THE ART CROWD GOES IN-CROWD

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Washington has a vibrant, under-the-radar art party scene that has long been visible only to those in the know. But thanks in part to a growing community of art socialites, bloggers and paparazzi, nearly 3,000 people are suddenly pounding down the doors of a museum on a Friday night, and 700 are lining up in the rain to get into a crumbling skate park to see photography. Party organizers sometimes lament the new notoriety, but the crowds keep coming. This month, we fanned out to four events to capture a slice of the action.

-- Rachel Beckman and Lavanya Ramanathan

Fight Club, "Fixation," Nov. 14:

Getting to Fight Club, an underground skateboarding, art and music space near the Convention Center, involved stumbling down a brick, high-heels-unfriendly alley and waiting in a long line. In the rain.

Until the opening of "Fixation," a photography exhibit that was part of FotoWeek DC, the space was pretty much one of Washington's great hipster myths. (Even the name of the place is taken from the 1999 movie about a secret society: First rule of Fight Club, you do not talk about Fight Club.)

"We're not open. We're not anything," co-founder Dan Zeman told me warily. "We don't do any business here."

And that was part of the allure; more than 700 people -- posh galleristas, Howard students, moms, well-groomed men in blazers, skateboarders -- poured into that night's bash, which, despite the crowd, felt like a house party, with kegs and the whole standing-around thing.

The exhibit was sponsored by the Pink Line Project, which curates events in support of visual arts, and Ten Miles Square, a new group that fosters photography in the city. Philippa Hughes, Pink Line's founder, attributed the evening's success to a scene that's gone "viral." "You didn't need to announce it on the radio. . . . They just came, I don't know."

-- L.R.

Hirshhorn, "After Hours," Nov. 7:

"After Hours" is all about smashing through the stodginess of a typical museum experience. Instead of skulking around the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on the Mall in silent reverence, try dancing around its courtyard like a maniac.

Looking at the 2,800 partygoers, it was hard to imagine that a single, good-looking, under-30 District resident was left beyond the museum's plaza walls. The Hirshhorn has hosted the party seven times since March 2007 and charges $10 in advance, $12 at the door. But a prepurchased ticket wasn't enough to dodge the hour-long security line that stretched two city blocks.

Baltimore-based electronic musician Dan Deacon did without a stage and played his computer gadgetry right on the patio amid the ecstatic crowd. Overheard in the ladies' room about 10:30 p.m.: "Dan Deacon is a genius."

But there was a second layer of music, one that has accompanied all of the Hirshhorn parties: the sound of the security buzzers going off every time a boozy partier bumped into a work of art.

-- R.B.

Adidas Originals store, "Bam Bam Dilla:

Traveling Riddims," Nov. 21:

The Art Whino gallery seems to devote as much energy to partying as it does to selling art. (Whino/wino, get it?) This was the first of two parties thrown by the gallery to celebrate the opening of "Bam Bam Dilla: Traveling Riddims," Ben Floeter's portraits of '70s reggae stars painted on old suitcases.

Rather than just hanging the art on the walls at the retro boutique in Georgetown, Art Whino hired Adidas-clad models to stand around the store's perimeter holding the painted luggage. That made it awkward to stare at the portraits of musicians such as U-Roy, Lee "Scratch" Perry and King Tubby for long without feeling that the art was staring back at you.

Gallery owner Shane Pomajambo described the party as a favor to its customers who don't want to schlep to Prince George's County. Last spring, Art Whino moved from its Alexandria digs to a new space in National Harbor.

Small glitch with the "Bam Bam Dilla" event: The DJ didn't show up until the last hour (some confusion about a bus from New York), and partiers were stuck with Adidas's shopper soundtrack -- not quite the Afrobeat and cumbia music that would have jibed with the art and livened up the gathering.

-- R.B.

Civilian Art Projects, Kid Congo Powers and Quintron, Nov. 14:

The restaurant and theater district at Seventh and D streets NW was shuttered by 11:30 p.m., but a few floors up from street level, at Civilian Art Projects gallery, the party -- a concert featuring "guitar stylist" Kid Congo Powers and New Orleans organ-rocker Quintron -- was just getting started.

This was an old-school, over-30 crowd, full of vintage-clothing-clad musicians and filmmakers.

In the muggy front room, Kid Congo Powers, the one-time guitarist for the Cramps and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, played raunchy electronica that was the perfect ambient noise for this bubbling scene. Then, the surreal happened: Miss Pussycat, a petite woman who accompanies Quintron (and vice versa), climbed into a six-foot-tall aqua contraption in a corner of the gallery and put on a puppet show. The crowd of 200, beers in hand, crouched on the floor or leaned against the back walls to watch.

Amid it all, Ian Svenonius, once the lead singer of great old Washington bands Nation of Ulysses and the Make-Up, played proud host, dancing and chatting up everyone in the fog-filled room as Quintron rocked on.

-- L.R.