February 2006 Archive

Whitney bound, toot toot

Tomorrow we’re in New York for the Whitney preview. Look for our first take on the Whitney on Wednesday. See ya then.

Report from the neighborhood

clockwise, from top left, Leda–Sugar Gilder, Maureen–Echidna, Simone–Ermine and Tom–River Otter, by Julie Bradley Norton A small home gallery in West Philadelphia has been operating for a couple of years, right next door to where Roberta used to live back in the day, and just three blocks from where I live. How could I have not known about it? Currently up in Gallery 13 w. (named for the 13 Trolley plus a W to differentiate it from another Gallery 13) is a series of paintings of animals with souls, by Julie Bradley Norton, whose background is in illustration and whose ... More » »

Is this any way to haunt a show?

DSCN0691.jpg Originally uploaded by sokref1. Click picture to see it bigger. Installation shot of Anthony Campuzano’s exhibit at Fleisher-Ollman Gallery. Words in the vitrine piece say “Is this any way to haunt a house? You bet it is!” We’re surrounded by words. Some come in from sources like radio, television, the internet, signs and labels. These words either reverberate or they don’t. They’re either useful or simply background to the day. But the ones that reverberate, the words and phrases that get picked up and used — the jokes, the stories, the funny signage, the bon mots, the slang — ... More » »

Internal realism of the spotless mind

Post by Dan Schimmel One of John Murphy’s false landscapes from the series Seeing is Believing, 2004, digital print, dimensions variable The ArtBlog quoted a quote (see post): “Instead of inventing landscapes as a reflection of interior states of mind—a much more common practice nowadays in the art world—Diane Burko is an uncommon artist-explorer of the majesty of the land and its psychological and spiritual effects on us.” The Problem of Prevost’s Squirrel, one of Samantha Simpson’s landscapes of the mind, partly obscured by a ladder and slashes of sunlight I am very amused by the ill-logic of that quote ... More » »

Asia here

Chinatown Map, by Jihyun Park Pink sticks of incense assembled into a 3-D map of Chinatown is on display at the Asian Arts Initiative until about mid-March. It’s on loan from the artist, Jihyun Park, one of the participants in Chinatown In/Flux, a now-concluded community arts project organized by AAI and featuring installations by seven Asian American artists in and around Philadelphia’s Chinatown. The piece is cross shaped, the horizontal bar being the Vine Street Expressway, which has cuts through Chinatown and long blocked the spread of Chinatown northward. Among the charms of the piece are the swoop of the ... More » »

TV star and a Philly triple

Got two more emails worth noting: Bridgette Mayer of the Bridgette Mayer Gallery will be featured on CNN’s “On the Rise” Wednesday, March 8, 10-12 p.m. (EST). A featured story will also be airing on CNN’s website on Thursday, March 9. “On the Rise” is a series about successful business owners. Diane Burko’s Palami Pali with David Okita, #2, inkjet print A Philly triple A triple Philadelphia connection is working over at Tufts University, where the Philadelphia Art Alliance’s former Curator Amy Schlegel is showing work by Philadelphia painter and photographer Diane Burko, Feb. 9 to April 2, Koppelman Gallery. ... More » »

Barrio talks

Got this note from Brian Wallace at the Galleries at Moore 1) we have scheduled three free public events connected to the show: March 2, 2pmDirector of Exhibitions Brian Wallace and Carlos Basualdo, Curator of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art March 8, 11:30amWallace and Annabelle Rodriguez, Visual Arts Curator, Taller Puertorriqueño, Philadelphia March 15, 6pmWallace and Paul Hubbard, chair, 3D Fine Arts at Moore College of Art & Design 2) we have added a great deal of Portuguese-English and French-English interpretations, overview curatorial texts (on walls and in a brochure), and 3) 6 or 8 more full-color duplicates of ... More » »

Photos of love and airlessness

Eddie and Ben, by Andrea Stern Andrea Stern‘s exhibit of photographs at the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art (in Rodeph Shalom on Broad Street), turns out to be a sort of antithesis to the Nan Goldin photos at the Morris Gallery at PAFA (see post). Stern, in “Inheritance,” is showing 19 images, all family photos, and all way too large to be considered snapshots, although most have a snapshot quality, a quick, capture-the-moment sort of affect. But there’s no snapshot zaniness here, no posing for the camera as an outside eye, no putting the best face on things that people ... More » »

Onesock, part 2

Interview with Jacksonville FL artist Mark Creegan, continued. Read Part 1.Tell me about the paintings which seem to spring from a different well than the sculptural installations…they’re more coded and less overtly playful although i do get some notion of play from them. But play like Richard Tuttle plays — arty not like a kid. Sink, foam, acrylic, oil and flashe, acetate on canvas, 12″ X 16″, 2004 The paintings were part of my initial work in grad school and were the result of taking stock of what I was making and how I was making it. Before school, I ... More » »

Winter discontents

DSCN0659.jpg Originally uploaded by sokref1. It can’t always be Spring or Summer. And the wintry bleakness of the current members’ show at Vox Populi seems an almost natural cyclical turn from the exuberant growth-ful (if not entirely hopeful) Parts to the Whole of last month. (See posts here and here for a reminder of that show.) M. Ho‘s Another New Year displays death on the gallery floor in a graveyard-like grid of New York TImes front pages with everything “blued” out but the above-the-fold color pictures. We all see dead people now thanks to the open-eyed front page coverage of ... More » »