My Artomatic 2008 Top 100 by Floor
|| 5/24/2008 || 2:06 pm || 7 Comments Rendered || ||

At around 1pm on Friday, May 23rd, 2008, I began walking through the entire Artomatic venue floor by floor with the intent of making a top 5 artist listing for each floor. After walking one quarter of the way through my first floor I decided to expand listing to the top 10 of each floor, and after doing some quick math, I decided to round up and give each of the 9 floors a top 11.

First & foremost this listing is not perfect nor am I trying to pass judgment with respect to other artists talents or styles. Any person who decides to make a Top 100 will have a completely different listing based on their own personal tastes. A few of my own personal friends are not listed here because while I like their art, its not something that I would really like to have hanging on my walls. Also some people got left out because their floor had too much other fine artwork to choose from. The method I used to construct this listing is not based on any exact science or talent threshold, but simply, I asked myself if would I pay money to have this in my house? Does this fit the aesthetics that I prefer to have displayed in my house? And with the proper supplies, can I reproduce the artwork on display? Is there some intrinsic aspect of the artwork that makes it stand out?

I tend to visually deconstruct all artwork, animations, video segments, infographics, and maps etc. that are presented to me. I have an active imagination that begins this visual interpretation process the moment I gaze upon something. Most of what I saw at Artomatic did not require much thought to decipher and generally speaking, it’s why I am not interested in a lot of contemporary art in general. Artomatic, however, provides an excellent glimpse into the Washington, DC area’s arts scene.

Surprisingly many artists do not have their own websites or did not take the time to adequately fill out their on-line Artomatic artist profile where they could link from. I did not take the lack of personal website into consideration for inclusion in the listing below. Maybe the next listing should be based strictly on Artomatic artist’s websites? In the listing below I link to the artist’s website or Artomatic artist catalog page and include the cryptic location of the artist’s exhibit space.

The following is a comprehensive listing of my favorite 100 visual artists out of the 1,000+ artists participating in Artomatic 2008:

12th Floor

1. Caitlin Phillips (12 SE D6)
2. Michael Stebbins (12 SW A7)
3. Joseph Merchlinsky (12 SW A5)
4. Freddi Szilagi (12 NW A3)
5. Tariq Rafiq (12 NW A1)
6. Michelle Marcoccia (12 NW B7)
7. Brian Lusher (12 NE C1)
8. Jeremy Arn (12 NE D2)
9. John Figura (12 NE D4)
10. Byron Peck (12 NE C4)
11. Rebecca Katz (12 NE C3)

11th Floor

1. Erica Riccardelli (11 SE D6)
2. “Tiny Ghosts” (11 SE D7)
3. Krissy Downing (11 SE C7)
4. Robin Bell (11 SW B7)
5. David Hubbard (11 SW B5)
6. Gregory Ferrand (11 NW A4)
7. Vick Fisher (11 NW B3)
8. Tim Tate (11 NE C3)
9. Salvatore Ferro (11 NE C1)
10. Johanna Mueller (11 SW B5)
11. Rachael Samuel (11 NE D4)

10th Floor

1. Kate Hardy (10 SE D6)
2. Amanda Hanson (10 SW A5)
3. Chris Blanchard (10 NW A4)
4. Eric Celarier (10 NW B3)
5. Shanthi Chandra-Sekar (10 NW A3)
6. Allegra Marquart (10 NW B2)
7. J.J. McCracken (10 SE D4)
8. Malcolm Blaisdell (10 NE C1)
9. Chuck Divine (10 NE C1)
10. Rita Elsner (10 NE D2)
11. Novie Trump (10 SE D5)

9th Floor

1. Darren Smith (9 SE D7)
2. Barry Schmetter (9 SW A7)
3. Tammy Vitale (9 SW A5)
4. Philip Kohn (9 SW A5)
5. KT Cappelini (9 NW A3)
6. Joan Konkel (9 NW A2)
7. Betty Moore (9 NW B1)
8. Jeff Wilson (9 NE D3)
9. Kim Reyes (9 SE D5)
10. Andrew Wodzianski (9 SE C5)
11. Dana Shafie (9 NE D2)

8th Floor

1. Jack Whitsitt (8 SE D6)
2. Nicolas F. Shi (8 SE D5)
3. Matt Sesow (8 NW A4)
4. Alison Sigethy and
Tom Milani (8 SW B7)
5. Serge Batyrshin (8 SW D4)
6. Angela Raincatcher (8 SW A7)
7. Dana Ellyn (8 SW A5)
8. Michael Auger (8 NW A4)
9. Gerald P. Shanklin (8 NE C1)
10. Kristian Whipple (8 NE C2)
11. Marielle Mariano (8 SW B5)
12. Yours Truly (8 SE D7)

