Amanda Coelho

This March, as we return to our 17th year in a row (less the year of the attack of the Covidian monster) to the Affordable Art Fair in New York City, we're bringing in a whole new group of artists from the DMV, most of whom I first met via their artwork when I juried the 2022 Paint the Town event in the pretty area of downtown Kensington, Maryland.

Jurying any art show always exposes the juror to new talent, and when I juried this show, as I often do, I selected some of my fave artists to bring to NYC for an art fair.  In my mind I wanted to "curate" a booth for the fair that showcased realist work at its best.

One of them is the superbly talented Amanda Coelho.

Coelho has only been painting since 2018, and thus in artistic developmental years, she's still a baby, but a baby with formidable crawling skills, and one who can already wield brush superpowers which emerge here and there in several of her works.

A Bear Necessity by Amanda Coelho

In "A Bear Necessity", she lets the color (green in this case) tell the entire narrative of the work. In doing so, with just the barest hint of white highlights, she not only illuminates the subject gummy bear, but creates the depth and illusion of depth in the painting.  She has accomplished what only a good painting can do: deliver a most common and trivial subject to the sublime status afforded by a good painting.

See it again on another trivial subject, a chocolate kiss, now forever immortalized as a spectacular triumph of painting skills over subject matter.

A Kiss is just a Kiss by Amanda Coelho

Coelho's works will be in booth D-10 at the Affordable Art Fair New York City, March 22-26 in Chelsea.

Call for artists

Click on the image for details!

Congrats to Meg Medina

The Library of Congress and Every Child a Reader will soon announce the appointment of Cubana author Meg Medina, who lives in Virginia, as the next National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for 2023-24. 

Medina, who is of Cuban ancestry  will be the first Latina to serve as the national ambassador!

Congrats Meg!!!!

Ally Morgan

The more that I look at Ally Morgan's works, the more that I like the hints of narrative in these wonderful watercolors. We will be bringing some of these works to New York for the Spring version of the Affordable Art Fair.

The ones below are from my fave series from her current work. She calls these series Concerning the Divide.

"Among the Wolves" by Ally Morgan
Watercolor on Paper, 30x22 c. 2020

"Girls" by Ally Morgan
Watercolor on Paper, 19x12, c. 2016

She writes about this work:

Is there a point where animal ends and human begins? Western philosophy suggests that the being known as “Animal” is forever positioned on the complete opposite side of the divide; a divide that reassures “Man” as superior. But, is that divide permeable? I would say yes. Nonhuman animals, especially those species that interact with us transcend that divide on a daily basis. Not human yet not animal, these species occupy a new type of existence. They are instead referred to as “Other”.

In my art, I explore the concept of the “Animal Other” as well as my relationship with them. Animals are not just beings of beauty and awe, but rather rich, complex, knowing individuals. As an artist, I feel compelled to reconstruct the human, nonhuman animal relationship as well explore our experiences with those of other species in order to examine the deep symbiotic relationship between all living creatures.

Ally Morgan's works will be in booth D-10 at the Affordable Art Fair New York City, March 22-26 in Chelsea.

Adam Bradley opening

I went to the Adam Bradley opening at the Stone Tower Gallery in Glen Echo - more on the spectcaular work by Bradley later - meanwhile that's me with Erik Sandberg and Adam Bradley... and yes, they're both pretending to be my height!

Erik Sandberg, Lenny Campello and Adam Bradley

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

Adam Bradley is without a doubt one of the most talented sculptors in the DMV, and one who seems to be under the radar for many - NOT for me! This artist is easily one of the most creative manipulators of objects to deliver images that challenge the perceptions of sculpture.

If you go to an opening this year - come with me tonight to Bradley's solo show opening at Glen Echo's Stone Tower Gallery in historic Glen Echo Park... The exhibition is titled "Furies: Within the Wilderness" and it is from 6-8PM.

Adam Bradley

Within the Wildness  |  January 14 - February 19, 2023

Stone Tower Gallery Hours: Saturdays & Sundays, 12 pm – 6 pm

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 14, 6 - 8 pm

The Stone Tower Gallery presents Within the Wildness, a solo exhibition by sculptor Adam Bradley. Bradley's current body of work deals with the isolation of anxiety and the loneliness of grief.  The characters struggle to maintain identity while trying to find reason in a world that no longer makes sense. Some cling desperately to a thread of self, while others have given in, letting go of logic to cope with a situation they cannot control.  They are at the same time vulnerable and predatory, innocent and savage.  Within the wildness, there is tender fragility, a sliver of hope so delicate it could crumble apart leaving nothing but fear and instinct.

