Thursday, September 29, 2022

Multiple Exposures Gallery Photography Exhibition

In the last 30 years or so I have been honored with the task of jurying a show for Multiple Exposures Gallery three or four times, starting when it was called Factory Photoworks back in the 1990s.

See the show that I've just juried for MEG here.

These shows have always had one thing in common: they are exceptionally difficult to jury because of the exceptional quality of nearly every entry.  When essentially every entry presented to me or any other juror showcases the enviable talent roster that MEG possesses, it makes the selection process a combination that not only celebrates photographic skill, but also a wide array of other artistic vectors that influence the difference between a good photo and a great photo.

Issues such as composition, employment of light, range of tones, subject matter, and most human of all, the juror's own agenda and subjectivity, all come to play to deliver a final set of works for a show.

Over the same range of years I have juried and curated hundreds of art shows, and thus this next statement comes with the backing of all that experience and exposure to art (pun intended): This MEG exhibition is one of the best photography shows that I have ever juried!

And photographic history has come in full circle for me when it comes to jurying a show. I recall in the 90s when digital photography was still excluded from some exhibitions and only traditional darkroom or pinhole photography was allowed. How provincial must that look now when we're about to see an all digital show where powerful photographs and talented photographers flex their artistic muscles to show that it is the art of photography which delivers results, not just the means to create the photograph.

Many years ago I wrote in an essay for some magazine or newspaper about the DC area region, and in that essay I noted that MEG was one of the key artistic jewels which make up the tapestry of the Greater Washington region's visual arts footprint; this show will once again prove that, and I congratulate every single one of you selected for this show!


Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli will curate 81st Whitney Biennial

Meg Onli and Chrissie Iles. Photo: The Whitney Museum of American Art.
Meg Onli and Chrissie Iles
Photo: The Whitney Museum of American Art.
The Whitney Museum of American Art has announced that curators Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli will co-assemble/curate/organize the 81st Whitney Biennial, slated to open in the spring of 2024.

Onli rocking a super cool hairdo!



Another child art prodigy? Yawn. Wake me up when one of them paints the ‘Mona Lisa’

... But one thing I do know: Every few years, a child artist emerges from obscurity, hailed as a pint-sized Pollock or Picasso. Far too young to have attended art school or to have studied anything about the history of art or the development of abstract painting, the child emerges from diapers, allegedly, as a fully formed abstract artist.

Each origin story is similar to the next: The child started painting as a toddler, they need a step stool to reach the top of the canvas, their parents are perplexed by all the attention and worried it will be harmful to their emotional development. Until, that is, it becomes clear that people pay money, lots of it, for this sort of novelty. Then the parents reluctantly allow the child to keep working … and keep selling.

Read the opinion piece by Robin Abcarian here.

Studio space available!

Artists & Makers Studios flagship operation is an art center complex in Rockville, MD. Hosting a wide variety of Resident Artists and Affiliate members, it offers studios for rent, extensive classroom/workshop spaces, and several galleries. Exhibitions are juried and curated by Cathy Hirsh under the direction of executive director Judith HeartSong. They have some studio openings! Read on...

Vision Statement: Artists & Makers 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.

To apply for their wait list, please email your resume/bio, website link and/or jpegs, studio requirements (how much space you are hoping for), whether you are willing to share a studio, monthly budget, and all pertinent details about your medium. Oil painters must use fume-free solvents. SPECIFY MARYLAND, ARIZONA, SAN GABRIEL, or NORTH HOLLYWOOD LOCATION in your email. Send to Judith@ArtistsAndMakersStudios.com

Studio 5 1/3 share of the space on the A hallway with two large windows to the outside will be available October 1 - $274/m for 81.02 sq ft

Studio 9 on the A hallway with a full glass door & tile floor will be available October 1 - $395/m for 104.77 sq ft

Studio 15 in the B1 hallway is freshly painted and available now -  $385/m for 91 sq ft

Studio 37 on the newly refurbished Gallery Hall with white tile floors will be available October 1 - $400/m for 92 sq ft

* Liability insurance is required for artists joining the program.

