Colby Caldwell ART TALK

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2007 / 10 - 11:30 AM
RSVP / SPACE LIMITED / 202.234.5802


H E M P H I L L
1515 FOURTEENTH ST. NW
W A S H I N G T O N , D C 2 0 0 0 5
2 0 2 . 2 3 4 . 5 6 0 1

Urban Institute Panel: Arts, Culture in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Check out this forum posted on Authentic Art regarding the arts and culture of New Orleans...you might be interested in attending. Here

Freya Grand at Touchstone Gallery's 9th Annual All-Media Juried Exhibition

February 7, 2007 - March 3, 2007
JUROR: Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator of the American University Museum
"Chimborazo" was selected by juror Jack Rasmussen for the 9th Annual All-Media Exhibition. The exhibition runs until March 3.

Opening Reception: Friday, February 9, 6 - 8 PM

"Chimborazo" is the title of this 48" x 60" oil on canvas by DC artist Freya Grand. Named after a volcano in central Ecuador, it is part of a series which grew out of travels in the Andes Mountains and in the Valley of the Volcanos.

Grand has painted landscape for the past seven years, having moved away from depictions of emotionally charged interiors and architecture in order to explore the forces of the natural world. These paintings generate not only a strong sense of place, but a sense of the mysterious forces operating behind what we take for reality.

Touchstone Gallery
406 7th Street, NW, 2nd floor
Washington, DC 20004
202-347-2787
touchstonegallery@verizon.net

Sam Gilliam: a retrospective

The Houston Chronicle's Shelby Hodge reports that "The legendary Sam Gilliam was guest of honor Friday night at the dinner held prior to opening of his show at the Contemporary Arts Museum."

The Corcoran Gallery of Art is touring the wonderful Sam Gilliam Exhibition that previewed here in Washington, DC from 10/15/2005 to 1/22/2006 and is now showing in the Brown Foundation Gallery at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas USA

Sam Gilliam: a retrospective
January 27–May 6, 2007

"Sam Gilliam: a retrospective highlights the evolution of Sam Gilliam’s career through approximately 40 works from 1967 to the present. In 1968, Gilliam revolutionized painting by discarding the wooden stretchers that had always determined a painting’s shape to instead drape and suspend his rich, lyrical, color-stained canvases from the floor and ceiling. While not the first to abandon the traditional stretcher, his reconfiguration of canvas and paint into a three-dimensional installation was a precursor to the blurring of boundaries between painting, sculpture and space that characterized much of the art of the 1970s. Sam Gilliam: a retrospective includes his revolutionary draped paintings as well as his 40 years of innovative uses of space, color and light in complex multimedia work ranging from conventionally shaped paintings with beveled edges to multi-dimensional installations and sculpture. Gilliam’s evocative use of color and his expansive vision have assured his place as one of the most important abstractionists of the late 20th century.

Sam Gilliam: a retrospective is organized by Jonathan P. Binstock, curator of contemporary art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The exhibition is accompanied by a major catalogue, the first fully illustrated in-depth scholarly publication devoted to the artist. The catalogue includes essays by Binstock and other scholars as well as complete documentation on the artist’s extensive public projects and on his career.

Sam Gilliam: a retrospective is organized and circulated by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and made possible through the generous support of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Ellen and Gerry Sigal."

Someone On Your Team

An article on life coaching appears in Marin Magazine this month with a feature on Eric Maisel, Author and Creativity Coach based in San Francisco. About his mug shot Eric claims, "It is interesting to me although I twinkle and smile in real life, you can't get me to twinkle and smile for official photos. In real life I do not look this severe! No doubt I've decided somewhere inside that on such occasions I must appear serious." I've spoken with Eric Maisel on several occassions and he does indeed twinkle in both conversation and in his writings.

