The Nicola Midnight St. Claire (temporarily The New, New Masses)

The gloriously quirky art publication The Nicola Midnight St. Claire held an auction in order to change the site’s name for a month. So if you go to the website looking for the St. Claire you will instead find The New, New Masses with a funny–but slippery–video message about the spirit of giving, consumerism, and internet freedom, plus some holiday “gifs” for everyone to enjoy. Macaulay Culkin, anyone?

The Masses (1914), followed by The New Masses, and now The New, New Masses

Madam chairwoman
After nine years in his role as Chair of the Museum’s Board of Trustees, H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest announced the Board’s election of Constance H. Williams as his successor. Williams, a former Democratic state senator who still is a political powerhouse, is an entrepreneur with a background in marketing, publishing, and public service. She was first elected to the Museum’s Board of Trustees in 2006. Lenfest will continue to act as an active trustee, joining Raymond G. Perelman as Emeritus Chair. We’ve got to be honest. This happened back in April. But we woke up to it yesterday.

ONWARD photographers announced

Project Basho once again has made a video to announce this year’s selected photographers for this year’s ONWARD show, ONWARD Compé 2012. Juror Todd Hido narrowed 2,434 submitted photographs down to a final selection of just 57 photographs from 50 photographers. This year was also the widest international participation, with submissions coming in from 25 countries. We recognize a few names like Sarah Moore, and we’re excited to see a load of Japanese names, so the show promises to be great. The opening will be Feb. 11 from 2 -4 PM.

Megawords and Zoe Strauss at PMA
Do you want to dance? We do. Zoe Strauss has the opening dance party for her show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Jan. 14 from 8 PM – 1 AM. Tickets at $8 and music will be provided by WXPN’s DJ David Dye. There will also be snacks and a cash bar. Also, from Jan. 21 through April zine-peddlers and publishers Megawords will be setting up shop at the PMA. Visitors to the space can write on the walls, converse, draw in sketch books, take photographs, make publications and browse their collection of books and magazines. The Megawords installation space is in the South Auditorium Gallery every Friday between noon and 6pm.

New Observations reawakens after 10-year slumber
After a 10-year dormancy, New Observations is back with the help of Artist Organized Art Inc. (a Massachusetts non-profit). They will provide a forum for self-organized artistic expression. If you’d like to help with their relaunch, check out their support page!

Is Drawing Dead?
Really? This is a question? Yale School of Architecture will be hosting a forum on traditional techniques in the age of the internet. The symposium begins on February 9 from 6:30–8:00 PM in Yale School of Architecture, Hastings Hall, in Paul Rudolph Hall.

Tyler MFA fundraising
The fundraising goals for Tyler School of Art’s MFA program have been met but that doesn’t mean you can’t help them out some more! Check out their Kickstarter to help them out.

Slingluff benefit for Penn Treaty Park

Penn Treaty Park

A group benefit show Jan. 7 from 6 – 9 PM, will raise money for Fishtown’s Penn Treaty Park. Slingluff Gallery is the organizer, and if you like art and public spaces, come out and show your support.

Fabric Workshop breaks attendance record
There has been a surge of record breaking going on these days (see also: Temple Gallery’s attendance quintuples). The Fabric Workshop and Museum has reported that its attendance for Nick Cave’s performance Let’s C pulled in an audience of nearly 800 people. This is surely a testament to the vibrant and dedicated Philly art lovers and community. Congratulations to the Fabric Workshop on its milestone!

OPPORTUNITIES

Art of the State, Pennsylvania’s annual juried art exhibition has opened its call for entries for 2012. You can find the application here but it must be submitted via snail mail. The deadline is Feb. 29.

Professors are called to nominate students or recent grads for an upcoming project in Portugal as part of the Neu New Festival.

Harpo Foundation will review proposals submitted by non-profit institutions and fiscal sponsors who seek support on behalf of under recognized visual artists. You can find more information on their grant page. The deadline is Feb. 1.

