Six New Exhibits to Open at AU Museum Soon

Summer exhibitions at American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center will open June 17. They feature the first U.S. museum showing of black and white photographs of rural communities in pre-war Ukraine; prints and posters from a trailblazing artist from the Chicano Art Movement; glass sculptures by Rhoda Baer; Spanish artist Pilar Albarracín and Taiwanese-American artist Leigh Wen; and an artistic and poetic collaboration on the struggles of displaced people. The opening reception, free and open to all, takes place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on June 17. 

Lost Europe: On the Edge of Memories invites viewers to contemplate pre-war Ukraine ways of living now altered and upended by war. Mounted throughout the museum’s third floor, the exhibit will showcase 75 black and white photographs, on display for the first time in a museum in the United States. The photographs span nearly three decades of predominantly rural Ukrainian life, from shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, to 2018. 

 

As the Czech photographers Karel Cudlín, Jan Dobrovský and Martin Wágner experienced societal, political and economic upheaval as their own country transitioned to democracy after the fall of the Soviet Union, they sought to document the similar experiences of everyday life of Ukrainians during this time. 

 

“All three artists are genuinely interested in Ukraine, and their documentary work has a deep human quality,” said curator Milena Kalinovska. “Their motivation was to capture something authentic, particular. These lyrical photographs, although straightforward and accurate, have ageless intensity and acknowledge deep historical context with lingering traces left.”

 

Karel Cudlín, born in 1960, trained in photography at the Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He worked as a photojournalist and was one of Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel’s official photographers. An award-winning artist, Cudlín is known for black and white documentary photographs.  

 

Jan Dobrovský also born in 1960, saw his family persecuted by the Czechoslovak Communist regime. He became a dissident for human rights and was involved in publishing art and literature in samizdat (forbidden manual reproduction and distribution of censored and underground publications.) Formerly a journalist for the underground of Lidové noviny newspaper, he returned to black and white documentary photography full time in 2000. He is a co-founder of the group 400 ASA, a collective of Czech Republic documentarian photographers active worldwide.

 

Born in Prague in 1980, Martin Wágner attended the Prague School of Photography and graduated from the Institute of Creative Photography in 2013. Russia and Ukraine have been the focus of his intensive travels and work. Wágner has won several prizes and has exhibited at home and abroad.

 

Lost Europe: On the Edge of Memories will be on display until Dec. 10. More details about public events associated with the exhibit, including a symposium, artist’s talk and poetry reading, will be available by summer at american.edu/museum.

 

Exhibits on view through August 13:

 

Blue and Gray: This Era of Exile is a collaborative project by contemporary Amharic poet and artist Kebedech Tekleab and poet E. Ethelbert Miller that explores the human conditions of migration and displacement through art and poetry. Poet and visual artist Kebedech Tekleab was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She fled the military dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam and arrived in Washington, D.C. in 1989. She enrolled in Howard University where she earned both her Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees by 1995. 

 

E. Ethelbert Miller was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1950. He attended Howard University and received a bachelor’s degree in African American studies in 1972. A self-described “literary activist,” Miller has received numerous awards for his writing and social justice work. Miller also has taught at schools in the area including AU and George Mason Univerisy. Curated by Prof. David Keplinger, award-winning poet and professor in AU’s Dept. of Literature.  
 

Pilar Albarracín: Take a Knife and Open My Heart at AU Museum is the artist’s first solo show in the United States. One of the most prominent Spanish artists of her generation, Albarracín creates work in video, performance, installation, drawing, photography and craft that combines social engagement with formal aesthetics. With a selection of iconic video works and performances from 1990 to 2018, the artist browses and questions the construction of women’s identity based in the world of male supremacy and its inherent social structure. The exhibition also will feature "Ceiling of Offerings," made of flamenco dresses hanging from a ceiling. Exhibit supported by the Embassy of Spain in the United States, Acción Cultural Española AC/E, art collector Tony Podesta, and the Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina.

View from Within features a retrospective of glass art by photographer-turned-glass artist Rhoda Baer. Working in the technique of color laminated and carved optical glass, Baer has been refining her process since turning her talents to glass in 2005 after visiting a glass studio and becoming drawn to the medium.

