I saw five wonderful shows last week. I’ll tell you here about 23 Degrees at the Icebox Project Space a CFEVA show with 23 new associate artists making a debut. It’s a massive show, each artist represented by more than one work, but because it isn’t curated it’s a show of individuals whose works don’t speak so much with the neighbors. That said, it’s a strong show of strong works.
Many but not all of the artists are new to me and what surprised me was to discover that a number of them weren’t Philadelphia artists. I thought CFEVA was Philly-specific, but I guess not.
A few works stood out in the show. I enjoyed Jarrett Min Davis’s paintings of post-apocalyptic fantasy worlds with grey skies, ruined buildings and disconnected telephone poles look like they’ve been turned into totem poles. People dressed in today’s garb populate the land and so do some over-sized crystal-like gems or rocks or diamonds or …they also look a little like grenades with their lead coloring and fit-in-the-hand size. While the meaning is far from clear the artist seems to be having fun with works of veiled social commentary.
Amy Stevens’ photographic romps through confectioners paradise (cakes, cookies, icing in delicious dot and dash patterns) which I’ve seen in inLiquid shows continue to make the mouth water.
Amy Stevens, one example of her pretty, patterned and decorated confectionary pictures.
Matthew Neff, also in the Naked Paper show at Tower Gallery with a similar piece in that show, has a Jose Bedia-like image with a man as a boat or man as the ocean roaring some fierce but unheard cry or warning.
Matthew Neff
Xioaqing Ding’s silverpoint drawing made me smile. Its depiction of naked children standing in front of a potted Eden was just too “Driven from the Garden” funny.
Xiaoqing Ding
Also in the show:
Lillian Bayley, Julia Blaukopf, Anne Canfield, Elizabeth Crisman, Andrea Cote, , Darla Jackson, Joelle Jensen, John Karpinksi, Rafaelo Kazakov, Mark Khaisman, Jedediah Morfit, Caleb Nussear, Tara O’Brien, Serena Perrone, Shea Roggio, Binod Shrestha, Jeffrey Stockbridge, Cory Wagner, and Brian Zegeer.
More photos at flickr. The show’s up to July 28.
