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Posted by roberta

Post by John-Paul Delaney

[ed. note: Delaney's post refers back to this earlier post. The artist is part of the online art community Art Process.]


Hello again Roberta, I just wanted to say I'm grateful for your kind mentioning of ArtProcess (and my own work) on Artblog, PW, and in your email. I was so surprised to see the image of that green thing I did and you saying you liked my stuff that it brought me back almost 20 years when I had my last show.

That was in 1988, just before leaving Ireland. I lived on the top floor of a disused children's hospital. Knowing it was time to quit the country, I just covered my living space along with all it's contents and studio in a coat of white paint so it seemed like frozen in time. I then hung works I had done there, got the arts council involved to pay for invites, and had a real fun exhibition.

The show was called "Is Your Life Worth a Painting" - a line taken from a song of quirky US punk band The Butthole Surfers. (top image is the green-painted sculpture Delaney's talking about.)


After that I traveled in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India (I twice applied for a visa to go visit the US but they refused - no bum artists allowed!) finally settling here in Roma, the least likely place for a painter like me where the weight of the Really Big Stars of art history govern.

(images above and below are the before an after shots of Dalaney's apartment makeover piece)


Furthermore, your and Libby's line of attack really appealed to me - giving art to the people etc., maintaining a healthy sense of humour and a sardonic commentry on the art business, promotion of a community. I've not taken this approach as well as you do, but in past exhibitions, I've given works away instead of selling. In one I took over the gallery for a month painting the walls, then opened for a "Closing" for one night and the following day the walls were scraped and repainted white. For that last show, I just walked away from the hospital, leaving all the works there in those white rooms. I've no idea what happened to them.

Anyway, the point of this message (before I got carried away) was to say that the real value I got out of exhibiting was not the possibility of sales, nor the reaction of the public - but rather the judgement of my peers. The success (or failure) of a show, in my eyes, depended on the critical analysis of fellow art-workers who would tackle the same issues in different ways, and hence were in the best position to decide on the quality of my attempts. And maybe in this vein (many years later) ArtProcess has come about - the process of art, for and by artists. Regards.

--John Paul Delaney is an Irish artist based in Rome.
delaney, john-paul

permanent link   roberta 4:58 PM
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Posted by roberta

The list of the artists chosen for the first Voxennial, juried by Elyse Gonzales (ICA Assistant Curator) and Virgil Marti (multi-accoladed artist represented by Elizabeth Dee Gallery, NY) includes some familiar names, like Marina Borker, known for her tape on wall landscapes, David Guinn, mural artist, and three of the Black Floor gang, collaborators Nick Paparone and James Dillon and Annette Lee Monnier. Congratulations everybody. Should be a rousing good show!

Here's the full list of names:
Alex Beroz, Eric Bessel, Lucas Blalock, Emily Blaskovich, Jodi Boatman, Marina Borker, Maanik Singh Chauhan, Morgan Craig, Kenneth Deprez, Nick Paparone and James Dillon, Sarah Gamble, Liz Glynn, David Guinn, Anna Hofverberg, David Kasdorf, Joe Levickas, Nancy Lewis, Jason Gene Loebs, Tricia Lopez, Craig Mateyunas, Mike Mergen, Annette Lee Monnier, Althea Murphy-Price, Andrew Prayzner, Naomi Reis, Jessica Ritter, Ruriko Shimizu, David Slovic, Amy Stevens, Kate Stewart, Corrie Tice, Brian Zegeer

Show opens tonight, 6 - 10 pm and runs to June 25. See the gallery's website for more information and scheduled events.

permanent link   roberta 8:38 AM
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Posted by roberta

Just a newsflash, fellow art lovers. Feel my pain. My daughter Stella baptized the computer's router and modem boxes Wednesday night with water she was drinking RIGHT AT THE KEYBOARD. It was an accident, bien sur, but consequently I'm running up to Starbucks to do email and will try to get a post or two up from here later if possible. If not, hope to see you at some of the weekend's openings (Abington, Temple, Vox...the list is long and great. Sign up for your inliquid newsletter for all the details!) Cheerio.

permanent link   roberta 8:10 AM
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Posted by libby

paz, jose aliI just read that tonight is a fundraiser for major medical expenses to help Venezuelan-born artist/mural artist Jose Ali Paz, who has brain cancer. It's a little late for this, but I'm putting it out there just in case you can get there between 6 to 10 at Concilio on Franklin Street near 7th. The cost is $20 at the door, or $45 with a poster of Paz's paintings. The info came from the Daily News, which also said you can donate money even if you can't make the event. Send a check to Taller Puertorriqueno Inc and specify to the "Jose Ali Paz Fund" in the memo line. Mail it to Taller Puertorriqueno, 2721 N. 5th St., Philadelphia, PA 19133.

permanent link   libby 7:37 PM
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Posted by libby

The two great pleasures of the sculpture show at the Main Line Art Center. "Rearranged/Redevined: Domestic Objects Reconsidered" are word play and a sense of humor. This show belongs to Marcel Duchamp and Claes Oldenburg.
miller, gary
Roberta mentioned how much she enjoyed this show in her post (here) and her Philadelphia Weekly piece. In fact, I went there on her recommendation. So it's two thumbs up from R & L.

