News came out late this week that the Museum of Modern Art in New York has acquired the video, David Wojnarowicz's "A Fire in My Belly," that the Smithsonian removed from an exhibit in the National Portrait Gallery in December. The MoMA, a private institution, has certainly never scared away from exhibiting controversial art. While this is certainly a powerful statement to the merit of the video, as Kriston Capps points out, it seems the more subversive move goes to the Museum of Censored Art, which opened next to the National Portrait Gallery this week. more ›

>> Your major opening this weekend is brought to you by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The nearly 120 piece Saul Steinberg retrospective, Illuminations, features the artist's witty and deeply observant take on world events throughout his 60 year history with The New Yorker, as well as the many other sculpture, painting, and various artworks that get a little meta in their parsing of creative methods. DCist is going to check out the show this weekend, but we have no doubt it will be filled to the brim with dead-on jabs at our sometimes narrow national perspective and, you know, amusing cat cartoons. Go take advantage of your tax dollars and see the show starting Friday; SAAM is open daily (including Easter) from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. more ›

A few years ago, Jennifer Tobias, an associate librarian at the Museum of Modern Art, came to my college campus to speak about MoMA's book collection. She said that the museum kept all the books that artists donated to the collection, and that artists often espoused quite expansive notions of what constitutes a book. One artist, she recalled, even sent in a chair, while another submitted a wooden duck and called it a book. more ›

When the alarm clock goes off in one short week, the sleepy little galleries around the city will yawn and stretch and, after dressing in their finest contemporary gowns, open their doors for the 2006-2007 season. But while they're busy hitting the snooze for a few more days, we still have plenty of shows to keep us occupied. >>The National Gallery of Art just opened a new exhibit last Thursday, with 37 artworks from the... more ›

Story and photo by DCist contributor Alexa Steinberg. more ›

Dude, Where's My Car? While car theft isn't a laughing matter, we chuckled for a very brief moment when we heard that Police Chief Charles Ramsey's car was stolen over the weekend. The AP, via WTOP, reports that the chief's 1999 Ford Crown Victoria was stolen after being parked near his house by a police officer when Ramsey was out of town. On Ramsey's way to church Sunday morning, the car was nowhere to be... more ›

Jammed packed with cells in various stages of development, Teo Gonzalez’s minimalist paintings are something of an obsessive pursuit. Fortunately for Gonzalez, his meticulous efforts have recently been rewarded by his work being acquired by major museums on both coasts (MoMA, LACMA and NGA). D.C. art enthusiasts have until Saturday to catch Gonzalez’s current solo show at Irvine Contemporary Art in Dupont Circle and see for themselves what all the fuss is about. more ›