>> Via Mid-Atlantic Art News, nearly every one on the Washington Post arts staff has been slammed over last Thursday’s article on art in the White House Green Room. The Seattle Post-Intellgencer blog calls Post writer Jacqueline Trescott’s race labeling of Jacob Lawrence as “the greatest African-American artist of the 20th century” a “disgrace,” the staff photographer inept, and most hilariously, Blake Gopnik, who gets skewered though he wasn’t even involved with the article,…

You may have admired the sculpted heads of children by Desiderio da Settignano (c. 1429–1464) in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Washingtonians are lucky to have these pieces in their backyard, rare enough for a museum anywhere, and even luckier that the NGA is the only American venue for the first international exhibit devoted to this elusive artist, Desiderio da Settignano: Sculptor of Renaissance Florence. It draws together pieces from three major…

For anyone remotely involved in the D.C. art scene, we present to you a solution to your frustrations with Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik. Avowed local oddball photographer James W. Bailey posted this video to YouTube and tagged it with DCist. If you’ve got a video you’d like to share, we encourage you to do the same….

Imagine a well-renowned D.C. glass artist, a gallery-experienced (and ColorField.remix contributor) abstract painter, and at least seven people we already know are pretty talented photographers putting their work next to mermaids made out of garage sale rejects and Tic Tac sculptures, and you’ll start to get the essence of Artomatic. This chaotic jumble of an art fair where “Fire” gets its own category has infamously drawn ire from some of the city’s fine art critics…

>> We always suspected Maddy Albright was much like Santa Claus — not so much due to a reputation for gift giving as for being magically able to keep her eyes locked on our every move in order to judge whether we have been naughty or nice. Safeway, ye know not what ye have done. [Yeas and Nays] >> Art-o-matic will take place this year after all, from April 13 through May 20 this…

We’ve seen this coming for some time, but it seems that Dan Tangherlini is finally going to get serious about getting rid of Metro’s cushions and carpet. The Post notes, this morning, that vinyl floors will be tested this summer, but only in one pair of cars. Lots of interesting asides in the piece; I was not aware that the cushion and carpet “luxuries” were added to draw suburbanites out of their cars (thank goodness…

We’ve mentioned it before, but in case you missed it, Fusebox is closing its doors, and they have indeed announced a closing reception: It’s this Saturday, Feb. 11 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Sarah and Patrick would like to invite everyone to come and drink a toast to five years of great art. Other gallery owners no doubt are also encouraged to attend and poach their now homeless roster of artists. See you all there….

>> Irvine Contemporary opens two solo shows on Thursday, by artists working in extremely different styles and techniques. On the one hand are Sean Foley’s creepy, colorful paintings and works on paper. (At first glance, the image on the gallery’s homepage conjures up images of old Ren & Stimpy episodes.) On the other are haunting new photographs by Gina Brocker of a family of Irish migrants. Chat up the artists about their work at the…

We tip our hat to Grammar.police for pointing us to a May 1 piece in the Post we missed when we were on vacation where Blake Gopnik pushed the idea of renaming the Corcoran Gallery of Art to bring in more visitors. Saying the current Corcoran name has an identity problem, Gopnik suggests a name promoting it as a national center of photography: You could even imagine that the Corcoran Museum of Photography — why…

>> As reported by DC Art News, two new galleries have joined the D.C. arts scene. Emma Mae Gallery, founded by Sandra Butler-Truesdale, has opened at 1515 U St. NW. JET Artworks opens Friday in Elizabeth Roberts’ old space at 2108 R St. NW. The gallery’s inaugural exhibition features the work of Conor McGrady, Greg Murr, Gregory Euclide, Michel Tsouris and Ken Bucklew. >> Also new this week is “Adam Fowler: Theme & Variation,”…