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Photography @ CHAW

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

Jan. 11. 2010

Linda Hesh

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (“CHAW”), is a non-profit community institution that lives in a gracious old school building at 7th and G Sts. SE which houses art classrooms, a dance studio, gallery space, a ceramics studio an open darkroom, and more. The gallery is currently showing the group’s fourth annual juried photography show and the opening Saturday night was jammed.

Tripplaar's Galveston

a happy Tim

The work selected constitutes a pretty good survey of the photography world today, ranging from the essentially abstract to the self-consciously arty to the political, with landscapes, portraits and what can only becalled snapshots included. I was attracted to Kristoffer Tripplaar’s color pictures of neglected and apparently abandoned places made in Galveston in 2008, likely too late to be Katrina damage but why else the abandonment? Have the colors been muted or is everything so bleached out and arid? The pictures effectively pose the questions.

half of Goslee's self-portrait

Pat and Simon

I also love Pat Goslee’s dyptich and tryptich digital prints on aluminum. Her two-paneled “self portrait” is all light on dark, barbed wire fencing and what may be light waves, tough, prickly and protective against light, high-spirited and delicate – not a bad representation of the yin and yang of a real personality.

Michael O'S. and Ms. Arkin discussing

Sculpture Now 2010 at Edison Place

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

January 9, 2010

Faith Flanagan and Brigitte Reyes conferring

I'm back in town and seeing my first new art of 2010. The Washington Sculptor’s Group holds an annual juried show that, as the name suggests, showcases the selected current work of members. As in past years, this year’s version is housed in Pepco’s open and expansive Edison Place Gallery at 8th and G Sts. NW.

attention to Holtsman's "Twelve Squares"

The juror, Ryan Hill, has, he says, chosen work that “draws on our longing for a passing ideal of wholeness, our ways of making fragments cohesive…” I like the idea and the elasticity of the construct; we do constantly strive at both the conscious and unconscious levels to make visual and experiential sense of fragmentary information and as a contemporary organizing principle in the time of whizzing bits of data, it is very apt.
The show, however, seems a bit sparse on the ground, with the often small pieces set adrift in the large galleries and, with the exception of John Simpkins-Camp’s hanging monopoly-money dirigible, no use is made of the fabulous space created by very high ceilings.

Leila Holtsman

I love Leila Holtsman’s “Twelve Squares”, a wall-mounted “painting” of acrylic ink on weathered steel. Her use of hard yet vulnerable materials creates an elegant surface where the painted grid seems about to slide off in dissolution.

Elena Patino has contributed a collapsing cube of translucent white gridded plastic tubing connected with thread and monofilament. She calls it “Cuadricula (Long Live Sol Lewitt)”. It is a vulnerable and lovely object that makes good use of the shadows cast by the deteriorating cube.
The piece with the most stage presence is no doubt Karen Bondarchuk’s five-foot dead crow made of scavenged roadside tire scraps. There is nothing more dead than scraps of old tire; the perfectly inert blackness sucks up light and the piece makes an effective if ambiguous statement about the human effect on nature, given that the crow is a pretty nasty scavenger of death.

Kerry O. Furlani's piece

Just to prove that I don’t respond exclusively to decaying stuff, I’ll also call out Kerry O. Furlani’s two wall-mounted slate pieces and Alice Yutzy's stoneware plinth "Emergence". They both won me with the impeccable nature of their craftsmanship and the evocative quality both artists achieved by the smooth feminine curves in juxtaposition with architectural shapes. Are they battlements? Sexual or military?

Finally, I must do a mini-rant here; I am discouraged by some work that is badly made, sloppily constructed and unlikely to last intact much beyond the month-long duration of the show. One sees that too much in contexts where it can’t truly be said to be driven by conceptual dictates. It usually feels like a childish insult to me.

