ArtCade Forum

Definition
Celina Amaya, Steve Ioli, Patrick McDonough, Teresa Sites
Curated by Academy Artist, Diane F. Ramos
July 11 - August 10, 2008
Opening: Friday, July 11, 2008, 6pm - 8pm

Washington, DC - July 6, 2008 - Paintings by first year MFA students from the George Washington University will be exhibited at SOVA Espresso and Wine bar, 1359 H St NE, from July 11 – August 10. The show is concurrent with Connor Contemporary’s ACADEMY 2008 and is curated by Academy artist Diane F. Ramos. Opening reception will be Friday, July 11, from 6-8pm.

Ramos curated Definition based on her opinion that the particular artists chosen superbly define themselves through their medium and, in turn, actively define the medium of painting through themselves. Featured works include those by GWU artists Celina Amaya, Steve Ioli, Patrick McDonough, and Teresa Sites. Visuals of the respective artists’ works are available upon request.

Also, in an effort to maintain the intensity and further the blossoming art scene on the H Street Corridor, Frank Hankins of SOVA volunteered his wine bar space for the show, which exhibits select artists on occasion. Ramos, Hankins, and the artists see the exhibition as an enriching occasion and are excited for the opportunity to engage the community in Definition.

“This is a chance to exhibit our work, to create a discussion with community members and visitors, and to do so in an accessible manner,” said McDonough. “It is a fantastic way for us as emerging artists to get involved in the growing cultural scene that is H Street.”

I’ve been on hiatus from the blog because Marissa Botelho and I along with a team of AMAZING artists have been slaving over putting this show together. The show has been in the making since January. I hope you can come out on this Saturday, June 28th and support the art! Special thanks to our promoters The Pink Line Project, Echelon Productions, and All Our Noise. As well as a VERY SPECIAL thank you to Danielle Thereoux her mad graphic design skills!

click the on the image below to see images from the show!

THE BOBBY FISHER MEMORIAL BUILDING PRESENTS ITS FINAL EXHIBITION

GIRLISH WAYS
THE NEXT GENERATION OF FEMALE ARTISTS
A selection of twelve artists under the age of 35 investigate how contemporary lifestyles effect and re-define the women of this generation.

Curated by Rachel Fick and Marissa Botelho

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 28th, 7-10pm with live performance art
1644 North Capitol Street NW, Washington DC 20002
June 28th-July 6th, Open on Saturday and Sundays 12pm-5pm, and by appointment

The Bobby Fisher Memorial Building is pleased to announce the opening of Girlish Ways: The Next Generation of Female Artists, an exhibition examining how contemporary lifestyles effect and re-define the women of this generation. The exhibition recognizes exceptional female art students and graduates of BFA and MFA institutions around the United States and Canada. Girlish Ways explores youthful and mature concerns of the women involved, as well as how these women respond to their changing environments. Various issues are investigated, including cultural re-location, sexuality, public image, and post-feminism. Girlish Ways uses a range of subtle and overtly post-feminist art to engage the viewer in this diverse generation of women artists. The exhibition consists of a multitude of media and a live performance on the opening night by Lauren Bender.

Satomi Shirai, Hunter College MFA Candidate 2009, uses large scale photography to depict cultural connections and disconnections that were results of moving from Japan to New York City.

Amy Misurelli Sorensen, American University MFA 2008, paints multiple face masks as consequences to distorted images of female sexuality imposed by an Italian Catholic upbringing.

Amber Hawk Swanson, School of the Art Institute of Chicago MFA 2006, explores the interplay between repulsion, desire, and surrender. By inserting a sexually available replica of herself into already charged environments, the possibility of peril often interrupts allegiance to the social codes of each space.

Pierrette Montone, Corcoran College of Art + Design BFA 2008, creates a playful mural on femininity in a post-feminist generation.

Lauren Bender, received a BS in Honors Painting at Towson University 2003, performs CorpOreo a piece that investigates the self/other and a breakdown of communication, influenced by the real-life experience of being a twin.

Sara Hubbs, the George Washington University MFA 2008, installs Hides ‘N Heels, a sculpture that deals with concepts of place, commerce, and notions of femininity as seen through two opposing viewpoints; one of a frontier-like mentality and one in search of authenticity or essence.

Trish Tillman, School of Visual Arts MFA Candidate 2009, uses deceptively simple linework, bright colors, and abstracted yet familiar forms in her drawings and overflowing closet sculpture to seduce the viewer into confronting themes of personal growth, psychological confinement, and self-imposed displacement.

