Mark Bennett at Conner

MARK BENNETT
new drawings
March 2 - April 7, 2007
opening reception: this Friday, March 2nd: 6-8pm
artist in attendance

DISCUSS VII
Saturday, March 3rd @ 3pm
gallery artists Mark Bennett and Zoe Charlton discuss drawing, growing up Southern and the importance of contemporary consumer culture in their work.
MARK BENNETT
@ Conner Contemporary
and
Matthew Sutton
@ *gogo art projects
The Kudzu Project >kick-off
Friday, March 2, 2007

CONNER CONTEMPORARY ART
WASHINGTON, DC
phone: + 202 - 588 - 8750
email: info@connercontemporary.com
www.connercontemporary.com

Introducing X

X is a 4 hour 21st century 'happening', incorporating Electronica-Music,
Performance Art, Multimedia Projections, Graphic Design and Fashion.
Every week we will feature a new art theme backed by cutting edge
performers. http://www.myspace.com/xindc

WHERE? Pasha (2147 P St., NW)

WHEN? Saturday, March 3rd, from 6 to 10 PM


+ Project Description:
Each Saturday, a creative amalgamation of LIVE art including graphic
designers, electronica music acts, tribal belly dancers, independent
fashion designers and other local artists will take over Pasha in DuPont
Circle for a 4 hour, 21st century Live-Art 'Happening'.

At the event each week, a guest curator (from the world of art and design)
will provide the participating graphic designers with three words. The
designers will have 4 hours to create a poster for 'X', using these words
as inspiration for their designs. Their laptops will be hooked up to large
displays, revealing their approaches and creative process to the audience.
At the end of the event, the curator will select a winning design. The
winner's design will be used on a promotional poster, web site and flyer
for X as well as potentially incorporated into an art book.

+ Project Details:
Bring your lap top, bring your sketch pad, bring your camera, bring your
ideas...In this environment, there's no telling what might happen.
One thing's for sure though, you'll want to capture it on something!

ColorField Remix

Washington Color: Two Legacies
Jane Haslem Gallery
Apr. 1 - May 31
janehaslemgallery.com

A show juxtaposing two important Washington painters who have made color and light the subject of their work. Both Bill Hill and Judith Seligson conceive paintings in ways that the Washington Color School initiated. Yet the results could hardly be more different from each other. Bill Hill builds large atmospheric paintings on canvas with multiple gestural layers over several years. Michael O'Sullivan wrote in the Washington Post, in 2006, that Bill Hill's work reflects "the legacy of such Washington painters as the late Leon Berkowitz and Sam Gilliam, in whose studio building Hill rented space during much of the 1980s." Judith Seligson builds smaller panel paintings from intervals of flat color. Eric Gibson, in The Washington Times, wrote in 1991: "The interactions of the colors make for intense, glowing compositions." How does a painting evoke light? Staining unprimed canvas, as many of the Washington Color School artists did, is one way. Hill and Seligson have carried on the tradition using other techniques. One is prompted to ask if there is such a thing as as "Washington Light", as painters have captured "Provincetown Light" or "Montauk Light". Both artists talk about their work as "commentary" or "interpretation", as if it had a literary quality. Both also use musical terms to talk about their work, as Gene Davis did.
Event Information:
Museum/Gallery Hours
noon - 5 pm Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and by appointment

Location
2025 Hillyer Pl. NW
Washington, DC
(202) 232-4644
Metro Station
Dupont Circle

Billy Colbert

Billy Colbert
Upcoming Exhibitions


"REASONS TO RIOT"
Memphis College of Art
March 19-April 7th

"Reasons to Riot" is a Politically charged exhibition whose purpose is to measure the pulse of a diverse group of black artist working in America


"BLOTTER"
March 2
Red Door Gallery
1607 West Main Street
Richmond VA 23220

A solo show that will feature Colbert's new mixed media criminal mug shots on aluminum and vellum.


A preview of the new work will be oniline at the end of the week: billycolbert.com


"JOLLY COWBOY"
March 16-April 16
DCAC
18th Street, NW
Washington, DC

MUSIC Tonight at DC9

Demivolt, Box and The Fed at DC 9 tonight!
$8 cover
1940 9th Street, NW - 9th & U

http://www.myspace.com/demivolt

http://www.myspace.com/youlovebox

Waddell Art Gallery at NOVA Loudoun

Tom Veirs
Recent Work, Glass Art
February 19 - March 16, 2007

Tom became acquainted with glass blowing as a young boy while living in Ohio and occasionally day tripping with his parents to different glass houses in Ohio, West Virginia and New York. Years later, while visiting an art show with his wife his interests were re-awakened.
After several years of classes and renting time at a local studio he was asked to teach beginning and intermediate level classes on weekends. Now that Tom has retired from his full time environmental career he has purchased and renovated an older building near Warrenton, Virginia for his own studio, gallery and teaching facility.

Tom has served on the board of the National Capital Area Glass Guild. His work is found in a number of galleries around Virginia, Maryland and the District. Tom had work placed in the oldest yacht club in Ireland and was recently commissioned to make replacement inserts for a nineteen hundreds vase currently in the White House. Work was also requested to provide his work for the Renwick Gallery fundraiser.

