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Artomatic - Encounter of the First Kind

June 3, 2009

Jim Tretick Who Must Be Obeyed

Lisa Gold, new WPA Director.

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (thanx to Beth Baldwin) organized an evening at Artomatic Monday when the joint is otherwise closed, so I got to make my first pass through. This one is Extra Giant Size Yoooge – 1000 (!) artists in nine open floors of a brand new commercial building smack next to the brand new ballpark on Southeast DC, surrounded by a dozen other brand new empty condo and office buildings waiting for the economy to turn around. (If you’re very quiet, you can hear the financing curdling.)

George and Gloria Nauden, new Exec. Director of the DCCAH

Stephanie Bonifant 's colors

There are fabulous Capitol-to-Potomac views of DC from the roofdeck, which may get the building a few tenants.

I LOVE the Homewrecker installation

Michael Janis's amazing new work

As my reader knows, I was one of the founders of Artomatic over 10 years ago and I still lust nostalgically for the grimy, scary old buildings of ye olden days when we had to take a collection to buy toilet paper and light bulbs and getting back to the car after a night shift was an adventure.

Tim Tate at Kristi Mathias's work

Most of us fogies have since turned the insanity over to a new generation and the current organizers seem somehow to have accommodated themselves to marble lobbies and slate bathrooms, not to mention professional cleaners. (And a big shout out to Veronica Szalus and the rest of the current board, including the eternals George Koch, Jim Tretick and Chuck Baxter, who really have done a fabulous job whipping this craziness into some kind of shape).

Peeps caught in the infamous purple inaugural tunnel

The surroundings are slick but the art is still Artomatic. Temporary partitions have been fashioned to give each artist a space, and it all flows together in a big goofy stew.

Peep on Wire

Peeps of Wrath

The peeps show on the 7th floor displays the work of the finalists in this annual contest organized by the Washington Post, featuring the obsessive dioramas of people who have way too much time on their hands and imaginations that range from the sweet (e.g Peeps at Passover) to the frighteningly lunatic (Peeps Killing Room). It is NOT to be missed.

Peeps (Pee Wee's) Playhouse

I’d say from my first walk through about 2 ½ floors that the dreck-to-interesting ratio is about the same as always, although the sheer overwhelmingness and undifferentiated nature of the space makes it challenging to find the gems. And I’ll confess that I was a bit impaired Monday night. I’ll be back.

Only at Artomatic

Only at Artomatic II

So these are pictures of a few of the things that stopped me:Michael Janis's deeply layered new work based on mythology; Kristi Mathias's prints on aluminum panel made by scanning and reassembling the paint-by-numbers pictures she collects (Kristi wants me to make it clear that no actual paint-by-numbers pictures were harmed in the making of these images; an amazing "Homewrecker" installation featuring a woman-scorned screed of remarkable intensity and breadth and a few dozen mutilated dolls (I'll find out more about this, including the artist, when I go back - it was too crowded); Stepahnie Bonifant's wonderful colors.
Later: I found out that the Homewrecker was made by Deb Jansen. You go, girllll.

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