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National Portrait Gallery art competition now open

Expert panel seeks entries that broaden the definition of portraiture

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Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, gay news, Washington Blade
National Portrait Gallery (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition hosted by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery is open for submissions until Friday, Jan. 29. 

This competition seeks entries that broaden the definition of portraiture with images and media that reflect the countryā€™s diversity as represented through the identities of the artists and subjects as well as their varying backgrounds depicted. 

Artists 18 and up who are living and working in the U.S. and its territories are invited to submit one portrait to be reviewed by a panel of experts. First prize is $25,000 and a commission to portray a remarkable living American for the galleryā€™s collection. 

The finalistsā€™ and prizewinnerā€™s works will be included in The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today exhibition to be displayed at the National Portrait Gallery April 30, 2022 – Feb. 26, 2023, before continuing on to other cities. 

For more information, and to submit works electronically, visit portraitcompetition.si.edu.

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New England art duo to exhibit in Virginia

RufoArt opens at Nepenthe Gallery

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(Photo by New Africa/Bigstock)

New England artists Caroline Rufo and John Rufo, also known as RufoArt will open an exhibition on Thursday, Aug. 10 at 6 p.m. at Nepenthe Gallery.

The husband-and-wife duo will share their paintings and also talk about their inspirations. Caroline explores the natural beauty, ideas, and systems of power that create her surroundings while John works toward an understanding of art as a representation of singular moments of both immediate presence and a larger context of wholeness.

For more details, visit Nepenthe Galleryā€™s website.

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John Waters introduces the world to his ā€˜roommatesā€™Ā 

Baltimore Museum of Art showcases filmmakerā€™s eclectic collection in new exhibit

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John Waters shows off his impressive art collection in a new BMA exhibit.

As open as he is about his childhood and his movies and the causes he supports, writer and filmmaker John Waters remains guarded about his personal life.

From Watersā€™ books, interviews and speaking engagements, fans know that heā€™s gay and who his longtime friends are. They know he has three residences ā€” in Baltimore, New York, and San Francisco ā€” and that he spends his summers in Provincetown. They know where he plans to be buried, and with whom. But Waters reveals little about his most intimate relationships.

ā€œI have to talk about my movies. I have to give interviews to promote what Iā€™m doing,ā€ he once said. ā€œBut no one really knows my personal life. And if you donā€™t have a personal life, I feel bad for you.ā€

So it was a bit surprising this fall to hear Waters talk about the ā€œroommatesā€ he lives with, as if heā€™s a college kid in the freshman dorm, or heā€™s renting out rooms to cope with inflation.

During a press briefing about a new exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Waters volunteered that he has roommates in each of his three residences. In many cases, he said, heā€™s had these roommates for years. And theyā€™re not members of his biological family; he chose to live with them.

But for those hungry for morsels about Watersā€™ private affairs, these arenā€™t exactly romantic roommates. The museum event was a preview for ā€œComing Attractions: The John Waters Collection,ā€ an exhibition of 83 works of contemporary art from Watersā€™ personal collection, that runs until April 16, 2023. And ā€˜roommates,ā€™ Waters explained at the briefing and in a ā€œgo mobileā€™ narration that accompanies the show, is the term he uses to refer to the works of art at his different homes. 

ā€œMy roommates ā€” thatā€™s what Iā€™ve always called my art collection,ā€ he said at the media event. 

ā€œI call art my roommates because I live with them,ā€ he explains in the taped narration. ā€œI look at them every day…We live in a commune.ā€

 Watersā€™ notion of art works as roommates is not new. He wrote about it in a chapter of his 2010 book, ā€œRole Models,ā€ in which he describes the art in his homes as roommates, having traits that he likes and seeks out for all of his homes. He said he prefers the companionship of art-roommates to live ones. 

ā€œNo sirree, no real-life people sharing my bathroom or reading my newspapers before me!ā€ he vowed. ā€œInstead, I live with artists. Mike Kelley is one of my roommates.ā€

Visitors to Watersā€™ homes, including guests at his annual Christmas party in Baltimore, have been lucky enough to see what heā€™s talking about. The BMA exhibit is the first time heā€™s shared his companions on such a large scale.

