Posts By libby and roberta

Frank Bramblett on truth, small town Alabama and his imaginary friend Graham

Frank Bramblett grew up in a small town in rural Alabama where he played in the Alabama mud as a child. He also had an imaginary friend, Graham, who talked to him constantly. Frank’s large abstract paintings spring from his love of materials and from his need to experiment like an alchemist. You can see several marvelous paintings of his in the exhibit Elemental: Nature as Language now on view at Woodmere Art Museum (to April 22). Frank taught at Tyler School of art for many years and had a huge impact on many students. When he retired in 2010 his ... More » »

artblog Art Safaris, Episode 4 – Tiger Strikes Asteroid and Vox Populi

This breezy, 2.50 minute-episode, the third from our first official Art Safari on March 2, takes us to the Vox building, 319 N. 11th St., where we have a chat with Jaime Alvarez at Tiger Strikes Asteroid and Kate Stewart at Vox Populi.  Barnes Foundation educator John Gatti’s Art Now students were with us, and in this episode Barnes student Martha Harris sums up her experience of Alvarez’s photos — great stuff! To watch all the safari videos go to the art safaris page of the blog. Or watch the video at our YouTube channel. This episode is recorded and ... More » »

Frank Bramblett on painting and life – next up on our podcast series

Frank Bramblett is a painter of large abstractions that spring from his love of materials and making things and his need to experiment like an alchemist. Frank is a Pew Fellow, and you can see several marvelous paintings of his in the exhibit Elemental: Nature as Language now on view at Woodmere Art Museum. Frank taught at Tyler School of art for many years and had a huge impact on many students. When he retired in 2010 his former students organized an exhibition called “Thanks, Frank” in his honor.  We were fortunate to co-teach a class at Tyler with Frank in ... More » »

artblog Art Safaris – Episode 3, Not a Stitch at B Square Gallery

Episode 3 continues the chronicle of artblog’s Art Safari last March 2. This short (2.54 min) video takes us to B Square Gallery for the show “Not a Stitch,” a drawing exhibit based on the theme of fiber arts. The show is curated by Amber Dorko Stopper, who talks in the video about some of the the knitting fetish drawings in the show and about her knitting tarot card book, also in the show, which she hand printed on her letterpress.  ”Not a Stitch” is on view through April 28. If you’re wondering who was on safari with us, our ... More » »

Recession-year Armory and Volta – ok, not fantabulous

Pre-recession art fairs were imbued with a circus-y vibe that kept you walking down the long aisles looking for the next bright shiny new (or outrageous) thing. But the halcyon days of big budgets and splashy installations at the fairs are over and that irrational exuberance may never be back. This year we went to Volta and the Armory (contemporary pier) and while the art mostly was nice enough we missed the hunt for nuggets of gold. And at the Armory, on a Saturday afternoon, with a big crowd around us, it felt a little like prime time at the ... More » »

Friday picture post – Peephole from Armory

We are always checking for trends when we go to the art fairs. This year’s trends included peepholes! Those dreamy environments by Patrick Jacobs were in evidence at both Volta and the Armory. We’ll have a report of what we saw on Sunday.  

artblog Art Safaris – Episode 2, Outside/Inside the Box at the Icebox

We ventured out for our first official artblog Art Safari on March 2, traveling to Crane Arts, B-Square Gallery and the Vox building. Episode 2, here , shows Bruce Hoffman and Amy Orr talking with us at the Icebox about their Fiber Philadelphia shows. Two more video episodes on their way for the other two stops we made. Stay tuned! We’ll try to run them on Mondays to supercharge your week.  If you’re wondering why this is episode 2, that’s because episode 1 ran last October and chronicled our trip to Temple Gallery as part of our safari practice run. ... More » »

Gary Steuer to the rescue in City Hall

You have a friend in City Hall, artists. The guy in the white hat, Gary Steuer, tries to cut through red tape, to make art accessible, and to fight City Hall over unreasonable taxes on low income businesses of the sorts artists (and bloggers) have. Surprisingly enough, given city finances and his teeny baby budget, somehow he succeeds. That’s what he told us, and we believe him. Here’s the full podcast interview: [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Right click to download full 15 min. interview with Gary Steuer And here’s the YouTube slide version of this podcast. This ... More » »

Friday picture post – Outside/Inside the Box at the Icebox

Rachel Udell‘s  “The Shapes of My Dreams and of My Nightmares” hangs at about eye level in the middle of the Crane’s Icebox Project Space.  Part of Fiber Philadelphia‘s big juried art exhibit, the piece is a carnival of crocheted yarn, thread, heirloom clothing, fabric, felt and fiberfill.  We love its Dr. Seuss-ian ambiguity — is it good?  is it going to gobble you up?  And it got us thinking about the late Mike Kelly, perhaps the first to use stuffed animals in his installations.  artblog’s first art safari went out last Friday to see this show and some others.  ... More » »

A Whitney for you and me – enjoyable, lyrical, musical!

Not a whimper of controversy surrounds this year’s Whitney Biennial. It’s an uptown show to the New Museum’s downtown triennial. If there’s activism, it’s in the curatorial choice to dedicate a humongous amount of space and time to performance for music and dance. And if there’s politics, it’s mostly about art, in the commissioned essay by artist Andrea Fraser, whose point is that everyone in the art world is compromised via money and insider politics, and yet that might make the art world the perfect place for art on the subject of money, politics and complicity.  (The photographs and videos ... More » »