artblog

 
Posted by libby

Mostly unfamiliar artists from parts of the world we rarely incorporate into our viewing patterns are front and center in the exhibit Conflict: Perspectives, Positions, Realities in Central European Art at Slought Foundation.

The experiences of this group of 11 artists from Central Europe, is so different from ours. The concerns of people uprooted from their lands, beset by first-hand experiences of war, or unmoored by major political and cultural shifts creates art different in content and intent from our own--and gives context to several other shows I've seen recently, namely Moscow Plastic Arts at Arcadia (see post), Romania Redrawn at Photo West (see post), and a show of Bulgarian art at Kelly Writers House.

The exhibit of mostly videos and photo-based work includes a couple of big-name artists--Marina Abramovic and Braco Dimitrijevic--but the work that really drew me in comes from others, many of them younger. The videos stole the show.

Sejla Kameric's spectacular video is of a decadent Western World power, personified by a woman dressed in a voluptuous red satin gown in a voluptuous white space, her computer/sci-fi voice-over delivering ironic dicta (they bring to mind George Bush and other American propaganda) of how the rest of the planet must conform to her decadent ideals. Her hair has an aerodynamic pompador that suggests Louis XV and Star Trek in one fell swoop, while her body's motions bring to mind an Alice in Wonderland caterpillar and Jabba the Hutt (left, still shot from Kameric's video).

"Plastic Bag Kung Fu," from Eric Binder, shows a man juggling airy plastic bags--the kind you get at the supermarket--in depressed, decaying locales. The trope and the action are both pretty funny, and pretty depressing all at once. Let them eat air instead, while the international trade cartel provides these cheesy bags to every country around the globe (right, still shot from "Plastic Bag Kung Fu").

The joke movie of Maya Bjevic (my picture didn't come out; sorry) is definitely not "The Aristocrats." The performers sit in a Euro-style cafe with stockings pulled over their faces, portraits of military strong-men on the walls behind them. Unbearable long pauses introduce each joke while the distorted faces and the milieu sink in. The jokes are bitter bits of gallows humor, the anonymity of the masked faces a protection from who knows which enemy. The state comes to mind as enemy number one.

In "Joy Division," the artist performs a haunting lament of a song (in a foreign language), while standing on the banks of a river, a skyline in the distance. The video is from Bosnian artist Nebojsa Seric Soba, and there he is with an enormous paunch and his white, David Letterman socks in loafers, looking oddly divided from the world of commerce, the sunlit city behind him where it's business as usual. Slought's Aaron Levy wrote in an email, "The location of that video is actually at DUMBO, if I understand correctly." While I was in the gallery, Levy mentioned to me that Soba had an epiphany while in the trenches that there had to be another way than war. At that moment he became an artist, although no such thought had ever crossed his mind previously. Noodling around the web, I found that Soba then created an earthwork at the front, based on Mondrian's "Broadway Boogie Woogie." Honestly. So there you have it. Art earthwork vs. military earthwork. Which would you pick (left, still shot of "Joy Division," by Soba)?



Danica Dakic's video of a man taking an existential risk by banging a drum as he walks up and back on train tracks made me nervous indeed. I worried that, with all that thumping, he wouldn't hear the train in time to get off the tracks (right, still shot from Dakic's video).



A series of large drawings of musclemen in itty bitty swim suits by video artist Laszlo Revesz were odd -- serious, yet silly and vulnerable -- and in the political context seemed to be either about dictatorships or a false focus on some wrong-headed sense of beauty. Hey, I could go with either one of those. Denica Lehocka's sweet abstractions of what looked like vegetables, a chair, dishes, etc., seemed a little odd in this context, except perhaps for the notion of the ordinary under threat (left, three of Revesz's strongmen).

Of the photos, I loved this one from Michael Milunovic for its sheer loopiness and complexity.






Also Sandor Pinzcehelyi Sandor's repeating pair of pictures of himself with hammer and sickle and then empty-handed were more interesting I thought for the age element. After all, the loss of political certainty and the past is too superficial a thought, but in the context of how age changes our point of view and makes us less naive about ideologies, an element of welcome ambiguity is introduced (left, detail).

The Abramovic video (image right) showed her head resting on the shore as waves rushed underneath. I kept thinking the waves would ultimately cover her face, but that moment never came while I stood there. The Dimitrijevic video showed tigers and lions amid art--a version of this work has shown before at Slought. The best part of this was the title of the segment the "Golden Autumn of Georgio de Chirico," the tigers pacing amid a space with gold-leaf shapes applied to the stones of a wall, looking like they were wafting in the air, and a sculptured head on a pedestal.

