September 2005 Archive

Urban voices and videos

[Ed. note: The following email conversation between Philadelphia artist Vincent Romaniello and West Coast artist and blogger Chris Ashley is excerpted from a longer interview that appears on Ashley's blog. (You can read the entire interview here.) Romaniello's solo exhibit, "Urban Canvas" opens tonight at Gallery Siano. Ashley, an artist and blogger was asked by Romaniello to participate in his exhibit by showing several works in a "sidebar" exhibit, a group show of invitees that also includes Natale Caccamo, Anna Conti, Anthony DeMelas, Tim McFarlane, Kathryn Pannepacker, Deborah Raven, Giuseppe Riviera, Tremain Smith, Chris Vecchio Ph.D. and Douglas Witmer.] Chris ... More » »

David Lynch for real?

Post by Colette Copeland Last night I attended David Lynch’s lecture , “Consciousness, Creativity and the Brain” at the University of Pennsylvania. The talk featured world renowned scientists John Hagelin–quantum physicist from “What the Bleep” and Andrew Newberg–Director of Nuclear Medicine at Penn (image, Lynch). After some lengthy introductions, Lynch opened the lecture with a 15 minute Q&A. When someone asked about his artistic practice or a film-related question, he immediately deflected the answer to speak about Transcendental Meditation–TM for short. From there, the other speakers dominated the evening’s events, evangelically presenting a lecture on the scientific benefits of TM ... More » »

Brian Wagner memorial, Oct. 7

I got two notes recently about the memorial service planned for Brian Wagner, a beloved Philadelphia artist who died suddenly last July. Here’s a link to the written memorial I put up on artblog in July. And here’s the two notes First, from artist Mark Campbell who was a friend of Brian’s: Hello Roberta, I wanted to give you an update on Brian Wagner’s memorial. I’ts 4:00 pm on Friday October 7th, in the Bossone Center Auditorium, Market St. between 31st and 32nd. People at Drexel have been organizing it and they are hoping that the art community will come. ... More » »

Can you believe it???

Hey, fans. We have an ad for a real movie. Check it out in the left hand column (it links to the movie’s web page)! Why, you say did they come to artblog? Because of you, dear readers, art lovers all. The movie has an art connection.

Philadelphia Orange Blossom special to Tampa

Traffic to New York and abroad

Here’s another local artist showing in New York. Romy Scheroder, who you may see working hard behind the scenes at Rosenwald-Wolf gallery, will have work included in Exit Art’s “Exit Biennial II:Traffic,” opening in New York tomorrow. The 51 multidisciplinary artworks in this exhibition look at the varied ways in which contemporary culture responds to different ideas of traffic (top, detail of Scheroder’s piece at Exit Art).scheroder, romy

Basualdo studio visits?

If you read the article in the Inquirer about the appointment of Carlos Basualdo as curator of contemporary art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, you would have read that he plans to make visits to Philadelphia area studios. Now we are not so naive as to believe that all 10,000 Philadelphia artists will get a visit, but we sure would like to know about anyone who does get one, so all of you wonderful, top notch artists out there, let us know if he’s coming your way. (Hah! This is like trying to find out other people’s salaries. Not ... More » »

Munch noticed

Email from Rob Matthews Speaking of no art going unnoticed, the Munch show [at the Philadelphia Museum of Art] is worth checking out if for nothing else than to see the beautiful big ol’ frame they put on the “Mermaid” painting. We also liked looking at his use of the lozenge shape he worked out to represent the moonlight reflected in water (image, “Mermaid,” oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 126 inches). –Artist Rob Matthews shows at Gallery Joe and as a duster at the PMA, has plenty of time to notice the artmunch, edvard

On the eve of destruction

Susan Hagen’s soldiers at SchmidtDean are not to be missed. So go for both Hagen and Anne Seidman (see post) and have a nice conversation with yourself about realism and abstraction. Hagen’s small black soldier figures carved of linden wood and then charred and oiled moved me to tears. If material and subject are one in art, these are indeed one. The blackened surfaces suggest stealth soldiers as well as destroyed soldiers as well as invisible soldiers, and indeed the real ones are all these things. If you’re wondering about invisible, I mean invisible to those who hold them dear, ... More » »

Minimalism’s children

Two exhibits this month have been talking to eachother across the urban grid. Anne Seidman at SchmidtDean Gallery and Tim McFarlane at Bridgette Mayer Gallery both have drawings of stacks of lines and compressed blocks snuggling up to one another, suggesting buildings and people. (Seidman’s show is up until Oct. 15, but McFarlane’s has already closed. However a couple of his pieces are included in a show up from Sept. 30 to Oct. 29 at Gallery Siano called The Urban Canvas. See end of post for more places to see McFarlane’s work). (image top, Seidman’s “Untitled #8) What interests me ... More » »