Photo courtesy of Locks Gallery.

Across all the walls are floor-to-ceiling projections and interspersed amongst the few round columns in the big room are projectors, speakers, wires, headphones, and some small seats. A few flat HD monitors lie between the larger projections. Smaller, brighter, and higher resolution than their larger projected counterparts, the little monitors offer a welcomed degree of variance to the flow of moving pictures.

Some of the most immediately apparent images are those of Chinese parades and Communist regalia, some of which are glitchy and crisscrossed by rotating 3D cubes. The title 1967 is a reference to Jean-Luc Godard’s film La Chinoise which deals with a group of French students planning to change the world in a Communist revolution while studying Mao. Hironaka and Suib’s installation is a looped montage of clips from Godard’s film, original video, archival footage of the 1967 World Exposition in Montreal paired with Shanghai’s 2010 Expo, protest scenes past and present, and of course images from China’s cultural revolution.

In the wake of the Arab Spring, Occupy, and similar protest movements worldwide, the themes of this show are aptly timed to say the least. The installation acts as an intrigue into the roles of the artist and the revolutionary in society. Ideas of social orthodoxy, equality, and belief systems all come to mind. At times political upheaval is warranted, at other times dissent is quashed; sometimes revolution is widely supported, other times it happens by coup d’état. Regardless of the means for or reaction to social shifts, their inevitability looms outside the realms of political affiliation. In a universe where entropy rules, the only real guarantee is change.

The yin and yang of protest as illustrated by Ram Dass in Be Here Now.

As the images break down, the prevailing power structures emerge as targets of ridicule in much the same way as the protests themselves. This inherent yin-yang image of action and reaction has been similarly noted by Ram Dass in his “hippies create police/police create hippies” musing from 1971’s Be Here Now. In situations as diverse and interrelated as governing a country, it would appear that neither side has a monopoly on truth.

The characters in La Chinoise are dilettantes in a way, as young people romanticizing the concept of revolt. Much can be said about the need for economic equality or restructured government in the United States, but one also wonders how many supporters of either Ron Paul or Occupy Wall Street are on their respective bandwagons for questionable or superficial reasons. Thinking back to the beginnings of revolution in Tahrir Square, it is not hard to believe that the cinematic broadcasts on news and infotainment channels the world over helped to spur similar protests, in part, because of their excitement and danger. The mundane ennui of middle-class American youth can at least not be ruled out as a cause, in any case.

Photo courtesy of Locks Gallery.

When the silly, almost childish images of roosters and other animal “comrades” are displayed on the cover of Mao’s Little Red Book in place of his idealized face, the absurdity crests and begins to give way to other relevant questions. The phrase “Is it important to take action?” appears as the game-changing caption. Of course the artists provide no concrete answers, and pose only the question. However this is arguably one of the more important responsibilities of artists: to test the waters of antithesis and throw wrenches into the gears of established social mechanisms. Artists and revolutionaries – sometimes one in the same – have quite regularly shared many similar goals such as exposing outdated concepts, offering new ways of viewing surroundings, and often subscribing to a brand of humanism with a thirst for justice and equality.

Locks Gallery’s exhibition of 1967 dissects the topic of protest in a way that only artists can. With revolution being, by its very existence, bound to its intended target, an absurd presentation seems fitting – perhaps necessary. Protest is distorted through media channels and personal interpretations, and it is certainly no science. Dogma is dogmatic regardless of political preferences. Hironaka and Suib demonstrate that, no matter what side you’re on, the complex schisms of human argument and opposition are not quite as objective and clear cut as they seem.

There will be a live performance in the installation on January 28 at 5 PM by contributing artists C. Spencer Yeh and Aaron Moore; and another reception on Feb 3.  Check the website for more information and events.

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

Battle of Algiers, Ali Le Pointe gets a gun for his first terrorist act for the revolution. Before he is radicalized Ali was a petty criminal in and out of jail. He is the most fierce of the revolutionaries.

I watched The Battle of Algiers on Netflix last night (it’s an “instant play”).  While it’s is not a documentary at all the movie feels like one, with realistic settings and a day by day, moment by moment chronological telling of the story.  I hadn’t seen it since the movie came out and it stands up well. The sound is poor, although the music, by the film’s director Gillo Pontecorvo and Ennio Morricone of spaghetti western fame is great — with a pounding rhythm and intermittent discordant screeching of horns.   And the images, the pacing, the storytelling…all are compelling.

Not surprisingly, the parallels with Iraq are absolutely uncanny.

