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Item: Women Artists of the DMV - All that you need to know!
Date: 13 January 2025, 5:27 am

WOMEN ARTISTS OF THE DMV

Describe the organizing principle(s) of the exhibition.

The “elevator pitch” or how I would describe the project in 30 seconds.

· Me talking: This exhibition will be the first ever survey of female visual artists from the DMV (“local” acronym for District, Maryland and Virginia – or the Greater Washington, DC Capital region) ever done – it will be staged in six major art spaces in 2025 in each state area bordering the District: they are the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center at American University in DC, The Athenaeum in Alexandria, and The McLean Project for the Arts, both in Virginia; and Artists & Makers Galleries and the Galleries at Strathmore Mansion, both in Rockville, Maryland, and Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Hyattsville, Maryland!

Project genesis, its development and its relevance today.

The Greater Washington, D.C., capital region (the DMV) is not only home to some of the best art museums in the world, dozens of commercial art galleries, non-profit art spaces, alternative art venues, and art organizations, but it also supports and fertilizes some of the best and most creative visual art scenes in the nation.

Celebrating this art scene, which spreads across the three areas that make up the DMV, local DC area curator, artist, and arts activist Florencio Lennox Campello (that's me again in fancy words) proposed in 2023 to curate an exhibition of 100-150 works by 100-150 women artists comprised of both leading and established female artists plus talented emerging contemporary female visual artists who represent the tens of thousands of women artists working in this culturally and ethnically diverse region in order to assemble a group show to showcase the immense power of the visual arts being created by these artists.

In late 2024, led by the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in DC, and as part of the generous Alper Initiative, five other DMV art venues agreed to co-stage the show, which will run the six separate art spaces starting in September 2025 for 6-12 weeks.

Three days after its announcement, over 1,000 entries came in (and are still coming), delivering empirical proof of the depth, diversity, and range of the of the exhibitions. As the date of this post, nearly 3,000 entries have been received.

In an effort to be more inclusive, the mechanics of the exhibition were revised to be able to archive and exhibit in some manner or form all the artists. This will be accomplished as follows:

All artists will be documented for the Smithsonian Art Archives as follows: A flash drive which would contain a PowerPoint presentation documenting all 3,000+ female artists who submitted art for consideration, and one image per artist. Additionally, in view of how fast technology ages, the documentation will also include a digital screen device (a digital frame) to “play” the PowerPoint presentation as needed in the future.
The referenced PowerPoint presentation will be projected onto the walls of the Katzen Museum at American University during the duration of the exhibition (September through October 2025).

About the participating artists.

At this point, we have nearly 200 female artists selected for the six-venue exhibitions, which will include 2D, 3D, video, and performance art. Others may be selected on an ongoing basis, after studio visits, artwork review, etc. As of the date of this post, review is still ongoing - if you are a female artist from the DMV and wish to be reviewed, simply send an email with your website and/or Instagram feed to lenny@lennycampello.com

How were they selected, by whom, why, what work will they be showing?

Who: The artists are being selected by Florencio Lennox Campello, a well-known and respected DC area artist, curator, writer, and artist (that's me again). A DC area resident since the late 80s, Mr. Campello was once described by the Washington City Paper as “one of the most interesting people of Washington, DC.” In 2011 he authored “100 Artists of Washington, D.C.” (Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, PA), and his art blog, Daily Campello Art News is ranked among the top 15 art blogs in the world and has received over seven million visits over the last 20 years.

Why: Few people know the DC area art scene like Campello. Over the last few decades, he has curated or organized over 200 visual art shows. Furthermore, he has ample experience organizing and curating shows of this large scale.

He has the proven background and experience to curate large, multi-space art survey exhibitions. In 2007 he curated “Seven”, a seven-gallery exhibition across various spaces in Washington DC that surveyed the thousands of artist members of the Washington Project for the Arts (WPA)/Corcoran. Over 6500 slides (remember slides?) were reviewed by Campello and a nearly a hundred artists selected for the multi-gallery show, which received multiple reviews in the press, both local and national. Earlier, in 2001 Campello curated “Contemporary Realism: A Survey of Washington Area Realists” for the Athenaeum in Alexandria – another show that exhibited over 60 artists and received wide reviews in the regional and national press.

