Posts Tagged ‘art’
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
Plein-air artists work from a palette that’s all natural
By Renee Sklarew
Photography by Renee Sklarew
“You’ve got to scratch that itch!” Carol Fogelsong laughs. Fogelsong has arranged herself and her gear on a cliff overlooking the Potomac River. Below her is a meadow of wild flowers, parched brush and wizened elm trees. She’s concentrating on choosing a color from a rainbow of pastels, oblivious to the bee settled on her straw hat. Steel-gray water rolls swiftly along; birds swoop randomly over trees.
Fogelsong, 51, spends her mornings in front of an easel, perched on an incline, gazing deeply at the view that surrounds her. The Alexandria-based artist says she can’t imagine life without it. Before she took up plein-air painting, she was drained by work and chores. “A case of the blahs,” as she puts it.
Fogelsong, like so many Northern Virginians, has an intense job that demands hours in front of a computer screen. She longed to immerse herself in the outdoors, in the beautiful scenes that surround Virginians every day. But she had little time or motivation to indulge.
The Roots of Plein-Air Painting
Although the first artists to paint landscapes are attributed to 17th-century Rome, “plein air” is a French phrase used by the impressionists like Renoir and Monet, who popularized the movement. Their purpose was to paint outside the traditional studio, using direct observation and deeper study of nature. Allison Malafronte of American Artist Magazine writes that the custom of painting outdoors in exotic locations eventually evolved into a sophisticated activity. Those enamored with the art considered viewing and collecting these paintings an opportunity to “travel vicariously through the artist.” The movement occurred before the invention of photography, so paintings helped people to better understand different locales. The plein-air movement was further driven by the Enlightenment, when philosophers and artists sought peace and solace in nature.
Science Imitating Art
The National Institutes of Health funds numerous studies that consider the effects of art on human health. In the June 2008 issue of NIH News in Health, researchers noted painting therapy “helps improve health status, quality of life and coping behaviors. It can improve depression and fatigue in cancer patients on chemotherapy, and help prevent burnout on caregivers.” Furthermore, editor Harrison Wein writes: “You don’t have to be good” at painting, for painting “to be good for you.”
Today’s Plein-Air Painters
Northern Virginians today have many outlets for plein-air painting, and they don’t have to be experienced artists to enjoy them. Inside the Art League entrance at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, a candy machine sits forlornly empty. Old wooden easels are stacked against the paint stained walls. The sun off the Potomac River pours in the broad-high windows, illuminating the bastion of creativity.
Erica Fortwengler, 27, is the communications director for the Art League and sponsor of the annual Paint Alexandria program. Last May, more than 100 budding and experienced artists interested in plein-air painting or outdoor photography participated in the workshops, demonstrations and sketch time that are part of this two-day event. Artists position themselves on the waterfront or in Founders Park. Others take walking tours through Alexandria’s historic neighborhoods while instructors point out scenes that demonstrate light, shadow and composition. Local citizens are encouraged to watch, ask questions and engage with the artists, making this a “very successful event for educating the public in the fine arts,” Fortwengler says.
How do you decide what to paint? “Every artist is drawn to different scenes,” Fortwengler replies. Some are drawn by water, or bridges that span the Potomac. Others are inspired by crumbling alleyways, old shutters and facades of dilapidated buildings. On rainy days, the artists improvise, setting up under covered areas or arcades. “They make it work,” Fortwengler explains. “You have to be ready for the elements. It takes a certain type of personality.”
Have What it Takes?
Preparation is key to plein-air painting. Artists agree that you need to have the right supplies, including a mobile easel, the precise paint colors and sustenance. Fogelsong says she takes along bottled water and a sandwich because she doesn’t want to stop once she starts working. She also prefers access to bathrooms and solitude. Currently, suppliers package paints, pastels and colored pencils specifically for plein-air artists. They include colors frequently found in nature like ochres and dozens of shades of green and blue.
Artists prefer to paint at different times of the year. Susan Butler, 61, of Arlington, is an enthusiast who got her start at the Art League and regularly attends “paint outs” in the Metro area. She says she has painted in the snow and in severe temperatures. Channeling Pablo Piccasso, once quoted as having said, “I paint objects as I feel them, not as I see them,” Butler explains, “You have to deal with your reactions to the elements. I am more of an abstract painter dealing with how I feel, as much as how it looks.” While painting in 100-degree heat, she ended up with a “very cool painting instead of a hot one,” which she explains as a source of relief from the heat.
