January 5, 2017 by Hammam Aldouri

With this constant flux of activity, the capacity to view, look, and reflect about art is rendered significantly more difficult. The upshot to the universalization of endless artistic productivity is a certain prohibition against thinking about the art made and displayed. What matters is not what the art means or does—a judgement that often takes time to work out—but participation as a free-falling spectator in the mad flux of artistic creation.

January 3, 2017 by Roberta

Congratulations-Phillip Adams and Rabble Rousers; John Berger passes, Roman Blazic writes, West Collection, The Rail Park, and many great opportunities!

Greg Labold and the Rabble Rousers Mummer’s brigade were featured in a positive and laudatory Philly.com story on Philly.com that ran before the parade on Jan. 1. Then, after the parade, the Rabble Rousers got roundly scolded on Philly.com for their poop emoji skit. I’d call that a true success story. Congratulations, Rabble Rousers!

December 31, 2016 by Andrea Kirsh

Forging Mexican Modernism – Paint the Revolution at the PMA

The exhibition clearly demonstrates that the widely-known work of Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, Tamayo, and, in recent decades, Frida Kahlo, is but a small spectrum of a much broader artistic scene. It brings up topics such as the tension between work intended for private viewing versus the obviously propagandistic intent of work meant to be seen in public–both murals and inexpensive prints; the Mexican response to European modernism; European, Soviet, and U.S. responses to Mexican art; the tension between a cosmopolitan artistic language which reflects international ideas about modernity versus a local style that draws upon indigenous art, and with that, the ongoing attention in Mexican art to the spectrum of racial difference.

December 30, 2016 by Matthew Rose

A year in the country – Jamie Newton’s natural constructions

This past year, Jamie Newton has been making ephemeral sculptures, captured solely in photographs which are then uploaded to his Instagram account, concretewheels. His project is a year-long visual poetic diary of constructions created from nature’s golden crumbs.

December 29, 2016 by Artblog

The 2016 Liberta Awards!

2016 was a standard year by many measures, with one major difference (ahem you know what that is). Regime change is coming and like most in the art community, Artblog is greeting Jan. 20 with trepidation — and resolve. We are re-committing ourselves to our core mission of diversity — to write about and celebrate the excellence of artists, who are routinely shunned by the mainstream media. The task seems more urgent now than ever.

December 27, 2016 by Neil Marcello

Monumental abstraction – Paul Fabozzi at Seraphin Gallery

Fabozzi’s paintings pulsate with visual energy. He has selected a series of monuments, seeking to connect the viewer to the role and function of each one. From the British Museum in London, to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, each edifice’s original three dimensional representation seems to have dissolved into a complex pattern and two dimensional spatial play of geometric shapes, hard-edged lines, and layers of color on the canvas.

December 21, 2016 by Dave Kyu

Art Commission Check-In

These two proposals show two radically different strategies to artistically approach the Ben Franklin Parkway. For Richard Serra, it’s the global reputation of the artist that makes his work a natural fit for this global stage. For the Holocaust Memorial, a park designed pluralistically, it’s the magnitude of the event it commemorates that elevates this design for this stage. And both proposals are now on track to land on the Parkway in the next year.

December 20, 2016 by Roberta

Congratulations Barbara Bullock + Andrea Kirsh on two NJ shows! Two great short videos – Eli Laban and Temple Contemporary, Plus, new photos by Sam Moskovitz of Warhol in Philadelphia, Plus, good opportunities at Bartrams and free tuition for Rutgers-Camden creative writing MFA’s

Sharp-Tongued Figuration brings together a group of artists who employ recognizable imagery as a means of commenting on contemporary culture, rather than a means of recording what they see. We are very proud of the show curated by our senior writer and resident feminist, Andrea Kirsh – Sharp-Tongued Figuration (January 17 – April 21, 2017) at the Stedman Gallery, Rutgers, Camden…Artists are Sue Coe, Nell Painter, Mickalene Thomas, Kukuli Velarde and Sandy Winters.