ART REVIEW

A regular sort of marsh, stuffed like a St. Anthony’s day turkey with aluminum, garbled sludge, and feathers. The studio stood shyly among the pines. Birds hung from the rafters on the porch, all kinds. A woodpecker with its wings drawn back presided over a table of magic sand candles. A kingfisher eyed the fire from his rosary nest across the room while two finches huddled in the scraps of a baseball glove. The flames dried his wings, whispering over colored sand. It was delightful. Caterpillars ranged over melted sheets of plastic. We toasted them with mugs, coffee sediment cemented to the bottom.

Acadian music leaked from the radio. It was so off-tune it might have been the city distorted by the marsh, all of its sounds, whatever that meant. Either way it was a fascinating sort of noise, unpredictable and alive like an eerie Morandi or the eyes in a portrait of Jeanne. He compared the sound to art, then to his own work, a comparison as garbled and fleetingly sublime as anything. I was in no mood. He said painting was like this, like transmuting noise into Acadian folk fables about the Lusitania. We moved on. I moved on.

He worked in the vanitas tradition, he insisted, not still-life. But either way an ars moriendi, mining vitality in decay, fishing out constants from subjects whose chests sunk by the hour. Though their bodies faded their feathers retained such color I suspected plasticine or tar. They outshone the rainbow sand on the table, mixed as it was with ash.

He fleshed out the rest of the canvas with marsh salvage. Only the birds were constant, in his painting as well as in the tradition. A dead thrush’s wings break almost by the weight of their own feathers, separating quickly even in the sluggish currents of the marsh, but they persist across the centuries and not the powder horns or ivory radios which surround them in the paintings and in the dunes.

But if Vanitas vanitatum, dixit Ecclesiastes; vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas, I asked him, why such precision, such delicate colors, such care? For that too has remained constant, the pursuit of aesthetic perfection even in a tradition which aggressively renounces the pursuit of aesthetic perfection, if it would ever even concede the possibility of such perfection. But something perfect, he said, exhausts all its possibilities, and since there is nothing left for it to be it shines forth only in its inadequacies and limitations. So be it.

He wanted to say, with Wallace Stevens

Clear water in a brilliant bowl,
Pink and white carnations….
A world of clear water, brilliant-edged,
Still one would want more, one would need more,
More than a world of white and snowy scents.

There would still remain the never-resting mind,
So that one would want to escape, come back
To what had been so long composed.
The imperfect is our paradise.
Note that, in this bitterness, delight,
Since the imperfect is so hot in us,
Lies in flawed words and stubborn sounds.

and from this affirm the vanity of thought, act, and desire, condemning the entire complex of the soul for its lack of reasonable heating or adequate shelter. There were neither illusions in his work nor anywhere to escape. We returned to the dock after looking at his paintings. Piers sloped to the west, light died on the water. Fireflies settled sometimes three to a can. We watched.

Andrew Graham (MFA '06) in Exhibition at David Weinberg Gallery, Opening June 5

Andrew Graham,
Serenity, 2009





Alum Andrew Graham (MFA '06) will exhibit work in a show titled Golden Ratio at David Weinberg Gallery in Chicago.

Opening Reception: June 5, 2009
Exhibition Dates: June 5 to July 11, 2009


For more information: http://www.davidweinberggallery.com/

TONIGHT!!!!! PENN MFA THESIS EXHIBITION OPENING....WHO'S EXCITED!?

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA MFA THESIS EXHIBITION
ICEBOX PROJECT SPACE-CRANE ARTS BUILDING


Please join us for the opening reception: Saturday, May 16th from 6-9pm

Exhibition Dates: May 16- June 4, 2009

The Artists: Kim Brickley, Edward L. Carey, Jessica Clauser, Jaimeson Daley, Jennifer Ruiz Copeland, Kurt Freyer, Tia-Simone Gardner, Elizabeth Hoy, Tetsugo Hyakutake, Jules Joseph, Kate Kaman, Antonio McAfee, Jessa McFarlane, Nicolas McMahon, Aaron Metté, Evi Numen, Cecelia Post, Jaime Roth, Rebecca Sargent, Peter Schenck, Emilie Selden, Laura Shema, Nicole White, Ricardo Zapata


The ICEBOX Project Space
Crane Arts Building
1400 N. American Street
Philadelphia, PA 19112-3803

Gallery Hours: Thursday-Sunday, 12-6pm or by appointment.


