October 2004 Archive

Poet of visual static

Just like the WPA photographers taking pictures of Dust Bowl lives, Zoe Strauss takes pictures of the stuff from which we avert our eyes in Philadelphia and its environs–the crack pipers, the shabby commercial and personal signage, the detritus of lives badly lived, the people bearing the scratchmarks of life on their sleeves. Strauss brought her images to a new venue and a new format yesterday (top image, at far left that’s Strauss working the Power Point presentation). She sent out invitations to attend a couple of showings of six brief slide shows at a former settlement house on Front ... More » »

Inbox attack

I’m playing catch up again. Here are a few things from the inbox that have me excited. Morris Gallery update PAFA Curator Alex Baker says he’s signed up Eamon Ore-Giron for a Morris Gallery exhibit in March, 2005. Ore-Giron was featured in the Arizona exhibit, “Broken Western,” at 222 Gallery last year. See my post. I loved the work I saw — paintings of cars and tanks and trucks that looked like they were made from wood — it turned them all into coffins of a sort. Virtuoso painting. (top image is an Ore-Giron) And in 2006 (it’s almost 2005, ... More » »

New gallery with ambition

A swell-looking new gallery opened its doors last night just south of South Street. And its first show is a knockout, thanks to the presence of the work of sculptor Terry Adkins, whose large music-related pieces plus other work fill the two spacious rooms. Adkins, a professor of sculpture at the University of Pennsylvania, had a show at the Institute of Contemporary Art in 1999, and last year at Eastern State Penitentiary. He shows at P.P.O.W. Gallery in New York. The new gallery, Pageant, is at 607 Bainbridge Street, 215 925 1535. Adkins, who is also a composer, is offering ... More » »

Dual-channel correction

One day, I’ll get my facts straight. However, yesterday was not the day (image, Isaac Resnikoff’s “Electoral College Mascot”). I got two notes, one from artist Isaac Resnikoff… I did want to point out, though, that “Electoral College Mascot” (the state-shapes piece)is displayed 90 degrees off. It’s based on the gadsden flag (don’t tread on me) and should be turned 90 counterclockwise. …and one from artist Rob Matthews… Not to question your judgment, but that Electoral College piece in the Born to Kill show is in the shape of the “Don’t Tread on Me” snake, not a bug. If you ... More » »

Ed goes to Venice

Ed Ruscha will represent the US at the next Venice Biennale. Read Carol Vogel‘s piece in yesterday’s NY Times. (user: lrrfartblog, password: artblog). Quoting, This is the second time that Mr. Ruscha’s work has been included in the American pavilion at a Venice Biennale. In 1970 he created “Chocolate Room,” an installation consisting of 360 sheets of paper silk-screened with chocolate, as part of a larger exhibition that included other American artists. No chocolate this time. Apparently two longtime major funders of the US Pavilion, Pew Trusts and the Rockefeller Foundation, dropped out to concentrate their money on grant giving ... More » »

Plato and politics at Vox Populi

Just a few days left to the election and even fewer for this month’s group of exhibits at Vox Populi, up until the 31st. An examination of what’s real and what’s ideal (that’s the Platonic point) seems to be on the minds of everyone showing there. Robert Arnold in the Video Lounge offered up several short films and videos, of which I saw three. One of them was the perfect, ideal romantic kiss. (I could really confuse things here and call it Platonic but that would confuse everyone, because the coupling here was anything but Platonic in that other sense). ... More » »

Blank and blue

Phil Blank‘s paintings at Ashley Gallery are the kind of works that make you hum and smile. The Abington native, now living in Carrboro, North Carolina, is heavily influenced by bluegrass and country music and his show, “Frozen Songs,” his second solo with the gallery, is his visual counterpoint to the sad song-poems of Ben Hartlage a poet and musician friend. Blank and Hartlage are clearly in sync. There’s an old fashioned impulse at work here. The paintings are a little like stage sets presenting a performer who’s going to tell you a story. It doesn’t take much to imagine ... More » »

finding your way in the woods

I ran in to Gallery Joe today to see Winifred Lutz‘s new work before it comes down this weekend. I’ve long admired the artist and Tyler professor’s nature with a twist sculpture. The new body of work is a nice continuation of themes I’ve seen before, themes about nature’s more quiet side and its sometimes wacky and appealing shapes. The 27 new pieces in “findings” show Lutz as a kind of scientist cum wizard of the woods, or in today’s world I suppose she’s a nature make-over artist –giving the sticks and rocks a new look. As with the last ... More » »

Swan song for Project Room?

Without the money to bring in out-of-town talent and cover their and her own costs, and without the money to pay herself for her time and energy spent mounting a show, Kait Midgett says she’s about to give up the Project Room, her off-beat gallery at 8th and Girard that has given artists room to experiment and stretch their limits for the past five years (image top, installation shot of Susan Moore’s photos). Midgett dropped this news when I stopped to see “Fictopicto” there, a show by established artists Susan Moore, whose monumental figurative paintings have earned her a monumental ... More » »

Now you see it…

And now it’s gone. Maurizio Cattelan‘s Carnegie International piece, “Now,” the wax and resin JFK in a coffin we told you about here and