As our president grows more and more convinced that he is right and the rest of the world is a) wrong and b) not worth communicating with, voices rarely heard seem to have more and more to say to correct our out-of-whack fantasies of the world.

I am thoroughly struck how these artists, working in media with real people, have not gone into the kind of fantasy worlds that our own young artists are inhabiting. I love those fantasies, but I worry that they are reflections of a decadent society, that decadent society that Kamaric and Binder have captured so succinctly.

The show was curated by Lorand Hegyi, director of Le Musée d'art moderne de Saint-Etienne, France.abramovic, marinadimitrijevic, bracosoba, nebojsa sericmilunovic, michaeldakic, danicabajevic, mayarevesz, laszlopinczehelyi, sandorbinder, ericlehocka, denicakameric, sejla

permanent link   libby 1:16 PM
Comments? Let us know.   

 
Posted by roberta

We got an email yesterday from the folks at Calling Marcel. That's a new website offering free listings about jobs, opportunities and competitions in the visual, performing and writing arts.



The list of opportunities is pretty long and rich considering the site's only been up since Oct. When I strolled through the visual arts opportunities I saw a job at MoMA, a job at the Brooklyn Arts Council, a post-doc fellowship at the Frick, calls for a women's video art show, "Her Shorts," sponsored by Plugged Video Collective in Tuscon. Great nuggets! And that's just the tip of the top. (image is detail of their front page. I love the pale colors and minimalist layout. Very easy to navigate.)

About the site's name, Calling Marcel, here's what the website says:

"I don't believe in art. I believe in artists." --Marcel Duchamp

"We could think of no better nor more influential cultural figure to lend a hand with our site than Marcel Duchamp. He spoke the words above and he embodies what we believe is at the heart of great art – in any art form – by breaking boundaries, ever questioning, and having fun with the medium, whether it’s stripping the bride or laying bare the bachelors."

I was so excited I emailed the Marcels and asked them who they are. The site's pretty anonymous except to say that this is the crew who brought you Art Krush the online magazine (which is now a bi-monthly e-newsletter).

Here's the lovely reply they wrote back.

Roberta and crew,

Hello! A quick history and introduction. My name is Mark Barry. Chris Elam and I first founded ArtKrush about 5 (maybe 6?) years ago. We since sold it to the awesome Flavorpill knowing they would do great things and continue its high quality content. They have done a great job so far and we are very excited about it still growing.

Since then, Chris, myself and a new partner, Jason have focused our attention to this new project. There are thousands upon thousands of listings out there on the net, but no single place that has the ability to house them all together in a intelligent and intuitive format. Thus, we set out to create Calling Marcel. We are excited about these first listings but our goal is 300-500 listings a month. There is more than enough demand and resources out there to support that number. (At least we hope so!)

We don't really mean to be too cryptic on the site, but you are right, it does come off kinda anonymous. So here is the short and sweet on the three amigos: Chris is a photographer and a writer. He lives and works in New York. Jason is a musician and an absolutely brilliant code geek and lives in Utah. I moved from NYC to Utah so that my wife could go to grad school for her MFA in Modern Dance. I do some photography and paint now and again, but primarily am focused on growing my small graphic design business.

Calling Marcel could use all the help we can get. It is a great idea and something we feel the art world (in all its mediums) could desperately use. The site depends on institutions to post listings and the artists to respond to them. We have no real money to invest in advertising, thus we are trying to get the ball rolling in the blog-o-sphere. Any and all help you can offer by spreading the word or through advice you might have would be really fantastic and greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much for emailing me back!

- Mark

Sooo, check it out and bookmark it. And institutions, if you have something to post, post it. It's a global village and all eyes are everywhere. By the way, for other listings sites, check out Inliquid which has grants, jobs and opportunities listings; The Cultural Alliance's Jobs Bank has jobs listings. Craig's List, too. Bookmark 'em all and use them.
callingmarcel

permanent link   roberta 9:54 AM
Comments? Let us know.   

