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Today marks the opening of Artomatic 2008 ^[2] or what should be called “More Art Than You Can Shake a Stick At 2008″. This annual show promises to be bigger and better than ever this year, taking over the empty ten story Capitol Plaza ^[3] office building and housing the work of about 1,000 artists. Yes. 1,000 artists. Not exactly something you can see all of in a casual walk through. Something tells me I’m going to have to make multiple trips to the show and even then probably won’t catch everything.

So what is Artomatic you ask? Their website sums it up best by saying:

Artomatic is a month-long multimedia arts event that draws together visual artists, musicians and performers and brings their work to the community without charge.

I had toyed around with the idea of exhibiting in this year’s show but just couldn’t get my act together in time. Picking a series of photos, printing them (bleh), framing them (bleh and cha-ching!), printing business cards, painting the walls of my space, arranging lighting…way too much work for me to tackle. I am, however, excited to see the work of many of my friends at this year’s show including Marie Kwak ^[4], Eric Petersen ^[5], Kyle ^[6] Gustafson ^[7], Angela Kleis ^[8], and Jason Colston ^[9].

The show opens at noon today and if you are planning on going tonight (like I am), be prepared for an insane amount of people and chaos. If you want to avoid tonight’s crowd, the show runs until June 15th so you have plenty of time to pay your respects to DC’s art community.

Artomatic
Opening Friday, May 9 – Closing June 15
1200 First St NE
Capital Plaza I – corner of First & M streets NE – NY Ave Metro
Wed-Thu: 5pm-10pm; Fri-Sat: noon-2am; Sun: noon-10pm; closed Mon-Tue
Free admission; donations welcome

Photo by Tracy Lee ^[10]