ART-O-MATIC IS HERE!!!!

Its come true, your favorite semi regular artistic free-fer-all is back and badder than ever! Tomorrow is the grand opening, so be there or be square. If you miss Friday's opening, you get a second chance at hi-jinx with all the artists on "Meet the Artist Night" on Friday the 16th.

Here is the ArtbyJared space in all of its glory:

11th floor, NW side, Art-o-Matic 2008

Did you know that Art in America mentioned Art-o-Matic in this months issue? It's true. About Halfway through the article and its listed in the "In the Galleries" section of J.W. Mahoney's Report from Washington D.C. which is not available on the web, but Lenny posts some discussion of the piece here. And, I have decided to transcribe a "good parts" excerpt:

...The other institution, Artomatic, established in 1999, is fluid in every respect. Its an annual - sometimes semiannual - resolutely non-curated exhibition of Washington area artists, a pay-for-space proposition open to anyone at all who wants to show something they have made. It takes place anywhere large enough to accommodate the deluge of art that comes in, making exhibition spaces out of anything from a former children' s museum to two floors of an office building, to an enormous empty laundry complex. The presence of so much amateur work is overwhelming. Prompting the Washington Post's chief art critic, Blake Gopnik, to compare visiting Artomatic to an extended dental appointment. But the beauty of Artomatic's aesthetic anarchy is its abundant innocence, not in any obviously savvy consideration of contemporary art issues. And, critically viewed, some surprisingly serious, innovative work crops up in unusual places, just around some unlikely corner of the show.

My suggestion is to go buy one at the newsstand, because the article articulates the D.C. scene fairly succinctly...even though it leaves out many deserving folks (certainly it leaves out any mention of lowbrow)

This week was dedicated to getting the Art-o-Matic space in order, and ready for the public on Friday, so there is not much to report on the artistic front. I did, however, get to pose for a portrait for Todd Gardner. He has been working on a series of 50 24"x24" portraits of people he knows...yours truly is number 39:

Jared by Todd Gardner
Acrylic on board 24"x24"