 
Posted by roberta

[Ed. Note: Charlotte Schatz sent us this nice report on pioneering fiber artist and 1996 Pew fellow Yvonne Bobrowicz who spoke recently at Woodmere Art Museum in conjunction with the Senior Artists Initiative exhibit. Schatz has work in that show as do Bobrowicz, Gladys Krieger Bloch, John Costanza, Mary Costanza, Arthur de Costa, Robert Dodge, Alan Klawans, Lucartha Kohler, Rose Naftulin and Tina and Douglas Pappajohn.]

Post by Charlotte Schatz


I attended Yvonne Bobrowicz's lecture recently at the WoodmereArt Museum which was part of the Senior Artists Initiative exhibit. It was fascinating, informative and provocative. She is a delightful speaker, very extemporaneous and honest. She has had a long and successful career in fibers, exhibited all over the world, has been
commissioned by Louis Kahn among many others. Bobrowicz covered the history of "the thread" in a most interesting way. Her work is informed by string theory, Jungian psychology and Eastern philosophy.

(image above is Bobrowicz' "Energy Field," 1990, knotted black translucent monofilament with 24K goldleaf 66"w. x 90"h. x 18"d., Philadelphia Museum of Art permanent collection.)


She had brought along many examples of her exciting work: floor pieces, woven textile fabrics and her latest ephemeral pieces made of knotted monofilament, gold and silver which are on exhibit at the Woodmere. It was one of the most delightful, informative lectures I've heard in a long time. Young artists would have learned how an intelligent mind and a free, creative spirit can coalesce into magnificent art work.

(image is Bobrowicz with Anne Kaplan, founder and director of the Senior Artists Initiative.)


Senior Artists Initiative is up at Woodmere to January 8, 2006


--Charlotte Schatz is a Philadelphia painter and sculptor whose studio we visited on the POST tour in October.
bobrowicz, yvonne
schatz, charlotte

permanent link   roberta 6:15 PM
Comments? Let us know.   

 
Posted by libby

I've been working my way up to Miguel Trelles' exhibit at Taller Puertorriqueno every since Roberta wrote her informative post on it. I'm happy to report that not only did I get there, but it was worth the effort (image, "Canaries Landscape," 54 x 52 inches, oil on canvas).

Although Roberta was pretty comprehensive, I thought I'd add a few thoughts about the Chino-Latino landscapes.

I was struck by the way the land is sensual, suggesting bodies and tropical vegetation.

The colors go beyond mere tropical. They also have a cultural zing to them. After all, I wouldn't respond to them as African tropical or as Hawaiian tropical colors. (I'm thinking here of Rebecca Rutstein's intense, mappy Hawaii images--see Roberta's piece here on Rutstein's show that just closed at Bridgette Mayer Gallery. Rutstein evokes some of the same island and lava phenomena, but has a different intent--an effort to take control by mapping. For all her hot palette in this body of work, she does not show that love of heat and abandonment to color that Trelles has)(image left, "Yellow Lava," 36 x 35 1/2 inches, oil).

And speaking of love of heat and abandonment to color, these islands abandon their inhibitions to the sea and vice versa. The vivid ocean in these paintings interlocks with the land masses. They embrace like lovers or the pieces in a jigsaw. And the ocean seems less like a barricade between the landmasses and more like a yin to the land's yang.

Just in case you didn't get how imaginary Trelles' lands are, he also offers up a pair of paintings about the same "landscape," one in a horizontally striped sea, one in a vertically striped sea (right, "Yauco Landscape," oil on linen, 48 x 48 inches).

In the black and white paintings, Trelles adapts the scroll length to Western art conventions, using a triptych in one case, a long canvas in another. But Trelles' scrolls do not have that sense of storytelling and time that underlie traditional Chinese scrolls (according to one of the essays at the gallery, Trelles, who studied Chinese art history for a while, admired the work of Ming Dynasty artist Tung Ch'i Ch'ang) (left, "Approximation to Nelson's Sphinx," charcoal, ink, acrylic and oil on canvas, 30 x 148 inches total).

Trelles's long paintings adapt gestural Asian inking, adding a variety of Western art-making strategies --charcoal and oil and sometimes acrylic. He uses the natural canvas as a color amidst the whites, grays and blacks (right, "Bones of Charcoal").

In these, the rocky outcroppings appear to be rocks rising out of the land or the sand, rather than islands rising out of the sea.

The Rumberas in the Garden series of portraits of dancer-actresses who dominated a stream of Mexican movie making in the 1950s, like the landscapes, have an underlying theme of exotic fantasies and sexiness, but they are fantasies of the past. They are also fantasies of another medium, cinema, and of other men (left, a portrait of the Cuban-born rumbera Amalia Aguilar).

