Thursday, January 04, 2018

Wednesday, January 03, 2018

Jessica Drenk at Adah Rose

Opening at Adah Rose Gallery
adahrosegallery@gmail.com
www.adahrosegallery.com

"The Evocation of a Moment..a Gesture" - Jessica Drenk

January 19-March 2, 2018
Vernissage Saturday January 20 6:00-8:00 pm.
Live Music by Bud Wilkinson
Tactile and textural, the sculptures of Jessica Drenk highlight the chaos and beauty that can be found in simple materials. Jessica's work is influenced by systems of information and the impulse to develop an encyclopedic understanding of the world. Jessica’s interests in archaeology, paleontology, biology, botany and geology influence not only the shapes and textures of her sculpture, but also lend a visual framework for creating, collecting and classifying her own specimens of the present. The sculptures are both fragile and strong, complex and simple; always elegant and unique. Her materials  are as varied as marble, PVC pipes, toilet paper, books, pencils, wood, coffee filters, and q-tips. 
Jessica was raised in Montana, where she developed an appreciation for the natural world that remains an important inspiration to her artwork today. Jessica was awarded the International Sculpture Center's Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.  Her work has been pictured in Sculpture Magazine and she has exhibited in shows at the International Grounds for Sculpture in NJ, Skidmore College, the Albuquerque Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art, the Everhart Museum, Yale University and the Brooklyn Public Library. Her work is in many prominent individual and corporate art collections. Jessica has exhibited in numerous solo and duo shows in Washington DC, Dallas, San Francisco, Hawaii, Florida, Massachusetts and Arizona. She has exhibited with the gallery at PULSE Miami, PULSE NY and the Silicon Valley Art Fair. This is her third show with Adah Rose Gallery.
Jessica Drenk received an MFA from the University of Arizona in 2007 and a BA from Pomona College in 2002. She currently lives and works in Florida.
Adah Rose Gallery
3766 Howard Ave
Kensington MD 20895
Thursday-Sunday 12:00-5:30 and always by appointment

Tuesday, January 02, 2018

East City Art's 2017 Year in Review

Always free, pick up a copy of East City Art's 2017 Year in Review at one of the following participating locations:
  • American University Katzen Arts Center
    4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW
  • Anacostia Smithsonian Museum 
    1901 Fort Place SE
  • Arlington Arts Center
    3550 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, VA
  • Art Enables
    2204 Rhode Island Avenue NE
  • Art League Torpedo Factory Art Center
    105 N Union St, Alexandria, VA
  • Artist and Makers Studios
    11810 Parklawn Dr, Rockville, MD
  • Arts Council of Fairfax
    2667 Prosperity Ave A, Fairfax, VA
  • Artworks Studio School
    3711 Rhode Island Ave, Mt Rainier, MD
  • Black Rock Center for the Arts
    12901 Town Commons Dr, Germantown, MD
  • Brentwood Arts Exchange
    3901 Rhode Island Ave, Brentwood, MD
  • Capitol Hill Arts Workshop 
    545 7th Street SE
  • Congress Heights Arts & Culture Center
    3200 MLK Jr. Ave. SE
  • Convergence Gallery
    1801 N Quaker Ln, Alexandria, VA
  • Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences 
    500 Fifth St NW
  • DC Arts Studios
    6925 Willow St NW
  • DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities  
    200 Eye St SE
  • District Clay
    2414 Douglas St NE
  • Driskell Center (University of Maryland) 
    1214 Cole Student Activities Bldg, 1214 Union Ln, College Park, MD
  • Fisher Gallery
    4915 East Campus Lane, Alexandria VA
  • Flashpoint Gallery
    916 G St NW
  • Foundry Gallery
    8th Street NW
  • Gallery Neptune and Brown 
    1530 14th St NW
  • Gallery OonH 
    1354 H Street NE
  • Glen Echo
    7300 MacArthur Blvd. Glen Echo, MD
  • Greater Reston Arts Center
    Reston Town Center, 12001 Market St #103, Reston, VA
  • Hamiltonian 
    1353 U St NW
  • Harmony Hall 
    10701 Livingston Rd., Fort Washington, MD
  • Hemphill 
    1515 14th Street NW
  • Hill Center 
    921 Pennsylvania Ave SE
  • Joan Hisoaka Healing Arts Gallery 
    1632 U St NW
  • Joe’s Movement 
    3309 Bunker Hill Rd, Mt Rainier, MD
  • Latela Art Gallery 
    716 Monroe St NE #27
  • Long View Gallery 
    1234 9th St NW
  • Lorton Arts 
    9518 Workhouse Rd, Lorton, VA
  • McLean Project for the Arts 
    1234 Ingleside Ave, McLean, VA
  • Monroe Street Market 
    625 Monroe Street NE
  • Montpelier Arts Center
    9650 Muirkirk Rd., Laurel, MD
  • Morton Fine Art 
    1781 Florida Ave NW
  • National Postal Museum 
    2 Massachusetts Avenue NE
  • Olly Olly Gallery 
    10417 Main Street, Second Floor, Fairfax, VA
  • Open Studio DC 
    1135 Okie Street NE
  • Otis Street Arts Project 
    3706 Otis St, Mt Rainier, MD
  • Plaza Artist Materials Bethesda 
    7825 Old Georgetown RD, Bethesda, MD
  • Plaza Artist Materials Downtown 
    1120 19th Street NW
  • Plaza Artist Materials Fairfax 
    3045 Nutley Street, Fairfax, VA
  • Plaza Artist Materials Rockville 
    1776 E. Jefferson Street Unit 119, Rockville, MD
  • Printmakers Gallery 
    1641 Wisconsin Ave NW
  • Project Create 
    2028 Martin Luther King Ave SE (2nd Floor)
  • Pyramid Atlantic 
    4318 Gallatin St, Hyattsville, MD
  • Recreative Spaces 
    3501 Perry Street Mount Rainier, MD
  • Red Dirt Studios 
    4051 34th St, Mt Rainier, MD
  • Rhizome Arts 
    6950 Maple St NW
  • Susan Calloway Fine Arts 
    1643 Wisconsin Ave NW
  • Tanglewood Works 
    5132 Baltimore Ave, Hyattsville, MD
  • THEARC 
    1901 Mississippi Ave SE
  • Torpedo Factory 
    105 N Union St, Alexandria, VA
  • Touchstone 
    901 New York Ave NW
  • Visarts
    155 Gibbs St, Rockville, MD
  • Washington Studio School 
    2129 S St NW
  • Waverly Street Gallery
    4600 East-West Hwy #102, Bethesda, MD

