art

The 5pm Post – “Transformer responds to censorship with all day screening of David Wojnarowicz’ A Fire in My Belly”

By Prince Of Petworth

From a transformer press release:

The National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution
have CENSORED the 1987 video work
A Fire in My Belly, by David Wojnarowicz.

Under pressure from the Catholic League, The Smithsonian Institution has removed this work from the National Portrait Gallery’s current
Hide/Seek exhibition.

Transformer will begin showing this important video work
in our 1404 P Street, NW Washington, DC storefront project space
beginning at 1 pm today.

Youtube version here

For more information see Blake Gopnik’s
article in today’s Washington Post

In honor of World AIDS Day & Day With(out) Art, and the many alternative art spaces, visual arts organizations, artists, and activists around the world that have paved the path for freedom of expression & the existence of experimental arts venues like Transformer that champion the artist’s voice without constraints, we are proud to be able to share this work with DC audiences.

Many thanks to Patrick O’Connell and Visual AIDS for inspiration.
Additional thanks to our colleagues at Provisions Library.

I Think We All Need to See This Exhibit

By Prince Of Petworth

Right?

From Wikipedia:

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (also spelled Arcimboldi) (1527 – July 11, 1593) was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of such objects as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books — that is, he painted representations of these objects on the canvas arranged in such a way that the whole collection of objects formed a recognizable likeness of the portrait subject.

Pleasant Plains Workshop (Art Studio) Opens Up at 2608 Georgia Avenue NW

By Prince Of Petworth

Sorry I didn’t get to post about the Grand Opening on Sunday but I found out about it a bit too late. But it looks like this is going to be a great addition to Pleasant Plains. (This is the former home of Showoff apparel that we checked out in ’08.) According to their Web site:

Pleasant Plains Workshop is a shared studio space with a storefront that features works by its resident artists along with a rotating lineup of works and projects by other DC-based artists and designers.

Kristina Bilonick is a native Washingtonian who uses screen printing, found objects and other media to create art installations that are often interactive. She has shown her work at at local art spaces such as Transformer, Honfleur Gallery, and Civilian Art Projects. Kristina also has an ever-changing line of clothing, accessories and housewares. Her most popular items are her long ‘all over print’ cotton scarves featuring repeated prints such as marching buffalo or overlapping prints of foliage. By day, she is program director at Washington Project for the Arts.

Anthony Dihle / Fire Studio
Anthony Dihle has screen printed concert posters for local and internationally known bands such as Greenland, Exit Clov, Elvis Costello and Jay-Z. In addition to making work, he has curated multiple gallery shows at local art spaces such as Civilian Art Projects and the Athaneum, featuring works of other masterful printer-designers. Dihle also creates hand printed greeting cards and t-shirts.

I chatted briefly with Anthony who said that the storefront part will be opening on Saturdays the week after Thanksgiving.

I’ll be sure to update when special events take place.


Grand opening was smashed crowded!

Couple more shots after the jump. (more…)

9th St, NW News – Lounge Closes and Art Gallery Opens

By Prince Of Petworth

I’m embarrassed to say I forget the name of the lounge (it used to be called Nafka Restaurant ) located at 2010 9th St, NW near the 9:30 club but it has closed.

Further south on 9th St, it looks like a new gallery has opened up. Perhaps it’s just new to me but I never noticed it before the banner pictured below went up at 1306 9th St. NW. According their Web site, Zeki Gallery and Studio is run by:

“Zeki Findikoglu was born in 1946 in Iznik, Turkey. He lived in virtually every region of the Anatolian Peninsula. The rich variety of cultural and artistic traditions in Turkey developed into a lifelong interest. Zeki moved to the United States in 1973.

A professional artist since 1970 and an art professor since 1977, Zeki has gained international acclaim. His highly stylized paintings and prints incorporate Turkish culture and artistic contentions, extending them with a modern artistic vocabulary to provide a bridge between ancient and contemporary art. Zeki’s works have been exhibited in the US and Turkey, as well as Europe and Asia.”

Anyone ever check out the studio?

The 5pm Post – Artist Talk: Ousmane Sow at African Art Sat Nov 20 @ 2pm

By Prince Of Petworth


Image: Ousmane Sow, Toussaint Louverture et la vieille esclave, 1989. Mixed media. Museum purchase, through exchange from Emil Eisenberg and Mr. and Mrs. Norman Robbins, and with funds from Stuart Bohart and Barbara Portman, 2009-8-1. Photograph by Franko Khoury.

Date: Saturday, November 20
Time: 2 p.m.
Place: National Museum of African Art
mezzanine, sub-level 1
950 Independence Avenue, SW
Take Metro to Smithsonian Station

“Senegalese artist Ousmane Sow will make a rare appearance at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art to speak about his striking work, Toussaint Louverture et la vieille esclave (Toussaint Louverture and the elderly slave). The towering figure of Haitian leader Toussaint Louverture commemorates the bicentennial of the French Revolution and is the centerpiece of the museum’s new exhibition, African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting. The artist will discuss his monumental sculptures with his wife, photographer and filmmaker Béatrice Soulé. The event is free and open to the public.”

Guerrilla Street Art on Porter between Cleveland Park and Mt. Pleasant

By Prince Of Petworth

I sorta did a double take when I was walking down Porter this weekend from Cleveland Park towards Beach Drive and Mt. Pleasant. But when I took a closer look, it was def. some sorta street art/political statement. Some other walkers came over and I asked them what they thought. They said they found it, “Striking”. I’ll go on the record and say I like it.

What do you guys think?

Couple more shots after the jump. (more…)

Convention Center Hotel Ground Breaking – Awesome Jacket in Sidewalk Saved!

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo from twitter user MWTICE

At long last the convention center hotel is getting started! Thanks to twitter user MWTICE for sending the picture above letting me know that they’ve saved the the jacket in the ground which, I think we’ve said, comes from an old dry cleaners formerly on this spot. The ground breaking of the hotel is taking place today at 11am at 9th Street and Massachusetts Avenue, NW. More photos on the project as construction progresses.

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