I notice that domesticity has suddenly become legit and a guy's zone. Well, it's about time, considering that all of us live in the domestic sphere. And it's a good reminder that what is domestic is important and wrought with big issues, while the daily maintenance chores help maintain perspective and humor.

Anyway, here are images of some of my favorite pieces from the show and a comment or two on them.

Gary Miller's "To Go Outside," (top image) is a set of pumped-up, take-out wooden chopsticks in their wrapper. They are as charming for their scale as for their name, which sounds like a bad translation of "take-out food" at the same time that it locates the piece outdoors. The piece raises the issue of taking a country's food out of its native context and exporting it to the land of the golden arches, which are also too big for their boots. Loved this piece.
dufala, billy blaise
I second Roberta on this one, Billy Blaise DuFala's "Monster X," a cheese grater straight out of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," a comic giant's suit of medieval armor (it's on wheels, and I have a picture of a video that showed at Space 1026 of the piece being dragged through Center City; I couldn't find the post so I guess I never wrote it). The name of the piece makes it human (in case you hadn't noticed just by looking), and it also makes it an Xtreme boy too clumsy to perform wheelies. Taking the grater out of the unfinished Space 1026 and putting it in the tended garden at the Main Line Arts Center gives a better sense of its loopy scale and rough texture--think Oldenburg's "Clothespin" here. My own grater, which used to be my grandmother's, has a brown patina on it that's pretty close to the rust color on "Monster X." Xtreme kitchenware, it's the ur Cuisinart.

"Dumpster Coffin," also by Dufala, makes a nice rusty pair with "Monster X." The Middle-Eastern-meets-Victorian decorations on the dumpster are subdued enough for the funeral. But the white satin interior is a shocking reminder of the opulence that real coffins have inside. It's also a reminder about people who make dumpsters their homes; and a reminder of all the home furnishings that meet their end in dumpsters.

The merger of delicate decorations, luxurious fabric and the brute metal is about touch and values and beauty. The name of this piece is dumb-simple descriptive and just right.






fay, ming
While we're in the zone of oversized objects that become something other when they are exploded to monster size, Ming Fay's "Radiant Fruit" is the food version of "Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds." Their presence is so tactile, their giant texture calling out for carresses, they too take on a human quality. The practically glow with their ability to satisfy hunger, projecting an aura of empowerment. There's something sly about their size, making them so accessible they become inaccessible.
blackburn, jean
Jean Blackburn, the only artist in the group not from Philadelphia or New York, hails from Rhode Island, one of the homes of New England apple pie. So this rolling pin, bored into and virtually eviscerated, seems appropriate. It's called "Thick or Thin," which besides being a pie-crust quality, is also an endurance quality, and woe to the thin skin and thick skull that could get bonked by this symbol of marital bliss. Blackburn also offered a lacy cooking pot that couldn't hold its water any more that I thought was interesting.

jones, eurhi
Eurhi Jones's "Daily Devotion of Diapers" is a wall of diaper shapes made of rich damasks and jacquard patterns, pieced together and embroidered or appliqued with foods. They have a ceremonial quality, like clergy vestments and kimonos. And the foods which go in and come out each day are the mother's communion wafer and wine. The white beaded splatters of milk, the rich purple plums, the sparkling watermelon rind are a spectacular surprise, untransformed in these diapers, still fresh and inviting. Only a mother could love it or see it that way and believe it.

