East City Art

East City Art has Moved!

2010-11-04T10:20:00.000-04:00

Please change your bookmarks and refresh your browser. East City Art is now at its permanent home:

http://www.eastcityart.com

The ECA team will continue to bring you the best coverage of the visual arts scene in Eastern DC in a new web-zine format that will include an artist directory, a restaurant guide and a classified section. Look for exciting ECA sponsored events and art openings in 2011

The Capitol Hill Art League Presents an All-Media Exhibit Juried by Gene Weingarten

2010-11-03T13:35:00.002-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Saturday, November 6 from 5pm to 7pm

"Walking Down the Street" mixed media on canvas, Valentine Szybo. Photo Courtesy Capitol Hill Art League

The Capitol Hill Art League (CHAL), a program of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW), presents an all-media juried exhibit opening on Saturday, November 6, 2010, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. at CHAW, 545 7th Street SE. The juror for the exhibit is Gene Weingarten, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and columnist for the Washington Post Magazine who is also a Capitol Hill community member. Weingarten will speak at the opening reception. Admission to the opening and exhibit is free.

The all-media show of original artwork continues through December 8, 2010.

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is located at 545 7th Street, SE two blocks from Eastern Market Metro on the Blue & Orange Lines. For more information call 202.547.6839 or visit their website at www.chaw.org Gallery hours are: 9:30AM-9:00 PM (M-Th), 9:30AM-6:00 PM (F), and 9:00AM-2:00 PM (Sat).

Industry Gallery Hosts "din-din" - An Exhibition of New Work by Jerry Mischak

2010-11-03T11:13:00.003-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: November 6 from 6pm to 8pm

Studio view with elements for dinner table/such a night © Jerry Mischak, courtesy Industry Gallery

Industry Gallery will host din-din, an exhibition of new work by Jerry Mischak, opening November 6, 2010, 6-8 PM, and running through December 18, 2010. Mischak, a senior critic at the Rhode Island School of Design, visiting professor at Brown University and instructor at the University of Rhode Island, will exhibit one large-scale installation and twelve chairs, all unique prototypes. The installation piece dinner table/such a night is a 36-foot long table with 40 plates, 80 pieces of flat ware, 45 glasses, 25 empty wine bottles, and 100 empty water bottles, all wrapped in more than 3000 yards of orange vinyl tape. The exhibition's 12 chairs are found objects reconstructed via sanding, cutting with the addition of plastic, Styrofoam and wood, and all encased in colored vinyl tape.

Mischak uses tape as a unifying element, or as he says, "a skin that covers a number of objects into a common form." The tape appeals both for its color and as a bonding material. He rarely ever works with sketches and never with a computer. His works are developed through trial and error and a sculptural process of adding and subtracting. Mischak says each piece "develops in real time and real space" and explains that with the chairs he is reinventing and redefining how each function with the body, likening the result to cover versions of well-known songs created by jazz musicians.

Speaking of the exhibition, Mischak said dinner table/such a night "evokes the remnants and memories of a grand dinner. Who was there? Who did you sit next to? What were the conversations? What was the food like? Did it get out of hand? Did you say the wrong things? Did you move ahead with your career? The chairs are separate thoughts from the enormous table, although as chairs they can relate."

About the Artis
Mischak grew up in Newark, New Jersey, in a house that he says had his first two studios - the dining room and front porch his mother converted into a beauty parlor, and a dirt floor basement where he built monsters and made movies with an 8mm Bell and Howell camera. These were the places he could be alone and creative. "I once made a figure out of wood wrapped it with strips of white cloth, put it in a metal box and buried it in the back yard. It was after to my first viewing of The Mummy with Boris Karloff, my mom got worried she thought I was getting a little crazy. It was a time and world of fantasies, and performance while building the objects that helped create these stories."

"I feel that my work comes out of those early exploits and the industrial urban sections of Jersey where I would travel as a kid and later as a teen. Where the bridges embrace the port and the factory buildings."

Mischak cites an affinity for the work of Jorge Pardo, Ernesto Neto and Franz West for "their ability and vision to cross lines of sculpture, architecture and design." He also admires the work of Tejo Remy & René Veenhuizen, saying "to me they are always on the edge, their concepts are genuine, clear and sometimes humorous."

Mischak received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has exhibited his work at the Palmer Museum, Penn State University; Cypress College Art Gallery, Cypress, CA; Islip Art Museum; Lehman College Art Gallery, NY; Pavel Zoubok Gallery, NY; Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York; the Boston Center for the Arts; and, Diverse Works Gallery, Houston. Mischak is also a recipient of the Howard Foundation Fellowship and Rhode Island State Council of the Arts Fellowship.

Industry Gallery www.industrygallerydc.com is located at 1358 Florida Ave., NE, 2d Floor, Washington DC 20002, info@industrygallerydc.com (202) 399 1730. The gallery is open Wednesday - Saturday, 11AM - 5PM, and by appointment.

Anacostia Fotoweek November 6 - 13

2010-11-02T13:02:00.001-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Reception, November 6th starting at 7pm:

Stop by Anacostia's newest creative space, Blank Space SE, to check out American Poetry Museum's presentation O R G A N I C A: Photographic Series by Melani N. Douglass & Rachel Eliza Griffiths.

Vivid Solutions DC Print Lab is displaying Mixed Up: A Photography Showcase (a selection of client images printed by the Vivid Solutions DC Print Lab) at Big Chair Coffee & Grill. This group exhibit showcases select photographs from some of the clientele who have helped make the first year of business a great success.

Reception: November 10th from 6pm to 8pm:

In his solo exhibition Neither...Nor, Vietnamese born artist Khanh H. Le is presenting 14 large scale images using the multiple plate polymer photogravure etching technique at The Gallery at Vivid Solutions. Le examines identity, through the bits and pieces of personal memory, the collective history from two cultures; Vietnam and the US.

Starting promptly at 8:15pm is a free performance from the contemporary classical group, The Analog Arts Ensemble. The group will be performing works by Roussel and Francaix, as well as a world premier by Dolf Kämper.

Reception, November 11th starting at 6pm:

Honfleur Gallery is hosting "Likeness", the brainchild of DC based photographer, Joshua Yospyn. The exhibition includes twenty artists: ten photographers and ten street artists with an end result of ten original portraits and ten interpretations of that portrait.

Photographers and artists include:
Bo Zhang, Chris Usher, David Holloway, Erica Allen, Jason Horowitz, Josh Yospyn, Lois Bielefeld, Joshua Cogan, Matt Dunn, & Michel Frankfurter. Diabetik, Brandon Hill, Decoy, Asad Walker, Matthew Shlian, Lance Wiggs & Buck, Heather Stevens, Earnest Concepcion, Mike Estabrook, and Peter Chang.

Upstairs at Honfleur Gallery is a solo exhibit by Charlotte L'Harmeroult who is a painter and video artist based in Paris, France. Her experimental, energetic video and photography projects use humor and colorful, surreal narratives.

Extended FOTOWEEK DC Hours are as follows:

Honfleur Gallery and The Gallery at Vivid Solutions
11/6 11am-8pm
11/7 and 11/8 12pm-5pm
11/9 12pm-8pm,
11/10 and 11/11 12pm-9pm
11/12 12pm-8pm
11/13 11-5pm

Blank Space SE
10am - 6pm

Big Chair Coffee & Grill
7am - 8pm

City Gallery presents Geoff Ault "Running with Scissors"

2010-11-02T10:09:00.001-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Saturday November 6 from 6pm to 9pm

Geoff Ault "Running with Scissors" Photo Courtesy of CITY Gallery

In Ault’s words:

“As children we are told what not to do. Don’t touch that, it’s hot. Don’t eat that, it’s dirty. Don’t swallow your gum, don’t play with matches. Don’t run with scissors.

Yet we did everything we were told not to do because we wanted to know why the adults didn’t want us to do these things. So we found out what ‘hot’ is, what dirt tastes like, what happened when we swallowed our chewing gum, and the consequences of playing with matches. But somehow we knew the consequences of running with scissors and usually didn’t try that one out.

In the art world, often we are told that we shouldn’t paint with acrylics because oils are better. In photography, we should use film instead of digital cameras. Often artists are admonished that we should stick to the tried and true methods. To a certain point this is true. One must walk before he or she can run. The basics of composition, technique and color are important in creating art in all forms.

At some point the artist must take a creative leap and forget the rules; run with the scissors this time and see what happens. I like to twist the composition, play with color and try out new ways of creating images. It is painting to the extent in that I use brushes, layering and blending. The only difference is that I have a canvas and brush that are electronic, not physical. This allows me to create work that can have various textures, colors that can be subtle or vibrant. It also allows me to alter images to the point that they are unrecognizable from the original image.

Some images begin as film photographs taken with toy cameras that produce blurry, dreamlike images. I scan the negative into the computer and what is usually a black and white image of something rather mundane can become a colorful abstraction. Other images are created from objects placed on a flatbed scanner and digitally manipulated to produce distorted, unrecognizable images. A flower can become a landscape, a piece of slashed matboard becomes a seascape. The possibilities are endless”.

City Gallery is located at 804 H ST NE second floor, Washington, DC 20002. Gallery hours are Fridays and Saturday 1-5pm.

All Mixed Up: A Juried Exhibition of Mixed Media Work

2010-11-01T10:54:00.000-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 4 from 6:00 to 9:00pm

Featuring the work of Melissa Burley, Nancy Donnelly, Angelina Hein, Tom Hill, Katie Dell Kaufman, Judith Kornett, Allen Linder, Megan Mueller, John Paradiso, Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers, Linda Lee Uphoff and Steven Williams.

Juror: Philippa Hughes

Exhibition Dates: November 1 - 27, 2010.

Hosted at the Brentwood Arts Exchange in the Gateway Arts District for the first time, the 2010 Prince George's County Annual Juried Exhibition, All Mixed Up, is a prominent showcase for artists living, working, and studying in Prince George's County.

"Dynamic, layered, textured and a little weird." The juror uses these words describe herself as much as the works in All Mixed Up. The words also come together as a surprisingly succinct way to sum up the Zeitgeist of contemporary art. The title "All Mixed Up" proceeds to take on its own layers of meaning. As it traverses from installation to abstraction, provocation to beauty, the show strikes a chord at the heart of what makes contemporary art so exciting.

Co-sponsored by The M-NCPPC Department of Parks & Recreation and the Prince George's County Arts Council, All Mixed Up is also a bold reminder of the role Prince George's County increasingly plays at the forefront of the region's art community. It is nationally prominent and emerging artists. It is raw and refined, traditional as well as edgy, challenging and also affirming.

The Brentwood Arts Exchange at the Gateway Arts Center is located at 3901 Rhode Island Avenue Brentwood, MD 20722. Call the center at 301-277-2863/ tty. 301-446-6802. Hours are Monday through Friday: 10am - 8pm and Saturday: 10am - 6pm.

Weekend East City Event Round Up: Halloween Edition

2010-10-29T10:11:00.000-04:00

This article is cross-posted in the following DC Blogs:

Free In DC
Frozen Tropics
The Hill is Home

Saturday October 30

AlbusCavus presents MonsterMash at 680 Rhode Island Avenue NE, Washington DC. Activities begin at 9am and include a magic show, face painting, maskmaking, pumpkin decorating and prizes. Young and old are encouraged to dress upin their most frightening outfits!

CITY Gallery will close M.M.Panas’s “Action Painting” from 2-6pm at 804 H ST NE second floor; artist will be in attendance. If you want to know more about Panas’s workread an interview with her HERE.

Conner Contemporary Art opens FedericoSolmi’s “Douche Bag City”. The New York based Italian animator and sculptor has had oneof his recent works “Evil Empire” (2008) censored in Franceand Spaindue to its controversial content. Theopening reception is from 6pm to 8pm with artist in attendance. Conner is located at 358 Florida Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002.

Right next door to Conner Contemporary Art, G Fine Art willopen “MixedBag” by Dan Steinhilber. Duringthe next six-weeks Steinhilber will create the exhibit in the gallery itself. The opening begins at 6:30pm and ends at 8:30pm.G Fine Art is located at 1350 Florida Ave, NE Washington, DC 20002.

Sunday October 31

JillFinsen of CITY Gallery will have a solo show at an ArtHouse Open House at 911 G ST SE, WashingtonDC 20003from 1pm to 3pm. Finsen’s oil on panelworks quote New England coastal landscapes inbright Fauvist colors.

CITYGallery associate members will be showing their work at Park Café in agroup exhibit. The opening will be from5:30pm to 6:30pm. At Park Café openings,the owner serves wines from his native Chile and finger food to diefor. Park Cafe is located at 106 13th ST SE, Washington DC atLincoln Park.

Halloweenand art meet at Design Studio Art Gallery’s “Nightof the Living Art”. A group showwill feature horror movie inspired work from 5pm to 10pm. Gallery goers are encouraged to come incostume. Design Studio Art Galleryis located at 702 Baltimore Avenue, Hyattsville, MD, 20781

Art House Open House October 31 Featuring the Work of Jill Finsen

2010-10-28T13:46:00.002-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Sunday October 31 from 1pm to 3pm

City Gallery will be presenting the work of gallery member Jill Finsen at an Art House Open House located at 911 G ST SE, Washington, DC 20003.

About the Artist

Jill Finsen's paintings explore the formal and emotional content of landscape and still life. A central focus of her work begins with vernacular New England scenes—coastline, architecture, woods and marshes. Raised in Eastern Massachusetts, with summers in Maine and on Cape Cod, she returns to the region as frequently as possible to further reexamine this set of personally iconic elements.


Jill Finsen "Sailing Beach Point" Oil on Panel. Photo Courtesy of CITY Gallery

Finsen's work embodies the spirit of primitive or naïve styles, using composition and color to balance forms and rhythms and the directness of the palette knife to create a distinct and whimsical exploration of surface. With allusions to the works of early 20th century American painters and the Fauvists, Finsen's paintings embody a tension between familiarity and abstraction, drawing viewers in, yet leaving unresolved their placement within the imagined space.

About the Property

911 G Street SE is a two bedroom brick home with a deep shaded yard. While the property has off street parking, you might consider selling your car as you are located within walking distance of Eastern Market, the Metro, the shops and restaurants of 8th Street SE, Ginkgo Gardens and Fragers. The home has retained the charming elements of the past while boasting modern amenities such as a remodeled kitchen complete with stainless steel appliances and granite counter-tops.

The home will be open Sunday October 31 from 1-3PM. For more information about the home contact Realtor Genie Hutinet at 202.413.7661

CITY Gallery Associate Member Show at Park Cafe

2010-10-28T10:31:00.001-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Sunday October 31 from 5:30pm to 6:30pm

Image Courtesy of CITY Gallery

City Gallery presents a group show at the Park Cafe representing the follwing associate members:

Anne Oman
Tara Hamilton
Marth Huizenga
Sarah Porter
Marilyn Christiano
Liz Lescault
Cissy Webb
Tom Kenyon
Will Fleishell

The represented group works in a variety of mediums including block print, engraving, watercolor, photography and ceramic sculpture.

The work will hang from October 31 through December 10, 2010.

Park Cafe is located at 106 13th ST SE, Washington DC right across the street from the eastern end of Lincoln Park. To make reservation call 202.543.0184 or visit their site at www.parkcafedc.com.

Albus Cavus Monster Mash!

2010-10-27T12:27:00.000-04:00

| EVENTS |

Design Studio Art Gallery Presents: "Night of the Living Art"

2010-10-27T10:05:00.001-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Sunday, October 31, 2010 from 5pm - 10pm

The public is invited to attend Design Studio Art Gallery's opening reception for "Night of the Living Art." Prepare to trick-or-treat and bring your children for an alternative haunted house experience. In spirit of this eerie holiday, explore "dark" creativity and view local artists' paranormal pieces which have taken inspiration from classic horror films and pop culture.

To celebrate the "darker half" of the year with Design Studio Art Gallery, all staff will be in costume and attendees are encouraged to follow suit. Night of the living art runs from October 22nd-November 17th.

The gallery is located in Hyattsville’s new Arts District at 5702 Baltimore Avenue, Hyattsville, MD, 20781. Contact the gallery at (301) 779-4907 or (202) 446-7373 and by email at info@designstudioartgallery.com Editors Note: New Fall Hours are Wed 10am-6pm, Thur 1pm-8pm, Fri 11am-6pm, Sat and Sun 10am-5pm

M.M. Panas "Action Painting" Closing Show at CITY Gallery

2010-10-26T14:44:00.000-04:00

| EVENTS |

Closing Reception: Saturday October 30, 2010 from 2pm -6pm

M.M. Panas "Dancin'". Photo Courtesy of CITY Gallery

CITY Gallery invites the public to view "Action Painting" by M.M. Panas, one last time. Artist in attendance. Refreshments will be served. To read the Wade Carey Interview, click HERE

About the Artist:
Maria Margarita Panas was born in Munich, Germany in 1946. She arrived in the U.S.A. in 1949 and subsequently became a citizen. After living in Brooklyn, NY until 1960, she moved to Michigan, where she attended Wayne State University (1963-1967) and met and married John Panas, a fellow student. They have two sons.

Margaret has been a practicing artist since 2002 and is a member of both The Art League of Alexandria, VA and The Capitol Hill Art League of Washington D.C. She is also a member of the Columbia Pike Artist Studio.

Additional information may be found at: www.citygallerydc.com For further information or images, please contact the gallery at 202.468.5277 or info@citygallery.com City Gallery is located at 804 H ST NE second floor, Washington, DC 20002. Gallery hours are Fridays and Saturday 1-5pm.

G Fine Art presents Dan Steinhilber’s "Mixed Bag"

2010-10-26T09:37:00.000-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening reception October 30, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Photo Courtesy of G Fine Art

Exhibit runs from October 30 - December 11

G Fine Art presents Dan Steinhilber’s latest exhibition, Mixed Bag. During the next six-weeks Steinhilber will make work in the gallery itself, engaging the commercial environment as both material and as studio space.

Starting with a lawn mower, broom, and iron, items associated with quotidien suburban existence, Steinhilber will create installations throughout the gallery, transforming it into the site of his sculptural experiments using tools associated with domestic chores. The gallery audience will witness Steinhilber making these works, and dialogue with him as he folds his private concerns together with public discourse. Shredded plastic bags will transform the floor with the brushstroke of the broom, and photographic snapshot “castings” will capture the indexical traces of his actions, creating an archive of images from his temporary installations.

Working last summer at the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York with a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Washington Project for the Arts, Steinhilber invited the public to participate in his sculptural practice. For his series of "earthbound" angels, members of the community worked with Steinhilber to cast their bodies in concrete in the manner of snow angels, resulting in a legion of everyday saints that was exhibited on the grounds of the Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City.

Dan Steinhilber received his MFA from American University in 2002, and has been working and living in Washington DC since his student days. He has exhibited widely in the region in commercial and alternative venues alike. Steinhilber has participated in numerous solo and group shows at museums and art spaces internationally including, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Des Moines Art Center, the MCA Houston, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University, the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh PA, Brigham Young University Museum Of Art, Provo UT, Cheekwood, Mass MOCA, SECCA in Winston Salem, NC, and the Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea in Siena, Italy.

