Posts by Catherine Fox:


    Art & Architecture

    Jerusalem report: Artists confront Israel’s complex political and social terrain

    by Catherine Fox | Sep 2, 2010
    Rina Castelnuovo: "Gush Katif, 2005." The site of 17 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, which were dismantled in 2005 as part of Israel's unilateral disengagment program.
    Last month I was among a group of journalists who toured Israel’s holiest city as guests of Jerusalem Season of Culture (JSOC), a fledgling organization that will mount a multidisciplinary arts festival in summer 2011. Although it has secured internationally-known artists as headliners, its purpose is to showcase its homegrown cultural assets and talent, as was the trip. The organizers laid the groundwork for understanding the cultural milieu with tours of the city. Its long, tumultuous history and biblical roots are incarnated in the architecture. Vestiges of Roman, Ottoman, Crusader and British rule as well as mid-20th-century European modernism abut or ...

    Art & Architecture

    Breaking news: Jerry Cullum and Lauri Stallings win Emory’s first Creativity & Arts Award

    by Catherine Fox | Aug 31, 2010
    Breaking news: Jerry Cullum and Lauri Stallings win Emory’s first Creativity & Arts Award
    The Center for Creativity & Arts at Emory University created the Creativity & Arts Awards this year and has given the first community awards to art critic Jerry Cullum and choreographer Lauri Stallings. The awards are designed to highlight the mission of the CCA, including "discovery, societal impact, courageous inquiry, innovation, collaboration, human spirit and the exploration of new frontiers." In addition to the two community awards, other awards will be given to Emory staff, alumni and students for "significant artistic and administrative contributions to the arts in metro Atlanta." Honors are becoming something of a streak for Cullum, who received the inaugural Nexus Award earlier ...

    Art & Architecture

    Review: Another look at the High Museum’s “Salvador Dalí: The Late Work”

    by Catherine Fox | Aug 30, 2010
    Review: Another look at the High Museum’s “Salvador Dalí: The Late Work”
    ArtsCriticATL.com posted Jerry Cullum's perspicacious review of the Dalí exhibition earlier this month. I could not resist weighing in as well. -- C.F. Any museum exhibition worth its salt, even if it's about a familiar artist, shows us something we didn't know. What artist has been more studied, exhibited and parsed than Picasso? Yet "Picasso Looks at Degas," at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., surprised me with revelations of the extent and depth of the elder artist's influence, even on the iconic "Demoiselles d'Avignon." Similarly, one might imagine that there's nothing new to be said about Salvador Dalí, or at ...

    Art & Architecture

    Is it crime? Visual spam? Community catalyst? John Morse’s “Roadside Haiku” raises a flap

    by Catherine Fox | Aug 28, 2010
    Is it crime? Visual spam? Community catalyst? John Morse’s “Roadside Haiku” raises a flap
    John Morse's "Roadside Haiku" project has ruffled some feathers. Keep Atlanta Beautiful has notified sponsor Flux Projects that the installation violates a city sign ordinance and that it faces fines if the signs aren't removed.  WSB-TV, which first reported the dust-up, presented it as a version of "But is it art?" -- the creaky and deliberately provocative trope commonly used to diss contemporary art. But that's not the point, according to Peggy Denby, director of Keep Atlanta Beautiful. "I'm not opposed to poetry. I'm an artist myself," says Denby, who is an avocational painter. From her perspective, an illegal sign is an illegal sign is an illegal sign (my apologies to Gertrude ...

    Art & Architecture

    Proper Medium’s Blake Williams and Flux Projects join forces to take Atlanta public art viral

    by Catherine Fox | Aug 23, 2010
    John Morse: Roadside Haiku, 2010, Moreland Avenue
    If you're driving around and see a small sign that's not trying to sell you something or send you to heaven, it’s probably one of John Morse’s "Roadside Haiku.”   The Atlanta artist has composed 10 poems, two of them in Spanish, in the pithy haiku form, printed 50 signs of each and installed the 500 signs on well-traveled streets.   The haikus, an installation funded by Flux Projects, might also be visible on the information superhighway, thanks to Atlanta filmmaker Blake Williams. Williams, the president of Proper Medium, has made a two-minute video about Morse and his project designed expressly to go on YouTube, Vimeo and ...

    Art & Architecture

    This weekend, a gallery-a-thon across Atlanta, courtesy of the Atlanta Gallery Association

    by Catherine Fox | Aug 17, 2010
    This weekend, a gallery-a-thon across Atlanta, courtesy of the Atlanta Gallery Association
    [caption id="attachment_6956" align="alignleft" width="140" caption="Julie Wiggins at Mudfire Clay Studio and Gallery, Decatur"] [/caption]   The Atlanta Gallery Association calls it an art walk, but I'm betting you'll need a car to take advantage of "Art Sun-Up to Sundown," the gallery-a-thon taking place this Saturday, August 21.  The 35 participating galleries -- AGA's 12 members and others -- museums and non-profit spaces are spread across metro Atlanta, from the Westside Arts District to Decatur, from Castleberry Hill to Roswell Road. You will, however, have 12 hours to take them all in. All the venues will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and they're planning ...