This week’s cornucopia of wonderful things to do

libby and roberta — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:02:31 +0000

Hello artblog readers. This week’s overload of fabulous activities has even us flummoxed. We wish we could do it all! With three talks at Penn in two days, we want to give Penn the Yakkity Yak Award.

TUESDAY MARCH 17

Gary Hill, Wall Piece, (2000); Single-channel video/sound installation. Video projector, strobe light and strobe controller with steel floor mount, two speakers, one DVD player and one DVD (color; stereo sound). All images courtesy of the artist and Donald Young Gallery, Chicago.

Gary Hill–NOTE: AS OF 2 PM MONDAY, MAR. 16, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Hill has been working with video and sound since 1973. His intermedia use of text, speech and image explore the physicality of language and our thought processes. Winner of a MacArthur Foundation Genius award in 1998, and winner of the Leone díOro Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1995, his work has been included in six Whitney Biennials and Documenta IX.

Coinciding with the talk, a show of Hill’s work opens at Slought on Saturday, March 21. 6:30-8:30 pm, with a conversation between Hioll, George Quasha and Charles Stein at 7 pm. The show runs to May 1.

Gary Hill
UPenn Graduate Fine Arts Lecture
Cosponsored by Slought Foundation
5 pm, Meyerson Hall, B1
210 S. 34th St. Philadelphia PA 19104
Open to the public

WEDNESDAY, MAR 18

Barkley Hendricks

Barkley Hendricks
The talk, by this major African American painter who put his own stamp on Pop Art, is the precursor to Hendricks widely acclaimed upcoming exhibit at PAFA (now at the Studio Museum in Harlem). The PAFA show opens Oct. 17, 2009 and runs to Jan. 3, 2010.

Barkley Hendricks
5:00 PM
Upper Meyerson Gallery
Meyerson Hall
210 S. 34th St.
Open to the Public

Lawrence Weschler
Weschler is a former New Yorker writer and culture critic. He’ll be talking about the shift from books to blogs and instances of the world melting into thin air, i.e., the transitory quality of the internet and what it means for the culture.

Lawrence Weschler
All that is Solid
2008-2009 Penn Humanities Forum on Change
5:00 pm
Rainey Auditorium, Penn Museum
To register (required): go here
Event free and open to the public.

Drew Leshko, 2009, Untitled Installation (detail), paper, wire, plaster, basswood, plastic, acrylic, enamel, 40" x 80" x 40"

Seriously, Stupididity
And here’s a new show at a new outpost in North Philly. When you’ve had enough of the words and lectures, you can come up for air and look at some art. Damian Weinkrantz and Adam Wallacavage, both from Space 1026, are in charge here in a new space called Shadow’s Space Gallery above Kung Fu Necktie, a watering hole with one of the best signs on north Front Street.

showing work by
Drew Leshko, David Dunn, Danny Perez, Spencer Wunder, Mary Deevy, Manuel Dominguez Jr., Jessica Roberts, Gloria Joan Haag, Laura Lee and Susan Houwen, Brieann Robyn Tracey, Carrie Collins, Jason Goldberg, Isaac Lin, Kelly Turso, Adam Crawford, Andrew Jeffrey Wright, Ken Sigafoos, Ben Woodward, Judith Schaechter, Amber Lynn Thompson, Crystal Stokowski, Matt Leines, Jim Houser, Jayson Musson, Andrew Clark, Plankton Art Co., Erich Weiss, Dan Tag, Dave Fox, Carolynne McNeel, Nick Paparone, Shelly Spector, Charles Burns, Aryon Hoselton, Paul E.

Seriously, Stupididity
Shadow’s Space Gallery
upstairs at Kung Fu Necktie
Opening Reception
Wednesday March 18, 2009
6:00-10:00
1248 N. Front Street
Philadelphia

THURSDAY, MAR 19

The new Temple Gallery at Tyler School of Art. Image from Temple Gallery.

