August 13, 2008 | DoNArTNeWs

Thursday evening after a few hours of drawing at The Plastic Club, DoN headed over to Dirty Frank’s to see the show at Off the Wall Gallery for Quattro Amici +: Anders Hansen, T. Clyde McCobb, Catherine (Kit) Mitchell, Diane Podolsky plus Karl Olsen’s Mid 08 Summer Showcurated by the indefatigable Jody Sweitzer who personally selected and hung the art. Like being in a Paris underground bar, the show is hung salon style with paintings, drawings and prints strewn across the wall almost as if Toulouse, Claude and Pablo were sitting and drinking Absinth at the bar, even a few dogs wandered behind the bar looking for treats. In fact, Karl Olsen’s paintings and pastels have a striking Lautrec quality. Each of the pieces are desirable in their own right; Hansen’s languid watercolors, Podolsky’s stylish mixed media, Mitchell’s bright and colorful landscapes and McCobb’s confident paintings represent more than an artist collective, it’s a school of thought, a way of seeing, a bond of trust and friendship that encourages strength and adventure in art.

Anders Hansen watercolor.

Quattro Amici + exhibit at Off The Wall @ Dirty Franks.

Karl Olsen mixed media (DoN LoVeS the reflection of the beer signs on the glass).

Karl Olsen, Susan Stromquist and Mike Guinn at the Quattro Amici + opening party @ Dirty Franks’ Off the Wall Gallery.

Sarah Olsen with Anders Hansen @ Dirty Franks.

All photos by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.

Wednesday evening, Shoshana, Alden Cole and DoN attended Far Away From the Beginning A Departure from Childhood Idealism, an outstanding exhibit of contemporary art curated by Tara Caton, in cooperation with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists at Drexel University’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery at 33rd and Market Streets. Tara Caton, a former intern at CFEVA, is graduating from Drexel with a degree in “Entertainment and Arts Management” and produced the show as her Senior Thesis Project. Caton tells DoN she, “looked for artists with commonalities of themes, a number of artists work with dark memories from childhood, a childhood perspective with adult melancholy, fantasies, toys, play, dreams and memory.” Tara selected all the works, wrote the text, produced the brochure and art card and installed the art; she will be the first to graduate with this degree and said it was a huge honor to do such a big job for an undergrad project. The exhibit in the Pearlstein Gallery includes many familiar CFEVA artists including Anne Canfield, Darla Jackson, Joelle Jenson, John Karpinski, Jedediah Morfit, Caleb Nussear, Scott Pellnat, Peter Prusinowski, Serena Perone, Matthew Neff, Cecelia Rembert and Nataliya Slinko. Far Away From the Beginning is on exhibit through September 5th.

Curator Tara Caton at The Leonard Pearlstein Gallery.

Artist Scott Pellnat with his adorable little girl explaining his sculpture which looks like it’s made of cast iron but is really “off the shelf” plastic parts. “Why create your own figures when you can buy a Barbie?”

Each section of Pellnat’s sculpture is rearrangeable so you can customize the surprisingly light pieces of surrealist art to suit your mood.

Jedediah Morfit explaining his bas-relief sculpture; working in common, forgotten, traditional genres (museums are full of them) Morfit re-fashions the method into new and vital art.

Detail from Jedediah Morfit‘s “The Price of Doing Business“.

Anne Canfield’s “The Mermaid and the Tiger Meet Halfway“, oil on linen.

John Karpinski is attracted to the paradox of comics and how they say a lot with so little. Through comics adults can regain time from their childhood; John’s childhood favorite comics were Daredevil # 158 and What If? # 15.

All photos by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.

CFEVA Introduction 2012

Blick Art Materials