John G. Hanhardt has been working as a consulting curator on film and media at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). He’s had an influential career as one of the pioneering curators of media art in North America, helping shape the way museums look at and receive new media within their galleries and collections -- all stemming from his perspective of film’s influence on art and culture in the 20th Century. Hanhardt grew up in... more ›

Folk art is a debatable curiosity. In terms of painting, on the one side huddles a mass that does not understand why so much fuss is made over artists that cannot "paint well." On the other side is an audience that clamors at how well these artists cannot paint. Spurious claims about the reinvention of painting are casually tossed about. What should never be in question about folk art is its quality: it is neither academic in nature nor is it avant-garde. It never intends to be either. Because of this, it is very easy to become immediately dismissive or immediately seduced. more ›

At the end of August, young folks throughout D.C. will have the opportunity to apply for the Hamiltonian Fellowship, a two year program that offers emerging artists further professional development and exposure of their work in the Hamiltonian Gallery, currently under construction at the corner of 14th and U streets NW. The Hamiltonian Fellowship and Gallery is the brainchild of Paul So, a physics professor at George Mason University. While it may seem odd that... more ›

This evening, Transformer Gallery will be hosting a series of performances collected by artist Fereshteh Toosi to kick off her new exhibit, You're not as green as you are cabbage looking. This show closes out the month-long Exercises for Emerging Artists, curated by Victoria Reis and Niels Van Tomme. Toosi’s work of late is part performance, part interview, and part soda jerk. She asks people questions related to a topical issue or current event. “They... more ›

Recess of a Journey #4, 12 inches by 10 inches, mixed media, 2005" src="http://dcist.com/attachments/John James Anderson/2007_0717_RahmanRecess.jpg" width="209" height="300" class="left"/> The most recent show at the Ellipse Arts Center in Arlington, titled Transform/Nation: Contemporary Art of Iran and Its Diaspora, explores the themes of identity, tradition, stereotype, and society that Iranian artists confront within their works. It is a show that is not about to divorce the work on the wall with the history of Iran;... more ›

Yellow patches hanging in the window of Addison/Ripley might cause a spark of interest when going down Wisconsin Avenue through Georgetown. Upon closer examination, the work is a print of a woman on doilies, dressed in yellow. There are 57 of these prints by Mara Sprafkin clinging to the wall. In the window next to her is a repeated print of a woman, kneeling in a summer Sunday dress. Some of the dresses are filled in with gold leaf. Whether regarded as art or illustration, there is something about it that is inviting to go inside. more ›

The most recent exhibition at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, organized with help from the National Museum of African Art, Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries, is as much a chronicle of history as it is a document for how art records history. Trying to pigeonhole this exhibition into a one category is difficult. It is more than just the fact the exhibition displays more than 260 objects, from several nations, which were created over the span of two centuries. Partly, it is that a gallery typically focused on the art of Asia is featuring a show about Portugal. Partly it is a remark made by Portugal’s Minister of Economy and Innovation positioning Portugal as the leader of the first age of globalization. The explanations layer like an onion. more ›