Bye Bye, Blueflip!

BlueflipArt.com will be closing at the end of July. They featured high quality giclee prints from many artists, including the three pictured here from myself, and connected artists with charity organaizations, so that they could donate part of the proceeds of the sales to whichever charity they wished. Matt at Blueflip was really great to work with, and it was obvious he cared a lot about what he was doing, and about all of the people involved in it. I'm really sad to see Blueflip go.

You can still make orders for the month of July, but after that Blueflip will be gone. So...get out there and do some shopping, people.

P.S. Half of the proceeds of sales of my prints go to benefit the Smile Train organization. Other artists on Blueflip have picked a wide variety of charities to support, so go check it out and grab some prints before they are no more.

Poketo Dreambook

Poketo's website offers a great store full of arty giftage- prints, t-shirts, doodles printed on this that and the other thing. I got most excited when I ran across this flickr stream of photos of the Poketo dreambook, a sketchbook that is being passed from one Poketo artist to another to another and so forth. Quality, quirky doodles, says I.

Emmanuel Smague

This is a somewhat self-gratifying post, but I hope that other people find these photos worth looking at... I've been obsessed with photography for a brief period of time (maybe 8-9 years...) Myself not being a great photographer I like looking at other people's work. This is one of the people. Emmanuel Smague is a music teacher and lives in Lannion, France. It is somehow fitting that these images were taken by someone who understands music. Each image seems to transcend barriers of language and speaks on purely emotional levels. Now, go watch "Vodka Lemon."



http://flickr.com/photos/emmanuel_smague/

Lee Piechocki

Lee Piechocki is a resident artist with Kansas City's Urban Culture Project.On third fridays there is a downtown artwalk including artists open studios, whereupon you can come across Lee's work in the Partnership Place 13th floor studios. Lee's most recent works are a series of still lifes, which look strangely and generically like artist studios where odd objects (such as a gutted stag) are lying about. Lee also works in tiny sketchbooks, filling pages and pages with naive colorful doodles that, to quote him loosely "sometimes become something, sometimes don't". He also takes on odd project pieces- painting on tiny wooden blocks or magazine pages, or whatever happens to be around and interesting.

Charles & Ray Eames Stamps Now Available!

So for awhile now I've seen it posted on like every single design blog out there that these Charles & Ray Eames stamps were going to be available this summer. Well, I am happy to report that they are here and now available on USPS online (as well as possibly at your local post office). So go out and get your Eames on already.

Erling Sjovold

Erling Sjovold is currently showing at Gescheidle Gallery in Chicago. Having written an artist statement or two, I always struggle with saying something that sheds a little light on the work but doesn't seem like a dissertation. I think Erling's statement is perfect, so I"m just going to quote it here:

"I paint light but have trouble with time.

Lately I think about what friends have said:

At a party I overheard Smoov Brainz say, "I can't help it that I'm a visionary, so don't even ask".

Tim got the demotion he wanted and said, "Down is the new up"

Chris said, "I have never had use for a theory that said what art couldn't be". That was around 2000 or 2001, I still think of it.

Grave Dubz's legendary master's thesis: "Indecision: Crimes Against the Illusion of Mastery"

Paul Green's aphorisms:
"Sentimentality is a burglar who only enters to leave his jewels behind"
"If you correct every error you will never find the perfect mistake"
"Integrity untested by honest whoring is merely conformity"

Between statements like these and images I reconstruct from looking around my house and the newspaper, I make my paintings."

Check out the show, which also features Patrick W. Welch, Grave Dubz & Smoov Brainz (June 6-28).

Affordable Art Fair

Allison Edge/Like the Spice Gallery
Andrew McAttee/Gallery One
Gina Triplett/Mauger Modern Art

This weekend the Affordable Art Fair is happening in NYC. There are 70-plus galleries (check the website for a full listing) exhibiting in this international display of art priced from $100 - $10,000.

