Fine Arts Lecture Series: Josiah McElheny, Thursday February 24th, 6pm

Josiah McElheny is an artist working and living in New York. McElheny creates finely crafted, handmade glass objects that he combines with photographs, text, and museological displays to evoke notions of meaning and memory. Whether recreating miraculous glass objects pictured in Renaissance paintings or modernized versions of nonextant glassware from documentary photographs, or extrapolating stories about the daily lives of ancient peoples through the remnants of their glass household possessions, McElheny’s work takes as its subject the object, idea, and social nexus of glass. McElheny’s work often takes the form of ‘historical fiction’—which he offers to the viewer to believe or not. Part of McElheny’s fascination with storytelling is that glassmaking is part of an oral tradition handed down generation to generation, artisan to artisan. Looking at a reflective object becomes a metaphor for the act of reflecting on an idea. Sculptural models of Modernist ideals, these totally reflective environments are both elegant seductions as well as parables of the vices of utopian aspirations.

McElheny's has exhibited his work at national and international venues including the Museum of Modern Art, Orchard, and Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York, Donald Young Gallery in Chicago, Institut im Glaspavillon in Berlin, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, White Cube in London, and the Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid. He has written for Artforum and Cabinet among other publications and is a contributing editor to BOMB. Recently published monographs and artist books include Josiah McElheny: A Prism (Rizzoli, 2010), The Light Club (University of Chicago Press, 2010), A Space for an Island Universe (Turner Publications, 2009), and Island Universe (White Cube, 2008).

To learn more about Josiah McElheny's work, visit http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/mcelheny/

Event Date and Time: Thursday, February 24th, 6:00pm

The Institute of Contemporary Art
Tuttleman Auditorium
118 South 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
http://www.icaphila.org/events/

Jenny Perlin (Undergraduate Lecturer & Graduate Critic) in Group Exhibition at Guggenheim, NY, February 11th - May 1st

Jenny Perlin (Undergraduate Lecturer & Graduate Critic) is currently featured in a group exhibition titled "Found in Translation" at the Guggenheim, NY. Her film "Transcript" (16mm, color, sound, 11:25, 2006) is part of the exhibition. "Found in Translation", curated by Nat Trotman, brings together recent works by eleven artists (Paul Chan, Patty Chang, Keren Cytter, Omer Fast, Brendan Fernandes, Sharon Hayes, Steve McQueen, Carlos Motta, Lisa Oppenheim, Jenny Perlin and Sharif Waked) who look to translation as both a model and a metaphor to critically comment on the past and to produce richly imagined possibilities for the present. For these artists, converting a text from one language to another exposes a discursive field in which the terms of identity—class, race, religion, sexuality—are negotiated, and meaning is generated. An apparently straightforward linguistic task therefore becomes a microcosm for the interaction between cultures, laden with power relations but also open to new aesthetic possibilities. Delving equally into history and fantasy, the works on view here investigate diverse political and social contexts; at their hearts, language continues to provide the crucial link between the cultures and temporalities they explore.

Perlin’s practice in 16mm film, video, and drawing works with and against the documentary tradition, incorporating innovative stylistic techniques to emphasize issues of truth, misunderstanding, and personal history. Each aspect of Perlin’s practice looks closely at the ways in which social machinations are reflected in the smallest elements of daily life. Whether it is copying a receipt from Wal-Mart, a headline from Reuters, unpacking 1950s FBI archives, or filming documentary-style interviews at the corner store, her interest is in the ways in which the sweeping statements of history affect specific details of human experience. Perlin’s works have been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Kitchen, New York, The Drawing Center, New York, P.S.1, New York, The Whitney Museum of Art, New York, CCA Wattis, San Francisco, Ulrich Museum of Art, Kansas, Centre pour l’image contemporaine, Geneva, Aldrich Museum, Connecticut, De Appel, Amsterdam, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Rotterdam Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Images Film Festival, Toronto, among others.

For more information, visit http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/upcoming/3863

Exhibition Dates: Friday, February 11th - Sunday, May 1st

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 5th Avenue (at 89th Street)
New York, NY
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york

Nsenga Knight (MFA '10) in Performance at the Brandywine Workshop, Sunday, February 27th, 9:30am

Nsenga Knight (MFA '10) will be performing at the Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia in the work titled "Last Rite". In "Last Rite", a performance and print-based work, Knight reimagines historical events and presents a series of prints connecting Malcolm X’s transformative final ritual– his 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca, to his assassination and funeral rites in 1965. "Last Rite" re-sketches the final events and rituals in Malcom X's life, and commemorates the days in which they occurred. The "Last Rite" performance at the addresses the audience as witness, catalyst and participant - blurring the lines between spectator space and performance, while prompting questions about communal and ethical responsibility. This performance score is the first in the "Last Rite" project and commemorates the funeral of Malcolm X forty six years ago on this date and time. Knight earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Pennsylvania and an undergraduate degree in Film Production at Howard University. She is currently an artist in Residence at The Brandywine Workshop. Last Rite is generously supported by a Leeway Foundation Art and Change Grant.

Event Date and Time: Sunday, February 27th, 9:30am
Opening Reception: 10:30am - 12:00pm

Glass Lobby Gallery
Brandywine Workshop
728 South Broad Street (Avenue of the Arts)
215.546.3675
* Event is free and open to the public
* Free parking available on the street and MAB Paints' parking lot next door

Jayson Scott Musson (MFA '11 candidate) featured on "ArtBlog Radio"

Jayson Scott Musson (MFA '11 candidate) was recently interviewed by "ArtBlog Radio". Profanity and insults are just distractions in Jayson Scott Musson’s posters, screeds and rants. The real message is the human comedy of rules, categories, identities, stereotypes, pretensions and social classes. In the "ArtBlog Radio" interview, Musson talks about trying to solve his problems as an artist and as an equal opportunity irritant to the politically correct. Jayson Musson currently has a solo show of his work at Marginal Utility February 4th - March 27th, 2011.


To view this feature, visit http://theartblog.org/2011/02/the-real-jayson-scott-musson-speaks-on-artblog-radio/

Penn Design MFA Students in Group Exhibition at Project Space 240 Church, Opening Friday, February 4th, 5pm

Several Penn Design MFA students will be featured in a group exhibition titled, "Just Neighbors" at Project Space 240 Church, Philadelphia. "Just Neighbors" is multimedia show that features talent from Project Space's neighborhood. Artist featured include Sarah Anderson (MFA '12 candidate), Tra Bouscaren (MFA '12 candidate), Thomas Buildmore, Jim Coughlin, Stephen Grebinski (MFA '11 candidate), Patricia Hillman, Tyrus Lytton Rachel Pfeffer, Dana Rangled, Alexander Rosenberg, Anna Fox Ryan, Cheryl Smith, Aaron Thompson, Jonathan Weary, Michael Yoder & other artists who live and work in Old City, Philadelphia. Project Space 240 Church was established by Robert Dimin (MFA '11 candidate) who will also have work featured.

Opening Reception: Friday, February 4th, 5:00 - 8:00pm
Exhibition Dates: Friday, February 4th - Saturday, February 26th, 2010

For more information about Project Space 240 Church, visit http://projectspace240church.com/home.html

Project Space 240 Church
Located on Church Street, between 2nd and 3rd, a block up from Market Street
Gallery Hours: Sunday - Wednesday by appointment or chance / Thursday - Saturday 1:30 - 5:00pm