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On the brink of a new art form? Maybe, maybe not
Woodmere Art Museum's annual juried exhibition
The Woodmere Art Museum's annual juried exhibition is like a refreshing gin and tonic on a hot summer day. It helps you breathe, despite the humidity, and all of a sudden you love the opportunity to view all this art by (primarily) young people on their way to fame and fortune.
The exhibit is judged by Dona Nelson and Rubens Ghenov of Temple's Tyler Art School faculty and reflects that school's approach, which leans toward non-objective art and away from the rudiments of drawing actual objects in traditional perspective and shading— the more traditional approach favored by, say, the Pennsylvania Academy. That means we can take in the fresh air of 21st-Century art with impunity here.
Fifty-two artists, some 10 percent of the total entries, were chosen to represent the art being created here and now in Philadelphia. It is a varied ensemble of not-quite New York level 21st-Century visual arts, but close enough to satisfy.
Beyond belief
Entering the first gallery, you can view the masterful paintings by the jurors, Nelson and Ghenov, as well as Some Architecture, a sculpture by Ryan McCartney that could be the main thesis of the exhibition. It's a short-legged, painted wooden chair on which sits a presumably ceramic jug containing a skull, side by side with two eggs and two large feather quills— all of this created with carved wood, although your own eyes will refuse to believe it.
Look at the back wall covered with Frank Bramblett's Accomplished, compiled from his own accumulated to-do lists. Whatever your opinion of its aesthetic value, one must wonder: In an art museum whose space is limited, not to mention an exhibition that rejected many worthy applicants, does this work merit an entire wall?
Entering the rotunda gallery is a different experience. Here you sense breathing space between the art works. Nothing feels heavy or steeped in academicians' narrative. You can laugh and enjoy the moment.
Foot-tapping figure
When you set off the disapproving foot tapping of the figure in Timothy Belknap's Tin Box, you can't help but glance around to see if anyone is glaring at you— not at Belknap's papier-mâché figure. Guilt is on your face. You did it!
The show's individual works in mixed media range from video to traditional oils on canvas, creating the overall impression of an urban culture on the brink of some new form of expression that hasn't yet surfaced. A hundred years have passed since the New York Armory's landmark show with Marcel Duchamp's Urinal. Are we now at another centennial threshold, waiting for a new direction? That remains to be seen. The newest art form— found objects made interactive— just doesn't cut it yet.
My favorites were John Dowell's archival pigment inkjet print, Millennium Park; Minor Tilt with Signs, by Mark Martinez; Matt Neff's Untitled, a digital print on aluminum; the silent video, Eat, by Dani Frid Rossi; Helium, by Paul DeMuro; and Live Show, by Anthony Campuzano.
But you must choose your own favorites. My own preferences vary each time I return. The exhibition continues until September 1, so we have plenty of time to change our own selections on every subsequent visit.
The exhibit is judged by Dona Nelson and Rubens Ghenov of Temple's Tyler Art School faculty and reflects that school's approach, which leans toward non-objective art and away from the rudiments of drawing actual objects in traditional perspective and shading— the more traditional approach favored by, say, the Pennsylvania Academy. That means we can take in the fresh air of 21st-Century art with impunity here.
Fifty-two artists, some 10 percent of the total entries, were chosen to represent the art being created here and now in Philadelphia. It is a varied ensemble of not-quite New York level 21st-Century visual arts, but close enough to satisfy.
Beyond belief
Entering the first gallery, you can view the masterful paintings by the jurors, Nelson and Ghenov, as well as Some Architecture, a sculpture by Ryan McCartney that could be the main thesis of the exhibition. It's a short-legged, painted wooden chair on which sits a presumably ceramic jug containing a skull, side by side with two eggs and two large feather quills— all of this created with carved wood, although your own eyes will refuse to believe it.
Look at the back wall covered with Frank Bramblett's Accomplished, compiled from his own accumulated to-do lists. Whatever your opinion of its aesthetic value, one must wonder: In an art museum whose space is limited, not to mention an exhibition that rejected many worthy applicants, does this work merit an entire wall?
Entering the rotunda gallery is a different experience. Here you sense breathing space between the art works. Nothing feels heavy or steeped in academicians' narrative. You can laugh and enjoy the moment.
Foot-tapping figure
When you set off the disapproving foot tapping of the figure in Timothy Belknap's Tin Box, you can't help but glance around to see if anyone is glaring at you— not at Belknap's papier-mâché figure. Guilt is on your face. You did it!
The show's individual works in mixed media range from video to traditional oils on canvas, creating the overall impression of an urban culture on the brink of some new form of expression that hasn't yet surfaced. A hundred years have passed since the New York Armory's landmark show with Marcel Duchamp's Urinal. Are we now at another centennial threshold, waiting for a new direction? That remains to be seen. The newest art form— found objects made interactive— just doesn't cut it yet.
My favorites were John Dowell's archival pigment inkjet print, Millennium Park; Minor Tilt with Signs, by Mark Martinez; Matt Neff's Untitled, a digital print on aluminum; the silent video, Eat, by Dani Frid Rossi; Helium, by Paul DeMuro; and Live Show, by Anthony Campuzano.
But you must choose your own favorites. My own preferences vary each time I return. The exhibition continues until September 1, so we have plenty of time to change our own selections on every subsequent visit.
What, When, Where
"In Front of Strangers, I Sing": 72nd annual Juried Exhibition. Through September 1, 2013 at Woodmere Art Museum, 9201 Germantown Ave. (Chestnut Hill). (215) 247-0476 or www.woodmereartmuseum.org.
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