Arts Agenda

D.C.’s big art news arrived yesterday, when Artomatic announced the dates and location for their semi-annual massive and all-inclusive art exhibit. If you want to help organize the event, join them for an All Hands Meeting this Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Capitol Plaza 1 building, located at 1st and M Streets NE. Artomatic is not until May 9, however, so get your art fix this week with the exhibits and events highlighted below.

>> On Friday, Civilian Art Projects, which many of you visited for this year’s DCist Exposed, hosts an opening of two intriguing exhibitions. The front room will hold craigslist, co-curated by Civilian’s Jayme McLellan and Andrea Pollan of Curator’s Office, and featuring the craigslist-inspired work of artist team Joseph Dumbacher & John Dumbacher, as well as Jason Horowitz and Jason Zimmerman. The artists’ work interacts with the community website in varied and fascinating ways, and explores questions of identity in an increasingly global and anonymous world. Additionally, in Civilian’s project space, the photography of Kate MacDonnell is featured in 100 ways to kneel and kiss the ground. The artist describes her often surreal imagery as “a celebration of the ordinary, of a calm or soothing or just familiar place that does not have the velocity or multiplicity of the outside world.” Take in the imagery at the opening on Friday from 7 to 9 p.m.

>> Continuing the trend of graffiti-goes-gallery, Alexandria’s Art Whino opens Texas Made on Friday evening from 6 p.m. to midnight. The exhibit highlights ten emerging Texan artists, most with graffiti and street art backgrounds, who have translated their street-based work to canvas. While you’re there, check out the Ted Kliman exhibit which opened last week. The opening is free, and a cash bar will be available.

>> Saturday evening, head to Irvine Contemporary at 6 p.m. for a live performance by Yoko K (Aphrodesia), which will serve to complement Irvine’s current exhibit, Akemi Maegawa's Invisible, Inc. Yoko K also performed last Saturday at Art Whino, and brings her study of classical piano and jazz to her original electronic music.

>> After Yoko K’s performance, head to Transformer for the opening of Hatnim Lee Photographs, which coincides with the launch of her new book and “reflect[s] a visual diary of places she has visited, people she has met, and the experiences she had - how she lived her life – from … September 2006 through December 2007.” Lee’s beautiful, vivid and often curious photos have been featured on the National Geographic Channel and in a variety of magazines, including Teen, Jane and DC Modern Luxury. The opening runs from 7 to 9 p.m.