In the Garden of the Forking Paths group of landscapes, however, the exotic fantasies seem present and fresh and Trelles' own. Trelles, who is Puerto Rican with Cuban roots, works in Brooklyn and New Haven.trelles, miguel

permanent link   libby 5:14 PM
Comments? Let us know.   

 
Posted by libby

From Robert Cozzolino

[We've been hearing that PAFA's Robert Cozzolino and Alex Baker have been all around town looking at art and thinking about purchases. So I asked Cozzolino what they were up to. Here's his answer, which includes some local names, some not so local names and some stuff we've already reported:]

...As for purchases -- all I can tell you is that we have been buying some very exciting things at PAFA lately; and we've received some super-delightful gifts. We really hope the latter keeps happening because money runs out, and quickly (image, Vik Muniz' "Charles Willson Peale").

We recently bought three drawings by Huston Ripley, a major Alice Neel painting of Clement Greenberg's daughter, and received gifts of work by Vik Muniz (the Peale), Edwin Dickinson (a 1950s chair painting that was in the big show), an early Thomas Chimes, and Sylvia Fein (two major works by her -- one of which you'll hear about on Wednesday if you come). There are others but they escape me at the moment. [The Wednesday reference is to Cozzolino's talk Dec. 7].

There's another major purchase that will have to await a press release. I can't scoop our PR guy. It's good.

So -- it's not exactly a spree but it has changed things in the collection. We've talked about doing some sort of new acquisitions exhibition to assess how we three curators have managed to change things in the last two years through strategic acquisitions -- but there's no official word on when or in what way we'd do an exhibition of this sort.

One way that would make a cohesive exhibition in this area would be to show what's been accomplished with Alex's Contemporary Art Development Fund [Baker is PAFA's curator of contemporary art]. I have been adding drawings with it (Rob Matthews--see Roberta's post here, Huston) and plan to keep doing so; but he's bought some stellar paintings (Jim Houser, Jane Irish, Monique van Genderen) and a Virgil Marti installation with its largess.

Over the past year Alex, myself and our senior curator, Lynn Marsden-Atlass have been engaged in intensive discussions with other members of the PAFA community about prioritizing which gaps we can and need to fill first in our collection. Part of this had to do with strategizing how best to use and stretch our limited acquisition funds. We have been able to purchase some strong important work in this way (a Jim Nutt painting from 1969 that will be up in February is one of my favorites), including the Neel mentioned above, a Jess painting and an Adolph Gottlieb pictograph too. I'd throw things you already know about in there like the Kara Walker that was in Light Line and Color
and a couple of John Wilde drawings from the 1940s. Before I arrived I know Derek bought two Leon Golub paintings -- one early and one later and Lynn selected the Elizabeth Murray painting that is currently in the MoMA retrospective; at least I think it is -- my head is spinning. It's hard to get a handle on what we've managed to do in the last year and so it would be good to take stock in some public way. It may be a matter of highlighting a "new acquisition" on our website every month like other museums do. But I'd rather put them on view.

Hopefully in the next six months we'll have further exciting things to
announce.

Yes we were at the Spector opening but I can't say anything more than
it was a great and thrilling show.

--Post by PAFA Associate Curator Robert Cozzolinomuniz, vik

permanent link   libby 9:39 PM
Comments? Let us know.   

 
Posted by libby

Sometimes I just reject art that's difficult, but sometimes it makes me want to think and dig all the harder. Dig I did for Nick Muellner's "Moscow Plastic Arts" photos at Arcadia University Art Gallery.

The photographs are construction related--brutish concrete blocks, bricks, haphazardly layed out squares for concrete pours, bags of cement, upside down utility buckets, improbably stacked lumber or other material, etc. All were taken in Moscow in 2003 and 2005 by the Ithaca-based artist.

The delicate tints add an otherworldly glow to these images; the manilla paper on which the photos are printed seem nostalgic, like dusty archive files. The aesthetics of these material choices oppose the brutishness of the photographed objects, which land with a Minimalist, anti-gestural thud. The art historical references turn leaden concrete blocks into Suprematist Soviet thankas (see top image).

