Results tagged “art”

>> Directions: John Gerrard opens this Thursday at the Hirshhorn. In this exhibit, see Gerrard's farm-scapes and oil fields that raise questions regarding man's use and abuse of the environment.

Once out of college, most of us find it rare to receive care packages. Remember having your day brightened after treking down to mail services to retrieve a package, tearing it open with anticipation of what might be inside? But gone are the days of mystery boxes packed with love and much needed supplies from mom.

Penn Quarter Living gives us a heads up that there is a not very well publicized public meeting scheduled tonight to discuss a proposal to install a large mural at one entrance of the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro station. The Chinatown Community Cultural Center is 'proposing a “large-scale Chinatown mosaic mural” for the 7th & F St Metro entrance, otherwise known as the Verizon Center entrance. The proposal will be presented by Martha Jackson Jarvis, who painted the mural for the Anacostia metro station,' says PQL. If you're the sort of resident who likes to complain bitterly about not having input on public art installations you deem to be ugly, these are the sort of meetings you need to start attending. Tonight's meeting is at 6 p.m. at the CCCC.

Via the comments and IMGoph's blog, it looks like the uproar over a large mural by local artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer is just refusing to die down. A Bloomingdale Civic Association meeting tonight will reportedly focus on whether to force the artist's "Boxer Girl" mural to come down.

On an up-and-coming section of H Street NE, tucked behind jersey barriers that surround the trolley line construction, is a nondescript building with a fitness center on the ground floor. On the second floor is the new home of Studio H Gallery and Workshop.

This week in Gallery Musical Chairs, Civilian Art Projects is moving to the Warehouse Arts Complex. We've known for awhile that Civilian (who hosted our second DCist Exposed Photography Show) was moving; indeed, all three venues at 406 7th Street NW have vacated the address. The art and design store Apartment Zero moved out a few months ago and still hasn't found a new location; same with Touchstone Gallery, which had its closing party on September 25. Not to mention nearby Zenith and Numark galleries, which closed up over the past couple of years. Penn Quarter isn't a total art wasteland yet, though. A few other galleries, Carroll Square, Caos on F, and Reyes + Davis, all buried in office buildings, are still active. And of course there's still the Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and a little farther west, Flashpoint.

>> Part art exhibit, part scavenger hunt, Flashpoint Gallery opens Andrew Wodzianski: House. On Thursday, see Wodzianski's paintings of imagery from the 1959 horror film House on Haunted Hill and enter a scavenger hunt for a chance to win a painting from the gallery. 6 to 8 p.m.

>> In a celebration of craft and art, the DAR Museum showcases Wedgwood china and ceramics. Over 200 pieces of work from the 250 years of the Wedgwood company are on display in Wedgwood: 250 Years of Innovation and Artistry. Opened October 3.

"How do you photograph something you can't see?," was the question Edward Burtynsky faced when creating the images in Oil, on view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art starting tomorrow. The world-renowned photographer began his career focused on consumerism and consumption, but around 15 years ago he had his "oil epiphany" – that oil is at the center of everything in an industrialized world and yet, we never see it, only its end products. The resulting portfolio of work is not a heavy-handed political statement, but a gorgeous documentary on the uses and ugliness of oil. I first discovered Burtynsky's work in the (must-see) 2006 documentary Manufactured Landscapes and, admittedly, have eagerly been looking forward to seeing his work in person. It did not even remotely disappoint.

With a small bit of fanfare, the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities unveiled a public art project at the Convention Center this week. This "pop-up" gallery transforms empty retail, window and display space at the Convention Center into works of art.

>> Crafters (and those of us with some dollar bills to burn) look forward to this weekend all year -- it's finally time for Crafty Bastards. Celebrating its sixth year, the festival features a fantastic array of indie crafts, from jewelry and purses to paperworks and crazy toys. The Washington City Paper and Hello Craft DC always make sure everyone stays entertained, with live music, treats, and of course, the B-Boy battle to accompany the shopping. Saturday, rain or shine, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Marie Reed Learning Center (18th Street at Wyoming Ave NW). Free admission.

              

In person, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ ferocious sound doesn’t differ enough from that of their three fine full-lengths and innumerable EPs to make a live album a necessity. But if they decided to cash in with one, I’d buy it just for frontwoman Karen O’s stage banter, which, through sparse, has the advantage of sounding like it’s being translated from Japanese.

Opening Thursday, the Washington Project for the Arts will present their annual Experimental Media Series, a juried show that highlights a wide selection of video and sound art.

   

Greater Greater Washington has been following the selection process for a planned public art installation that's going in at the northeast corner of 18th and Columbia Road for at least a few months now, so we tip our hats to them for first drawing our attention to it. Despite the call for artists having been initiated over a year ago, a list of semi-finalists having been selected back in March, a community survey posted online at the end of April, and a decision on the artist made in June, the thing simply managed to go largely under our radar until Friday, when GGW posted an announcement that the selection had been finalized. The chosen artist, James Simon, is planning a large set piece of statues called "The Bicycle Musician," depicting a musician playing a guitar while perched on a bicycle, with a little dog looking up at him. It hasn't been a popular choice with everyone. Writes David Alpert:

Many residents dislike the piece, and KCA President Denis James editorialized against it. It was my least favorite of the three, as well, and doesn't provide seating while the other two do. In our poll, it came in last.

The arts season kicks itself into high gear this weekend. There's enough happening to keep your art plate full, with plenty of seconds.