7th Floor

1. Forrest McCluer (7 SE D5)
2. Rania Hassan (7 SE C5)
3. Mitra Lore (7 SE D6)
4. Dale R. Hunt (7 SE D7)
5. Charles Hanson (7 SW B7)
6. Bita Salehi (7 SW A5)
7. Kathy Lawler and
Chris Fedderson (7 NE D2)
8. Jane Pettit (7 NE D4)
9. Rick Williams (7 SE C5)
10. Anne Benolken (7 SE C5)
11. Tiik Pollet (7 NE D4)

6th Floor

1. Paul So (6 SE D6)
2. Mike Cao (6 SE C7)
3. Graeme King (6 SW B7)
4. Ahelm Riabi (6 SW B7)
5. Erika Packard (6 SW A7)
6. Mia A. Monahan and
Howard J. Connelly (6 SE A7)
7. Shamus Ian Fatzinger (6 NW A4)
8. Neal Isenstein (6 SE D5)
9. Sarah Becker (6 SW B5)
10. Andrew Watts (6 SW B5)
11. Nancy Donnelly (6 NE D4)

5th Floor

1. Sherill Anne Gross (5 NE D4)
2. Sondra N. Arkin (5 NE C4)
3. Chuck Sehman (5 NE C4)
4. Lisa Osgood-Dano (5 NE D2)
5. James Landry (5 NW A2)
6. Mark Schumaker (5 NW A3)
7. Stephanie Booth (5 SE D7)
8. Drew Graham (5 NW A3)
9. Scott Speck (5 SW A7)
10. Sajeela Ramsey (5 SE C7)
11. Brianna Gianti (5 NE D4)

4th Floor

1. Kyla Cupo (4 SE D5)
2. Minda Merinsky (4 SE D5)
3. Gaella Gottwald (4 NE D3)
4. David Hobson (4 NE D1)
5. JD Yezierski (4 NE C2)
6. Amanda Engels (4 SW B7)
7. Olha Onyshko and
Sarah Farhat (4 NW A1)
8. Kreg D. Kelley (4 NW A4)
9. Bob Elliot (4 SW A6)
10. Fernanda Silva (4 SW B7)
11. David Barr (4 NW B4)

At a later date, I might distill this listing again to create a top 25 by medium or for the overall exhibit, but I know that the listing, like the listing above, will end up being under-inclusive. This listing is also under-informative because I did not take the time to list the artists by their type of art, but its also a reason to check the artwork out and discover for yourself why I chose the artist.

Related Artomatic Entries:

Thanks for including me on your “Best” list. T’is an honor and I appreciate your good taste!! This is my first year as well and is, so far, my favorite of them all. I like the fact that the floor space is open: there are not tiny carpeted hallways leading to cramped, creepy, cubicles. There is a lot of light in this year’s space and it is fairly easy to see EVERYTHING in a short period of time.

The only thing that is missing is a CAFE to load up on carbs and give the beers something to wash down.

Anyway, thanks again!

–Jim Landry
5th Floor

Comment by James Landry — 5/30/2008 @ 10:25 am

Jim, it’s my first year too, except I went to AOM in 2002, 2004, and 2007. What I miss most about those spaces compared to this space is the lack of adventure. With each floor being roughly the same layout, it makes the art seeking experience a bit monotonous. The Cafe is outside, but frankly I thought their prices were a bit high for my taste.

Comment by Nikolas — 5/31/2008 @ 4:58 pm

I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed seeing your work at artomatic–I’m there, too, perhaps one of the bad installations with furniture and so on that someone commented on. Well, I enjoyed getting the stuff out and up, anyway.

I’m a map cataloger at the Library of Congress and so was excited to see someone doing something different with cartographic images.

Comment by seanna tsung — 6/2/2008 @ 3:25 pm

thanks for including me… even if i have a nice attractive line through my name. i think that’s good, right? :)

Comment by matt — 6/6/2008 @ 4:31 pm

Matt, the strike through is because you probably visited your website recently and have not cleared out your web browsers cache. A couple other people have commented on the strike-through. Surprisingly, it’s actually helpful so you don’t visit the same websites twice. Anyways, I really liked your YouTube video a lot! Thanks for the comment :-)

Comment by Nikolas — 6/6/2008 @ 4:50 pm

So glad to hear you enjoyed my pieces Nikolas! It was my first time to show at Artomatic and it turned out to be great fun. I’d say one of the best parts of the experience was meeting so many other interesting participants. Of course, it was fun to drag friends down there to see the artwork too.

Like your maps – I’m just seeing them for the first time here – very cool – I’ll have to peruse a while!

Vick

Comment by Vick Fisher — 6/16/2008 @ 10:33 am

Thanks for the nod. I recall seeing the Post article on your work – fascinating. I’m kicking around an idea for a group show of artists that use photography in unusual ways (mosaics, collage, etc.) Do you show your work? Would you be interested? I’m represented by Honfleur Gallery but this would be somewhere else, if I can find the time to pull it together.
Darren Smith

Comment by Darren Smith — 6/24/2008 @ 4:47 pm