Monthly Archives: February 2011

Diverse Perspectives @ Da Vinci Art Alliance: Bud Boehringer, DoN Brewer, Lorna Kent, Yeoun Lee, Marcy Morris, Lee Muslin, William Myers & Edna Santiago

Diverse Perspectives @ Da Vinci Art Alliance: Bud Boehringer, DoN Brewer, Lorna Kent, Yeoun Lee, Marcy Morris, Lee Muslin, William Myers & Edna Santiago

Sneak peek –  Yeoun Lee and Bud Boehringer @ Diverse Perspectives, Da Vinci Art Alliance, February 25th – March 26th, 2011 – Reception: February 25th, 5 – 9:00PM

Diverse Perspectives @ Da Vinci Art Alliance: Bud Boehringer, DoN Brewer, Lorna Kent, Yeoun Lee, Marcy Morris, Lee Muslin, William Myers & Edna Santiago

Diverse Perspectives @ Da Vinci Art Alliance: Bud Boehringer, DoN Brewer, Lorna Kent, Yeoun Lee, Marcy Morris, Lee Muslin, William Myers & Edna Santiago.

Opening this Friday, February 25th, 2011, 5 – 9:00PM @ 704 Catharine Street, Philadelphia.  The group show is the result of the tenacity and determination of a few artists determined to keep one of the few art spaces left where they can display their work open for the winter months.  DoN was invited by Da Vinci Art Director, Dave Foss without whose help this show would not have happened, to join the group after several artists could not help Bud Boehringer, who came through with the Benjamins commitment, to pull together a show.  Bud said he would do an installation by himself but it turns out there is such a demand for artists to get their work in public view that literally overnight the group grew to eight artists – and, guess what?  The show is fabulous with a series of events planned to bring visitors to the South Philly gem of a gallery including this weekends double receptions Friday and Sunday – free and open to the public.

Diverse Perspectives @ Da Vinci Art Alliance: Bud Boehringer, DoN Brewer, Lorna Kent, Yeoun Lee, Marcy Morris, Lee Muslin, William Myers & Edna Santiago

DoN Brewer, Utter Blackness, digital photograph, inkjet print @ Diverse Perspectives.

DoN is exhibiting a new group of abstract landscape and architectural detail photographs; working to install the art with DVAA Director Dave Foss was not just an educational experience regarding the math of hanging a show but learning to see the thematic layout, abstract paintings with abstract photographs, representational work resonating with each other, a visual flow, he had it all laid out ready to install with the skill of a professional curator.  DoN had the rare experience of arranging his own work in an art gallery, a supremely satisfying experience, and helping to show the work of friends in their best light is transcendental.  But it’s nothing like the excitement DoN feels for Edna Santiago and Bill Myers for their brilliant introduction to the fabric of the art community known as Da Vinci Art Alliance, Friday night should prove to be joyful.

Edna Santiago, Art Adventure: Friday, March 4th, 4 – 8:00 PM – please visit the gallery and hear Edna’s inspirational story of the healing power of art and how she has channeled her energy into developing an art school for poor kids in a rural fishing village in Puerto Rico.

Saturday, March 5th, DoN will host a conversation, Search Engine Optimization for Artists, 2 – 4:00 PM; DoN will share tips, tactics and code to help your website be more search-able.

Like Da Vinci Art Alliance on Facebook to learn more about more DVAA Diverse Perspectives Events throughout March, 2011.

Photos by DoN.

Best Art Show Ever – A Showing of Oil & Ink and Oil Pastel Paintings by Harry Boardman @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Best Art Show Ever - A Showing of Oil & Ink & Oil Pastel Paintings by Harry Boardman @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Best Art Show Ever A Showing of Oil & Ink & Oil Pastel Paintings by Harry Boardman @ Twenty-Two Gallery.

Best Art Show Ever - A Showing of Oil & Ink & Oil Pastel Paintings by Harry Boardman @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Harry Boardman @ Twenty-Two Gallery on 22nd Street.  DoN stopped in the artist co-op known as Twenty-Two Gallery to see the Best Art Show Ever, a collection of paintings and oil pastel drawings with a distinct regional impressionism of absorbing landscapes, architectural representation, animal images – it really makes you remember why you live near Philly.