Future projects include a solo show on the occasion of the inauguration of the new Museum of Contemporary Art in Raleigh, NC and a show at the Kreeger Museum in Washington, DC in 2012

G Fine Art is located at 1350 Florida Ave, NE Washington, DC 20002. Gallery Hours are Wednesday – Saturday noon – 6 pm For more information contact 202.462.1601 or visit www.gfineartdc.com

Conner Contemporary Presents: Federico Solmi "Douche Bag City"

2010-10-25T09:55:00.000-04:00

| OPENING |

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 30th from 6pm - 8pm. Artist in attendance.


Federico Solmi You Are Dick Richman from Douche Bag City. 2010, video-animation. Photo Courtesy of Conner Contemporary Art

My works are filled with corrupt politicians, murderers, swindlers, tyrants, porn stars, religious preachers... I want to present viewers with an ironic but perverse vision of our times and our near future.

- Federico Solmi

To preview the work: CLICK HERE

Conner Contemporary Art presents Douche Bag City, a major exhibition of video-animation, painting, and sculpture by Federico Solmi. Douche Bag City will run from October 30 through December 18, 2010

Solmi shocked Europe last year by exhibiting The Evil Empire (2008), the video portrait of a future Pope whose violent sex addiction leads to widespread ruin. Because of the work’s controversial content, the video was censored in France and Spain. Solmi, who lives in New York, was put on trial in his native Italy for obscenity, blasphemy and offense to religion. Later that year, the Guggenheim Foundation honored Solmi by awarding him with the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, in the category of video and audio, and commissioned work from him. This year, curators Sarah Lewis and Daniel Belasco selected Solmi’s latest video, Douche Bag City (2010) for exhibition in the SITE Santa Fe Eighth International Exhibition.

In Douche Bag City, Solmi turns his satirical lens toward Wall Street. Here, the artist applies his signature style, combining painting and hand-drawn animation with digital models, through the implementation of computer gaming engines. Solmi’s satire of Wall Street greed and corruption operates as a critique of the violence inherent in social and economic power structures. The artist has designed a special installation of custom-framed LCD screens for the presentation of Douche Bag City in the gallery. In addition to Solmi’s most recent videos, we will present his seminal works Rocco Never Dies (2005), The Giant (2005), and King Kong and the End of the World (2006).

Conner Contemporary will also show Solmi’s newest works, which have never before been exhibited: a large-scale sculpture inspired by The Evil Empire and paintings for the video animation Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth (a work in progress).

For further information contact the gallery at info@connercontemporary.com or call 202.588.8750

Conner Contemporary Art is located at 1358 Florida Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 Gallery hours are as follows: Tuesday through Saturday 10 - 5pm.

Arts Organization Leasing Opportunity in NOMA

2010-10-22T13:34:00.004-04:00

| LEASING OPPORTUNITY |

So you've always wanted to run an art gallery, perhaps an artist co-op, rent out studios to individual artists or maybe you are an artist who needs a huge amount of space for your studio to create massive installation pieces. Better yet, you've always wanted to run a museum or some type of art education program. Well look no further.

Come visit "The Cave" this weekend for your chance to preview approximately 7,500 square feet of space at very, very reasonable rates. The NOMA Business Improvement District has partnered with the owner of 16 M Street NE to seek out an arts organization who would like to lease the space over the next five years. East City Art has been told that there is a new roof, working HVAC (Heating and Air Conditining), a kitchen and a couple of bathrooms. From an arts perspective, it is turn-key. We've also been told that if you can not make this weekend, to contact the NOMA BID to preview the property (info listed below).

While there is a November 1 due date, the owner will review all proposals and may consider a time extension if needed to accommodate serious requests.

More information as follows from the NOMA BID:

NoMa Warehouse Available for Arts Uses

An approximately 7,500 square foot warehouse with parking is available for lease in the heart of NoMa at 1st and M Street NE, one block from the New York Avenue Metro. The NoMa Business Improvement District is publicizing the opportunity to arts and cultural entities that may be interested in leasing the space for office, studio, gallery, workshop or performance space or other related uses. The property owner, Stan Weinstein, has expressed openness to leasing the property for arts and cultural uses. The NoMa BID is interested in partnering with cultural organizations to make this a neighborhood hub of creativity. If needed, the BID is open to considering grant requests from organizations interested in the space.

Warehouse Entrance. Photo courtesy of NOMA BID

About the Property

Location: 16 M Street, NE. The building is located on M Street between North Capitol Street and First Street, NE, one block from the NY Avenue Metro.

Details: The warehouse is an approximately 7,500 SF one-story masonry building with three small offices, a kitchenette, two bathrooms along the west side of the building and a loading dock with two roll-up doors that faces M Street on the south side of the building. The window-less building is newly painted with new fluorescent lighting, heating and HVAC systems.

Parking Lot: An approximately 7,500 SF parking lot sits adjacent to the warehouse on the east side; the lot is fenced and gated, and contains about 22 parking spaces. The parking lot will be leased with the building.

Lease Term: 5 years; for rental rates please contact the owner.

22 car secure parking space. Photo Courtesy of NOMA BID

Contact:
For more information on leasing rates, property information and other building details:
Stan Weinstein, Property Owner
202-210-5500
sbwinflorida@aol.com

For more information on possible opportunities for collaboration with the NoMa Business Improvement District, or additional information about the neighborhood:
Liz Price, BID President
202-289-0111
lprice@nomabid.org

Side view of building (note the length of the structure)
Photo Courtesy of NOMA BID

Due Date:

Proposals are due Monday, November 1. Please submit all proposals electronically to Stan Weinstein. Please include information about your organization, financial proposal and capabilities, and your proposed uses for the space. If financial support from the BID is needed, please submit a separate proposal and grant request to the NoMa BID by November 1 including organization qualifications, proposed uses for the site, and grant request.

About the Neighborhood

NoMa (north of Massachusetts Avenue) is a mixed-use neighborhood north of Massachusetts Avenue and the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Between 2007-2009, private developers have invested more than $1.5 billion in the 35-block area covered by the NoMa BID, and have plans to develop more than 20 million square feet of office, residential, hotel, and retail space over the next 15 years. More than 5,000 new employees and residents will move into NoMa in 2010, and more than 700,000 SF have already been leased in NoMa this year, putting the neighborhood on track to follow the successes of the past two years; NoMa leased more than 1 million square feet in both 2008 and 2009.

Amenities:

The warehouse building sits one block from the New York Avenue Metro station, and half a block from the First and M Streets, NE, intersection – this intersection will be a busy hub for residents, employees and visitors by the end of 2010 when Harris Teeter, CVS and other retailers are open.

About the NoMa BID
For more information about the BID, visit the BID Web site at www.nomabid.org. View their NoMa Summer Screen video www.nomasummerscreen.com for more information about theirsignature film festival event; and visit www.zestfestdc.org for more information on Zestfest, an upcoming beautification and arts event in October 2010.

ARCH Development Soliciting Applications for Artist Residencies

2010-10-21T15:50:00.002-04:00

| ARTIST RESIDENCIES |

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http://www.eastcityart.com/2010/10/21/arch-development-soliciting-applications-for-artist-residencies/

Pop Up Art Festival Concludes Zest Fest in NOMA

2010-10-21T11:43:00.002-04:00

| PROFILES |

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Artist Portrait: Gail Vollrath by Jim Magner

2010-10-20T10:38:00.001-04:00

| PROFILES |

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The H Street Corridor Art District

2010-10-19T09:57:00.002-04:00

| PROFILES |

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Wade Carey Interviews Maria Margarita Panas

2010-10-18T09:31:00.002-04:00

PROFILES

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Weekend East City Event Round Up

2010-10-14T08:55:00.001-04:00

This article is cross-posted in the following DC Blogs:

Free In DC
Frozen Tropics
The Hill is Home

Thursday October 14

Tim Conlon “Con Rail” (Photo Courtesy Studio H)

Studio H and CITY Gallery present the season’sfirst ArtHouse Open House at 748 7^th Street SE. The works of the following artists will berepresented:

Geoff Ault- photography (CITYGallery)
Tim Conlon- graffiti artist (Studio H)
Ellen Cornett- pastels (CITY Gallery)
Sherill Gross- cut outs (CITY Gallery)
Liz Lescault- ceramic scuplture (CITY Gallery)
Katherine Mann- mixed media painting (Hamiltonian Gallery)
Steven Pearson- mixed media painting (Studio H)
Pam Rogers- mixed media painting (CITY Gallery)

Refreshment and hors-d’oeuvres will be provided by Marvelous Market Capitol Hill.

Friday October 15

"Barking Pumpkins" createdfrom glass, wire, styrofoam by Erica Fallin. (Photo Courtesy ofAuthentic Contemporary Art)

Be part of history when the first art gallery opensin Ward 7. Don’t miss the Tubman-MahanArt Gallery’s inaugural opening “ReCREATE”at 3938 Benning Road NEfrom 6pm to 8pm. The juried group show requiredartists to work with recycled material.

Thefollowing artists will be represented: Chuck Baxter, Sandra Davis, JimDuckworth, Chava Evans, Erica Fallin, Magaly Gaza, Christopher Golden, GintsGrinbergs, Rania Hassan, Sean Hennessey, Roxanne Jarrett, Guru Sangat Khalsa,Gloria Kirk, Marla Mclean, Rose Mosner, Jordan Quintero,Wendy Rabinowitz, KathyTurner, Ja'Ski Watkins and Sherry Ways

Saturday October 16

The Fridge presentsGraham Boyle’s first solo exhibit “Thrive,Despite!” from 7pm to 10pm. Thegallery is located behind Belga Café in the alley between 8^th and 9^thstreets SE.

Kate Fraser to Review Artist Portfolios at CHAW

2010-10-13T18:09:00.001-04:00

| PORTFOLIO REVIEWS |

Attention artists, here is a chance to have your work assessed and reviewed by a professional in the art field. Coming this Saturday October 16th, the Capitol Hill Art League has organized a portfolio review day from 12pm to 5pm at CHAW.

Kate Fraser, owner of the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda, will conduct portfolio reviews. Each participating artist may bring at least 5 pieces; no more than 20 (even if they are photographs). The cost to participate is ony $20 for CHAL members and $30 for non-members. Each participant will be assigned a specific time slot for an individual review so that you can have an personal conversation with Kate Fraser about your art direction. To sign up, you can call CHAW during office hours 202-547-6839.

Ms. Fraser will review your portfolio and offer guidance and practical information on your career as a fine artist. For 15 minutes, one of the area’s most knowledgeable and experienced arts professionals will answer questions about the direction specifically of your work, pricing, presentation, approaching galleries, entering juried competitions, marketing, getting attention from art critics, or almost anything else you can think of.

To clear up any confusion, this session is designed to discuss the development and direction of your art portfolio on the business side. This session is not an art critique of the artistic merits of your individual pieces. If you wish to participate in a critique of your art pieces, then Lisa Semerad's Nov 13th seminar, 1-4pm at CHAW, on critiquing art is for you.

Ms. Fraser, an accomplished photographer, has over 20 years of experience as a photographer, curator, gallery Director, judge, and educator. Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries, museums and art centers both in Europe and the United States and has won many awards. Ms. Fraser is one of the most highly collected photographers in the DC region.

CHAW is conveniently located 2 blocks south of Eastern Market Metro station on the northwest corner of 7th & G streets SE.

The Fridge Presents: Graham Boyle "Thrive, Despite!"

2010-10-13T09:45:00.002-04:00

| OPENINGS |

This article has moved to its permanent home:

http://www.eastcityart.com/2010/10/13/the-fridge-presents-graham-boyle-thrive-despite/

The Tubman-Mahan Art Gallery Presents Their Inaugural Opening, a Group Show Entitled: "ReCREATE, the Art of the Recycled”

2010-10-12T09:48:00.001-04:00

| OPENINGS |

This article has moved to its permanent home:

http://www.eastcityart.com/2010/10/12/the-tubman-mahan-art-gallery-presents-their-inaugural-opening-a-group-show-entitled-recreate-the-art-of-the-recycled%E2%80%9D/

Art House Open House October 14, 2010

2010-10-11T09:40:00.002-04:00

| OPENINGS |

This article has moved to its permanent home:

http://www.eastcityart.com/2010/10/11/art-house-open-house-october-14-2010/

Eco-Friendly Business Incubator Opens New Art Gallery East of the River in the Heart of Ward 7.

2010-10-07T14:02:00.002-04:00

| OPENINGS |

This article has moved to its permanent home:

http://www.eastcityart.com/2010/10/07/eco-friendly-business-incubator-opens-new-art-gallery-east-of-the-river-in-the-heart-of-ward-7/

Teen Open House Night Mural Collaboration

2010-10-06T10:16:00.002-04:00

| CLASSES |

This article has moved to its permanent home:

http://www.eastcityart.com/2010/10/06/teen-open-house-night-mural-collaboration/

Plein Air Exhibit of Fine Artists

2010-10-05T12:17:00.002-04:00

| OPENINGS |

This exhibit has moved to its permanent home:

http://www.eastcityart.com/2010/10/05/plein-air-exhibit-of-fine-artists/

Weekend East City Event Round Up

2010-10-01T09:19:00.005-04:00

| EVENTS |

This week's post is cross-listed with the following DC blog:

The Hill is Home

Saturday October 2

Note: the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) has cancelled its Saturday open figure drawing this week.

However, if you haven’t already, do pick up tickets for CHAW’s ArtSmash . The proceeds benefit children’s art programs. CHAW never turns away a child because he or she can not afford a class. This is you chance to help out and have a blast!

CITY Gallery opens "Action Painting" , new work by mixed-media painter M.M. Panas. The opening reception begins at 6pm and ends at 9pm.

Albus Cavus Community Outreach Tonight at 6PM

2010-09-30T14:23:00.003-04:00

| EVENTS |

Tonight at 6pm at the Freezer 633 E ST Rear Alley


Albus Cavus students decorating the Temporium on H ST NE (photo Courtesy of Albus Cavus)

Albus Cavus, the group that brought you the mustache mural, the decorations at the temporium and the "give me a vote" hand statues , is asking the community for its help with their upcoming campaign to promote their next semester of classes.

The Spring 2010 Classrooms were above their expectations and many have been expressing an increased interest in taking more of them. Albus Cavus has good news to share. The schedule for Spring 2011 is nearly finalized and they would like to involve you (the community at lartge) in the next step which will include fundraising efforts, community outreach and managing individual workshops.

Join Albus Cavus for DC Volunteer Orientation, Tonight, Thursday, September 30 at 6pm in our workspace The Freezer located at 633 E Street SE (rear alley) which is within walking distance from Eastern Market Metro. Please RSVP here.

CHAW Artsmash Benefit Saturday October 2- Come out and Support Children's Art Programs

2010-09-28T09:49:00.000-04:00

| EVENTS |

Art Smash: Saturday October 2, 2010 from 7pm to 10pm

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop Presents ArtSmash, an Art-filled Evening to Benefit Children.

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) presents ArtSmash, an arts celebration, on Saturday, October 2, 2010 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. at its historic building on Capitol Hill, 545 7th Street, SE. The event will include food, libations, and an array of entertainment from dancers to cabaret singers including performances by a cappella group Not What You Think, Taffety Punk Theater Company’s Riot Grrrls: Julius Caesar, and the casts of CHAWbaret and The Mikado. ArtSmash will also offer opportunities for gala-goers to participate in the arts through tango lessons, a fashion show, painting like the Masters, and more. A silent auction will feature works from local artists and members of the Capitol Hill Art League, unique experiences, and a wide array of prizes from retail items to gift certificates and jewelry. Proceeds from ArtSmash support CHAW’s tuition assistance, outreach, and education programs.

“CHAW’s ability to provide tuition assistance for every child who needs it is a point of extraordinary organizational pride and is only possible with the continuing support of our community,” said Colleen Jolly, President of CHAW’s Board of Directors. “ArtSmash is a special, fun event that helps CHAW continue its important work of building community through the arts.”

Tickets are $50 per person in advance and $75 at the door and can be purchased by calling the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop at (202) 547-6839, or via email to victor@chaw.org.

For a complete list of events, workshops, classes or registration information, please visit the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop’s website at www.chaw.org or call (202) 547-6839.

Since 1972, the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) has provided arts education to thousands of children and adults in the Washington region, especially from the greater Capitol Hill area. Through classes, performances, and exhibitions in visual and performing arts, CHAW brings together diverse segments of the population to connect through the transforming power of creativity. CHAW offers a tuition assistance program and flexible payment plans. CHAW is a featured charity in the 2010-2011 Catalogue for Philanthropy.

CITY Gallery Presents M. M. Panas "Action Painting"

2010-09-27T10:21:00.000-04:00

| EVENTS |

Opening Reception: Saturday October 2 6pm to 9pm

M.M.Panas (photo courtesy of CITY Gallery)

Action painting will be on display at CITY Gallery from Wednesday 29 September to Saturday October 30, 2010.

For Maria Margarita Panas, an abstract painting is not unlike a novel. The work acquires a life of its own which unfolds as she allows the characters (color, line, texture, perspective, mood) to develop a plot, create relationships, change, twist, turn, until the painting reaches its natural conclusion. She insinuates a not-too-apparent meaning in her work, wanting each viewer to grasp or suspect something beneath the surface that lingers in his or her mind. When the work is finished, it should make a statement.

Panas’s genre definitely proceeds from the “action painting” of the abstract expressionists of the 40’s and 50’s. The complexity, clarity and courage of this work has always excited her. “Action Painting has always been my forte. This series is heavily influenced by the Gutai Group of Japanese artists. I was always heading in the direction of unrestrained movement and color but seeing their work set me free” explains Panas. The visual language, applied spontaneously, usually requires long periods of thought, observation and reworking to create a satisfactory image. Therein lies the pleasure of painting: physical application and mental arrangement of material on a canvas, both body and mind totally involved.

About the Artist:
Maria Margarita Panas was born in Munich, Germany in 1946. She arrived in the U.S.A. in 1949 and subsequently became a citizen. After living in Brooklyn, NY until 1960, she moved to Michigan, where she attended Wayne State University (1963-1967) and met and married John Panas, a fellow student. They have two sons.

Additional information may be found at: www.citygallerydc.com For further information or images, please contact the gallery at 202.468.5277 or info@citygallery.com City Gallery is located at 804 H ST NE second floor, Washington, DC 20002. Gallery hours are Fridays and Saturday 1-5pm.

Weekend East City Event Round Up

2010-09-24T09:03:00.002-04:00

This week's post is cross-listed with the following DC blogs:

Free in DC
The Hill is Home

Friday September 24

The Gallery at Vivid Solutions presents "Instantaneous?” re-mixing old school instant photography in a digital era, projects by Rachel Beamer & Lindsay Talley. From 6pm to 9pm.

Right around the corner, Honfleur Gallery will showcase a solo exhibition of paintings by DC artist Billy Colbert, “Gain the World, Lose Your Soul”. Note that this show begins an hour later than Vivid Solutions’ and starts at 7pm running to 9pm.

Saturday September 25

The Brentwood Arts Exchange is offering free classes for young artists at their center on Route 1 but you must register to attend. Details here

The Capitol Hill Art League (CHAL) will be at the 8th Street Fall Festival this Saturday from noon to 6pm showcasing original work from their members.

The Capitol Hill Arts Workship (CHAW) will continue its Saturday open figure drawing classes this fall. The models are professionals who hail from the prestigious Washington Figure Model Guild . $20 for drop-in; $15 if you register for a four class block.

