Left: Paul DeMuro, "Grey-Mist Version of the First 2 Records" Right: Alex Da Corte, "No Aloha"

It should be noted that Bleach is Jolie Laide’s closing show, as opposed to Nirvana’s opening blast. The art, like the music, is quite heavy and dark in its tone; it pours the cynicism on thick and doesn’t let up until you exit the gallery. The contrast between the individual work of Da Corte and DeMuro is also quite stark, as the Duchampian, readymade sculptures and gradient, color-field paintings operate like conceptual negatives of one another.

There is also the assertion that Kurt Cobain “didn’t give a flying fuck what the lyrics were about” on Nirvana’s debut album. The content of the show is not mired in deep thoughtfulness or even purposely obscured. It is in many ways devoid of thought and self-consciousness altogether, instead opting for a directly dismal mood and nothing more. Riding on the coattails of 90s era alternative rock, the two artists embrace the zeitgeist of frustration and anger found in various forms from Occupy Wall Street, constant global conflict, and environmental disasters, to tiresome postmodern art and the gloating, self-affirming artists that create it. But whatever, man.

Paul DeMuro, "Something"

Speaking of this exhibition’s conceptual polarity in nearly the same breath as claiming it defies analysis may seem contradictory, but contradiction itself is yet another facet of the beautifully pointless stuff on display. As I listen to the grungy guitar distortion on Bleach, it works its way under my skin and causes me more than a little anxiety. Yet as much as the music aggravates, it also energizes. Instead of shying away from dark emotions, Nirvana confronts them through harsh sounds and riotous mosh pits.

Why does depressing music sound so sweet in the midst of depression? Why do street protests and rock concerts leave us feeling more empowered than voting or going to the opera? It’s safe to say it is partly because of the energy and the empathy we feel with our peers as well as the acknowledgement that anger is natural and better dealt with than stashed away. “I’m a negative creep, and I’m stoned,” shrieks Kurt on one of the tracks. Well, touché, Mr. Cobain. You touched the nerve of a generation. Twenty-two years later, DeMuro and Da Corte drag these sentiments out of their slumber, catch them up on what they missed, and throw them (ready or not) into a 21^st century gallery. Grunge might be dead, but its relevance is not. Think an art gallery isn’t the best venue for these ideas? Well me too, but oh well.

Paul DeMuro, "Untitled"

This would probably be a good time to at least mention what the art looks like. Paul DeMuro sculpts heavily textured paintings out of thick wads of oil paint, much of which consists of desaturated grays, whites, and blacks which fade into one another. The colors are literally photographic negatives of his former paintings, and pop with segments of brighter pastels and caustic greens, violets, and yellows. Most of them are very centrally focused with ethereal, geometric patterns converging near the middle of the canvases. One exception is “Untitled,” whose multiple shades of black coat nearly all of the canvas, aside from a few splashes of green and gray. It presents itself as one big ball of angst, stretched out along the wall for all to see. It is fairly unapproachable and dangles precariously in the public eye. Much like Cobain’s popular image, it resists explanation and remains mostly an enigma.

Alex Da Corte, "Silver Velouria Gaze" (detail)

Alex Da Corte mostly pieces together readymade sculptures and installations utilizing all manner of objects: PVC pipes, ceramic cats, metallic marijuana leaves, plastic skulls, hair conditioner, and clown makeup, to name a few. In “Silver Velouria Gaze” he even appropriates the quintessential bastardization of rock music in the form of chrome-plated Guitar Hero guitars. It can be said with some certainty that Kurt Cobain would probably be disgusted by Rock Band and Guitar Hero as mindless, consumerist garbage. Even with their shiny new exteriors on the gallery floor, it’s not hard to see them for what they are. They are not real instruments and are only functional as part of a video game system that stands for everything rock music is not. Da Corte gives them a makeover and plops them on the ground. Here they are more useful as artifacts of the mass distraction and boredom that ultimately breed the frustration our generation hopes to overcome in the first place.