Northern Virginia Community College
1000 Harry Flood Byrd Highway
Sterling, VA

New Gallery in Frostburg, Maryland

A new art space has opened in Frostburg, MD. Dante's has it's first opening reception this Saturday night entitled, "Marriage of the Cake Eaters" featuring paintings and sculpture by Stephen Manger and Josh Brown.
Dante's is located at 16 West Main Street, Frostburg, MD. Opening Reception is this Saturday, FEb. 24, 6-9. There will be a 'rockin after-hours party to follow with live music.

Should be a great weekend for a road trip!

Tug of War

TUG OF WAR
Upcoming Show at Hemphill

March 3 – April 7, 2007
Opening reception: Saturday, March 3, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Hemphill Fine Arts
Washington, DC

Featuring art work by: Ana Bagayan, Glenn Barr, Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Scott G. Brooks, Daniel Martin Diaz, Bob Dob, P-Jay Fidler, Tony Fitzpatrick, Jason Houchen, Yumiko Kayukawa, Laura Levine, Chris Mars, Elizabeth McGrath, Scott Musgrove, Nathan Ota, Daniel Peacock, Corey Sandelius, Joe Sorren, SHAG aka Josh Agle, Yoko Tanaka and Gary Taxali.

Artists who will attend the reception: Ana Bagayan, Glenn Barr, Gary Baseman, Scott G. Brooks, Bob Dob, Tony Fitzpatrick, Jason Houchen, Laura Levine, Elizabeth McGrath, Nathan Ota, Corey Sandelius, SHAG aka Josh Agle as well as Billy Shire and Annie Adjchavanich. Live, phone, or radio interviews with any of the artists can be arranged.

Sunday, March 4, 3 - 5pm,
La Luz de Jesus Press/BSFA Book signing
with Glenn Barr, Bob Dob, Elizabeth McGrath & SHAG
Please call (202) 234-5601 to order a personalized book.

Hemphill Fine Arts
1515 14th St. NW
Washington, DC 20005
202-234-5601

At Transformer

Upcoming in March: On Wednesday, March 7, 2007, Transformer in partnership with Provisions Library presents: Framework Panel #5 - The Role of the Arts Writer: Critiquing Art Criticism. This fifth panel in Transformer's dynamic Framework Panel Series will focus on the function of arts writing and contemporary arts criticism. Participating panelists include: Rachel Beckman of The Washington Post, art critic Glenn Dixon of the Washington Post Express, art critic and author Andy Grundberg, Glenn Harper of Sculpture Magazine, and Kriston Capps of the Washington City Paper and Grammar Police. The panel will be moderated by Ryan Hill, Manager of Interpretive Programs and Curatorial Research Associate for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution.

Framework Panel #5 - The Role of the Arts Writer: Critiquing Art Criticism will take place March 7, 2007 from 6:30 - 8pm at Provisions Library. Attendance for this event is free. Seating is on a first come, first seated basis. A press release with details on this event can be found on Transformer's website or by clicking here.

March 24 - April 28, 2007 Transformer presents Natural (dis)Order, a group exhibition of work in diverse mediums by DC area artists exploring various themes related to nature, animals, the environment and human connection to the natural world. Participating artists to date include: Senor Tangcito aka Sir Christopher II aka Tang and Chad Yencer. An opening reception will take place Saturday, March 24 from 7-9pm. Check Transformer's website for updates on this exhibition as it continues to develop.

Founded in summer 2002, Transformer is a Washington, D.C. based 501(c) 3 non-profit, artist-centered, visual arts organization that connects and promotes emerging artists locally, nationally and internationally. Partnering with artists, curators, art spaces and other cultural entities, Transformer serves as a catalyst and advocate for emergent expression in the visual arts.

Exhibitions hours are Wednesday -Saturday, 1-7pm and by appointment.

Transformer is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities/NEA, the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, The Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, and The Visionary Friends of Transformer.

# # #

t r a n s f o r m e r

1404 P Street NW Washington DC 20005 (202) 483-1102 /

Go Go Art Projects

MATTHEW SUTTON
The Kudzu Project

March 2 – August 1, 2007

*gogo art projects is pleased to announce Matthew Sutton’s The Kudzu Project. For this dynamic installation, Sutton is planting kudzu in the front window of Conner Contemporary Art / *gogo art projects. Kudzu, indigenous to parts of Japan and China, is known throughout the Southern United States for its rampant, invasive and widespread growth. The plant was originally imported to the United States primarily as a government initiative to help control erosion, but it quickly became known as “the vine that ate the south”.

Sutton views the use of Kudzu as,

the parable of a enlightened, well-meaning "solution" foisted upon the poor, prostrate
and disadvantaged. The government for decades offered farmers up to $8 an acre to
plant it--during the New Deal the CCC planted it extensively-- and through disregard
for the complexity of nature (human and social as well as more properly natural) initiated
an environmental catastrophe symptomatic of a much larger human one. The most
callous part of this history wasn't the introduction of the plant from 1890-1940, which
really was a case of good intentions, but was the slowness in reacting to the problem
(1950-1970). By 1950 or so, it was already clear that the plant had become a monster
outside of anyone's control, but legislation to recognize it as a problem and thus take
steps to control it didn't start until the mid-70's.