Meg Onli, School of the Art Institute of Chicago BFA 2008, exhibits preliminary drawings and letters that have led to a current month-long performance that entails retracing the steps of a mulatto lesbian on the Underground Railroad between Rockville, Maryland and the historical settlement of Dawn, Canada. The walk began on June 3rd, 2008 and is anticipated to end in early July, 2008.

Pamela Norrish, Alberta College of Art + Design BFA Candidate 2009, displays an array of delicate music boxes that resemble female body parts. These seemingly childish toys hold uncomfortable female expectations as the viewer winds up the box and puts it into motion.

Zoe Blackwell, California College of Art BFA 2008, shows embroidered poly-satin swatches that explore our human tendencies to recognize and assign code, pattern, secrecy, and preciousness. Simple tags hang quietly off of each swatch to push and pull the meanings of the embroidered words into a myriad of directions.

Lauren Rice, American University MFA 2008, uses found objects that have masculine and feminine connotations to transform one of the second floor galleries into a space that is both gaudy and beautiful.

Roxxanne Reed, Corcoran College of Art + Design BFA Candidate 2009, uses the films of Kenneth Anger in a futile attempt to eradicate any trace of femininity in a recontextualized video that begins in the realm of dreams and ends in the peace of sleep.

VARC (Visual Arts Resource Center) is a collective of DC area arts organizations that has a booth at this year’s Artomatic. Along with Oz, Katrine, and Dave, I will be representing ArtCade @ the VARC meet and greet Pizza Party. You’ll be able to mingle with other Washington area arts leaders and artists. A bunch of my favorite DC art non-profits will be there with us (Transformer, Ellipse, Arlington Arts Center, and Pyramid Atlantic) Free pizza and beer will be provided. Kudos to Kristina Bilonick and the Washington Projects for the Arts for putting VARC together! It’s a guaranteed good time. It’s as if networking is being handed to you on a plate, this could also be a possible way for students to meet future employers in the arts. http://wpadc.org/events/current.html

That same night, Pink Line Project and Scion is having an event, Art-O-Sound (double whamee!). So you HAVE TO bookmark Thursday for Artomatic. Our lovely Ding Ren of the George Washington University MFA Program will be performing with her band Bible-Kiss-Bible as well as Baltimore’s Lauren Bender and Bonner Sale. Lauren will also be performing on June 28th at the Bobby Fisher Memorial Building for a show I am curating with Marissa Botelho. I’ll post up more information on the show in a couple days.

click photo to enlarge

I have been in email correspondence with Hwa Hyun recently. She is arising second year at MICA’s MFA Department at the Hoffberger School of Painting. I’d like to share with you some of Hwa Hyun’s words on her works.

“Basically what I am doing is creating images of the male body as an object of the female gaze and desire.

I grew up reading Manga (you were very keen to point out the ‘cartoonish’ rendering.) The term ‘Manga’ refers to a form of graphic novel (comic books with long narratives) that is very popular in East Asia. There are various kinds of Manga, but the specific genre that I was interested in was Romance Manga. The storyline is similar to that of Harlequin romance novels, and the male characters, drawn in highly decorative and stylized way, are not heroic or strong but very beautiful, sweet and romantic.

I thought Manga and its boy characters were the most honest reflections of the female desire. Novels, movies or even computer games have to have some connection to the ‘reality,’ but these Mangas are creations of pure fantasy and they can totally cut their ties from reality. In other words, it doesn’t matter if these ‘dream boys’ can never exist in real life or not. (They could, if Romance Manga were to become a mainstream phenomenon and take on the role of culturally educating the behavior of men just like how mainstream literature and cinema has been controlling the behavior of women by continuously imposing stereotypes into our everyday life. But that’s another story.) The point is, these Mangas show exactly what women want from men –or (Asian) girls want from boys– without having to make any kind of compromise with the terms of reality (ex. Men are stronger than women, physically and socio-politically, therefore there are limits to what women can demand.. these conditions can be completely ignored in Manga.)

By painting my figures in a Manga-esque way (with the outlines, huge eyes, exaggerated lashes, hair & lips), I am making a direct visual quote on where they come from: a fantasy world that is all about what the girls want. It may be a male body that is depicted, but it is the female subjectivity outside the frame that is really in control of the image.

The “effeminate” appearance of Manga boys come from a certain character in a Japanese Manga. He was the archetype/canon of all the pretty Manga boys, modeled after a then 17-year-old Skandinavian actor. The Manga was a huge success and from then on almost all Romance Manga boys typically have the look of a slender, androgynous caucasian adolescent. I personally think that the wide acceptance of such effeminate male characters was becuase they seem less threatening to Asian women, and therefore more approachable and endearing. Not many Asians are attracted to macho muscular hunky football players. I guess it’s a cultural thing .

