KCLOG: October 2011

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Out and About with Julie: (e)merge art fair

Capitol Skyline Hotel, Washington, DC

September 22 - 25, 2011

I visited the inaugural (e)merge art fair in DC recently, taking along my trusty Carrie Chatterson Studio totebag. A big thanks to artist/curator Jose Ruiz for showing me around.

The underground parking lot had been converted into a fun, free-wheeling display space for installations and performances.

ArtWhino featured installations by Angry Woebots:

and Pixel Pancho:

and J*RYU (here, with one of his sculptures in front of a specially painted mural for his space):

Detail of J*RYU's sculpture

Installation and performance, "The Queen's Game," by Copy Cat Theater involved a red shack with cut out picture-frame windows so you could peer inside at the performance:

I had caught the attention of the performer here and he started eerily following me around, trying to tell me something:

In Nathan Manuel + D. Billy's installation, people could go into their shack and sing karaoke under the disco ball:

Calder Brannock and his Camper Contemporary installation and performance:

Forest Z Allread's installations were called Black Betty (detail):

and Monster Mash (detail):

Upstairs, the hotel rooms served as booths for galleries and non-profit art spaces. Lisa Gold, Executive Director of Washington Project for the Arts, in her booth:

Flashpoint Gallery of Cultural Development Corporation presented Kenny George's vintage video game room installation, which was a veritable dork playground!:

Flashpoint also featured Lisa Dillin's canopy sculpture installation over the bed in another room (detail):

Becky Flanders at Mindy Solomon Gallery booth:

Jeremy Flick's "Talkin' Bout a Revolution" is a print project reproducing the design from inside of bill pay envelopes. He wallpapered the walls of the hotel's gym with these prints. Thanks to Jeremy, I'll think of Tracy Chapman's song and the Wall Street Occupation while I pay my credit card bills. Detail image:

Patrick McDonough's sculpture installation out by the pool:

On Saturday night, there was a block party hosted by G Fine Art, Industry Gallery and Conner Contemporary Art. Here's artist Jeremy Haik with CCS totebag:

During the block party, there was an Andy Warhol photobooth at Conner Contemporary where we donned "Warhol" wigs for photos, and Leigh Conner was nice enough to help us get these taken: