"A Tea for Alice" - Temporary Exhibition at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

Base on Lewis Carroll's "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland," the temporary exhibition "A Tea for Alice" (Um Chá para Alice) celebrates its main character through the notable artistic craftmanship and concept of 21 artists from 15 countries.

 Having the emblematic tea party with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare as the core them of the exhibition, "A Tea for Alice" features purpose-designed tables with different and distinct shapes and heights to form a type of mad lizard along whose back all the works are exhibited.

 Through ages, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" has inspired artists from all areas and has been translated into over a hundred different languages, making it one of the most universal and classical stories of all time. This temporary exhibition enables its visitors to perceive how thorugh their styles, schools and techniques all the whilst recognising the influence of cultures and discovering new interpretations, artists have conveyed their contemporary artistic view of the famous tea party.

 Close cooperation with Munich Library has also enabled the inclusion of a large number of old and modern editions of this work being made available for public consultation.
 Commissioned by Ju Godinho and Eduardo Filipe, and with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, "A Tea for Alice" can be visited at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's Temporary Exhibitions venue (floor 01) until February 10, 2013 (closed on Mondays).

 The artists featured are Alain Gauthier, Lucie Laroche, Nicole Claveloux and Rebecca Dautrement (France), Anthony Browne, Helen Oxenbury and John Vernon Lord (United Kingdom), Chiara Carrer and Lisa Nanni (Italy), Anne Herbauts (Belgium), Dusan Kallay (Slovakia), Iban Barrenetxea (Spain), Joanna Concejo (Poland), Klaus Ensikat (Germany), Lisbeth Zwerger (Austria), Maggie Taylor (USA), Narges Mohammadi (Iran), Nelson Cruz (Brazil), Suzy Lee (South Korea), Teresa Lima (Portugal) and Vladimir Clavijo (Russia).

 The exhibition entitled "A Tea with Alice," was recently held at The Story Museum, receiving some positive accolades from experts and public.

Drawings by Charles-Joseph Natoire at the Nîmes Fine Arts Museum

Son of the sculptor Florent Natoire, Charles-Joseph Natoire (Nîmes, 3 March 1700 -  Castel Gandolfo, 23 August 1777) is considered one of the most important representatives of the French painting of the 18th century and an excellent draughtsman.
 To mark the publication of Natoire's monographe by Susanna Caviglia-Brunel, the Nîmes Fine Arts Museum (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes) presents from 08/06/2012 to 16/09/2012, an exceptional selection of 91 drawings from public and private collections, including the Louvre and the Atger Museum (Montpellier).

 Sanguines, charcoals and washes, have enabled Charles-Joseph Natoire to try the several uses of drawing during his creative process. From the ancient art, going through the study of old masters, drawing from life, as an exercise per se, or as a preparatory study for a more elaborated work of art, Natoire reveals in his drawings the taste for refinement  and a balanced blend of mediums, always in the search for beauty.

  Soon after entering the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1734, Natoire completed a considerable number of royal commissions (in Fontainebleau, Versailles, etc), establishing his reputation as a fine artist. From 1756, he reduced his painting production in favour of the drawings.
He was director of the French Academy in Rome from 1751 to 1775.

 Charles-Joseph Natoire is mostly recognized for the series of the History of Psyche for Germain Boffrand's oval salon de la Princesse in the Hôtel de Soubise, Paris, and for the tapestry cartoons for the series of the History of Don Quixote, woven at the Beauvais tapestry manufacture, most of which are at the Château de Compiègne.

The exhibition can be visited during the following schedule:
Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00

On second Thursday of the month from 10:00 to 21:00

 For more information, please contact:

 Phone: +0033 (0)4 66 67 38 21
 Fax: +0033 (0)4 66 21 29 97

VIII International Comics Festival of Beja 2012

The city of Beja continues to manifest its commitment as a reference of cultural events through the offering of a continuous programme.

On May 26th, inaugurates the VIII International Comics Festival of Beja (VIII Festival Internacional de BD de Beja), with all activities taking place at Casa da Cultura de Beja, until to June 10th.

