Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Magicians and Cartoons


I saw the show at the ICA a while ago, but haven't gotten around to writing anything about it. I think Anthony Campuzano is one of the best artists working in Philly right now, so I think it's great that the ICA gave him a solo show. Dude really deserves it. I'm not really sure that I "get" the work, but he does some amazing things with text. His work really seems magical, which sounds corny, but I really think it's true. He transforms the text just enough so that it hovers right between that line of text-as-image and text-as-word, and there's something really amazing about seeing that. Every time I see his work I want to run home and make things just like his, which I suppose is the highest compliment I can give.



Josh Mosley's video was really nice as well. I'm kicking myself for not taking more advantage of having him on the faculty at Penn while I was there. Stupid, stupid, stupid! His video has a boyish whimsy about it and rides the line between cartoon and art really well. I kind of feel a guilty pleasure when I see his work -- it's like I get to watch an amazing animated cartoon and it's "serious" art! Lisa said it best: "That was a video piece that I actually wanted to continue watching after a minute."

2 comments:

nlp said...

Totally agree.

bluemovers said...

did he leave penn for good? i saw that we acquired one of his pieces here at the museum, but i assumed he was still teaching.