Please visit www.pennmfathesis.com for more information.

For more information about the exhibition or the PennDesign MFA program in general, please call our office at 215-898-8374 or visit our website at www.design.upenn.edu/fine-arts

Kate Kaman (MFA '09) in Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby, Sat. May 16, 12:30pm

Kate Kaman will have a sculpture in the annual Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby in Philadelphia, this Saturday, May 16.

A Kinetic Sculpture is a Human-powered vehicle that also has an artistic theme. Think of parade floats on bicycles, or mummers on hand crank driven pirate ships, or an alien space ship on 2 welded together bikes, think of a giant pink poodle hurdling through space, mud, sand and water. A Kinetic Sculpture Competition is all about fun and ingenuity, making the wackiest, most interesting contraption is the goal- finishing the course or winnning is not. Kinetic Sculpture Competitions have been taking place all over the world since 1969 when a California artist named Hobart Brown made some artistic improvements to his son's tricycle.

The Derby Parade leaves at 12:30pm, the Arts Fest is from 12-5pm with bands and vendors all day.
The award ceremony will be held between 3:30 and 4pm at the Arts Fest.

The Kinetic Sculpture Derby is at the Trenton Avenue Arts Festival on the 2000-2300 blocks of Trenton Avenue in the Kensington Neighborhood of Philadelphia, PA, USA, Planet Earth. The Parade leaves from Trenton and Dauphin.

For more information visit http://www.kinetickensington.org/

Kate's Studio: http://www.katekaman.com/

Tetsugo Hyakutake (MFA '09) Invited to PHotoEspaña 2009, June 3 - July 26

Tetsugo Hyakutake

PHotoEspaña 2009 is a festival of photography and visual arts that will take place from June 3 to July 26 in Madrid, Lisbon, and Cuenca. The event will include 72 exhibitions spread across 60 exhibition spaces, with 248 artists from 40 countries participating.

As part of the festival, Tetsugo has been invited to participate in Descubrimienos PHE Madrid, which is PHotoEspaña's portfolio review that gives photographers the opportunity to show their work to renowned curators, gallery owners, critics, editors, and publishers specializing in photography. He will also be exhibiting in a group show in Madrid.

For more information:

http://www.phe.es/festival/
http://www.phedigital.com/
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=29909

See Tetsugo's work at:
http://www.tetsugohyakutake.com/

East West South North Exhibition, Opening Thurs. May 21, 4 - 6pm

East West South North

Work from the The Howard A. Silverstein and Patricia Bleznak Silverstein Photography Studio Abroad: Beijing/China/2009.

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 21, 4 - 6pm
Exhibition Dates: May 21 - June 26

Participants: Matthew Thomas Cianfrani, Jessica Marie Clauser, Tasha Doremus, Jesse Harding, Elizabeth Hoy, Tetsugo Hyakutake, Nsenga A. Knight, Gabriel Martinez, Antonio McAfee, Nicholas Salvatore, Julie Saecker Schneider, Larry Shprintz, Kira Simon- Kennedy, Leigh Van Duzer, Arthur Vierkant

The Charles Addams Fine Arts Gallery
University of Pennsylvania
200 South 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

215-573-5134

www.undergradfinearts.org

Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday 10am - 5pm

Jamal Cyrus (MFA '08) solo show at The Kitchen reviewed by Karen Rosenberg in the NY Times Art section!

JAMAL CYRUS

‘Winners Have Yet to Be Announced’

The Kitchen (through Saturday)

An artist collaborative eases the pressure of developing new ideas, but it can also be a crutch. As a member of Otabenga Jones & Associates, a Houston group of young African-American artists who base their fictional movements and identities on 1960s radicals, Jamal Cyrus has shown at the Whitney and the Menil Collection. His own voice, as seen in his first New York solo show, is still being developed.

The crux of the show is an untitled video, inspired by Palmer Hayden’s Social Realist canvas “The Janitor Who Paints,” that takes the form of surveillance footage. It shows a maintenance worker engaged in a performative drawing with his broom and a pile of graphite dust. Mr. Hayden’s heroic subject, who works on his art in the off hours as his adoring wife, baby and cat look on, becomes a moodier, more elusive figure in Mr. Cyrus’s portrayal. He circles the room, spreading the dust into a galactic swirl and then erasing it with crosswise strokes.

