Tuesday Night - City Hall Art Collection Opening Reception

Nevin Kelly Gallery artist Sondra Arkin has been working hard for the past year with the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities as curator of the City Hall Art Collection. She's developed a vision for the a growing collection, looked at 4000 works submitted for the collection (153 were chosen by the Selection Panel and another 22 were taken from the Art Bank), put together a beautiful catalog (with the graphic design skill of Mary Beth Ramsey, who was featured in the gallery's June/July 06 show and who also designs many of the gallery's ads), and helped to plan a fabulous opening reception. And for the past few months, I, your trusty deputy director, have been assisting Sondra on this project oustide of my regular gallery duties (I'm listed as editorial assistant in the catalog - hooray!) 12 Linear Feet, a work by Ellyn Weiss, whose work is currently up in the gallery, is included in the collection. Ellyn painted this work on site at Artomatic 2004, and it was this piece that first attracted Nevin to Ellyn's work - her impeccable sense of color and composition allowed Ellyn to "jump off a cliff" and create a gorgeous work of art in public with no knowledge of how the work would turn out. Also included in the collection is a piece by Joan Belmar whose work will be included in a group show at the gallery in the spring of '07.

This is a very important collection for DC area artists and the largest collection of work by DC artists on exhibition downtown open daily for visitors. For those artists whose work is not included, the DCCAH is committed to adding work every few years, so there will be future calls. It is important for any artist and those concerned with the art world in DC to show our elected officials strong support for this program and for the arts in DC.

CITY HALL ART COLLECTION OPENING RECEPTION DETAILS:
The John A. Wilson Building
City Hall Art Collection Opening Reception
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 from 5 to 7pm - Remarks at 6pm

1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC

In the past year, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities' DC Creates Public Art Program has collected 175 works of art representing the work of 100 metropolitan area artists for the inaugural phase of the new John A. Wilson Building City Hall Art Collection. Work is located on the Ground through 5th floors in public hallways. 80% of the artists reside in DC and it is the largest collection of local art open to the public. Established and emerging artists are represented in this important City Hall Art Collection.

General Public is invited; Photo ID Required to enter this building
RSVP Requested: carolyn.parker@dc.gov; (202) 724-2042

Parking is tight so take the Metro to Metro Center or Federal Triangle — or take a cab.

Please feel free to pass this information on -- we want to fill City Hall and show our elected officials strong support for this program.

New Paintings by Eugene Healy

Eugene Healy, the artist featured in our November show at the gallery, emailed us some images of works that he'll be bringing down with him to hang on Thursday. Healy is a Connecticut artist who is represented by our friend Doerte Neudert at the Art Cabinet Nantucket. For the past three years we've been featuring Doerte's artists in one of our fall shows. Gene was included in a group show here at the gallery two years ago, but this will be his first solo in Washington, DC.

He has been working nonstop for the past few months on pieces for this show, and the results look stunning. His abstract, mixed media works on canvas are reminiscent of the seaside. Check back soon for a full bio on Gene Healy and see select images of his works here.

The work on the right is entitled "Tuxis Island" and measures 30"x32", the work on the right "Granite Bay 2" measures 30"x18.5".

The show opens next Saturday, November 4 from 5-8 pm. Please stop in and welcome Gene and Doerte back to Washington.

The gallery gets a nod in Travel and Leisure

In her article for the November issue of Travel and Leisure Magazine about the Midcity section of Washington, DC, Meeghan Truelove refers to the Nevin Kelly Gallery as "a delightful hybrid of old-world skillfulness and new-world dash." Midcity galleries also mentioned in the article are Irvine Contemporary and Project 4. Read the entire article here.

Welcome to our new interns!

Today was our first day working with Larissa, the newest Nevin Kelly Gallery intern.