Monday, September 26, 2022

Paid opportunity for artists: revising the Independent Artist Award program

Paid opportunity for artists: revising the Independent Artist Award program.

Deadline: Friday, November 11, 2022

This fall, MSAC is facilitating a public-led revision of the Independent Artist Award (IAA) program, which has recognized achievement by Maryland artists making work independent of institutions or organizations. This revision effort is based on data collected since 2020 from applicants, panelists, and award winners, who have made suggestions on how to improve the IAA program’s service to the public. The next step of this process is to identify a panel of editors who will work with MSAC staff to further refine the suggestions into clear policy recommendations, which will be carefully considered as MSAC further develops the IAA program.

Consider completing an application to serve as an editor in this process. All selected editors will be expected to:

  • Become familiar with previously collected data and current MSAC efforts to support artists through the IAA program.
  • Work with MSAC staff to consider how to improve the service of the IAA program to Maryland artists in light of other MSAC opportunities, including the Grants for Artists program, set to pilot in winter 2023.
  • Participate in at least two virtual meetings discussing the above issues and developing procedure and policy recommendations for further consideration by MSAC staff, council, and Department of Commerce leadership.

What they are looking for:

Maryland artists with backgrounds in a variety of disciplines (e.g., literary, performing, visual, media, and traditional arts, etc.), or who are interested in learning how changes are considered and implemented within MSAC.

IAA winners, applicants, and panelists from the past three years are strongly encouraged to apply.

How to apply:

Click here to log in or create a free account in SmartSimple. You must be registered as an “Independent Artist” to apply to be an editor. 

Under Funding Opportunities, select "Public Call."

Select "Program Editor" from the first drop down option. 

Select “Independent Artist Awards” as the Grant Program from the second drop down option.

Click "Save Draft" at the bottom to populate the application.

Complete the application and click “Submit.”

Editors will receive a minimum of $400 upon completion of assigned tasks, with the possibility of additional compensation if more than two virtual meetings are needed.

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Sing Along

"Sing Along", Etching, Dry point and water colors by the great Marianela de la Hoz sold to an NYC collector at the Affordable Art Fair New York City in Chelsea!

Sing Along by Marianela de la Hoz


Saturday, September 24, 2022

Early start at 10 am today... long day through 8pm. That's Cory Oberndorfer working the stroller crowd at the Affordable Art Fair New York City.



Friday, September 23, 2022

AAFNYC Day 2

 Art fair people

AAFNYC Fall 22


Line of art lovers

 Line outside waiting to get in to the Affordable Art Fair New York City



Thursday, September 22, 2022

AAFNYC Fall 2022

Affordable Art Fair NYC Fall 2022

 Wall with Bisque works at the Affordable Art Fair NYC Fall 2022 - Opened tonight!

Monday, September 19, 2022

Star Trek at the Affordable Art Fair NYC

"Before Assimilation", Acrylic on vintage Star Trek blueprints by Andrew Wodzianski will be at booth D15 with Alida Anderson Art Projects, at Affordable Art Fair New York City in Chelsea Sept 22-25!

Before Assimilation, Acrylic on vintage Star Trek blueprints by Andrew Wodzianski
Before Assimilation
Acrylic on vintage Star Trek blueprints by Andrew Wodzianski


Sunday, September 18, 2022

Frida Flower

This work, "Frida Kahlo Flower" will be part of the Nueva Vida Charity Auction for cancer survivors and caregivers to be held at the Cultural Institute of Mexico in Washington, DC.

Frida Kahlo flower by Florencio Lennox Campello, c. 2022
Frida Kahlo Flower by Florencio Lennox Campello, c. 2022


Save the date!

Cultural Institute of Mexico

2829 16th St. NW

Washington D.C.

Oct 15th, 2022 5:30- 9:30 pm

https://instituteofmexicodc.org/

https://issuu.com/nueva-vida

Saturday, September 17, 2022

Friday, September 16, 2022

Not my Problem by Marianela de la Hoz

Will be at CONTEXT Art Fair in booth A29 during Art Basel Miami Beach week of art fairs in Miami!

