out like a lout

I'm off to NYC for a few days; won't be back in the office until next Tuesday.

Come back next week for some surprises--maybe I'll have presents for you!

we're all winners!

Remember the WaPo's announcement of the Real Art DC competition--in which area artists can upload their images in the hopes of winning...wait, what was that prize again?

15. There are no prizes being offered in this promotion.

Yes, exactly. I mean, there's the chance to be interviewed, and the opportunity to let the WaPo reprint, alter, or otherwise do whatever the heck they'd like to do with your images and application materials going forward...but apparently the paper admits that neither of these counts as a prize per se.

Anyway, over at greg.org, Greg Allen points out that if you opted instead to enter the WaPo's area high school photography competition...you could win a $100 gift card!

So, WaPo: You wanted to let D.C. area artists know how much you're willing to do to support their scene, right? Mission accomplished!

aac all day, every day

Below are some quickie installation shots (and one shot from the opening reception) of SPRING SOLOS 2010 taken by aac's own lovely and talented Catherine Satterlee. Thanks, Catherine!

You can also see a great pic of sculptor Mia Feuer standing with her huge, room-filling installation, Evacuation Route with Rubies, on the cover of the latest Arlington Connection--it's not on their website yet, but, ah, just go look for it somewhere, okay? you can download the pdf here.

yo mama's last keynote address

Obviously you'll be coming to Arlington to check out the opening reception for SPRING SOLOS 2010 tomorrow evening--Friday, April 16, 6-9 pm. I mean, you're not a loser, right? Right.

But what will you do with the rest of your day prior the opening? Well, if I didn't, you know, actually work for a living, I'd absolutely spend tomorrow afternoon over at Howard University, listening to the ever-fabulous Renee Cox give the keynote address for the James A. Porter Colloquium on African American Art.

Renee's address will run from 1:40 to 2:30, and will be immediately followed by her participation in a panel discussion.

Download the complete program for tomorrow and Saturday here.

All lectures and events for the colloquium are free, but you have to register here.

Pictured: Renee Cox, Lost in Space, cibachrome print, 1998

painting is sooo not happening right now

Painting is sooo not happening right now. You know? I mean, video, performance, photography, installation--that's where the action is. Project work, cross-disciplinary collaboration, dialogic art. That's the stuff. I have no time for a revered, fusty, hidebound old medium like oil paint. Phooey on that.

Oh, before I forget: You can read my enthusiastic endorsement of Trevor Young's show of new oil paintings--Premium--here on the Civilian website. Opening reception is this Friday, April 9, from 7 to 9 pm. See you there!

Wait, what was I talking about?

psycho killer

Right now I'm reading (and enjoying) Don DeLillo's Point Omega, which came out back in February. It's a short book--only 117 pages. The main story is bookended by two encounters with Douglas Gordon's 1993 piece, 24 Hour Psycho, which DeLillo became obsessed with when he saw it at MoMA back in 2006.

“I went back four times," he said in a Feb. piece in the NYT, "and by the third time I knew this was something I had to write about...most of the time I was the only one there except for a guard, and the few people who came in left quite hastily.”

Below is an excerpt from the prologue-y first part:

He thought he might want to time the shower scene. Then he thought this was the last thing he wanted to do. He knew it was a brief scene in the original movie, less than a minute, famously less, and he'd watched the prolonged scene here some days earlier, all broken motion, without suspense or dread or urgent pulsing screech-owl sound. Curtain rings, that's what he recalled most clearly, the rings on the shower curtain spinning on the rod when the curtain is torn loose, a moment lost at normal speed, four rings spinning slowly over the fallen figure of Janet Leigh, a stray poem above the hellish death, and then the bloody water curling and cresting at the shower drain, minute by minute, and then eventually swirling down.

hey, i can reprint press releases, too!

This was in my inbox this morning: Looks like the WaPo is trying to create some sort of forum/database/debasing-reality-show-type-contest for the arts community--presumably to placate all of the torch wielding artists roaming the streets of our nation's capital, muttering to themselves about being totally ignored by museums, critics, friends, pets, etc. Oh, wait, that's me!

Anyway, I will now inhabit the stereotype of the lazy blogger who uncritically relays the contents of the press releases s/he receives (wait, what do prairie dogs do with them?) by pasting the entire thing below. Hooray for journalism!

Good morning!

The Washington Post recently launched Real Art D.C., a new platform for contemporary art in the Washington region, as well as a related competition open to all area artists.

Real Art D.C. is an online virtual gallery of artwork by local artists which will allow The Post’s audience to discover and connect with Washington’s newest talents. This online user gallery will be driven by the local arts community – the artists who submit work and the dealers and teachers who encourage artists to upload images. The site will display any artworks that members of the community chose to post.

Beginning the first week of May and continuing through the summer, The Post’s art critics will pick ten artists from the pool of Real Art D.C. uploads. Each of the ten finalists will get a studio visit write-up online, and once the last “finalist” is announced in early October, users will have the opportunity to vote online for the finalist they like best. The Post will interview the winner, and profile his/her career in print and online.

You can link to all the artwork here: www.washingtonpost.com/real-art-dc

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Kris Coratti
Director, Communications
The Washington Post
Office: 202-334-5445