Alex Da Corte, "Double Courtney (Good Woman x Negative Creep)"

In the back corner of Jolie Laide sits a big, two-piece print of a screaming woman smeared with petroleum jelly, entitled “Double Courtney (Good Woman x Negative Creep).” Clearly this represents Cobain’s tumultuous relationship with performer Courtney Love. It also happens to express very well the message of this show in the form of an overwhelmingly silent shout and a dingy, messy exterior. The screaming of a musician often says much more than words can, and on mute it apparently says even more. It shows instead of tells the existential pain many of us harbor deep down. At this point I can’t help but feel that I’ve already said far too much about a show that renders words all but useless. Oh, well. Whatever. Nevermind.

Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib Provisional Monument for the New Revolution, 2011 multi-channel video installation dimensions variable Courtesy of the artists

Local artists Matt Suib and Nadia Hironaka portray loneliness in a crowded setting in a piece that’s both political and poignant. “Provisional Monument for the New Revolution” is a large, multi-channel video projection with sound that wraps around two walls and envelops you in a black-and-white, barely moving image of protesters in an urban square in some Middle East country. In the grainy, X-ray-like scene, it’s impossible to tell exactly where these people are. The ambiance is spooky. The sound, which is not the sound of the crowd, swells from a quiet hum to a rhythmic ticking that grows so insistent it commands the air space in the gallery. What little motion there is has been frozen into a never-ending stuttering. If you approach the wall, your shadow gets projected on the video and you become a giant black hole in the crowd, a piece of the puzzle that doesn’t fit. You are alone in their crowd.

Lucas Ajemian and Julien Bismuth Set Pieces, 2008 digital video (color, sound) and powder coated steel dimensions variable Courtesy of the artists and INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, New York

Julien Bismuth’s and Lucas Ajemian’s work features side-by-side video monitors that show them talking during their collaboration, often like a couple on the verge of divorce. The pair makes videos (as part of the show they’ve made bright green metal sculptures that echo foam-core sculptures in the videos), they write (you can take a free selection of their newsprint zines from the downstairs lobby), and they seem obsessed with alphabet letters and symbols. The art seems argumentative without reason, but the zines contain a lot of good writing and are much more personable.

The companion totems of clay and wood by Nicole Cherubini and Taylor Davis are a palette cleanser in this show. The way the materials are put down—a glob of clay here; a stick of wood there—makes the pieces likeable, albeit not as memorable.

Megawords Megawords Installation, 2011 dimensions variable mixed media Courtesy of Megawords

Less likeable is Nick Mauss’ and Ken Okiishi’s “One Season in Hell,” an update of the 1873 Arthur Rimbaud poem A Season in Hell. The framed book pages are displayed on the wall but it’s far too much to read or even look at in a gallery. Perhaps a little desk and the book itself to flip through would have been more in keeping with the intimacy of the piece. Framed pages are not engaging and make the book more precious than it maybe is.

The opposite of precious, Megawords collaborators Dan Murphy’s and Tony Smyrski’s raucous installation on the mezzanine has a jumble of photos, adolescent-boy memorabilia and a handmade display desk and chair. The installation is upbeat, energetic and affirmative about life lived, times experienced and collective memory.

Sam Green, Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, and Mrs. Al Paul Lefton Jr. of Villanova at the Factory. Photograph originally published in the October 1, 1965 Philadelphia Bulletin. Courtesy of the Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives.

Don’t miss the Andy Warhol documentary show in the Project Space, which tells the story of Warhol’s 1965 exhibit at the ICA and includes a great piece by Alex Da Corte (a Romeo and Juliet-style balcony filled with a large silver bouquet.) It’s a fabulous tribute the pop artist would love.