Two Major Calls for Entry from Art Whino and Design Studio Art Gallery

2010-09-23T15:03:00.001-04:00

| CALLS FOR ENTRY |

Art Whino

Second Annual Modus Union 2010
Presented by Labels For Love

Event: Modus Union- An exclusive evening of Fashion, Art & Philanthropy. Labels for Love founder Mary Amons created “Modus Union”, a one of a kind unique event to collaborate with the active philanthropic, political, and artistic communities within the Nation's Capital. Modus Union was formed from two words that represent unification with positive intent. The Washington, DC area is the leading world capital and we are seeing the combination of artistic talent and a youthful energy not seen since the Kennedy Era. The time has come to collaborate with these disparate groups of influence to showcase opportunities in an effort to make a positive social and philanthropic impact by maximizing our impact on the Nation's Capital and its global influence. Labels For Love beneficiary partner this year is Fran Drescher and her Cancer Schmancer Foundation. Cancer Schmancer is dedicated to saving women's lives through early detection and prevention of cancer. Fran Drescher is a 10-year uterine cancer survivor and a leading advocate for the early detection of women's cancer. Fran and her foundation are continuing to make a major global impact, by sharing her personal story as well as educating women on the causes of cancers and the importance and methods of early detection

Venue: The Lumber Shed in SE DC, Yards waterfront

Event Date: Nov 4, 2010 6:00pm- 10:00pm

Deadlines and important Dates
Submissions Due By: Oct 10
Submissions by: E-mail: art@labelsforlove.org
Mail: Attention: Steph Holland – 272 M Street, SW – Washington, DC 20024
Artist Announced: Oct 15
Installation of art: November 3rd

Eligibility: Open to all artists 18 years or older nationwide with special attention given to artists from the Washington DC metropolitan area. Accepting original works in 2-D, 3-D and photography including prints, drawings, mixed media compositions, paintings, photographs, and moveable sculptures, which depict the “Spirit of Women", fashion, the female form, preventative health or aid.

Objective: To exhibit a small but cohesive selection of work reflecting the concepts listed above. (4-6 pieces depending on size). Work can be purchased the night of the event and the week leading up to the event online (website URL TBD).

Requirements
Artists are asked to submit a portfolio of 8-10 samples of existing work, an artist vitae and or a website. If your existing work does not reflect the theme of the show please also submit up to 4 proposed pieces or concepts for the event.

Labels for Love and its representatives as the jurors reserve the right not to display all work submitted.

Fees: Free to submit
Filmed: The show will be filmed for a major TV network
Commission/ Donation: Portion of the sales will go to Labels for Love / Cancer Schmancer

-----------------------------

Design Studio Art Gallery

"Night of the Living Art"
During this time of the year, the days grow shorter and the nights darker, longer and cooler. There's an eerie, dark energy associated with Halloween. When we think of Halloween, we often envision darkness, supernatural and mythical monsters, and even death. National customs, works of gothic and horror fiction, such as Frankenstein and Dracula, as well as classic horror films, pop culture and current TV series (most notably Vampire concepts -Go Trueblood), lend to the imagery associated with this holiday even if they are not directly related. Another custom is of course the costumes! During this time of year, it was believed that the border between this world and the underworld became thin, which allowed spirits both good and bad to pass. Harmful spirits were warded off with costumes and masks in belief that they would act as a disguise and protect against harmful spirits.

DSAG asks artists to give their interpretations and explore the "dark" creativity associated with this holiday. Art can be inspired by various genres and art movements such as gothic, horror, sci-fi, expressionism, metaphysical and folkloric to a name a few.

DSAG encourages artists to come dressed in costume on Halloween for our opening reception to celebrate the "darker half" of the year with Design Studio Art Gallery. DSAG will host trick or treating at the gallery during the opening reception and all staff will be in costume!

Details:
Art Work Drop-Off Date: Wed, October 20, 2010
Time: 11am-6pm
Commission: 33%
Participation fee: $15

Exhibit dates: 10/22-11/17

Opening reception: 10/31 Halloween!
For more information go to www.designstudioartgallery.com or call (202) 446-7373

Submission Requirements:

DSAG asks that artists submit images of 2D or 3D works. Image of art should follow this format: width @ 480 pixels, height @ 378 pixels. If the work does not conform to those sizes, adjust size closest to that measurement. DSAG wants images size-ready so that they can easily upload them to their website. Any ideas specifically regarding a special, planned installation must be explained in a minimum of 2 paragraphs along with images of work.

Submit all images to:
info@designstudioartgallery.com

Free Young Artists Workshop at the Brentwood Arts Exchange at the Gateway Arts Center

2010-09-23T08:53:00.000-04:00

| CLASSES |

Young Artists Workshop

This free class at the Brentwood Arts Exchange at the Gateway Arts Center focuses students' creative energy into making incredible art works and getting them excited about growing through art. Projects will incorporate the elements of drawing, painting, art history, sculpture, printmaking and crafts, using a variety of media in a fun, supportive, and engaging atmosphere. Space is limited and registration is required - sign up today.

Course # 365214
Saturday, September 25. 10:00am - 1:00pm.
Ages 6 - 12.
FREE

How to Register
- Register in person at any M-NCPPC Department of Parks and Recreation staffed facilities in Prince George's County.
- Register online at www.pgparks.com. Click on the SMARTlink icon on the right hand side of the page.
- Register by phone: call us at the Brentwood Arts Exchange 301-277-2863, or call the SMARTlink Helpdesk at 301-583-BOOK (2665).
- Register by emailing the Helpdesk at: Help4smartlink@pgparks.com.

CHAW Open Drawing Continues this Fall

2010-09-22T10:10:00.003-04:00

| CLASSES |

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop Open Drawing - Working From the Figure continues starting this Saturday, September 25th

Working From the Figure Session A – F1AS2
Saturdays, 1:30 – 4:30 pm
4 weeks: 9/18 – 10/16 (No class 10/2)
$60/ 4 sessions or $20 per week drop in

Working From the Figure Session B – F1AS3
Saturdays, 1:30 – 4:30 pm
4 weeks: 10/23 – 11/13
$60/ 4 sessions or $20 per week drop in

Will Fleishell David Quamann as David Charcoal on Paper 2007 (Photo Courtesy of City Gallery)

Artists work on drawings or paintings in front of a live model in a session without an instructor. Bring your own drawing materials. Easels are available. This is a great opportunity to network and meet the many working artists of who live in the area. Food & beverages are welcome and shared.

Register online at www.chaw.org, via phone 202-547-6839 or in person. CHAW / CHAL Arts Center is conveniently located 2 blocks south of Eastern Market Metro station on the northwest corner of 7th & G streets SE.

G Fine Art Presents a Discussion of Julia Oldham's "Fundamental Constants" in collaboration with Physicists Maxime Clusel, Phd and Eric Corwin, phd Wednesday September 22 at 7PM

2010-09-21T09:34:00.002-04:00

| EVENTS |

This article has moved to its permanent home:

http://www.eastcityart.com/2010/09/21/g-fine-art-presents-a-discussion-of-julia-oldhams-fundamental-constants/

The Gallery at Vivid Solutions Presents "Instantaneous? Re-mixing Old School Instant Photography in a Digital Era" Projects by Rachel Beamer & Lindsay Talley

2010-09-20T14:42:00.002-04:00

| OPENINGS |

This article has moved to its permanent home:

http://www.eastcityart.com/2010/09/20/the-gallery-at-vivid-solutions-presents-instantaneous-re-mixing-old-school-instant-photography-in-a-digital-era-projects-by-rachel-beamer-lindsay-talley/

Honfleur Gallery Presents: Billy Colbert "Gain the World, Lose Your Soul"

2010-09-20T11:38:00.020-04:00

| OPENINGS |

This article has moved to its permanent home:

http://www.eastcityart.com/2010/09/20/honfleur-gallery-presents-billy-colbert-gain-the-world-lose-your-soul/

Wade Carey Interviews Camille Schefter

2010-09-17T09:36:00.001-04:00

| PROFILES |

This article has moved to its permanent home:

http://www.eastcityart.com/2010/09/17/wade-carey-interviews-camille-schefter/

"DC8 Totems" Pole Raising Ceremony

2010-09-16T09:49:00.010-04:00

| PUBLIC ART - OPENINGS |

This article has moved to its permanent home:

http://www.eastcityart.com/2010/09/16/dc8-totems-pole-raising-ceremony-2/

Weekend East City Event Round Up

2010-09-16T09:00:00.003-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Weekend East City Event Round Up: H Street Festival Edition

This post is cross-listed with the following DC blogs:

Free in DC
Frozen Tropics
The Hill is Home

Thursday September 16
Studio Design Art Gallery opens Latinic Thursday Evening from 6pm to 10pm

Honfleur Gallery invites artists to jump start their careers by consulting one-on-one with experts in various fields.

Friday, September 17

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
UPDATE: The Friday Gallery OonH event is a private party and was mistakenly sent out to the gallery's press list.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Saturday September 18

Gallery OonH starts off the day during the H Street Festival with “Art Cars” and “The Way We Move”. For a complete schedule of Gallery OonH’s events, click here .

During the festival, CITY Gallery will be open from 12pm to 6pm where "Night Goat and Other Flights of Fancy" will be on display. Artist Ellen Cornett will be in attendance.

When the Festival winds down, keep your buzz going and say you were among the first to see Camille Schefter’s work as she opens “Insoluble” at Studio H from 6pm to 9pm.

In case festivals and crowds are not your thing or if you enjoy contemporary Latin American Art, head over to the Brentwood Arts Exchange for a group show entitled “Cultural Crossroads” celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month.

The Brentwood Arts Exchange at the Gateway Arts Center presents Felix Angel, Joan Belmar, Amber Robles-Gordon, and Rafael Corzo "Intersecciones Culturales / Cultural Crossroads"

2010-09-15T14:57:00.000-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Saturday September 18, 5pm - 8pm

Rafael Corzo Untitled (photo courtesy of Brentwood Arts Exchange)

The Brentwood Arts Exchange at the Gateway Arts Center presents "Intersecciones Culturales: Voces de America Latina y el Caribe / Cultural Crossroads: Voices from Latin America and the Caribbean", an exhibition featuring artwork by Felix Angel, Joan Belmar, Amber Robles-Gordon, and Rafael Corzo. Curated by Carmen Toruella-Quander and assisted by Ricardo Penuela-Pava, Cultural Crossroads is a celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, a time when we honor the contributions of Hispanic Americans to the United States and celebrate Hispanic heritage and culture.

Amber Robles-Gordon C wire (detail) (photo courtesy of Brentwood Arts Exchange)

Intersecciones Culturales / Cultural Crossroads is compact, with the intent to overload. Rafael Corzo, presenting art in the gallery as well as the craft store, brings an ambitious embodiment of youthful energy and freedom. Amber Robles-Gordon exhibits dazzling wall sculptures evocative of Carnival, steeped in the Afro-Caribbean heritage of objects imbued with symbolism so deeply felt that even when open to intellectual interpretation, their emotional interpretation rings clear. Joan Belmar presents an installation of abstractions rendered with incredible precision and care. Each creates delicate illusions of space that rest on balance between external structure and the fluidity of emotions. And, that's all before mentioning Felix Angel, who lends the exhibition nine works of undeniable power. The most established and longest experienced of this talented group, Angel - better known in the DC region as a curator than as an artist - brings forth refinement, eloquence, and poignance, that are always and only the outcome of years of creation, focus and discipline.

Felix Angel Letter from Beirut (photo courtesy of Brentwood Arts Exchange)

As a whole, Intersecciones Culturales / Cultural Crossroads is an expansive, energetic and positive stand against any generalization of "Latin Art". It steps in many directions, danced in embrace with all of life - the expression of which makes art powerful. It is not THE voice from Latin America and the Caribbean. It is four voices, artists varied in age and experience, creating contemporary art informed by cultural heritage from Columbia, Chile, Puerto Rico, and Mexico - places as distant and distinct from one another as from here, yet bound by language and post-colonial legacy, and by their living contribution to the fabric of our lives.

Joan Belmar Sonogram (photo courtesy of Brentwood Arts Exchange)

The exhibit runs from September 15 through October 15, 2010

The Brentwood Arts Exchange at the Gateway Arts Center is located at 3901 Rhode Island Avenue Brentwood, MD 20722. Call the center at 301-277-2863/ tty. 301-446-6802. Hours are Monday through Friday: 10am - 8pm and Saturday: 10am - 6pm.

Gallery OonH presents Art Cars and the Way We Move

2010-09-15T09:22:00.002-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Gallery OonH Presents "Art Cars" and "The Way We Move" Saturday September 18 for the H Street Festival

Dylan Koehler Baltimore Rock Opera Society (photo courtesy of Gallery OonH)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
UPDATE: The Friday Gallery OonH event is a private party and was mistakenly sent out to the gallery's press list.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Gallery OonH (1354 H ST NE) Schedule of Events for this Saturday is as follows:

Ray Nelson Guitar Bike (photo courtesy of Gallery OonH)

• Noon-7pm
6 blocks of urban fun, music and events on H Street Artists and ArtCars on exhibit in the 1300 block. Be sure to check out Gallery OonH’s other sponsored activities, the Speed Chess Challenge, the H-Street Story Oral History Tent and the co-sponsored events on the 12th Street stage
•2-3pm
Dangerously Delicious Pies’ "Hands Behind Your Back Blueberry Pie-for-Speed" pie eating contest followed by Rodney’s band, the Cold, Cold Heartbreaker
•4:15pm
The 2nd Annual Skin + Ink Tattoo Competition with H Street’s own Lee Wheeler and Paul Roe from British Ink
• 6pm TO Whenever
After the festival closes, the party at Gallery OonH doesn’t!

CM & Grace Kelly Laster Laster Blaster Innergalactic Shack-O-Llac (photo courtesy of Gallery OonH)

Honfleur Gallery Invites Artists to an Evening with the Experts

2010-09-15T08:24:00.001-04:00

| EVENTS |

An Evening with the Experts
Thursday September 16 from 6pm - 8:30pm
Honfleur Gallery: 1241 Good Hope RD SE Washington, DC 200020

Honfleur is inviting business owners, nonprofit leaders and artists currently in (or interested in) Anacostia to join them for an evening of expertise, consultation and new ideas.

Expertise includes:
How to create a business that is attractive to investors
How to protect your intellectual property
How to market and brand your organization
How to move from the dream to the strategy
How to successfully apply for grants to support your artistic endeavors

Each business owner, nonprofit leader will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with an expert or experts of his or her own choosing.

Space for this event is limited and an RSVP is required to attend.

To RSVP and sign up for a session go to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ceedewe

Yards SE Waterfront Park is a Feast for the Eyes

2010-09-14T14:16:00.004-04:00

| REVIEWS |

This article has moved to its permanent home:

http://www.eastcityart.com/2010/09/14/yards-se-waterfront-park-is-a-feast-for-the-eyes/

Design Studio Art Gallery presents "Latinic"

2010-09-14T11:42:00.002-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Thursday September 16th 6pm - 10pm

(Graphic courtesy Design Studio Art Gallery)

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Design Studio Art Gallery's (DSAG) newest exhibit, "Latinic," which focuses on cultural identity, issues relating to self identity, and societal views and interpretations of the Hispanic culture and community.

DSAG asks "What is ultimately the difference between the two terms Hispanic and Latino? Why are people identified as one, but not the other? Is this debate more geographical, cultural, or lingual? Is one term viewed as more positive and/or negative than another? How is 'Hispanic' culture identified in this country?"

DSAG invites you to attend their opening reception where they will examine these issues and offer answers and various interpretations of the aforementioned questions.

The gallery is located in Hyattsville’s new Arts District at 5702 Baltimore Avenue, Hyattsville, MD, 20781. Contact the gallery at (301) 779-4907 or (202) 446-7373 and by email at info@designstudioartgallery.com Regular hours are Wed - Fri 11am - 7pm, Sat 10am -5pm, Sun 1pm - 5pm

Studio H Presents Camille Schefter ”Insoluble”

2010-09-13T10:50:00.002-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception Saturday September 18 from 6pm to 9pm

Camille Schefter Bather (Photo Courtesy Studio H)

Studio H presents ”Insoluble” a solo exhibition featuring oil paintings by Camille Schefter. The works, both curious and perceptive, exhibit diverse imagery and deft, complex color use. The end result is a captivating examination of the contradictions between what a person shows publicly and what one thinks and feels privately.

Schefter’s work is driven by this reality of a public and private self and how rifts between the two develop and play out in everyday life. “I’m interested in the decision. The fact that you can’t ever fully communicate with another person creates this opportunity for you to choose what you give out. Sometimes it’s conscious, sometimes it’s not, but something’s got to happen. That ambiguity is what I focused on in this show.”

By combining influences from painters such as Peter Doig and Cecily Brown, to the rollicking poetry of Jennifer L. Knox, “Insoluble” appears as a raw and mysterious world for the viewer to explore. Running throughout the body of work is a fluid narrative that touches on gender inequality, social anxiety, and desire, all skirting an urban landscape. Schefter’s enthralling abstractions enhance her conceptual focus on liminality by altering and occluding that story. The result, a juxtapostion of illusionistic moments with rich dynamic brushwork, is a collection of intensely captivating paintings.

The body of work includes works in ink and oil paint on canvas, salvaged wood, and wood panels. "Insoluble" open September 18, 2010 and runs through October 17, 2010.

Camille Schefter (b. 1986 in Denver, Colorado) currently lives in Northwest Washington DC. This is her first solo exhibition in Washington, DC.

For more information about Studio H Gallery and Workshop, please visit www.studiohdc.com. Studio H is located at 408 H Street NE second floor Washington, DC 20002. Phone 202.468.5277 or info@studiohdc.com. Hours are by appointment.

Note: The H street festival, scheduled from 12-6pm., is on the same date as the "Insoluble" opening . Studio H is located on the north side of H Street between 4th and 5th streets NE and will not be affected by street closures which begin on 8th Street NE through 14 street NE.

The Fridge Calls for Entry and Design Studio Art Gallery Internships

2010-09-12T08:17:00.000-04:00

| CALLS FOR ENTRY - INTERNSHIPS |

Calls for Entry

The Fridge has announced an OPEN CALL for their 2011 season, which will include a variety of group and solo shows, featuring all forms of art. Submit your resume, artist’s statement, and up to 10 digital images of the work you would like to be considered. Images should not total more than 10 MB in size. If your project is still conceptual, submit up to 10 digital images of your most recent work, and a vision statement for your proposed project. The Fridge does not offer funding for the completion of projects. Please include your full name (LastFirst) at the beginning of your images and in the subject and body of your e-mail. Deadline for submissions is October 1, 2010: me@thefridgedc.com

Internship

Are you looking for an internship? How about working for one of the newest galleries in the ever expanding Gateway Arts District. Currently, Design Studio Art Gallery is looking for interns to help them both with their Art Gallery in Hyattsville and to assist with their Interior Design business. Details of the Internship including how to apply can be found here.

