January 2007 Archive

Weekly Update – Robert Crumb’s Mr. Natural Wonders

This week’s Weekly has my A-list review of Robert Crumb: “My True Inner Self” at Rosenwald Wolf Gallery. Below is the copy with a couple pictures. And here’s Libby’s post and my flickr pictures. Robert Crumb’s sketchbook page showing a character who reminds me of Homer Simpson (upper right). This show will be a revelation to young students many of whom have never heard of Crumb.If Robert Crumb hadn’t created Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat and his other sex-crazed raunchy characters with bulging pants and snotty noses in Zap Comix in the 1960s, how could our culture ever have given ... More » »

Wite-out forever: R.Crumb’s corrections

One of comic strip artist R.Crumb’s sketchbook pages; all these photos of Crumb’s sketchbooks supplied by Rosenwald-Wold Gallery Before I get embroiled in the silly stuff that sets my mind spinning, I need to say that for R.Crumb fans–I’m one of them–the show Robert Crumb: My True Inner Self at Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery offers more than just a review of the range of his comic book drawings, but also a mix of his cartoons and drawings on things like napkins and paper towels and other non-standard drawing surfaces. Crumb is one of those obsessive guys who has to express what’s on ... More » »

New York, too

A few short out-takes from our trip last Thursday. Tracey Moffatt at Stux Tracey Moffatt, disaster sequence from Doomed. Tracey Moffatt’s “Doomed” at Stux Gallery is a video loop that’s keep-it-simple-stupid terrific. The Australian artist (Colette told you about her Scorpio project, also on view at the gallery culled disaster sequences from Hollywood blockbusters and merged them into a melange of murder and mayhem, of bodies falling, cars careening off buildings, fireballs everywhere. Doomed disaster There’s a musical score that accompanies that’s right out of the chase scenes of a movie. The piece, projected large in the gallery’s balcony space ... More » »

Photos finish schmoozy New York trip

Holly. Winslow, AZ., by Richard Renaldi, c-print, 50 x 60″. We especially admired Holly’s hairdo, which not only made her taller but seemed a futile gesture in a landscape over which she had no control. We looked at a little art yesterday and did a lot of schmoozing. We schmoozed over lunch with blogger J.T. Kirkland, my son Alex, and Roberta’s sister Cate. Then we schmoozed with bloggers Barry Hoggard and James Wagner. We finished up with a little more art. After people, photos ruled. Richard Renaldi’s exhibit, The Plains, of 18 photographs at Yossi Milo Gallery set us talking, ... More » »

Black out

Woe is me. Unlike Roberta’s promise, I can’t show you my pictures quite yet. My camera just lost its download switch and I’m mailing it back to the manufacturer for repair. This means I’m on a one-and-a-half to two week camera black-out. Meanwhile, I’ll try to get my NY images downloaded onto a disk at a camera store. There were only a few I thought might be worth posting. And I’ll limp along with begged, borrowed, and stolen images.

New York chilly and grumpy

Cate Fallon, photo of Doug Aitken multi-channel projection “Sleepwalkers” seen in the MoMA Sculpture Garden So this is just a quick blast from the arctic chill that was our trip to New York yesterday. We ended the day at MoMA for the Doug Aitken Sleepwalkers, a multi-channel video projection on the exterior of the museum. Above is a photo by my sister, Cate. She took a bunch of great ones and you can see them here on flickr. I took some shots too, in between griping and grumping about the cold. Below is one of my fuzzy shots and more ... More » »

New York today

Richard Renaldi’s recent book Figure and Ground, published by Aperture. Libby and I are off to New York today. Among other things, we want to see Richard Renaldi‘s show at Yossi Milo and the Doug Aitken Sleepwalkers at MoMA. We’ve written about both artists and you’ll find their names in our index if you want to look them up. Stay warm, snow bunnies.

Counting at the ICA

Space 1026′s treehouse adventure park The Institute of Contemporary Art invited eight artists and artists’ group to create installations, as part of the Locally Localized Gravity show. One of the main ideas here is that the installations will serve as staging areas for special events impressarioed by the eight. The exhibit opened Friday to a crowd so large the walls practically bulged. Three of the Philadelphia collectives–Space 1026, Black Floor and LURE–have quite a number of members altogether, so the artists themselves contributed to the swollen crowd. Ultimately, more than 100 artists will perform or show or contribute in some ... More » »

Weekly Update 2 – Sarah Roche at Cerulean

This week’s Weekly has my review of Sarah Roche’s exhibit at Cerulean Arts. Below is the copy and see more pictures at my flickr set. From Dust Till DawnSarah Roche draws from her experience as a museum cleaner Sepia-toned painting by Sarah Roche. Looking through a glass vitrine at the objects and window in a room at the PMA. By day Sarah Roche dusts and polishes precious objects in the Art Museum’s multimillion-dollar collection. By night she creates paintings and sculptures that translate her museum maintenance staff experiences into moody dreamscapes that evoke Alice’s descent down the rabbit hole. By ... More » »

Weekly Update 1 – Fleisher Challenge 3

This week’s Weekly has my Editor’s Picks short review of Fleisher Challenge 3. Below is the copy and I have more pictures at flickr. Silver-plated take-out box by Susan Myers at Fleisher Challenge 3. All three artists in this year’s Fleisher Challenge (3) deserve the label of virtuoso, since all are formidable makers of works requiring fastidious adherence to technique. But Eva Wylie’s and Colette Fu’s works have me questioning the staying power of technique-heavy production that’s content-lite. Artist Colette Fu demonstrating how to open and close her complex pop-up books which look like they are too delicate to do ... More » »