Not my Problem by Marianela de la Hoz
Not my Problem by Marianela de la Hoz


Thursday, September 15, 2022

Empirical evidence for Murphy's Law

I live in a cul-de-sac in the Marylandian suburbs of Washington, DC.  In order to drive from my house to the main street in the area, I have to drive three quarters of a mile and take three right turns in my neighborhood's streets.

The neighborhood itself is made up of single family homes - each one with its own driveway and two-car garage.  Assuming that most people have their garage full of junk, there's ample space in their driveways for two cars to park and be off the street.

One of the planet's smartest minds is Malcolm Gladwell, who has eloquently discussed the 10,000 hour rule for becoming an expert at anything. He discussed this in his amazing book “Outliers.” As Gladwell tells it, the rule goes like this: 

It takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials.

I've somewhat adapted the rule to gather 10,000 points of data for an interesting experiment.  Here how it started.

I moved into this house in 2009.  Soon afterwards I started to notice an interesting and baffling series of curious events whenever I drove away from my house towards any destination (or the return trip) - for the first 3/4 of a mile they're nearly always the same. Or when I enter the same entry point (from the main street towards my house) and drive home. In other words, a round trip.

The streets leading to the neighborhood exit are mostly clear of parked cars, as nearly every house parks in their own driveways.  Households with more that two cars do often park on the street, as do visitors, etc.  Whenever a vehicle is parked on the neighborhood streets, it essentially blocks that side of the street, forcing any traffic on that side of the street to have to use the oncoming/other side of the street to continue on.

The neighborhood also has a lot of "regular" street walkers (not hookers), dog walkers, and runners, and car traffic is generally very light.

Vehicular traffic is generally very light in the neighborhood - usually only the people who live there, delivery vehicles, visitors, and garbage and/or recycling trucks.

A few months after we moved in, I noticed that there seemed to be a higher incidence of the following scenario... that one would expect statistically.

The scenario is that the incidence of two oncoming vehicles "meeting" at the spot where one side of the road is blocked by a parked car appeared to be weirdly tilted towards a Murphian dictate of events.  

Add to that the odds of the random dog walker, stroller or runner, a parked car and two oncoming vehicles meeting at precisely the worst spot on the streets from my house to the neighborhood exit, and my curiosity was kindled.

And thus, I started to keep a log in my car - using a calendar book - to record these instances of two cars, driving towards each other, meeting at the narrowest space created by a third car parked on the street.

A few days ago, my 10 thousandth drive took place - about 12 years or so of trips, usually at random times of the day or night, and 12 yearly calendars full of data.

Of those 10,000 data points the following was recorded:

  • No oncoming traffic was met whenever a parked car blocked one side of the road 4,611 times
  • An oncoming car was met at the blocked spot (forcing one car to stop and wait for the other car to pass) 5, 389 times
  • Of that 5, 389 times, 2, 673 times, not only where there two cars meeting at the "blocked" spot, but there were also either walkers, runners or dog walkers in the same narrow area - thus making driving maneuvers even more complicated.

54% of the time that I drove from/to my home I came across an oncoming vehicle at precisely the one spot (in an otherwise generally open street) where there was a third car blocking one side of the road!

Under what statistical scenario does that make sense when there are .75 of a mile of streets which are 98% empty of parked cars (on the street)?

Murphy!!!!!!! 



Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Sleep is the Cousin of Death

Finished!  Will be at booth D15 at the Affordable Art Fair in Chelsea in New York City 22-25 September!


Sleep is the Cousin of Death
Sleep is the Cousin of Death
Mixed Media Painting on Paper
36x36 inches, c. 2022


Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Wayson Jones Artist Talk

Montgomery College’s Visual and Performing Arts Department presents Artist in Resident Wayson Jones Artist Talk on Wednesday, September 28th, 2022, at 1 PM. 

The Montgomery College Visual and Performing Arts Department of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus presents the first artist talk of Fall Semester 2022 featuring artist in residence Wayson Jones. He is a painter, musician, and spoken-word artist. A virtual artist talk will be given at 1pm on Wednesday, September 28th, 2022.  This event will be held via ZOOM webinar. A workshop with the artist will be held on November 1, 2022, at 1:10 pm in room # CF 218 at the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center, 930 King Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Both events are free and open to the public. Please go to www.montgomerycollege.edu/artsinstitute to register for the artist talk.  