Mustache Mural Honors John Philip Sousa

2010-09-10T12:50:00.002-04:00

| PUBLIC ART |

Last week, we caught up with Alicia Cosnahan, AKA Decoy, on the 1400 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE. Cosnahan was working on the latest public art project, "The Mustache Mural", which was being painted on the side of 1432 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Alicia Cosnahan at the foot of the scaffolding for the "Mustache Mural" (Photo © East City Art)

On a vacant parking lot between a row of businesses and a vacant fast food restaurant, Cosnahan stages her supplies to paint the mural. Cans of paint, brushes and water, used both for cleaning brushes and re-hydration, line the shaded portion of the lot on this hot summer day. Along the wall, Cosnahan deftly climbs the scaffolding as she paints in the larger shapes and forms that will make up the mural.

View of the mural in progress (Photo © East City Art)

The mural pays homage to John Philip Sousa and his legacy, the US Marine Corps Band, part of Washington DC's rich musical tradition. The bold colors welcomes motorists, cyclists and pedestrians to the Capitol Hill as they travel west towards the Capitol.

Detail of the mural. The mustaches will be added by Albus Cavus Students (Photo © East City Art)

The mural is a project of Murals DC. As Cosnahan put it "they find places for us to paint and we paint the murals". Cosnhan coordinated the effort with Albus Cavus, a national arts organization that provides public art project experience to students. In addition to helping Cosnahan paint the mural, students of all ages were encouraged to design beards and mustaches for the musicians.

Mural Detail. The pattern was inspired by the white House's Fence (Photo © East City Art)

The mural design went through a somewhat rigorous approval process which included input from the local ANC, the Capitol Hill Restoration Society (CHRS) and a panel of Jurors. It is set to be completed sometime in September. A large opening ceremony is planned which will possibly include brass bands from local High Schools. Final times and dates will be listed here as an update to this post.

Free Art Bus to Link H Street, U ST and Logan Gallery Openings this Saturday

2010-09-09T12:30:00.005-04:00

| ART BUS |

Just Announced!
Three of the city’s hottest art destinations will be connected by the ART BUS to coincide with all the art openings this Saturday.

Free Shuttle service will be provided between Logan Circle, U Street, & the H Street/Atlas District, sponsored by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.

• 1515 14th Street NW bus stop servicing:
Adamson Gallery, 6:30 - 8:30, 1515 14th Street NW
Curators Office, 6 - 8, 1515 14th Street NW
HEMPHILL, 6:30 – 8:30, 1515 14th Street NW
Gallery Plan b, 6 - 8, 1530 14th Street, NW
Irvine Contemporary 6 - 8, 1412 14th Street NW

• 1353 U Street NW bus stop servicing:
Morton Fine Arts, 6:30 – 8:30, 1781 Florida Ave, NW (between 18th and U St.)
Project 4 Gallery, 6:30 – 8:30, 1353 U Street NW

• 1358 Florida Avenue NE, bus stop servicing:
City Gallery, 6-9, 804 H St NE, 2nd Fl
Conner Contemporary, 6-8, 1358 Florida Avenue NE
Industry Gallery, 6-8, 1358 Florida Avenue NE, 2nd Fl
G Fine Art, 6:30-8:30, 1350 Florida Avenue NE

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ART BUS will run every 10 minutes from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM

The last ART BUS will pick up from U Street NW and Florida Avenue NE at 8:30 PM and return passengers to 1515 14th Street NW.
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Weekend East City Event Round Up

2010-09-09T08:59:00.000-04:00

| EVENTS |

Weekend East City Event Round Up

It's back to the galleries this September as Saturday September 11 is shaping up to be one the biggest opening weekends in East City history. Something "Big" will be revealed in Anacostia, a new waterfront in SE just blocks from barracks row will showcase dozens of local artists and Eight openings are scheduled on the Hill and H Street.

This article is cross-posted on The Hill is Home Capitol Hill's hometown blog.

Friday September 10

"The Big Reveal" will take place in Historic Anacostia at the footsteps of the "Big Chair" on the corner of Martin Luther King avenue and V street SE. The event runs from 5:30pm to 8pm.

Art Whino opens "Beautiful Minds" at The Yards Park Grand Opening weekend celebration. Festivities begin at 3:30pm until 11pm. Over 60 local artists will exhibit their works at 10 water Street SE at the intersection of 3rd St SE and Water St SE.

Saturday September 11

The Capitol Hill Art League (CHAL) opens "Walk on the Wild Side", a multimedia show in honor of the recently departed Hill artist Wally Szyndler. The reception runs from 5pm to 7pm

The Corner Store opens Alec Simpson "Digital Expression: 23rd Psalm Series" from 5pm to 8pm.

The Fridge presents "Potty Trained at Gunpoint" featuring new work by John Tsombikos of BORF Fame. The reception runs from 6pm to 10pm

Evolve Urban Arts Project presents "What We Leave Behind" featuring encaustic collage artist Marty Ittner and painter Michele Cormier. The opening begins at 4pm and closes at 8pm.

Over on Florida Ave, see three exhibits door-to-door. First, G Fine Art presents Julia Oldham "Strange Readings" an exploration of physics and art. The opening show runs from 6:30pm to 8:30pm

Conner Contemporary Art launches three concurrent shows. The first is John Kirchner "Infinity", the second is John Stark "Mercurius Duplex" and Third Susam Macwilliam: Video. Doors open at 6pm and close at 8pm.

Above Conner, Industry Gallery presents two new designs entitled "Nature/Data" by architect and designer Antonio Pio Saracino. The show run from 6pm to 8pm.

CITY Gallery opens "Night Goat and Other Flights of Fancy", new works by Ellen Cornett. The opening reception begins at 6pm and ends at 9pm.

The Corner Store Presents Alec Simpson "Digital Expression: 23rd Psalm Series"

2010-09-08T16:14:00.000-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Saturday September 11th from 5pm to 8PM

Alec Simpson Ancestral Reflections: Crazy Quilt 1 (photo by John Woo)

The Corner Store Presents Alec Simpson "Digital Expression: 23rd Psalm Series".

Alec Simpson currently serves as the Director of the Brentwood Arts Exchange at Gateway Arts Center. Simpson improvises his art as does a jazz musician. "Once I have my 'sub-text and back-story' then process and flow become very important. For me, this means allowing materials that want to work with the opportunity to express freely within loosely set parameters" explains Simpson.

If you can not make the opening show, a closing party is planned for Sunday September 26th from 5pm to 8 PM

The Corner Store is located at 900 South Carolina Avenue SE, Washington DC 20003. For more information contact: Kris Swanson & Roy Mustelier at 202.544.5807or online at www.cornerstorearts.org

Roll Call Reviews CITY Gallery Juried Show

2010-09-08T12:18:00.000-04:00

| REVIEWS |

Editor's note:
This article was originally published on August 10, 2010 and is reproduced by kind permission of Roll Call. For more information about Roll Call click here.

The Jury Is In on Local Artists’ Exhibition
Aug. 10, 2010
By Rachael Bade
Roll Call Staff

Five months after it opened its doors to the public, City Gallery is already trying something new. The art gallery at 804 H St. NE recently opened a juried exhibition, the first of its kind.

Sixty-nine local artists within a 75-mile radius of D.C. submitted 199 pieces in hopes of winning first or second place orone of three honorable mentions. Submissions ranged from sculptures, ceramics and glass to photos and paintings.

Visitors can see the top winners, most of them paintings or photographs, at City Gallery’s first regional competition.

Diana Derby took first place with her oil on canvas “Witness No 7.” The painting depicts a flustered-looking little boy standing next to a woman who appears to be his mother. The boy’s intense gaze makes viewers wonder what he’s thinking.

Second place went to Sabine Carlson’s “Pale Dog Running.” The picture shows the outlines of three dogs, one turquoise, one yellow and one gray, among a barren landscape with helicopters following above.

Upon a closer look, viewers will notice that the yellow dog has a red belly and red hind leg while the green dog is running in the opposite direction.

According to the artist, the dog with the red foot is injured and “has fire in his belly,” and the one on his own path is taking a risk that the others were unwilling or unable to take.

“This imagery lets me visualize ways in which power and vulnerability intertwine,” said Carlson, who lives in College Park.

One honorable mention, “Outside the Gasworks Wall,” will have visitors staring at its canvas for several minutes.

The piece, created by Cavan Fleming, has random pictures of animals, an elderly woman in a flowery dress, children standing under skyscrapers and an oil derrick.

Visitors will wonder how the images piece together or what story Fleming is trying to tell.

Jack Rasmussen, director and curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, judged the competition.

“He has a heck of a reputation and is known for his fabulous eye,” said Ellen Cornett, principal and co-founder.

Cornett, a pastel painter, founded the gallery with photographer Geoff Ault and street art creator Phil Hutinet.

The trio opened City Gallery to give under-represented local artists from the eastern community of D.C. a “permanent home.”

“We wanted to reach out to the Washington neighborhoods’ art communities and give them a chance to be seen,” Cornett said.

According to Carlson, the gallery has done exactly that: “Galleries such as City Gallery help further interaction between and amongst artists, and here they have created a place where we can reach out to new viewers.”

The art pieces are on sale for $200 to $2,300.

The exhibition is free and open on Fridays and Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m. through Aug. 28.

2010 © Roll Call Inc. All rights reserved.

The Fridge Presents John Tsombikos "Potty-Trained at Gunpoint"

2010-09-07T14:39:00.000-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Saturday September 11, 2010 from 6PM to 10PM

(Graphic Courtesy of the Fridge)

John Tsombikos (born 1987 in New York City, NY) is an artist known for the commemorative graffiti campaign dedicated to his late friend Bobby L. Fisher (also known as BORF). The name BORF became a household name in the greater DC area and appeared in cities around the world, including San Francisco, New York City, Athens, Greece, Rome and Florence, Italy, London, England and as far south as Bogota, Columbia. A graduate of the Corcoran College of Art + Design (2009), Tsombikos has since lived in Athens, Greece.

Departing from the imagery that popularized the BORF campaign, Tsombikos analyzes the relationships between the tactics of power used for social control and the nihilistic tendencies and bitter hopelessness it instills in the peers of his good-for-nothing generation. This friction (manifested in the recent surge in riots and uprisings around the world) takes shape in "Potty-Trained at Gunpoint" in the form of appropriated surveillance cameras mounted on trophy plaques, complete with cut wires hanging like the mangled viscera of a hunted animal. As part of his "Still Life" series, Tsombikos will also show hand painted copies of certificates, urine sample orders, and travel permits from his 3-years' experience with juridical surveillance, highlighting the logic and absurdity behind institutional life. A variety of other new work in an array of media will also be on display.

The Fridge: Rear Alley, 516 8th St. SE Hours: Wednesday, Thursday, 12 pm - 7 pm, Friday - Saturday, 12 pm - 8 p.m. and Sunday, 1 pm - 5 pm http://www.TheFridgeDC.com

City Gallery Presents Ellen Cornett “Night Goat and Other Flights of Fancy”

2010-09-07T09:35:00.005-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception September 11, 2010 from 6pm to 9pm

Ellen Cornett "Night Goat" (Photo Courtesy of CITY Gallery)

CITY Gallery will present pastel paintings and pen and ink drawings by Ellen Cornett in a show entitled “Night Goat and Other Flights of Fancy.” The exhibit will run from August 29 to September 25, 2010.

About this show Cornett says, “I assemble my work piece by piece using a sheep here and a ceramic chicken there. Childhood memories, musings on age, thoughts about the world in general all inform the work in different ways. I alternate between making large, vivid strokes of vibrant color in chalk pastel and creating finely rendered small pen and ink studies. Each helps me see more clearly and emboldens my work.”

Cornett’s drawings and paintings have won numerous awards and been exhibited frequently throughout the Washington, DC area.

The Capitol Hill Art League Hosts All-Media Exhibit "Walk on the Wild Side"

2010-09-06T11:15:00.000-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11, 2010, from 5pm to 7pm

Wally Szyndler Ashanti Hunter

The Capitol Hill Art League (CHAL), a program of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW), opens its first juried exhibit of the season entitled "Walk on the Wild Side". The September exhibit is inspired by and in honor of the late artist and Capitol Hill resident Wally Szyndler. The all-media show of original artwork continues through September 29, 2010.

The show’s juror is Kris Swanson, a bronze sculptor, and the founder/director of The Corner Store , a gallery/theater space where the work of actors, playwrights, musicians, filmmakers, artists, authors, and chefs are regularly showcased. Her bronze sculptures are included in numerous collections around the country and public works include the California Grizzlies on the original capitol grounds in Monterey, commissioned to celebrate California’s 150th year of statehood. She was also a finalist to sculpt the Frederick Douglass bronze for Statuary Hall at the US Capitol. Neighborhood art projects include the 28-foot mosaic mural YuMe Tree on 12th and Pennsylvania Avenue, SE.

The Capitol Hill Art League (CHAL) is a visual arts program of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) which presents six juried shows of members’ work annually in all media as well as a special sale of smaller works in December. CHAL provides artists with opportunities to exhibit and sell their work; supports artists' growth; provides opportunities for artists to meet other artists and arts professionals, offers venues for artists to interact with the community at-large, showcases and promotes the work of area artists; educates the public about the value of the arts and artists to the Capitol Hill community and beyond.

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is located at 545 7th Street, SE two blocks from Eastern Market Metro on the Blue & Orange Lines. For more information call 202.547.6839 or visit their website at www.chaw.org Gallery hours are: 9:30AM-9:00 PM (M-Th), 9:30AM-6:00 PM (F), and 9:00AM-2:00 PM (Sat).

G Fine Art Presents Julia Oldham "Strange Readings" in Collaboration with Physicists Maxime Clusel, Phd and Eric Corwin, Phd

2010-09-03T09:50:00.002-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening reception Saturday September 11, 6:30pm – 8:30pm

(Photo Courtesy of G Fine Art)

G Fine Art presents Julia Oldham’s newest body of work Fundamental Constants (2010-present), seen here through three single-channel videos and recorded in and around her studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn, focuses on recreating historical physics experiments and theories with common materials and a DIY sensibility. The original experiments/theories were conceived to measure the fundamental constants of the universe as well as to test various quantum theories. What this research yielded, some of it dating back to the end of the 18th Century, was the principal groundwork for the language of physics that future physicists would expand upon until today. In each of the artist’s adaptations, the experiment’s tools, the act of determining data, and the end results fluidly embellish a sense of play that unbalances the standards of these scientific citations.

For a more thorough exploration of Oldham's conjoining of science and art, read an essay by José Ruiz on the subject here.

Julia Oldham was born in Maryland and until recently lived and worked in New York. She is in the process of relocating to Portland, Oregon. She has shown widely since she received her MFA in 2005 from the University of Chicago. Solo exhibitions include ones at Art In General, the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA; Espacio3 Lisbon, Portugal; Macalaster College Gallery St. Paul, MN; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, among others. Group Shows include Bronx Museum (upcoming), the Nunnery at Bow Arts Trust, London, UK; PPOW Gallery, New York; Christopher Henry Gallery, New York; Gallery Four, Baltimore, MD,; MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY; FACT, Liverpool, UK . Most recently Oldham completed a residency at the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest Residency , Clermont, KY.

"Strange Readings" opens Saturday September 11 and will be on display until October 16, 2010

G Fine Art is located at 1350 Florida Ave, NE Washington, DC 20002. Gallery Hours are Wednesday – Saturday noon – 6 pm For more information contact 202.462.1601 or visit www.gfineartdc.com

Evolve Urban Arts Project Presents Marty Ittner and Michele Cormier "What We Leave Behind"

2010-09-02T14:38:00.001-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Saturday September 11, 2009 from 4pm to 8pm

The Evolve Urban Arts Project presents: "What We Leave Behind" featuring encaustic collage artist Marty Ittner and painter Michele Cormier. Both artists create visually dense works that reference the discarded physical and emotional remnants of our busy lives.

Rip, Marti Ittner (Courtesy of Evolve Urban Arts Project)

Ittner places us in the shoes of an archeologist discovering the cultural and natural debris that has been left behind. Each collage is created using variegated layers of wax and paper, forcing the viewer to visually dig through the components. Our reward is discovering fragments of ephemera, organic specimens and incised typographic forms within the framework. The encaustic process encapsulates each assemblage, creating the photographic equivalent of a snapshot in time. These seemingly random scraps provide only limited, imperfect impressions of a prior civilization, leaving the viewer to ponder the cultural significance of these items.

Leading the Way 2, Michele Cormier (Courtesy of Evolve Urban Arts Project)

Cormier's paintings, ranging from moody abstracts to calculated still-lifes, encourage us to recall the human interactions we leave behind. Her series featuring simple red chairs and stools is a display of relics from a series of human interaction that took place. The event that brought us and this inanimate object together (a concert in the park, a child's party) has faded with time, leaving chairs casually strewn about the landscape as the sole indication of the gathering. Similarly, her abstract works in the exhibition evoke distant emotional recollections of her native Acadian culture and it's colony that was founded on Canada's east coast

"What We Leave Behind" will run through October 30, 2010. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday: 1-5pm, Friday: 1-7pm and Saturday: 11am-2pm. Other times are available through appointment. The Project space is located in the Pierce School Lofts at 1375 Maryland Avenue, NE. For further information, visit their website at http://art.evolvedc.com.

Industry Gallery Presents: "Nature / Data" the Premiere of Two New Designs and Recent Work by Italian Designer & Architecht Antonio Pio Saracino

2010-09-02T08:58:00.001-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11 2010, 6-8 PM

Cervo Chair ©Antonio Pio Saracino, (courtesy Industry Gallery)

Industry Gallery presents "Nature / Data" the first solo U.S. exhibition for New York-based Italian designer and architect Antonio Pio Saracino. The exhibition, which runs through October 30, 2010, will premiere two new designs, feature work created mostly during the past year and introduce two large-scale models of triumphal arches representing Italian emigration to North and South America. The works in the exhibition are executed in plywood, metal, carbon fiber and synthetics and abstract from natural forms such as molecules, leaves, blossoms, and crystals.

Nature / Data will feature eleven different chair designs, including two newly created for the exhibition: Riccio, a chair with a smooth interior and spiky exterior; and Molecular Bench, a baroque, steel-framed work covered with molecule-shaped recycled wool. The other nine designs, most created within the past year, will be exhibited along with two large-scale models for triumphal arches inspired by two centuries of Italian emigration to North and South America.   The models will be constructed from layers of hard foam, each layer a graphic representation (referencing bar charts) of emigration data from 1810-2010. In Spring 2011, a planned stainless steel version, commissioned by the Italian Cultural Institute, will be erected in front of the Museum Carraffa in Cordoba, Argentina.

Saracino's designs stem from his lifelong fascination with nature and natural systems. As a child in Puglia (in southern Italy), he collected plants, rocks, fossils and insects. "I have always been fascinated by the mystery of nature, and the beauty and complexity of the natural world," said Saracino. "However, I do not seek to replicate nature. I look to replicate the feeling that nature creates within me." Living in Rome from the age of 19, "affected my vision and made me realize the power of design in making and defining a civilization. Design is important in the evolution of a culture and its identification process, by which I mean its sense of pride and belonging."

Speaking about the broader concept of design, Saracino said, "In Italy people truly value design. We believe that beauty will save the world. Beauty is not a shallow concept, but a broader idea of balance that creates a sense of continuity between our place in the world and what we design and live with everyday (objects, fashion, houses) ... Design is an act of love for other people. Every designer hopes and believes that his or her work will make the world a better place in which to live."