The tale has a guerilla insurgency made up of FLN Islamic terrorist cells fighting against a Western-trained army that is mired in the country and hates its role of policing. Most chilling is the press conference in which the charismatic French army commander (a decorated Nazi fighter in World War II) is asked point blank about the issue of prisoner torture, and his answer is basically if the goal is to retain Algeria as a French possession — it was — then any means are justified. Later you see the torture and it’s as you would expect…unspeakably horrible.

Iraq is not Algeria and Al Queda is not the FLN. But this movie is a slice of history that bears remembering.

Watch the movie trailer here or at the link above to get the feel of it.

Powell House Entry Hall, Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks

Paloma and Raul in San Serriffe by filmmaker J. Makary, on view in March,  used the site to connote wealth and historical interiors, rather than invoking its own particular history. Her short narrative, itself set in the fictional San Serife (which was a famous April Fool’s day hoax of a London newspaper) was a domestic intrigue with dancers carrying on an abstract pantomime of the emotional goings-on. It had something of the look of a 1960s French film and the eavesdropping it showed was carried out with appropriately-dated technology of reel-to-reel tape.  The eighteenth-century rooms implied a location, and perhaps a social class, that is conscious of its heritage. The clear artifice of the dancers emphasized the film’s fiction, and perhaps the fictionality of all narratives.

still from J. Makary's 'Paloma and Raul in San Serriffe'

The protagonist Paloma was played with icy hauteur by Guin Buchan, and the original music by Michael McDermott contributed considerably to the atmosphere.  Paloma and Raul in San Serriffe was shot on 16mm film.  Makary has been working at the intersection of dance and film since 2006 when her first film was shown at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC.

still from 'Paloma and Raul in San Serriffe'

Post-Revolutionary Selections from the Powel House Moving Image Archive, 1888-2089, by Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib consists of four videos sited throughout the rooms of the Powell House. The title of the suite implies a non-existent archive and the four selections take place variously in the past and future. They emphasize the house’s changing history and fortunes, from an18th century home of Philadelphia’s mayor who entertained George Washington to a 20th century warehouse, and hence the fact that history always includes change. They also manage to re-insert some of the dirt, disorder and even stench that is ever part of life, but notably eliminated in historic house museum’s versions of history.

still from Hironaka and Suib's 'Powel House Garden Scene'

Powel House Garden Scene, its title a variation on the oldest surviving film, Louis Le Prince’s Roundhay Garden Scene (1888 and hence the date of Hironaka and Suib’s title), is set in an unspecified future when nature has taken over the current rooms. As if in the Biblical dust-to-dust the plaster crumbles and vines grow through the house, all shown as in a slow-motion nature film.  From flora to fauna, A Pigeon’s History of America is the delightful fantasy of the house as a pigeon roost, adorned with their increasing droppings. The notes on the work carry the reassurance that no animals were harmed nor damage done to actual historic property; for this meditation on historical fictions we are reassured that these are, indeed, visual fictions.

still from Hironaka and Suib's 'A Pigeon’s History of America'

Minuet (Room On Room Action) is sited in the ballroom and was inspired by the room’s in-authenticity. The original interior was moved to the Philadelphia Museum of Art before the house functioned as an historic site, so what visitors to the house see is a re-creation.  The video switches between original and copy then turns into an ecstatic whirl in which all reality is blurred and finally disappears. Hippy Party is another sly use of modern video illusion: actual clips of 1960s radicals talking about revolution appear to be taking place in the Powell House where 18th-century revolutionaries may well have had actual conversations.  We’ve forgotten that those 18th century Americans may well have sounded like this to the British. Gerry Rubin is certainly wearing authentic, period tie-die; if he’s lucky, he saved it.

Post-Revolutionary Selections is on view through May 9, and on Saturday, May 8th at 2pm poets Thomas Devaney and Sparrow will present a performance piece, Tom Paine’s Pigeons, which promises to address the ongoing rhetoric of revolution in America.

All the artists’ projects are under the umbrella of Landmarks Contemporary Projects, directed and curated by Robert Wuilfe.

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

Nadia Hironaka, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, video projection. Giant, chopsticks manipulated by a disembodied hand withdraws cultural icons from a Chinese food container.

Nadia Hironaka’s Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, is visible only after dark, on the window of the Asian Arts Initiative, 1219 Vine Street. It is part of Asian Arts’ second Chinatown In/flux exhibition, this one subtitled Future Landscapes. This outing, there are four (or six, depending on who’s counting–two of them are matched pairs of a sort) public art projects scattered around the Chinatown neighborhood.

Nadia Hironaka, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, video projection.

