Arts Agenda
We told you about the sad news earlier this week that Warehouse will be shuttering its music venue, as well as the bar and cafe, come July 30, when the entire place will close for a month for vacation. Now the Warehouse has let us know it is looking for potential investors and advisers who can help draft not-for-profit status paperwork -- depending on which route they end up taking. If you can help them out, contact Paul Ruppert at pwr [at] warehousetheater [dot] com.
Now onto your agenda:
>> On Saturday night Warehouse opens an exhibition that pretty much showcases what the venue does best. Art in Heat "explores D.C.'s spin on the widespread art movement referred to as Post Pop, Lowbrow, Pop Surrealism, or Outsider Art." In other words, it's experimental, weird as hell, and usually pretty fantastic. Get there early to catch one of the two Lobster Boy Revue performances -- they regularly sell out -- at 8 or 11 p.m. The reception starts at 7 p.m. and is free, the revue is $12.
>> Belfast photographer Mervyn Smith is no stranger to troubled neighborhoods. He spent two weeks in Anacostia in April, working with Action to Rehabilitate Community Housing (ARCH) by overseeing a youth photography program while simultaneously documenting the landscape of the neighborhood with his own camera. Smith's stark black-and-white photography, coupled with the poetry of local bard Fred Joiner and others, form the basis of the multimedia Anacostia Exposed, opening Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Honfleur Gallery. Acrylic panels hung from the ceiling offer printed verse from Joiner, providing a unique perspective on the historic Anacostia neighborhood in word and image. Smith has included photography from his own "community practice" in Belfast, inspired by Anacostia's visual similarity to the troubled neighborhoods in his hometown such at St. Peters and Shankhill -- places that are cut off from the city proper much as the Anacostia river separates Wards 7 and 8 from the rest of the District, both geographically and in the minds of its people.
Image of Alan Defibaugh's Who Do You Want Me to Be to Make You Sleep with Me? from the Art in Heat web site.
Chris Klimek contributed.
>> Two artists at Irvine Contemporary will show off their intriguingly staged photographs in their respective solo shows. Marla Rutherford cuts across imaginary boundaries by placing subjects in counterintuitive scenes, where the erotic and glamorous play with the staid and dull. Oh, and this includes "futuristic cyberfetish images." So. Kerry Skarbakka, on the other hand, foregos heavy sexuality for extreme risk-taking. His vertigo-inducing prints involve Peter Pan-esque rigging to place the artist in unsettling angles -- over cliffs and on towers. Skarbakka asks you to let go of the handlebar and trust him. Visit the opening reception on Saturday, 6 to 8 p.m.
>> Going to the next opening at Flashpoint sounds a little like going into the private den of a serial killer, or perhaps of the obsessed detective hunting him down -- except fingerprint artist Valerie Huhn seeks to turn your mind from the criminality associated with these images to the individuality and humanity behind them. Her detailed, and even kind of cheery drawings are displayed in light boxes and from large sheets. The opening reception is Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.
>> The Katzen Arts Center at American University opens two shows this Saturday. Bush Leaguers: Cartoonists Take on the White House celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists with, apparently, only the last seven years worth of comics. See if you can pick out which ones took home a Pulitzer Prize. The other show is a tribute to the recently passed Bill Dutterer, a Washington D.C. artist who honed a minimalist technique that spoke of the world in observations both funny and brutal. Opening reception 6 to 9 p.m.
>> We wanted to say congratulations to the new Artcade Magazine last week, but when we heard they'd become so popular so suddenly that their launch party was already overwhelmed with guests, we decided to spare them any additional crushing at the party. That shouldn't stop you from checking out their new goods -- with interviews and profiles of local talent and event listings for all the art and music in town, it's time to bookmark this thing right-quick. Produced by Corcoran College of Art + Design students, Artcade hopes to inject some new energy and bring the arts scene more into the eyes of the public.
Image from Valarie Huhn's Trace Evidence exhibit from Flashpoint's web site.