Tag Archive "isaac-resnikoff"

On the road–Philly artists represent!!!

The “Space” Symposium at the New Museum Friday and Saturday features, among others, Philadelphia’s very own dreamweavers, Kocot and Hatton. They are part of a stellar (get that, space?) group that includes Richard Tuttle and Peter Halley.

Drawing in the World at Rosenwald-Wolf

Howard FinsterDrawing for PC, 1981colored pencil and ink on paper A marvel of a drawing Howard Finster made for Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts) graces the entrance of the exhibit Drawing in the World at the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery at UArts. The drawing made in 1981 for an outsider art exhibit in the same gallery — organized by Elsa Weiner (Elsa Longhauser) — stopped us in our tracks. Our eyes traced the banners of names of artists animating the surface; we admired the way Finster used Martin Ramirez-like arcs of lines to define and fill space; we ... More » »

Mezuzah love at the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art

Image of Mezuzot from the show, A Kiss for the Mezuzah, curated by Matthew Singer of the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art. Not long ago Matt Singer, Curator of the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art emailed to ask me if I’d write an essay for a show he was putting together at the museum called “A Kiss for the Muzuzah.” The exhibit is all new commissioned works — each a Mezuzah — by a Philadelphia artist. Not all the artists are Jewish and together they represent a power team whose works I’ve long admired: Candy Depew, Jeanne Jaffe, Isaac Lin, ... More » »

Weekly Update – The Great Society at Klein Art Gallery

This week’s Weekly has my review of The Great Society at Klein Art Gallery. Below is the copy with a picture and more at flickr (I’ll put more in the post later). Here’s Libby’s flickr setIrony Rich“The Great Society” invites you to drop out. Newsreader in the faux news program in Joulia Strauss’s video in the Great Society. “The Great Society” at Klein Art Gallery is a dirge in eight-part harmony about our not-so-great society. Even if you don’t know the show’s historical reference (Lyndon Johnson’s optimistic social program of the 1960s), you’ll grasp its irony. Guest curator Daniel Fuller’s ... More » »

Weekly Update – PAFA’s new acquisitions!

This week’s Weekly has my review of the PAFA new acquisitions show This Place is Ours! Below is the copy with some pictures. More photos at flickr. And here’s Libby’s post. PAFA’s Got a Brand-New BagThe Academy lifts itself into the 21st century. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’ new acquisitions show “This Place Is Ours!” rightly deserves the exclamation point in its title. Jim Houser, This Place is Ours! (right) and Eamon Ore-GIron, Exit Strategy, from Pafa’s new acquisitions show. The big show of more than 100 works of American art purchased since 2001 demonstrates a new vision ... More » »

Such a star!

Carving by Isaac Resnikoff at Rip, Rig and Panic exhibit last year at Fleisher/Ollman This month’s Critic’s Pick on the back page of Art News (only in the print version) is none other than Isaac Resnikoff! I got the news when I stopped in his gallery, Fleisher/Ollman last week. Resnikoff, whose wood carvings and drawings gently challenge the sacred cows of American culture and history, is a long-time artblog favorite. Whenever we see his stuff, we each write reams (see posts here, here, here and here). So browse the magazine section at your nearest emporium, and check out Isaac getting ... More » »

Weekly Update – Summer dreaming at Fleisher-Ollman

This week’s Weekly includes my review of Rip, Rig and Panic at Fleisher-Ollman Gallery. Below is the copy with a few more pictures. And here’s the link to the art page. For more, read Libby’s post on the show.Let It “Rip”Fleisher/Ollman’s summer show straddles realism and fairy tale. Logs speak, pictures whisper and bookshelves cast long shadows in the exploded fairy tale of “Rip, Rig & Panic” at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery. Anda Dubinskis, Isaac Resnikoff and Mark Khaisman provide work that’s not too hot and not too cool, but just right for summer dreaming. Dubinskis diptych showing the female woodcutter. As ... More » »

Rip, Rig & Panic: Resnikoff, Khaisman, Dubinskis

Death of the Sunshine Patriot (front), by Isaac Resnikoff, and paintings by Anda Dubinskis on the walls Isaac Resnikoff’s picnic table looks just right in this hot weather, center stage at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, part of a three-man show that also includes Anda Dubinskis and Mark Khaisman. On the table sits a mix of carved tools, beverage containers, a hand as umbrella, fat candles, a guitar, a gas can–all the makings of a summer weekend of puttering around the house, hanging with friend, or pitching woo. The delicate paint drips applied along the side add a nice touch of dripping sweat, ... More » »

OOFAH! This is good

Ray YoshidaOriginally uploaded by sokref1. Ray Yoshida’s OOFAH!, 2002, (det) collage on paper. Delights cut from the funny papers into glyph-like shapes, the big work (48″ x 72″) is an inscrutable message from beyond. Click to see it bigger. Up since March, Rock Paper Scissors at Fleisher-Ollman Gallery goes down April 29 and if you’re looking for the “ohmygod” show this weekend (in addition to the new ICA shows featuring Zoe Strauss and the Spector show (featuring Andrew Jeffrey Wright and Adam Wallacavage) which I predict will also fit into this exclamatory category — run by and get an eyeful ... More » »

Loving the ghost, questioning the present

resnikoffjeffersonOriginally uploaded by sokref1. Or is it loving the present, questioning the ghost? Isaac Resnikoff‘s exhibit “We Run out of Continent” at Fleisher-Ollman Gallery is definitely about love — for objects, for history, for our weird and wacky country. For that reason and for many others, I love it back. The artist here has made an exhibit both delicious and coherent and, in a city full of patriot-mania, he’s produced a kind of anti-gift shop (that’s also a gift shop!) — a visual essay on our American roots and icons — each one a hero or villain or maybe both ... More » »