Yesterday I reported for duty at ARTOMATIC, which had been given permission by the City Kommissars to re-open at 6PM. Lots of hard-working people behind the scenes deserve a great THANK YOU!
Cute lady named Kira was on duty greeting all the voluntolds for the 3:30 – 8:30PM Friday shift: Maria, Laila, Martinez, Laurel, Danielle and many others. I lucked out and got floor walker/docent duties on the 8th floor with the nice lady Laila, whom I soon bored with my tales of how nice my cousin’s wife Fariba is…
The 8th floor at Artomatic is magical becuse it is wide open, so people can flow from artist to artist without room-gallery feeling of some of the other floors.
| 8th floor view at Artomatic 2024 |
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| Sondra Arkins’ Bamboo Showers at Artomatic 2024 – Listen to them below |
There are a lot of graffiti artists at Artomatic (as usual), and Luis Rosenfeld stood out to me as one of the better ones whom I’ve seen over the years! The carefully installed and orchestrated space on the 8th floor testifies to that!
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| Luis Rosenfeld at Artomatic 2024 |
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| Luis Rosenfeld at Artomatic 2024 |
Like Star Wars and Star Trek, Barbie has been an often common theme at ARTOMATIC since 1999… but as we are now in the era of Barbie the Movie, it is a special treat to award the 2024 ARTOMATIC Barbinator Art Award to Sarah Jane Rodman‘s super cool 8th floor installation titled “Pink Compass, True North”!
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| Pink Compass, True North – by Sarah Jane Rodman at ARTOMATIC 2024 |
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I also discovered that some asswipe/assholish mutants had apparently violated Anthony D’Amico’s super intelligent and cool installation, forcing the artist to “tape off” his work’s approach area.
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| Anthony D’Amico at Artomatic 2024 |
What does the Lenster think? I think that Marcos Smyth on the 8th floor has won the “Best Ever Driftwood Sculpture Award” in ARTOMATIC history!
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| Marcos Smyth – Best Ever Driftwood Sculpture Award at ARTOMATIC 2024 |
And what can I say but WOW! to the mural by Jeff Huntington? The skill alone leaves me in a state of art flux!
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| Mural by Jeff Huntington at ARTOMATIC 2024 |
Almost last but by far not least, is this gorgeous and huge piece by Anthony Maderal! Quite possibly the best Star Trek artwork ever (no idea if this talented artist meant it to be?), but darn if this is not the best BORG cube in artistic history! Sculpture by Antony Maderal is titled “I0I0 – In Our Own Image” – I seriously think that the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities needs to acquire it for the city’s public art collection! Can you imagine this gorgeous work of art spinning (where it can’t be reached or touched, but seen) at a DC building?
I0I0 – In Our Own Image by Anthony Maderal
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| Dorothy Hickson sculpture at ARTOMATIC 2024 |
I also quite liked Rashia Sawyer‘s often erotic somantic photography, whih was also superbly and very professionally presented! Very talented and skilled photographer… and while I am discussing photogs, I also give kudos to Cynthia Herrick!
The 8th floor also hosts several countries’ “pavilions”… cough… cough… this is quite “new” for AOM, but a really GREAT step forward! Not sure how they achieved this? Maybe working with the local embassies? This is an area ripe for growth in future Artomatics!
The best Pavilion by far was the Mexican Pavilion, which flexed its muscles in that nation’s mythical printmaking scene!.
Mexican artists in the area were all printmakers, and they were all really good! I especially liked the largest print in the show, a wondrous work titled “El Guardian” (The Guardian) by Daniel Hernandez.
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| “El Guardian” (The Guardian) by Daniel Hernandez at Artomatic 2024 |
But it is a gorgeous print!
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| “Hasta la victoria siempre” at AOM 2024 in Mexican Pavilion |
There I really liked the technical skill in the drawings of Daniel Madruga, who delivers immensely surreal compositions of fantastical animals.
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| Drawing by Daniel Madruga |
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| Drawing by Daniel Madruga |
