Washington Life Magazine
Washington Life Magazine

PAINT THE TOWN
 
here’s no dearth of opinions in the media. Having a blog has become as rare and strange as a Social Security number. On the Internet, one has access to, quite literally, millions of subjective directives on what to wear and what record to buy. Where art is concerned, most of us are clueless about how to collect it. As subjectivity is the name of the game, the problem of assigning value to artwork is a doozy. At the Irvine Contemporary Gallery (1412 14th St. NW), viewers are confronted with piles of
Weimar-era German

art and dollar value, holding luxe, gold-dappled party “Luster” in Jensen’s Brake Shop on 14th Street. Artist Kate Hardy’s tiny, gold, fetishistic horses, dolls, lipsticks et. al, festooned one wall in clear glass containers. Partygoers were instructed to drop currency into these boxes, thus replacing the objets d’art with cold, hard simoleons. Smart girl.

It’s got to be meaningful if internationally known artists Tanja and Graham Carr and Peter Powning fly in for an opening; Habatat Gallerie (8020 Towers Crescent Dr.,Tysons Corner, Va.) offered a cocktail preview – catered by Chima steakhouse and bevvy’d by Stella

PICKS PHILIPPA HUGHES FOUNDER OF THE PINK LINE PROJECT

DECEMBER1 3 SAY WHAAAT!!

Watch the area's best graffiti artists customize toys that will be auctioned to benefit Capital Area Food Bank. 8 to 11 p.m.; Kickballers on 3285 ½ M St. NW.


Hughes' foundation fosters artistic innovation with special programs and events. (www.pinkline.org)

DECEMBER 14 THE NEW FUTURE
Curator Kristina Bilonick merges visions of the future from the past with modern reality in rad graphics and music. 7 to 9 p.m.; DC Arts Center at 2438 18th St. NW.

JANUARY 12: GALLERY BONANZA
The 14th Street galleries kick off the new year with coordinated opening receptions. 6 to 8:30 p.m.; www.pinkline.org.

JANUARY 15: X Demystifying art through live performance, projection, electronica and fashion. 6 to 10 p.m.; BeBar at 1318 9th St. NW.

JANUARY 19: NO BORDERS Guerilla curators present a photo exhibit of natural beauty by Giacomo Abrusci. Enjoy culinary and musical art – and great wine. 8 p.m.; 1435 Girard Ave. NW; RSVP to 1435girard@gmail.com.

JANUARY 23 – 26 MEAT MARKET
Closing Party for Gallery Performance Week co-hosted by The Pink Line Project. Cutting-edge performances.
8 p.m. to midnight; www.meatmarketgallery.com

Artois – of the artists’ work (open through Dec. 29). Victoria Reiss of Transformer Gallery (1404 P St. NW) offered a serving of “SASS,” a group show that included the talents of alterna- L.A.-chick Natalia Fabia (who had obviously studied under gothic darling Mark Ryden) as well as Lisa Marie Thalhammer’s truckstop liturgy “lot lizards.” Cleverness in art (hello, Magritte?) is seriously underrated. It’s

banknotes in wheelbarrows; a dress fabricated from the same colorful foldin’ money further tests the boundary between commodities and cash in the stunning exhibit, “Eisbergfreistadt” (“Iceberg Free State”), open through Dec. 8. The artists, Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick, playfully pair a photo of a historically noted artist from 1920s Berlin with painted “works” (by Kahn and Selesnick) “inspired” by the latter’s photos of the same glacial and serene landscapes shown in the paintings. An exquisite deck of tarot-esque playing cards, made in Columbus-discovers-America-style etching work by Icelandic “explorers,” was full of such whimsy (and framed so nicely!) that Irvine had already sold several at $6,000 a pop.

The folks from Project 4 (903 U St. NW) also addressed the complex relationship between

quite likely that French digital photo-manipulator Cédric Delsaux – who infused his urban landscapes with storm troopers and other Star Wars figurines at a recent Project 4 exhibit – would agree.

Harvard-educated architect and sculptor John Dreyfuss opened up his magnificent Georgetown mansion, Halcyon House, for Transformer’s silent auction on Nov. 18; it was quite a sight, watching the new crop of wellto- do, young collectors weave in and out of his workspace, cocktails in hand, to view photos of Chuck Brown at Ben’s Chili Bowl and portraits of dozing déshabille trannies. Worth the price of entry? Indubitably. Hughes’ foundation fosters artistic innovation with special programs and events. (www.pinkline.org)

Send comments and information about local art happenings to: columns@washingtonlife.com.

     

 



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