Hironaka’s piece celebrates the Asian presence in America and the cross-fertilization of the two cultures–American Pop billboard meets spare Asian crockery decoration. The video is like watching 1000 clowns emerge from a VW bug. A giant hand uses chopsticks to pick Asian cultural icons out of a Chinese food take-out container while Western cultural icons rain down from off camera (at least that’s where I came in on the video loop). The symbolic cultural exchange ranges from Heinz ketchup bottles to mah jongg tiles, and the logic magically shifts so what rains down or emerges from the box can be Asian or American. Off to the side, a group of ambiguous, silhouetted figures group, ungroup, regroup–people too flat to reveal their ethnic identities (unless you happen to know who’s who).

The image is luminous, beautiful and endlessly pleasing and engaging. It can deliver a quick hit for people driving by yet a slow unfolding of ideas for anyone who slows down to watch.

The other pieces in the exhibit are:

Jonathan and Kimberly Stemler, the little red string. The paper lanterns illuminating the dark tunnel beneath the viaduct are inscribed with personal stories from community members describing their connection with the night sky. I did not see the inscriptions.

the little red string is a group of paper lanterns illuminating the archway under the old Reading Railroad viaduct at Carlton Street, between 11th and 12th. I bumped into the artists, Jonathan and Kimberly Stemler, the night I was trying to follow my Chinatown In/flux map, and they drove me to their installation. The lanterns celebrate the expansion of Chinatown north of Vine Street. This is right across the street from Where Vox, Copy and Tiger Strikes Asteroid galleries are located, but I didn’t notice the lights when I walked out the door there Friday night. I must have been studying my toes, because it is visible, and it does make the otherwise invisible archway of the viaduct have a noir presence at night. Hey, who doesn’t like lights? But I say, let’s get more of them and go for broke.

Just like Hironaka and the Stemler pieces are only good at night, the other two are really for daytime.

Chinatown Orange–one of the multi-part pieces–is first of all a parking lot at 10th and Vine coated with Glidden’s Chinatown Orange paint. There’s related work at the AAI. Since I was walking around at night, I couldn’t see the orange paint on the lot, nor was I able to find any signs in the dark.

I learned this from Sean Stoops, who oversaw the installation process:

We have a temp. sign on the fence west of the lot. The outdoor
painting was completed last weekend as an art happening. We are negotiating with the lot owners about more permanent signage thru August.

The artists, Kikuchi + Liu, are marking the site where the future Chinatown Community Center will rise. Unless you’re in on that and understand the paint color choice, the work is quite mysterious.

The piece Visionary Sightseeing Binoculars, by Rebecca Hackemann, overlooks the Vine Street Expressway at 10th and 12th streets (that’s two versions of the binoculars). Instead of viewing the Statue of Liberty when you gaze in, by turning a crank you get to see small stereoscopic drawings by children as well as other kinds of images of Chinatown past and plans envisioning Chinatown future (and specifically the expressway). I always like interactive cranks and stereoscopes, and I like that I could almost see well enough even at night, thanks to the lights of the cars on the expressway. However,  drawings are a come-down from the promise of  a telescopic view.

So seeing all four pieces at once is impossible, but it’s up until Aug. 2, 2009, so you have plenty of time to go once by day, once by night. For a map of where to find the art, stop by Asian Arts Initiative.

FRIDAY, April 3

Man’s best art opening

Andrew Pinkham's doggie portrait of Rick De Coyte's aging best friend, at Silicon Gallery Friday along with lots of other pups..

Andrew Pinkham’s Best of Show monumental doggy portraits opens at Silicon Gallery. We hear there will be live greyhounds at the opening. Woof woof. [The corrected date for the greyhounds is May 1 (see comment below]).
Silicon Gallery
139 N 3rd Street

Chinatown In/flux

Nadia Hironaka, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. Part of Chinatown Influx. Here's what Nadia says about her piece: "The piece is inspired by P'U Sung-Ling's collection of stories (with the same title) from the Quing Dynasty. The loop is a playful interpretation about the shifting nature of contemporary asian-american culture. As for the location, the piece will be shown in the evening on the front windows of AAI."

Grand opening celebration for Asian Arts Initiative‘s new home and for the opening of Chinatown In/flux, featuring projects sprinkled throughout the Chinatown neighborhood of site-specific work by Rebecca Hackeman, Nadia Hironaka, Kikuchi + Liu, Kimberly and Jonathan Stemler. Nadia’s video is on the front windows, evenings, at the new space.
Asian Arts Initiative
1219 Vine Street, Philadelphia
(215)557-0455
5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Opening reception for Chinatown In/flux exhibition

Watch out city hall!!!

