In the May 2008 issue of Art in America magazine, J.W. Mahoney writes about the DC Art scene in, “To a Different Drum.” On the 2nd page of the article, he talks about Artomatic:

Of two particularly avant-garde institutions that have endured the test of time, though, only one has a fixed address… (he then talks about DCAC before moving on to Artomatic)

The other institution, Artomatic, established in 1999, is fluid in every respect. It is an annual – sometimes semiannual – resolutely non-curated exhibition of Washington-area artists, a pay-for-space proposition open to anyone at all who wants to show something they have made. it takes place anywhere large enough to accommodate the deluge of art that comes in, making exhibition spaces out of anything from a former children’s museum to two floors of an office building, to an enormous empty laundry complex. The presence of so much amateur work is overwhelming, promting the Washington Post’s chief art critic, Blake Gopnik, to compare visiting Artomatic to an extended dental appointment. But the beauty of Artomatic’s esthetic anarchy is in its abundant innocence, not in any obviously savvy consideration of contemporary art issues. And, critically viewed, some surprisingly serious, innovative work crops up in unusual places, just around some unlikely corner of the show.

Nice to see some kind words about now, everyone is in overdrive creating and hanging work and complaining and generally getting on one another’s nerves (not to mention placing dozens of phonecalls and generating hundreds of emails per day) so it’s good to be reminded why we’re doing this.

It’s been another 15 hour day and I’m losing my voice so enough is enough. Time to finally watch The Orphanage, if I can stay awake.