subject: Emerge Art Fair Slouching Towards Washington By Walter Robinson [print this page] On a rainy Friday morning before the tourists are out, central Washington, D.C., can feel a little like imperial Rome. Great swaths
of ceremonial lawn, towering dark bronze statues, gargantuan piles of marble and granite, this is clearly a city that rules over a
global empire with pomp and power.
Its easy to imagine, then, hidden in nearby workshops and ateliers, bustling throngs of artisans, portraitists, carvers, painters,
designers, all in service to the great American oligarchy. It stands to reason, too, that these court artists should number among the
most talented of the era.
But no. Instead we have giant sculptures imported from China as in the new Martin Luther King Memorial; unceremonious unveilings of
50-year-old pictures in the White House, notably Norman Rockwells iconic Civil Rights painting The Problem We All Live With (1964);
and a Republican Party so small-minded that all it can do is embarrass the nation with its silly culture wars, most recently by
forcing the removal of a videotape of ants on a crucifix from a show at the National Portrait Gallery.
Perhaps thats just what you get in a so-called populist democracy. Still, youd think the great American Imperium would be an
irresistible subject for artists, especially in Washington. For paranoids, anyway, theres plenty.
You might have to read between the lines to understand, but its there in plain sight. Last week the Hirshhorn Museum unveiled an
encomium to the CIA, otherwise known as Andy Warhol: Shadows, while the National Gallery of Art celebrates the propaganda machine
that keeps all the people at bay in Warhol: Headlines. (Curiously, the early-80s New York Post report that Madonna would appear
nude in Playboy was ruled off-limits to press photographers.)
OK, enough grandiose fantasies about art as a stick in the wheels of state. In 21st-century America, art is a branch of Finance,
which is of course headquartered in New York, rendering Washington, D.C., as just another one of the provinces.
And so it was at the debut of the scrappy Emerge Art Fair, Sept. 22-25, 2011, where a group of 80 exhibitors -- as many nonprofits,
art schools and artists groups as professional galleries, if not more -- put on a good show on two-and-a-half floors (one being the
parking garage) of the seven-story Capital Skyline Hotel right downtown, designed by the celebrated Morris Lapidus and owned by
collectors Don and Mera Rubell. Rooms rented for $4,500 for the fair.
Organized by veteran fair ramrod Helen Allen and D.C. dealer supreme Leigh Conner, the fair has been judged a success, with edition
number two already in the works. High-profile exhibitors included Monique Meloche, our favorite Chicago art dealer, who brought works
by Ebony G. Patterson (Gangstas, Disciplez + the Doiley Boyz), Kendell Carter and Rashid Johnson.
D.C. itself was definitely in the house, notably via the inimitable Conner, who seems to rep D.C. almost single-handedly on the
international fair circuit. Her Conner Contemporary suite boasted photos by Victoria F. Gaitan of cute chicks made up like whipped
cream parfaits, complete with cherries stuck guess-where.
Also on hand at Conner was a living artist, Mia Feuer, a volunteer at the fair, who said she works the world of fellowships,
residencies, grants and prizes to keep body and soul together (she recently snagged something called the Trawick Prize, worth
$10,000). Feuer was keeping an eye on her own Fire Escapism (2011), a largish sci-fi construction of blue, black and red Styrofoam