Read the article: here

Eric Maisel offers training in Creativity Coaching. He is putting out a call for "free clients". During the introductory training, coaches work with clients via email for free for the duration of the 16-week training. If you would like to
embark on some creativity coaching, let him know. Here is the information on that:
http://www.ericmaisel.com/coaching/become-free-client.html

ericmaisel@hotmail.com
http://www.ericmaisel.com

Project 4 presents :

IVANNY PAGAN, "Unfinished Sympathy"
RICH MACDONALD, Recent Work

February 2 – March 10, 2007
Opening Reception: Friday, February 2, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Project 4 presents concurrent solo exhibitions by Baltimore-based photographer Rich MacDonald and Philadlephia-based painter Ivanny Pagan. Rich MacDonald’s large-scale photographs are grand statements about very ordinary interior spaces. These typical American interiors are presented so objectively that they become archeological studies, distancing the viewer from the very familiar image. He writes, “For the past 3 years I have helped document the excavation of a bronze-age burial site in central Albania. The photographs in this show are archaeologically inspired investigations into what objects - their function and organizational relationship to one another - can reveal about their owners. I am curious as to how clear a portrait such clues can paint.” Ivanny Pagan’s stark portraits evoke an immediate emotional connection between the subject and viewer. “I’ve never finished a painting. I simply stop,” he explains. “The true life of the image reveals itself and at some point, my original ideals of what the painting should look like, and what the piece has become in reality, are so disparate that I have to end it.” There are parts in each of his paintings that are deleted from the beginning. This makes the viewer believe that these are not straightforward portraits. Other aspects of the subject have been removed as well, or added on. This helps to infuse all other decisions made with purpose and meaning. These paintings demand that you stare hard. Rich MacDonald earned an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2006. He has exhibited throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and currently lives and works in Baltimore, MD. Ivanny Pagan earned his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2004 and his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006. Pagan has shown his work in New York and Philadelphia. He was recently featured in New American Paintings and has received numerous scholarships and awards throughout his academic training.

Contact: Anne Surak, Director
Project 4
903 U Street NW Washington DC 20001
tel: 202 232 4340 fax: 202 232 4341
info@project4gallery.com
http://www.project4gallery.com/

Palm Springs, Oh yes..

photos courtesy the artist....
I made my way across country to the sunshine coast of California to attend the artists reception at the Palm Springs Art Museum. I had the pleasure of meeting the Juror, Jan Adlmann at the museum. First time stepping off the plane into the desert light was a delightful experience. In our DC winter, I forget how luscious and uplifting a vision of crisp light can be. The Palm Springs Art Museum boasts a striking collection of contemporary art. Currently on display in the museum is an exhibit of Roy Lichtenstein Prints 1956-97, From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation through March 11. The museum showcases a large gorgeous Dale Chihuly glass sculpture in the atrium.

About 170 folks including artists, presenters, patrons and visitors attended the reception for The ARTISTS COUNCIL 38TH ANNUAL NATIONAL JURIED EXHIBITION which spilled out into the adjoining sculpture garden.
Exhibition Dates:
January 24 through March 4, 2007


I'll be back.
Photos from the ARTISTS COUNCIL 38TH ANNUAL NATIONAL JURIED EXHIBITION
Juror: Jan E. Adlmann, Santa Fe, NM



Artist, Anne Marchand with juried painting, Arc Point
photo credit: Ron Root



Palm Springs Art Museum



Marchand programs funded in part by the DC Commission on The Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment For The Arts.
www.annemarchand.com

New Position for Children's ArtSpace

Position:
ArtSpace Program Coordinator - New Community for Children
Last day to apply: March 22, 2007

About the Employer:
New Community for Children (NCFC) empowers children though educational, cultural, and spiritual enrichment. Toward that end, NCFC works with parents, teachers, the community, and other social service organizations in the District of Columbia to address the comprehensive educational needs of children. NCFC prepares students for post-secondary education, careers, and/or vocational training to become responsible, productive adults who, in turn, will their time and talents back to their communities.

Job Description:
The Program Coordinator will oversee the planning, implementation and ongoing evaluation of quality and developmentally appropriate programs, activities, services, and special events for youth ages 6-18 participating in our arts programming. The Coordinator will also oversee fine art programs made available to other adults and children in the community. New Community for Children's ArtSpace Coordinator will be instrumental in establishing a community arts program that serves not only participants within the NCFC program but area residents, parents, and partner organizations. Individuals should submit their resume and cover letter to Deserea Jackson (Office Manager) at djackson@ncfc-dc.org

For more information and complete job description contact (202) 232-0457.
The position has been posted on - Idealist.org

Sunset over Washington, DC and soon airborne

See you in a week. I'm headed to a place with Palm trees - no not Florida...opposite to Palm Springs, CA for the opening of the Artists Council 38th Annual National Juried Exhibition at the Palm Springs Art Museum. The exhibit runs January 24 through March 4, 2007 with an opening reception on Tuesday, January 23. My technology is not yet connected to me (good, bad, indifferent?). I don't know! so I won't be posting until I get home late next week. (Unless I get lucky!) See you on the flip side.