Details:

Where: The Altman Building / Metropolitan Pavilion
135 West 18th Street, NYC

Fair Hours:
Fri June 13, 12pm - 8pm
Sat June 14, 12pm - 8pm
Sun June 15, 12pm - 5pm

Admission:
General Admission $17/day
Students and Seniors $12/day
Group discount rates $10/day
Children under 12 FREE

Scott Barry (Bott Scarry)

Scott Barry is a San-Francisco based artist and designer. His illustration work and graphic design is somewhat reminiscent of design rockstars from the sixties. Bott mostly works in ink on paper, but also there is the occasional digital collage... exemplified in the color piece shown here, called "meaties".He produces limited edition zine-like books of his work, mostly full of ink drawings. You can purchase Bott's work through Receiver Gallery, where he had his first solo show this past April. Also, check out his website, at Sacred Mtn.com.

"Nice to Meet You" at TAG art Gallery

Andrew Hem
Terri SaulKeith Greiman

Maura Cluthe


This Saturday evening there is a reception for the opening of a group show at TAG Art Gallery (Nashville, TN) called "Nice to Meet You". It is a mix of the gallery's regulars (Maura Cluthe, Keith Greiman) and new faces to the gallery, like Andrew Hem. The show will run from June 7th till June 28th.

TAG has been operating since 2000 and shows a mix of local, national, and international artists.

Artists in the show: Terri Saul, Keith Greiman, Greg Gossel, Mary Addison Hackett, Maura Cluthe, Andrew Hem

TAG art gallery is located at:
83 Arcade Building
Nashville TN 37219

Kavi Gupta Gallery

Kavi Gupta Gallery (Chicago, Leipzig) shows and sells work from several recognizable names : Zak Smith, Yoshitomo Naro, Melanie Schiff...as well as many other possibly lesser known but not less exciting contemporary painters and installation artists.

The current exhibtion, a solo show by artist Claire Sherman, will be up at the Chicago location through June 14, 2008.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 10-6; Saturday, 11-5

Jen Stark:Drawings

Artist Jen Stark is fast becoming known for her cut-paper sculptures, which often end up looking much like the wall explodeded and revealed some strange kaledioscope-like wormhole. However, today while checking out her website I was happy to come upon her drawings, which are also extremely colorful and (dare I say it?) well, fun.

She's also working in animations now, which are kind of stop-motiony- cut-paper animations that are really like her sculptures, only moving. Check it out.

Miriam Vlaming

Miriam Vlaming's paintings could be described as flashes of memory frozen in time, yet ever-changing and in flux. The recognizable images of figures and structures as if pulled from old photographs or newspapers are densely layered with drippy, expansive fields of color and marks. Each painting does not reveal a story; rather the story seems to unfold over a span of many canvases–all serving almost as film stills in a movie. This movie to me is about the intersection of the artist's personal history with our collective one in the space between time and dreams.



http://www.miriamvlaming.com

Tiffany Calvert

I found Tiffany Calvert's work through the Lisa Boyle Gallery, which is a Chicago space that was at the NEXT art fair. Tiffany lives and works in New York. Her latest series of work, which was derived somewhat from photos of post-Katrina New Orleans mansions, combines the energy of abstraction with the charged imagery of representational environments that are abandoned and moody. The upturned furniture and contrast of gestural color against monotone backgrounds suggests struggle and disorder in a world that perhaps once seemed very normal and beautiful.

Ellie Curtis

Ellie Curtis is a printmaker who lives and works in East London. She has an Etsy shop and a website/blog, through which she sells her screenprints as well as hand-printed textiles and items made from them, such as the pillow pictured here. Her limited color palettes usually utilize strong blacks against highly saturated color, in detailed scribbly scrawls that depict unusual fauna, creatures, and the occasional "who-knows-what-that-is".

Dream + Reality Show, About Glamour Gallery

So- Sorry about my lax posting lately, I started a new job and I've been kind of distracted. I should have mentioned this last week, but I am in a group show that just opened in Brooklyn on Friday, and there are some awesome artists involved, so if you have a chance and you happen to be in Williamsburg, please stop in and check it out....

