Saturday, Shoshka and DoN visited the Center for Emerging Visual ArtistsShow House at 1634 South 13th Street, the former home and studio of artistScott Pellnat. The townhouse is filled with art by CFEVA artists including Anne Canfield, Katie Murken, Julia Blaukopf,Kara Rennert,Caleb Nussear, Darla Jackson, Jennifer Chapman,Serena Perrone and of course Scott Pellnat’s wonderfully wacky constructions. Pellnat is an accomplished woodworker and avid dumpster diver creating mechanical constructs out of marquetry of colored pencils, found objects and wood, there’s even a hidden room behind bookshelves which open by pulling on a book ala the Addams Family revealing robotic creatures pulling ropes and strings producing a dramatic diorama.
Looking up into the turret Pellnat built on the roof.
Looking down from the turret into the house - the walls are covered in colored pencil marquetry and the floors are spray painted through lace and stencils.
The top floor is filled with a knitted installation with tendrils swooping through the room like some kind of giant alien brain cell. The site specific piece was created by Katie Murken.
Scott Pellnat in his “secret studio”.
As if the room isn’t creepy enough, there’s a gravity distortion which turns the room sideways!?!
Close up shot of Scott Pellnat’s intricate woodwork.
Anne Canfield’s “Swim Team: Snippets from Yuki’s Memory Book“.
Serena Perrone’s “Dreaming of Flying Fish“, oil and charcoal on panel, diptych.
Scott Pellnat’s Grandfather Clock - one must crank the handle on the side to raise the clock but the cranker can’t see the clock!?!
Stag by Jake Kehs @ CFEVA Show House. (Kehs is not a CFEVA artist, his work is part of Pellnat’s collection including an amazing wolf sculpture on the first floor ready to pounce from a cardboard mountain.)
Silver point drawings by Caleb Nussear called “#3XUL Diminished“.
CFEVA keeps finding new venues and interesting events to promote Philly’s fine artists including the upcoming Philadelphia Open Studio Tours this October. DoN will keep you POSTed.
Supermodel Mike invited DoN to visit Jinxed Clothing to meet artist Tim Diet and toy designer/artist Mr. Shane Jessup. Tim Diet is a NYC based artist who creates super-pop art featuring icons of advertising and cartoons; “Where’s the Beef?” features the Hamburgler, Wendy, Wimpy and more, “Menace to Society” stars Dennis and other trouble-makers. Diet’s style is to paint with acrylics on stretched canvas and create a masterful mash-up of cheery icons designed to make us buy stuff that’s not really that good for us.
Acrylic Boxes by Tim Diet @ Jinxed (that’s Leanne Biank working on her entry for The Rolling Canvas Art Collective presented by Fuji Bikes which opens Friday @ Jinxed).
Acrylic Box by Tim Diet @ Jinxed.
Tim Diet and Jinxed owner Supermodel Mike.
“Words that Hurt” paintings by Mr. Shane Jessup @ Jinxed.
Mr. Shane Jessup is a toy designer for Kid Robot, planet Earth’s premier creator & retailer of limited edition toys, clothing, mini-figures, artwork & books. Jessup designs three-D toys in Illustrator, the vinyl toys are manufactured overseas, refined back here in the states and then sold to kids and collectors alike and are currently a big hit at ComicCon in San Diego. The toys are Super-Kawai bunnies, robots, punks and monsters - DoN LoVes them all! You can buy a box of 24 figurines some of which are rare and collectable - then you have to network with other collectors to find the special ones you need to complete your collection. Start by shopping at Jinxed, you’re sure to find something deliciously wacky to start your collection.
Painting and vinyl figurines by Mr. Shane Jessup @ Jinxed Phildelphia.
Next, DoN stopped in Digital Ferret CDs because of the crowd of punks outside; it’s so cool that punk is not dead, super-high platform boots, black leather and pink Mohawks will never go out of style. Digital Ferret CDs is one of America’s leading music retailers and mail order houses for 80s, Ambient/Techno, Industrial, Electronica, Gothic, Metal, Trip-Hop, World Fusion and Experimental Music. Inside the shop was rocking to the sounds of Philadelphia’s own Society Hill, kind of a mash-up of punk, funk and grunge - really fresh and clean - lead singer Dwight was totally unintelligible - fabulous! Check out Society Hill’s MySpace Page to learn more about the band.
4th Friday on 4th Street is really fun with jewelry vendors, stained glass, art and clothes for sale on the sidewalk - and parties everywhere. Let’s ROCK!
