A Celebration of the Visual Arts: Art Month Sydney

By stefan zebrowski-rubin | March 12, 2010

On a cool overcast March morning, I navigated the streets of the heavily residential Elizabeth Bay neighborhood to find Michael Reid’s gallery and talk to the owner about his role as co-creator (with Vasili Kaliman of Kaliman Gallery) of Art Month Sydney. The initiative, now in its first year, celebrates the visual arts in Sydney over the whole month of March, bringing together over 70 galleries, ARIs (Artist-Run Initiatives) and other organizations to host over 140 events. It is a feast, it is a celebration, it is an incredible force of art.

The logo of Art Month Sydney 2010.

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Art and technology in Kensington

By tiernan alexander | March 12, 2010

Much of the work around the Kensington area this month questions the divide between technology and artist. First up is the Brad Troemel Pre-career Retrospective at Extra Extra Gallery. The gallery directors curated the show entirely from Troemel’s website selecting images of work, installations, and videos and installing the show without consulting the artist in the process. On the Extra Extra website they explain: “This gesture of presenting work without the consent of the creator is emblematic of immaterial art’s free movement into any receptive home.”

Potato plus bandaid features in Brad Troemel, Pre-career Retrospective at Extra Extra Gallery. Untitled, 2009

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Old City First Friday rises from the snow

By emily friedman | March 12, 2010

With temperatures rising, it almost felt like spring last Friday while I roamed around Old City, taking in several First Friday shows.  My first stop was Sound and Silence at Artist’s House, which runs through March 27.  The show is a beautiful, varied collection of works – mostly oil paintings, but also sculptures and lithographs – by more than two-dozen artists.  The title says it all: many of the works depict contemplative subject matter, but there’s also some noise.

Samuel Evensen’s Wings to Fly at the Artist’s House

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Lots of Libbys and Robertas

By libby and roberta | March 12, 2010

The artblog team is growing. So look for some terrific new writers in the coming weeks. No, they may not really be Libby and Roberta clones. But they are terrific, each in his and her own way. For starters, we have some First Friday posts coming up and we’re as proud of them as if we had done the writing ourselves. No kidding.

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Enrique Chagoya’s The Headache – Gone from Rosenbach, now at The Print Center

By roberta | March 11, 2010

Enrique Chagoya spent months working with Cindy Etinger’s studio and Silicon Fine Art Prints to make “The Headache,” a complicated multi-process digital print which is part of the Philagrafika festival. Chagoya’s print — a social commentary about President Obama and his health care headaches — is based on a work owned by the Rosenbach Museum and Library, a print called The Headache by 19th Century caricaturist, illustrator and social satirist George Cruickshank.

The Head Ache, a print after George Cruikshank by Enrique Chagoya

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Two links worth your while

By libby | March 11, 2010

Print subscriptions

Andrew Jeffrey Wright’s print subscription business is laid out in A.D. Amorosi’s story today in the Inky on an artist finding an alternative way to sell. Turns out it has historical precedentsl. Worth reading down to the final quote for Wright’s mordant wit. (For more on prints and making money, Andrea had something about Durer selling prints to support his travels in her latest post–the one about What in the World, directly below this one).

Some clarity on the Barnes

This column by Bernard Watson, The March 7, 2010 Philadelphia Inquirer tells the true story (as opposed to the movie version) of the Barnes Foundation move. Watson is widely respected and his clarity is refreshing.

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‘What in the World?’ at the Penn Museum, Print Invitational at Little Berlin, ‘Dead Flowers’ at Vox Populi

By andrea kirsh | March 10, 2010

For the past couple decades ever more museums have invited artists into their store rooms to curate exhibitions: in an early example, the RISD Museum invited Andy Warhol; MoMA asked Chuck Close and Scott Burden; and Fred Wilson has made a career of the practice.  The results have almost always been interesting.  Artists, of course, have their own questions of and approaches to objects and collections and it’s always enlightening to see familiar things in unexpected ways.

‘What in the World?’ recreated at the Penn Museum Read More »

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Weekly Update – Let’s have a Philadelphia Biennial

By roberta | March 10, 2010

Now in its 75th year, the Whitney Biennial is still the big kahuna—the show every American artist wants to be in and every art lover wants to see. This year, the career-boosting show includes no Philadelphia artists. Instead, the curators of this national show sought talent in Chicago, Oregon, Los Angeles and, of course, New York. They rounded up 55 artists and, for the first time, more than half were women. Reflecting our times of war and global recession, the show is a somber parade, sometimes tedious, sometimes achingly beautiful, with a surprising number of photographers and video artists channeling anthropology á la Margaret Mead. It’s a good show—you should see it.

One of several Portland, OR artists in the Whitney Biennial. Storm Tharp, Pigeon (After Shunsen), 2009 Ink, gouache, and colored pencil on paper, 58 x 42 (147.3 x 106.7) Collection of the artist; courtesy PDX Contemporary Art, Portland


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Fiber at Snyderman

By libby | March 9, 2010

If you’re still thinking there’s a big divide between art and crafts, the 7th International Fiber Biennial will set you straight. Much of the work reflects social and artistic concerns and all of it is beautifully made. The exhibit, at Snyderman Gallery, features fiber art from 61 artists, who come from as far away as Denmark and Korea, with 15 of them from the Philadelphia area.

Among my favorites are two pieces about America’s long-term contentious issue–race. One is from a white artist, one from an African American artist, and as always, the subject is loaded with feelings.
Sonya Clark, Afro Abe Progression
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Whitney Biennial – noisy, quiet, beautiful, ugly

By roberta | March 7, 2010

Now in its 75th go-round, The Whitney Biennial is still the big kahuna, the show every American artist wants to be in and every art lover wants to see. This year the career-boosting show includes no Philadelphia artist.   We had representation in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 — so much for that trend.  Instead, the curators went to Chicago, Oregon, Los Angeles and, of course, New York for the 55 artists, more than half of them women (a first) and many of them under the national radar.

One of the 28 women featured in this year's biennial, Aki Sasamoto, performed at the press preview. Strange Attractors, 2010. mixed media, dimensions variable, collection of the artist

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