March 2010 Archive

Artists in Wartime at Swarthmore

Two exhibitions at Swarthmore College feature artists addressing the subject of war. Daniel Heyman curated the exhibition, Printmakers go to War at Swarthmore College’s McCabe Library, in conjunction with Philagrafika (on through April 9, 2010).  It includes an international group, Nick Flynn, Damian Cote, Eric Avery, Ehren Tool and Michael Reed, in addition to Heyman, who print onto every possible material: postcards, clay, medical bandages, industrial carpeting, and yes, paper.

Submit listings, April and May!

It’s spring, when the turnout for art shows hits the roof. Now’s the time is now to submit your April and May listings to our maps page. Just a reminder that we can’t highlight a show or event if it doesn’t get submitted by the Monday before First Friday, which is the day we usually choose “Our Picks.” We’re still posting your entries by hand right now, so the turnaround may take about a week. If after that you do not see your submission on the map, let us know and we’ll troubleshoot. Links to the forms for submitting are ... More » »

Print-Ditty-Doo-Dah at Gallery Joe

Printmaking was once the realm of the inky fingered.  But today a lot of printing takes place on digital printers, where the ink is in cartridges and the only dirty fingers belong to those who service the machines. Gallery Joe‘s two new Philagrafika-related shows, “Appropriate, Manipulate, Duplicate” and “Big Ditty” are full of ink jet prints and other manifestations of works run through a computer. Appropriate, Manipulate, Duplicate

KieranTimberlake’s design for American embassy in London skewered

Martin Filler’s piece at the NY Review of Books excoriates the Philadelphia architecture firm‘s new design for the American embassy in London.  A large part of the design constraints apparently came from the US government, which wanted a building in a less populated part of London; a building with less shatterproof glass (the glass exterior is coated with polymer);  and landscaping with water and lots of hillocks and berms — all of which are to protect against expected terrorist bomb attempts.

The mountain cries – Marina Abramovic at MoMA

There’s a great immersive piece at the Guardian by James Westcott on Marina Abramovic’s The Artist is Present, her new endurance performance in the atrium of MoMA.  Westcott, whose new biography of her was just published, formerly was Abramovic’s assistant, which gives the article (and presumably the biography) some crunch, since he knows her and her works well.  The best line in the piece is his summing up about the exhibitionist/mystic/masochistic artist: “It’s impossible to disentangle the narcissism from the public service in her work; the diva from the high priestess.”  Check the video on the jump page to get ... More » »

Picasso and the Avant-Garde and who?

A stealth contemporary art work is nestling inside the very core of the Picasso and the Avant-Garde exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Melanie Boreham in Sydney

When I entered the solo show of Melanie Boreham at Hardware Gallery, I entered a forest. Suspended from different heights from the ceiling were forty bonsai-sized trees. These floating trees captivated me immediately because of their defiance of gravity, floating in a dream-like constellation. But the trees captivated me more because they were woven and constructed out of human hair.

Art for the theatre of your mind – Allison Reimus at Grizzly Grizzly

I stopped by Grizzly Grizzly last weekend to see the paintings by Allison Reimus and talk with GG members Bruce Wilhelm and Dennis Matthews. The scrappy little coop gallery keeps chugging along with one serious show after another. Reimus’s show presents heavily patterned canvases in surprising and rather old-fashioned colors (purples and reds with greens; some atomic yellows and metallic coppers and grays. The acrylic on wood works are theatrical. A couple of them could be backdrops for an opera or ballet. With their Art Nouveau patterning and grand scale they evoke sets right out of Wagner or Debussy’s L’Apres-midi ... More » »

Joe Boruchow book celebration tomorrow

Cut-paper meister Joe Boruchow is having a celebration for the publication of his new book Stuffed Animals, tomorrow at Johnny Brenda’s. The book is lovely to hold, with its embossed cover. Inside are images of the cut paper drawings, telling the story of a boy whose nocturnal adventure transforms him.  The event will also include a slide show of the book accompanied by an original score (think movie score–move over John Williams). The score will be performed live by The Night Lights, for whom Joe sings, plays guitar and writes witty, often acerbic songs.

Knight Foundation grant to artblog boosts Philadelphia art scene

We sent this press release out this morning. The grant involved was a small grant–$2,500–but it’s our grant and we love it to death. We hope it’s a precedent–for us and for Philadelphia!–l&r artblog, the Philadelphia region’s oldest and most complete source of online reviews, discussion and opinion on the visual arts, has been awarded a grant by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.