My continuous fascination with this

People taking selfies inside a Campello artwork 2017
The curious case of people taking a selfie inside a F. Lennox Campello interactive video drawing
Context Art Miami art fair, Miami Florida during Art Basel week

Monday, January 01, 2018

Happy 2018!


Here's a wish for a Happy New Year's wish to all planetary life, but especially to all my fellow veterans, and all Americans on active duty; and to all of the men and women in our Armed Forces all over the planet, and who are away from their families and their nation on New Year's Day, with a special cyber hug to all my U.S. Navy brothers and sisters at sea - we've got your back!

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Confessions Of A Nasty Gallery Girl

Flirt alert: Working in a gallery obviously means looking after (male) clients, collectors and artists alike. So how do you manage to maintain a relationship that’s the perfect balance of friendly and professional, without enticing them to send flirty WhatsApp messages after having one too many at the opening?
Read the whole piece here. 

Friday, December 29, 2017

Artist Lifestyle Survey

 Art Festival Newsletter National Survey:
You are invited to take part in the latest nationwide artists' survey conducted by Art-Linx. The subject is "Art Festival Artists: Who We Are 2017".  You need not be an Art-Linx subscriber to participate.

A revised version of the surveys conducted from 2011-2016, "Art Festival Artists: Who We Are 2017" continues to build on the information about the composition, demographics, festival practices and goals of festival exhibitors nationwide--and how our community has changed in the last, tumultuous year. 

Your responses are completely anonymous. They are automatically collated and tabulated. Neither Art-Linx, nor anyone else, knows who participates in the survey or their answers to the questions.

As always,we will prepare a report on the survey. In addition, with the goal of assisting shows in their efforts to respond to artists' needs, we will make the survey report available to over 1,500 art and craft festivals across the United States.

In just a few minutes of your valuable time, you can add your experiences, opinions and plans to those of other artists and help reach a cohesive understanding of who we are.

We sincerely hope you decide to join us in this important endeavor.

 Please click HERE to make your voice heard in the art festival industry.

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Willem de Looper at Hemphill

January 18 - March 24, 2018

HEMPHILL has announce the exhibition, WILLEM DE LOOPER, opening on Thursday, January 18, with a reception from 6-8pm. The exhibition will remain on view through March 24, 2018.
 
In 1972, Willem de Looper traveled to the Western United States to see the sublime natural formations of the Grand Canyon. The rocky façade provided de Looper with a visualized storyline of millions of years of natural history. The stunning qualities of the banded strata left a lasting impression on the artist and ultimately became a subconscious obsession. Painting with rollers enabled de Looper to depict abstracted landscapes inspired by his travels. The delicate yet deliberate choice of color and layered paint presents the viewer with a vibrant representation of the craggy façade de Looper encountered at the Grand Canyon in 1972. WILLEM DE LOOPER presents paintings and works on paper from this period.
 