Alex Da Corte Silver Screen, 2011 MDF, wood, enamel paint, foam, glue, bucket, silver spray paint, epoxy resin, cable, grapes, baby powder, plastic flowers, shampoo, conditioner, soda, acrylic rods, and plastic bags 90 x 66 inches Courtesy of the artist

Read this at Philly Weekly.

Through Aug. 7. Institute of Contemporary Art, 118 S. 36th St. 215.898.7108/5911. icaphila.org

Leonard Cohen, Live in London concert

Da Corte’s video is Chelsea Hotel No. 2, and the 10 videos screen in a 38-minute loop that follows the sequence of the songs in New Skin. The project was organized by Cohen’s daughter Lorca Cohen with the Hammer Museum.

Screenings are at 4:30pm, 6:15pm and 7:30pm. Check the MoMA website for more.

40th St. A.I.R. Free studio space for a year–apply now
In exchange for sharing your talents by teaching and exhibiting, 40th Street A.I.R. is offering one year of free studio space at 40th and Chestnut Sts. Applications for the Aug. 25, 2011-Aug. 15, 2012 residencies are due Monday, May 2, 2011. Questions? Email them at 40th.AIR.app@gmail.com.

Ceilings are high (approximately 12 feet in some areas); and rooms range from 100-300 square feet. Some areas have ample natural light, while others have none at all (making them ideal as darkrooms). The studios are not furnished and are not for living.

Japanese earthquake relief at Gallery 339

Tetsugo Hyakutake, Nihonbashi #2, Tokyo, Japan, 2010 Archival Pigment Print

Tokyo artist Tetsugo Hyakutake at Gallery 339 will be selling 8 x 10 inch pigment prints of Japanese street scenes for $100 each, raising funds to help Japan after the triple threat disaster that has devastated the island country. The artist and gallery are donating 100 percent of those proceeds to relief agencies in Japan. Hyakutake’s current show on view at the gallery, Ephemeral Existence, aptly named under the circumstances, is the his first solo with 339.  Tetsugo will speak about the work at the gallery, Saturday, April 9, 1-2pm. The artist reception is Friday, April 8, 6-8 p.m.

Straight and Butch goes straight to DVD

Butch & Straight, several of the photos, like this one, emulate iconic photos by Annie Liebowitz, like this one which uses the John/Yoko pose from the photo shoot the day before John died.

Straight and Butch, the sly and often hilarious documentary that follows the making of a beefcake calendar, featuring TV host Butch Cordora, who is gay, and a lineup of game and nervous straight guys, will be released on DVD April 26 at Breaking Glass Pictures. DVD extras will include “The 13th Photo Shoot” featurette, a blooper reel and a director interview.  You can get it at Amazon April 26 as well.

And the winner is?
We’re dying to know who will win the third annual $25,000 West Prize, and you can find out before you see it on artblog if you go to the party out at SEI April 21, 6-9pm. The winner, selected from a group of 10 finalists, will be announced that day at a cocktail reception and exhibition featuring art by all the finalists, who were chosen from 2,100 international applicants. Unlike other years, these finalists were asked to submit a project proposal on what they would do with the $25,000.  The winning project wins the West Prize for the artist.  Each finalist has been awarded an acquisition grant for their work to become part of the West Collection.

The event is free and open to the public, Thurs. April 21, 6-9pm, at:
The West Collection at SEI
1 Freedom Valley Drive
Oaks, PA 19456
RSVP to lee@westcollection.org

Anne Tyng's double helix installation

The exhibit is spare, with some small architectural models and some enormous geometrical forms large enough to step into–all below an enormous hanging double-helix, spiraling around the overhead gallery. Entering into the space is dramatic and physical. In contrast, Tyng herself is a tiny nonagenarian, erect in comfortable pants topped by a shawl.

Large forms based on Tyng's drawings of Platonic solids dominate the gallery space.

