Monthly Archives: October 2015

#PIFA2016

KIMMEL CENTER ANNOUNCES DETAILS OF

PHILADELPHIA INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS

APRIL 8 – 23, 2016

World-Class Festival Showcases Groundbreaking Work from

 International Artists and Local Partners for a Curated Exploration of the

Performing and Visual Arts

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts announces the return of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA), taking place across the venues of the Kimmel Center’s campus, as well as select locations throughout the city, from April 8 through April 23, 2016. A 15-day celebration of art and community, PIFA showcases innovation and a breadth of local and international performances and installations, all curated by The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. With more than 60 events across genres and art forms, PIFA is bookended by the Article 13 – a grand-scale fire and sand installation that tells the story of immigrants around the world – which serves as the grand opening of the Festival and culminates with the celebrated PIFA Street Fair.

 In this third installment of PIFA, the curatorial vision illustrates the concept “We Are What We Make.” The Festival will explore how our humanity is shaped, changed, inspired, and challenged by the world we create, all displayed through a variety of performing and visual arts. A massive installation by Mimi Lien – recipient of a 2015 MacArthur Genius Award – will consume the lobby of The Kimmel Center, bringing this vision to life and will be on display throughout the Festival.

 “We are thrilled to once again produce PIFA, the perfect manifestation of The Kimmel Center’s mission to introduce broad and diverse audiences to world-class, ground-breaking programming,” said Kimmel Center President and CEO, Anne Ewers. “To see our local arts organizations coming together in collaboration with one another, as well as with the renowned international artists joining us from around the world, is sure to be an extraordinary experience for the hundreds of thousands touched by PIFA.”

In addition to the featured international artists, local partners have joined forces with The Kimmel Center to present new works during this year’s Festival, further solidifying Philadelphia’s position as a pioneering force in the performing arts landscape. Local partners include The Barnes Foundation, The Clay Studio, The Center for Art in Wood, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Curtis Institute of Music, Jazz Bridge, Mural Arts Program, and PHILADANCO (The Philadelphia Dance Company). More local partners will be announced at a later date.

“‘We Are What We Make’ is the unifying thread and audiences will see it represented in countless ways through the art they’ll experience this year,” said Kimmel Center Artistic Director Jay Wahl. “The works were meant to challenge not only the artists but those who appreciate art to look deeper and get something unique from this experience, which will last long after the Festival is over.”

Tickets

Multi-event ticket packages are available now and include the PIFA Sampler Pass (three shows), PIFA Immersion Pass (five shows), or the PIFA All-Access Pass; all come with a wide range of added benefits including access to exclusive events. Single tickets for PIFA events will go on sale to the public beginning December 7, 2015. Tickets can be purchased by visiting kimmelcenter.org or calling 215-893-1999.

Full event details can be found below and a calendar of events is available at www.kimmelcenter.org/PIFA.

Thank you to Laura Krebs Miller for the content of this post.

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Duet

Counterpoint: A Visual Duet, Susan Richards and Melvin ChappellCounterpoint: A Visual Duet, Susan Richards and Melvin Chappell, Center on the Hill, The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill

Melvin A. Chappell, Photographer and Susan Richards, Mixed Media at Center on the Hill, The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19118 215-843-5018 or 215-247-885

November 6th through November 29th. Artist Reception: Friday, November 6th, 5:00 – 7:00pm

Photographer, Melvin A. Chappell has had a long-time passion for photographing the Wissahickon Valley in its natural beauty throughout the seasons. The reception will include a booking signing of his newly released book on the Valley.

Susan Richards, a mixed-media artist, will be exhibiting a new body of work that incorporates collage, monoprints, found objects, and water color in unexpected juxtapositions. Richards is a member of the Philadelphia Dumper Divers.

Both are members of Da Vinci Art Alliance.

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Deirdre Murphy

Deirdre Murphy, Gross McCleaf GalleryDeirdre MurphyWinds of Change, 36″ x 48”, oil on canvas, 2015

Deirdre Murphy

Dual Solo Shows in November in Philadelphia

Winds of Change

November 4 – 28th, 2015

Opening Reception: Friday, November 6, 5-7pm.Gross McCleaf Gallery, 127 South 16th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102

