September 2006 Archive

Dublin journal

[Ed. note: artblog pal and art historian Andrea Kirsh visited Amsterdam and Dublin recently. Below is her Dublin report. Read her Amsterdam report.] Post by Andrea Kirsh A Philadelphian in Dublin September 22, 2006 Timothy Hawkesworth Boats, 2004 Oil, pencil, wax on paper 22 x 25” I had made an appointment to see Patrick Murphy, director of the Royal Hibernian Academy, whom I knew from his previous position as director of the ICA at Penn; his curls have turned white, but his enthusiasm is the same. He’s continued his Philadelphia connection with a splendid exhibition of the paintings and drawings ... More » »

Don’t Forget!

THE FLEISHER GALLERY TALKABOUT IS ON SATURDAY! “Talkabout” Gallery Discussion: Saturday, September 30th, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. http://www.fleisher.org/exhibitions/challenge1-2007.php?PHPSESSID=86bb0c8f15f6932f86f4977bcba13b5a Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial719 Catharine StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19147-2811 215.922.3456

Amsterdam journal

Post by Andrea KirshA Philadelphian in Amsterdam I was staying in the Pijp, the neighborhood of 19th-century worker housing that was built around the Heineken brewery. Lying just outside the central ring of canals, it has a large number of immigrants and is the site of a daily market on the Albert Cuyp Straat, selling everything from fish and flowers to clothes. It was not a chic neighborhood, at least until now. It’s a bit like Old City, Philadelphia, and seems to be moving in a similar direction. No condo towers in this area yet, although Amsterdam has more construction ... More » »

The "Application" of art: an OpEd piece

[Ed. note: This post is in response to my Weekly article on "heat" in the local gallery scene, posted here. In my piece I called the paintings by Mark Gilbert at Klein Art Gallery "applied." Here's the full sentence in which the word appeared: The works are large and graphic, and while essentially “applied” art (their goal is therapeutic for the patients and illustrative for the viewer), they make me think about why painting is better at communicating transgressive material than photography.] Post by Dan Schimmel Dear Roberta, I have been struggling to write a short piece for artblog about ... More » »

Alexi Worth’s Photographic Paintings and Yang Fudong’s gangster video

Alexi Worth. One photo in the series “Couples” at D.C. Moore. I like the ambiguity in his work. Here, I think he’s evoking photography in the context of Oreo cookies — scrumptous fare but high calorie junk, too. Libby and I were in New York for Zoe Strauss’s wonderful night at the Whitney (see Libby’s post) and we had about an hour beforehand to look at art so we said “uptown, let’s go to 57th St.” We’d read the New Yorker blurbs about Alexi Worth‘s paintings and that drew us right to D.C. Moore Gallery to check out the playful ... More » »

It doesn’t bode well for my mission to photograph blue grass if this is its real color I’m going to the Blue Grass State tomorrow to visit my daughter. When I asked her if the grass was really blue, she said, no, it was green. I’m disappointed. I’m still planning to take some grass pictures. Meanwhile, I leave the blog to Roberta.

New York finds Daou

Annabel Daou is suddenly all over the place all at once. I just got a couple of notes from the artist, who shows at Gallery Joe in Philadelpha. She’s got her first New York Solo show, America, at Josee Benvenue Gallery, and tomorrow night will be giving a gallery talk there with poet Greta Byrum. Both of them are also in an exhibit, Double Exposure: Middle Eastern Rooftops, Makor Gallery of the 92nd Street Y in New York, a multimedia group exhibition, that will stay up until Oct. 20. In it, The Middle Eastern rooftop is offered as a paradigm ... More » »

Art ambassadors

Philip Zuchman and Deborah Gross-Zuchman in Colombia; I’m enamored of the way this image came to me, including the slide holder. It’s totally cool that way. The photo also was turned on its side, but I had a serious moment and rotated it. I’ve written before about my friends Phil and Debbie, and how their life is a piece of their artistic output. Every summer, they go somewhere great to paint. This past summer, they went to Colombia, not too far from Medallin, and stayed in a house owned by Philadelphia mural artist and Colombia native Ana Uribe. By the ... More » »

White noise at PAFA: Robert Ryman to speak

Installing Philadelphia Prototype, 2002This is Ryman installing (foreground) with gallerist Larry Becker helping out. The photo, which came from PAFA, is by Dominic Mercier as best I can recall. Robert Ryman, the man who abandoned the joys of color paint for all white all the time, will be coming to town to speak at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The lecture, which is on his body of work and not just those on exhibit at PAFA, is Oct. 11 at 6 p.m. in the Hamilton Auditorium (that would be in the historic building, not the Hamilton Building). Ryman’s ... More » »

Philly Philly everywhere

Post from Brent Burket It didn’t matter which coast I was on, Philly was all over my summer. Tamara Kostianovsky’s lumpy topography talks body. Photographs by Brent Burket First up was Tamara Kostianovsky’s piece in Exit Art’s Wild Girls group show. Kostianovsky’s body as topography take on the world (micro and macro) fit perfectly into a show that was so often about the tension between the forces on either side of a woman’s skin. Kostianovsky recently relocated to NY from Philly. And then, well, I’ve been through this before. Libby tells me about a show in my neighborhood. I’m skeptical ... More » »