Science tells us that Earth has had five mass species’ extinction events in its history. Writer Elizabeth Kolbert, in her Pulitzer-prize winning book, “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History,” argues persuasively that we experiencing a sixth extinction right now, one caused by man, and not by volcano or asteroid. Shawn Sheehy, in his haunting “Beyond the Sixth Extinction: A Post-Apocalyptic Pop-Up,” speculates on the dire circumstances of vast and irreversible climate change and suggests how some species may adapt, hybridize and succeed in the future. Our guest writer, Colette Fu, is an award-winning Philadelphia-based artist, whose pop-up books are owned by many museums and collections. Colette writes a cogent review of the cautiously optimistic book.
Read MoreImani reviews the new catalog from Rizzoli Electa, “I Too Sing America,” published in conjunction with the exhibit by the same name at the Columbus Museum of Art. Chock full of color images, archival materials and biographical insights, the coffee table book by writer and the show’s curator, Will Haygood, a Columbus native, is more than just a pretty face, she says.
Read MoreBecky Suss’s new paintings on view at Fleisher/Ollman honor the legacy of mid-century craftsman Wharton Esherick, whose home studio is in Chester County. Suss chronicles the spaces Esherick designed and occupied as well as the furniture he is known for, translated through her own vision of the spaces, places and objects. Architect and Artblog contributor Mandy Palasik interprets the show and examines the resonance between these two artists and their bodies of work. “Becky Suss/Wharton Esherick” is open through January 26, so make your plans to visit now!
Read MoreTina Plokarz takes a trip down to WIlmington to view Aaron Eliah Terry’s current exhibit at The Delaware Contemporary. Terry, who is a current member of Vox Populi, (as is Tina), makes collages, prints and sound installations that explore the relationship between music, visual culture and political activism from the 1960s and 70s until today. Get down to The Delaware quick before “Syncopated Samizdat” closes on January 10.
Read MoreSaba Taj’s current solo show at Twelve Gates Arts deftly combines humor, beauty and violence in speculative collage work that explores earth’s social and biological future from a queer, brown perspective. Deborah Krieger takes in the Durham-based multidisciplinary artist’s subversive “of beast/ of virgin” and reports.
Read MoreRecent UArts graduate Heet Lee had her first solo museum show in Leipzig, Germany earlier this month and Artblog correspondent Olivia Jia, who visited her friend’s exhibition, tells us about it. Lee’s energetic and aggressive compositions draw imagery from a dizzying array of sources, both public and private.
Read MoreWill language go on if and when we do not? How does one speak of the future in a doomed world? Here Levi Bentley reviews a new book of poetry by Cynthia Arrieu-King that ponders these questions and many more. Out December 14, 2018 from Radiator Press (Philly’s newest poetry press) “Futureless Languages” is rooted in close observation of our trying times. Read on and pick up the book for yourself this Friday!
Read MoreLike many local artists, Janyce Glasper treks up to New York every now and again to see what’s new. Here she fills us in on the latest from Nina Chanel Abney, who has just started translating the aesthetic of her politically-charged collage paintings into monoprints. If your plans take you to the big(ger) city, you can view Abney’s powerful, ambiguous work for yourself at Pace Prints through December 15, 2018.
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