Los Angeles is getting a new hotel art fair

Los Angeles is getting a new art fair, started by collector Dean Valentine, which will run during Frieze L.A.

This February marks the first edition of Frieze Los Angeles, the London-based fair juggernaut’s attempt to turn the world’s entertainment capital into a new stop-off on the global art market circuit. And now it will have a new satellite fair to help create an enticing critical mass for collectors: Felix LA, a quirky, 35-gallery expo that will be held in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the refurbished 1920s deco hotel on Hollywood Boulevard. Felix LA is spearheaded by television executive and art collector Dean Valentine. It will open February 13, the day before the public opening of Frieze’s L.A. fair, which will be held at Paramount Studios—just a 12-minute Uber away from the Roosevelt (well, unless you get stuck in that notorious L.A. traffic).

Read the whole article here. 

Call for Entries for LISTEN UP!

Photoworks Gallery announces a Call for Entries for LISTEN UP!, their 2018 Juried Youth Photography Exhibition.  

This exhibit and competition - their 6th Annual Juried Show for Young Photographers - comes at a time of unprecedented student involvement and activism and students are encouraged to submit their work, and their perspectives, to this year's show.

The competition is designed for students of photography aged 18 and under and past year's selected photographs have been taken by students as young as 10 years old.

For detailed instructions on submitting your work click here!

2018 Trawick Prize Finalists

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and the Bethesda Urban Partnership will showcase the work of The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards eight finalists in a group exhibition. 

2018 Trawick Prize Finalists

• Lori Anne Boocks, Germantown, MD
• Clay Dunklin, Laurel, MD
• Mary Early, Washington, D.C.
• Jay Gould, Baltimore, MD
• Caroline Hatfield, Baltimore, MD
• Phaan Howng, Baltimore, MD
• Timothy Makepeace, Washington, D.C.
• Nicole Salimbene, Takoma Park, MD

The exhibit will be on display Sept. 5 – 29, 2018 at Gallery B, located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E. The award winners will be announced on Wednesday, September 5, 2018. The Best in Show, first place winner will be awarded $10,000; second place will be honored with $2,000 and third place will be awarded $1,000.

The public opening reception will be held Friday, September 14 from 6-8pm. Gallery hours for the duration of the exhibit are Wednesday through Saturday, 12 – 6pm.

The 2018 Trawick Prize jurors are Christopher Bedford, Director of The Baltimore Museum of Art; Sukjin Choi, Head of Ceramics and Associate Professor of Art at James Madison University; andValerie Fletcher, Independent Art Historian and Senior Curator Emerita at the Hirshhorn Museum.

Founded by the amazing Carol Trawick in 2003, the regional competition is one of the largest prizes to annually honor visual artists. Ms. Trawick, a longtime community activist in downtown Bethesda, also established the Bethesda Painting Awards in 2005. She has served as the Chair of the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, Bethesda Urban Partnership, Strathmore and the Maryland State Arts Council. She founded the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation in 2007 to assist health and human services and arts non-profits in Montgomery County. The Foundation has awarded grants to more than 90 nonprofits in Montgomery County and funds the annual Trawick Prize and the Bethesda Painting Awards.

To date, The Trawick Prize has awarded more than $220,000 in prize monies and has exhibited the work of more than 135 regional artists. Previous Best in Show recipients include Richard Clever, 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; Jonathan Monaghan, 2015; Lauren Adams, 2016 and Larry Cook, 2017.

For more information, please visit www.bethesda.org or call 301-215-6660.

Refuse?REFUSE

Kirsty Little

Refuse?REFUSE
355 Pod Space, VisArts
June 29 – September 23, 2018

Kirsty Little, Refuse?REFUSE, Americans use 35,000,000,000 (35 billion) plastic bottles each year

While investigating the plastic pollution in our oceans, Kirsty Little kept coming up against numbers that she could not comprehend. Americans use 35,000,000,000 (35 billion) plastic bottles each year.  

