Pink motorcycle

Someday I will graduate to this. (Thanks Decoy!)

Arty stuff this week...

Barbara Josephs Liotta

Artist's Talk With Barbara Josephs Liotta &
Chase Rynd of The National Building Museum

Wednesday, October 1st
7pm
@ Reyes + Davis
923 F Street NW #302

Phillips After 5

Thursday, October 2nd
5 - 8:30pm
@ The Phillips Collection
1600 21st Street, NW



Frank Hallam Day

Uncommon Beauty
Kay Chernush, Mary Coble, Frank Hallam Day, Jason Horowitz,
Lucian Perkins & Athena Tacha
October 3 - December 13

Opening reception:
Thursday, October 2nd
5:30 - 9pm

Artists' talk:
Thursday, October 2
5:30 to 6:30pm
@ the Ellipse Arts Center
4350 Fairfax Drive
Arlington (one block from Ballston Metro)

John Baldessari

Friday Gallery Talk with Artist and Corcoran College of Art and Design Professor Mark Cameron Boyd
Currents: Recent Acquisitions
Friday, October 3rd
12:30pm

@ The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Independence Avenue at Seventh Street SW
(meet at the information desk at 12:30pm)





Upcoming:
Langley Spurlock with John Martin Tarrat
Secrets of the Elements 2: The Unfinished Universe

Matthew Carucci
MarkeDupliCity

Phyllis J. Evans
Collages

Opening reception:
Friday, October 3
6 - 8pm
@ Studio Gallery
2108 R Street



Renèe duRocher , Faster Than Time

Renèe duRocher and Mary-Ann Prack
Contours & Concourses
October 3 - November 2, 2008

Opening reception:
Friday, October 3rd
6-9pm

@ Zenith Gallery 413 7th Street NW



Hillyer Art Space First Friday
Featuring Maro Vandorou and Paul Reuther, with music by Nacey

Friday, October 3rd
6 - 9pm
@ Hillyer Art Space
9 Hillyer Court

Pat Goslee, shimmy shake dissipate, acrylic, enamel, prismacolor on paper, 2008

John M. Adams, Pat Goslee, JW Mahoney, Kathryn McDonnell,
Lynn Putney & Matt Sesow
Pass Gallery Fall Group Show

Opening reception:
Friday, Oct 3rd
7-10 pm
@ Pass Gallery
alley of 1617 S Street NW



The Woodward Building Presents:

Bellinis and Blue Jeans Food and Charity Art Event
Friday, October 3rd
8pm

@The Woodward Building
733 15th Street NW
$15 at the door
Proceeds will go to Rebuilding Together, DC

Bonner Sale, Deery Dear

Bonner Sale, Christine Buckton Tillman, Emily Nachison,
Emily Slaughter, John Bohl, Annie Gray Robrecht
Stories From The Woods
October 3 - 31, 2008

Opening reception:
October 3
7 - 10 pm
@Current Gallery and Artist Cooperative
30 South Calvert Street, Baltimore

Space Invaders Closing Party

Friday October 3
7 - 12am
@Dissident Display Gallery
416 h Street NE



images by: Julia Chiplis, Jaclyn Martin & Berta Zoltan


Daniel Bauman, Christian Benefiel, Waylon Bigsby, Julia Chiplis, Leah Frankel, Peter Gordon, Jaclyn Martin, Ryan McKibbin, Ellington Robinson, Berta Zoltan
Rhythmic Notions

Opening reception:
Friday, October 3rd
8pm
@Woodman Studios
1414 Woodman Ave
Silver Spring
Panel Discussion with Suzanne Opton Lynne Sowder & Edgar Endress
Public Art Futures

Saturday, October 4th
2pm
@American University Museum
4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW

Brandon Hill Cheese Burger Sushi Opening reception: Saturday, October 4th 6pm - 12am
@ Art Whino
173 Waterfront Street, Oxon Hill

McLean project For the Arts Presents:
Second Annual MPAartfest

Sunday, October 5
10 - 5 pm
@ McLean Central Park
(intersection of Dolley Madison Boulevard)

Perfectly balanced

My abs got a total workout last night at Sheldon's birthday party on the roof of his beautiful new building in Columbia Heights. You have no idea how hard it is for five people to balance themselves in a hammock at the same time!

The Factory DC

Photo by Anthony Smallwood.

I stopped in at Fight Club the other day to visit my friend Anthony and stumbled into a profusion of creativity! In the side yard, a guy was assembling a large-scale mesh sculpture. In one room, another guy was carefully drawing out a new section of a skateboard ramp on sheets of plywood. In the main gallery, half a dozen graffiti artists were writing new pieces on large canvases. Through all of it, Anthony was clicking away on his camera documenting the scene. It was DC's version of a Warholian Factory!

