Monday, May 02, 2022

How to make Fufú

 Fufú: This is how you do it 

PlatanoThat image to the right is not a banana, but a plantain (in Spanish platano). 

The plantain is most commonly eaten as a side dish in many Latin American cuisines, where it is simply boiled and then served as a side dish with perhaps a little olive oil and salt to add some flavor, especially if it's a green plantain, which are rather tasteless by themselves. 

The ripe ones are quite tasty and sweet, and are usually served sliced and fried. A few years ago you could only find them in Latin American bodegas, but now most major supermarkets carry them. 

But let's look at the green plantain. 

In most Latin American restaurants where it is offered, it is offered as a boiled side dish. In Cuban restaurants (and many Miami art galleries) it is also served as tostones, which essentially involves slicing up the plantain, frying it in olive oil for a while, taking it out and crushing it, and frying it again. Add salt and you're done. 

But Fufú is the real king of plantain dishes and it is rarely seen in any restaurants, even Cuban ones.

I think that maybe it is because Fufú possibly developed in the eastern part of Cuba (a province once called Oriente), and it may not be as well known or served in Havana, which is the only place that most tourists visit when they visit that unfortunate island and contribute money to the Cuban Armed Forces, which is who owns most of the tourist industry.

With its massive forests and mountains, a large African population from Spain's terrible slavery trade, coupled with its large French immigrant population which migrated to Cuba after the Haitian independence wars, a lot of Chinese working on the railroads that connected the sugar mills, and its concentration of Galician, rather than Castillians, Catalans, or Andalucian Spaniards, Oriente evolved into a very distinct region in Cuba, quite different from Havana and the other Cuban provinces, and so did its Cuban Spanish language and its cuisine. 

Oriente is where Bacardi rum was invented, and where Hatuey beer was created, and where the mojito and Daiquiri were invented... get my drift? 

And in Oriente the humble plantain is eaten as a very delicious side dish called Fufú, with the accent in the last "u" like in Hai-ku.... foo fú

Start with a couple of green plantains. Wash then and cut out the tips of the plantains, but leave the skin on. Cut the plantains into three equal pieces per plantain and bring to a boil in water and boil for a few minutes until the green skins start to peel away. 

While they are boiling, in a frying pan heat a generous dose of olive oil with a seasoning dash of salt and pepper (or Goya Sazon is you really want some exotic spices). 

Add chopped fresh garlic and chopped (very small pieces) onions to the hot olive oil and fry the garlic and onions; lots and lots of garlic. 

While the onions and garlic fry (don't overcook), the plantains should be ready, so pull them out, throw away the green skins and put the cleaned hot plantains on a large flat plate and mash them as you would d

Emergency Grants are available for Maryland artists!

Emergency Grants are available for Maryland artists! 

The purpose of the Emergency Grant program is to support the needs of independent artists as they adjust to income losses as the result of an emergency situation (including, but not limited to, the ongoing impact of the pandemic). 

This Emergency Grant program is accepted on a rolling basis with a monthly review process. Grants are available for up to $2,000. Click here for further details and the full program guidelines.

Sunday, May 01, 2022

Congratulations!

Two Maryland artists were awarded commissions for the Catonsville courthouse project. 

From over 200 applications received, the Artist Selection Committee for the District Court of Maryland's new Catonsville Courthouse selected two artists for the building's visual public art commissions. 

Jackson Jarvis Studios will develop large-scale mosaics for the building's lobby, and Wesley Clark will create a multimedia painting installation for the 2nd floor. Both are inspired by the flora and fauna and the natural landscape of the Patapsco River valley found in western Baltimore County. 

Congratulations to both!

Saturday, April 30, 2022

Montgomery College’s King Street Gallery presents the annual Student Exhibition

The King Street Gallery presents the annual Student Exhibition featuring the work of Montgomery College students from the Department of the Visual and Performing Arts at Takoma Park, Silver Spring Campus.  The exhibition will be on display from May 19th through September 9th, 2022. 

King Street Gallery is open late on May 19th from 5 PM to 7:30 PM for the exhibition opening. This event is located at the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center. This exhibition is free and open to the public. For more information, visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MCVPA 

The Virtual Student Exhibition featuring artwork from remote classes can be followed on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/930kingstreet/ and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MCVPA  - You can also see all the student artwork online here.

The exhibition features artworks made by Art & Design students over the past year and includes work from courses in 2D Design, 3D Design,  Ceramics, Craft, Drawing,  Graphic Design, Illustration, Painting, Printmaking, and Sculpture. Throughout the year, Montgomery College art students have worked hard to accomplish a variety of artwork that will make this year’s show something not to miss.  Please join them to celebrate their student body's creativity.  