"Dream + Reality"
5/9 - 6/15/2008
Opening Reception: 5/9/2008, Friday, 7-10pm

Participating Artists:
Kiersten Essenpreis/ Lizz Hickey/ Ilana Kohn/ Amy Kligman/ Jessica Langley/ Sandy Litchfield/ Joel Morrison

Brooklyn - AG Gallery is pleased to present "Dream + Reality", a group exhibition of seven artists who express their own psychological dreamscapes and explore the moment between dream and reality. The exhibition will be comprised of paintings, drawings and several print works.

"Dream + Reality" will be on view at AG Gallery through June 15th, 2008.
The gallery is located at 103 North 3rd St. (between Berry and Wythe Ave.) Hours: Sun. 12-8pm Mon.-Fri. 12-9pm Sat. 12-10pm
For further information, please contact the gallery at 718-599-3044 or visit AboutGlamour.net

Juried Shows + Grant Opportunities..

JURIED EXHIBITION CALL FOR ENTRIES:

DEADLINE: MAY 21. NATIONAL JURIED MONOTYPE/MONOPRINT EXHIBITION. Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA. Sept 6 – Oct 3, 2008. Awards: $1,000.00 Open to US artists. Juror: Aprile Gallant, Curator, Smith College Museum of Art, MA. Prospectus: SASE to MGNE, c/o Alice Merlone, 154 Westminster St, Hamden, CT 06518, www.mgne.org or phone number on prospectus.

DEADLINE: JUNE 1. 4TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. Soho20 Chelsea Gallery. July 17 – Aug 13, 2008. Open to artists worldwide. Juror:Chakaia Booker,sculptor. Prospectus: SASE to Soho20 Chelsea Gallery, 511 W.25th Street, New York, NY10001, http://soho20gallery.com/juried.htm, 212-367-8994.

DEADLINE JUNE 2. 17TH ANNUAL NATIONAL JURIED EXHIBITION. Art Institute and Gallery. Sept.14 – Oct 11, 2008. Awards: Best of Show- $1,000 plus 2009 solo exhibition in foyer gallery, 2 $500.00 awards of excellence, 3 honorable mentions. Juror: Ellen Harris, former Deputy Director of Museum of Modern Art. Prospectus: SASE to AI&G, Box 193,
Salisbury, MD 21801, www.artinstituteandgallery.org, 410-546-4748.

DEADLINE: JUNE 11. NATIONAL JURIED COMPETITION. Berkeley Art Center. Aug 24 – Oct. 12, 2008. $1,200 cash award and national recognition. Jurors: Catharine Clark, Catharine Clark Gallery SF, JoAnne Northrup, Senior Curator of San Jose Museum of Art. SASE to Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St, Berkeley, CA 94709 or info@berkeleyartcenter.org.

GRANTS:

DEADLINE: NOTSTATED. MONEY FOR WOMEN/BARBARA DEMING MEMORIAL FUND, INC. Up to $1,000 to individual feminist women artists whose work in some way focuses on women. Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Inc., P.O. Box 630125, Bronx, NY 10463.

DEADLINE: ONGOING (3/08). ARTISTS FELLOWSHIP, INC. A private, charitable foundation that assists professional fine artists and their families in times of emergency, disability or bereavement. Assistance given without expectation of repayment. Artists Fellowship, Inc., 47 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10003, 646-230-9833, http://ArtistsFellowship.org, info@ArtistsFellowship.org.

DEADLINE: ONGOING (3/08). LUDWIG VOGELSTEIN FOUNDATION provides one-time grants to individuals working in fine arts and literary arts (no photo or film/video). Grants $1,000-$3,000 based on merit and need. Diana Braunschweig, Executive Director, Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, 4001 Inglewood Ave., #101-309, Redondo Beach, CA, 90278, lvf@earthlink.net.

DEADLINE: ONGOING. (11/06) THE ELIZABETH GREENSHIELDS FOUNDATION. Open to artists "in the early stages of their careers" working in painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture. "Applicants must have started or completed art school training or must demonstrate, through past work and future plans, a commitment to making art a lifetime career. Funds may be used for any art-related purpose: study, travel, studio rental, purchase of materials, etc." $12,500CAN award. The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, 1814 Sherbrooke St. West, Suite 1, Montreal, Quebec CANADA H3H 1E4, 514-937-9225.