You may or may not be aware of Tyng, a Philadelphia architect whose presence in the popular culture is mostly tied to her role as Louis Kahn’s mistress. This exhibit aims to correct this wrong. Her ideas about geometric forms and her collaborations with Louis Kahn were groundbreaking. As was typical in the ’50s and ’60s, the man took all the credit for what was truly collaborative work; and Tyng’s ideas had a life-long influence on his later work, as well as on architecture theory.

Anne Tyng, notes and sketches for ICA installation, 2010. Courtesy of the artist.

The groundbreaking nature of Tyng’s mathematical and geometrical approach is confirmed in letters (one from Buckminster Fuller, in case you’re thinking, Big deal, how’s this different from a geodesic dome?) and displayed in numeric calculations, drawings and architectural models–all drawn from the University of Pennsylvania’s architectural archives.

Anne Tyng, Four Poster House. In the background is a model of the house's framework.

The elegance of the small models, also drawn from the archives, is equally convincing. My favorite, The Four-Poster House, is shown in four phases of construction, in which each of the geometric layers adds to the strength and beauty of the first core layer.

In an art world that’s enamored with Fibonacci sequences and obsessive drawing practices, Tyng’s architectural explorations look perfectly at home.

Open Video Call

Jeroen Nelemans, How to disappear Completely, 2008, video, color, sound, 3:02 minutes. A faux sunset.

Also at the ICA, Open Video Call is a loop of 11 videos, many of them from new faces (to me), and all of them worth some time. The theme of real and not real weaves through all the selections, from Alex DaCorte’s playful and troubling special effects in Chelsea Hotel to tiona.m’s politically loaded but exuberant Americanly Speaking. Performance kicks in with Ted Cary’s a jackhammer is so real (it was in Vox’s Solid Gold show in 2008) and Leslie Rogers’ The Meeting. There’s also a lot of virtual landscape here, including two from Lee Arnold (these would have looked better larger) and one brief one from Jeroen Nelemans. Also in the selections are work by Ted Knighton, Jared Dyer, Lindsey Martin, and Sam Belkowitz with Tyler Kline (beautiful but kind of long). A national call followed the original Philadelphia call for submissions, but the jurors–Claire Iltis, (Fleisher/Ollman Gallery), Kate Kraczon (ICA), Jesse Pires (International House Philadelphia); and Adelina Vlas (Philadelphia Museum of Art)–stuck pretty close to their original choices, Kraczon mentioned opening night. So it’s 10 from Philadelphia, and only one from out of town–Chicago artist Nelemans.

The Illuminations Project

Shary Boyle, Soldiers Aren't Afraid of Blood, 2005, ink and gouache on paper, 18 x 24 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

In the Project Room, Shary Boyle & Emily Duke’s The Illuminations Project explores feminist rage and vulnerability amid male cruelty and mysogyny through a series of drawings by Boyle paired with text by Duke. The long-distance, multi-year collaboration interested me, and Boyle’s drawings are stunningly beautiful with jewel-like colors. The images are the female counterpart to Hernan Bas–only better.

Shary Boyle, I Want to be Afraid of Nature, 2003, ink and gouache on paper, 18 x 24 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

But for all its beauty, I had a mixed reaction to this. The 21st century visceral rage of the piece is weakened by overused conventions–the outpourings of menstrual blood, wolf-pack male cruelty, pro-forma witchery and pretentious archaic locutions.

This exhibit in this space is in keeping with an overall sense of new work and new people breaking down the barricades to redefine art. The video is fresh. Anne Tyng is a long-overdue reconsideration. And Illuminations, organized by ICA’s 2010-2011 Whitney-Lauder Curatorial Fellow Virginia Solomon, brings in a distinctly female queer viewpoint.

The three shows are up through March 20, 2011.
Held over through Feb. 13 are Virgil Marti’s wonderful, theatrical Set Pieces (objects selected from the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s storage), and also the hot-button David Wojnarowicz video ejected from the National Portrait Gallery’s Hide/Seek show.

