G Fine Art presents Dan Steinhilber’s "Mixed Bag"

| OPENINGS  | 

Opening reception October 30, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Photo Courtesy of G Fine Art

Exhibit runs from October 30 - December 11

G Fine Art presents Dan Steinhilber’s latest exhibition, Mixed Bag. During the next six-weeks Steinhilber will make work in the gallery itself, engaging the commercial environment as both material and as studio space.

Starting with a lawn mower, broom, and iron, items associated with quotidien suburban existence, Steinhilber will create installations throughout the gallery, transforming it into the site of his sculptural experiments using tools associated with domestic chores.  The gallery audience will witness Steinhilber making these works, and dialogue with him as he folds his private concerns together with public discourse.  Shredded plastic bags will transform the floor with the brushstroke of the broom, and photographic snapshot “castings” will capture the indexical traces of his actions, creating an archive of images from his temporary installations. 

Working last summer at the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York with a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Washington Project for the Arts, Steinhilber invited the public to participate in his sculptural practice.  For his series of  "earthbound" angels, members of the community worked with Steinhilber to cast their bodies in concrete in the manner of snow angels, resulting in a legion of everyday saints that was exhibited on the grounds of the Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City.

Dan Steinhilber received his MFA from American University in 2002, and has been working and living in Washington DC since his student days. He has exhibited widely in the region in commercial and alternative venues alike.  Steinhilber has participated in numerous solo and group shows at museums and art spaces internationally  including, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Des Moines Art Center, the MCA Houston, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University, the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh PA, Brigham Young University Museum Of Art, Provo UT,  Cheekwood, Mass MOCA, SECCA in Winston Salem, NC, and the Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea in Siena, Italy.

Future projects include a solo show on the occasion of the inauguration of the new Museum of Contemporary Art in Raleigh, NC and a show at the Kreeger Museum in Washington, DC in 2012

G Fine Art is located at 1350 Florida Ave, NE Washington, DC  20002.  Gallery Hours are Wednesday – Saturday noon – 6 pm  For more information contact 202.462.1601 or visit  www.gfineartdc.com

G Fine Art presents Dan Steinhilber’s "Mixed Bag"

| OPENINGS  | 

Opening reception October 30, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Photo Courtesy of G Fine Art

Exhibit runs from October 30 - December 11

G Fine Art presents Dan Steinhilber’s latest exhibition, Mixed Bag. During the next six-weeks Steinhilber will make work in the gallery itself, engaging the commercial environment as both material and as studio space.

Starting with a lawn mower, broom, and iron, items associated with quotidien suburban existence, Steinhilber will create installations throughout the gallery, transforming it into the site of his sculptural experiments using tools associated with domestic chores.  The gallery audience will witness Steinhilber making these works, and dialogue with him as he folds his private concerns together with public discourse.  Shredded plastic bags will transform the floor with the brushstroke of the broom, and photographic snapshot “castings” will capture the indexical traces of his actions, creating an archive of images from his temporary installations. 

Working last summer at the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York with a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Washington Project for the Arts, Steinhilber invited the public to participate in his sculptural practice.  For his series of  "earthbound" angels, members of the community worked with Steinhilber to cast their bodies in concrete in the manner of snow angels, resulting in a legion of everyday saints that was exhibited on the grounds of the Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City.

Dan Steinhilber received his MFA from American University in 2002, and has been working and living in Washington DC since his student days. He has exhibited widely in the region in commercial and alternative venues alike.  Steinhilber has participated in numerous solo and group shows at museums and art spaces internationally  including, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Des Moines Art Center, the MCA Houston, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University, the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh PA, Brigham Young University Museum Of Art, Provo UT,  Cheekwood, Mass MOCA, SECCA in Winston Salem, NC, and the Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea in Siena, Italy.

Future projects include a solo show on the occasion of the inauguration of the new Museum of Contemporary Art in Raleigh, NC and a show at the Kreeger Museum in Washington, DC in 2012

G Fine Art is located at 1350 Florida Ave, NE Washington, DC  20002.  Gallery Hours are Wednesday – Saturday noon – 6 pm  For more information contact 202.462.1601 or visit  www.gfineartdc.com

Today in History - Death of King George II

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Written by Dr. Randall Stephens at the blog The Historical Society

On October 25, 1760, George III became King of Great Britain. News traveled slowly, of course, and British American colonists didn't know about George II's (b. 1683) death or their new monarch for weeks.

