artdc.com

We have some great press here, which appeared both online, and in print!  Thank you Cody Calamaio from the Gazette.

Reception: December 17th, 2011 7 to 10 pm
Location: 5710 Baltimore Ave., Hyattsville, MD
Curator: Emily Ann Scheeler / UMD Intern
All works by UMD students

Artists:
Adam Echavarren
Asha Augustine
Ava Lowe
Melanie Fischer
Meg Floyd
Kurt Pung
Ryan Villardo
Sheila Bell

This is our annual UMD intern show.  We offer the experience to a University of Maryland Art student to manage a gallery like it was their own.  They control the show from artist selection to installation.  This is our opportunity to see art of a Student’s peers through their eyes!  We feel this is a unique opportunity, and are pleased to offer this again.  Our first intern exhibition was developed in 2010.

Saturnalia was traditionally held on December 17th; thus, our reception for the beautiful exhibit “Saturnalia: Abstracting Reality,” will be held on the same date in this year, 2011.

The show presents University of Maryland artists working with abstraction–some pulling straight from the unconscious mind, others working with the assistance of models and forms. Techniques vary from the pressing together of canvas to the application of cut plexiglass to screen prints on top of paintings.

The color palette is vivid and surreal, though sometimes moody and mystical. The works presented are by undergraduates, Juniors and Seniors, in the Studio Art program.

Food and wine will be bountiful, just as it would have been during a Saturnalia celebration.
If you greet the curator with “lo, Saturnalia,” she will pour you a drink.

From a discussion on artdc.org.

“Art is an addiction.  There’s a compulsive need to create and express your self.  It’s sweet and painful at the same time.  Art is Junk.  People think they can control it, do it just once in a while, but that’s just a lie created by one’s own arrogance.  Art is all consuming.  There’s no such thing as a part time artist.  There are those who make a living, and those who don’t, be we think about it 100% of the time whether it’s our bread winner or not.  When I’m not making art, I’m thinking about what I’m going to create next, and if I’m not doing that, I’m suffering from the lack of inspiration, and completely aware of it at that moment.  It’s an addiction, full of love, pain, and tolerance for the lack of freedom to do what you want as you’re fighting to survive, learn a new technique, or find that next moment of joy that are few and far between.  Art takes arrogance and the need to learn, practice, steal, mimic, progress, and create new ideas.”

-Jesse Cohen

We are pleased to see Sy Gresser’s new interview by Jack Thomas of Bulldog Theatrical.  The interview was recorded before the installation of his ’09 shows at UMD – “Carving Hands,” and Yale – “Graven Imaginings.”  Previously we posted about Sy in our art you must acquire series, while his work was displayed in our  Space Contained show.  For more information about Sy, read his Washington City Paper profile entitled  ‘Carving Artist.’   It’s wonderful to see Sy gain this well needed documentation.