 

At One with the Elements is artist Leigh Wen’s first exhibit in Washington, D.C. and explores Wen’s bond with nature through a vibrant array of oil paintings, mixed media collages, porcelain sculptures, and thematic dresses. From the immersive majesty of her mountain, sea, air, and firescapes, to her superscale flowers portraits, she draws on her dual identity as a Taiwanese American, while conjuring the sublime and encouraging reflection and a harmonious world view.

 

Rupert Garcia and the Chicano Art Movement: Prints and Posters from the Corcoran Legacy Collection features more than 20 prints by the activist-artist from the museum’s Corcoran Legacy Collection, and the exhibit serves as an introduction to the Chicano Art Movement. One of the world's most acclaimed Chicano artists, Garcia, born in 1941 in California, is known for showcasing social issues for which he fought. After participating in a 1968 student strike in San Francisco, he became aware of the artist’s role as a social activist. During this time, he shifted from easel painting to printmaking, creating images concerning racism, the Chicano movement, the struggle of the immigrant farm worker, and the poisoning of the environment.  

Bethesda Painting Awards Winners Announced!

Can I pick them or what?  

Read this first: https://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2023/05/wanna-go-to-bethesda-gallery-opening.html

And today from the Bethesda Urban Partnership:

The winners of the Bethesda Painting have been announced! Congratulations to our Best in Show winner Nicole Santiago, Williamsburg, VA, Second place went to Stephanie Cobb, Washington D.C.; Kate Fleming, Arlington, VA, won 3rd place; and the Young Artist award went to Lindsay Mueller, Arlington, VA. All nine finalist paintings will be exhibited at Gallery B from June 8th to July 2nd. Visit our website to learn more about the winners and all finalists.

Nicole Santiago

Bethesda Art Walk on Friday, June 9

Have you had the opportunity to visit some of the galleries in downtown Bethesda? Get the chance during tomorrow's Art Walk. View artwork and get to know the artists from Amy Gaslow Gallery, Gallery B, Studio B, Triangle Art Studios and Waverly Street Gallery. Enjoy light refreshments from 6-8 pm, Friday, June 9th.

Participating Galleries and Exhibits

Amy Kaslow Gallery - "Color and Light" by London-based abstract landscape painter Jane Kell.

Gallery B - Paintings exhibited by the nice finalist of the 2023 Bethesda Painting Awards will feature the artwork of nine finalists.

Studio B - Original paintings by resident artists Linda Button, Shanthi Chandrasekar, Sara Leibman, and Gloria Solomon. Each artist creates, showcases, and sells their work onsite.



Triangle Art Studios - Visit and view the artwork of resident artists Stephen Estrada, Maruja Quezada, and Barbara Siegel.

 

Waverly Street Gallery – Kee Woo Rhee presents “Eloquence of Nature.”

ART CALL: (Not) Strictly Painting 14

McLean Project for the Arts is pleased to announce the call for submissions for (Not) Strictly Painting 14, a juried biennial exhibition celebrating the depth and breadth of paintings–or works related in some way to painting–from artists throughout the mid-Atlantic area. 

The deadline for submission is July 22, 2023. (Not) Strictly Painting will run September 14 - November 11, 2023. 

CALL FOR ENTRIES 

(Not) Strictly Painting Submissions Now Accepted 

 McLean Project for the Arts currently seeks submissions for (Not) Strictly Painting, a juried biennial exhibition celebrating the depth and breadth of paintings–or works related in some way to painting–from artists throughout the mid-Atlantic area. Now in its 14th iteration, Strictly Painting is one of the region's most important painting exhibitions. (Not) Strictly Painting will be juried by Tim Brown, Director of IA&A at Hillyer. Awards totaling $1,500 will be distributed.   