Nowhere at Arcadia (Sept. 23-Nov. 7. arcadia.edu)

Keith Garcia's hand-drawn skatemap of Dallas, in Nowhere at Arcadia

Remember that map you drew on a napkin to direct a friend to your house? Its cousin, created in necessity and collected by the Hand Drawn Map Association, will be appearing in Nowhere at Arcadia University Art Gallery. HDMA—an idiosyncratic Lancaster group newly relocated to Philadelphia—rescues the hand-drawn cartographic output as an archive of how we see the world in lines, symbols, street names and X-marked spots. Some of these maps are primitive, looking like drawings on the Lascaux cave walls. Others have a looser connection to reality and are more like art or a book illustration.

Philadelphia Photo Art Day (Oct. 28. Exhibit opens Nov. 11. philaphotoarts.org)

Wyatt Mangum, photo of Philadelphia's Love Park

Two public projects this fall embrace citizen participation and democratize art without eviscerating it. For the first, Diedra Krieger’s SEPTA-related cell-phone video project, part of Design Philadelphia. For the other, Philadelphia Photo Art Center (PPAC) has organized Philly Photo Day. Take a picture of the city on Oct. 28 and submit it electronically to PPAC to have your shot printed and shown in an exhibit opening Nov. 11 at the Crane Art Center. Organizers are hoping to get hundreds, if not thousands, of photos describing the city, its people, animals, buildings, the sky above, the rivers, maybe even the dark side of trash, parking tickets, decrepit housing and homeless people. The pictures will be printed small, on 5-by-7 paper, and hung in a line running around the gallery like a third Philadelphia river.

Narcissus in the Studio at PAFA (Oct. 23-Jan. 2, pafa.org)

Florine Stettheimer Picnic at Bedford Hills, 1918 Oil on canvas, 40 5/16 x 50 ¼ in. Gift of Ettie Stettheimer, 1950.21 Courtersy of PAFA

Playing into the idea that artists are among the most self-absorbed humans, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts opens an exhibition from its collection of artists’ self-portraits and portraits of friends. PAFA, with its history of figurative art, is rich in portraiture by major American artists like Charles Wilson Peale, Thomas Eakins, Vik Muniz, Elizabeth Osborne and James Brantley. Modern-art curator Robert Cozzolino, who organized the exhibit, has a track record of unearthing surprises from the museum’s storage vaults—look for some good ones here.

Hallowed Halloween at Proximity (Oct. 1-28. proximityart.com)

Timothy Smith, Madame de la Mort, from the Halloween show at Proximity

Last year’s show of Philadelphia illustrators and cartoonists of the Autumn Society at Proximity was a delight. This year, the Autumn Society and the Philadelphia Cartoonists Society join arms in a seasonal theme show of original works by more than 30 artists, with a little ghoul on the wall for every taste.

Alex Da Corte at Extra Extra (Nov. 5 through mid-December. eexxttrraa.com)

Alex Da Corte, Modern Girl 2010 - Wicker, plastic, fur, soda, enamel, plaster, fiberglass, clothes, ceramic, rugs, grapes, baguettes, noodles, stuffed animals, belts, stick, tape, glue

Da Corte’s found-object sculptures, shown at Fleisher-Ollman Gallery and many other places in Philadelphia, riff on aftermath. Colors that are too bright and shiny things that are too shiny recall the forlorn cleanup of the day after the party. The artist returns to Philadelphia with a Yale MFA and after shows in Boston and New York with new work, but the same sad outlook.

The Best of the Rest

The major museums continue to chart deep art-historical waters, and college galleries to pop out entertaining and worthy fare. DesignPhiladelphia has a number of other worthy projects.  In the commercial galleries, newcomer Jolie Laide hatches an ambitious program mixing out-of-town artists with locals. Locks, Gallery Joe, Fleisher-Ollman, Gallery 339, Bridgette Mayer and Pentimenti, to name a few, continue their solid programs—look in particular for a great installation of drawings by Astrid Bowlby at Gallery Joe (Sept. 25-Nov. 13). And on the fringes of the alternative scene, Little Berlin’s BYOTY artist’s book and zine fair (Sept. 26) is back with affordable reading matter and homebrew for all.

