Ilana’s trip to Galerie St. Etienne brings her face to face with political art by Käthe Kollwitz and Sue Coe, including several works made by Coe 30 years ago that cause her to ruminate on today’s identity politics and the question of who owns the right to depict another’s pain. It’s a good read.
Read More“Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City” is a dense and fact-filled rumination on the character of the city of Philadelphia as reticent, wallflowerish, and modest — a hidden city. Written by self-titled urban observers Nathaniel Popkin and Peter Woodall, and including over one hundred stunning photographs by Joseph E.B. Elliott, of iconic architectural spaces and places in the city, the book has many charms (including the photos and the beautiful hardback cover). Michael says it’s a difficult read, however, as the narrative about the city’s character, written in densely-packed paragraphs with history references galore, is at times overwhelming.
Read MoreThe new biopic about Tom of Finland tells the story of a gay man in post-WWII Finland, who escaped his country’s and family’s rejection of his homosexuality by celebrating gay love in his erotic art. Censored for years, the art of the stylized and beefy gay men nonetheless circulated and “…played an important part in the movement towards gay liberation,” says Michael in his review. This movie, with brilliant acting, was produced in Finland, an appropriate reparation. It brings the important and under-known artist and his struggle and triumph to a new audience. Opening in Philadelphia at the Ritz Bourse, Nov. 24.
Read More“Faces Places” is a road trip movie and a buddy movie made by French artist and activist, JR, and Belgian-born filmmaker, Agnes Varda. The ebullient, energetic 30-something (JR) and introverted 80-something (Varda) make an odd couple, traveling around rural France in JR’s photo studio on wheels, says Michael, in his review of the new documentary. But he also says the movie is beautifully executed, moving and inspirational. The easy camaraderie between the two intense artists is unexpected, and the country people and their stories, as they get photographed and their faces become part of JR’s public oeuvre, are totally heartwarming. Faces Places opens at the Ritz East on November 2.
Read MoreArtblog contributor, Flora Ward reviews the first monographic exhibition of works by Wifredo Lam currently showing at the Lehigh University Art Galleries. A descendant of Cuban, Chinese and West African heritage, Lam’s artwork is often overlooked by other avant-garde painters. The exhibition marks the outcome of a steadfast commitment to bring his work to the United States, which ultimately took the Galleries over three decades.
Read MoreSome solo shows are like conversations, Roberta says. Some are like monologs and some are like mission statements. Astrid Bowlby’s “When the shadow is not your shadow” is a conversation that leans towards a mission statement, and the mission is communication, about important things like love, loss, death, redemption, and engagement in the world.
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