Star Wars Art @ Project 4

Cédric Delsaux @
Project 4 Gallery
903 u street nw
washington dc
sept 15 - oct 20, 2007

One of my favorite galleries brings work with a sense of humor to DC.
From Project 4:

Delsaux's digital photographs combine myth and reality. The work is subtle and serene in his Landscapes series, and overtly humorous in his Star Wars on Earth Series, in which Delsaux photographs toy figurines and then digitally places them in Parisian suburbs. His training in commercial photography is evident with his play on branding in the Star Wars on Earth series. Conversely, in Landscapes, traces of human existence are either remote or totally absent. In both series, the expansive and dream-like scenes combined with colors that contrast the washy with the bold is what captivates.

Kelly Towles Grate Project This Week!

The Grate Project – A new series of large-scale public paintings by Kelly Towles

Kelly Towles has will be creating some great new monuments on 14th street.

September 15 -16: One World Fitness
September 22-23: Blagden Alley
September 29-30: The Black Cat

Watch him as the work comes together and join him Tuesday, October 23rd Backstage at the Blackcat to celebrate the project's completion.

FROM THE ARTIST:

Funded by the Creative Community Initiative of the Community Foundation, The Grate Project -created by DC based artist Kelly Towles and presented by Transformer this September 2007 - features a new series of public mural paintings at three different business locations within and near the 14th Street Arts Corridor. Seeking to create large scale paintings that will exist in the public realm, Kelly Towles is creating murals that will completely cover the roll-down security grates at One World Fitness, outside the artist studios at 926 N Street in Blagden Alley, and at the Black Cat nightclub. Re-vitalizing these grates into dynamic contemporary artworks, The Grate Project is intended to further dialogue about the nature of street art and public art work, while enhancing DC’s street-scapes.

A self-described military brat, Towles “got started as a kid with drawing, comic books, cartoons, and stuff like that...” He became a graffiti artist in high-school, eventually earning a degree in Studio Art from the University of Maryland before pursuing a career as an artist. Already an accomplished artist currently represented by Adamson Gallery, Towles continues to work in grafitti because he enjoys the direct engagement with the community afforded by this renegade form of public art. “I like that anybody can sit there and tell you what they think of your graffiti....For me, grafitti is art and also a vocabulary.”

Jill Greenberg Monkey Portraits Tonight!

Rupture @ Randall Scott Gallery

Nathan Baker: Rupture
September 15 - October 20
Randall Scott Gallery
1326 14th Street NW
Washington, DC
[If you haven't made it to the Randall Scott Gallery, this is good time to check it out.]

One Week Until WACK!

I can't wait for WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution. The exhibition was organized by LOMoCA and will be going on to PS1 in NYC. Its the largest and most comprehensive show of Femminist art. The work begins in 1965 and ends with work by contemporary artists. I'm exchited that the Museum of Women in the Arts will be hosting it. I hope it brings them more members. It opens next Friday.

The Museum of Women in the Arts

1250 New York Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC 20005-3970

Tickets are $10.

Jill Greenberg know mostly for her celebrity portraits brings her monkeys to DC. Greenberg grew to prominence in the 90's for making the real look artificial. She recently did an album cover for Gwen Stefani. Several years ago Greenburg was photographing a celebrity next to a monkey, she went home to look at her proofs and the monkey was the real celebrity. Greenburg then presented the simian photo to her gallery and the series began to develop into a publication. The images make our evolutionary cousins look more human than ever before. Her photos are so detail heavy that they become unreal. Her craft is spotless and that alone is a good reason to see her prints in person. Join me for a public reception for Monkey Portraits, on Thursday, Sept. 20, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the National Academies' Keck Center, located at 500 Fifth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. A photo ID is required for admittance.

"Monkey Portraits" is on view by appointment at the Keck Center through Nov. 25, 2007. Call 202-334-2436 to make a viewing appointment. The exhibition will then move to the
National Academy of Sciences' headquarters at 2100 C St., N.W., Washington, D.C., where it will be on public view from Jan. 5 through April 1, 2008.

