Interviews

June 29, 2017 by Artblog

Apiary Magazine, a beautiful publication alive with Philadelphia voices and art

In this podcast interview, Matt Kalasky talks with Amanda Buck and Alexa Smith, two of the editors of Apiary Magazine, a beautiful Philadelphia literary publication in print and online, started in 2009 and publishing a wide variety of community voices, in a variety of genres including poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Apiary also includes visual art.

June 11, 2017 by Artblog

From the Vault, Amze Emmons’ shaky cityscapes on Artblog Radio

In this From the Vault post from 2011, Libby and Roberta talk with Amze Emmons about his work creating pastel-hued dystopias that are magnetic and enigmatic. Emmons’s works are featured at the Gershman Y right now in a pairing with (also wonderful) work by Lynne Clibanoff. The show is up to August 27, 2017. Be sure to get over and see it.

June 9, 2017 by Artblog

From the vault, a conversation with Martha McDonald about site-specific performance

In this From the Vault post from 2006, Roberta interviews Martha McDonald about a site-specific performance at Bartram’s Garden. The artist has continued to perform in historically resonant spaces–this Sunday, June 11, McDonald will lead audience members through the 18th-century estate of Andalusia on the Delaware River as part of Headlong and the Philadelphia Contemporary’s The Quiet Circus: River Charette series (more info here: http://philadelphiacontemporary.org/river-charrettes-post/). She will explore the history of the site as a place of refuge during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793, inviting the audience to tune into its historical resonance and contemporary reality. Artblog will be there!

June 5, 2017 by Artblog

From the Vault, Pap Souleye Fall’s radical-ritual sewing on Artblog Radio

In this From the Vault post, listen to our 2016 audio podcast with Pap Souleye Fall, a 2017 UArts graduate, whose work is featured at the Galleries at Moore in the 5 into 1 exhibit, up til June 24, 2017. Pap’s performance- and sewing-based works are spiritual and community focused and great.

May 31, 2017 by Evan Paul Laudenslager

A decade in the making, Jeffrey Stockbridge wraps up Kensington Blues

Evan interviews Jeffrey Stockbridge about his moving and emotional Kensington Blues project, on view at Savery Gallery until June 2nd and available in book form as well.

May 26, 2017 by Roberta

Ron Klein’s cosmic chaos and order at Abington Art Center

Ron Klein is an artist, a sculptor who thinks big, travels the world to research and find materials, and whose works evoke the cosmos and thoughts about the place of humans in a bigger context. Ron’s got an installation at Abington Art Center now through June 23. Don’t miss it.

April 24, 2017 by Roberta

Paul Chan’s mischievous wordsmithing and hallucinatory art making at Morris Gallery

Roberta chats with Paul Chan about his installation, “Pillowsophia,” at PAFA’s Morris Gallery. The haunting piece is a hollow hooded figure made of black nylon placed high against a wall. In continuous motion from wind blown into its cavity by a powerful and noisy industrial fan, the piece is engineered and stitched in such a way that it dances what seems like an ecstatic death dance. A response to the times, which are filled with violence against black men, the piece is powerful and emotionally moving.

April 19, 2017 by Roberta

Barkley Hendricks died April 18, 2017

In honor of Barkley Hendricks, who died on Tuesday, April 18, 2017, we are running this interview we did with the artist in 2009, when Hendricks was having a solo museum exhibition at that time at his alma mater, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In the interview, he talks about painting, photography and jazz.

April 14, 2017 by Roberta

Grimaldi Baez is teacher, community art practitioner, printmaker, drawing machine maker, driven by commitment to social justice and hatred of poverty

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.

March 28, 2017 by Michael Lieberman and Roberta Fallon

Speaking out in 2017 and what arts leaders are doing

Michael 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.

March 24, 2017 by Ilana Napoli

Harmonic convergence of Tyler Wilkinson and Claes Gabriel at the University City Arts League

Works 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!

March 23, 2017 by Kitty Caparella

Magdalene Odundo, at The Clay Studio, channels ancient clay forms in beautiful, quirky works

An 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.

March 8, 2017 by Roberta

Checking in – Virgil Marti’s “Poufs” in Barnes’ Person of the Crowd

When he was approached by the Barnes Foundation to be involved in the Person of the Crowd project, about flânerie (the art of strolling, idling), Virgil Marti thought to himself, I’m not a flâneur, am I? But then he thought again about the idea of walking the streets and thinking and observing and walking some more, and he decided that yes, maybe he was a flâneur — of Fabric Row, the fabric and notions mecca on 4th Street in Queen Village.

March 4, 2017 by Roberta

Douglas Witmer’s World – “Neighbor: Who,” paintings, music, TSA, family, Green Line Cafes and more

Enjoy 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.