News

ELLYN WEISS

Home

GessoHead - Blog

GessoHead

Gretchen Schermerhorn at DCAC

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

March 7, 2009

Adams Morgan

more Adams Morgan

Ah, Adams Morgan. There are lots of vibrant neighborhoods in DC, and more than one where you can get an Ethiopian meal and an empanada within a block or two, but none is the delightful confection of slightly seedy cross-cultural, Spanish/Ethiopian/young non-profiteers, skinny-jeaned tatooistas, with just a pinch of last night’s barf, as Adams Morgan. Perhaps a few too many bars, but that’s just me. I go for two institutions: Amsterdam Felafel and DCAC (the DC Arts Center). And I had them both today.

Gretchen Schermerhorn

more Schermerhorn

Gretchen Schermerhorn, a local printmaker and paper maker has an ongoing solo at DCAC that’s definitely worth a visit. She calls it “Genetic Drift”, “an accumulation of random changes in a gene pool.” The work, mostly printing on a handmade paper that is both earthy in color and ethereally light, combines layers of imagery in a way that does recall random change. But the stars of the show are The Boughs – three ceiling-hung sculptural forms assembled from cast paper elements. Each piece seems to have grown organically and the word “mutation” comes immediately to mind. They are scary and sexy, and they could be the stuff of nightmares. And I mean that in the best possible way.

New Work

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

March 2, 2009

Just finished (I think) a couple of pieces I've been working on in the "gene pool" series. Each of them is going to be part of a large grid. They're wax, oil and collage (and pencil, actually).

Gallery O throws a party

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

March 1, 2009

Tim Ward and Dan Burton with painted ceiling chairs

Steve Hessler

There’s a new kid on the block: Gallery O just opened at 1354 H St. NE, across the street from the Atlas Performing Arts Center, in the neighborhood that the real estate and local nightlife people are trying to name the “Atlas District.” Steve Hessler, one of the Board members of the WPA and a great fan of outsider art, has refurbished the old townhouse and an adjoining lot. He filled the space with art, much of it specially commissioned from artists from DC and New Orleans, and gave a swell party last night to show it all to his neighbors, friends and some artfolk. There is a fabulous rocket ship installed in the yard and a dreadlocked fellow painted with both hands to reggae music under a tent. (Note to Steve: The quality of food and drink was many miles higher than anything served at the usual gallery event. You’re going to have to watch that, or you’ll be getting all the chow and boozehounds in town for every opening).
Gallery O is the first visual art space in the neighborhood. Steve is soliciting ideas for using the space from anyone who has them and I have put my thinking cap on. Yay and another yay or two. We can sure use a new exhibition space with so many going in the other direction. Stay tuned.

WPA Auction Preview

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

Feb. 28, 2009

Amy Jean Porter's freaked out monkey

Chris Saah's photographic image

Thursday night was the preview and curators’ talks for the 2009 WPA (Washington Project for the Arts) auction. The auction, which brings some serious local collectors together with serious art, is the primary fund-raiser annually for the WPA. This year is special, since it is, sadly for us, The Inestimable Kim Ward’s last as Director of the WPA. In her five years, Kim brought new life and spirit and great growth to the WPA and succeeded in separating it from the Corcoran (no mean feat) and installing it in a great new home in Dupont Circle. She also brought the WPA closer to the local artists who are its primary constituency and mission. Argh, I sniffle and weep.
Anyway, the preview exhibit and talks were at the Katzen Center. There is some good art and some very good art this year, along with a few also-rans, as ever. (Gotta say, since most of the work is an the small side, it does kind of tend to get lost in that soaring space a the Katzen, but that’s a nit, since it isn’t going to stay there, but will go home with some happy buyers next Saturday night.)

Katr Hardy's porcelain with decal

Jason Houchen's woodburnt moose

Some of my favorites are Jason Houchen’s woodburning on moose head, Amy Jean Porter’s goache from her “Freaked Out Monkeys in Trees” series, Kate Hardy’s porcelain vessel with vintage decal and Chris Saah’s electro-cinemagraph (huh?).
The consensus hit of the night, though, was Jack Rasmussen’s acceptance speech when he received the Alice Denny prize for his contributions to our arts community – an award which is richly deserved. Jack sang his speech to the tune of “My Way” with great gusto and shockingly good voice. It left the audience speechless. I am just pleased that I will be able to tell my grandchildren that I was present at this historic occasion.
The curators’ talks were often interesting and helpful, but a couple of them were overfilled with the kind of art blather of which I have grown increasingly intolerant. I just can’t sit through that stuff anymore and I’ll confess that I bolted like a rabid bat at the end.

Salon NKG Debuts

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

Feb. 28, 2009

Nevin hosts

artists eat cookies

Nevin Kelly, of the eponymous gallery, my dealer and friend (not two words always heard together) has begun what could with some luck become a useful institution in this town. He is opening his new space on Columbia Heights on a regular basis to artfolk interested in talking about topics of mutual interest in a semi-organized way. The inaugural session was a kind of thinking through the concept and gauging interest. The general consensus was that this seems like a good idea, especially now, when galleries are dropping like flies and we try to find ways to cope, even thrive. Anyway, watch this space (and the gallery website, www.nevinkellygallery.com) and we’ll announce the next one, probably in April. The cookies are good, too.