Trillions of micro plastics virtually invisible to the human eye are being eaten by plankton and working their way up the seafood chain to our plates. We have barely reduced our plastic footprint since plastic production began 50 years ago. Only 9 to 25% goes into recycling. The rest ends up in our oceans and landfills.  

Kirsty Little’s installation in the 355 Pod Space located on Route 355 near Rockville Town Square is one of the ways that she is working to raise consciousness about plastic pollution. She wants people to think about how many plastic items they use once and then discard. She wants to sensitize people to the costs of careless consumption and disposal of plastic.  

To make this installation possible, Little worked with over one hundred people who collected plastic lids and caps from their households and helped her construct individual numbers overflowing with plastic. Once people started collecting plastic, they began to see it everywhere in their daily lives.  

The plastic used in this project filled every room in Little’s house. This is a tiny personal portion of the plastic garbage generated every second all over the world. About the artist: Kirsty Little is a former circus aerialist based in the United Kingdom for two decades when a move to United States in 2011 led her to find a new path in the art world and change her style of performance. She is drawn to working with themes of motherhood, personal identity, anatomy and the struggling environment. She makes sculpture with porcelain, wood and wire, and more recently, plastic and fish installation, focusing on the oceans present pollution crisis.  

She is resident artist at Otis St studios and teaches aerial dance at Upspring studios. She is in the Guinness book of World Records for directing the most aerialists choreographed on silks. Recently she performed at The Theatre Project in Baltimore in aerial collaboration with Jayne Bernasconi.  

Her sculptural installation, ‘Refuse?REFUSE, 1T’ has been on display at Red Dirt Studio, Harmony Hall, and next at Up Studio. She has taken this work into her daughter’s school, galvanizing the students to collect lids and make ‘500 Million’.

Opening reception and artist talk: Friday, July 13, 7 – 9 PM.

155 Gibbs Street 
Rockville, MD 20850 
301-315-8200
www.visartscenter.org

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this art scammer:

From: james frank  - jamesfrankofficial@gmail.com

Subject: Piece Suggestion for my 20th Anniversary

My Name is Frank James from Washington DC. I have been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to I and my wife's anniversary  which is just around the corner. I stormed on some of your works which i found quite impressive and intriguing. I must admit your doing quite an impressive job. You are undoubtedly good at what you do. 

With that being said, I would like to purchase some of your works as a surprise gift to my wife in honor of our upcoming wedding anniversary. It would be of help if you could send some pictures of your piece of works, with their respective prices and sizes, which are ready for immediate (or close to immediate) sales. My budget for this is within the price range of $500 to $5000.

I look forward to reading from you in a view to knowing more about your pieces of inventory. As a matter of importance, I would also like to know if you accept check as a means of payment.

Regards,

Frank    

Payday!

However, the artist who made the Vegas sculpture, Robert S. Davidson, did not love the USPS using an image of his work without obtaining permission and sued for copyright infringement in 2017. Last Friday, Davidson emerged victorious from the suit and will now receive $3.5 million, plus interest, as compensation.

Read the whole article here. 

L. Ron Hubbard and me

In the 1970s - When I was in the Navy - I was stationed in Florida, and I had several Science Fiction books (published in the 1950s) by L. Ron Hubbard. 

My girlfriend at the time was a girl who was a student at Embry Riddle, and her dad was the manager of a hotel around there. She saw my books, and told me that Hubbard was staying at her dad's hotel for an extended stay, and thus I asked her to see if he would sign books for me. She took them to her dad (3 books all together), but he didn't want to bother Hubbard.

My girlfriend had become friends with a young girl who worked for Hubbard (she also helped at the hotel) and asked her about the books and getting them signed... because I was in the Navy, and because Hubbard had been a Navy officer, something clicked and the girl took the books to Hubbard, who not only signed them, but also sent me a nice note about the Navy on his stationary (I sold that at an auction years ago)!

Heinlein and me

I met author Robert Heinlein and his wife Virginia when I was a student at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California in the 1980s.