Willem de Looper (1932-2009) was born in The Hague, Netherlands and came to Washington DC in 1950. The artist landed his first solo exhibition at Jefferson Place Gallery in 1966. De Looper has been exhibited and collected by many established museums such as the National Gallery of Art, the Phillips Collection, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, among others.
 
HEMPHILL was founded in Washington DC in 1993. The exhibition schedule features modern & contemporary art in all media by artists ranging from emerging to mid-career to modern masters.
 
GALLERY HOURS: Tuesday–Saturday, 10:00am–5:00pm, and by appointment.

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

The "wake effect"

The "wake effect" from CONTEXT Art Fair as these two sculptures by Audrey Wilson just got acquired a couple of days ago by a major Miami art collector and now they're heading back to Miami for good!


@contextartmiami @contextartfair #contextartfair

Monday, December 25, 2017

Merry Christmas!

The Giving Season by David FeBland
The Giving Season, 2007 David FeBland

Sunday, December 24, 2017

A big thank you!

Doing an art fair is exhilarating and a MUST for 21st century artists and gallerists - it is also brutal work and we could not have accomplished an especially complicated Context Art Miami 2017 during the most recent Art Basel week without the hard work of Laura Beth Konopinski (or LBK as I call her) and Audrey Wilson!

That's the very talented Tim Vermeulen's work in the background...

Laura Beth Konopinski and Audrey Wilson at Context Art Miami 2017
Laura Beth Konopinski and Audrey Wilson at Context Art Miami 2017


@contextartmiami #contextartmiami #contextartfair #artbaselweek #miamiartfairs

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Tim Tate

Even though one of those pics was taken on a bad hair day, I just have to share this post from a very good friend and perhaps the DMV's best known artist:

Friday, December 22, 2017

Cool end of year email from Touchstone Gallery

Very cool and comprehensive email from Touchstone Gallery:

Dear all, 
We are going to be closed between December 24 - 31 for the Holidays.
As we say goodbye to 2017, here is Touchstone Gallery's 2017 year in numbers:
  • 2 years in a row named BEST OF D.C. by The Washington Post poll (2016, 2017).
  • 4 cups of coffee consumed by each staff member on average per day.
  • 7 member artists taught art classes at New Community ArtSpace, as part of community engagement, supported by Touchstone Foundation for the Arts (501c3) and a DCCAH grant.
  • 8 months out of 12 reviewed by The Washington Post.
  • 25 gallons of Benjamin Moore white paint used to touch up our walls.
  • 41 years since being established in 1976.
  • 50 member artists represented in downtown D.C.
  • 65 spotlights on our ceiling to highlight artists artworks on the walls.
  • 216 artworks sold.
  • 220+ artists in The One House Project installation in November 2017, conceived by ArtWatch DC and supported by Touchstone Foundation for the Arts.
  • 612 bottles of wine drunk during 2017 opening receptions.
  • 750 artworks reviewed by juror Jack Rasmussen, Katzen Arts Center, for the Art of Engagement, a National Juried Show in August 2017.
  • 68,754 website visits.
Many reasons to stop by to say "hi" in the New Year, follow us @touchstonewdc on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and visit our website at www.touchstonegallery.com
Happy Holidays and Happy New 2018 Year!

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Bethesda Painting Awards

Deadline to Apply: Feb. 23, 2018

Best in Show will be awarded $10,000 and featured at Gallery B in June 2018

The Bethesda Painting Awards is downtown Bethesda's annual juried art competition that exclusively honors painters from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. $14,000 in prize monies are awarded to the top four painters annually. 

The 2018 competition will be juried by Sally Bowring, Laura Roulet and Bill Schmidt. 

Artists must be 18 years of age or older and permanent, full-time residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. The selected artwork will be on exhibit in June 2017 at Gallery B in downtown Bethesda, MD.

