After I met Ana Mendieta

Read it here:

 https://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2003/10/only-year-to-go-for-exhibition-i-wish.html

Bogey

When I first arrived in Seattle around September of 1977, after driving cross-country from Newport,  Rhode Island,  I immediately fell in love with the city.

Seattle was sooo different from my childhood Brooklyn,  and so artsy, and green, and wet, and everyone and everything was so beautiful. 

My favorite movie of all time is Casablanca.

And in Seattle there was a bar at the time, that played Casablanca 24 hours a day!

I can't recall the name, but it was on Lake City Way, and the movie played 24 hours a day... I think! Or at least whenever the bar was open, on a screen behind the bar.

Casablanca geeks lived it, and there were always nerds mouthing out all the lines from the movie.

Somehow at some point I showed the barmeisters a drawing of Humphrey Bogart that I had done as an art assignment at the UW.

They loved it!

There was at the same time a poster and records shop in the U-District called Innervisions or something like that, and the Casablancans from the bar knew them.

Result? A poster from this drawing was made ... hundreds of them, and given out as prizes to the the Casablancanerds as they won the various contests centered around the film that the bar used to run all the time.

Here's the original drawing, which I re-found while looking for something else.

Bogey
1978 pen and ink drawing by
Florencio Lennox Campello 

Sleep is the cousin of death

Once again revisiting this theme of mine, based on a poem that I wrote in the late 1970s on a barf bag while flying from Chicago to Seattle. 

Sleep is the cousin of death 
Mixed media painting on unfired Bisque 
12 inches in diameter 

Immigrant artists

Campello nutjob evidence will follow...

Last year, when I organized and curated the huge “Women Artists of the DMV” survey show, which eventually ended being exhibited across the DMV in 19 different venues (maybe a 20th coming), I said to myself something along the lines of “never again am I going to curate such a large show…”

Cough… cough…

In the nearly 40 years that I have been around the capital region, I have been lucky enough to meet, curate, and know hundreds of area artists who (like me) are immigrants to this great nation.

And thus, the germ of the idea of organizing a fine arts show of 30 or so artists from all over the world to showcase how art can serve not only to preserve one’s own cultural identity, but also paradoxically to tie us together as one… has now emerged.

I know... I know...

Anna Bogh (Russia)
Between States. Gouache on paper, 11 × 10 in 

In this show, which I would like to hang in an overcrowded, eye-watering salon style, that will overwhelm your senses, rather than a minimalistic-hung show, you will see art by artists from Russia, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Holland, Lebanon, Venezuela, England, Canada, Japan, Philippines, Germany, and many other countries. 

Anastasia Travieso-Diaz (Russia)
Roots Beyond Border. Acrylic. 24x24 in. 2026

You will also see these artists challenging you to see their art in the context of the art, rather than the national origin of the artist, while also challenging you to see it also from the exact opposite perspective.

Lusmerlin (Dominican Republic)
Consecration of Stardust. 48x36. Pastel & Acrylic on Wood. 2025

I am initially proposing this show in response to the recent Call for Exhibition Proposals by the King Street Gallery of the MontgomeryCollege Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Takoma Park/Silver SpringCampus.  

Maria A. Brito (Venezuela)
Displaced Homes. 12x12x2.5 in. Mixed media on wood panel
(wooden stamp blocks, cardstock paper, fabric, head pins, acrylic paint, ink), 2024

In the event that they decline, I will try to offer it to any of the other great art venues in our area.

Katarina Öberg (Sweden)
A Year of Silence. 30x34 in. Blackwork, 2025

Can you “feel” where this is heading? Any art venues out there feel it?

Leonor Alvim Brazão (Portugal)
Diversity, 24x48. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 2012/2026

Here are the initial list of artists whom I am proposing:

1. Akemi Maegawa (Japan)

2. Anastasia Travieso-Diaz (Russia)

3. AnaYelsi Velasco-Sanchez (Venezuela)

4. Andreia Gliga (Romania)

5. Anna Bogh (Russia) 

6. Anna Demovidova (Russia)

7. Anne Cherubim (Canada)

8. Chawky Frenn (Lebanon)

9. Cheryl Jacob-Roeske (Sri Lanka)

10. Dora Patin (Hungary) 

11. Erwin Timmers (Holland)

11. Felisa Federman (Argentina)

12. Jodi Walsh (Canada)

13. Katarina Öberg (Sweden)

14. Kirsty Little (England)

15. Laura Ramirez Drain (Mexico)

16. Leonor Alvim Brazao (Portugal)

17. Liliane Blom (Norway)

18. Lusmerlin (Dominican Republic)

19. Maria A. Brito (Venezuela)

20. Naan Pocen (Nigeria)

21. Rachel Garcia-Palmer (Philippines)

22. Sheela Becton (India)

23. Sofia Gawer (Argentina)

24. Steve Wanna (Lebanon)

25. Tea Okropiridze (Georgia)

26. Tinam Valk (Holland)

Dora Patin's upcoming classes

If you read this blog consistently, then you know that I consider Dora Patin a prodigy.  And Dora has now added more evidence to support that statement by offering art classes and the feedback that I have been getting has been phenomenal!