They lived close by and would often drive to the school, as it had a great research library, and also both of them were former Navy officers... they'd also bring Heinlein foreign language edition books to the Defense Language Institute (also in Monterey) and donate them to the institute. I would sometimes help Mrs. Heinlein lug those boxes around, as he was quite frail... I got a letter from him or her somewhere about that...

He died the second year that I was at NPS.

His classic A Stranger ina Strange Land remains one of my all time faves.

Questionable Wording in Exhibit Prospectus

Would you apply to this call if this was a clause in the call for artists? I wouldn't...

Rights in Materials Submitted
All exhibitors forfeit the right of reproduction of their work to the _____________. The ____________ reserves the right, and all exhibitors grant the ______________ the right, at the discretion of the ___________, to use all works of design or art, and any related materials provided to the _____________ by any exhibitor, for its own business, promotional, and archival purposes.

On this 4th of July

The American flag that I sometimes hang outside my house has a most interesting story. As you can see below, it is a gold-fringed flag, which we used to call "a Navy flag" back in the days, because of who knows why... when I was an Executive Officer at the Naval Security Group Activity Skaggs Island, California in the 1990s, I was told that it was because it represented the ability to execute/hold a Captain's Mast.

But I meander away from the history of this flag... my flag.

In 1983 I was the OZ Division Officer for USS Virginia (CGN-38), and the ship was assigned Naval Gunfire Fire Support (NGFS) patrol off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon, in support of the US Marines ashore in Beirut as part of the Multi-National Peacekeeping Force.

We would routinely fly ashore for meetings, etc., and one day I will scan and show you a description that I put on my journal (in pre-blog days) many years ago where I described one such meeting and the interesting event that happened, with 50 cal bullets flying all over the place. Below is a picture of me, ashore in Beirut with the USMC.

From HistoryNet:

At 6:22 on Sunday morning Oct. 23, 1983, a 19-ton yellow Mercedes stake-bed truck entered a public parking lot at the heart of Beirut International Airport. The lot was adjacent to the headquarters of the U.S. 8th Marine Regiment’s 1st Battalion, where some 350 American soldiers lay asleep in a four-story concrete aviation administration building that had been successively occupied by various combatants in the ongoing Lebanese Civil War. Battalion Landing Team 1/8 was the ground element of the 1,800-man 24th Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU), which had deployed to Lebanon a year earlier as part of a multinational peacekeeping force also comprising French, Italian and British troops. Its mission was to facilitate the withdrawal of foreign fighters from Lebanon and help restore the sovereignty of its government at a time when sectarian violence had riven the Mediterranean nation.

... Marine sentries initially paid little attention to the Mercedes truck. Heavy vehicles were a common sight at the airport, and in fact the BLT was expecting one that day with a water delivery. The truck circled the parking lot, then picked up speed as it traveled parallel to a line of concertina wire protecting the south end of the Marine compound. Suddenly, the vehicle veered left, plowed through the 5-foot-high wire barrier and rumbled between two guard posts.

By then it was obvious the driver of the truck—a bearded man with black hair—had hostile intentions, but there was no way to stop him. The Marines were operating under peacetime rules of engagement, and their weapons were not loaded. Lance Corporal Eddie DiFranco, manning the sentry post on the driver’s side of the truck, soon guessed the driver’s horrifying purpose. “He looked right at me…smiled, that’s it,” DiFranco later recalled. “Soon as I saw [the truck] over here, I knew what was going to happen.” By the time he managed to slap a magazine into his M16 and chamber a round, the truck had roared through an open vehicle gate, rumbled past a long steel pipe barrier, threaded between two other pipes and was closing on the BLT barracks.