DEADLINE: ONGOING (11/06). NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS. Offers several grants, fellowships, and other opportunities. A partial list follows. Grants for Arts Projects. Challenge America: Reaching Every Community Fast-Track Review Grants. Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth. Access to Artistic Excellence. Arts on Radio and Television. Contact: arts.endow.gov.

DEADLINE: ONGOING (11/06). POLLOCK-KRASNER FOUNDATION. The Foundation welcomes, throughout the year, applications from visual artists who are painters, sculptors and artists who work on paper, including printmakers. The Foundation encourages applications from artists who have genuine financial needs that are not necessarily catastrophic. Grants are intended for a one-year period of time. The Foundation will consider need on the part of an applicant for all legitimate expenditures relating to his or her professional work and personal living, including medical expenses. The size and length of the grant is determined by the individual circumstances of the artist. The Foundation does not accept applications from commercial artists, photographers, video artists, performance artists, filmmakers, crafts-makers or any artist whose work primarily falls into these categories. The Foundation does not make grants to students or fund academic study. The Foundation does not make grants to pay for past debts, legal fees, the purchase of real estate, moves to other cities, or to pay for the costs of installations, commissions or projects ordered by others. With very few exceptions, the Foundation will not fund travel expenses. Please do not send applications via fax or email, and do not call to request application. SASE to Pollock-Krasner Foundation, 863 Park Ave., New York, NY 10021, 212-517-5400, www.pkf.org.

Jess Langley

Jess Langley is currently finishing up her MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University. Jess uses a mix of abstraction and realism to morph elements of nature into narratives that depict very human emotions. She works in blurry watercolors, guache, and archival giclee prints.

Her thesis show is currently running at the Virgina Commenwealth's Anderson Gallery , and will be up until May 4th.

Art Chicago & Chicago NEXT artfairs

Art Chicago is happening this weekend. At Art Chicago, over 180 of "the worlds leading emerging and established galleries" will be showing the work of over 2,000 artists. The work will be in a variety of media; including painting, drawing, video,installation work, sculpture, and prints. There are also seminars, ranging in topic from "What gives Art Value"? to "Curators on Curating".

The hubub is taking place in the RIver North district, at the Merchandise Mart. Occuring alongside Art Chicago are several other fairs, all falling under the umbrella citywide celebration of "Artropolis"; including Intuit (Outsider art), and Chicago NEXT (focused on emerging artists). Purchasing a single $20 pass will get you into all of the exhibitions for a day.

Show hours:
Friday, April 25, 11 AM – 7 PM
Saturday, April 26, 11 AM – 7 PM
Sunday, April 27, 11 AM – 6 PM
Monday, April 28, 11 AM – 3 PM (Art Chicago's main exhibition will be open until four, most of the other shows close at 3)

You can find lists of exhibiting galleries, directions, and details at the following websites:
ArtChicago
NEXT artfair.com
INTUIT folk & outsider art fair
The Artist Project

Sandy Litchfield

Sandy Litchfield's approach to landscape painting is definately not what you would find hanging over your crusty aunt's fireplace. And that's exactly what I like about it. The organic nature of the paintings definately speaks to forms and textures found in nature, but in unpredictable compositions so that even familiar elements like twisted tree roots and mossy patches are fresh and put into new context. She juxtaposes complicated, detailed parts of the painting with stark white spaces and flat colored shapes, giving the viewer plenty to look at without overwhelming.

Sandy has an MFA from the University of Massachusetts in Amherts, and continues to live in the the area, bouncing between Massachusetts and New York. She has shown work mostly in the Northeast, in Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey. She has a website, at Sandy Litchfield.com.

SPACES Call for Artists

SPACES is a well-established alternative art space in Cleveland, OH. Check out Spaces Website for details about their annual application process for both the regular gallery space and SPACELAB, which serves as a short term experimental installation space.