Artblog | Reviews

October 19, 2018 by Logan Cryer

Don’t Miss Me, a not-so-solo show by Lane Speidel at Vox Populi

Logan Cryer walks us through Lane Speidel’s elaborate and deeply personal show, “Don’t Miss Me.” Get some nonlinear healing and some treasure-trash before it closes on October 20th.

October 14, 2018 by Sydney Cox

The Plant That Heals May Also Poison, Ree Morton lights up the ICA

New Artblog contributor, Sydd Cox takes in the retrospective of Ree Morton’s playful body of work, on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art through December 23, 2018. “The Plant That Heals May Also Poison” includes sculptures and installation works from Morton’s brief but fruitful career infusing post-minimalism with idiosyncratic material riffs on the maternal.

October 13, 2018 by Michael Lieberman

Piece Together, The Quilts of Mary Lee Bendolph at Swarthmore’s List Gallery

Michael visits “Piece Together: The Quilts of Mary Lee Bendolph,” an important retrospective of quilts and prints by one of the most prolific and well-known of the Gee’s Bend quilters of Boykin, Alabama. Part of a tradition that stretches back to the era of slavery, Bendolph makes works that elicits comparisons to the spontaneity of jazz and the masters of modernism. If you’ve never had the pleasure of viewing her stunning work in person (or even if you have), make sure to visit Swarthmore’s List Gallery before they come down on October 28.

October 12, 2018 by JuWon Park

Abigail Lucien Reconsiders the Tropical Caribbean at Vox Populi

New Artblog contributor, JuWon Park, reviews “Face Tan/Night Swim,” the current solo show by Haiti-born, Virginia-based installation artist, Abigail Lucien. On view at Vox Populi through October 20, her show critiques popular images of the Caribbean as an exotic tourist haven through the subtle arrangement of artificial smells and man-made materials.

October 8, 2018 by Andrea Kirsh

Bill Traylor’s coded images of the segregated South at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Andrea Kirsh visits DC and reports back on the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s new retrospective on self-taught folk artist Bill Traylor. “Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor” presents a thoughtful and nuanced (if overly-ambitious) reframing of an artist who developed his vibrant and graphic style of image making during one of the darkest eras in this country’s history. Catch it now through March 17, 2019.

October 6, 2018 by Logan Cryer

Finding Feminism at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival

Logan Cryer attends two very different shows at Philly Fringe, both of which explore the complexities and failures of capital “F” Feminism. In “White Feminist,” Lee Minora corrals her audience into a critique rooted in irony and identification. Radiant Bloom Productions’ “The F Word” takes a more direct, multi-vocal approach.

October 1, 2018 by Matthew Rose

On the Fabric of Chance, Conversations With Ray Johnson

Matthew Rose reviews Julie J. Thomson’s new book of interviews with late mail artist Ray Johnson. What emerges is an affectionately-rendered composite image of an elusive man whose whimsical patterns of speech and thought closely mirrored his approach to making work.

September 24, 2018 by Deborah Krieger

Sculptors probe the impossibility of “Shelter” at Da Vinci Art Alliance

It’s easy to take the security that shelter provides for granted — until you find yourself out in the cold. Here Deb Krieger reviews “Shelter,” a new show at Davinci Art Alliance, presented in conjunction with Philadelphia Sculptors, which explores the vulnerability not only of our built environments, but of our own bodies and minds. This moving and topical exhibition closes September 26, 2018, so catch it while you still can!