Photo by Nancy Pastor at The Sewall-Belmont House & Museum We're still in the belly of FotoWeek DC, with three more days of photography goodness going on all around the city. We'll round-up a few not-to-be-missed events, then see how the art world plans on transitioning back to normal. FotoWeek Ongoing: Be sure to check out Night Gallery DC, with projections all over town (tonight at SAAM; tonight through Saturday at the National Museum......

View 25 historic contact sheets at Contact/s: The Art of Photojournalism. Image courtesy of Contact Press Images. We hope you have your walking shoes on and your art-loving eyes and minds open, because FotoWeek DC is here and it lasts through November 22. We let you know about PixTour yesterday, which is highlighting over 35 restaurants, bars, shops and music venues willing to expose you to photography while you're out and about. In this......

Photo from last year's Ofrenda by Sintixerr With Halloween arriving tomorrow (and all the events that go with it), it's a bit of a slow week in the arts world. We've got a few picks for you below, but a heads up for November: our press release inbox is overflowing with events all over town starting next week through Thanksgiving. >> Tonight head to Arlington Arts Center for a one-time performance night as part......

The Evangelist Matthew by Jan Lievens is part of a new show of the artist's work that opens this weekend at the National Gallery. (Photo courtesy the National Gallery of Art) >> The Smithsonian American Art Museum might be holding the most interesting art event this weekend, with the alternate reality game “Ghosts of a Chance.” On Saturday from 12 to 5 p.m., head to the museum to play a scavenger hunt that will......

Nao Matsuomoto's Whore is one of several provocative, functioning sculptures on display at the new Hamiltonian Gallery on U Street. Image courtesy of the gallery. U Street’s new Hamiltonian Gallery opened on October 11 to a bustling crowd of curious onlookers. Those who were there to see how the space had been transformed after its twenty years of vacancy were in for a treat right from the start, and greeted at the front door......

Plastic Anvil, image courtesy the Hamiltonian Gallery We are super pleased to welcome the Hamiltonian Gallery officially into the D.C. art scene. After over a year of construction at their 1352 1353 U Street location and a few inevitable delays, the new venue will open to the public with a grand opening reception this Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m. Hamiltonian focuses on emerging and mid-career artists, choosing ten for two-year So Hamiltonian Fellowships,......

Image of work by Langley Spurlock and John Martin Tarrat at Studio Gallery It's First Friday tonight, though many of the Dupont galleries seem to be showing the same exhibit as last month. Enjoy a brisk fall walk to see them again, and find at least one new show at Studio Gallery. Artist Langley Spurlock and poet John Martin Tarrat bring a little art nerdism in Secrets of the Elements 2: The Unfinished Universe,......

We can't get enough arts listings around here, so we're happy to see the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington launch CultureCapital.com this week. Check it out for listings of visual and performance arts and entertainment all over the region, mostly from the bigger venues in town. You can sign up for their mailing list for weekly deals, as well. >> Of course the big art news this week is that Conner Contemporary is coming back......

Michael Scoggins' Heller, June 26, 2008. Copyright the artist; image courtesy Project 4 Gallery. Some hometown art pride was announced today: the Lunder Conservation Center, run by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, just received the biennial Keck Award from the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. The award goes to an "individual or group who has contributed most toward promoting public understanding and appreciation of the......

Prescott Moore Lassman's End of Pew, from a series about congregants at the All Souls Church. Copyright the artist. Image courtesy of the City Hall Art Collection. In 2006, local artist Sondra N. Arkin was given an enviable but extremely difficult job: acquire the defining volume of works that captured the breadth and scope of D.C. art to display in HeART of DC, the City Hall Art Collection at the John A. Wilson Building.......

This weekend, you shouldn't even need to leave your own neighborhood to find some new art just waiting to be admired. Fourteenth Street NW has the big coordinated openings, but a number of places from H Street to Alexandria will be having gallery openings and festivals (which, hopefully, won't be rained on). 14th Street NW: Saturday >> After a fascinating eight-week photography series this summer, the Randall Scott Gallery almost seems to cap it off......

Maro Vandorou's photographs will be on display at Hillyer Art Space. Arts lovers, we hope you've cleared your calendar for the next two weekends. The 2008-2009 season kicks off en masse with nearly every gallery in the region opening new exhibits. Both Dupont and the 7th Street corridor are coordinating openings this weekend, so let's see what they've got: Dupont Circle: This weekend is First Friday, and it looks like the consortium of galleries......

>> Conner Contemporary has exciting news: instead of the previously predicted December 2008 opening, their 7000 sq. ft. newly renovated space at 1358-60 Florida Avenue, NE will hold their inaugural opening on September 27. We'll bring you more about the space and the first show later next month. >> He's no Stephen Colbert, but he did win about a zillion gold medals, made Mark Spitz cry in his mustache, and had us worrying about......

