Missing a super short video clip on Anthony C and Karen M YouTube channel is sublime, a word DoN doesn’t get to use often. Anthony C and Karen M take their work to the street and see beyond the visual chatter interjecting their own thoughtful tags to the narrative of public art in Philadelphia. Read more about the artists at Side Arts Philadelphia art blog.
Video clip and photo courtesy of Anthony C and Karen M
Yas Reven, collage giclee, Dan Eells, Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts
Untitled, Zach Whitehurst, ink on paper, Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts
Cube, Max Lefko-Everett, cast glass and found object, Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts
Lilliana Didovic, Something Red 1, Something Red 2, acrylic on canvas paintings, Sarah House, Mimic, porcelain, Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts
Wes Valdez, Blur, blown and mirrored glass, Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts
Raphael Fenton-Spaid, Ode to Bernini’s Rape of Proserpina #1, acrylic on mylar adhered to masonite, Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts
Raphael Fenton-Spaid, Ode to Bernini’s Rape of Proserpina, detail, acrylic on mylar adhered to masonite, Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts
Third Friday in Millville NJ is ten years old, the art crawl has become a nexus of art and culture in South Jersey. A model for other towns using art to revitalize the downtown, Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts is a multi-use art space with galleries, gift shop and artist studios creating a hub of artistic activity. Liz Nicklus, the interim Director of RRCA, and a founding board member said to DoN, “I was very honord when the board asked me to come back and be the interim director here and it’s working out to be wonderful so far.” Emergence is the first show at RRCA since Nicklus has assumed leadership, she says, “I have a wonderful Assistant Director who curated most of the show in the main gallery, Brandon Smith, a glass artist from Wheaton Arts so he has assembled a lot of artists that he knows. Of course, we have Lilliana Didovic from Philadelphia, as well. On the other side we have the center’s member artists and I think it’s a very successful show. The artists in the main gallery are from all over from as far as New York and Philadelphia, in the other gallery are artists from all over South Jersey, they’re our Center artists, some are from Millville, some are from farther away. This gives them an opportunity to show what they’ve been working on.”
“Benefits to joining include, besides getting to show, you have opportunities to take classes, reduced rates on entries to other shows, a reduced commission, there are a lot of benefits to being a Center member. It’s a good place for people to get their feet wet if they’re just starting out in the art world. Folks say ‘How do I get a chance to show my stuff?’ Well, here’s a place to start, and Center membership is not as expensive as being an associate member and also you don’t have to be juried in.”
Liz says, “I’m a big fan of mixed media and I love to see what people do with found objects. That’s my first love anyway. Every piece in Emergence you can walk up to and become absorbed in whether it’s because of the process, or just the reflections, or the detail, it’s a very captivating show.”
Sibylle-Maria Pfaffenbichler, Yes Indeed, acrylic & pastel, “The Annual Domenic DiStefano Memorial 2012 Juried Works on Paper Exhibition”, at The Philadelphia Sketch Club through 1/21/2012.
Richard Harrington, 1956 T-bird , gouache on paper at The Philadelphia Sketch Club “The Annual Domenic DiStefano Memorial 2012 Juried Works on Paper Exhibition”.
Lisa Lawinski Buchler, Acacia Tress and Bleeding Hearts, mixed media, The Philadelphia Sketch Club Works on Paper 2012
Lisa Lawinski Buchler, Acacia Tress and Bleeding Hearts, The Philadelphia Sketch Club “The Annual Domenic DiStefano Memorial 2012 Juried Works on Paper Exhibition”
Judy Engle, Loft Life with Ginger Cat, mixed media collage with tape at Philadelphia Sketch Club “The Annual Domenic DiStefano Memorial 2012 Juried Works on Paper Exhibition”.
Judy Engle’s tape collage, Loft Life with Ginger Cat, has a depth and density that is confusingly 3D. Judy told DoN that friend’s told her that tape would deteriorate but the artist has found just the opposite. Ignoring the negative feedback, Judy Engle had both of her entries accepted into the exclusive exhibition and took home an Honarable Mention award.