The works are usually for sale, and I've discussed many times in my seminars for beginning collectors (Bootcamp for Art Collectors), art student shows are an excellent way to get original artwork at student prices.

About the King Street Gallery: 

The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center includes galleries that mount exhibitions in support of the academic mission of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Montgomery College. The King Street Gallery is on the ground floor of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center on the west side of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus.  

The arts center is located off Georgia Avenue at 930 King Street, Silver Spring, MD. Parking is available in the West Campus Garage, which is immediately behind the center. Additional parking is available in the East Campus Garage on Fenton Street with pedestrian access by a bridge and walking path.  For maps and directions, visit www.montgomeycollege.edu/maps

Friday, April 29, 2022

2022 Exposed DC Photography Show - Opening May 29 at Lost Origins Gallery

Exposed DC Returns to Mount Pleasant for 16th Annual Photography Show. Featuring 38 images of the Washington, D.C. metro area taken by local photographers.

Exhibit presented at Lost Origins Outside in Mount Pleasant. The exhibition will be on view at Lost Origins Outside located along the exterior wall of Ellē restaurant at 3221 Mt Pleasant St NW through July 24.

Opening celebration: Sunday, May 29 from 3:00-6:00 p.m.

Best in Show awards chosen by five distinguished local photographers. Five of the photographs will receive a Best in Show award along with a $100 cash prize. These awards are selected by independent judges who are acclaimed photographers in the D.C. community. This year, they are Dee Dwyer, Andrew Harnik, Kenny Holston, Cheriss May, and Michael McCoy selecting these special awards.

Full-color exhibition magazine featuring all winning images available for purchase. 

You can see all the images here.  As usual, I always like to run through these juried shows and selected my own prize winners.  From the 38 photos in this very strong show, but my pick for Best in Show is Arpita Upadhyaya's wonderful "Morning Silhouette", which is a spectacular display of contrast wizardry!

Arpita Upadhyaya – Morning Silhouette
Arpita Upadhyaya – Morning Silhouette

I also liked the raw power of Chris Suspect's Thelma and the Sleaze at Slash Run.

Chris Suspect – Thelma and the Sleaze at Slash Run
Chris Suspect – Thelma and the Sleaze at Slash Run

I also liked Mike Landsman's Million Moe March “Moechella” - a wonderful image of the pure joy of childhood, Carol Stalun's Rising Tide, which is the best photo in the show using a DMV landmark, and Sandra Kaufman's superbly topical "Disconnected", which needs little explanation and says it all about these young museum visitors.

Sandra Kauffman – Disconnected
Sandra Kauffman – Disconnected


Thursday, April 28, 2022

Re-discovered after 43 years

I did the below pen and ink drawing in 1980 when I was in art school - I either gave it away or sold it to the mom of an old girlfriend at the time.

Yesterday I got an email from a nice lady who just acquired it!

Elvis Presley Chasing Frida Kahlo - 1980 pen and ink drawing by F. Lennox Campello
Elvis Presley Chasing Frida Kahlo
1980 pen and ink drawing by F. Lennox Campello


Tuesday, April 26, 2022

My awards for the 31st Tephra ICA Festival (formerly Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival)

Now in its 31st year, the Tephra ICA Festival (formerly Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival) will take place on May 20–22, 2022 and will highlight more than 200 artists and artisans from across the nation. Drawing upon a robust exhibitor and collector base coupled with Tephra ICA’s contemporary art foundation, the Festival has become one of the region’s most anticipated events, attracting approximately 30,000 people to the unique, outdoor environment of Reston Town Center.

Details here.

I juried this festival a few years ago, and have participated in it many times over the years, maybe 25 or 26 times out of the 31 years, and I have won a ton of awards over the years - I applied again this year and got rejected, which is OK, since there are new jurors each year, and rejection is part of an artist's life.

It is a great show!

This year's jurors will select the award winners when the festival opens - but as usual, I'd like to run through them online and award my own awards.

You can see the artists here and make up your own awardees... my first observation is that (as usual), this show is heavily tilting towards the craft side - it's somewhat of a trademark for Reston, and since the beginning it has added more and more jewelry, furniture, etc. at the expense of the fine arts. There are about 30 jewelers in the group! And they're all really good!

But, did I sound elitist or what? Sorry...

And the awards go to...

Best Painting Award: Jill Banks - Booth 943 - A true example of the 10,000 hour rule; Banks is a master and her work shows it. Tough category with 37 painters here - all really good with notable ones such as the superbly talented Ann Barbieri, Jon Smith, Cassie Taggart and others.

Best Photography Award - Landscape photography dominates, which is to be expected, and (as I've noted for decades now) I tire of seeing photos of crumbling buildings in Havana and old 1950s cars - please! Enough! If you wanna take photographs of Cuba, go somewhere else other than Havana! Maybe photograph some of the heroes who often take to the streets to protest the brutality of Communism! 

