DoNArTNeWs

Jessica Hoffman: Forever and After @ 110 Church Street Gallery

Dear Mad, I Really Like Your Hair! Love Johnny, hair strands from Jessica Hoffman’s head in glassine envelopes.

Jessica Hoffman: Forever and After @ 110 Church Street Gallery

Slideshow, vials of shavings from photographic slides the artist found.  Hoffman scraped off bits of each slide, saved the scrapings, then presents the slide show with the bits of image removed.  Each vial is labeled with the trip, location and time period the slides were taken.

Jessica Hoffman: Forever and After @ 110 Church Street Gallery

Talent Show, split screen video footage projected on the wall.

DoN saw this show two weeks ago and has thought about it often as he scooted around town seeing art over the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2011 festival, leaving little time to report.  But Jessica Hoffman’s show is about memory and the passage of time.  Forever and After incorporates three major narrative elements used in ways that look at the passage of time in abstract even obtuse angles.  “Slideshow is an investigation of memory, using a collection of found slides from the 1960s and 1970s shot throughout Europe and the United States by the same person.  Talent Show is a split screen video piece using footage shot at a school talent show on the left and my own version of the performances on the right.  Dear Mad, I really like your hair today! Love, Johnny is an installation inspired by a box of hundreds of love letters found on the street. - HeavyBubble website”  Each element of the installation recaptures moments in time that are personal, private, secret presenting them in Dada-ist style - should DoN believe that the love letters were found on the street?  Did Jessica really sit and scrape off bits of image from hundreds of slides?  The split screen throw back style to the Woodstock movie era of the video could have been shot over the Summer.  It doesn’t matter if it’s real or not, making found objects or finding found objects, then arraying them exquisite corpse style creates a strange narrative as the mind tries to grasp the connections.  At 110 Church Street Gallery, Jessica Hoffman’s installation, Forever and After, combines sweet nostalgia, contemporary oblique strategies and pure, clean, simple presentation to take the viewer on a time trip back from the future.

Read more at Philly.SideArts

Photos by DoN.

Abandoned Conrail Railroad Car, Bonnie Schorske, 2010 @ Twenty-Two Gallery.

Bonnie Schorske travels a lot, in her current solo show she compares and contrasts two parts of the world, the Susquehanna Valley region and India.  Bonnie told DoN she is inspired by the imagery she finds along the Pennsylvania river country, the solarized photograph of a Texaco gas pump is a real time trip, just as her duo-tone photo of an Indian landscape takes the viewer on a journey to a foreign place.  The show hangs like a road map around the world, each photo a contemplative gaze on typography, architecture and nature specific to somewhere special.  Bonnie Schorske has been in a creative frenzy producing a large stash of archival digital prints on lustrous museum quality rag paper; the photographer has found a way to produce affordable, high quality prints with DIY industriousness.  Bonnie is highly skilled as a traditional wet dark room photographer but her transition to digital proves it’s not the camera equipment but the eye of the artist that makes an image work.

Bonnie Schorske, Ghost of Big Red, solarized archival pigment print on 100% rag.

This is the image Bonnie used on her art card, when DoN saw Bonnie at the recent Piffaro concert she asked if he was attending her upcoming show - DoN drew a total blank, even though he had the card propped up against his monitor, he never turned it over to see who’s card it was, the image had sold itself already.

RR Detritus and Susquehanna View, archival pigment print on 100% rag paper, Bonnie Schorske @ Twenty-Two Gallery in Center City, Philadelphia.

Bonnie Schorske, 2010 @ Twenty-Two Gallery.

Photos by DoN.

Tetsugo Hyakutake - Ephemeral Existence @ Gallery 339.

Tetsugo Hyakutake explained to DoN how he stitches together panoramic images by combining, in the above five separate photos, into hyper-realistic renderings of industrial infrastructure scenes; the naturally black and white man-made landscape, so fluid and frail is punctuated with red signs, warning lights and smeared reflections.  Tetsugo has been studying the Japanese infrastructure for years, and uses color sparingly and symbolically.  Ephemeral Existence at 339 is a large collection of alien landscapes that kind of look like Philly out by the airport but are Japanese highways, overpasses, power stations - slightly Jetson futuristic.  Hyakutake’s photos are highly realistic but actually the landscapes are outside our actual perspective, the panoramas wider than our vision, the industrial installation images glow unblinkingly, water turned into a restrained painters palette, each image is ephemeral narrating our fragile existence on Planet Earth.