Many of the pictures suggest grand public works (see steps below). The arrangement of some of the objects suggest fallen bodies and lopped off heads (see images right above and to the left). I immediately thought of the statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled from its pedestal. And indeed, the notes discuss the political battles following the Bolshevik revolution over which public statues from the past must be destroyed, which preserved.

The whole enterprise drips with Post-Modern cynicism and jokiness. After all, Muellner never shows his hand on what or who he admires. He's more about what he sees as human shortcomings--politics, the self-delusion of the state rewriting its own history and abandoning the past, the heroic Social Realist vocabulary of the worker's state in disarray.

I'm not sure everyone will like this show. But I did. Plus I liked taking home my free little catalog, also printed on manilla stock (only one to a person, the sign said). The exhibit runs until Dec. 18.muellner, nick

permanent link   libby 6:16 PM
Comments? Let us know.   

 
Posted by roberta

Post from Rob Matthews

Hey

I love the Delaney show but it doesn't make much mention of his brother Joseph.
Here's a link if you want more info on him.


You can find other examples of his work online if you look around. I knew more about him than Beauford going to school in Knoxville since Joseph spent the last years of his life in K'ville.



He died the year before I got there. The student center has his large NYC street scene "V-J Day, Times Square" on display. It's about 8'x10'.

(top image is Joseph Delaney, bottom image is Beauford Delaney.)

--Rob Matthews is a frequent artblog contributor. You can see his work soon in the "O" show at the Shore Institute.

delaney, beauford
delaney, joseph

permanent link   roberta 4:01 PM
Comments? Let us know.   

 
Posted by roberta

delaneywashingtonsqweb
Originally uploaded by sokref1.

Today's Weekly includes my short review of the great Beauford Delaney exhibit at the PMA. Here's the link to the art page and below is the article. And here's Libby's post on the show. (image is one of Delaney's Washington Square images. Click the image to see it larger. There are four more images you can see larger on my flickr site.)
Beau's Monde

Beauford Delaney's paintings, with their vibrant colors and thick-as-icing paint, are complete seductions. I didn't want to leave the warmth of their embrace, one that's sun-kissed and rhythmic like Matisse, mystical like van Gogh and sensuous like de Kooning. This is a painter's painter, and I wondered why I knew so little about him.



Delaney, now featured in the exhibit "Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was an important African-American artist who expatriated to Paris in 1953. A gay man, he was connected to many literati and artists of his day. He was a seminal influence on the writer James Baldwin, 23 years his junior, whom he befriended and who in turn cared for Delaney in his old age. (untitled painting from 1947. he was schooled in art but look at that symbol-laden, outsider-y ebullience)

His works are in many important collections, including the PMA, but as curator of modern art Michael Taylor said at the press preview, "He's an artist worth knowing who hasn't been given his due."

Delaney was schooled in Boston and moved to New York in 1929. He knew the works of the masters and was hooked into the contemporary scene in New York. You can feel those influences on his work, but Delaney was no mimic-his paintings are unique, imbued with joy and an outsider's ferocity.



What transforms them are the artist's glorious colors and his formidable compositions. His portraits, street scenes and abstract works feel like they poured out whole-perfect translations of the artist's inner visions. ("Distant Horizons," a painting made before the artist emigrated to France. Sold to raise money for the journey. The collector who bought it kept it all his life, Curator Taylor said.)

Delaney's portraits are especially powerful. His Portrait of Canada Lee fractures the boxer-turned-actor's bare arms into fields of red, green and purple. Yellow was a color of cosmic connections for the artist, and Lee sits, a brooding and beatific god, before a field of golden yellow. It's a simple but amazing depiction.



The PMA has enhanced the traveling show, which originated in Minneapolis, with works from its own collection including the iconic Portrait of James Baldwin, and with works and documentation from Delaney's 1947 Philadelphia exhibit at the African-American social club the Pyramid Club. (image is another Washington Square painting. This one strikes me as a take on Mondrian's "Broadway Boogie Woogie.")

The mainstream art world, with its mostly white tastemakers, often overlooks great art. This show should help place Delaney's star in the art firmament where it belongs.

"Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris"
Through Jan. 29. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th St. and the Pkwy. 215.763.8100.
delaney, beauford

permanent link   roberta 10:29 AM
Comments? Let us know.   

 
Posted by roberta

Zoe Strauss is in the 2006 Whitney Biennial!!! Here's the artist's email blast from the inbox last night, written in her inimitable deadpan style:

UNBELIEVABLE NEWS.
I WILL BE IN THE 2006 WHITNEY BIENNIAL.
MORE LATER.
YOU HEARD ME.
WHITNEY BIENNIAL.

