Carl(os) Roa sits in on a rehearsal for Tiger Style!, a comedic play, written by Mike Lew, about two Chinese American siblings coming to terms with their upbringing on an inter-continental voyage. Running from January 26th through February 4th at the Louis Bluver Theatre at the Drake, this will be Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists’ first full-fledged production since their founding three years ago. Roa also speaks with key members of the PAPA community about what makes their organization so vital.
Read More“High Maintenance” is a web series that debuted on Vimeo in November 2012 and was picked up by HBO in 2016. The second season of “High Maintenance” premieres on HBO on January 19, 2018. New episodes will be released every Friday.
Read MoreMichael visited the art fairs in Miami in December and writes about one artist he found whose work resonated loudly and who, now in her 50s, is beginning to break into the national art scene.
Read MoreAndrea writes about the pioneering light artist, Thomas Wilfred, whose use of electricity and projected light in the early 20th Century was an influence on artists of later eras, including James Turrell. Wilfred’s works were on view recently at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in a show (closed Jan. 7) organized by Yale University Art Gallery. The works are difficult to conserve and that may explain why the artist fell out of circulation, as his works sat in storage waiting for tune-ups or fixes. The Museum of Modern Art owns one of Wilfred’s seminal works and Andrea thinks MoMA should bring the piece back for a new audience.
Read MoreCarl(os) Roa visits Mina Zarfsaz’s Dead Ringer, a multimedia installation on view through January 21st at Vox Populi Gallery. An assemblage of found objects and recorded voices sandwiched between two mirrors, this absurdist sculpture begs for audience participation, and Roa puts himself right in the scene.
Read MoreEvan gives props to the famous New York portraitist, Chuck Close, for being a virtuoso of photo techniques (everything from daguerrotypes to large-format Polaroids). But in a show of 90 prints, all very well executed, some of the works — and especially the celebrity photographs — fail to ignite empathy or excitement, he says. NOTE: This post was written prior to the sexual harassment charges against Close were made public. The article is about the artist’s photographs and does not deal with his behavior towards women.
Read MoreChip reviews the InLiquid show, “As By Digging,” at Painted Bride, with three artists whose work digs for emotional truth in personal and other human histories.
Read MoreIntrigued by the work of photographer Rosamond Purcell, Michael sees a documentary about the 75-year-old artist, and he is moved and by the images of odd bits of nature and human-made detritus that are her mainstay. He calls Purcell the Diane Arbus of the natural world. The film comes to Lightbox Film Center in March, 2018.
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