July 2004 Archive

Visionary prints and installations at Taller Puertorriqueno

Supersized Mc Prints at Tin Man Alley

The Icebox Cometh, part two

Far afield

I didn’t particularly want to drive out to Chestnut Hill to look at the work hanging at JMS Gallery, but the image on the postcard and the knowledge that Daniel Heyman had a number of pieces in the show there sold me enough to get me going (top, “Warren” by Heyman).  The Heymans (are we on a Daniel Heyman kick here or what?) not only did not disappoint. They pleased enormously. And some work by Vladan Gradistanac also piqued my interest. Heyman made a series of portraits, silhouetted figures printed from linoleum blocks on patterned Japanese papers. The papers were not necessarily modest and subdued.  The paper ... More » »

Reflections and the watery cosmos

Ecstacy of existence

The Window on Broad, the little showcase of installation art outside the University of the Arts’ Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, has always been a challenge. The reflections, the way the light hits the window, are fierce. So any time an artist succeeds with the space, succeeds with making a piece that still works in spite of the reflections, I’m in awe. Shannon Bowser has made something fairly simple.  It’s a bunch of rocks with tales hurtling through window space in front of a blue background.  The tales on the rock headed straight down quiver in an endearing manner, at once tender and comical. And ... More » »

They’re coming to get you

Shaman samplings

Dario Robleto, he of the mysterious sculptures made from ground up vinyl records and pulverized bones–from humans and dinosaurs– came to the University of the Arts to explain himself and his art work today. His talk was part five of the UArts six-session Food for Thought  summer lunchtime series. Robleto (right), who at 31 has made marks in New York (including at this year’s Whitney Biennial), Los Angeles, and Paris, hails from San Antonio. He’s been showing pieces from his trilogy project that’s been four years in the making, and apparently he’s  still hard at it. The trilogy is nothing if not ambitious, with ... More » »

We have a story to tell you …

Pepon Osorio and Ed Levine put up two of the best new public art projects in the country.  Americans for the Arts Public Art Network selected Osorio’s “I have a story to tell you…” and Levine’s “Embodying Thoreau: dwelling, sitting, watching” for the 2004 Year in Review, a guide to the country’s best new public art.   Both projects were commissioned by the Fairmount Park Art Association.  For more on Osorio’s piece, go here and here, and for more on Levine’s, go here.  Congratulations to both of you from artblog.

Busy, busy