WWW.ZOESTRAUSS.BLOGSPOT.COM

WAIT, SERIOUSLY, THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL.

http://www.whitney.org/exhibition/biennial.shtml

YOU KNOW, THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL, AS IN THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL.
LOVE,

The full story on her blog is worth a read, too. It tells of the phone call that posed one question, (paraphrasing) "You want to be in the show?" and one answer, "Yes."

As Rob Matthews put it when he shared the news and the joy and the list of names, "HOLY CRAP!" See today's NY Times for the Carol Vogel story and in the left bar is a link to the list of names which I'm putting here just to save you the click. I really love some of the pairings which are totally surreal (Dan Graham and Rodney Graham?...Mark de Suvero and Rirkrit Tiravanija?)

Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla
Dawolu Jabari Anderson
Kenneth Anger
Dominic Angerame
Anonymous Collection
Christina Battle
James Benning
Bernadette Corporation
Amy Blakemore
Louise Bourque
Mark Bradford
Troy Brauntuch
Anthony Burdin
George Butler
Carter
Carolina Caycedo
The Center for Land Use Interpretation
Paul Chan
Lori Cheatle and Daisy Wright
Ira Cohen
Martha Colburn
Dan Colen
Anne Collier
Tony Conrad
Critical Art Ensemble
Jamal Cyrus
Deep Dish Television
Lucas DeGiulio
Mark di Suvero and Rirkrit Tiravanija
Peter Doig
Trisha Donnelly
Jimmie Durham
Kenya Evans
Urs Fischer
David Gatten
Joe Gibbons
Robert Gober
Deva Graf
Dan Graham and Tony Oursler with Rodney Graham, Laurent Berger, and Japanther
Rodney Graham
Hannah Greely
Mark Grotjahn
Jay Heikes
Doug Henry
Pierre Huyghe
Dorothy Ianonne
Matthew Day Jackson
Cameron Jamie
Natalie Jeremijenko
Daniel Johnston
Lewis Klahr
Jutta Koether
Andrew Lampert
Lisa Lapinski
Liz Larner
Hanna Liden
Jeanne Liotta
Marie Losier
Florian Maier-Aichen
Monica Majoli
Yuri Masnyj
T. Kelly Mason and Diana Thater
Adam McEwen
Taylor Mead
Josephine Meckseper
Marilyn Minter
Momus
Matthew Monahan
JP Munro
Jesús “Bubu” Negrón
Kori Newkirk
Todd Norsten
Jim O’Rourke
Otabenga Jones & Associates
Steve Parrino
Ed Paschke
Mathias Poledna
Robert A. Pruitt
Jennifer Reeves
Richard Serra
Gedi Sibony
Jennie Smith
Dash Snow
Michael Snow
Reena Spaulings
Rudolf Stingel
Angela Strassheim
Zoe Strauss
Studio Film Club
Sturtevant
Billy Sullivan
Spencer Sweeney
Ryan Trecartin
Chris Vasell
Francesco Vezzoli
Kelley Walker
Nari Ward
Christopher Williams
Jordan Wolfson
The Wrong Gallery
Aaron Young
strauss, zoe

permanent link   roberta 6:42 AM
Comments? Let us know.   

 
Posted by roberta

Here it is almost December and the inbox is flooded with new shows opening, many of them with small works or art priced to move for the holiday season. Buy art not war. I'll tell you about a few but check the inliquid site or newsletter for comprehensive and accurate listings.

Staten Island digression


But first a real estate story from Staten Island that came in yesterday. Tattfoo Tan, Malaysian-born, New York artist whose art appeared in both a group show and in a solo exhibit at Peng Gallery in the last year wrote to say that he and his wife/partner were profiled for a story in the NY Times. Read. It's a sweet story with nice pix of the big space they live in in Staten Island. And there's a nice multi-media piece where you can hear the artist and his wife speaking about their space. Tan says he's having another show at Peng in 2006, and we'll let you know when that's scheduled. See what we said about his Peng exhibits here and here and here's my Weekly short review. (image is the Tans in an x-mas e-card they sent me.)