Tetsugo Hyakutake - Ephemeral Existence @ Gallery 339 through May 7, 2011.

Tetsugo Hyakutake - Ephemeral Existence @ Gallery 339.

Photos humbly taken with Tetsugo Kyakutake’s permission by DoN.

Bohyun Yoon has created an experience design in the chic art gallery in the Barclay Building, every surface of the gallery is activated with a confounding display of intellectual design, superb craftsmanship, historical references and anthropomorphic symbolism vibrating in unison like a strum on a guitar.  Every nuance is considered as the exploded little bodies, each element hand crafted from custom molds, coalesce as shadows of babies cast by a single bright white light bulb on the walls.  But, when the light bulb begins making a circular motion, the tiny doll parts swinging with air movement, the whole room suddenly becomes a dream scape of dancing babies, inducing a startling sensation of floating.

On the right is the artist, Bohyun Yoon.  Yoon decided to create each doll part mold because he didn’t want to violate copyrights, he told DoN the process took more than 5 months.  Each carefully crafted element of the installation is suspended in a way that the sum of the parts creates a whole experience design, Yoon told DoN he wished to,”…create a dialog not a monolog.”

Yoon created these mirror masks to help him learn English by seeing all parts of the face he was listening to; the face recognition technology in DoN’s camera went wacko.   Bohyun Yoon is an art professor at Tyler, is a glass artist (the water filled glass bowl hat and accompanying video is idiosyncratic to the extreme), a video artist and photographer; Amie Potsic explained to DoN that Bohyun Yoon, “is smart and resourceful in his use of materials.”

Buhyun Yoon, Reforming, 9 channel video with sound, 4 minutes, dimensions variable @ Center for Emerging Visual Artists in the Barclay Building on Philadelphia’s beautiful Rittenhouse Square.  This Friday, 4/15/11, is the Center City District art crawl, the perfect opportunity to experience Bohyun Yoon: Embody.

Photos by DoN.

Michelle Post @ Lighten Up! An invitational lamp exhibition curated by Michelle Post @ Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts, Millville, NJ.

Michelle Post has curated an outstanding exhibition of art lamps with an astonishing array of Philadelphia region artists who each use electric light to enhance their creations and bring them life.  The gallery was dark except for the art lamps, each piece softly illuminating it’s own carefully chosen space, the warm glow of golden shadows around the room is enticing. Michelle Post and Dave Carrow recently exhibited @ Da Vinci Art Alliance, see the photo below, where DoN had the opportunity to meet Michelle and talk about art.

Phil Vinson created each part of this lamp by hand from the carved finial to the metal base, truly a tour de force in craftsmanship, style and design; like a dreamy pod of a luminescent night blooming flower, this lamp is entrancing, drawing gallery goers like moths.  Lighten Up! An invitational lamp exhibition curated by Michelle Post @ Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts, Millville, NJ

Charmaine Caire @ Lighten Up! An invitational lamp exhibition curated by Michelle Post @ Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts, Millville, NJ.

Dave Carrow creates heavy metal, industrial strength art, building lamps of welded chunks of metal like cyber-punk set pieces for the star-ship Serenity.  Carrow’s lamps are large, substantial, ambitious constructions, creating a transmuted modernist environment all on their own with clever connections and thought provoking problem solving.

Alden Cole is showing a cluster of his signature glowing objects, the lamps are more night-light than reading lamp, each subtly changing color, energizing the shadow patterns flowing across the walls.  With his lamps groups together, DoN noticed gallery goers having difficulty not touching the orbs, curiously drawn to the light.

Sarah Stengle - Genius!

Wayne Russell, Streamliner, lamp @ Lighten Up! An invitational lamp exhibition curated by Michelle Post @ Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts, Millville, NJ.

Lighten Up! has so much more that DoN wants to share but if I were you, I’d take a drive down to Millville and check out the art center, the RRCA is a model of a multi-purpose art space.