WHAT: (Not) Strictly Painting Call for Submissions  

WHO: 

Artists from across the mid-Atlantic region are encouraged to apply

Juror: Tim Brown, Director of IA&A at Hillyer 

WHEN: 

Deadline for Submissions – July 22, 2023 

Exhibition Dates – September 14-November 11, 2023 

WHERE: 

McLean Project for the Arts Emerson and Atrium Galleries

1234 Ingleside Avenue, McLean, VA 22101 

HOW: https://tinyurl.com/notstrictlypainting23 

 

MORE INFORMATION: Contact Jennifer Lillis, Gallery Manager, at jlillis@mpaart.org with questions or for more information 

Call for Public Art

 

Gallery B Call for Artists

Deadline is Thursday, August 10

Gallery B is now taking rental applications for 2024 exhibits for solo or group shows.

They offer the opportunity for you to sell and receive exposure in downtown Bethesda with no commission on any artwork sold. Gallery B is located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E, in downtown Bethesda at the site of the former Fraser Gallery. 

The rental agreement is for $1,200, which can be shared among exhibiting artists. The Bethesda Urban Partnership will market your exhibit through social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and to their email subscribers several times before and during your exhibition. Many monthly exhibitions are reviewed in East City Art, The Washington Post, Bethesda Magazine, DC Art News, and more. Gallery B has been featuring the artwork of local artists since 2011 and provides an excellent opportunity to showcase and sell your artwork in downtown Bethesda.

All applications must be submitted by August 10, 2023. Need more information about the application? Visit the link here.

On the anniversary of a superwoman's death

 Seven years ago my courageous mother died... this is my eulogy from that day:

When my father died last year, I began his eulogy by noting that another oak had fallen.

This morning, around 1:25AM, Ana Olivia Cruzata Marrero de Campello, his wife of over 60 years, and my beloved mother, passed on on the day of her 97th birthday.

If my father was an oak, then my mother was an equally strong, but also very pliable, and elegant tree.  When hurricanes attack the main lands of the world, the strong tall trees often fall, but the pliable ones, like plantain trees, always give with the wind, and survive the storms, and thrive in the drenching rains.

My mother was like a an aged plantain tree, not only immensely strong and pliable, but also giving and nurturing.

Like many Cuban women of her generation and her social-economic background, she had never worked for a living in Cuba, and yet within a few days of our arrival in New York in the 1960s, she was working long hours in a sewing factory, putting her formidable seamstress skills, honed in the social sewing and embroidery gathering of young Cuban girls, to use in the "piece work" process of the New York sewing factories.

As soon as we saved the money, one of the first things that my mother bought was an electric sewing machine - a novelty to her, as she had always used one of the those ancient Singer machines with a foot pedal.

I remember as a child in Brooklyn, that women used to bring her fabric and a page from a magazine with a woman wearing a dress. Without the benefit of a sewing pattern, my mother would whip up a copy of the dress that was more often than not probably better made than the original. As the word of her skills spread, so did her customers and soon she was making more money working at home than at the factory - but she kept both jobs.

I once noted to her that I admired the courage that it must have taken  her to leave her family and immigrate to the United States. "We didn't come here as immigrants," she corrected me. "We came as political refugees, and I initially thought that we'd be back in Cuba within a few years at the most."

When the brutal Castro dictatorship refused to loosen its stranglehold on her birth place, she became an immigrant, and from there on an American citizen from her white-streaked hair down to her heel bone (that's a Cuban saying). Like my father, she loved her adopted country with a ferocity, that I sometimes feel that only people who have been bloodied by Communism can feel for a new, free homeland.

As as I've noted before, 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.

I remember as a teenager, once I started going out to parties and things at night on my own (around age 16 or so), that my mother would wait up for me, sitting by the third floor window of our Brooklyn apartment, where she could survey the whole neighborhood and see as far as the elevated LL subway station a few blocks away, to watch me descend the station stairs and trace my way home.

My mother was always fit and, as once described by my father, "flaca como un fusil" (as slim as a rifle). She was strong and fast. She was also quiet, but never silenced, and when needed, could and would command attention.

My mother was always well dressed and superbly coiffed. When we'd go to parties and events, women would always ask her where she'd gotten that dress! The answer was always the same: she'd made it!

At least once a week, to my father's dismay, and in spite of his demands that my mother stop it, she'd get her hair done at the nearby peluqueria (hair dresser).

My dad knew, and respected his limits with my mother. 