Here are a few public art opportunities available:
#1 – Tough Art Artist Residency Program is currently accepting applications for the summer of 2012. This program seeks to connect artists from across the spectrum of all the arts to the resources and visitors at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. The deadline is March 16.

#2 – The Bureau of Public Art in Lancaster seeks to commission an artist/team to create an original work of art that will be permanently installed outdoors and integrated in a renovated public park. Send digital portfolios and web links with “NEA/Sprite” in the subject line to jlustig@cityoflancasterpa.com. The deadline is Jan. 30.

#3 – NextFab Two is currently accepting applications for projects. They should have some physical, material component to them but otherwise the project is open-ended. Art, science, invention, or the amazing but inexplicable are all welcome. Visit the submission page to apply by Jan. 6.

ARTIST NEWS

Carol Cole, Steinway Mandala.

Carol Cole has her work featured on Inhabitat’s blog about green design.

A rendering of Peeples' proposed project at Lincoln Financial Field.

Sarah Peoples initially had her project “Bread & Circuses” approved for display at Lincoln Financial Field. The installation included 2,800 white balloons spelling out the words BREAD & CIRCUSES. According to an article in City Paper, the project ruffled some feathers at the Eagles camp, and they revoked her approval. She is currently seeking a new (and potentially better) venue for her artwork; last we heard, maybe Franklin Field.

Photo by Phil Jackson.

We already told you that Phil Jackson was moving to NYC, well here’s what he’s up to now: he was recently interviewed for We Are Wild and he is also part of an upcoming show at Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia entitled Dirt is Dirt.

That’s all folks! Have a good one.

Comedy Night @ PhilaMOCA
This Saturday, October 1, at 7:00 PM, PhilaMOCA will be the site of I LOVE MITCH HEDBERG: Art for the Late Great Comedian. A number of comedy acts (including comedy by Andrew Jeffrey Wright), refreshments, and artwork are on tap. Special guest Lynn Shawcroft will screen a video of unreleased Mitch Hedberg comedy footage.

Philadelphia Open Studio Tours open this weekend
Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (POST) is the largest tour of artist work spaces in the region and it starts this weekend, October 1-2, for studios WEST of Broad Street. On October 15-16 there will be tours of locations EAST of Broad Street. The tours are free and run from 12 – 6 PM. Of particular interest for photo enthusiasts is Light Room Photography Co-op at 1909 Wilcox Street.

Artlog city guides
Artlog, in partnership with Société Perrier just rolled out The Fall Art Guides, featuring listings of all the best shows and events from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, Berlin, London, and Paris. New York and LA already have their guides out, with more to be released soon. The real question is – where is Philadelphia’s guide?

Design Philadelphia guide books ready for kickoff

Guide books for Design Philadelphia are being distributed around the city, but they can’t reach everyone. If you want to lend a hand and help distribute some materials, pick up some guide books, posters, and postcards at their office at University of the Arts, 211 South Broad Street, room 1101, from 9am – 5pm, Monday – Friday. The festival kickoff is on October 13.

New gallery on Lancaster Avenue
There’s a new gallery down at 3820 Lancaster Avenue called Projects Gallery (that’s right, another Philly space named “Projects”). John Phillips and Carolyn Healy have a multimedia installation on display, along with work by other artists. Opening reception is today, Friday, September 30 from 5-9 PM.

Grounds for Sculpture adds new space

"Aerial Roots" by Steve Tobin.

New Jersey’s Grounds for Sculpture will open a 7-acre addition, “The Meadow,” on October 1 at 2 PM. With the addition, the Hamilton, NJ sculpture park and arboretum spans 42 acres in all. Featured work includes “Aerial Roots” by Steve Tobin.

24-Hour Comic Challenge
Atomic City Comics hosts the 24-Hour Comic Challenge on October 1 starting at 12 noon. A comic book can take up to three months for one person to produce, but six brave, local comic artists will attempt it in the span of a day! It should be quite the challenge, and it will be very interesting to see the results.

