Speakeasy and H Street Art

ARTS AND POWER SPECIAL THE INSIDER PLAYBOOK

10 Young Artists You Must Know Now Power Patrons That Deliver the Pop The Yin and Yang of Obama’s Brain Building Blocks! H Street’s Gallery Row

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DECEMBER 200

MTV Hits the District Get Raw With Jonathan Safran Foer DC United’s Ben Olsen Homes In Santana’s Axe Man in Maryland Plume in The Jefferson’s Cap Hip Haunts for the Holidays!

ROCK THE MIC! Storyteller Sheldon Scott offers up his prose prowess to the gregarious crowd gathered at Town Danceboutique nightclub for SpeakeasyDC.

Tales From the Quipped

When DC scene-queen Pamela Sorensen found out that Phaidon’s edgy Wallpaper* City Guides lacked an edition on the nation’s capital, she took it to heart. So when the folks at the cool imprint finally decided the time had come for a DC tome, they hit up Sorensen for an insider’s take on what’s hip in the city of change. “I was shocked that it took so long,” she says of the guide hitting the shelves this month. “Washington has had a reputation for being very staid and dull, but over the past five or ten years, there’s been an influx of creative and interesting people, and it’s developed such a bright energy.”

Thanks to this new vibe—as well as the booming nightlife and flourishing foodie set—the city is attracting more tourists than ever, and it’s not for its powdered-wig history. “You could come here for a week and not have time to stop, and you might not visit one monument,” she says, citing the District’s rich art, fashion and theater scenes. Nevertheless, you can’t deny one political attraction DC has to offer: the White House, specifically due to the Obamas’ star power. “It’s packed in front of there all the time. People come from all over the world to see Obamas’ house.” We hope DC’s new spot on the radar doesn’t have a term limit. Sorensen is optimistic. “People thought the spotlight would dim by now, but it hasn’t.” Shine on, Washington. –Leila Rafei

THE WRITING ON THE WALLPAPER* Clockwise from left: The National Museum of the American Indian, the Granville Moore bar on H Street and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development HQ feature as architecturally edgy in Wallpaper* City Guide Washington, DC. Pamela Sorensen nabbed Phaidon’s eye when she complained DC needed its due.

The Sipper’s Slipper Christian Louboutin and bubbly brand Piper-Heidsieck have partnered on a Cinderella-worthy Champagne glass.

The crystal slipper’s been dubbed Le Rituel after the notoriously decadent 1880s-era custom, in which Bolshoi ballerinas poured sparkling wine into their footwear for male admirers. The dancers were no naughtier than Monsieur Louboutin himself. When asked during his recent trip to Tysons Galleria’s Neiman Marcus what he’d craft for Mrs. O, he said: “A pair of crazy shoes she could only wear in the presence of her husband. I’d try to detect when she’s worn them through the morning smile of the president.” Le Rituel and Piper-Heidsieck, $500 at Neiman Marcus. –Shane Martin

NUMBER CRUNCH

The number of Modern art masterpieces holding court in DC that grace the pages of the The Impossible Collection (Assouline, 2009). In this newly printed coffee-table softback, two Christie’s buffs curate the century’s must-haves in a world where money is no object—and Warhols are just a phone call away. Of the 100, the National Gallery of Art and Hirshhorn each claim two, while one resides in a private collection.

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GETTING FRAMED Assouline’s The Impossible Collection, just out in softback lists Andre Derain’s Charing Cross Bridge and Brancusi’s Constantin Bird in Space (both in the National Gallery); Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles County Museum on Fire and Sigmar Polke’s Bunnies (both in the Hirshhorn); and an unidentified piece in a local private collection as five of the world’s most amazing Modernist pieces.

PHOTOGRAPHS OF DC SUPPLIED BY PHAIDON FOR WALLPAPER* CITY GUIDE WASHINGTON, DC.

A Whole New View

You’ve been longing to channel your inner David Sedaris, but stand-up comedy’s too scary and improv’s too impersonal. The right fit?

SpeakeasyDC, a monthly meet-up of storytellers that’s part fun, part therapy—for the teller, at least.