Butler loves camping and the outdoors, and for that reason she says she finds plein-air painting more inspiring than working in a studio, although most remote places do draw bugs and wind. Consequently, she has also learned to work very quickly. “Plein-air painters can’t spend a lot of time fooling with materials. You want to spend your time capturing how the light affects the landscape,” she says. She has worked for years to simplify her equipment.
But the only way to stay sane with a high-pressure job like hers, Butler says, is to paint. Her favorite time is fall, “when old hardwood trees lose their leaves, and every tree is a different color from the one next to it.” On business trips she takes her paints along and works in the hotel room. She’s sold a few paintings to friends and business associates.
According to Butler, men seem to like pairings of boats and water, but “hands down, people like flowers—men and women.” Butler paints representational pictures of flowers arranged outside in both realistic and abstract styles. Paintings don’t have to be landscapes, people or things, she explains. “It’s seeing things with the lights changing, or the color that’s interesting.”
Cultivating a Gift
Many up-and-coming artists train with local instructors who are experts in the field. Some attend weekend workshops at remote locations like Nimrod Farm in Bath County or Graves Mountain near Culpeper. Several associations specialize in plein-air painting in the Metro area. They offer lessons, advice and fellowship. Fogelsong and Butler are members of the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association (MAPAPA), whose motto is: “Fine art that finds beauty in the truth of nature.” MAPAPA hosts regular paint outs throughout the year. Butler, who serves as the webmaster for MAPAPA, inserts updated lists of events online, as well as samples from local artists’ work.
River Farm event coordinator Sarah Christie, 29, organized MAPAPA’s exhibit last summer inside the estate house on the Potomac River formerly owned by George Washington. To prepare for the exhibit, on the first day of the paint out, dozens of artists positioned themselves around River Farm, each selecting different focal points. According to Christie, work by Butler and Fogelsong drew raves.
River Farm is a haven for plein-air painters. Although an occasional visitor or squawking bird interrupts the tranquility, it has everything Fogelsong needs to arouse a great day at the easel. Deborah Zahrt, 56, of Falls Church, walks along the hillside with her dog Kaylee and comments on Fogelsong’s painting when she passes by. “That is beautiful. I love the movement of the sky.” Fogelsong thanks her. Re-energized, the artist grins. “Time to fire up another painting.”
(March 2009)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
Setting in motion a new spin on the potter’s wheel
By Willona M. Sloan
Camarillo throws upside down to strengthen the vessel’s bottom. Courtesy of Frank Ruggles
For Ramon Camarillo, “My passion is art.”
As an artist in residence at Lee Arts Center in Arlington, Camarillo is recognized as one of the most innovative artists making raku-style pottery in the nation. But, as a teenager growing up in Hawaii, the last thing he thought he would become was a professional artist.
In the 1980s, Camarillo took a couple classes at a community college. “Some of the best potters on Oahu were there,” he said. “They were doing raku firing, and I said, Wow! I got immediately interested in that.”
The raku technique originated in Japan as a process for making special tea-ceremony vessels. The art form is still practiced in Japan today, but as Western artists adopted the style of ceramic art, the techniques evolved overseas.
Camarillo explained that Western-style raku firing process involves placing vessels in a specially constructed kiln that fires to about 1800 F, then immediately transferring them to a pit in the ground or a metal garbage can containing combustible materials, such as leaves or wood, for about 10 to 15 minutes. The fire and smoke create unexpected results such as “luster and crackled, smoky and swirling finishes in a variety of textures and colors.” Each work is a spontaneous experiment.
When Camarillo discovered raku, he was hooked. What teenage boy doesn’t want to play with fire? But despite the interest, he instead buckled down and earned an MBA with an eye toward working in finance. In 1996, when he was unable to find work in the industry in Hawaii, Camarillo moved to Northern Virginia upon his sister’s urging and found work at a bank where she was living. He also began teaching workshops at Lee Arts Center. “I was one of the few people doing raku pottery in the area,” Camarillo said. After entering several contests and participating in local juried exhibitions, he decided it might be possible to make a go of it as a professional artist.
Camarillo’s work mixes the techniques he learned in both Hawaii and on the East Coast. When he relocated to Northern Virginia, he only brought a few glazes with him and has since learned to work magic with those colors, creating spectacular combinations, he explained. Also, Camarillo said, in Hawaii, potters don’t use water to shape their pots, as potters here do, and tend to throw much larger pieces. “I might be the only one throwing 25-pound pots in Northern Virginia.”