Did you know Indigo Arts is now in the Crane Arts building? You have probably visited Indigo Arts at their previous locations in Manayunk and Old City but the Fishtown gallery is dedicated to folk art from Asia, Africa and the Americas. Owner, Tony Fisher regaled DoN and Shoshana with tales of how one might import objects from Cuba (hint - having Canadian friends helps); the gallery is filled with Haitian barbershop signs, African furniture, Cuban self-taught art, Balinese masks… visiting Indigo Arts is literally a trip around the world.
Sho &DoNpicked up Alden Cole (who has a pic inCity Paper - holla!!) and arrived at the Found Objects/New Contexts show to find a constellation of art stars:
David Foss’ dust encrusted bizarro birdcage is so DuChampian, only the passage of time and benign neglect can create such a time/space distortion.
Artist Andrew Dyer - as his MySpace page @ Found Objects/New Contexts.
Renzo Oliva’s “Gladiator“, mixed media piece combines metaphors and anthropomorphism by distilling disparate elements with a similar line weight into an activated object of desire, it really has the feel of drawing. Oliva explained to DoN that Davinci Art Alliance’s Found Art show is his first art show in America, having exhibited in Europe and Asia.
Artists Karey Maurice and Burnell Yow! near their selections for the show; that’s Burnell’s on the pedestal, a mixed media piece using dog bone and doll parts, and the pair of Super Kawai, anime-ish sculptures on the table are Karey’s.
Artists Ted Warchal and award winner Regina Barthmaier; her wire horse sculpture made from rescued electronic parts is evocative of a time-traveling trip towards entropy. In the pic on the pedestal is Regina’s other entry in Found Objects/New Contexts. Writer and art critic R.B. Strauss tells DoN he’ll be writing about Barthmaier’s horse-like sculpture.
New Philadelphia artists, Ted Warchal, Alden Cole and David Foss @ Davinci Art Alliance. Alden Cole’s Divine Lorraine Awakened is pictured in this weeksCity Paperwith a color photo on-line, and an interview with Warchal as well. Found Objects/New Contextsis one of the best shows DoN has seen in recent memory, as one guest Jean Adelman said, “Fun, not trivial.”
Rowan University’s Dr. Deb Miller presenting awards at DaVinci Art Aliance’s Found Objects/New Contexts exhibit which is open through 7/29/08.
Ken Tutjamnong’s impressionist floral paintings are exuberant with a variety of mark making techniques splashed across the canvas then scraped away to reveal subtle coloration and form. Ken, a native of Thailand, is a dedicated painter and a member of the DaVinci Alliance - not only does he manage the most excellent Smile Thai Restaurant which is more than a full time job, he finds time in the morning or after to work to develop his unique painterly style. Tutjamnong’s paintings for the Sunshine and Flowers Show are absolutely happy with rich texture, color and composition; Ken obviously is working hard to realize a dream.
Mike Sweeney mixed paintings and photographs in Smile’s Sunshine and Flowers show. he says, “Photos are an ethereal experience, a painting you have to live with, get to know, be there a long time. A photo lasts forever as that moment.” Again, time shifting and experience design create new vibrations, since DoN is a multimedia guy, it’s refreshing to see an artist freely mix the medias usually kept separate.
The Yale MFA show at Gallery 339 is amazing, crystal clear imagery of manufactured reality, hyper-realism and narrative experience design. What is real and what is staged? Which part is Photoshopped and which part is documentary? Photography isn’t just a “snapshot” of a moment any longer, it may take as long to create a great photo as a great painting. Sarah Stolfa’s photographs are cinematic in scope, packed with narrative creativity. Stolfa’s goal was to make “…something, real and big.” Glendale TX, a powerful image of a young man in jeans standing in a scorched field with a fire truck nearby is serene yet ambiguous, did this saint-like boy/man win or lose this battle against nature? There’s a photo of logging that is so scary and brutal yet honest.
339’s Martin McNamara told DoN, “Yale offers reality versus fictional pictorial.” Marley White has several large images depicting a reality which is so perfectly perfect that it looks impossible yet what DoN is seeing is so real, so detailed, so authentic - this image is a good example of how White interacts with emotional engrams; residual cuteness is creating “Aw!”-inspiring moments in art from photography to painting to constructions.
Marley White @ Gallery 339.
DoN chatted with artist Ed Bronstein whose “Old Dog” painting is featured on Twenty-Two Gallery’s art card for “To A Good Home: Animal Art“, a group show to benefit Main Line Animal Rescue. Ed mentioned a plein air competition for next Spring. Ed is a painter and DoN had been painting with Paul DuSold in Laurel Hill Cemetery that day, so our painterly eyes are most comfortable with the softer edges - we both commented on the incredible detail of the photographs; the photo Mike, Del Reo, TX, 2008 by Jen Davis really feels like you’re being stared down by an urban cowboy.