Part of the fun of the exhibit for him, Waters said during a walk-through of the show, has been seeing his roommates from his three different residences, in the same space for the first time, in some cases side-by-side.

ā€œTheyā€™ve never met each other before,ā€ he said. ā€œIt was like [the curators] were introducing different artists that should have met a long time ago.ā€ 

Though heā€™s perhaps best known for films such as ā€œHairsprayā€ and ā€œPink Flamingos,ā€ bestsellers such as ā€œRole Modelsā€ and ā€œCarsick,ā€ and nicknames such as ā€œThe Pope of Trashā€ and ā€œThe Prince of Puke,ā€ Waters, 76, is also a visual artist and noted art collector. 

He was the subject of a retrospective entitled ā€œJohn Waters: Indecent Exposureā€ at the BMA and the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, in 2018 and 2019. He has two works on view in the inaugural show at the Rubell Museum that recently opened in Washington, D.C., ā€œBeverly Hills Johnā€ and ā€œShoulda!ā€ 

The 83 works on view in ā€œComing Attractionsā€ were culled from a larger group of about 375 works that Waters, a Baltimore native and BMA trustee, has agreed to leave to the museum when he dies.

Watersā€™ gift to the BMA includes 288 works by 125 artists other than himself, in a variety of art forms. Waters also donated 87 prints, sculptures, mixed-media and video pieces that he created. His gift will make the BMA the greatest single repository of his visual artwork and will enable it to provide, in perpetuity, a comprehensive view of his vision and approach to making and collecting art.

When Watersā€™ gift was announced in 2020, directors promised the museum would have a preview of whatā€™s to come while he was still alive, and this is it. All of the works in the show are on loan from Waters and will go back to him when the show is over.

In return for his gift, the museum board said it would name restrooms and a rotunda after him. That wasnā€™t a putdown. Known for his raunchy humor and offbeat way of thinking, Waters specifically asked to have his name on the restrooms, the first at the BMA that are ā€œall gender.ā€

Christened last fall with a ā€œfirst peeā€ by trans artist and activist Elizabeth Coffey, The John Waters Restrooms are right next to The Nancy Dorman and Stanley Mazaroff Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, where ā€œComing Attractionsā€ opened on Nov. 20. The museum has also agreed to display prominently five works from the collection, including one by Waters, at all times.

ā€œComing Attractionsā€ is one of two Waters-related museum exhibits opening over the next year, along with ā€œPope of Trash,ā€ a career retrospective at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles in 2023. Dates for the retrospective have not been announced. 

Unlike ā€œIndecent Exposureā€ three years ago, ā€œComing Attractionsā€ doesnā€™t include works by Waters. Instead, it provides an insiderā€™s look at his tastes in contemporary art, and how he lives with art, by focusing on works by others that he has collected and displayed at his homes in Baltimore, New York, and San Francisco.

The guest curators are photographer Catherine Opie and multi-media artist Jack Pierson, both of whom have been friends with Waters for years and are represented in his collection. Both identify as queer, as do many of the artists represented in the exhibit. The show is organized by Leila Grothe, the museumā€™s Associate Curator of Contemporary Art.

Among the featured works are paintings, sculptures, photographs, and prints by Diane Arbus; Nan Goldin; Mike Kelley; Cindy Sherman; Cy Twombly; Andy Warhol; Christopher Wool, Gary Simmons and others.

The museum refers to the exhibit as ā€œa cutting-edge articulation of American individualism, particularly as it relates to queer identity and freedom of expression.ā€ 

ā€œAll of John has been a go-to for me, as a young queer,ā€ said Opie, who has a portrait of Waters in the show. The works ā€œrepresent a type of contemporary art that the museum actually just doesnā€™t really have,ā€ Grothe said. 

Watersā€™ collection is a reflection of his personality and imagination, Opie and Pierson said in a joint statement.

ā€œOur hope is to share with audiences another aspect of Johnā€™s creative vision by offering a glimpse into what he values: artists who are unafraid to take risks, who do not compromise, and who create their art on the margins.ā€ 

The roommate reference could have been a one-liner, but Waters takes the idea and runs with it, building on what he wrote in his Roommates chapter in ā€œRole Models.ā€

ā€œThey delighted me or made me angry or made me laugh or I thought did something in a new way,ā€ he said of his companions. ā€œThey just challenged me and I wanted to live with them because artā€™s your roommates. You live with them forever.ā€

In talking about his ā€˜roommates,ā€™ Waters makes it seem as if they are sentient beings who have minds, feelings and personalities of their own, and who can interact with each other, perhaps when the museum is closed.

