OPENING RECEPTION
Friday, February, 6 2009, 5 pm to 8 pm
Washington Printmakers Gallery
1732 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington DC 20009 | 202-332-7757
LIFE IN THE ARTS - Artist, Anne Marchand delivers news from the Washington, DC Arts Scene
The Smithsonian knows how to take a joke, or at least it’s learning. When Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert lobbied on-air for his portrait to be included among the national treasures at the National Museum of American History, the museum’s director Brent Glass played straight man. But the National Portrait Gallery’s former director Marc Pachter, who was the second to hear Colbert’s plea, deserves some props.
He played hacky sack with Colbert in a tight gallery space and temporarily hung his portrait in the entryway to the bathrooms just outside the hall of America’s Presidents. Glass redeemed himself when he reconsidered, as well. The portrait now hangs in the American History museum, next to Dumbo the flying elephant. Word on the street is that Colbert is pitting his portrait against Fairey’s Obama in a face off. He has asked the National Portrait Gallery to calculate whether Fairey’s is more popular than his, based on visitation numbers.
In Unknowns John Kirchner converses with unknown 19th century painters. Kirchner augments damaged vintage portraits, landscapes and history paintings with articles of clothing and other common objects. The artist's interventions with the works of his anonymous predecessors are thoughtful, critical and sometimes humorous.Conner Contemporary Art
Brandon Morse examines factors of overreach, neglect and collapse with a series of video projections in This Shape We're In. Using digital media, the artist created images of architectonic structures. Morse's complex forms analogize cultural systems which strive to maintain their integrity as destructive external forces intensify. Seeming to toil as protagonists in universal struggles, the artist's vulnerable linear structures have the power to elicit our empathy, though they ultimately lack the strength to preserve their own constitutions.
Ben Kinsley and Robin Hewlett created a public art project last year that now exists online: On the day when the Google Maps street view truck came to photograph their street in Pittsburgh, PA (in order to create a searchable 360 degree photo rendering of the street), the artists staged a number of mock events using residents of the neighborhood, including a marathon, a parade with a marching band, and combat with swords and laser beams. The resulting STREET WITH A VIEW project will be searchable in the gallery via live web terminal, and video showing the events being staged live will also be shown.
Satomi Shirai is a young NYC photographer whose pictures are ostensibly about apartment living and asian-american culture clash. Though the apartment that serves as a backdrop is cluttered with junk, and the actions depicted are mundane--cooking, cleaning, exercising--like many contemporary women photographers, Shirai stages her images, featuring herself in poses awkward or balletic; each boxtop, magazine, or severed fish head appears to be a carefully placed prop.
D.C. artist Matthew Sutton (represented locally by Conner Contemporary's *gogo art projects) presents a piece based on Febreze Scentstories, commercially available air fresheners that change their scents over time in order to create linear narratives through smell. Sutton invites viewers to sit in a booth and write creatively in response to sequences of scents--either by writing short stories, free association, verse, etc. Subsequent visitors can read the accumulated stories, which are pinned to the wall as the show's run continues.
Richard Saxton is an artist, designer, and architect, designing and building functional public art projects--bus shelters, vehicles, music studios--that are intended for use by specific communities. The AAC will be featuring prints of Saxton's collages, CAD drawings, and installation photographs for his 2006 M.I.K.E. project, which serves as a mobile sculpture, a public performance space, and a community-based music program all at once.
Chris Barr and Veronique Cote are two Philadelphia artists who have created a web-based news broadcast in which the two artists, dressed as T.V. news anchors, and appearing in front of the sorts of backdrops favored by cable news channels, report on the activities of their family members and close friends, as gathered through e-mails, text messages, and phone conversations. Several episodes of this program--the EVERYONE THAT WE KNOW NEWS--will be playing at the AAC.
Also featured: Installations by Lisa Blas, Anissa Mack, Mandy Burrow, and Stephanie Robbins, and video of a site specific, interactive kinetic sculpture by Christian Moeller.