    

When you run into a 13-foot tall heart in the District this month, the Colombian government would like you to think happier thoughts about its country.

On Wednesday, winners of the regional visual art competition, The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, were announced. The top four awards were given to René Treviño of Baltimore, who won “Best in Show” and a cash prize of $10,000; D.C.'s Molly Springfield was awarded second place and $2,000; Jessie Lehson of Baltimore was bestowed third place and received $1,000; while the “Young Artist” award of $1,000 was given to Hannah Kim of Falls Church, Va.

>> In 2008, for the first time in human history, more people lived in cities than in rural areas. One-third of these urban dwellers—more than one billion people—resided in slums. The National Building Museum opens a multimedia exhibit titled The Places we Live, which documents the homes of 20 different families in four slums around the world. Opening September 15.

As you might imagine, Labor Day weekend gets a little slow for the arts, but that's OK with us, since next week the new arts season begins in earnest. We do have a few tips for you, so keep on reading:

When the National Portrait Gallery opened at 11:30 this morning, visitors were able to view the recently installed Andy Warhol portrait of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy in the first-floor gallery space marked "In Memoriam." The space was designated in June as a place to display images of the recently deceased, beginning with an honorary portrait of Michael Jackson.

While we're sure you love the weekly Arts Agenda here at DCist, we're compelled to note the launch of (and urge you to bookmark) Pink Line Project's brand new web site this week. An easy-to-navigate calendar at the top lists the metro area's art events; detailed info and images pop up for each event below. Pink Line features a scrolling list of their own picks, or go down to the bottom of the page for "Today Only" events. The "Art Chat" is more blog posts than interactive discussion, but may feature lengthier previews and reviews by guest writers in the future.

              

What's not to like about a new mural? That's why we were so delighted upon learning about Mural Jam, the "capital's largest public art event," held yesterday at the Rhode Island Avenue Shopping Center. Sponsored by Albus Cavus, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program, local muralists have been mentoring kids over the past couple months in developing and designing public art -- and the results are pretty cool. DCist photo contributor Holly Le was on the scene yesterday to to document the creation and unveiling of the new art at 680 Rhode Island Avenue NE.

Opening today, the Renwick Gallery presents Staged Stories: Renwick Craft Invitational 2009 which brings together four artists who explore the narrative in their medium of choice. Ceramic artist Christyl Boger, fiber artist Mark Newport, glass artist Mary Van Cline and ceramic artist SunKoo Yuh walk the fine line between what is traditionally known as craft and art, showing decidedly non-functional pieces that are heavy on the narrative. They forgo the traditional definition of craft for the appeal of story telling through art.

>> On August 1, the Newseum opened Woodstock at 40: The Rise of Music Journalism. This exhibit commemorates the 40th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair featuring rarely seen images, memorabilia and artifacts.

>> Connor Contemporary Art opens Academy 2009 this Saturday. This 9th annual MFA/BFA survey showcases the talent and work of recent fine art graduates of regional college art programs. Start the evening off with the No Artist Left Behind series: The Top 10 Things Every Artist Should Know, a panel discussion co-hosted by Washington Project for the Arts at 4 p.m. Opening reception for Academy 2009 starts at 6 p.m. and at 7 p.m. PULSE Contemporary Art Fair will award one of this year's Academy exhibiting artists an exhibition space at PULSE Miami 2009.

Citing the downturn in the art market, Annie Gawlak, director of G Fine Art, says that the gallery will close its venue at 1515 14th St NW next month. Their current exhibit, Good People, Bad Behavior, will be on view until August 14, while the gallery's September/October show will be moved to the former Numark Gallery. Gawlak says she will continue to work with her current artists but is reassessing how the gallery does business. "I am looking at ways to continue and solutions that will work for the future until we all get back on our feet," she said.

              

The Washington Project for the Arts held a synchronized swimming showcase and competition, dubbed WPA SynchroSwim, at the Capitol Skyline Hotel pool on Sunday, and DCist photographer Meaghan Gay stopped by to take in the action.

Séraphine Louis (1864-1942, dite Séraphine de Senlis), the subject of the recent film Séraphine, is not exactly an unknown painter. Her work is found in only a few museums now, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York (Les Pommes and Tree of Paradise). She was a naive painter, an ultimately unsatisfactory but unavoidable term indicating that although she was untrained, she painted as a sort of compulsion, what now is sometimes called visionary art. Director and screenwriter Martin Provost drew most of the material for his film from the work of Françoise Cloarec, who has also just published a version of her thesis on the painter with Editions Phébus. Provost has come out of practically nowhere as a director, his last film Le ventre de Juliette having won a prize at the 2003 Avignon Festival, to come close to a clean sweep of this year's César Awards, the French Oscars, with this beautifully crafted movie.

On Saturday, the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, acting in conjunction with Baltimore's Artscape festival, hosted an opening at the Baltimore Museum of Art to announce the Sondheim Artscape Prize -- the Mid-Atlantic region's most prestigious art awards. Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon was on hand to announce the winner of the prize: the three-artist-team known as the Baltimore Development Cooperative.

>> The Hirshhorn brings us two interesting and sure to be popular events this July. For the beginning of the month, learn what a curator and a critic thought of the Venice Biennale at In Conversation: Kristen Hileman and Blake Gopnik on Art in the Present. July 9, 7 p.m. At the end of the month, Hirshhorn After Hours returns Friday July 24, 8 p.m. with The Nighthawks. Tickets will only be sold in advance, so get yours now.