Painting abstraction in three different ways at Bridgette Mayer

The current three-some of painters at Bridgette Mayer Gallery ask how many ways a painting can be abstract. Works in the large galleries pair Leslie Wayne’s small sculptural paintings and Neil Anderson’s large lyrical topographies. While Wayne is interested in using paint as a sculptural material, Anderson’s work reinforces paint’s flatness. Matthew Fischer, in the Vault, presents work that is between these two extremes. Wayne’s “One Big Love #50” from 2010 encapsulates many of the ideas that are central to the artist’s work. The poured field of paint is a nod to Helen Frankenthaler and the history of Abstract Expressionism, but ... More » »

For real – Gabe Tiberino at Arch Enemy

For many who have grown up in and around Philly, South Street is the embodiment of youthful rebellion. Gabe Tiberino, however, had a head start on everyone who ever loitered in Repo Records or blew their allowance on spiked wristcuffs from Zipperhead in high school: the artist had his first show on South Street at age eight. Over a lifetime of exposure to the arts as a son of Philly’s most inimitable creative family, Tiberino has made a name for himself with murals that capture the feel of South Street and other Philly haunts, as well as portrayals of historical ... More » »

Drawing organics – Colin Keefe, Sarah Laing and Alana Bograd at Rebekah Templeton

The complex drawings adorning the walls of Rebekah Templeton Contemporary Art in Fishtown have lives of their own. Without the artist’s hand as part of the equation, any of these heavily contrasted, black-and-white forms could easily be growing out of a patch of soil or spreading across the agar of a Petri dish. The fact that these creations are not multi-cellular organisms and are actually comprised of deliberate pencil or ink markings makes them all the more remarkable. Bearing the name Organon as a means for the process of investigation, the show examines synthetic, creative, and human processes that often ... More » »

Paint it Now at Space 1026 – A Conversation with Thomas Buildmore

When I first read the press release for Paint it Now, showing at Space 1026, I was intrigued. It described a site-specific collaborative live painting installation featuring work by eighteen local artists. With any group show, a cohesive final product is a difficult thing to achieve. I am happy to report that Paint it Now does not disappoint. The project is the brainchild of Thomas Buildmore and Scott Chasse, who met in Boston curating for the Distillery Gallery in 2007. Their plan was to join local and visiting artists together and, allowing only black paint on white walls, challenge them ... More » »

Investigating Provisional Art in Kensington’s Fjord Gallery

Using careful compositions that are deceptively simple but engage the viewer on many levels, Considering the Provisional at Fjord Gallery explores the aesthetics of “provisional art.” With work by eight young painters from New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Oakland, the exhibit was partly put together in response to a May, 2009, piece by Raphael Rubinstein in Art in America magazine. Rubinstein caused a stir by identifying provisional art as a new theoretical approach to aesthetics.  The provisional art premise has since been adopted for a show of contemporary work at Modern Art, London. Now, Philadelphia co-curators Liam Holding and Sean Robert ... More » »

Art Safari Episode 9 – We visit Peep, a painting exhibit at Little Berlin

We visited Little Berlin on our May 4 Safari tour, to see the group painting exhibition, Peep, curated by LB member Alana Bograd. Bograd, a painter, rounded up works from local, national and international painters — it’s the first painting show at the alternative gallery space in Kensington. This 2.45 min video is the first episode from the May 4 outing.  More episodes coming in the next few weeks.  See all the Art Safari videos on the art safari page or the video page. You can watch the video at our YouTube channel. This episode is recorded and edited by the ... More » »

Dances with citizens – next week on our podcast interview with Headlong Dance Theater

Andrew Simonet, David Brick and Amy Smith founded Headlong Dance Theater in Philadelphia in 1993. The three college friends use theatrical props, street clothes, and speech in their works, which honor movement in space.  Their non-standard productions lie between dance and theatre and may not ever include jette or pirouette moves. Over the years the team, which is based in Philadelphia, has performed nationally and internationally and received a Pew Fellowship (2006). More recently they have done some performances in galleries in response to art — at the ICA (for the Sheila Hicks exhibit) and at Dalet Gallery in Old ... More » »

Emma Wilcox’s dialog with the city of Newark at The Print Center

Although Emma Wilcox photographs urban decay, the photographer’s work is more than nostalgic yearning for the past. Her silver gelatin prints at the Print Center highlight her engagement with photography’s historic and contemporary applications — as well as her ongoing engagement with Newark, NJ where she lives. Working within the tradition of street photography, Forensic Landscapes is an ongoing series of Newark’s deterioration. In the more contemporary body of work, Where It Falls, photography is used to document her text-based interventions on rooftops in Newark. A third group of works, Promesas, selected by the artist, shows historical documents and art relating ... More » »

Letter From Paris: La Lumière Parle at La Maison Rouge

Light speaks. And its voice is perhaps never as strong and clear as in the City of Light.  La Maison Rouge, the exquisite art space and foundation in the Bastille quarter of Paris, is proving it with Neon, Who’s afraid of red, yellow and blue? Curated by David Rosenberg, this illuminated carnival of flashing and glowing colored light is the first and perhaps largest exhibition of illuminated tubular art works.  And it’s noisy, too, with the low persistent electric buzz flowing through the show  – think: Flashing Tiki Lounge martini sign after midnight on the Vegas strip. Over 80 artists ... More » »

Low Lives at Little Berlin – screenings, live and via the internet

The international performance art festival Low Lives – broadcast via the internet and simultaneously projected at multiple venues throughout the world –took place in Philadelphia at Little Berlin in collaboration with Mascher Space over two days, April 27 and 28, with screenings and one, in-the-flesh performance. Low Lives was an official part of Philly Tech Week. At the Friday night extravaganza, which I missed, theater artists Marcel Williams Foster and Britney Hines transformed Little Berlin into a “cyber-jungle” of video games, toy monkeys, and tarot readings to set the stage for their five-minute contribution to Low Lives. “Jane Goodall Speaks with a ... More » »