Is it terrible to say that one of the reasons I love long weekends is that the entire town empties out, and while my friends are all stuck in traffic on the way to the beach, I can roam the blissfully quiet streets of D.C.? For those of us inclined to stick around town to enjoy the peace, or maybe because we’re just plain broke, take the chance to fill your Saturday night dance card with an art opening or two.
>> Fourteenth Street NW has a couple of venues opening new shows. Irvine Contemporary moves from Oliver Vernon’s space-age abstraction in the last exhibit to a not-entirely-all-that-different display with Robert Mellor’s New Scenario. He, too, does large scale acrylic abstract works that incorporate the use of woodblocks and play with your visual perception of space, they just look less like Star Wars planets and more like Japanese gardens. See for yourself at the reception, Saturday 6 to 8 p.m.
>> Down a block from Irvine you’ll find the opening of Industrials at the Randall Scott Gallery. Artists Jackson Martin and Michael Sandstrom use industrial materials to make pieces that intertwine nature’s chaos with our manmade, commercialized order, and discuss how we view the world through the filter of modern communication. Check them both out at the reception from 6 to 9 p.m.
>> While you’re out enjoying those empty streets on Saturday afternoon before the openings, stop by one of the ongoing exhibits we’ve listed in previous arts agendas.
>> In the news of Weird and Potentially Pointless Art Projects, blogger (?) or artist (??) MWP is asking the world to participate in A Minute in the Life. At precisely 2 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, on June 2, he wants you to grab your camera and take a picture. Of what? Whatever you’re doing, or looking at, or eating, or stealing, et cetera. He’ll compile the photos and surely use them to boost himself to those annals of great fame achieved through web-based community driven art projects, a la Frank Warren’s Post Secret, or something. So mark your calendars, and don’t lie! He’ll be checking your EXIF data.
Photo from Randall Scott Gallery’s web site.
