Your Friend, the Listings: February 8th – 14th, 2010
I might be snowed in like the rest of you, but I’m going to anticipate my laziness this week and ask you, the people, to help me out here. I deserve to sip some hot chocolate and read a book, y’know, because I’m worth it.
If your event/opening has been moved to this week due to snowfall, please feel free to do some self-updating in the comments!
And now for this week’s listings…
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Tyler School of Art: Critical Dialogues – Shinique Smith
The Critical Dialogues series of lectures is actually structured (and funded) as a course for the graduate students, but the lectures are also open to the public. This week brings Shinique Smith, who received her BFA (1992) & MFA (2003) from the Maryland Institute of College, and attended Skowhegan in 2003. From 1994-1999, she was also the director of Flava Fest: The Seattle Black Film Festival. Shinique Smith currently lives & works in Brooklyn, NY, but is graciously stopping by to speak to us about her work.
Lecture begins at 11am, Room B004. North Philly
Vox Populi: Jose Roca: Mark, Cast, Imprint: Curating from the Jungle
Jose Roca, the Artistic Director & Chief Curator of Philagrafika, will speak about “how the experience of the Brazilian jungle shaped his curatorial approach.” Join them for this first of their SPEAKEASY programming – a series of evenings to “…[highlight] the collaborative social space that surrounds the practice of printmaking with a series of conversations and drinks.” They’ve even built their own watering hole for these events, but don’t you dare whisper bar, there’s no bar (what bar?), no need for a liquor license here folks.
Conversation begins at 6pm. North Chinatown
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Area 919: Occupant
Do I sense a rift in the Second Thursday Crane Mini-Metropolis? It certainly would be the case if Area 919, located in the vicinity of the Crane, wasn’t staging this exhibition in the offices of CITYSPACE, a historic Victorian mansion located at 2200 Walnut Street. CITYSPACE will actually be helping Area 919 stage a few exhibitions around Center City in this manner, a great opportunity being realized by owner/real estate pro Michael Garden. It’s like Hidden City as a one-dude with many hats production. This first exhibition showcases the minimal photography of Gillian Pears, as well as the videos of Ryan Widger.
Opening reception from 6 – 9pm. Center City
Second Thursday, February 5th, 2010
Philadelphia Art Alliance: En Route: Darla Jackson & Brooke Hine
In stark contrast to their 2nd floor exhibition that focuses on the history of ceramics, the Philadelphia Art Alliance invites two artists to their first floor gallery whose conversation with clay is contemporary. And while Brooke Hine and Darla Jackson both use biomorphic forms, they still achieve very different ends. Jackson sculpts her astoundingly accurate animals from clay, but finishes them in either plaster or resin. These animals are then arranged among human decorations & furnishings that allow a viewer to project narratives and characteristics to these subjects. Brooke Hine is less precise about her work – her clay forms encourage entropy while only vaguely resembling shapes that occur naturally. Hine then arranges these forms in response to her architectural space. All this clay talk reminds me, isn’t NCECA coming up as well?
Opening reception from 5.30 – 7.30pm. $5 admission for adults, $3 for students/seniors. Center City
Rebekah Templeton Gallery: Interstellar Medium DVD Release Party
The inspirations behind this exhibit Sean Stoops sounds intense. Maybe not the full library of Einstein, but the personal library that his crazy hairstyle kept.
Inspired by the many embodiments of “Qfwfq,” the timeless narrator in Italo Calvino’s books: Cosmicomics and t zero, the installation visualizes and animates a cosmic entity reincarnated in various forms, shapes, and signs throughout the Universe and finally, on Earth.
New media artist Sean Stoops wrangles all these inspirations into the video projections, wall installations, and audio soundscapes that make up this exhibition. DVDs of what I assume to be the main video of the exhibition drop tonite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DVD Release Party from 6 – 9pm. Center City
Phila. Photo Arts Center: Going From Nowhere: Accumulated Images
Tonight is your last chance to see the Photo Arts Center’s most ambitious exhibition to date (out of two or three). The exhibition culls work from seven artists in six different countries working in any digital photography medium. Each week, each artist has added two more images to the exhibition, and this closing reception will put an end to the amorphous nature of the show. Hung salon style, the exhibition aims to be a metaphor for the image-saturation of our modern culture, and reflect how digital technologies have changed (effed up) the way photography is produced & consumed. I wonder if the curators know about tumblr, and their mission to plagiarize everything.
Closing reception from 6 to 9pm. Crane Arts
I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
