Each year, I give "The Annamaria Paint Can" award to what I consider are the best gallery visual art exhibitions around the Greater Washington, DC capital area in the following categories:
Already quite a terrific painter, who started by painting large, haunting images and then went into a period of total abstraction, in 1999 Michael Sprouse's show at eklektikos gallery definately established him as one of Washington's top painters by delivering the best solo painting show in the city in 1999.
This year Sprouse completely re-invented himself and went into a whole new realm of using digitalized images as models for a new series of brilliant paintings. A news release to me called his work "digitalism" in the sense that the "ism" shows a new movement being created by Mr. Sprouse. This is a young, hot artist at the beginning of his career and still quite affordable.
Colby Caldwell was already on the road to becoming a respected emerging photographer with his haunting black and white images, which used various means to distort the image and achieve rather impressive visual effects. He has been known to photograph television screens through the silk of stockings and such in order to achieve darkly erotic effects.
His 1999 incredible show at Hemphill Fine Arts was a radical new road for this talented photographer. Using 8mm film images from an old home movie, he produced haunting color photographic images which easily became the best photography show of 1999.
So 1999 looks like the "Year of Donovan." This talented installation artist followed her terrific show at Hemphill Fine Arts with an equally memorable installation at the Corcoran's Hemicycle Gallery and the oddly timed announcement that she was the only Washington artist selected for the sought-after Whitney Bienial.
Donovan's work is pure and precise, but full of subtle nuances which only the artist fully understands. She is the true definition of the "modern artist." Her work is apparently not for sale -- the Corcoran installation, made up of discarded rug materials, is to be disposed of after the exhibition closes -- and thus Ms. Donovan must make a living out of grants and whatever other success comes out of her newly-found fame. She is very talented and her work is honest and will probably go a long way in defining the art of the 21st century.
Adam Bradley at Fraser Gallery was easily and by far the most spectacular sculpture show of 1999 in a Washington gallery. This was Bradley's first commercial gallery solo show and was a brilliant debut for this very talented and very young Virginia sculptor. Bradley is very far ahead of his contemporaries and just at the beginning of his art career.
Bradley works with found objects, strings, wax and metal to put together very gestural sculptures which go from a very small scale to room-sized. This is easily a young artist on the way to art star status and is work is fresh, modern, honest and still quite affordable.
No award in 1999
In a city where visual art criticism is ignored by nearly all the mainstream media, Jessica Dawson's insightful and honest review of Annie Liebovitz's much heralded show "Women" at the Corcoran was short but to the point and my favorite 1999 art criticism.
Dawson's fresh style of writing is truthful and understandable and unlike many other area critics, she does not back away from writing a challenging review that goes against the galvanized art views of the art establishment, but unlike others who attempt this, she does it with style, elegance, wit and knowledge and not with baroque caustic words. She writes mainly for the Washington City Paper, but some of her reviews also appear on the Washington Post.com and don't we all wish that they also appeared on the print version of the paper!
Without a close challenger, Art-O-Matic, the huge 350-plus artist extravaganza this summer at the empty Manhattan Laundry building.
This was the closest that Washington has come to a survey of Washington art in years. It is unfortunate that this was a one time deal, and that none of Washington's many museums or large art spaces really care to see that the success of Art-O-Matic was not only because of the talent of the participants, but also because of the hunger by the public for something of this scale.
How about the Corcoran for a annual survey of Washington artists? An open show where all can hang and all can be displayed?
Adam Bradley's commercial debut at the Fraser Gallery was the best debut by a new DC artist in a commercial gallery. Bradley came to this show with a budding reputation from his work at the Arlington Arts Center. This talented young sculptor gets my vote as the best new artist of 1999.
There is a certain purity in the works of Bradley which make them fresh and new, regardless of the clear fact that he borrows gestural themes and guidance from the Rennaissance and neo Classical sculptures.
There is a strong gift in this young artist and I consider him one of the key DC area artists of the 21st century.
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