Hyperallergic, October 21, 2017
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"As a response to increased pressure from the Trump administration to undermine sanctuary cities, Traction built “Toward Sanctuary” (2017), which measures 30 feet in diameter. The collective’s intention was to create “a forum to discuss, ideate, dream, and collectively imagine sanctuary in Philadelphia.” (Just recently, ICE agents came to the city and..."
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Philly.com, January 6, 2017
""From the PAFA Foundry: 30 Years of Casting" offers an impressive selection of cast-metal works by 17 sculptors, most of them working in the figurative tradition, including sculptures by recent graduates and by PAFA instructors Gary Weisman, who instituted PAFA’s foundry, and Joshua Koffman and John Grieg Jr."
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BillyPenn, January 9, 2016
“Many of the larger works were produced by the Philadelphia Traction Company, an artists co-op in West Philly, including the very first piece you see at the hotel’s main entrance. In collaboration with the Philadelphia Historical Society, the artists created a “chandelier” comprised of more than 300 portraits of famous or important Philadelphians.”
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UWISHUNU, October 5, 2015
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“The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts closes Traction Company, its exhibition about a PAFA-run collective and studio space in West Philly of the same name, on Sunday, October 11. Inside of the museum’s Fisher Brooks Gallery in the Hamilton Building, the 12 artists — made up of PAFA alumni, faculty and staff — have created collaborative and individual pieces. Bonus: Admission to the museum will be free on October 9 and 11 in celebration of the exhibition.”
nbcphiladelphia.com, Sep 27, 2015
“Pope Francis will be making an extra stop to meet with St. Joseph’s University students at the Philadelphia campus before his Parkway parade and Mass Sunday.
The pontiff’s press office made the announcement of the extra stop on the pope’s itinerary for a statute blessing and visit to sick priests.
The Pope was joined by Rabbi Abraham Skorka — an old friend — for a ceremony at Joshua Koffman’s “Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our Time”..."
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Artblog, September 3, 2015
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“Traction Company’s “Truss” (2015), on view at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), is an unexpected but heroic art object. “Truss” is a full-scale replica of a timber roof support from the Traction building, a former trolley-manufacturing warehouse now serving as studio space for Traction’s collective of 12 artists, all PAFA alumni. It is 65 feet long and constructed of immense wood beams, which were purchased by the group from a nearby demolition site of a same-era building in the quickly-gentrifying West Philadelphia neighborhood.”
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Philly.com, September 2, 2015
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“When considering the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’ latest exhibition, it’s best to think of its crafty subjects as a big band, not just a bunch of PAFA alumni artists, staff, and faculty congregating to make things out of repurposed wood and metal. … ‘I think Traction proves that work can be beautifully handmade and conceptually rigorous,’ says Throckmorton. ‘They reflect an interest in craftsmanship, something that likely goes back to their time at PAFA; an interest in ...'”
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Miguel Horn sculpts an expanding career
Philly.com, September 2, 2015
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“An ambitious artist with Colombian and Venezuelan roots whose vision spans multiple communities and continents, Horn finds himself today, at 31, at a crossroads and immersed in determining the direction of his career. While public-art commissions punctuate his practice as a sculptor, he balances his portfolio with individual sculptures that express his inner psyche.”
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artcritical, August 25, 2015
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“Shared media or common theoretical interests sometimes spur artists to form a collective. The Philadelphia Traction Company is a collective formed around a building. Beginning in 2007, this group of graduates of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) set up shop in a vast shed that was once a repair depot for Philadelphia’s trolley system, and a symbol of the city’s industrial past. The process of making that forlorn and forbidding space their home was the common experience that...”
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