Words Beats & Life Inc., an organization that helps graff writers find alternative outlets to express themselves while also benefiting their communities, organized the graff artists, who were commissioned by Youth AIDS to make pieces for a gala event on October 3 at the Tysons Corner Ritz Carlton. Super cool mission!

Piece by CON.

ID-entity reviewed

Nice review of Transformer's ID-entity show currently at the Mexican Cultural Institute and also at the gallery itself. Oh and save the date for the next Transformer art auction fundraiser - November 15! I'm co-chair again and I gotta say, it's going to be bigger and better than ever.

Tara Donovan

“Untitled (Plastic Cups)” 2000 by Tara Donovan. (Kerry Ryan McFate/Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York)

A nice review in today's New York Times by Carol King of work by MacArthur genius grant winner Tara Donovan. Donovan takes objects like plastic cups (see above) and makes them into beautiful organic sculptures, transforming them into something unexpected. So cool! I like what she says about how she comes up with the ideas for her art:

Underpinning it all is her capacity for absorption. “So much about the art-making process is about paying attention,” Ms. Donovan said. “It’s about looking and noticing things.”

I love that she sees the ordinary in extraordinary ways.

Original art in dorm rooms

Instead of hanging posters of Che Guevara or Monet's Water Lilies on their dorm room walls, students at UC Berkeley can check out original art from their library for a semester. Awesome!

Save the Date: Space Invaders Closing Party

Space Invaders Closing Party
Friday, October 3
7 pm - 12 am
@ Dissident Display Gallery
416 H Street, NE

7 pm Holly Bass "Pay Purview" performance
7:45 pm Holly Bass artist talk
8 pm Yoko K musical performance
8:30 pm DJ Adrian

Featuring artists in the Space Invaders exhibit:
Holly Bass
Eric Brewer
Yoko K
Adrian Loving
Ayo Ngozi
Ayo Okuseneinde
Jefferson Pinder
John Trevino

McGraw and Tarantino

Kate McGraw and Ann Tarantino's current show at Curator's Office was one of the Washington Post Express' "our picks" in their Fall Arts Preview. Way to go!


So many things appeal to me about their work - the physicality, the story-telling, the communication of ideas, the collaboration. It's great! Here's what the artists had to say about their work:

When viewed together, the “Potential Energy” series unfolds much like a book or a conversation-a narrative of exchange and negotiation, full of discussions, arguments, moments of pushing and pulling, and, finally, resting.

The project raises the question of potential - what kind of energy is possible? How does that energy change when it is transferred from one hand to another? Where (if at all) does the energy stop? And if it does not stop, where does it lead? As the drawings unfold, as if flowing out of their individual and collective consciousness, it becomes clear that humans can communicate volumes through physical acts. This project harnesses that potential for communication and evidences true exchange, focusing on the physical and social significance of the act of making - and making together.

Dan Steinhilber in Art In America

Art In America reviewed Dan Steinhilber's show at G Fine art earlier this year. Yay! It really was an excellent show. Hurray for awesome DC-based artists being recognized in national press.

DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival

The DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival starts tomorrow September 25 and runs through October 4. Go here for a schedule.

Billy Colbert on Current

Arty stuff this week...

City Hall Art Collection Adds New Work by:

Wayne Edson Bryan, Lilian Thomas Burwell, Manon Cleary, Gene Davis, Willem De Looper, Aziza Claudia Gibson-Hunter, Janis Goodman, Kevin Kepple, Kevin MacDonald, Percy Martin, Paul Reed, Robin Rose, Molly Springfield, Di Bagley Stovall, Lou Stovall, Alma Woodsey Thomas, Dan Treado, Andrea Way, and
James Lesesne Wells

Reception:
Tuesday, September 23
5-7 pm
@ John A. Wilson Building
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW


Tupac: Resurrection

Wednesday, September 24
7pm
@ National Portrait Gallery
Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium

Andrew Wodzianski

Joan Bevelaqua and Andrew Wodzianski
Trajectories

Opening reception:
Thursday, September 25
6:30 - 7:30pm
@ The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center
900 King Street, Silver Spring


Women by Women: A Juried Exhibition of WPOW members

Thursday, September 25th
6:30 - 8:30 pm
@ Sewall-Belmont House and Museum
144 Constitution Ave, NE



Groove Arts Collective and Art Whino Present a Special Art Event:
Block Party 2.0
Thursday, September 25
7 - 11pm
@ Art Whino
113 Waterfront Street
National Harbor, MD


sculpture by Barbara Josephs Liotta

The Art of Commissioning Sculpture
a dialogue with collector Philippa P. B. Hughes and sculptor Barbara Josephs Liotta

