November 2011 Archive

Grizzly Grizzly on their first juried show – a podcast preview

This month, Grizzly Grizzly installed their first juried open call exhibit, “Other Possible Titles” in their small artist-run space in the old industrial building at 319 N. 11th St. The gallery is filled to bursting with 35 works from almost 250 submissions from all over the US and as far away as Ireland and Australia. We spoke with Mike Ellyson and Jacque Liu, two of the Grizzlies (the group is 8-members strong), who confessed to being thrilled with the response, and with the show. Viewers are encouraged to vote on their favorite piece and many have. The Grizzlies will award ... More » »

Peter Funch’s scenes of the hive – an interview

Peter Funch‘s photography project titled Babel Tales merges documentary photography with manipulated photography. Peter stands and waits on street corners for days on end in the same position, photographing individuals walking down the street and then merges each individual within an a concept-driven collective (the neo-collective). The individual is forced into hive consciousness, fact and fiction collide to create a clever series of photographs that smartly uses image manipulation technology.

We the People at the Fabric Workshop

Reclaiming American themes in art is a tall order, since Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness is locked in the popular imagination in a space both vast and nebulous. Nari Ward offers instead to reinvigorate the experience of that space.

Collective energy in North Philly

On a fair weather First Friday, Old City bustles with galleries full of people and streets lined with craft vendors, musicians and performers. It’s positively festive. But every day across Philadelphia, artist-run collectives present a different art scene that in many ways is more exciting. In the last five years, Little Berlin, Extra Extra and other artist-run spaces have sprouted up in neighborhoods such as Kensington and Chinatown, where rents are cheap and raw spaces lend themselves to edgy experimental art. This is a gritty scene run by young people who want to do it themselves. The artists know each other and ... More » »

Sonya Clark tangles with hair at Snyderman

I was drawn to Sonya Clark’s show at Snyderman Gallery by a photo of a chair she had made–a found armchair festooned with braids that hung off the back and bottom like Spanish moss. Fit for an African king I thought.

News: The Other Art Fair, Gallatin and #Occupytheory, Art Writing at AUX, and more!

News Other Art Fair cuts out middleman The Other Art Fair launches in London on November 25 and bills itself as a direct way for artists to sell to collectors. The fair is unlike others because it allows for the 100 chosen artists to offer their work directly to the public. Artists showcase their work to collectors, curators and gallerists on their own terms, and that is definitely a unique and refreshing approach.

Prometheus redone – who stole Dan Reidy’s angel?

Post by Lauren McCarty Prometheus stole fire from the gods and Zeus punished him by having him bound to a rock while a great eagle ate his liver, little bites at a time. Dan Reidy has brought his metaphorical adaptation of this drama to the Hamilton Hall platforms in front of the University of the Arts. On each of the platforms, a plastic lawn chair is chained to an alabaster boulder. On one side sneakers hang from a wire at the top of a metal pole. One boulder is labeled enigmatically with the initials P.M. R.C.

Sophie’s Room

On a beautiful October weekend – ripe with the scent of the fall vegetation now enveloping the local greenmarkets and some end-of-summer nostalgia for warmer, sunnier days, I followed the directions in a press announcement to a small hotel on the upper east side. The hotel, located on a tree-lined street off Madison Avenue, was smart and orderly and seemed very European – like an international transplant of exacting good taste. The small lobby was bustling. I felt as though I was setting out on adventure with great expectations. When I requested directions to Sophie’s Room, the staff immediately responded ... More » »

Business genius and hippie, Steve Jobs – The Lost Interview

In 1995 Robert Cringeley, a tech expert and writer who once worked for Steve Jobs interviewed the Apple-co-founder and other Silicon Valley pioneers for a PBS miniseries, Triumph of the Nerds. He spent more than 60 minutes with Jobs, who at that time was ten years out from his wrenching ouster from Apple. But less than ten minutes of the wide-ranging and provocative interview made it into the PBS show. That ten minute clip is considered one of the best TV interviews Jobs ever gave. The master tapes for the other 59 minutes went missing until recently and now, dusted ... More » »

Chirp without the buzz – FIAC comes and goes in Paris

The Art Fair Bird alighted in Paris about three weeks ago in the form of the FIAC. What was “in” then is probably already “out” but here is a brief and patchy survey of the scene.