>> Artist J.J. McCracken will engage in a series of performances at Project 4 over the next week. Living Sculpture incorporates figures, spheres, and lots of clay in a way that ponders expectations and movement in life. See one of two performances tonight, 7 p.m. or 8:15 p.m., or next Friday, August 29, at 7:30 p.m. >> A new video work opens in Hirshhorn's Black Box next Monday. British duo Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt,......

Photograph of work by Nikolas Schiller courtesy Civilian Art Projects >> Civilian Art Projects has some entertainment for you on Friday. From 7 to 9 p.m., they open Quart Bag, an exhibit featuring 32 ounces of creativity from each of the 100 artists in this community art show. All works are $100 or less and, Civilian jokes, "FAA approved." Afterwards, head to Comet Ping Pong, which will have beer and pizza specials, while The......

>> Project 4 presents to you the childhood of Gina Tibott. She dug up the backyard of the home she grew up in, for a (gruesome?) rediscovery of her deceased pets. Using her archeology training, she carefully retrieved the bones and proceeded to photograph this lost culture. No opening reception, so see the remnants for yourself at during regular gallery hours, Wed. - Fri. 2 - 6 p.m., Sat. 12 - 6 p.m. and......

New artwork from the Hsu sisters of Exit Clov is on display at DCAC under the name "imoM." This year’s Wall Mountables at the DC Arts Center holds some true surprises. At first glance, this annual fundraising show looks like round two of Artomatic—with less walking, fewer bands, and of course, much less space. Stick around awhile though, and you start to appreciate the wealth of talent hanging side-by-side salon-style: some new faces, some......

Not many exhibit openings this week, but that doesn't stop the galleries from throwing big parties for any reason they can find. Keep reading for derby arm wrestling, two concerts from our three star alums, DJs, poetry readings, and of course, tons of (mostly) free alcohol. >> Head over to Hillyer Art Space on Friday night for the Barrelhouse Magazine Roller Derby Issue launch party, "License to Brawl". From 6 to 10 p.m. you can......

The Day I Stopped Believing by Billy Colbert With an entrance so unassuming its easy to walk right past, the Healing Arts Gallery, once you find it, is a new and welcome addition to the D.C. art scene. The venue is part of the Smith Farm Center on U Street NW, a nonprofit dedicated to using creative methods for the health and education of people suffering from cancer and other serious illnesses. For the......

Elena del Rivero's [Swi:t] Home: A Chant, 2001–2006, installation of found papers mended, burnt, embroidered, and stitched to five rolls of muslin. Courtesy of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and the artist. (c) Elena del Rivero. If the scant number of press releases in our inbox is any indication, we have officially reached the start of summer in the art scene. Take some time to battle the tourists and see what's hanging......

Teacup by Kyoko Hamada, courtesy Randall Scott Gallery Friday marked the opening of 8 Photographers at Randall Scott, with previews of all eight artists’ work hung. Over the course of the next eight weeks, two photographers at a time will adorn the walls for two week spans, after which the walls will be refilled with the next pair of picture-takers. Gallery owner Scott did not pick these artists with a curatorial mission in mind,......

Artomatic is over, and the summer art season is settling in. While now is usually the time when most galleries close their doors or throw together a two-month group exhibition, there are surprisingly still a number of openings and events on the horizon in the coming weeks. But first, we have some news from the Textile Museum. Announced on Tuesday through a press release, the museum’s board has decided to abandon their previous Penn Quarter......

Faith Ringgold's Who's Bad? , courtesy the Arlington Arts Center This week, some of the D.C. area’s best nonprofit and alternative art spaces push their boundaries in ways that commercial spaces often don’t. Get out your thinking caps and your love for interesting discussion, and mark these dates, times and locations in that day planner of yours. >> Friday from 7 to 9 p.m., the DC Arts Center holds a reception for its newest......

If you want to get away from the warm weather this weekend, this week’s Arts Agenda is full of art happenings all over town for your indoor enjoyment. >> This Friday is the monthly Dupont Circle First Friday, with gallery openings across the neighborhood from 5 to 8 p.m. Washington Printmakers opens at 5 p.m. to present recent monotype and printed relief constructions by Bill Harris. A Bachelors and Masters graduate of Howard and instructor......

>> At Randall Scott, see the new photographic exhibit by Sarah Wilmer. The young Brooklyn artist was named as one of the 30 under 30 to watch by PDN Magazine last year; in the accompanying profile she describes her work as "dark and weird." Wilmer creates worlds -- often faiery, dream-like worlds, populated with pale, beautiful people doing mysterious tasks (pictured right). See them at the reception on Saturday, 7 to 9 p.m. >> Transformer......

Crafty Bastards participants may have a higher calling now. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has just announced the creation of a Curator of Craft position, after an $800,000 donation was made by Lloyd Herman, founder of the Renwick Gallery. Other patrons inspired by the gift have ponied up more funds to support the new role, amounting to $1.2 million so far. Herman encouraged, "Whatever their means, I hope that artists, collectors and all others......

>> 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......

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......

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......