“The Appointment” is pulled from the headlines about women’s rights and abortion. With singing and dancing, and a definite point of view, Lightning Rod Special brings its liberal stance to life. Jessica Rizzo questions the one-sidedness of the piece but says when it hits, it is devastating. Final performances today, March 30 or tomorrow, March 31, 2019. Ticket links at the bottom of the post.
Read MoreMatt Singer explores the deep inner reaches and outer limits of Sarah Gamble’s highly focused and suggestive paintings, at Fleisher-Ollman Gallery, on view now through March 30, 2019. Ultimately, the works about consciousness and matter matter, says Singer.
Read MoreIlana Napoli visits New Orleans and sees an inspiring exhibition by Brandan “B-Mike” Odums (artist, filmmaker, educator, founder of 2-Cent, a youth arts education initiative for black children in the south). The solo show, called “Studio BE” is an ongoing project that is a tribute to black history/culture and resilience in post-Katrina New Orleans communities, opportunity.
Read MoreSamuel Brown reviews “Knowledge Lost” at Gallery 1201, by the artist collective “Difference Engine,” (John Bezark and Chris Baldys.) Brown says this interactive installation, which prompts you to write a eulogy out of deleted Wikipedia entires on an old computer, is especially impactful when experienced in solitude. The show closes Friday, Mar. 22, so catch it quick before it’s gone.
Read MoreFlora Ward visits BalletX’s Spring Series, reviews the three pieces in the program and articulates the show’s highlights and a few shortcomings with poetic descriptors. She applauds the shadowy finale, which left her speechless. This series ended on March 17th, 2019, so make sure to catch BalletX’s Summer Season, coming up July 10-21.
Read MoreSamuel Brown writes a thoughtful review of Joakim Ojanen’s recent show “Snake Pit” at The Hole NYC! Buy yourself a bus ticket and catch this quirky show– a world building installation filled with odd, anxious, cheeky, and playful characters– before April 14th, 2019!
Read MoreLogan Cryer writes an insightful appreciation of the Women’s Mobile Museum culminating exhibition. The group photography show by — and depicting — women involved in the year-long project at PPAC, has some great self-representation, and Logan concludes that photography is the best medium with which to examine issues of who is normally represented in art works and who is normally excluded. The exhibition is up at PPAC through March 30.
Read MoreIn her review of Cecilia Vicuña exhibition, Andrea Kirsh calls the works — little cobbled-together objects tacked to the walls or arrayed on a low platform on the floor — marvels. But these objects are not nothings to throw away but objects with magical shadows and poetic meanings, and their mystery delights.
Read MoreSam Brown sees a provocative show at Second State Press of printed posters made by the group “Prints for Protest.” He appreciates how many different ways artists in the show connect with protest issues alive today.
Read MoreLevi Bentley examines the complex melange of past, present and future in Alexis Pauline Gumbs’s book, “M Archive,” a work of speculative fiction that argues that Black feminist thought holds the “connection and knowledge and care of the earth and its people together through all time,” as Bentley says in their immersive review.
Read MoreWhat is the role of an artist when their old neighborhood is gentrified by art galleries and the neighborhood doesn’t want them there? This highly topical question, and others, are examined by Guadalupe Rosales in her splendid “Legends Never Die: A Collective Memory,” at Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College. Deborah Krieger writes a great personal take on the show.
Read MoreSarah Kim visits the exhibit at the William Way Center and views art whose materials defiantly separate it from traditional mainstream art. Altars made with found materials; altered photo-portraiture; drawing installations and collage, made by six artists, the art is metaphorical and symbolic of the state of being in flux, in transition. Kim’s powerful writing leads you through the exhibit, adding insightful commentary and insights. After considering this show about fluid states of identity, Kim concludes that ultimately, selfhood is the experience itself, and art, which is based in objecthood, can point the way.
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Support for Artblog has been provided by The Philadelphia Cultural Fund.