Camarillo, who teaches workshops all over the U.S., raves about working with artists at the Lee Arts Center who both challenge him and inspire his work.
“We have a lot of potters from all over the world. The diversity of artists here is amazing. We can share and steal ideas from each other and share influences.”
The ever-optimistic artist and ukulele player (he jams with the Hawaiian band Aloha Boys) may not yet have made it big, but seems pretty pleased with how things have worked out thus far. “I am not as rich as I probably might have been if I had stuck with the bank job—but you have to follow your passion.”
For more on Camarillo, visit www.ramoncamarillo.com.
(December 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
Civilian pivoted the area’s arts scene spotlight onto its contributors
By Willona Sloan
Civilian hosted its Screams & Screens show closing party at its D.C. gallery in July. Courtesy of Roberto C. Madruga
Opened in 2006, Civilian Art Projects offers cutting-edge exhibitions by D.C. and NoVa’s emerging and established local artists working in painting, video, photography, sound and other multimedia art forms, while providing engaging forums and special events that address global issues.
Civilian was founded by Jayme McLellan, who was also the co-founder of Transformer, a nonprofit gallery in D.C.’s Logan Circle. While proud of Transformer’s success, McLellan said she wanted to create a new venue that would financially support promising new artists. “We started Transformer in 2002, but I started feeling like the artists we worked with needed a place where they could show over and over again. Civilian is a commercial gallery; we didn’t want it to be a nonprofit because we were going to focus on selling work and having art events,” McLellan said. “We want them to be able to establish themselves within the local art community and support themselves.”
To do so, Civilian’s programming attempts to teeter on the edge of experimentation while raising social awareness. For “Way Down in New Orleans,” which opened Sept. 5 and is on view through Oct. 11, the gallery unites a group of Louisiana-based artists with contributors from around the nation in an artistic dialogue about the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Part of show proceeds will go to benefit The New Orleans Kid Camera Project, through which youth are encouraged to artistically document their surroundings in an effort to learn about photography.
Civilian, according to McLellan, values the idea of making artists true partners. “It’s about putting the artists at the center. Everything is a partnership.” She said she takes into consideration artists’ ideas for each show: “[Civilian] is driven by the voice and vision of the artist.”
Along those lines, the gallery is working towards a more fully developed cooperative model where member artists can have a larger sense of investment in the business and get more involved in the programming, McLellan said.
In its short history, Civilian has made an impact. “We are exhibiting artists who are the leading artistic voices of their generation,” said McLellan, who added that she feels like this is a particularly exciting time to be involved in the arts. “There’s a renaissance in the D.C. area that I have never seen before.”
For more information, go to www.civilianartprojects.com.
(October 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
Photo exhibit highlights derby girls
By Willona M. Sloan
Courtesy of Cory Oberndorfer
Artist Cory Oberndorfer knew he was hooked after his first roller derby a couple years back, which he attended in the interest of support for some skater friends. “I was fascinated by the way roller derby is a performative event, yet such a serious sport that contradicts female stereotypes. Plus, I’ve always been attracted to women that are tougher than me. And derby girls are.”
Today, Oberndorfer snaps shots during matches that he uses as studies for his vivid, larger-than-life paintings. Last May, he unveiled “Novelty,” his floor-to-ceiling mural depicting female skaters jumping, skidding and sliding, at American University’s arts center. There, he ushered in a flock of real-life roller girls to take a spin while he took a series of installation shots. “It brought the place to life, and there was a definite interaction between the girls and my paintings,” he explained.
Now that he’s out of school, Oberndorfer has local plans for the next phase of his artistic career. “I plan on sticking around D.C. [I’m] enjoying the boom in the emerging arts scene.”
For additional details, visit www.myspace.com/coryoberndorfer.
(September 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
WPA announces it’s breaking free, branching out from longtime partner Corcoran
By Willona Sloan
Executive director Kim Ward and board chair Andres Tremols gear up to present the WPA Alice Denney Award for Support of Contemporary Art to project trustee William C. Paley at an annual art auction gala of the organization’s. Courtesy of the WPA
After a 12-year partnership with the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) has been reborn. A membership organization for locally emerging and established artists, WPA boasts more than 1,000 members who receive such benefits as inclusion in ArtFile Online, an interactive registry and portfolio system, and plenty of networking opportunities with other artists, collectors and arts professionals. WPA also puts on a number of engaging programs that are open to the public, such as lectures by artists, an annual art auction gala and countless cutting-edge performances.
