Exhibit: 'Interpreting Eastern Market'

| Print Post This | Like (0) | Comments (0)

MICHAEL BERMAN IS HOLDING a print of a photograph. It's a scene from Eastern Market in 1970 — long before a fire last April gutted the building — and he has blown up the photo and rendered it crisp and poster-like.

Berman points out Louise Morgal, her husband, Elmer, and her son Dave, in the print as they market fresh produce in the open air. Thirty-eight years later, Louise and Dave still sell their produce at Eastern Market, although business has flagged since the fire. And Berman still sells his art there, too.

"I wanted to make something positive in spirit that honors the food vendors," says Berman. His print, along with those of nine other artists, has been included in "Eastern Market Artists Interpreting Eastern Market," an exhibition focusing on the old building and its neighborhood.

A few stalls over from Berman, Victor Kinza is selling paintings of Washington scenes. His "Rainbow Over Eastern Market" was selected for the show, and he has dedicated it to the market's 135th anniversary.

The exhibit contains 12 5-foot by 5-foot vinyl stickers of artwork showing the building or its surrounding community. The pieces are mounted on the north side of the East Hall, which is the temporary structure erected across the street from the burned-out South Hall.

When the market is rebuilt, the artwork will likely be relocated to the new building, according to Tony Gittens, executive director of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which organized the show.

"Interpreting Eastern Market" is not the first exhibition the commission put together since the building was burned; a show of 27 murals was assembled in the months immediately following the blaze. The murals were mounted in the ravaged structure's windows, facing outward.

But last year's show rankled many Eastern Market artists since it included works by creators with no connection to the market; furthering their indignation was the considerable stipend paid to each selected artist.

Quest Skinner, who has a "little go-go piece" in the show, says, "It's about taking care of other people. You either work as a community or you don't.

"We are the people that make up the market," Skinner says, and the omission of many vendors from the exhibit "shows the attitude of the D.C. government sometimes."

This year's "Interpreting Eastern Market" sought to soothe ruffled feathers by being open only to artists with a history of selling work there. It was judged by a panel of "Eastern Market community members," according to Gittens, which included a number of food vendors from the South Hall. And the second exhibit also included a generous stipend.

The first exhibition had to be "turned around pretty quickly," because the commission wanted to address the tragedy as soon as possible, says Gittens. With the second show, "we had a bit more time, and we were able to concentrate totally and completely on Eastern Market artists."

"This part of the market is so fragile," says Kinza. "If things change, we will suffer the most." It's nice, he says, for people to be "paying some attention to the artists."

» Eastern Market, East Hall, 700 C St. SE; free.

Written by Express' Chris Combs
Artwork by Mary Belcher/Courtesy D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities

» "UPDATE: Murals to Be Displayed at Interim Site of Eastern Market" [WaPo]