DoNArTNeWs

Eileen Eckstein, President of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia sat down with DoNArTNeWs to share some of the exiting events taking place October 2011, the society’s 149th year. The Photographic Society of Philadelphia is the oldest photo society in the USA and the third oldest in the world. The society is presenting a special month long exhibition of Photographic Society of Philadelphia members works on all three floors of The Plastic Club Art Gallery, 247 South Camac Street, Philadelphia.  Each Sunday in October a photographer reception will be held between 2:00 - 5:00 PM.  The next PSoP member’s meeting is Tuesday, October 18th, 2011, 7:00 PM with guest speaker Harvey Finkle.

Read more about the Photographic Society of Philadelphia at Side Arts.

Video by DoNBrewerMultimedia
Kodak.com

Super Nova, Photoshop collage, digital print, DoN Brewer, 2011

Decorating the Haus of DoN has been very gratifying, reinforcing the DoN brand with his abstract landscape photographs, including the “light being” series, original graphic prints and oil paintings, setting tableau’s and displays throughout the studio and is ready for visitors.  DoN’s body of work has grown substantially, DoN’s first creative job was Display Manager for a department store retail chain in the 1970’s, tapping into those skills has been nostalgic and liberating, marketing DoN’s product line like he did in the garden department at J.M. Fields.  Usually DoN’s major art works are packed and ready to show when opportunities arise and the Haus is decorated with the works of DuSold, DuPree, Stango and outsider artist Danny Gayder, the work of Masters influencing the path of DoN’s interests and goals.  The DoN collection would not exist if not for the influences of artist friends and mentors as well as collectors, helping refine DoN’s eye and continue art production with confidence.  After weeks of preparation DoN is looking forward optimistically for a delightful weekend of seeing old and new friends and sharing his art.  

The Haus of DoN is dedicated to all the artists participating in Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2011; DoN understands the aches and pains of finishing projects, solving problems and decision-making involved in making an art work space inviting to visitors.  Thank you to the Center for Emerging Visual Artists for undertaking the task of organizing the citywide art event that is unique to Philadelphia.  Thank you to all the readers of DoNArTNeWs and Philly.SideArts; DoN is grateful to all the artists who share their skills, talents and stories for the art enthusiasts not just in Philly but around the world who follow DoN’s incursions into the realms of the art world throughout the city.  This weekend is also the opening of a month long exhibition by the Photographic Society of Philadelphia, the oldest photography society in America, at the Plastic Club with opening receptions each Sunday afternoon 2:00 - 5:00 PM; DoN has two favorite photographs included in the prestigious show of fine art photography.

A special shout-out to DoN’s nephew Bud Irwin serving in the Army in Afghanistan; knowing Buddy’s marching across arid desert mountains loaded with gear makes DoN stronger and braver to make new work, produce more videos, write more reviews, do more crunches at the gym and plan challenging new projects for the future.  Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2011 is an opportunity to be optimistic, to brush off the haters, ignore the art bullies, defy the critics, escape the economic reality and be free to be an artist living, working and producing art in America.  The Haus of DoN, 2028 Pemberton Street, welcomes you.

LoVe

DoN

Amy, Amy, Amy, DoN Brewer @ The Plastic Club

Hello my Little DoNsters, DoN is always surprised and amazed when he is invited to participate in an art event, the excitement and preparation is engrossing and involving attempting to produce objects worthy of being called art.  The Plastic Club always strikes a creative chord for DoN, with the upcoming Member’s Choice show for August creating an opportunity to show new work in a welcoming, inclusive group show of like-minded artists.  DoN submitted two new pieces, Iris of the Storm, a shot of the remnants of the tragic Mid-West tornadoes passing over Philadelphia that gave us green sunlight and scarey scudding clouds and Amy, Amy Amy, an abstract landscape photograph of a dim light glowing against a stuccoed wall layered with attempts to cover up graffiti tags.  DoN listened to Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black back to back on his iPod for months, the music incorporating all his favorite genres mashed together into fabulous pop, her passing a sad reminder to live for today.