Annette Monnier, new portrait in process of City Hall. The final version will be at Copy Gallery Friday.

Annette Monnier has her eyes on politics central. It’s at Copy Gallery
319 N. 11th St, 3rd floor.
Opening reception, 7 to 11 p.m.
on view through the end of the month by appointment: annettemonnier@gmail.com

SATURDAY, April 4

Un-Nature

This is a random image by Bonnie Brenda Scott who is in Un-Nature. We chose it because it looks like Un-Nature to us.

We don’t know what unnature is, but we’re thinking no deer!!!

We do know it’s a four person show featuring Adam Bush, Nathaniel Butler, Katie Elia, and Bonnie Brenda Scott, curated by Alex Gartelmann, opens at Little Berlin. The show is a group effort, presented in unison with My House Gallery and Philadelphia Sculptors.

We’ve been told a catalog is in the works!!! This should be a good one.
Little Berlin
119 West Montgomery
6 – 11 PM Opening Reception
Saturdays 12-5pm or by appointment
(610) 308 0579

Victory for Tyler

Kevin Finklea's juicy sculptures on the card for Victory for Tyler

Our three favorite graces Joe Di Giuseppe, Chris Golas and Josh Kerner (the FLUXspace crew) will perform acts of derring-do for two hours at the opening of this Tyler alumni sculpture show, Victory for Tyler: Sculpture 2009, at the Ice Box in the Crane Arts building. They are part of an outstanding list of 29 contributers. Here’s who:

Bob Gonzales, B.F.A., 2006
Virginia Tyler, M.F.A., 1988
Austin Lee, B.F.A., 2006
Joseph DiGiuseppe, B.F.A., 2006
Chris Golas, B.F.A., 2006
Josh Kerner, B.F.A., 2006
Susanna Gieske, B.F.A., 2007
Danial Nord, B.F.A., 1983
Gene Hracho, M.F.A., 1988
Timothy Belknap, M.F.A., 2006
John J. Donnelly, B.F.A., 1981
Peter Kreider, M.F.A., 2004
Wendy DesChene, M.F.A., 2004
Laura Hricko, B.F.A., 2007
Shawn Dougherty, B.F.A., 2002
Kevin Finklea, B.A., 1982
Francine Lomazoff Gintoff, B.F.A., 1976
Sarah O’Donnell, B.F.A., 2008
Shelby Donnelly, M.F.A., 2008
Erica Ando, M.F.A., 1992
Gregory Labold, B.F.A., 2005
Gina Occhiogrosso, B.F.A., 1989
Kim Kamens, B.F.A., 1998
Michael Asente, M.F.A., 1984
Ianthe Jackson,  M.F.A., 2005
John Gintoff, M.F.A., 1977
Lori Costenbader-Coan, B.F.A., 1997
Roxana Perez-Mendez, M.F.A, 2002
Candy DePew, M.F.A., 1997

The brew will be provided by Victory Brewing, a sponsor of the event. Victory is run by a Tyler alum.
Ice Box
1400 N. American Street,
6-8 p.m. opening reception

More happenings this week

Also other things going on this week include on Wednesday– window displays by artists on South Street, opening Wednesday night, 5-8 p.m; a symposium on contemporary Chinese art at Drexel, also Wednesday, along with an exhibit. And this is the beginning of student show season This week, look for youngies and goodies at Moore College, Sande Webster (UArts is there from April 3 to April 5), Penn and Temple Gallery. While you’re up at Temple, check out Print Liberation at the Produce Gallery (lower level at Tyler’s new building–they’re also giving a talk Wednesday). And here’s the cherry on the top–Patrick Dougherty is working on some of his major twiggy birds nests sculptures at the Morris Arboretum. See him in action now through April 18. The pieces will last for a couple of years.

Openings are de rigueur in the art world. But this spring grand openings trump all as Tyler School of Art launches its flagship space, Temple Gallery, in the school’s new building at 12th and Norris streets in North Philadelphia.

Sheryl Conkelton, Director, Temple Gallery, seen at the grand opening last week.

Temple Gallery’s large space—with solid concrete under beautiful wood floors—is an L-shaped, high-ceilinged, state-of-the-art gallery and four times bigger than their previous digs on Third Street, says Gallery Director Sheryl Conkelton. It’s a unique platform to showcase bold contemporary art.

First up at the gallery are the Tyler MFA thesis shows with work by graduating artists in glass, painting, sculpture, fibers, printmaking and photography. Stay tuned for what comes next—programming is not locked down yet, though one show is certain. The artists who win the Wolgin Prize, Temple’s new $150,000 international art award, will show their work in the space next fall.