Ansel Adams @ the Corcoran

[The Ansel Adams member preview is tonight. I can't wait. I live for member previews at the Corcoran. They make me feel all fancy like a person who can actually support the arts from the outside. I also wear a tie. After a few cocktails I will hit the gallery and check out the work... which will no doubt be beautiful. Ansel Adams helped save nature from industrialists and game hunters about a hundred years ago, that makes him relevant to contemporary artists who watched the Al Gore movie. I have yet to watch it but from what I've heard: 1) Cars are bad. 2) Hummers are worse 3) The Environment is sexy 4) Al Gore is our hero and he's gonna take pollution down to zero. If you're not a member you can see the show September 15th - January 28th.]

Svetlana (BYT) on Chuck Close @ Adamson

A 9/11 Gesture @ Honfleur Tonight!

Manju Shandler: GESTURE
September 11 – October 6
Opening Memorial Reception: September 11th @ 7:30 pm
Honfleur Gallery
1241 Good Hope Road SE
Washington, DC

[Honfleur continues with its schedule of socially conscious and artistically innovative exhibits. I haven't had a chance to see this exhibit yet but past shows have been excellent. Check out the pizza shop next door and make a night of it. You won't be sorry you crossed the river. Pizza, wine, and art; a truly American way to pay tribute to all the people who gave their lives so we could invade Iraq.]

The September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade
Center buildings shocked and disarmed the modern world. This act of hate
resulted in the death of 2,752 people. This number is almost inconceivable. The
painting installation Gesture gives a tangible allegory to the size of this loss
by grouping together one brick-sized painting for every life taken on that day.
When hung together as a single installation, the paintings form a grid of
vibrant blocks of red, yellow, white, black and pink that subtly shift from
color to color. On closer examination each painting bares its own mark, paying
tribute to the uniqueness of each individual who perished on September 11th and
the massive repercussions of this event on society as a whole. Gesture is a
meditation on the many facets of life, death, the past, and the future that have
been inextricably altered by that single day. Completed over a three-year
period, the style and content of each piece spans the range of human emotion
from horrific to uplifting, from dark to light.Gesture is a tribute to those who
perished in New York City on September 11, 2001, as seen through the eyes of one New York artist.

-Honfleur Press Release

Beard Love

My friend Ed guest stars in this video by Sean Johnson, a MFA candidate at The School Of The Museum Of Fine Arts in Boston. This video reminds me of a Nayland Black piece, Nayland and AA(pictured above).

Kriston Capps on the Trawick Prize Winners

FROM: Grammar.police

Last week, the Bethesda Urban Partnership announced the winners of the fifth-annual Trawick Prize. The winners include painter Jo Smail (first place: $10,000); painter/installation artist Nicholas Wisniewski (second place: $2,000); painter Bruce Wilhelm (third place: $1,000); and photographer Kathleen Shafer (young artist award: $1,000).

Shafer's just a great selection for that category—no question. And Wisniewski's work, while perhaps not as strong as some of the finalists (many of whom simply have more proven bodies of work), is easily distinguished by its political–social content; I see an argument for investing in his work, but perhaps not awarding it, at least not over the more established artists at hand.

Smail and Wilhelm, on the other hand, are disappointing selections, especially given that the set of finalists includes a few very strong contemporary artists. Smail's work contributes nothing new to the conversation in painting. Wilhelm's work holds up better: He has a Guston sense of humor, and the style is a welcome update on the glut of Marcel Dzama derivatives that have flooded drawing shows over the last few years, but the work is also very placeable along a chart of contemporary developments in this quirk/twee vein.

But winner selection, nothing doing—that list of finalists is problem enough. To my mind, there's no accounting for a final round that puts Mary Coble—arguably the most deserving artist in the contest—on par with Linda Hesh. It's hard to reconcile the (competent) members of the jury with that decision.

September 7th Gallery Picks

I went to a lot of openings on Friday. Here is the short list and my recommendations

Reconciling Worlds: The Work of Soviet Artist Yefim Laydzhensky
The Bronfman Gallery
September 6 - December 30
16th and Q Street NW
Washington, DC
[First show by newly appointed gallery director, Wendy Fergusson. Fergusson did a great job developing a mini-retrospective of the artist's work. Who knew the JCC put on such kick ass shows? It's officially not just a place to find sexy gay doctors.]