....tonight a lovely Saturday sunset.

Call For Entries

OPTIONS 2007
Call For Entries read here
Deadline March 14, 2007

OPTIONS features talented under-recognized and emerging artists in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia region.

* Artists working in all media will be considered.
* No Entry Fee.
* Artists with gallery representation are ineligible. (ie: having a gallery/agent working on behalf of the artist to promote or sell his/her artwork.)
* Artists who have exhibited in past OPTIONS exhibitions are ineligible.

OPTIONS 2007 Curator:
Paul Brewer is an independent curator and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. Previously, he was Director of Exhibitions for the Corcoran College of Art + Design where he organized exhibitions by artists such as Tara Donovan, Critical Art Ensemble, Anthony Goicolea, and Seimon Allen, among others. His writing has appeared in museum publications and art journals in the US, Europe, and Latin America. He is currently a consultant to the Office for Contemporary Art Norway in the areas of communications and international programming.

OPTIONS history:
Since 1981, the OPTIONS exhibition has featured the region's brightest and most talented emerging artists. Originally developed as a biennial by the WPA board of directors, OPTIONS sought to support new and under recognized talent with a formal, highly visible, curated exhibition and show catalogue. Today, this exhibition reflects the WPA\C's commitment to discover visual artists who may help to usher in a new era of exhibitions, programs and services within the regional fine art community here in Washington, DC.

Many artists that were featured in OPTIONS have gone on to appear in international exhibitions such as the Whitney Biennial; have garnered hundreds of solo and group exhibitions across the country, and many are represented by major galleries including PaceWildenstein, David Adamson Gallery, Hemphill Fine Arts, and Yancey Richardson Gallery. Their works are included in major collections of museums and galleries such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

2007 marks the 12th year of OPTIONS and the ongoing dedication of the WPA\C to support, promote and encourage new and emerging talent, as well as to stimulate dialogue between established and emerging artists, and the regional community. The WPA\C is excited to be preparing for OPTIONS 2007 and will continue it's mission to engage the DC Arts Community and share in their enthusiasm for this much-anticipated art event.

Grant/Residency Program for Environmental Art at I-Park

January 29 Deadline

I-Park is a 450-acre woodland retreat in rural East Haddam, Connecticut. The property consists of ponds, hills, streams, stone outcroppings and sheer cliffs. It has wild fields and new growth forest, as well as miles of stonewalls and walking trails. It is bisected by the Eight Mile River and adjoins the Devil's Hopyard State Park and other preserved tracts. The land has a wild, gnarly character that suits I-Park's role as a refuge from and recourse to the safe routines and subtle compromises of the workaday world.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

January 29, is fast approaching for the new Grant/Residency Program for Environmental Art at I-Park. If you have an interest in environmental art, which could very well include elements of landscape and garden design, or know of someone for whom this program would be meaningful, please go to www.i-park.org/Grants.html for details. The program provides participants with a stipend as well as funding for travel and material costs.

This is the first time I-Park has devoted a special residency session, June 5-18, 2007, to a particular discipline. The work produced during this focused session will then be showcased at our annual Open House on June 23, 2007.

Finally, note that this is the first e-mail to our general database specifically on this subject. We had hoped to get this out much earlier. We realize, therefore, that for some, this may be their first notification of the program, and for this we apologize. Although we are not able to change our official postmark deadline, if this is truly the first you’re hearing about the program and would like to apply, we can allow a few additional days. If you are able to get your materials in our hands by February 5, we will process them.

Regards,
Ralph Crispino, Jr. i-Park
Executive Director

New Art in Downtown DC:

Arts Commissioner E. Ethelbert Miller has reported that The Dragon Gate by Andrew Crawford was just commissioned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. It can be found at 602 & 604 H Street, NW, between 6th & 7th Streets.