PUBLIC/PRIVATE is curated by AAC Director of Exhibitions Jeffry Cudlin. PLEASE NOTE!
The Ellipse Arts Center is temporarily closed due to circumstances beyond their control.
Updated information will be posted here as it is available.
The Copyright Basics for Professional Artists will be held at
Arlington Central Library, 2nd Floor Meeting Room, on
Thursday, February 5, 7 - 9 pm
Information: 703-228-1850
Arlington Central Library, 1015 N. Quincy Street
Arlington
"Carolyn Carr, the portrait gallery’s chief curator, said that the poster acquired by the museum — a 60-by-40-inch mixed-media collage that Mr. Fairey created after making the initial image — was a beautiful work of art. But she added that “one of the reasons the gallery acquired it is that the image — as opposed to the object — is ubiquitous and it became the image of the campaign.”
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Listen to Shepard Fairey on NPR, Fresh Air fromWHYY Jan. 20, 2009
Spreading The Hope: Street Artist
Shepard Fairey
Follies, Predicaments, and Other Conundrums: The Works of Laure Drogoul is the first large-scale retrospective of Rinehart School of Sculpture graduate Laure Drogoul '81. Drogoul, a Baltimore-based interdisciplinary artist, is best known for her participatory and sensorial works that are articulated through sculpture, installation, performance, and Web-based media. This exhibition was curated by Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) Exhibitions Department Director Gerald Ross, and organized and produced in partnership with students in the Exhibition Development Seminar (EDS) under the guidance of course instructor Glenn Shrum '08.
Follies, Predicaments, and Other Conundrums: The Works of Laure Drogoul and the exhibition's educational programs and catalogue were made possible through generous support from the Friends of the Exhibition Development Seminar.
Maryland Institute College of Art
MICA’s Decker and Meyerhoff galleries, Fox Building 1303 Mount Royal Avenue Baltimore, MD 21217
2009 Chinese New Year Celebrations in Washington, DC
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEARCelebrate the Year of the Ox with a lion dance parade, performances by the Fairfax Chinese Dance Troupe and traditional martial arts. Visitors can learn calligraphy and make red paper lanterns for good luck. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Eighth and F streets NW (Metro: Gallery Place-Chinatown). 202-633-1000 or http:/
CHINESE LUNAR NEW YEAR PARADE Sunday, Feb. 1, 2- 5 p.m.
The Chinese Community of the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area presents its annual festivities in Chinatown. A five-story-tall firecracker will be lit at 3:45 p.m. H Street NW between Sixth and Eighth streets (Metro: Gallery Place-Chinatown). 202-508-5438 or http:/
Source: Washington Post
Martin Irvine of the Irvine Contemporary was credited for dedicating the time and effort to make this possible.Arrested Motion Blogpost
Thursday January 29, 2009
“The P.A.B.C. initiative (Public Art Building Communities), has allowed me to make a bridge between the community, the Restaurant Mama Ayesha’s, the arts and all the people who have made this mural a reality. This could not be done without the support of all the community and the help of the DC Commission and the Restaurant and all the entities who funded the project. I hope that this mural will become a teaching tool of the History of the Presidents for schools, children and the public in general. This is a gift to the City of Washington DC to celebrate this historical moment in American History and will remain open to the public to see for generations to come. This is fulfilling the idea that mural art is available for the public and for the masses.”
a global effort initiated by the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery.
Vision
Everyone should realise the impact of astronomy and other fundamental sciences on our daily lives, and understand how scientific knowledge can contribute to a more equitable and peaceful society. IYA2009 activities will take place locally, nationally, regionally and internationally. National Nodes have been formed in each country to prepare activities for 2009. These nodes will establish collaborations between professional and amateur astronomers, science centres and science communicators to prepare activities for 2009. Already now, 136 countries are involved and well over 140 are expected to participate eventually.
Panoramic visuals, cutting-edge technologies and introspective contemplations position 400 Years of the Telescope as the must-see cinematic feature for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009.