Tina Plokarz takes a trip down to WIlmington to view Aaron Eliah Terry’s current exhibit at The Delaware Contemporary. Terry, who is a current member of Vox Populi, (as is Tina), makes collages, prints and sound installations that explore the relationship between music, visual culture and political activism from the 1960s and 70s until today. Get down to The Delaware quick before “Syncopated Samizdat” closes on January 10.
Read MoreLogan Cryer walks us through Lane Speidel’s elaborate and deeply personal show, “Don’t Miss Me.” Get some nonlinear healing and some treasure-trash before it closes on October 20th.
Read MoreNew Artblog contributor, JuWon Park, reviews “Face Tan/Night Swim,” the current solo show by Haiti-born, Virginia-based installation artist, Abigail Lucien. On view at Vox Populi through October 20, her show critiques popular images of the Caribbean as an exotic tourist haven through the subtle arrangement of artificial smells and man-made materials.
Read MorePhiladelphia welcomes a new arts administrator, collaborator, curator to town; PAFA welcomes a new Hudson River painting to its collection, and 40th St. A.I.R. wants you!
Read MoreIn anniversary news, Drexel is celebrating 125 years, with a show that displays some historic geeky and cool objects, like the Mac computers (shown above) that the school (and some of us geeks) used back in the day. More information at the show’s website. The exhibit is up now through March 19 at the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery.
Read MoreSomething about the design of the geodesic dome captures the imagination, and the evolution of the design demonstrates how certain abstractions transmogrify when released into the consciousness of a society. Johnson’s work shows us the jump from abstraction to a series of structures which seek to embody both utopian and utilitarian ideals. Geodesic domes may be an imperfect example, but Johnson’s project does capture something of the mystery surrounding the idea-to-object process, and suggests that the results are intriguingly impossible to predict.
Read MoreArtist-run spaces are quite creative when it comes to naming their spaces. Recall a small handful (in alphabetical order) in Philadelphia: Fjord, Grizzly Grizzly, Little Berlin, Lord Ludd, Napoleon, New Boone, Pterodactyl, Tiger Strikes Asteroid and Vox Populi. In light of these names, I think a naïve question needs to be posed: why do so many artist-run spaces organize their activities under the rubric of names that, on a formal level, have very little to do with artistic production?
Read MoreEach time I visited the space to see “Shotgun Inversion,” fellow onlookers seemed more or less unaware of or unconcerned by its status as a sculptural object. People leaned up against the wall or brushed their fingers against it as they passed, chain-link fence-style. A friend and I hung our arms over the waist-high partition on one side like it was a carnival booth. One visitor wondered aloud what she’d do if she dropped her phone on the other side of the structure.
Read MoreOn September 28, a group of approximately 30 people gathered in Vox Populi’s black box performance space to talk about art criticism, as part of the 2016 New Art Writing Challenge sponsored by Artblog and the St. Claire.
Read MoreOffering insights into the general state of art criticism in Philadelphia: its strengths, its weaknesses, its causes and effects, its defining characteristics, its responsibilities, its audiences, the New Art Writing Challenge 2016 Roundtable Discussion offers thoughtful discourse about something we talk about, worry over, and have opinions on, but only few of us do: art writing and reviewing.
Read MoreAs someone who knows and has seen these artists develop their practice, I find many artistic commonalities and formal intersections in the show. In the pairings on view in the multi-room space at Vox, the strongest is undoubtedly the collaboration between Alber and Caponera. PLAYDATE #3 is the work of five months of teamwork, planning, and camaraderie.
Read MoreThe safari began on the fourth floor with a visit to photographer Jeffrey Stockbridge’s gallery and Fine Art Print Shop. Stockbridge discussed several of his projects with the safari, including “Kensington Blues.” This on-going project documents the people of one of Philadelphia’s most impoverished and underserved communities.
Read MoreWhat are you doing Saturday, May 7, from 2PM-4PM? If you’re not shopping for Mothers Day presents, then join us on the next Art Safari to the alternative galleries! Get in on some lively conversations about art, see the exhibits and talk with the artists!
Read MoreOn March 4, a group of intrepid art students from the Barnes Foundation, led by artist John B. Gatti, took a tour of Vox Populi, Savery Gallery, and Space 1026. Stay tuned for more Art Safaris coming later this year.
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Support for Artblog has been provided by The Philadelphia Cultural Fund.