Nadia Hironaka, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. Part of Chinatown Influx. Here's what Nadia says about her piece: "The piece is inspired by P'U Sung-Ling's collection of stories (with the same title) from the Quing Dynasty. The loop is a playful interpretation about the shifting nature of contemporary asian-american culture. As for the location, the piece will be shown in the evening on the front windows of AAI."

A few blocks away at 12th and Vine streets, Asian Arts Initiative—displaced by the Convention Center expansion—opens its new home with a weekend of art activities on Fri., April 3 and Sat., April 4. Events include an open house, free live performances and the kickoff of four temporary art projects sited in public locations in the neighborhood all dealing with the future of Chinatown.

Tristin Lowe, Felt Chair. Image courtesy Fleisher-Ollman Gallery. The artist has been working in felt for a few years. This is one sample.

It’s not a grand opening but starting Fri., May 1, the Fabric Workshop and Museum will have some grand new art on display by Tristin Lowe, Virgil Marti, Peter Rose and Ryan Trecartin—all known for inspired art that comments on contemporary issues. Lowe’s Mocha Dick—a life-sized inflatable of a 50-foot albino sperm whale out of white felt—is P.T. Barnum big and Captain Ahab odd, a great combination.

Trecartin, master of candy-colored teen angst video “dramedies,” will debut an as-yet-untitled video filmed in Miami. Marti’s new flocked wallpaper and Rose’s new video triptych round out what’s shaping up to be a great show. One question: They couldn’t have found a lady to include?

Quay Brothers, Street of Crocodiles, at Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery

Speaking of guys, April is a big month for two guys talking about their art and receiving awards. On Wed., April 1, the experimental filmmakers (and identical twins) the Quay Brothers receive the Silver Star Award from their alma mater University of the Arts, and on Fri., April 3, they receive the Vision Award in Filmmaking from the University and the Philadelphia Film Festival and CineFest 09 which is showcasing their films. An exhibit of the Quays’ miniature film sets is at the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery until Thurs., April 9. The Quays will be speaking several times during CineFest week.

 

Zoe Strauss, Toast from Window. New photo for this year's Under I-95 exhibition May 3.

 

On the distaff side, don’t miss Zoe Strauss’ “Under I-95” exhibit and sale of her beautiful and gut-wrenching photos on Sun., May 3. Strauss will be closing down this 10-year project in two years so if you haven’t partaken of the I-95 experience, get down there. The artist is already anointed as a contemporary giant of street photography and she’s often said that this exhibit is the work she’s most proud of.

Mentioned in this post:
Spring show
Through summer. Fabric Workshop and Museum, 1214 Arch St. 215.561.8888.

MFA exhibitions
Through May 9. Temple Gallery. 2001 N. 13th St. 215.777.9139. 

Chinatown InFlux
April 3-Aug. 2. Opening reception: Fri., April 3, 5:30pm. 1219 Vine St. and locations in Chinatown. 215.557.0455. 

Dormitorium: Quay Brothers
Through April 9. Closing reception: April 3, 5–8pm. Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, 333 S. Broad St. 215.717.6480. 

Vision Awards Ceremony
Fri., April 3, 9:15pm. Prince Music Theatre, 1412 Chestnut St. 215.569.9700. 

Zoe Strauss, Under I-95
Sun., May 3, 1-4 p.m. Front and Mifflin sts.

 

This from Matthew Suib and Nadia Hironaka:

If you’re in LA or NYC in the next week, we hope you’ll be able to check out our most recent projects–The Soft Epic or: Savages of the Pacific West, and Black Hole.

The Soft Epic opens at Telic Arts Exchange in LA’s Chinatown this coming Saturday, July 26th, and runs through late August. Helen Cahng has organized the exhibition and related public programs at the gallery scheduled during the course of the show.

Black Hole will be shown as part of a one-night screening curated by Christopher Lew (PS1) and others at Artists Space in NYC next Wednesday, July 30th at 6 and 7pm. Because the work is being presented as part of a video program, it won’t be shown here in its installation format. Nadia and I will be in Japan on the screening date, so we won’t see you there, but hope you can make it regardless.

Here are links to a couple of posts on Soft Epic: Roberta’s post and Andrea’s post.
Here’s a link to a post on Black Hole.

I caught Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib‘s Soft Epic video projection at the Icebox on the last day of its run and want to add my appreciation here to what Andrea wrote previously.

Deep into a seemingly endless war and at a time of severe ecological peril, The Soft Epic rides both those waves of anxiety and yet, with its sweep of imagery and magical sound, the work has beauty as well.