cabrera, margarita
The other sewing pieces were by Margarita Cabrera, and this one, "Pink Blow Dryer," made me laugh out loud. It's sexy, a body part, and it's tangled with threads--the hair it dries and ahem the other hair as well. The seams are on the outside, the stitching a statement about women's work, as is the hairdryer itself. The gallery notes mention that Cabrera is Mexican and small electrics are a big product for Mexican women working in factories. But without this knowledge, the work still stands--and even though the scale remains realistic, the soft treatment again reminds me of Oldenburg.
angle, warren
Warren Angle's "Banquet" (in foreground) I have seen before at the Borowsky Gallery. On top of white classical columns, the bandaged crows have a rooftop feast, eating off black-spattered mirrors on tar beach. Not good for the tummy. Only the columns seem to survive nicely in this environment. And nearby (in background,) a feathered boa chirps in a birdcage, another mordant take on life's chances in the here and now.
donegan, steven
Now we're up to the bronzes, or coppers, or brasses. Steve Donegan's "Liar Chair" won me over with its punning title as well as with the weirdness of the biomorphic chair legs beneath the formal, proper chair shape. There's nothing proper about those legs, and nothing reliable about them, either. The medium is electroformed copper.




martin, walter and paloma munoz
munoz, paloma and walter martin
Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz's bronze "Improved Faucet" raises questions about whether the shortest distance between two points is really always a straight line. It also raises the question of whose judgment determines how things get done.

blum, timothy


And Timothy Blum's gold-plated bronze "New Bread" slices, wrapped in a silk embroidered Wonder Bread bag, with the silver cinch tab (my favorite part of the piece; it's in the right foreground on the pedestal) is totally the wrong color for Wonder Bread, which we all know is white and spongy. This stuff looks like health food. And the embroidery is great and believable, although I wished it had stretched a little farther afield.

Others in this show were Roberley Bell, Carla Rae Johnson, Robert Lobe, Carol Cole and Shawn Williams. The local artists were Angle, Cole, Donegan, Dufala, Jones and Miller, with Williams from somewhere in Pennsylvania. The rest are from New York. The show was curated by Mary Salvante.

permanent link   libby 4:12 PM
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Posted by libby

Alert 1: Two founding members of Space 1026--Ben Woodward and Max Lawrence--are going to be showing work at Jonathan LeVine Gallery June 4 to July 2, in a four-artist group show, Fork in the Road. The two other artist in the show are Matt Haber from Los Angeles and Mars 1 (aka Mario Martinez) from San Francisco . Woodward and Lawrence currently show at Spector Gallery in Philadelphia (image, Lawrence's "The Moorish Chief" after the painting by Eduard Charlemont, gouache and resin on board, 22" x 18").

The artists are all heavily influenced by the cartoon, graffiti, sci-fi, fantasy and pop culture aesthetics that defined the 70s and 80s, according to the press release.

Gallery owner LeVine was the proprietor of Tin Man Alley in Philadelphia and prior to that in New Hope before moving to his current Chelsea digs in January.

Alert 2: Jim Houser, another founder of Space 1026, who currently has a show up at Spector will be showing at LeVine July 16 to Aug. 13 (see post and follow the link there to Roberta's Philadelphia Weekly review of the show).

permanent link   libby 1:20 PM
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Posted by libby

The pointed art in "Love Triangles," nearly slip-slides out of your hand before you even notice there's some content in the bubble bath.

The small group show at the Asian Arts Initiative satirizes Asian soap operas and Bollywood movies as well as the images of Asians here and beyond. It features the work of four Asian-American artists from out of town as well as a collaborative wall installation by some local Asian-American artists.
khurana, swati
Two of the artists are showing videos inspired by soaps and Bollywood, and of them, Swati Khurana's videos were the more complex. She mocks the overheated, stereotyped roles of women in a loopy technicolor trio, all featuring the same star with thick black hair and lots of makeup. She's got the lipstick. She's got the pink cheeks, the black eyes, sometimes the exotic dots. Sometimes she's dressed in white. Sometimes she's wearing an Xtreme skirt of three-D flowers. Sometimes she's an angel. Sometimes she does self-destructive things (see image right with some stills above it). Sometimes she has the vapors. No matter what, though, this beauty's behavior is ridiculous and pathetic--not unlike the behavior of women in Bollywood films--and often Hollywood films.

Khurana, who lives and works in Brooklyn, has shown in the U.S. (including at White Columns in New York) and in India. She draws in material from East and West in her videos, and comes up with funny, scary views of how the media communicate the roles of women.

baik, sung
The other video in the show comes from Sung Baik (the only male among the invited four artists). "Melo Me Nelo We" collages clips from Korean soap operas of characters in tears--male and female. Baik, who was born in Korea and now lives in northern New Jersey, plays the one sad, sad joke over and over, in a brief loop. (I'm pretty sure I saw this video before, but I don't know where). Since I don't watch soap operas, I don't really know if American soaps include men weeping, but the Korean soaps do, and that's what happens when the soap bubbles and smoke get in their eyes. I also don't know if love always ends with this much moisture in American soaps, or if love ever ends but just goes on struggling from episode to episode. In other words, I'm not sure if this is a cautionary tale specific to Korea or if that's the way that all soaps operate--and the soap-opera message would be, don't dip your toes in the salty sea of love or else. Baik's message is something else entirely--soaps make these people look ridiculous. Is he also saying the weeping is making them look too American? Beats me. I don't know enough (left, still from "Melo Me Nelo We").
kina, laura
The posters are also fun, some of them framed in rear-lit movie poster marqees, surrounded by brass and flashing lights. Laura Kina, a Chicago artist who's a friend of Curator Sean Stoops, is the one who uses the marqees. Her work is also what inspired Stoops to put the show together.

