December 2010 Archive

Weekly Update – Consciousness-raising at Vox Populi

Like the unruly cousin of Queer Voice at ICA last spring, Quadruple-Consciousness at Vox Populi offers a look at artists who use parody or hyperbole to critique American culture. Much of the work by the 19 artists is performance-based, with two nights of live performance central to the show. (If you missed the opening night, you can catch different performers live at the show’s closing on Jan. 29.)

Collaborative community of Mummers – Join in!

Post by Aryon Hoselton It was a beautiful sunny morning in Philadelphia. Our “Global Warming Induced Perpetual Summer” became a reality in the unseasonal warmth of the Jan. 1, 2008 Mummers Parade. Jesse Engaard, Tip Flannery and I marched together for the first time as The Vaudevillains New Year’s Brigade.

Merry Christmas, digitally speaking

We’re taking a vacation!!!! No artblog–sort of–for a week, except for days when we can’t help ourselves. We’ll be back with gusto Jan. 3 with a sample clip for the next episode of artblog radio. Meanwhile, back in the virtual manger, we are bringing you the Digital Story of the Nativity, a YouTube video that has gone viral with more than 5 million views. We loved the e-vite summoning the three wise men to come to Bethlehem. The e-vite is part of a stream of emails, texts, tweets, facebook notices, etc. used by this video to tell the Christmas story. ... More » »

Eastern Mediterranean videos at the PMA

The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Live Cinema program continues to be a great place to view international video. In current exhibit, In the Round: Contemporary Art from the East Mediterranean, even when the work is clearly Eastern, the Western influences seem unmistakable.

Politics alive and well

A political show has turned into a political embarrassment for the gallery involved. Gagosian, the gallery with the most oversized space in New York, has a bombastic Anselm Kiefer show called “Next Year in Jerusalem” (we reviewed it in our last Chelsea post). In the course of the show, heavy-handed ejections from the gallery took place, at least one of them in response to a fairly decorous political action (perhaps better characterized as a publicity stunt), the other in response to…who knows what. My friend Lenore Malen forwarded me this New Yorker blog link describing one of the incidents, as ... More » »

5 Under 40 at Sande Webster Gallery

5 Under 40, the show at Sande Webster Gallery this month, unsurprisingly consists of five artists under the age of 40. One of those showing his work, Philippe Jean, is also the curator of the show. The questions and practices asserted by these artists demonstrate both wry social criticism as well as strong visual references.

Creative Vitality in Philadelphia – you bet there is!

The house was packed as Mayor Nutter kicked-off a press conference on Monday announcing the findings of a Three-Year index of Creative Vitality in Philadelphia. The results of the the report show that Philadelphia’s Creative Vitality Index (CVI) score is 70% stronger than the national benchmark, and our CVI growth from 2006 to 2008 ranks among the top 5 in the nation. Additionally, our Nonprofit Arts Organization revenue is 5 times the national benchmark.

2010 Liberta awards!

It may be a recession year, but 2010 saw a whole lot of good art stuff happening in Philadelphia. Here’s our annual awards roundup! 6 best shows of 2010 that we saw: Mika Rottenberg @Mary Boone Paul Outlaw and Jennifer Catron’s The Honeymooners @Grizzly Grizzly Value City @Little Berlin Failure to Show @Extra Extra Philagrafika @Temple Gallery (especially for Heavy Industries) Bauhaus @MoMA

Landscape in life and Second Life – Kristen Taylor on artblog radio

Our series sponsor is Fleisher Art Memorial. Kristen Taylor of Little Berlin organized the recent exhibit “Landscape Techne” at the alternative space, a show that offered alternatives to the Hudson River view of sublime mountains, lakes, rivers and glorious sunsets.  Is there a 21st Century sublime landscape? What about the landscapes in Second Life? Kristin also talks about her own glass art and about changes coming to Little Berlin.  Below is a brief sample from the interview and following that, the full 13-minute interview. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Right click to download Kristin Neville-Taylor 28 second sample

Hilarious-Serious Play: New City Stage’s Miss Witherspoon

When I heard from Founder and Artistic Director Ginger Dayle that New City Stage Company’s 2010-11 season would address the theme of women committing suicide, and that two of the three productions were comedies, I had to wonder how funny this topic could be, and who would see the humor in it?  After attending the opening of Christopher Durang’s Miss Witherspoon on Saturday night, I can say that everyone in the audience not only found the production hilarious, but also got the uplifting moral behind it.