Heliotrope, DoN Brewer @ Hopkins House Gallery.

DoN received an awesome invitation to exhibit at the prestigious Hopkins House Gallery on the beautiful Cooper River in Camden NJ.  DoN got the message from director Bruce Garrity through a Facebook instant message, he will be showing Abstract Landscape Photographs in an upstairs room in the historic space.  One of DoN’s first art shows (many moons ago) was at Hopkins House; to be able to curate his own space in a gallery is DoN’s dream come true.  The show opens Saturday, August 13th, DoN will post reception info soon.

The same day DoN received the Hopkins House confirmation he received this email, “Dear artist, If you are receiving this email, congratulations – you have had one, or more, pieces of artwork accepted into Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital’s 2011 Art Ability exhibition. The decisions were extremely difficult this year as the show has grown immensely from year to year. We had more than 300 artists send over 1,330 submissions! We have narrowed that down to the best of the best, and only accepted approx. 350 submissions from nearly 200 artists.

A formal acceptance package (noting which pieces were chosen) will arriving at your home via the U.S Post Office in the next week. The package will include all required forms, dates, information that you will need in preparation for the exhibit opening Nov. 5^th.  Thank you for sharing your work with us and for participating in our exhibit. Your participation makes this exhibit the largest of its kind in the nation.

Sincerely,

Heather

—————————————————-

Heather Zoumas-Lubeski

Director, Community Outreach & Special Events

Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital - Main Line Health

414 Paoli Pike

Malvern, PA 19355

(484) 596-5607 NEW

Zoumas-LubeskiH@mlhs.org

www.brynmawrrehab.org/artability

www.brynmawrrehab.org/cnb“

Cool, huh?  Although, this year’s acceptance into the final cut of the prestigious international art event is bitter sweet since best friend Arnie Segal has recently transmogrified into a light being.  Arnie’s magical sculptures and his endearing personality will be sorely missed at this year’s party.  Arnie Segal introduced DoN into the world of art opportunities for disabled people including the fabulous Art Ability show, Very Special Artists @ Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and ArtFirst @ Princeton University Medical Center.  DoN urges you to support the tremendous effort the team at Bryn Mawr Rehab puts into this expansive exhibit of art created by people facing personal challenges finding happiness, solace and a voice through the making of art.

light being (Lorraine & Charles), DoN Brewer @ Art Ability this Fall, 2011.  This image is an update to my original post, DoN received the info today and this is the image the jury choose; DoN is very happy from an artistic standpoint and emotionally because Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Charles loved DoN unconditionally (8/11/11).

Art by DoN.

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - Construct @ Crane Arts Center.

Every corner of the mammoth Icebox Gallery in the Crane Arts Center is activated with visual signs, symbols and sensory stimuli.  Last January curator Amie Potsic sent a call for ideas to the Fellows of The Center for Emerging Visual Artists for the huge art space in Fishtown.  Site specific works were encouraged, developed and confirmed by April and last week all the pieces fell into place and Construct, an invigorating, unique, studied look at contemporary art and how assemblage, construction and collage is integral to the new way of seeing.  The photo above looks so Rauschenberg but it’s mash-up of two large installations, one a trippy multiple collage by Jennifer Williams applied directly on the walls and a large assemblage by Don Edler that sprawls across the concrete floor like a drift of entrancing debris.

Don Edler @  The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - Construct @ Crane Arts Center.

Mami Kato in coming to the end of a long relationship with the special Japanese grass she uses to create the sinuous sculptures which take years to make to a new direction using resin for the bio-morphic sculpture in the foreground.  Her work looks so beautiful in the Gray Area, tying up the space in a confounding knot of dense yet floaty tubules.

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - Construct @ Crane Arts Center.