King George II (1683-1760) of England by Charles Jervas

Just how slow did people and information cross the Atlantic? In 1750 the school master and organist Gottlieb Mittelberger made the voyage from England to Philadelphia. He later wrote: "When the ships have for the last time weighed their anchors near the city of Kaupp [Cowes] in Old England, the real misery begins with the long voyage. For from there the ships, unless they have good wind, must often sail 8, 9, 10 to 12 weeks before they reach Philadelphia. But even with the best wind the voyage lasts 7 weeks."

George II (1683-1760) of England

So, finally, in late December, colonists read of the King's demise in the Boston Post-Boy: "Saturday arrived here Capt Partridge in about 6 weeks from London by whom we have the melancholly News of the Death of the most high, most mighty, and most excellent Monarch, GEORGE the Second, King of Great Britain . . . Defender of the Faith . . . . GEORGE the Third was proclaimed KING. . ." ("Partridge; Weeks; London; News; Death; Monarch; George," Boston Post-Boy, December 29, 1760, 2.)

King George III (1738-1820) of England by Alan Ramsey 1762

The Boston Post-Boy relayed additional news from London: "In obedience to the order transmitted to us by the Right Hon. Vice-Chamberlain, We the under-signed have this day opened and examined the body of his Majesty . . . all parts contained in a natural and healthy state, except only the surface of each kidney there were some hydrides, or watery bladders, which however, we determined could not have been at this time of any material consequence." The regal heart, though, did not look so well. Among other abnormalities, they observed "a rupture in the right venticle." ("London, November 4," Boston Post-Boy, December 29, 1760, 2.)

The British American loyalty to King and Country sometimes gets lost in our popular view of colonials as patriots in the making. But as Brendan McConville writes in his The King's Three Faces: The Rise and Fall of Royal America, 1688-1776, "British North Americans championed their British king with emotional intensity in print, during public political rites, and in private conversation."
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Conner Contemporary Presents: Federico Solmi "Douche Bag City"

  | OPENING |

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 30th from 6pm - 8pm. Artist in attendance.

Federico Solmi  You Are Dick Richman from Douche Bag City. 2010, video-animation. Photo Courtesy of Conner Contemporary Art

My works are filled with corrupt politicians, murderers, swindlers, tyrants, porn stars, religious preachers... I want to present viewers with an ironic but perverse vision of our times and our near future.

- Federico Solmi

To preview the work: CLICK HERE

Conner Contemporary Art presents Douche Bag City, a major exhibition of video-animation, painting, and sculpture by Federico Solmi. Douche Bag City will run from October 30 through December 18, 2010

Solmi shocked Europe last year by exhibiting The Evil Empire (2008), the video portrait of a future Pope whose violent sex addiction leads to widespread ruin. Because of the work’s controversial content, the video was censored in France and Spain. Solmi, who lives in New York, was put on trial in his native Italy for obscenity, blasphemy and offense to religion. Later that year, the Guggenheim Foundation honored Solmi by awarding him with the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, in the category of video and audio, and commissioned work from him. This year, curators Sarah Lewis and Daniel Belasco selected Solmi’s latest video, Douche Bag City (2010) for exhibition in the SITE Santa Fe Eighth International Exhibition.

In Douche Bag City, Solmi turns his satirical lens toward Wall Street. Here, the artist applies his signature style, combining painting and hand-drawn animation with digital models, through the implementation of computer gaming engines. Solmi’s satire of Wall Street greed and corruption operates as a critique of the violence inherent in social and economic power structures. The artist has designed a special installation of custom-framed LCD screens for the presentation of Douche Bag City in the gallery. In addition to Solmi’s most recent videos, we will present his seminal works Rocco Never Dies (2005), The Giant (2005), and King Kong and the End of the World (2006).

Conner Contemporary will also show Solmi’s newest works, which have never before been exhibited: a large-scale sculpture inspired by The Evil Empire and paintings for the video animation Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth (a work in progress).

For further information contact the gallery at info@connercontemporary.com  or call 202.588.8750

Conner Contemporary Art is located at 1358 Florida Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 Gallery  hours are as follows: Tuesday through Saturday 10 - 5pm.

Conner Contemporary Presents: Federico Solmi "Douche Bag City"

  | OPENING |

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 30th from 6pm - 8pm. Artist in attendance.

