It has been suggested to me (by a well-known Philadelphia artist) that there is a dependent relationship between art and the city and that most great art comes from metropolitan areas. Is this true? Does history support this statement? My gut tells me that art comes down to… Continue reading
Category Archives: Artist Profile
Michael McGinnis: ARTIST OR WIZARD?
One could say that sculptor Michael McGinnis has the looks of a wizard. A ring of gray hair encircles his head and he sports a fuzzy, salt and pepper beard that extends down his thin neck. Frameless, untinted glasses highlight the curious twinkle in his eye as he enthusiastically fields all the questions I hurl … Continue reading
An Interview with Denver artist Kevin Weckbach
“When there is no one else around to distract me I can see myself more clearly. It is just me, responding directly to the thing in front of me. It’s being able to explore the difference between thinking who I am and knowing who I am.” The simplest way for me to begin is to … Continue reading
The Essence of an Artist: A Conversation
Approximately 5 months ago I lost a very important friend named Elizabeth. Elizabeth was an artist. I first entered her world as a co-teacher during the teaching certification program at Tyler School of Art in 2005. Twelve years later Elizabeth’s friendship has extended my friendship family, as the people that surrounded her in life celebrated … Continue reading
Inside/Outside at Gitler & _____
There’s a guy holding a bird in the center of the room and a mountain lion in the corner, returning his gaze. The whole scene – room and inhabitants – is colored a kind of rustic brown, reinforced by planed wood beams on the floor. A white house cat stands to the left, fixed on … Continue reading
The Rhizome in Sculpture: Melquiades Rosario Sastre & Elizabeth Robles
Roots and branches are at the same level in the process of organizing ones thinking according to Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. They propose this metaphor, originally taken from biology, as a rhizomatic way of thinking. The rhizome, like a root system, is so fertile that it may sprout in many different places at the … Continue reading
Dorothea Lange: Archive as Art
by Beth Cody They say history repeats itself. Over the last few months my law background and the discovery of Dorothea Lange’s WWII photography have lead me to fear this may be true. Recent calls for a Muslim registry in our country made me think about the Japanese internment camps of 1942; with some registry … Continue reading
Ann Hamilton
I have an issue with time. I admit my role. I am the author of my own demise through my need to take part in the over scheduled, over-booked, say “yes” to every opportunity contemporary world. Staying present is a problem for those of us who plan life a year in advance, so slipping into … Continue reading
Visceral and Visual: Berlinde De Bruyckere
If you’re like me you tend to process things in terms of sensation. You may also have a sense that things don’t feel “right” and haven’t for a long time. I can be overwhelming untangling it all. What happens when we delve into these moments of inundation? Consider that we all perform roles in a … Continue reading
The Body Begs to be Written: The Written Word as an Agent of Ownership
Let’s start with Xu Bing’s pieces Cultural Animal from 1994 and his earlier work A Case Study of Transference from the previous year. Two works that confront us with the brutal collision between two cultures. Cultural Animal presents us with an even more harsh reality than its predecessor when the artist replaces the female pig … Continue reading