7300 MacArthur Blvd.   

Glen Echo, MD 20812  

Phone: (301)634-2222

Closings: (301)320-2330

info@glenechopark.org

Call for Art for Global Climate Summit

Eligibility: National

State: District of Columbia

Entry Deadline: 1/27/23

Days remaining to deadline: 10

More info here

The U.S. Global Change Research Program, in collaboration with Smithsonian Institution, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, invites artists to engage in the development of the Fifth National Climate Assessment by creatively visualizing climate change in the United States: its causes, impacts, and manifestations; our shared vulnerabilities; and the strength of our collective response.

Art x Climate seeks to strengthen partnerships between science and art and demonstrate the power of art to advance the national conversation around climate change. Up to 100 selected art submissions will be featured in the Fifth National Climate Assessment, a report seen by hundreds of thousands of people across the country and around the world. Selected artworks may also be used in case studies or public events. The top finalist will receive $1000 for their submission. A second finalist will receive $600.

Bookmaking 101: Making a Soft Cover Sketchbook

From Washington Printmakers Gallery:

Bookmaking 101 Making a Soft Cover Sketchbook with Arthur Kohn Friday, February 10, 2023 3:00-6:00 pm

Make Your own sketchbook with mixed media pages and a marbled softcover. Learn to fold and bind a text block and attach a marbled sumi paper cover. Although this sketchbook will be bound with blank watercolor pages the same process can be applied to pre-printed pages as well. Take a bone folder and roll of waxed thread home with your final book for future bookbinding projects!  This workshop or Bookmaking 101 are prerequisites for Bookmaking 201 to be offered in March. Click here to sign up through Eventbrite the cost is $130, all materials included class size 5-15, masks optional Arthur's Instagram

A Rainy Weekend, Elvis, and a Harbor Called Gig

We’re airborne as I wrote this somewhat odd and unusual column, sitting in row 21 of a 737, which puts us right over the wings. The roar of the engines drowning everything else out, and I think about that fact that the sound produced by the mighty Boeing is now and always a perennial part of the universe, traveling in all directions forever, perhaps to be picked up by alien and faraway sensors, who will perhaps also wonder as to the origin of such mighty sounds.

Read about my recent trek to the Great Pacific Northwest here - I suspect that you'll enjoy the writing.

Call for artists: National Art Competition

Click on the image for details!

John Grazier

DC area artist John Grazier died at the end of December in Pennsylvania as reported in this excellent obit by Emily Langer in the Washington Post.

John Grazier, an artist who at times lived homeless even as his works were housed at galleries and museums in Washington and beyond, his slanted depictions of Victorian houses, Greyhound buses and empty phone booths beckoning viewers into worlds at once familiar and strange, has died at 76.

He was found dead at his home in Shamokin, Pa., on Dec. 28 and was believed to have died the previous day of a heart attack, said his daughter Rebecca Grazier. He had spent much of his professional career in Washington before settling in Pennsylvania approximately two decades ago.

Although as far as I can recall I never met Grazier personally, I corresponded electronically with him multiple times over the years.  He was an immensely talented artist and draftsman, and an acute and observant critic of other artists artwork! He writes to me in an email on October 10, 2009:

Nice drawing of Christ.  I generally do not criticize other artists' works, but don't you think Christ might have looked more like a skinny, abused Jew, rather than a muscular Schwartzenegger?  It is a very nicely done drawing.  Keep up the good work, your great hand in creating artworks, and also your significant contributions as a journalist.

I am not going to repeat all the points made by Langer in the WaPo obit, but now let us observe how the art world - mostly the DC artwork "discovers" Grazier after his death.  By the way, not sure how Langer missed the fact that Grazier was and is represented (for many years) in the DC area by Zenith Gallery.

Dalhousie Arch

This is "Dalhousie Arch, Edzell, Angus, Scotland." 

It's from around 1990 and one of the many ink drawings of the arch that I did while stationed at NSGA Edzell. 

It has been part of the US Navy art collection since then. 

"Dalhousie Arch, Edzell, Angus, Scotland"

After the base closed, it hung at the old CNSG... it is now hanging at Fleet Cyber Command/US TENTH Fleet in Fort Meade.

Upcoming exhibition: wanna go to an opening this Friday?

Ubertalented Adam Griffiths recently opened a new Comics and Cartooning Arts arts compound / workshop / gallery in downtown Silver Spring called DWIGHTMESS.

