Today I am featured in the Weekend Edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Nikolas Schiller, working with aerial maps, makes complex new patterns by altering them digitally, and his most inspired pieces are the ones that look easy. Convinced each of us has the capacity to change things, Schiller believes that to change the world, we should start with maps.
Now what I find mildly amusing is that the sentence “Convinced each of us has the capacity to change things, Schiller believes that to change the world, we should start with maps.” was more or less already published in a previous edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The curator of the show chose a quote from the 2007 Washington Post article about me and placed it near my map “Israel / Palestine 1993. What the author of this article didn’t realize was that the Philadelphia Inquirer published a syndicated version of the Washington Post article that contained the exact same quote.
Read the rest of the article:
Four artists at Gershman Y
Art from maps, varied, up-to-date
By Victoria Donohoe
For The Inquirer
The “Mapping: Outside/Inside” show at the Gershman Y expands the scope of map-reading in a lively group display that extends from painting with a brush to images involving digital mapping software. Its four featured artists demonstrate how varied today’s map art can be.
What’s remarkable is the artists’ range of styles and techniques in a new synthesis, a layering of energies that brings into focus different periods and influences. The authority of their summation is best seen in works by Joyce Kozloff and Leila Daw.
Kozloff in particular didn’t phase out one format and style as she found another. She’s dealt with them simultaneously to some degree because she has an integrating vision, which also seems true of Daw.
Both show their love of nature and ethnic culture in themes that surface here, and convey the power of visual impact charged with the beauty of color. Daw’s are scintillating, while Kozloff’s high color is always combined with muted tones in her nautical maps. These two, winningly, seem to have an instinct for the age in which we live.
Nikolas Schiller, working with aerial maps, makes complex new patterns by altering them digitally, and his most inspired pieces are the ones that look easy. Convinced each of us has the capacity to change things, Schiller believes that to change the world, we should start with maps.
Eve Andree Laramee questions things by painting faux-scientific maps that reflect her lyrical decorative talent. And she’s quite aware of current considerations about technology’s digital/virtual spaces and the fragile ecologies of Earth’s environment.
Mapping may not be the quintessential art of our era. But it’s a good idea to become aware of artists actually speaking a pure 21st-century language such as these four seem to be doing with their work.
Meanwhile, adjoining this display is an agreeably complementary solo show, “Capturing Sky: Pinhole Photos by Masaaki Kobayashi.”
Gershman Y, 401 S. Broad St. Both shows to Aug. 15. Daily 9-5. Free. 215-446-3022.