Sergeant of the guard Stephen Russell was alone at his sandbag-and-plywood post at the front of the building but facing inside. Hearing a revving engine, he turned to see the Mercedes truck barreling straight toward him. He instinctively bolted through the lobby toward the building’s rear entrance, repeatedly yelling, “Hit the deck! Hit the deck!” It was futile gesture, given that nearly everyone was still asleep. As Russell dashed out the rear entrance, he looked over his shoulder and saw the truck slam through his post, smash through the entrance and come to a halt in the midst of the lobby. After an ominous pause of a second or two, the truck erupted in a massive explosion—so powerful that it lifted the building in the air, shearing off its steel-reinforced concrete support columns (each 15 feet in circumference) and collapsing the structure. Crushed to death within the resulting mountain of rubble were 241 U.S. military personnel—220 Marines, 18 Navy sailors and three Army soldiers. More than 100 others were injured. It was worst single-day death toll for the Marines since the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima.

Aboard USS Virginia, the ship's crew went into action, and within minutes our helo was airborne, carrying our ship's doctor and his Navy corpsmen to help with the wounded Marines. Minutes later the helo came back, looking for people and equipment to help assist with digging out the people from the collapsed building. Because my division was the only one that had an Arabic linguist, they came to us to see if he (Sgt. Bobby Jack Irvin, an amazing linguist and as far as I know the only Marine ever to qualify for the Enlisted Surface Warfare pin) could go ashore to help facilitate our doctor's mission, as he had radio'd that several Lebanese doctors had already come up to help him, and he might need language help.

Irvin and I had been ashore the day before (that's him in the photo a few paragraphs above - Irvin is to my left and to my right is Warrant Officer Carnes), but because of our shipboard mission, I felt that he could really help more by staying on the ship and doing what he did best.

Later on, they asked for volunteers to help ashore, and together with some other crew members, we headed to Beirut - other than Irvin, I was the only person on the ship who routinely flew back and forth between Beirut and the ship, and thus I wanted to ensure that I was part of the volunteer crew.
When we arrived at the airport, it was essentially controlled chaos, and dozens of bodies were already being tended to, and our ship's helo - along with others - began taking the wounded to a hospital in Sidon. There were also plenty of black body bags already filled.

With our doctor (whose last name I recall as Warner) frenetically working to triage the wounded Marines, and since most Lebanese doctors actually spoke English, after donating blood, I left the medical area and began to help with the digging operations.

This story is not about that part, which was brutal and heart-breaking. This story is about the flag that I found in the rubble.

My American flag.

At the time, it seemed like a natural thing to "rescue" it from the rubble. I brought it back to the ship, where it flew often, as our mission shifted from routine patrol to Naval Gunfire Support (NGFS). When I left the ship, it was given to me, along with a ship's plaque. When I retired from the Navy two decades ago, I used it as my retirement flag and it was presented to me again, after flying over the Capitol - I never put it in a shadow box, as is the custom, but kept it flying every once in a while, as a flag deserves to do.

A few years ago, when I hung it outside, it dawned on me that the history of this flag should merit some notice, and reached out to the Marine Corps Museum to see if they wanted it as a gift, but they declined, so now I'm actively seeking a place of honor for it.

To me that flag represents all those young Marines (average age 19) who died in that cowardly attack. It is one more reason why I stand, put my hand on my heart, take my cover off, and face the flag when the National Anthem plays at an event.

Artist Resource Bulletin: Call for Artists Opportunities

The MSAC Online Resource Bulletin, maintained by Maryland Art Place, is where you can find regional, national, and international exhibition opportunities, grants, fellowships, and residencies as well as information on available studio spaces in the area. Updated on a weekly basis, the bulletin lists hundreds of arts opportunities, organized by subject and deadline date. Here are some current opportunities:

BAZAART HOLIDAY ART MARKET: Deadline July 13

Be a part of Bazaart –​ ​American Visionary Art Museum's annual holiday marketplace of original creations by regional artists and craftspeople. The market features the artsiest arts & craftiest crafts, ranging from painting to sculpture to jewelry to handmade clothing and accessories. For more information, click here.