About the Artist 

Wayson R. Jones is a painter, musician, and spoken-word artist. He received a degree in music from University of Maryland and later went on to perform with renowned poet Essex Hemphill, as part of Washington DC’s burgeoning Black LGBT arts scene of the 1980s and ‘90s. His visual art is informed by these experiences and by an exuberant approach to materiality and process. Wayson has had solo shows at BlackRock Center for the Arts, Arts/Harmony Hall, and the Northern Virginia Community College Margaret W. and Joseph L. Fisher Gallery and he is the recipient of a 2017 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Prince George’s Arts and Humanities Council. His work has been purchased by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Maryland/National Capitol Park and Planning Commission, MGM National Harbor, and The Hotel at the University of Maryland, and is in private collections in the DC area and nationally.  

Monday, September 12, 2022

The curious case of the Washington Commanders and Washington state

Phone ringing...

Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Hello...

Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Hey! Is this Fill in the blank Graphic Design?

Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Oh, yeah... yeah - can I help you?

Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Yeah... hey we need a design for our new team name for our mugs and stuff...

Fill in the blank Graphic Design: No worries - I can have something back to you in a few days...

Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Great! We'd like our new "W" on top of the outline of Washington

Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Cool! Email me your new "W" and we'll design a great new graphic!

Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Great... I'm sending it over now.

Fill in the blank Graphic Design: OK man! Just got it -- I'll just put it on top of an outline of Washington!

Two days later and $20K in design fees later...

Phone ringing...

Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Hello...

Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Hey! Is this Fill in the blank Graphic Design?

Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Oh, yeah... yeah - can I help you?

Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Hey man... this is the Washington Commanders... I just got your email with the design - looks great!

Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Who's this again?

Someone in the Washington Commanders team: This is the Washington Commanders???

Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Oh yeah man... sorry... did you get my email with the new design?

Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Yeah... looks great man!

Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Thank you man!


Then this goes up for sale... cough... cough...

Washington Commanders mug with Washington state on it



My studio

Technically the laundry room of my house... but - hey! you gotta do whatcha gotta do!

The basement studio of American artist Florencio Lennox Campello


Sunday, September 11, 2022

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

Saturday, September 10, 2022

Satan came to Memphis

Satan wears many faces - this one came to Memphis a few days ago...


Friday, September 09, 2022

American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center - The Fall shows

 7 Fall Exhibits Open Saturday at AU's gorgeous Katzen Museum...

Make-BelieveGeorgia Saxelby and Devan ShimoyamaKallos: Maria KarametouSitting Pretty: Two Hundred Years of American Portrait Painting from the Collection of the Corcoran Gallery of ArtHaunted KoreasMina Cheon with Kim Il SoonSingularities and Infinities: Shanthi Chandrasekar and Michael AlbrowNan Montgomery: CounterpointMore Clay: The Power of Repetition
Ongoing Exhibition:Glorious GlassWorks by Annette Lerner

Thursday, September 08, 2022

The 2022 Trawick Prize winners are...

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, a juried art competition produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, announced the 2022 prize winners during last night’s awards reception. 

WonJung Choi and Carol Trawick
WonJung Choi and Carol Trawick

WonJung Choi of Richmond, VA was awarded the prestigious “Best in Show” title and received the $10,000 top prize. Caryn Martin from Baltimore, MD was named second place and given $2,000; Robert Martin from Staunton, VA was bestowed third place and received $1,000; and Evie Metz from Henrico, VA was awarded the Young Artist Award and received $1,000.

WonJung Choi, was born and raised in Seoul, Korea. Her series of sculptures, paintings, drawings, and installation explores the power of her every changing identity in the making. She’s studied the process of mutation and evolution undertaken by diverse organisms to adapt to their current surroundings reflecting her hybrid identity through the continuous interactions between herself, contemporary culture and society. Choi received her Master of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York and her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Hong-Ik University in Seoul, Korea. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, and has been awarded residencies at the Museum of Arts and Design and Artists Alliance Inc. (AAI) in New York as well as a fellowship at Vermont Studio Center.