New Temple Gallery Grand Opening
NEW Temple Gallery at Tyler School of Art on the main campus has its official opening Thurs. Mar. 19, 6-8 PM. It’s the kickoff for the series of student MFA shows as well. Those shows run Mar 18-May 9, with each student getting a 4-day slot in that window. First up and on view for the grand opening are Bassem Mostafa, Charlotte Rodenberg, Fabian Lopez, Tom Gallagher

Temple Gallery
Grand opening reception 6-8 PM
NEW ADDRESS: 2001 North 13th Street, Philadelphia 19122
215.777.9139

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, MARCH 20 AND 21

George Tooker, Lunch, 1964

George Tooker Symposium
A scholarly array of scholars from around the country and across the pond discuss the art of George Tooker, whose 40-year retrospective is on display at PAFA now through April 5.

George Tooker Symposium
Friday, 9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m.
Saturday, 9.00 a.m. – 3.00 p.m.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Broad and Cherry Streets
$50 members, $60 non-members, $30 students with ID. For tickets, please contact 215-972-0522 or rsvp@pafa.org.

Also on Saturday night, the reception for Gary Hill at Slought–see top entry.

West Prize 2008–apply online now!

roberta — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:05:00 +0000

Drew Leshko, 2006, Negro Church, South Carolina, 1936 after Walker Evans, Lambda print. 18×13 1/2″ Leshko’s piece is included in the West Collection.

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

The West Collection — that innovative outfit supporting emerging artists since 1996 — has instituted a prize! The West Prize is a purse of $100,000 to be split among 10 finalists, money earmarked for acquisitions to the West Collection. There’s an open call for submissions right now — apply on the Collection’s website.

The ten finalists will be featured in an exhibit TEN — with publication — and one among them will win a cash prize of $25,000– a kind of best of show award. The deadline to apply is Oct. 1. And just fyi, images and other information submitted (artist’s statement and bio) will become part of a public database, a resource available to all. It’s free to apply so don’t dally! I put some of the application rules at the bottom of this post.

Alex Da Corte, 2008. Accessory, acrylic fingernails, polish, pins, earrings, seed beads, sequins, Swaovski crystals, glitter. 62x20x20″

I first heard about the West Collection around 2000 and took a tour of the art which is housed on the campus of SEI Investments at Oaks, PA. I met the people involved, Curator Paige West and Director Lee Stoetzel and was smitten with not only the edgy work they were supporting but with the adventurous take-charge spirit. These folks are tastemakers, ahead of the curve in discovering and promoting young talent. And many of their artists are big names now. Vik Muniz has been a favorite of the Collection’s for years, for example. Others included are Marcel Dzama, Luis Gispert, Sarah Charlesworth, Adam Cvijanovic, James Hyde, and Philly artists Alex Da Corte, Mark Khaisman, Tristin Lowe, Norm Paris and Mark Shetabi. You may have seen selections from the West Collection in shows around Philadelphia — at ICA, Rosenwald-Wolf, PAFA. The Collection makes the works available to museums and galleries and always has some significant pieces on the road.

You can tour the collection at Oaks, by making an appointment with Stoetzel. Highly recommended.

Lee Stoetzel, Director
lee@westcollection.org
t 610.883.7368
f 610.903.4255

Here are the application rules:

1. Deadline for submissions is October 1st, 2008.

2. Submitted works must have been created within the last 3 years.

3. The West Collection will review works in painting, sculpture, photography, and installation.

4. All works must be available for acquisition at the time of submission.

5. As the West Collection focuses on emerging work, the maximum price per work is $20,000.

6. All artists/dealer representatives must disclose accurate value/purchase price of artworks at the time of submission.

7. All artworks submitted will be part of an online database available to curators, gallerists, and museums.

8. 10 finalists will be selected by December 1st, 2008 and acquisition awards will be negotiated by the West Collection.

9. $100,000 in acquisition funds will be awarded to ten finalists so that at least one major work by each artist is acquired for the West Collection Lending Library.

10. December 2008/January 2009: A color catalogue of all finalist works will be made for the “Ten” exhibition.

11. February 2009: Acquired works will be included in the “Ten” finalist exhibition in February 2009. A grand prize finalist will be selected to receive a $25,000 cash award in addition to the acquisition of a major work by the West Collection.

theartblog » drew leshko

This week’s cornucopia of wonderful things to do

West Prize 2008–apply online now!