Laureen Griffin plays with styles, textures, composition and sexual role models - huh?  DoN overheard a comment, “What’s that girl doing in the chair?”  The girl is dressed quite masculine, like a business woman, reading a paper, a strong contemporary image of a black woman set against the grain of an antebellum manor.  Intensely conflicting narratives zipped through DoN’s neural network from stories embedded in the fabric, visual cues in the styling and strangely involving decor.  Gorgeous!

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - Construct @ Crane Arts Center.

Kimberly Witham was concerned for a moment that the photographs that are so huge in her studio would seem dwarfed by the scale of Icebox, but arrayed salon style, the still life photographs using dead animals, wallpaper and found objects read perfectly well.  The beautifully rendered still life photographs are so bitter sweet, we get to look at beautiful creatures living on after death in a work of art, an exquisite corpse of a different kind.  Witham’s photographs drew a crowd of people who stood and stared a long time; the mixture of repulsion and fascination, ugly and beautiful, cheery and morbid strums a tender nerve.  And the concept that raw steak is not just the color of cabbage roses but can be sexually Dali-nian is genius.

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - Construct @ Crane Arts Center.

Alison Stigora, Whirlwind, charred wood, site specific installation.  Like a charcoal drawing in space, Whirlwind is a feat of imagination swirling up like a tornado; Stigora and a friend hand-charred the wood, pulling logs from the fire and dousing them with water to preserve the scarred luminous iridescence of the wood for the construction.  Alison wants all DoNsters to know she is not a pyromaniac, having a healthy fear of fire and does not play with matches.  The imposing sculpture continues Stigora’s investigation into the fractal like forms of the natural world, especially trees and all that art owes to them.

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - Construct @ Crane Arts Center.

Alison Stigora, Whirlwind, detail.

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - Construct @ Crane Arts Center.

Lewis Colburn was seated atop a 15 foot wooden tower where he typed War and Peace by Tolstoy during a performance at the opening reception; Colburn typed out part of the book relating to a theory about history and calculus, a repetitive process which spilled a long stream of paper into a puddle on the floor.  The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - Construct @ Crane Arts Center.

Lewis Colburn @ The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - Construct @ Crane Arts Center.

Maggie Mills has five paintings included in the exhibit, each artwork representing a bit of the anxiety she feels about the political and ecological environment her young daughter is growing up in.  Mills’ paintings incorporate compressed narratives, coupled with coming of age incidents and rituals.  In each of the paintings, young people are involved in a manner of play that involves constructions like kites but in a dream state haunted by angst, danger and fear for the future.

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - Construct @ Crane Arts Center.

Swim Team, oil on panel, Maggie Mills @ The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - Construct @ Crane Arts Center.

Panoramic shot of the Icebox Gallery,  The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - Construct @ Crane Arts Center.

Artists exhibiting are: Noah Addis, Arden Bendler Browning, Lewis Colburn, Don Edler, Laureen Griffin, Jordan Griska, Ana B. Hernandez, Mami Kato, Allison Kaufman, Daniel Kornrumpf, Maggie Mills, Tim Portlock, Alison Stigora, Jennifer Williams, Kimberly Witham, and Bohyun Yoon.

Construct is on view through June 29th, a short run for such a big show but exhilarating in it’s scope, direction and audacity.

Photos by DoN.

Lois Schlachter,  @ Philadelphia Sketch Club Volunteer Art Exhibit @ Art Space, Lansdowne, 2011

Steve Iwanczuk @ Philadelphia Sketch Club Volunteer Art Exhibit @ Art Space, Lansdowne, 2011.  That’s Steve reflected in the drawing on the right.

Lois & Steve have collaborated as the co-chairs of the Philadelphia Sketch Club’s Exhibition Committee for years, lately Lois is focused on her own art career, continuing to volunteer but now making new art, showing in galleries and entering competitions. Schlachter has had the unique experience of viewing virtually thousands of artworks submitted to the venerable art club’s competitions and exhibitions and now is creating her own memorable art, fractured planes, vibrant color, dreamy narratives like a mix of Charles Dumuth and Takashi Murakami.  Steve Iwanczuk teaches graphic design but his drawings are surreal and photographs technically exact, in this show he shows three sides of his persona, each piece strange and deep.

