Much like Philadelphia, Prague is a city known for its rich tradition of public artworks. Here Artblog’s Paris correspondent, Matthew Rose, takes a trip to the Czech Republic’s bustling capital to tour its monuments, murals and statuary. While some works seem tailor made for the social media age, for Rose the city’s history of social and political turmoil looms large.
Read MoreArtblog’s Paris correspondent, Matthew Rose, takes a trip to Florence and visits the Basilica di Santa Croce. The site of a recent tragedy involving falling debris, this neo-gothic church is also notable as the final resting place of some of Europe’s greatest minds. Here Matthew sits with death, and with the basilica’s impressive collection of Christian art.
Read MoreArtblog’s Paris correspondent, Matthew Rose, is back with a review of Steven Rifkin’s retrospective at Les Douches La Galerie. Comprised of square format black and white photographs from the 1970s and 80s, this show reveals Rifkin as a master observer of form both natural and man-made. “Steven Rifkin: Au Fil du Temps” was on view January 20th – March 3rd, 2018.
Read MoreMatthew sees an exhibit documenting Raffy, a Paris pooch and his unusual streetside behavior, pooping on walls. The show causes reflections on the “poop art” phenomenon, a long-standing albeit small niche in the art world. Artist Zoé Duchesne, owner of Raffy and creator of the poop art documentation, is also a performance artist, with a series of forlorn, self-abnegating performances in public. Matthew says her work is an examination of the aesthetics of failure.
Read MoreMatthew interviews Serbian performance artist, Tanja Ostojic, whose recent project was a research and art mission to meet and work with all the women she could find who bore the same name. She met and worked with 33 Tanjas with her same last name. The Tanjas project raises issues about naming, identity, gender, war and migration.
Read MoreMatthew thinks about all the ways Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa has been meme’d, from Duchamp’s beatnik Mona with thin mustache and goatee, to Goth Mona Lisa to “Hitler” Mona Lisa (!). Somehow, Leonardo’s most famous painting become the icon we love and love to skewer.
Read MoreMatthew encounters an unusual pop up exhibition in Paris that showcases bits and bobs from artists’ studios, a little bit like religious relics. These objects hold meaning for viewers, who can buy them for 100 euros each.
Read MoreMatthew spent time recently talking with an artist friend about the pros and cons of artists talking about their art. Based on the conversation, Matthew researched the 21st century’s go-to place to hear artists talk — podcasts! He uncovers some great places (ahem, including Artblog) to listen to the artists.
Read MoreMatthew writes about the wonderful “art show” you see in the underground walkways and along the platforms of the Paris Metro, with large scale posters from Paris’s 130 museums plastered throughout and making the experience a kind of art history lesson on the move.
Read MoreThis summer Matthew Rose while visiting friends in Brooklyn came upon the artist Susan Gardner who was walking around the front of her 1860 townhouse. Seeing the façade curiously encrusted with a jewel-like mosaic made of bits crockery, jewelry, toys and other materials, Matthew struck up a conversation with the artist about her “Mosaic House, a work of art now more than 15 years in the making.
Read MoreArtblog’s Matthew Rose features the artist Louise Millmann whose work is akin to that of Cindy Sherman and Dorothea Lange. Millmann discuses her fluid process of selecting costumes, and staging her photoshoots, which are “often based on a guest’s visit, an odd acquisition, or a fortuitous happenstance ” she says.
Read MoreIn this edition of Postcard from Paris, Matthew takes us to one of his recent travel destinations in Pilsen, Chicago. He met with print-partners Liz and Gabe to discuss the ins and outs of the printshop they opened in 2012 to edition print-based work with emphasis on the collaborations between artists and professional printmakers.
Read More
Support for Artblog has been provided by The Philadelphia Cultural Fund.