James McArthur Cole is trying hard to head in the right direction, and he has some stunning Cuban photos, such as the one below - but I deduct two points for each photo of an old car.

Cuba 60 by James McArthur Cole
Cuba 60 by James McArthur Cole

But John Deng - Booth 317 - stands out! His beautiful photos are equally adept at capturing immensely different landscapes as well as the diversity of the human species.

Honey Gatherers by John Deng
Honey Gatherers by John Deng

Photo by John Deng at Tephra 2022 Festival

Photo by John Deng at Tephra 2022 ICA Festival

John Scanlan's photos of Scotland are breathtaking, but then again, Scotland is possibly the most beautiful country on the planet! Nonetheless Deng takes my "Best Photography Award."

Best Weird Art AwardGreg Stones - Booth 523 - Greg notes that his "basic process is this: Paint a landscape. Then add weird stuff." It works! They are immensely interesting paintings.

Best DMV AwardJoseph Craig English - Booth 700 - Craig is a master of the DMV landscape/landmarks - no one on the planet can do it better. By the way - there are only four printmakers in the entire show: English plus Mel Fleck, Jim McCormick and Laura Wilder; they are all really, really good. Note to future jurors: More printmakers!!!!

Best Craft Award: Mick Whitcomb - Booth 816 - Specializes in one-of-a-kind furniture and lighting made from architectural and industrial salvage - the kind of stuff that some call "steampunk."  The work is clever and unique and far outshines (no pun intended) the category competitors.

Fan Light Fixture by Mick Whitcomb
Fan Light Fixture by Mick Whitcomb

Best Drawing Award - Easy pick here with the complex drawings of Susan Deaton in booth 423. She notes that her work is about "conceptualization of social and environmental issues through the use of symbolic images." Methinks there's a lot of Lovecraft in there as well.

Best Glass Award - The DMV is home to three of the best known glass artists on the planet, and thus a magnet place for artists of this genre.  The work of David Sandidge stands out... some of the whimsical pieces remind me of Carmen Lozar's early work.  Sandidge is clearly a master of this most demanding of all arts.

Glass art by David Sandidge
Glass art by David Sandidge

I will announce the Best in Show winner when I visit the show in person next month!

Saturday, April 23, 2022

Another art scam!

 Beware of this asswipe mutant trying to rip off artists!

Simeon David - davidcarlow67@gmail.com

Sat 4/23/2022 1:49 PM

Hello there . I'm David Carlow from Denver, CO. A business friend of mine showed me your beautiful handwork. I must say I'm really impressed and I'm interested in purchasing some of your artwork after surfing through the internet. I find yours more attractive. Could you please provide more information? As a matter of fact I would like to know if you accept checks as a means of payment. 

Best regards 

David C

Friday, April 22, 2022

Neuro-Myths in Education Policy

Good neuroscience may contribute to policy advances, but what happens when inaccurate myths about neuroscience take hold? 

With Professor Carle and Dr. Davidson, AU School of Education Professor Dr. Alida Anderson discusses her research on “neuro-myths” in education policy. 

Anderson explains what some of these neuro-myths are, how they may lead educators and policymakers astray, and how training can help decrease the prevalence and harms neuro-myths may cause

Listen to the podcast here.

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Art Scam Alert

 Beware of this scum trying to rip off artists:

From: Desirae Gardner - gardnerdesirae27@gmail.com

Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2022 7:16 PM

Hello There,

          My name is Desirae Gardner from Panama city, Florida . I actually observed that my husband has been viewing your website on my laptop and I guess he likes your piece of work. I'm also impressed and amazed to have seen your various works too,  You are doing a great job. I would like to purchase ''Judith with the Head of Holofernes" as a surprise to my husband on our anniversary. Also, let me know if you accept CHECK as mode of Payment.

Thanks and best regards

Desirae Gardner

Bethesda Fine Arts Festival Returns May 14 & 15

Located in Bethesda's Woodmont Triangle, along Norfolk, Auburn & Del Ray Avenues, the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival featuring 100+ artists from throughout the country is returning this spring!

Admission to the festival is FREE and free parking is available in the public parking garage on Auburn Avenue. This event is held rain or shine.

May 14: 10am-6pm

May 15: 10am-5pmd

Details here.

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Another beautiful voice: Melissa Harris-Perry

By now you know the story of my obsessions with interesting voices heard over the airwaves, and for many years I have written about the strange seductive power of a distinct radio voice, where one has no idea of the physical attributes of the speaker.  

