Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this rip-off artist:

From:

mariaroymaterials@yahoo.com (webmaster@themodernhome.co.uk)

Hello ,

I am Mrs Maria Roy and I would like purchase some of your items , Please kindly let me know the sales person.

Please email me back at mariaroymaterials@yahoo.com
Thank you.
Mrs Maria Roy

Le zumba el mango

Sometimes when I speak in Spanish to some of my fellow Spanish-speaking friends around the DMV, they stare at me in puzzlement, because Cubans and Americans of Cuban ancestry have a very unique and rich "Cuban Spanish" that is often gibberish to other Spanish-speakers.

How would one translate the Cuban saying: "Le zumba el mango"??? 

The closest that I can translate it is: "Hard to believe" or "Beyond belief", but with a degree of "How can that be done?" I'm not even 100% sure what "zumba" means! "throws" or "flings"? So it translates word for word to: "Throws a mango"... figure that out...

Here's an example: "Le zumba el mango that the Castro brothers are still in power!" or "Le zumba el mango that my niece came to visit Washington and didn't even call me!"

Capisce?

Surviving the Storm: call for entries

Deadline: 06/26/15
 
Montgomery College

As we approach the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Montgomery College sees a unique opportunity to educate students and the larger community about the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.  We are looking for your best artwork related to the social, political, racial, economic, and environmental impacts of Hurricane Katrina.  More specifically, we are interested in artwork that portrays the enormity of this disaster, with narratives focusing on both New Orleans and the greater, impacted Gulf coast.  In addition, we seek work that shows the evolution of this event, beginning with pre-Katrina, during and immediately following the storm, and rebuilding efforts. 

Entries will be juried by Susan Sterner, Director of Photojournalism at George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.

Title:    Surviving the Storm
Medium:   All media accepted
# entries:   Three
Deadline:   June 26, 2015
Artist Notification:  July 17, 2015
Art Delivery Date:  August 3–14
Show Date:   August 17 to October 23, 2015, with the possibility of a second show in February 2016

Fee:    Free to submit

Eligibility:   Applicants must be at least 21 years of age to submit
Submit work by sending a dropbox.com link to kingstreet.gallery@montgomerycollege.edu (see below for more information).

Juror Biography
Susan Sterner is Director of the MA in New Media Photojournalism and an associate professor of photojournalism at George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. Ms. Sterner started her career as a photojournalist freelancing with national and international publications while based in New Orleans, LA. She then worked for the Associated Press as a staff photographer based in Mississippi and California. With the AP she covered domestic issues such as immigration, child labor, and families in poverty, as well as U.S. border issues and social change in Haiti. A two-year fellowship with the Institute of Current World Affairs sent Ms. Sterner to Brazil to photograph and write about women’s lives and access to resources. After returning to the United States, she worked as a White House photographer, documenting the official and the behind-the-scenes life of the presidency. Since 2006 she has coordinated the photojournalism program at the Corcoran. She is currently at work on series of short-form documentaries examining community-based health care.

Submission Requirements
Consideration is by digital files only. Artist may submit up to three works. If necessary to understand the artwork, a second view of each piece may be submitted. Label each file LastName_ArtworkTitle_#.jpg. Example: Jones_RisingStorm_2.jpg
Images: Submit jpeg files at 300 dpi, at a minimum of 2100 pixels on the longest side.
Videos: Submit mov files of no more than 5 minutes (if the exhibited video will be longer, this should be an excerpt). Videos submissions will only be accepted if the final artwork is a video.
Files should be no larger than 100MB with a minimum resolution of 640 x 480; minimum 12 fps.
Books: Submit a pdf file of the full book at up to 150 dpi. File should be no larger than 25MB.

Also include a Microsoft Word document with the following information:
Artist Name, Address, Phone, Email  Information about each piece, including:
Title
Caption/statement (not to exceed 150 words)
Size: height x width x depth in inches
Materials
Price (if not for sale indicate with “NFS,” but include price for insurance)

Submit all files by emailing a link to a dropbox.com folder to
kingstreet.gallery@montgomerycollege.edu. Subject line must include “Weathering the Storm.”

Conditions of Entry
Artist may submit no more than three works.  
Artists are responsible for shipping and shipping insurance to and from the exhibition venue.  While artwork is housed at Montgomery College, it will be covered by our insurance.
Artwork is available for sale unless the artist indicates otherwise. Inquiries will be directed to the artist. Montgomery College does not receive a commission for artwork sold.

There is no size restriction on pieces beyond the juror’s discretion and space considerations. The gallery is 24 x 28’, with an 8 x 10’ entry.

Work MUST be available for the full run of the exhibition and arrive at Montgomery College ready to install. Work that is not exhibition-ready will not be included in the exhibition.

Contact Information
King Street Gallery Montgomery College
7600 Takoma Ave., CF111 
Takoma Park, MD 20912
W: https://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/arts-tpss/exhibitions/
E: kingstreet.gallery@montgomerycollege.edu

About the Gallery
The Cultural Arts Gallery’s exhibitions compliment the academic programs of Montgomery College’s Department of Visual and Performing Arts while bringing art to the community. As part of the Silver Spring arts community, exhibitions focus on current pieces by working artists. The gallery is on the ground floor of The Cultural Arts Center on the west side of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus.