Congratulations

Contemporary Art Gallery magazine has an informative article by Daniel Ferris on our own Mid Atlantic Artnews Blogger, F. LENNOX CAMPELLO. Lenny gives insight into art as well as recent developments in the art world. Read it here.

"A Woman's Eye"

Reception for the Women's Caucus of Art of Greater Washington, DC's art exhibition at the Columbia Arts Center in Columbia, Maryland this Saturday, January 20, 2007.

Sharon Burton of Authentic Art DC was the co-juror for this wonderful exhibition. A beautiful catalog has been developed to celebrate the artists and includes a joint statement from co-jurors Barbara Wolan and Sharon Burton.

MING YI SUNG’S CROCHETED NUDE SCULPTURE

NEVIN KELLY GALLERY TO PREMIERE DOCUMENTARY ON 2005 CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING MING YI SUNG’S CROCHETED NUDE SCULPTURE

Public Screening and Reception Saturday, January 20, 2007 from 6-9pm. Artist’s work on display January 19 – February 2, 2007.

A 2005 exhibition of knitted sculpture in a Washington DC office building sparked controversy among tenants because it included work that the tenants (predominately lawyers) found offensive. The controversy centered on crocheted sculptures by local artist Ming Yi Sung (now Zeleski) that showed human figures and monkeys complete with crocheted nipples and genitalia. The controversy attracted significant media attention. A short documentary about the controversy, called “Public Art, Private Parts,” will premier at the Nevin Kelly Gallery on January 20 at 7:00 pm, with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. The artist and the film’s director, American University graduate student Brandon Bloch, will be present. The gallery will display Ming’s work in an impromptu exhibit from January 19 through February 2. The exhibition will include the work at the center of the controversy—“Settlement with Monkeys”--which is now owned by gallery director Nevin J. Kelly

Background: In June of 2005, Binnie B. Fry, director of the Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space in the office building at 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, curated an exhibition entitled “Not the Knitting You Know,” that presented knitting and crochet as an artistic medium. Four artists were featured in the exhibition, but the controversy centered on Ming’s cartoonish crocheted figures, which included male, female and intersexed humans with bright red crocheted nipples, monkeys with prominent male genitalia, and goats with bloated bright pink udders. The building’s anchor tenant, the DC office of a prominent Philadelphia law firm, demanded that the works be removed from the building’s public art space. Jonathan Padget covered the controversy for the Washington Post in his tongue-in-cheek article “Crocheted Nudes Cause Brows to Knit” (June 23, 2005; Page C01). Ming’s solution to the problem was elegant: she quickly created a number of crocheted fig leaves to cover the offending parts (which those who previously took offense could not resist lifting to see what lay beneath).

Brandon Bloch, documentary film producer, artist, and first year graduate student in American University’s Master’s Program in Film and Video, recently directed a 5-minute short film in which he and his collaborators, animator Brad Lambert and editor Brad Soucy playfully outline the story with interviews and animation.

For a gallery of Ming Yi Sung’s work: http://mingyisung.com/

For additional information contact:
Julia Morelli
Nevin Kelly Gallery
1517 U St, NW
Washington, DC 20010
Tel: 202-232-3464
Fax: 202-232-3465

Jessie Mann "Self Possessed"

Photographs by Len Prince

January 13th – February 24th, 2007

Adamson Gallery presents "Self Possessed", a new collaboration between photographer Len Prince and Jessie Mann. In Prince and Mann’s words, the project "honors, as active agent the muses and numerous subjects that have given themselves over to this fictional realm of human consciousness."

As the photographer, Len Prince is both instigator and accomplice. The "Self Possessed" series has a dual function as both portraiture and commentary. Although it is Mann who is posing for the works, in some ways she is merely an interpretation of her characters. In most of the works, Mann as the conscious subject gazes directly at the camera, as if fulfilling expectations of her character and willfully engaging her viewer.

As the daughter and often-controversial subject of photographer Sally Mann, Jessie Mann has spent a lifetime before the camera. In this project, Mann is simultaneously artist and subject; taking control of her own representation. Indeed, Mann is able to play with her own identity, appearing in costume as an odalisque, a nurse, a bombshell, or the Venus de Milo. In using these allusions, Mann is commenting on identity, both individual and cultural. As an artist she sets the rules, as subject, she breaks them. Mann is in dialogue not only with the photographer, but with her references, her audience, and herself.