In this post I've wondered about "the most beautiful voice on the planet", one that I would bet belongs to somewhat tall (a voice like that needs an appropriate vehicle) and I just know that she has a long, elegant neck. Not as long as Parmigianino's Madonna dal Collo Lungo (Madonna with Long Neck), but she'd make a perfect model for a contemporary interpretation of that Mannerist masterpiece. It takes a breath-taking neck like that to deliver the melody that is her voice.

I've also mentioned another interesting voice in the air is that of WMAL's Maria Leaf and discussed the strangely-patterned diction of Michael Barbaro, who is an American journalist and the host of The New York Times news podcast, The Daily.

I have also lamented and discussed the uniquely young American female phenomenon of "vocal fry." Young women, that is, until Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's spectacularly annoying voice made its debut during the attempted lynching of now Justice Kavanaugh.

WAMU's Lauren Ober and Lauren Landau's radio voices  have also been commented upon, and most recently I discussed the voices and laughter of these two Commies sprouting Russian propaganda over Radio Sputnik.

For the last year or so, I have been entertained by the creamy and elegant voice of Melissa Harris-Perry in NPR's The Takeaway show.

Harris-Perry's voice flows and flows as if it was an actual part of the radio frequency itself - not just being carried by it.  It caresses the airwaves as it modulates them, rather than permit the physics of RF to modulate it. Do not make the mistake to assume that it is just that... it is also a firm, strong voice, worthy of a Middle School principal.

Harris-Perry also has the almost magical gift of being able to transform any subject that she focuses upon on upon race - A.N.Y. S.U.B.J.E.C.T!!!!

This is an impressive gift which makes her program addictive not only to learn about justifiable racial issues which deserve attention and air time, but also to learn from a master magician as she focuses any subject on the planet towards the inequities of race.  I bet that if someone asked MHP to discuss solar flares we'd all end up learning something related to racial inequities caused by our dying star.

If I had one topic for Ms. Harris-Perry to explore, would be for her "out" the blatant racism of Ernesto Guevara de La Serna Lynch, better known to the world as "Che", and whose iconic image adorns trillions of T-Shirts worn by clueless people (including people of color), ignorant that they are wearing the visage of a poisonous racist.

T-Shirt God - The real racist Che Guevera
This is Che
2012 F. Lennox Campello


Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Wanna draw from the live model?

HYATTSVILLE FIGURE DRAWING GROUP - Wednesday, April 20, 6-9pm.

Model: Gazelle

*please wear a mask in Pyramid Atlantic

*model will be wearing a mask

Are you looking for an opportunity to sharpen your figure drawing skills?

Join Hyattsville Figure Drawing Group for drop-in weekly life drawing sessions:

Our professional nude models take classically inspired poses, but sometimes will pose in artistic, inspirational costumes for challenging drapery and texture study.

Each session begins with five 5-minute warm-up poses and a single long pose is featured for the remainder of the session.

Bring your own supplies and join us in the upstairs Helen Frederick Gallery at Pyramid Atlantic. We supply drawing boards and chairs--- if you want to bring your own portable easel, please do. 

All skill levels welcome!

Where: 

Pyramid Atlantic Art Center*

4318 Gallatin Street, Hyattsville, MD 20781

Free parking in rear of building

Enter through front doors on Gallatin Street

When: Wednesdays, 6-9pm

Cost: 

$20/session or

$75/5-session punch card or

$15/session for Pyramid Atlantic members (proof required)

More Info: https://www.meetup.com/Hyattsville-Figure-Drawing-Group-Meetup/

Monday, April 18, 2022

Advice for beginning collectors

It has also been my experience, that the more affluent a “beginning collector” is, the higher the probability that he/she will get swindled into spending a lot of money for wall décor and fancy frames. Since most of us are not affluent, the high end of the commodified art market is not where I’m focusing this column.

Read the whole article here.

Sunday, April 17, 2022

Wanna learn about being an artist?

Art Clinic Online - Saturday, May 28 from 10:30 -11:30am

Join me at the Art Clinic Online for a discussion and Q&A about nearly everything you wanted to know about being an artist, garnts, resume-building, approaching galleries, etc.

About Art Clinic Online (ACO)

The Art Clinic Online community aims to create a friendly artsy environment and bring together artists who may have taken classes with us before or who are contemplating it and want to learn from one another in an online community-based setting. As such, they are not didactic sessions but a forum for the equal exchange of art ideas and art information as well as an opportunity to share art challenges and breakthroughs. The Stone Tower resident artists created the ACO after hearing the need for such a forum expressed by many of their students. If you are interested in joining, click the button below and email Mariana to join! Yes, it's still FREE.

Location: Glen Echo.

Saturday, April 16, 2022

The Trawick Prize Deadline is April 25

The annual Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards is seeking artists creating work in all media! The top eight finalists will be featured in an exhibition in September 2022, and $14,000 in prize monies will be awarded to the winning artists.

