After savoring some of the best Thai food I have had in a long time in Smile’s downstairs café, I headed upstairs to their gallery. The small but well utilized space is currently hosting Bangkok and Blacklight. The show combines urban, graffiti style artists from the Trenton area with a well renowned contemporary artist from Bangkok, Vichoke Mukdamanee. The gallery has been divided into two rooms, one with bright white walls and full lighting for Mukdamanee’s glistening works, while the back room has been drenched in blacklighting, showing off some color popping works. Together, they flood the space with differing light, colors and textures, evoking a Postmodern/Pop vibe.
David Orantes "Splat - UHMS"
Read More »
Posted in tags a-z | Tagged aja washington, bangkok and blacklight, david orantes, demer, jim hancocks, joe iurato, jon conner, josl, kortez, leon rainbow, luv 1, mike ciccotello, papermonster, smile cafe, smile cafe and gallery, smile gallery, will kasso |
I spent a week in London in August, and each day attempted to focus on a substantial outing, an interesting exhibition. My first jaunt was to cross Kensington Gardens to The Serpentine Gallery where the German artist Wolfgang Tillmans put on something of a retrospective, an expansive display of his alchemical results with photography. The 2000 Turner Prize winner, born in 1968, today a bona fide blue chip in the art world, offers a cornucopia of stolen, manipulated and performative photographic works in his first full-on exhibition in London in seven years. Each piece conspires to reveal the over-reproduced world we’re bound to while at the same time seeks some sort of philosophical escape from photography itself.
Wolfgang Tillmans, Serpentine Gallery, London, Installation View. Courtesy of the artist and The Serpentine Gallery.
Read More »
With an American flag at its heart and a jaunty colored brick road on the floor, Abigail DeVille’s Gold Mountain should be upbeat. But the dark, cave-like installation at Marginal Utility is a sorrowful piece, a shrine almost. And the flag and crazy brick road are degraded symbols. Gold Mountain is a hell on earth.
Abigail DeVille, Gold Mountain, at Marginal Utility
Read More »
Gallerist Sande Webster talks about starting her gallery in the 1960s with a racially-mixed group of artists. Today, 44 years later, Sande Webster Gallery continues to be a vibrant, successful and community-spirited enterprise on Walnut St. Sande is a great story-teller. Here’s a sample.
Sande Webster 30 second clip
Listen Monday, Aug. 30, to hear the full interview.
Posted in radio | Tagged sande webster |
By libby | August 21, 2010
When people bark about the threat of a public art void at the Convention Center extension (see Stephan Salisbury’s article in today’s Inquirer here), they seem to be all over the place on just what they mean by public. For instance, art inside the building? That is not public. I don’t think too many Philadelphians ever get to see the so-called “public art” in Convention Center part 1.
Mei-ling Hom, China Wedge, 1994, inside the PA Convention Center; image borrowed from http://www.nyu.edu/apa/ford/works.htm#Mei-ling Hom
Read More »
Athletes make superb photography subjects. In motion, their bodies perform seemingly superhuman tasks that are a thrill to see. At rest, either before or after their feats, athletes’ faces are studies in concentration — or pain. Photos of teams remind us of our pack-ness; our ability to bond with others — or fight. RUGBY, Daniel D’Ottavio‘s book of black and white photos of the New York Athletic Club Rugby Team during their 2008 season is a beautiful tome. Caveat: I’ve seen it in pdf form only so can’t speak to the binding, paper, or feel of the book. All I can say is the photos sizzle with their extremes of ground and sky punctuated by bodies in motion. Oh, and the NYAC Rugby Team won the Rugby Super League Championship in 2008 — so this book is a perfect documentary/art storm.
Daniel D'Ottavio, RUGBY, left half of a scrum. This picture is half of a two-page spread in the book.
Read More »
by Cheryl Harper
Pablo Ruiz Picasso lived from 1881-1973, a long span in any terms, but he has never left this world judging from the manner in which his life and work are continuously celebrated. Take this season for instance; I’ve seen four Picasso museum shows in as many months: “Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art ended in May (artblog ran two posts so I won’t tell you more); “Picasso in the Metropolitan Museum of Art” at the Met, just closed August 15; “Picasso Themes and Variations” at MOMA through August 30; and “Picasso Looks at Degas” at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Massachusetts through September 12.
Portrait of a Young Girl, after Cranach the Younger, II by Pablo Picasso, 1958. linoleum cut, composition: 25 11/16 h x 21 5/16" w. From the MoMA show
Read More »
By libby | August 19, 2010
Charles Fahlen, 70, died July 27 at his home in Guerneville, California from pancreatic cancer, according to a notice from Steven Wolf Fine Arts, his gallery in San Francisco.
Charles Fahlen's work in Fleisher-Ollman's Cave Paintings show in 2008. Photo by Roberta.
Read More »
Posted in tags a-z | Tagged charles fahlen |
Bryan Brown‘s First Fight 2 — the follow up to his debut comic about his experience in the world of mixed martial arts — shows our hero, a successful Philadelphia artist/illustrator (no superpowers here, but lots of heart), continuing his fascination with the sport as he goes about his life.
Read More »
Robert Scobey‘s ironic sculptures of the American Dream have a quirky idealism. This excellent work ends with a bang what was an annual opportunity for an outstanding graduate of the MFA program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Freeman‘s gave a monetary award to a second-year MFA at PAFA, followed by the opportunity to exhibit a year after graduation. This is the seventh Annual Samuel T. Freeman Memoial Scholarship Exhibition. Scobey said he was the last recipient of the annual scholarship/exhibition program, whose cancellation was announced at PAFA in 2009. (Maybe it’s the economy — we hope it’ll be back because it’s a great opportunity for young artists and a wonderful scholarship – $10,000).
Robert Scobey, dishwasher/chandelier. Photo by Robert Scobey
Read More »
