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Pigeons on the Grass, Alas: Valerie Cassel Oliver

The senior curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston rounds out our "Pigeons" series. Read more >

Introducing Weng Choy Lee

Posted by Peter Nesbett | November 30, 2010

Next week, Philadelphia will play host to Weng Choy Lee, an art critic based in Singapore and former artistic co-director of the Substation art center in Singapore. He’s here for two reasons:

• To lecture at the ICA on Wednesday, December 8 at 6:30 p.m.
• To participate in the Philadelphia Curatorial Intensive program, run by Independent Curators International here at PEI.

Weng Choy Lee co-directed the artistic program at the Substation from 2000 to 2009. Founded in 1990, the Substation was the first independent center for contemporary art in Singapore, predating both the Singapore Art Museum (1996) and the Singapore Biennial (2006). . . .

Are Curators Unprofessional (Enough)?

Posted by Peter Nesbett | November 23, 2010

Two weeks ago, the Banff Centre hosted the provocatively titled symposium Banff International Curatorial Institute Symposium: Are Curators Unprofessional? The topic is fantastic. We're still waiting (and hoping) for the Centre to post videocasts and podcasts on their website. In the meantime, Daniel Fuller referred us to this post-symposium blog post at Canadian Art.

Kitty Scott, the symposium's organizer, refers us to a text written in advance of the symposium and published in Mousse magazine that can be found here.

The questions and issues raised are good ones. At a time when the debate over the curator-as-artist has reached feavored pitch (see Anton Vidokle's critique here and responses here), the symposium proposed to explore the counter-trend of curator-as-bureaucrat: "An interpretation of the response that curators are not unprofessional enough seems to revolve around a sense of what might have been lost in the drive towards efficiency and global reach. Perhaps the professional curator finds it increasingly difficult to sustain an idiosyncratic imagination, unorthodox interests, a risk-taking mentality and the desire to question authoritative positions. Perhaps curators are too concerned with professional prestige and social status, the celebrity attendant on prominent institutional positions."

Photo: By Vanessa Beecroft of participating artists/curators at the notorious 6th Caribbean Biennial, 1999, organized by Maurizio Cattelan and Jens Hoffmann

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Labels: curating philadelphia exhibitions initiaitive

Seductive Subversion: What Did You Think?

Posted by Roy Wilbur | November 22, 2010

On Friday, November 19, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and Ovation co-sponsored the world premiere screening of Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958–1968, a film by Glenn Holsten, 1997 Pew Fellow in the Arts. Made as a companion piece to the exhibition that debuted at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts earlier this year, Seductive Subversion is the first film to examine, in depth, the works of female Pop artists, including Pauline Boty, Faith Ringgold, Martha Rosler, Marisol Escobar, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Marjorie Strider, and their place within and contributions to art during that period.

We invite you to share your thoughts and feedback on both the film and the exhibition in the comments to this post. What did you learn from Seductive Subversion about Pop art in the late 1950s and 1960s? Do you agree that Glenn Holsten’s film and the original exhibition present a revisionist view of the movement? Which of the film’s stories did you find most inspiring? What questions might still remain about the contributions of these female artists to the contemporary art world?

Click here to watch more clips from the film on artists Martha Rosler, Marjorie Strider, Rosalyn Drexler, Faith Ringgold, and Idelle Weber.

The Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958–1968 exhibition is now on view at the Brooklyn Museum through January 9, 2011.

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Labels: discussion film glenn holsten pew fellow pop art screening seductive subversion university of the arts women artists

Preserving Beth Sholom Synagogue

Posted by Jacque Liu | November 22, 2010

by Emily T. Cooperman, Ph.D., Principal, Architectural Research and Cultural History

In August 2010, a lively group gathered at Beth Sholom Synagogue in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania to tackle the question of how to preserve the magnificent glass roof of the synagogue building - the feature of the building that allows the main sanctuary to become an awe-inspiring, towering space filled with natural light.

Thinking Miami

Posted by Peter Nesbett | November 22, 2010

Attending Art Basel Miami Beach is always a bit of a tease -- too much of everything in small doses. The days start with a drowsy drive to a intimate brunch for hundreds at the Cisneros Collection, then proceed at whirlwind pace through what seems like thousands of fair booths, to end in boozy museum receptions, parties, and dinners.

This year, those of you attending might break this fevered sprint and carve out some good-ol' sit-and-think time: the lecture and panel discussion program looks particularly good. There is a talk with Philadelphia's own Pistoletto (ciao Michelangelo!), a fabulously contrarian talk on art and urban renewal, and a few other goodies.

Here are a few you might sacrifice time for....

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