July 2007 Archive

Look! It’s Libby and Roberta, episode 14

Click To Play In episode 14, we visit PAFA’s Morris Gallery to see the installation by Senga Nengudi that was made in collaboration with the Fabric Workshop and Museum. We also visit Fleisher-Ollman Gallery for their summer show, Good Funky Miles. That show closes July 31. Artiste Extraordinaire, David Kessler performed the video magic.

Weekly Update – Naked Paper at Tower Gallery

This week’s Weekly has my review of Naked Paper at Tower Gallery. Below is the copy with some pictures. More photos at flickr.Border PatrolFrames are so last century. Until recently, buying a print or drawing meant also buying a frame that might cost as much as or more than the artwork. Today, thanks to a confluence of technology, taste and economics, frames are out. Randall Sellers, Exeunt Omnes, 2007. graphite and conte on paper 8 1/2 x 11, a work at Tower Gallery’s Naked paper show. Nowadays galleries, museums and collectors­—seeking the authentic experience of living with art up close ... More » »

New Views of Glass in Pittsburgh and Toledo

Post by Andrea Kirsh Alfredo Barbini, Biennale Vase. 1962. Glass, 10 x 8 1/2 x 4 1/2″; (25.4 x 21.6 x 11.4 cm). © Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY / Art Resource To break up the drive to the new Akron Art Museum we stopped in Pittsburgh, where we found the city’s arts institutions celebrating glass. Pittsburgh has a long history of glass production, mostly for industrial use, but at least one institution is trying to encourage art glass production. Ruffner Vistosi chandelier at the Carnegie Museum of Art I thought ... More » »

Rosenfeld’s summer adventure

Travis Townsend, Frump’s Rebuilt Processor Summer is the time for galleries to try out some new faces. At Rosenfeld Gallery, there are several worth a mention, but the star of the show, for me, is Travis Townsend, whose wacky wood and mixed-media sculptures of rickety fantasy tools and machines suggest the human condition. Townsend sews wood, ties it together, glues it, and sketches technical plans and numbers on it. He paints parts in ways that defy logic, suggesting the revealed walls of adjacent torn-down old buildings. Travis Townsend, Renovated Oxo Toy The sculptures suggest they might have been jerry-built from ... More » »

Going, going, gone

Martin Wilner, Journal of Evidence Weekly #127, 2006, ink on paper, diameter 10″; this one is still available; he also has an amazing fold-out journal of fellow subway riders and overheard quotes. Wilner is one of the artists in Ink! I stopped by Gallery Joe Friday afternoon and saw a sea of red dots. Nearly half the show was sold! While I was there, people were perusing the work, looking pretty serious. Under the circumstances it seems worthwhile to mention again that the exhibit was curated by gallery assistant Sarah Halloran, and she did a great job! Here’s Roberta’s Weekly ... More » »

Schmaps–DC, New York, Portland

A few months back I was contacted by Luke Ritchie, managing editor of the Schmap online city guides and asked if Schmap could use some of my flickr photos in their New York guide. Why not–there’s no money but hey, getting a few photos out there in the ether is a good thing. I said ok and was told the photos would be included. Great. Next they wanted to use a Portland picture and shortly after that, a couple Washington, DC shots. (The Schmaps appear to only make use of flickr photos — which are snapshots by enthusiasts — and ... More » »

Sad in New York

Artist Jeremy Blake is missing and presumed dead, following the suicide death of his companion of 12 years, Theresa Duncan. Read the Randy Kennedy article** in the NY Times. Very sad news. I’m so sorry to hear it. —**the link opens with a static advertisement page. Click the “skip ad” button on the top right to get to the article.

23 Degrees of Art at the Icebox

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. Jarrett Min Davis’s futuro mystery painting in 23 Degrees at the Icebox Many but not all of the artists are new to me and what surprised me was to discover ... More » »

Scab on my Brain at Space 1026

Carl Dunn. Beast. in Scab on my Brain, curated by Jordan Isip at space 1026 While the Space 1026 crew holds forth in their show at BravinLee Programs in Chelsea, back home holding down the fort is a great little show brought together by friend of Space, Jordan Isip. Scab on My Brain is a 13-person exhibit that’s full of bright sassy art by out of towners whose aesthetic ranges from cartoony to sophisticate to outsider naif. Carl Dunn’s sculptural devil dog and the painting that accompanies it are high points in edgy fun. Louie Cordero’s ink on paper hallucinations ... More » »

PAFA’s hits three homers outta heeeere

This Place is Ours!, by Jim Houser, acrylic on paper collaged on canvas, 40 x 40 inches This is the age of aquarius over at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts–harmony and understanding and three star-quality shows. At last the the place is living up to that name that came and then slunk off into the night; what was it, the Museum of American Art? The place not only has recovered from the folly of meaningless corporate branding at the same time that it has actually become that museum it dreamed it was. So if you go there this ... More » »