DoNArTNeWs

light being (Diana), DoN Brewer, digital photograph.

light being (Carl Sagan), DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography @ The Radisson Warwick Hotel, The Coffee Bar.

light beings (May & Andy), DoN Brewer, digital photograph.

The Coffee Bar at The Radisson Warwick Hotel @ 17th & Locust Streets in Philly is spotlighting fourteen photographs from DoN’s series titled “light beings“, February 26th through July 30th, 2010.  Strictly landscape, the images of reflections on urban surfaces seem mysterious or manipulated, the photographs evoke thoughts of what we may become - beings of light traveling at unimaginable speeds in all directions of the universe at once.

DoN was contacted by Amy Potsic of the Center for Emerging Visual Artists inquiring if he could mount a one person show with only two weeks notice?  Duh?  Amy and Ann Koivunen selected 14 images out of twenty-two, Rob Stauffer helped DoN with framing, custom mats & non-glare glass, Shoshka, Aldy & Les helped install the show - art is hard work, man!  You have to know math!?!  The Coffee Bar space is fabu, good light, great Einstein coffee, yummy food and it’s a bar at night!  How cool is that?

Artist Reception: April 7, 2010, 5-7PM.

Photos by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.

Alice Meyer Wallace in the Down Stairs Members Gallery @ The Plastic Club.

Alice Meyer Wallace, Mina Smith-Segal, the photo is Bonnie Schorske’s are featured artists in the Members Gallery; the next five member artists to show in the delightful space were drawn from a hat by a small boy with an unusually large head during the awards ceremony for the current Small Worlds exhibition.

Bonnie Schorske, photographs in the Down Stairs Members Gallery @ The Plastic Club on the Avenue of the Artists.

The Plastic Club hosts the monthly Photographic Society of Philadelphia meetings, art-aholic Salons hosted by the inimitable Anders Hanson (Jody Sweitzer announced a joint Plastic Club/Sketch Club/Avenue of the Artists show @ Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Frank’s Bar), daily workshops and Bob Jackson makes dinner the last Friday of the month for the starving artists who gather at the club to draw and paint.  The next show is a black and white theme - interesting.

Sibylie Pfaffenbichler, Sailor on Leave, oil.  The artist explained to DoN her inspiration came from the forties and the famous images of sailors returning home.  The painting is so exuberant, vibrant and distinctive it really makes you wonder why we don’t dance in the street when our soldiers make it home.  Pfaffenbichler is chair of The Philadelphia Sketch Club’s Annual Flower Show.

Paul Davis Jones, Enigma, acrylic.

Gail Morison-Hall, The Burning Bush, mixed media & Elise Arnold, Untitled One, acrylic.  With 199 works of art, Small World @ The Plastic Club would have been even bigger if more artists understood that presentation is half the battle, the exhibitions committee refused several pieces (DoN spotted a few suspect entries who passed muster).

Nick Brown, Orange Juice Cup & Mug, stone ware.  Brown brings unfired pottery to life study workshops at The Plastic Club and sketches directly onto the clay, often you can hear him scratching grooves into the design to prevent the glaze from spreading when applied.  The resultant objects are like ancient vessels found at an acheological dig - future meets ancient.

Lee Mamaluy, Popping Blooms, oil, Kathryn Russo, At Ease, mixed media and Jeanne Chesterton, Dots, oil.

Robert Stauffer’s photograph, Thorazine Can Kill The Human Spirit, with broken glass in a mirror lined shadow-box frame is like a history of modern art all mushed up like DuChamp meets Warhol meets Ansel Adams.  The broken glass reads like disaster, the desert scene feels like being stranded and the infinite reflections on all sides have secret hidden images to uncover.

 Alden Cole, Now n Then #3, Mother & Child, wax/clay, 2010 & 1964.

Bob Makoid, Avian Capers,markers.  Makoid told DoN this drawing is extra special to him because his kids surprised him by having the design made into a stained glass window.

Michele Jenkins, New Glasses, oil.  DoN LoVeS this painting!  Timeless, super-fun, nostalgic, funny, happy and executed with aplomb.

Anders Hansen, Earth Goddess, ink/watercolor, Lois Schlachter, Queen of the Night, acrylic and Joseph De Fay, The Cafe’, ink-jet print.