Philadelphia Sketch Club Volunteer Art Exhibit @ Art Space, Lansdowne, 2011.

Philadelphia Sketch Club Volunteer Art Exhibit @ Art Space, Lansdowne, 2011.

Mina Smith-Segal Philadelphia Sketch Club Volunteer Art Exhibit @ Art Space, Lansdowne, 2011.

Deborah Ann S. Horsting @ Philadelphia Sketch Club Volunteer Art Exhibit @ Art Space, Lansdowne, 2011.

Philadelphia Sketch Club Volunteer Art Exhibit @ Art Space, Lansdowne - Gift Shop!  Many of the artists brought prints, cards and posters to sell, Art Space’s lay-out is multi-purpose and really fun to wander through.  Art Space is a major component in the art vibe of Lansdowne, many of the locals came out to the show, the support of the neighbors is so important if art is the force communities use to stay vibrant and relevant.

Dorothy Roschen @ Philadelphia Sketch Club Volunteer Art Exhibit @ Art Space, Lansdowne, 2011.

Philadelphia Sketch Club Volunteer Art Exhibit @ Art Space, Lansdowne, 2011.

 John Schmeichen @ Philadelphia Sketch Club Volunteer Art Exhibit @ Art Space, Lansdowne, 2011.

Karen McDonnell & Anthony Cortosi @ Philadelphia Sketch Club Volunteer Art Exhibit @ Art Space, Lansdowne.  Karen & Anthony are collaborative by nature, often taking on responsibilities others don’t want to do ensuring art events can jump off.  The duo work together on their art, drawing and cutting stencils, spray-painting and decorating their canvasses until layers of memes, myths and memories are mashed-up like a DJ Shadow mix.

Rich Harrington @ Philadelphia Sketch Club Volunteer Art Exhibit @ Art Space, Lansdowne, 2011.

Volunteering is a good way to make friends, learn new things, experience different ideas and stretch social skills; sometimes it feels really good, sometimes it’s hard work but in the end people working towards a common goal, solving problems, creating opportunities, being selfless and inclusive is an art form unto itself.  Thank you so much to the Philadelphia Sketch Club and Art Space, DoN LoVeS seeing his work flanking Lois Schlachter and Steve Iwanczuk’s art, to be included in their company is an honor.  Not all the volunteers are represented in this blog post many other artists are in the expansive show, take the drive out to Lansdowne to see the show, support the volunteers and the view of the city on the drive back is spectacular, a fine reward.

Photos by DoN.

Rebekah Wilhelm, VIII - 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Delaware Department of Art @ Crane Arts Center.

Rebekah Wilhelm, Untitled, detail

Rebekah Wilhelm, Untitled, VIII - 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Delaware Department of Art @ Crane Arts Center in Fishtown.

Rebekah Wilhelm’s most excellent print display @ UD Crane is filled with information, tightly packed into clever, spare prints like an art lesson on less is more.  The prints of swirling words explains how viewers interact with vision, her chain link fence prints are confounding and restrictive and the reams of paper spread in a long swipe across the floor is provocative yet simple and easy. Wilhelm already has plans to go to work teaching at the University of Delaware and is considering studio space in Philly.  DoN chatted with UD Crane curator Anthony Vega, he highlighted how there was more focus on craft and skill in traditional media and no video this year.  C. Grant Cox, III includes multimedia and mechanics in his sculpture but there was a noticeable absence of flat screens and projections in the gallery.

Tara Russell,  VIII - 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Delaware Department of Art @ Crane Arts Center.

Jacob Smiley, VIII - 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Delaware Department of Art @ Crane Arts Center.