Judy Engle, Philadelphia Sketch Club Works on Paper 2012. The reflected light is from the large window over the Winner’s Wall, you may even notice the model ship on the sill and the skylight which makes the gallery/studio so appealing for making art.
Harry S. Camarda, In Thought, charcoal, The Philadelphia Sketch Club Works on Paper 2012
Harry S. Camarda, In Thought, charcoal, The Philadelphia Sketch Club Works on Paper 2012
The Philadelphia Sketch Club “The Annual Domenic DiStefano Memorial 2012 Juried Works on Paper Exhibition”, through January 21st, 2012, is an opportunity to immerse yourself in the variety of media, ideas and combinations of materials that constitutes art made on and with paper. Excluding photography, the show displays exquisite works by many of Philadelphia finest artists; the first place winner Harry S. Camarda’s In Thought, a magnificent charcoal drawing that recalls the era of Thomas Eakins, a PSC founder, and reaffirms the mission of the Philadelphia Sketch Club - where artists grow.
Read about New Wave Art Fine Art Products on Side Arts blog.
DoN © 2012
Photographs by DoN
Kodak Digital Cameras
Thoughtful Frog, Sheryl Yeager, pastel on paper.
Sheryl Yeager won First Prize for Works on Paper, an award in memory of Jaqueline Van Handel, presented by Jeanne B. Fisher at the Art Ability International Juried Exhibition of Art and Fine Craft made by people living with disabilities. Even though Sheryl usually shows her work in western Pennsylvania, three years in a row Sheryl and DoN have met up at the Patron’s Reception, a swanky event with fine food and wines for collectors, supporters and artists.
“I guess they like frogs?“, Sheryl said to DoN, commenting on the top award she received for her enchanting pastel drawing of an amphibian. Sheryl Yeager develops strong color fields which resonate pleasantly, the strong shapes and descriptive drawing evoke the wonder of finding a frog on a sunny pond, a happy sensation. Creating a good pastel is not easy but to rise above the competition in a crowded field of gorgeous contenders, presentation is key, Sheryl’s balanced mat and contemporary framing present the art beautifully. The genuine good vibes emanating from the image may have had a touch of magic for the judges, too. Sheryl tipped off DoN that she is producing a line of greeting cards featuring her animal art. Sheryl Yeager states in the impressive catalog Art Ability produced that, “She loves the texture of pastels and the artistic control she gains from it. She enjoys drawing animals because it makes her feel free and one with nature.” That’s what Thoughtful Frog made DoN feel like, too - at one with nature.
Art Ability is in the Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Malvern Pa, there are hundreds of artworks created by people living with disabilities on display, the center is warm and welcoming - it’s a rehab center, they’re very friendly - and is free and open to the public daily. Supporting the efforts of the Art Ability team by buying artwork benefits not just artists like Sheryl Yeager but yourself; being present in a place of healing, sharing smiles and seeing art from the perspective of artists facing persistent challenges is life affirming. Art makes a great gift.
Photographs by DoN Brewer shot exclusively with
Bluestone Fine Art Gallery: Amie Potsic, Danielle Bursk and Gregory Brellochs
DoN had not been to Old City in a long while for a First Friday art crawl, parking and traffic sucks, so, DoN took the bus. $2.00! with live entertainment included ; ), and a chance to watch the cityscape go by, delivering DoN to the intersection of Market & 3rd Streets right into the hubbub of street artists, musicians and even a puppeteer capitalizing on the monthly crowds of young couples and art lovers. A short stroll down Third to Vine Street is the new Bluestone Fine Art Gallery, just around the corner from the Painted Bride. The current show includes work by three artists - Amie Potsic’s photographs, Danielle Bursk’s ink on paper and Gregory Brellochs‘ charcoal and ink drawings. The artists are using different media but the theme of the wonders of nature run through the show like a stream of consciousness.
