DCACSPARKPLUG: July 2010

Friday, July 30, 2010

Barter closing reception at WPA

Barter, a project organized by Sparkplug curator Blair Murphy, is holding a closing ceremony this evening from 6 to 9pm at WPA headquarters in Dupont (2023 Mass Ave NW).

Barter is a non-monetary silent auction that is part of Washington Project for the Arts’ Coup d’Espace series. People were allowed to bid on goods and services by offering their on goods and services in return. Winning bids have been selected and exchange items and certificates for exchange services will be on display tonight at the closing reception.

See you there!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Introducing the new SPARKPLUG members

Things were delayed a bit, but the blog is back up and running. DCAC welcomes the seven new member artists of Sparkplug: Rob Chester, Chajana DenHarder, Todd Gardner, Joseph Hale, Chandi Kelley, Matthew Smith, and Dafna Steinberg. Blair Murphy is the lone member of Sparkplug F1 that will continue in the new iteration of the group, and she is most certainly welcome back.

To introduce the new members, DCAC presented Facts and Fiction, which closed last Sunday July 18. Thanks to those of you that came out for the opening reception on June 18 and for the artist talk on July 11. Below is the press release for the show:

Sparkplug Presents
Facts and Fictions
June 18 - July 18
Opening Reception: June 18, 7-9pm
Artists Talk: July 11, 5pm

Curated by Blair Murphy
Featuring work by Rob Chester, Chajana denHarder, Todd Gardner, Joseph Hale, Chandi Kelley, Matt Smith and Dafna Steinberg

Featuring work by the seven new members of DCAC's Sparkplug artist collective, Facts and Fictions highlights the tension between the real and the constructed, between the production of elaborate fictions and the documentation of a seemingly concrete reality. Working in painting, photography and mixed media, the artists in the exhibition blur the boundaries between documentation and creation. Fictional narratives and imagined characters inhabit fantastical worlds that nonetheless speak to everyday experiences and anxieties. In other instances, work created with an eye towards everyday human experience transforms otherwise ordinary moments into unfamiliar and surprising visions.

What is DCAC's Sparkplug?

Currently composed of eight DC area artists and curators, DCAC's SPARKPLUG meets regularly to discuss their work, explore common concerns, grow their community and dream up creative engagements both in DC and around the world. Through its support of Sparkplug, DC Arts Center provides meeting space, legal and technical resources and exhibition opportunities to emerging artists, curators and arts writers without current gallery representation or institutional employ. Via a continuing dialogue encompassing the theoretical and the practical, the group’s members share experiences, perspectives, preoccupations, challenges, and topics informing their ongoing artistic practice.

The goal of DCAC's SPARKPLUG is to identify superior artists, curators and arts writers without current gallery representation or institutional employ, provide an environment to help foster their development, provide legal, technical and other resources, and provide opportunities for them to exhibit both in DC and around the country.

DCAC's SPARKPLUG will actively seek its membership from all communities in the Washington, DC region with the goal of bringing together emerging artists and curators with a broad range of backgrounds and experiences, a diversity of professional preoccupations and creative visions.