Ilana Napoli

June 3, 2020 by Ilana Napoli

Artists of ‘Yes In My Front Yard’ (YIMFY) on future of the arts post-COVID-19

In part two of this two-part essay on ‘Yes in My Front Yard” (YIMFY), a public installation in West Philly, Ilana Napoli speaks with curators and artists Daniel Tucker, Emily Bunker, Li Sumpter and Lucia Thomé about the flaws of the current arts infrastructure and reimagining the future post-COVID-19.

May 26, 2020 by Ilana Napoli

‘Yes In My Front Yard,’ West Philadelphia’s stimulus check-funded public installation

Ilana Napoli speaks with Daniel Tucker and Emily Bunker and pens a thoughtful feature about their public art installation “Yes in My Front Yard,” which features digital works by nine local artists printed and displayed on lawn signs in West Philadelphia.

June 17, 2019 by Ilana Napoli

Artist and activist Lise Soskolne of W.A.G.E makes her invisible art practice visible

Ilana Napoli reviews “The Work,” a two-part solo show by artist/activist Lise Soskolne at Baruch College’s Sidney Mishkin Gallery to June 20, 2019.

March 22, 2019 by Ilana Napoli

Studio BE, love letter to people of post-Katrina New Orleans, by B-Mike Odums

Ilana 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.

February 18, 2019 by Ilana Napoli

Edison Price Lighting’s art and industry program has positive impacts on artists and factory workers

Ilana Napoli revisits the Edison Price Lighting factory in Queens for the second year in a row to see the exhibition at the company’s gallery space, with art made by artists from upcycled materials from the factory. She applauds the art and industry program and notes that it positively impacts the artists in residence as well as the factory workers, who are very interested in the art program and set aside interesting left-over materials for the artists to use in creating new art.

February 9, 2018 by Ilana Napoli

REvisioning the fate of junk at Edison Price Lighting Gallery

Ilana visits a gallery above a lighting factory and finds beauty and meaning in works using upcycled materials from the factory scrap bins. The big group show has everything from abstract pieces to photos of “fashion” made from leftover metals and, of course, works that use electrical circuits and lights.

November 26, 2017 by Ilana Napoli

Sue Coe and Käthe Kollwitz’s political art in sisterly solidarity at Galerie St. Etienne, New York

Ilana’s trip to Galerie St. Etienne brings her face to face with political art by Käthe Kollwitz and Sue Coe, including several works made by Coe 30 years ago that cause her to ruminate on today’s identity politics and the question of who owns the right to depict another’s pain. It’s a good read.

October 27, 2017 by Ilana Napoli

The Politics of Cartooning for the New Yorker

Artblog contributor, Ilana Napoli, writes about the onstage dialogue she saw in October between political cartoonist Barry Blitt and New Yorker’s legendary art director Françoise Mouly as part of the 2017 New Yorker Festival. The two have worked together since 1994, and there was quite an oeuvre of Blitt’s covers to show. Ilana highlights some of the topics that Blitt and Mouly discuss such as art, politics, and the decision-making for cover art.

October 9, 2017 by Ilana Napoli

Tomás Saraceno creates a universe from spider webs

Ilana visited Argentina recently, where she was fortunate to run into a cosmically-focused exhibit in Buenos Aires by Tomás Saraceno, whose unique architecture and science-researched installations were a surprise and a delight.

August 13, 2017 by Ilana Napoli

Under-Song for a Cipher, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s idyllic imagined world at the New Museum

Ilana reviews the larger than life oil paintings of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye currently on view at the New Museum. Considering how Yiadom-Boakye’s work is in close dialogue with historical European portraiture, Ilana tells us more about her inspiration, and how she came to choose her subjects.

July 17, 2017 by Ilana Napoli

Belkis Ayón at Museo Del Barrio

Ilana Napoli reviews the posthumous exhibition of Cuban artist, Belkis Ayón. Her large scale collography prints are like visual narratives, which Napoli writes, “touches on three important elements of Afro-Cuban (and generally Afro-Latinx) life.” There is rich content to Ayón’s body of work that Napoli highlights in a few of her favorite pieces.

June 28, 2017 by Ilana Napoli

Lost & Found brings activism to the classroom and beyond through sculpture

A collaborative project between local artist Sinéad Cahill and the Albert M. Greenfield School, Narrative as Soft Sculpture focuses on students, schools, and activism in and beyond the classroom. Ilana reports.

May 12, 2017 by Ilana Napoli

Poems inspired by Michelle Angela Ortiz’s installation, Quizás Mañana, at Taller Puertorriqueño

People got connected with art at our recent Look/Draw/Write workshops. We are very happy to share their responses written about the art of Michelle Angela Ortiz.

May 8, 2017 by Ilana Napoli

Lenka Clayton brings wit, humor, and a sharp critical voice to the Fabric Workshop and Museum

Playful and serious at the same time, Lenka Clayton’s Object Temporarily Removed at the Fabric Workshop and Museum raises important questions about art’s audiences and its value. Inspired by Constantin Brancusi’s “Sculpture for the Blind,” Clayton asks, what if this sculpture were really made by the blind? And what makes Brancusi so special if other artists at the same time were making similar work?