Thursday, September 25
7pm
@ REYES + DAVIS
923 F Street NW #302

Video still from Passive Resistance by Jefferson Pinder and Matt Ravenstahl, 2008

From the Gallery to the Street: Artists Talk Politics

Friday, September 26
6:30 - 7:30 pm
after party from 7:30 - 9:00
@ Arlington Arts Center
3550 Wilson Boulevard

a special screening of the first presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama in the Tiffany Gallery at 9:00


Symposium: Painting in the 21st Century
Saturday, September 27
10 am - 5 pm
@ The Phillips Collection
1600 21st Street NW



Tim Conlon, Dave Hupp, and Cory Stowers

Pyramid Atlantic, The Floating Lab Collective, Words, Beats & Life, Inc and
Renowned graffiti artists Tim Conlon, Dave Hupp, and Cory Stowers
Live Outdoor Graffiti Demonstration to Keep Arts in the Schools

Saturday, September 27
1-5 pm
@ The Pyramid Atlantic Community Arts Store
821 Wayne Avenue (across the street from Whole Foods Market)



Gi-ok Jeon, Untitled, Chinese ink with color, gauze and thread on rice paper, 2007

gi-ok jeon, julie wolfe:
Surface/Tension
September 27 - November 13th

Opening reception:
Saturday, September 27
5-8 pm
@Shigeko Bork mu project
1521 Wisconsin Ave., NW, No. 2



Ann Purcell, Listening Earth, Acrylic on Canvas

Ann Purcell: Recent Work and James Hilleary: Paintings (1964-1968)
September 27 - November 8

Opening reception:
Saturday, September 27
5-8 pm
@ Osuna Art
7200 Wisconsin Avenue,
Artery Plaza Lobby, Bethesda

Patricia Zannie, In the Woods, mixed media
Amy Barker-Wilson, Shaune Bazner, Daniel Bell, Jenny Brake, Brett Davis, Patsy Fleming, Holly Foss, Mina Oka Hanig, Donna K. McGee, Debra Naylor, Steve Nordlinger, Marina Reiter, Ronald Riley, Bobbie Salthouse, Martin Slater, Luba Sterlikova, Kathryn Wiley, and Patricia Zannie
Foundry Gallery First Silent Auction to Benefit
Duke Ellington School for the Arts

Final Bidding Reception:
Saturday, September 27th
6-8pm
@ Foundry Gallery
1314 18th Street, NW


Leo Villareal -Diamond Matrix (detail)
2008, light emitting diodes, micro-controllers, circuitry and anodized aluminum

Leo Villareal new work & gallery artists recent work September 27 - November 9

Opening reception:
Saturday, September 27
6-8 pm
@Conner Contemporary Art
1358-60 Florida Ave, NE
RSVP is required
info@connercontemporary.com

Rosetta DeBerardinis, Ascension, Ceramic bisque on wood, 2008

Black Artists of DC (BADC)
Legacy of Hope Open Studio Exhibitions

Sunday, September 28
11 am - 5 pm
Click HERE for a map to the studios
Proceeds to Support Obama Campaign through Obama For America

Allegra Marquart, The Nightingale, 2007

Tim Tate, Michael Janis, Allegra Maequart
New Work
September 28 - October 18

Opening reception:
Sunday, September 28th
5 - 7pm
@ Maurine Littleton Gallery
1667 Wisconsin Ave., NW


Upcoming Lectures:
Design in Spain Now: An Evening with Martin Azúa and Juli Capella
Tuesday, September 23
7 pm

Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century
Wednesday, September 24
7 pm

Richard Avedon: An Evening with Curators Frank Goodyear and Paul Roth
Thursday, September 25
7 pm

Upcoming Performances:
Contemporary Music Forum’s VERGE Ensemble
Sunday, September 21
4pm

Catherine Opie

"Bo," Catherine Opie. Courtesy the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles.

Photographer Catherine Opie has a show opening at the Solomon Guggenheim Museum on Friday. Hilarie Sheets wrote about her recently in the New York Times. She is a wonderful photographer. Here's one reason why I like her work:

An anthropological interest in home and identity, and the idealistic belief that images can help bring about social change are both fundamental to Ms. Opie’s wide-ranging photographs.

Here's another reason why I love Catherine Opie's photographs:

“Cathy likes to use these art-historical quotes to seduce the viewer into looking at things that they don’t necessarily want to look at,” said Jennifer Blessing, the Guggenheim’s photography curator, who organized the show to underscore the breadth of Ms. Opie’s work. “Through the familiarity of the iconography as well as the incredible formal beauty of the photograph, she hopes the viewer will respond sensitively to the things and the people she depicts.”

