December 2004 Archive

artblog makes resolutions

…for 2005 No more First Friday reviews by the Monday after (sorreeeeee) (image is our front page on Jan. 3, 2004 with a First Friday review) Roberta vows to do more left-handed mousing (can she save her right wrist?) Libby vows to see more art (is it humanly possible?) We will continue to review as many shows as we can, sometimes using thumbnails to help us keep up We will find a good gossip columnist. We know you know something. Volunteer now.

Gallery trends 2004

…seen in Philadelphia The Vacuum cleans up in cyberspace (image is the cyber gallery’s home page) Pageant follows SPECTOR on Bainbridge Charles More is back (we think); Project Room is gone (we think); Carbon 14 is back (we think) Esther Klein Gallery becomes a destination with some smart curating Taller Puertorriqueno keeps getting better City discovers New York-style networking- eg. city-wide Big Nothing festival programing by ICA; and gallery sideshows coordinated to museum or other gallery shows

2004 trends of the season

You thought it was Christmas? Not on artblog. Here it’s the season of lists. Here’s the first one (sorry we’re not going to link, but you can find many of these names in the list of artists to the left): IN Philly’s art scene; it’s smoooookin’ New young artists = new young collectors. SPECTOR gets props for spawning a group of new young collectors pattern and decoration reemerges in 21st c. Heirs to Robert Kuschner–Kate Abercrombie, Samantha Simpson, Max Lawrence in the same breath, Indian miniatures continue their comeback–Shahzia Sikander (coming to Fab in 2006); Ben Woodward, Sabeen Raja (image, ... More » »

Blinds, hoods and frosty jesus

There is no art page in PW this week alas. (It’ll be back next week…they’re rationing due to revenue issues). But there is art coverage in the paper. You just have to know where to look. In the listings under editors picks, you’ll find my review of the Junto show. And in the a-list, my piece about David Stephens’ Kontemporary Konflagration — cross burning — at Slought. Here are a few more thoughts on both those shows. Stephens is not new to working with crosses. He showed a room full in Gallery Joe’s vault in 2003. (actually it was 144 ... More » »

And while we’re bragging

Vox Populi sent a mass email bragging about member Charles Hobbs who got a plum critic’s pick review in Artforum. The writer is William Pym, one of the curators of the “Junto” exhibit at Fleisher-Ollman gallery and a contributor to the soon to be former (boo hoo) Philadelphia Independent. Libby covered Hobbs in a recent post about the gallery’s current show. And here’s my write up on his debut show with Vox. Congrats, Charles!

Bragging rights

Rob Matthews was the first to email us that artblog got a really nice write-up by Raphael Rubinstein in Art in America, page 25 of the new Jan. 2005 issue (with Dan Flavin’s neon on the front). I tried the Web site but got nowhere on clicking the “Frontpage” link, which is the section with the survey of top art blogs around. We’re listed third, right after Modern Art Notes! We couldn’t be prouder, so we’re bragging (image is of the text).

True lies

Artist, sculptor, photographer. Truth teller. Liar. What to call Thomas Demand, the Munich-born artist, who spoke just over a month ago at the University of Pennsylvania, sponsored by Penn Design ? Demand, whose work Roberta and I first saw at the 1999 Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, and more recently, in the spring, at 303 Gallery in New York (see post) performs a neat trick–creating models based on accurate photographs–and then photographing the models. Here are some of the things he said that I found interesting: He tries to print his photos at the same size as the model that he ... More » »

Virgil tells all

Introduction to today’s Inliquid newsletter: “What good is it being in the [Whitney] Biennial if you don’t get to meet Brad Pitt?” –Virgil Marti, quoted in W Magazine Just in case you haven’t signed up for the inliquid newsletter or, like so many others, you tried to sign up and failed, I was sure you would want to know this.

Kerry James Marshall in Harlem

The Friday New York Times ran a review of Kerry James Marshall‘s solo show at the Studio Museum in Harlem (try our NY Times user id: lrrfartblog, password: artblog). While the review is mixed as are Marshall’s media, the work that first drew me to this work–the big narrative paintings–got kudos. I plan to get there come hell or high water or below zero temperatures.

Junto

Young gallery workers don’t always get the chance to show their stuff as they slog away thanklessly doing clerical work that keeps a gallery working smoothly. But John Ollman, of Fleisher-Ollman, had his young crew curate, with some interesting and surprising results. “Junto” is their second annual invitational, curated by artists Brendan Greaves, William Pym, and Jina Valentine, and it’s pretty interesting if a little uneven (but then, I find most group shows uneven). The show is named after a historical Philadelphia gentleman’s intellectual and social club that Benjamin Franklin established to make sense of and synthesize the knowledge of ... More » »