Giving delicate physiques to boys also suggests that it’s easy to have control over him. I went a step further by placing them in poses and situations that women have been in throughout art history. There obviously is a switch on gender roles, but I’m not paintings these boys merely to get back at how women have been treated in visual culture. I earnestly think that the male body is beautiful, and it is worth taking the time to look at them as nothing but something beautiful and desirable.” Hwa Hyun

Meg and Oli in on the roof of the Kennedy Center, the night before they begin walking the Underground Railroad

Washington, DC
Rachel Fick

“I guess this is the poor kid’s version of the post-college Euro Trip. I’m walkin’ America!,” Meg Onli, a recent BFA graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, told me two nights ago. It was the night before she began a journey that will inevitably change her life. Yesterday morning, June 3rd, 2008, Meg embarked on trip that is expected to last one month: retracing the steps of Naomi Redfield, a runaway mulatto lesbian slave along the Underground Railroad. The walk began in a suburban neighborhood of Rockville, Maryland and will end in the historical settlement of Dawn, Canada. Although Naomi is a fictitious story book character, she is based upon real life slaves that Meg feels akin to. Meg has spent the past year taking notes, writing letters, working out, and precisely mapping out her walk, down to where she intends to set up camp at night.

I can’t help but think about Meg right now, as the rain pours down like cats and dogs here in Washington. It has probably made the past couple of days a wretched start for Meg. I am also thinking about the brand new white Adidas that Meg bought specifically for the trip. As a friend of Meg, I know that she is infamous for her love for Adidas. These summer storms have quickly popped the cherry on the pristine white sneakers. Meg plans on exhibiting the Adidas as sculptures after the walk is done, as well as other mementos from the expedition.

Thankfully, Meg’s best friend, Oli is joining her for moral support (Oli also tells me that he’d like to loose a few pounds on the trip). Oli will be with Meg on the walk until Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh, Meg will then be joined by her girlfriend Lauren Vallone, who will walk with Meg until Canada. And from Canada another one of Meg’s best friends will join her till they reach Dawn. Meg’s extremely close relationships with her friends will play an important part in this physically and mentally difficult journey. Oli has started Meg off on a journey before during a previous project. Last fall Meg spent a month homeless in New York, it was Oli who spent the first week with her. After Oli left to return to Chicago, Meg felt the most alone and vulnerable she had ever felt, being stranded in an alien city without a home. I asked Meg the other night, what she expects to get out of the walk. She replied, “I don’t know. I just know that I will come out of it changed. All of my other projects similar to this have changed me. My friends say it’s just ‘the many steps of Meg growing up.’ ”

Meg Onli is photographing and journaling the whole experience. Afterwards she plans on writing a book reflecting on the project, and perhaps an audio guided walking tour on the Underground Railroad.

Meg Onli grew up in Los Angeles and is based in Chicago, you can check out her website here. You may already be aware of Meg through her popular art pod-cast Bad At Sports. You will be able to view Meg’s preparations for this Underground Railroad project here in Washington, DC beginning on June 28th in a group exhibition I am curating at the Bobby Fisher Memorial Building. More information will come soon, but for now, save the date. Oli is also a very inspiring artist. His short height and young features often allow him to play off as a ten year old. Oli has integrated himself into childhood boy scenarios, for instance, joining a little boy’s baseball team. The performances are documented through video, as the viewer of the videos is well aware that Oli is 28, not ten years old.

three rising second year MFA students at the School of Visual Arts are having a phenomenal show that opens on this Wednesday, June 4th. Check out the work and meet the artists- you really do want to meet them. Rebecca is one of the funniest, most memorable characters to ever enter your life and Kahori is a complete Japanese sweetheart. More info on the exhibition here. -Rachel

Westside Gallery
133/141 West 21 Street
New York, NY 10011
212.592.2145

Kahori Kamiya

Rebecca Goyettes

Theodoros Zafeiropoulos

I just wanted to plug this interview with my friend Alex Ebstein (what a cutie!) who writes for the There Were Ten Tigers Art Blog. the interview is found here on Radar.