2022 Trawick Prize Finalists

MK Bailey, Washington, D.C.

WonJung Choi, Richmond, VA

Marcia Haffmans, Richmond, VA

Ali Kaeini, Richmond, VA

Caryn Martin, Baltimore, MD

Robert Mertens, Staunton, VA

Evie Metz, Henrico, VA

Judith Pratt, Orange, VA

Entries were juried by Alexis Assam, Regenia A. Perry, Assistant Curator of Global Contemporary Art at The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VFMA); Thomas James, Visual Arts Curator at Creative Alliance in 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.

Founded by 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, MD. 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 $260,000 in prize monies and has exhibited the work of more than 160 regional artists.


 


The work of the finalists will be on exhibit at Gallery B, 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E, until October 2. Gallery hours for the duration of the exhibit will be Thursday-Sunday, 12 – 5pm.

Wednesday, September 07, 2022

For AAFNYC!

Working on another version of "Sleep is the Cousin of Death." This one is a 36x36 inches watercolor and I'll have it at the upcoming Affordable Art Fair New York City in New York City in a couple of weeks!

Sleep is the Cousin of Death by Campello


Tuesday, September 06, 2022

The Campello Art Fair Model (again)

I first proposed a slightly different version of this art fair model to all the organizations mentioned in this article about a decade ago, when there was (even then) a sense of art fatigue brewing in the art world. Result: zip, nada, nothing! No one even answered my letters (remember letters?).

In a post Covidian world, I suspect that a lot of people will still be a little leery of large group gatherings, and art fairs based on pre-Covidian standards may be a bit antiquated in the Brave Chickenized New World.

Herewith a revised Campello Art Fair Model.

The important thing to remember, as I mull, chew, and refine a "new" art post-Covidian fair model to replace the existing pre-Covidian art fair model, which in its American incarnations seemed to work well only in Miami and New York, but not so well in the West coast (and as we DMV-based folks have seen with (e)merge and artDC, not at all in the capital region), is the marriage of a legitimate art entity (a museum) with an art-for-sale process as a means to raise funds.

The seeds for this model already exist in the DC region with the Smithsonian Craft Show, now in its third decade.

Considered by many to be the finest craft fair in the world -- and from the many artists that I have spoken to over the years -- one of the best places to sell fine crafts as well, this prestigious and highly competitive juried exhibition and sale of contemporary American craft usually takes place each April for four days. It takes place at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC and it includes one-of-a-kind and limited-edition craft objects in 12 different media: basketry, ceramics, decorative fiber, furniture, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, paper, wearable art and wood.

There were 120 exhibitors in their last show, including emerging artists and master craftsmen, over 30 of whom were first-time participants. Twelve of those selected were also first-time applicants to the show. All were chosen by a panel of expert jurors from a highly competitive field of close to 1,400 applicants.

So, we have a model for crafts in DC which has been working for over 30 years.

See where I'm going?

Can we envision the Smithsonian American Art Fair?

Or... The Smithsonian American International Art Fair?

The SAIAF would dramatically expand the business model of the Smithsonian Craft Fair to a National Mall-wide - outdoors - or even a citywide art fair anchored and guided by the Smithsonian Institution, and possibly either:

(a) spread throughout the various accommodating outdoor spaces at the various SI locales around the National Mall or even…

(b) in temporary art spaces, booth, or containers on the open spaces of the National Mall itself!

The latter is not as big of a deal as it sounds.

The National Mall already hosts a spectacular variety of outdoor events on the Mall spaces where complex display spaces are temporarily built, secured and just as quickly dismantled, grass re-seeded, and by Monday the Mall is back to normal.

Boom!

For art, all we need is protection from the weather and security. Perhaps even a combination of "free" (to the public) set of exhibitors (maybe out on the Mall) coupled with a paid admission set of exhibitors inside SI spaces -- or just make them all free to the public?

Details... details...

This new fair model would be open to both commercial art galleries and art dealers, as well as to art schools, and (and here's the key "and") to individual artists and cooperative artist-owned galleries.

Size matters… just ask Salvador Dali, who once said: “If you can’t paint well, then paint big!”