Here's the info about the show:

D W I G H T MESS

Cartooning & Comic Arts Compound

Upcoming exhibition: Art Hondros: CHIMERA POLITICK - examines creativity through the symbolic language of #comics and #cartooning when the same artist makes both political and surreal narratives for publication.

When: NEXT FRIDAY the 13th at the gallery in Silver Spring, 6-8pm, light refreshments [Address listed on map, entrance on Ripley St.]. :: IG: @dwightmess

On the anniversary of a superhero's death

 Eight years ago my father died on this day... here's my eulogy from that date:

"Hoy se ha caido otro roble en la selva del amargo exilio" is how I always thought that my father's eulogy would begin once he died.

"Today another oak falls in the jungle of bitter exile," began the eulogy for the man whose bloodlines my children and I carry on.

Florencio Campello Alonso died today at age 90 in Miami, the heart of the bitter Cuban Diaspora. Like many Cubans of his generation, he was the son of European immigrants to Cuba. His Galician parents left the scraggy mountains of northern Spain's ancient Celtic kingdom and in the first decade of the 1900s migrated to the new nation of Cuba upon its liberation from Spain.

Galicians have always been uneasy subjects of the Spanish crown, stubbornly hanging on to their ancient Celtic traditions, to their own language and to their bagpipes, so it is no historical surprise that they left their mountain homelands en-masse and headed to the new tropical paradise of Cuba, free from the heavy hand of the Spanish monarchy.

And thus it was never a surprise to me that my father was both a fighter against heavy-handed rulers, a lover of freedom, and one who was never afraid to re-start a life for the better, even if it involved discarding the old. 

My father could have been one of the privileged few who currently rule  atop the food chain of Cuba's Workers' Paradise. But instead of accepting the benefits of oppression, this most valiant of men chose the harsh path of right over wrong.

And he paid for it dearly (he spent years in Concentration Camps), but when he died, his soul was clean.

In his youth, my dad worked the brutal hours of the son of an immigrant who was slowly building a small financial empire in eastern Cuba. My father was pulled from school as soon as he learned to read and write, and like his two other brothers and eight sisters, he was expected to work and contribute to building a familial empire.

And he did, as my mother relates the stories of my father's childhood in the fields of eastern Cuba, a blond creole in a land of jingoist natives... he trying to out-Cuban the "real Cubans"... how he organized a labor union of the exploited Haitians who worked almost as slaves at the Los Canos Sugar Mill, how he joined a group of bearded rebels in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra in the fight against a tyrant, how he ran for the leadership of the Sugar Workers' Union and beat the Communists to the post, and how he spent years in a Castro Concentration Camp, jailed for the crime of refusing to join the Party, because he believed in Democracy and not Communism. 

And because of that stubbornness, in the 1960s he was offered the bitter pill of exile, and this brave man decided to choose family... and left his birth place, and thus became another immigrant within two familial generations and brought his wife and child to another new land.

And it is to him that I owe the greatest gift that a father can give a son: the opportunity to grow in freedom in the greatest nation in the history of this planet.

It is because of my father's courage that I was raised in this country and not in a land bloodied by brutality and oppression.

It is because of my father's teachings that I was raised with the conviction that freedom is not free and never to be taken for granted; after all, he fought for freedom and then Castro, the man who inspired  the fight, ended up being a worse dictator, eventually destroying all notions of freedom for all of his people.

It is because of my father that I was taught that every citizen owes his  nation some form of service, and that's the main reason that I signed (at age 17) to serve in the US Navy.

It is because of my father that I despise anyone who hides behind the mask of victimism to excuse failures and shortcomings.

When our family arrived in New York in the 1960s, my father began to work in a factory three days after he landed at the airport; my mother (who came from a privileged Cuban family and had never worked a day in her life) found a job as a seamstress five days later. That pattern was repeated for decades as they worked their way in a new nation.

"We thought we'd be back within a few years," was the answer given to me when I once asked the question about leaving their birthplace. When that didn't materialize, they became fierce Americans in the "United States of Americans" sense... these were the "America None Better!" set of immigrants, and in my Dad's case, you better be ready to fight if you dissed the USA.

"Americans"!

Always a fighter he was... and always for the right reasons.

Cubans are archaic immigrants... we love this great nation because we  recognize its singular and unique greatness; perhaps it is because our forebears had the same chance at greatness and blew it.

