October 2005 Archive

The true history of Tendai Johnson

We got this correction from Tendai Johnson about his unusual upbringing (see post): My parents moved to Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia) in 1960 as a married couple, where I was born and raised. My father was an artist/educator and my mother was a medical doctor. I consider myself born in Zimbabwe and not Rhodesia (the latter being a temporarily named country by the colonial white oppressive regime). My family was involved with Zimbabwe’s liberation movement for the country’s independence from white colonial rule (similar to South Africa’s apartheid system). We were deported by Ian Smith’s government in ’75. Therefore, we ... More » »

The Moon, The Raven and Happy Halloween, All!

Edgar Allan PoeThe Raven[First published in 1845](with super excellent full moon photographs by Cate Fallon taken over the city of New York, fall, 2005.) Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.“Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “Tapping at my chamber door -Only this, and nothing more.”Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.Eagerly I wished the ... More » »

One for the collection

matthewsridglea Originally uploaded by sokref1. artblog pal and contributor Rob Matthews emailed us the news that his triptych drawing “Assumption at Ridglea,” the big piece in his solo exhibit at Gallery Joe last year was purchased by PAFA. We are tooooo excited about this!! The piece, graphite on paper, 48 x 54 inches, is a knock-out of draftsmanship and content and I hope the Academy can put the work on display soon so we can all see it again. I love an institution that collects from its local pool of talent. And PAFA’s been doing an excellent job: Randall Sellers, ... More » »

Murray’s MoMA

momamurraylobby Originally uploaded by sokref1. As you know from Libby’s post on the fabulous Van Gogh drawing exhibit, we snuck up to New York this weekend. In addition to the Met, we went to MoMa for the Elizabeth Murray retrospective. And we stopped by the Affordable Art Fair to check out the emerging talent in that venue. The Murray show was great: the work is formidable, sexy, angry, giddy and always dark. And the AAF was very interesting. We ran into some Philly friends exhibiting there, like Bridgette Mayer and Christine Pfister (Pentimenti) and will have more on all as ... More » »

The comet of genius

“And the big news from artblog is, Van Gogh is good,” said Steve, making fun of us because we really really liked the Van Gogh show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (yup, we made it to New York, finally) (left, “Harvest in Provence,” 1888). OK, so the excellence of Van Gogh is no surprise. But the show makes a timely pairing with Martin Scorsese’s amazing Bob Dylan movie that aired a few weeks ago on public television. The exhibit and the movie show two remarkable journeys. Each man seems not especially talented to those around him when he starts ... More » »

Unlocking Paul Jones’ Dog’s Secrets

Texas artist Paul Jones is one of my flickr buddies. I’ve been watching him put up image after image of his paintings recently each one more interesting and enigmatic. He’s great with portraits, his colors are bright and engaging, and his dogs, well they’re a tough crowd whispering secrets and having meetings in the forest at night. Spooky, cartoonish and just this side of outsider art, the work intrigued me and I wanted to know more. So I wrote the artist to ask if he’d answer some questions. He said yes and we did an email Q&A. His answers are ... More » »

Loving the ghost, questioning the present

resnikoffjeffersonOriginally uploaded by sokref1. Or is it loving the present, questioning the ghost? Isaac Resnikoff‘s exhibit “We Run out of Continent” at Fleisher-Ollman Gallery is definitely about love — for objects, for history, for our weird and wacky country. For that reason and for many others, I love it back. The artist here has made an exhibit both delicious and coherent and, in a city full of patriot-mania, he’s produced a kind of anti-gift shop (that’s also a gift shop!) — a visual essay on our American roots and icons — each one a hero or villain or maybe both ... More » »

Cosmic house paint and other things

manteauporchbluefish Originally uploaded by sokref1. First off, did you know the Fleisher Challenge exhibits are now the Wind Fleisher Challenge Exhibitions? That’s because awesome Philadelphia art world board-sitters and all round community-minded citizens, Dina and Jerry Wind, are contributing to the production of this, one of the best showcase vehicles for emerging talent in the region. artblog kisses for Dina (an artist in her own right and long-time member of Nexus)and Jerry! Challenge 2, which runs to Nov. 12, includes two mammoth paintings by Jon Manteau which take Jackson Pollock‘s drips to another level, both evoking the cosmos on steroids ... More » »

Water, water everywhere

For a nice lesson in artistic intent, two artists now on exhibit, one at Gallery Joe and one at Pentimenti practically shock with their differences, despite their similarities (top image and left below by Laura Bell). I’m thinking here of the Laura Bell paintings in her show “Scintilla” at Pentimenti and the Cheol yu Kim work, which Roberta told you about here, in the group watercolor show at Gallery Joe. Kim’s diaphanous monochrome floating world of googly-eyed jellyfish that look like hot-air balloons and its armies of sea-polyp extra-terrestrials, all based on template shapes and curves, suggest a burgeoning of ... More » »

Talk I hate to miss

I don’t think I can make tonight’s Nadia Hironaka talk on the “phil collins, assume freedom” exhibition. But I’d like to go, both because its Collins’ videos that are most interesting and because video artist Hironaka is so thoughtful (we’ve got lots of posts on her). I want to hear what she thinks about his work. The talk is at 6 p.m. at Temple Gallery (image, from Collins’”They Shoot Horses” video of Palestinian youths he invited to a dance marathon). By the way, Collins was one four artists shortlisted for Deutsche Bank’s 2006 Photography Prize, worth £30,000. The award will ... More » »