The center is located at 7995 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD, 20910.

Mathematics and the art fair model

Much has been written about the phenomenon of art fairs as the new salons of the 21st century, as magnets where galleries congregate and collectors and curators, and celebrities, and the illuminati go to see and buy art. Furthermore, anecdotal figures from the major fairs seem to confirm that a lot of artwork is being sold by galleries at the fairs. My own experience in doing art fairs for the last ten years confirms this fact - I have my own positive empirical evidence, most recently with the great Context Art Miami fair for the past two years.

Here in the DMV, we've had our own taste of a major "Miami style art fair" with artDC in 2007 - and that fair was a major failure, as that basic fair model didn't work in the Greater Washington area, which historically has a well documented degree of apathy when it comes to actually buying art or getting the main stream press interested... or the immense reluctance that suburbanites have in driving to DC over the weekend to parking-challenged areas.

Subsequently to that epic art fair failure, the (e)merge art fair - a hotel variation of the "art fair inside a huge building/tent" model, where the fair is held in a hotel (in this case the Capitol Skyline Hotel) - has had more success

And yet... an idea that I have been mulling in my head for years now keeps bugging me.

Stick with me here.

There's another "world" out there of fine art fairs that, because of the curious high brow attitude of the "high art" cabal, never really gets any attention from the art media, etc.

These are the outdoor art fairs that some of us know well, and many more others think they know well even though they've actually never been to any of the good ones. I am talking about the outdoor art festivals that get ranked as the top ones by Sunshine Artist magazine; fairs such as the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver, or the Ann Arbor Arts Festival (actually four separate art fairs that draw over half a million visitors), and of course, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in Miami, which routinely attracts about 150,000 visitors in the Miami area.

Immediately the clueless sap esso tutto who have never been to one of these top-of-the-line outdoor art festivals will think and imagine what they visualize as an outdoor art market: dried flowers, teddy bears and watercolors of barns. 

Don't get me wrong, there are thousands and thousands of these type "art" fairs around as well - but those are NOT the ones that I am talking about.

I am talking about the cream of the Sunshine Artist Top 200 list. These are shows where only original art, not reproductions, are allowed, and photography has very severe rules (must be done by the photographer, limited editions only, signed, archival processes only, etc.). These shows are highly competitive to get in (they're juried), and usually offer quite a lot of money in prizes for the artists. The jurors vary from museum curators, art center managers, art critics, artists, etc.

I guess I'm saying that there's some curatorial legitimacy to them as well... for the elitista amongst you.

But the real destination to which I am driving here is attendance: thousands.

Locally in our area, there are several of these exceptional fine arts outdoor festivals: The Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival attracts around 30,000 people; the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, and the Bethesda Row Arts Festival also attract those numbers of people and are all highly competitive.

Consider the median income in either Bethesda ($185K) or Reston ($105K), and what you get out of it is a lot of people with a lot of disposable income. As a whole, the DMV itself has a median household income of around $90K - that ranks highest among the U.S.'s 25 most populous metro areas.

Art price tags at these local fairs range from $100 to $20,000. So there's a somewhat comparable universe of prices to the DC area gallery market, as an example.

And I submit that a lot of the people who attend one of these outdoor fine art festivals do not have the "formation," as a Communist would say, to dare set foot in a white cube gallery... and have probably never heard of Art Base Miami Beach.

If Mohammed won't come to the mountain gallery, then bring the gallery to Mohammed (don't kill me radical "non-Islamic" Islamonazis).

So here's the issue that has been brewing in my head:

All of these huge and highly successful outdoor arts festivals (as far as I know) only allow individual artists to sell their work at the fairs. Why doesn't an enterprising fair organizer go one step further and add a whole new angle to the outdoor arts festival and set aside a whole section for independent commercial fine arts galleries? 

Or even better: create an outdoor gallery-only fair with one of those huge tents like they do in Miami? But somewhere in the DMV with plenty of parking and/or Metro Access?

Because the entry price point is a substantial fraction of what it costs to sign up for a gallery art fair such as the 26 or so fairs during Art Basel Miami Beach week, the financial mathematics of this idea make sense to both sides of the equation.

For fair organizers, they could offer the gallery a basic price tag of $2000 for the weekend, which (for an additional fee) would include a 10 feet by 20 feet double tent and display equipment. Or -- and this is a big or -- the organizer, in order to attract the art galleries, could offer them zero entry fee and instead a 10% commission on all sales. This may get a little sticky in the monitoring of sales and unreported sales by art dealers who lack ethics and scruples, so a flat fee is probably the best and easiest idea.

Another option: Align with the Smithsonian Institution and set up a giant tent on the National Mall. We all know of at least a dozen other fairs - none of them art - that do this on a regular basis on the Mall.

The Washington Art Fair on the National Mall!