He paints a picture of his roommates being the art world equivalent of the robotic ā€œhostsā€ in HBOā€™s ā€œWestworld,ā€ or the exhibits from ā€œNight at the Museumā€ and its sequels, movies in which works of art come to life.

Waters talks about his roommates hanging out together, knowing theyā€™re in the home of the Cone Collection with its priceless paintings by Henri Matisse and other masters. He thinks about how theyā€™re adjusting to their temporary home. He muses about them developing relationships they couldnā€™t have in the different residences and becoming friends. He imagines his roommates plotting with each other. He fantasizes about them sneaking out of the gallery theyā€™re in and exploring other parts of the museum.

Asked at a donorsā€™ event how he thinks his roommates are getting along in their new setting, Waters didnā€™t miss a beat: ā€œI think theyā€™re so happy to meet each other,ā€ he said. ā€œAnd they all want to gang up and scare The Blue Nude.ā€

Itā€™s not that much of a stretch to think in those terms, since many of the works in Watersā€™ collection are images either of his friends (the late Cookie Mueller), or by his friends (Vincent Peranio), or both (Susan Loweā€™s drawing of Mink Stole.)

The curators are going along with it, too, talking about ā€˜introducingā€™ different works so they can be ā€œin conversationā€™ with each other.

ā€œJohn delights in the fact that these works, all pulled from different homes, are meeting each other for the first time,ā€ Grothe said at the press preview, pointing to a wall with works from three different residences.

ā€œHow great does this wall look with Richard Tuttle on the left, the sculpture by Vincent Fecteau in the center, and Gary Simmons on the right?ā€ she asked. ā€œThereā€™s a lot to say about each artwork, but for now we should just appreciate the budding of a new friendship between these pieces.ā€

The curators positioned certain works to show how they ā€œbegin to speak to one another in different ways,ā€ Opie said.  ā€œThroughout the exhibition, youā€™ll notice these little groupings…that we ended up putting together so that they could have a conversation.ā€ 

Was anyone left out of the party?

Pierson said he regrets that there isn’t an “Edith Massey moment” in the show, in honor of the character who played Edith the Egg Lady in ā€œPink Flamingos,ā€ so her voice could be part of the mix. “I’m sure I could have found one,” he said. 

ā€œThe only piece that would remind me of her [is one] that I didnā€™t buy but I wish I did, by George Stoll,ā€ Waters said. ā€œHe made fake Easter eggs, but the collector hides them in their house so no one ever sees them. And you forget them, yourself, that you have them. And then youā€™re going through an old drawer ā€“ Oh! Thereā€™s a piece of art I bought!ā€

During the donorsā€™ event, Grothe asked Waters what his homes feel like with much of the art out on loan. She said people at the museum are worried about him, living without his roommates. Waters said his homes look and feel empty.

ā€œIt looks like Iā€™m moving, everywhere, because they didnā€™t take everything,ā€ he said. ā€œSo there are big holes in the wall, and dirt.ā€

Waters said he keeps thinking Louise Lawler should come over, a reference to the artist whoā€™s made a career of studying and documenting art installations. ā€œItā€™s a great installation for her to do.ā€

Waters went even further in the taped narration, likening his residences to scenes of a crime, still in disarray.

ā€œThey have come to all my homes and taken half the stuff off the walls,ā€ he laments. ā€œSo now I live in abandoned squats that look like art robberies happened in my house.ā€  

At the same time, he admits, his roommates look good in their museum setting.

ā€œYou can see them so much better,ā€ he said. ā€œI donā€™t have good lighting. They cleaned them, too. They were dirty, some of them.” 

Even though the show just opened, Waters is already thinking about what happens after it comes down.  

ā€œItā€™s weird,ā€ he said. ā€œItā€™s going to be hard to put them back where they went after seeing them in here together.ā€

Waters said he thought about putting his roommates back differently, taking cues from the exhibit and preserving some of the new ā€˜relationshipsā€™ formed at the museum. He said heā€˜s grateful to the curators for coming up with ā€œa whole new wayā€ to show them off.