About the Designer
Antonio Pio Saracino is an Italian-born architect and designer currently working and living in New York. For more than a decade Saracino's designs and artwork have been shown in individual and group exhibitions in Rome, Brussels, London, Moscow, Cordoba, Sydney and New York. Nature / Data at Industry Gallery in Washington, D.C. is his first solo U.S. exhibition.

In 2003, Saracino graduated cum laude with a master's degree in architecture from "La Sapienza" the University of Rome. Since 2004, he has worked in tandem with New York-based architect Steve Blatz on interior design, conceptual projects and design competitions, such as the Seed House, a pod-shaped residence that received an American Architecture Award in 2007 from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.

Saracino has received numerous international art, design and architecture awards and is a four-time winner of the Future Furniture Design Competition sponsored by Interior Design magazine. His projects have received extensive coverage from design and art media in Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Australia, Japan and the U.S. His 2007 design work at the Tibi boutique in New York's Soho was featured in Interior Design's "Best of the Year" issue and the "Global Shop" section of Wallpaper*. He was also named one of ARTnews magazine's 25 trendsetters.

Saracino was selected as the winner of the Agorafolly art competition at the Europalia Europa Art Festival 2007/2008 in Brussels, Belgium, designing a work to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the European Union.    His large-scale installation created on behalf of the nation of Italy was mounted in front of the La Gare Centrale train station. This past summer he unveiled the design for the 2010 eni Formula One and Moto GP World Championship trophy.

Industry Gallery www.industrygallerydc.com is located at 1358 Florida Ave., NE, 2d Floor, Washington DC 20002, info@industrygallerydc.com   (202) 399 1730. The gallery is open Wednesday - Saturday, 11AM - 5PM, and by appointment.

Art Whino Opens "Beautiful Minds" at The Yards Park Grand Opening Weekend Celebration

2010-09-01T14:06:00.000-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Friday, September 10th, 3:30pm to 11pm


Photo Courtesy of Art Whino

Over 60 local artists will participate in "Beautiful Minds", an art exhibit curated by Art Whino, which will premiere their show as part of the grand opening weekend celebration of The Yards Park, located on the south side of the SE-SW Freeway just a block away from the Capitol Hill Historic District. The Yards Park is located at 10 Water Street SE at the intersection of 3rd St SE and Water St SE, three blocks from the Navy Yard Metro, New Jersey Ave exit.

The Beautiful Minds show will exhibit in the historic Lumber shed pavilion as part of The Yards Park opening celebration that includes a weekend of musical performances, kids activities, fitness classes, a doggie social, food and drink, water features, fireworks and more. The event is FREE and open to the public.

The Beautiful Minds art exhibit will look at what makes an artist who he or she is in their pure essence. Artists use their canvases, unedited and honestly, to express what they see as a global transformation of consciousness in society and as a mirror to today’s ills, joys, and daily tribulations. Understanding that every city has its own subculture and complexities, Beautiful Minds will focus on DC Metro artists to further expose the multiple layers of existence in the nation’s capital. Art Whino will team up with Beautiful Nightmare/No Homework to fully capture the essence of DC and bring together an arsenal of artists for this star-studded group show. Artists in the exhibit are local DC Metro area artists and will be in attendance at the show.

Yards Park waterfront on the Anacostia River

Visitors to Beautiful Minds will also have the opportunity to experience the new Yards Park. The Yards Park is a new regional waterfront destination, offering a whole new way for local residents to enjoy the outdoors and the Anacostia river. The 5.5 acre park--the size of about four football fields--includes a quarter mile long boardwalk along the water and was designed as a series of unique “outdoor rooms” to provide a variety of experiences from the great lawn to the sculptural pedestrian bridge, the waterfall/canal basin to the overlook and riverfront gardens.

The Yards Park was built through a public/private partnership between The General Services Administration (GSA), the District of Columbia, and Forest City Washington and is managed and programmed by the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District. Information about The Yards Park and the opening weekend of events can be found at www.capitolriverfront.org

Anacostia's "Big Reveal"

2010-09-01T09:16:00.009-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Graphic courtesy of www.thecostia.com

This spring we blogged about Anacostia being the center of the DC art world during the April 18th Anacostia Art Walk. Now a mystery announcement is claiming that “the biggest thing to happen in Anacostia since The Big Chair” will be publicly revealed Friday September 10 underneath the Big Chair itself.

Nikki Peele, owner of reSPIN Public Relations, the River East Public Relations firm that is coordinating the big reveal had this to say, “The response to the teaser ads has been off the chart. People really want to know about this event in Historic Anacostia. Word-of- mouth has been amazing; the level of response unquestionably illustrates the ever-increasing awareness of the Anacostia neighborhood. With the continued revitalization of the Anacostia Business District, the ongoing HGTV filming, and the recent release of the Good Hope: Anacostia video (produced by the DC Arts Commission), Anacostia is fast becoming the DC neighborhood to watch.”

The event will launch at the Big Chair landmark in Historic Anacostia from 5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. with a special “preview event” scheduled at 4:00pm at The Gallery at Vivid Solutions located at 2208 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE.

For more information, email bigreveal@thecostia.com to receive updates as the reveal date approaches.

Conner Contemporary Presents John Kirchner: Infinity, John Stark: Mercurius Duplex and Susan Macwilliam: Video

2010-08-31T09:03:00.001-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening reception Saturday, September 11th from 6pm to 8pm.


John Stark - The Fall (from Mercurius Complex) 2010, oil on panel, 20 inches diameter. Courtesy Conner Contemporary Art.

Conner Contemporary Art will present three concurrent solo exhibitions featuring a sculptural installation and opening night performance by John Kirchner, a new cycle of oil paintings by John Stark and recent video by Susan MacWilliam.

JOHN KIRCHNER

Infinity is a large-scale sculpture installation by John Kirchner. To create his 4th solo exhibition with the gallery, the DC-based artist physically and metaphorically deconstructs a 26 foot boat. The Chris-Craft cabin cruiser, named “Infinity,” was built and marketed in 1955, the year of Kirchner’s birth. Reconstructing the vessel in the exhibition space, Kirchner re-interprets the boat’s social symbolism, turning the American dream, and the world-view that gave rise to it, on its head.

Kirchner converses with certain artistic traditions as he transforms the pleasure cruiser from a faded symbol of status and progress into a monumental parable about human nature. Known for making irreverent interventions with historied objects, Kirchner often draws upon the conceptualism of Surrealism and Arte Povera. In his new work, he explores the themes of power and vulnerability in Hieronymus Bosch’s parody of the Ship of Fools and Michelangelo’s depiction of The Deluge in the Sistine Chapel.

Presenting a live performance in the gallery during the opening night reception, Kirchner will confront viewers with a provocative allegory of the human condition.

JOHN STARK

Mercurius Duplex is John Stark’s first solo exhibition in the U.S. An innovator in the dark undercurrent of London’s contemporary art scene, Stark integrates styles and themes from recent and past artistic traditions to form his own system of meaning. The London-based artist makes his much anticipated American debut with a powerful new series of paintings in oil on wood panel.

The show’s title, meaning “Dual Mercury,” reflects the artist’s conception of his work as a Mercurial marriage of ‘high’ and ‘low’ art. Stark’s paintings contain a world of desolate landscapes, imaginary destinations appearing at moments in crisp, exacting detail, only to dissolve into light or mist elsewhere. Never giving away too much information, or surrendering to academic formulas, he converses easily with traditions of landscape and figure painting, while also evoking colorful sci-fi posters, or sublime filmic vistas. Stark presents us, in one painting, with a spare, moonlit terrain that echoes the cool stillness of Caspar David Friedrich. In another, he conjures the cosmic symbolism of Albrecht Altdorfer and Matthias Grunewald, painting a vivid sunrise, glowing with otherworldly colors, and lit with hints of meteorological phenomena. Stark updates these German masters with pop culture references, populating his unattainable, foreboding spaces with skulls and grim, hooded figures, which can read dually, as memento mori, or as death/metal insignia.

Stark’s symbolic imagery, including flasks and salamanders, explores the medieval history of Mercury as a duplicitous material, identified by alchemists with chaos/order and lunar/solar powers. Drawing viewers into a realm between darkness and light, Stark suspends us within a strange, uncertain time. Is this the end of a forgotten era, or the dawn of a post-industrial age? Using, at every turn, the slippery nature of Mercury as an analogy, he undermines scholarly inquiry with sardonic references to death metal album art. Stark moves deftly back and forth between the roles of a black magician - who masterfully calls forth our superstitions, fears, and fantasies with paint - and a diabolical prankster - who wittily cajoles us into laughing at our own seriousness.

SUSAN MACWILLIAM

Susan MacWilliam is the Belfast-based artist who represented Northern Ireland at the 2009 Venice Biennale. MacWilliam’s art probes the paranormal, the supersensory, and the tradition of psychic research. The artist approaches her subject through the history of occult photography, biography, and archival discovery.

Her research with the Thomas Glendenning Hamilton Spirit Photograph Collection, housed at the University of Manitoba Archives in Winnipeg, Canada, inspired F-L-A-M-M-A-R-I-O-N (2009). For this video, MacWilliam recreated the séance cabinet in which Hamilton had performed a séance in 1931. She uncovered records reporting that on this occasion, a spectral word materialized: “Flammarion,” the surname of a French astronomer and spiritualist. This ‘teleplasm’ is reputedly the only such materialization to take the form of a text. MacWilliam reanimates the séance cabinet with the presence of Irish poet/novelist Ciaran Carson, who recites words from photography and film lexicons. This footage is interspersed with scenes of the parapsychologist William Roll speaking about the manifestation of Camille Flammarion’s written name during the 1931 séance. MacWilliam creates her own forms of portraiture and storytelling to examine written emanation as a specter of the photographic medium.

Photography’s role in the legibility of spiritual phenomena is also a theme of Library (2008), which MacWilliam filmed at the Eileen J Garrett Library, Parapsychology Foundation, New York. The artist’s fixed camera positions provide voyeuristic views inside the library. We observe walls of bookshelves, and tables with reading lamps, undisturbed beneath the glow of overhead lights. Next, we are privy to boxes of documents stacked in storage rooms. Then we observe a long conference table, surrounded by leather high-backed chairs, as though assembled for a meeting, which no one attends. Ambient sound, barely audible, changes subtly with the acoustics of each location. The hum of air conditioning and distant traffic noises begin to sound like faint murmurings, heightening our senses and expectations. Book spines bearing the names of obscure or famous authors, and faded case history files, remind us of psychic researchers who are not present. Casting absent writers as ghosts of their habitual environment, MacWilliam reinforces the nexus between the letter and the spirit that brings inspiration to her work.

To preview the work, click here.

For further information contact the gallery at info@connercontemporary.com or call 202.588.8750

Conner Contemporary Art is located at 1358 Florida Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 Gallery Winter/Fall hours: Tuesday through Saturday 10 - 5pm.

Design Studio Art Gallery Calls for Entry Honoring Hispanic Heritage Month

2010-08-30T15:47:00.003-04:00

| CALLS FOR ENTRY |

Diego Rivera Tenochtitlan National Palace

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Design Studio Art Gallery is soliciting Calls for Entry for an upcoming exhibit "Latinic" which will open Thursday September 16 from 6pm-10pm.

"Latinic" will focus on cultural identity issues relating to self identity and interpretations of the Hispanic culture and community in the United States. All forms of artwork are welcome.

Key Dates are as follows:
Artwork Drop-Off: Thursday, September 9,, 2010 from11am-6pm
Artwork Pick-Up Date: Sunday, October 17, 2010 from 4pm-5pm
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 16, 2010 from 6pm-10pm
Exhibit Runs: September 12- October 17, 2010

For more information and to view a prospectus click here.

The gallery is located in Hyattsville’s new Arts District at 5702 Baltimore Avenue, Hyattsville, MD, 20781. Contact the gallery at (301) 779-4907 or (202) 446-7373 and by email at info@designstudioartgallery.com Regular hours are Wed - Fri 11am - 7pm, Sat 10am -5pm, Sun 1pm - 5pm

Editor's Note- we've been away!

2010-08-27T10:44:00.000-04:00

East City Art Fans, we've been away the last couple of weeks resting from what has been an incredible year of shows, events and artistic movement in East City.

We are on top of the latest and greatest events coming to you this fall. We intend to keep you posted on all of the latest happenings including original content and exclusive interviews with the talent that make these events possible .

Our regular posting schedule will continue next week. Look for a new webzine format coming in October. If you have any suggestions, comments or would like to see a specific type of coverage, email us at editor@eastcityart.com

For now, we've linked a Washington Post article about H Street here that includes a great write up on Studio H.

Gateway After Hours: An Evening of Art Exhibitions, Live Music, and Temporary Exhibitions Thursday, August 12. 5:00 - 9:00pm

2010-08-12T15:00:00.002-04:00

| EVENTS |

Opening Reception: Thursday, August 12. 5:00 - 9:00pm

The Brentwood Arts Exchange and the Gateway Arts Center celebrated its grand opening on March 19, 2010. The Gateway Arts Center in Brentwood, Maryland is a space dedicated to presenting and promoting the visual arts. The center is home to more than a dozen artists' studios, Gateway CDC's 39th Street Gallery, and the Prince George's African American Museum & Cultural Center's Gallery 110. The Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission's Brentwood Arts Exchange occupies approximately one quarter of the building, featuring a gallery of changing exhibitions by regional artists, a contemporary fine crafts store, and an arts learning workshop. The Center is a place for people of all ages to meet, engage and learn about art, purchase one-of-a-kind craft objects, and explore new talents.

Gateway After Hours is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Prince George's African American Museum and Cultural Center, The M-NCPPC's Brentwood Arts Exchange, and the Gateway Community Development Corporation.

On View:
Everywhere. with Roy Lewis, the Prince George's African American Museum's Gallery 110's history-rich exhibition of one of the area's foremost, and nationally significant photographers.

Spectrum: Memories of Natural Forms and Light, the Brentwood Arts Exchange's demanding and vibrant exhibition of Ellen Baer's post-minimalist and new-generation colorfield paintings.

Art work from the Quixote Center, in the Gateway Community Development Corporation's 39th Street Gallery.

Open Studios. The center is home to 12 artists' studios: ceramicists, painters, photographers, mixed-media artists...

The Gateway Arts Center is located at 3901 Rhode Island Ave. Brentwood, MD 20722. tel. 301-277-2863 / tty. 301-446-6802

Wade Carey Interviews Michael Dotson, Participant in Conner Contemporary Art’s Academy 2010

2010-08-11T13:32:00.001-04:00

| PROFILES |

Wade Carey interviews Michael Dotson, a participant in Conner Contemporary Art’s “Academy 2010” show, in his studio at the Katzen Art Center at American University. Michael has one more year of study to complete before he receives an MFA in Studio Art. He received his BFA in painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2006. Wade discusses Michael’s work in and its relationship to the convergence of art and design in a kind of realm of inhabitable art.

The transcript of this interview has been edited for clarity and concision.

W(ade): To begin, I want to congratulate you for being chosen to participate in “Academy 2010.” How did you learn about it? How does it look from your point of view, as an artist, to be a part of the “Academy 2010” show?

M(ichael): It was cool. They just emailed me about it. I think very highly of that particular gallery [Conner Contemporary Art], so I was very happy to be part of the exhibition and to get to meet all the people who work there and run the gallery. I’ve never shown in DC before so that was a nice introduction.

W: Where have you shown and where do you come from?

M: I come from Cleveland, so I have shown in various places there. I’ve shown in L.A., and I’ve shown in the Nudashank Gallery in Baltimore.

W: Are you working here as a graduate student?

M: I’m a graduate student here at American University. I am going into my second year.

W: Is it right for me to assume that the work that you are doing, and its inspiration, has an architectural component?

M: Yes, it is architectural, but I wouldn’t say that I use any specific models as a specific inspiration. I’m very interested in architecture, especially modern architecture and the idea of it being kind of a failed utopia. It is something that I would like to learn more about. I’ve been reading a little bit about it. It is definitely interesting.

W: Taking a quick look around the room, you start with a perspective. Is that correct? Is that true for all your work? Do you always start with a vanishing point?

M: Pretty much, except for a few pieces like the one on the far wall and some of the drawings that I do. Basically, for all my paintings, I make the vanishing points. I usually don't have a clear idea of what the painting is going to be so I’ll start with the points and then I might just try erecting a perspective and then say, “Oh, that could be a swimming pool or that could be a tennis court, or a UFO,” and I just kind of build it out from there.

Swimming Pool #4, 2010, acrylic on canvas, (Copyright Michael Dotson, photograph provided by the artist)

W: With the sketching, you work directly on canvas don't you? You don't use any kind of computer modeling?

M: No, I don't use computers at all. Just of the device of perspective.

W: Do you use any other tools? Do you create studies before hand? Do you create any kind of modeling? Do you just start with a blank canvas and start drawing lines?

M: I just start with a blank canvas. I never make sketches or anything like that. It's more a reactive process to what is going on. When I first started painting, I would work them out on Photoshop first and then paint them but that was really boring.

W: Because you are working directly on canvas and you are working spontaneously, what you do is, in a way, a form of expressionism. And yet, you are working with straight lines; it is so squared off and so precise. How would you label your work? It's not actually abstract. The work does have a quality of representing objects in the world that we recognize.

M: Yes, I would like it to be a middle ground between abstraction and recognizable forms. I would like to create something—maybe even try to make it a little unsettling, or just play with the space.

W: What would you use in your toolkit to make paintings unsettling?

M: I am just trying to make things that don't make sense spatially. I have things that you can identify but then you notice things that make you question them. They just don't make sense.

W: I see in another painting that there's a field of blues and greens. That might be a background and it might be a foreground. The painting isn't finished yet. May I assume also that the juxtaposition of colors is the method that you've used to try to throw people off or is it both? Are you trying to add tension to the perspective?

M: The colors, they could definitely be used for that. Having unexpected colors, that's another tool I could use, to play with in the space.

W: How did it start? Did you start imagining spaces before the time that you decided to major in art?

M: No I didn't. Before I majored in art, before I went to art school, I actually started out going to art school to do car design. Both my parents are toy designers. When I was growing up, when I went to school, my brother and I grew up around the industrial design department at the Cleveland Institute of Art. That was all I knew for a little while; I just wanted to draw cars. That was when everyone was still drawing that stuff by hand. It was before 3-D modeling and all that. It was all about learning a set of tools, about perspective. You could draw anything you wanted. I thought that was really interesting.

W: So, you were destined to be an artist.

M: I suppose. I mean, I definitely knew that I was going to art school by the time I was at least 13 years old.

W: Why did you choose the schools that you chose?

M: I chose to go to the Cleveland Institute of Art because they have a really strong industrial design program. But then, I abandoned that and went into painting. But it was a great school for painting, as well. As majors, painting and industrial design were the two hardest, that asked the most out of their students. I figure it was a really good choice. There were so many a really good kids that I went to school with. Then, for American University, I moved to DC because my girlfriend’s going to Georgetown.

W: Excellent reason!

M: I was here for a year and I was making paintings in my living room and I decided that if I was going to be here I might as well be doing something productive.

W: Are there teachers, or artists, here, or in Cleveland, that triggered the move, or moves, that you made to the kind of style of painting that you are doing now? Did you have anybody or any school of artists who did work that you recognized that you were building from?

