CAPITAL ROUNDUP

by Sidney Lawrence
Artnet Magazine online
November 22, 2005

Washington exhibitions are varied and plentiful this fall, embracing art from elsewhere and past times as always, but there’s also a strong local focus. Are we finally waking up to ourselves?

Excerpted:
Back at the 1515 14th Street building, tuned-in Washington collectors Heather and Tony Podesta are showing off a small selection of their own holdings at the Curator’s Office, a micro-gallery and research hub run by the talented Andrea Pollan. “Me Myself, and I” (Oct. 29-Dec. 17, 2005) is a juicy, salon-style show of 15-plus photo-works by women, the Podestas’ primary focus, ranging from the dreamy-gorgeous, as in Marzia Migliora’s Ophelia-like video still Ortiche (Nettles) (2001), to in-your-face sleaze like Nikki S. Lee’s Exotic Dancer Project (#19) (2000), a self-portrait as a stripper wrapped in a topless French kiss with one of her pals from work.

Although only one Podesta artist, wry performer-videographer Kathryn Cornelius, is local, she has plenty of company nearby.