Anthony L. Harvey / The InTowner, Washington DC - United States

2007 June  [English]

Mid-City Artists Shine 

If the audience for the Mid-City Artists' "Open Studios" weekend last month was smaller than that of previous years, the seriousness observed by The InTowner's art reporter of those art lovers who did attend more than made up for the difference in numbers. And once again, diversity in format and expression in painting, drawing, mixed-media, glass art, sculpture, and photography abounded in this neighborhood studio art show Outstanding among the painters was Marc Monteleone, a Church Street artist new to this viewer, whose exquisite acrylic on paper architectural views have moved into the realm of stunning (also acrylic on paper) ,abstract paintings, several of which are referential to earlier of his architec-tural images. Swiss-born and richly European in his paint-erly background — echoes of such masters as Baithus reverberate in earlier land-scapes with figures, and in his classically symbolic works — Monteleone's celebration of modernist Washington, DC buildings and the movement of his own aesthetic vision into colorful abstraction is terrific to behold.

—Anthony L Harvey 

Anthony L. Harvey is a collector of contemporary art, with an emphasis on Washington artists. He is a founding member of the Washington Review of the Arts. For many years he was the staff person in the United States Senate responsible for arts and Library of Congress oversight by the Senate's Rules and Administration Committee and the House and Senate's joint Committee on the Library.