Dora tells me that:

Over the past several weeks, I've been focusing on experimenting with drawing methods that are new to me. The drawing above is the latest result of that exploration. This process inspired me to create a new class that I'll be teaching at Compass Art Center. If you are striving to create realistic drawings, this class is for you.

Introducing: Drawing with Accuracy. In this class I teach the sight-size method working from a photo reference. Students will learn how to accurately measure and compare directly from a photo, allowing the same level of precision and realism. This is a strong starting point for training your eye to see correct angles, proportions and shapes and replicate them before moving onto value control.

I'm excited to offer this class and would love to see it come together with a great group. If you're interested, registration is now open. And I have a small favor to ask: if someone comes to mind who might like this class, I'd really appreciate you sharing it with them. Personal recommendations truly make a difference.

Click on the image for more info. 

There is more! Dora has a new session of her oil painting class running from May 14 - June 11... Thursdays, 5:30 - 8:30pm, 4 classes (3 hours each); All skill levels welcome with a Drop-in option available. Details here.

And then:

Drawing & Painting for Beginners is now on Saturdays (instead of Wednesdays). This class focuses on the essential building blocks of drawing, making it ideal for absolute beginners as well as anyone who wants to strengthen foundational skills.
 

Upcoming session:
May 9 - June 13

Saturdays 10am - 1pm
5 classes (3 hours each)
Drop-in option available

Out of Order Auction is live!

The annual Maryland Art Place OUT OF ORDER auction is live! You can bid on 100s of works of art here.

How do I love Thee? by Florencio Lennox Campello - lot 133 - (Detail)

  You can bid on my work here.

Call for Artists: Signal Box Public Art Project

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

Application here.

The Amalgalm Book Lauch coming this Saturday!

 

Woman, plotting her revenge upon a Washington Color School landscape

"A woman, plotting her revenge upon a Washington Color School landscape." 22x28, c. 2926, mixed media painting on paper. Will be at the next Affordable Art Fair New York City next March 18-22.

Retrospective by Amber Robles-Gordon

Healing Forward: Rituals of Self-Repair, Cultivation of Community, and Collective Activation

Retrospective by Amber Robles-Gordon.

Exhibition Dates: February 9 - April 30, 2026

Location: Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY

Artist Talk: March 20, 2026 at 6:30 pm

Talking Stick Workshop: March 21, 2026. Register here.

Healing Forward: Rituals of Self-Repair, Cultivation of Community, and Collective Activation, is a retrospective exhibition that traces the throughline of healing—personal, communal, spiritual, and ecological—across the artistic career of Amber Robles-Gordon. Bringing together installations, quilts, assemblages, and collages created over more than a decade, the exhibition reveals how healing has functioned not only as a thematic concern, but as a methodology and ethical framework within the artist’s practice.

Robles-Gordon’s work has long been rooted in self-awareness, reflection, and repair—of the self, of collective memory, and of the environments we inhabit. Drawing from Afro-Caribbean spiritual traditions, decolonial histories, feminist thought, and ecological consciousness, her artworks operate as sites of reckoning and renewal. They ask viewers to confront inherited systems of harm while offering space for breath, ritual, protection, and transformation. The exhibition is organized into three interrelated sections, each articulating a distinct yet overlapping mode of healing and awareness.

As a focal aspect of this exhibition Robles-Gordon creates installations that build upon history, personal and ancestral memory and Afro-futurism to establish bird and totemic like data transference structures. Her installation formula is grounded in visual and/or asymmetrical balance. Each installation centralizes a large quilt. Which represents the body of the bird. The remaining medium to smaller artworks are arranged in pairs. One for the left side and its pair on the right side to create the wings. Ultimately, manifesting transference mechanisms in an asymmetrical arrayment of aesthetic and didactic messaging.

