January 2012 Archive

1967 and 2011 – Nadia Hironaka and Matt Suib at Locks Gallery

The gigantic first floor space at Locks Gallery is occupied this month by the massive, multi-channel video installation 1967 by Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib. The collaborative project by the husband and wife team uses appropriated footage from cinema and protest videos to raise questions about political dissent, utopian movements and the role of mass media in driving protest movements in general.

Rivane Neuenschwander in Dublin, Lygia Pape in London, and a book on Art under Conditions of Political Repression

Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other opened at the New Museum, New York in June, 2010 and I caught up with it at its final stop, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA, on through January 29, 2012). Organized by the two museums, the exhibition was also seen in in St. Louis, Scottsdale and Miami. Neuenschwander is from the first generation of Brazilian artists to come to international attention early in their careers, but she inevitably stands on the shoulders of the Frente and Neo-Concret artists of the late 1950s-1960s (Helio Oticica, Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape and others). Some ... More » »

Tim Belknap, next up on our podcast series, artblog radio

In early December Tim Belknap set up a small, brightly-lit open-walled cube inside Temple Gallery that was an almost-convincing replica of a space capsule. The cube, no longer there, was called the Destiny Module, a reference to the US Space Station’s Science Lab, and was part of Belknap’s project to beam Astronaut Tim via Skype video into a Philadelphia 4th grade classroom for a science talk.    Tim — who is not a scientist or astronaut but an artist and Fleisher Challenge winner with a mischievous sense of play — harnessed himself to a cable attached to heavy metal beams ... More » »

London Drops an H-Bomb or Two

It is difficult to commute on the Tube everyday without seeing some mention of the upcoming 2012 Olympics. In light of this increased global attention and the spirit of the world’s nations coming together, I’d like to consider this year’s museum offerings and the subsequent pressure to represent England’s national identity.  Of all the shows happening this year, Damien Hirst at the Tate Modern and David Hockney at The Royal Academy come to the forefront. Now, I don’t pretend to be an expert on the very British of the British (especially as a Canadian living in London), but intend, instead, ... More » »

Bambi’s Lovely Things pop up at Projects Gallery

Bambi Gallery closed its doors last spring, but its four person show, Lovely Things, popped up this month at Projects Gallery (through January 28). The show’s artists, Matthew Osborn, Stacy Lee Webber, Bonnie Brenda Scott, and Jim Garvey, have disparate practices, from drawing to installation to finely-crafted objects.

News – Artists in the Media, Philly.com content sharing, Wikipedia blackout, and more!

News In the Media Iain Ball‘s show Pangea: Rare Earth Sculptures at Extra Extra is featured in this month’s issue of Art Papers. Joe Girandola‘s duct tape paintings look great in a Stylelist.com article. Zoe Strauss‘s photo-billboards appear in an editorial in the Philadelphia Daily News that compares them favorably to the city’s many murals. Amber Dorko Stopper is named Craft Editor at InCultureParent Magazine.

The poignance of protest at Marginal Utility

No surprise that the show “Five Acts: Chronicles of Dissent” is mostly an audio/video show. With their roots in radio, tv and film, documentary-type media like audio and video (and photography and first person accounts, too) are the best way to chronicle humans acting out their anger and defiance on issues that concern them. Naeem Mohaiemen Live True Life or Die Trying, 2009
photographs with paired text (21 pairs)

Group hug – Togetherness in Philadelphia’s photo community

Stephen Perloff is plugged in to Philadelphia’s photo world via his esteemed quarterly publication, The Photo Review. A self-taught photographer with a graduate degree in history, he made himself invaluable to photographers and photo lovers, covering all aspects of photography in his journal and turning that publication into a virtual Philadelphia photo center — a place to read about exhibitions; read interviews with artists; and find the latest opportunities. Perloff launched the Photo Review in 1976, and he characterized that era in Philadelphia as a golden age for photography. As for the current photo scene, “We’re getting back to the ... More » »

Tar or chocolate? Jay Hardman’s alternate universe at Space 1026

The aroma of cake wafts through the gallery at Space 1026 this month. New member of Vox Populi, Jay Hardman, gets his first one man show, Unsustainable, showcasing his love affair with buildings and building materials, while attempting to comment on the relationship between the materials, textures, and the societal contexts implicit in their use.

Podcast redux–no such thing as too much Zoe Strauss

Missed our interview with Zoe Strauss? Here it is again–in honor of her show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art that opened Saturday: 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 ... More » »