Mann is a fascinating and dynamic subject. Prince’s images capture her fluidity and transform her caricatures into striking and compelling portraits. The stunning black and white gelatin silver prints are almost painterly in their attention to light and shadow. Mann and Prince’s collaboration makes "Self Possessed" a unique collection of work that makes important statements about the genre of portraiture and the role of the subject within.

Jessie Mann and Len Prince met in 2001 and have been working together since that time. Their collaboration was featured in New Yorker, ArtNews, and American Photographer magazines. Prince and Mann have shown at Danziger Projects in New York.

For further information please contact Laurie Adamson or Erin Boland at (202) 232-0707 or gallery@adamsongallery.com

ADAMSON GALLERY
1515 fourteenth street nw
washington dc 20006
202.232.0707
ADAMSON GALLERY
1515 fourteenth street nw
washington dc 20006
202.232.0707

hours of operation:
tuesday - saturday
10 am - 6 pm
erin@adamsongallery.com
www.adamsongallery.com

THERE'S NO TIME FOR THIS, Artist Talk

PROJECT 4
GREGORY McLELLAN & TIM PITTMAN
January 5 - 27, 2007

Artist Talk & Closing Party: Saturday, January 27, 2007- 6:00pm-8:30pm

In this collaborative exhibition artists Gregory McLellan and Tim Pittman explore their reality and document their insanity, in no particular form or medium. Ranging from mixed media and video works to paintings and found objects, McLellan and Pittman allow nothing to be precious, and everything to be a little too much. It will play with your senses, as well as your knowledge of pop music, and promises men in their underwear. 

Acting as receptors for the debris and noise of contemporary society, McLellan and Pittman’s installation as a whole reflects the shared American experience. Reinterpretation, randomness and organizing systems are employed through media commonplace in commercial culture: IPODS engaging in a conversation translated from channel surfing, found photographs scattering the floors, and cross-stitched reproductions of garbage from DC streets are some of what’s to be encountered in the gallery.

As McLellan and Pittman point out, "When something is easily reducible to an opinion or a statement, it is easier to dismiss." This installation does not include judgments of the culture it discusses, but rather a regurgitation of it. The works are as conglomerated with meanings and interpretations as anything else is in the information age, and just as seductive as anything in the media.

Their chosen title for the show, "There’s no time for this", like all of the work that they have produced for it, is meant to be both sincere and tongue-in-cheek. The work is compulsive and over-indulgent, and frequently in questionable taste. The show coheres through its insistence on its own legitimacy. Whatever it is that McLellan and Pittman mean, they definitely mean it. 

Both Gregory McLellan and Tim Pittman live and work in Washington DC.

Contact: Anne Surak, Director
Project 4 
903 U Street NW  Washington DC 20001
tel: 202 232 4340  fax: 202 232 4341  
info@project4gallery.com
Website: http://www.project4gallery.com/
Hours: Wednesday - Friday 2:00 - 6:00 pm,  Saturday noon - 6:00 pm and by appointment.

The Allure of Texture

Zenith Gallery

The Allure of Texture
Donna M. McCullough & jodi

Reception to Meet the Artists
Thursday, January 18th, 6:00 – 9:00pm
Sushi & Sake Sunday, January 21st, 2:00 – 5:00pm

On Exhibit
January 18 – February 25

Preview the show at
www.zenithgallery.com

Zenith Gallery
413 7th Street, NW
202-783-2963
art@zenithgallery.com

Geostationary Banana Over Texas

Does Texas really need another banana?
Read about this humourous art concept here,

"At the end it as a Show, a banana in the sky is an odd celebration to spectacle,
to the advertisement industries; and to the Warhol Art."

"ColorField Remix"

In today's WaPo...

The Washington Color School Is Ready to Bloom By Jacqueline Trescott

"I started thinking about a show on Gene Davis back in the summer of 2005. I had been feeling a wonderful surge in the art community and I thought it would be good to revisit our roots a little bit. But then I thought it wouldn't be fair to do just Gene Davis," Greenberg said. She brought in the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Cultural Tourism DC and the Washington, D.C., Convention and Tourism Corp. to broaden the scope of the celebration and to include the Maryland and Virginia suburbs."
- Kreeger Museum Director Judy A. Greenberg