Read this article at Philadelphia Weekly.

Italy to Cyprus by way of L.A.

Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib, The Soft Epic, video still. click to see it bigger.

Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib go global this summer. (See a clip of their video Soft Epic on their Soft Epic website, a piece so epic it gets a site of its own!) See their works  here:

Pesaro, Italy, June 13th-28th
Moscow, June 22nd and 23rd

Los Angeles, July 11th-mid August

New York, NY, July 28th,

and Nicosia, Cyprus, Sept. 3

Boston

Alex Da Corte, Serge and Bacchus

Look for Philly alum Alex Da Corte’s Casual Luxury ultra-exhibit in New England! Now there’s a culture confrontation!
LaMontagne Gallery
June 18th to July 31st

Greensboro, NC.

Eileen Neff, photo from her show at Weatherspoon Museum

Eileen Neff is showing selected work from the last 10 years in her museum exhibit Eileen Neff: Photographs!  Are they real or are they art? Greensboro, check it out!
Weatherspoon Museum of Art
May 24,  2009  – August 16,  2009

Harrisburg

Sarah Gamble, painting that's in the Art of the State exhibit in Harrisburg

Mind-boggling: 157 works of art by 798 Pennsylvania artists, selected for more than 2,000 entries.

A shout-out to Matt Pruden for this breaking news about the Art of the State.
Here’s a selection of artists we’ve written about from some of the 66 artists from the Philadelphia area.
Arden Bendler Browning
Nanette Acker Clark
Dominic Episcopo
Sarah Gamble
Ed Bing Lee
Lisa Murch
Matthew Pruden
Kate Stewart
Ben Volta
Kip Deeds
Csilla Sadloch

Art of the State, June 27 – September 20
The State Museum of Pennsylvania

New York, NY

Adam Parker Smith, untitled plane crash

Adam Parker Smith  in A Greek Play with a Main Character Named Oblivious (Parker Smith is a Philly alum).

Priska C. Juschka Fine Art

June 23 – July 31, 2009
Opening Reception: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 6 – 9 PM

Jesse A. Greenberg, Invitation Station Arch 1, 2008, Plastic, foam, rubber, silicon, plexi-glass, acrylic, vinyl, mylar, fabric, glitter, urethane, wood, electric lighting 96” x 80” x 28” (243,8 x 203,2 x 71,1 cm)

Jesse A Greenberg will be going to Columbia for grad school this fall, but we still claim him as a Philly guy. He will be in
Wild Feature, a group show with Melissa Brown, Brendan Cass, James B. Franklin, John Hodany, Misaki Kawai and Taylor McKimens.
Zurcher Studio
June 25 – July 26, 2009
Opening Thursday June 25, from 6 to 8 pm

Austin, TX

Amir Lyles

Amir M. Lyles, Africa Create Us:  Art Exhibit and Gallery Talk
DiverseArts’ New East Arts Gallery and Pro Arts Collective
June 13-July 9

Two Philadelphia galleries are showing art with lots of words–both shows with tie-ins to current exhibitions at the ICA. The galleries are the blue-chip Locks and Fleisher/Ollman, and the shows they have mounted are tip-top.

At Fleisher/Ollman, the group exhibit Rich Text is keying off Touch Sensitive: Anthony Campuzano, an ICA exhibit of the artist’s text-based art.

Besides Campuzano’s drawings which highlight the humor, the horror, the politics and other subtextual meanings revealed by news stories and notes taken out of context and given weight by the sheer effort of drawing the words, Rich Text includes 21 other contemporary, text-inspired artists.

Trenton Doyle Hancock, from Bye and Bye, 2002, portfolio of 9 etchings on paper
17 x 14 inches ea.