A vital component of the installations is the subversion of the artist’s own hand. Other than the initial conception of the piece and the planting of the vines, the outcome is primarily left to chance. The direction, rate and success with which the plant grows remains left to nature and a tension is thus created between the hand of the artist and the forces of nature. Likewise, a similar situation of chance and a resignation of artistic control is created by the simplicity of the project which is merely a kudzu vine planted in a gallery. As Sutton claims, this “allows viewers to bring to and project onto the plant their own issues—offering the plant as a blank, but nonetheless potentially endlessly meaningful symbol”.

The Kudzu Project will be on view until August 1st . *gogo art projects is located at 1730 Connecticut Avenue, NW – 2nd Floor, Washington, DC 20009. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday 10am to 5pm and by appointment. For further information or visuals contact Karyn Miller at 202 588 8777 or at info@gogoartprojects.com.


* gogo art projects
_______________________________

E: info@gogoartprojects.com
T: 202 588 8777

Conner at

MARIA FRIBERG
painted view
2003/2007, 2-channel video: 2,2 and 4,5 minutes, loop. @ PULSE
New York

booth 311

February 22-25, 2007.
69th Regiment Armory
Lexington @ 26th Street

CONNER CONTEMPORARY ART
WASHINGTON, DC
phone: + 202 - 588 - 8750
email: info@connercontemporary.com


Conner Contemporary Art is delighted to participate in the 2nd edition of PULSE New York where we will feature new large-scale figurative paintings by Erik Sandberg and new digital light sculpture by Leo Villareal. We will also debut architectural drawings of movie homes by Mark Bennett and present the American premier of painted view, a video by Swedish artist Maria Friberg. Recent work by John Kirchner and Matthew Sutton (courtesy *gogo art projects) will also be exhibited.

> ERIK SANDBERG's latest female nudes are the largest-scale paintings he has created to date. The pictures allegorize timeless vices of Lust and Sloth, yet their contemporary tone imbues them with an intimate immediacy. Fully engaging the seductive power of his oil glaze medium, Sandberg conveys the warmth and tenderness of his model's flesh to instill his art with a revealing new accessibility. The artist's recent gallery exhibition was heralded by ArtForum.com (November 2007) as "tremendous achievements in figuration – masterfully painted and richly sculptural, they establish the artist as a worthy heir to John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage."

> In Origin (2) LEO VILLAREAL integrates Newton's Laws into computer code to augment his earlier rule-based programs inspired by Conway's Game of Life. Organic patterns elicit familiarity, yet Origin (2) never repeats the same sequence. Origin, Villareal's third solo exhibition with the gallery, is reviewed in ArtForum magazine (February 2007).

> In his latest architectural drawings of movie homes, MARK BENNETT creates detailed schematics of environments that stimulate his audience to relive memories of film classics, including Gone with the Wind, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Rosemary's Baby. At PULSE New York, we will debut the drawings of Home of Norma Desmond (Sunset Boulevard) and Home of Blanche DuBois, Stella and Stanley Kowlaski (Streetcar Named Desire).

> MARIA FRIBERG playfully challenges the male gaze in painted view, a two-channel video filmed at luxury hotels in Miami Beach, FL. On one channel, the artist captures men's voyeuristic glances with a spy camera concealed in her sister's cleavage while on the second channel we see the artist's sister applying make-up. Friberg's work is currently on view at Skövde Konsthall, Sweden and will be seen in Global Feminisms opening at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, March 23, 2007.

Gallery Neptune

PLEASE JOIN Gallery Neptune IN MARCH At their NEW LOCATION, 4901 CORDELL AVENUE!!
(TWO BLOCKS FROM OUR FORMER ADDRESS)

At Touchstone Gallery

Closing in March:

The 9th Annual All-Media Exhibition featuring the works of 53 artists, juried by Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator of the American University Museum. This exhibit closes on March 3.



All That by Nora Carrol in the Annex will close on March 4.



Special Event: The Art of Bordeaux Wine Tasting on February 21 with the Washington Wine Academy, beginning at 6pm. Tickets are $30. Click on link above to register.



Opening, March 7:

Habit by Aubrie Mema presenting a new series using a variation on Rorschach’s inkblots

Latest Faces by Charles St. Charles presenting his trademark faces in a range of abstractions



Debra Diamond and Roberta Gross present their most recent abstract paintings and drawings, in the annex



Opening Reception: Friday, March 9, from 6-8:30pm

3rd Thursday Reception: March 15, from 6-8:00pm

Special Event: Wine Tasting on March 21 with the Washington Wine Academy, beginning at 6pm. Details to come.





Sandy Rossi, Director

Touchstone Gallery

406 7th Street, N.W.

2nd Floor

Washington, DC 20004

202-347-2787

202-347-3339 (fax)

Hours: Wed - Fri, 11-5 and Sat-Sun, 12-5

www.touchstonegallery.com