It would be impossible to review Artomatic’s ten floors of art in its entirety. The show is scatterbrained, and intentionally. First come, first serve is no jury; Artomatic treats all artists and crafters the same, and puts them all smack next to each other. In an art setting where it can be difficult to determine if a participant is old or young, joking or serious, novice, student, or seasoned, some work stood out to the DCist staff. Below are some of our favorites; leave yours in the comments.
Rebound Designs, Caitlin Phillips, 12th floor SE
Caitlin Phillips’ “Rebound Designs” is one of the show’s most whimsical exhibits. Phillips has fashioned purses made out of old encyclopedias and books (pictured right), and featured them in a classroom-style set-up, hanging from a chalkboard. The display is kitchy and fun, but feels awfully commercial – especially as you can find Phillips’ same accessories for sale most weekends at the Eastern Market flea market (I’ve had my eyes on one of the Nancy Drew ones for awhile now).
Murder of Crows, Gennara Moore, 12th floor SE
Gennara Moore’s “Murder of Crows” paints black silhouettes of the looming birds on a bold red background. The work instills a chilling uneasiness; though it’s not always exactly clear what is going on in each of the paintings. I dug the creepy vibe and the sense of drama on the canvas.
–Missy Frederick
Skin Color Project, Solomon Wondimu, 7th floor SW
Using color swatches collected from hundreds of people’s forearms, Wondimu creates digital prints from his database of these color swatches. While the digital prints aren’t all that great, the concept of reconciliation between what the eye versus the mind sees is quite good.
Amanda Engels, 4th floor SW
Engels’ large portrait oil paintings (pictured left) are very striking. They stand out from the crowd not only for their subject matter, but for Engels ability to capture light, color and expression.
24 on 14th, Graeme King, 6th floor SW
King spent 24 hours on 14th street one weekend, asking random strangers if he could take their picture. The result is a wall of small portraits of everyday people. The photographs range from ho hum to brilliant. A written narrative of the events of the day as well as video footage of the installation of the photographs accompanies the installation.
John Pack, 6th floor SE
Hamburgers and ice cream cone concoctions are what John Pack presents. The twist here is that the ice cream cones and hamburgers are a combination of seashells and ceramic fragments. The result is an odd juxtaposition presented in glass display cases, just like in a diner.
–Kelly Rand