And my Dad loved this nation even more than he once loved Cuba... perhaps it is the genetic disposition of the serial immigrant. After all, his father had left his own ancient Celtic lands and kin for a new land... which he learned to love dearly.

My father always wanted to make sure that I knew that I was an "Americano" and not another forced-on label.

"Labels," he'd say, "are just a way to separate people."

By labels he meant "Hispanic" or "Latino" or anything with a "-" between two ethnic words.

I also remember as a kid in New York, when he bought a huge Hi-Fi record player-color-TV console... that thing was enormous. He bought it "lay-away" and he'd pay $10 a week to the store and him and I would walk all the way from our house on Sackman Street to the store on Pitkin Avenue to make the payments every Saturday - he never missed a single payment, and that taught me a lesson.

It was soon playing my Dad's favorite music, which oddly enough was Mexican music (Cuban music was a close second)... and he knew all the words to every charro song.

Guadalajara en un llano, Mejico en una laguna... 

Guadalajara en un llano, Mejico en una laguna...Me he de comer esa tuna 

Me he de comer esa tuna.... aunque me espine la mano.

That Jorge Negrete song... being shouted often on weekends at the top of his lungs from our apartment in a mostly Italian neighborhood in East New York in Brooklyn must have raised some eyebrows.

My dad and I watched Neil Armstrong land on the moon on that TV set... we also watched loads of Mets games... and in 1969 and 1972 went to Shea Stadium to see the Mets win in '69 and lose in '72. He really loved baseball and he really loved those Mets!

When I joined the Navy at age 17, my first duty station was USS SARATOGA, which at the time was stationed in Mayport in Florida, so my Dad decided to migrate south to Florida and moved to Miami... just to be close to me.

He and my mother spent the next 40 years in the same apartment while I was stationed all over the world.

When I visited him today in Miami, he looked good and freshly shaven... this is a good thing, as my father was a freak about hygiene... and that's a common "creole" trait.

The Hospice nurse almost teared up when I told her that my parents have been married for 60 years.

I looked at this old "gallego"... his skin as white as paper, his eyes as blue as the sky, and his head (once full of blond hair) as bald and shiny as the old Cuban sing song ("Mira la Luna, mira al Sol... mira la calva de ese.....") and I saw the generations of Neanderthals, Denisovans and Gallego Homo Sapiens that led to my bloodlines... the generations of fighters, of strugglers, and of tough guys who didn't take no for an answer and who made a better place for others. 

And I felt at peace and grateful.

And as my father died tonight, after an extubation,  all that I can think  to say to him is "Thank you for your courage... from me, and from my children... and soon from their children. You opened a whole new world for them."

I love you Dad... Un Abrazo Fuerte! Thank you for your gifts to me and my children and it is no coincidence that you died on El Dia de Los Reyes.

The Trawick Prize for Contemporary Art at AU

Winter exhibitions at American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center will open Feb. 4, 2023. Exhibits include Madayin, the first major exhibition of Aboriginal Australian bark painting to tour the U.S., photojournalism from World War II, and The Trawick Prize for Contemporary Art.

The opening reception, free and open to all, takes place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Feb. 4. Please refer to the museum’s website for the most up-to-date information on museum events and visiting the museum. 

The Trawick Prize: 20th Anniversary Emerald Award celebrates the impact of The Trawick Prize for Contemporary Arts, a visual arts prize that honors artists from Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia in an annual juried competition. 

Now in its 20th year, the prize was established by Bethesda, Md.-based community activist and philanthropist Carol Trawick in 2002. To date, The Trawick Prize has awarded over $300,00 to local contemporary artists and has exhibited the work of more than 200 artists who reached the level of finalists in each year’s competition. 

This exhibition presents the work of artists who were awarded the “Best in Show” in the competition over the last 20 years, and features contemporary paintings, sculptures, film, mixed media, and many others. 

This year, the juried competition will result in selecting “the best of the best” over the past 20 years, awarding the artist with The Trawick Prize Emerald Award. On view through March 19.

The exhibition features artists working in a variety of media including sculpture, painting, mixed media, film, and more. Works from artists such as Neil Feather, Jiha Moon, Jo Smail, and many others will be displayed in the galleries. Themes span a range of concepts important to each artist from race, oppression, and genealogy to culture, humanity, and emotion to name a few.

In the words of Carol Trawick “there is no need to travel to see great art, there are numerous talented artists right in our backyard!” 

