Washington Post on the DC Glass Scene Seen at Artomatic

Washington Post article on 2024 Artomatic exhibit

Great review of Artomatic culture event in the Washington Post. Art critic Mark Jenkins enjoys the all-sorts arts experience and singles out the glass art for comment, including using WGS artist Michael Janis’ artwork titled “Waiting for the Moments that Never Come” as the illustrative work for the show. Writes Mark:

“…Among the various business and governmental sponsors of this year’s Artomatic is a small but internationally renowned arts group, the Washington Glass School. The Mount Rainier, Md., studio has taken a large chunk of the building’s fifth floor to showcase the elegant creations of co-founders Tim Tate and Erwin Timmers and several other glass virtuosos. Tate, who credits Artomatic with playing a significant role in his career, is showing a sculpture that riffs on Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man.” The provocatively androgynous update positions eight glass figures — male, female and combined — in a circle surrounded by mirrors and lights that simulate a sense of endless replication…”

In the galleries: Artomatic: Unpretentious, approachable, convivial – Review by Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, April 5, 2024

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/art/2024/04/05/art-gallery-shows-dc-area/

By contrast – have a read about how the Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik thought of the 2004 Artomatic exhibit:

…”The result is the second-worst display of art I’ve ever seen. The only one to beat it out, by the thinnest of split hairs, was the 2002 Artomatic, which was worse only by virtue of being even bigger and in an even more atrocious space, down by the waterfront in a vacant modern office building. I won’t dwell on the art. And I certainly won’t name names…There may just be a few decent things hidden in the mix — with so many thousands of objects on display, the law of averages says there must be. But three hours’ worth of looking didn’t spot too many. Some of the glasswork looked all right. (Glass is such a gorgeous medium it’s hard to screw it up, and you need some basic training even to begin to work in it.)

Artomatic 2004: Hanging Is Too Good for It by Blake Gopnik

November 10, 2004

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2004/11/11/artomatic-2004-hanging-is-too-good-for-it/353b4ecd-8d74-475b-9386-63d5acd048db/

Artomatic runs thru April 28th. 2100 M Street, NW, Washington, DC.

Washington Post Reviews “The Wall” – Featuring Work By Erwin Timmers

Washington Post critic Mark Jenkins reviews OSAP "Wall"

Washington Post critic Mark Jenkins reviews OSAP “Wall”

Otis Street Arts Project has a new exhibit – titled “The Wall”, curated by Molly Ruppert. The show’s premise is to examine concepts invoked by President Trumps desire for a “great big beaurtiful wall” to be installed at the United States southern border. The curator asked the invited artists (Claudia Vess, Ellyn Weiss, Erwin Timmers, Gregg Hannan, Glenn Richardson, Jacqui Crocetta, Scott Brooks, Wayson Jones,Yar Koporulin, Paul Hrusa and Hebron Chism) for their take on the subject.
Washington Post Arts Critic, Mark Jenkins has a review in the weekend’s Arts Section, with an ebullient review of Erwin Timmers’ featured work “Changing the Conversation”.

This Saturday, March 9th, there will be an event tied to the exhibit – Come view the show, hear the curator speak, and have some therapeutic wall smashing of “wall” created by artist Glenn Richardson. Doors open at 7pm; Curator talk by Molly Rupert 8:00 PM; Wall Smashing 8:30 PM. Otis Street Arts Project, 3706 Otis Street, Mt Rainier.

Click HERE to learn more.

Washington Post on “Artists Against Gun Violence” Exhibit

Washington Post Art Critic Mark Jenkins reviewed the group show, “Artists Against Gun Violence” mounted to underscore the message of the March for Our Lives, curated by Molly Ruppert.

Detail of Tim Tate's "Endless Cycle".

Detail of Tim Tate’s “Endless Cycle”.

In the review (click HERE to jump to review online) Mark writes: “…the most elaborate entry is glass artist Tim Tate’s 3-D assemblage of concentric circles of guns, flowers and male nudes. It’s a frozen merry-go-round of beauty, peril and vulnerability, in which every translucent figure represents 1,000 people killed by guns last year.

Artists Against GunViolence Through April 9 at the Third Floor, 4200 Ninth St. NW; the Reading Room at Petworth Citizen, 829 Upshur St. NW; and Upshur Street Books, 827 Upshur St. NW.

Washington Post Reviews Michael Janis Solo @ Littleton Gallery

The Washington Post published the following review of Michael Janis’ solo show “Echoes of Leaves and Shadows” being exhibited at the Maurine Littleton Gallery through Oct 15. Art critic Mark Jenkins  describes Michael’s skill as “extraordinary. Jenkins also enthuses that Janis’ glass artwork combines “the stateliness of stained-glass windows with the vivacity of pop art”. Have a read of the full text below:

Michael Janis. "Radiance," 2016, glass, glass powder imagery, steel; on view at Maurine Littleton Gallery. (Michael Janis/Maurine Littleton Gallery)

Michael Janis. “Radiance,” 2016, glass, glass powder imagery, steel; on view at Maurine Littleton Gallery. (Michael Janis/Maurine Littleton Gallery)

By Mark Jenkins October 8, 2016

Michael Janis

If Michael Janis worked with pencil or charcoal, his draftsmanship would be impressive. But the D.C. artist draws photorealist portraits with pulverized glass, placing the powder exactly with tiny tools. Which is extraordinary.

Most of the pieces in “Echoes of Leaves and Shadows,” at Maurine Littleton Gallery, include depictions of pretty young women. These gamines, who might be ballerinas or French New Wave stars, are rendered in granulated black glass fused by heat to clear glass sheets. The pieces aren’t just black-and-clear, though. Janis overlays and underlies patches of translucent colored glass, and often adds such 3-D glass elements as butterflies or flower petals. Aqua and orange are common in this array, among other hues. In one picture, an abstract yellow-green swirl contrasts the subject’s slightly darker green eyes.

Janis employs many variations, slicing faces into three equal parts or contrasting them with panels of textured glass. There are ceramic busts garlanded with glass leaves, and portraits embellished with near-opaque peacock- or dark-blue circles. The latter combine the stateliness of stained-glass windows with the vivacity of pop art — half medieval cathedral, half 1960s Vogue.

Michael Janis: Echoes of Leaves and Shadows On view through Oct. 15 at Maurine Littleton Gallery, 1667 Wisconsin Ave. NW. 202-333-9307. littletongallery.com.

Washington Post on Zenith Gallery:Fresh

Washington Post’s Sunday Arts section featured Tim Tate’s artwork on exhibit at Zenith Gallery.

This weekend, the Washington Post newspaper’s Arts Section had a great review of the Zenith Gallery anniversary show “Fresh” – which features our Professor Tim Tate. The review, written by Mark Jenkins, includes a mention of Tim’s recent show at American University Museum – so it’s a bit of a two-fer! 

Click HERE to jump to the Post’s review online .

Zenith Gallery : Fresh
Through Aug. 31 at Zenith Salon, 1429 Iris St. NW; 202-783-2963; www.zenithgallery.com