April 2008 Archive

Yo! A new curator’s coming to PAFA

Julien Robson, newly-appointed Curator of Contemporary Art, PAFA. Robson takes charge July, 2008. Photo by Angela Shoemaker, courtesy of LEO This just in from Bob Cozzolino, Associate Curator at PAFA and friend of artblog: PAFA’s just appointed a replacement for recently departed Contemporary Art Curator Alex Baker who left recently for a post at the National Gallery of Victoria down under in Australia. Julien Robson, a Scottish-born curator who’s been a cutting edge mover and shaker at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY for the last 8 years will bring his curatorial chops to Philly starting July 7. Among ... More » »

Moore and Tyler students make marks

Student shows are up and running, some already gone and more coming soon. What I get to see of these shows is generally a little random. Often I haven’t a clue which show to choose, and even if I do have a clue, I often can’t get there in time. So here’s a short picture post of some highlight from what I’ve seen. Moore College of Art and Design’s graduating seniors show, at the Galleries at Moore, up until May 18, is great, and the illustration students rock the gallery. I admired every one of them. Here are a short ... More » »

Weekly Update – Am the Rhythm rocks

This week’s Weekly has my review of Am the Rhythm at Painted Bride. Below is the copy with some pictures. More pictures at flickr and see Libby’s review here. Jeanne Jaffe, Polygenesis-Progeny installation at Painted Bride. Undulating stripes and bursts of color, pulsing psychedelic patterns, delicious pink sculptural bubbles—all this and more make “Am the Rhythm” at the Painted Bride a jolly good show. The five-person exhibit of painting, sculpture and installation curated by Shelley Spector possesses a youthful ebullience. While the artists range from young to established, the high energy, sense of play and focus on beauty is uniform. ... More » »

West Collection takes on the future…

Alex Da Corte, 2008, Accessory, acrylic fingernails, nail polish, sequins, pins, earings, seed beads, Swarovski crystals, glitter, foam, metal rod on rotating mirror base, 62 x 20 x 20” What do Alex Da Corte’s fabulous Accessory snake and Norm Paris’ Michael Jordan Save the World have in common besides Philadelphia origins? They were both featured in a curated 18-artist group show “Versions of Reality,” at last weekend’s NEXT art fair in Chicago. The pieces in the exhibit are all from the West Collection. We knew West had bought the Paris piece, but we didn’t know that they also owned the ... More » »

One hour art alert!! from Daniel Heyman

Portrait of Gregory Taylor, April 24, 2008, by Daniel Heyman [This just in from Daniel Heyman, whose portraits of Iraqi torture victims you may remember. Here's news about a related project from closer to home. We admire how Daniel has successfully found a way to revivify portraiture and do it with a political edge:] Dear Roberta and Libby,I want to invite you to a rather odd art project of mine, perhaps that is not the correct way to put it.  I have been working with the National Comprehensive Center for Fathers, a Philly based organization that helps black men with ... More » »

What we want to see Friday

We’re going to be in Pittsburgh for the 2008 Carnegie International opening but if we were here this is where you’d see us Friday night. Joe Boruchow, cut paper, at Wexler in the group show Vanitas. We saw a great show of his work last year at Bean Cafe. Wexler–this is the hot ticket. Group show, Vanitas, curated by Sienna Freeman, one of the young female take-charge curators we’re very excited about. She rounded up top notch names: Randall Sellers, Joe Boruchow, Damien Hirst, Ann Siems, Dirk Staschke and more! This follows on their recent show of Chuck Close prints ... More » »

Smoke and Mirrors: Olafur Eliasson at MoMA and P.S. 1

Olafur Eliasson 360̊ room for all colours (2002) stainless steel, projection foil, fluorescent lights, wood and copntrol unit, private collection courtesy Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, all photographs courtesy MoMA, © Olafur Eliasson Olafur Eliasson’s art is unapologetically built of smoke and mirrors. If you love the part of The Wizard of Oz where the film shifts from black and white to color you’ll delight in the similar charge Eliasson evokes from manipulating elements as simple as light, water and air. The material of one piece is labled mono-frequency lights, another label reads moss, wood and wire. If you were ... More » »

Zoe Strauss’ Sunday, Sunday, super Sunday

Spring is here and that means the 7th annual Zoe Strauss Under I-95 show and sale. Of the people, by the people and for the people. 231 photographs, 67 of them new, for the rock bottom price of $5 each. The color photos digitally reproduced are displayed on the pillars that hold up the mighty super speedway I-95 in South Philadelphia near Target. Those become lagniappe for the cognoscenti at the end of the day. Grab one of the images off a pillar, absolutely free, with Zoe’s blessing. Please only one to a customer. Since she exploded on the scene ... More » »

Philadelphia painter Edna Andrade died

Edna Andrade, Color Motion, oil on canvas,h: 36 x w: 36 in. I took the picture of Locks Gallery’s artnet page, which means it’s available for purchase. Wow. I discovered in today’s paper that Edna Andrade had died–April 17. I must have missed the obit. There’s an appreciation of her in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer, by Ed Sozanski. Here’s the link. That she earned and retained credibility and admiration in what was a thoroughly male art world speaks all the more loudly to her excellence. Nor did she retire and go quietly into that good night. She kept on painting into ... More » »

Descend to the Lighthouse–Andria Bibiloni in the pool

Andria Bibiloni, Descend, installation, 2008 Living in the city, we easily forget the basics of survival and the roles of nature and the earth. A swimming pool would seem to be a most unlikely place for a reminder. But Andria Bibiloni’s evocative installation Descend in a North Philadelphia empty pool calls up times and places past, our relationship to rivers, our need for water, and our dependence on the good graces of the earth and its bounty. The pool in question, still closed for the season, is at The Lighthouse Community Center at 141 Somerset Street (corner of Howard), a ... More » »