She makes paintings of groups of young men and women staring out into space, looking bored, looking distressed, backed by vapid, pastel skies. Without any other information, you know there's romance in the air. And you also know that there are triangles and other complications. Kina makes digi-print-on-vinyl copies of the paintings for the posters and the flashing-light frames. The faces in these pictures are part-Asian, according to Stoops. The way you know this is from the titles, Hapa Soap Opera #1, 2, 3, etc., hapa being a Hawaiian word meaning mixed Asian that's now used increasingly on the mainland (right above, "Hapa Soap Opera #4").
stoops, sean
The paintings raise issues about who we're used to looking at in romantic images in this country. More than one Asian (or part-Asian) face is more than we usually see in a romantic movie poster. Stoops, who is himself a quarter Asian, said Kina is half Japanese, and that he is in one of the paintings.

The paintings on the most obvious level are about the idealization of what's really painful personal drama--young love. But they also suggest a way for young people who feel like they don't fit in the categories of the culture to find their idealized American teen dream (and to reject it at the same time--the paintings cut both ways, which is a nice trick)(left, "Hapa Soap Opera #3").
matthew, annu p.
The other posters, by Annu P. Matthew, are Bollywood poster collages with new text, the text being as important here as the images. The values of Indians and Indian-Americans toward women in love and marriage are her subject and she's pretty funny, taking swipes at the horror-response to mixed-race marriage--or even worse, an affair with a non-Indian. I loved "White Man's Consort, India's First 3-D Film." Arranged marriage also takes a hit from Matthew (see "Mr. Iyudand" at the top). Here's her web page for more(right, "Jungle Fever").
camarce, rodney
There's also a group painting on the wall by Rodney Camarce, Rana Sindhikara and Stoops that invokes the layers of hand-painted movie billboards in places in Asia where street paintings are part of the culture and where sometimes the layers bleed through to the surface. The installation has some horror movie titles in the mix--"I married a monster...Asian invasion"--adding to the discussion of Asians as Other in the show. Stoops said it was a work in process, with multiple Asian languages and more layers to be applied.
sindhikara, rana
By the way, the Asian Arts Initiative (downstairs from Vox) will be open for First Friday from 7 to 9, so if you get a chance, before the show goes down the drain, it's worth a visit.

permanent link   libby 5:27 PM
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Posted by libby

Post from Colette Copeland

We just got this email from regular artblog contributor Colette Copeland, who went to Romania as a participant in the Arad Biennale there:
copeland, colette
I just returned from an adventurous week in Arad, Romania, where my work was included in the first Arad Biennale. The Biennale was a collaboration between Terra dell'Arte Association (Italy), Ponte delle Arti (Italy), the Arad County Council and City Hall, and the West University of Arad. The artistic committee comprised 14 members from around the world, who put an open call out for participation, based on an initial website review. When I initially received my invitation, I wasn't even sure where Arad was located. (It is in the western part of Romania, near Hungary in the state of Transylvania). (Image left: here's proof that Colette found Arad.)
dumitrescu, sonin
Artistic Director Alfonso Caputo had a grand mission--to create an opportunity for exchange and dialogue; a space where artists could recover the shared values of human dignity and peace, starting from the most diverse experiences, cultures, languages and religions. He chose Arad, because of its geographic location in Eastern Europe, the Romanian's strong tradition in culture, the high concentration of artists and the receptiveness from the city government (right, image by Romanian artist Sonin Dumitrescu).

The result--210 participating artists from 50 countries exhibited in four pavilions around the city. Director Caputo was especially pleased to exhibit underrepresented nations including Kosovo, Pakistan, India, Nigeria, Kuwait and Malawi.

The traveling salon

dumitrescu, zamfir
Overall, the week was a success. The real benefit to attending the festivities was the opportunity to meet and network with artists from all over the globe. Reminiscent of utopic artist salons, I spent many hours in smoky cafes speaking with artists about life, philosophy and of course art. Language was never a barrier. There were always folks eager to jump in and translate. At any given moment, people would be speaking simultaneously in Spanish, Romanian, Italian, English and Turkish. I left with new friends and promises of future international projects/invitations (left, image by Romanian artist Zamfir Dumitrescu).

