Our itinerary covered many miles — from Old City to the deepest reaches of Kensington, so we needed the car. We suppose you could bike it but we can’t. What we saw generally tickled us. The conversations were great and enlightening and below is a bunch of pictures with some running commentary. Pentimenti For the last couple summers, Pentimenti has mounted a group show based on an open call. Reaching outside her comfort zone and current stable of artists, gallerist Christine Pfister has again this year rounded up a lively show.
In the small open-call show Spotlights at Rebekah Templeton, the nine artists in the exhibit do a great job of making fresh work from the old tactic of making silk purses out of sows ears.
The chicken was a thing of beauty with a long speckled neck and banded body. She settled next to a small cement mountain. A blue neon light served as a negative sun. A photographer, Mike Kopena, there to document the installation, walked away from his tripod to the other end of the room to alert the two artists: The chicken had dropped a load on the floor–and was sitting in it. Aargh.
It may be a recession year, but 2010 saw a whole lot of good art stuff happening in Philadelphia. Here’s our annual awards roundup! 6 best shows of 2010 that we saw: Mika Rottenberg @Mary Boone Paul Outlaw and Jennifer Catron’s The Honeymooners @Grizzly Grizzly Value City @Little Berlin Failure to Show @Extra Extra Philagrafika @Temple Gallery (especially for Heavy Industries) Bauhaus @MoMA
The show at Jolie Laide on First Friday included the slick, decorative surfaces of Robert Horvath in the main space, in the alley the funky DIY installation by Tim Eads, and in the project space the mechanical torture rack of Heather Ramsdale.
First Friday was hotter than Hell in the galleries, and we complained a lot. Every person who asked us how our summer was going got the same answer–shitty, hot. But beyond weather, we have to say the art was hotter than we expected for the usually dead month of August. Performance and installation art was what we saw at Vox Populi, Bodega, Grizzly Grizzly, Tigers Strikes Asteroid and Marginal Utility.
It was a beautiful way to start the holiday weekend — with a people-filled opening. Two artists selected for the Bambi Biennial came from as far away as New Orleans and Oklahoma City. And both of them flew in for the opening. Hugh Meade, from Oklahoma City, was looking to meet artists with whom he could talk about exchanging shows between Philly and his city, which he says is full of great art and lots of artists. The other flyer, Alissa Eberle, recently moved to NOLA from New York, so she took a detour to the Big Apple before showing ... More » »
Some art begs to be touched. Other pieces want to be sat on, like Vito Acconci’s public-art benches at the airport and Scott Burton’s stone seating in Battery Park City. Now, along comes Tim Eads’ viewer-powered butter churn and toast maker—public art with an incentive. You, the viewer, sit on the piece and pedal, and as a reward for your hard work you eat warm toast with fresh butter.
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