Silicon in Prague (Czech Republic)

Sabrina and I went to Prague for a long weekend and had a fine old time taking in the sights of Prague and seeking out contemporary art.

David Cerny - Photo: Rick

Photograph: Sebastien Pirlet/Reuters

Possibly the most famous comtemorary Czech artist is David Cerny whose sculpture "Entropa" made quite a stir. It was created in 2009 to celebrate the Czech Republic's Presidency of the EU. Cerny initially claimed that the 8 ton sculpture was a collaboration of 27 EU artists but later divulged that it was, in fact, all him. Bulgaria was really pissed off (literally) as their country was shown as the floor of a urinal. Romania was shown as a Dracula theme park and France simply had the work Strike across their map. One story I have heard is that he was asked to give back the 350,000 Euros and take the sculpture down and another is that he took the sculpture down to protest against the way Czech prime minister Topolánek had been deposed.
We had seen some of his work in the park and climbing on the communication tower and understood that Entropa was at the first private not-for-profit museum in Prague - The  DOX Center for Contemporary Art. So off we went on the excellent public transport system to DOX.





Sadly we found out that Entropa was now on permanent display in Pilsner - (yes, there is a town called Pilsner in Czech Republic - and as a side bar it's also where the name Budweiser originally came from) - but there were several really good exhibits. I loved the Tour . . . 2010 a modified Volvo bus by Lucas Rittstein

Bus by Lucas Rittstein Photo by Rick

and Shoe Christ by Petr Motyčka which is around 19 feet high and contains around 1,500 shoes. It reminded me a little of Paul Chan's Shoe Tree which Silicon printed and was on display at MOMA a few years ago as part of their Printmaking Now exhibit (http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/79).

Petr Motyčka Shoe Christ - Photo by Rick

The ground floor exhibit by English Photographer Martin Parr (http://www.martinparr.com) was really great and of particular interest to me because of the images of the British middle class. 

Martin Parr

Street art has always fascinated me and in Prague Lennon's wall has an interesting history. In the late 80's it was a wall where students would write comments against the communist regime and the movement the students followed was called ironically Lennonism by the government. Since then the wall has traditionally had paintings on Lennon (not Lenin) and words to Beatles songs etc. The wall is owned, curiously, by the Knights of the Maltese Cross who at some point gave up trying to paint it and now it is an ever changing canvas.

Lennon wall Prague - Photo by Rick

Just around the corner for the wall is this bizarre wall / fence where couples come and attach a padlock to the fence as a symbol of love. Go figure . . .

Love Locks Prague - Photo: Rick

Finally we were surprised to see in a little store just by the Charles Bridge the Little Wanderer by Yoshitomo Nara which comes from our friend Larry Mangel of Cereal Art in Philadelphia. When we went into the store and told the nice assistant she told us she had had two other couples from Philadelphia in the store that day and that the store was owned by a Czech Glass artist who lives in New York. Small world indeed.

ARTEL Store Prague

Posted by Rick

Philagrafika Invitational Portfolio 2011

 

Monday evening and we welcomed both the print shops and artists participating in the ninth Philagrafika Invitational Portfolio. Everyone gathered at our apartment above the print studio in Old City.

Now some would say that I was a little crusty when people started arriving at, what I thought was early, but I got the time wrong and it was more a case of me being late. Of course  I am English so I expect everyone to be late anyway but once I got the mad panic out of the way (since I was a full 1/2 an hour behind everyone else) and with a drink or six to calm my nerves everything worked out great.

As my wife was in Florida, Michal Smith formerly of Silicon and more lately of Cradles to Crayons (www.cradlestocrayons.org) kindly helped out with the food especially the delicious home made chocolate cake.

The party gave everyone the chance to meet informally over food and drink and chat about what possibilities there may be with the various print shops the artists are working with.  For our part, Silicon will be working with Jennifer Levonian, we had a chance to meet for the first time and talk about how we might push the envelope a little. Everyone seemed to be very excited and I think that once again we will collectively produce a stellar portfolio. The participants are:

• Henry Bermudez- Fabric Workshop and Museum
• Dufala Brothers- CR Ettinger Studio
• Jennifer Levonian- Silicon Gallery Fine Art Prints 
• Alex Lukas- Borowsky Center for Publication Arts
• Paul Swenbeck- Space 1026
• Thomas Vance- Second State Press

The prints in the portfolio can be purchased individually or as a set. The prices are ridiculously low and it's a great opportunity to buy some great works from local artists. Many of the previous years works sold out quickly. You can see the past year prints on Philagrafika's web site (www.philagrafika.org).