The Trawick Prize deadline is Monday, April 25, 2022.

Details here.

Friday, April 15, 2022

Picasso Discovered in Maine Closet After 50 Years!

 A New England homeowner "received a shock recently when they rediscovered a rare Pablo Picasso work in their relative’s Maine home. The framed, 16- by 16-inch piece of paper, inscribed at the bottom right with the artist’s signature, had sat in a closet for 50 years..."

Read the story here.

Applications Now Open For Affordable Art Fair NYC Fall 2022

The Affordable Art Fair creates fun and inspiring events where people fall in love with art and thousands of artworks find happy homes. 

Founded in 1999 by Will Ramsay in London, it has grown to be one of the world’s leading and most popular contemporary art fairs, with editions in cities including Amsterdam, Brussels, Hamburg, Hong Kong, London, Melbourne, New York, Singapore, Stockholm and Sydney.

Since 2002, Affordable Art Fair has been a must-attend event on the New York art and social calendar and this Spring they welcomed over 11,000 visitors to kick off their 20th anniversary in NYC.  In one form or another, I have been participating since 2005 and have always done well.

When galleries ask for my recommendation on how to get started in the art fair circuit my answer has been the same for decades: Do the AAFNYC.

The deadline to apply for the NYC Fall 2022 edition is Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Applications will be facilitated through the Affordable Art Fair’s Exhibitor Portal and you may click here to login or register for an account.

Thursday, April 14, 2022

Artwork Worth Millions in a Dumpster!

A Connecticut mechanic named Jared Whipple "found hundreds of artworks in a dumpster at an abandoned farmhouse. He took them home, thinking he might use them as Halloween decorations for his indoor skatepark. As it turns out, the art was anything but trash. Per Adriana Morga of CT Insider, the collection constitutes the life work of Abstract Expressionist artist Francis Hines—and it could be worth millions."


Wednesday, April 13, 2022

11th highest ranked Art blogsite on the planet!

 WOW! Even I am impressed!

DC ART NEWS is now ranked as the 11th highest ranked art blog on the planet! And brought to you without a single annoying ad or a tracker!

See the rankings here!

Monday, April 11, 2022

What a gorgeous laugh!

Over the years I have written about the strange seductive power of a voice over the airwaves, where one has no idea of the physical attributes of the speaker.  I've wondered about "the most beautiful voice on the planet", one that I would bet belongs to somewhat tall (a voice like that needs an appropriate vehicle) and I just know that she has a long, elegant neck. Not as long as Parmigianino's Madonna dal Collo Lungo (Madonna with Long Neck), but she'd make a perfect model for a contemporary interpretation of that Mannerist masterpiece. It takes a breath-taking neck like that to deliver the melody that is her voice.

I've also mentioned another interesting voice in the air is that of WMAL's Maria Leaf and discussed the strangely-patterned diction of Michael Barbaro, who is an American journalist and the host of The New York Times news podcast, The Daily.

I also lamented and discussed the uniquely young American female phenomenon of "vocal fry." Young women, that is, until Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's spectacularly annoying voice made its debut during the attempted lynching of now Justice Kavanaugh.

WAMU's Lauren Ober and Lauren Landau's radio voices  have also been commented upon.

And now my new voices that have seduced my ears across the FM airwaves - they belong to a couple of morning hosts for Radio Sputnik, a commie radio station blasting Russian-funded noise at 105.5 FM in the general DC area - it's pretty hard to get it once you start heading north to Baltimore on 95 from the Beltway.

“This radio programming is distributed by RM Broadcasting on behalf of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, Moscow, Russia. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.” 

One voice belongs to someone named Jamal Thomas and the other to (and I am not sure of the name as it is hard to distinguish it when either hosts says it, and I always try to avoid seeing what the owners of the voices that catch my ear look like - so no Googlin' of them) Erin/Ferin Fransac/Fronsek (????).

Thomas' voice is not the usual voice that one finds on the air.  His voice pedal drives at normal speed and then in the middle of a sentence steps on the gas on a word or two and ramps it up.  It is a constant and interesting change of speed cadence which "wakes" up the ear.

His show partner - since I can't figure out her name let's call her Erin - has a most seductive voice (different from my NPR ad lady's glorious voice). It is a young voice, probably coming out of late 20s-early 30s vocal chords, and crucially wedded to a spectacularly gorgeous laugh and an even more hypnotizing chuckle.

It is that combo (voice plus laugh) which makes Erin such an interesting case.  I have no idea what she looks like or how old she is, but Erin's voice and laughter belongs to the lady whose laughter, catches the ear and subconsciously draws attention as in the following example:

Let's say you are in a large party - like a wedding reception - and everyone is standing around talking in groups. The bride and groom have not arrived yet and all the guests are chatting.  Erin laughs in whatever part of the room she is in... as soon as the laugh sounds travel, every male in that room who hear the laugh subconsciously turns an eye to seek the source of that chuckle or laugh.  A few women look as well.

