Someday I will graduate to this. (Thanks Decoy!)

Barbara Josephs Liotta

John Baldessari

Bonner Sale, Deery Dear

Bonner Sale, Christine Buckton Tillman, Emily Nachison,
Emily Slaughter, John Bohl, Annie Gray Robrecht
Stories From The Woods
October 3 – 31, 2008

Opening reception:
October 3
7 – 10 pm
@Current Gallery and Artist Cooperative
30 South Calvert Street, Baltimore

Space Invaders Closing Party

Friday October 3
7 – 12am
@Dissident Display Gallery
416 h Street NE

images by: Julia Chiplis, Jaclyn Martin & Berta Zoltan

Daniel Bauman, Christian Benefiel, Waylon Bigsby, Julia Chiplis, Leah Frankel, Peter Gordon, Jaclyn Martin, Ryan McKibbin, Ellington Robinson, Berta Zoltan
Rhythmic Notions

Opening reception:
Friday, October 3rd
8pm
@Woodman Studios
1414 Woodman Ave
Silver Spring
Panel Discussion with Suzanne Opton Lynne Sowder & Edgar Endress
Public Art Futures

Saturday, October 4th
2pm
@American University Museum
4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW

Brandon Hill Cheese Burger Sushi Opening reception: Saturday, October 4th 6pm – 12am
@ Art Whino
173 Waterfront Street, Oxon Hill

McLean project For the Arts Presents:
Second Annual MPAartfest

Sunday, October 5
10 – 5 pm
@ McLean Central Park
(intersection of Dolley Madison Boulevard)

My abs got a total workout last night at Sheldon’s birthday party on the roof of his beautiful new building in Columbia Heights. You have no idea how hard it is for five people to balance themselves in a hammock at the same time!

Photo by Anthony Smallwood.

I stopped in at Fight Club the other day to visit my friend Anthony and stumbled into a profusion of creativity! In the side yard, a guy was assembling a large-scale mesh sculpture. In one room, another guy was carefully drawing out a new section of a skateboard ramp on sheets of plywood. In the main gallery, half a dozen graffiti artists were writing new pieces on large canvases. Through all of it, Anthony was clicking away on his camera documenting the scene. It was DC’s version of a Warholian Factory!

Words Beats & Life Inc., an organization that helps graff writers find alternative outlets to express themselves while also benefiting their communities, organized the graff artists, who were commissioned by Youth AIDS to make pieces for a gala event on October 3 at the Tysons Corner Ritz Carlton. Super cool mission!

Nice review of Transformer’s ID-entity show currently at the Mexican Cultural Institute and also at the gallery itself. Oh and save the date for the next Transformer art auction fundraiser – November 15! I’m co-chair again and I gotta say, it’s going to be bigger and better than ever.

“Untitled (Plastic Cups)” 2000 by Tara Donovan. (Kerry Ryan McFate/Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York)

A nice review in today’s New York Times by Carol King of work by MacArthur genius grant winner Tara Donovan. Donovan takes objects like plastic cups (see above) and makes them into beautiful organic sculptures, transforming them into something unexpected. So cool! I like what she says about how she comes up with the ideas for her art:

Underpinning it all is her capacity for absorption. “So much about the art-making process is about paying attention,” Ms. Donovan said. “It’s about looking and noticing things.”

I love that she sees the ordinary in extraordinary ways.

Instead of hanging posters of Che Guevara or Monet’s Water Lilies on their dorm room walls, students at UC Berkeley can check out original art from their library for a semester. Awesome!

Kate McGraw and Ann Tarantino’s current show at Curator’s Office was one of the Washington Post Express‘ “our picks” in their Fall Arts Preview. Way to go!

So many things appeal to me about their work – the physicality, the story-telling, the communication of ideas, the collaboration. It’s great! Here’s what the artists had to say about their work:

When viewed together, the “Potential Energy” series unfolds much like a book or a conversation-a narrative of exchange and negotiation, full of discussions, arguments, moments of pushing and pulling, and, finally, resting.

The project raises the question of potential – what kind of energy is possible? How does that energy change when it is transferred from one hand to another? Where (if at all) does the energy stop? And if it does not stop, where does it lead? As the drawings unfold, as if flowing out of their individual and collective consciousness, it becomes clear that humans can communicate volumes through physical acts. This project harnesses that potential for communication and evidences true exchange, focusing on the physical and social significance of the act of making – and making together.

Art In America reviewed Dan Steinhilber’s show at G Fine art earlier this year. Yay! It really was an excellent show. Hurray for awesome DC-based artists being recognized in national press.