CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: Being Shepard Fairey

FAST COMPANY: Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the famous Obama poster image, and who was accused by the AP last week of copyright violation, has now counter-sued the AP claiming his use of the image was fair use. Arguing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Fairey’s lawyers acknowledged that he had used the photo, which was taken by Mannie Garcia for the AP, but said he had transformed the literal depiction into a “stunning, abstracted and idealized visual image that creates powerful new meaning and conveys a radically different message.” Fairey’s getting some powerful help in his fight. The […]

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ARTSY: Street Fighting Man

  BY ELIZABETH FLYNN Dear anti-snob art nerds: Get your streetwise (but intellectual) ass to the coolest First Friday party in town, Cut Copy – a Stencil Show, tonight at South Philly’s favorite gallery T&P Fine Art! Jon Halperin has curated another amazing group show, consisting entirely of stencil graffiti art. He’s included pieces from some of the biggest names in the genre, two of which, Papermonster and Pure Evil, I talked to about their work and the history of the medium.   Halperin says that “Stencil art is my art drug of choice. I’ve been following this scene since […]

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THEATER: Five Reasons To See Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire At The Walnut St. Theater

1. Blanche DuBois is the first lady of the American stage. Whereas the motion picture of Tennessee William’s A Street Car Named Desire draws attention to Brando’s gritty portrayal of Stanely Kolwalski, it seems as though Williams intended Blanche Dubois, played with gravitational pull by Susan Riley Stevens, to hold center stage for playhouse productions. The production was all of three hours long, which can be demanding even for the most ardent theater-lovers, but Stevens entertained, intrigued and beguiled effortlessly for the entire production, and could have done so longer. And this was no small feat. Stevens delivered more than […]

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ARTSY: Dancing With Yourself

[“Billy Idol On Wood” by SHEPARD FAIREY]   ALTERNATIVE PRESS MAGAZINE PRESENTS: “Side Show” – Art by Musicians     Friday January 2nd, 7pm at T&P Fine Art Gallery. RELATED: A Hip Gallery Grows In The Dirty South (Details after the jump)

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CLUSTER & ENO: Ho Renomo

WARNING: Extremely beautiful. WIKIPEDIA: Anna Pavlovna Pavlova (Russian: ????? ????????? ????????) (12 February 1881 [O.S. 31 January]–23 January 1931) was a Russian ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the most famous classical ballet dancers in history and was most noted as a Principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev. Pavlova is most recognised for the creation of the role The Dying Swan and with her own company, would become the first ballerina to tour ballet around the world.

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WEEKEND UPDATE: The Good News Flower Hour

The Good News Flower Hour #4 Folks, here’s the latest installment of The Good News Flower Hour, wherein I provide the voice for a flower that reads the news. The debut is HERE and the last couple episodes are HERE and HERE. We are still tweaking the concept and streamlining the production schedule on these — it takes a LONG-ass time to make these little three-minute suckers — but we hope to make this a weekly feature in the very near future. Enjoy.

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ARTSY: ‘Invisible Airwaves Crackle With Life’

NEXUSradio is a celebration of radio’s legacy, the evolution of communication technology, and a reaction to the current state of commercial media. NEXUS/foundation for today’s art has transformed its gallery space into a low powered radio station for two months in December 2008 and January 2009. NEXUS has invited artists, musicians, performers, djs, activists, poets, scholars, local community groups and other members of the public to use the radio broadcast during gallery hours, Wednesday through Sunday 12 to 6 PM. The broadcast can be heard at 1650 AM. Opening Thursday, December 11 6 to 9 PM. MORE RUSH: The Spirit […]

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GAYDAR GALLERY REVIEW: The ‘View’ Flourishes

BY AARON STELLA GAYDAR EDITOR Budding and virtuoso artists exhibit the lush pastoral and the iridescent abstract in “Views” at Flourish Gallery, which opened First Friday this month. Ric Best, consummate photographer and co-proprietor of Flourish, produced austere stills of bucolic France, while Austin Algeo, bartender at Woody’s of five years, showed the finest of his experimental shots of Philadelphia’s 2008 Independence Day fireworks fanfare. Best’s associates and admirers had always been curious about his rumored talent for landscape stills. As the requests accumulated, Best endeavored on the laborious enterprise of sifting through the some 4,000 photographs he shot while […]

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