October 2007 Archive

Lavender water at Love Park yesterday

I’ve seen pink and aqua but never lavender before yesterday. I don’t know why this cotton candy coloring of Love Park’s fountain amuses me so much but it does.

I can feel it! Fabulous music in the Paris Metro

I had to share this–it made me feel so good. The group’s name is Naturally 7. Thanks to artblog’s great Paris buddy, writer, artist and now, art blogger, Matthew Rose. Check out his blog Lalande Digital Press!

Lysergic Meltdown: Takeshi Murata at Screening

Takeshi Murata, four stills from Untitled (Pink Dot) at Screening.I got to see Takeshi Murata‘s Untitled (Pink Dot) at Screening when I was at Vox Populi for the artblog focus group (see post). Screening is the video gallery run by video-wonks-extraordinaire and Vox members Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib. It’s situated inside Vox in a room within a room, its entrance behind a black curtain. The press materials from Hironaka and Suib call Murata’s film “lysergic” and I’ll go with that. Murata’s piece is a psychedelic tour de force that appropriates the 1982 Vietnam-era movie Rambo and takes it down. ... More » »

Exxcapes This Friday at !

! Gallery, 727 Oak Lane in North Philly, on a sunny Saturday afternoon during their first exhibition. Beautiful light coming in the storefront gallery space. Here’s an email Q&A I did with Austin Lee, one half of ! Gallery’s team of artist-curators (the other team member is Katrina Mortorff). The gallery’s new show opens tomorrow, Oct. 26,reception 7-10 pm, with a show, Exxcapes, in which landscape is the theme — but don’t expect conventional landscapes to appear. Here’s photos from their first exhibit on the theme of the end of the world. How big is your space, roughly? either sq. ... More » »

I can’t stop partying

Napa Valley I’ll be the most happy Libby, in the whole Napa Valley. We’re meeting in Calistoga for Susan’s 60th birthday with a whole bunch of her friends. We’ve got winery rambles and mud baths on the schedule, plus lots of schmoozing. (I passed on the mud bath, but Murray, thanks to one of those email jokes that falls flat at the other end, ended up with a reservation he didn’t want. He’s adjusting, however, and is looking forward to it.) Roberta will be working the blog, and by time I get back, my guess is a mud bath breeak ... More » »

Falling Cow, art and money followup

Mega Man, by Alex Paik, 64 x 54 inches, acrylic on canvas Every artist dreams of becoming a commodity–and not. That’s part of what’s on the mind of local artist Alex Paik, who, after reading Roberta’s post about the demise of Falling Cow Gallery and the state of art and money and commodification, wrote a swell short essay. Paik pulls in Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and footnotes, too!!! So check out the post on his blog, Watching Paint Dry.

From here to reality: Eileen Neff at the ICA

Eileen Neff, Anecdote of the Tree, 1999-2000, c print mounted on Cintra, 44 x 64 inches, collection of the Philadelphia Musuem of ArtEileen Neff’s photography-based art does the kind of work that every art photograph needs to do–it asks questions about the nature of reality, the nature of perception and the nature of the art object. Neff’s one-artist show Between Us at the Institute of Contemporary Art, includes 31 works, most of them photography based. Neff is a Philadelphia artist, and it’s second outing at the ICA, the other in 1992. (That same show was installed in Artists Space the ... More » »

Weekly Update – East Coast/West Coast at Pageant

This week’s Weekly has my review of East Coast/West Coast at Pageant Gallery. Below is the copy with some pictures. More photos at flickr.Polar ExplorersAn exhibition at Pageant Gallery examines opposites and innuendos. “East Coast/West Coast” at Pageant: Soloveev Gallery has little to do with geography. What the group show seems to have on its mind is polarity and supposed opposites. The ideas are subtly handled, with art full of double meanings, innuendos and punch lines. Like The Sarah Silverman Program, the subtext is mightier than the surface. Mikey Wild, detail, Demons and Angels, 30 acrylic paintings, at Pageant. Mikey ... More » »

Ex-pats on the road

Rah Crawford’s signature image for the Amsterdam AAF. My favorite bit of Philly-on-the-road news is from Rah Crawford. Rah, who is possibly the commercial genius of the Philadelphia art world, created the spotlight image for the Amsterdam Affordable Art Fair! Like most of his paintings, the image is a cross between my old black light Jimi Hendrix poster and Elizabeth Peyton! I suppose it’s unreasonable to claim him for Philadelphia since he’s pretty much an ex-pat, having decamped for the Netherlands; but Philadelphia, the city that hates change, refuses to drop its claim on those who flee. He’s doing the ... More » »

artblog focus group

(left to right) Roberta, Nadia, Anita, Andrew (behind column), Leah, Juliana (behind Leah), Josh, and Roxana artblog loves Art 21 so we invited artists from Vox Populi to screen some of Art 21′s episodes with us–a sort of focus group for the newest iteration of the show, which is scheduled to air on PBS beginning Oct. 28. We–Roxana Perez-Mendez, Andrew Suggs, Julianna Foster, Anita Allyn, Nadia Hironaka, Leah Bailis, Josh Rickards plus the artblog duo Roberta and Libby–looked at five episodes out of the 16 , which will be spread over four programs. We laughed, we groaned and we kvetched. ... More » »