art

We Are Monsters at Pleasant Plains Workshop. Photo courtesy Steve Loya.

Old Fashioned New Media at Flashpoint: So far May seems to be a big month for technology-oriented art in D.C. This Friday, Flashpoint presents four conceptual and installation artists who work with technologies ranging from telegraph machines to overhead projectors to surveillance cameras. They may work in different mediums, but Andy Holtin and Chandi Kelley (both D.C.-based), as well as Jamie O’Shea and Christine Buckton Tillman, share an interest in the “development of tools used to document our lives and communicate.” On view May 13 to June 11. Opening reception on May 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. Metro: Gallery Place – Chinatown.

Cold Light: Bioluminescent Evolution at The Fridge: The latest exhibition at The Fridge also merges science and art, but focuses away from human interaction. “Cold Light” is the exploration of three D.C.-based artists into fluorescence and bioluminescence, or the light given off by living things. By shining UV light on to his scenes, Jeremy Tidd photographs wintry landscapes through the eyes of some of the creatures that inhabit it. Beth Hansen creates “sculptural creatures” in fabric that only manifest themselves under certain light conditions. I’m looking forward to Katie Schuler’s paintings of bioluminescent organisms, especially after seeing her educational (and pretty adorable) video “Andy the Anglerfish” online. On view May 14 to June 5. Added bonus: there will be a “scientist talk” on May 28 from 3 to 5 p.m. Metro: Eastern Market.

We Are Monsters at Pleasant Plains Workshop: Pleasant Plains Workshop is a relatively new printing studio and gallery space on Georgia Ave., but their current show of monster-inspired art is receiving a good amount of local attention. With 20 artists participating, including Adam Dwight & Dana Maier, who just rounded out a show at Flashpoint, the monsters are all over the place — on display are paintings, works on papers, sculptures, collages and dolls. While the presentation is modest (some of the works are suspended from binder clips attached to pushpins), the artists’ approaches to the “monster” theme are often interesting and unexpected. On view until June 4. Metro: Columbia Heights or Metrobus: 70/71.

Recent Photography Acquisitions at the Corcoran Gallery: The Corcoran has continued to accumulate a phenomenal collection of photography in recent years. This summer they’ll have on view works recently acquired from Washington Center for Photography founder Sharon Keim and an anonymous donor, including some by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alex Webb, Brett Weston and Barbara Crane. For those normally deterred by the admission fee, keep in mind that the museum’s “Free Summer Saturdays” start in two weeks. On view May 14 to Aug. 28. Metro: Farragut West or Farragut North.

Short list:: Windows and Paper at Foundry Gallery; Nancy Cohen: Estuary and Other Landscape-Inspired Work at the Textile Museum; New Work by Hamiltonian Fellows at Hamiltonian Gallery; The Infinite Reduced to 2968 at the Washington Project for the Arts.

From an email:

“ARTAfternoon Creative Camp
BRAINS!
Saturday

Kids ages 6 – 12

Youth will be led through lands of imagination and
memory — using painting, drawing, installation and
video practices to create original works of art. The
program will culminate in an exhibition showcase for
family/friends in the Education Lab at Artisphere.

DETAILS: Education Lab at Artisphere 1-4PM
EVERY SATURDAY 21 MAY – 16 JULY, 2011
8 sessions art making + exhibition showcase
Led by artist Marissa Long
Fee: $270 / LIMITED SPACE REGISTER TODAY!”

ArtBrains@ArtisphereFlyer&Form

dNASAb, Dataclysmic 1, 2010, LED screen, Digital Media Player, LEDs, steel, silicon, plastic, fiber optics, 720P HD video, Dimensions variable. Photo courtesy of Irvine Contemporary and the Artist.

Meet the Artist: Julian Schnabel at the Hirshhorn Museum: The event isn’t for another two weeks, but advance tickets go on sale today and are sure to disappear fast. Known for self-aggrandizing (he once dubbed himself “as close to Picasso as you’re going to get in this f**king life”), Schnabel first gained notoriety for his broken-plate paintings in the 1980s and went on to write and direct several critically acclaimed films. On May 12 the artist will introduce a screening of his 2007 film “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” which earned him a Golden Globe. The following night he’ll discuss his work and relationship with Blinky Palermo. FREE. Tickets on sale today. Film screening on May 12 at 8:30 p.m. Artist talk May 13 at 7 p.m. Metro: Smithsonian or L’Enfant Plaza.

Dataklysmos at Irvine Contemporary: This Saturday Irvine will unveil new multimedia installations by Brooklyn-based artist [dNASAb] that explore the hidden physicality of
digital technology. The artist’s work, influenced in part by Nam June Paik’s electronic media projects, includes trippy video art and “sculptures” of LED screens bursting open to reveal brilliant, neon guts made of optical fiber, silicon and plastic. FREE. Opening reception on April 30 from 6 to 8 p.m. On view April 30 to June 4. Metro: Dupont Circle.

Liminal Light at Project 4: The latest exhibition at Project 4 features five artists who explore the duality of black and white and how the use of light can denote either the real or the otherworldly. The theme yields mesmerizing results in painting, collage and works on paper, such as Loie Hollowell’s ethereal drawings on denim and Ander Mikalson’s incorporation of smoke and breath as signifiers of the passing of time. FREE. Opening reception on April 30 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. On view April 30 to Metro: U Street-Cardozo.

Anne Rowland at Hemphill Fine Arts: Anne Rowland’s beautifully composed landscapes read more like intimate portraits. Shot using a robotic camera mount called a GigaPan and then combined digitally, the images depict farmland in rural Virginia and explore man’s paradoxical
relationship with nature. FREE. On view until June 4. Metro: Dupont Circle.

Short list: “Dynasty: Collecting, Classifying, and Connoisseurship” at the National Gallery of Art; Artist Panel at Hamiltonian Gallery; Corridor Artists Panel at the Art Museum of the Americas.

Work by Terri Weifenbach on view Friday at Civilian Art Projects. Image courtesy Civilian Art Projects.

Adam Dwight & Dana Jeri Maier: Off in a Corner: at Flashpoint Gallery: The two sets of work now on view at Flashpoint purport to share the theme of “issues of drinking and adulthood.” But a more compelling lens through which to view them is the artists’ approach to the subconscious — all of the works blur the line between highly planned dreamscapes and automatic drawing. Maier’s hundreds of bar coaster doodles depict impossible, biomorphic constructions and sometimes sad, sometimes whimsical portraits. Dwight’s nightmarish paintings and installations delve into the biography of MADD founder Candy Lightner. On view until May 7. Discussion panel on April 21 at 6:30 p.m. followed by a “Drink ‘n Draw,” in which attendees are invited to nearby bars with the artists, who will create new drawings to be distributed. FREE. Metro: Gallery Place-Chinatown.

“Philip Guston: A Life Lived” at the Phillips Collection: This hour-long documentary, filmed in 1980 during Guston’s final retrospective, tracks the painter’s progression from his early experimentation to Abstract Expressionism to the cartoonish figuration that would come to be his signature style. Guston, who died shortly after filming, narrates the film and is seen painting in his Woodstock studio. Included in admission to special exhibitions and free for members. April 21 at 6:30 p.m. Metro: Dupont Circle.

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