Openings, Openings, Openings

It's in the Water


...from John Freeborn, 222 Gallery has a new group show "Something in the Water" opening Dec. 2 with many Space 1026 names on the list. But hold your hats, there's not one woman in the show, according to the e-card I got. Hey guys, what gives with that? Maybe it's a fishing and hunting show? Even so, we girls have something to say about that. I love many, many of these artists but I wish somebody had put a few ladies in the mix.

Here's the lineup for the show: Jeff Wiesner, Nick Derosa, John Freeborn, Adam Crawford, Adam Wallacavage, Joe Frantz, Isaac Lin, Ben Woodward, Andrew Jeffrey Wright, Jim Houser, John Lange, Dave Delaney, Brian Lynch, Don Khaler, Jesse Geller, Dan Murphy.



Print Center: emerging and obscura

Richard Torchia's solo exhibit "Sun Pictures and Other Broken Images" opens Thursday, Dec. 1 at the Print Center. (opening is 5:30-7:30 pm) It's been a while since the artist/curator has shown his own work (he's too busy organizing all that great programming up at Arcadia U). So this will be a nice chance to see what he's up to.

In addition, the Center's organized a companion show that sounds excellent: "On My Own: Recent Philadelphia Graduates." Featured are Craig Mateyunas, Althea Murphy-Price, Zoe Soslow and Sarah Stolfa. The artists will talk about their work at 5 pm before the opening. We've sung the praises of a couple of these young'ens and you can find their names in our artist's index. I'll link it up for you later.

Bambi postcard art show

The recently-opened gallery and retail space Bambi, run by Candace Karch and Rachel Braun at 1817 Frankford Ave. in Fishtown is having a great-sounding cheap-art show opening Friday: Postcards for $5. Opening is 6 pm-9:30 pm. Check out Bambi's fun pink-framed website with the nodding-headed Bambis on board. And speaking of affordable, Bambi carries a line of Takatomo Tomita's cast resin figurines, $45 per. More info: 215.423.2668

Speaking of First Friday, hey

Many, many things will open. I'm looking forward to seeing the jewels in the Becker Gallery crown, those small enamel on wood objects by David Goerk that appear every so often and make me salivate. The artist's reception is Sat. Dec. 10, 5-8 pm. But my information is that the work will be up Dec. 2, First Friday. (image is Goerk's "Farm" 2005, encaustic and enamel on wood)



I'm also dying to see the muscular prints of Peter Gourfain at Projects Gallery opening First Friday with the Northern Liberties Dance Band playing at 9 pm. Gourfain is a friend/mentor/teacher of Paul Santoleri, who, by the way, also shows at Projects and right now has one of the best painting and drawing installations ever at the Painted Bride. (I'm biased as you know, I wrote the brochure essay). Santoleri, whom I ran into at the Romania Reconsidered exhibit told me by the way that he'll be having a First Friday opening at the Bride with music and, he hopes, projections of images on the walls. Santoleri is working on a new mural at 49th and Woodlands in West Philly. That would be two 100 ft. long walls, he said, with landscape from Utah! (Utah? he spent some time there) Definitely a drive-by opportunity. (image is Gourfain's "Smoke (A Hammer)," a linocut print)

And that doesn't account for what's already open (Spector's fantastic drawing show; the great abstract works by Sean and Enrico Riley at Pageant and more).

And, wouldn't you know, there's more..new...openings...the next week and the week after that! Uncle!! We'll try to tell you about it in another post.
gourfain, peter
goerk, david
tan, tattfoo

permanent link   roberta 8:30 AM
Comments? Let us know.   

 
Posted by libby

(Although artist Carol Moore was not invited to participate in the Venice Biennale, she went there to insert her art, an installation/interaction called "Riccordo da Gaspara Stampa /A Remembrance of Gaspara Stampa." Moore is the director of the Summer MFA Program at the University of the Arts. Here's her report:)

E-mail and photos from Carol Moore









Stampa (1523-1554) was a Venetian honored courtesan, poet and musician whose work (as well as the work of other women poets of the Italian Renaissance) has been the catalyst for the objects and installations I have been making since 1997 (image, finding handkerchiefs on the Giardini grounds at the Venice Biennale, Nov. 3, 2005).














One of these objects is a "fanbook" I published at the UArts Borowsky Center, which I placed in the collection of the National Library of Venice, where I arranged more than 100 handkerchiefs in a path toward vitrines holding the fanbook along with books published in Venice of Stampa's work in 1554, the year of her death (image, a handkerchief, or fazoletta, a remembrance of poet Gaspara Stampa).