Some of them are well-known national and international artists–for example Mel Bochner, Kay Rosen, and Trenton Doyle Hancock. But the Philadelphia artists included, some better known than others, look every bit as strong as the big-name imports.

Mark Mahosky, Lease a Pontiac Grand Am For $295 a Month, 2001-08, cardboard & paint, 6 x 5 3/4 x 2 3/4 inches

Philadelphia’s Mark Mahoskey fills four homey little wooden shelves with 41 rickety mixed-media constructions (mostly carboard, paint and wood), each the material embodiment of pop culture slogans, words and phrases like Buy Me 0 Down 0% APR, or Ditty Wah Ditty.

Corporate Logos 2008, micron sharpie on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 inches, each
IBM (right top), BMW (right bottom)

Andrew Jeffrey Wright‘s micron sharpie drawings thoroughly subvert the pompous corporate logo, from his scatalogical BMW to his IBM surveillance rebus to his super-caffeinated, super-wired Comcast. The off-handed freshness gives a sly poke to the values of success, riches and public image.

Natasha Bowdoin, Untitled (Trickster Series), 2008, (detail), pencil & gouache on cut paper

Some others in the Philly mix: Natasha Bowdoin’s cut-paper tornadoes of words and wild animals, which talk to Trenton Doyle Hancock’s magic language and wild animal imagery at the far end of the gallery (Bowdoin’s in Texas right now on a residency, and Hancock returned to Texas after getting an MFA from Tyler in 2000).

Alex Da Corte, I’m Like So Happy To See You, 2008, paper, enamel, epoxy resin and brass fasteners, dimensions variable

Other home-towners I especially want to note–Alex Da Corte’s insincere welcome-home sign, I’m like so happy to see you, of colored letters pumped with glam resin coatings, and Jayson Scott Musson’s hilarious, anti-P.C. rants against society (maybe these should be zines instead of posters?), and Isaac Resnikoff’s carved, non-functioning books (Resnikoff left Philly for grad school in California).

Isaac Resnikoff, The Great Ages, 2008, brazillian, cherry & plywood, 8 3/8 x 5 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches

The overwhelming message in text art is that physical volume speaks volumes–putting the weight back into the overused and the overcooked verbiage that surrounds us.

Conrad Bakker, Untitled Project: Postit [Pay Attention], 2009, oil on carved wood

Hence my affection for that Canadian sense of humor in Conrad Bakker’s wood carving of a lowly post-it note, Untitled Project: Postit [Pay Attention].

Wayne White, Invisible Ruler, 2009, acrylic on offset lithograph, 28 x 34 inches

The daily barrage of commercial language and lettering becomes monumental in the words Wayne White paints onto found vintage prints (White designed the Pee-Wee’s Playhouse set)!

Bob & Roberta Smith, 4th Feb, Tennis Coach, 2007, signwriters paint on board, 100.08 x 109.53 inches

Also using ornate signage letters–on boards that resemble a makeshift wall/assemblage of old-fashioned signs–Bob & Roberta Smith (who is British and one man) makes public signage of off-beat private peeves.

Justin Quinn, Chapter 54 or 6618 times E, 2004, intaglio, 29 1/2 x 21 3/4 inches. The chapter reference is to Moby Dick and the number of times e appears in that chapter–as well as in Quinn’s print.

Taking text in a completely different direction, Justin Quinn determines the number of E’s in each of his images based on the number of e’s in chapters of Moby Dick, separating the letter from its usefulness as language.

John Evans, February 11, 1978, 1978, mixed media collage on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 inches

Also in the show, work by John O’Connor, Mark Lombardi, Tim Rollins & KOS, John Evans, Trevor Reese, Josh Shaddock, Jina Valentine (ex-Philly-ite), and Jack Sloss (Philly all the way, in flashing neon).