Ladies!

Ladies of the World


I'll never look at roller skates the same way again.
(Thanks Trevor!)

Painting must not die

“Living Room,” 2008, drawn animation and wire, by Jeanne Verdoux.

Back in July, Roberta Smith wrote a review of a show at the Bronx Museum called "How Soon Is Now?" Apparently, unsuccessful conceptual art dominated the show. I like her advice to artists, which I think applies to collectors as well:

“How Soon Is Now?” suggests that there is no point in spending time on “professional development” or learning how to advance one’s work in the marketplace if artistic development is not well under way. That requires lots of long, hard looking at all kinds of art, in all mediums, from all periods and cultures. Aspiring artists need to expose themselves to the sheer intensity and variety of art, to learn what they love, what they hate and if they are actually artists at all. New York’s galleries and especially its great museums offer ample opportunity for this kind of self-education, which leads to self-knowledge. Anything is possible when artists set to work knowing they have something they urgently need to say, in a way it hasn’t quite been said before.

If you want to learn more about painting in the 21st century, you should attend a symposium at the Phillips on Saturday, September 27. More info here.

Dame und Hund

Miss and Dog (Dame und Hund) @ Yahoo! Video

"Street art street life"

No comment.
From Hrag Vartanian.

Conversation with Barbara Liotta

Even though this conversation is centered around commissioning sculpture, I suspect we'll quickly veer off into philosophic ponderings about the nature of sculpture and art and life and all that good stuff. I love talking to Barbara!

Art of Commissioning Sculpture
A dialogue with Philippa P.B. Hughes and Barbara Liotta

Thursday, September 25
7 pm
@ Reyes + Davis
923 F Street, NW #302

Pixadores

Upset the Setup makes a very good point about what happened in Brazil when 30 Pixadores "rolled on a gallery to protest 'the marketing, institutionalization and domestication of Street Art'” by the galleries and media, and Wooster Collective issued an apology for showing pictures of what they did.

Upset says:

...IE the real street art kids bombing a gallery exhibition of privileged ’street’ artists. I think that in Brazil, a country where class divisions are so pronounced - that when urban artists who risk their lives every day just to catch wreck in a society that could care less about them, roll up on a bourgeoisie gallery selling copies of Juxtapose and graf on canvas, well they got whats coming to them. I don’t mean to be all Cap from Style Wars/Koma on yall, but hey. If you want to get all teary eyed about something in Brazil, you could start with the poverty/drugs/crime…

Street art has taken off in the contemporary art world in recent years as prices escalate for works by artists like Banksy and others. This popularity seems to arise a little out of some twisted irony in which people like Madonna and Brad Pitt get interested in street art to decorate their homes, and maybe they feel like they somehow connect with what they perceive as cool and hip so that they don't seem quite so irrelevant. What gets lost in this buying frenzy is that street art is often a form of personal expression available to an artist who feels he or she has no voice, or has no other avenue for expression because "poverty/drugs/crime" are such oppressive forces in their lives. I doubt many people who buy art in "bourgeoisie" galleries can connect with that concept, or give it much thought at all. Too bad because I think that's what makes this art form compelling and meaningful. I haven't known poverty, drugs, or crime, but I know the empowerment of discovering one's voice and the fundamental human need for it.

On bondage

Very excited to be one of "The Cultural Crowd's Refreshing Faces" in the Washington Post's Fall Arts Preview section on Sunday. Am definitely in great company! It's so exciting to see all the cool creative stuff that's happening in DC in all the areas of art. And it's so exciting to have the WaPo acknowledge all of our hard work. Yay!

The above photograph of me and Jon Gann taken by Pulitzer prize winner Lucian Perkins was part of the photo spread for the print copy. I've received a couple snide comments from alleged friends about this picture and shall address them accordingly.

1. I was excited that we were placed "above the fold." Then my friend David pointed out that he had "seen bondage on film but never with film." [emphasis added] I suddenly realized that that photo placement had a lot less to do with me and Jon and a lot more to do with sex sells! Thanks David for bursting that little bubble.

2. My friend Michael called yesterday to say that I looked "funny" in the picture. Funny? Um-kaaay. His point was that I never wear make-up so seeing me wear a bunch of make-up looked funny. Ok, I agree but it's not like I had any control over the make-up person who was slathering it all over my face! His comment was later punctuated by another friend Jessica's observation that it was like when women who never wear make-up get married and they cake on the make-up for their wedding day and it just looks unnatural and not like themselves. Knife now firmly wedged through heart.