Bluestone Fine Art Gallery: Amie Potsic
Amie Potsic, Made in China: Yangtze River, archival pigment print
“My mission is to create a process, an action comes from that, whether it’s experiencing more art or it’s doing something political. That’s the hope, I mean, so, you see something like this, you see something in these images and you have a conversation about it, then you see images about that in the news, then you get an e-mail about signing a petition, and then you see a thing about going to a demonstration and you do something!” Amie Potsic’s scroll-like photographs of trees have a sense of being foreign, the Chinese calligraphy, done by a poet in Taiwan, and the perpendicular typography subtly leads the mind’s eye across the ocean to a distant land. But these trees are probably shot right here in Philly presenting the bewildering notion that maybe China owns these trees and therefore made them.
“Because it’s a cumulative effect of impressions and influences and with all that, nobody does anything. Part of the reason I do this work, some of it was done in Rittenhouse Square, the most chic section of Philly, and there was a very graphic demonstration by a Chinese group that follow the Falun Gong religion, which essentially is Buddhism. But you’re not allowed to practice organized religion in China in that way. So people were jailed and tortured physically and there was a demonstration in the middle of Rittenhouse Square with patients on gurneys being mock-tortured, it was shocking, I got the materials they were handing out and that made me reference my audience with the Dalai Lama and learning about what happened in Tibet and putting those two things together. At the same time I was photographing images of trees in this sort of long scroll format and realized they look like Chinese scroll prints, I saw the demonstration and had been thinking of these issues and all these things came together to form this project.” The metaphors, memes and memories exuding from Potsic’s photographs are like an epic poem which stirs the mind with beauty, mystery, wonder with trepidation for the future and forgotten lessons from the past.
Amie Potsic @ Bluestone Fine Art Gallery in Old City, Philadelphia.
Danielle Bursk, Avalon, ink on paper @ Bluestone Fine Art Gallery
Danielle Bursk, ink on paper @ Bluestone Fine Art Gallery
Danielle Bursk, ink on paper @ Bluestone Fine Art Gallery
DoN commented to Danielle Bursk that he noticed her drawings now include a defined horizon. “The horizon line is the most control you can exert as an artist and I just wanted to try something that was more of a landscape…but the work is also inspired by the ocean. I grew up in Florida, I spent a lot of time at the beach, I still go to the beach quite a bit, if you just sit and stare at the ocean there’s a lot that goes on. I don’t like it to be too representational, so if you approach it thinking that way you can see that it also looks like hills or a tidal wave, with all my work I like an open ended-ness where you can bring what you want to it and interpret it how you want. So, yes, there’s definitely a horizon line, it’s sort of a landscape but not quite.” DoN also noted that Bursk’s drawings could be considered still life like a close up of fabric or fur, “…even something under a microscope.” Danielle Bursk explained to DoN how she’s trying new things like working with a square image as opposed to rectilinear and smaller works using oblique strategies to force changes in her work with arbitrary constraints. Even though the horizon line is consistent across the smaller works in the show, each one is unique and separate from the others. “In fact, I took each one off the wall before I started the next one because I didn’t want to be influenced by it, I was excited when I looked back because some are really dark, some are a little lighter, some have bigger movements, so they all work very differently.”
Gregory Brellochs @ Bluestone Fine Art Gallery
Forest Floor, graphite on paper, Gregory Brellochs @ Bluestone Fine Art Gallery.
Gregory Brellochs is an art professor at Camden County College and is a father of two, “I came on there seven years ago now, they brought me in to teach sculpture and design…and it really gives me the opportunity to shape the program, work with the curriculum, and have direct contact with a lot of the students and we’ve turned it into a much stronger transfer program.” DoN asked where Brellochs finds time to create his heroically scaled drawings? “I just got done with these large curving drawings, you saw one at the CFEVA gallery, that was the fourth one that I’ve done and there’s one that I thought I had finished maybe a year ago and then I just had to go back in and basically quadrupled the detail. The minuteness of the branches and roots, that became the longest drawing that I’ve ever done, the most labor intensive went over four hundred hours of drawing. Um, but, it’s something I love to do. And once the kids are in bed, I make a pot of coffee and up to the studio I go to work until I’m too tired.”
DoN asked if the images came out of Gregory’s mind? “Yeah, I always work from my imagination and it’s really important to me that that’s how I arrive at that image because it’s not meant to be just a facsimile of Nature, a repetition of something that exists but something that really comes out of the mind’s eye. All as a process of drawing, so that sometimes I don’t start with a composition in mind but a general form language…working with tree root-like structures I kind of allow it to evolve and I find that I am much more in tune with the work when I approach it that way without preliminary sketches or some kind of fixed idea in mind, it allows me to breathe life into the work because it evolves organically.”