Jane Irish at Locks

Jane Irish, Devaney, The War Vase, 2008, low fire whiteware, china paint, lustre and underglaze, 12 x 11 x 11 inches

At Locks Gallery, Jane Irish’s solo exhibit Cochin Chinoiserie is keyed to Irish’s inclusion in the ICA’s Dirt on Delight (see Roberta’s post), a wonderful exhibit of clay sculpture. The solo show at Locks celebrates the anti-war activism of the Vietnam era as a synecdoche for the social issues of poverty and wealth and the human condition.

Jane Irish, Hanoi, Long Bien Bridge, 2008, gouache on tyvek, varnished, 16 x 24. This image appears in a cartouche on one of the vases

This show includes 10 new molded vases inspired by overwrought Sevres vases, with their perfect beauty and their association with the obscene wealth of Versailles. Irish’s vases lean and list and billow and wave, emphasizing their deliberate imperfections and humbleness and vulnerability. But they are also gorgeous with china paint colors and gold lustres and decorative motifs, as well as poetry written by Vietnam War veterans.

Jane Irish, Mario Savio Vase, 2008
low fire whiteware, china paint, lustre and underglaze, 12 x 11 x 11

Named after people like poet Tom Devaney or 1960s Free Speech Movement hero Mario Savio, the content helps turns these vases into brave humans and wounded veterans and the wounded earth. They are funerary urns at the same time that they manage to transcend their mortal references.

The poems are moving and profound, and the vases have a presence that begs for being touched (always a good sign in my book).

Jane Irish, Resistance Wealth and Heroic Protest, 2001-2, egg tempera on gouache on linen, 32 x 120 inches

The show also includes an enormous, multi-canvas older painting that is a kind of recap of the issues that obsess Irish–the heroism of resistance against the Vietnam War and excess wealth, against the society machine that chews up individuals who are not empowered. I found this painting, which is a touchstone for what Irish is thinking, more locked down than the vases, which offer multiple layers of meaning.

Both exhibits end Feb. 21.

Word art is suddenly a hot ticket. I’m not sure why. (Roberta reminded me that the queen of word art, Jenny Holzer, has a show due to open in March at the Whitney).

I wondered at first if Irish’s work really is word art in the same sense as the work at Fleisher/Ollman, but it is in that it gives a physical form to the words she’s quoting.

Maybe word art feels so right now because we’re watching YouTube instead of reading. I honestly think that people are missing the way a word can take on weight and taste, the way the right word can pop in your mouth or your mind like a grape tomato.

Installation shot of Alex Da Corte and Jack Sloss’s Love Explosion at Fleisher-Ollman Gallery.

The party is over and everyone must go. There’s a morning-after feeling to the Jack Sloss and Alex Da Corte show on view at the Fleisher Ollman Gallery. Piled-up presents are partially opened, colored globe lights on the floor wear happy and sad faces – they’re reminiscent of deflating balloons on the day after a party.

Da Corte’s Flag, drinking game and head shots.

detail, Glittery beer pong

A folding table set up for a drinking game holds plastic cups filled not with beer but liquid glitter. Jack Sloss’s photo collages of Olde English 800 advertisements hang nearby. And a new American flag by Da Corte signals a party atmosphere with its salmon-pink color and its fringe, the likes of which a Supreme might have worn on stage.  But the flag can also be read as tattered, weathered, and anarchistic; it has lacy holes in it, and it droops on its flag pole. 

This just in (and thanks Drew Leshko for the heads up!)

What do Alex Da Corte’s fabulous Accessory snake and Norm Paris’ Michael Jordan Save the World have in common besides Philadelphia origins?

They were both featured in a curated 18-artist group show “Versions of Reality,” at last weekend’s NEXT art fair in Chicago. The pieces in the exhibit are all from the West Collection. We knew West had bought the Paris piece, but we didn’t know that they also owned the Da Corte!!! Paige West has been on a Philadelphia shopping spree!)

Thanks to IonArts blogger-buddy Mark Barry for a tip on this show. Check out that link for the exhibit. The images are great!