artdc.com

We would like to wish all of the artists and art patrons in the area, and the world at large for your support in ’09 and the great things to come for ’10.  It’s could out there, but art is hot in the DC area.  We’re overflowing details, events, and new plans for the year to come.  We look forward to seeing you at an event soon.  Create art, and collect more art, and support the DC area creative economy weather it’s with us or another area gallery!  Speaking of which, check out the ever increasing number of pins on our art map. Click on a pin, zoom in, zoom out, drag the map, and look, the art even extends beyond the beltway! There’s a lot to see.

View artdc Art Scene Map in a larger map

The artdc Gallery gives back to supporting artists with a patrons’ exhibit.

HYATTSVILLE, MD (December 3, 2009) – The artdc Gallery will feature a Patron Members’ Exhibition from December 6, 2009, to January 3, 2010. A reception, open studio, and cash-and-carry event, titled “Cool Yule Arty Party,” will be held on Saturday, December 12, 2009, from noon to 6 p.m.  The doors open at 11am!

The gallery is located at The Lustine Center, 5710 Baltimore Ave., Hyattsville, Maryland 20781. Gallery visits are by appointment.

“This is a great way to give back to the patron members who support artdc’s discussion forum and other projects,” said gallery director and artist Jesse Cohen. “You’ll see an amazing variety of work in a broad range of mediums. If you’re looking to build your collection–or start one–this show brings together talented established and emerging artists in the metro DC area who offer unique, top-quality work at recession-friendly prices.”

On the same day, the “Cool Yule Arty Party” will also feature performances by 4 bands and a Legal Lecture by John Mason, and the amazing work from a fine group of local vendors selling their hand made Fine Art and Holiday Craft Items.  The group is diverse ranging from DC Conspiracy graphic novelists to artists, and stunning crafters.  Come support your local art scene and economy.  Works in the Art Fair and Patron’s show are commission free.
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We had a tremendous reception for Michael Winger’s, “I cure myself…”  We had a good number of people passionate about supporting a strong gathering of creativity.  To celebrate, we were pleased to present 2 fascinating groups, the DCIC and Anorak.  Find details about the bands can be found here.  DCIC and Anorak both explored the limits and boundaries of creativity and improvisation in the moment.  We thought the music was a fantastic addition to the artist’s reception.  Patrons came to view the work, then stayed to enjoy the sounds gushing out of the studio.

Here’s a breif video of Anorak in the space.

The gurus at the express night out have picked up the details about our Fringe Jazz show with Anorak and the DCIC.  We’re really pleased to see this in the express.  Find the note about the show here.  Find the complete release about this show here.

Thanksgiving is coming up, and then it’s the holidays and everybody’s got tons of stuff to do and no time and all that. Luckily we’re not there just yet. Seriously. We are not there yet.

Ok, yeah the clocks fell back and now it gets dark at five pm and boo hoo. But wait a second. Winter hasn’t taken over yet. We are not there yet.

I have an idea. Let’s celebrate the last days of autumn, and do it up right. Before the shopping and stress and seasonal disorder and slush and don’t wake me until it’s spring. I’ve got a great idea: let’s get together at a cool, fun, out-of-the-way kinda place and hang out for an evening. Even better, let’s get some cool live music, too!

Lucky lucky us. It just so happens that we’ve got a cool place, and a great lineup for a fun night:

Anorak, a hard-to-classify trio of European improvisers (ok, one of them is from Baltimore, but she was living in Amsterdam and met the other two) will be in town. The DC Improvisers Collective (DCIC) will play too.

Anorak is a cellist, a pianist, and a drummer. They are doing neat stuff. You will probably like it. DCIC has a special lineup that night, featuring Vattel Cherry on bass and Ed Ricart on guitar, plus their regular trio of sax, guitar, drums. The music will be hot.

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Our neighbors the design studio next door to our space have worked hard to bring PG county an amazing opportunity.  We’ve all been brain storming about how to bring greater attention to the area’s art scene, and they’ve found the key.  They’ve spent serous time developing a solution, an arts district art festival called, “The Market Place!”  The Design studio folks must be morning people since they opened on October 31st at 9am, we didn’t make it out till noon, but we were very excited to share the traffic.  