I. Reflections of Universal and Societal Healing

This section foregrounds Robles-Gordon’s engagement with collective trauma, historical rupture, and the interdependence of liberation struggles. Works such as Sacred CoEvolution: Undoing the Enchainment of Being(s) and Successions: Traversing U.S. Colonialism examine how colonial violence, racialized power structures, and ecological exploitation remain embedded in contemporary life. Through layered materials, symbolic forms, and spiritual cosmologies, these works insist that healing must be collective, relational, and accountable. Revolution: Is Dawning Because Our Liberation Will Always Be Bound Together further emphasizes solidarity, resistance, and the necessity of communal repair.

II. Healing Through Objects and the Environment

Here, healing emerges through material intimacy and spatial intervention. Installations such as Casting and Protection Work, Place of Breath and Birth, and In Tribute to Love, Nature, and Friendship activate objects, textiles, and natural elements as carriers of memory, care, and protection. These works reflect the artist’s belief that environments—both built and natural—hold emotional and spiritual residue, and that art can recalibrate these spaces toward balance, safety, and restoration. Viewers are invited to move through, around, and within these works, encountering healing as a physical and sensory experience.

III. Healing Through Belief, Practice, and Activation

The final section centers ritual, spirituality, and embodied action as tools for survival and transformation. At the Altar: Dance of the Serpents and Above All You Must Not Play at God draw directly from ceremonial structures, ancestral knowledge, and sacred symbolism. These works operate as altars, thresholds, and invitations—asking viewers to consider belief not as abstraction, but as an active practice capable of generating protection, empowerment, and agency.

Collectively, Healing Forward positions Amber Robles-Gordon’s practice as an evolving archive of healing strategies—one that moves from introspection to communal activation. The retrospective affirms that healing is neither linear nor passive, but a continual process of reflection, confrontation, and collective care. In doing so, the exhibition invites audiences to consider their own roles within systems of harm and repair, and to imagine healing not only as recovery, but as a radical, forward-moving force.

Downtown Fairfax Art Walk

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

Wanna go to an opening this Sunday? Todd Gardner

Todd Gardner opens with a reception this Sunday, March 1st, 12:45 - 2P at the Blanche Ames Gallery, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick, 4880 Elmer Derr Road, Frederick, MD 21703.

Come hear 23 very short stories, a little poetry and a short 10 minute film made with Todd's iPhone. He will be also giving a short artist talk / presentation.  Refreshments will be served.

A woman considering her next move upon a Jackson Pollock landscape

"A woman considering her next move upon a Jackson Pollock landscape." 22x32 inches, 2026 mixed media painting on 600 pound paper. Will be at the next Affordable Art Fair in New York City next month!

Artists & Makers Studios 11th Anniversary!

Congratulations to Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville, Maryland on its 11th anniversary, which in gallery years is like 100 years.  The unique model for this amazing space, under the guiding hand of its hardworking owner and Executive Director, Judith Olivia HeartSong, had grown into other spaces in Oro Valley, Arizona, and in San Gabriel and North Hollywood in California.

We are delighted to be celebrating our 11th anniversary in March at our First Friday Gallery Opening! On March 6th from 5-8pm enjoy exhibits, open studios, food and drink, along with drawings for prizes. Come and join us and celebrate this ever-growing community now thriving in Arizona and California too! Please find embedded below and attached our press release, an image for your use, and a link to the same on our website to peruse. If there is anything we can do to provide more images or information – just ask.

https://artistsandmakersstudios.com/march-2026-11th-anniversary-in-the-galleries-with-rick-ruggles/

“Focus Pocus: Macrophotography” with Rick Ruggles

Mini-Solo for Patricia de Poel Wilberg

Artists & Makers Studios is pleased to host Rick Ruggles for the month of March and A&M’s 11th anniversary celebration. The exhibit will run from March 4th through March 25th, with a First Friday opening on March 6th from 5-8pm. Aiming his eye at the small details in everyday life, Rick explores the sometimes magical, often mysterious beauty in his field of view. 

The subject matter is not always obvious, and often mysterious. The simplest frequently pedestrian textures & colors and shadows & patterns, are captured by smartphone, capable of yielding surprising depth and clarity, with the potential for larger scale presentation than viewers might expect. 

Rick is captivated by the remarkable mundane in daily life. Rust, corrosion, failing paint, street structure, botanicals- all seem to seek Rick’s eye. He captures images in ways that are abstract, sometimes surreal, usually challenging the viewer to identify the subjects. His love of wordplay guides his offbeat choices for titles, doubling his delight, and hopefully that of viewers as well. 

Patricia de Poel Wilberg will hang a mini-solo exhibit in the Lounge Gallery. 

Enjoy the sculptural work of Francis Maduka Uduh in studio 11, along with nineteen Gallery 209 Member Artists exhibiting their latest work. 