Ellyn's Cognitive Dissonance Goes to New York

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

December 13, 2009

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Cognitive Dissonance

As my Facebook friends know, I have been working for the past month on a commission for the Porter House Restaurant in the Time Warner Building in New York. It’s now all done and will, God willing, be off to New York on Tuesday to be framed and hung. Mr. Weiss and I cut it off the wall today (or rather, he cut and I hopped around having crazy nerves) and got it ready to travel. So here it is – it’s called “Cognitive Dissonance”, is 3.5 feet wide by 12 feet long and is made mostly of oilbar and dry pigment.

my studio assistant Weiss cutting her off

Mid-City Artists and Friends at Coldwell Banker

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

December 12, 2009

Zade Ramesy assemblage

bad picture of my encaustics

Coldwell Banker, a stylish Dupont Circle real estate agency that doubles as an art space has given its walls over to Mid-City Artists, that loose gang of artists who live and/or work in the Dupont Circle/Logan Circle/Shaw environs. The members of MCA, in turn, each invited a friend to join in this invitational exhibit, which opened Friday evening with a terrific reception - little sandwiches and everything. These guys do memorable opening reception chow so no artist need starve.

Bill Harris

Chuck Baxter and his quilt

I was Ms. Sondra’s friend and my three encaustics even sold at the opening, so that was a lovely bonus. I saw some interesting stuff, including Bill Harris’s terrific monoprint, Zade Ramsey’s moving and well-wrought assemblages, Chuck Baxter’s quilt made of business cards collected at Artomatic, Tom Drymon’s beautifully subtle white painting (titled, aptly,”Floe”) and Trish Tillman’s intricate cut-paper collages all the way from New York.

Trish Tillman's

Mark Parascandola, Ms. Sondra and Tom Drymon

So thanks to those real estate guys at Coldwell Banker. They are on 17th Street between P and Q and should be supported should you have real estate needs.

Martha Jackson-Jarvis and Tom Wolff at Hillyer Art Space

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

December 12, 2009

Hillyer is the gallery run by International Arts & Artists, a non-profit that sponsors international exhibitions, runs a design studio and several programs geared toward international art exchanges. The surprisingly spacious building is tucked in the alley behind the Phillips Gallery and the Cosmos Club in the location previously used by the Foundry Gallery. This month it hosts the work of Martha Jackson-Jarvis and Tom Wolff.

Jackson-Jarvis’s “Ass on the Wall” is a tour-de-force room-sized installation that envelopes the viewer with a scale that makes one feel like Gulliver amidst the Brobdingnagians (those are the giants – I checked). Two walls are covered with floor-to-ceiling silk pieces printed with the image of a huge donkey and the other two form the backdrop to and source of tangled branches/roots that end in excrescences of plant-like bulbs of ceramic, glass, stone and God knows what all.

She explains it thusly:
In a chance encounter in the mountains of Tajikistan Jarvis discovered an incredible being in a moment of clarity that bridges the void between animate and inanimate form. A moment when plants, animals, and minerals are one, even the rocks conspire to a fluid and connected greatness.

Wolff's Teller

Tom Wolff is a portrait photographer who has contributed a series of larger-than-life sized head shots, mainly of older men of more or less obvious prominence. The technique is impressive and while I cannot testify to the degree to which he has accomplished this in all cases, I do find his portrait of Edward Teller to capture more than a hint of the essential cold-bloodedness and self-satisfaction of the man.

Ink-n-Print at Smith Farm

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

December 12, 2009

the printmakers' lineup

You can always identify the printmakers at an exhibition; they are the ones with their noses pressed up to the glass trying to figure out if it’s aquatint or mezzotint, lithograph or silkscreen or photoetching or monoprint or some combinationg of the above and more– you get the idea. Printmakers are notoriously process-obsessed (as well as generally anal compulsive, a trait which I have somehow utterly avoided).

Tai Wah Goh's piece - one of three

Anyone who makes or enjoys the art of printmaking should make it a point to catch the group show of small “affordable” prints curated by Helen Frederick at Smith Farm’s Joan Hisaoka Gallery at 16th and U. The work, much of which was contributed by artists who work at George Mason U’s printmaking studio, covers the waterfront of technique and subject matter and will have you squinting at the edges. I particularly enjoyed Tai Wah Goh’s circular pieces, full of depth and mystery, as well as those made by Donald Depuydt, Fleming Jeffries and Elzbieta Sikorska.

Juried show: "Thoreau's Legacy: Humans and Our Habitat

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

November 29, 2009

The Union of Concerned Scientists, an outstanding science-based national environmental organization, is issuing a call for entries for original artwork to hang in the public spaces of its Washington, DC, offices for approximately one year. (Full disclosure: I have been on the BOard of UCS for 18 years).

