News
The West Prize list has been announced, picked from an array of 2,650 submissions. The Philadelphia artists who have won a place in the West Collection are:
Tim Portlock
Joe Girandola
Kim Alsbrooks
Astrid Bowlby
Kay Healy
Tim Eads
Erin Murray
Colette Fu
Mark Stockton
Brian Richmond
Additional winners include Bohyn Yoon, a Korean artist who taught at Tyler, and Tyler Held, who graduated University of the Arts in 2011.
In celebration of International Museum Day, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, PAFA and the American Swedish Historical Museumare free to the public today. The PMA is open from 10:00 a.m. to 8:45 p.m, including the Perelman Building and the Rodin Museum. Programming includes special exhibitions, public tours, and Art After 5, which tonight features Cuban-born jazz drummer Francisco Mela.This year’s theme of International Museum Day focuses – appropriately for Philly in the year of the Barnes’ opening – on the evolving role of the museum in a changing world. The International Council of Museums has more information on this occasion.
The sale of Alexander Calder’s “The Red Bull” at the Freeman’s Auction has brought a staggering $530,500, surpassing its expected range of $250,000-400,000. A 40-inch tall painted sheet metal sculpture, “The Red Bull” ignited a bidding war that concluded with a bidder on the phone buying the piece, and, along with Calder’s “Voie Lactee,” was one of the sale’s two highest-selling lots.
As one would expect, the Warhol Foundation is less than pleased at the use of fake Warhols used as prizes to promote an art forgery forum in Australia. We’re not sure that the provocateurs had to make this many people angry to make their point. Artinfo.com has the whole story here, and you can decide for yourself…
From May 18 to July 28, the Moore College of Art exhibition “Window on Race” coincides with the opening of the Barnes Foundation on the Parkway. The exhibition allows sixteen Philadelphia-based artists to reinterpret Albert Barnes’s “wall ensembles”, including: Gabriel Boyce & Preston Link, Sarah Burgess, Kara Crombie, Steven & Billy Blaise Dufala, Joy Feasley, Mark Khaisman, Nick Lenker, Jacque Liu, Matthew Osborn, Hiro Sakaguchi, Anne Seidman, Kate Stewart, Stacey Lee Webber and Mauro Zamora. More information at Moore’s site. The reception is Friday, May 18, 5:30-8pm.
We see no reason why a gastronomic adventure can’t be considered an artistic event, especially at the hands of Iranian-Guatemalan chef Mero Cocinero Karimi. This famed chef and community builder comes to the Asian Arts Initiative for another installment of “The Cooking Show,” a one-of-a-kind series of stories, music, political discussion and humor alongside delicious and healthy culinary offerings from (among other locales) Tunisia, Iran, and the Philippines. Click here to get tickets.
Boundary-breaking, and also record-breaking. Arcadia University senior Hannah Riotto has produced the largest-known photopolymer intaglio-type in the United States—a 15-foot-long installation depicting the icons of Barnesville, Pa. transitioning to the Philadelphia skyline. Here’s a YouTube video about this bold project, which is on display as part of Arcadia University’s Senior Thesis Exhibition until the end of today.
From June 7-17, 2012, University City District presents Heart & Soul: The University City Public Piano Project. This interactive public art exhibition features eight artist-decorated pianos on sidewalks and in parks and public spaces throughout University City. Eight artists or collectives have been chosen to embellish pianos with their signature styles: Terry Adkins, Joe Boruchow, Justin Duerr, Melissa Maddonni Haims, The Heads of State, Kali Yuga Zoo Brigade, Katie Holeman, and Thom Lessner. UCD’s opening reception and party at at 6 PM on June 6 on the Porch at 30th Street Station, including an unveiling and playing of the eight pianos. From June 7 and until June 17, the pianos are to be placed throughout the neighborhood in various public spaces in University City. For a complete list of Heart & Soul details visit University City District’s site. We can’t wait to see what this diverse group of creatives comes up with!
First Person Arts is creating a new performance art/story installation as part of June’s First Friday. The First Person Arts Story Market invites you to buy a story the way you’d buy vintage clothes or trinkets at a flea market. This idea, a signature of First Person Arts’ great work in bringing unheard stories to the public, is made possible by a partnership with Christ Church Neighborhood House, in whose courtyard the first performance is set on Friday, June 1, from 5pm-8pm. This event is free to enter – stories are priced individually. More info at First Person Arts.
Opportunities
via Wooloo –“Backlash: On Women’s Basic Rights and Freedoms” is a non-juried NYC show at Soho 20 on July 19th that takes a critical look at women’s issues. The deadline is June 1. For more information and details on applying here.
The SGC International Conference 2013 in Milwaukee is calling for proposals in printmaking. Please visit the Print:MKE 2013 conference site www.printmke2013.org for more information on how to apply.
If you hurry up, you’ll be able to avail yourself of Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts’ special, one time only membership sale taking place today, offering discounts of up to 25%. Lots of exhibition opportunities for artist members are part of the package. More information here.
Vox VIII, Vox Populi’s 8th annual exhibition, is fast approaching. Juried by Ruba Katrib, curator at the Sculpture Center, and Marlo Pascual, a New York based artist who has recently exhibited with White Columns and the Saatchi Gallery, the show is July 6-29. The deadline for submissions is June 6; applicants can find a prospectus here and apply here.
Artist News
Alexis Granwell’s show in Houston at at Bryan Miller Gallery has gotten some rave reviews, with accolades in Modern Houston and American Paintings’ Must See Shows.
Peter Rose has two shows at Anthology Film Archives in NYC, “Tongue Ties” and “Sight Sounds.” These trippy works concern reflections on time and language, space and time, movement and vision. The first is Wednesday, May 30 at 7:30, and the second is Thursday, May 31 at 7:30.
Diane Burko is doing something out of a childhood dream. She has been chosen to be part of the Arctic Circle Residency 2013, an expedition consisting of artists, architects, activists, and scientists. While counting down the days until this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, no doubt, she’s keeping busy with a wealth of events. There is her exhibition opening on June 8, 2012 at the Lew Allen Gallery in Santa Fe, “Diane Burko: Water Matters”; this summer’s exhibition “Looking Back at Earth: Contemporary Environmental Photography” from July 7 – September 9, 2012 at Dartmouth’s Hood Museum of Art, and a show at the Michener Museum of Art, including 15 pieces from her on-going Politics of Snow project in a yearlong series of exhibits from September 8 to December 30, 2012. Next summer, eight of Burko’s photographs are part of a national exhibition at the Chemical Heritage Foundation Gallery, titled “Sensing Climate. More information on her many ventures can be found on her site.
Tremain Smith, whose paintings are included in the permanent collection at the Met, is now under the auspices of Darnell Fine Art in Santa Fe; her works use a fascinating and unique mixed-media technique, combining layers of oil glazes, collaged elements and transparent beeswax fused by an open flame or an iron. We find her work pretty incomparable.