Nexus is not finished – it’s moving!
Formerly located in the Crane Arts Building at 1400 N. American Street, the rumors of Nexus closing are false. The true story is that they are moving. We will provide you with upcoming details when we get them.

PAFA’s Party on the Plaza and new installation

Griska in his "Grumman Greenhouse"

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts will be partying on the new Lenfest plaza this Saturday to celebrate the opening of the new public space. The program starts at noon and includes kid-friendly activities and free art activities until 5 PM. In the evening there will be an unveiling of the new Claes Oldenburg sculpture “Paint Torch”, as well as the unveiling of Jordan Griska’s Grumman Greenhouse installation, a de-comissioned Cold War-era plane that is a greenhouse.

Opportunities

Last call for Institute of Contemporary Art‘s juried open video call. Monday Oct. 3 is the last day to submit. The jury selects from the submissions Monday night. This is a great opportunity to get your work seen by ICA jurors and possibly shown at ICA in their video roundup. Send DVD, CV, and artist statement to: Open Video Call c/o ICA 118 S.36th Street Philadelphia, PA 19104.

Project Basho is seeking photography teachers to lead classes, weekend workshops, and private lessons at their studio. Also stay tuned for the announcement of the artists in ONWARD ’12, Basho’s annual photography competition.

Via WooLoo, Richmond, VA non-profit 1708 Gallery has a call for exhibition proposals.

Murray State University in Kentucky is seeking work that explores the role of new media in performance, photography, installation, and video for the juried exhibition “White Hot Gold“. artblog‘s Roberta is the juror! Deadline is October 28, and the entry fee is $30 for 5 entries.

Artist News

Jury Smith, ceramics professor at St. Joseph’s University, has two upcoming shows in New York. You can find the details for both here.

A work in progress by Judith Schaechter.

Judith Schaechter gives a lecture,”Surviving Your Creativity” at the MIT Glass Lab on October 5 at 6:30 PM.

Phil Jackson is moving to NYC in January with his girlfriend Leigh Metzler who will be at the New School for Social Research. Also moving is Mary Anne Friel who is leaving the Fabric Workshop for a professorship at RISD.

Chris Lawrence has a solo show in Portland, OR, at Appendix Project Space.

The bull snake Anthony Campuzano confronted. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Anthony Campuzano is in a show at Churner and Churner in New York that opens September 30. While at a residency at Ucross in Wyoming the urbanite Campuzano had a close encounter with a big bull snake when he ran it over with his bike. (Both the snake and Anthony are fine, he reports.)

Amir Lyles will be part of Philadelphia Open Studio Tours at the Mt. Airy Art Garage this weekend, October 1 and 2.

Emily Brown is part of a group show at the June Fitzpatrick Gallery in Portland, ME.

Diedra Krieger‘s Plastic Fantastic just made an appearance at Salisbury University in Maryland.

David Carrow has new work in a group show at the Grounds for Sculpture, opening October 15th.  Carrow made the metal door for Marginal Utility as part of Hadassa Goldvicht’s exhibition on view now at the gallery.

Former Philly artist Todd Gilens has made some pretty sweet bus wraps for the transit system in San Francisco.

From Woodmere Art Museum to the Print Center and places in between, Philadelphia celebrates the 170th year of photography this fall with exhibits that showcase the medium’s origins and point to the region’s strength in producing leaders in the field. Here’s a peek at two of the shows.

A Woman's Arm, 1978 Carol Taback (American, 1941 – 1980) Gelatin silver prints, 6 photo booth strips Overall: 7 7/8 x 9 1/2 inches Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of anonymous donor, 1980

Eight local artists who experimented with processes, techniques and subject matter are featured in Common Ground, a show of work from the 1960s and 70s.  Photography back then was just beginning to get credibility in galleries and museums and in art schools that began offering photography as a major.

