JULIA'S BACK

The peripatetic Julia Morelli returns to the gallery today to work part time for the rest of the summer. Our itinerant Deputy Director left in early May to spend time with her family in Maine and then travelled to Vencie for the Biennale and then elsewhere in Europe. I'll let Julia describe her esperiences in a separate blog. For now, please join us in welcoming Julia back (and enouraging her to stay!).

Joan Belmar "Color Transparencies" Extended Until June 24th

Due to popular demand and our own personal pleasure in having the work up in the gallery, we are extending Joan Belmar’s Color Transparencies show for another week.

Mysterious compositions of undulating organic forms from afar, when studied up close Belmar’s sculptural wall pieces reveal strips of mylar shaped into circular and curvilinear forms blanketed in sheets of frosted acetate along with found objects including glass, metal hooks, bits of plastic, and other remnants.

Joan Belmar Color Transparencies will be up through Sunday, June 24th. Also in the gallery, Ellyn Weiss Time of War on display through June 30th. Check out this Thursday’s Express WeekendPass section which highlight’s Ellyn’s work.

Above: Joan Belmar, Toy Box (Green), 2007, mixed media on plywood with mylar, acrylic, acetate, and plastic, 25 x 21 inches.

Meet Our Summer Intern

Please meet our summer intern Amanda Bowes. Amanda is a rising junior at Simmons College in Boston and is majoring in Arts Administration. She enthusiastically jumped in right away even before she officially started by helping us hang Ellyn Weiss’s Time of War show.

Amanda will be helping out in the gallery through August, and Ellyn Weiss Time of War will be on view until June 30th.

Escape the Heat and Enjoy Art!

Joan Belmar and Ellyn Weiss just sent us new images of their work currently on view in the gallery. Please come by and enjoy the work in person. Belmar’s mixed media constructions of mylar, acetate, acrylic, and found objects are mesmerizing. As “mediations on the pain of war,” Weiss’s new series of monoprints are emotive while at the same time hauntingly beautiful.

Joan Belmar’s Color Transparencies will be on display until June 17th and Ellyn Weiss’s Time of War will be up until June 30th.

Above Top: Joan Belmar, Toy Box (Light Blue), mixed media on plywood, 2007, 25" x 21"

Above Bottom: Joan Belmar, The Telegraph, mixed media on canvas, 2007, 13" x 17"

Above Top: Ellyn Weiss, Not My Son 2, monoprint with drypoint and chine colle, 2006, 14" x 14"

Above Bottom: Ellyn Weiss, Take Me, monotype, 2006, 14" x 14"

Time of War Opens Tonight

Ellyn Weiss's new series of monoprints and monotypes opens tonight, with a reception at the gallery from 5 until 8 p.m. These prints were prepared last summer in Provincetown on a press once owned by Robert Motherwell. How cool is that? The prints are meditations on the horrors of war, yet they are quite beautiful. The show, called "Time of War," runs until June 30.

Joan Belmar's "Color Transparencies" is also on display until June 17.

Ellyn Weiss "Time of War" Series Opens June 2

We are pleased to announce that Ellyn Weiss, whose Circular Reasoning exhibit last fall was very well received, will display a new series of prints that she made last summer in Provincetown.

The series, entitled Time of War, features 14" x 14" monoprints that Ellyn created at the Fine Arts Work Center in P-town on a press that was once used by Robert Motherwell.

Ellyn describes them as "meditations on the pain of war, as simple and universal as I can make them - my effort to convey feeling directly witha minimum of complexity.

Regardless of one's views about the justness of the current wars, or of war in general, the prints are poignant reminders that war is misery for those who are caught in the middle of it--soldier and civilian alike

We will host an opening reception for this new exhibition (which will be displayed in the rear gallery--Joan Belmar's works occupy the front gallery) on Saturday, June 2, from 5:00 p.m until 8:00 p.m. Ellyn will be here to answer questions. Please join us to celebrate with Ellyn one last time before she returns to the Cape for the rest of the summer.

There is also time to catch Ellyn's show at Touchstone, which closes June 3.

Enthusiasm is Transparent for "Color Transparencies"

Joan Belmar's "Color Transparancies" opened on Thursday evening, May 24, to an enthusiastic audience. Guests were very taken by Belmar's dimensional compositions of Mylar, acetate, pigment and found objects.

At left is "Compression," the largest work in the exhibit (47"x 38").

The artist's use of circular and curvilinear shapes in his compositions gives them a meditative feeling that invites individual intepretation. Belmar gives the pieces ambiguous titles so as not to hinder interpretation. The circles appear to some like bubbles, or yantras or tissue cells under the microscope.