GEORGIA AVENUE PUBLIC ART MURAL PROJECT: Deadline July 30

Through a unique public-private collaboration between the Silver Spring Urban District, Silver Spring Arts and Entertainment District, DGS, and Washington Property Company, the Silver Spring Arts and Entertainment District is seeking design proposals for a two-dimensional, outdoor, large-scale public art mural. For more information, click here.

DECORATIVE LIGHT FIXTURE - The Maryland Theatre Expansion Project: Deadline September 14

The Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown seeks an artist to create a permanent indoor light fixture to be installed on the top floor event space within the expansion of the historic theatre. Work should be completed or well underway by Winter 2019. The call is open to all artists living within a 100-mile radius of The Maryland Theatre. For more information, click here.

Email naomi@mdartplace.org with information you would like included in the Resource Bulletin.

MSAC wants to hear from you!

The Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) is listening and wants to hear from you! Four sessions of "We Are Listening" were conducted and MSAC received an overwhelming response for each session. Participants were able to voice their feedback on the Individual Artist Awards, Arts in Education initiatives, Accessibility, Veterans and the Grants for Organizations programs.

All the information is being compiled and reviewed for the strategic planning process. Feedback is still being received. If you have comments you would like to share, please email msac.commerce@maryland.gov with the subject heading FEEDBACK and the name of the program. Session feedback can be found here.

Atomic Dog and Consequential Cat

"Atomic Dog and Consequential Cat" Art Exhibit at the VCA Alexandria Animal Hospital

Exhibit Dates: June 11 - September 30, 2018

The Atomic Dog and Consequential Cat art exhibit at the Veterinary Clinics of America Alexandria Animal Hospital (VCA Alexandria) features Del Ray Artisans members’ artwork of our furry friends. The exhibit is part of Del Ray Artisans’ Gallery Without Walls (GWW)program in partnership with VCA Alexandria and includes a selection of canine artwork from this past May’s Atomic Dog exhibit, plus hand-picked artwork honoring our feline companions. The artwork will be displayed on the walls of the VCA Alexandria Animal Hospital from June 11 through September 30, 2018.

Patrons may view the artwork at VCA Alexandria during regular business hours and at the discretion of hospital staff. All artwork is available for purchase through Del Ray Artisans. Artists are donating 20% of the purchase price of sold pieces in an equal split between Del Ray Artisans and the VCA Alexandria’s charity of choice, Veterans Moving Forward. Veterans Moving Forward helps veterans lead more productive lives through partnerships with trained assistance animal. Del Ray Artisans and Veterans Moving Forward are 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. For more information, visit DelRayArtisans.org/event/dog-and-cat

VCA Alexandria Animal Hospital is located at 2660 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For questions, contact VCA Alexandria staff at 703-751-2022 or 703-823-3601 or Del Ray Artisans’ GWW curator, Monica Hokeilen, at GWW@DelRayArtisans.org.

Frida in London

Can an exhibition of her most intimate possessions bring us any closer to Frida Kahlo?

Frida, your personal possessions have been exported to London from the house you lived in most of your life, Casa Azul (the Blue House), which is now a museum in the Coyoacán area of Mexico City. Do they shine a light on how you constructed your multiple identities?

Read the article here. 

Maegawa and Hoysted at the Betty Mae Kramer Gallery

Opening Reception
Friday, July 6, 2018.  6pm - 8pm

Join the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) as we celebrate the opening of FREE SPACE with a public reception at the Betty Mae Kramer Gallery and Music Room on Friday, July 6, from 6 to 8 p.m. 

The exhibition FREE SPACE includes artists Akemi Maegawa and Jackie Hoysted, who have collaborated to create a series of installations intended for public activation.  These works invite visitors to play, create, and experience a space where opposing realities converge. 

The opening reception is free and open to the public. FREE SPACE will be on view at the Kramer Gallery from Friday, July 6 through Friday, September 7, 2018.​

RSVP for reception here.

Jack Rasmussen to chair the Maryland State Arts Council

Jack Rasmussen, director and curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, has been named chair of the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC). In this role, he will drive the strategic direction of MSAC programs and funding for the state of Maryland.