Hosting a packed house of 300 every second Tuesday of the month at the chic Town Danceboutique, the group themes spectacular story sessions. December’s is fittingly about the kindness of strangers, while January’s encourages tellers to weave tales about taking a stand. Presenters submit their seven-minute monologues before the show begins, but there’s an open mic for anyone who gets the urge to take to the stage. Need more courage? Sign up for one of SpeakeasyDC’s month-long storytelling classes, where participants find and craft their tales and learn to love the buzz and feedback of holding court at the mic. Times and dates at speakeasydc.org. –Janelle Nanos

Shooting Gallery DC’s hottest art dealers aim to make once-scary H Street their boomtown | By Janelle Nanos | Photography by Ben Tankersley |

The downturn has been hard on DC’s art market: rents are up as profits dwindle, and gallery owners are finding themselves priced out of the neighborhoods—Dupont Circle, 14th Street and Gallery Place—they helped make hip. But hope is coming with a capital H. That would be H Street, NE, where a gaggle of galleries are taking advantage of low rents for expansive spaces and mixing with the bars and cafés that have staked out the street.

“Art galleries are always ahead of the curve,” says Philippe Lanier of Eastbanc Inc., which sees this area as ripe for development. “H Street has the density, breadth and streetscape to provide for a retail environment.” Add to this the planned Metro stop, and the neighborhood’s a no-brainer—at least for developers.

Of course, there was a time when pioneering galleries made Logan Circle their hip haunt. But rent hikes have ripple effects. Annie Gawlak was forced to close her G Fine Art gallery on 14th Street in August when her costs outpaced her earnings. “I loved the gallery and the space,” she says of her location of five years. “But it got so that the only thing I was thinking about everyday was money— not art. No matter how much everyone wants you there, as soon as the costs go up, they’re willing to do without you. You’ve made it what it is, but you’re expendable.”

The relocation of Gawlak’s G Fine Art gallery to H Street promises a new beginning in a more supportive environment. Her new space occupies a former plumbing supply shop and is next door to Conner Contemporary Art, which ditched its Dupont Circle digs in favor of a 12,000-square-foot former auto body shop on Florida Avenue. Owner Leigh Conner and cofounder Jamie Smith, tired of paying exorbitant rents, followed their artists to the neighborhood (Erik Sandburg and Mary Coble both have studios nearby) and bought the

building outright. “As our aspirations grew, our program matured,” says Conner. “We found the only way to secure our future and the future of our artists was to buy.”

Now, her block is becoming a micro-neighborhood.

Craig Appelbaum, whose Industry Gallery moved into the space above Conner, fell in love with the 4,300-squarefoot gallery because “it felt like I was in Berlin or Paris.

You can almost feel the buzz of the neighborhood.” The space is an ideal match for his works of “functional art” created from modern, industrial materials. Further up H Street, Philip Sutinet’s Studio H has plans to exhibit local artists culled from the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop and the neighborhood Art League.

Stephen Hessler, a prominent real estate attorney and owner of several buildings along the street, considers himself an ambassador of H Street. His O on H Gallery opened in September. An early proponent of the nabe and sponsor of the hugely successful H Street Festival, Hessler is a collector of outsider art and a board member of Washington Project for the Arts. He hopes his gallery and outdoor sculpture garden will act as a community meeting space. Encouraged by Hessler, Washington Project for the Arts brought Framing the Economic Downturn (FED) to the O, which runs through December 11 as part of FotoWeek DC. “It’s exciting to be in a vibrant area where we haven’t been before,” says WPA director Lisa Gold.

Art is an asset in many ways. “Galleries are evidence of where people really want their neighborhood to go,” says Mark Wellborn of Urban Turf (dc.urbanturf.com), which tracks DC real estate news. “They don’t want this area to be riddled with condos and chain stores.”

After her year of angst, Gawlak is back to being an art-first gallerist. “I’m very excited about it,” she says. “I love this neighborhood and I know the artists will, too.

BITE THE BULLET The gritty urban landscape of H Street, NE, has been revitalized by edgy bars and restaurants and cultural institutions like the Atlas Performing Arts Center. Now, hip gallerists are moving in with industrial-strength sculpture gardens, mod-minimal arts openings and visions for transforming vacant brick façades into gleaming creative showcases. “People have a hunger for art and artistic experiences,” says Stephen Hessler. “The influx of galleries says we’re giving that alternative experience.”