Tag Archive "rob-matthews"

Constellation Closet – Southern Cross at Grizzly Grizzly

by Dennis D’Alesandro Itʼs always nice to walk into a minimal, simply curated show. I hate walking into a show that looks jumbled with too many pieces, or pieces that are too big for the space, etc…Grizzly Grizzlyʼs current show, Southern Cross, is a great example of how to curate a well balanced, comfortable show without overwhelming the space, allowing you to engage with the work in an uncluttered and personal way.

Wrestling with chaos – Rob Matthews’ new work at Gallery Joe

Rob Matthews has always explored dualities in his subject matter — good and evil, faith and doubt, death and life, transgression and forgiveness.  Right now there’s a duality in his studio practice as well. Two bodies of work at Gallery Joe (one in ink and chalk and the other in graphite) are both in the service of the subject — chaos and its aftermath. Somewhere in the future, the artist says he hopes to weave the two methods together, perhaps using animation — or in large mural-sized works that he wants to do, stitching the whole together out of some ...

Beautiful inside, outside, anytime, anywhere–Beautiful Human at Haverford

Beautiful Human at Haverford College‘s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery is a small show with big thoughts that burble and pop as the works by five artists hold a conversation with each other about identity and imagination. The show’s points of view zoom from imaginative self-identificaton to masks and costumes as tribal and cultural signifiers to the tyranny of the genetic code. And those are just the starting points.

Polling day treasure hunt-Find Rob Matthews drawing on telephone pole

At around 8 pm last night I got an email from Rob Matthews alerting me to a new project of his–a street giveaway of two drawings from 2003. The artist had stapled the works (inside plastic envelopes for safe keeping) to telephone poles in his Northern Liberties neighborhood. Wow– a treasure hunt for a free Rob Matthews drawing!

Beautiful and not in New York

We dithered and waffled on what to see in our day trip to New York last week finally settling on shows in Chelsea and Soho that talked to our concerns about beauty in contemporary art. Beauty is back of course.  That’s nothing any observer of the scene has missed by now, with gorgeous public art by Anish Kapoor and the embrace of beauty in even the most tetchy conceptual realms (Kara Walker). But is it “beauty” or beauty? Is it something wry and ironic or a new push to aesthetic pleasure.   In a world of electronic and cyber-bombardment whose ...

Watch out New York, here comes Philly

Lots of Philadelphians heading to New York to install their works in galleries all over town. Here’s what we’re excited about. There’s probably more and let us know if we missed you. ROB MATTHEWS Rob MatthewsThe artist’s cousin (Dan), graphite on paper Rob Matthews has his solo debut in New York at Daniel Cooney. Show, titled Kindred, opens Sept. 11 and runs to Nov. 15. Matthews is a formidable Philadelphia blogger as well as being a fabulous artist who shows locally at Gallery Joe. ZOE STRAUSS Zoe Strauss’s new book, America. We love the American flag reference in the carpeted ...

Untitled forum at Jaskey a first

A drawing by Matt Fisher in The Drawing Narrative, the exhibit now up at Jenny Jaskey Gallery; photo taken by Robert Fallon In the middle of artist Matt Fisher‘s talk last week, I thought, gee, this is interesting. So I pulled out a pad and started taking notes. Matt was speaking at Untitled, Jenny Jaskey Gallery‘s brand new forum on contemporary art that she hopes will help “people to appreciate (and buy!) contemporary art (and works made locally!),” Jaskey wrote us in an email. This first event, organized around her current exhibit The Drawing Narrative, featured talks by Fisher, Pennsylvania ...

Weekly Update 1- Summer Roundup

This week’s Weekly has my summer art roundup. Below is the copy with some pictures. More photos at flickr. Philadelphia’s art scene doesn’t take summer vacation anymore. Miguel Luciano, interactive piece based on Puerto Rican saying that (loosely translated) means that children can be heard when hens pee (which they never do). Miguel Luciano’s identity-fueled works at Taller Puertorriqueño use exaggerated stereotypes to poke fun at bromides about Puerto Rican identity. Luciano, a New York-based artist, turns Taller’s galleries into an interactive playroom with sculptures (including a slot machine) that let people “play” with their own identities. Luciano’s work is ...

Blackhole, the movie

Charles Burns’ Black Hole is going to be made into a movie, and the director is… Check out this item in the Hollywood Reporter, passed along to us by none other than Rob Matthews, the king of Philly art gossip. Tracy Matthews, quoted by Rob after she read the item: “Charlie Burns?” A total Hollywood moment.

How Miami did for Philly

Great gossipy Philly sale Drawing by Randall Sellers, Richard Heller Gallery’s booth at Pulse Art Fair Miami. artblog got an email blast from artist Randall Sellers with his latest news: “Takashi Murakami bought two of my drawings at the Pulse Art Fair in Miami last weekend!!! “(Richard Heller, my longtime dealer in Santa Monica, had a few drawings downthere. Miller Block, my Boston gallery, also represented me at AQUA.)” Great gossipy Philly purchase Untitled 2007 (let them eat mussels), Rirkrit TiravanijaMirrors, gas tank, mussel shells, EDITION/SET OF: 4h: 90 x w: 90 x d: 90 cm / h: 35.4 x ...