June 2008 Archive

What we want to see Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Everybody’s working around First Friday this week because First Friday is July 4…you know what that is. Some venues with July shows will hold their opening receptions next week. GALLERY JOE — THURSDAY, JULY 3 Hiro Sakaguchi’s Chrysanthemum Delivery from the show sense of place at Gallery Joe. Gallery Joe has a nice summery show opening Thursday with Stephanie Beck, Isadora Bullock, David Clarkson, Lynne Clibanoff, Sharka Hyland, Rob Matthews, Hiro Sakaguchi, Nicholas Santore, Patricia Smith. The show’s curated by Gallery Joe’s Sarah O’Holloran. sense of placeGallery Joeopening Thursday, July 3 6-8 pmShow goes through July 26.The gallery will be ... More » »

…Go Chasing New York Waterfalls

Waterfall at Governor’s Island. Photo by Cate Fallon Here’s a quick photo post of the New York Waterfalls by Olafur Eliasson. We went out with Cate Fallon and Stella on a Circle Line boat tour that cost $10 for a 30-minute ride to all four waterfalls. It was worth it. Both to be on the water and to see the giant fountains in action. If you don’t want to do the boat tour here’s a link to vantage points info and how to get to them. Closeup of waterfall under Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Roberta The pieces, sponsored by the ... More » »

William Cromar–buildings and bodies

William Cromar, txx28, 1998, wood, casein and pigment, 26 x .75 x .75 Past Present: William Cromar Ten Years at the Design Center at Philadelphia University (up to July 11) has a pared down, almost Zen feel, each piece a kind of meditation on how we perceive, feel and occupy space. William Cromar, see d’, 2007-video installation, size varies with installation; the imagery moves to suggest shifting perspectives; the tatami mat screen emphasizes the Asian influence in Cromar’s work, much of which has the look of black lacquered wood. Although Cromar is a professor in the school’s School of Architecture, ... More » »

New Fleisher Challenge winners–plus money!

Timothy Belknap and his brothers plus a girlfriend on the drums (I’m not sure whose) performing at FLUXspace in June 2007. Fleisher Art Memorial‘s juried Wind Challenge Exhibition Series will be awarding the next batch of winners an honorarium of $1,000 each, the first time in its history, the program announced. This is great news and a swell way to celebrate its 30th anniversary (the first Challenge exhibits were in the 1978-1979 season)!!! The coming year’s winners for the ’08-’09 season are: Timothy Belknap, installationKara Crombie, videoCheryl Harper, sculptureJohanna Inman, photographyMark Khaisman, installationYvonne Lung, installationHope Rovelto, sculptureJohn Slaby, paintingConstantina Zavitsanos, ... More » »

New grads–yup, more of them–at My House and Nexus

In the onslought of exhibits of graduating students work, there are still more standouts, and I thought I’d cherry pick a few. In the group exhibit Restless Discontent, at My House Gallery, I was intrigued by work by several of the artists. Sarah O’Donnell Sarah O’Donnell (who also has work up at Little Berlin right now–see previous post), from Tyler, brings to her drawings her interest in what we see and how it connects — or doesn’t connect — to what we don’t see. This is the one that I loved, with a creepy suggestion of the drain pulling down ... More » »

Bits and starts: BITMAP Thursday at Drexel

Computer geeks and game players will love this exhibit. I’ll be there because it sound’s like fun! BITMAP: as good as new is a group exhibit “celebrating the history of the digital image, the aesthetics of early computing, and early video-game consoles according to the press release.   The show’s at Drexel’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery and the reception’s tomorrow, Thursday, 5-7 pm. As Zeek Weil, a Drexel spokesperson said: “These guys hack into old 8-bit game systems and create unique art work.” It’s also got interactive components that let viewers create things and print them out–Sounds great! Here’s the lineup of ... More » »

Little Berlin–from zoetropes to The Shining

Conor Fields, a view of the works behind the Untitled bookcase projection We all have a love affair going with the movies–arguably the narrative art form of our times–and the exhibit in Little Berlin is all about that. Post Production features multi-media installations by Sarah O’Donnell and Conor Fields that blow kisses to the movies. Conor Fields, Day in Paris Fields’ works hark back to early movie technology, with Neanderthal mechanics imbuing old-fashioned special effects with a sense wonder and eager ingenuity. In Day in Paris, a zoetrope/lampshade salutes both early movie technology and early aviation technology, recreating Alberto Santos-Dumont’s ... More » »

Sun moon stars rain–Bambi’s Welcome to my World

Bill Lohre, detail, Life, Light, Air (inspired by Chutes and Ladders and Joust),mixed media Bill Lohre has more than one show up at a time, with work at Vox Solid Gold until the 27th (see Roberta’s post) and work at Bambi Gallery’s Welcome to my World, up until July 20. The exhibit at Bambi, Welcome to my World, includes work by three (four?) artists, Lohre, Joshua Erbe alone and collaborating with gallerist Candace Karch, and Marie DesMarais. Bill Lohre, installation shot of Life, Light, Air Lohre is a model maker par excellence, but the work I found most endearing, the ... More » »

Karl Benjamin uncovered and discovered at Geoform

Karl Benjamin.  #5, 1994, oil on canvas, 122 x 122 cm (48 x 48 in)courtesy of the
artist and Louis Stern Fine Arts Earlier this month artist and curator Julie Karabenick wrote to tell us about a massive new artist’s interview with Claremont, CA artist Karl Benjamim at her website Geoform. Karabenick, who organized the show Ordered in 2006 at the now-closed Siano Gallery, interviewed Benjamin, an eminence grise in the field of geometric abstraction, and the result is a 4-page spread loaded with Benjamin’s bright-colored works and insights into the artist’s compositions and working methods.  Some of Benjamin’s works remind ... More » »

Weekly Update — Mark Dion channels William Bartram at Bartram’s Garden

This week’s Weekly has my review of Mark Dion’s Travels of William Bartram–Reconsidered.” Below is the copy with some pictures. More photos at flickr. See Libby’s post for more. Mark Dion and curator Julie Courtney. Image by Aaron Igler Mark Dion’s “Travels of William Bartram—Reconsidered” at Bartram’s Garden features old-fashioned display cases of objects collected on a journey coupled with up-to-the-moment documentation of the journey on a whiz-bang interactive website. Part Steve Jobs, part Victorian-era science project, the exhibit is lots of fun and educational to boot. Dion makes work fueled by an interest in nature and mankind’s relation to ... More » »