Loves and Fears Closing Party Fri Oct. 14

From the Loves & Fears Project © Susana Raab 2016 May not use except without express written permission

From the Loves & Fears Project © Susana Raab 2016 May not use except without express written permission

Its the last call for the Loves & Fears Project at 2208 MLK Avenue SE!

In conjunction with the openings at the Anacostia Arts Center down the road, I’ll be hosting the last studio hours this year to participate in the project.  It has been really wonderful having a chance to set up shop in the community and get to know you all.  I hope that those of you who have passed and by and thought about participating will do so, and that more urban adventurers will use this as an opportunity to cross the great boundary channel that is the Anacostia. Treat yourself!

Details:

Friday October 14, 2016  6-8:30 PM

2208 Martin Luther King Avenue SE

Loves & Fears is a community project which asks people to share their loves and fears, then sit for an accompanying portrait. The work is printed and posted around town, and will be used for publication and social media sharing.  All participants will be emailed a copy of their portrait and text.

This project was sponsored by the Anacostia Arts Center with support from the National Endowment of the Humanities.

 

 

The Loves & Fears Project returns to Anacostia

I’m pleased to announce that the Loves & Fears project has returned to southeast Washington at 2208 Martin Luther King Ave SE, within walking distance from the Anacostia Metro.  Hosted by Immersion, the brain child of the Arch Development Corp and supported with funds from the National Endowment in the Arts; Immersion brings together creative place makers to host participatory projects in the Anacostia Arts Center, and in  my case at a newly renovated row house next to Martha’s Table Outfitters on MLK near the Big Chair.

What is Loves and Fears you ask?  It is a simple concept.  What brings us together and what tears us apart? Love and fear.  I’m asking people to share their loves and fears then I take their portraits and place their portraits and words around town.  I’ve got other ideas for the project too, once I get enough participants.

So come on down, I have five sessions left. Thursdays 1 – 7 pm and Saturday 12 – 5 pm.

2208 MLK Ave SE.  Near the Anacostia Metro.

More details here.

 

Photographer Dolores Huerta Vivo @NPG talks about her life, art, & activism this Thursday 9/28 7pm sharp

A nice little programmatic offering for Hispanic Heritage Month by the National Portrait Gallery. Curator Taina Caragol is really keeping things moving over there.  Join me?

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with programs to highlight and pay tribute to the invaluable contribution of Latinos to American history and culture. As part of Hispanic Heritage Month, the museum features Living Self-Portrait: Dolores Huerta Thursday, Sept. 24, 7–8 p.m. | Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium Doors open at 6:30 p.m.  FREE & open to the public!

Dolores Huerta was a champion of the farm workers’ movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Hear more about her life and activism in a live interview with Taína Caragol, curator of Latino art and history at the Portrait Gallery. Huerta’s story is also told in the special exhibition “One Life: Dolores Huerta,” on view now. La Galería Nacional de Retratos del Smithsonian celebra el Mes de la Herencia Hispana en Washington D.C., con diversas actividades para destacar y rendir homenaje a la invaluable contribución de la comunidad latina a la historia estadounidense. Como parte del Mes de la Herencia Hispana, el museo presenta Retrato Vivo: Conversación con Dolores Huerta Jueves, 24 de septiembre, 7–8 p.m. | Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium Puertas abren a las 6:30 p.m. Evento gratis & abierto a todo el público!  Dolores Huerta fue campeona del movimiento de los trabajadores agrícolas de los años 1960 y 1970. Conoce más sobre su vida y su rol como activista en una conversación en vivo con Taína Caragol, curadora de arte e historia latina del museo. Dolores Huerta, Huelga, Delano CA Grape Strikes by Harvey Wilson Richards, 1965. Harvey Richards Media Archives © Paul Richards

Openings around town Labor Day Weekend: Robb Hill @ Glen Echo Photoworks; Louviere & Vanessa @Candela in Richmond

Torn I was. Between two lovers as it were. Which to attend? Louviere & Vanessa in Richmond or Robb Hill in DC?  Then the divine hand of fate intervened and will plucketh me to Nova Scotia with a friend for a last-minute road trip up the coast and I can do neither.  One must not stand in the way of divine hands. But don’t let that stop you from attending – it is just the beginning of some excellent Autumnal programing.

from Louviere & Vanessa’s Resonantia series

in Richmond-town we have an exciting exhibit by my good friends, husband and wife Louviere & Vanessa, who present their Resonantia series inspired by sound. Like everything they do, it is some crazy idea that only they could cerebalize and turn into beautiful prints.

“Louviere + Vanessa will transform Candela Books + Gallery into an immersive, multi-sensory environment, incorporating animated vinyl record, film, and abstract photographs. Their new series,Resonantia is a reflection of their extensive exploration through a multitude of media, blurring the line between sight and sound.

