art

Lori Graham Design and Contemporary Wing Opens This Saturday in Logan Circle

By Prince Of Petworth


1412 14th St, NW

From an email:

Lori Graham Design and Contemporary Wing [1412 14th St, NW] have finally torn down the paper and put out their signs!

Doors will be open to the public this Saturday at noon for the launch of the space’s first art exhibition presented by Contemporary Wing.

Contemporary Wing’s first exhibition in its new permanent home on 14th Street is Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi’s I’M COMING HOME. Doors will first be open to the public this Saturday, May 12 at noon (reception from 6pm to 8pm). Ilchi’s paintings explore the duality of her cultural identity as an Iranian–American. The new series reflects her ongoing interest in the fusion of visual codes of Western abstraction and traditional Persian Art, with an emphasis on the “Tazhib,” the Persian tradition of illumination the spoken word. The resulting synthesis evokes allegories of intrusion and invasion, referencing the historical and contemporary sociopolitical conflicts.

Lori Graham Design will host the grand opening of its furniture décor showroom – 1412- at the end of June, once Ilchi’s exhibition concludes.

The 5pm Post – Look Both Ways: Street Arts Across America

By Prince Of Petworth

From The Kennedy Center:

May 6-12, 2012, the Kennedy Center presents Look Both Ways: Street Arts Across America, which offers free performances and events at the Kennedy Center as well as locations around Washington, including large-scale spectacles, street musicians, parade culture, puppetry, circus arts, chalk drawings, clowning, and more. From a circus-punk marching band and political puppet theater to jugglers, contortionists, and stunt dogs, the electric energy of live interactive performance invades the streets of Washington.

The weeklong festival includes Look Out! Lunchtime Invasions throughout the city (Eastern Market, Half Street Fairgrounds, Woodrow Wilson Plaza, and Farragut Square) and Street To Stage performances at 6 p.m. on the Millennium Stage. Friday, May 11, the Look Up! Night Street Fair will feature Project Bandaloop dancing on the exterior of the Old Post Office Pavilion. Performers featured during the week come together for a final time at Street Arts in the Park, an afternoon of performances and activities on Saturday, May 12, in Yards Park along the banks of the Potomac River.

Artists and events featured during Look Both Ways: Street Arts Across America include Acrobuffos, Ambush, Karen Beriss, Bert the Nerd, Bread and Puppet Theater, Jonathan Burns, Nick Cave, Circolombia, Entomo, Exit Studio’s Edwin Fontánez, Paolo Garbanzo, Greenbelt S.I.T.Y. Stars, Happenstance Theater, Moira Lee, Lesole’s Dance Project, Midnight Circus, Mouth Monster, Mucca Pazza, Mutts Gone Nuts, Nana Projects, a National Children’s Museum juggling workshop, Natalia Paruz, Matt Pauli, Valeska Maria Populoh, Project Bandaloop, The Red Trouser Show, Michael Rosman, Swami Yomahmi, Sweet Heaven Kings, Rob Torres, Yamomanem, Yo-Yo People, and Evan Young.

See the full schedule here.

Before I Die…

By Prince Of Petworth

Thanks to a reader for sending the photo of the Before I Die art project from 14th and Q St NW (the coming soon Parc Deux.) From their Web site:

It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget what really matters to you. With help from old and new friends, Candy turned the side of an abandoned house in her neighborhood in New Orleans into a giant chalkboard where residents can write on the wall and remember what is important to them. Before I Die is a public art project that invites people to reflect on their lives and share their personal aspirations in public space. Painted with chalkboard paint and stenciled with the sentence “Before I die I want to _______”, the wall becomes an enlightening way to understand your neighbors and discover what matters most to the people around you. It creates a public space for contemplation and reminds us why we want to be alive in the world today. It’s a question that changed Candy after she lost someone she loved very much, and she believes the design of our public spaces can better reflect what matters to us as a community and as individuals. This was the basis for her graduate thesis.

The responses have ranged from the funny and creative to the thoughtful and heartbreaking: Before I die I want to… sing for millions, see my daughter graduate, eat a salad with an alien, straddle the International Date Line, see the leaves change many times, be someone’s cavalry, cook a souffle, hold her one more time, help numerous children, see what I’m like as an old man, tell my mother I love her, make peace with Ohio, abandon all insecurities, be completely myself… The project was featured in Oprah Magazine and NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams, and The Atlantic called it “one of the most creative community projects ever.”

After receiving many requests from people around the world, she and her Civic Center colleagues created a new project site and a Before I Die Toolkit to help you create a wall with your community! Thanks to your passion, this wall is turning into a global participatory art project and expanding to cities around the world, including Amsterdam, Portsmouth, Querétaro, Almaty, San Diego, Lisbon, Brooklyn, London, and beyond. You can also take a piece of the dream home with you with a limited edition painting and submit your dreams on the project site. The project is growing every day and together we can make public spaces that encourage us to reflect and lead better lives. Visit beforeidie.cc for more.

What the Helen of Troy is This?

By Prince Of Petworth

Dear PoPville,

While walking through the new Navy Yard park last week during my lunch break, I happened to pass through the old lumber shed that is currently being renovated.

The place is totally gutted with nothing going on at all right now….except for this!
What the heck is a miniature sky tram doing there? Yes…it actually is moving from one side to the other.

Is this some type of art installation? A secret form of advertising for something that is coming to this location?