Botanica
Carroll Square Art Gallery
September 7 - November 16
975 F Street
NWWashington DC 20004
[Flowers... weak concept for a contemporary show but safe enough for the law firm where it's located. 22 artists were selected for this show and a lot of the work is dynamic. This exhibition was a collaboration with Hemphill Fine Arts.]

Noelle Tan: From Here to the Salton Sea
Erick Jackson: Vlad's Crib
September 7 – October 20th
Civilian Art Projects
406 7th Street, NW3rd Floor
Washington DC 20004
[I was drinking and socializing at this opening... Sorry guys I swear I will return to view the art.]

Brady Robinson: Shift
Curated by Chan Chao
September 7 –October 6th
Flashpoint
916 G Street
NWWashington DC 20001
[I didn't make it to this show but Chan Chao is amazing so it's on my short list for the coming month]

ArtRomp20
The last ArtRomp group show in the original Warehouse buildings!!!
Featuring works by 100’s of DC Artists
September 7 - October 26
Warehouse Gallery and Theater
1017-1021 7th Street NW, Washington DC
[It was like a funeral for a popular football player. Warehouse will be missed. I talked to Molly Ruppert about the future of the Warehouse in Columbia Heights. She said that they're still holding out for investors. The Warehouse will be missed. Go check out the show and write a check for $15,000 to Molly Ruppert.]


YOU ARE HERE: Maps Re-Defined by Mid-Atlantic Contemporary Artists
Curated by Cynthia Connolly
Curated by Ellipse Art Center Director, Cynthia Connolly, work was selected by artists who are exploring their own ideas about boundaries and representations.
Artists: Dawn Gavin, Julie Jankowski, Karey Kessler and Renee van der Stelt
August 22–September 30
Artists' Talk: Saturday, October 13, 12 - 2 pm
Ellipse Arts Center
4350 N. Fairfax Drive
Arlington VA
[Well worth leaving the Beltway.]

2007 Corcoran Alumni Juried Exhibition, Recent Graduates: 2002–2006
August 20 - September 13
Gallery 31 at the Corcoran College of Art + Design
500 Seventeenth Street NW, Washington, DC
[I enjoyed the video about the dead mouse. Go see it.]

OPTIONS 2007

September 13 - October 26, 2007
Curated by PAUL BREWER
Opening Reception: September 13, 6:30-8:30 PM
Curator Talk: Sunday, October 7, 2:00 PM
Artist Talk: Friday, October 26, 6:30-8:30 PM

Originally developed in 1981 by the WPA board of directors, the first WPA OPTIONS biennial was curated by legendary artist Gene Davis and Washington Review editor Mary Swift. Continuing with this historic and eagerly anticipated exhibition, OPTIONS 2007 curator Paul Brewer, Director of the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, has selected 10 emerging artists who represent the creative diversity of the region. 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.

OPTIONS 2007 Artists:
Taylor Baldwin
Anne Chan
Neil Feather
Eli Kessler
Cory Oberndorfer
Pat O’Malley
Siobhan Rigg
Sayaka Suzuki
Kathleen Shafer
Rene Trevino

PEPCO’S EDISON PLACE GALLERY / 702 Eighth St. NW / Washington DC 20001

*text from WPA/C Newsletter

of Montreal - Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse

Another amazing band out of Athens, GA. Kevin Barnes brought the band together in 1997. They've become the darlings of indie rock over the past decade. After the commercial use of their music for an Outback Steakhouse Commercial and on the Showtime series, Weeds, of Montreal's audience grew. Their 2007 release Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, is perhaps their best. On this album Barnes holds true to his lo-fi roots and adds more abstract soundskapes.

Deep Cuts:
I Felt Like Smashing My Face in a Clear Glass Window (1997)
Disguises (1997)
Advice from a Divorced Gentleman to His Bachelor Friend ... (1999)
Climb the Ladder (2004)
Vegan in Furs (2004)
The Party's Crashing Us (2005)
Oslo in the Summertime (2005)

Gus van Sant Snaps Up Penn and Damon for Harvey Milk Film -- Towleroad for modern gay men,#comments#comments

Gus van Sant Snaps Up Penn and Damon for Harvey Milk Film - [reposted from: Towleroad]