DoNArTNeWs

Wolves & Deer in art around town over the past year.

Nexus Gallery @ Crane Art Center

Rik Viola @ Philadelphia Sketch Club

Darla Jackson @ CFEVA.

Scott Pelnat @ CFEVA event.

Jack Kelly @ Scott Pellnat’s Art House.

Karen Davis @ TwentyTwo Gallery.

Karen Stone @ Hopkins House Gallery in Camden curated by Bruce Garrity.

Karen Stone @ Hopkins House Gallery. The two works above are part of a show about new directions in painting as part of the symposium “To Be or Not To Be: A Painter’s Dilemma” @ Rutgers University.

Wall drawing made with hair by Brenna K. Murphy @ Center for Emerging Visual Artists on Rittenhouse Square in a show curated by Brooke Hine last summer.

Brenna K. Murphy @ The Icebox in the Crane Center for the Arts InLiquid auction.

Brenna K. Murphy @ Moore College of Art and Design for the CFEVA Introductions ‘09 show. Murphy has installed hair art @ Eileen Tognini’s house.

Hair on paper circles @ The Crane Center for the Arts installed in the hallway. Artist unknown. The Jullius Scissor Salon on Locust Street has a huge hair sculpture in their window.

Hair is such a meme!

Betsy Alexander and Burnell Yow! of Ravenswing Studio are art collectors, their home is filled with beautiful objects of all kinds and even had a recent story about their eclectic decorating style in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The duo have recreated their art house at Salon des Amis in Malvern, asking all of their friends who have contributed to their collection to show new work in the gallery. Sunday was beautiful weather and a large gathering of their friends arrived at the gallery to find the space filled with work by more than 40 artists.

Luminary artist, Alden Cole @ Art House in Salon des Amis.

Linda Lou Horn @ Salon des Amis for the Art House opening in Malvern.

Philly photographer, Armond Scavo with his work at Salon des Amis. Scavo has just published a book of photographs of Rittenhouse Square, a favorite locale for artists to find inspiration, Through an Artists’ Eye - Philadelphia can be purchased from Scavo’s website.

Eileen Feigenbaum, “The Blue Lady”, oil on canvas.

DoN Brewer, “light being (Rick Selvin)”, digital photograph.

The art crowd for Betsy Alexander and Burnell Yow!’s Art House @ Salon des Amis in Malvern.

Thank you Betsy and Burnell, it’s already nice just being friends with you both but when you do something so special like this art show it re-enforces the bond even more. Salon des Amis means House of Friends - so apropos!

LoVe

DoN

Peace sign made from shredded money @ Art x 7 @ 6th & South Streets, the exhibit is elegant and edgy with strange points of view and exaggerated reality. The gallery is part of the new South Street Renaissance, superb photos by Susan Arthur Whitson and Keith Sharp.

Kathryn Pannepacker @ The Philadelphia Dumpster Divers in Outsiders Folk Art. This piece includes woven paper matches, the kind you light cigs with; Pannepacker knows how to ignite a conversation, her peace/heart is ready to burst into flames.

Photo by DoN.

The Philadelphia Dumpster Divers have overtaken Outsiders Folk Arts in the Goggleworks Center for the Arts, a major cultural hub of the Reading region. DoN saw families tumbling out the door after some sort of recital, there’s an art show of students who have taken classes in the center, there’s an enourmous wood shop that smells so good. The Goggleworks is a magnet for artists of all stripes finding access to a wide array of opportunities and is really cool space itself, packed with studios, galleries, show spaces and art. The Dumpster Divers are definitely grooving on the vibe of the place and have installed unique, quirky objects which will inspire many budding artists as well as attracting collectors, since Viener’s artistic eye is well respected.

George Viener is a collector of folk art, outsider art and self-taught art; even though the many of the Divers are professional artists in their own right, collectively the group has a simple basic principle of being creative with what’s on hand, art doesn’t have to be expensive to make and rescueing lost objects ala Marcel DuChamp is de riguer. DoN thinks that counts as self-taught, it’s new, unfiltered raw ideas bubbling to the surface; Dada.

Len Davidson, Queen of the Gnomes, @ Outsider Folk Arts in Reading, PA.

Randal Cleaver, Space Time @ Outsider Folk Arts.

Warren Muller, Philadelphia light artist @ Outsider Folk Arts in the Goggleworks Center for the Arts in Reading.