Art Enables is Seven!

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

Feb. 28, 2009

Joyce and Yvonne pushing birthday cake

Charles Meissner's piece

I want to make note of the seventh anniversary of Art Enables, which was celebrated with a party and exhibit last weekend. Art Enables, founded by Joyce Muis Lowery who is heroically assisted by Stefan Bauschmid, Yvonne Bauduin and Stephanie Bonifant, is a day program for a couple of dozen artists with various kinds of mental disabilities. I first encountered the group not long after its founding, when it was operating out of space at the late lamented Millennium Art Center (aka the old Randall Junior High) where I and many friends had studios. (I am sorely tempted right here to go off on a rant about the Corcoran, which bought the Randall School from the city as part of its wet dream about getting a Gehry building for its museum and relocating its school to our place, kicked out all the artists, boarded up the building and signed up with a developer who was supposed to finance the whole thing by co-locating several hundred Stalinesque condos. We all know what happened to those kinds of dreams. So the building is now still boarded up but the public-spirited Corc has recently done its bit for neighborhood beautification by painting the boards primary colors and slapping up some oversized posters. So that would be my rant if I were ranting)

Mo Higgs' "Paganini"

Whoo, baby, I really digress. Back to Art Enables, which relocated to 411 New York Ave NE, where it provides a spacious, light-filled place, supplies, guidance and lots of creative spirit to the talented artists who come there. The space also serves as a gallery where you can see and buy the artist’s work at very reasonable pieces. The artists share in the proceeds of the sales.
I have been collecting their work for some time now, including one piece by James Powers that I loaned to the Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore for an exhibition. The work ranges widely,from Charles Meissner’s utterly literal visual recollections of trips he made and things he did years go, to the lyrical color-drenched abstractions of Maurice Higgs. I'd make it a stop on my next art tour.

Art at the Dunbarton Chamber Series

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

Feb. 25, 2009

Jackie Hoysted's work at Dunbarton Church

The Dunbarton Chamber Music Series is hosted by the historic Dunbarton Church in Georgetown. It is a first class series that balances adventurousness with tradition and the concerts are rarely anything but full. The music mavens also host a monthly art exhibit, usually a solo, in the large downstairs room where everyone gathers before and after the shows and during intermissions. The art is often quite interesting, including Jackie Hoysted’s dreamy oils and encaustics this month and they sell a not negligible amount of it. The work stays up for a month, I believe. I think it is a venue well worth exploring for those who have some work they’d like to show, especially in these days as we sadly see so many traditional galleries closing. The person to contact is the curator, Ginny Barnes, at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Hooking Up in the Art World

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

Feb. 22, 2009

Sondra and her audience, before talking.

The Hamiltonian Gallery at 13th and U, of which I have previously writ, hosts an episodic series of talks geared primarily to the emerging artists whose nurturing the gallery considers its primary mission. (Lord, that’s some syntactical beauty, that is.) On Thursday evening, the speaker was the lovely Sondra Arkin and her topic “Hooking Up in the Art World.”

Colin Winterbottom and Susan Finsen, already emerged

Not the sexy kind but the networking kind. Although the promise of the title may perhaps have had something to do with the overflow crowd that packed the joint. Nah… Anyway, it was a crowd of astonishing size, mainly artists who’d like to emerge, but also some veterans looking for ideas to help in these tough times. And cookies.
Sondra is a refugee from the marketing world and a whiz at professional development. She has put together a list of resources, newsletters, organizations, etc. that is supposed to be posted on the Hamiltonian website (www.hamiltoniangallery.com). I just checked and it’s not there, yet, so if you want it, you should call the gallery in a couple of days and noodge.

Anna Davis at Long View Gallery

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

February 22, 2009

Drop Dead

Long View Gallery on 9th Street NW is on one of those always-about-to-become-something-else block (Like the Seventh Street block that houses the Warehouse, where you’d swear you can hear the bulldozer revving up and ready to charge.) They’re best when they’re like this, before everything gets all buffed and scrubbed, when a family-owned Ethiopian restaurant can still afford the rent, along with a little bitty yoga/meditation studio and some housing of the un-gentrified variety. Thanks to the crumbling of the construction industry (and pretty much every other industry) the block stands to stay a little scruffy for the nonce. By me, that’s a good thing. But I digress.

Self Portrait

Last night, Long View Gallery hosted an opening reception for the smart, idiosyncratic work of Anna U. Davis. My friend Anna is a Scandinavian uber-woman - think Lynda Carter in her best Wonder Woman days - whose art demonstrates a funny, jaundiced and very personal take on her world, which includes the art world, of course. The images are assembled using a painstaking technique that involves collaging thousands of tiny bits of paper to form the backdrop of the painting. The effect can be quite dazzling. Certainly the haute art school crowd that attended the opening seem about as dazzled as they allow their snoozy selves to get.

<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>

Results 82 - 90 of 224