Large scale prints are a hallmark of today’s photography but most of the works in Common Ground are small — and most are black and white since color photography was looked down on as less artistic. Regardless of format, Common Ground’s photos are uniformly human-focused; their ambiance upbeat, inquisitive and energetic.

Catherine Jensen’s experimental works from 1979 stand out for their colors and large format and for their radical mix of photography and sculpture.  Jensen transferred photographic images onto cloth via color xerography. She then stitched and stuffed her cloth images as 3D trompe l’oeil objects (a tea set; a table; a camera; some family pictures in frames).  In their domestic content, their “crafted-ness” and their playful use of trompe l’oeil, these works have an uncanny alliance with work by today’s young artists.

Schoolyard Graffiti, c. 1967-74 Will Brown (American, born 1937) Gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 inches. Collection of the artist, courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Other back to the future echoes include Carol Taback’s photo booth collages from the late 70s and Emmett Gowin’s psychologically-charged portraits of his wife’s family from 1969-70.  Taback — who had a photo booth in her studio — turned the human figure into abstract repeat patterns that prefigure Photoshop’s “mosaic” feature; Gowin’s intense portraits seem precursors of Zoe Strauss and Sarah Stolfa, both of whom strive for truth and confrontation in their portraits.

Street photography must include some grafitti and Will Brown’s shot of school yard grafitti from 1967 — names spelled out properly and nicknames like “Crazy” and “Smokey” — marks itself as from a kinder, gentler era rather than our own.  Ray Metzger, a magician of light and dark, turned 60s Philadelphia into eerie abstractions in his tiny photos.  Local photo leaders — and teachers — Will Larson, Sol Mednick and David Lebe round out the show.

Phil Jackson, Davis with deer.

Twenty-one young emerging photographers also focus on the human in Next: Emerging Philadelphia Photographers at Philadelphia Photo Arts Center.  What’s immediately different in “Next” is the color, the large size prints and in many cases the deadpan affect that evokes a been there done that world-weariness.  If earlier generations of photographers mirrored the exuberance of their times, today’s photographers record human uneasiness and depression.

Hannah Price, Twin Day

Jaime Alvarez’s “168_001 (Spain Rest Stop, outside of Leon)” for example, is a mystery.  A shot of a grassy hilltop on a sunny day features an electric pole in the foreground.  Is the pole the subject?  Is this an ironic comment on beauty?  Both snapshot-like and documentary, the photo guards its point of view.  Phil Jackson’s “Davis with deer, Upstate NY 2007” likewise cloaks its meaning.  A young man by the side of a country road stoops down to hold up the head of a dead deer.  The shot is operatic in content (loss of life; solidarity between young man and young deer).  Yet the photo is inscrutable.  Portraits by Hannah Price, Joshua Lanzara and Kyle Ferino deserve mention for their great empathy.

Next: Emerging Philadelphia Photographers, to November 29, Philadelphia Photo Art Center, 1400 N. American St., Suite 103, 215 232 5678.

Common Ground: Eight Philadelphia Photographers in the 1960s and 1970s, through Jan. 31, 2010. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th and Ben Franklin Parkway, 215

Kyle Ferino, Death of a Salesman, 2008, chromogenic print, 21 x 21 inches

Most of these photos depict ambiguous, uncomfortable scenarios of a damaged world. Kyle Ferino’s Death of a Salesman depicts a dishevelled, shoeless man in a suit under an overpass, draped like a river god. The scenario is a kind of netherworld glade, hidden from respectable eyes. That hidden world, a disreputable Eden, made me think of Jeff Wall. There’s a mix of magic, threat and myth–the powerful scariness of someone who has become an outsider. Or maybe the subject is nothing more than a homeless guy in a safe corner.