Best Art Show Ever - A Showing of Oil & Ink & Oil Pastel Paintings by Harry Boardman @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Best Art Show EverA Showing of Oil & Ink & Oil Pastel Paintings by Harry Boardman @ Twenty-Two Gallery.

Best Art Show Ever - A Showing of Oil & Ink & Oil Pastel Paintings by Harry Boardman @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Best Art Show Ever A Showing of Oil & Ink & Oil Pastel Paintings by Harry Boardman @ Twenty-Two Gallery.

Harry Boardman‘s collection of art for his one man show is not narcissistic in the least, he really has the painting skill to claim his artistic turf, desirable works of art to elevate your life-style, like a Philly MC at a rap battle – Holla Back!

Dale Levy @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Dale Levy @ Twenty-Two GalleryDale Levy was on duty for the artist run space, she currently has not just the bold abstracts she’s known for but beautiful representational paintings which display a different facet of her style.  The group show represents the work of influential Philadelphia artists who contribute to the artistic zeitgeist of the region with exuberant enthusiasm and tenacity.

Every time DoN walks down 22nd Street, a feeling of well-being emanates from the neighborhood, it’s so pretty, so accessible and friendly with cafe’s, shops and art.  Even though a couple of cool spots have closed due to this stupid recession the stroll feels very Metropolitan; DoN recently had coffee @ Good Karma to talk with a prominent Philadelphia blogger about some exciting upcoming news, even the gossip is esoteric.

Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic Club – Eileen Eckstein, Karen Frank, Morris Klein & John Schmeichen

Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic Club - Eileen Eckstein, Karen Frank, Morris Klein & John Schmeichen

Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic ClubEileen Eckstein, Karen Frank, Morris Klein & John Schmeichen.

Eileen Eckstein, the president of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia, lamented to DoN that she had failed to sign her work since the Plastic Club uses a numbering system compared to labels and she was concerned her colorful photographs would be confused with the work of PSoP VP Morris Klein.  But, have no fear, the styles of these two creative talents is unique, each expressing their own vision through photography.

Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic Club - Eileen Eckstein, Karen Frank, Morris Klein & John Schmeichen

Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic ClubEileen Eckstein, Foto One Dollar O $3 Pescoes, photograph.

Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic Club - Eileen Eckstein, Karen Frank, Morris Klein & John Schmeichen

John Schmiechen, Carman’s Country Kitchen, oil & Keeping Watch Over Manayunk, oil @ Downstairs Gallery @ The Plastic Club through February 25th, 2011.

The former basement is now a swanky gallery with a hearth, a tricked out print room and a big kitchen where Bob Jackson prepares some of his famous feasts.  The gallery is intimate with the feel of a hidden treasure that you only learn about by being part of the art-erati.   The multi-media show features work by member artists whose names are drawn randomly from a hat during a ceremony, usually by a cute kid, the artists then each show about five works.  DoN‘s name did not get drawn from the hat but due to unusual circumstances he now has the opportunity to participate in the next show opening the same weekend as the Diverse Perspectives show @ Da Vinci Art Alliance, February 26th, 2011 DoN will have art on display at four local art galleries simultaneously including the on-going PSoP show @ Bonte’s and the Photography 30 show @ Perkins Center for the Arts.  You may ask why DoN is being so conceited in a story about his artist friends?  It’s because the work of the people at the Plastic Club and the Photographic Society of Philadelphia: Eileen, Morris, Bob, Mike, Alan, Cynthia… help to keep DoN‘s creative fires burning.

 

Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Barbara Keough Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Barbara Keough, Three Out of Four Ain’t Bad, mixed media @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition.   The Plastic Club has 36 new members and a low attrition rate due to the warm, welcoming laid back vibe of one of the longest running art clubs in America.  The New Members show is exceptional in the wide variety of media from fiber arts to painting, drawing and photograph; you would think there would be a tipping point but the leadership of The Plastic Club is sensitive to the needs of artists and makes every effort to help them develop through leading workshops, critiques, Salons, and monthly exhibitions including the Downstairs Gallery (the subject of DoN‘s next post on DoNArTNeWs).

Barbara Keough‘s painting embodies the spirit of the new group joining the club, her painting is witty, fun, cheerful and beautiful – a small painting which lights up on it’s own especially in the newly refurbished Plastic Club Gallery.  And the number 42, of course, is the answer to the ultimate question posed in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.  The Plastic Club uses a unique numbering system which requires visitors to refer to a printed guide but also allows seeing the work for itself without being influenced by the cult of personality or reputation of the artist.