The non-profit was first founded in 1975 but, due to financial challenges in 1996, formed a mutually beneficial relationship with the Corcoran, moving its office space into the museum and changing its name to the Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran (WPA\C). During that time, WPA\C put on several exhibitions both at the Corcoran and in alternative spaces throughout D.C. Despite the benefits of being under the protective wing of a larger organization, however, this year WPA made the decision to fly on its own once again.
“Over the last six years, the WPA has steadily grown financially, in membership, in scope and in needing greater office and meeting space, which naturally begged the question of moving to larger quarters in the Corcoran or out of the building,” executive director Kim Ward said. “The organization was thriving by all measures and ready to expand. The Corcoran had saved the WPA in 1996 and given it a second opportunity to reform, stabilize and then grow into the virtual, roving and nimble arts organization that it has become, yet the Corcoran had no additional space to offer us.”
As WPA gets settled into its new digs, it will still offer the art community programming through partnerships with local organizations, Ward said. “We are continuing to collaborate with other arts partners and have four shows on the schedule between September and June of 2009.”
Ward, who has served in her current position as executive director since 2005, said she looks forward to WPA’s future while honoring the traditions of its past.
“I believe that … WPA has sustained some elements of its original mission throughout its life. WPA (continues) to bring innovative work forward to the community in various projects and exhibitions.
“My hope for the organization (is that) it will always be nimble, experimental and eager to change and transform.”
WPA is located at 2023 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. For additional information, visit www.wpadc.org online.
(August 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, January 1st, 2009
Iranian Art Exhibit Aims to Defy Stereotypes
By Willona Sloan
Narges Bajoghli (left) and Nikoo Paydar at Ellipse Arts Center / Photography by Jonathan Timmes
Nikoo Paydar and Narges Bajoghli had a vision—one that President Bush inspired. Amid the war on terror and Bush’s condemnation of Iran as part of the “Axis of Evil,” Paydar and Bajoghli decided it was time to frame Iranian culture in a new way.
“The idea came together about two and a half years ago, when we started hearing a lot of noise about a potential war in Iran. We realized that this sort of thing can happen in any part of the world when a society becomes dehumanized and is portrayed in such a way that people think that society doesn’t have people with real feelings,” Bajoghli said.
Feeling a deep sense of frustration with all of the loaded political rhetoric and the swirling misconceptions about Iranian society, Bajoghli and Paydar, the 24-year-old co-founders of the non-profit organization, Iranian Alliances Across Borders (IAAB), put their heads together to create their own outreach effort that would both inform people about Iranian culture and provide a window into its vibrant and energetic arts scene.
For Paydar and Bajoghli, the contemporary art exhibition TRANSFORM/NATION is more than just an excellent show of contemporary art. It is a labor of deep love and the culmination of almost three years of planning and tiptoeing around political landmines.
“We wanted to create an exhibition that is true to ourselves and how we feel about the community,” Paydar said.
TRANSFORM/NATION is an ambitious project that includes a show at Arlington’s Ellipse Arts Center and a simultaneous exhibition in Tehran, Iran, at the Nikzad Gallery, owned by Yasaman Nikzad Rad.
Haleh Anvari, Chadornama, 75 x 50, Color print / Courtesy of Haleh Anvari
After creating a list of their favorite artists working in Iran as well as members of the Iranian diaspora, or migration, living in the United States and Europe, Paydar and Bajoghli put out an open call for submissions. The two joined forces with Leyla Pope, of Reston, and Maryam Ovissi, who is based in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as Nikzad, to form a powerhouse curatorial team.
The group of women, who have collectively put on numerous exhibitions throughout the world, assembled a short list of emerging and established artists who were most innovatively working through the exhibitions’ themes: “stereotypes, identity and tradition.”
Opening this month, the fruits of their labor will finally be realized. TRANSFORM/NATION is a cutting-edge multi-media show featuring paintings, drawings, installations, film and photography by 14 talented artists including Samira Abbassy (U.S.), Haleh Anvari (Iran), Kaya Behkalam (Germany), Afarin Rahmanifar (U.S.) and Samira Yamin (U.S.).
True to their mission, TRANSFORM/NATION highlights the exciting and razor sharp contemporary arts scene of Iran. The curators are proud to bring this show to the capital area to enlighten diverse audiences of a cultural movement of which they may have not have been previously exposed. The country, particularly in Tehran, is enmeshed in an energetic movement, in which artists are fusing different styles and techniques in the areas of visual art, film and music to create a uniquely Iranian approach.
