September 2004 Archive

Heartland: Kellogg’s cornflakes, Norman Rockwell, Andrew Wyeth

Bo Bartlett’s paintings represent Academy style to the nth degree. So it has come to pass that the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts is right now exhibiting “Heartland,” a show of more than 40 works by this favorite son (image, “Heartland”), that has the feeling of Norman Rockwell and the pigtailed, freckled blond on the Kellogg’s cornflakes box. The paintings are mostly huge things, unfit for any of the walls in my little ol’ house, all painted beautifully. They aspire, with their size, to say something big. And some of them do. But many of them are just oversized. Rituals ... More » »

Zipping along, cinema through the window

I can’t, to this day, connect with most color field paintings. They seem austere, argumentative, and closed off from discussion. I like art to ask questions and invite dialog, but color field painters seem to write manifestoes that pound home points and dispel all questions. On the other hand, I have always loved the voids of color created by James Turrell. (Olafur Eliasson‘s color field environment at Arcadia as well). One of the things those artists offer is an experience so open you can interpret it variously. It’s you and the void, just think what you will. I was reminded ... More » »

Utopian Mars pods

If Buzz Lightyear headed toward a space station, he’d no doubt land on one of Michael Greathouse’s sculptures (right, “Tomorrow Never Comes”). Greathouse, who is showing his work in the back room of Vox Populi this month through October, creates the what-is-it-shapes that bring to mind my son’s old Star Wars toys, except Greathouse has had the good sense to get beyond basic gray. Furthermore, the shapes have a blocky toy look–with shallow knobs and protrusions that make me think of Lego creations. Colored in vivid Pop colors, these objects have all marks of hand-craftsmanship and idiosyncracy removed, to give ... More » »

Last word–blogger’s choices

That’s enough on Slought. I feel as if our coverage of the show was somewhat unbalanced because all the writers went as a class, so the same pieces got attention over and over. So here’s my final sally at it and then no more, because the show, while it offers a bunch of artists who are not the usual suspects, is not worth this much space. I just want to point out that my friend Ditta Baron Hoeber’s wonderful book, “Movie,” hasn’t been mentioned (I mean the “wonderful,” and not because she’s my buddy). It takes some white gloves and ... More » »

Let faith be your umbrella

Post from Alex Tryon [Editor's note: This is an excerpt of Tryon's post about a single piece in the Slought show “Back to Front: Emerging Artists," other posts here and here.] In Ben Volta’s video, “Airplane Hymn,” a woman in a white dress stands motionless, holding a clear umbrella over her head. Paper airplanes begin to fly in slow motion toward the woman, yet she remains unharmed. The sound is warped so each paper airplane hits the ground with intense volume. Some 3,500 airplanes, courtesy of collaborating artist Billy Blaise Dufala, are launched off the balcony. Above the woman’s head ... More » »

Site specificity–three views

Post from Sarah McEneaney If you’ve got an interest in the challenge of creating site specific art work, three artists in three different disciplines will talk about their very different work at Moore College, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 7 p.m. Local dancer and choreographer Leah Stein (whose recent cemetery-sited piece “Cornerstone” was a hit at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival) will show video of her provocative site-specific performances, including a recent piece made for a train station in Poland. Poet and playwright Fiona Templeton will present documentation of her most recent city-wide play, “L’Île,” which took place in Lille, France in the ... More » »

Voices and visions, Hispanic style

The Art in City Hall’s “Voices and Visions” exhibit is a celebration of Philadelphia’s Hispanic heritage through the art work of nine local artists born in Latin-American countries. The paintings of Henry Bermudez and Isabel Urdaneta stand out for their fine craftsmanship combined with the dreamy quality of their vision. Bermudez, a native of Venezuela, who we have mentioned before, most recently in Roberta’s post on a mural collaboration that includes Frank Hyder and Paul Santoleri, offers paintings of all-over tropical vegetation and weird people and magical creatures. They work has a bit of a Unicorn Tapestries flavor mixed with ... More » »

Santoleri frieze

For fans of Paul Santoleri’s murals, his frieze inside the entrance of the Walnut West Free Library, may seem relatively modest. The $60,000 commissioned piece, which is part of the Percent for Art Program, doesn’t have the vertical space required to totally capture the swooping perspectives that characterize so much of Santoleri’s work, but, even so, Santoleri achieves a bit of a rollercoaster take on the University City neighborhood’s Victorian buildings. The library will open to the public with a ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday at 1 p.m. Maybe I’ll see you then (image, details of Santoleri’s frieze and my husband ... More » »

Nature preserved

Two wildly different approaches to nature and landscape can be seen simultaneously this week at Locks Gallery, one approach from local painter Diane Burko and one from New York artist Alyson Shotz. Burko has long been photographing pristine nature from the air and then returning to her studio to paint. Other aerial-view locales she has painted over her long career include the Grand Canyon, Hawaii and Pennsylvania waterways. On her down-to-earth side, she’s painted landscapes from the Wissahickon (see the frieze at the Marriott Hotel on Market Street for this) to Giverny (image top, “Godafoss 5″, and right, “Aldeyjarfoss #1″). ... More » »

Artblog takes a rest

It’s a Jewish holiday–lots of time to think about what to post next. Back on Sunday. (Roberta’s still out of town.)