The thumbnail verdict
balaj, artan
Painting predominated the Biennale. If the focus was to promote new media in contemporary art, this was a major weakness. There were only two video artists and a handful of photographers. The work was uneven and the Biennale would have been stronger with a stricter selection process from the artistic committee (right, image by Kosovo artist Artan Balaj).

On Wednesday, art historian, Ileana Pintilie from Timisoara University spoke about Romanian contemporary art, which included performance art, land and installation art. It was interesting to note the global parallels in contemporary art. However these trends were not in evidence in the Romanian pavilion.

The Romanian pavilion

Dominated by painting and Christian iconography, many of the works were traditional. I wondered if the prevalence of religious themes had to do with the fall of communism in Romania? I was told that religion is a very important part of culture and the arts reflect these values. Highlights from this pavilion included Arad artist Onisim Colta, whose intricately layered sculptures embrace Biblical themes in a subtle and complex manner. He works with non-traditional materials such as cardboard, treating them with the precision and reverence of a precious material. Technically the works are superbly crafted, and inspire awe within the ordinary (left, a piece by Colta).
colta, onisim

I had the opportunity to visit his studio (right) and the works there were much more interesting than the works chosen for the Biennale.






zoltan, steinhubel
Other highlights include Arad artist Steinhubel Zoltan, who created multiple bas-reliefs of the Madonna & Child from cast paper on canvas (image, left), Bucharest artist Zamfir Dumitrescu whose painting "Arabesc" (see third image from the top) depicted religious figures interwoven with geometric cubes and locks and Bucharest artist Sonin Dumitrescu whose work "Biserica" had distinct political overtones (see second image from the top). Painted with traditional gold leaf, the work featured an imposing silhouetted figure, which could represent either the victim or the persecutor.

Awards and honors

rubio, paula
Closing night included the awards ceremony. After spending a week getting to know so many of the artists, it was thrilling to see some of my 'new' friends win prizes. Kosovo artist Artan Balaj (age 29) won a special award for Distinguished Young Artist . Earlier in the week, Balaj had taken on a local art critic, who stated that no one is an artist until they are 40 or 50. Balaj proved him wrong. His visceral multi-media works on paper employ aggressive mark making, which metaphorically reference his experiences in war-torn Kosovo (see fourth image from the top; image right is Paula Rubio's "Universacion").

ulukan, sefa
First prize in photography went to Turkish photographer (and Doctor) Sefa Ulukan, whose work represents life, death and beauty. The compelling color photographs blend x-ray images with the body and environment (left, a photo by Ulukan).

Paula Rubio from Chile won the first prize in Sculpure for the minimalist work entitled "Universacion" (above right), and Spanish artist Ernst Kraft won Painting's first prize.
macklem, jennifer
In Mixed Media, Canadian artist Jennifer Macklem won for her work "A Goat's Tale: Narcissus and 3 Sequences" (right). The piece included four framed prints and two sculptures. The goat sculpture looked flayed, with its textured skin raw and sinewy.

kraft, ernst



There were other special prizes given, including one for yours truly. My award was for Distinguished Artistic Achievement and Dedication to Education. (That's Colette with fellow honorees Ulukan at left, and Balaj in center.)

--Video artist Colette Copeland teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and at the University of the Arts

permanent link   libby 11:35 AM
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Posted by roberta

Today's Weekly has my review of the Main Line Art Center's "Rearranged/Redefined," a sculpture show that gives me some hope for the future of the medium.

The Main Line Center, by the way, along with Abington Art Center art two of the region's premier community art centers. Their programming, which has merited them both PEI grant money (MLAC got some for an art/history project last year and Abington got some for "The Lost Meeting," opening Sunday, June 5 at 5 p.m.), dips into experimental territory, something almost unheard of outside of university galleries.
dufala, billy blaise
(image right is Steve Donegan's "Liar Chair" an electroplated relic of some domestic war or other. I love its stateliness coupled with the hint of raw emotion in the left (rams horn) leg and the right withered stump -- almost like the chair was beating up on itself. )



I won't say too much more because I know Libby's going to weigh in on the show too. The exhibit's up to June 8 so stop on out there if you're in the neighborhood. Some of the work's kitsch but mostly the show's solid. And I lost my heart to Billy Blaise Dufala's cheese grater, "Monster X" shown here (left) trying to peek in the art center's window. Libby told me "Monster X" appeared in the Dufala brothers exhibit at Space 1026 a while back. I'm looking for a link to what she wrote and will put it in when I find it. Meanwhile here's a post of mine that contains information about an anti-war installation Billy Blaise and brother Steven did at the late Spartaco Gallery.
donegan, steven

permanent link   roberta 7:13 AM
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Posted by libby

Now the the "Inhabit" show has come down (sort of) at Sean Stoops' apartment (see post), I asked Curator Sean Stoops how he liked living with all that art ("Lightswitch Daydream" by Nadia Hironaka).