Open Studios building-wide will welcome visitors to visit and learn. Shop and support local working artists, makers, and professionals. Light fare generously sponsored each month by The Chesapeake Framing Company.

• Rick Ruggles “Focus Pocus: Macrophotography
• Mini-Solo for Patricia de Poel Wilberg
• The 19 Member Artists of Gallery 209
• The Sculptural Work of Francis Maduka Uduh

February Reception

5:00pm – 8:00pm, Friday, March 6th, 2026

Artists & Makers Studios

11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210

Rockville, MD 20852

Meet the Artist Saturday, March 21st, 12:00pm-3:00pm

2026 Wherewithal Grants

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

Critical Ground: Art and Environmental Justice

WASHINGTON SCULPTORS GROUP

Critical Ground: Art and Environmental Justice

Presented by the Washington Sculptors Group and Glen Echo Park Partnership for the Arts

February 21 - March 22, 2026

Opening Reception:

Saturday, February 21, 2026, 6-8pm

FEATURED ARTISTS

Esperanza Alzona, Joanathan Bessaci, Nizette Brennan, Leonardo Bruno, Sally Canzoneri, Chris Combs, Dianne Crosby, Nicholas Femia, Billy Friebele, McCleary Gallagher, Tom Greaves, Xiang Gu, Raina Hatcher, Kankel Jadon, Jean Kim, Joan Konkel, Heidi Lippman, Cat Lukens, Jon Lundak, Jacqueline Maggi, Samuel Miller, Davide Prete, Radhakund Ramnarine, Jim Roberts, Ira Tattelman, David Whitmore, Janet Wittenberg, Marcie Wolf-Hubbard

Juried by Tomora Wright Swann

JUROR & ARTIST TALK

Saturday, March 7, 2026, 1pm

Meet thirteen of the artists in Critical Ground in conversation with Tomora Wright Swann. Join us for a talk in the classroom on the third floor above the Popcorn Gallery.

More Information here.

What Passes Between Solo Exhibit by Clare Winslow

Everything that Rises, screenprint and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48

March 5 - 29, 2026 Opening Reception – Saturday, March 7, 2-4 pm Artist Talk/demo – Sunday March 29, 2-4 pm

Washington Printmakers Gallery is pleased to present What Passes Between, a solo exhibition by Clare Winslow, opening March 7. What Passes Between brings together works in screenprint and acrylic that explore threshold, suspension, and the space between states. Soft, mottled grounds laid down in acrylic create atmosphere and depth; screen-printing builds across them with precise, repeated detail — mesh, lace, grid. Ribbons, chains, orbs, and sweeping forms move through these layered surfaces, suspended between weight and weightlessness, clarity and dissolution.



Large canvases let these tensions breathe across expansive fields, while small panels distill them into concentrated moments. In the street-facing window, Through, an installation of repurposed transparencies from two decades of printmaking, offers a visual archive that traces a passage from documentation to abstraction.

Join them for the opening reception on Saturday, March 7, 2-4 PM to experience this distinctive body of work.

See the work here. The gallery is located at 1675 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington DC 20007.

About the Artist:

Clare Winslow is a Washington, DC-based artist whose work investigates the shifting nature of time, perception, and memory through painting and printmaking. Working primarily in screenprint and acrylic, she creates layered abstractions that emerge through slow accumulation, tonal variation, and a deliberate interplay of surface and depth.

Winslow earned a degree in Fine Arts from The Catholic University of America and studied printmaking at the Corcoran College of Art. Her practice often incorporates experimental screenprinting techniques (including ribbon exposures, water disruptions, and overprinting without registration) alongside nontraditional materials such as polypropylene and wood. Rooted in sustained observation of the natural world, her work emphasizes transitions in light, texture, and rhythm, inviting reflection and attentiveness.

She is a four-time recipient of the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County's Artists & Scholars Project Grant (2016, 2019, 2022, 2025). She has completed residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and in Orquevaux, France. Her work has been exhibited widely in the Washington, DC region and beyond, and is held in private collections across the United States. Winslow works at her studio in Kensington and at the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Hyattsville.

Asshole of the year: Jezabel Dabouis

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The strange menagerie of sculptor Joan Danziger

It is behind its firewall, but the Washington Post has a spectacular three page spread on DMV legend Joan Danzinger.

It's a very good piece, and the kind of work that we wished the WaPo would do for area artists, maybe once every couple of years or so...

Read it here.

Woman sitting on a Mondrian Landscape

 This new painting will be at the next Affordable Art Fair in NYC this coming March!

Woman Sitting on a Piet Mondrian Landscape by F. Lennox Campello
32x40 inches - mixed media on paper