Chick Kelly Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Chick Kelly @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art ExhibitionChick Kelly‘s wonderfully ebullient and erudite character shines through his paintings combining contemplative color palette with stinging symbolism and strong story telling.

Maria Viataki, Alexandra Pinero, Burton Greenspan @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Maria Viataki, Dreams of Havertown, acrylic, Alexandra Pinero, Amaris Is Hazel, oil, & Burton Greenspan, Sun Lee, oil @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition.  Doesn’t this look fabulous?

S.F. Pfaffenbichler Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

S.F. Pfaffenbichler, Rock I & Rock II, oil @  Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition.

S.F. Pfaffenbichler Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

S.F. Pfaffenbichler @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition.

Bob Jackson & Alan Klawans un-scrolled Sylia Pfaffenbichler‘s action drawing from the Plastic Club‘s on-going series of workshops called the Moving Model, the model slowly changes poses over a period of twenty minutes forcing the artist to quickly see and commit the image to paper, the results are evident in Pfaffenbichler‘s great, joyful paintings of jazzy dancers.

Michael B. Tantaros & Yeoun Lee Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Michael B. Tantaros, What, graphite & Yeoun Lee, Over the Rainbow, mixed media – DoN loves seeing these works together, the fine drawing is of Bill Myers, fellow photographer and Yeoun Lee who are both in the group multi-media art show Diverse Perspectives @ Da Vinci Art Alliance, reception February 25th, 2011, 5 – 9:00 PM, featuring the work of eight Da Vinci Art Alliance member artists.  DoN will be presenting Search Engine Optimization for Artists , Saturday, March 5th @ 2:00 PM, as part of the Diverse Perspectives exhibition running throughout March in the historic gallery in South Philly.

Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Past president Michael Guinn and current president Bob Jackson address the new members who have joined the Plastic Club, their leadership has improved participation exponentially and upgrades to the historic building are continuous – the back yard parties are infamous, too.

Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Jane J. Wilkie, Blue Sky, acrylic, Reta Sweeney, Snow on Stewart Lake, oil, Cara Kendric, Song of the Dawn, mixed media and Denise Romano Bright, Wisteria in Bloom, hand colored photo @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition through February 25th, 2011.  Welcome to the New Members and thank you to The Plastic Club team for providing a venue for artists to grow and develop without feeling intimidated.

By the by, DoN has been updating the Album pages on the Plastic Club website, it’s a work in progress but the pictures will bring back many memories.

Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Michael B. Tantaros, Who, graphite @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition; DoN is particularly drawn (no pun intended) to Tantaros‘ descriptive drawing and atmospheric naturalism.  The Plastic Club is famous for it’s inspiring workshops where artists can work with a live model for 3 hours really cheaply, an important factor in creating great art.

Don McPartland Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Don McPartland, Secession man, Weather Report & Free Range, mixed media @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition.

Bill Myers Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Bill Myers, Dead Squirrel on My Bed, photograph & Robert Heiler, Winter’s Evening, watercolor @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition.  Bill Myers surrealistic photographs will be on view at Da Vinci Art Alliance February 25th – March 26th, 2011.

Photos by DoN.

Introduction 2011 – Center for Emerging Visual Artists New Development Fellows @ Moore College of Art & Design Widener Memorial Foundation Gallery

Kimberly Witham Introduction 2011 - Center for Emerging Visual Artists New Development Fellows @ Moore College of Art & Design Widener Memorial Foundation Gallery

Kimberly Witham @ Introduction 2011 – Center for Emerging Visual Artists New Development Fellows @ Moore College of Art & Design Widener Memorial Foundation Gallery, Feb 2nd – 19th, 2011.

Kimberly Witham Introduction 2011 - Center for Emerging Visual Artists New Development Fellows @ Moore College of Art & Design Widener Memorial Foundation Gallery

Kimberly Witham told DoN people presuppose she Photoshop’s her work but her mise-en-scène photographs are real still-life compositions, elements of which have a limited shelf life.  The pictures of pretty headless birds in cups and on plates dredge up memories of dead birds on the street and questions of why they fell from the sky.  About half of the photos included in this ground-breaking exposition are film, half digital, a seem-less transition between mediums made transparent by Witham’s virtuosity, she’s a professor of photography at Bucks County College, a school with a long tradition of excellence in photography education.  The road kill element is shocking and beautiful, a sweet, sad commentary on urban wild life.