“Lighten Up!” curated by artist, Michelle Post, exhibits uniquely constructed lamps sure to “lighten up” your night.  Michelle gave the eleven artists included one stipulation- their lamps must plug into an outlet and actually light up.  Beyond that, artists:  Harry Anderson, Charmaine Caire, Dave Carrow, Alden Cole, Pam Lethbridge, Ted Simon, Michelle Post, Wayne Russell, Eric Schultz, Sarah Stengle, Carole Sivin and Sally Willobee were left to create their illuminated treasures.  The exhibition offers stellar examples of the creativity artists have when looking at ordinary objects many of us take for granted.  Michelle explains, “Rising to the challenge of bursting through and penetrating darkness come artists whose wit and imagination show us not to take life too seriously.   With laughter comes healing, and with illumination comes peace.”

Michelle Post & Dave Carrow @ Da Vinci Art Alliance, Autumn 2010.

Photos by DoN.

Meg Saligman re-imagined the mural (the previous two artists Bill Friedman & Sam Donovan were unavailable) @ Broad & Vine Streets incorporating LED lights that will morph the painting into a multimedia art installation that is one of a kind in the world.  The three panels tell a story about nursing from personal care to record-keeping-to technological expertise in the dreamy style Saligman has developed in her many beautiful walls through the city but this one lights up - Cool!.  The Mural Arts Program has twenty-two separate events throughout October, Jane Golden said there are thousands of sites seeking murals.  The mural @ Broad and Vine is dedicated to Florence Nightingale and all nurses everywhere.

Many local nurses are portrayed in the enormous painting; DoN has always relied on the kindness of nurses, his favorite Aunt Fran is a nurse, still helping even in retirement.  Meg Saligman made sure to invite all the participating artists and models to take the stage with her, the platform was crowded with volunteers and artists alike, a testament to Meg’s ability to make people team up and the crowd cheered their achievement.

Jane Golden introduced Mayor Nutter to the crowd attending the dedication of the mural; Philadelphia’s Mayor addressed the crowd to celebrate the mural and it’s importance to the city, he praised Jane Golden and her team of artists at the Mural Arts Program and the value of nurses and medicine to Philadelphia.  DoN really likes Mayor Nutter and his support for the arts in Philly but in a surreal twist, the mayor’s speech was cut short by protesters from ADAPT, a very organized group of demonstrators of disabled people trying to close nursing homes and encourage group home living instead.

This mural @ 13th & Ludlow Streets is a handmade woven mural, master-minded by Super-Artist Kathryn Pannepacker in association with the Mural Arts Program, using mats made by homeless and disaffected people living in shelters.  When people start weaving they start to heal and learn a skill, find self satisfaction and hope.  The piece was created as part of the Finding Home Project gaining Katheryn and the project kudos on NPR’s Dr. Dan Gottleib, Volunteers of America website and American Craft Magazine.  You can help by shopping at the handmade by the homeless Gallery on South Street and talking to your representatives about rights for people who can’t help themselves.

detail of the woven mural @ 13th & Ludlow Streets, Philadelphia.

Photos by DoN.

Photo by Timothy J. Moersh.

Model Meredith Battite of ExploreTalent embodied the spirit of International Superstar Leon Rainbow’s genius black light art show in the dark back room of Smile Gallery.  The intense blue light is projected across the room with two big projectors and a Dan Flavin-like florescent mounted on the wall - the paintings vibrate with day glo color and bikini girl Meredith time tripping right out of Laugh In like a Goldie Hawn for the modern age.  The similarities between then & now are nostalgic yet with a grok of how the futuristic 60’s was like while we fought the American War in Viet Nam compared to the exit this morning from Iraq - it’s a party @ ground zero, baby.

Jim Hancocks, Untitled, mixed media & black light in the back room @ Smile Gallery.  Artists in the show include Leon Rainbow, Mike Ciccotello, Joe Iurato, Josi Luv 1, Aja Washington, Jim Hancocks, Papermonster, Dave Orantes, Demer, Kortez, Jon Connor & Will Kasso.   Super-Kawaii!!

Bangkok & Black Light @ Smile not only stirred memories of the 60’s, in the trippy vibrant glow, dreams of absinthe drinkers and green fairies emerged from the purple haze.

 Vichoke Mujdamanee

is using light in a completely different way, reflecting the ambient light off metal, embelleshed, hammered, painted and polished into ethereal worlds all unto themselves, each one gives a different feedback experience as you move about the gallery.  The collision of hard edge metal reflections and the zany black light art creates a dynamic inversion of perception & reality like a Star Trek holo-lab.

 Vichoke Mujdamanee, Philadelphia, mixed media @ Smile Gallery on 22nd Street near Chestnut.

