Save the Date: David London and Rick Maue

I think you know by now how much I love David London. Go see this. You will not be disappointed. And you will feel lots smarter afterward.

86 Minutes to Ponder...
Featuring Rick Maue & David London

Two shows in one thought-provoking night!

"Psychic Phenomena...and other lies" with Rick Maue
&
(insert title here) - An Evening with David London

When: Thursday, November 20, 2008 @ 8:00 PM
Where: The Writers Center
4508 Walsh Street
Bethesda, MD 20815
Cost: $12 ONLINE or $15 at the door

Buy tickets here.

Need more alternative art spaces

Lenny Campello pointed out this article in The Art Newspaper about the "death spiral" of speculation in the art market. Probably a good thing because this kind of gambling seems to have resulted in high prices for unproven young artists. The article's conclusion particularly interests me:

What is the silver lining in all this cloudiness? Perhaps a return to the importance of museums, critics and alternative spaces for validation and the introduction of new art.

My emphasis added! Alternative spaces. Hear hear.

Arty stuff this week...

Patrick McDonough

Opening reception:
Tuesday, October 28
5 - 7pm
@ Classroom 102, Smith Hall of Art
George Washington University
801 22nd Street NW

Doris Colbert Kennedy, Gluinoscape, oil on canvas, 2008

Doris Colbert Kennedy, Philip Gross, Alan Binstock
In Formation
October 28 - April 17

Opening reception:
Tuesday, October 28
5:30 - 7pm
@ The American Center for Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD

CandyWrapper

Thursday, October 30
6 - 9pm
@ 1413 P Street NW, Suite 205
Please RSVP to kgoldstein@gladysgoldsteincollections.com

Sondra N. Arkin
Without Frontiers - Sin Fronteras

Opening reception:
Thursday, October 30
6:30 - 9:30pm
@ Mexican Cultural Institute (2nd floor)
2829 16th Street NW

RSVP required, lfleitas@thefamilyplace.org
donations $60/person $100/two persons

DC Advoctes for the Arts present

Being a Citizen Artist and Artist Citizen
with presentation by Karen Bradley

Thursday, October 30th
6:30 - 8pm
@ Busboys and Poets
5th & K street

Virginia Warwick

Sarada Conaway, Judy Stone & Virginia Warwick

Performance Night at the Arlington Arts Center

Thursday, October 30

7 - 9pm

@ Arlington Arts Center

3550 Wilson Blvd

Roman Opalka

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden's Friday Gallery Talk

Mark Cameron Boyd on Roman Opalka and "The Panza Collection"

Friday, October 31
12:30 pm

@ The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Independence Ave at 7th Street

(meet at the information desk)

Loda

Friday, October 31

10pm

@ Gallery 1115
East-West Highway, Silver Spring

Amy Davis, Francesca, encaustic, oil and graphite

November Exhibitions at Studio Gallery:
Amy Davis, Cedric Williams & Kofi Dorfor

Opening reception:
Saturday, November 1
4 - 6:30pm
AND
Friday, November 7
6 - 8pm
@ Studio Gallery
2108 R Street, Dupont Circle

Cheryl Edwards
Ndebele Journey

Artist talk:
Saturday, November 1
2pm
@ 3420 9th Street NE

David Wallace
Begging the Question

Opening reception:
Saturday, November 1
7pm
@ Gallery Neptune
5001 Wilson Lane, Bethesda

Joseph Holston
Color in Freedom, Journey Along the Underground Railroad
November 2 - March 1

Educational symposium and gallery tour:
Saturday, November 1
10am - 6pm
@ UMUC Inn and Conference Center Ballroom
3501 University Blvd E, Adelphi, MD

Opening reception:
Sunday, November 2
3 - 5pm
@ UMUC Inn and Conference Center, Lower Level gallery

RSVP required for both events. http://www.umuc.edu/colorinfreedom/

Gayle Friedman, Analya Cespedes, Beverly Tadeu, Anya Pinchuk, Johanna Mueller, Dave Peterson, Sarah Rasmussen, Felicity Hogan, Michele Banks, Novie Trump, Sherry Loveless, Saskia van Groningen

Fall Show

Saturday & Sunday, November 1 & 2
12pm - 5pm
@ Studio 4903
4903 Wisconsin Ave NW

prints by William Mathie and Rachelle Puryear

Drawn to Washington

Opening reception:
Sunday, November 2
1 - 3pm
@ Pyramid Atlantic
8230 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring

PUNCH - that's the way we do it!
written & directed by Wyckham Avery
October 31 - November 22

Thursdays @ 8pm
Fridays @ 8pm & 10pm
Saturdays @ 8pm & 10pm (no 10pm on 10/31 & 11/1)

@ Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint
916 G Street NW
tickets $15

Surfer ladies

A movie is being made about inspiring women who surf. This ain't no Blue Crush. Yay! I can't wait to see it next year.

