This Saturday and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., plan a stroll around the Logan and Dupont Circle neighborhoods to check out the art studios of the Mid City Artists. Be sure to print out their map before you head out, wear comfy shoes, and take note of the specific times listed—the studios span nine square blocks and the opening and closing times vary. This week, DCist spoke with several of the participating artists,......

Last week, when DCist met with Michael Janis at the Washington Glass School, the studio was abuzz with artists working. Janis’ colleagues Tim Tate and Erwin Timmers were there working on their own projects, and the team was preparing for several upcoming events: this Saturday’s Gateway Arts District Open Studios, the many glass events at Artomatic, and the June 4 grand opening of their public art project at Ballston Liberty Plaza, as well as their......

>> Artomatic continues this week. Join them tonight for an art collecting discussion sponsored by Pink Line at 7 p.m., or on Friday for Meet the Artists Night, from 7 to 10 p.m., or perhaps feel more at home during Blogger's Night in the 12th floor lounge on Saturday from 7 to 9 p.m. Read through the other hundred or so events going on this weekend on Artomatic's calendar. And don't forget to check out......

The death of the irrepressibly innovative artist Robert Rauschenberg on Monday marks a loss for the entire world of art. Tyler Green rounds up a list of obituaries and more for accounts on the man. In D.C., the loss is acutely felt, owing to his many fine works in the national collections this city hosts, but that should also serve as a warm reminder about his life and works. District viewers were very recently graced......

Swiss lighting artist Gerry Hofstetter brought his work to Washington National Cathedral over the weekend, as part of a celebration of the Cathedral’s centennial. Hofstetter projected his incredible artwork across the Cathedral for a piece titled Lighting to Unite. There were so many amazing captures of this event in our Flickr pool this morning, we just had to share them with you. Did you make it up to the Cathedral to see it for yourself?......

Graphic designers: Back away from the computer and head to the Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. In the sixty displayed postered portraits, one can see an evolution of graphic design and advertising, with each era screaming its identity through fonts, colors and graphic techniques, as well as the obvious context of the featured face. Keeping true to the NPG’s mission, all 60 posters are about Americans or American films, however......

Despite eight full floors filled with the work of over 800 visual artists, a slew of stages prepared for musical, dance, theatric, and 200 other performing artists, it's good to remember that Artomatic, which opens today, is about a lot more than "art." The community-driven, all-volunteer exhibition has been holding court for local artists on-and-off since 1999. This year's show, held at the new Capital Plaza I building at 1200 First Street NE, is......

Solistalgia: a combination of the root words solacium (comfort) and algia (pain), best defined by its author as "...a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home." Citing the term and how his generation has nothing to hold onto, young artist Benjamin Jurgensen brings together everyday objects that are highly influenced by pop culture and mass media. In Don't Ready to Die Anymore at Meat Market Gallery, Jurgensen presents a collection of......

If you happen to be on the mailing list for Artomatic, precisely 3,000 emails have told you that the five-week, eight-floor exhibition opens on Friday. Keep an eye out tomorrow, as we'll be headed to the pre-opening walk-through and will have a preview of the whole shebang for you in the afternoon. The gates officially open at noon at Capital Plaza I, 1200 First St NE, near the New York Avenue Metro. All events and......

The National Portrait Gallery recently opened a pair of shows, Zaida Ben-Yusuf: New York Portrait Photographer and Edward Steichen: Portraits, which combine to weave a single portrait of American cultural life in the early decades of the twentieth century. Though Steichen is the much better known photographer, Ben-Yusuf’s work is equally compelling, and together the two exhibitions portray a range of politicians, actors, writers, musicians and other important figures, giving us a glimpse back into......

Anyone going to the Kennedy Center, the Watergate, George Washington University, or any other Foggy Bottom attraction should be sure to take a path down K Street, between 24th and 26th Streets NW. In the inaugural Foggy Bottom Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit, the Foggy Bottom Association has installed twelve sculptures within the gardens and front yards of some of the neighborhood’s colorful homes. They are all contemporary works by D.C. metro area artists, and they contrast......

>> An art show to tempt our own hearts, Meat Market Gallery opens Don't Ready to Die Anymore, a sculptural reinterpretation of pop culture and media tainted storytelling of "real" events, from the mundane to the ones that have marked our history. Or, what would happen if "blogging were a sculptural practice." An online video project will accompany the show, starting tomorrow at dontreadytodieanymore.com. Visit the opening reception tomorrow from 6 to 8:30 p.m. >>......

The works of the eight artists featured in this newest exhibit at the McLean Project for the Arts — Kristy Deetz, Peter Dykhuis, Lorraine Glessner, Cheryl Goldsleger, Reni Gower, Heather Harvey, Jeffrey S. Hirst and Timothy McDowell — are not only connected by their use of the ancient painting method called "encaustic." Curator Reni Gower chose artists who, in this fast-paced era of multi-tasking and technology, have returned to the slow and “labor intensive work......

>> The artist studios at 52 O Street NW will host their annual open house this weekend. We'll have a preview for you tomorrow showing what you can find in the four floors of art spaces on Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. >> Pyramid Atlantic also has an all-weekend event, Collectors for a Cause, starting Friday with a "Singles Night." With a slew of talks by local art collectors -- Philippa......