Thursday, April 07, 2022

Art Clinic Online (ACO)

Art Clinic Online - Saturday, May 28 from 10:30 -11:30am

Join me at the Art Clinic Online for a discussion and Q&A about nearly everything you wanted to know about being an artist, garnts, resume-building, approaching galleries, etc.

About Art Clinic Online (ACO)

The Art Clinic Online community aims to create a friendly artsy environment and bring together artists who may have taken classes with us before or who are contemplating it and want to learn from one another in an online community-based setting. As such, they are not didactic sessions but a forum for the equal exchange of art ideas and art information as well as an opportunity to share art challenges and breakthroughs. The Stone Tower resident artists created the ACO after hearing the need for such a forum expressed by many of their students. If you are interested in joining, click the button below and email Mariana to join! Yes, it's still FREE.

Location: Glen Echo.

Tuesday, April 05, 2022

Hirshhorn’s Sam Gilliam Exhibition

Over the decades that I have lived in the DMV (an acronym that I invented), one constant of the DMV's museum art scene (with the exception of the beautiful American University art museum and most recently the Phillips Collection) has been the immense apathy that art museums located in the capital region show to their area artists.

Once, while a guest at the old Kojo Nmandi radio show on NPR (WAMU), i noted that it was "easier for a DC area museum curator to take a cab to Dulles to catch a flight to Berlin to visit some emerging artists' studios in Berlin (or London, Madrid, wherever) than to catch a cab to Adams Morgan to visit a DC area emerging artist studio."

Years of communicating this frustration to "new" museum curators and directors as the wonder in and out of their positions at the Hirshhorn, the old Corcoran, various Smithsonian museums, all area University museums, etc. have yielded zero response -- since 1992 or so, the only museum director who ever met with me to discuss why their museum ignored local artists was Olga Viso when she ran the Hirshhorn decades ago.

And it takes an artist of the stature of Sam Gilliam, whose career was almost extinguished by apathy just a decade or so ago... until "rediscovered" by New York and other forces and placed where this great artist always deserved to be - at the top - the "break" into a local museum with an exhibition which should have happened years and years ago.

Hirshhorn: Thank you for exhibiting Sam Gilliam and shame on you that it took outside forces to make this happen.

Hirshhorn’s Sam Gilliam Exhibition Will Spotlight His Decades-Long Investigation Into Abstraction

“Sam Gilliam: Full Circle” Will Debut New Paintings, May 25–Sept. 4

This spring, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will present an exhibition by pioneering abstractionist artist Sam Gilliam. Between May 25 and Sept. 4, “Sam Gilliam: Full Circle” will pair a series of circular paintings (or tondos) created in 2021 with “Rail” (1977), a landmark painting in the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection. Filling the museum’s second-floor inner-circle gallery, Gilliam’s first solo exhibition at the Hirshhorn will reflect the breadth of his multilayered practice and mark the first exhibition in Gilliam’s chosen hometown of Washington, D.C., since 2007. “Full Circle” is organized by Evelyn C. Hankins, the Hirshhorn’s head curator.

In the 60 years since moving to Washington, Gilliam has produced a prolific body of abstraction across media through which he has continually pursued new avenues of artistic expression. He initially rose to prominence in the late 1960s making large, color-stained manipulated, unstretched canvases. Gilliam continues to experiment with staining, soaking and pouring pigments, elaborating on the process-oriented tradition of Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and other Washington Color School artists. In 1972, Gilliam represented the United States at the 36th Venice Biennale, and returned in 2017 with “Yves Klein Blue,” a draped work that welcomed visitors to the Venice Giardini. Gilliam’s approach focuses keenly on the cornerstones of abstraction—form, color and material—from which he creates artworks that reflect his career-long engagement with art history and the improvisatory ethos of jazz.

“The Hirshhorn’s institutional support for Sam Gilliam began with the acquisition of his landmark painting “Rail” within a year of its creation,” said Hirshhorn Director Melissa Chiu. “The museum has since championed his practice by presenting this and other major works in exhibitions. “Full Circle” shows Gilliam’s most recent works in recognition of his indefatigable vision, presented in his chosen hometown on the National Mall at the national museum of modern art.”

“I am greatly looking forward to premiering this new body of work,” Gilliam said. “The tondo series introduced in this show encapsulate many of the ideas that I have been developing throughout my career. Just as importantly, they reflect my current thinking about color, materials, and space. These spaces determined by color and texture are limitless.”