I have no idea…so very random and unexpected.
Anybody know what this is all about?

I actually went to the baseball game last night and a friend of mine said it was art. Does anyone know more about this piece?

The 5pm Post – 150 belly dancers to perform at 10th annual “Under a Desert Moon” gala

By Prince Of Petworth

From an email:

“Sahara Dance, DC’s Center for Middle Eastern Dance, celebrates the
10th anniversary of this exhilarating performance with more than 150
belly dancers showcasing Egyptian, tribal, folkloric, and fusion
styles of belly dance, accompanied by a full, live band!

Saturday, April 28, 7:00 pm
Sunday, April 29, 3:00 & 7:00 pm
American University’s Greenberg Theatre
4200 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
Tickets: $35, Call (202) 885-2587 or choose your seats online.”

The 5pm Post – No Kings Collective’s 11 Day Flash Art Exhibit “The Water St. Project,” Launched in Georgetown

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo courtesy of Water St. Project

From a press release:

Who: No Kings Collective is proud to announce “The Water St. Project” an 11 day flash art exhibition and temporary gallery. No Kings Collective provides new, exciting and exclusive places for the arts and social events to occur.

What: No Kings Collective and The Popal Group, owners of Cafe Bonaparte and Napoleon Bistro, are proud to host a temporary creative space and gallery located along the Georgetown Waterfront at 3401 Water Street, NW in an unparalleled merger of fine art and music. This Georgetown space will become a premier cultural anchor for 11 days and will be comparable with the area’s creative and cultural institutions. The Water St. Project will be a transformative environment, one that will cater to the curiosities’ of the novice and the experienced onlooker. The property will be converted into a multidisciplinary “Flash” exhibition that will run from April 19th – 29th. Open to the public daily between 1pm and 7pm, with special evening programming throughout the 11 days.


Photo courtesy of Water St. Project

The 5pm Post – Countdown to Yuri’s Night Party April 14th

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo courtesy of organizers

From a press release:

Countdown to Yuri’s Night (C2YN), an out of this world art extravaganza—featuring 15 visual artists, 20 performers, and two bands—returns for a fifth year to celebrate the anniversary of the first human space flight. The event, held on Saturday, April 14th, honors cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin with live music, a spoofy SCI-FI stage show, burlesque performances, an art exhibition, a lunar dance party, and more.

A 21+ event, Countdown to Yuri’s Night, takes place Saturday, April 14, from 8pm to 2am, at Rosslyn’s Artisphere. (1101 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington VA 22209). Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 day-of/door. Visit www.c2yn.com for tickets, artist links, and announcements.

C2YN will occupy nearly all of the Artisphere’s futuristic spaces. The Dome will host “The Wrath of Shock-a-Khan,” a stage show punctuated with burlesque performances from DC and NYC starlets. The crew of the S.S.S. Gagarin gets flown for a loop when their old Starfleet Academy buddy Shock-a-Khan comes to call. This 45-minute show features Kittie Glitter as Captain Ballcrusher, Andrew Wodzianski as Drink Bot, Matt Grant as Number Two, and Lucrezia Blozia as Shock-a-Khan. Burlesque stars Candy Del Rio, The Reverend Valentine, GiGi Holliday and NYC’s Pinkie Special will keep the audience’s drive on warp and surf-rockers Atomic Mosquitos will use their infectious tunes sprinkled with the spacey sounds of a Theremin to for an exciting pre-show set.

The MEZZ Gallery will host the exhibition Elevator to the Moon: Retro-Future Visions of Space where 15 contemporary artists draw inspiration from 20th century predictions to create work that celebrates beautifully flawed ideas and inspires new visions for the future. Artists: Chris Bishop, Scott Brooks, Jared Davis, Dana Ellyn, Elstabo, Todd Gardner, Linas Garsys, Sherill Anne Gross, Emily Greene Liddle, Rob Lindsay, Chris Rackley, Matt Sesow, Scott Speck, Steve Strawn, and Andrew Wodzianski. A sneak preview is available on www.c2yn.com.

The Ballroom will blast off with the jazzy-ska band Eastern Standard Time. Called one of DC’s Best Bands by The Washington Post, E.S.T. has toured the universe…even traveling as far as Yuri’s homeland: Mother Russia. Space cadets can enjoy their sounds from the dance floor or the reduced-gravity chamber (moonbounce). After the live music set, DJ P.VO (host of the radio show Hometown Sounds) will embark on a lunar dance party guaranteed to make you want to moonwalk.

Throughout the event the atmosphere will be high with $5 Stoli drink specials (it was the first vodka in space after all), entertainment by DC’s premiere 60’s go-go troupe, Shake; the Jedi Guardians; Dieter’s Dance Party; the hooping wonders of Strange Powers, a special intergalactic edition of the “Spelling Buzz” spelling bee, and more. Costume Contests, geeky giveaways from ThinkGeek, final frontier photo ops and more complete this out-of-this-world event.

About Yuri’s Night:
On April 12, 1961, Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin embarked on the historic first manned space flight. Every year around April 12, Yuri’s Night parties are held all around the world; it’s like St. Patrick’s Day or the Fourth of July for space. Countdown to Yuri’s Night is an artistic spin on this science holiday. C2YN started in 2008 when Jared Davis wanted to engage artists’ perspectives and the average earthling more fully in the celebration.

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