Featured artists:

Lauren Adams 

WonJung Choi 

Richard Cleaver 

Larry Cook 

Oletha Devane 

Neil Feather 

Mia Feuer 

Caroline Hatfield 

Lillian Hoover 

Gary Kachadourian 

Cecilia Kim 

Maggie Michael 

Jonathan Monaghan 

Jiha Moon 

David Page 

James Rieck 

Jo Smail 

Lomax & Wickerham

2023 Northern National Art Competition

Click on the image for details!

Washington Printmakers Gallery has a new home!

WPG has exciting news! Their gallery is moving to a larger space at 1675 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington DC, a short walk from their old space!

The opening date for the new space is Friday, January 6, 2023.

With over thirty years in the greater DC metro area as a primary source for contemporary fine art prints and photographs, WPG also contributes to the Washington DC community via teaching, internships, lectures, and the promotion of public art shows. We plan to expand in many ways: not only will our large gallery will let us show more artwork, but we will also initiate a new membership drive – we wish to accept eight to ten new full members. For information on applying, click here.

WPG will also be offering more classes and workshops in a dedicated space for learning: printmaking and photography techniques, three dimensional works on paper, art-related lectures and more. Check our calendar for listings.

The new gallery includes an open air patio in addition to two gallery spaces, and we invite local businesses to hold events amongst our lively artworks. We look forward to seeing you in our new space.

Call for Artists! DO THIS!

 Northern National Art Competition

The 36th Northern National Art Competition is a juried art exhibition in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, co-sponsored by Nicolet College and the Northern Arts Council. The Northern National Art Competition (NNAC) began in 1987 with a mere 37 entries. Today, the show attracts the work of artists from all across the United States with hundreds of entries as diverse as the artists themselves, and showcases a wide array of contemporary art in a variety of two-dimensional mediums.

MORE THAN $8,500 AWARDED WITH THREE $1,000 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

CALENDAR 2023

• Monday, January : Registration opens via CaFÉ
• (Call for Entry) online registration system
• Friday, March 24: Registration deadline
• Friday, April 21: Acceptance notification
• Friday, May 12: Hand delivery by appointment
• Monday, May 15: All shipped work due
• Thursday, June 15: Opening Reception
• Thursday, July 28: Show Closes
• Friday, July 29: Pick up hand delivered work by appointment 

All the details here!

Happy New Year's - Enter this!

Northern National Art Competition

The 36th Northern National Art Competition is a juried art exhibition in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, co-sponsored by Nicolet College and the Northern Arts Council. The Northern National Art Competition (NNAC) began in 1987 with a mere 37 entries. Today, the show attracts the work of artists from all across the United States with hundreds of entries as diverse as the artists themselves, and showcases a wide array of contemporary art in a variety of two-dimensional mediums.

MORE THAN $8,500 AWARDED WITH THREE $1,000 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

CALENDAR 2023

• Monday, January : Registration opens via CaFÉ
• (Call for Entry) online registration system
• Friday, March 24: Registration deadline
• Friday, April 21: Acceptance notification
• Friday, May 12: Hand delivery by appointment
• Monday, May 15: All shipped work due
• Thursday, June 15: Opening Reception
• Thursday, July 28: Show Closes
• Friday, July 29: Pick up hand delivered work by appointment 

All the details here!

Wanna get rid of artwork and get a line in your resume?

I'm always baffled by artists who destroy their own work because of "fill-in-the-blank" reason.

Here's a no fee opportunity to donate your artwork for a good cause and at the same time get a museum show line in your resume.

Deadline: January 10, 2023

This exhibition will feature 6" x 6" artwork displayed in a grid, and auctioned off of sale to raise funds for the Grants Pass Museum of Art. Display your work in the museum and support the arts in Southern Oregon during this fundraising exhibit. The Grants Pass Museum of Art is raising funds that provide free admission for museum visitors, affordable art classes, and amazing programs for kids. This will also be an online auction.

Original artwork(s) get mailed to:

Grants Pass Museum of Art

1630 Williams Hwy, PMB 501

Grants Pass, OR 97527

The artwork will be exhibited in the museum and online from January 20 - February 16, 2023. All accepted work will be exhibited. All work needs to be suitable for audience of all ages, and not infringe on copyright laws. Other than that it is up to you!

No application in advance required. Please fill out the entry form for each entry, and mail it with your work. 

Anyone is eligible to submit artwork. Please be aware that unsold work may not be returned. 100% of the proceeds go to fund the Grants Pass Museum of Art in Southern Oregon. 

Details here.