For the gallery it would offer them an opportunity to expose their artwork to possibly thousands of new potential collectors, exposing most of them, for the first time, to an art gallery.

It's all in the numbers.

No art gallery that I know gets 30,000 visitors a year, much less in a weekend. Would any of them turn down an opportunity, for a reasonable amount of money (much, much less than it costs them to advertise in an art magazine that will only reach a few hundred people in their local area), to expose themselves to a few thousand potential new clients?

You do the math: 1% of 1% of 30,000 people is 3 new sales over a weekend. Not even to mention the possible future sales of new people who become exposed to the gallery at the festival, and start attending openings: new blood collectors.

I would do it.

Now let's see some enterprising art fair organizer run with this.

Comments welcomed.

Good-bye Forever to Picasso’s Women of Algiers

I set eyes on the beautiful reward by Picasso known as The Women of Algiers, an epic master class on the ways of painting, art history, color, structure, and form that will be sold tonight to a private collector for $140 million.

Read Jerry Salz's adios to the most expensive painting ever.

Opportunities at The Athenaeum

Deadline: Rolling

Summary
The Athenaeum Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia exhibits visual arts created solely by artists living or working in the region and strives to present visitors with a wide variety of excellent art and unique experiences.  In addition to the shows curated by the Gallery Director, the Athenaeum Gallery invites artists and curators to submit show proposals.

Eligibility
Artists who live or work in Virginia, Maryland, or the District of Columbia may submit a proposal for a solo show.  A group of artists who live or work in the area may submit a proposal for group show.  A curator, living or working anywhere, may submit a proposal for a show featuring works by artists living or working in this area.

Sales
The Athenaeum Gallery will retain a 30% commission on works sold, and will issue a check for 70% of the sales price to the artist no longer than thirty days after the show has closed. For a curator-proposed show, the commission structure can be adjusted with the full agreement of the gallery and the curator.
Sold work remains in the gallery until the last day of the show.
Work does not have to be for sale to be included in a show.

Insurance
All works in the show will be insured by the Athenaeum Gallery for 100% of the retail price during the run of the show.

Also check out details for the Athenaeum Invitational here (with $2500 in prize money that will be awarded by Jack Rasmussen) and the just announced Wings From Chains here.

About the Athenaeum
The Athenaeum Gallery is the headquarters of the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association (NVFAA).  Founded in 1964, the NVFAA is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in all forms of art, and to establishing programs that will enrich the cultural life of Northern Virginia and the surrounding metropolitan area. The Athenaeum Gallery exhibits work created solely by artists living or working the region and strives to present visitors with a wide variety of excellent work and unique experiences.

Details here.

Release the hounds!!!

“The Simpsons” has apparently lost one of its most recognizable voices. Harry Shearer, who voices Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders and Principle Skinner, is leaving Fox’s animated series after 26 seasons.

Read it and weep.

Fulano de Tal

Things Cubans (and by default Americans of Cuban ancestry) say which make people who understand Spanish look puzzled: "Fulano de Tal" which was and still is, and will always be a puzzle to me, since it means something like "John Doe"... cough, cough... except that Cubans have another guy named "Mengano"... so it is "Fulano y Mengano" --- what??? It's like two made up names that cover Tom, Dick, Harry and Jane all at once...

And I am told that there's also even two more characters: "Sutano" and "Perengano."

Ephemeral at Olly Olly

Ephemeral
Olly Olly
June 6, 2015-July 18, 2015
Opening Reception
Saturday, June 6, 2015, 7pm-10pm

Olly Olly is pleased to present a new art exhibition, Ephemeral, inspired by the elusive here and now, and the role of delicate forms of reality at play in the understanding of emotion, life, and meaning making. On Saturday, June 6, 2015, from 7pm to 10pm, spend an evening with the artists:

Bita Ghavami

Jay Hendrick

Samantha Sethi

Lisa Marie Thalhammer

The artists of Ephemeral create situations of opportunity for the viewer to experience the fragile and temporary nature of art and life. Destruction becomes a powerful mode of creation through processes that utilize objects of the everyday. Wood, metal, ice, concrete, paper, paint, band-aids, memory, and the performance of bodies embrace and transform fleeting moments of existence in order to call into question systems, functions, and transitory relationships of space, place, and time. 

Special musical performance will be provided by local goth/jazz/punk/new wave/experimental rock twosome Space Waste.

We will be collecting healthy non-perishable food items for the Food Bridge Program at Our Daily Bread, which provides short-term emergency food assistance to Fairfax County area residents who are in crisis. We encourage you to bring a healthy non-perishable food item to donate. The Food Bridge Program is most in need of cooking oil, brown rice, dried beans, canned fruit in its own juices, and pasta sauce.

Olly Olly, located at 10417 Main Street, 2nd Floor, in Fairfax, VA, is open Mondays 10am-4pm, Tuesdays 6pm-9pm, Wednesdays 10am-4pm, Thursdays 6pm-9pm, Saturdays 11am-4pm, and by appointment. Ephemeral will be on view at Olly Olly from June 6, 2015 through July 18, 2015.