If you live in Maryland, D.C., or Virginia, you need to come to Artomatic. My sister lured me to my first Artomatic in 2004. That year, the nomadic art show took place in the former Capitol Children's Museum in Northeast DC. At that time, about 1,000 artists exhibited their works. The number grew for subsequent Artomatics.
Artomatic has been roughly scheduled every other year, but it's been almost three years so I was thrilled when I got an email last month saying that they've finally found a venue, and the show is scheduled to be in Crystal City, Virginia from May 18th through June 23rd.
You might think that with such short notice, it would be hard to get that many artists to participate but no, the spaces fill up within days. My sister, who has exhibited in the last five Artomatics went on the site to register the first day they opened registration for visual artists and there were 200 artists who got in before her.
What makes Artomatic unique is that it's nonjuried. That means that anyone who considers him/herself an artist and is willing to cough up the registration fee and to put in 3 five hour shifts can have a couple of walls to display their work.
You might think that would result in a lot of crappy art, but actually, most of it is good, some of it brilliant. But the diversity is what makes the experience so wonderful. The first year I went there was actually a lot more bad art than the more current shows and to tell the truth, I missed the bad art because even bad art can have interesting ideas.
My first year I spent two hours touring the exhibit and had a hard time tearing myself away.
Artomatic is analogous to the early years of the World Wide Web. The idea of just anybody -- without credentials, without a selection process -- being able to post what they had to say on a website seemed outrageous.
With most art shows you get to see what a gallery owner decides you should see. In a museum, you get to see what the curator decides is worth seeing. But with Artomatic, you get to see it all.
In addition to the visual art, there is nonstop music, film, performance, and fashion.
I hope that some of you make it to the show.
www.artomatic.org