Resonantia encompasses 12 photographs that pointedly capture the changes in traveling compression waves, depicting the 12 basal notes of music. Their evolving concept of crossing the sensory barrier further led to the conversion of photographs into otherworldly soundscapes. Louviere + Vanessa’s multidisciplinary approach came full circle by re-visualizing all 12 photo-tones in the form of spectrograms. This artistic fusion encourages visitors to reconsider the experimental possibilities between sound and photography and to reflect on the transformation of the normally invisible.

Their harmonic exploration across photography and music translates into audible imagery that unifies the visceral senses of the time-based medium sound and the space-based form of photography.”

Maysles Film Festival @ National Gallery of Art in DC All Summer Long! @ngadc

My cup runneth over. Who needs that vote, when at least they are taxing us and giving us a Maysles Brother Filmfest.  All. Summer. Long. In the cool, hallowed halls of the National Gallery of Art, or more specifically the movie theater. Because who needs to be outside in the middle of the day in a DC summer. Am I right here?

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the oeuvre of the dynamic fraternal documentary duo, they are so much more than Grey Gardens, the documentary regarding reclusive mentally ill wasps related to Jaqueline Bouvier Kennedy (I know you might be thinking that reclusive mentally-ill wasp is a redundant statement, and I left out alcoholic, but hey, I’m trying to cut down on the personal disclosures labelling.)

Here’s the 411. Also, of course, I was exaggerating that I would prefer a filmfest to my constitutionally mandated vote in Congress.  Oh, to have one’s cake and eat it too:

Maysles Films Inc.: Performing Vérité

July 5–August 2

Albert Maysles (1926–2015) and his brother David (1931–1987) expanded the artistic possibilities for direct cinema by espousing “the eye of the poet” as a factor in shooting and editing cinéma vérité. Their trademark approach — capturing action spontaneously and avoiding a point of view — became, for a time, the very definition of documentary. This series focuses on their interest in art and performance and includes several screenings in original 16mm format. It is presented as a tribute to Albert Maysles, who died in March, 2015. Al often visited the National Gallery of Art; his wife Gillian Walker was the daughter of former Gallery director John Walker. Special thanks to Jake Perlin and Rebekah Maysles.

• share

Albert Maysles (far right) and David Maysles during the production of Salesman, 1968
courtesy Maysles Films Inc.

• Soldiers of Music — Rostropovich Returns to Russia

  July 5 at 4:00
  West Building Lecture Hall

  In 1990, Albert Maysles accompanied cellist and National Symphony Orchestra conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife Galina Vishnevskaya to their native Russia, their first trip in the course of a long exile. Soldiers of Music chronicles this historic reunion, as the couple is treated to a passionate, poignant homecoming. (Albert Maysles, Susan Froemke, Peter Gelb, and Bob Eisenhardt, 1991, 88 minutes)

  

• Horowitz Plays Mozart preceded by Anastasia

  July 10 at 2:00
  West Building Lecture Hall

  Horowitz Plays Mozart documents a legendary moment in the life of pianist Vladimir Horowitz: his first studio recording with a symphony orchestra in more than thirty years. He agreed to record with Milan’s La Scala Philharmonic but refused to allow any rehearsals to be filmed, until the very last one. (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Susan Froemke, and Charlotte Zwerin, 1987, 50 minutes)

  Anastasia, created at the height of the Cold War for the 1960s NBC news program Update — was an early Maysles work-for-hire about the dancer Anastasia Stevens, the only American in the Bolshoi Ballet. (1962, 8 minutes)

  

• Meet Marlon Brando preceded by Salvador Dalí’s Fantastic Dream

  July 11 at 2:00
  West Building Lecture Hall

  Meet Marlon Brando captures the actor at age forty, confronting journalists (in both English and French) with his typical wit and charisma on the subject of a new film project. (1965, 29 minutes)

  Dalí worked briefly to publicize the New York release of Richard Fleischer’s 1966 Fantastic Voyage. His campaign was documented by the Maysles brothers, then edited into the short subject Salvador Dalí’s Fantastic Dream (complete with cameo appearance from Raquel Welch, the artist’s muse at the time). (1966, 8 minutes)

  

• Jessye Norman Sings Carmen preceded by Orson Welles in Spain

  July 11 at 3:00
  West Building Lecture Hall

  Jessye Norman Sings Carmen is a gripping vérité study of the famous dramatic soprano’s approach to mastering Bizet’s heroine in recording sessions with Seiji Ozawa and the Orchestre National de France. Musical segments include performances of three arias and the great duets between Carmen and Don José (Neil Shicoff). (Albert Maysles and Susan Froemke, 1989, 57 minutes)

