Author Archive for John Anderson

Vitamin A: David Haxton’s “Painting Room Lights”

In which one of our art critics highlights a favorite work on view in a local gallery.
A couple months ago, when the Smithsonian American Art Museum unveiled its video game show,  a little gallery next to the exhibit was closed for installation. The latest installation of "Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the [...]

Artomatic: Some Early Reactions

Barnstorming through Artomatic, it's easier to react than reflect. This year's artist headcount is more than 1,000, which means a two-hour dash through the 10 floors of artwork gives you about five seconds per artist—an overestimation that does not factor in the time to move between rooms, move between floors, or get lost.  That estimate [...]

Artomatic 2012: First Impressions

Walk through Artomatic for two hours and the effect is what you might expect: It's dizzying. Draining. Eleven floors, 10 of them busting with artworks from 1,300 contributors. Some floors are labyrinthine; others are wide-open displays of sculpture and installation, interrupted by a stage and bank of chairs. Like the last time Artomatic was in [...]

Reviewed: Luis Silva’s “A Fox’s Tale”

Luis Silva seems to be cycling through the cultural artifacts of contemporary childhood. The last time he showed at G Fine Art was in 2006 with a show called "Little Monsters," which featured a variety of “soft sculpture”—stuffed animals that straddled fantasy and nightmare. The exhibition took in a host of visual influence—Jim Henson, anime—and [...]

Vitamin A: Luis Silva’s “Untitled”

In which one of our art critics highlights a favorite work on view in a local gallery.
Luis Silva's newest works at G Fine Art are inspired by a fable he authored while simultaneously working on the paintings, all annoyingly "untitled." At its root, the work of "Untitled" (wolf in ass' skin) is unapologetically an [...]

Vitamin A: Avery Lawrence’s “Arranging Suitcases”

In which one of our art critics highlights a favorite work on view in a local gallery.
“Arranging Suitcases” is the latest video from Avery Lawrence, who won some acclaim during the (e)merge art fair for “Moving a Tree,” an absurd video about a man in a suit who fells a tree [...]

What Happened in Washington

A few weeks ago, "Happenings: New York, 1958-1963" opened at one of Pace Gallery's 25th Street locations in lower Manhattan. It's an exhibition of photographs, objects, and film from the various "happenings" created by the art faculty of Rutgers University and artists living in downtown New York during that period: Red Grooms, Lucas Samaras, Jim Dine, [...]

Vitamin A: Cliff Evans’ “Camping at Home #1″

In which our art critics highlight a favorite work on view in a local gallery. Click to enlarge!
Cliff Evans' work in "Sites and Stations," currently on view in the University of Maryland's Stamp Gallery, is a bit of a quagmire once you start to break it down. He starts with a Photoshop collage of some like elements: [...]

Reviewed: Patricia Cronin at Conner Contemporary

Conner Contemporary's current show, "Memorial to a Marriage," by Patricia Cronin, is a spare exhibition containing the title work, cast in bronze, and a small maquette of the same sculpture off to the side. The sculpture depicts two (nearly) life-sized figures laying on a bed, nude except for the drapery of bed [...]

Hamiltonian Gallery Closed After Basement Floods

A water main broke earlier this week on the 1300 block of U Street NW, and, unfortunately, it flooded the basement of Hamiltonian Gallery—where Hamiltonian keeps its art inventory. No word yet on the extent of the damage. The gallery is closed for now, but the current exhibition will reopen January 31, and will be [...]