Public art in Dubai

The art collective Albus Cavus just returned from Dubai where they participated with community leaders in creating community art projects in public spaces. See more images here from their adventure.

All pink all the time

A fun piece in New York Magazine about New Yorkers who wear only one color all the time. Pictured above is designer Karim Rashid who wears only white, but has branched out into pink accents!

Hamiltonian Gallery

Nice piece about the new Hamiltonian Gallery and its current show.

Notes from Vito Acconci lecture

The Phillips Collection hosts a series of lectures each year called Conversations With Artists. The topic this year is Engaging Spaces and the first speaker in the series was Vito Acconci. Acconci is a designer and architect who works collaboratively to create spaces that consider the human body and its relationship to public space. His work is extraordinary! See more here.

Some highlights from his talk last night:

• As a performance artist earlier in his career, one of his great interests was melding public and private space. Check out a provocative work he did called Seedbed!
• Art is about engaging the viewer so that they become participants in the art rather than observers. He thought that when viewers look at art in a museum or gallery, they become frustrated because they are put in a position of desire.
• His design and architecture philosophy is to address the occassions of every day life. You don't necessarily notice wallpaper, rugs, and other elements of daily life, but they have a profound influence on you. H thought maybe these things were more important than an isolated object on a white wall that we call art.
  

I think it's really important for collectors at all levels to engage with artists, hear directly from them about what's behind their work. The Phillips series is an excellent way to have direct contact with some important contemporary artists. See here for more info.

Non-Shepard Fairey post. Sort of.

Gaia

I've been focusing oodles of attention on Shepard Fairey recently (with good reason!). Maybe got a little out of hand? So here's a reminder that there are loads of other fabulous street artists around the world. Here a partial listing of some of the best.

Grenade

Adam Stennett. Morning Glory Heavenly Blue with Grenades. 2008. Acrylic on paper, 30 x 30 inches

I received some pretty great birthday presents last week, but I gotta say that one of the best was a grenade(!) given to me by Adam Stennett. It even came in an acrylic display box set on a velvety base. Stellar! I think the grenade may have been one of the models for a series of drawings Adam did for a show earlier this year called "Off the Grid" at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller.

Top of the crane

I walked out almost to the end of the long end of the crane, about 10 feet short of the tip, stopping where there was no more handrail to death-grip!

I used to live on the top floor of a building in a place with big windows and a pretty nice view. Then two buildings went up in quick succession right next door. Though I hated the buildings for blocking my view, it was really fun watching the construction progress. And it was especially cool to watch the cranes being built. I always wanted to go to the top of one of them and kept bugging my friend Colin who is an architect to take me up on a crane if one was ever being used for one of his building projects. He himself had never even been to the top of one before today. And for good reason. It's super dangerous! But exhilarating and thrilling. Awesome! My stomach is still doing somersaults. No tethers. No webbing to catch us if we fell.

Good morning Washington, DC!

Looking down about 125 feet. Note my shoes. I'd worn sneakers to the work site, which I thought were sensible, but the foreman said I had to wear work boots. He lent me his extra pair, which were a little too big. Did not feel particularly safe scampering around this glorified jungle gym in floppy shoes.

Arty stuff this week...

Sculpture 1275: Mary Early

October 6 - December 12

Opening reception:

Wednesday, October 22nd

5 - 7pm
@ 1275 Pennsylvania Ave NW


Rachael Grad

Opening reception:

Wednesday, October 22nd

6 - 8pm

@ Skynear & Co

2122 18th St NW

Daniel Burkholder/ The Playground & Ayo Ngozi/ Yoko K
My Ocean is Never Blue / From Nothing

Thursday, October 23rd
7 - 10pm
@ Joe's Movement Emporium
3309 Bunker Hill Rd
Mount Ranier, MD

Lisa Ryan
Shades of Renewal

Thursday, October 23rd
7 - 11pm
@ 2351 Champlain St

Photo Courtesy L-R - Ron Haviv/VII Courtesy Hasted Hunt Gallery; Carlos Charlie Perez

DARFUR/DARFUR
and
Pastime
October 24th - December 6th

Opening reception:
Friday, October 24
7 - 9pm
@ Civilian Art Projects
406 7th St NW, third floor