>>Project 4 opens a new exhibit this Saturday with the abstract scenes of Christine Gray (pictured right). She twists around the inequities that result from the hyper-perfectionism of the Martha Stewart brave new world we're told everyday living should be. Her paintings are created by first building models ("modest micro-sculptures") with craft and other simple items, then translating those models with her paintbrush. See them at the reception, 6 to 8:30 p.m. >> Tonight take......

Showcasing six artists from across the region, this juried group of solo exhibits at Arlington Arts Center covers a wide range of themes including the paranormal, miniatures, sprawl and inventions. Jeremy Drummond and Jennie A. Fleming both explore sense of place as it relates to how we view our homes in the city as well as in newly constructed housing developments. Drummond highlights intersection street signs with interesting names that make for odd juxtapositions, such......

The first in what will hopefully be a series of posts highlighting odd or interesting pieces of pop culture we find popping up around Pope Benedict XVI's visit to D.C. and New York this week. Did you love Shepard Fairey's Obama posters? Artist Michael Ian Weinfeld has created this limited edition copycat "POPE" print of Benedict XVI in honor of the pontiff's visit to the United States this week. It's available for purchase for $99.......

Nowhere but the Warehouse can we imagine such a gritty, diverse and inflammatory group exhibit blending so well with its environs. Upon entering End of Nature, one is taken aback by its exhibition statement, which begins, “Have humans become a form of cancer? We certainly behave like one,” and continues by asking, “after the end of nature … will we be alone, just people and the bacterial cultures required to sustain us, or will we......

Tim Conlon is a graffiti artist living and working in Washington. He grew up just south of D.C., and lived in Baltimore and Los Angeles before returning to the District 10 years ago. By day Conlon, 33, is a tech manager for an interactive marketing agency in Bethesda and still does some flash animation and design work from time to time. What are some of the ideas and themes that you engage with in your......

DCist, admittedly, was not in love with the first ArtWalk, the large installation of murals on the old convention center site at 10th St. between New York Ave. and H St., NW. The third edition of ArtWalk opened this afternoon, and while we still have many of the prior complaints about the space (Astroturf is unnecessary, and the backstops with tarps that make up the walkway are far from aesthetically pleasing), the artwork itself......

If you go to Hirshhorn After Hours tonight, be sure to check out the Amy Sillman exhibit while you’re there. If tonight’s not in the cards, Third Person Singular runs through July 6th, so you’ve got some time. Painter Amy Sillman is one funny lady. In her artist talk at the Hirshhorn, her first words explain why she’s standing at the podium, “I’m only coming over here because I didn’t want to sit over there......

In the 1970s, a survey in Russia found that the most well-known American in the country was Richard Nixon. Placing second on that list was Willis Conover, a man unknown to many Americans, but loved by millions around the globe as the jazz disc jockey for Voice of America. This was at a time when the world was flirting with self-annihilation, but even then, leaders in government realized that music and art can be a......

“Blind by immediate perils of his positions, haunted by his dream of the future, he is the anonymous standard bearer of innumerable battles without name. He is pure flame. Such fire will liberate and cleanse the world,” Duncan Phillips on Honoré Daumier’s The Uprising in 1940. While some art collectors purchase works that will some day turn a profit, others looks for pieces that are personally significant in some capacity. Duncan Phillips, the founder of......

Exploring the themes of light, innovation and optimism, Into the Light, a juried exhibit now at Honfleur Gallery, brings together a well rounded group of talent that showcases various mediums, including photography, sculpture and installations. Artists Mark Planisek, Marie Cobb, Lynn Silverman, Craig Kraft, Emily Erb, Phil Stein, Joan Belmar, Cathlyn Newell and Kendall Nordin are all showcased. The exhibit is very dynamic as it presents the artists and their different media thoughtfully and uses......

Yakama two-hide dress, ca. 1860 In the current exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian, visitors can see Identity by Design: Tradition, Change, and Celebration in Native Women's Dresses, a show indicative of the NMAI's effectiveness in using creative museum techniques. The exhibition, of course, is about cultural traditions. It features some 55 dresses and more than 200 accessories, all of which are meant to express the depth and development of Native......

Cara Ober is a painter, writer and teacher living in Baltimore and showing her work around the region. She teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Towson, Johns Hopkins, and Loyola College. A lifetime area resident, Cara, 33, also writes art reviews for Art US Magazine, Art Papers, and Gutter Magazine. Her latest show, I Am Who I Pretend to Be, runs at Randall Scott Gallery through April 12. What are some of the......

After acquiring her first professional camera in 2006, Hatnim Lee has documented everyday scenes in a visual diary on her blog. Since then, she has found success in both the fine arts and as a commercial photographer, interning with David LaChapelle and having work featured in publications like Teen and DC Modern Luxury. Now at Transformer, a selection of Lee's vivid photographs over the past 2 years are on display. All of Lee's photographs are......

Last week, Artomatic announced the dates and location of this year’s art extravaganza, and today at noon, the registration flood gates open. If you want to participate, get out $90 and register quick before all of the good spots are taken. Don’t worry too much though; although registration is first come, first serve, there are nine full floors of space available this year, compared to last year’s two. Now, on to this week’s arts agenda.......

Amy Lin, known for her colored pencil dot drawings, is one of Washington’s most promising artists. The Virginia resident, 29, moved to the area to work after graduation from college, and is a chemical engineer by day. But Lin spends so much time on her art that she’s had a number of solo exhibitions in the past few years, including one at the District of Columbia Art Center, which was curated by Anne Collins Goodyear,......

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.......