Tag Archive "james-castle"
Weekly Update – Four decades of thinking outside the box at Fleisher-Ollman
“Four Decades” celebrates John Ollman’s captaincy of the blue chip gallery, Fleisher-Ollman. With some 90 works of drawing, painting and sculpture by acclaimed self-taught artists (and contemporary artists influenced by them) as well as antique craft works by native Americans and Pre-Columbians on display, the show is museum quality.
James Castle, outsider and perhaps, a happy man
Post by Michael Andre James Castle, artist of word play and sewing, from the PMA’s show. Take a look at James Castle’s retrospective at the Art Museum. Castle (1899-1977) was an outsider who spent his life on his family’s farms in Idaho. He used spit and soot and sticks to draw. He uses all sorts of common papers. Then, more interestingly, he recycled cardboard logo-smeared commercial packaging. He sews such cardboard into a flat sculpture which winningly evoke, say, a Marisol maquette. James Castle’s materials, string, rags, sticks…from the PMA show. When I arrived at McGill in 1964, I rambled ... More » »
Alternate Art and Spiritual Worlds
Radcliffe Bailey Storm at Sea (2006), piano keys, African sculpture, model boat, paper, acrylic, glitter, and gold leaf 212 x 213 inches Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York © Radcliffe BaileyI went out to P.S.1 Friday to see Neohoodoo: art for a forgotten faith, co-organized with the Menil Collection, Houston. According to the press release the exhibition challenges conceptions of insider and outsider art, as a number of the artists from North, Central and South America incorporated vernacular religious forms and practices in works that address contemporary ritual and spirituality. Vernacular expressions of faith were much ... More » »
Weekly Update – Outsider art at the PMA, Gees Bend quilts and James Castle
This week’s Weekly (online only) has my piece on the Gees Bend quilts and a preview of James Castle, both at the PMA (Castle opens Oct. 14. Below’s the copy with pictures. Two Gees Bend quilters sit in front of their quilts at the PMA’s press preview. Self-taught artists take over prime real estate at the Philadelphia Museum of Art this month. The Gee’s Bend quilters and the mute artist James Castle broke all kinds of art rules to make their powerful work. Amazing things happen when you don’t even know the rules exist. Sarah Benning in front of one ... More » »
Newsblast from PEI–2008 grant winners announced!
Peter Saul, who will have a show at PAFA. This is one of the exhibits supported by PEI this year. The big surprise here is not in the big dollar grants this time but in the awards to some surprising smaller outfits that are doing really interesting work, like $20,000 for Megawords (Anthony Smyrski and Dan Murphy) for a Megawords Storefront; and $5,000 planning grant for Screening Video (Nadia Hironaka and Matt Suib) for a project with filmmaker Pat O’Neill. James Castle, featured in an exhibit at the PMA funded in part by PEI. These smaller players in the Philadelphia ... More » »
