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ISSUE II: INTRODUCING THE ARTISTS
At an unannounced press conference held at 10:10 a.m. yesterday morning -- or, rather, during our staff meeting -- an ecstatic WPA staff released the list of artists participating in its upcoming auction on April 21. Eighty-two artists will be displaying more than 200 artworks. "All of the artists but one live in the Eastern Time Zone," said Jordan Martin, Program Assistant. "I'm feeling good. Everything is synching up beautifully." The overwhelming majority of the artists live in the greater Washington metropolitan area. One lives in Northern France. Here is the list:
Kristin Adair, David Amoroso, Amber Eve Anderson, Sondra N. Arkin, Mary E. Arnzten, Abol Bahadori, Rushern Baker IV, Kyle J. Bauer, Sarah Bedford, Joan Belmar, Chloe Bensahel, Leslie Berns, Alan Binstock, Michael Booker, Andre Bradley, Nakeya Brown, Gerardo Camargo, Amy Chan, Hannah Cohen, Shannon Leah Collis, Larry Cook, Joseph Corcoran, Kyrae Cowan, Sheila Crider, Markele Cullins, Alexa de los Reyes, JD Deardourff, Sara Dittrich, Monique Dodd, Alexis Duque, Mary Early, Margo Elsayd, Edgar Endress, Mike Ferguson, Suzanna Fields, Adrienne Gaither, Shaunté Gates, Jerrell Gibbs, Jason Gubbiotti, Avi Gupta, Jack Henry, Timothy J. Horjus, Ashley Ja'nae, Kaitlin Jensco, Jacob Kainen, Caroline Lacey, Serli Lala, Magnolia Laurie, Khanh Le, Andrea Limauro, Marissa Long, Aaron Maier, Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, Gabe Martinez, William Matheson, Jeanette May, Antonio McAfee, Ryan McCoy, Matthew McLaughlin, Veronica Melendez, Maggie Michael, Curtis Miller, Greg Minah, Jaclyn Mottola, Linn Meyers, Jung Min Park, Michael B. Platt, Nicole Salimbene, Ginevra Shay, Alexandra Silverthorne, Daniel Simmons, Anne Smith, Dan Steinhilber, Cindy Stockton Moore, Monica Stroik, Justin Dane Strom, Martin Swift, Ryan Syrell, Kristen Neville Taylor, Kate Warren, Jayoung Yoon, and Helen Zughaib
*Note from the Editors: We will not be pre-selling work before the event this year, so don't forget to buy your tickets! You can purchase them here.
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UP TO THE MINUTE PREVIEW
WPA also announced that it is beginning a timed rollout of selected artworks from the eagerly anticipated event. "We're especially pleased by the variety of great work this year," says executive director Peter Nesbett. Here are the first works to be publicly unveiled.
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Andre Bradley
Andre Bradley seeks to create an alternate space that exists because of race, but is casually unaffected by it. There, in his own words: "I am able to see myself, clearly, free, and able". His critically acclaimed Dark Archives, 2015, is a provocative exploration of one black man's memories of childhood. It entwines Bradley's writing and photographs with pictures from his family archive. Part story, part lyrical investigation, it aims to upset the linguistic and visual constrictions placed on black males. His earlier works combine images and text in a deeply moving and ongoing meditation on the basic human desire to be understood. Bradley lives and works in Philadelphia.
Image: Fingerprints, 2014, Archival inkjet print mounted on Gator Board, 30 x 40 in.
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Khanh Le
DC-based Khanh Le transforms family photos into colorful abstractions using gold gelly roll pen, sequins, acrylic stickers and acrylic crystals. He examines notions of identity through contradictions and fragmentations. In his own words: "Even though I identify as a Vietnamese-born American, I still do not know what it means. There is discord within my origin because I was born too late. By the time I have arrived, Vietnam has already claimed its independence. Being born too late effectively removed me from that point in history. Growing up in the United States, I learned to adapt my identity living between two cultures. Identity is the central theme of my works, and I examine it through the bits and pieces of my memory and the collective history of the two cultures."
Image: Standing There All Along and Alone, 2015, gold and silver paint, jewels, pigment print on paper
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Helen Zughaib
Helen Zughaib was born in Lebanon and now lives in DC. She writes of her work: "As an Arab American I feel that my background in the Middle East allows me to approach the experiences I have in America. I hope through my work to encourage dialogue and bring understanding and acceptance between the people of the Arab world and the United States, especially following 9/11, our wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the more recent revolutions and crises across the Arab world that have resulted from the uprisings or 'Arab Spring,' that began in 2010."
Image: The Secrets They Carry, 2017, archival pigment print, 36 x 29 in.
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Jeannette May
The original vanitas paintings of the 17th Century celebrated the new wealth of The Netherlands. They recorded the affluence of finely crafted domestic merchandise and, by including skulls and references to time, mused on the inevitability of death. Jeanette May's "Tech Vanitas" photographs-precarious arrangements of anachronistic consumer technology-embrace the anxiety surrounding technological obsolescence. They also confront still life's traditional tension between temptation and the rejection of worldly goods. She is based in Brooklyn, NY.
Image: Tech Vanitas: Red Phone, 2016 archival pigment print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag, 36 x 24 in.
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Why 10:10?
10:10 is the time the silent auction ends at the Auction. It is also the default setting on clocks. Fun fact: did you know that the default setting used to be 8:20? Clock manufacturers thought it looked too much like a frown and changed it to 10:10 to make it look happier.
Date
March 23, 2018