Now... that great news! Jack Rasmussen essentially carried the DMV artists singularly unique and only presence in the DMV museum art scene.

As I've noted a million times before, here on this blog, in articles in mags and newspapers, and on the air at WAMU 88.5, nearly all the DMV museum curators that I've known in the three decades that I've lived in the DMV... would rather take a cab to Dulles to fly to Berlin, or London, or Madrid, or Miami, or Seattle, or LA to visit an emerging artist studio, than take a cab to Bethesda, or Alexandria, or Georgetown, or Rockville to visit a DMV emerging artist.

Why? Because most of them are (a) not DMV area "bred" directors/curators and know zip fuck about the DMV art scene, (b) tend to "pick-up" other museum shows (rather than curate one from scratch, which is a LOT more work), (c) view their capital region museums are "national" museums, rather than Washington are museums and thus, a stepping stone to their next, higher paying job.

Jack is different, waaaaay different, because he has managed not only to place the "newish" Katzen Museum on a world stage, outshining much bigger and older DMV museums in the process, but also has focused (clearly helped by the amazing Alper Initiative) to spotlight DMV area artists and in the process give them their very first museum show.

The Katzen Museum is the crown jewel of the DMV museum art scene and 93% of that success is owed to Jack Rasmussen and his second in command, the equally hard-working Kristi-Anne Caisse.

Congrats Jack!

Read the whole quoted article here.

Nine Productivity Tips for Artists Working from Home

In the studio, you are the boss—there is no answering to anyone else. Your time is your own, and you get to decide how to spend it. How refreshing, right?

It’s one reason why so many choose to go down the creative path!

And yet, with great freedom comes great responsibility. Having such flexibility on your own can prove difficult for artists to adjust. Sometimes the work just doesn’t get done. The problem is, between making new work, marketing, selling, applying to calls, managing contacts, showing, inventorying, and staying organized, there’s a TON that needs to get done—and, you’re the only one responsible for it.

This freedom has now turned into a major thorn in your side, especially if you’re relying on your art to make a living.

So, what is an artist to do? How are you supposed to stay motivated and get all your to-dos accomplished when you’re the only one in the room? Especially when it’s so easy (and fun) to procrastinate.

We’ll let you in on a secret: it gets easier with a little practice. Follow these nine tips to help you stay productive as an art boss on your own.

Read the whole article here.

$50,000 to develop digital art projects

Deadline: July 15, 2018

Up to $50,000 to develop digital art projects in collaboration with Silicon Valley tech companies.

The Tech+Arts Incubator welcomes proposals for participatory digital art projects that will be produced in collaboration with some of the world’s most innovative tech companies, and be hosted at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California. 

The Incubator awards grants of up to $50,000. 

Applications will close on July 15, 2018. 

To learn more and apply, visit this website.

$1000 Working Artist Purchase Award

Deadline: June 30, 2018. 

This organization offers a small art purchase award to help serious artists keep working. The award is open worldwide to all visual artists, including but not limited to those working in traditional styles, ie., painting, drawing, printmaking, mixed media, sculpture, glass, installation, or with digital/new media, photography and film/video. 

See the complete submissions guidelines here. 

Also look out for their Spring Quarter Photography Award (Deadline: July 17, 2018!).

Working Artist Org. is dedicated to discovering, collecting, and promoting great contemporary art and artists.

2019 S&R Foundation Washington Award

Deadline: August 3, 2018

The S&R Foundation Washington Award recognizes talented emerging artists working in visual arts, music, and dance. This year we are excited to announce the amount of the Washington Award will be increased to a cash prize of $10,000. In addition, the Awards Committee may designate a Grand Prize winner who will receive an additional $5,000. 

Additionally: Award winners become part of the S&R Foundation network of artists, scientists, and social entrepreneurs. Award winners will be invited to the Washington Award Ceremony in Washington D.C. in Spring 2019. 

To learn more and apply visit https://bit.ly/2LIrAig