“Faces Places” is a road trip movie and a buddy movie made by French artist and activist, JR, and Belgian-born filmmaker, Agnes Varda. The ebullient, energetic 30-something (JR) and introverted 80-something (Varda) make an odd couple, traveling around rural France in JR’s photo studio on wheels, says Michael, in his review of the new documentary. But he also says the movie is beautifully executed, moving and inspirational. The easy camaraderie between the two intense artists is unexpected, and the country people and their stories, as they get photographed and their faces become part of JR’s public oeuvre, are totally heartwarming. Faces Places opens at the Ritz East on November 2.
Read MoreMichael spent time talking with Colette Fu about her massive pop-up book, now under construction at Philadelphia Photo Art Center. There’s a lot of history in the book, including Fu’s travels in China and and a lovely Chinese folktale, which is the take off point for the artist’s installation. Michael chronicles in detail.
Read MoreMichael gives us a glowing review of the 12th annual HUMP! film festival, which was composed of twenty-two amateur and DIY pornographic films. Featuring a diverse group of body types, races, genders, sexualities, and ages (all over 18), the group of films challenge commercial pornography. Michael says, “Many of the films are filled with tenderness, sincerity, vulnerability, even humor.”
Read MoreMichael gives a glowing review of “To My Unborn Child,” an imaginary elegy from visionary Black Panther Fred Hampton to his son. Premiering at the 2017 Fringe Festival, the play Michael says, “makes no attempt directly to connect Fred Hampton’s story to issues that beset the African American community today, but the connection is as obvious as it is heartbreaking and disturbing.”
Read MoreMichael checks out the new Tiger Strikes Asteroid space at Crane Arts, with a guest-curated group show he calls important for dealing with serious issues of our time, such as colonialism, police brutality and eco-devastation. The show’s up through Sept. 14, 2017. Make time to go.
Read MoreWith the country in state of high turmoil after recent neo-Nazi demonstrations in Charlottesville, VA, and the President’s apologia of the alt-right and attack on peaceful demonstrators, Michael Lieberman’s review of the documentary film, “Whose Streets?,” about Michael Brown’s murder by police in Ferguson, MO, adds relevance to the discussion about institutionalized racism.
Read MoreThe Woodmere Annual is a juried exhibition open to artists living within 50 miles of the Chestnut Hill art museum. In it’s 76th year, Woodmere Art Museum selected a timely theme, and they “invited artists to submit work that contends with the importance of art in an era of heightened political uncertainty.” The exhibit is juried by Harry Philbrick who is the Founding Director of Philadelphia Contemporary. Michael Lieberman tells us more.
Read MorePaul Cava’s Variations, sensual photo collages and prints at C. R. Ettinger Studio up until July 15, are filled with passion, romance and eroticism, and while they encapsulate a perhaps simpler past, Cava’s manipulations add a nice contemporary lens through which to consider human flesh, blood, desires and spirit. Michael calls the work gutsy, and we agree.
Read MoreMartin Puryear brings his work to the public in Philadelphia for the second time with Big Bling (2016), an enigmatic sculpture that invites speculation on the banks of the Schuylkill River.
Read MoreMichael reviews a film exploring the last years of a Japanese American grandfather’s life, filmed by his own granddaughter, which he only agreed to allow her to publish at the end of his life.
Read MoreMichael takes in Christopher Wood’s drawing-a-day project, Frequent Exceptions, on view at HOUSE Gallery. These subtle, resonant graphite drawings pull you into a meditative state of reflection on space, tone, and the passage of time, he says.
Read MoreA More Perfect Union? at the Woodmere Art Museum brings together the personal and the political, exploring the most intimate images of love and tenderness between individuals. In the current political climate, Michael says, these images, which include both gay and straight relationships, as well as interracial relationships, take on an important new urgency. This is an ambitious show, not to be missed!
Read MoreCurrently on view at Penn’s Arthur Ross Gallery, Willie Cole’s travelling show On Site contains the artist’s signature found-object sculpture, which transforms common domestic objects like irons, shoes, and bottles into powerful ensembles evoking ancient gods and contemporary consumer culture.
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