Find the work of Simmy Pell, Rachel Kerwin, Johanna Rodriguez, Olivia Rodriguez, and Patrick Kirwin on display at 5710 Baltimore Ave., Hyattsville, MD.

The reception will be held April 28th, 2012.

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Curator’s Statement:
This exhibit surveys the broad range of various “realisms”. Used as a broad term to mean recognizable realities, “Realism” is a vehicle for various expressions; political, aesthetic, emotional and illusory. This exhibition brings together these forms in one show.

Olivia Rodriguez and Patrick Kirwin both deal in illusion. Between them, both ends of the aesthetic spectum are represented. Rodriguez creates small sculptural illusions of garbage while Kirwin paints attractive Trompe L’oeil illusions. Rodriguez takies found objects and recreates and creates tableaus of filth – a cigarette put out in a pile of dirt and a cockroach crawling out from under a cup. She elicits the viewer’s psychological responses with confrontation of things we would rather forget about.

Kirwin’s illusions are essentially about material verisimilitude, but also probe the illusion of space. He is represented with illusions of mosaics, marble and a large plaster face, which is cropped in such a way as to negate an illusion. His is about the joy of being fooled, yet the remaining illusions are beautiful.

Johanna Rodriguez presents some of her work from a series about doors. She shares her views them, enlarging small details and painting them in a somewhat expressionistic fashion using house paint. There is something eerie about these images from the color, the feeling of the paint and the expressionistic rendering.

Simmy Pell on the other hand, shows paintings about painting. Hers are joyful explorations into the “regular” still life genre. Her twist is that she uses minimal medium, resulting in a thicker application of oil paint. The sensuous and generous application of paint is enhanced with a thoughtful resolution of color.

Rachel Kerwin brings a political message to the show. Her paintings of weeping, mourning Iraqi women no less than ask us, “Why?” The message is very clear as expressed through the vigorous and efficient realistic painting of the women’s faces and hands. The flesh is the only living thing in the paintings. Their garb is flat black and to further focus the point, there is nothing else except a flat green of death coloring the background.

This is a very interesting survey of how realism works to different ends. Not to be missed.

Kevin Mellema stepped up to the plate and brought a few drawings by my place that were previously on display in the Lee Art Center.   Kevin’s work “Ponytail #3″ pictured below really spoke to me, and he agreed to offer it for a raffle.  One extremely lucky art lover was going to get an amazing deal!

Ponytail #3

The raffle idea is a bit unusual since it fights the traditional affluent art buying mentality.  It’s still an expensive work of art, but one lucky collector will get the work through funding developed by the masses, not the individual wallet.  We had to protect the artist with a minimum.  It would be a travesty if the gamble failed and he only received pocket change for his work.  The project was successful, and we sold enough tickets to pick a winner.

At the close of the day, Amy and I tossed all of the tickets into a pitcher, shook them up, and then she picked one at random!  There was no bias! (see the video below!)  Kevin and I are both quite pleased that the winner is an artist and an art lover.  Which means it will go to a loving home where it will get the respect it deserves.

The winning ticket.

The opening reception will be April 10th, a Saturday, from 6-9 pm. The show consists of numerous Maryland artists’ works of a larger size and varying mediums; sculpture, painting, drawing, instalation and mixed media. There will be beverages, snacks and great art! Please come and support Maryland artists and the rising Hyattsville Arts District. The show will be held at artdc on Route 1 in Hyatysville, MD.

Participating Artists;
Caroline Battle, Michael Booker, Felicia Glidden, Peter Gordon, Grayson Heck, Jeff Martin, Sarah Martin, Audrey Sackner-Bernstein, Timothy Thompson, Alexandra Radocchia Zealand, and Jesse Cohen.

Check out some install pics shot by Alexandra Zealand:

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These images were shot by Peter during the installation.

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Find the facebook event listing here.

Find the artists here:

We’re so pleased that there’s a Secret individual out there wishing us  support and great hopes for the future.  It takes a lot of energy to step out and do something.  We’re glad the benefactor did.

See the pics below:

Thanks to Fareeha Khawaja for the snap shots of the gifts!

Evidently it pings a server every 10 minutes to make sure that it’s still for sale.

This goes beyond artificial intelligence, it’s something different.  I’d love to see the auction history for this item with past and future sales.

Here’s a link to the artist’s site.

UPDATE: It sold for US $6,350.00 and $50.00 for shipping on January 28, 2010.

We send our thanks to the benefactor! Check out these shots unpacking the bank and monopoly money. Here’s an image of the box shortly after we opened it under a painting by Jill Hackney.  

We thought the bank looked so good in the gallery that we put in on a pedestal for display!  Let’s hope the public get’s the point and supports us!

Here’s a full shot of the bank on the pedestal. We think it looks great in the space!

Maybe the monopoly money was a little prod at the Washington Post’s Reliable Source accusations of a connection with the collector. (scroll down to read their blurb about “The Collector’s Identity? It’s as Clear as Frosted Glass.”)

For some more background about Bill and Sy, please read this article at the City Paper.  I was so pleased to see them write this artist’s profile.

Mr. Mason is a Washington DC/Maryland based art, entertainment, and intellectual property attorney. His practice focuses on copyright and trademark matters, litigation, contracts, and commercial matters. He works with artists, writers and creative people and companies to protect and exploit their work and is also a literary agent. He is on the Advisory Board of the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington and the Board of Director of Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts. The website for his firm, The Intellectual Property Group, PLLC, is www.artlaws.com and his e-mail is artlaws2@aol.com.

Find the schedule of events for a Day of art, music, and creativity here.