M: One of my professors in undergrad, Daniel Dove, probably had a good influence. His paintings were like suburban landscapes but with a lot of transparent layers of multiple houses. It looked computer generated but it was all had painted in oil. I had a lot of teachers who were doing contemporary landscape work. But when I was in school, at that time, I wasn't doing any of that kind of work. Another big influence was probably a show at the Cleveland Museum of Art called “Metascapes.” I think it was in 2003 during my first year in the painting department. They had painters like Benjamin Edwards, Torbin Geihler and Julia Mehretu. Those were all landscapes but were very hard edged. There was a lot of computer graphics influence. That was the first time I had ever seen any work like that and it really impressed me a lot. Another artist I like a lot is David Hockney, especially his paintings from the 1960s. He is very inventive in the way he depicts things in a minimal way, like a water sprinkler with little dots coming out as the water.

W: There is a certain static quality in the work that you do. I've been sitting and looking at this painting up on the wall. I'm not sure how you name your paintings. If there are different names for paintings please let me know. The one I'm looking at now has a diamond crystalline shape in the center, and there are lines, strips I should say, that move off from it on the right side of it. They make me think it is moving. They give a sense of motion to the picture that I haven't seen in the other pictures. Is that intended, or is it just my illusion?

M: It wasn't intended. I guess, the way the space was set up in that one, you kind of do feel like you have to move through those lines to get at what's behind it. I can definitely see what you are talking about. Most of my paintings are like still moments where nothing's really happening. You're not really sure if something is going to happen or what would happen.

W: The “Academy” show made it clear to me that, at least in some of the paintings, there is a series. You have one painting that is entitled, “Swimming Pool.”

M: Yes, I have about four, I think.

W: Is that an anomaly, or is it part of the way you do things?

M: It is the way I do some things. I have four paintings that are “Swimming Pool 1, 2, 3, and 4.” I also have four, I think, that are named, “Dream House 1, 2, 3, and 4.” I guess there are themes that carry over. I'm not sure what it really is about the swimming pools, maybe there is some David Hockney influence there, too. Also, water is just a fun thing to paint. I feel that you can paint it any way that you want and have it be read as water, as long as it is blue. It's just something you can take a lot of liberties with. You can be very abstract and yet be right at the same time.

W: How of a dream houses? Are you intending to continue? Is there any future, if they're in the work that you do?

M: Do you mean will I make more of them?

W: Yes, and do you think about it all? You told me a bit in the beginning that you don't know what the painting is going to be when you start it. You begin with perspective and you begin with a vanishing point, or several. In the case of the two or three dream house pictures that you have done, did you start out with the intention of putting some thoughts about the dream house or the quality of the dream house into the painting before you started drawings the lines?

M: I'm not really sure how those all started out. I know with some of them, it just happened. Maybe some had a vague intention beforehand.

W: The one that has been used a lot, where your work has been picked up in publications, is the dream house that has the sports car in it.

M: The one at Conner?

W: Yes, it is in the “Academy” show.

M: Yes, that is a dream house interior. Usually they are exteriors.

Dream House Interior, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 in. (Copyright Michael Dotson, photograph provided by the artist)

W: You get the impression that you're looking at the car through a window.

M: Right. Yes, it is supposed to be a ridiculous room with very gaudy curtains and carpet. And the expensive sports car. It is supposed to be, in my mind, an unreachable fantasy. The cars don't even have wheels on them. You couldn't even drive them.

W: Are you going to draw more cars, as far as you know? It is where you started, sort of.

M: Yeah, it's possible. I might be starting one soon, probably.

W: What part of your work do you take most seriously?

M: I think I take it all very seriously. The making of it I take very seriously. I want it to be fun and interesting to look at but I want to work as hard as possible to give the viewer the best possible painting that I can.

W: That is a function of your craft. What are the different components of that precision? What is so precise and so careful about what you do?

M: Pretty much everything.

W: Take me through the steps, the ones that I haven't heard already.

M: All my paintings take forever. Everything has to be taped off. Then you take something off and then you have to take and coat it with a sealer on the edges, and then do a couple of layers. Then you have to take off all the tape. The painting behind you took a couple days just to tape off all those little lines. It's weird. It's very slow and it can get kind of boring.

W: Do you build up surfaces with acrylic and any kind of fixatives or finishes or are you really working on a flat plain? Are all the pieces when they're done pretty much on the same plane?

M: It's pretty flexible. Sometimes a bunch of stuff will get painted over.

W: For example, over here [indicates Turtle Lair] in the strips that I mentioned looking like possible jet streams from the diamond, were they painted over the finish that was created before? It looks at least like at least at the bottom where there's a pattern of brickwork that the pattern stops. I can see that it appears that the lines were not there underneath, before you painted the streamers, as I call them, in my own dullness.

Turtle Lair, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 in. (Copyright Michael Dotson, photograph provided by the artist)

M: I think these were always intended to be there, on top. But for a painting like this [indicates Unidentified Floating Object], I had it set up with all these shards of ice, or whatever, but the lower corner was solid purple. After I finished the painting, I realized I didn’t like the shape it made, so then I painted more lines out to the edge.

Unidentified Floating Object, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 72 in. (Copyright Michael Dotson, photograph provided by the artist

W: I would never have known it!

M: You can always see when I’ve painted over a section.

W: That is why I don’t see it in most of your paintings. That is why I am assuming that you are pretty careful about deciding about what paint you are going to put down on the canvas before you do it.

M: I would say that when I draw something out, it is only maybe fifty percent realized. Everything else just kind of happens. I think that is something that took a long time for me to learn, to be able to just paint over things. To fight the urge just lay something down and say, “OK,” to accept it. I think you shouldn’t have to do that. You should always be willing to change anything.

W: You have different galleries that are showing your work, who represent you as a professional already. What is your reaction to my theory? This is somewhat political, so you may have no idea. It is my theory that galleries are becoming increasingly concerned with survival because of the times. It is always hard to survive in the world of fine arts, but it's really bad right now. I am observing that galleries are trying to stay alive, maybe pushing their prospects for finding patrons, finding customers, finding people to buy the work, by enabling an environment that is a little less rarified. The gallery then is more directly an extension of the interior decorator or the interior designer today. Do you have any reaction to that?

M: Hmm. I would say that is probably certainly the case for some places. I wouldn't say that I really have a problem was that. I mean, it's a gallery. It’s a commercial operation.

W: Some artists don't care. Do you want to be able to sell your work? You are still in school. You have a kind of a hedge. You're not yet out there trying to survive as a painter.

M: Well, of course I want to sell paintings. I’ve got to eat. It just allows me to be able to work.

W: Do you have any collectors yet? Do you already have people who have taken an interest in your work elsewhere?

M: There is a guy in DC who has bought a couple of my paintings. He is the only person I know who has more than one.

W: With your process, what is your output? How many paintings can you produce in a given period of time? I am sure it varies.

M: Let's see, maybe about one a month.

W: So, you are able to pretty much decide that something that you're working on is done, or that you are satisfied with it. You have enough now working in process so that now, one a month is done. Are you working faster than you used to?

M: Probably the same pace but since my last move to DC, I have been working quite a bit harder or a lot more often. Especially since I have been in school, I am beginning now to work a lot more. I'm sure I've gotten a bit faster since I’ve started. I usually like to have at least three paintings going at one time. There is a lot of down time, a lot of waiting for things to dry. So, I just move on.

W: Do you anticipate mounting a show after “Academy 2010?”

M: I have a solo show in Baltimore in October at Nudashank. I guess I’m just working towards that at the moment.

W: Has there been much press about your work in Baltimore?

M: No. I have only been in one other show outside of that gallery. There have been a couple of paintings that have hung.

W: Is there any hope for the Washington-Baltimore area as a region for art? Would you have to move elsewhere to be a successful artist?

M: I think it is a silly idea that you have to live in some place to be eligible to be considered a successful artist. It just seems like such a strict idea. I like how musicians can come out of anywhere, any city.

W: Do you think the Internet has inspired that?

M: I think it has definitely helped with music because now any band can have its music available on the Internet. I think it has helped for art, too. You can see so many artists and get to know their work. I’ve met so many people from just seeing their work online and then emailing them. That is how I got to know the people who run the gallery in Baltimore. I saw the work of one of the guys who runs it, Seth Adelsberger, online and I emailed him. I told him I liked his paintings and he emailed me back to say he liked mine and asked me if I would be in a show.

W: That flies in the face of some older wisdom about having to be seen or having to find the right connections—that it is all about connections. Do you think that is less true than it used to be? Do you have any view about that from your own experience?

M: You still have to make connections. It just pays off to be friendly and to be friends with artists everywhere.

W: Does art school prepare you for any of that?

M: I don’t know what I would like to say about that.

W: Well, art school provide some period of time when you are, theoretically, protected by the academy. You are protected by the purity of the reasons that you’re working. You are in study. You are not out there producing for the commercial market exclusively. Does art school prepare students to be artists in the real world? Do you think there’s any difference between art schools in that respect? Or does it just depend on personal skills?

M: Skills with the Internet help! Some schools, more than others. A lot of schools now approach professional practices a lot more now. It might have been kind of blasphemous twenty years ago to even have that. A lot of schools are focusing more on that now, simple stuff like how to have a decent-looking resume.

W: Are you working just in this studio or do you have other space?

M: Just in this studio. Right now, I am just working on these two paintings and I’m about to start another one.

W: So, you have another year here?

M: Yes.

W: No wonder you are not panic-stricken.

M: I also am working on all of these drawings.

Untitled, 2010, drawing (Copyright Michael Dotson, photograph provided by the artist)

W: This is beautiful. The humor in this is that it is anti-computer art. It is work that you are doing by hand but it mimics the pointillism of digital art.

M: Right. A computer is just a tool. It is just based on a certain set of laws. It just executes those laws. It is really no different to me than things that you can make up yourself.

W: I can definitely understand what you are saying about the computer and I was struck by what you said about working with traditional computer-aided design software. You said that it bored you. Perhaps it won’t let you do everything that you want to do as fast as your mind will work.

M: Yes, and I feel that it is almost too malleable. Anything that you can do would be so easily done again or undone. It is hard to make any bold decisions, at least for me. I like to just lay something down and then deal with the consequences.

W: And yet the decisions you make enable industry, in a way, to replicate what you have done. In these drawings, they are very carefully done. The individual pen strokes are a component, or texture, of the work. It is not just about the pieces of color but it is also about each little marks of the pen.

M: I definitely try to emphasize the marks. When I have a big area of color, I will still color in each square.

W: Yes, each of the squares is approached and “stitched” using smaller marks of the pen. I see what you are saying. You would be cheating, in a way, if you colored an entire section. But you don’t. You are working inside each square consciously. This is gorgeous. It could be seen as thread, or embroidery. It could be that kind of silk thread from work that used to be done, the “invisible stitch” in China that made people blind. It could be that kind of intense color that comes from silk threads being drawn through muslin because of the way you have used the pen, which I think is really cool.

M: Thank you.

W: Was the dream house series just a spur in your artistic line? It was something that made you a little more visible to the art world. Is that going to be a part of the show in October?

M: There will be some. Well, probably not the one in the “Academy” show.

W: One of the reasons that I thought about you when I thought about this working concept that I had about the struggles that art gallery businesses are going through is that there has to be a person, whether it is the artist, or the gallery owner, or a designer, or contract designer who works with a bigger budget, or a residential designer who usually works with a smaller budget and a smaller group of clients and has fewer opportunities—less wall space, literally. There has to be somebody who says, “I think this piece would look good in this setting, in a place where people live in the real world, not in a gallery, not in a museum, but on somebody’s wall, either a commercial wall, like a law firm, or in a private home. Is there ever a time when you think about how your work would look in any of those settings, other than just here, as you paint them on the walls in your studio? Do they float in white space or does your work exist, in your mind, on a wall somewhere in somebody’s house or in somebody’s office?

M: Hmm, I don’t really think about that. But I would be interested if someone thought that there was a particular place where one of my paintings would look great. I would love to see that. If they specifically thought that the setting related to the painting, that would be kind of funny to me, or if a person bought that painting of the dream house interior and they had a matching zebra-print rug.

W: Or, if they actually tried to create a room that looked like your painting.

M: Yeah, that would be funny to me. I made this painting of a room with three paintings on three walls. It had a one-point perspective. Each painting was a painting of that room with the paintings on the wall.

Art Gallery, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 22 x 30 in. (Copyright Michael Dotson, photograph provided by the artist)

If it replicated the experience of what was going on in that painting, it would be funny.

W: How about in your own living space. There is a limited amount of wall space, obviously. What do you hang on your own walls?

M: I have a bunch of my paintings up. I would like to have the work of more of my friends.

W: Are you interested in collecting, or curating, or working in a collaborative way? I have not heard any mention of that in this interview, so far. Do you work alone for the most part?

M: Yes, mostly alone. I am not really too interested in collaborative work. I only remember one time where that worked out for me. It worked out really well, but I have had times where it was a horrible experience. I am always interested in being in shows with other artists. It is pretty solitary, my work.

W: If you had an opportunity, would you want to curate a show yourself and pick out the work that would be in that show? Let me just say that it didn’t seem like something that would be a passion for you.

M: No, there are other people who are good at that.

Wade Carey Interviews Calder Brannock, Conner Contemporary Academy 2010 winner

2010-08-11T10:32:00.002-04:00

| PROFILES |

Wade Carey interviewed Academy 2010 PULSE prize-winner Calder Brannock about his work and what lies ahead for this newly graduated Master of Fine Arts. The transcript of this interview has been edited for clarity and concision.

Calder Brannock, Camper Contemporary.
Copyright Calder Brannock, Courtesy Conner Contemporary Art

W(ade): There are about three or four different threads of ideas that I thought would be interesting to both of us to talk about you and what you are doing. One of them is why it started out sculpture and how plastic is the term. Sculpture is plastic itself, obviously. How did it transpire that the kind of work that you decided to do, or the primary “label” for the work that you do, was sculpture?

C(alder): Well, that came essentially when I was picking a grad school. The sculpture department had the best toys and the most space. I think especially artists now find the best way to express whatever they are trying to say. Sometimes I paint. Sometimes I end up doing photography. My undergraduate work and my senior thesis were in photography. So sculpture, I found, was a nice catch-all. If you look at someone like Wolfgang Tillmans he displays them on tables, and in strange places on the wall, they become objects. They become sculpture. Paintings can become sculpture but sculpture rarely can be paintings. It just gave me the most room to play around.

W: In the last two years—you graduated in 2007 from George Washington University—I noticed that while you were there you did some murals, as well. Was that pick-up work? Did that just happen or did you go into it with the idea that it was something you wanted to get under your belt?

C: Well, they definitely helped pay the bills. That was nice. But I wanted to try it. I enjoy making things. I enjoy curating as much as I do painting traditional landscapes or doing intervention work. I am all over the board, which is terrible when I am trying to explain my art practice to someone. But really, I enjoyed painting the murals, and if I didn’t do it somebody else was going to. I would have always walked by that spot and said to myself, “That could have been my mural up there…”

W: Let’s take another commission, for example. When you did wood sculpture of Cyrus Katzen, was that the first time you had done a wood sculpture using a grinder?

C: I had done wood sculpture before but I had never done figurative work. GW has always been very supportive. I don’t know if I was one of only a few artists that they knew. The office of cancer research had contacted me to do this. They wanted me to do a pen and ink drawing. I said, “Well, I could do that but wouldn’t it be neat if it was three-dimensional?” I came up with this while I was in the office. It would be neat if it was three dimensional and maybe out of wood. Not knowing that I had never done that before they said sure, that sounds great!

W: It came out pretty nice.

C: I thought it was great, too. I ended up laminating the wood together so the lines in the wood sort of formed a suit. But two weeks before it was done it looked terrible.
W: I saw the “before” pictures on your Website when you were still working on roughing it out, and it did kind of look like a Boy Scout project.

C: Sure, it was one of those things I was learning as I go. I had just recently finished a commission, again for GW, right in the middle of the campus where they were doing the Post Projects—where the artists do the call boxes. I did one for them and they loved it and they asked me to do a drawing. They said they were going to convert it to fiberglass. I said wouldn’t it be neat if I did it three-dimensional—maybe in aluminum! So I started on that having never done such a three-dimensional portrait. I had done the statue of Cy Katzen, but that was in wood. This was Ingrid Bergman. There are a lot of problems trying to capture a beautiful woman.

Calder Brannock, Camper Contemporary.
Copyright Calder Brannock, Courtesy Conner Contemporary Art

W: Absolutely. And not just any beautiful woman, Ingrid Bergman is a goddess.

C: I started out with her as a goddess, but she became more of a demon in trying to capture her. In every picture she looks a little bit different. It was looking garish as I was trying to get it done in aluminum, and I ended up doing it in concrete. So it was one of those things where it was a longer process. Sometimes working with me turns out longer process than it needs to be, but it really turned out to be really interesting and now I know all sorts of things about pouring concrete and making concrete molds. I get as much pleasure from that, the learning process.

W: That makes me think that a lot of what you are doing is about searching. That is another one of the threads I wanted to pursue in talking with you. Before we move on, though, is there any other relatively conventional sculpture that I haven’t discovered yet?

C: I think that if you go on my Website you’ll see nearly everything I’ve done. I’ve done some furniture work that I have really enjoyed. I’ve been exploring that recently. I am reading a book called “The Way of All Flesh: A Celebration of Decay”, which is about disintegration. I’ve been playing with concrete and old wood and putting those together with moss. It really is cool. I am casting the concrete to make table tops around old beams that I am finding around Baltimore where they are reworking buildings. You see both the exposed top of the beam and then I found splits in the wood and I decided to embrace those. Where there is a split, I continue that out as a tray into the concrete and grow moss in there. So, you’ve got an organic thing that will change over time and if the moss starts to latch on to the concrete—maybe it splits the table apart—so be it. But right now it’s just such a gentle thing.

W: In learning about you and the “searching” part of your work, what struck me was that you are not the only artist that I’ve talked to recently who is as interested in the work of others and in collaboration and in curation as in developing or putting out a product in the more traditional sense. Has that always been so? How do you trace your development as an artist in a connected space?

C: Part of what I love about being an artist is that I can wake up and explore whatever I want every day. One day I can be researching the way things decay. The next day it can be John Wilkes Booth or zeppelins. They are my latest fascination and how they are built. It really allows me to explore a wide range of topics really in depth. It is always learning, which is nice.

The interview continues here.

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop Presents: Roberto Bocci "Samples 2003" August 12 through August 31, 2010

2010-08-10T09:54:00.000-04:00

| OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Thursday August 12, 2010 from 5pm to 7pm

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) presents the exhibit Samples 2003 by multimedia electronic artist Robert Bocci opening on Saturday, August 12, 2010 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. Samples 2003 is a series of photographs and an installation that investigates the human body as a site of artistic and formal exploration. Admission is free for the opening reception and the exhibit, which closes on August 31, 2010.

Roberto Bocci is a multimedia electronic artist born in Siena, Italy. Over the past twenty years his work has evolved from painting through photography to computer-driven interactive multimedia installations. His artistic concerns encompass multiple points of view and questions of personal and social identity. He has shown his work in America, in Europe, in Japan and Australia. Roberto has been awarded fellowships and grants including a Fulbright Fellowship and Woodstock Photography Grant among others. Roberto's work includes interactive multimedia installations, DVD-ROMs and digital images. His work can be considered a hybrid form of multimedia art in which he merges his background in traditional Fine Arts and Electronic Arts. Currently Roberto lives and works in Arlington, Virginia and Washington DC.

