12 X 12 at artdc.org Gallery

Yesterday I helped out getting tons of working into the gallery. As the name suggests, all work must be less than 12" on any side. It looks to be a fun show with tons of good work, all priced at less than $300. Most pieces seemed to be priced between about $75 and $150. I wan unable to stay for the actual hanging of the work, so it will be interesting to see what it looks like in the wend. I have my favorites but it was so crazy, I can't remember their titles or who made them. I'll have a full review after I head back next weekend. The big fun will happen on the 22nd when the the whole arts district of Hyattsville opens up for the annual festival. Head over to the gallery early and buy art because plenty will be sold by the end of the festival.

Mark Rothko in the tower at NGA

The second in a series of "contemporary" exhibits in the Tower Gallery of the National Gallery of Art features 7 large Rothko paintings from 1964. Since I took the elevator up, I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of earlier Rothko paintings in the smaller area before the main tower gallery. The earliest works are smaller paintings that are somewhat rough around the edges. I don't know Rothko's biography well enough to make definitive statements but I would guess these did not meet with a lot of success. They are interesting simply for how they may help in understanding of his development. The works from the forties are more accomplished, with surrealist tendencies which Rothko and other New York School painters were employing at the time.

Unlike the first new tower show which presented Philip Guston's work in a straight up manner, the NGA has chosen to try to tie all of these works together in the context of Rothko's use of black. I personally find it a bit of a stretch. What becomes clear as one enters the main gallery is that these 7 paintings are not black. They are certainly dark but I was seeing purples, reds and blues. The essay material suggests that by sitting and looking at these paintings for an extended period of time you will notice subtle colors peaking out. Well, maybe I'm just super-observant(not likely), but this was simply obvious.

To make another connection,they chose to play Morton Feldman's chamber piece "Rothko Chapel" every half hour. It is a wonderful, contemplative piece which was first performed in the Rothko Chapel in Houston. Yes, these paintings were precursors to the cycle in the chapel but did its inclusion here really make sense. I happen to like Feldman, and this piece in particular, so I found it a nice touch.

So this is must see show, not necessarily to come to any conclusions about Rothko's use of black but for a chance to see a number of great, related paintings along with some earlier paintings that are not seen all that often.

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/rothkotowerinfo.shtm

New work

I have posted some new work to my portfolio. I'm particularly happy about these two. The first is a reworking of the Entanglements piece which began this series (36" Sq Acylic on Canvas)





The second is titled Untangled (also 36" sq acrylic on canvas)

Images

So I'm very happy with the way my work came together last weekend. The problem came with trying to get good images of them to send off. The surface is very important to my work. The paintings are created by building up dozens of layers of paint with a final surface that is rich, but subtle. The surfaces are quite glossy too, making the acrylic paint seem more like oils. This is an issue I will have to figure out soon.

Big Weekend

Well, I'm hoping. I was really getting some traction last weekend before this cold kicked my butt. I'm looking forward to digging back into these new works. I'll update later this weekend.

41st Annual Laurel Arts Guild Juried Exhibition

Just found out this morning that my painitng Nemesis was accepted to the Laurel Arts Guild Juried Show. There are a few artists that I am familiar with from Artomatic and artdc.org, so I can tell this should be a quality show that I'm very pleased to be part of. Here some basis info from their site:

41st Annual LAG Open Juried Exhibition - March 5 - 28

The juror, Michael Janis, is Co-Director of the Washington Glass School in Mt Rainier, MD and also has taught at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and at Istanbul’s Glass Furnace in Turkey. He was awarded a 2009 Artist Fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts as well as ‘Outstanding Emerging Artist 2008-2009’ by the Florida Glass Art Alliance. His work is in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Please visit the Montpelier Arts Center to see the artwork. The gallery is open 7 days a week from 10am - 5pm.

March 5 Exhibit opens to the public
March 7 Reception 2-4pm
March 28 Exhibit closes

Been a while

Since our main computer went down, I haven't been posting much anywhere. Today, I dropped off one of my paintings and two of Lori's to the multi-venue "Lust" show. I always say that I don't want to make work specifically for a show. I broke my own rule this time since it was a painting I have wanted to do. Unfortunately, I rushed the drawing and it did not come out as good as I would like. It also took me away from the series I'm working on. Anyway, I can get back to work on them today.