artisphere

Artisphere, Arlington VA's new cultural and arts center has its grand opening this weekend. Check out all the events in store here.

I'll have some artwork in the WIP Gallery on the third floor. And a photo of me installing my work is on the TBD slideshow.

daydreaming (after Poussin), becca kallem

Christyl Boger

I was spray painting some wood with gold paint and accidentally got some on my figertips. It looked so pretty, like nail polish except more interesting and King Midas-like. It also reminded me of Christyl Boger's work in "Staged Stories," a wonderful show I saw at the Renwick Gallery last year. From DCist:

"Boger creates ceramic figurines that incorporate contemporary props such as inflatable swimming pool toys. The surface of the figures are white, creamy and smooth. A perfect texture for layering the decorative touches and flourishes that adorn each of her sculptures. They are gilded, stamped and embellished with flourishes and spots of color that are brushed on the tips of fingers, hair and the seams of the pool toys."

Her artist statement is really fascinating. Here are some images of her work -- gorgeous and strange, the marble-like ceramic sexily daubed with spotlets of gold.

Christyl Boger

Lego Sculpture

Am looking forward to seeing this at the National Building Museum:

"WASHINGTON, D.C.— Using the LEGO® brick as his medium, architectural artist Adam Reed Tucker has given some of the world’s most iconic landmarks an unexpected makeover. His towering interpretations, which soar up to 18 feet high, will be the centerpiece of a new exhibition opening at the National Building Museum this July. LEGO® Architecture: Towering Ambition will feature 15 of Tucker’s large-scale artistic models, which at times incorporate up to 450,000 LEGO bricks. The exhibition will provide a new, detailed look at the intricate design, engineering complexity, and sculptural form of famous city buildings such as the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center, and the St. Louis Gateway Arch. Opening July 3, 2010, the exhibition will remain on view through September 5, 2011."

“As an artist’s medium,” says Tucker, “the brick is not initially thought of as a material typically used in creating art. But as an architectural artist, it lends itself perfectly to my applications just as paint to a painter or metal to a blacksmith. I first and foremost do not view my models as literal replicas but rather artistic interpretations that capture the essence of their sculptural form.”

(from the museum's press release)

Hamiltonian Show: David Page on "Bad Ideas"

Sculptor David Page has curated Hamiltonian Gallery's culminating season-end show. I'm bummed that I'll miss it, especially because the show's theme/premise is a really intriguing one.

Titled "Private Practice: Bad Ideas, Dead Ends and Guilty Pleasures," the show treats artistic dead ends, sidebar experiments, and other anomalies from the featured artists' studio practice.

I myself flit too much from project to project, working on a myriad of ideas or formats at once without delving deep into one concept or body of work. I know I need to find a balance: to allow myself the fun and crucial discovery that comes from experimentation while also being sure to develop main bodies of work fully, to squeeze an idea to the last drop. Sculptor Natalie Charkow Hollander gave me some good advice to this effect -- as an artist, you have to chose what you do and then do it really well/to its fullest. This has always been hard for me!

The Hamiltonian show runs from June 19 - July 17, 2010, with an opening reception on Saturday, June 19th, from 7 - 9pm.

As written by David Page:

"During his trial before the Inquisition for heresy (for including extraneous elements such as drunkards dwarves monkeys and armed Germans in a biblical painting) the 16th century painter, Veronese declared the following: "We painters take the same license the poets and the jesters take" or in another translation: "We painters allow ourselves the same liberties as do poets and madmen."

Today, the notion of poetic license is well trodden, but the assertion of jester's, fool's or even madman's license is still interesting and provocative.

A colleague, when asked if he kept a sketchbook answered in the affirmative, adding almost sheepishly: "... If only to record my bad ideas."

A loft in my studio is dedicated to the storage of half-baked attempts and fragments that have defied resolution for any number of reasons. This bone-yard of failures serves as my storehouse of ideas.

The problem with success is that we are tempted to emulate it, we develop formulae, develop a "brand"; we begin to believe our own mythology. In short we take ourselves too seriously.

While I sincerely wish the fellows overwhelmingly more success than failure, my charge is for them to occasionally root trough their own mishaps, incomplete ideas impossible plans and improbable scenarios: The madman's liberty for which our old friend Veronese risked his neck."

order and chaos

I was helping a high school ceamics teacher tame some of the entropy raging in the school ceramics studio. While we did some basic organizing, the next task was to have the students really do the bulk of the clean-up themselves: cleaning tools, sorting glazes, and so forth. The teacher and I talked about how investing art students in every step of the process -- from preparing the clay to clean-up, say, or from stretching canvas to brush clean -up to frame-making-- helps students to uild an "identity as an artist." Learning all of these skills is empowering in general, and helps one go from "art student" to artist.