USA USA USA, by Pat Padua

Tracy Clayton, Katy Ray, Matt Smith, Pat Padua
Move Along

Opening reception:
Friday, October 24th
8pm
@ BloomBars
3222 11th St NW

Bow Prey, reverse painted acrylic and mixed media 32x32

Tony Savoie

New Work

October 24 - November 23

Opening reception:

Friday, October 24

6 -9pm

@ Long View Gallery

1302 9th St NW

Judy Jashinsky

The Fisherwomen | Paintings and Drawings

October 24 - November 28

Opening reception:

Friday, October 24th

6:30 - 9pm

@ Reyes + Davis Independent Exhibitions

923 F Street NW #302

Miss is My Name, 2007, mixed media on canvas, 30x40

Ulysses Marshall

Stolen/Still Standing

October 1 - October 30

Artist talk:

Saturday, October 25

1 - 4pm

@ International Visions

2629 Connecticut Ave NW

JIMBOT: Machine, Man, Monster

Opening reception:
Saturday, October 25th
6pm - 12am
@ Art Whino
173 Waterfront St.
National Harbor, MD

Chris Anthony, Chivalry Towards Ladies, 2007

Chris Anthony
The Most Normal Person I Know
October 25 - November 22nd

Opening reception:
Saturday, October 25th

6 - 8pm

@ Randall Scott Gallery

1326 14th St. NW

Cultivate your taste for art and wine

Learn how to assess and purchase art from the experts: Philippa Hughes of the Pink Line Project, Shauna Lee Lange of the Arts Advisory, and Susannah Parnin of Art Whino

Sunday, October 26th

6:30 - 9pm

@ Torpedo Factory Art Center

105 N. Union St., Alexandria

Ken Ashton, Graham Boyle, Meaghan Bush, Sid Chafetz, Billy Colbert, Fred Folsom, Peggy Feerick, Helen Frederick, Chawky Frenn, Steve Frost, John Hitchcock, Bridget Lambert, Manuel Navarette, Margaret A. Parker, Jefferson Pinder, Mark Planisek, Michael Platt, Steve Prince, Renee Sandell, Tate Shaw, Erwin Thamm, Yee-Haw Industries, Sean Watkins, Genna Watson, Rex Weil, Sue Wrbican

The Conscience of a Nation
Sid Chafetz Leads
October 27 - November 7

Opening reception:
Tuesday, October 28
4:30 - 6
@ George Mason University Fine Arts Gallery
intersection of Braddock Road and Route 123

Mindy Weisel
Every Painting is a Love Letter

Opening reception:

Tuesday, October 28th

5:30 - 7pm

Artist talk at 6pm

@ 505 9th St NW Lobby

Marvelous

The Marvelous Collective found some good pieces! This one's at 5th and Rhode Island.

After party

(Photo credit: bebebaby)

This photo is from the after-party for the art opening on Saturday at Irvine Contemporary. I am not entirely sure why Brian and Nick are cuddling but it's super hot. (That's Shepard in the DJ booth.)

p.s. I have now been accused of being a Shepard Fairey "hoogrroupie" and of turning this blog into an unofficial Shepard Fairey fan site. You know, the thing is, it's not often an artist comes along and really inspires me. Sure I like his art a lot. But I like the message even more. That's why art is important.

Fairey pieces in Georgetown

Wisoconsin Avenue across from Cady's alley.

More Shepard Fairey

See images from someone who might be even more dedicated to finding Shepard Fairey pieces than me! (This one's at 7th and P.)

Regime Change Starts At Home

I've been reporting lots this week on Shepard Fairey and Al Farrow without reminding you that you can see their phenomenal works at Irvine Contemporary, 1412 14th Street, NW. The opening reception is tonight from 6 to 8 pm.

Shepard Fairey in Mt. Pleasant

Another one in Mt. Pleasant. Thanks Greg Ferrand for posting this one!

BTW, it seems Greg thinks I might be a little starstruck by Shepard Fairey. I admit it. I am! Happily and unabashedly!

Al Farrow

It can't be easy to be in a show with an art star like Shepard Fairey. Everyone's talking about SF and not enough about Al Farrow's beautiful work. He makes welded metal sculptures of religious structures, which are composed entirely of gun parts, bullets, artillery shells, and human bone. The works are a commentary on the militarism embedded in the histories of the three major religions. The intense detailing and precision on his work will blow you away.

Farrow spoke at the Corcoran with Fairey as well and he said a couple wonderful things:

• Farrow's work is not meant to tell people what to think - it's meant only to provoke.
• When you're passionate about what you're doing, people want to feed that. (I have found this to be absolutely true!)

You can see his latest creations at Irvine Contemporary. The opening is tonight from 6 to 8 pm.