Through the creation of expressive painting techniques that blend traditional symbols and themes from Iranian culture and images from the Iranian and international media, to photography that challenges traditional ways of reading Iranian culture, artists are stirring up conversation and developing new ways of thinking about contemporary Iranian society. Not only is this exhibition an eye-opening cultural experience, it is also an opportunity to see some really great art.
Afarin Rahmanifar, Recess of a Journey #3, 12 x 10, Mixed Media/ Courtesy of Afarin Rahmanifar
TRANSFORM/NATION’s curators sought artists who actively reject the predominant western media images that present Iranians as “terrorists,” for example, or Iranian women as cloistered creatures. The exhibition seeks to exemplify the many interesting ways in which artists are actually transforming the ways that their country is being seen by foreign onlookers––artists who have said “enough” to images and stereotypes that pigeonhole Iranians as a monolith, rather than an eclectic array of individuals.
“One of the reasons we decided to call the exhibition ‘TRANSFORM/NATION’ is because these [artists] are taking part in transforming the ways that their country is represented and that their lives are represented,” Bajoghli said.
New Views
Artists such as filmmaker Behkalam show new ways of viewing Iran. In his film, “Tehran Reflections,” he explores his own relationship to the country as he wanders the streets of the capital city, capturing public spaces. The work recasts murals of martyrs and religious leaders painted on walls throughout the city, showing them as reflected images bouncing off sunglasses, windows and windshields. His work is a study in myth-making as well as demystification, as he recontextualizes these powerful, and even sacred, images. The viewer must form his/her own understanding of the individual scenes.
Photographer Anvari counters media images of Middle Eastern women in black chadors (the long traditional veil), wielding heavy artillery and shouting anti-Western slogans with her “Chadornama” series. She captures her models from behind as they traverse rural landscapes, gaze at the Eiffel Tower and wait at the bus stop in colorful, festive chadors in Iran, Paris, Dubai and other locations. Anvari challenges stereotypes associated with this traditional dress in ways that are both amusing and deeply stirring. While seemingly lighthearted, Anvari’s work challenges viewers to question their own perceptions about women in veils.
The theme of identity is closely felt by the show’s curators and is the most overtly addressed by the participating artists, especially those living abroad, who often grapple with the complexities of creating a cohesive cultural identity. Iranian-American curator Paydar said that the artists, as well as many people of Iranian descent living in other countries, often feel the tug of reconciling Iranian cultural practices, family ideals, religion and other beliefs with the norms of the country in which they live.
“Sometimes where you reside isn’t actually where you identify,” said Paydar. “It can be very complicated. It varies for each of these artists. They all identify as Iranians, but the way they connect to that identity and how they relate to their home country and their host country can vary quite a bit.”
“I think visual art is a great way to show that hybridity, or that duality, of identity,” continued Paydar. “It can be really complicated and frustrating having to deal with a heritage of both the U.S. and Iran, especially when they have such a complicated relationship, on a political level and other levels. A lot of these artists seem to be dealing with this and expressing it through their work.”
Feminine and Cultural Identity
Painter Rahmanifar plays with the notion of “hybridity” in her beautiful works. Her magnificent paintings depict the artist’s continuous struggle to define her place as an Iranian woman in American society, as she attempts to connect the often conflicting social norms and ideals of beauty and femininity.
In an artist’s statement, Rahmanifar wrote: “My [work] is a personal examination of the effects of ‘American’ culture on my identity as a woman raised in Iran. The work expresses my need to reconcile these two cultures, which reflect both my past and present. … My motivation for creating these hybrid personalities relates to how I project myself in American society.”
Rahmanifar’s work is critical of American consumerist culture while also betraying sentimentality for the national idolatry of Barbie and Marilyn Monroe. She mixes these images with traditional Asian depictions of femininity, of which she is equally critical, creating a mishmash of cultural references. In “Recess of Journey, Part One, #3,” three female figures struggle unsuccessfully to form a unified woman in a beautiful painting layered with bright blocks of color, newspaper clippings and Arabic script.
Through her distinctive painting style, Abbassy also ponders conventional ideas about femininity. Her crudely constructed females confront the viewer, often with genitals or breasts exposed boldly. Abbassy integrates imagery that is not easily deciphered as she blends symbols from Persian iconography with fantastic, dreamlike scenes.
Abbassy’s painting “Exiled Garden” is captivating in its use of bizarre metaphor and bold color. A woman constructed as a feathery peacock (ironically, a male bird) displays her elaborate tail formed by layers of veiled women whose blurred features are offset by their penetrating gazes. The “peacock” smiles as slightly as Mona Lisa, as she fans her elaborate tail against a luscious, deep blue backdrop.
