Toy model kits, usually relegated to the enthusiastic hobbyist, are turned on their head at Anti-Plastic, currently showing at Flashpoint. The show is filled with nostalgia, juxtapositions and exploration. Artist Anthony Cervino uses scraps of toys and the wiry, plastic structures typically used to contain the parts of pre-assembled model kits, such as planes or cars, and deconstructs them to create various low-relief sculptural settings and landscapes. Cervino's work has many easily seen commonalities.......

Some of you may have stumbled upon a giant blue head on a crane at 9th and F Streets on your coffee run this morning. That 31 foot tall, 13,000 pound sculpture is the work of Roy Lichtenstein, the renowned American pop artist who died in 1997. Known for his bright, bold colors and old-school comic book stylings, Lichtenstein already has work all over D.C.; in fact, the National Gallery of Art has the largest......

As a recent MFA graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, Sebastian Martorana has found a calling in stone. A sometimes over-looked medium, Martorana creates work that is often somber and other times light in emotion. This fresh face in the art world is still finding his way as a sculptor as his style progresses, but he's one to keep your eye on. You can see a sample of his work at Irvine......

Becky Alprin's High Altitude City, courtesy Irvine Contemporary Over 250 artists from across the country were evaluated for Irvine Contemporary's "MFA annual" group show, Introductions4. Each of the artists were chosen by a selection panel of collectors of early-career artists through studio and exhibit visits along with open submissions. The chosen nine, Becky Alprin, Reid Bingham, Christina Empedocles, Adam Frezza, Andrea Land, David Linneweh, Sebastian Martorana, Jimmy Joe Roche and Matthew Woodward, represent an......

Solistalgia: a combination of the root words solacium (comfort) and algia (pain), best defined by its author as "...a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home." Citing the term and how his generation has nothing to hold onto, young artist Benjamin Jurgensen brings together everyday objects that are highly influenced by pop culture and mass media. In Don't Ready to Die Anymore at Meat Market Gallery, Jurgensen presents a collection of......

Anyone going to the Kennedy Center, the Watergate, George Washington University, or any other Foggy Bottom attraction should be sure to take a path down K Street, between 24th and 26th Streets NW. In the inaugural Foggy Bottom Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit, the Foggy Bottom Association has installed twelve sculptures within the gardens and front yards of some of the neighborhood’s colorful homes. They are all contemporary works by D.C. metro area artists, and they contrast......

Pushing the envelope with mundane, everyday materials, Dan Steinhilber's show now at G Fine Art is a multidimensional and thought provoking exhibit. Steinhilber incorporates ordinary media to create a cohesive show where the images flow from one to the next and each element incorporates the last, sharing common themes. Packing peanuts, garbage bags and florescent light bulbs are cast in a new light with photography, sculpture, drawing and installation. The walls of the gallery display......

This week the big news is the appointment (PDF) of Dorothy Kosinski as the new Director of The Phillips Collection. She's currently the Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Dallas Musuem of Art, and comes with an impressive résumé that include extensive curating, acquisitions, and teaching experience. Kosinski will officially take over next spring, to replace retiring Director Jay Gates, just in time to take the reins on a five-year strategy the......

If the powers that be think we're going to go easily or quietly, they're wrong. The Post today exposed a devious little plan to chip away at the District's identity, starting with phasing out the city's postmark and replacing it instead with one bearing the name of our northern neighbor, Maryland. According to a Post study, of 235 letters mailed from every quadrant and zip code within city limits, only 24 -- 10 percent --......

If you're not looking forward to setting your Thanksgiving or Christmas table with your best Ikea acrylic, you might want to take a short road trip this weekend to get some new wares. The Valley Craft Network, a 26-year old association of professional artisans and craftspeople, is holding its annual holiday studio tour this Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nestled in the Middletown and Pleasant Valleys west of Frederick, Maryland, the......

>> Art Whino, the new 22,000 square foot exhibition and studio space at 717 N. Asaph St. in Old Town Alexandria, holds its grand opening tonight. The gallery's debut event will be soundtracked by DJ Stylo, and marks the start of two new exhibits: a solo show by artist Derrick Wolbaum and a group show of Pop-Surrealism work in the Permanent Gallery. The opening reception is tonight from 6 to 11 p.m, admission is free.......

>> The one and only Chaka Khan is at H2O tonight as a pre-party of sorts to the kick off of Howard Homecoming festivities, which officially start tomorrow. Doors at 5 p.m., show begins at 7. >> Operation Filmmaker is documentary of sorts that follows the strange story of Iraqi film student Muthana Mohmed. Mohmed was given an opportunity to work as a production assistant in Prague on the set of Liev Schreiber's 2005......

Written by DCist Contributor Amy Cavenaugh Baltimore-bred artist Morris Louis, who lived in Washington in the 1950s, is the subject of a 28-work retrospective on display at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden through January 6. Morris Louis Now: An American Master Revisited, curated by Jeffrey Grove of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, is the first such consideration of Louis’ work in two decades — the previous retrospective was also at the Hirshhorn,......

Since 2001, the Smithsonian American Art Museum has honored one artist annually with the $25,000 Lucelia Artist Award. In order to be eligible, artists must be under the age of 50 and either American or living in the United States. Each of the five distinguished jurors, including artists, critics, curators and scholars, nominate three artists in recognition of their contribution to the art scene in the U.S. and abroad. Following initial selection, the jurors examine......

Olga Viso, who has served as director of the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden for two years, announced today she'll be stepping down at the end of the year. Viso will be taking her experience and successes in running the Hirshhorn to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. The expert on contemporary Latin American art began as an assistant curator at the museum 12 years ago, and quickly climbed the ladder as her skill......

