Kathy Cho thinks about Asian Futurism, white-washing, and opportunities for activism with the Organizing for Action Fellowships. It’s always good to step outside of our social media bubbles and work with people one-on-one!
Read MoreDonald Hunt thinks about what defines American music in his review of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s recent performance of music by Leonard Bernstein, Pat Metheny and Antonin Dvorák.
Read MoreAn exhibition at Asian Arts Initiative, organized by artist and community organizer Jaishri Abichandani, suggests that blackness is experienced by all people of color, who deal with the experience in various ways. The show’s 20 artists confront complex issues about race and ethnicity and Ilana recommends everyone see the exhibit before it closes April 21.
Read MoreThe textiles on view betray a range of technical skill in both the stitchery and designs. Some show a sophisticated ability to render forms and were obviously transferred from patterns, while others seem to have been made up as the embroiderer went along. It is hard to believe that the precision of stitching in the Bagh phulkari weren’t made by professional craftsmen. There is no surviving literature that would indicate how designs circulated–indeed, there is almost no surviving history of phulkari in general, hence the significance of this collection and its catalog.
Read MoreWhile I chuckled at Kelley Donahue’s satirical clay figures and found the virtuoso drawing installation by Paul Santoleri a wow both for its graphic impact and its politically-charged subject-matter, it is Joanna Platt’s “Timelines” that moved me, with its simple message of connection. The idea of shared space, shared memories, and the suggestion that technology brings us together yet keeps us apart is something we all should ponder.
Read MoreAfter fifty years is “Zen for Film” an experience, an object, a projection, or a relic? Holling examines the early history of the work, contemporaneous artworks that raised similar questions, and protocols for institutions that would borrow and exhibit examples from various public collections. Some of Holling’s questions are now being answered by the artist’s estate, museums, and film archives–and they offer inconsistent answers. “Zen for Film,” whose subject is entirely bound with its materiality, raises particularly complex questions, and Holling is thoughtful, dogged, and modest in searching for answers. Her examination raises points common to enough 20th- and 21st-century works that art historians concerned with the record as well as curators and conservators tasked with exhibiting and caring for them will have to acknowledge them.
Read MoreLots of happenings for you today in the news post, including a major event at PAFA from the Philadelphia arts and culture community. April is National Poetry Month, so celebrate with Yolanda Wisher at the Outbound Poetry Festival and the Sanctuary Poetry series at the Asian Arts Initiative. Also, performances by Wilmer Wilson IV, a talk by Artblog favorite Willie Cole, a new documentary about the seminal 1972 DNC, and RIP Pop art pioneer James Rosenquist.
Read MoreArs Nova Workshop can be relied on to bring new music to Philadelphia audiences. Steve Lehman’s Sélébéyone, presented on March 24 at the Painted Bride Art Center, was no exception. A composer and alto-saxophonist, Lehman has received a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award, and has worked with major national and international artists like Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, and Meshell Ndegeocello. For this performance, Lehman brought together an innovative combination of jazz, hip-hop, rap, and electronica whose disparate parts worked together surprisingly well.
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