Photo aficionados, rejoice: this week marks the second annual FotoWeek DC photography festival—much of which is based right here in Georgetown.

The nucleus of this year’s FotoWeek is at 3338 M Street, just a hop skip and jump away from campus.  Among the exhibits there are:

• Finalists from the main FotoWeek DC competition, as well as finalist from the youth competition
• “Dreams in Color,” an exploration of the “dawn of color photography” through the National Geographic
• An exhibit on the U.S. curated by Elizabeth Krist
• The best of this year’s National Graphic’s Your Shot, a feature that spotlights readers’ photos
• “Until the Grass is Gone,” an exhibit of photos of Northern Uganda by Peter van Agtmeal and Pete Muller

Besides the festival headquarters, quite a few Georgetown galleries are also participating in FotoWeek, including:

• Addison/Ripley Fine Art (1670 Wisconsin Avenue) is hosting James Osher’s “Three Seconds with the Masters” and a collection of photos from “America: Now+Here”
• Cross Mackenzie Ceramic Arts (1054 31st Street) is showing photographs of ceramic artist Walter McConnell’s works
• Here on campus, GU Art Aficionados is hosting an exhibit in the Walsh Gallery featuring student work that explores the themes of micro and macro
• The Govinda Gallery (1227 34th Street) is hosting “Sound Kapital,” Matthew Niederhauser’s shots of bands at Beijing nightclubs
• The French Embassy (4101 Reservoir Road) is showcasing the work of four contemporary French photographers

The events are free, but you can register for easier entry and check out the full slate of events on the FotoWeek DC website.

This Friday, you’ll have a chance to see the artsier side of Georgetown hidden behind all the swanky stores and restaurants. The “Georgetown Gallery Gaze”, a new monthly gallery walk, begins on our campus, and extends to other parts of the neighborhood, giving you a chance to check out local art galleries.

Every third Friday of the month, anyone looking for a little bit more culture in their life is invited to amble along Wisconsin Avenue. This week, L’Enfant Moderne artists will be having openings in the alley of P Street, accompanied by live music. Across the street and next door, artists Heidi Hess, Ron Demetro, and Homayoun Yeroushalmi will be showing off their latest jewelry and oil paintings.

If you decide to travel southward, expect to be lured by a guitar into a small passageway along M St. where there will be art galleries featuring both well-known and newer D.C. artists. If you’re more into the international art scene, keep an eye out for the Parish Gallery, which will be showcasing many artists from Africa and the African diaspora.

For those who are a bit hungrier, or find European art to be more within their interests, Cady’s Alley will be featuring Austrian cuisine, and L’Eclat De Verre, a new French frame shop, will have its doors opens for passersby to explore the works of local artists.

With such a variety of D.C. artists participating, The Georgetown Gallery Gaze is set to appeal to the art lovers, music enthusiasts, and fine food addicts alike!

You can find more information about the event and participating galleries at the Georgetown Gallery Gaze website.

It’s evident that the sun has been missing for the last few days, but John Lennon is making an effort to change that. Here Comes The Sun, an exhibit put on display by the Georgetown Business Improvement District, and the one and only Yoko Ono, opens tonight for the benefit of the DC Capital Area Food Bank.

While Lennon may have taken no part in the recording of George Harrison’s ballad, “Here Comes The Sun,” the exhibit of the same name brings together the largest collection of Lennon’s artistic efforts on paper ever assembled. These black-and-white line drawings are simple, but resonate more emotion than can be confined into a description of simplicity, as they preach messages of peace, love, and all things 1970’s. While some images may be tainted (Ono gave a few of the printings a color-by-numbers treatment after his death, because she’s an artist too) the meaning is still intact.

Here Comes the Sun can be seen at 3333 M Street, NW, and is open tonight, 5-9 pm, Friday 12 pm – 7 pm, Saturday 11 am – 8 pm, and Sunday 11 am – 6 pm. The event is free, but a $2 donation is recommended at the door to benefit the food bank.

It’s the middle of July already and your DC routine–9-5 internship, drinking games, and rotgut TV–is getting old. Your body and mind are revolting, and the National Gallery has the perfect thing: an exhibit of Martin Puryear’s minimalist sculptures.

The sculptures are elegant and simple but have enough complexity to hold viewers’ attention through the 48-piece exhibit, and the NGA’s classy, hands-off curation–one or two pieces per gallery, few guilt-trippy art history lessons stencilled on the walls–is a treat.

Martin Puryear runs from June 22 to September 28, 2008 at the West Building of the National Gallery of Art. Archives/Navy Memorial Metro on the Yellow/Green Lines, or take a crosstown 30s bus.

Photo from the National Gallery of Art

As a gallery attendant in Walsh 101, I sit for five hours, twice a week attempting to read a book amidst the noise of Bolivian rap and the trumpets of a street performance in La Paz. Occasionally, a student wanders in as if entering an undiscovered portal to a fourth dimension. As I remind them that they’re just in a gallery they’ve never noticed, they tilt their heads in bemusement at Edgar Endress’ video installations—a series of masked faces viewers tend to perceive as terrorists—and leave without reading the program (which I always recommend).

Let’s get a few things straight. Yes, there is a gallery in Walsh, right next to the staircase. It’s been there for quite a few years now. No, Endress’ Heroes and Masks exhibit has nothing to do with terrorists. Those masked faces are shoe-shiners working for a dollar a day; many of them are college students. And yes, they do look like terrorists, if you are one of those people who breezes by without taking care to realize what you’re seeing.

The art most people enjoy consists of voluptuous nudes reclining on divans or landscapes rendered in thick, emotionally-charged brush strokes of oil paint. At least, that’s the sort of art I enjoy. But Endress’ exhibit doesn’t involve that sort of aesthetic. It reaches out to educate, explore and expose the viewer to a socio-political condition most are unaware of. Students and professionals donning ski masks shine shoes for a meager wage to supplement their income and studies, while smaller horizontal videos capture street performances in La Paz, Bolivia, where participants don the “Mask of All the Saints”—the actual mask is on display nearby. An embroidered fabric, “One Latino American Story,” tells a tale slightly chaotic and saturated with symbolism. Endress stopped by the gallery and explained it to me in detail; the beautifully-rendered, folk-style embroidery (which Endress commissioned) contains images of saints, military symbols and the U.S. seal and dollar signs.

The exhibit is modest, but Endress’ exploration of the mask as a political and social symbol is complex and intriguing. Between classes, or in your free time, drop by, entertain the idle gallery attendant and take a thorough look at Endress’ “Heroes and Masks.”

The Walsh 101 Gallery is open Mon-Sat, 12-5 pm. Heroes and Masks runs through Oct. 5.

-Madeline Reidy, Leisure Editor