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One of the most significant items of the new Washington art season is an event which does not take place in an art gallery, or printmaker's shop, photographer's darkroom or art studio but in a sense in all of them.
I am referring to artist's Barbara Januszkiewicz's tremendous success with her public access TV show "Creative Vision." This show, which was created as a result of Barbara's tenacity and her skill as an artist and negotiator (more "victim" artists should take lessons from her!) has become a huge success in recent months.
The show, which is available from Arlington, VA Community Television, has been a success not only in the Greater Washington, D.C. area of northern Virginia and Maryland but outside these Mid-Atlantic states and as far as Chicago, where some of her eclectic art segments have been receiving continous play in various Illinois stations.
The show introduces the viewer to artists, gallery openings, art critics, art jurors. It tours through studios, mixes with the gallery goers, questions the critics - in summary it gives a full balanced view (almost with an educational tilt) to the art world. TV stations or organizations interested in obtaining copies of "Creative Vision" past and future shows should contact them at (703) 528-0307.
Otherwise, the Washington galleries return from their August vacations to open the new art season, and photography seems to dominate some of the openings. In the past I've written about alternative art spaces in this (sometimes) capital backwater. In a city as diverse as Washington, cooperative galleries are sometimes the only place where a struggling artist can find acceptance and a place to hang their work. A cooperative is often created by a bunch on otherwise unrepresented artists who band together to rent a space, man its front office and tackle the unstable world of art galleries.
Many of Washington's top artists today (including Fraser Gallery's Catriona Trafford Fraser and Anton Gallery's Nancy Sansom Reynolds) had their humble beginnings in cooperative galleries (not to imply that coop-ops are humble - in fact the financial freedom afforded by membership dues often frees the artist to truly express their creativity). Co-ops also deliver affordable original art, as as such are of tremendous interest to beginning collectors.
In trendy Georgetown, Spectrum (a wonderful cooperative galelry just off M street) will feature the paintings of Fanchon until 21 September. A reception for the artist will be held on 7 September from 4-6 PM. Later on the month, the hand colored photographs of Suzanne Quinlan will be exhibited in a show titled "Compostions from Home." That show will open with a reception for Quinlan on Sept. 28 from 4-6. Spectrum is at 1132 29th Street, NW and can be reached at (202) 333-0954.
In Alexandria, the mother of all co-op galleries is the Art League at the Torpedo Factory. Their monthly group shows are still the best group shows in this city month after month. At these shows, over 100 pieces of art are hung each month, juried from over 600 entries. They can be reached at (703) 683-1780. Just down the street on Union Street in Old Town, Gallery West has the watercolors of Pamela McDonough until Sept. 23. A reception for the artist will be held on 13 September from 6-9 PM. Gallery West can be reached at (703) 549-7359.
In Dupont Circle, the Touchstone Gallery, just across the street from the Dupont Circle Metro Stop will host a summer group show titled "Hot Days, Cool Art." This gallery's monthly shows swing wildly in context, style and skill, but are always certain to bring a breath of fresh air sometimes missing from its stuffy neighbors in Dupont Circle. Touchstone can be reached at (202) 347-2787.