In Philip Dick’s dystopian future sci-fi classic, Dr. Bloodmoney, Happy Harrington, a deformed mutant with telekinetic powers trundles around in a wagon pulled by a donkey and gleans from the post-nuclear highway with his robotic prothetic “arms”. Yow! takes DoN to that future place when transmogrified beings wander Earth looking for charms, spells and spare mother-boards. Tapping into the zeitgeist that trash is future treasure, these dolls represent the Apocalypse that has already happened all around DoN is slo-mo without him really noticing. Dolls of the Apolalypse incorporate actual Barbie Doll body parts - using a terrific technique, Yow! tricks the eye into believing the work is cast metal. Plastic is the new Apocalypse.

Burnell Yow!, Dolls of the Apocalypse in The Philadelphia Dumpster Diver Show @ Outsider Folk Arts in Reading, PA.

The Dumpster Diver Gallery @ 734 South Street held a gala in honor of their 17th anniversary as an anarchist art collective dedicated to making art from cultural refuse. Like the gleaners in a Millet painting, this disparate group sifts through the remnants of contemporary culture creating junque, elegant objects, witty pronouncements, versatile visions as if gathering potatoes in a French field.  Ellen Benson’s mixed media constructions from old books and Lincoln Logs throb with vague dreams of lives past; each anthropomorphic object has a funky little personality all it’s own, Benson is on a mission to create 1000 dolls, she’s approaching 500.  

Randy Dalton has recreated the Blue Grotto in the back of the sprawling space;  DoN LoVeS seeing funky old computers like the Mac blue-and-white monitor being used as an art object like some retrofitted Neuromancer future style.  DoN’s blue-n-white glowed purple and made a zapping sound early in the morning a while back but it’s still in the basement, too beautiful to throw away.  Neil Benson’s lamp made of stacked tin boxes is a museum piece; each box filled with memetic waves forms depending on the pattern printed on the thin folded metal.   The Dumpster Divers on South Street is like William Gibson’s future city built on the remains of the Golden Gate Bridge after the grid goes down and a whole society develops meeting every need from noodle soup to watch repair.  

Artists are taking the city over from City Hall to South Street, Kensington to University City, Rittenhouse Square to Pretzel Park; art is more than just on the surface, it’s being built in. 

Ellen Benson with her dolls @ Dumpster Divers on South Street.

Randy Dalton’s Blue Grotto @ Dumpster Divers. 

 Mmmm…cake. 

Justin Duerr’s self-decorated opening night party cake @ St. Asaph’s Gallery in Bala.

The students of the Rutger’s fine arts department made this cake for the opening reception of “To Be or Not To Be ; The Painter’s Dilemma“, an excellent symposium on contemporary painting held on the Rutger’s Camden campus. 

 David Foss‘ B’Day cupcakes at 333 South Street Gallery.

DoN’s niece, Candice’s nursing school graduation cake.

This cake has reiki on it! 

Congratulations Kathryn, from all the Da Vinci Art Alliance members on your upcoming cover story in American Craft magazine!!!

The article below on Kathryn will appear in the April/May issue of American Craft magazine with the cover story called Urban Fabric which details her career in murals, fiber art, social activism, painting, and making Philadelphia a better place to live.  Kathryn, who is currently on the Board of Directors and was past Director of Da Vinci, we are so proud and happy for you Kathryn.  Pick up a copy of American Craft in bookstores in April or go to their website to get a preview, with many photos of Kathryn’s many projects.

Congrats Kathryn, we love you!!!!!  

David Foss, executive director Da Vinci Art Alliance (from his e-mail to the Da Vinci Art Alliance).  

The story on American Crafts online magazine is really cool, too.  DoN LoVeS Kathryn; she’s an artist who actually affects change on our urban fabric, the murals at Broad & Lehigh will aid in the revitalization of the city.

Check it out - a wide angle shot of Justin Duerr’s incredible show at St. Asaph’s.  DoN can’t stop thinking about Justin’s story about his first job in a bakery.  The boss was mean - we’ve all had mean bosses but this jerk took the cake - but Justin learned to decorate cakes and design with frosting. Duerr decorated his own cake for the opening party with day-glo orange piping of a woman’s face. The framing by Robert Bullock of Coalition Ingenu is truly superior, some of Duerr’s drawings are five feet or more with thin plexiglass offering distortion free viewing.  Learn more about Coalition Ingenu and the fine work they do using art to improve people’s lives and our community, you’ll be inspired - Shoska & DoN LoVe this show and art space!