WMV Music Web Log

After reading the infamous review of Artomatic in the Post, I spent a few hours writing a response. Since it does not seem to be finding its way into print, I guess I'll "post" it here. We visited AOM again for the Friday night opening, and I was once again impressed and excited by artists like Matt Sesow, Joe Barbaccio, Richard Dana, Ruth Bolduan, Greg Minah, and many many others. Here it is:

I find Blake Gopnik’s (“Artomatic 2004: Hanging Is Too Good for It,” Washington Post, Thursday November 11, 2004) comparison of artists to dentists peculiarly narrow. Does he mean that artists should be licensed (presumably by critics like him)? Why not compare artists to politicians? (Who licenses them?). Around here artists seem to be judged by how difficult a technique they have mastered – it proves that they are not just “anybody”. But that is not really what art is all about – art is about saying something that needs to be said, noticing beauty, questioning values, creating our culture. Art is the voice of the people, just as much as politics is.

What exactly is the basic premise of “Artomatic” that Mr. Gopnik finds such fault with? The democracy of it? Artomatic is a grass roots movement that exploded into being as a direct consequence of the repressive milieu of Washington’s critics, curators, and gallery directors. Despite Mr. Gopnik’s claims to the contrary, there is very little air for artists to breathe here; for Washington artists there is “nowhere to go and nowhere to show.” In Chelsea galleries you will find work by Washington artists who have no local representation. Artists who can show here are restricted to their most conservative work. Where else but Artomatic could one have seen Michael Platt’s monumental “House of Dreams” installation?

Yes, Artomatic is full of everything, good, bad, and ugly; but it is also a boiling cauldron of creative artists let loose among their own species to transform a huge space with almost no restrictions. Mr. Gopnik is upset because he has not bestowed his seal of approval, his “license to make art” on these people, and cannot control the chaotic diversity of it all. And yes, it is diverse – if is full of artists of color, women artists, hip-hop and graffiti artists, immigrants – all those artists who have been systematically ignored by the art world. We should be proud that such an event has evolved here in Washington, for whatever reason. Don’t miss it; it is the most exciting and inspiring art event that the Washington area has to offer.