Thanks to Julia Koprack for introducing DoN around to the art stars, the evening was so exciting - the Yale MFA show is a great sampling of the future of photography and manufactured hyper-realism.
DoN posted a 30 second video on YouTube of the Super Mario Brothers music which is enchanting and magical; using the score from the video game soundtrack and sound effects from character/avatar interaction with puzzle elements in the game, the music is post-post-post modern. The video is just part of the Golden Calf exhibit in the fabulously dark installation of paintings, photography and sculpture about decay, destruction, nausea and mysticism. DoN found the art to be emotionally raw and psychologically dismal with elements of claustrophobia, isolation and estrangement; Hagit Barkai’s ”Vomitous” is awesomely powerful, the paintings are Bacon-like in their facility, the subject charged with feelings of fear, powerlessness and despair, the paint application is expert. The artists of Golden Calfare establishing New Philadelphia as the art center of the region, unafraid to tackle the more difficult apects of modern life.
Brian Billingsley’s ”Homage to Me” video and “Untitled (Saturn Devours His Son)” oil on canvas in the Golden Calf Show at Crane Art Center.
Weird little blobby things were all over the place.
Susan Abrams makes her own paper, applies emulsion and exposes them to light in her darkroom; working with negatives she captures a wash-like effect, distorting reality, repurposing each line and shadow. Abrams is a teacher in her former life and watching her interact with the kids, explaining her process in simple terms, was a very enjoyable experience. The Enclaves Gallery looks just beautiful with Susan Abrams’ work energizing the space with nature, science and impeccable presentation.
During Susan Abrams reception, DoN met Stephanie Yuhas of Project 21, a collaborative project bringing together film makers, artists, designers, actors…to create teams and make a movie in 21 days, followed by a film festival. Stephanie and DoN dished about local viral video star,Nora the Piano Playing Cat and Angry Video Game Nerd. This is a geat opportunity for the New Media community to get to know each other better, the way the Philadelphia Sketch Club, the Plastic Club, PANMA and DaVinci Art Alliance bring together creative people. Maybe Comcast will put some videos on all those blank “public access channels”? Or on that faboo screen in the lobby?
Second Thursday evening’s @ Crane Arts is very cool; from the very end of The Avenue of the Arts across town via Passyunk Ave, Sho & DoN drove North to Fishtown.NexusSummer Community Art Series presents Remembering the Past, Embracing the Future; this unique exhibit features an artistic collaboration between Rwandese children from Rugerero Survivors Village, Rwandese hand-crafter, Patrick Sentama, and Jefferson Medical students, Komal Soin, Karen Connolly, Jennifer Heckman, and Dana Johns.
Combining photographs, handicrafts and children’s art, the exhibition offers a glimpse into another world that is sadly beautiful. The drawings by kids aged 5 - 13 displayed with photos of the conditions the kids live in is really bold, so much narrative with so few words. DoN likes seeing photos and paintings, crayon and camera, hanging together, it creates temporal distortions, photos are fast/crayon drawings are slow; Nexus is so cool to host this frank, easy-going, accessible show filled with deep cultural resonances.
Shoshana & DoN attended a show of recent graduates of UArts photography majors at the Urban Outfitters headquarters in the Navy Yard, a wonderfully cavernous, bright space with hip, modern amenities for workers and visitors, repurposed from an industry long gone. The occasion was a first for Urban Outfitters, to include art from outside their own studios, a coup for UArts photography majors to have their work hanging in the ultimate New Philadelphia. The display wall was installed especially for this exhibition permitting the artists to exhibit large scale works or groupings in a salon style fashion. The art is superb, the level of skill is extraordinary with unique uses of tools and technology producing fine art photography from staged magic realism to documentary realism to intimate glimpses into childhood memories.
Artist Anna Tas with two examples of her Linticular Prints, the collection will appear in the Please Touch Museum. Tas taps into cultural stereotypes with the shifting shades of humanity playing out cheerfully in simple plastic shapes. The technical term for the type of linticular print used is a “flip” which is really only two images divided into strips, the lens lets the mind’s eye create multi-cultural blends.
Stephanie Ricci with photos of the carousel at Knoebels Amusement Resort; an homage to her grandfather this sampling is from a group of 26.
Photographer Dustin Ream with “Fukayama Japan 01, 2007″. The view is under a Japanese rail line with amusement sculptures, Murikami-like in their super-flatness. DoN & Dustin discussed the similarity to Zoe Strauss’ Under 95 projects, the Shin Honsen train system in Japan and traveling with a rail pass. Ream is going for an MFA @ Tyler.
Photographer Christos Loutovoulis with “In the Name of Cha Ching, the Crucifixtion“, created by applying liquid emulsion to paper then exposed to light from an enlarger, the four sheets of paper are nailed directly to the wall.
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.
