As we grapple with harrowing images emerging daily from California’s still-raging wildfires, Michael Lieberman turns his attentions towards a local exhibition which addresses humanity’s devastating impact on the land. Not only does “Nature’s Nation — American Art and Environment,” on view through January 6, 2019 at the Princeton University Art Museum, look back at how the visual arts have historically shaped Americans’ understanding of our environment, but it also explores how artists can impact the current climate crisis.
Read MoreOlivia Jia doesn’t just write about art, she is also a painter in her own right who is deeply curious about the fate of contemporary painting and its potential to tell new stories. Here she tells us about a painter and University of the Arts alum, Stephen W. Evans, whose works confound the deeply-rooted nationalism of the American landscape tradition. If there was ever a time to rethink our relationship to history and the land, that time is now!
Read MoreAndrea Kirsh pens an appreciation of Make Me a Summary of the World, Indian-American artist Rina Banerjee’s solo show currently up at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Densely layered in materials and meaning, this exhibition addresses the legacy of colonialism and the transnational nature of the contemporary art world through sensuous textures and bright colors. Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World is on view through March 31, 2019.
Read MoreJanyce Glasper offers a poetic reflection of John Dowell’s current exhibition at the African American Museum of Philadelphia, Cotton: The Soft, Dangerous Beauty of the Past. On view through January 21, 2019, this installation of large-scale prints and medium-format digital collages explores slavery, not as a particularly southern phenomenon, but as an institution that haunts our nation from Alabama from Wall Street. What’s more, Dowell uses the symbolic force of cotton to carve out a space for personal reflection and collective celebration.
Read MoreArtblog’s newest contributor is our Content Manager, Morgan Nitz! Here she visits The Edge of Precarity, a group show which opened October 27 at Little Berlin and which takes on the value of creative labor and the struggle to stay afloat in our post-recession economy.
Read MoreOn view at the Museum of Modern Art through January 1, 2019, Bodys Isek Kingelez: City Dreams is a comprehensive survey featuring the recently-deceased artist’s “extreme maquettes” — sculptural cityscapes rendered in bold geometries, jubilant hues. Here Katerina Lanfranco fills us in on Kingelez’s unorthodox use of materials and his utopian vision for the future.
Read MoreMichael previews the upcoming documentary, “The Price of Everything,” and calls it a voyeur’s delight for those interested in the art market’s high rollers and art stars. Hot shot artist Jeff Koons gets a lot of screen time, if you’re into him, balanced with some Jerry Saltz and Larry Poons, who speaks about artists losing their souls to the marketplace. The film screens at the Prince Theater starting Nov. 2 and will be on HBO Nov. 12.
Read MoreDeborah Krieger takes a trip to Rowan University Art Gallery to view Heather Ujiie’s current installation of large-scale digital prints and elaborate sculptural objects. Terra Incognita, with its intense color palette and diverse aesthetic influences, explores sexual identity in relation to a range of both natural and spiritual forces. Catch it before it closes on November 17, 2018.
Read MoreThe group exhibition, “Making a Difference: Social and Political Activism in Clay,” causes our reviewer to ponder the deeper meaning behind the words in the show’s title and to weigh in on how art can or cannot be an effective tool to spark societal change. This provocative exhibit is at The Clay Studio through Nov. 17, 2018, so run over and see it.
Read MoreAndrea calls the humanist sculptural works of Rachel Whiteread, powerful, poignant and accessible without gimmicks. She praises the sculpture, cast from domestic objects as big as a house and small as a hot water bottle, which evoke absent bodies.
Read MoreLogan Cryer walks us through Lane Speidel’s elaborate and deeply personal show, “Don’t Miss Me.” Get some nonlinear healing and some treasure-trash before it closes on October 20th.
Read MoreNew Artblog contributor, Sydd Cox takes in the retrospective of Ree Morton’s playful body of work, on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art through December 23, 2018. “The Plant That Heals May Also Poison” includes sculptures and installation works from Morton’s brief but fruitful career infusing post-minimalism with idiosyncratic material riffs on the maternal.
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Support for Artblog has been provided by The Philadelphia Cultural Fund.