See the detail from "Crash" below, right, as an example of this. The effect can seem exuberant, solemn and even sublime. This piece is from the artist's "artifacts" series. The main element, appearing in the lower center of the piece, is a flattened side view mirror from a car that is
missing most of its glass. What remains of it looks like little bits of sapphire still imbedded in the rusted ore of the mirror's casing.

See Robin Tierney's very nicely written reviews of the show in both the Thursday and weekend editions of the Examiner (even the layout of the Weekend arts page is terrific--its surprising how many pages covering artistic events are so unaesthetic). Many thanks to Robin and the Examiner staff for their coverage of local art events.

Thanks also to other stalwart supporters of the local arts scene, including the Current Newspapers, the Washington Blade, and the Washington Post Express, as well as veteran DC art guru Lenny Campello and his electronic Mid Atlantic Art News and noted local artist/blogger Anne Marchand and her Painterly Visions blog. We are sorry not to be able to provide links to the Current, the Blade or the Express (which we looked at in hard copy), but we applaud their efforts to expand the coverage of gallery happenings in Washington, DC and surrounds (and always encourage the other print media to do the same--can they ever do enough??)

For those who missed the party, a few shots follow (Joan Belmar is in the center of the first photo below):

Joan Belmar Opens Exhibition

Chilean-born local artist Joan Belmar opens his exhibition "Color Transparencies" with a reception at the gallery tomorrow night (Thursday, May 24) from 6 until 9 p.m. Belmar creates sculptural paintings out of strips of painted Mylar, which he shapes into circles or curved lines and combines with other objects on a base of wood or paper. He then overlays the composition with frosted acetate, on which he has drawn and cut out shapes. Where the acetate has been removed, the shapes beneath show clearly. Where the acetate remains, the shapes appear as if through a fog. The compositions exist in multiple layers: on top of, within, and beneath the acetate layer. Pictured at left is "Toy Box (Ochre)," one of 5 pieces in Joan's new Toy Box series. The piece measures 25" x 21" framed.

Color Transparencies will run thr0ugh June 17 in the front room (and part of the back room) of the gallery. Joan will be joined by Ellyn Weiss, who will show her new series of prints, "Time of War," in the back room from June 1 until June 30. More on Ellyn's series later.

Please join Joan and us for the opening reception tomorrow. If you are unable to make the opening, please don't miss the show. Color Transparencies is a true delight to behold, representing some of this artist's best works to date.

Joan Belmar received his degree in graphic design at the Catholic University of Chile. He moved to Spain at the age of 24 and to the U.S. four years later. In 2003 he was granted permanent residency status on the basis of extraordinary artistic merit.

Two Don't-Miss Events this Weekend

Mid-City Artists Open Studios

The very popular semi-annual Mid-City Artists open studios will take place this weekend, giving residents and visitors in the Dupont/Logan/Mid-City/U Street areas a chance to visit more than 20 local artists in their studios. The last event attracted thousands of visitors to the neighborhood. A map of the studios and more information about the event can be found on the Mid-City Artists website. Maps are also available at the gallery. If you missed the recent Sondra N. Arkin solo exhibition at the gallery, you will have a second chance to see some of the works from that show in her studio on Sunday.

Last Weekend for Artomatic

This weekend also marks the end of a very successful Artomatic festival. The (roughly) biennial extravaganza is hosted this time around byVornado/Charles E. Smith, which has made 90,000 square feet of space available on the 6th and 8th floors of its building at 2121 Crystal Drive in Crystal City. The show exhibits art by some 600 artists who took space on a first-come, first-served basis. There is a broad range of art from the not-so-good (or worse) to the truly outstanding. See Washington Post art critic Michael O'Sullivan's review, among many posted on the Artomatic website. O'Sullivan likens the Artomatic visit to a treasure hunt. A fair analogy. The site is Metro accessible (a few blocks from the Crystal City station) and free of charge (although donations are welcome and very much appreciated). Artomatic received considerable support from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Crystal City BID, the Warehouse Theater, Gallery and Cafe, the Cultural Center of the Inter-American Development Bank, the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington and washingtonpost.com. Hats off to all of the sponsors.

Look for works by gallery artists Sondra N. Arkin, Ellyn Weiss and Ming Yi Zaleski. There are terrific contributions by Tim Tate, Laurel Lukaszewski and many other talented local artists. I am hoping to post my top 10 list soon

Last Day to See Sondra N. Arkin: Color Field Tests

Today is the final day in the gallery for Sondra N. Arkin's Color: Field Tests show. The artist will be in the gallery until 6:00 today.