The Bluestone Gallery of Fine Art will be open this weekend, October 15th and 16th, as part of the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2011, Gregory Brellochs will be hosting.
Photos by DoN
HD Video - watch in full screen mode - DoN
Video by DoNBrewerMultimedia
Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic Club - Marion Loippo, Kim Martin, Karl Olsen & Jane J. Wilkie
Kim Martin, Painting #2, oil.
Karl Olsen , Quilt, oil , Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic Club - Marion Loippo, Kim Martin, Karl Olsen & Jane J. Wilkie.
Marion Loippo, Swim in the Lake, silk & velvet, Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic Club - Marion Loippo, Kim Martin, Karl Olsen & Jane J. Wilkie.
Jane J. Wilkie , Velvet Quilt, fabric & grapevines, Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic Club - Marion Loippo, Kim Martin, Karl Olsen & Jane J. Wilkie
Marion Loippo, Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic Club - Marion Loippo, Kim Martin, Karl Olsen & Jane J. Wilkie.
The Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic Club exhibits members work chosen @ random from a sign up sheet, the synchronicity of the current show with Karl & Kim, Marion & JJ is fortuitous. Painting and fabric art meld with Karl Olsen’s expressionist paintings, Kim Martin’s strident drawings, Marion Loippo’s abstractions on silk and JJ Wilkie’s bold quilts as if a gallery curator selected the art for the show. Check out all the artist links in this blog post, they all have portfolio websites but Marion Loippo has a cool YouTube video!
Photos by DoN.
Kyle Margiotta . . . empirical, real, metaphysical @ Philadelphia Sketch Club Stewart Room Gallery.
Kyle Margiotta’s paintings draw you in with exquisite technique and metaphysical content; faces emerge from the mist, beautiful women wade through pools of red, metaphorical flowers like bleeding hearts creating an intensely personal experience. DoN has watched Kyle draw in the Philadelphia Sketch Club’s workshops, his depth of knowledge, skill with tools (his pencil lines are extremely fine) and focus is an inspiration to those who share the studio with him. Margiotta’s paintings are illustrative but decorative, even though the subject is deep, the style, color and presentation are desirable.
Kyle Margiotta . . . empirical, real, metaphysical @ Philadelphia Sketch Club Stewart Room Gallery.
Kyle Margiotta . . . empirical, real, metaphysical @ Philadelphia Sketch Club Stewart Room Gallery.
Steve Iwanczuk. . . empirical, real, metaphysical @ Philadelphia Sketch Club Stewart Room Gallery.
Steve Iwanczuk is the Exhibitions Chair at The Philadelphia Sketch Club, for his own show in the venerable Stewart Room (members are chosen to show @ random), he has selected a group of drawings and photographs that are sleek, shiny, mercurially metallic and sexy. The detail is intense, the pencil marks stream of conscience-like flow are surreal and fluid, each drawing a dream of it’s own but his photos are sensual contrasts of light and dark, shiny and smooth, real and unreal, Steve’s photography is recognizable as a style all his own.
Steve Iwanczuk. . . empirical, real, metaphysical @ Philadelphia Sketch Club Stewart Room Gallery.
Photos by DoN.
Bonnie MacAllister, Members’ Choice Art Show @ The Plastic Club. Bonnie MacAllister’s tiny mixed media, Revery, is subtle yet slyly glamorous with gold dust illuminating the feminine figure, the piece softy glowing in it’s own light. Bonnie’s blog is very cool describing all the wonderful projects she’s working on; she’s a world traveler, grant winner and educator with a fine eye, thoughtful manner and socially conscious personality - a DoN must read! Coming soon - Bonnie MacAllister, The Dressing Room, Green Light Arts, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe @ The Plastic Club, 247 S. Camac Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Show runs Sept. 3*, 4, 7, 10, 11, 14, and 17, 7 p.m. *followed by artist reception
Here is the link to tickets:
http://bonnie-macallister.blogspot.com/2011/07/play-dressing-room_31.html
This is the link to the press release:http://bonnie-macallister.blogspot.com/2011/07/play-dressing-room.html
BONNIE MacALLISTER: Play: The Dressing Room
Members’ Choice Art Show @ The Plastic Club. Patricia Wilson-Schmid, Celebration, acrylic, Laura Pritchard, The Donors, batik on silk, Karen Frank, Strongman and Ballerina, mixed media, Theodore Amick, Jibber Jabber, watercolor and Bob Jackson, Mrs. Wildfowl and Tea, junk and stuff.