Tia Santana, VIII - 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Delaware Department of Art @ Crane Arts Center.  Tia Santana’s performance/installation anchored the lower gallery by the stairs with the artist studiously braiding what looked a lot like hair into long dreads.  Dressed in white, Santana focused on expanding the mound of braids, weaving memes like “roots”, “identity” and “work” into a fascinating presentation of a simulacra-like archetype that a week later is still vibrant in DoN’s mind.

Daniel Jackson, VIII - 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Delaware Department of Art @ Crane Arts Center.  Check out Jackson’s web site for a good look at his work, his paintings exhibit not just vibrancy and virtuosity but thoughtful content, decorative panache and strong painting science.  The glossy panels thick with layers of saturated color and ancient technique are mashed up with a contemporary sense of irony; Jackson’s paintings illustrate Vega’s observation of skill being penultimate.

Congratulations to Matt Giel for his desirable photographs, Leontien Rotteveel’s beatific objet trouve-like sculpture/installation and the entire class of UD 2011 for a refreshing look at the endurance of art.  The gallery is University of Delaware’s outpost away from school, offering students a really cool space to show their work, creating an aspirational vibe and a real clarity of vision of who artists can be after college.

Photos by DoN.

Before DoN met Todd Hestand of www.Philly.SideArts.com @ a Corzo Center for the Creative Economy event, he had already been posting blogs on the popular free artist’s website with it’s cool blog, great writing by local artists and educators, bio/portfolio pages for artists and Philly social networking.  Linking to the Philly.SideArts.com web site drives web traffic to DoNArTNeWs, posting a blurb on the site stimulates interest in all types of social, art, education, business and opportunities.  The catalog of artists who post their bios and art images on Philly.SideArts.com includes great painters like Arthur Ostroff and Karl Olsen, fine art photographers like Angelo Benedetto and digital artists like Lee Muslin, their database is superb.

Philly.SideArts.com has launched a grand new venture offering artists enhanced services such as art opportunities and expanded portfolio space at a really reasonable price, the same free site is still available and they are expanding to other cities with the same business model.  The possibilities of connecting artists, galleries, collectors, educators and business people in an easy to use, immersive design experience is really cool.   Imagine?  The Philly art scene is a model for other cities.

Art-trepreneur, Todd Hestand of Philly.SideArts.com gave away extended free memberships to artists whose business cards were pulled from a bag.  Jed, you left too early!

To celebrate the launch of the new site, Todd Hestand hosted a party at the Dark Horse Pub near Head House Square with a silent auction benefiting Philly Aids Thrift, so many artists offered donations that many had to be turned away, yet, there are still several fine art pieces available at the on-line auction including DoN’s “light being (Joey Ramone)“.   All the proceeds go to Philly Aids Thrift, please bid, there is some really cool art for a great cause.  The party drew a crowd of artists, friends and the art-erati such as Da Vinci Art Alliance’s Lilliana Didovic, artist/entrepreneur Jed Williams, the master Arthur Ostroff and Art in City Hall’s Guru, Tu Huynh - Todd did a terrific job explaining the benefits and services for the new and improved site and really mixed it up with the crowd.  Visit the Philly.SideArts site to see how vibrant, inspiring and diverse the Philly art scene really is and follow the progress of a thoughtful, intuitive idea to help artists connect in a meaningful way.

The silent auction sponsored by Philly.SideArts benefiting Philly Aids Thrift.

The Philly.SideArts.com easy to use homepage.  Join!

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.

Jed Williams

615 Bainbridge Street, Philadelphia, Pa, USA, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy, Thursdays & Fridays 5 - 7:00 PM &  Sundays 1 - 3:00 PM, also by appointment.

Jed Williams paintings poetically explore the inner world of symbols, memes & icons tapping into ancient mysteries and futuristic fears with Academy trained skill and worldly experience.  Located near the hip strip of clubs, galleries and restaurants along the East end of Bainbridge Street, Jed Williams Studio is incorporating marketing into his art business plan with monthly openings, group shows and special offers.  Jed is offering fairly priced prints, combo packages and try it, then buy it plans; business is often the Achilles Heel of being an artist, seeing Jed take on the juggling act of creating, marketing and curating his own gallery is a model of determination and confidence.