Furthermore, as he has previously done with great success, Campello has engaged a variety of Greater DC area visual arts curators, gallerists and collectors to “crowd source” portions of the exhibitions; each person will nominate anonymously up to 10 artists for consideration to be included in the show.

Why? To survey the key, established female artists of the Greater Washington, DC region, mid-career artists, and just as important, identify the emerging female artists who can benefit from this exposure. Additionally, as done in previous curated shows, Campello has approached and received the commitment of several Greater DC area gallerists, museum curators, and collectors to attend several guided tours of the exhibitions. The goal here is to force the exposure of these artists to some of the key members of the city’s visual arts tapestry. This is a proven process for success; for the previous “Seven” multi-gallery show, 28 of the artists were offered representation and/or solo gallery shows as a result of the exposure in the exhibition.

What work will they be showing?

All genres of the visual arts will be considered, to include public art. Each artist will have one work selected by the curator.

How will participation in this show help to further their career and/or creative practice?

Exposure – As noted earlier, the curator will coordinate both group and individual walk-throughs of the exhibition with key DC area curators, collectors, gallerists, etc. This is a proven tactic to get artists, especially emerging artists, noticed.

Expanding the footprint - So far, the curator has secured intentions to cover the exhibition by multiple DC area news organizations such as The Washington Post, NPR, two local radio stations, and one local TV station. More are being cultivated at all times.

Boot camp for artists – As part of the process, participating artists will be invited to participate in the curator’s “Boot Camp for Artists” seminar, a 4-hour free seminar which over the last 30 years has been presented to over 6000 artists and arts professionals. The seminar is designed to deliver information, data and proven tactics to allow artists to develop and sustain a career in the fine arts.

1. Materials - Buying materials; strategies for lowering your costs, where and how to get it, etc.

2. Presentation – How to properly present your artwork including Conservation issues, Archival Matting and Framing, Longevity of materials, a discussion on Limited editions, signing and numbering, Prints vs. Reproduction, discussion on Iris Prints (Pros and Cons).

3. Creating a resume - Strategy for building your art resume, including how to write one, what should be in it, presentation, etc.

4. Juried Shows – An Insider's view and strategy to get in the competitions.

5. How to take images of your artwork

6. Selling your art – A variety of avenues to actually selling your artwork, including art fairs, outdoor fine arts festivals, corporate acquisitions, galleries, public arts, etc.

7. Creating a Body of Works

8. How to write a news release

9. Publicity – How to get in newspapers, magazines, etc. Plus, handouts on email and addresses of newspaper critics, writers, etc.

10. Galleries – Discussion on area galleries including Vanity Galleries, Co-Operatives, Commercial Galleries, Non-profit Art spaces, etc.

11. How to approach a gallery – Realities of the business, Contracts, Gallery/Artist Relationship, Agents.

12. Outdoor Art Festivals – Discussion and advice on how to sell outwork at fine arts festivals, which to do, which to avoid, etc.

13. Resources - Display systems and tents, best juried shows and ones to avoid.

14. Accepting Credit cards – How to set up your art business.

15. Grants – Discussion on how to get grants in DC, Regional and National, including handouts on who and where and when.

16. Alternative Marketing - Cable TV, Local media

17. Internet – How to build your website at no cost, how to establish a wide and diverse Internet presence.

18. Art fairs - A strategy on how to participate in gallery art fairs

Information as about the catalogue and book.

American University will publish a catalogue about the artists selected to exhibit at the Katzen Museum. Each artist whose work is exhibited at the Katzen will have an individual essay written about their work and a large image of their selected work.

Additionally, the curator is currently negotiating with Schiffer Publishing for the publication of a hard cover art book to include 100 of the selected artists in the large format book. Each artist will have an individual essay written about their work and a large image of their selected work.

Here’s a sample chapter:

In 2022 was my distinct and unique honor to serve as the 2022 Paint the Town juror for the Montgomery Art Association, which together with the town of Kensington, Maryland stages an annual visual art exhibition and competition in the city’s ample Town Hall and on the streets of beautiful Kensington, just outside of the District of Columbia.