Anway, amidst the studio mess, I got thinking about the dualities of order and chaos. A colleague of mine at GW is having his painting students address these thematic concerns in their end-of-semester painting projects. So many possibilities...what a good springboard. Beautiful chaos? Destructive chaos? Order as tranquil or sterile? Abstraction? Representaion? As a teacher it is hard to strike just the right balance in setting assignment parameters: the assignment must be open enough to permit wide-ranging investigations of genuine interest to the students, but specific enought to impose useful, practical limitations.

In any case, if I ever riff on this assignment idea, I am thinking I would want to show artwork by, among others, Julie Mehretu, Mia Feuer, and Jessica Braiterman (above), as well as old-school vanitas paintings.

womanmade

I really enjoyed the "Woman Made" show at the Torpedo Factory's Target Gallery. The show just closed, but you can see the artwork online. Some of my favorites:

Melanie Lowrance, Gossip

Natalie Vega-Forero, Hogar-Home

On the subject of feminist art and art made by women, I highly recommend the book Global Feminisms, with the disclaimer that while I've pored carefully over the images, I've only read a fraction of the text so far.

Catherine Opie

Lucha Libre

I had fun doing this embroidery at the WPA's Meaning of Making crafting social and panel discussion. An interesting discussion on the common threads between "craft," "art," cooking, etc. -- various kinds of creative practice/ways to make stuff.

Emily Do, Joren Lindholm, Meredith Nelson

some great artists i have recently had the pleasure to meet:

Meredith Nelson, Sonic Gasoline

Joren Lindholm, Self Portrait

Emily Do, untitled (warp)

In the Dollhouse

Believe It Will Happen, Bridget Sue Lambert

Keep Your Schedule Pretty Full, Bridget Sue Lambert

I love the work of DC artist Bridget Sue Lambert. Her photographs of dollhouse interiors and vignettes with figurines comment on relationships, love, loss, and memory. I recently got to meet her at her studio and see her impressive trove of dollhouse props and people. So cool!

Here's an interesting article on midcentury modern dollhouse furniture devotees.
From one of the profiled collectors:
Finally, on the dollhouse theme: when I visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam a few years ago, it was amazing. I thought the art was so beautiful that I almost cried. Amidst the Rembrandts, Vermeers, and other wonders is the Dolls' House of Petronella Oortman. This house (or one like it) is important in In the Image, a novel by Dara Horn that has dollhouses as a recurrent motif. I'll try to find the part of the book that describes the house (far better than I could).

From the Rijksmuseum website: "Seventeenth-century doll's houses were not children's toys, they were a hobby [among wealthy women]... This house is remarkable in that all of the components are made exactly to scale. Petronella ordered miniature porcelain objects from China and commissioned furniture makers and artists to decorate the interior."

RijksmuseumDolls' House

O-PEN

O - PEN
*An exhibition previewing 52 O Street NW’s 2010 Open Studios*

at Big Bear Cafe, April 2010
1st & R Streets NW, Washington DC

Opening Reception: Friday, April 2, 2010 8-11PM
FREE & open to the public. Preview the artwork of over 10 artists - all working in a wide range of media and styles - who will open their O Street studios to the community on April 24th & 25th for a rare glimpse into the process behind art making.

spain: sacred, profane

I saw the small but interesting show "The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture, 1600–1700" at the National Gallery. It wasgreat to see paintings of saints (by Diego Velázquez, Francisco Zurbarán, and co.) along with polychromed (painted) saint sculptures by artists who are far less famous now, at least outside of Spain. Only some of the images above are from the show, but you get the idea -- intense, tenebrous pieces.

Not to make light of religious traditions and gory martyrdom, but I love that Saint Lucy has her eyes on a plate. OK, speaking of making light... Seeing this show made me think of a Spanish calendar that totally takes and runs with devotional imagery. Produced by a gay group as a fundraiser for AIDS awareness/treatment, note that some calendar images on this site are NOT SAFE FOR WORK. Some picks:

Ha ha, he is rocking that mantilla.

This is related only it that is art from Spain, and fabulous and weird:
Goya-fabulous.

And this is just sweet:
At the Prado Museum, photo by Matias Costa for The New York Times.

Firdawsi Images

Aren't these beautiful? They are details from Persian manuscripts (mostly Firdawsi's Shahnama (Book of Kings). I love the bright reds, the dark horses, the overall composition... From the Freer Gallery's collections: http://www.asia.si.edu/collections.

william kentridge and darwyn cooke

William Kentridge's "Automatic Writing" -- Watch it! Watch it! Since I've started teaching drawing, I've always used Kentridge's work to wow my students. Last semester we took a field trip to see some of his prints at the Kreeger Museum. I've loved his work since 2001, when I saw a big show of his work at the Hirshhorn, and I can't wait to see the upcoming MOMA show I read about in the New Yorker:



Another cool art thing: this weekend I went with a friend to the Smithsonian American Art Museum for a booktalk and signing by comic book artist/"storyteller" Darwyn Cooke. He recently published a graphic novel adaptation of an intense crime novel, and he drew everything by hand using ink and wash -- apparently a rarity in contemporary mainstream comics since the advent of digital technology. I always mention comic book art -- and show Kentridge's work, too -- when I teach a drawing unit on narrative art. And now I know a little more about it. My students have done some pretty cool stuff.