Xiomara Benavides, Don Hilario, 2009, archival inkjet print, 16.5 x 21.75 inches

Xiomara Benavides’ Don Hilario is filled with questions. Was this a photoshoot portrait with backdrop in which the edges of the backdrop show to exhibit the artifice? And what about the chalked words on the ground? Is this crazy? Is he crazy? Are these his words? Yet Don Hilario looks so dignified, even in his jeans, sitting on a flimsy garden chair in a garden with a phony backdrop. Is the garden his? If not, whose? Whose backdrop is it, anyway? The image brings up all the early 20th Century immigrant photo portraits,  with serious, dignified subjects posed in front of a pictorial backdrop. The color, the jeans, and the buildings peeking out from behind the backdrop are incontrovertible clues that this photo is not from a time past.

Felicia Perretti, Car Seat Fight, 2009, archival inkjet print, 20 x 20 inches

Snapshots may be the style of Felicia Perretti’s photos, but her on-the-fly photos are not exactly family vacations. Car Seat Fight, framed by a car window, shows a wailing child being roughly transported by a woman clearly irritated. It’s unclear who started the fight, and it’s unclear if the child is merely being moved or is about to catch hell on the side of the road. The view from inside the car suggests there’s a player in the scenario who is inside. The side of the road is a snatch of besmirched nature, a transitory world beyond the rules of orderly gardens and the home front. The photo becomes an emotionally fraught moral tale in which fairness and justice come under scrutiny.

Phil Jackson, Davis with Deer, Upstate NY 2007, 2007, Chromogenic print, 30 x 40

And speaking of roadside moral tales, Phil “Filthy” Jackson’s road kill photo with what I take to be a distraught Davis, may in fact be a hunter and his prey. Either way, Bambi is under threat from the human race. As in all these photos above, Eden is lost.

Daniel Traub, Tree, North West Philadelphia 2008, 2008, archival inkjet print, 20 x 24 inches

The Eden theme comes up in a couple of photos by Daniel Traub, but in Traub’s cause, Eden isn’t so much lost as aspired to. His Tree, North West Philadelphia 2008, is a scrappy survivor on a trash strewn rowhouse front lawn, nature’s toehold in an unwelcoming environment. Traub’s Two boys, North Philadelphia 2008, shows two slightly uncomfortable, vulnerable youths, one hiding behind his hoodie with his legs in a posturing wide stance, one with his hands clasped shyly in front and his legs close together, in front of a weedy array of growth. Their young good looks also suggest survival, as does the tree, and the weedy Eden behind them tells pretty much the same story. (Traub also has an exhibit up at the Art Institute of Philadelphia until Oct. 16).

Sarah Moore, Anterior Future, 2008, archival inkjet print, 32 x 26 inches

Formal issues also caught my eye–Sarah Moore’s surprising framing of shots–she splits a woman’s head in two in the diptych, Fall, which also is about textures of a scarf and the landscape–and a sort of Eden. Again using a surprising split to very different effect, Moore shoots the back window of a car in Anterior Future, putting the humans only partially in the picture, with their matching herringbone coats (are they friends or mother and daughter?).  The suggestion of time past/road travelled, out the back window, colors the story of the two women and their related coats.

Matthew Thomas Cianfrani, Contemplating charred hotel on cloudless day in Chaoyang District, 2009, archival inkjet print on rice paper, 20 x 60 inches

The rice paper surface of Matthew Thomas Cianfrani’s Contemplating charred hotel on cloudless day in Chaoyang District suggests China as much as the title does. The atmospheric photo, with its sense of disintegration and insubstantiality rings true to its message. The domineering form of the destroyed building is far from the gritty urban environments of the other cityscapes in this exhibit. The photo communicates its own sort of horror and regret.