First of all, he's still living with a lot of it. "I still have most of the work up," he said. Not that it makes him unhappy.

"I like that when you live with art, you notice new things," Stoops said. "Parts of the show will stay with me. I'll alway think of that switch [by Nadia Hironaka] being on the wall after the switch is gone, and Jim Johnson's box-in-the-closet installation."

permanent link   libby 9:21 PM
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Posted by roberta

I began telling you about the artists of 1801 Howard St. (or 119 W. Montgomery Ave., the building straddles the two blocks) in a previous post. Here I'm going to run some pictures of the apartment/studios I visited. I am sorry I don't have more true studio shots. What was I thinking? I spent time in the studios of Carrie Cook and Jon Schoff, Steven Earl Weber, Sonny and Ellen Fleming and John Gibbons and Isobel Sollenberger. And each space was unique and a kind of labor of love involving lofts, partition walls, wall-removal and other unique touches made by creating an apartment out of what was rough warehouse space.
gibbons, john and isobel sollenberger


fleming, ellen
Carrie Cook and Jon Schoff's apartment/studio is off the building's courtyard on the first floor. Cook's living room served as an annex gallery for the group during its recent event and some of the works are still installed. Here's a shot of a video piece made by Michael Gibbons, John's brother and a member of Bardo Pond.



The studio space adjoining the living room is where Cook and Schoff makes their art. For Cook, the process sometimes involves making clay models, drawing them, then squishing the clay to make another model to draw. Cook likes to draw with silver plaka, a design medium. Her drawings depict ur-animals, creatures from the id of life, not quite there but threatening to come to life in your dreams. The large drawing on the far wall above, however, is a realistic drawing of the family dog made by John.
sollenberger, isobel and john gibbons

This is one of Cook's drawings on the inside of the red door to their apartment. He is a guard dog of a sort.


Here's a painting by John of red bricks and a blanket. The piece sits on a brick wall painted white. I love that.


Each apartment is completely different from the next. Here is Ellen and Sonny Fleming's place which is a nice combination of 50s era diner and loft chic.
cook, carrie



The apartment has glorious light and a step-up lounge, a guest room loft and is a complete live/work space in one room.


This is one of Ellen's glass and metal paintings, through which you can see the rest of the room.
schoff, jon


This is Sonny playing with their dog in the kitchen space. Notice the step up to the platform lounge behind him.


Sonny is working on a rocking chair. He figures since he built skateboard ramps he can build anything. He's probably right.


John Gibson and Isobel Sollenberger's place opens on a kitchen shared with another couple. The studio space, off the kitchen, is full of glorious light and it's set up at the moment as a showroom for their art. All I could focus on was the the velvety smooth art, some of which was on the floor or close to the floor as seen here (I asked if it was art for the dog. Don't laugh, I know some people who put art near the floor for the cat.)



The plaster and paper works get their color from black ink which, John says, changes color when it interacts with the chemicals in the plaster and with the rag content of the Rives BFK paper they use.


This oval piece has thick topography that evokes rivers and craters and you can't see it here here but there's a line of intense yellow color separating the white moonrise from the dark sky. It's a gorgeous piece (and I'm sorry I didn't capture it in its entirety...Doh!)


The works have an almost old world charm with their floral motifs and evocations of crumbling walls.




Several of the works, John said, were inset right into the walls, in a way playing off the plaster of the walls. I love embedding plaster art into plaster walls. The two works above the shelf are embedded in the wall.

Steven Earl Weber's place is another bravura space I'm sorry I didn't capture for you. Weber's a wall mover and he showed me where there used to be a wall separating this from that. He and his girlfriend, who is a dancer with Pennsylvania Ballet, live amidst his art. His sculpture studio and living room partially feed into each other. And the two kilns for his ceramic pieces are right there in the living room.


Weber took it upon himself to clean up the mail room for the building which formerly was a resting place for junk left behind by residents who moved out. He slapped a coat of white paint on the space and put up a few of his sculptures and voila, a great exhibit space. The sculpture of the white knee in a box refers to the artist's father, and the small images to the left are photo-ceramic multiples that refer to the artist's grandmother who was a dancer. In fact the multiple images were like a chorus line of smiling dancers.


