Artblog News
See pictures of Artblog’s Look/Draw/Write workshop at Taller Puertorriqueño! Thanks Rafael Damast, for posting the pictures. We had a terrific time talking with people and getting to know the wonderful installation by Roxana Perez-Mendez. People, there are two more free workshops at Taller, April 22 and 29. The April workshops will feature the work of Michelle Ortiz, whose work will be in Taller’s gallery.
I will be leading two tours of the PAFA galleries tomorrow, March 22, for PAFA’s Art After Dark program ($15, Free to PAFA members). Also on tap, The Bearded Ladies, and on a serious note, the opening of Paul Chan: Pillowsophia in the Morris Gallery, which I got a peek of yesterday. The work is a stunning piece of 21st Century baroque – dark and moody and spiritual and overwrought and ecstatic and disturbing and mesmerizing. (video below)
NEWS
Dana Schutz’s painting Open Casket, which Kathy Cho talked about in yesterday’s Reader Advisor, has provoked a protest. Protesters want the Whitney Museum to take the painting down from the 2017 Whitney Biennial. Some also call for the painting to be destroyed. Open Casket, based on a photograph, depicts the dead teenager, Emmett Till, victim of a racial hate crime in 1955 in the South. Till’s mother released the photos to the press at the time and their circulation, plus the crime itself is credited with jump starting the Civil Rights movement. The issue of the protesters is who owns the right to use this image of Emmett Till. Is a white painter, like Schutz, allowed to paint this painting? Should the Whitney Museum show it? See the NY Times story by Randy Kennedy for more including a response from the museum and the artist.
Two from Fleisher-Ollman Gallery…Congratulations to F-O and to the artists!
…Becky Suss has a solo exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery, NY, April 27-June 3, 2017
…Jayson Musson is in the Rhizome/New Museum “7 on 7” program in which an artist is paired with a technologist to make something new and different. The program is April 22, 2017. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at the website.
Artblog favorite, Dona Nelson debuts a new body of constructed paintings, “Models Stand Close to the Paintings,” at Thomas Erben Gallery, NY. The show runs March 23-May 6, 2017, with an opening reception Thursday, March 23, 6-8:30PM. BTW, did you see Dona’s works in the last Fleisher-Ollman exhibition?
Paintings by David Antonio Cruz are popping off the walls at Delaware County Community College (DCCC) Art Gallery in a show called thosebutterflyboysandvioletunicorns. An artist talk and reception is tomorrow, Wed. March 22, 2017, 4-7PM, with the artist speaking at 4PM in the large auditorium, Academic Builging, Marple Campus. Reception follows in the Art Gallery, Room 2305. The show is up to April 14, 2017. More information at the DCCC website.
Alex Losett has the right interpretation of our leader’s god-like pronouncements. Not that there’s any reason to be lighthearted. But this project strikes a nice chord of anger and humor. Check out his website for The Trump 10.5 Commandments by Alex Losett.
Via the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance – Actions to make your opinion known…
1. Call your representatives: Calling your legislators is the most effective way to reach them. Use our phone script to urge your representatives to not eliminate federal funding for the arts. You can also send emails asking Congress to #SavetheArts. (Give them your zipcode and they will generate the email addresses of your representatives)
2. Post on Facebook and Twitter to help rally national support to Save the Arts. There is strength in numbers and your social media friends can help.
3. Sign up for arts advocacy alerts for more updates as this budget is debated by Congress in the coming weeks.
4. Donate to support our advocacy efforts with a monthly or one-time donation.
Your support is critical in the coming weeks. Please stay tuned for updates as the budget process and our response to it evolve. Every one of us must speak out against these proposed cuts. We need to work together to ensure that the arts remain accessible and affordable for all.
OPPORTUNITIES
Via Belinda Haikes – Tech and art work wanted for Philly Tech Week
Please consider submitting your web-based works and sharing the call widely for Heit and Haikes’ second online exhibition for Philly Tech week. Deadline fast approaching.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: OUT OF CONTEXT
OUT OF CONTEXT is a curated online exhibition showcasing work with a new understanding of visual language by removing it from its intended statement, setting or circumstance.
As part of Philly Tech Week 2017 (April 28th – May 6th), this project is seeking digital artists whose technology-based works define the phrase “out of context.” Websites, software, apps, twitter feeds, any tech-based works that accomplish this with tech, through tech or in contrast to tech. Work must be hosted on the web. Open to all artists! #PTW17
See the submission guidelines here: Call for Art: OUT OF CONTEXT for Philly Tech Week
Via The Corzo Center – 2017 NewCourtland Fellowship for artists working with Senior
The Center for Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA) invites Philadelphia area-artists to participate in an exciting, community-based fellowship. Through the NewCourtland Artist Fellowship, visual artists will be selected to bring innovative and engaging art-making to seniors in sites throughout Philadelphia in either Summer or Fall 2017.
Artists are asked to develop an inter-generational project that brings NewCourtland’s constituents together with student groups to create a meaningful experience and an exciting artistic project. Work created by residents and their school age partners during the 2017 Fellowship Program will be exhibited with the work of the artist fellows in a well-publicized exhibition. Please note unless a student group is named in the proposal CFEVA will identify student partners.
The deadline to apply is Monday, April 10, 2017.
Apply here
West Philly Neighbors to Choose Art on Display during Spring & Summer 2017
The West Philadelphia community is invited to help choose the artists who will create artwork they will see in neighborhoods surrounding Lower Lancaster Avenue at a pitch event on March 30th at the former United Bank (3750 Lancaster Ave.) at 6pm.
In an exciting 5-minute presentation style (15, 20 second slides) artists are challenged to pitch to a jury of their peers – fellow artists, community members, curators, family members, and friends – why their work should be chosen to be included in the series of art installations on the fence surrounding the former University City High School and the windows of the former United Bank.
The Creative Placemaking Project organizing the event, LoLa 38, is asking artists to respond to 1 of 3 questions with their installations: 1) How does progress feel?, 2) Which walls are invisible?, and 3) Is there a good rate of change?
Artists interested in further details about this opportunity should visit the website.
LoLa 38 is a Creative Placemaking project in West Philadelphia focused on the intersections of 38th St., Lancaster and Powelton avenues. Our mission is to encourage civic conversation through the artistic activation of the diverse social and geographic assets which make Lower Lancaster Avenue a gateway to West Philadelphia’s arts, culture, and community. This project is a partnership between Drexel University’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation, People’s Emergency Center CDC, and Wexford Science + Technology.
Vox Populi is looking for New Members – Deadline to apply – FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017
Vox Populi is currently seeking applications for new members. Visual and performing artists, writers, and curators that are engaged in experimental methods are encouraged to apply. Vox Populi is looking for individuals that are committed to their personal practices and are interested in working collaboratively to run an alternative art space. Vox Populi, 319 North 11th Street, Third Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107 voxpopuligallery.org
Vox Populi is particularly interested in applicants whose practices are not currently represented in the artist collective.
Applications will be accepted through FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017. Vox members contribute to the operational needs of the space through gallery sitting, staffing First Friday openings and events in the Performance Space on a rotating basis. They actively participate in specialized committee work (such as Exhibitions or Fundraising) including serving as a committee chairperson at some point during their tenure. While workload varies, Vox members usually spend on average five hours per week on Vox-related activities in support of operations.
Vox Populi is a collaboratively run non-profit art space. Vox members work in tandem with the Executive Director and Board of Directors.
There is a one-time initiation fee of $100.00 for new members; monthly dues are $55.00.
A commitment to membership for at least one year is required.
New members are selected by the current membership.
Questions? Contact memberpresident@voxpopuligallery.org