Sam Gilliam’s most recent engagement with the Hirshhorn reflects his tireless propulsion of the through lines of abstraction. His tondos expand the body of beveled-edge abstract paintings that Gilliam first pioneered in the 1960s. Ranging in size from 3 to 5 feet in diameter, each tondo begins with a beveled wood panel, which the artist loads with layers of dense, vibrant pigments, their aggregate effect heightened through the addition of thickening agents, sawdust, shimmering metal fragments, wood scraps and other studio debris. Using a stiff metal rake along with more traditional tools, Gilliam then abrades, smears and scrapes the coarse surfaces to reveal a constellation of textures and colors below.

The series will be shown alongside “Rail” (1977), a stellar “Black” painting by Gilliam in the Hirshhorn’s collection work that marks some of the artist’s earliest experiments with pronounced materiality. With its immense scale of more than 15 feet in length, stained underpinning, pieced canvas structure and deep tones, “Rail” offers a resonant counterpoint to the artist’s recent tondos.

Saturday, April 02, 2022

Travis Childers: Borrowed and Not Returned

Join Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA) for an in-person opening reception of Borrowed and Not Returned, currently on view at Tephra ICA at Signature, where you will hear from Fairfax, VA-based artist Travis Childers and Tephra ICA's Associate Curator Hannah Barco. The reception will take place at the outdoor courtyard at the Signature Apartments on Wednesday, April 20, 6pm. Free and open to the public. Please RSVP at info@tephraica.org.

About the Exhibition

Borrowed and Not Returned includes three recent and ongoing series by artist Travis Childers. Childers’ work is concerned with our society’s extractive relationship to nature, though he often approaches the topic with humor and a healthy dose of culpability as he acknowledges his own participation. In his new Story Tellers series, Childers employs miniature, model railroad materials to create landscapes that, despite their small size, imply the depth of the earth and boundlessness of the sky. In contrast, Childers' collage work in the Vegetation series presents opaque facades and coverings that create expansive fields of borrowed images.

Altered and constructed landscapes serve as anchors across Childers’ work, creating a common thread between a wide variety of human experiences. Underlying his practice, is the sensibility that in our human relationship to landscape, there is something borrowed and not returned.

Gallery visitors are welcome Tuesday–Saturday from 11am–5pm. Face masks are required to enter. The gallery is located at the Signature apartment building at 11850 Freedom Dr, Reston, VA. 

Friday, April 01, 2022

Call for Artists: The Horse in Art

The Horse in Art - A Juried Exhibition at Artists in Middleburg Gallery.

The Anita Baarns Awards

Best in Show! $200

Second Place $100

Third Place $50

Submissions due: Friday, April 29, 3:00 PM

Exhibit dates: May 14 - June 12, 2022

Artists notified: May 4th, or before

Delivery of art: May 9 - 11, 12:00-5:00

Click here to go to the information sheet.

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Art blog rankings!

DC ART NEWS is now ranked as the 11th highest ranked art blog on the planet! And brought to you without a single annoying ad or a tracker! 

See the rankings here!

Sunday, March 27, 2022

Some good sales

The Offering by Elissa Farrow-Savos at AAFNYC Spring 2022
The Offering by Elissa Farrow-Savos

It's no fun being the hunted one by Jeannette Herrera at AAFNYC Spring 2022
It's no fun being the hunted one by Jeannette Herrera

Cory Oberdornfer

Elissa Farrow-Savos at AAFNYC Spring 2022
Elissa Farrow-Savos

Elissa Farrow-Savos at AAFNYC Spring 2022
Elissa Farrow-Savos

I like your boots by Jeannette Herrera at AAFNYC Spring 2022
I like your boots by Jeannette Herrera

Elissa Farrow-Savos at AAFNYC Spring 2022
Elissa Farrow-Savos
 

Saturday, March 26, 2022

On Saturday, Star Wars always wins

I continue to sell lots of the Bisque pieces, and all the other artists in the booth (Cory Oberdornfer, Jeannette Herrera and Elissa Farrow-Savos) are also selling well.

Sold both of my two largest works - one from the "Sleep is the Cousin of Death" series and "Suddenly, she wasn't afraid any longer" (one of my "Obsessive" series) to a very lovely lady from Brooklyn.

Suddenly, she wasn't afraid any longer - 2022 by F. Lennox Campello
Suddenly, she wasn't afraid any longer
2022 Mixed Media painting by F. Lennox Campello

Wanna know about the obsessions? Read this review by Dr. Rousseau.  

Also, these critics have written specifically about the obsessive imagery of "Suddenly, she wasn't afraid any longer."  Read Prescovia Wilson here and Hope Harrison here.

At the end of the fair, and after several days on my feet at the booth at the Affordable Art Fair, I usually walk the two blocks to the Chelsea Inn and crash and go to sleep right away -- tonight, this was on... so of course I had to stay up and watch it!