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is located at 545 7th Street, SE two blocks from Eastern Market Metro on the Blue & Orange Lines. For more information call 202.547.6839 or visit their website at www.chaw.org Gallery hours are: 9:30AM-9:00 PM (M-Th), 9:30AM-6:00 PM (F), and 9:00AM-2:00 PM (Sat).

CHAW 10% Off Adult Classes Only for East City Art Readers

2010-08-09T10:13:00.006-04:00

| CLASSES |

Attention all East City Art readers

This week only, the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) is offering a one-week 10% discount coupon on Fall 2010 Adult classes to East City Art readers. Click here to see the full line-up of classes--everything from Pastels to Social Dance. Then register in person or by phone at 202-547-6839 during the week of August 9-13.

CHAW is located at 545 7th Street, SE, just two blocks from the Eastern Market metro station.

Weekend East City Event Round Up

2010-08-06T11:47:00.000-04:00

| EVENTS |

It's August in DC, high summer if you will, which means that the pace of life here slows down and mellows out. Many inhabitants flee the city's humid river basin for breezy Atlantic shores or the cooler climes of the Appalachians. Well apparently, this year, this trend no longer applies. The frenetic pace continues here in East City.

Friday August 6
Tonight, two weekend-long events take place. First, "Cheesecake" continues from 5:30 to 9:00pm at Gallery OonH at 1354 H ST NE. "Cheesecake" is a tribute to the female form.

Off of 8th Street SE on the Hill, the Fridge opens a weekend long event called "Gaia" featuring interactive artwork and musical performances. Friday's event begins at 9PM and ends at 1am. There is a $10 cover.

Saturday August 7
Albus Cavus is holding a fundraiser open house at the Freezer that will include a raffle, an art auction and live music. Come and see the space where the "Give me the Vote" hands are made, catch a glimpse of what future murals on 8th SE and Pensylvania Ave SE will look like and most of all, support an organization that does so much for our community and its youth.

CITY Gallery's First Annual Regional Juried Competion which was juried by Jack Rasmussen of the American University Museum opens on Saturday from 6-9PM. Jack Rasmussen will give a gallery talk between 6 and 7:15 so get there early to share his insight into how he selected 25 pieces from among 199 entries.

Over in the Gateway Arts District, The Brentwood Arts Exchange opens "Spectrum: Memories of Natural Forms and Light" recent paintings by Ellen Baer. The reception will be held from 5-8Pm

"Cheescake" at Gallery OonH closes Saturday night; "Gaia" continues at the Fridge.

Sunday August 8
Washington Projects for the Arts, in collaboration with the Rubell Family Collection and Conner Contemporary Art, presents the second annual synchronized swimming performance competition featuring Washington area artists. The event is from 6-7pm @ the Capitol Skyline Hotel 10 I (eye) Street, SW and South Capitol Street. This year's competition will feature performances by Floating Lab Collective, Waves of Glory, Fluid Movement and The Adrian Parsons Project. The judges for SynchroSwim 2010 are Dr. Dorothy Kosinski, Executive Director of The Phillips Collection, Septime Webre, Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet, and C. Brian Williams, Executive Director of Step Afrika.

Finally, "Gaia" closes at the fridge

Albus Cavus Open House at the Freezer Saturday August 7

2010-08-05T16:09:00.004-04:00

| EVENTS |

Event takes place Saturday August 7 from 2-6PM

Have you wondered where those "Give Me a Vote" hands have been coming from? They are made by the artists and students of Albus Cavus, a remarkable organization that has created many of the murals seen around DC and more recently, painted the outside of the Temporium.

This Saturday, the public is invited to the Freezer, a working studio space owned by the Fridge's Alex Gold where many of the hands have been made.

For those of you who have been brave enough to mingle with the hoards of tourists in the Union Station food court this summer, Albus Cavus also decorated the plywood outside a couple of empty food stalls there.

The tour is ultimately a fundraiser to sustain the phenomenal work of an organization that brings a lot of joy and beauty to our East City communities. During the open house, visitors will get a taste of future projects including murals that will be installed on 8th Street SE and Pennsylvania avenue SE. In addition the following events have been scheduled: an art auction, live musical performances and a raffle. Refreshments will be served.

If you can not make the event but would like to help donate funds to Albus Cavus, please visit their donations page.

The Freezer is located between Archibald walk and F ST Terrace SE. These alleys are located between 6th and 7th ST SE to the East + west and the 600 block of E and G to the north + south. Click here for a map.

Gallery OonH presents: Cheesecake, a Tribute to Female Form

2010-08-05T10:28:00.000-04:00

| ART OPENINGS |

Reception: Thursday August 5th, Friday August 6th and Saturday August 7th from 5:30pm to 9pm

Dolly Vehlow and Steve Hessler have been collecting folk art and self taught art since the early Nineteen Eighties. Their collection grew one artist at a time - relationships were forged and over the years their collection expanded to include well known, obscure and even anonymous artists. "But it has never been about the need to be acquisitive - it has always been about the art and the artists. The works exist because of the individual artist's inspiration, a powerful expression of their personal vision" explains Dolly Vehlow.

Gallery OonH with the adjacent side yard dominated by a 17' assemblage of a rocket by Jimmy Descant is a showcase for this artwork. Dolly Vehlow and Steve Hessler have hosted numerous private and public functions in this combined space where business owners, local residents and visitors come together to infuse the H street community with an energy beyond the bars and the night life. For the short term at least, they believe that they have a unique opportunity to create a space that becomes its own destination, not as a commercial enterprise but as a community building space.

"We want to use the gallery and this open space as a way to breathe some vitality into the street through a "pop-up" experience of live music, dance, and art. We want the space to be a spontaneous intersection of culture and fun, an accidental cultural experience that eventually becomes part of the serendipitous fabric of the street and invites you to pause for a minute or an hour" states Dolly Vehlow.

The latest project, Cheesecake, which opens tonight, is a reflection of that idea and is a show built from the Vehlow's collection. This tribute to the female form was inspired by Pink Line's designer showcase, Temporium. The show features a broad cross section of artists, styles and medium interpreting what it means to be a woman. It was designed to make one smile, make one curious about the art and the artists and above all to engage one's imagination. The following Work is represented at the show: Bonnie Blue, Dr Bob, Mr Imagination, Inez Nathaniel Walker, James VanderZee, and Sterling Strauser.

Cheesecake It’s all about the ladies...A tribute to the female form is open from 5:30-9pm August 5 (tonight), 6 (Friday) & 7 (Saturday) a well as the weekend of August 12, 13 & 14. Gallery OonH is located at 1354 H ST NE.

This August: Gaia at The Fridge

2010-08-04T13:05:00.002-04:00

| ART OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Fri, August 6 from 9pm to 1am

What is Gaia at The Fridge?

A series of seven Gaia events at the Fridge over the next three weekends beginning this weekend August 6, 7 and 8; the weekend of August 13, 14; and the the weekend of August 20, and 22. Each event will manifest the Gaian ethos and vision: just as earth is a habitat for life, these events are a habitat for artistic expression and creativity. In an effort to provide patrons with a continuous flow of novel multi-sensory experiences, each of the eight Gaia event will focus on a different theme and featured guest lineup.

Gaia uses the arts to reach across an ever wider spectrum of cultures, spiritual traditions, and ethnicities. Gaia events achieve a delicate balance between upscale and underground, pop and artsy, between the comfort of a lounge and the entertainment value of a performance hall. The Fridge will bring djs, vjs, lighting designers, live musicians, fire jugglers, make-up artists, contemporary dancers, magicians, and performing artists of all backgrounds together for a night.

Scheduled Events for the opening weekend:
Opening Night: Fri, August 6- Soul. Hip Hop. House.
Sat., August 7- Rock Electro
Sun, August 8- Chill Out

There is a $10 cover charge to attend this event

The Fridge: Rear Alley, 516 8th St. SE Hours: Wednesday, Thursday, 12 p.m. - 7 p.m., Friday - Saturday, 12 p.m. - 8 p.m. and Sunday, 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. http://www.TheFridgeDC.com

CITY Gallery and Studio H Present: Tim Conlon and Sherill Anne Gross at a second Art House Open House August 5, 2010

2010-08-03T11:43:00.004-04:00

| ART OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Thursday August 5 from 5:30pm-8:00pm

CITY Gallery and Studio H in conjunction with Realtor Genie Hutinet of John C. Formant Real Estate present a second "Art House Open House" event at 614 Elliott Place NE. If you missed renowned local graffiti artist Tim Conlon's "Derailed" last month at Studio H or you missed Sherill Anne Gross's amazing exhibit "Pretty Little Things" at the Brentwood Arts Exchange, this is your last chance to catch a glimpse of these exhibits. The public is invited to a happy hour Thursday August 5 from 5:30pm to 8:00pm to browse the work and to view the property.

About the property
614 Elliott Place NE is one bedroom one bath apartment located off Maryland ave between 13th and 14th street NE. This quiet fairytale lane is only a few blocks from the excitement of H street NE. The apartment itself is generously proportioned with high ceilings, a large one bedroom, extensive storage, a renovated kitchen and an open living area lit up by french doors that open to your own private patio and garden. As a bonus, the property comes with its own parking space and a working fireplace.

About Art House Open House
As native Washingtonians, we can assure you that the most talked about topic in Washington has never been politics- it has always been real estate! Art House Open House gives real estate hounds and art lovers the opportunity to preview DC's hottest real estate while viewing the work of local artists. See what art work looks like when it is taken out of the gallery and installed in the home.

CITY Gallery Presents its First Annual Regional Juried Exhibition Opening August 6 through August 28, 2010

2010-08-02T11:39:00.000-04:00

| ART OPENINGS |

CITY Gallery announces the opening of its First Annual Regional Juried Exhibition.

Opening reception: Saturday August 7th from 6‐9 pm.

Jack Rasmussen, Director of the American University Museum, juried the show. He will be in attendance from 6pm until 7:15 for a gallery talk.

DC Metro area artists working in oil, acrylics, watercolors, photography, ceramics, glass, sculpture and mixed media were invited to submit up to 3 pieces for consideration. CITY Gallery received a total of 199 entries by 69 local artists from which the judge made his selection for the exhibition.

The winners of the competition are as follows:
• First Place                 Diana Derby                 "Witness No 7"
• Second Place             Sabine Carlson             "Pale Dog Running"

Honorable Mentions:
Michael Fleischhacker      "Stepanie I"
Cavan Fleming                    "Outside the Gasworks Wall"
Jennifer Cox                        "H Street"

In addition, the following artists were juried into the show:

Marilyn Christiano, Juan E. Hernandez, Ellen Hill, Pattee Hipschen, Martha Huizenga, Tom Kenyon, Emily Lane, Lynn Mehta, Erica Orgen, Pam Rogers, Judy Searles, Stu Searles, Fierce Sonia, Michael Spears, Ronnie Spiewak, Alice Lee Timmins and Andrew Zimmerman.

The First Annual Juried Exhibition will hang from August 6 through August 28, 2010.

Weekend East City Event Round Up

2010-07-30T10:20:00.000-04:00

| EVENTS |

Greetings from Historic Anacostia
Four art exhibits open concurrently in Anacostia tonight, Friday July 30th beginning at 6:30pm. The exhibitions are spaced out over three venues as follows: Honfleur Gallery (1241 Good Hope Road SE), ARCH Training Center (1231 Good Hope Road SE) and The Gallery at Vivid Solutions (2208 MLK Jr Ave SE). At Honfleur, Ward 7 & 8 Artists will be featured at the gallery's annual East of the River Juried show. Upstairs see the works of local photographer Bruce McNeil who captured the beauty of the Anacostia with his lens. At ARCH see an ecologically inspired student photography show. Finally, at Vivid Solutions, an interactive exhibition featuring local bloggers and community residents will use personal photographs to construct a visual narrative of life East of the River.

Open Drawing at CHAW
On Saturday, head over to CHAW from 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Brush up on your figurative skills and draw from a live model. Easels, small folding tables, and drawing boards are available. Feel free to bring any props to enhance the pose. There is a $20 walk-in fee. This is a great group of people and a great chance to meet many of the local working artists of the area.

Networking Opportunity for Artists.
Conner Contemporary Art will be hosting an event for area artists. The Pannel includes gallery owners, a psychologist, a public art program managers and artists. This is a fantastic opportunity to network and understand the process of moving you work out of your studio and into the public sphere. An RSVP is requested. Respond to info@connercontemporary.com

Brentwood Arts Exchange Call For Entries: "All Mixed Up" -- A Juried Exhibition of Mixed Media Work

2010-07-29T13:32:00.000-04:00

| CALLS FOR ENTRY |

Application Deadline: 5:00pm on Tuesday, September 7

ALL MIXED UP
All Mixed Up is a juried exhibition of works in two or more media, sponsored by T he Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), Department of Parks and Recreation, Prince George's County, Arts and Cultural Heritage Division. The exhibition will be on display at the Brentwood Arts Exchange at the Gateway Arts Center, 3901 Rhode Island Avenue, Brentwood, MD from November 1 - 27, 2010.

APPLICATION DEADLINE

September 7, 2010
All submissions must be received by 5:00pm on Tuesday, September 7.

DATES

    * Deadline for receipt of entries: September 7, 2010
    * Notification of selected works: October 1, 2010
    * Art work drop-off period: October 21-23
    * Exhibition closes: November 27, 2010
    * Artwork pick-up period: November 29-30

JUROR
Philippa Hughes creator of the Pink Line Project.

AWARDS
$1000 in cash awards will be made by the juror. The Prince George's Arts Council will make a Purchase Award from this exhibition.

ELIGIBILITY & SUBMISSION CRITERIA
This call for entries is open to all artists 18 years of age or older who live, work, attend school or have studios in Prince George's County, MD, whose artwork is constructed of two or more media ("mixed media"). Artists may submit a maximum of 3 artworks for consideration. All works must be original (no reproductions). Proposals for mixed media installation or performance works should include example images, video or audio of the type of work being proposed as well as a brief document describing the proposed art work.

WHAT TO SEND
Materials should be submitted by mail or delivered in person to 7833 Walker Drive, Suite 430, Greenbelt, MD. Please send:

    * A CD/DVD containing images and/or segments of audio/video, each no longer than five minutes in duration.
    * A printed list of the works submitted with titles, media, and dimensions.
    * If you would like your materials returned, please include an SASE.

MAILING ADDRESS FOR SUBMISSIONS:
Attn: All Mixed Up Juried Exhibition
Arts & Cultural Heritage Division, M-NCPPC
7833 Walker Dr., Suite 430
Greenbelt, MD 20770

GUIDELINES FOR DIGITAL FILES
Effort will be made to review all submissions, regardless of format. However, please be aware that incompatible files may cause submissions to be rejected. Applicants are encouraged to format files as described below.

    * Name each file according to the following format: "last name" underscore "document". Example: jones_statement.pdf.
    * Please number each image file corresponding to the work sample list. Example: 01_jones_untitled.jpg
    * Image files should not be larger than 1MB, and should be formatted as jpeg, tiff or png.
    * Video and audio submissions may be submitted as a DVD or on a CD and formatted as Quicktime, Windows Media, .wav or .mpeg files, as appropriate.

DELIVERY & INSTALLATION
Artists are responsible for transporting work to and from the gallery. Art work must be delivered ready to hang and appropriately presented. For works that require projection, sound or other electronic equipment, those materials must be provided by the artist. Art works that differ significantly from the images submitted for judging or are not ready for gallery installation may be rejected. If you need to ship the work, please call us to let us know what arrangements you have made. The exhibition will be installed and dismantled by M-NCPPC staff unless the nature of the work requires special assistance. All work accepted for exhibition will remainat the Brentwood Arts Exchange for the duration of the exhibition.

SALES & INSURANCE
The M-NCPPC will retain a 25% commission on all art works sold during, or as a result of the exhibition. The M-NCPPC will insure all consigned artwork in the custody of the Brentwood Arts Exchange from the time they are received by delivery, until the pick up date only.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact: Julia Morelli, Visual Arts Specialist, M-NCPPC julia.morelli@pgparks.com Tel. 301-446-3249; tty. 301-446-6802.

Design Studio Art Gallery Calls For Entry for "3:1" (3 disasters, 1 decade)

2010-07-28T09:41:00.002-04:00

| CALLS FOR ENTRY |

Artwork Drop-Off Date: Thursday, August 12th from 11am-6pm

The Design Studio Art Gallery is currently seeking submissions for their upcoming show "3:1 (3 disasters, 1 decade)". The three disasters refer to hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake and the gulf oil spill. For a complete prospectus and entry requirements click here.

Submission requirements:
Artists must submit images of 2d or 3d works in the following size: width @ 480 pixels, height @ 378 pixels. If the work does not conform to those sizes, please adjust size closest to that measurement. The gallery is seeking size-ready that they can easily upload them to their website. Any ideas specifically regarding a special, planned installation must be explained in a minimum of 2 paragraphs along with images of works. For more information, click here.

Theme

The exhibition seeks to raise awareness of the socio-political impacts of the following disasters: the response to huricane Katrina, the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti and the devastation brought about by the gulf oil spill.

The gallery is located in Hyattsville’s burgeoning Gateway Arts District at 5702 Baltimore Avenue, Hyattsville, MD, 20781. Contact the gallery at (301) 779-4907 or (202) 446-7373 and by email at info@designstudioartgallery.com Regular hours are Wed - Fri 11am - 7pm, Sat 10am -5pm, Sun 1pm - 5pm

(e)merge Discussion Panel and Party Saturday, July 31st from 4 to 8pm

2010-07-27T09:48:00.000-04:00

| EVENTS |

(e)merge discussion panel and party Saturday, July 31st: 4 to 8pm

Conner Contemporary Art will host an event specifically for area emerging artists beginning with a discussion panel focusing on how emerging artists build communities. An rsvp via return email to info@connercontemporary.com is appreciated.

Panelists:

Kristina Bilonick - visual artist + Washington Project for the Arts program director
Zoë Charlton - visual artist + American University art professor
Damian Elias, Ph.D. - psychologist
Karyn Miller - Cultural Development Corporation program manager
Sheldon Scott - performing artist
Paul So - founder of Hamiltonian gallery + artist fellowship program
Jamie Smith, Ph.D - partner and curator, Conner Contemporary Art

(e)merge discussion panel begins at 4pm; directly followed by (e)merge party – hang out with your community, with DJ Keenan Orr, food and drink. (e)merge is generously sponsored by Restaurant Marvin, Pink Line Project, and Red Hook.

The Corner Store Presents: Ezara Spangl "Things of Things" July 29 - August 1

2010-07-26T10:41:00.000-04:00

| ART OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Thursday July 29 from 6 to 9 pm

The Corner Store will present "Things of Things", an exhibition of works by Ezara Spangl. The exhibition will include six oil paintings executed in 2010 in Vienna, Austria. The exhibition will have an opening reception on Thursday July 29 from 6 to 9 pm. The artist will be present at the reception.

