NEWS
Via Plan Philly Facebook: The Pope Fence and the Security perimeter may be in flux but here’s what floated around Facebook yesterday. It’s a dark map for what should be a happy event, no?
Via Plan Philly and Bradley Wrenn, a funnier map later in the day, enhanced with appropriate Pleistocene and Medieval era iconography.
Update: Mayor Nutter says maps not right and smacks down the mappers: “I understand given the nature of the world today that at times little people who have little pieces of information will try to put out they have or what they think they have in an effort to make themselves larger,” said Nutter.
Tiger Strikes Asteroid in many places! TSA Philadelphia Co-Director, Mark Brosseau wrote to tell us about all the things the gallery and its network (TSA New York, TSA Los Angeles) are into. In addition to exchange shows all over the place, TSA is organizing an Alternative Galleries Art Fair in Miami for December! Congrats, guys.
This fall, we’ve been invited by students at Moravian College to show our work at the gallery there – the Payne Gallery. This show will include all of the current members, plus Keith Crowley who left the group in the spring. It opens on September 3rd and runs to October 4th.
We’re helping to organize the Satellite Show, which will take place on North Miami Beach in December. This is a multi-venue affair that includes a performance venue, a former pharmacy turned exhibition space, and a 39 room hotel. The full Tiger Strikes Asteroid network (Philadelphia, New York, and Los Angeles) will be working on the programming for the hotel. We have decided to organize a fair for artist-run initiatives – from multi-member collectives to single-artist curatorial nomads. We’re hoping to be able to showcase projects from all over the world, and are excited about bring together nearly forty different ventures to help show that there is a model that is thriving beyond the commercial gallery. Applications for this should be ready in early August. To receive updates and forthcoming application information, please contact projects@tigerstrikesasteroid.com.
Tiger Strikes Asteroid and Napoleon will be doing an exchange with SOIL, an artist-run gallery from Seattle. We will be showing at their space in March 2016, and they’ll be showing in our two galleries in February of 2017.
More alternative gallery news, from Dustin Metz, former Philly artist now living in Los Angeles. Metz co-founded a new artist-run gallery, Ms. Barbers, along with Anton Lieberman, Becky Kolsrud and Kiki Johnson. Their inaugural show is a group show opening Aug. 1, and called Reagan Babies. It features, among others, another of our favorites, NY-based Austin Lee!
Be sure to read the précis about the show, which includes this memorable paragraph:
Having begun life during the zenith of electronic clutter, full of unsightly knots of wires and cables, The RBs now live in an alienating era of miniaturized, streamlined tech, where the magnitude of virtual integration means an extinction of familiar artifacts: the camera, the calculator, the alarm clock, the Discman, and so forth. The 13 artists in Reagan Babies have an ingrained affinity for awkward physicality, for objects, for clutter, for the honesty of reality that these things represent.
From Dustin:
The only things I would want to point out are the strong ties to Philly- Anton and I are both from the area, and 3 of the artists in our first show have Philly ties: Austin Lee, Abbey Lee Sarver and Borna Sammak. The gallery stems from the spirit of “If you build it, they will come” which feels very much in line with what I remember the Philly scene being.
oh and about the show- the four co-founders are all Reagan Babies (1984-85 to be specific), so we wanted to have the first show be a way of introducing ourselves and highlight what we see as being a special point of view- people who came to age on the edge of technological ubiquity.
Mobile Home Rally, Saturday, Aug. 1. 5-10PM at the Icebox, Crane Arts, 1400 N. American St. ! Truck, truck, truck show! If you’ve never seen this historic truck art event, organized by Tim Belknap and Ryan McCartney, you must go. The Artists turn their vehicles into a work of art and this year’s theme is “mobile home.” More information.
Mural Arts all over, with murals!
#1
The public dedication of David McShane’s EIGHT STORIES HIGH Phillies Mural happens Saturday, August 1, at 11:30 a.m. on the Walnut Street Bridge between 23rd Street and Schuylkill Avenue (festivities begin at 11 a.m.). Wear your Red & White or Phillies attire to the dedication!
#2
Everyone loves a trompe l’oeil painting. Richard Haas, who has placed his fool the eye murals all around the world, including in Philadelphia (2330 Chestnut St.) will paint a new one here.
#3
The French grafitti artist, JR, known for humanist portraits of skyscraper-like dimensions added a face to the Philly skyline. Via Peter Crimmins at Newsworks.
Just for FUN! For those of you who love Rumpole of the Bailey, as embodied by the late, great Leo McKern in the old BBC series, here’s a treat. There’s a new BBC RADIO series of Rumpole, a kind of prequel envisioning the exploits of the young Rumpole, played by, hold your breath, Benedict Cumberbatch!
It’s arch, it’s steamy, there are kisses and trembling between Rumpole and Phyllida. Check out the 45-minute episodes.
– Rumpole and the Portia of our Chambers
– Rumpole and the Bubble Reputation
– Rumpole and the Age of Miracles
– Rumpole and the Tap End
OPPORTUNITIES
Job: Dan Byers, Senior Curator at the ICA Boston and formerly of Philly and Pittsburgh (he was one of the curators of the last Carnegie International) just posted a notice on FB about a great-sounding full time job —Curatorial Department Coordinator — at his current place, ICA Boston.
Call for Artists : Old Enough to Know Better, juried show organized by Women’s Caucus for Art. Jurors-Diane Burko and Eileen Neff. Open to mid-career and emerging women and women-identified artists over the age of 35. Show will be at Crane Arts. Deadline August 15.
http://www.dianeburko.com
http://eileenneff.com
More about the jurying:
Dear Members, The jurors, Eileen Neff and Diane Burko have requested that each applicant submit up to 10 pieces of work, so they may get a better feel for the progression of the work, given the context of the exhibition. This may also increase your chances of being accepted since there will be more to choose from. This is an international exhibition. Deadline August 15, 2015. $25 for WCA members, $35 for non members. This is sure to be a stellar exhibition! Please consider entering. Thank you and good luck. Sincerely, Kristin Osgood Lamelas, WCA Philadelphia Chapter President
ARTIST NEWS
Congratulations to one of our most beloved teacher/artist/activists in Philly, Marta Sanchez, whose collaborative book, Transcendental Train Yard, debuts Sept. 15! The book, get it here from publisher, Wingspress, is a collaboration with poet, Norma Elia Cantu, whose poems are inspired by Sanchez’s paintings.
Check out Cavin Jones’ show Say Something at House Gallery on Sat. Aug 8 and stay for the artist talk and potluck supper! Bring a dish/bottle and get out there to this always happening gallery! Show’s up through Aug. 16.
The sources of inspiration for Cavin Jones’ artistic ideas primarily come from his fascination with American history, the African American experience, the creation of popular music, “sequential art” (comic book art), as well as environmental exploitation. By way of collage, Jones culls images from disparate sources, distilling various ideas into a single painting. This approach simultaneously combines an assortment of media and techniques and infuses his work with many layers of meaning and association.
SAYING SOMETHING runs through August16th
www.housegallery1816.com
1816 House Gallery is located at 1816 Frankford Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19125
All best wishes to Ellie Brown, who is moving to Rhode Island to be near her dad, who suffers from Altzheimers. Thanks, Andrea Kirsh for alerting us and Newsworks for telling us about Ellie’s project to document her dad’s dementia.
GREAT RECENT ARTBLOG POSTS
Our new writer, Tina Plokarz, walks us through “Take One” at the PMA and has some great thoughts about photography.
Andrea appreciates the Richard Tuttle show at the FWM