Federico Solmi  You Are Dick Richman from Douche Bag City. 2010, video-animation. Photo Courtesy of Conner Contemporary Art

My works are filled with corrupt politicians, murderers, swindlers, tyrants, porn stars, religious preachers... I want to present viewers with an ironic but perverse vision of our times and our near future.

- Federico Solmi

To preview the work: CLICK HERE

Conner Contemporary Art presents Douche Bag City, a major exhibition of video-animation, painting, and sculpture by Federico Solmi. Douche Bag City will run from October 30 through December 18, 2010

Solmi shocked Europe last year by exhibiting The Evil Empire (2008), the video portrait of a future Pope whose violent sex addiction leads to widespread ruin. Because of the work’s controversial content, the video was censored in France and Spain. Solmi, who lives in New York, was put on trial in his native Italy for obscenity, blasphemy and offense to religion. Later that year, the Guggenheim Foundation honored Solmi by awarding him with the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, in the category of video and audio, and commissioned work from him. This year, curators Sarah Lewis and Daniel Belasco selected Solmi’s latest video, Douche Bag City (2010) for exhibition in the SITE Santa Fe Eighth International Exhibition.

In Douche Bag City, Solmi turns his satirical lens toward Wall Street. Here, the artist applies his signature style, combining painting and hand-drawn animation with digital models, through the implementation of computer gaming engines. Solmi’s satire of Wall Street greed and corruption operates as a critique of the violence inherent in social and economic power structures. The artist has designed a special installation of custom-framed LCD screens for the presentation of Douche Bag City in the gallery. In addition to Solmi’s most recent videos, we will present his seminal works Rocco Never Dies (2005), The Giant (2005), and King Kong and the End of the World (2006).

Conner Contemporary will also show Solmi’s newest works, which have never before been exhibited: a large-scale sculpture inspired by The Evil Empire and paintings for the video animation Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth (a work in progress).

For further information contact the gallery at info@connercontemporary.com  or call 202.588.8750

Conner Contemporary Art is located at 1358 Florida Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 Gallery  hours are as follows: Tuesday through Saturday 10 - 5pm.

Today in History - 1777 Attack on Norfolk

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William Woodford, (1734-1780)

On this day in 1775, Virginia's last royal governor, Lord John Murray Dunmore, orders a British naval fleet of six ships to sail up the James River & into Hampton Creek to attack Patriot troops & destroy the town of Norfolk, Virginia. British Captain Matthew Squire led the six ships into Hampton Creek & began bombarding the town with artillery & cannon fire, while a second contingent of British troops sailed ashore to begin engaging the Patriots.

Expecting the Patriots & local militia to come charging & to engage in open combat, the British were surprised to come under fire from expert riflemen, who began striking down British troops at a distance. Hearing of the British attack, Virginia's local militia leader, Colonel William Woodford, marched an additional 100 members of the militia to defend Norfolk.

With reinforcements in place, the Patriots & militia pushed the British back to their ships, where the riflemen again began picking off British troops from the decks of their vessels. Facing a humiliating defeat at the hands of an outnumbered local militia, Captain Squire ordered a full British retreat. In the unorganized & hurried withdrawal that followed, two British ships ran aground & were captured. The Patriots, meanwhile, did not suffer a single fatality.
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Today in History - Slave Revolt in Haiti

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Toussaint L'Ouverture

On this day in 1790, the slaves revolted in Haiti, and although this revolt was later suppressed, eventually they succeeded in obtaining freedom. The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) was a period of brutal conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, leading to the elimination of slavery and the establishment of Haiti as the first republic ruled by people of African ancestry.

One of the most successful African American commanders was Toussaint L'Ouverture, a self-educated former domestic slave. He initially fought for the Spanish Crown in this period. After the British had invaded Saint-Domingue, L'Ouverture decided to fight for the French, if they would agree to free all the slaves, which they did on 29 August 1793. L'Ouverture worked with a French general, Étienne Laveaux, to ensure all slaves would be freed. He brought his forces over to the French side in May 1794, and began to fight for the French Republic.

The Slave Revolt in Haiti brought thousands of Haitian refugees to the Atlantic coastal towns of the United States in the 1790s. Many of the Haitian women sold produce at local markets, introducing new vegetables & changing the way early Americans ate.
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