Larissa is a senior at George Washington University studying art history. She is cheerful and helpful and speaks Ukrainian. She will be helping us to update our client and inventory database. This database was set up a while ago by our dear friend Ron Childress to more efficiently track our inventory - what comes in, stays here, goes out (and with whom it leaves) - and our mailing list, but we've been so swamped with all of the day-to-day gallery operations that we just kept using our old (far more primitive) systems. So we finally decided that if the project of adding our entire three-year-long inventory history to this database is ever going to get done, we need to bring in someone who can dedicate herself to this task (and who will work for coffee and snacks).

We advertised with the George Washington University Art History Department for two internship positions and found a couple of great interns.

Our other intern, Elizabeth, started this year in GW's Masters of Art History program and is very active in the Washington Junior League. Elizabeth is helping us with a marketing project. We're so happy and grateful to have such smart, capable people helping us in the gallery.

The word is out!

Welcome Midatlantic Art News readers and thanks, Lenny, for blogging about our new blog! We're always astonished at how quickly you discover arts-related stuff on the "internets."

The blog is still in experimental stages, but we're happy for the advance publicity. Soon we will have the blog linkable from the gallery website, and we'll be up and posting frequently. The blog is a great way to let our friends and clients know about news and goings-on at the gallery in a more timely manner than monthly website updates and emails. Each time we get in new work by one of our artists, get works framed, sign on a fabulous new artist, have a reception or event, or just have something to say, we'll blog about it. And who are we? We are Julia Morelli, deputy director of the gallery and Nevin Kelly, owner and gallery director.

We'd also like to thank Denise Graveline who helped us set up the blog and gave us tremendous advice about blogging.

Current Exhibition: Ellyn Weiss

Our current exhibition at the Nevin Kelly Gallery is entitled Ellyn Weiss: Circular Reasoning. The show looks absolutely wonderful and is only up for another week or so, so please stop in and take a look.

Pictured: Ellyn Weiss, Energetic Dissassembly (2006), oil bar on masonite, 24"x24"

See more works from the show on our website.

Does Art Scare You?

Many people come into our gallery and are surprised at what a warm, inviting atmosphere it is. This sometimes saddens us, because the implication is that people feel threatened by most art galleries. With comfy chairs, books, two lazy dogs, and a *super-friendly* assistant director, our visitors and clients feel at home and unpressured in the environment we set out for them. We love to visit other galleries and check out the local art scene, but we do understand that for non-art-world-types these big white boxes with (gasp!) no furry pets can feel threatening. We aim to create an environment where any person can feel comfortable coming in off the street and checking out the art. Because we are passionate about our artists and passionate about getting them exposure. You don't need to be able to afford to buy art to just come in and look at the gorgeous, skilled work we have on view (and you might be surprised at what you actually can afford). We're in this business because we love art and we particularly love the artists we represent. So, come on in, pet the dogs, relax in the chairs, and chat with us about the work on the walls. You can even bring in your coffee and cupcakes from Love Cafe (we do, yum!).

So... What do you think?

We at the Nevin Kelly Gallery know that there are some art galleries who blog out there in the world. We're not familiar with many here in the DC area though. While there are many wonderful art blogs around town, we did a Google search and were unable to find any gallery-specific blogs.

So maybe we're breaking new ground here. We're asking you, our friends and clients: what do you think about an art gallery blog? Perhaps it's too soon to tell without many posts up so far. If you're unsure about what you think about an art gallery blog, let us know what you'd like to see up here - what kind of info you think we should keep you updated about. Post a comment below or email me at Julia@nevinkellygallery.com to let us know.

Welcome to the Nevin Kelly Gallery Blog!

Here is where you will find the latest updates on goings on at the Nevin Kelly Gallery - exhibition openings, receptions, artist information, press releases, thoughts from the director and assistant director, images of newly available artworks, and more.

The Nevin Kelly Gallery takes a fresh look at contemporary art. It is our pledge to be a different kind of art gallery--from our warm and inviting environment to our focus on local and international works of high technical, cultural and academic merit.