To apply, please visit http://www.bethesda.org/bethesda/painting-application

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Bad videos

Interesting call - Deadline is December 31st!
We are looking for videos which are at the intersection of bad art, bad painting and bad cinema. We propose to study extreme forms of video art and single out certain video art works as bad videos or “B-videos”. Join us if you are interested in the issues of quality and boundaries of art, or just love video art. 
No Entry Fee. 
Details: http://www.badvideoart.com OR badvideoart@gmail.com

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Frida & the Day of the Dead

Artists & Makers Studios Presents Frida & the Day of the Dead
with David Amoroso, Marily Mojica, and Sergio and Claudia Olivos
 
 
Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn in Rockville is proud to present one three gallery exhibit for the month of January along with artists’ open studios. “Frida & the Day of the Dead” celebrates the inextricable link in modern culture between the iconic artist Frida Kahlo and Día de Muertos (the Day of the Dead). David Amoroso and Marily Mojica bring together their explorations of the many faces of Frida, and Sergio and Claudia Olivos’ work shares the beautiful Day of the Dead tradition. Words out Loud in the Compass Atelier, from 7-8pm with Philip Wexler, Henry Crawford and Luther Jett will be followed by an open mic. Resident artists’ open studios will round out the evening for visitors at Parklawn.

Frida & the Day of the Dead
Opening Reception
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Friday, January 5th, 2018
Artists & Makers Studios
11810 Parklawn Dr., Suite 210
Rockville, MD 20852

Additionally A&M is proud to present four exhibits at Artists & Makers Studios 2 at 12276 Wilkins Avenue in Rockville, just 9/10’s of a mile from the flagship location. “The Figure as Still Life” in the main gallery with Pooja Campbell, “Intuitive Painting” with Christina Hibbard, and “Genres” with Anthony R. Williams of the Montgomery County Camera Club will fill the galleries, as Arthur Harrison adds acoustic ambience with theremin music. Enjoy a FireClay Pop-Up Gallery and Holiday Market Sale on the third floor with metro-area ceramists, an exhibit in Gallery 209, and resident artists’ open studios to round out the evening.

These exhibits at both locations open Friday, January 5th, and continue through Wednesday, January 24th, 2018.  Viewing hours are 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM, Tuesday-Friday, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM Saturdays, and Sundays/Mondays by chance or appointment.
 
Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn Drive in Rockville is a 13,000 sq. ft. facility with 65 resident artists. Artists & Makers Studios 2 on Wilkins Avenue in Rockville is a 23,000 sq. ft. facility with 79 resident artists. A&M Studios is dedicated to providing a supportive and vibrant environment for artists to realize their creative goals - through studio practice, collaboration, education, opportunities, networking and connecting with the community beyond our doors. 
 

Monday, December 18, 2017

An anthology of East City Art's most compelling writing of 2017


Confluence: Two Rivers, One City 

An anthology of East City Art's most compelling writing of 2017

Anticipated Publication Date: February 5, 2018

150+ pages
Including full color images
ISBN 978-0-9861529-4-8

Over 20 Articles including reviews, features and artist interviews

Founder's Wall 
We are asking our readership to help us launch the first edition of Confluence.  A $50 donation makes you a Founder!  Your name will be listed in the anthology's "Founder's Wall" page and on East City Art's Confluence page online. (Contributions are 100% tax-deductible.) 
Addison/Ripley Fine Art has generously pledged $2,000 towards publishing Confluence and your contribution as a Founder will help the East City Art Foundation reach its goal!
Payment by Check: If you would prefer to pay by check, please make the check out to: East City Art Foundation Inc. and send to 922 G Street SE, Washington, DC 20003.
General Contributions
If you would prefer not to have your name published or would prefer giving an amount other than $50 in support of the East City Art Foundation for Critical Writing and Research, you may do so by clicking the "General Donation" button below.  All contributions are 100% tax-deductible.
Payment by Check: If you would prefer to make a general contribution by check, please make the check out to: East City Art Foundation Inc. and send to 922 G Street SE, Washington, DC 20003.

Sunday, December 17, 2017

It's all good!

Gee folks! I posted Invictus a few days ago and all of a sudden people are emailing me asking if I'm OK - it's all good, and no worries.

I learned that poem some time in my teens... around age 13 I was hit by a speeding car crossing Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. It made me sail from Atlantic to the middle of Eastern Parkway and it broke my left femur on impact with the ground, and my hip.

The car kept on going - hit and run.

I spent several months in a body cast at Brooklyn Hospital - not fun. 

Incredibly enough, considering my Fridamania, I had never noted this parallel with Kahlo until someone recently mentioned it to me.

Anyway, someone read that poem to me while I was in the hospital all those months (my father and mother came every single night, and my mother brought me dinner every single night, as I hated hospital food, while my father scarfed up the hospital food).

I now equate Invictus with hospital stays.

No worries.

Saturday, December 16, 2017

She caught me

I literally tooks almost a thousand photos of people taking selfies in front of my artwork... in this one, one of the two girls caught me doing it! They told me that they loved the work!


@contextartmiami #contextartmiami