Rainer Maria Rilke mentions her in his "Duino Elegies," yet her work and that of many other women poets like her has remained largely unknown even though their work represented the most prolific time for women poets in all Western literature, except for the 20th century (image, A fazzoletto caught in the branch of a tree in the courtyard ruins of the 7th century basilica of Santa Maria Assunta on the island of Torcello).














My mission was to bring the poet to the audience and the audience to the poet beyond using a traditional book format. By using a portable signifier, a handkerchief, I could place the poem anywhere in any environment. I used interior and exterior landscapes as a backdrop.­ I situated the handkerchiefs so they became objects for consideration that the viewer notices, has time to study, can possess, or reject, pass on, or resituate (image, a fazzoletto floating along a canal on the island of Torcello).









I could observe a response: The object provoked questions about the piece and the poet. I performed the piece as well as replaced handkerchiefs as they were taken. I placed another 50-plus around Venice where tourists would visit, including locations on the grounds of the Giardini at the Biennale (image, a fazzoletto in San Marco square, Venice).










The finders were invited by printed message to read the poem, to find more of the poet's work in the Marciana Library Collection, and to keep the handkerchief as a remembrance of the poet (image, "Sonnets of Gaspara Stampa," published in 1554, whose sonnet is printed on the handkerchiefs (fazzoletti) that were placed in key Venice and Biennale locations to guide the finders to the Biblioteca where they could find more of her work).














By making these portable multiples, I am not making work that is viewed as something rare, precious or permanent, although it may be perceived as such, or at least as an object that appears precious in the intimacy of the design and the sentiments expressed by the poet at the moment when the finder discovers it; yet it becomes available to all who find one­ and it can be a rare or special experienc for them, ­ existing in the moment and then after, if they respond in a way that provokes further investigation (image, fazzoletto before Antonio Canova’s tomb in the Church of the Frari, Venice).














I'll be doing a similar installation and interaction at Bryn Mawr College in March/April 2006 (image, the Sansovino Gallery, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, adjacent to the Correr Museum, where the installation and main interaction took place Nov. 6, 2005. One hundred fifty handkerchiefs imprinted with a sonnet of Stampa in English and Italian were arranged in a path that led visitors to two vitrines containing books published in the 16th and 18th centuries of Stampa’s sonnets and the artist book “A Woman of a Certain Age” published by Moore. Moore created the installation and interaction in the Correr Museum, on the grounds of the Giardini of the Biennale and at key historic locations in Venice, Nov. 3-7, 2005. Dottore Marino Zorzi, director of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana sponsored the installation and the arrangement of the contents of the vitrines from the Rare Book Collection of the Biblioteca).














Detail of the Sansovino Gallery installation.














Mother and daughters from Bruges want to know about Stampa (that's Moore on the left).moore, carol


--Post by artist Carol Moore

permanent link   libby 6:05 PM
Comments? Let us know.   

 
Posted by libby

Wait 'til you read this amazing tidbit, sent to me by my buddy Candace, wherein bacteria work as a photosensitive medium to make images!

permanent link   libby 4:24 PM
Comments? Let us know.   

 
Posted by roberta

pennstatue
Originally uploaded by sokref1.

About a year ago a colleague of my husband Steve's, Alan Abrahams, gave us a set of historical mini-postcards that had been in his family and arrived in his mail from an aunt in England. Alan, who is from South Africa, was looking for some information on the cards. The little cards (each is 1 3/4" by 2 3/4") were from his grandparents when they had done an around the world tour some 80 years ago and obviously stopped in Philadelphia. I have scanned the ones I have and will be making inquiries at some museums and collections around town to see what I can find out. The cards, which focus on architecture are, like most travel postcards, anonymous. But they're beautiful shots taken by someone obviously accomplished with taking shots of buildings. I especially like the ones that show people, like this one of the William Penn statue by Alexander Milne Calder that sits on top of City Hall. No tourists can go that high in City Hall anymore, although recently Councilman Mariano climbed up high in City Hall (maybe not this high) to contemplate some dramatic move in his life.

You can see all the cards on my flickr site. I've put them in a set but right now they're at the top of the photostream. Included are shots of Wanamakers, Girard College, the Betsy Ross House and a nice shot of Chestnut and 11th looking vibrant and touristy.

permanent link   roberta 10:15 AM
Comments? Let us know.