Jordan Griska’s sculptural installation Grumman Greenhouse — which features a Cold War-era defense plane he bought on eBay (it’s being altered into a sculpture-cum-greenhouse) — will help inaugurate the new Lenfest Plaza outside Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, this fall. The space, near the new Convention Center expansion on Broad St., will be christened Oct. 1 and Griska’s airplane sculpture is due to arrive before then. The artist and a team of helpers and engineers are working full speed ahead on the piece at the Philadelphia Traction Company, a huge studio space in West Philly that was a trolley barn years ago. Griska graduated from PAFA in 2009 (BFA) and is known for his altered 60s-era gasoline pump, which showed both at Fleisher-Ollman and Vox Populi. The artist is concerned with geopolitical issues and issues of sustainability, but he also just really likes to make stuff. Listen to the full episode next Monday.