The theme of this juried show, "Thoreau's Legacy: Humans and Our Habitat," is based on the book of essays on the personal impacts of global warming published this year by Penguin Classics and the Union of Concerned Scientists. The jurors are Washington Post art critic, Michael O'Sullivan; artist and curator Ellyn Weiss (moi); and artist, graphic designer, illustrator and UCS Communications Director Elliott Negin.

The deadline for entries is January 15, 2010.

full poop follows:

Earlier this year, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Penguin Classics published “Thoreau’s Legacy,” a book of essays on global warming in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” (for more information, go to www.ucsusa.org/americanstories). As a follow-on, UCS is issuing a call for entries for an exhibit of original artwork “Thoreau’s Legacy: Humans and Our Habitat,” to be shown in the public spaces of its Washington, D.C., office. Artists and photographers should submit digital images of their two-dimensional work for the year-long exhibit by January 15, 2010. The exhibit will open in February with a public reception.

UCS is a national non-profit organization with more than 200,000 members and activists that provides science-based solutions to the world’s most serious problems, including climate change and nuclear proliferation (for more information, go to www.ucsusa.org). The organization, which moved into its current office in March 2008, hosted its first exhibit, titled “Earth in the Balance,” from October 2008 to October 2009 that featured the work of 16 artists and photographers.

The jury for the new show includes Michael O’Sullivan, a Washington Post art critic; UCS board member Ellyn Weiss, a noted Washington painter and curator, and UCS Media Director Elliott Negin, a painter, graphic designer and illustrator. UCS will display the artists’ contact information and offer the selected work for sale during the year at no commission.

EXHIBIT THEME: “Thoreau’s Legacy: Humans and Our Habitat”

DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES: January 15, 2010

FORM OF ENTRIES: Entrants should submit no more than three images in CD format. We will not consider slides. Make sure to include a document citing the title of each piece, its dimensions and medium, and your email and phone number. In addition, please provide a short explanation of how each of your pieces relates to the theme of the show.

SEND ENTRIES TO: Douglas Pedersen, Union of Concerned Scientists, 1825 K St. NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20006-1232 (on a CD) or via email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it For more information, call Douglas at 202-331-5650.

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Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, the Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading U.S. science-based nonprofit organization working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and also has offices in Berkeley, Chicago and Washington, D.C. For more information, go to www.ucsusa.org.

Ellyn at the Studio 4903 Holiday Show

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

November 26, 2009

The fabulous metalsmiths and printmaker at Studio 4903 have invited me and a few other assorted artists to join them in their always highly-anticipated Holiday Show. The only problem will be the temptation to spend more than I earn. So join us and see some truly unique work. I'll be there.

When: Saturday and Sunday, December 5 and 6, 11am - 6pm.
Where: 4903 Wisconsin Avenue, 2nd floor.

I'll be bringing some prints from my "virus" series made this summer, some new encaustics and most likely a tar piece or two.

BADC at DCAC

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

November 21. 2009

Juanita Hardy and Anne Bouie

Karen Joan Topping has a great smile

I think that DCAC shows the most eclectic collection of exhibits from month to month of any venue in town. Up a narrow staircase in the middle of bar-overburdened always buzzing Adams Morgan, you never know what you’ll find, which is a good summary of the spirit of the District of Columbia Arts Center. While the name may suggest a semi-governmental agency, rest easy that DCAC is not bureaucracy-approved.

Aziza and Sirinity

This month the show is “Black”, organized by the Black Artists of DC. It’s a juried show curated by Amber-Robles Gordon and Daniel T. Brooking. The artists were asked to express their individual perceptions of blackness.

Alec Simpson

I couldn't resist Anne's joy

Many of DC’s stalwarts have work presented, including Aziza Claudia Gibson-Hunter and Michael B. Platt (both also represented in “Zeitgeist II: what’s Important Now” at Nevin Kelly) and Alec Simpson. I love his postcards from Berlin, created of ashes and other detritus.
The opening was full of gorgeous folk, wonderfully integrated for a DC art crowd, and lots of fun.

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