Art
A Maze in Philadelphia Focuses Attention on the Hidden Cruelty of US Prisons
The US prison system is one of the world's great shames.
Philadelphia
Art
The Macabre Practice of Binding Books in Human Skin
Skin from the thigh of an unfortunate Philadelphia woman felled by a parasitic infection delicately lines the spines of three books in the Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
Art
Barbara Kasten’s Slippery Analog Photography
PHILADELPHIA — Talking about the limitations of photography, painter David Hockney said that art “must deeply involve an observer whose body somehow has to be brought back in.” At the time, he was pessimistic about the medium’s possibilities. Enter Barbara Kasten.
News
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: artist sues Starbucks over "Mini Frappuccino" design, staff at Spanish tourist destination use audio guides to launder money, and the creator of the giant inflatable rubber duck sculptures disowns one of his ducklings.
Art
Can Mobile Architecture Alleviate the Affordable Studio Space Crisis?
One of the biggest pressures on artist finances is the rental cost of a studio.
Art
Recording the Insect Ecology of a Prison Reclaimed by Nature
Cell 25 in Block 9 of Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary is now a cabinet of curiosities representing the animal life of this stabilized ruin.
Art
How Louis Kahn's Last Commercial Work Fell Quietly in Philadelphia
Last year, the only surviving commercial work designed by architect Louis I. Kahn was torn down with little fanfare in Philadelphia.
In Brief
Philadelphia Scores a Standout Early Duchamp
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is already home to the world's richest collection of Marcel Duchamp's work, but it just added two very uncharacteristic pieces to its holdings.
News
An Archive of Artists' Zines Takes Root in Philly
Philadelphia's Temple University is adding about 360 self-published art books and magazines to its library's special collections thanks to the artist and zine-maker Beth Heinly.
Art
David Lynch Returns to His Roots in Philadelphia's Urban Decay
PHILADELPHIA — Before summoning unsettling images of horror out of the American everyday on film, David Lynch was a visual art student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Art
A Shock of Color in the City
PHILADELPHIA — There are two public works on view in the Northeast right now by the Berlin-based artist Katharina Grosse. One, in Philadelphia, zips past as you ride a moving train; the other, in Brooklyn, inspires you to stand still and look closely.
Art
A Tale of Redemption Conserved on a Prison's Crumbling Walls
Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia was designed to look like the most foreboding of fortresses on the outside, and a cathedral-like place of reflection on the inside.