In the gig economy many artists work multiple jobs. Grimaldi Baez works about seven, most of them in the community art realm, where he teaches and leads projects. For the Yabucoa, Puerto Rico-born, US-raised artist committed to idea of social justice, it makes for an exhausting but fulfilling life. Among other things in this wide-ranging interview, Grimaldi tell us how he relaxes.
Read MoreMichael Lieberman and Roberta talk with members of the arts community and report on what arts leaders are doing (or not doing) to respond to the Trump administration’s threats to the arts and to our citizens in general. In their conclusion they ask for the leaders to stand up and do more.
Read MoreWorks by two painters with different sensibilities and subjects but similar color choices have a great conversation at the University City Arts League. Ilana Napoli gets in on the conversation and tells you about it in her review. The show closes today (March 24) at 5PM. Run over and see it!
Read MoreAn artist travels the world studying ancient techniques and translates her knowledge into evocative contemporary works. Magdalene Odundo, OBE, is in residence at The Clay Studio until April, 2017. Artblog contributor, Kitty Caparella interviews the artist, who will speak about her work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Saturday, April 8, 2017.
Read MoreEnjoy this podcast with Douglas Witmer, in which he talks about his community project, “Neighbor Who,” and about his love of art and music, and his family’s roots in the Mennonite community in Lancaster County, where he grew up, although not, he says, driving around in a horse-drawn carriage.
Read MoreBetty Leacraft has been making art with fibers since she was young and learned how to sew from her maternal grandmother. Respectful of those early teachings and thirsty for learning about her ancestors, Betty has studied the fibers practices of her African ancestors and traveled to Ghana. She and her work have traveled to South Africa, as part of the Women of Color Quilters Network, to participate in an international exhibition there. Outside of the art school traditions and acting as what she calls a “cultural custodian,” the artist teaches workshops in fiber art in her West Philadelphia neighborhood and many other places in Philadelphia and has been recognized five times by the Leeway Foundation. Betty participated in the Mural Arts Program’s 2015 Neighborhood Time Exchange program and is part of the PMA’s Philadelphia Assembled project that will debut this Spring.
Read MoreRose Luardo is a performer, singer, comedy sketch artist and artist. You may have seen her with Andrew Jeffrey Wright in the New Dreamz or as a singer with Sweatheart, the alternative rock band. In her first solo exhibition at Practice Gallery (over Feb. 26), she has created a theatrical tableau with several big elements, one of which involves the viewers climbing into a psychedelic-patterned coffin in the middle of the gallery space.
Read MorePlaywright, performer, theater and dance critic, and co-founder of Curate This, Julius Ferraro is a multi-tasker par excellence. Julius has a new play, “Parrot Talk” that will be performed at DaVinci Art Alliance at the end of March. The show will take place over two weekends, a month apart, where the second staging may (or may not) look and feel very different than the first. The interview with Julius took place Feb. 17 and it’s 31-minutes long.
Read MoreQuietly building steam over the last four years, the community project, Philadelphia Assembled, will burst into the world this April, with actions, workshops, performances and art, in places all across the city, and will manifest itself in a big installation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Perelman Building this fall. Starting with a series of conversations with regular Philadelphians, the Dutch artist, Jeanne van Heeswijk, made connections and reached out to more and more people, in what sounds like a revolutionary movement to empower people and make their lives better.
Read MoreIn 1948, The New Yorker published a story about idyllic small town America where everyone knows everyone’s name. Each year those names are placed into a box and townspeople gather as one name is retrieved and the owner of that name is then publicly stoned to death. The story is The Lottery, and it remains Shirley Jackson’s masterpiece.
Read MoreIn Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s paintings, faces go from cartoony (masks, he says) to realistic. The subject is the body, the black male body, the black queer body. Jonathan, who got his MFA from PAFA in 2016, is soft-spoken but intense. Easy to talk with and direct in his answers, no BS. Four of his works are in the current Fleisher-Ollman exhibit, up to Jan. 28. Among other things in this conversation, Jonathan talks about his materials. His works are filled with materials-brio.
Read MoreSherman Fleming is a performance artist, who began performing in the 1970s after being introduced to “Happenings.” In graduate school he created a character, “RODFORCE,” that he performed as. He tells A.M. Weaver about the difficulty of finding performance role models since there were few black male performers. His art is public, and about issues of race and masculinity and is intentionally provocative.
Read MoreLanré, who is Yoruba, works with recycled materials and his art communicates a message about our fragile globe being overwhelmed by waste. His sculptures are labor intensive, and here in Philadelphia he worked with North Philadelphia community members in “sewing circles” to fabricate the individual components (he refers to them as “bricks” to build a skyscraper) that will go into his big new sculpture, which debuts on Friday. The piece is a memorial to loss, which is experienced in a personal way by all.
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