Weber, who likes to make sculptures that incorporate found wood with cast objects he's made here has a piece with cast rocks (made of hydrocal and painted to evoke real rocks) and a chalk drawing of running legs.

That's it for my report. Watch for these artists and the other 1801 artists. Stuff is cooking in Kensington.
fleming, sonny
weber, steven earl

permanent link   roberta 4:50 PM
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Posted by roberta

I met the artists of 1801 Howard St. over the weekend. They were kind enough to show me around the studio/living spaces and the exhibition they had in the ad hoc gallery they created in their warehouse building in Kensington. I had missed their one-day open studio event the previous weekend. (Left to right are Jon Reeb, Brian Boutwell, Carrie Cook, Michael McJilton, Steven Earl Weber, John Gibbons, Isobel Sollenberger, Ellen Fleming and Sonny Fleming. Other members of the group not pictured are Patrick Beckhorn, Angela Lackey, Naomi Litell and Jon Schoff.)



I'll run some pictures from the group exhibit here and save the studio shots for the next post.
fleming, sonny

The artists live in apartments carved out of the old warehouse and the whole building -- which used to be a pewter figurine factory they think -- is like a vertical gypsy encampment -- one exotic hand-fabricated space after another, everything fashioned by the current or previsous resident. The building is owned by Joe Larangione, an artist, whose son Terrence ran the late-Spartaco Gallery in Old City. Larangione apparently only rents to artists -- or artists with dogs, maybe. There were lots of dogs and a few cats. And in one experiment in group living on the 5th floor, two apartments share a kitchen. (image is Steven Earl Weber's "Contrary Notions" a found wood and cast ceramic sculpture.)
sollenberger, isobel and john gibbons



Jon Reeb was my contact although I had met two of the artists, John Gibbons and Isobel Sollenberger, previously at Arcadia's last Works on Paper show in which they had a plaster on paper work that I loved and that won a prize in that show. Reeb emailed me at the Weekly to announce their one-day event and it's through his persistence that I got over there. (image is Reeb's "Symbiont" a 7-minute video with surveillance camera footage interwoven with more personal material. I loved the sculptural housing for the piece, an old circuit box.)
gibbons, john and isobel sollenberger



Cook mentioned that they had participated in POST's open studios in the past. But the way the group got to be a group was that Weber was asked to organize a group show for the Plough and the Stars where he had previously had a solo exhibit. He put together the group show for P&S and that was the beginning of the group. BTW, lots of people stopped by 1801 all day and into the wee hours of the night the day of their event which ended with a cookout, a great-sounding video projection through a window, and a jam session with Bardo Pond members. The artists will be doing another one-day show/open studios event in October. (image is Reeb's "Fell" a welded steel sculpture with glass and a lighting element. Reeb, who loves to weld, has perhaps the widest range of art-making going on within his body of work. That's pure exploration going on I imagine.)
weber, steven earl



I'm always curious how people wind up in Philadelphia and these artists are like many they gravitated here for school (UArts, PAFA, Tyler) or are from the region. Reeb's from Buffalo, NY and came here for media arts at UArts; Carrie Cook is from Lancaster, PA and studied at Tyler. (She had a show at Afif Gallery recently she told me.) Steven Earl Weber's from Ohio where he studied glass art. (He's worked at the glass studio, Hot Soup, and elsewhere). Michael McJilton is from Maryland and studied in Lancaster then came to Philadelphia to launch his career. (image is Carrie Cook's graphite on graphite drawing on panel, "New Jersey/Florida." The image appears Halloweenish or devilish -- its ambiance is spooky and it perfectly catches nighttime's strangeness.)
mcjilton, michael


John Gibbons and Isobel Sollengerger are both from the area and met at PAFA. The couple has been collaborating on music for a long time (they're both members of the electro-Zen--art band, Bardo Pond) and recently started collaborating on art. The Flemings, Ellen and Sonny, are from the area. Ellen went to Uarts and Sonny is recently back from five years in salt Lake City where he founded and built "Proving Grounds" the biggest skate park in that part of the country. Boutwell is from Erie and after spending time in the Navy is now studying art at PAFA. (image is floor with critters, mushrooms and a "saucer," part of Gibbons and Sollenberger's untitled installation -- which also includes a plaster on paper "cloud" on the wall -- see next image)
cook, carrie


The group exhibit's laid out in the building's first floor and the work spans the range of art and crafts, from decorative glass panels and metal and ceramic sculptures to collage, figure paintings, furniture, clothing, video and abstract works. Having just written about the CFEVA show, which has an equal range of works, I have to say this show is of comparable quality but higher in energy and of course edgier, as you'd expect, in what is a beautiful but raw space (and not an office lobby). I'll venture here that office lobbies could use a little bit more of this edgier stuff.
boutwell, brian


The real fun of this building is the open studios where the artists live and work. It's here I saw the amazing level to which the artists are committed to working. The spaces I saw were almost equal part studio and living space and the interweaving of art and life is complete. Without further ado, I'll run some pictures here with a bit of commentary. Mostly I hope you'll keep these artists on your radar and watch out for their next open studio event. (image is Sonny Fleming's "Pillow Talk" a loveseat with tvs all running static embedded in it.)