What does it all mean?
Artist Yamin, who embroiders traditional eastern designs onto scarves by Christian Dior and other designers, plays on the exhibition theme of tradition by examining conventional perceptions of eastern culture. On these delicate, fragile objects, Yamin silk screens traumatic war photography from Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine as a complex protest against traditional Western ways of viewing life in the Middle East, with images that the artist terms “inauthentic, exploitative and Orientalist.”
The TRANSFORM/NATION exhibition in Tehran, while addressing the same themes, also confronts the perceptions Iranians may have of their peers living abroad. Life here can be hard. America is a nation with its own political, economic and cultural issues, despite executive-level finger-pointing, this nation has its own challenges. And despite misconceptions that the majority of Iranians are anti-United States, Iranians often know only of the “land of opportunities” and miss some of the more difficult realities of everyday life. This exhibition is a chance for diaspora artists to challenge the perceptions of the brethren.
Breaking Barriers
The ambitious project has certainly had its share of hurdles, with the largest being the U.S. economic sanctions against Iran. Organizers worried that they would face barriers bringing the art to Arlington––they were relieved to learn from the U.S. Department of Treasury just three months before opening that the restrictions are not applied to modern art. In Iran, American organizers had to rely on the Nikzad Gallery to handle logistics, as well as any funding issues, as the sanctions also restrict the provision of services and financing within Iran. Despite any obstacles and intrusive politics, this is a show that is not to be missed.
TRANSFORM/NATION, which is part of the ongoing “Planet Arlington” series of cultural events, seeks to connect audiences through the website and provide a bridge between the two exhibitions, linking audiences in Arlington and Tehran. Visitors can view the works of both shows online and post messages to the blog in an ongoing attempt to develop deeper understandings between the people of both nations.
“The exhibition in Iran challenges Iranians to think about the diaspora experience. Many people have visited their families who live abroad or have traveled abroad, but you never really get to the point in these family gatherings where you talk about the experiences that you have to deal with in the daily life. And, as far as we know, that sort of exhibition hasn’t happened in Iran,” Bajoghli said.
“This is one of the first exhibitions that will bring diaspora art and art from the country side-by-side and have them interplay and challenge each other.”
(June/July 2007)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
Online Art Portals Open the Way for Discovery
By Caroline Small
Courtesy of Jane Haslem Gallery
Whether you’re looking for local galleries to haunt or trying to hang a local artist’s work in your living room, the Metro D.C. arts community is online to help you navigate the scene.
For dealer Jane Haslem of Washington, D.C.’s Jane Haslem Gallery, the Internet is the “perfect vehicle to cut through all the ‘big city art hype.’” Haslem’s site, Artlineplus.com (a regional spinoff of her international site, Artline.com), lists Mid-Atlantic dealers, artists, galleries and organizations, and also hosts the online version of Galleries Magazine, which has a calendar of local openings. Haslem’s gallery has been open since 1969, but “more people have visited my site in one month than in all 48 years that I have been a dealer,” she said.
Artist Jesse Cohen founded Artdc.org to give local emerging artists a visible public forum to talk to each other and to galleries, but Cohen said non-artists use the site, too, “to search for artists and ask questions about buying, collecting art, pricing and more.”
Get in-the-know news—and the best sidebar of links to all the sites we don’t have room to mention here—from artist and critic F. Lennox Campello at his Mid-Atlantic Art News blog, www.dcartnews.blogspot.com.
(March 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
Captured wrath aims to inspire
By Maureen Horcher
Courtesy of Anna Fine Foer
Ominous clouds and agitated waves predict an inevitable storm. Swimming seismographs warn of the tsunami to come, and land maps show where the worst of the fury will materialize.
The described piece, “Terremoto Sumatra,” is not typical artwork. Instead, it’s a collage of maps and seismograph readings used to illustrate a tsunami. Artist Anna Fine Foer’s map collages combine text, abstraction, imaginary landscapes and spiritual themes, all with the aim of adding a fourth dimension of the spiritual realm to a three-dimensional world.
“My artwork is collage, integrating maps and text that offer the viewer a combination of conceptual art and spiritual themes,” she wrote on her website, www.annafineart.com. “My focus on the secular and the sacred explores the ways in which they may be combined.” The maps suggest multiple meanings and enhance the piece’s political or religious significance.
(January 2008)