Maggie  Mills Introduction 2011 - Center for Emerging Visual Artists New Development Fellows @ Moore College of Art & Design Widener Memorial Foundation Gallery

Maggie Mills, Crops, oil on linen.  Maggie and DoN got into an animated discussion about”fracking“, another painting in the show is titled Frack, the practice of injecting noxious chemicals into the Earth’s crust to break it up and release “natural gas“.  This clean fuel puts unknown dangers into the families and communities who live where fracking takes place by releasing toxic chemicals into the water table, scary shit, Mills’ painting shows an adolescent crouching, head to knees, while visions of matrix-like drills descend from the sky.

Daniel Kornkrumpf Introduction 2011 - Center for Emerging Visual Artists New Development Fellows @ Moore College of Art & Design Widener Memorial Foundation Gallery

Daniel Kornrumpf uses fiber like colored pencils for his portraits of on-line social network profie pics he’s found over time – a long time since the densely embroidered portraits may take months to produce, unlike a drawing which may take an afternoon.  The isolated faces floating in large blank fields of fine linen examines the connection of the isolationism of social networks and the self-portraits that make you think, “Really?  That’s their best look?”  Instead of attracting attention, ridicule and mockery may result, by the way Plenty of Fish often advertises in the DoNArTNeWs sidebar, please, click through, Valentine’s Day is coming up.  Kornkrumpf will continue his unique fiber portraits but is pursuing drawing and painting for the upcoming show at the Ice Box in late spring.

Daniel Kornrumpf Introduction 2011 - Center for Emerging Visual Artists New Development Fellows @ Moore College of Art & Design Widener Memorial Foundation Gallery

Daniel Kornrumpf

Mami Kato Introduction 2011 - Center for Emerging Visual Artists New Development Fellows @ Moore College of Art & Design Widener Memorial Foundation Gallery

Mami Kato created these futuristic sculptures by unraveling rope she imports from her home, Akita Japan,creating domes of fiber reminiscent of the rice fields at home after harvest and clumps of stems line the horizon.  Kato surprised her audience by picking up the light weight, yet densely compact, domes, revealing the Trompe-l’œil. 

On the left is Alison Stigora, represented in this show with a magnificent drawing of a giant cosmic crystalline flower in mixed media including drawing, prints, chalk and wax but is also in an awesome show at LGTripp Gallery in Old City through February 26th. Next to her is Maggie Mills, behind Mami is a collage of digital prints by Jennifer Williams that is a totally steal-able idea – who knew, collage could be so cool.

lewis Colburn Introduction 2011 - Center for Emerging Visual Artists New Development Fellows @ Moore College of Art & Design Widener Memorial Foundation Gallery

Lewis Colburn, The Pursuits of a Gentleman, mixed media installation with ten photographs and steamer trunk.  This assemblage was a fave of Spike Howard, Philly’s finest wind farm engineer, for it’s sense of time travel, irony and elegance.  DoN loves how CFEVA treats photographers as true artists who belong at the table with painters and sculptors.

Arden Bendler Browning Introduction 2011 - Center for Emerging Visual Artists New Development Fellows @ Moore College of Art & Design Widener Memorial Foundation Gallery

Arden Bendler Browning @ Introduction 11

A Fishtown native who’s studio is in the Crane Arts Center, Browning obviously takes full advantage of the large work space to create massive paintings, this color field of speeding urban images, like you see out of the corner of your eye as you zoom down the Expressway, is abstract expressionist yet a kind of contemporary cubism with obtuse angles and cracked spacial warps.  DoN easily sees Arden Bendler Browning taking the opportunity of the fellowship that CFEVA offers and running with it, her work is complex yet accessible, perfect for contemporary collectors.

DoN inquired of new fellow Don Edler as to how he came to win the CFEVA fellowship and he generously explained how he meticulously researches grants and awards, looks at winners of previous competitions, discovers which other awards or grants they’ve received and applies for them, too. By making applying for grants part of his business plan, Edler makes it almost sound easy and is proof that persistence, patience, targeted yet broad research into funding, exhibition and publicity works like a charm.

Congratulations to the new fellows!

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DoN Brewer

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