In its programme, the Festival will include individual and colective exhibitions showing the work by artists from several countries, showcases.
Several parallel events such as book and fanzine releases and presentations, an informal dialogue, feature flims, the presentation of Grande Prémio Geraldes Lino for upcoming author, as well as a stroll throughout the city, will take place.

At the book market you'll have selling of original artwork, screen prints, selling of used magazines and action figures, a modeling workshop and showcase, as well as Gamecon Beja 2012, will also make part of the extensive programme.

You can also visit the Comics Library of Beja (Bedeteca de Beja), one of three existent in Portugal.
Besides being a specialized library, with an Archive for Original Artwork, a Documentation and Research Section, an Illustration, Cartoon and Cinema Section,  it also functions as a working space, making available to the public many of the necessary tools to work in the comics area. The Comics Library of Beja also includes a Gallery of Temporary Exhibitions and Toupeira – the Comics Workshop of Beja, a structure composed of 23 authors.

The first day of the VIII International Comics Festival of Beja will start on May 26th (3.00 pm) and will extend through Sunday (4.00 am). Are you brave enough ?
Again on Sunday, May 27th, from 10.00 to 8.00 pm.

Until Sunday, June 10th (8.00 pm closing), the opening hours will be as follow:

Mondays to Fridays, from 9.00 am to 11.00 pm

Sauturdays, Sundays and holidays, from 10.00 am to 11.00 pm

During your stay, take your time to enjoy the tranquility of the city of Beja, visit the monuments and taste the traditional cuisine and local goodies.

Manifest Gallery: International Drawing Annual 7 (INDA 7)

The Manifest Gallery is accepting submissions for the International Drawing Annual 7 (INDA 7) award, open to all artists submitting original works of art or design, completed within the last three years (2009-2011).

Participants are invited to submit a wide range of themes and subjects, including but not limited to fine art, illustration, graphic, digital, architectural, design, technical, etc.
Works can be completed in any media applicable to the practice of drawing, such as painting, installation, sculpture, photography, printmaking, etc.

Although the award is open to all artists, independently of their experience, it's important to stress that all submited works must evidence a high quality drawing.
Artists who previously exhibited at Manifest or had work included in our publication projects are perfectly eligible to submit.

INDA 7 also includes call for writing about drawing, where entrants are invited to write an essay directly relevant to the practice of drawing.
The essay can be in any form or style (poetic, historical, technical, philosophical) and must be original, with proper citation for quoted material. Length of written entries should be limited to a max. of approximately 1500 words.
It's possible to participate in both entries, drawing and writing, keeping in mind that written entries should not be an artist statement nor referring to specific works.

Each work submitted (drawn or written) must be accompanied by a $10 non-refundable entry fee, paid by U.S. check or money order made payable to MANIFEST, or by credit card via PayPal.
The number of entries is unlimited, although the average number of works submitted to typical Manifest calls is three. Detail images may be included at no additional cost but should only be provided when necessary to reveal accurate understanding of the artwork. Images must have print-quality.
Written entries, in either Word or PDF format, must be submitted electronically via e-mail attachment and file names must follow the same guidelines provided for images.
Careful refer to the participating guidelines to make sure that your submission is accepted by the juri.

The International Drawing Annual (INDA 7) will offer three cash prizes of $700, $200, and $100 for first, second, and third place winners of the drawing entries.
Artists selected for inclusion in the INDA 7 publication will also be considered for the Selections from the International Drawing Annual exhibit, scheduled for April/May 2012.

Each artist/author selected for inclusion in the INDA will receive one complimentary copy of the publication. The books produced for this ongoing project have increased in page count and print quality each year, with the most recent publication reaching over 180 pages in length.

An Internet-based online International Drawing Annual Resource website will be published to accompany the printed Annual. This will feature statements, bios, contact info., and professional information for each person included.

INDA 7 will be juried by a 9-12 member panel of professional and academic advisors with a broad range of expertise. The jury will then pass along their scores to the project curator who will assemble the final selections from the jury-approved pool.

Materials can be sent via e-mail or regular mail.
The deadline for entry is December 31, 2011.