January 2011 Archive

Mike Weiss Gallery Takes On Crisis In Egypt (!)

Unrest in Egypt? New York’s Mike Weiss Gallery has it covered. The boys acting up in the streets of Cairo?  Christian Vincent is on the case.  Well that’s the message received yesterday from the gallery’s director Anna Ortt.  The urgent e-mail tunes us in: “Media Alert: Parallel between painting exhibition in New York and riots in Cairo.” Is it cause and effect? Has the Los Angeles-based Vincent been working on these “riot pieces” in anticipation of a break out of street violence in the Middle East (or anywhere else?).  Or has his paintings of boys with bats or boys lined ... More » »

John Lurie from another perspective

From 2004-mid 2005 I was John Lurie’s Personal Assistant. He lived on a street in SoHo that competes with the chaos and spectacle of any medieval city, and like various reclusive characters from literature he rarely left his sixth floor walk-up, having been diagnosed with what some doctors tentatively called Chronic or Advanced Lyme’s Disease. Flickering light would send his body into paralytic shock and his muscles along the left side of his body constantly (visibly) spasmed. He spent the majority of his time either drawing or sleeping, and he used the top of his washing machine as a workstation, ... More » »

Jayson Scott Musson next week on artblog radio

Jayson Scott Musson’s language-based art sometimes gets him into trouble. But that’s the whole point of the smart and edgy work by this astute social critic. Recently a gallery dropped a scheduled showing of Musson’s Art Thoughts video series, for its liberal use of the N word. We talked to Musson at his Fairmount apartment about his videos, his music and his art–and his frustration at sometimes being misunderstood. His solo show Neoteny, The Hard Sell opens Friday, Feb 4, at Marginal Utility. Below is a 39-second promo; hear the entire episode next Monday. Jayson Musson 39-second promo

Hell on Earth is Heaven on Stage – Erik Ransom’s Coming

Love child of Rocky Horror and Ziggy Stardust, glam-rock anti-Christ, atheist with a scholar’s knowledge of the Bible, heir to Sodom and Gomorrah, a disaster in lipstick: Erik Ransom is all that and more. He is one of the hottest artists in alternative theater in Philadelphia.

High Society; A Sober Look at Mind-altering Drugs at the Wellcome Collection, London

High Society at the Wellcome Collection through February 27 is a fascinating look at the cultural history of  mind-altering drugs as used by a broad range of societies; its approach is remarkably non-judgmental. The introductory text explains Every society on Earth is a high society. Very few people live their lives without using some sort of mind-altering substance, whether it’s a cup of coffee, a chew of betel nut or a tablet of MDMA (ecstasy). The exhibition includes actual drugs in various forms (a ball of opium – the form in which the British East India Company transported it, bottle ... More » »

Leroy Johnson’s urban remnants at Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens

Post by Kaitlin Kylie Pomerantz A few weeks ago I had the privilege of installing the works of Leroy Johnson in the galleries of Isaiah Zagar’s sprawling South Street creation, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (I have worked here as a guide and preparator). You wouldn’t think that in this particular setting—where mosaicked materials creep over each and every surface, from bathroom cabinets, across ceilings and floors, and out into a labyrinthine garden—that a lineup of works on paper and small sculptures would be able to get a word in edgewise. But the pieces by native Philadelphian Leroy Johnson that line the ... More » »

Thursday this and that

On this snowy day in Philadelphia (picture at the bottom), I hope everyone’s enjoying the view out the window, if not the thought of shoveling snow off the sidewalk. Below is a roundup of some new notable projects and other newsy things from the inbox or from my occasional blog reading. Hope for Hope benefit exhibit and sale, Sunday, Jan. 30, 4-7:30pm, @The Clay Studio

Samunder Paar, digital prints of Naeem Rana – Twelve Gates Gallery

Philadelphia is a city of smells – some pleasant, others a lot less so. There’s Olde City, cloaked in an aroma redolent of history – graveyard grass and ghosts and used books. South Street, with its savory scent of cheese steaks stretching across the storefronts like the lure of a cartoon finger pointing the way to indulgence. University City, stuffed with so many coffee shops you can practically taste the caffeine in the air. Now, however, the city is pervaded with the one overpowering smell of snow – paving the streets with ever-changing footprints, swapping parking spots for igloos, and ... More » »

Weekly Update – Inscrutable, a show about differences

“To make honey, young bee need young flower, not old prune,” says Mr. Miyagi, the Yoda-like master in the 1984 movie “The Karate Kid.”   More than 25 years on, the idea of the “inscrutable Asian” is mostly swept aside by a sushi-loving West.  And now, a local art exhibit uses the one-time insult to mock it. “Inscrutable,” at University of Delaware at Crane Arts (UD Crane), a two-venue show of ethnic artists’ works at UD Crane and Asian Arts Initiative, proves that differences still exist yet nothing is inscrutable. My review covers the UD Crane portion of the show. See ... More » »

“Inscrutable” at the Asian Arts Initiative

Inscrutable is a two-venue show. This review focuses on the half of the show that is at the Asian Arts Initiative. A review of the half that is at the University of Delaware space at the Crane Arts Center will be reviewed, also today, in Roberta’s Weekly Update. Although the shows mostly have pieces that are different, there is some overlap.–r&l Inscrutable, an exhibition happening concurrently at the Asian Arts Initiative and the University of Delaware at the Crane, explores issues facing Asian artists such as globalization and multiculturalism.