 

Friday, March 25, 2022

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Fair opens to the public

Affordable Art Fair NYC Spring 2022

Today the fair officially opened to the public and once again it was packed! Happy to report that the Bisque drawings keep selling like crazy - I've even sold several to other gallery owners and artists at the fair. This is a special honor for me.


Affordable Art Fair NYC Spring 2022

 

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Affordable Art Fair NYC - The VIP Preview

I worked my ass off hanging amazing work by Herrera and Farrow-Savos (and mine), while the superbly talented Cory Oberndorfer hung his great paintings on the back wall of our booth... by four o'clock I was done, walked over to my tiny room at the Chelsea Inn, showered and headed back for the VIP Preview.

Once the doors opened, the crowds flow in, and my drawings on Bisque are selling like... sorry... hot cakes! And to my horror I discover that I have left my credit card reader in my hotel... and that means that every sale has to be entered manually (which means that fucking Paypal charges you a little "extra"). 

A couple of times there's actually a back-up! They are selling really, really good.

Campello Bisque wall at AAFNYC Spring 2022


Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Affordable Art Fair NYC - The drive

Fair Ops for 2022 - drove to NYC today and unloaded at the loading dock of the Met Pavilion on 19th Street West with the usual union guys sitting around chewing the shit - three fat Italian guys, a couple of hardworking PRs and a Dominican or two -- no one really "working" but, then... it is NYC.

I unload boxes of artwork and store them away as I can't really set up until tomorrow.

Once unloaded, I park in the parking garage on 18th Street that weirdly enough doesn't really show up on any parking map - the South American dude who's been working there for years knows me well by now.

I almost have a heart attack walking my luggage over to the Chelsea Inn... there's a lot of weight being dragged and carried... my room is the size of my bed, but at least there's a tiny fridge and a shower and toilet! That alone is worth the almost thousand bucks - and it's only a couple of blocks from the fair.

Here's the van - all packed before the long drive to NYC.




Monday, March 21, 2022

Opportunity for Artists: Trawick Prize

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is inviting local artists to submit work to the annual Trawick Prize Awards

This exceptional juried art competition awards $14,000 in prizes to four selected winners. The deadline for submissions is Monday, April 25, 2022. Up to eight finalists will be chosen to display their work at Bethesda’s Gallery B in September 2022.

The competition will be juried by Alexis Assasm, Assistant Curator of Global Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Art; Thomas James, Visual Arts Curator, Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD, and Maria del Carmen Montoya, Assistant Professor of Sculpture and Spatial Practices, Director of Graduate Studies, M.F.A. in Fine Arts and Social Practice, Studio Arts Program, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.

Submission requirements:

  • Artists must be 18 years of age or older
  • Residents of Maryland, Virginia, or Washington, D.C.
  • All original 2-D and 3-D fine art including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, fiber art, digital, mixed media, and video will be accepted
  • The maximum dimension should not exceed 96 inches in any direction. No reproductions.
  • Artwork must have been completed within the last two years and must be available for the duration of the exhibition.
  • Selected artists must deliver their artwork to the exhibit site in Bethesda, MD.
  • Each artist must submit five images, an application, and a non-refundable entry fee of $25.

The first-place winner will be awarded $10,000; second place will be honored with $2,000 and third place will be awarded $1,000. A “young” artist whose birth date is after February 22, 1990, may also be awarded $1,000.

Artists can apply online or download an application at https://www.bethesda.org/bethesda/trawick-prize. For information on the Bethesda Painting Awards, visit www.bethesda.org or call 301-215-6660.

Sunday, March 20, 2022

Innovate Grants

The deadline for Innovate Grant's Winter Cycle is Thursday March 24 2022, have you applied yet? Now is the perfect time to share your work, so why wait?

Innovate Grant awards (2) $550.00 grants each quarter, to one Visual Artist and one Photographer. In addition, (4) honorable mentions (2 in art and 2 in photo), will be featured and recognized on our website and join a growing community of vibrant and talented artists. Innovate Grant's commitment extends beyond the grant cycle by promoting the work of selected winners and honorable mentions into the future. They've simplified the grant process, so that artists and photographers can focus on making their innovative work. The work should speak for itself and our application reflects that.

How to Apply:

All media and genres are accepted. All applicants (visual artists and photographers) 18+ years and older, from all around the world, are eligible to apply. All applicants retain the right to the work they submit. Apply today at https://innovateartistgrants.org

Explore the work of Past Innovate Grant recipients and Read their Interviews at https://innovateartistgrants.org

Category: Multiple disciplines and genres accepted

Deadline: March 24, 2022

Region: US & International

Awards: $550.00 USD Grants

Apply Online Today

https://innovateartistgrants.org