In several seemingly unrelated sculptures, Mr. Cyrus modifies musical instruments. In “New Ghosts,” he plasters a drum kit into a gallery wall; in “Conga Bomba,” he fashions trumpet brass into an ax blade. “Piece of the Sargasso Sea,” another drum kit, is festooned with coral, seaweed, incense sticks and a graphic pattern of black-and-white safety tape. These works owe a lot to David Hammons’s sardonic street art and to Jim Lambie’s punk-rock assemblages.

A cryptic set of graphite-dust drawings (bearing no resemblance to the janitor’s) round out the show. They seem to reproduce blacked-out documents, with an ironic-poetic twist: the streaky graphite makes precision and control impossible.

Mr. Cyrus needs to clarify his intentions and distance himself from his idols (Mr. Hammons in particular). Indulging his material attraction to graphite dust, in the drawings and video, is a start. KAREN ROSENBERG

See the article online: www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/arts/design/

See the gallery website: www.thekitchen.org/

Judith Shea (MFA Senior Critic) in Global Books Exhibit, Aix-en-Provence, France, Opening May 7

Global Books: Exposition des Les Livres d'Artistes de Gervais Jassaud (Collectif Generation)

Cite du Livre

Aix-en-Provence
France

Exhibition Dates: May 7 - June 20

Artist/poet collaborative books published by Gervais Jassaud, Director, Collectif Generation, Paris and Frejus, France

Includes Haibun 1990, by John Ashbury, with painted etchings by Judith Shea.

Cite du Livre
8, Rue Allumettes
13090 Aix en Provence, France
+33 4 42 27 11 86
http://www.fondationsaintjohnperse.fr/

Judith Shea (MFA Senior Critic) in Exhibit at National Academy Museum, NY, Opening July 8

Reconfiguring the Body in American Art 1820-2009

The National Academy Museum

Exhibition Dates: July 8 - November 15

"Reconfiguring the Body in American Art 1820-2009 examines the critical role the figure has played in art of the United States over the past 200 years. Installed chronologically and thematically, the exhibition will illustrate how the body has been central to the artist from formal portraiture, genre painting, and modernist devises of deconstructing the figure. A section of contemporary work by younger artists will show how the figure continues to be relevant for artists today."

The National Academy Museum
1083 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY
212-369-4880
http://www.nationalacademy.org/

Judith Shea (MFA Senior Critic) in Dress Codes Exhibit, Katonah Museum, NY, Opening July 12

DRESS CODES: Clothing as Metaphor in Contemporary Art

Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY

Exhibition Dates: July 12 - October 4

"Toward the end of the 20th century, many artists seized upon the idea and form of clothing as a subject for their work. Clothing today can be a metaphor for larger issues such as feminist concerns, racial stereotyping, current events, and the violence of war.

The 40 works in DRESS CODES: Clothing as Metaphor in Contemporary Art highlights contemporary artists' interest in the body, while also offering personal, social, cultural, political, and ethnic critiques."

Includes: Louise Bourgeous, Do-Ho Suh, Willie Cole, E.V. Day, Oliver Herring, Beverly Semmes, Judith Shea, Jean Shin, Yinka Shonibare and Andrea Zittel, among others.

Katonah Museum of Art
134 Jay Street - Route 22
Katonah, NY 10536
(914) 232-9555

MFA Thesis Show ... Opening Sat. May 16!

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA MFA THESIS EXHIBITION
ICEBOX PROJECT SPACE-CRANE ARTS BUILDING


Opening reception: Saturday, May 16th from 6-9pm
Exhibition Dates: May 16- June 4, 2009



The Artists: Kim Brickley, Edward L. Carey, Jessica Clauser, Jennifer Ruiz Copeland, Kurt Freyer, Tia-Simone Gardner, Elizabeth Hoy, Tetsugo Hyakutake, Jules Joseph, Kate Kaman, Antonio McAfee, Jessa McFarlane, Nicolas McMahon, Aaron Metté, Evi Numen, Cecelia Post, Jaime Roth, Rebecca Sargent, Peter Schenck, Emilie Selden, Laura Shema, Nicole White, Ricardo Zapata




The ICEBOX Project Space
Crane Arts Building
1400 N. American Street
Philadelphia, PA 19112-3803

Gallery Hours: Thursday-Sunday, 12-6pm or by appointment.

www.pennmfathesis.com

www.design.upenn.edu/fine-arts