October 2011 Archive

News: Vollis Simpson ArtPlace grant, Dilworth + Occupy, Cannonball Press and opportunities

News Vollis Simpson Park receives ArtPlace grant We told you back in September that Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe received grants from ArtPlace, well here is another great use of the money from that organization.

Wrestling Grumman Greenhouse into place – a photo post

We got some photos from Heike Rass of Jordan Griska’s airplane being installed in Lenfest Plaza.  We are herewith sharing them with you!  All the photos were taken yesterday by Sean Tucker.  Griska is the one wearing the bright green t-shirt.  The installation will continue Monday and should be finished that day, Rass said.  We interviewed Jordan about his plane for a podcast.  The interview is full of lots of information about the project.  Check it out.

On the avenue – Lancaster Avenue that is

Queries, or queer eyes, as the show’s organizer, Blaise Tobia, pronounced the title when I visited, gathers human-centric works — mostly photographic — that take you on an exploration of the world. It’s a quirky trip, led by five able and idiosyncratic artist-explorers. And as Tobia says in his curator’s statement …”these works function…in a way that I wish more art functioned — playful, but by no means trivial; evocative rather than didactic; formally astute but not self-satisfied.”

Robert A. Pruitt talks of race and utopia at the ICA

Robert A. Pruitt–the artist Robert Pruitt from Houston, TX, and not the inside-the-beltway artist Robert Pruitt from NYC–stopped by the Institute of Contemporary Art Thursday (Oct. 13, 2011) to talk about his art.

On safari with artblog – round one!

We launched our art safaris on Saturday with a practice run that was a great success! Here are a couple of pictures to whet the appetite. With the help of videographer Kim Paynter we will be creating some videos of the trip. We’ll let you know when they’re ready, oh yes we will. Meanwhile, spread the word and get ready to participate–these safaris are happening! Here’s the dates for the 2012 safaris: March 2, April 14, May 4, and June 1.

Zoe Strauss on what matters, on artblog radio

Artist Zoe Strauss was preparing for her important mid-career retrospective, Zoe Strauss: Ten Years, when we talked to her at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  The exhibit opens at the PMA Jan. 14, 2012, but Strauss was hard at work in August, getting ready. As excited as she was about the upcoming show, she was even more excited about the part of the show that was going to go up on billboards around Philadelphia, where the general public could see the photos. Her populist spirit and loyalty to community is behind all of her work and behind her fabled series ... More » »

News: Sande Webster closes, Warren Angle memorial, play at APS garden and more

News Sande Webster Gallery closes We heard it through the grapevine, Philadelphia’s groundbreaking Sande Webster Gallery closed its doors after more than four decades. Confirmed by Robin Rice of CityPaper, Webster has apparently had trouble during the recession. The gallery was founded as and continued to be a racially-diverse establishment that gave many young and emerging black artists as well as other young artists a place to show and sell their works. Webster herself will not be absent from the Philly scene, according to Rice.  She will consult from home and collaborate with organizations around the city. Check out our ... More » »

Shout out to a show that closes tomorrow – Nick Paparone and Dan Murphy at Fleisher-Ollman

This is a particularly good exhibit to look at as Occupy Philadelphia and Occupy Wall Street continue.  There’s little love for corporations in either Murphy’s or Paparone’s works, and yet, and yet, there’s a clear love of production; of doing it yourself; of personal empowerment that’s very 99 percent and quite a bit like what the founding fathers had in mind when they set up personal freedoms for individuals. Nick Paparone – Accents for the Self-Made Man

Rainbow Connection on First Friday – a few pictures and thoughts on lovers and dreamers

The first thing I saw before going into the Vox building last Friday was a rainbow. Well, a reference to a rainbow anyway. And like those real emanations of light and color after a hard rain, the wheat-paste poster cheered me up and made me laugh. A toss off, perhaps — a smart, on the money parody of the city’s tourism marketing posters — it set the bar high for my very, very brief visit inside.

Drexel’s Chinese art connection: Joseph Gregory tells all

How, I wondered, did Drexel University snag the wonderful exhibit, Half the Sky: Women in the New Art of China. The exhibit is a museum-class survey of contemporary Chinese art by women, the first U.S. survey of its kind, with more than half the exhibit filled with work by artists with whom you could well be familiar–artists who have been showing internationally in solo shows in prestigious venues.