Darwyn Cooke, The Hunter

misc.

I made these critters for Mary; they are supposed to be her childhood imaginary friends, Swaswus and Rossossossoss.

I love this is a painting of a personal "genius" or deity from the Dumbarton Oaks Museum's late Roman/Byzantine art collection.

I wrapped these little boxes in origami paper for holiday gifts, cute!

I C E B O X

IceBox at Washington Project for the Arts

December 4 - 23, 2009

Opening Night: December 4, 2009, 6 - 8pm
Special Shopping Event: December 21, 2009, 6:30 - 8:30pm

Hours: Monday - Friday, 12-5pm and by appointment
Location: WPA headquarters, 2023 Massachusetts Ave, NW, WDC 20036

Small works, photographs, hand sewn brooches, notecards, ornaments, jewelry, candle holders, accessories, apparel and more- made by hand by WPA member artists. Items range from $4 to $250 (most under $100, many items under $25)

Participating member artists: John M Adams, Beth Baldwin, Tom Block, Maureen Burns-Bowie, Cynthia Connolly, Charles Farmer, Sandy Gold, Alex Goldschmidt, Julie Hart, Linda Hesh, Rebecca Kallem, Kathleen Kelley, Erica Orgen, Project Dispatch, Susana Raab, Lisa Rosenstein, Amy Carmichael Smith, Jerry Svat, Claudia Vess, and Robert Weiner

Yinka Shonibare, MBE

A year ago I got a copy of Art in America with an arresting image on the cover: a photograph restaging Goya's fabulous, nightmarish "El Sueno de la razon produce monstruos" ("The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters"). Quite faithful to the original, although here the color is rich and the sleeping figure is clad in brightly patterned dress. I loved this piece but didn't really register much about the artist, Yinka Shonibare.

Well, this month through March, Shonibare has a massive show at the National Museum of African Art, and I will certainly not forget about him from now on! INCREDIBLE! I bought the exhibition catalogue as a birthday present to myself. And now I know that the bright fabric in the Goya remix is Dutch wax cloth from West Africa. Shonibare uses swathes of it to clothe the characters in his gorgeous, delightful, disturbing, and naughty tableaus. Go see this show if you are interested in fashion, textiles, postcolonialism, race, Oscar Wilde, Fragonard and/or sex! From http://www.nmafa.si.edu/exhibits/shonibare/index.html:

"British-born Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare MBE (b. 1962) works across diverse artistic media to explore ideas about African contemporary identity and the legacy of European colonialism in the present... Shonibare's sculptural works often feature headless mannequins clothed in elaborate costumes from the period just before the French Revolution, when the European aristocracy controlled vast wealth, land and power. Referencing art history and the paintings of Jean-Honoré Fragonard in particular, with their depictions of luxury and privilege, Shonibare's sculptural tableaux portray idyllic, romanticized narratives as well as imagined scenarios of sexual decadence and violence."

I've been borrowing characters in fancy dress from Watteau for my paintings, as well as depicting headless figures, but with nothing like the power/cohesiveness of Shonibare. Very cool.

Art! Costumes! Sugar Skulls!

nicho I

nicho II

Art! Costumes! Sugar Skulls! What isn't to love about Ofrenda 2009, an art show and Day of the Dead celebration at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA. I have a few pieces in the show ("nichos" and a painting), alongside some great DC-area artists. Am still planning my Halloween costume and working up an appetite for pan de muerto. On the subject of Halloween and All Souls, check out these morbid and funny and cute craft how-tos: Halloween Wunderkammer and Mr. Sock Skeleton.

Here is my Spanish dama costume:

Art Weekend

Here I am on the way to the Phillips Collection in Dupont Circle

Had an awesome art-filled weekend. On Friday I stopped by the Arlington Arts Center opening for their PARADOX NOW! show. Saturday night, a friend and I went to the Hamiltonian Gallery, Chanan Delivuk's show at Hounshell Realtors (complete with cupcakes and chili), and Irvine Contemporary's show called Street/Studio. At Hamiltonian, I was especially taken by Magnolia Laurie's invented landscapes and Jon Bobby Benjamin's miniature house structures and drawings on vellum. Last but nor least, on Sunday I went to the Paint Made Flesh show at the Phillips Collection. David Park! Cecily Brown! Jenny Saville! Susan Rothenberg! Lucian Freud! It is a really wonderful exhibition.

Lady Cat is a wonderful figurative painter, but as you can see, she's been too lazy to get into the studio of late.