Hannah Price, Twin Day, Fall 2008, archival inkjet print, 24 x 20 inches

Some of the smaller photos in the show are given short shrift, hung too close together.   But all in all, this is a terrific show and a great beginning. Others in the exhibit are Martin Buday, Christopher Gianunzio, Jaime Alvarez, Samantha Sheehan, Chad States, Tom Goodman, Danielle Bogenhagen, Gene Smirnov, Bob Myaing, Elyse Derosia, Hannah Price, DM Witman, Kelsey Johnson, and Joshua Lanzara. The exhibit was juried by Ariel Shanberg, executive director of the Center for Photography at Woodstock. Woodstock! …speaking of metaphors for Eden lost!

The exhibit is up to Nov. 29.

Friday, July 3

Sarah Gamble

Sarah Gamble–Unemployment Paintings
Bambi
1001 N. 2nd St., Suite 7 (the Piazza)
opening reception, 6-10 pm.
show runs til July 26

Andrew Prayzner, painting of a photo from his Mule series.

Manifest Destination:  Andrew Prayzner and William Crump
Tiger Strikes Asteroid
319A N. 11th St., 4F
opening reception, 6-10 pm
show runs to July 31

David Dunn film still

OPENING POSTPONED TO THE 10TH–

Summertime Sunrise Fun Club (working title)–Dave Dunn video installation
Copy Gallery
319A N. 11th St., 3rd floor
opening reception, 6-10 pm. OPENING CANCELLED!! POSTPONED TO THE 10TH
through July

Wednesday, July 8

Phil Jackson photo from Skatopia.

Phil Jackson, Ellie Brown and others at First Person Arts Arts Bank Salon
7:30-9:30 pm
Philadelphia Arts Bank
601 S. Broad Street
Admission: $8.
(Buy tickets here.   Seating is limited, and they typically sell out.)

Sometimes I’m an early adopter, and sometimes it takes me a while. For example, only last weekend did I make it to Project Basho — for the first time ever (it’s been open for about a year and a half). They’ve got a wonderful group photography exhibit on view and I met one of the artists in the show, Isaac Schell, at the space for a chat. Speaking of early adopters, here’s Libby’s post about Basho’s 2008 ONWARD show, which sounds like it too was a great show.

#30. Phil Jackson
“Davis with Deer, Upstate NY 2007” C-Print, 19.75″ x 27.5″

ONWARD. Basho’s annual juried emerging artists show, is HUGE. With 73 works by 69 artists and juried by Peter Barberie, Photography Curator at the PMA, the exhibit has great people photos; interesting landscapes and a few still lifes, from young photographers (and photographers young at heart) who know their photo history and are working in the traditions but making them their own. The show’s hung well, everything ranged in a line that starts in the entryway and moves down the corridor and into and around the big back room/digital lab. Works are hung so that they talk nicely with each other: Nudes and swimming scenes near each other in the flesh zone; odd landscape moments where the built and the natural come into contact in the man/nature zone…just two examples.

#19. Shane Butler
“Store Owner at Sunshine Florist” Inkjet Print, 13″ x 19″
(Honorable Mention)

Among the best people photos in the show are two by Sarah Kaufman, including Untitled Blue Smoke (top of the post) which catches a woman, nude, in such an unguarded natural moment you have to wonder how many minutes or shots it took to get to this level. Phil Jackson’s Davis with Deer, Upstate NY 2007 is also great.  It’s shocking for its subject matter (roadkill) and for the eerie allegiance between the serious young man who raises the deer’s head and the deer. The gesture of lifting of the animal’s head is an ambiguous and almost operatic gesture that shows the animal’s beauty and claims the animal beauty in all of us. Jackson, by the way, is an artist that Libby and I curated into our show, ID at Projects Gallery last year. It’s great to see him in this show.

Shane Butler‘s Store Owner at Sunshine Florist is so still and composed it seems to come right out of a design 101 on how to pose a subject for a portrait. What’s really great is the somber and unfriendly affect of the lady whose bright blue-green sweater exudes a pleasure in life that her face does not.

#42. Isaac Schell 
“Somewhere in Southwest Philadelphia, I know it was not a dream” Inkjet Print, 36″ x 31″ Edition 3 of 50