell. “How far have body politics come since the height of the odalisque? What is the new role of the female body in art? These women do not offer concrete answers, but enlist the past to enflame the zeitgeist toward inclusive and critical exploration.”
 
Clarke’s eerie photography series Then and Now Seem to Shift Inside Me, and I Wonder How do you Imagine We Can Live Together in the Future sees the image of a black female body disappearing into the ocean. Her work acknowledges a failed social system, but also speak to an art-historical context that has used bodies like hers for the inclination of the male gaze, as well as male-dominated practicum.  Visitor are challenged to think and look beyond the art gallery itself, and into current events to consider the discourse around body imagery and rights for black women.
 
Kalman’s video work highlights the uncomfortable connection of body image, class, and style in relation to dominance, corruption, and identity. Her videos feature strange nude figures balancing oversized objects, affecting their movements, suggesting an unbalanced relationship between adornment and the female body. By highlighting the conflict of ornamentation and identity, she provokes the viewer to consider societal obsession with both.
 
Mayorga’s photographic series references art-historical images of the Madonna. She turns commentary of the male obsession with the restrictive moral expectations and behaviors of women toward issues of consumerism, gentrification, and class. By using her own face as the Madonna’s, she courts deeper engagement with viewers.
 
Bryant-Greenwell’s exhibition was selected as part of the 2016 Open Call for Curatorial Proposals competition by Virginia Treanor, associate curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
“This exhibition provides a space for curators to present ideas to us that generate cross-cultural dialogue,” said Leslie Mounaime, Target Gallery director. “Kayleigh’s brought together work that reflects the ongoing debates and struggles to control women's bodies. We are looking forward to the opportunity to present this exhibition in Target Gallery.”
 
About the Artists
Allana Clarke is a conceptual artist working in video, sculpture, installation, and performance. She has completed residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Madison, Maine; The Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont; and the Ordinary Projects in Chicago. At Maryland Institute College of Art, Clarke was the recipient of the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture matching fellowship and the Peter W. Brooke Fellowship. She also was awarded the Vermont Studio Civil Society Fellowship. She holds a master’s of fine art from the Mount Royal School of Art at MICA and lives and works in New York and New Jersey.
 
Lauren Kalman is a visual artist based in Detroit, whose practice is invested in contemporary craft, video, photography, and performance. Her work has been on view at the Renwick Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the deCordova Museum. She has work is in private and museum collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Renwick Gallery, and has been featured in the publications Hand + Made: The Performative Impulse in Contemporary Craft as well as 40 Under 40: Craft Futures. She holds a master’s of fine art from the Ohio State University and participated in residencies at the Corporation of Yaddo, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Santa Fe Art Institute. In addition, she has received grants from Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, Puffin Foundation West, and ISE Cultural Foundation. She has taught courses at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design and is currently an assistant professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.
 
Carolina Mayorga has received awards in Colombia and the United States. Her work is represented in private and public collections including the Art Museum of the Americas and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.; Andres Institute of Art in Brookline, New Hampshire; and Kronan Sculpture Park in Sweden. She participated in the Fifth Annual Sculpture Symposium of the Andres Institute, the Lulea Winter Biennial in Sweden, and the 4th International Sculpture Symposium in Sweden. Her work has been reviewed in publications in Colombia, Sweden, Spain, and the United States including in The Washington Post, Washington City Paper, Baltimore City Paper, Winston-Salem Journal, The Nashua Telegraph, The Union Leader, Norrländska Socialdemokraten, and Norrbottens-Kuriren.
 
About the Curator
Based in Washington, D.C., Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell is a curator, writer, and arts advocate. She explores the intersection of women, arts, and social change through her role as public programs coordinator with the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She has curated shows in conjunction with Project 4 gallery, VisArts, and The D.C. Arts Center in the greater Washington, D.C. region, as well as Peephole Cinema in San Francisco and CUE Art Foundation in New York. She strives to advance the careers of local artists and also developed a professional development seminar as well as residency program for local emerging artists in the Greater D.C. metro area. An arts writer, her work has been featured in The Washington Times, Examiner.com, CBS, Brightest Young Things, and Plinth, among others. Bryant-Greenwell earned her bachelor’s in art history from the University of Maryland, College Park and her master’s in museum studies from the George Washington University.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Open Call for Mexican Artists

Deadline: August 26, 2016.

Méxtasis is an open call for Mexican artists to present their work in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York during Bushwick Open Studios. The project aims to present a new perspective on Mexican contemporary art, one that goes beyond cultural stereotypes and offers a new platform of visibility and cultural awareness for a country that is so present in debates surrounding politics and immigration but not enough discussed in relation to art and creativity.

The open call is open to artists of Mexican nationality regardless of their age or country of residence.

Selection announcement: August 29, 2016.
Exhibition (during Bushwick Open Studios): September 30 – October 2, 2016.

Full open call and additional information: www.mextasis.com. Please apply directly through website. For additional information please inquire to curatorial@mextasis.com.