Tag Archive "jim-hodges"

PAFA’s Summer Surprises and more

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in the past two years, has acquired work by five African American artists, four of them from the international and national art strataspheres. Their work looks spectacular in the show Summer Surprises, an exhibit that includes recent acquisitions of work by 11 artists, placing the 11 in the context of some earlier acquisitions also on display! The large contingent of artists of color working within yet challenging and stretching the academy’s reality-based tradition is the big news. The five with work acquired in 2010 and 2009 are Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, Mark Bradford, ... More » »

Fresh Blood: Bruce Campbell

Bruce Campbell, The Golden Moment of Realization (2007), 38 x 37″, yarn; photo courtesy of the artist. I first saw Bruce Campbell’s work in a group exhibition at the late, lamented Falling Cow Gallery (S. 4th St., Philadelphia) last year. He showed two pieces in which I detected a debt to Eva Hesse: The Golden Moment of Realization and A Million Little Pieces. Both were made of the most modest materials (yarn and paper straws) yet occupied significant visual and psychic space. I decided to follow up with a studio visit and found the artist in a large loft near ... More » »

Behold, Virgil Marti at the Hirshhorn

detail of Directions, an installation by Virgil Marti and Pae White. This is one of Marti’s chandeliers, with a faux macrame window treatment by White in the background I stumbled into the Hirshhorn yesterday, just before they closed, and lo and behold, there was that installation by Virgil Marti and Pae White that Roberta had mentioned here. The lobby of the Hirshhorn is modern and unsparingly spare, so to see this pair, with their rec-room excesses was pretty funny. Marti contributed his glass chandeliers hung from fabulous crochet-covered wires, gold-coated chicken-bone curtains (4/10/07: got a note from Virgil and they’re ... More » »