Drive My Car, oil & acrylic on canvas @ Jed Williams Studio, Philadelphia PA.

Jed Williams Studio

The Lock is the Key, acrylic & mixed medium on paper and a new untitled work.  Jed Williams is experimenting in 3D with a mash-up of found art and his unique pops of color and shine; Jed often imbues his paintings with glittery plastics, liquidy mylar and shiny mesh enhancing the experience of bold color vibrating the space within the canvas.  Transportation images are a recurring theme and the new sculpture/painting has a skate punk vibe.  Cars appear often in Williams paintings, the freedom and extension of will a car provides is a theme many can resonate with, to be able to just get away from it all, hit the road with a full tank of gas and a clear windshield is the ultimate luxury.

Jed Williams Studio, Philadelphia PA.

Photos by DoN

Plastic Club’s small Worlds 2011.

Paige Ozaroski, Closer Look, photograph, Gaby Heit, Morning, Sugar, watercolor.  246 works are included in the blockbuster event, the Plastic Club continues to draw out the best of artists as they each join the competition for the prestigious awards - imagine what went through the mind of juror Murray Desener when he learned the task ahead of him, he did a fantastic job.

Nick Brown @ Plastic Club’s small Worlds 2011.  Nick sketches from life on ceramic then scratches out relief for the glaze.  Caroline Maw-Dies, Woven Stoneware Basket, woven stoneware.

Mervyn Kline @ The Wanderer, print @ Plastic Club’s small Worlds 2011.  Mervyn & DoN are included in the show in the Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic Club; Merv’s stylish renderings are retro futuristic with an ancient lost civilization vibe.  DoN will write a separate post about the show including Burton Greenspan, Diane Podolsky & Cara Kendric - DoN feels blessed to be included with such a fabulous group of fine artists, DoN has seven photos on display at the Plastic Club, a true honor.

Plastic Club’s small Worlds 2011, 246 artworks are on display at the Plastic Club, each small world unique yet when grouped cohesive in a simplistic, natural way - the above tableau of monochromatic works with touches of color is curatorial excellence considering the blockbuster size of the exhibit.

Sylvia Schreiber @ Plastic Club’s small Worlds 2011.  The actual drippy painting isn’t much bigger than the image on this page but packs a bold punch of color in person.

Don McPartland, Kicker Conspiracy, mixed media @Plastic Club’s small Worlds 2011; Don McPartland made a splash when he became a new member of the Plastic Club this year, 46 new artists, now capturing first prize with his soothingly complex confection, comfortably nestled in a niche in the dining room.

Plastic Club’s small Worlds 2011, click the thumbnail.

Sung Ham, Joo Hooy, oil, Mervyn Kline, Picasso Blues, digital print, Jen Tsui, Post Card, mixed media @ small Worlds 2011, The Plastic Club’s annual small art extravaganza.

Plastic Club’s small Worlds 2011, each nook and cranny holds a universe of small Worlds - Patricia Wilson-Schmid, Vortex, acrylic, Gail Zelikovsky, Landscape of Mars, silk painting, David DiDonato, Recycled Garden, acrylic, Lois Schlachter, Anxiety Dream, acrylic, Veronica Meekins, Nude Figure, pencil.

Phil Juska, Meatloaf at Gilleys, 2AM, construction @ Plastic Club’s small Worlds 2011

Caroline Maw-Deis, Put de Lime in de Coconut, fiber, Dorothy Roschen, Smoke-Made Landscape, smoke fired clay @ Plastic Club’s small Worlds 2011,  a huge art show of little works of art.

DoN is sad for Japan.  “Smile, even though your heart is breaking.”  With new eyes, look at the wonderful culture, community, vibrancy and beauty we are surrounded with every day and cherish each moment as if it could all be swept away in an instant.  “Life is still worth while, if you just smile.”