The DC Traveler

I was a bit disappointed when one of my favorite sculptures, The Awakening, was removed from Hains Point in East Potomac Park in February to be relocated at National Harbor. 
Created by J. Seward Johnson, Jr. as part of a sculpture exhibition, the 5-piece cast aluminum piece is now at its new home on a sandy beachfront location at Washington’s National Harbor, near the stage and plaza. 
The new location is inches off the waters edge and a smaller, somewhat less inviting and playful place than the former locations in a large grassy park.
 
Watch the video of the statute’s …read more

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Over 70 area galleries, museums, universities, embassies and art centers will participate in the first ever, FotoWeek DC, in Washington, DC.
Throughout the week of November 15-22, 2008, Washington, DC will celebrate the art of photography, with a gathering of the best in the DC photographic community, with series of exhibits, lectures, competitions, and celebration of all things photographic.
FotoWeek DC brings together photographic talent and a collection of images ranging from artistic to business, political to editorial. Events include:

Exhibitions at over 60 galleries and public spaces around DC
Juried exhibitions of some of Washington, DC’s most gifted photographers
Lectures and book signings …read more

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The large stainless steel sculpture titled Triple Arc, by abstract stone and metal sculptor James Rosati (1911-1988), is located behind The Octagon, in the courtyard of the American Institute of Architects at New York Ave and E Street NW. Sadly, it will relocated to Queens University in Charlotte, NC.

Rosati’s most famous piece, a 23 foot tall stainless steel Ideogram was located in the World Trade Center plaza New York City, before 9-11.
Two of his pieces are also on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
The piece is being removed on Monday.
Triple Arc
Courtyard of the American Institute of …read more

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The band KISS is not just a heavy metal band, it’s a rock merchandising empire. Probably no other rock band has parlayed their fame into more non-music revenue, perhaps other than Elvis Presley. The band’s list of merchandise includes comics, television, reality television shows, action figures, and tons of other KISS merchandise and memorabilia.
And KISS front man Paul Stanley is no exception. He will be exhibiting his oil and acrylic paintings, along with Giclee prints, at the Wentworth Gallery in Tysons Gallery in suburban McLean, Virginia.
If you can’t recall the different KISS characters, Stanley was the Starchild and is …read more

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Washington, DC’s latest American pop art addition is called “Modern Head”, by famed American pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein.
This blue painted stainless steel, 31-foot tall sculpture was installed at the corner of Ninth and F Streets in late August, on the grounds of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
First installed in 1996, just one block from the World Trade Center, in Battery Park in New York City, it survived the September 11th attack with only minor scratches.  A month later, it was moved to another gallery in Nassau County, New York, then to a botanic garden in Coral Gables, Florida.  …read more

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In 1908 New York, an art exhibition consisting of works from eight artists, mostly Philadelphia and New York newspaper illustrators, opened. The works were reflecting the rebellious attitude of eight artists against the current American Impressionist movement. Their style reflected rough and tough urban life — drunks, prostitutes, boxers, and other working class images were there themes. 
The exhibit catapulted these eight independent American artists and a new artistic movement. The artists, called The Eight, were a group of American painters who united to oppose academic traditions held by the established art world.
Their style advanced modernism, incorporating realist …read more

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American painter, Richard Diebenkorn’s early abstract impressionism work is not well known. But his Albuquerque period (1950-52), created a solid foundation for future work.

His individualist style were based, in part, of earlier works of abstract expressionists from a decade earlier. 
By the 1960s, he had become a known and respected abstract expressionist on America’s Pacific coast.
Closing soon is an exhibit of his influential work, at The Phillips Collection, in Washington, DC.
Diebenkorn in New Mexico
The Phillips Collection
1600 21st Street, NW, between Q and R Streets
Washington, DC 20009 (map it)
Dates and Times – Through Sept. 7, 2008
Hours – Saturday 10:00 a.m.– 6:00 …read more

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One of the current exhibits at the The Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image – Part I: Dreams, is a very unique collection of moving-image and cinematic artworks.
Ranging from somewhat predictable Andy Warhol-like black & white still-life movies with not much happening, to some very entertaining and provocative clips reflecting the transition from consciousness to the dream state.
The exhibit is mostly showcased in a series of dark galleries (so dark, at times it’s almost impossible to see your way around).  At times, I had to stop in my tracks …read more

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A mostly black and white collection of photographs entitles Sky Light by Washington DC resident, Maxwell MacKenzie, is showing at the Fraser Gallery in suburban Bethesda, MD.  
His eye for capturing the beauty of what is now the practically vanished post-depression-era homesteds of the remote prairies of the Midwest is distinctive.

 
 
 
 
 
The collection consists of haunting panoramic and almost surreal images of weathered and derilect farm homes, barns and other buildings from places near where the photographer was born, western Minnesota.  With a background in both architecture and photography, his images reveal a piece of lost history of the American farm and farmers.

Fraser …read more

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In a joint exhibit of German-born artists called Arc d’Light / Lichtbogen, works by steel sculptor Wulf Kirschner and painter Nicola Stäglich are on display at the Goethe-Institut through January 31st.

 
The artists use contrasting materials – welded steel and metal, and translucent painted plexiglass, to show commonalities and effects of light and lighting on their pieces.
Goethe-Institut
814 Seventh St. NW
Washington, DC
202-289-1200
Hours
Monday-Thursday 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. 
Friday 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Admission is free
Nearest Metro subway station
Gallery Place-Chinatown  – Red, Green and Yellow lines and Metro Center – Red, Blue and Orange lines

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