  Orson Welles in Spain catches the famous director pitching his ideas for an unusual film on a bullfighter. In classic fashion, the garrulous Welles pontificates on the art of the bullfight and on the state of the cinema. (1966, 10 minutes)

  

• What’s Happening! The Beatles in the USA

  July 12 at 4:00
  West Building Lecture Hall

  The Maysleses’ freewheeling account of the Fab Four’s first visit to the United States in February 1964 follows their historic tour for five days — from the riotous JFK airport reception to candid moments inside the Plaza Hotel to their historic Ed Sullivan Show appearance. (1964, 81 minutes)

  

• The Gates preceded by Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece

  July 19 at 4:00
  West Building Lecture Hall

  Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates — twenty-three miles of orange fabric-strewn arches positioned in Central Park — were on view in February 2005 for a fleeting sixteen days. As the grandest public art project in Manhattan’s history, The Gates required twenty-five years to steer through the New York bureaucracy. The final product thrilled the world. Quipped Mayor Michael Bloomberg, “I’ve never understood why anybody was against it.” (Antonio Ferrera, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Matthew Prinzing, 2007, 87 minutes)

  Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece documents the artist’s 1965 performance at Carnegie Hall, with Ono sitting motionless on the stage as audience members were invited to come forward and cut away bits of her clothing. (1965, 8 minutes)

  

• Sally Gross: The Pleasure of Stillness

  July 23 at 3:00
  West Building Lecture Hall

  New York choreographer Sally Gross — a former Judson Dance Theater member who was cast by Robert Frank in Pull My Daisy — is the subject of Maysles’s film on her stillflourishing career. The title echoes Gross’s work of the same name, which emerged from a Buddhist practice and her own peaceful center. (Albert Maysles and Kristen Nutile, 2007, 58 minutes)

  

• Christo in Paris

  July 24 at 2:00
  West Building Lecture Hall

  Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s first urban wrapping was the medieval Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris and site of the two artists’ courtship. While relating their love story, Christo in Paris also chronicles Christo’s flight from his family home in Bulgaria. (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Deborah Dickson, and Susan Froemke, 1990, 58 minutes)

  

• With Love from Truman followed by Accent on the Offbeat

  July 26 at 4:00
  West Building Lecture Hall

  Truman Capote reveals his personal thoughts on his book In Cold Blood, in a new genre he dubbed the nonfiction novel, “turning reality into art.” (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin, 1966, 29 minutes).

  In Accent on the Offbeat a dance and music collaboration unfolds at the New York City Ballet, with original choreography by Peter Martins and musical score by Wynton Marsalis. (Albert Maysles, Susan Froemke, and Deborah Dickson, 1994, 56 minutes)

  

• Grey Gardens

  August 1 at 1:00
  East Building Large Auditorium

  The now-famous aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Edith Ewing Bouvier and Edie Bouvier Beale, lived out their lives in a ramshackle Long Island estate. In 1975, while preparing for a film on Lee Radziwill, Albert and David Maysles arrived at the Beale household and at once became immersed in the lives of its extraordinary inhabitants. Criticized at first for exploiting the two women, Grey Gardens is now hailed as one of the greatest nonfiction works of the twentieth century. “So many people in other ways have had more successful lives. But who among their neighbors would ever be as successful a character in a movie as these two women?” — Albert Maysles. (Albert Maysles and David Maysles, 1976, 95 minutes)

  

• Salesman

  August 1 at 3:00
  East Building Large Auditorium

  Four average American men making a marginal living by hawking bibles in working-class neighborhoods are the subjects of the Maysleses’ beautifully crafted feature documentary — a masterwork of American nonfiction. As the film progresses, it becomes apparent that one of the four, Paul Brennan, has lost his knack to make the pitch and perform, and the camera tracks this apparent crisis. Albert and David Maysles traveled with the team of four, befriended them, and remained in touch for many years. (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin, 1968, 91 minutes)

  

• Gimme Shelter

  August 2 at 4:00
  East Building Large Auditorium

  David and Albert Maysles’s footage from the last of the epic 1960s rock ’n’ roll concerts symbolized the demise of the era’s counterculture and, as Pauline Kael cynically noted, “hit the cinema vérité jackpot.” As the concert — which featured, among others, the Grateful Dead, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and the Rolling Stones — was winding down, the infamous murder of Meredith Hunter was inadvertently captured on camera. “We structured our film around what actually happened; what came out was a surprise to us as well” — Albert Maysles. (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin, 1970, 71 minutes)

Consumed featured in London Exhibit of Syngenta Photography Awards through April 10

BBC Did a nice slideshow highlighting some of the works being shown in the Syngenta Photography Awards contest. This years theme was on Scarcity and Waste. Consumed is highlighted near the end of the slideshow. Thanks Syngenta and BBC! Congrats to Mustafa Abdulaziz! The show is on exhibit until April 10 in London.