Migratory Paths

November 3 – December 5, 2015, URBN Gallery 534 @ the Naval Yard

Gross McCleaf Gallery is pleased to present Winds of Change, an exhibition of new work by Deirdre Murphy. This is Murphy’s first solo show with Gross McCleaf. Concurrently, Migratory Paths is on view at URBN Gallery 534 with works on paper that span from 2010-2015 that detail the research and growth of her pursuit in the intersection of art and science. Murphy brings the concept of nature paintings into the 21st century transforming ostensibly traditional subject matter into an exploration of time and space. In the exhibition catalog, Margaret Winslow, Associate Curator for Contemporary Art, Delaware Art Museum shares her thoughts on Murphy’s recent paintings:

Deirdre Murphy is a keen observer of the relationships between the micro and the macro, those points in space that align travel routes to constellations and flight trajectories to wind currents. She approaches this interest with the attentiveness of a scientist, observing, researching, and tracking changes. The shifts that occur—the effects of global warming on raptor migration—are noted but not critiqued, and similarly the industrial patterning created across a morning sky is handled with care and precision devoid of appraisal. Murphy’s paintings link nature’s aesthetics in a manner similar to how a social graph makes users aware of their interconnectedness; the formal similarities are emphasized for the viewer’s contemplation.

The artist informs and relocates our appreciation of natural phenomenon through geometric interventions and creates structure from the seeming randomness of nature. Lifelike renderings of birds contrast starkly with the synthetic palette Murphy uses for the ground and the abstract lines and forms that radiate throughout the compositions. She implores the viewer to stop and pay close attention to “a moment between action and stasis….that tenuous point where journeys past shift to trajectories forward.” – Margaret Winslow

Deirdre Murphy, URBN Gallery 534Deirdre MurphySpring Jewel, 48″ x 36”, oil on canvas, 2015

Deirdre Murphy has received numerous awards and grants, most notably the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowship and a Leeway Foundation Award. She was recently an artist-in-residence at the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary (Kempton, PA), Vermont Studio Center (Jackson, VT), and Pouch Cove Artist Residency (St. Johns, Newfoundland). The artist earned her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2000 where she is currently on faculty, and her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute (1991). Murphy has shown internationally in South Korea and Italy; has had six solo exhibitions in Philadelphia; and participated in numerous group exhibitions in New York, Delaware, Minnesota and Oregon. Her work has been exhibited at institutions including the Philadelphia International Airport, the Palm Springs Museum of Art, the Biggs Museum in Delaware, the New Bedford Museum in MA, and the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington. She currently has a long-term installation at the Philadelphia International Airport, titled Sky Paintings, which is on view through 2016 in the hallway that connects terminal C & D.

For more information and images on Murphy’s work go to: www.deirdremurphyart.com.

For further information, please contact Sharon Ewing or Evan Fugazzi at Gross McCleaf Gallery. 127 South 16th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102, 215-665-8138

email.grossmccleaf@gmail.com

For further information on URBN contact: Lauren Addis or Maddie Flanigan at URBN Gallery 534, 5000 Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19112 LAddis@urbn.com MFlanigan@urbn.com

Thank you to Deirdre Murphy for the content of this post.

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Spinning

Spinning Yarns, Photographic Storytellers, Laura StorckSpinning Yarns: Photographic Storytellers featuring Carol Golemboski (left) and Blue Mitchell (right)

Spinning Yarns : Photographic Storytellers

Written and photographed by Laura Storck

To spin a yarn: (idiomatic) To tell or create a story, especially one which is lengthy or far-fetched (Source: wikitionary.org). The twenty-three photographers featured in this show reach outside of the scope of this simple definition. They are masters of their craft as portrayed through the feelings provoked by the stunning narratives that each artist individually conveys to the viewer.

Spinning Yarns, Photographic Storytellers, Laura StorckRachel Girard Reisert, Still series, archival inkjet prints

Spinning Yarns was curated by Anne Leighton Massoni, UArts Photography Program Director, and Libby Rowe, a professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. After nearly five years as a traveling exhibition, this show is wrapping up and the photographs will be auctioned off to support student scholarships for the UArts Photography program. Eighty-one framed images are available for purchase.

Spinning Yarns, Photographic Storytellers, Laura StorckRachel Girard Reisert, Bee (from Still series), 2007, archival ink jet print

Several of the artists’ stories are personally moving, such as Joy Christiansen Erb’s series Portrait of a Mother, which explores motherhood, family, and illness. Rachel Girard Reisert’s Still series shines a light on a smaller universe that routinely takes shape in the backyard. Anne Massoni’s project, Holding Leighton, explores concepts of memory and evidence of experience and existence. And each amusing image that Andy Bloxham’s Beta series provides a limited glimpse into a larger anecdotal account.

