All Art Friday

All Art Friday

Focus on Virginia Artists: Great Falls Studios

Founded in 2003, Great Falls Studios is a network of more than 90 artists who live and work in Great Falls, Virginia. With the express objective of promoting the artistic efforts of all the member artists, GFS arranges group exhibitions in such venues as the local library, animal shelter, and realty offices, and during local community-wide events, such as "Great Falls Day" and "Taste of Great Falls"; maintains a membership in the Arts Council of Fairfax County to ensure members have access  to that organization's resources; and, through sales at GFS-sponsored events, like the one at historic Colvin Run Schoolhouse, supports the work of local charities. The consortium also sponsors an annual Great Falls Studios Studio Tour, which this year was held October 16-17 and involved nearly 50 painters, sculptors, photographers, potters, designers, quilters, and artists working in other media. Like other such tours, the GFS event is a wonderful opportunity to visit artists at their workplaces (in the case of GFS artists, these include historic homes and old barns), learn about art-making, add to an art collection, and enjoy a drive through Great Falls' back roads.

For images and information about the consorium's member, who include fiber artist Dorry Emmer, photographer Christin Boggs, calligrapher Jill Norvell, lithographer W.R. Tuthill, and potter Barbara Gatterdam, go here.

Exhibitions Here and There

✭ Stanford University's Cantor Arts Center presents, in an exhibition opening November 3, 16th Century Italian chiaroscuro woodcuts.

On view through February 27, 2011, the show includes more than 20 works primarily from Kirk Edward Long's collection — all promised gifts to the museum — that exemplify the first 100 years of the chiaroscuro technique, a labor-intensive way of reproducing images in color. Bartolomeo Coriolano's "Fall of the Giants" is featured, as are important works by Ugo da Carpi (according to Vasari, the inventor of the technique), Parmigianino, Antonio da Trento, and Giuseppe Niccolo Rossigliano a.k.a. Vicentino. The museum is open Wednesday - Sunday, 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., and Thursday until 8:00 p.m.

Image above at left: Bartolomeo Coriolano, Fall of the Giants, 1638; Chiaroscuro Woodcut from Three Blocks, Printed on Four Sheets, Sheet 34-7/16 x 24-9/16 in. Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Giorgio Vassari, The Lives of the Artists (Oxford World's Classics)

✭ In New York City, "Think Again: New Latin American Jewelry" at the Museum of Arts & Design brings together the work of more than 50 Latin American jewelry artists and designers known for their innovative techniques and nontraditional materials. Included in the show, which runs through January 9, 2011, are works by Mirla Fernandes and Claudia Cucchi of Brazil, Valentina Rosenthal of Chile, Elisa Gulminelli and Francisca Kweitel of Argentina, Jorge Manilla and Alcides Fortes of Mexico, and Miguel Luciano of Puerto Rico. 

Mirla Fernandes, Necklace: Heranca I, 2006

Latex, Paint, Synthetics, and Rubber

21-5/8 x 7-1/16 in.

Collection of the Artist © Mirla Fernandes

Bijou Contemporain Jewelry Article on the Exhibition

Learn to Bead Article on the Exhibition

✭ The 11th Biennial Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair and Conference, "The Book (R)evolution", opens its three-day run beginning November 5, and includes for the first time a contemporary print component that examines print independently and in relation to books, as well as a Marketplace offering specialty tools and hard-to-find materials. More than 40 exhibitors from around the world will be present. In addition, the event includes lectures, demonstrations, and film showings, including the wonderful Who Does She Think She Is? and Between the Folds. The Book Arts Fair will be in the Silver Spring Civic Building and Veterans Plaza (800 Ellsworth Drive, Silver Spring, Maryland). The Book Arts Fair blog is here.

✭ Cuban sculptor and painter Yoan Capote is showing at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City through November 13. The show, "Mental States", is inspired by Capote's initial experience with American culture.

Video of Creation of Yoan Capote's Installation for 10th Havana Biennial

Images from Jack Shainman Gallery

Cuban Art News Interview with Yoan Capote, October 14, 2010

Video Preview of Capote Discussing Show at Jack Shainman Gallery:

YOAN CAPOTE - MENTAL STATES from Queen of Mango on Vimeo.

✭ At The Grand Hand Gallery, St. Paul, Minnesota, "from the fire" honors 30 years of ceramic work at Saint John's Pottery at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. The show, running through November 14, features the superb work at artist-in-residence Richard Bresnahan and four of his   apprentices: Stephen Earp, Kevin Flicker, Sam Johnson, and Anne Meyer. Furniture by Willie Willette also is on view.

The gallery, established in 2004, showcases some very fine artists working in clay, wood, fiber, glass, metal, stone, jewelry, and mixed media. The majority are from Minnesota and Midwest region.

The Grand Hand Blog

The Grand Hand on FaceBook 

Prospect New Orleans Updates

I've been following Prospect New Orleans since first featuring the nonprofit here in July. Much is in the works. The planners for Prospect 1.5 have created a two-page guide offering information about all the planned exhibitions and events for the 15-week arts initiative scheduled for November 6, 2010, through February 19, 2011; launched a weekly blog series featuring artists participating in Prospect 1.5; and arranged for the Prospect New Orleans Art Auction & Throwdown, to be held in New York City on November 19. On the stellar list of contributing artists are Cai Guo-Qiang, Marlene Dumas, Jenny Holzer, William Kentridge, Shirin Neshat, Cindy Sherman, Kara Walker, John Waters, and Lisa Yuskavage. The event, which honors founding benefactor Toby Devan Lewis, will take place at Jack Shainman Gallery. Ticket information is available here.

Art-Related Blogs of Note

✓ Act: Artist Career Training

✓ Art:21

✓ Art Licensing Blog

✓ DCimPrint

✓ Hrag Vartanian: A Brooklyn Art Critic's Notebook

✓ Modern Art Notes (ArtInfo)

✓ Now at the Met 

✓ The Flat File

✓ Touching Harms the Art 

✓ Unframed (LACMA)

'Will Sing for Food' Benefit

Just a reminder: Tonight is the opening of the Vienna (Virginia) Choral Society's "Will Sing for Food: A Concert for the Hungry and Homeless". The two-day art and music event begins with a VCS-Sponsored Haitian art show and sale from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Tomorrow, beginning at 7:30 p.m., VCS presents its "Will Sing for Food" concert and a silent auction. The venue is the Church of the Holy Comforter, 543 Beulah Road, N.E., Vienna, Virginia 22180; 703-255-5508. Admission to the art sale is free. Concert tickets range from $35 for families, to $20 for adults, to $15 for seniors and students.

Proceeds from the art sale benefit The Friends of Hopital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti.

Go here or here for details.