Here is Ellen Fleming's "3" which I thought was a glass and metal painting. It was both sweet and poke-y, so a little forbidding.



Michael McJilton's got a body of work involving soldiers and war. I find that very compelling material for a young artist to make. Here are some drawings that look like recruiting posters installed like on a bulletin board.


Jon Schoff's "Flesh Pod" painting is like a bad boy version of that Sidney Goodman painting of a nude -- body truncated in a violent kind of way draped over a wooden table. Very Academy...but not.



Naomi Littell makes hats and clothing. Her works (pictured here hanging in the apparel corner of the exhibit) have the fun, party-time ambiance and flash of Mardi Gras (if not the purple, green and gold colors).


Patrick Beckhorn's collages, like this one, called "Naked Party" seemed both parodies of posters and the real thing. I loved the wild melange of aliens and sex.

I somehow failed to get a shot of Brian Boutwell's painting -- all black and covering many different colors underneath. Reeb told me he's sending one and I'll run it with the next post.
reeb, jon
fleming, ellen

permanent link   roberta 10:07 AM
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Posted by roberta

mccullough, david

One of the smart things author David McCullough said last week when he spoke to the sold-out auditorium at the Free Library, (part of the subscription lecture series Steve and I go to with our friends Ed and Ann) was that in spite of what you may think -- and many do -- this is not the darkest time our country has lived through.

That's nonsense, said McCullough (pictured above), of the post-911 sentiment that the world is scarier now than ever.



McCullough, a jovial white-haired man who spoke for over an hour without notes and with a case of laryngitis lurking in his throat, said Pearl Harbor and 1776 were far darker times. The 71-year old author of the Pulitzer Prize winning books "Truman" and "John Adams,"should know. His new book, which took him six years to write, is "1776."

The Revolutionary War was one that lasted eight and a half years -- our country's longest war but for Vietnam, he said. Fought by farmers and boys who often went without shoes and in the worst months without food and ravaged by disease, the war was one in which "25,000 Americans lost lives -- That's one percent of the population at that time. One percent today is 3 million people," he said, a number that shocked all in attendance.

McCullough's a fluid storyteller in his books as well as in his talk. He believes in history and he believes we're not teaching it properly to our children. History should be taught as stories he said. Quoting:

Our reality today is that our young men and women are historically illiterate. It's not their fault. We have to change how we train our teachers. There should be no more education degrees. You can't teach something you don't love and you can't love something you don't know. Excited teachers are the best. And textbooks are almost universally dreadful. It's as if they're made to dispel interest!

But it's not just teachers. The problem is us. We have to talk about history and politics at dinner and take our children to historic sites.

He went on to say that passion about issues is the thing that separates us now from the men and women who lived in 1776. That and a knowledge and love of books and ideas. "America had the highest standard of living in the world at that time. They weren't poor and suffering." He noted that all the founding fathers and mothers (like Abagail Adams who he sees as a great role model) read books and were enlightenment thinkers. Many of them were Quakers and yet they went to war believing it was a just cause. They lived at a time when "preparing for the worst was commonplace. Hardly one of them had not seen death. We owe them so much."

McCullough, by the way, is a proponent of arts education and he deplores the cutting of art and music from school budgets.



I've read two of McCullough's books ("Truman" and "John Adams") and loved every page. They made me cry and laugh and understand the personalities behind the times. I'm on my library's waiting list for "1776." Can't wait.

More on McCullough, a Pittsburgh, PA native in this Pittsburgh Post Gazette article. And here is where I found out the writer was the narrator for the film "Seabiscuit!" McCullough's on a killer "1776" book tour that's totally of our time, 2005. Here's the schedule.

permanent link   roberta 11:20 AM
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Posted by roberta

smith, adam parker

Lots of Americans have the day off today for Memorial Day so I thought I'd run a few pictures from a show that I saw in an office building that's probably deserted on this Memorial Day but was bustling the day I was there. The show is a larg