On the way over to the gallery to open for The Market Place, we ran across this billboard off of route one.  We thought to ourselves… no..  that’s not right.  We guess many adults would disagree, but then again, we’re living our future now.  Kids have a lot to wait for!  Maybe they should add a disclaimer, since it’s been said that billboards like this can end marriages.  

Any how, we digress.  Here’s a shot of The Market Place.  Kudos to the Design Studio for investing in matching Tents!  It looks simply amazing!  There was only a second to take a shot, there were so many things going on that afternoon we didn’t have an opportunity to snap another shot.  We heard the coffee there was amazing, and we look forward to an increased art presence!  More to come!

We had a very positive time at the closing reception for Sculpture: 301.  We has the opportunity to meet a large portion of the UMD art grad students.  It was a warm crowd and they seemed excited about the show and our desire to collaborate.  To us, there’s nothing like sharing tremendous art with the public, and this show certain gave us that opportunity.   We send our thanks to Steven Jones for his curatorial energy! 

Here are a few snapshots of the reception:

At the artdc Gallery
Curator: Steven Jones

Dates: October 4 – November 8th, 2009
Reception: October 30th 6:30pm to 9:30pm

The works for the Sculpture:301 show are all recent work by artists who live, work, or go to school in the neighborhood.  This show will introduce these young and mid-career artist to the artdc Gallery.  The work runs a gamut of styles and materials but are tied together by a level of craft and a certain wit.

Two pieces fall in the figurative side of sculpture, Greyson Heck’s “Mixed Emotion’s” and Zac Jackson’s “What” explore how the face can convey a gut reaction.  “What?”‘s latex noses and mouth slowly and rhythmically repeating a silent phrase over and over to you, and after a few minutes with the piece, your own mouth with start mimicking the work trying to decipher what it is calling out.  Greyson’s two cast pieces are frozen in a pose full of expression, but more of a death mask of angst rather than joy.

Sculptors Sarah Laing and Jack Henry both use simple found objects as a starting point, and end on different planets.  Laing’s small cast bronze mushroom grows from the wall like a forgotten fungus, but its simplicity and perfection in the metal acts as a frame asking the viewer to reconsider the toadstool as an object of possible beauty.  In contrast to Laing’s simple object protruding quietly from the wall, Jack’s wall seems to vomit out bright colors and shapes which beakon the viewer.   On closer inspection you make out the source of the shapes; a collection of trash and found kitsch.  It is only the work of the artist that has transformed dollar store junk and side of the road debris into something that the viewer can explore as pretty.

Find more about the artists here:

Jack Henry
jackhenryartist.com

Sarah Laing
cookiesordoughnuts.blogspot.com

Jim Vose
jamesvose.com

Felicia Glidden
feliciaglidden.com

Zac Jackson
zacjackson.com

Stewart Watson
area405.com

Our reception was a powerful event with an unrepeatable atmosphere due to the art and the brave patrons that fought back roads to work their way past the tremendous emergency presence from the fire across the street.  We made the best of a tough situation, and Steve, Antoinette, and I were so pleased to see friends, art collectors and dealers visit our reception.  At “Pinned,” we had a wide range of work, and we were pleased to find a great number of people who asked many questions about our work and what it means to us.

We decided to add to the atmosphere by Inviting Grayson Brown to play our event.  Some of you may know him from David Fogel’s “X” events.  Some said that the rhythmic energy of the lights from multiple emergency response vehicles added to an environment where art and music mixed.

Crowd at the reception

Steve, Antoinette, and Jesse

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There was a fire across the street  from our gallery minutes before the artist’s reception. A warehouse burst into flames producing a brilliant blaze with a significant amount of smoke with the scent ranging from burnt plastic to burn rubber. This is a first for us to witness a natural disaster during a gallery reception. Something tells me that our higher powers were playing a game with us. Rain is one thing, but who sends fire? Luckily the warehouse was not occupied as far as we know, there were no injuries. After the smell had permeated the gallery, we started to look around for a short in a wire, only to see the smoke developing from the warehouse. As the smoke grew, our shock increased.

Check out these intense images.  I rattled off to many, it’s close to 2am after the fire, but I wanted to get this up on the site so you can have a feeling for our situation.  More later…

Dense Smoke!

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