>> 9:30 Club has Editors, Ra Ra Riot, and Biffy Clyro. $15 tickets still available, and don't miss our full preview of Ra Ra Riot by clicking here. >> Michael Powell's 1969 erotic drama Age of Consent features a young Helen Mirren in her film debut. Screening for free tonight at 7 p.m. at the Library of Congress’ Pickford Theater. Call (202) 707-5677 by 4 p.m. to reserve a seat. >> Malcolm MacPherson covered Ambassador......

Samuel Gompers is one of those names you vaguely remember from AP U.S. History, along with The Grange and the Know-Nothings. They fit in somehow, but you don't exactly remember why. While he may not be on the tips of people's tongues, he does have a rather large monument on Massachusetts Avenue NW near Mount Vernon Square. Gompers, born in London in 1850, was a major figure in the American labor movement, organizing and......

You may have admired the sculpted heads of children by Desiderio da Settignano (c. 1429–1464) in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Washingtonians are lucky to have these pieces in their backyard, rare enough for a museum anywhere, and even luckier that the NGA is the only American venue for the first international exhibit devoted to this elusive artist, Desiderio da Settignano: Sculptor of Renaissance Florence. It draws together pieces from three major......

>> Earl Cunningham's America, which opens this Friday at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, features 50 paintings by one of the foremost folk artists of the 20th century. Known for his use of space and brilliant colors, Cunningham juxtaposes the ordinary with the unexpected and puts familiar subjects in unfamiliar settings. The result is an insightful commentary on American life and culture. >> Those looking for something new will have the chance to make their......

You know it's too late for your civil liberties when they've gone and put the Statue of Freedom in a cage. And you thought all those people worried about the PATRIOT Act were alarmists. If you haven't glanced at the top of the Capitol lately, take a gander. Over the past week, workers have constructed scaffolding around the Statue of Freedom—the 19 ½ foot bronze sculpture atop the Capitol Dome—not in preparation for her trip......

Academy 2007, at Conner Contemporary Art, is the gallery's seventh invitational survey designed to give wider exposure to recent graduates of the area's university level fine art programs. Jamie Smith, a product of formal art academia herself, curated the show along with Karyn Miller and chose the pieces after attending area BFA/MFA exhibitions between January and June. The show is designed not only as a platform for talented artists, but also as a profile......

The United States Botanic Garden is a favorite summer destination, and the list of reasons to visit has gotten longer. In a recently opened exhibit, Celebrating America’s Public Gardens, the nation's most important public gardens have sponsored mini-displays in two sections called Green Today, Growing Tomorrows (in the National Garden, at the Mall end of the grounds) and A Sense of Place (on the Conservatory Terrace, facing Capitol Hill). In the latter exhibit, each garden's......

This may look like the grounds of a European palace, but it's actually Meridian Hill Park (aka Malcolm X Park) in Northwest. The park was so named because it once straddled was next to the Washington meridian, the American version of the Greenwich meridian. We liked the sharpness and vivid colors of the grass and gravel in the shot by allyzay — it feels like a nice, cool day. And if you view the......

Ahh. Fifty-eight degrees, Washington. Fifty-eight! That's what the temperature is right now according to my trusty OS X weather widget, and I couldn't be more pleased: with a broken office A/C office unit and a floor of the building prone to soaking up heat, things have been a little warm around here. A last-minute spring extension sounds great, and that's just what we're in for: temps will barely top 70 until the weekend (although......

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. You have to love the really idiosyncratic corners of a city. The hundred year-old oddities with rich histories and lovely faces that look wholly out of place amid more recent arrivals. The Warehouse Theater is just such a place. Sitting quiet and unassuming on a small stretch of 7th Street NW near the hulking new Washington Convention Center, the Warehouse has been......

The first thing we noticed when City-State's first full-length, Monument, arrived is that it looked very professional. Often with local bands the CDs look (and usually are) homemade. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just something that stuck out as a good sign. The CD cover has a picture of Vladimir Tatlin's unbuilt sculpture "Monument to the Third International," one of those things that pops up in architecture books from time to time, superimposed over......

Good morning, Washington. How's spring treating you? We're pretty pleased with how things have been shaping up this week. Not everyone's as sanguine about it, though: we were surprised to hear last night's FOX5 newscast include some newscaster banter whining about the heat. Well, relax Mr. Bolter. Today will be cooler, although it'll end with rain. City Agencies Flee Downtown: Traffic and parking are concerns, but it's skyrocketing property values that are spurring many......

Good morning, Washington. We hope you had as pleasant a weekend as we had, running around in that gorgeous warm sunlight and forgetting you ever complained about the weather in this city in the first place. Not even the threat of rain later this week, nor the mess of traffic on Saturday night that resulted from what was reportedly the least fun White House Correspondents' Dinner ever, could ruin our overall improved moods. Seasonal affective......

>> Your major opening this weekend is brought to you by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The nearly 120 piece Saul Steinberg retrospective, Illuminations, features the artist's witty and deeply observant take on world events throughout his 60 year history with The New Yorker, as well as the many other sculpture, painting, and various artworks that get a little meta in their parsing of creative methods. DCist is going to check out the show this......

Past attendees of any of the F.W. Thomas Performaces, the semi-regular literary-comedic efforts of City Paper contributor Adam Mazmanian held at Warehouse, are well versed in the religion of Lowery. That's T.M. Lowery, or Mike Lowery, or Thomas Michael Lowery, depending on who you ask, the baby-faced "artist-in-residence" of F.W. Thomas and proprietor of The Argyle Academy, a collection of neurotic cartoon animal characters. Mazmanian invited Lowery to present some of his drawings at the......