Great Artwork + Good Cause = Washington Project for the Arts Select 2015. You’re Invited.

I was thrilled to have been chosen by the National Gallery’s Associate Curator of Photography Sarah Kennel to participate in the Washington Project for the Arts exhibition and auction (click the link to browse the works available online).

I’m in great company with good friends Hector Emmanuel and Lydia Panas (Kutztown PA’s own version of John Singer Sargent), and local favorites Terri Weifenbach, Frank Day, and Adam Davies, among other talented folks, many of whom are not even photographers. (I know, the horror, right?)

The actual auction for those of you who are not just art rubber-neckers but want to stock up on some good works or just be part of “the scene” is Saturday March 7 and tickets are available here.

The opening party is next Thursday January 29, and is gratis. Please come and browse.  Ridiculously good deals on artwork benefit the greater Washington artistic community by supporting the WPA, which received a DC Arts and Humanities award this year for just being a great contribution to arts in DC. I would have to concur.  Here’s more details:

SELECT 2015 consists of a 3-week public exhibition and a ticketed auction party to support contemporary art and the local artist community. The artists invited to participate in this exhibition were selected by a group of notable curators from some of the most important institutions in our region, emerging curators, and WPA’s Board of Directors.

EXHIBITION HOURS (FREE)

Thursday, January 29 through Friday, March 6, 2015

Wednesdays through Fridays: 4–11pm

Saturdays: 12 – 11pm

Sundays: 12 – 5pm

Mondays and Tuesdays: CLOSED

The exhibition is open to the public free of charge.

LOCATION:

Artisphere
1101 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA 22201

EXHIBITION OPENING RECEPTION (FREE)

Thursday, January 29, 2015, 6–9pm

CURATORS

Kristi-Anne Caisse, Assistant Director, American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC

Asantewa Boakyewa, Associate Curator, Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, Baltimore, MD

Jennifer Farrell, Curator of Exhibitions and Contemporary Art, The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

Sarah Hanley, Independent Print Curator and Critic, New York, NY

Ryan Holladay, New Media Curator, Artisphere, Arlington, VA

Sarah Kennel, Associate Curator, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Phyllis Rosenzweig, Independent Curator / Curator Emerita, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC

Brian Young, Curator, Arts Program, University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, MD

The Invisible Wall: Photographs from East of the River opens July 11 @ Vivid Solutions

 

Anthony, Anacostia Waterfront Park, Washington, DC 2014

So the little project I’ve been working in my backyard here, East of the River, is ready for its first recital at Vivid Solutions Gallery in historic Anacostia.  A short walk from the Anacostia metro station the opening will feature myself, photographs, audio, and vino.  Please Do come! Leave a comment, tell your friends, make a new friend.

Also in August I’ll be hosting a shoot for a new project at Vivid Solutions: The Hopes and Fears Project. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Here are the details:

OPENING RECEPTION: JULY 11, 6-9 PM 

EXHIBITION ON VIEW JULY 11 – AUGUST 29 

PORTRAIT EVENT WITH RAAB: AUGUST 2, 11 AM – 2 PM

 

1231 Good Hope Road SE · Washington DC 20020 (Inside Anacostia Arts Center) 202-365-8392 Hours: Tuesday – Friday noon to 5pm · Saturday 11am to 5pm

Susana Raab is a photographer at the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, and began documenting the communities surrounding the museum with a medium format and a 4×5 camera in 2008. Raab is interested in how these communities have formed and evolved over the past fifty years and how that visually manifests itself today. The images in The Invisible Wall: Photographs from East of the River are the result of her walks throughout the community, during which she seeks out scenes and subjects randomly, relishing the element of chance in her encounters and collaborations.

On August 2 from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.,Raab will set up her camera in the lounge of Anacostia Arts Center, to take photographs for another project, The Loves and Fears Project. She will be creating portraits with collaborators who will write down their greatest loves and fears. Each guest will receive a digital copy of their portrait.

 

 

Brussels Belgium: 25th Festival Couleur Café

 

A Chicken in Love, Athens, Ohio

Brussels Belgium: 25th Festival Couleur Café

If any of you all happen to be in Brussels this June 25-27 to attend the festival Couleur Café; Consumed will be showing at the adjunct Cool Art Café,.  Since 1988, artistic Commissioner Herman Bertiau , has curated this  haven of peace amidst the bustle and festivities, where visitors can stop to relax.

 

More details about the exhibit can be found here

Alejandro Cartegena @the Art Museum of the Americas

One of Washington’s little art nouveau/deco gems right off the Mall, the Art Museum of the America‘s will be hosting Alejandro Cartegena‘s series Suburbia Mexicana opening April 24 @ 6pm.