Those who stayed a little longer were treated to an impromptu musical interlude by the Dufala Brothers - a kind of reprise of the opening part of their recent concert at Christ Church.


Posted by Rick

The Armory Show NY

Sunday after a brief foray to the upper east side we arrived at the Armory on piers 92 and 94, slightly damp but ready to go. I guess we forgot how big the show is and with limited time available we forged forward knowing we would only get to see a small fraction of the exhibits.

Interesting, for only the second time, we saw some work mounted on glass, yes not plexi but glass. I asked Steven, who does our mounting whether he thought we could do it he gave me a look like "you wanna see broken glass all over the floor" but nevertheless we may try it if I can find some tempered glass.

And speaking of Steven, 50% of the famed Dufala brothers, his and his brothers work was on display at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery (http://www.fleisher-ollmangallery.com) booth on the main floor, another excellent Philadelphia gallery.

For our own part, we were in a collecting mood and after asking the price of an unusual painting by Giorgio di Chirico of Venice - unusual not because of any other reason than it was not in his style but still very beautiful - and was politely informed that is was 520,000 dollars, or was it Euros? We finally settled on our art purchase for the day; a dollar bill printed with the words "New York is a Lot of Work" for the princely sum of $25 - surely an investment :)

For those of us who are or were gallery people Untitled Gallery of New York have some paintings displayed by simply leaning them up against the booth's wall with particularly apposite text . . .  if you were in the gallery biz.

One of the best uses of video I have seen was on this subway door in an installation by Leandro Erlich. The video was almost hypnotic as the riders move and shift with the movement of the subway but you don't; so familiar yet so weird.

This bunch of small animals which looked like they may have been made from a bunch of small animals was both amusing and creepy at the same time.


















Around 2 pm the place began to get really busy we were pretty much art'ed out, when we left the line of people waiting in the rain to get in was very long.


Posted by Rick

Pulse and Red Dot New York

This weekend found us in New York for the various art happenings, Saturday was a beautiful day and I don't know if that made the various venues more or less busy. Our first stop was Pulse partly because it was near our hotel on the lower east side and partly because we enjoyed it so much in Miami.
There were two local (Philadelphia) galleries at Pulse so we stopped in at Gallery Joe, (http://www.galleryjoe.com/) who by all account was having a good show and Pentimenti (http://www.pentimenti.com/), good to see some of the best Philadelphia galleries in New York where there seems to be so much more sales opportunities.

Then we went on to Red Dot where we met art dealer and client Lynn Dunham and another client NY artist James Kennedy (www.jameskennedyonline.com). 

Posted by Rick

Philgrafika Portfolio Meeting

Today the participating member of the selection committee met for the first time for two years to choose the artists for the "2011 Philadelphia Invitational Portfolio". This will be the ninth year Silicon has been involved with this project which is basically a fund raiser for Philagrafika (www.philagrafika.org) but also an opportunity for us to make some cool prints and push the envelope a little.

Shown above (from left to right) are Zach and Jenn from 2nd State Press - we are excited to have these "newbies" on the team, Cindi from C.R. Ettinger Studio, Amanda from the Borowsky Center at the University of the Arts, Rebecca from Philagrafika, Roman from Space 1026 and Mary-Anne from the Fabric Workshop. I was taking the picture with my cell phone.

It may look like fun but after 6 hours of going through images from over 40 submissions and trying to pare it down to 6 artists it was hard work. The chosen will be announced in a few days and I sure we will make another stellar portfolio. You can check out past portfolios on Philagrafika's web site and if you want to beat the rush and pre-order the 2011 portfolio I am sure Rebecca would be happy to take your order!

Posted by Rick 

Re-Organization Meeting

During Silicon Meeting

After Silicon Meeting

Thanks Reeky and Pogo!

Project Basho Onward Photography Show

I went to Project Basho for the first time last Thursday for the Onward Photography Contest Show.  I really like Virginia Blachere's photos from her series 'Urban Cool Down'.  I started a series in the Czech Republic photographing people at the pools, lakes, and rivers.  She gave me some ideas to do something similar in Philly!
-Posted by KT-