ā€œMaybe Iā€™m going to never be able to hang it back the way it was [and] have to put it back the way you did it,ā€ he told the curators at one point.

But ultimately, he said, he decided against shifting everything around. 

ā€œOh god, that would really be complicated,ā€ he said. ā€œIā€™d have to move all the furniture and change everything. So they will go back, lonely.ā€

Waters said he knows that wonā€™t be as much fun for his roommates, not hanging with their new friends. But he notes this isnā€™t the last time theyā€™ll see each other, since theyā€™ll be returning to the museum eventually.

After all, he said, ā€œthey know that way later, after Iā€™m dead, theyā€™ll get together again.ā€

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Artists examine gender identity in D.C. exhibition

Event sponsored by the Blade, Dupont Underground

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'The Veiled in Red' by Waleska Del Sol is one work featured in The Gender Within: The Art of Identity exhibition at Dupont Underground.

Each weekend this June, visitors to Dupont Underground ā€” an arts space built into an abandoned trolley station under Dupont Circle ā€” will find walls lined with artwork ranging from embroidery to watercolors. Together, the pieces make up the Undergroundā€™s latest exhibition, ā€œThe Gender Within: The Art of Identity,ā€ which unites more than 35 local artists in a conversation on gender identity and the dynamic ways that gendered labels are experienced.

Sianna Joslin, a web developer by day and one of the artists participating in the exhibition, is including a piece entitled ā€œThe Inherent Agony of Having A Bodyā€ ā€” an embroidery hoop that depicts an anatomical model of a transmasculine individual bearing top surgery scars and patterned red boxers.

The piece juxtaposes ā€œthe old ideals of the human body, the male form, with top surgery scars (and) these funny pennant boxers,ā€ they said. ā€œItā€™s kind of a play on what society has traditionally considered masculine versus these new symbols of masculinity that transmasculine folks are embracing.ā€

Another artist, Rashad Ali Muhammad, brings to the exhibition a compilation of videos in which colorful, moving backgrounds are transplanted onto the faces of different people ā€” pieces that originally began as NFTs.

This project, entitled ā€œA World Within,ā€ was inspired by the realities of existing in a period of social volatility like the pandemic, and aims to show the ā€œworldsā€ that exist within each person, Ali Muhammad said.

Left to face the challenges of the pandemic and broader social inequities, ā€œyou need to take the time inwardly to think about and process everything thatā€™s going on,ā€ they explained. ā€œYou have to go within to understand who you are sometimes.ā€

Nikki Brooks, whose painting ā€œBlaq Jesusā€ portrays a Black and androgynous Jesus smoking a cigarette with a nondescript expression, rooted her creative exploration in her experience with societal gender norms.

ā€œFor a long time I struggled with my gender expression. I had to live up to how people framed me ā€¦ putting this femininity on me,ā€ she said. The painting challenges ā€œpressures from people saying that one person has to be one way, or express themselves one way,ā€ and encourages others to ā€œlet them live how they feel on the inside.ā€

Brooks also noted the use of religious imagery was key to her piece. In historical depictions of Jesus, he is often assigned certain racial and gender identity markers according to societal demands, she said. ā€œThis Black Jesus in a way defies all those stigmasā€ tied to the identities depicted by connecting them to a revered religious icon.

The artists all noted that they are excited by the diversity of experiences the Undergroundā€™s exhibition has brought together.

ā€œWeā€™re going to see ā€” from all of these different artists ā€” interpretations of what gender means to them, and I just think thatā€™s wonderful,ā€ Joslin said. ā€œI really hope that it expands on that notion of gender for a lot of people.ā€

Ali Muhammad found the exhibition especially meaningful for openly creating space for queer artists.

ā€œIn the history of art, a lot of artists tend to be queer ā€¦ but people donā€™t talk about that,ā€ they said. ā€œFocusing specifically on queer art and queer artists (says) we are here, we are represented.ā€

The exhibition, cosponsored by the Washington Blade and Dupont Underground, can be accessed at 19 Dupont Circle, N.W., each Friday, Saturday and Sunday in June from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Entry costs $10 per person, or $7 for students, seniors and members of the military.

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