March 2008 Archive

Tom Nozkowski lecture today postponed

From the folks at Penn Design: POSTPONED, POSTPONED, POSTPONED, POSTPONED We are sorry that Thomas Nozkowski was not feeling well today, and decided it best to reschedule for a later time this semester. (March 20 – later date TBA ) THOMAS NOZKOWSKI , one of the best abstract painters currently practicing. An exceptional speaker, who work most recently was in the 2007 Venice Biennial, and a recent inductee into the National Academy of Design.

Weekly Update 2 – Spring arts roundup

This week’s Weekly has my Spring art roundup. Below’s the copy. More photos at flickr. Young artists are ready for action. Mike Stifel’s Strange Attractors, detail, at FLUXSpace. Soap bubbles infused with air create sculptures that look like pet soaps (ala pet rocks). Philly’s art world is buzzing as young artists and curators take things into their own hands, creating shows at FLUXSpace, Little Berlin, My House and elsewhere. The shows may be a little jagged and experimental, but that’s partly the point. There’s great promise in the youthful explorations and enthusiasm. And because the art world loves to party ... More » »

Weekly Update – Painting Structures at Swarthmore

This week’s Weekly has my review of Painting Structures at Swarthmore’s List Gallery. Below’s the copy with some pictures. More photos at flickr.Seven painters reimagine the city at List Gallery. Yvonne Jacquette, Walmart and Other Big Box Stores. Oil on canvas. Artists often portray the world as a mess. Since their pessimistic perspective is hardly news, it often fails to excite. “Painting Structures” at Swarthmore’s List Gallery offers a different take. The show’s seven painters hold thoughtful and passionate views on art, architecture, urban sprawl, cloverleaf interchanges and big box stores. But in their poetic works, issues unfold slowly—with beauty ... More » »

The fab fiber four: the second stitch

This is the second of two posts on some fiber exhibits I saw. Here’s the first one. 6th International Fiber BiennialSnyderman/Works Galleries About 100 artists from far and wide were selected for this exhibit, now in its 6th year, curated by Snyderman Gallery director/exhibition curator, Bruce Hoffman. This show is the seed from which the full extravaganza of fiber exhibits in Philadelphia grew. The range of materials and methods is as astounding as ever, from quilted film to plastic discs arranged in a grid to suggest the grid of woven fabric. The craftsmanship was uniformly outstanding. Here’s what I found ... More » »

A fab fiber four: the first stitch

Marie Elcin. Water, Water, Everywhere, detail of the installation which suggests that nature cannot be denied its power by the likes of us The fabulous fiber exhibits all around town for FiberPhiladelphia are more than even I can take in, and goodness knows, as a fan of fiber, I want to see it all. What’s going on here–a multi-institutional, multi-organizational and multi-gallery cooperative effort–is amazing and overwhelming. This is the first of two posts on the four I did see so far. And here’s a link to our post, which links to additional listings . There’s so much to see ... More » »

Puppet Uprising packs ‘em in

Post by Jacob Hellman A musical interlude. Puppet Uprising is more of a category than a fixed thing. Its organizers bring traveling shows and related vaudeville acts to our city, occasionally stage puppetry of their own, and sell legendary cheap art at their voluntary-donation shows. Their aesthetic is always grassroots, their politics are always radical, and their tone is usually silly. They entertain the young and old. Last night, they strayed from their habitual venue to host the Boxcutter Cabaret, at Fishtown’s new Walking Fish Theater. I have never seen an Uprising begin less than 15 minutes late, but when ... More » »

Confession of writer to her loyal readers

Dear ones, it’s the Catholic confession season and even the lapsed feel the pull. Please forgive me. I’ve been scarce on artblog of late. I have many reasons which will bore you to tears — the flu, a cold, beloved Stella being home for a whole week! (There will be shopping!) I will be back, sans cold and sans time-consuming familial obligations very soon. love, roberta

Maryanne Parson dead at 60

Maryanne Parson. This is not upside down. It is a detail of a very large painting, The Ship, that has portions that orient in different directions. It reflects on life in the urban landscape and on the endangered earth. I am sad to report the death of artist Maryanne Parson, whose large, complex paintings mixed trompe l’oeil surrealism with new age symbolism and personal storytelling. She died last night. Maryanne, who went to the Academy and Philadelphia College of Art (now UArts), first became known about town for her True Romance comics-inspired menu paintings at Lickety Split, one of the ... More » »

Viva Cascarones!

Cascarones por la vidaSilent art auction and receptionCrane Arts1400 north american street Saturday, March 15th – 5-7pm $5 donation The charity auction, Cascarones** por la vida, organized by Latina artist and educator Marta Sanchez started in 1992 and is still going strong contributing needed funds to families affected by HIV/AIDS. Libby and I have joined the cause a number of times including this year where our flat of 30 eggs have hand drawn images from artblog (what, you think we ever get away from the computer these days?) Other artists participating this year are Rebecca Honig, Margret Matt, Sarah McEneaney, ... More » »

Our hunch on a not-to-be-missed show

We are shameless about letting you know about our contributer Annette Monnier‘s latest curatorial adventure. That’s because we believe it’s going to be great. Her show Given Enough Eyeballs includes art that hacks open source computer software for art’s sake–for example Super Mario Brothers visuals put to very different purposes. The exhibit opens tonight at the Esther Klein Gallery, 5-8. The big pre-opening news is this from Annette: “We just got some press from Rhizome, the New Museum’s New Media web-site: http://rhizome.org/.” So maybe we’ll see you there tonight!! Given Enough EyeballsMarch 14th-April 26thThe Esther M. Klein Art GalleryThe Science ... More » »