Sy Hakim, Members’ Choice Art Show @ The Plastic Club. Sy Hakim’s large landscape painting, Formations - Daylight, describes a beautiful yet challenging world, the small figure seems huddled against the power of the landscape, the outcroppings hang high above his head, a daunting climb but a great view from the top.
Members’ Choice Art Show @ The Plastic Club: Lois Schlachter, Guarding the Kingdom, giclee and Sixty, giclee, DoN Brewer, Iris of the Storm and Amy, Amy, Amy, digital photographs, archival ink prints and Mervyn Klein, Karate, collage. Lois and DoN have been friends for years and Mervyn & DoN had a show together in the Downstairs Gallery earlier this year; the tones of this grouping are balanced and vibrant, there are tableau’s throughout the gallery where works speak to each other through color, technique and theme. DoN priced his work at $4.3 trillion and $3.2 trillion respectively hoping to save the economy but the guide says NFS, oh well.
Bill Myers @ The Plastic Club.
Bill Myers photography is confounding yet simple; his Photoshop collages fool the eye when the artist mashes his own photography with found images, morphing the pictures into something different yet familiar. Scary Scenario, photo collage, looks authentic with deep blacks and dark shadows but look closer and the foreground figure becomes impossible, the girl in the phone booth has two umbrellas, huh? - Bill Myers is good at that, that “huh?” moment.
Sy Hakim, The Cave-Night, oil, Members’ Choice Art Show @ The Plastic Club.
An art patroness becomes part of the art in the Shiekman Studio upstairs at the Plastic Club, her Summer dress extending the scene magically onto her person. The art flanking Hakim’s painting is by Gail Zelikovsky, Rock Garden, painted silk and Rock Garden with Waterfall, painted silk.
Sy Hakim, The Cave-Night, oil, Members’ Choice Art Show @ The Plastic Club.
Sibylle-Maria Pfaffenbichler @ The Plastic Club’s Member’s Choice Art Show. Sibylle-Maria Pfaffenbichler’s action paintings are not just fast in painting style like an abstract expressionist but the quickly painted figures are always moving, dancing, prancing - Ringa-Ringa-Reia, gouache & charcoal, is a joyful work of art.
Members’ Choice Art Show @ The Plastic Club.
Ted Gutswa, Members’ Choice Art Show @ The Plastic Club. Ted Gutswa’s charcoal drawings, Spring Mist & Sweeping Dream, explains all about what it means to be a member of the Plastic Club, simple materials, uninhibited application and beautiful presentation, raising the combined whole to a level higher than it’s minimalist components. The Member’s Choice show at the Plastic Club represents each artist’s best work, the sum of it’s parts is elevated even more by the quality, style and variety of the work in proximity. Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club is a lovely space featuring Kim Martin. Karl Olsen, Marion Loippo and Jane Wilkie; DoN will post some images and comments soon.
Photos by DoN.
Matthew Ostroff @ studio christensen
Matthew Ostroff @ studio christensen
Matthew Ostroff is like a graffiti artist using wheat paste and torn paper the way a tagger over-writes earlier tags. But Ostroff doesn’t deface property, he confines his low-fi technique of pasting painted colored paper onto a painting background then tearing away the paper like old posters shredded on a South Street Wall. The deep layers of color, intense saturation and feeling of the hand emanates from the surface in perfect abstract expressionism. Curator Jt Christensen is an interior architect who has transformed the old storefront at 333 South Twentieth St. Philadelphia into a hip, aspirational showcase for art, furniture and chic urban style. The Ostroff show with big, bold contemporary art pairs with the modern and mid 20th Century classic furniture in a hip, clean living space vibe gallery, emblematic of the changes taking place along 20th Street, offering a street view tableau of cool desirable furnishings.