-rachel

I’m vacationing/ baby sitting a cat in Brooklyn this week, hence the lack of postings lately. But my DC transplant friends (Jacqueline Albano, Nathan Manuel, Trish Tillman, David William) and I checked out the Olafur Eliason solo exhibition at the MOMA a couple days ago. Here are some fun photos! Although not all of them are shown in the photos, you should check out the art links I posted to each of them. They deserve a good plug. -Rachel

I didn’t graduate, but several of my friends did! The commencement ceremony was unforgettable, to say the least. Senior Nic Carr and professor Casey Smith gave stirring and nostalgic speeches, but it was fourth year Genevieve Coco who stole the stage even from honorary speaker, Annie Liebovitz. Genevieve gave a speech that was somewhat akin to Andrea Fraser’s Official Welcome, in the fact that Genevieve stripped down during her talk. Genevieve revealed costume of a bikini and red cape with a spear to copy Leonidas as she chanted at the end of her speech, “This is not MICA! This is not RISD! This is the Corcoran!” I laughed so hard I cried. Afterwards, Annie Liebovitz gave an inspiring talk about her years at art school in San Francisco leading to her big break with Rolling Stone Magazine. You can read more about Liebovitz’s speech here on the Washington Post. -Rachel

photo by Eric Klug

Annie Liebovitz and Alex Diaz

Cory May and Genevieve Coco

Bummer! Transformer’s DIY site specific exhibition, Here and Now, at the 1840 14th St. location has been shut down by the city. You can still support the efforts of Transformer and the Here and Now artists by going to Comet Ping Pong next Saturday night (May 31st) at 9:30 for a party that will include projected photos of the art and programming that took place at 1840 14th St. as well as musical spins by Iona Rozeal Brown. TAKE NOTE, parts of the exhibition will continue to remain open at Transformer’s P St. gallery with artist Jennifer Burkley Vasher who will have work on view until this Saturday, May 24th. A second Transformer P St. installment of Here and Now will open on Saturday May 31st which will include work by Mariah Johnson and Valerie Molnar. Check out Transformer’s website for images of the closed 14th St. exhibition and the DCist for the back story on the closing.

image of Mandy Burrow’s This Place, taken from TransformerGallery.org

Happy surfing!!! -Rachel

University of Maryland College Park MFA Community Blog
Sarah Laing, an MFA candidate of UMCP, emailed me today introducing me to this local blog run by the MFA candidates at the University of Maryland College Park. Their thesis exhibition is currently on view at the Art Gallery of UMCP, more information and a snazzy slide show can be found here. I am very elated to have received Sarah’s email and look forward to the UMCP involvement in ArtCade events!

New York Studio Program Re-launched Website
AICAD (the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design) is the art school accreditation/consortium that fosters the New York Studio Program- an intimate one semester residency for undergraduate and graduate students of participating schools. The new website is chock full of images, information, and alumni tools. Bowman Kelley of BK Design of Memphis, TN created this crisp website.

University of Pennsylvania MFA Thesis Website
I couldn’t get to UPenn’s MFA opening on Saturday, but this will suffice. The exhibit is on display at the Ice Box Project Space until June 6, 2008.

WQHS UPenn Student Radio Station (The Upper Cut)
My friend, Antonio McAfee, is an MFA candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. Antonio is just as passionate about music as he is for the visual arts. I don’t have the time to search for new music, hence, I’ve been listening to Antonio’s Monday evening radio show, The Upper Cut, for fresh toonage. To stream and download music from the show you can check out The Upper Cut’s blog.

Hundreds of BFA recipients of the Maryland Institute College of Art opened their final undergraduate show this weekend in an overwhelming exhibition that spanned five buildings. There was so much art everywhere that it was impossible to rest your eyes and difficult to focus on a single piece. But here are some snapshots of my favorites. Perhaps it’s my own personal bias, but I think that Giuliana Pinto’s installation was hands down the best piece in the show because of the way people were so eager to interact with it. The piece demanded attention amongst the thousands of other pieces of art exhibited. Earlier stages of the installation can be found here when I visited her studio back in April. -Rachel

Giuliana Pinto’s installation
Me awkwardly lying on Giuliana’s installation
Jacolby Satterwhite
Decker Gallery Installation Shot
Ginger Lukas $100,000 Policy
Daniel Wallace Because if There is One, There are Two
from Chajana denHarder’s (In)Out Series
Nik Pence
Sarah H. Sachs Random Access Memory 1-5
Erika Kim

We had another enjoyable crit night last Tuesday evening. For me personally, it was great to get feedback on my art from my peers at other schools, helping me flesh out the direction I want to take the work in. Not only that, it was also awesome to see work and hear dialog that my Corcoran peers would not usually bring up in class critique. My apologies for the lo-fi photos from my camera phone. -Rachel