Ezara Spangl currently lives and works in Vienna. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA from Oberlin College. She has had solo exhibitions at Skestos Gabriele Gallery, Chicago; Devening Projects, Chicago and Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago. Spangl has participated in group exhibitions at Bell Street Projects, Vienna; Julius Ceasar, Chicago; Trottoir, Hamburg; Koloni, Dresden; Guertin Graphics, Chicago; and Fifty50 Gallery, Chicago. In Chicago, she is represented by Skestos Gabriele Gallery.

The Corner Store 900 South Carolina Avenue SE, Washington DC 20003. For more information contact: Kris Swanson & Roy Mustelier at 202.544.5807 or visit the website at www.cornerstorearts.org

Weekend East City Event Round Up

2010-07-23T10:23:00.002-04:00

| EVENTS |

East City Weekend Openings, Exhibitions and Classes

This weekend is looking like it's going to be a scorcher with temperatures soaring into the triple digits. Why not stay indoors where it's cool? Here are several activities, most free, that you can do this weekend without breaking a sweat.

Temporium

Tonight from 6-8 PM, the grand opening festivities of the Temporium begin at 6pm featuring music by DJ Obeyah. The fun continues Saturday starting at 6pm with Will Rast, Alex Vans at 7pm and DJ Mike Bolo from 8-10 pm. Can't make the festivities but are dying to see what's being shown in the emporium? Not a problem. Hours of operation will be as follows: Thursday: 6 to 10 PM, Fridays: 6 to 10 PM, Saturdays: 2 to 10 PM and Sundays: 12 to 5 PM. So drop in after having brunch at your favorite H Street eatery.

Open Drawing at CHAW
On Saturday, head over to CHAW from 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Brush up on your figurative skills and draw from a live model. Easels, small folding tables, and drawing boards are available. Feel free to bring any props to enhance the pose. There is a $20 walk-in fee. This is a great group of people and a great chance to meet many of the local working artists of the area.

Gateway Arts District

Even though the show's opening reception doesn't take place until August 5, why not head over to the Brentwood Arts Exchange for recent Paintings by Ellen Baer. The Brentwood Arts exchange is open until 8pm on Friday and until 6pm on Saturday. While you're in the Gateway Arts District, why not check out "Colors of Summer" a group show of works in warm palettes paying homage to the warm summer season at the Design Studio Art Gallery. The gallery is open until 7pm on Friday and until 5pm on Saturday.

Honfleur, Vivid Solutions and ARCH Present: ‘Greetings From East of the River!" July 30th through September 10th 2010

2010-07-22T09:53:00.001-04:00

| ART OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: July 30 at 6:30pm

‘Greetings From East of the River!’
Arts community presents stories of Anacostia

Four art exhibits open concurrently in Historic Anacostia on Friday July 30th at 6:30pm, highlighting the multifaceted Anacostia community. Local artists explore and react to the spiritual, social, environmental and historical issues of this neighborhood. The exhibits encompass the voices of a range of emerging to established artists and creative minds.

For the fourth year running, artists rooted in Wards 7 and 8 will be featured in Honfleur Gallery’s (1241 Good Hope Road SE) juried East of the River exhibition. Eleven artists are included in the exhibition; BK Adams, Nigil Brice, Ralston Cyrus, Melani Douglass, MatthewMann, Samuel Mercer, Marlon Normon, Luis Peralta, Amanda Stephenson, Deborah Terry and Renee Woodward. Photography, drawings, paintings and sculptures by artists who are Anacostia natives and recent newcomers.

Upstairs at Honfleur Gallery, Capturing the Spirit, a exhibition of photographs by local talent Bruce McNeil examines the Anacostia River, using the mythic spirit Mami Wata as inspiration. McNeil uses portraits of women, including his own mother, to personify the spirit of the river, overlaying them with nature imagery shot on the river.

A collection of student photography on show at ARCH Training Center (1231 Good Hope Road SE) features ecologically-inspired imagery. TREEts & TREEties: Documenting gifts from nature and examining our agreement with the environment includes works by James Holiday, Joseph Roberson, Brittany Jackson, and Audrea Blackwell are the final product of a digital photography class sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

At The Gallery at Vivid Solutions (2208 MLK Jr Ave SE), Anacostia: Never Far From Home is a look at the past and present of Anacostia, with the help from the following local bloggers:

Fred Joiner (fredjoiner.wordpress.com/)
Nikki Peele (congressheightsontherise.com/)
David Garber (anacostianow.blogspot.com/).

This interactive exhibition includes community participation-- everyone is invited to bring their own photographs to hang on the community wall and assist the gallery in telling a visual story of Anacostia. The exhibit will evolve over the course of the show, as local residents and bloggers react to and build their story.

These exhibits will be on view from July 30th to September 10th 2010, at three venues in Anacostia and are free to the public. The closest metro is Anacostia (green line) For further inquiries, please contact Briony Evans Hynson, Honfleur’s Creative Director at 202-536-8994 or arts@archdc.org. Be sure to visit the Honfleur website for details: www.honfleurgallery.com

Design Studio Art Gallery Presents "Colors of Summer: An Exploration of Warm Shades, Hues, and Tones" July 15th - August 8th, 2010

2010-07-21T17:33:00.001-04:00

| ART OPENINGS |

Design Studio Art Gallery presents "Colors of Summer: An Exploration of Warm Shades, Hues,and Tones" focusing on color identity defined by a warm palette. "Colors of Summer: An Exploration of Warm Shades, Hues and Tones" will be on exhibit at Design Studio Art Gallery from July 15th - August 8th, 2010.

The exhibit looks into how warm colors define and illustrate mood, ambiance and environment. The curators have sought to examine how these colors, reminiscent of the summer, combine to create art that denotes familiarity in terms of place and environment.

As we collectively experience this warm season, the exhibit seeks to provide responses to how the summer's energy can be interpreted through the warm palette used by the works on display.

Design Studio Art Gallery is owned and operated by two Interior Designers, Erica Riggio and Nancy Evans. Both designers are committed to advancing the arts. Ms. Evans is a Professor at The George Washington University and has dedicated her life’s work to education and design. Erica Riggio is a graduate of The George Washington University and has an MFA in Interior Design. Ms.Riggio and Ms. Evans both own their own design firms as well.

The gallery is located in Hyattsville’s new Arts District at 5702 Baltimore Avenue, Hyattsville, MD, 20781. Contact the gallery at (301) 779-4907 or (202) 446-7373 and by email at info@designstudioartgallery.com Regular hours are Wed - Fri 11am - 7pm, Sat 10am -5pm, Sun 1pm - 5pm

Brentwood Arts Exchange Presents "Spectrum: Memories of Natural Forms and Light " Recent Paintings by Ellen Baer July 26 - September 3, 2010

2010-07-20T08:11:00.000-04:00

| ART OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Saturday, August 7 5:00 - 8:00pm

Meditative in their simplicity, Ellen Baer's paintings are a provocative exploration of material, surface, and color. Using simple pairings of vibrant color - a brilliant orange glowing through a smoky red - Baer creates striking resonances of space within singular, iconic forms. Through thick curls of paint edging giant scrapes, Baer reveals to us anew the sensuousness of the physical act of painting. In its serenity and focus, her new exhibition at the Brentwood Arts Exchange, Spectrum: Memories of Natural Forms and Light, is the perfect remedy for summer inside the Beltway.

Working from her paint-strewn storefront studio in Hyattsville, Ellen Baer has been busily paring down visual forms, creating paintings that are at once tense and serene, wedged among the interplay between surface and perceived space. The works in her exhibition at the Brentwood Arts Exchange developed from her desire to create spare, simple work. Yet, to the eyes of practiced students of painting, they retain distant hints of their origins in explorations of natural forms, floating on the canvas as singular responses to painters' perennial challenge of structuring space with color and economy.

Painting by Ellen BaerSome seemingly as simple as a broad scrape made with a screen printer's squeegee, the paintings in Spectrum: Memories of Natural Forms and Light reveal their makings unpretentiously. Their process and simple forms liken them to post-minimalist painting - one-stroke descendants of Stella's pinstripe paintings. Visually, however, her paintings are as much in debt to Joseph Albers as Mark Rothko. And, much like that lofty heritage, Spectrum: Memories of Natural Forms and Light is a demanding exhibition. It demands that viewers pay attention to subtlety, slow down, and remove themselves from the clutter of the rest of the day. Those who do are rewarded with the pleasure of presence, a chance to return to the world outside the gallery with renewed openness and acuity.

The Brentwood Arts Exchange at the Gateway Arts Center is located at 3901 Rhode Island Avenue Brentwood, MD 20722. Call the center at 301-277-2863/ tty. 301-446-6802. Hours are Monday through Friday: 10am - 8pm and Saturday: 10am - 6pm.

The Temporium is Coming to H Street

2010-07-19T11:29:00.001-04:00

| ART OPENINGS |

Grand Opening: Friday July 23 from 6-10PM

Green Door Advisors and The Pink Line Project have teamed up to create the Temporium, a pop-up design shop, in the former R.L. Christian Library Kiosk at 1300 H Street NE. The Temporium will showcase some of H Street’s and DC’s best designers and artists from July 23 through August 15. The project supports the District’s Temporary Urbanism and neighborhood retail development initiatives, and this project will fit in with the creative vibrancy already happening on H Street.

With the help of DC-based artists Billy Colbert, Albus Cavus, and amRadio, Green Advisors and Pink Line Project will transform the kiosk into a cool design shop and event space using repurposed materials and lighting. Over 20 DC-based fashion, art, home deco, and jewelry designers will rotate through to showcase and sell their unique creations. Some of the local designers who will display their designing prowess include: Dana Greaves, Derringer Friday, Bill Johnson, Kristi Riggs, Hugh & Crye, and many others. DC-based musicians and performance artists will perform on the opening and closing weekends with the help of Josh Phelps, who is currently organizing the Monumental Music Festival, and Bluebrain, both DC Based musical duos. Contact Pink Line Project at info@pinklineproject.com if you have any ideas for collaboration.

This Sunday, East City Art went to visit the site of Temporium to see how construction was coming along. Inside several workers were hard at work sprucing up the kiosk for the upcoming events. Outside, we caught up with Peter Krsko who runs programs for the students of Albus Cavus. Braving the merciless heat, Peter was hard at work painting the exterior of the temporium in time for this weekend's grand opening. Krsko's inspiration for the colors came from the Temporium logo. The outside of the former Chirstian Library Kiosk is now covered in bright colored patterns resembling clouds.

The Temporium will be open July 23 through August 15, 2010 at 1300 H Street, NE.

The following is scheduled for this weekend:

Friday, July 23
6 to 10 PM
DJ Obeyah

Saturday, July 24
6PM: Will Rast, DC’s premier groove keyboardist.
7PM: Alex Vans, DC singer/songwriter/guitarist Alex
8-10PM: DJ MikeBolo

Sunday, July 25
2 to 4 PM: BT Richardson

Hours of operation will be as follows:
Thursday: 6 to 10 PM
Fridays: 6 to 10 PM
Saturdays: 2 to 10 PM
Sundays: 12 to 5 PM

Calder Brannock Winner of Academy 2010

2010-07-16T11:06:00.000-04:00

| PROFILES |

Congratulations to Calder Brannock, Academy 2010 winner at Conner Contemporary Art! Calder wins the opportunity to join Conner Contemporary Art at the next PULSE Miami 2010 art fair. His "Camper Contemporary" is currently parked at Conner Contemporary Art as a part of the tenth annual student show. Academy 2010 runs through August 21st.

Look for a Wade Carey interview with Calder here on East City Art around the end of July.

Calder Brannock, Camper Contemporary.
Copyright Calder Brannock, Courtesy Conner Contemporary Art

Wally Szyndler

2010-07-15T10:06:00.002-04:00

| PROFILES |

City Gallery regrets to announce the passing of gourd sculptor, Wally Szyndler. He was an inaugural member of the Gallery and one of our most popular and accomplished members. We are heartbroken and will miss him terribly.

Wally began creating and showing gourd sculptures after his retirement as Director of Research and Demonstration from Melwood. His masks and containers were very well-received and he exhibited widely in juried and invitational shows, winning numerous awards for the work.

His work is exquisitely crafted pieces with perfect little joints, precisely fitted inlays, and exact stitching. Each piece is remarkable in its execution. And humor. Read the titles of Wally’s work, such as "Fantasy Diva" to the left, and gain insight into the man’s sense of play and wicked wit.

Wally approached this work with sympathy for the cultural traditions out of which it grew and deep respect for both the cultures and for his materials.

About his work, Wally wrote:

“My introduction to gourds came from a book that caught my eye in a craft display at a local bookstore in 2003. The many years I had lived and worked in other countries had instilled in me an enthusiasm for diverse cultures, especially those of Africa, India and the indigenous peoples of the Americas. My training as a horticulturalist gave me a natural appreciation for the fruits of nature. The years I had spent guiding persons with developmental disabilities in maximizing their often hidden talents had unwittingly prepared me to discover my own. I was a gourd artist waiting to happen.

As a practicing artist, many of the ideas that come to me come as dreams and then evolve along lines which I’m sure are influenced by the sights and sounds of my many world travels. Masks are for the moment what most intrigue me, and the final product is very often quite different from what I had in mind when I started.”

Wally’s career path included some exotic twists and turns. He was born in 1940 in Massachusetts and raised in New Jersey. For a while he was a Trappist brother with the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. From there he did a two-year stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria and India. Wally’s experience with people with disabilities led him to become a co-founder of Melwood in 1968. His work with international organizations serving people with disabilities took him all over the world.

In retirement Wally became involved with Art Enables, an arts-based training and employment placement program for persons with developmental disabilities. He also served on the steering committee for the Capitol Hill Art League and volunteered at Watkins Elementary School.

To quote a friend, Wally was a walking hug. He was a big, warm, loving man with a huge laugh and so much joy in living that he lit up the space around him. People loved being near him, and at any show, he was the center of the action, laughing, hugging, joking, and holding forth about one subject or another.

There will be a Celebration of Wally’s Life on Saturday, July 17 from 4-7pm at the Melwood Center, 5606 Dower House Road, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772. www.melwood.org.

Please join us in offering love, support and sympathy to Wally’s family and his partner of 21 years, Jose Segura.

Dino Almaguer’s Papurniture

2010-07-14T09:37:00.000-04:00

| PROFILES |

Dino Almaguer Artist Profile by Anna Flaaten

“Papurniture” is art first, functional furniture second. Composed of 100% recycled paper and opting for No-VOC paint over the use of toxic resins or finishes, Dino Almaguer handcrafts work that is both playful and environmentally-friendly: “It’s a perfect blend of my love for design and the environment.” Papurniture is a 3-D sketch put together in ways that are visually pleasing. Having developed the concept while attending the Rhode Island School of Design, Dino asserts “a sketch is as fresh as an idea can be, in its most organic form.”

But it’s not just form over function. He aspires for his work to be “interactive art where people can touch it and not have their hands behind their back. People have been afraid to sit on it because it is made of paper, and I reassure them that my Grandpa has sat on this, and he’s big.” Although upon initial sight, audiences may think his work is made of plastic or bended wood, Dino attests that ten people have once stood on a bench made of paper in his studio (at the same time).

Dino Almaguer has been a Washingtonian since the age of 11 where he attended open drawing sessions at an old mechanic shop off of New York Avenue close to Marrakesh and a fine arts program in a Suitland, MD high school. Then at RISD, his shop class was accustomed and classic. He grew tired of plane a piece of wood to perfection, laminate, steam, bend- where the work would transform from a sketch, to building design, then models and prototypes: “the freshness was lost in this reproduction process, human nature is to fiddle with things until they are reworked too many times.” Dino wanted to pull his final product straight from a sketch: “very sketchy, but not in a bad way.” He moves pieces primed white around until the final piece is in place as his sketching methodology: “it’s like opening up a jigsaw puzzle and putting it together”.

His talent and love of art came at a very young age. In second grade, he won an award for a sketch he did called “clownsies” which peaked his interest, then in a hospital stay battling leukemia twice at the ages of 9 and 11, he illustrated and published a book called Don’t be Afraid of the Hospital, which was sent out to other children's hospitals all around the country. “Because of this experience with leukemia, nothing gets me upset, and I love making playful, bubbly art.”

His work is in private collections in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Rhode Island, and Virginia . Studio H will display Almaguer's work at the first ever Art House Open House at 610 Independence Avenue, SE on July 15, 2010 from 5:30pm to 8:00pm.

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop Hosts Hands of Time Exhibit by Leslie Schwing July 17 through August 9, 2010

2010-07-13T09:51:00.000-04:00

| ART OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 17, 2010 from 5:00pm to 7:00pm

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) presents the exhibit Hands of Time by local artist Leslie Schwing opening on Saturday, July 17, 2010 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. The exhibit features watercolors, pastels, and etchings, from figurative urbanscapes to abstract designs. CHAW is located at 545 7th Street SE, a short distance from Eastern Market metro.

Leslie Schwing is well known in Baltimore for her animated city and landscapes, but her roots are very strong in Washington, DC where she was known as Leslie Montgomery. A 1975 graduate of George Washington University in Painting, Leslie also studied Printmaking with Washington’s Leonard Maurer in the early 70’s, and did graduate studies in Sculpture with Connie Costigan at GW. She moved to the Dominican Republic in 1979. When she returned in 1986, she moved to Baltimore with a new palette and a new name. This exhibition tracks her work for the last 10 years. The landscapes and cityscapes emerge from colorful fractal pattern reminiscent of several regionalists of the 40’s and 50’s such as Charles Burchfield. There is an obvious metaphysical instinct beneath the recognizeable forms. “For me the canvas is a playground that invites contemplation.”

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is located at 545 7th Street, SE two blocks from Eastern Market Metro on the Blue & Orange Lines. For more information call 202.547.6839 or visit their website at www.chaw.org Gallery hours are: 9:30AM-9:00 PM (M-Th), 9:30AM-6:00 PM (F), and 9:00AM-2:00 PM (Sat).

CITY Gallery and Studio H Present: Art House Open House July 15, 2010

2010-07-12T10:48:00.005-04:00

| ART OPENINGS |

Opening Reception: Thursday July 15 from 5:30pm-8:00pm

Arbor Media in conjunction with John C. Formant Real Estate, Simplicity Staging, CITY Gallery and Studio H present the first ever "Art House Open House" at 610 Independence Ave SE. The public is invited to a happy hour Thursday July 15 from 5:30pm to 8:00pm to browse the work of local artists and view the renovated home.

As native Washingtonians, we can assure you that the most talked about topic in Washington has never been politics- it has always been real estate! Art House Open House gives real estate hounds and art lovers the opportunity to preview DC's hottest real estate while viewing the work of local artists. See what an ecclectic mix of art from traditional oil portraiture to street art looks like when installed collectively in a home.

The show will feature the work of local artists including Tim Conlon, Ellen Cornett, Rod Glover, Martha Huizenga, Katherine Mann, Anne Oman and Sarah Thibodeaux. In addition, Studio H is proud to present the work of Dino Almague r who produces one of a kind furniture from recycled and environmentally responsible materials.

610 Independence Avenue SE is a home that has been stripped to the studs and completely renovated inside and out with the highest end finishes. The three bedroom, three and a half bathroom home features living spaces on three finished levels, a two story deck and a beautiful flagstone patio. The Master bedroom suite includes a massive walk-in closet, sit-in shower and overlooks beautiful Brown's court, one of Capitol Hill's treasured alleys.