Artblog | Artists

June 16, 2016 by Andrea Kirsh

Magician of Light and Space – Robert Irwin at the Hirshhorn Museum

I had the wonderful experience of taking a dozen college classmates and their spouses through the exhibition recently. Only one person had any background in art history and none of them recognized the artist’s name. I explained that Irwin’s work takes time–literally, time for the eyes to adjust. They concentrated on the floating sphere bisected by a dark, horizontal line which disappears towards the circle’s margins–and the magic began. The painting creates a series of changing optical effects which it would be useless to try to explain, and because the effects depend upon presence and time, the artist refused to have his work photographed for many years–he has since relented. Anyone who knows Robert Irwin’s work only from reproductions has no idea of what the work is about.

June 14, 2016 by Roberta

Congratulations 2016 Pew Fellows + Organizations – Sharon Hayes, Tiona McClodden, Erin Bernard, Kelsey Halliday Johnson, Monument Lab, Temple Contemporary, ICA, PMA, Barnes! Plus Brandywine Workshop Happy Hours with the Arts, In/Out Symposium at Moore and Opportunities

The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage spreads $10 million in 53 grants to individuals and organizations. We’re especially happy for these strong women in the mix – Sharon Hayes and Tiona McClodden, who are new Pew fellows; Erin Bernard and The History Truck and Kelsey Halliday Johnson for her exhibition about women’s art and technology from 1970-85 – yay! Congratulations, all!

June 10, 2016 by Roberta

Our America – Great show of Latino artists recently in Delaware opens June 24 in Allentown

The curated show of paintings, sculpture, video and works on paper from the 1950s to the present is notable for works with fierce pride in Latino identity and for works with unabashed political underpinnings. The show and its catalog shed light on contemporary artists who would stand out in any group.

June 8, 2016 by Flora Ward

Race, Place, and the Legacy of the Past in Charleston

Fletcher Williams III’s work demands that we confront uncomfortable facts about both our present and our past, reflected in these lost lives and blighted neighborhoods. The façades depicted in Beyond the Rainbow hint at the individuals who lived there and the community that struggles to survive against the twin challenges of poverty and racism. Jonathan Green’s site-specific Porgy Houses likewise ask us to reflect on black history in Charleston and the whitewashed present.

June 7, 2016 by Roberta

Center for Creative Works, Allens Lane benefits, Sarah McEneaney in Portland, OR, Blackstar Film Fest and Wall Writers movies at International House, Crane Arts Archive Space closes Philly space+opens elsewhere, Plus Brown Bag it with ICA and Opportunities

Allen’s Lane Art Center’s Second Annual “Night of the Arts” This Saturday, 6PM – Immerse yourself in this vibrant community art center in Mt. Airy – and spend time with their gallery exhibition by photographer Harvey Finkle, whose socially-activist works Artblog has long admired.

June 6, 2016 by Michael Lieberman

Sonia Sanchez BaddDDD – A Documentary

In addition to documenting the course of Sanchez’s personal life, her literary life, and her life as an educator–beginning in Alabama, with stops along the way in New York, Amherst, and San Francisco, and ending in Philadelphia–the documentary surveys the route of her five decades of activism, touching upon her involvement in CORE, The Children of Malcolm, the Black Power Movement, the Black Arts Movement, the Black Studies Movement, the Black Panthers, and The Nation of Islam. Above all, the film portrays a powerful, principled woman on a mission, speaking out against and standing up to injustice wherever she encounters it–whether in the curricula of respected educational institutions or in the misogyny of Eldrich Cleaver–demanding and reclaiming self-respect for herself and for her community, and urging her sisters and brothers to do the same.

June 3, 2016 by Tina Plokarz

Sensing the Past at the Library Company of Philadelphia

In the end, the exhibition Common Touch: The Art of the Senses in the History of the Blind offers more than a glimpse into the history of the blind from the depths of today’s archives. In contrast to persistent misconceptions about blindness–as if Pieter Bruegel’s sinister and mocking “The Blind Leading the Blind” (1568) still shapes our thinking today–Teresa Jaynes shifts our biased perception from a predominantly visual culture into a synesthetic experience. Speaking through the language of the fingers, she creates a tangible world that addresses issues of humanity and society that are anything but marginal. Liberate your vision and explore the nature of perception through the senses of touch, sound, and scent.

June 2, 2016 by Roberta

Talking with Ed Bronstein, architect, artist and art community organizer!

Ed Bronstein’s brushy, expressionistic paintings capture scenes — au plein air — that include buildings, parks, dogs (lots of dogs), trucks (lots of trucks) people and more. Ed was instrumental in founding Art in the Open, and if you visited that festival recently you may have seen him out there with his paints and easel chronicling the beauty that inspires him.