Spinning Yarns, Photographic Storytellers, Laura StorckMorgan KonnRebecca, Undergraduate Student, Art (from Her House, Her Clothes series), 2006, Lightjet Print

Using photography as their chosen art form, each artist’s narrative simply pulls the spectator in…further…beyond the image, and subsequently plugs both into an engaging dialogue. A new awareness can emerge, as well as a distinctive ending, all depending on the unique experiences and mindset of the viewer — thus the yarn has spun.

Spinning Yarns, Photographic Storytellers, Laura StorckMorgan Konn_First Year Law Student (from Her House, Her Clothes series), 2006, Lightjet Print

All images can be seen and starting bids made here: www.paddle8.com/auction/uarts. However, I encourage everyone to see these photographs in person, if possible, on display at UArts’ Hamilton Hall. For me, the experience of tangibly engaging with each of these images in person is ethereal, intense, and penetrating.

Spinning Yarns, Photographic Storytellers, Laura StorckJoy Christiansen ErbPortrait of a Mother Series, 2010, archival pigment prints

The online auction is already taking place through noon on Friday, October 9th, with a live auction and closing reception from 6-8 pm. Auction catalogs can be purchased from Anne Massoni at amassoni@uarts.edu for $15. For more information, please visit: http://www.uarts.edu/spinningyarns.

Spinning Yarns, Photographic Storytellers, Laura StorckGrace WestonFuji Crystal,  Archive C-prints

Participating Artists:

Spinning Yarns, Photographic Storytellers, Laura StorckAnne Leighton MassoniHolding Leighton series, archival pigment prints

The University of the Arts, Hamilton & Arronson Galleries, 320 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19102, (215) 717-6300

Written and photographed by Laura Storck

Laura Storck Photography ARTIST. SCIENTIST. PHOTOGRAPHER. ROCK STAR.: https://laurastorck.wordpress.com/

Instagramhttp://instagram.com/laurastorck/

Facebook:  https://facebook.com/laura.h.storck

Twitter: @Laura_Storck

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Mimi

Mimi Lien, 2015 MacArthur Genius Grant,

Philadelphia Festival of the Arts 2016

Congratulations! Exciting news about the Philadelphia Festival of the Arts (PIFA 2016) newly announced set designer Mimi Lien. September 2015 she was awarded a 2015 MacArthur Genius Grant alongside performing arts titans such as Lin Manuel Mirand. You may recall, Ms. Lien designed the 81-ft. tall replica of the Eiffel Tower that was in the Kimmel Center’s Commonwealth Plaza for PIFA 2013. She has also made contributions to the Philadelphia arts scene designing sets for the Pennsylvania Ballet, The Wilma Theater, and Pig Iron Theater Company.

Now Mimi Lien has been selected by The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts as the designer for the massive lobby exhibit that will serve as the centerpiece for PIFA 2016 (Philadelphia Festival of the Arts). The PIFA 2016 design will be a large-scale, interactive art installation that will be on display throughout the Festival. More details about PIFA will be announced in October and details about Lien’s design will be unveiled later this fall.

The Wall Street Journal on Mimi Lien:

“Mimi Lien, 39, is a set designer for theater, opera and dance in New York who draws on architectural training to create large immersive sets that wash over the audience as well as traditional scenes bounded by the proscenium. From pictures of decadence to those of stark simplicity, Ms. Lien’s sets amplify the work of those on her stages. For more information about Lien visit her website www.mimilien.com

According to the MacArthur Foundation:

“The grant is a “no strings attached” award of $625,000 (paid in installments over five years) that is given directly to individuals rather than to support specific projects or institutions. In other words, recipients are not expected to produce specific work and are not evaluated by the foundation during the grant period. Instead, the award is “an investment in a person’s originality, insight and potential,” the foundation writes on its website. “The purpose of the MacArthur Fellows Program is to enable recipients to exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society.”

PIFA 2016

April 8 – April 23, 2016

“A city-wide, 15-day celebration of art and community, PIFA 2016 showcases innovation and a breadth of local and international performances and installations. With events ranging from a living, participatory paper jungle to a jaw-dropping fire installation and everything in between, the festival will kick off with over 50 events across genres and will conclude with the celebrated PIFA Street Fair, providing an incredible day of fun and festivities for the entire family.  From the expected, PIFA creates the unexpected. And from our own city, it takes us someplace wholly new.  Visit kimmelcenter.org for more information.”

Thank you to Laura Krebs Miller, Vice President, Cashman & Associates for the content of this post.

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