As all great shows are, this was an immeasurably difficult show to judge, which is a good thing! The quality of entries was uniformly superior in almost every category, and the difference between first, second, third, and even some honorable mentions was minimal.

It was at this show that I was first astounded by the paintings of Dora Patin, who ended up winning “Best in Show.

I do not throw around the word “astounded” easily. Over the last four decades I’ve seen the work of hundreds if not thousands of artists who just started painting a few years ago, and already deliver immensely intelligent work.

Patin smokes them all – in fact, I think that Patin is a painting prodigy. She has only been painting for a handful of years, and yet her trompe l’oeil paintings are breathtaking in their ability to fool the eye. Either Patin has painting super powers or owns the most enviable painting learning skills on a planetary level.

Over those same decades I have seen many artists who, after decades and decades of practice, failures and successes, have accomplished the spectacular technical painting skills of this artist, but none, zero, not one, in such a short time after first grabbing a painting brush and opening a paint tube.

And technical painting skills alone do not make great art, and this is where Patin’s natural skills assist her in also delivering intelligent compositions and works full of psychological storylines – such as her series on some of the “key” hands of the poker game, or “Alice.”

Breathtaking technical skills in the hand of an intelligent artist are formidable art assets.

Who is writing?

The curator, Florencio Lennox Campello is writing both the Katzen Museum exhibition catalogue, and the Schiffer Publishing large format art book.

What are the essay topics?

Each artist in both the Katzen catalogue and the book will have an individual essay written about them and their work – here is another example:

Lida Moser

Lida Moser remains the greatest photographer whom I’ve ever met in person.

She was once called the "grandmother of American street photography" by an art critic, which prompted a quick rebuttal by Moser, who called the writer's editor and told him that she wasn't the "effing grandmother of anything or anyone, and would he [the writer] ever describe Ansel Adams or any other male photographer as the 'grandfather' of any style’."

Moser was born and lived most of her life in New York City, but a couple of decades ago moved to our area and was immediately adopted by the DC area art scene.

Lida Moser's photographic career started as a student and studio assistant in 1947 in Berenice Abbott's studio in New York City, where she became an active member of the New York Photo League. She then worked for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Look and many other magazines throughout the next few decades, and traveled extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

She also authored and has been part of many books and publications on and about photography. She also wrote a series of "Camera View" articles on photography for The New York Times between 1974-81.

Her work has been exhibited in many museums worldwide and is in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, the National Archives, Ottawa, the National Galleries of Scotland, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, the Library of Congress, Les Archives Nationales du Quebec, Corcoran Gallery, Phillips Collection and many others. And one of her most iconic photos, depicting of the window washers cleaning windows at the Exxon Building in NYC was actually made into a 3D sculpture at Legoland (without Moser's permission) in Florida.

She wielded her camera like a weapon, and her photos are gritty, full of life, city narratives, police sirens, and stories of all kinds and flavors – like Lida.

Will the catalogue document or expand upon the exhibition’s premise?

Both the catalogue and book will both document and expand upon the exhibition’s premise.

Specific opportunit(ies) for the artists: residencies/performances/public programs.

For many of these artists, this may be their first-ever exhibition in a museum as well as their first cataloguing in a book or museum catalogue.
For nearly all of these artists, this will be their first exposure in a major national review outlet such as The Washington Post, NPR, etc.
As the curator has many inside connections with DC area galleries, this will also present these artists with their first ever opportunity to be exposed to a curator, to a collector and to a gallerist.
Most of these artists will also (for the first time) be exposed to Art Bank – this is the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Commission process to acquire art for the city’s collection; coordination with the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Commission is ongoing to secure a commitment from the commission to review the shows with the goal of acquiring some of the work for the City’s collection.
The curator is also coordinating with the National Museum of Women in the Arts to conduct a curator visit to the four venues, and select at least one work for acquisition and addition to the permanent collection of the museum. Similar seminal coordination is ongoing with several local universities, with the goal being for them to acquire a work from an exhibiting alumni artist for the permanent collection of the university.
All artists will be invited to attend the “BootCamp for Artists” seminar, to be staged at American University, at no cost to the artists.