I remember one time that my father and I were returning from shopping at the supermarket, dragging one of those wheeled folding carts that could carry four full paper grocery bags. It had been snowing, so the Brooklyn streets were wet and muddy.

When we got to our apartment my father opened the door. He then stood there.

"Go in!" I demanded.

"We'll have to wait," he said gloomily, "Your mother mopped the floor and it's still wet." This giant, tough, street-brawling Galician then looked at me sheepishly, "I'd rather walk through a mine field than step on your mother's wet floor."

I learned a lesson there.

She used to delight in telling stories how, as a child, she would often win the horse races that kids staged around the small country towns where she was raised in Oriente province, where her father was a Mayoral.

"I almost always won," she'd say, and then would add: "Even though I was a skinny girl."

Once, in her seventies, back in the days where you could actually accompany people to the departing gates at airports, we were escorting my oldest daughter Vanessa, who had come to visit, and we were running late. As we got to the airport, we ran to the gate, and to everyone's surprise, Abuela got there first. I still remember how delighted my daughter was that her grandmother could still run like a gazelle.

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, and thus my parents decided to migrate south to Florida and moved to Miami... just to be close to me.

They spent the next 40 years in the same apartment while I was stationed all over the world.

The mostly Cuban-American families that lived over the years in that apartment loved my mother, and would always tell me stories about my mother, ever the nurturer, bringing them food when she knew that they were going over tough times, or riding the buses with them, just to show them the routes.

This week, when I arrived in Miami, already somewhat knowing that this was approaching the end, I saw her with tubes coming out of her mouth and her eyes closed. When I spoke to her she opened her eyes, and in spite of the visuals that my eyes were seeing she somehow still managed to look strong. 

I showed her photos and movies of her grand children, and talked to her for a long time.

I thanked her for having the courage to leave her motherland and afford me the opportunity to grow as an American.

When she was being extubated, a young woman came into the room with a guitar and played and sang the haunting free prose of Guajira Guantanamera (The peasant girl from Guantanamo); a most fitting song, since my mother was from Guantanamo, and she came from strong Cuban peasant stock.

"Guajira pero fina (A peasant, but a very refined woman)", noted a neighbor and loving caretaker. 

The song, which can start with just about any prose, started with the Jose Marti poem:

 Yo quiero, cuando me muera, sin patria, pero sin amo, tener en mi tumba un ramo de flores y una bandera

I want to, when I die, without my motherland, but without a master, to have on my tomb a bunch of flowers and a flag.

She died without a master, a strong and pliable woman who not only gave me the gift of life, but also the gift of freedom.

And as my mother died in her sleep in the early hours of the morning, in the capital city of the bitter Cuban Diaspora, all that I could gather to say to her was mostly the same that I said to my father when he passed last year: "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 Mami... Un Abrazo Fuerte! Thank you for your gifts to me and my children, and happy birthday in Heaven!

Swan by Swanson

"Splash Landing" by James Swanson and part of the 36th Annual Northern National Art Competition at Nicolet College in Rhinelander,  Wisconsin.

Art Bank Call for Artists

Art Bank is the District of Columbia's art collection with works by metropolitan artists installed in District offices and buildings - open to DMV artists as well!

Deadline: June 30, 2023, 9 PM.

For more information, please click here.

DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities new Executive Director

On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, CAH was thrilled to announce the appointment of Aaron Myers as its new Executive Director. 

Myers, a renowned jazz vocalist, pianist, educator, and activist, brings a wealth of experience in the arts and a passion for community engagement to his new role. Myers was nominated for appointment by the Commission in February 2023 following an extensive four-month search. The Council of the District of Columbia voted unanimously to confirm his appointment at the May 2 legislative meeting.

As a DC-based artist, Myers has a deep understanding of the city's cultural landscape and its diverse communities. He has been an active member of the DC arts community for over a decade, serving as the Artist-in-Residence at the Black Fox Lounge, Mr. Henry’s Restaurant, The Eaton and performing at venues across the city. He is the founding Board Chair of the Capitol Hill Jazz Foundation, serves on the Board of Governors of the DC Recording Academy and has been recognized for his work in arts education. 

DC Art News sends a warm welcome (back) to the ED!