Are you in Philly? Tonight: Daniel Klass Beckwith @ NAPOLEON

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An Exhibition of Sculptures
from Richmond, Virginia from Daniel Klaas Beckwith
infinite fadeaway: Invisible objects where Heisenberg's uncertainty holds; and things may not be viewed and named simultaneously. The continuation of understandings or curiosities, taken as a halo to be worn out.
murder
Knowledge is entertainment alone, and honesty is all that exists.

Opening: TONIGHT: August 5th, 2011: 6pm-10pm

@ NAPOLEON

319 N. 11th St.

Philadelphia, PA

Gallery hours: Saturdays and Sundays 2:00pm - 6:00pm

and by appointment.

Show runs through August 31st.

See more of Daniel Klaas Beckwith's work, here.

Culture Hall - Online Resource

Matt Allison via Culture Hall

Ever want to find a whole bunch of good new art to look at online fast? I know I do. So I was psyched when I found a link to this online resource, Culture Hall.

Culture Hall is a "curated online resource for contemporary art" where you can dig through a plethora of online portfolios. Artworks are organized not only by artist's name, but also by genre- making it easy to get a quick fix of fresh art.

Pour yourself a nice tall glass of iced tea, add that lemon wedge, and go ahead and visit Culture Hall, here.

Wednesday Work: Hilary White

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Hilary White. Big deal round Fishtown this winter, with a beautfiul showing at Part Time Studios. 2D - 3D. Currently with work at Sweet Jane Vintage. Invigorating in person - so you should go.

Sweet Jane Vintage/ 1820 E. Passyunk Ave., Philly, PA 19148/Tues-Sat 12-8, Sun 12-6.

PS. Images look better when you click on them, than they do in the body of the post.

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DEFY MONDAY: Diva

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I'm usually a jeans and t-shirt kinda gal myself, and whence the weather changes, a sweatshirt is added. In the office - layers and layers of button-ups and v-neck sweaters. Both wardrobe types which lend themselves well to anonymity, and a special skill that I have to be able to blend way into a crowd.

It could be the pre-AM frost coming in my open window last night, well before the morning alarm, or the thawing of a pitbull before morning coffee - he woke teeth gnashing, ready to take over France or some other unknowing country, like a little Napoleon (feel bad for the lab that lies next to him); whatever it is I have a wild hair, and this DEFY MONDAY: I say - diva.

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It could be something "subtle" like the pigeon feather headdress or the androgynous bow tie, both pictured above.

Or you could go for something all-consuming, but anonymous still, like these knit costumes below from Mark Newport - an artist exploring masculine identities through knit one-sees. Okay, okay, gender politics, but don't they just look plain cozy?

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But, I said diva - you want to be anonymous?Let's shake it up out there. Fall into and reside behind a mask like one of Nick Cave's (not of the Bad Seeds) Soundsuits.

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Nick Cave is an American performance artist interested in wearable sculpture, but I don't think you have to be a diva or an artist to make your own awesome outfit!

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I just ordered some new on-sale sweaters in COLORS (read: not black, grey, or brown), & I might even splurge for an afternoon cup of coffee (read: diva).

Its the little things sometimes,

let's all live - LOUDER.

***Don't forget, Halloween is coming up!

Wednesday Work: Lisa Sigal

Line Up. 2008.

To pull directly from a press release: Lisa Sigal's work "lies at the intersection of painting, sculpture and architecture." The thing that attracts me to the work is the play of the artwork in and out of our "real" space - the space we inhabit both in the bodily sense and in the sense of this image up top, the "real" space of our work/play/live.

Art lives in galleries. Art work exists in specific confines. Art work is completed between certain dimensions of frame, or size of wall, area in room, the stretch of a single concrete monument.

I love the image up top because it is boundless, playing with the sea foam green from building to building on a landscape, but also sea foam green in relationship to the green bike lane on the street. Where is the frame around this piece? Where is the gallery?

The Day Before Yesterday. 2008.

I have been feeling tired lately trying to figure out where art lives, and in which medium specific that it breathes. Lisa Sigal's use of many medium & much space, both specific and ubiquitous, makes me feel sure & excited that yes - art is what it should be, part of our lives, the same way buildings and bills and work days are.

One Room Shelter. 2009.

For pure aesthetics I quite enjoy the color choices Sigal makes and her play with bright colors into and on top of worn or undone industrial spaces, along with the construction materials.

View From My Brother's Room. 2005.

The subtle nostalgia, and the abstract narrative. Both of these things I like. I am not pretending to understand it in the way it may be meant to be understood, but I am enjoying it as a tired one does, a feeling of familiar, yet inspiring with its unknown undertones, much like the fall air out there, just starting to nip at the tips of our ears and remind us, summer's over - there's work to be done, lovely, wonderful work.

(some thoughts on architecture). 2010.

All of these images were pulled from Lisa Sigal's website, here. To read more about Sigal, check out this and this.

Wednesday Work: Wafa Hourani

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Wafa Hourani is a Palestinian artist combining sculpture and photography is his current body of work, Future Cities.

Paraphrased from a fellow blogger,

"Future Cities deals with the social, political, and economic realities of Palestinian life to develop grim and apocalyptic predictions for the residents of the West Bank.

Each building is a miniature light-box illuminating glimpses into the private lives of the residents through film strips placed in the windows, an unnerving reminder that this science fiction horror is, for many, an everyday experience. "

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While I applaud the ability to be real-world pertinent/political, I mostly enjoy this work for it's whimsical object-hood. Thinking about the process, and how much fun it would be to make this little world. I love the nuance the photographs of the darkened world create, but am very interested in the array of bright colors used on the models you can seen when shot in daylight.

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I can imagine the working process, but find myself curious about the thought-process. Did Wafa Hourani think first of the concept then make the model, or does Hourani enjoy model making and after constructing a few, come up with the concept.

This is something I struggle with often. You creative folks out there - what works best for you? Plan or action? Plan to action? Attack and clean-up?

Regardless, *Cribs* Goldfish Edition - yes, why I would love to live here. (Those of you in Philly, does this remind you of the secret garden?)

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I want ice cream.

You can read more about Wafa Hourani here, and here.

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Wednesday Work:Thomas Doyle

Check out the work of Thomas Doyle! Reminds us of photographer Gregory Crewdson, but not of Joel Peter Witkin. The photographs are dy-na-mite! But the work is actually that of sculputral object.

This work makes me yearn for summer,(even though they're kind of creepy) (what does that say about my summers?).

So what do you prefer object or photograph?