Brian Lauer @ studio christensen
Brian Lauer was the featured artist at studio christensen for June but Jt decided to keep many of them because they just look so damn good. DoN noticed them while we discussed Ostroff’s work and thought they were paintings, from the street they read as paintings but on closer inspection the detail emerges from the color and a photograph coalesces. The photo above is Jesus being made up as a Zombie at Tattooed Mom’s on South Street, the chiaroscuro of light across Jesus’ wounds is like a Rubens. The photo below are guys standing along the river in Camden but feels like some Nordic outpost with sad characters staring to sea but it’s just folks enjoying the view of a blizzard on the Delaware River.
Brian Lauer @ studio christensen
Anna Shukeylo @ Prelude Gallery
Prelude Gallery is dedicated to promoting emerging artists in a gallery setting. DoN talked with Creative Director Gaby Heit about their mission and she explained how the gallery is collaborating with art schools to help under-grad and master level artists have opportunities to get their work seen. Heit said the neighborhood has been very welcoming, the gallery a perfect addition to the hip restaurants, salons and shops - Pamcakes is their neighbor, Yum! July 1st was Prelude Gallery’s soft opening but look for new work for the Second Friday art crawl on August 12th.
Kyle Deal @ Prelude Gallery
Christopher Enty @ Prelude Gallery
Gaby asked DoN what his favorite paintings are, a tough question since it was his first visit but Christopher Enty’s portraits of urban youth stand out with a rough beauty that is almost brutal. The characters in Enty’s paintings express the self consciousness of youth in a socially networked society where a profile is suddenly important, revitalizing the significance of portraiture; Heit confided in DoN she felt Christopher Enty is Prelude Gallery’s Soutine.
Benjamin Gonzales @ Prelude Gallery
Gaby Heit expressed to DoN she thought the revitalization of the 20th Street Corridor was coming from the North, the Rittenhouse Square district, but DoN explained how the Beauty Shop Cafe staked out the corner of 20th and Fitzwater Streets when there were still gangs hanging on the corner. And now students and young professionals make the trek to Center City from GHo all the way from Washington Avenue and get their morning coffee at the corner cafe. Art shows were part of the Beauty Shop Cafe plan from the beginning and the current show is really good.
Caitlin Beattie @ Beauty Shop Cafe
Caitlin Beattie is an emerging artist photographer, this is her first art show. It is so gratifying to know that artists have showcases like The Beauty Shop, Prelude Gallery and studio christensen to exhibit their work where it can really be seen by a lot of people but it makes the neighborhood so much more vibrant, intellectual and welcoming, too.
Sabik @ Beauty Shop Cafe
Dreamcatcher, NFS
Beauty Shop Cafe
Beauty Shop Cafe
Jewelry and etchings by Kenzie Gemz. The Beauty Shop looks like an old library or museum with terrariums, collections and photos creating a vibe of a secret society meeting room. As the GHo neighborhood transforms with modern new houses wedging between old row-homes, young families with strollers, hipsters with porkpie hats and folks who have long lived in the neighborhood are now enjoying a renaissance of sorts along 20th Street helping to delineate a terrific art crawl up 20th, across Walnut Street to Sande Webster, down 22nd Street to Twenty-Two Gallery and on to 21st & Pine and the fabulous Gallery 339. Second Friday, now a Center City West tradition, is August 12th.
Photos by DoN
DoNArTNeWs
I’d Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion is for artists of all kinds. Painters, sculptors, ceramist, jewelers, photographers, and others will benefit from the easy-to-follow self-promotion practices in this book.
Author and art-marketing consultant Alyson B. Stanfield, of ArtBizCoach.com, focuses on sharing the artwork directly with potential buyers through electronic and traditional communication outlets—in a manner that is comfortable, not artificial. Artists match Internet marketing strategies with sincere personal skills to take charge of their art careers.
The book includes online worksheets and downloads.