Would 1200 galleries, dealers, schools and artists in a mega, new-model art fair raise some interests from art collectors to come to DC for a long weekend in May?

It would if it attracted 100,000 visitors to the fair instead of 10,000 (like the looooong gone art fair artDC once attracted).

Are you aware that in May the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival in nearby Bethesda attracts 30-40,000 people to the streets of Bethesda for this artist-only street fine arts fair? or that also in May the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival attracts the same number of people to the streets of the Reston Town Center to buy art from individual artists?

Both Bethesda and Reston have two of the highest median household incomes in the US. And I am told that the Greater Washington, DC region has the second highest concentration of multi-millionaires in the world.

The money is here - the key is to get the disposable income crowd in touch with the art.

Both Bethesda and Reston manage to accomplish this one weekend each year. Do not, under any circumstances assume that these are "street fairs" where teddy bears, country crafts, and dried flowers are sold. These are both highly competitive fine arts outdoor fairs where artists from all over the nation come to and compete for spots because artwork sells well.

I have seen $80,000 worth of sculptures sell to one collector in Bethesda and a painter with a price point of $17,000 sell out in Reston.

Do not let the snobby attitude of the high art world affect your preconception of what these two street art fairs are like; go visit one this coming (and hopefully post Covidian) and open your eyes. In 2021 the fairs slipped from May to later months… but I am sure that they’ll be back to May in 2022.

And because of them, and because of the success of Art Basel Miami Beach, we know that given a certain critical mass, people will come out to an art fair. The primary key for art dealers to have interest in an art fair is sales (and also exposure to new collectors, museum curators, etc.), but mainly sales.

If you are a British gallery, by the time you get yourself and your artwork to Miami Beach, you're in the hole a whole bunch of Euros and British pounds; if you don't sell anything (like it happened to a British gallery in artDC and an Israeli gallery at another fair), chances are that you won't return to that fair.

But increase the public attendance numbers exponentially, and Economics 101 tells you that sales will also increase exponentially. And unlike the hotel-deprived artDC location at the Convention Center, I am told by DC's tourist gurus that the National Mall is already a magnet location where visitors, regardless of where they are staying around the Greater DC region, flock to during their visits to the capital.

Since two major Greater DC area street art fairs already exist in May in the Greater DC area, we can even consider aligning the weekends so that both Reston, Bethesda, and the Smithsonian American International Art Fair all take place on the same weekend!

Offer free bus service between Reston and Bethesda and the National Mall for collectors to hop around during the fair weekend, and a public buzz alignment will begin to happen. The Smithsonian American International Art Fair starts on a Thursday through Sunday and both Reston and Bethesda continue to run on Saturday and Sunday. And the Smithsonian American International Art Fair is focused as a major fundraiser for the cash-hungry SI.

A formula of booth prices + perhaps a 5% commission on all sales (both tax deductible for American galleries) would take care of temporary Mall booth construction, re-seeding of grass, and booth construction inside SI venues and still yield a nice chunk of cash for the SI.

If there's commercial success and high public attendance, soon we'd see some satellite hotel fairs popping up all over DC and its easy-to-get-to suburbs; the Phillips will jump on the bandwagon right away.

ABMB had 26 fairs all over Greater Miami last December. Another DC-unique element to the above model, and an important element that only a Washington art fair weekend can add: include the Embassies!

In addition to all the above events taking place, the fair could also align with shows at 15-20 embassy galleries around DC. The embassies would showcase one (or a group) of their national artists, and then the fair would really have an international flavor, and the beginning seeds of an American Venice in the DMV.

DC is a small city; it's fairly easy to set up transportation between the embassies and the Mall. In fact, some embassies could probably set that up themselves.

I think that this "new" super model could (and eventually when someone delivers and implements it -- it will) challenge Miami Beach -- and yes, I am aware that DC in May is not Miami in December -- but I also think that the District's own museums and public attractions trump Miami's anytime, so the DMV has something different to offer the potential collector who may be considering attending a new art fair in a city (like DC) that also offers him/her some other cultural and visual attractions besides good weather, and nice beaches… and Calle Ocho.

DC art commissioners... Smithsonianos... DC city fathers and mothers.... call me!