Photos by DoNBrewerPhotography.

light being (Anne D’Harnoncourt), DoN Brewer, art card @ The Coffee Bar, 17th & Locust Streets - A Center for Emerging Visual Artists Event.  This image did not make the show because of soot damage to the original photo - a tip:  frame your photos under glass, glare-free if possible.  DoN’s art cards are printed locally by Media Copy in Center City - thanks to Debbie and the crew for their great work.

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 @ 5:30 PM, CFEVA will host a closing party and artist talk for DoN Brewer at The Radisson Warwick Plaza Hotel, The Coffee Bar, 17th & Locust Sts.  DoN is raffling off one of the photographs by selling limited edition greeting cards, signed and numbered, $5. each or 3 for $10.00 - 25% of sales is dedicated to a well deserved commission for CFEVA.  If all 200 cards sell, two pieces will be raffled off.  The exhibit is on display through the end of July.

Thanks so much to The Center for Emerging Visual Artists for their love and support.

Through My Window, Da Vinci Art Alliance Members Traveling Art Show now in Millville, NJ Arts District in the Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts through 7 - 10 -2010

Carol Wisker with her award winning mixed media creation, Machine: War Games Series, when the show first opened at Smile Gallery, Carol won Best in Show.  The huge gallery space at RRCA is a wonderful opportunity to see most of the original show hanging together again.  3rd Friday in Millville was really fun with live entertainment tucked into every park, alley and plaza including a glee club performance!!!  The creative vibe of the monthly event with art shows, restaurants and shops welcome visitors warmly with small town ambiance and upscale art.

Ona Kalstein, Through My Window @ Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts.

Ted Warchal @ Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts special exhibit, Through My Window, A Da Vinci Art Alliance Members Exhibit.  Ted, Ona & DoN are members of the Board of Directors of Da Vinci, thanks to all the artists & volunteers who arranged for the art to show up on time and to Dr. Debra Miller & David Foss for the expert installation, the RRCA is a wonderful exhibition space.

David Foss & Nicole Koenitzer.

Betsy Alexander’s Sci-Fi homage drew some teenage geeks into the gallery who seemed mesmerized at the depth of knowledge in the obscure references.  Burnell Yow! told DoN he was hesitant when Betsy voiced her encyclopedic idea - but beam me up!

DoN Brewer’s drawing of Paris rooftops is paired perfectly with Lilliana Didovic’s Boathouse Row painting.

The concept pf Through My Window is that more than 20 artists were offered a window to do whatever they wanted with, the result is a uniquely Philadelphian art perspective: Bobbie Adams, Betsy Alexander, Jesse Best, DoN Brewer, Rachel Citrino. Alden Cole. Lilliana Didovic, Jerry di Falco, David Foss, Carl Johnson, Ona Kalstein, Nicole Koenitzer, Gail Kotel, Rikard Larma, Lee Muslin, Liz Nicklus, Kathryn Pannepacker, Michael Shane Simmons, Mike Sweeney, Ted Warchal, Carol Wisker & Burnell Yow!

Photos by DoNBrewerPhotography.

Susan Barnes, North End Dunes, oil.

The Annual Members Exhibition of the Philadelphia Sketch Club at Newman Galleries on Walnut Street is a wonderful introduction to the many fine artists who belong to America’s oldest art club.  The swirly mix of styles, techniques and ideas is evocative of the Philly art community in microcosm; the mezzanine and third floor gallery holds a heady mix of contemporary art by masters, newbies, wannabes of all ages celebrating the first decade of the 21st Century.

Edna Santiago, Museum Stroll, acrylic on plexiglass.

 Garth Herrick, Red Barn, 11:00 AM at Beaver Farm and Donald Meyer, Study (Structure) Hosta Series, egg tempera.

Linda Townshend, Holstein, oil on canvas.

Karen McDonnell, Wisdom, mixed media.  Karen  e-mails DoN phone pics of stickers of this little guy in public spaces, her contribution to the Philly art scene by introducing graffiti style into the mix of traditional media is like when photography put it’s foot in the door.  The silver spray paint gives a glamorous luster to the surface of the canvas as if dressed up for the special day when all the artists show their best work.

The 2010 Members Exhibition of The Philadelphia Sketch Club @ Newman Galleries with 156 works by as many Philadelphia area fine artists runs through 6/9/2010.

Photos by DoNBrewerPhotography.