Lois Schlachter, Balloon Release, acrylic.  DoN appreciates Lois’ combination of real & unreal, abstract & illustrative, signs & significations - cool.

Alan Clawans, Small Shed, photograph, DoN Brewer, light being (Farrah Fawcett), photograph (it’s not DoNArTNeWs without some DoN news), Sylvia Schreiber, White Flower, acrylic, Susan Wierzbicki, Saim, acrylic and Elise Arnold, Cats, acrylic.  DoN is so pleased to have his entries placed so strategically in the beginning, #3, and the end, #196 - the magic of 3.

Photos by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.

Lilliana Didovic LoVeS Philly!  DoN inquired what the Best of 5 means?  The artist explained the hidden, deeper enigma of the number 5 - 16 years ago when her son Gordon was only 5 he had a liver transplant, on the same date 5 years ago (both happened on her birthday, February 23), he had an emergency surgery-open trache in order to be on ventilator and doctors put him in induced coma. Iimagine you must trust the expertise of others to heal the one you love.  Five years ago just that happened to Lilliana, the doctors and hospitals in Philly came through for her family with futuristic expertise, Gordon is in his early twenties now.  A miracle.  While she handed the life of her son over to the doctors, Lilliana returned to painting, a skill she practiced in her former home in Sarajevo-Bosnia.  She and her husband escaped from the war there in the 90s and emigrated to the US with their young son, painting was not a priority but suddenly art returned to her world and helped heal her during the unimaginably stressful process which began five years ago.

Now she paints because she loves it, producing exuberant modernist paintings in a style which is recognizably Lilliana, DoN knows people who collect Didovic’s art cards, frame them and give as gifts - DoN LoVeS steal-able art ideas.

Lilliana Didovic @ Smile Gallery on 22nd Street.

Red Untitled II, acrylic on canvas, Lilliana Didovic.

5 is fabulous!  Bold color, iconic imagery, glittering sparkles and energetic compositions represent love, hope and power, Lilliana’s art transmits happy peacefulness with a touch of rock n’ roll wildness not moribund hopelessness.  Didovic lives in the moment, her 2010 paintings are heroic in scale, molten color fields in cool blues and hot reds hung in pairs, one wall is covered with a zillion miniature city-scapes with glimmering crystals representing the lights of our great city.  The gallery @ Smile on 22nd St. is a great showcase for Didovic’s five year time trip though love, life and the pursuit of happiness.  Lilliana LoVeS Philly - Back at ya, Girl!

Lilliana Didovic @ Smile Gallery.

Photography by DoNBrewerMultimedia.

P. J. Smalley, Girl on Toilet, oil/digital print @ The Plastic Club.

Donna P. Collins, Our Love Dissolved, photograph.

Donna P. Collins, One Way Out, photograph.

Julianna Struck, Untitled, oil @ The Plastic Club New Members Exhibition 2010.

Karen Frank, Effervesence, acrylic.

New Member Exhibition 2010 @ The Plastic Club.  Corel Topel, Baby #1, pen & ink, Armand Scavo, 101 Walnut Street #1, photograph and Karen Freeman, Modiglianni Girl, ink.

Serena Perrone, Dreaming of Flying Fish, oil/charcoal/graphite.

Welcome to the 24 new members of the Plastic Club; the current show is super-strong with technical virtuosity, broad variety of styles, big personalities and aspirational contemporary ideas from established and new members of the Philly Art Community.

Bruce Gast @ The Dumpster Divers Gallery on South Street.

Like some alien tribal mask collection, Bruce Gast’s found object constructions tell the story of an art collector from a galaxy far, far away who loves to capture and mount the heads of his trophies from space safaris.  Each piece has a personality from another dimension, tapping into race memory and cell consciousness like some wacko Venus of Willendorf on a moon of Jupiter.

Bruce Gast @ The Dumpster Divers on South Street.

Eileen Eckstein, Balloons, photograph, DoN Brewer, light being (Mama Cass), photograph, Laura Pritchard, Portrait, mixed media, Dorothy Roschen, Red, White and Green, relief tiles and Alan Klawans, Milan, archival pigment print @ The Plastic Club’s Red, White and Green exhibit.

DoN Brewer Photography

light being (Mama Cass) $150.00 light being (Kurt Cobain) $150.00

Michael Guinn, 12th Street Still Life, oil.

3rd Honorable Mention Lois Schlachter, My Brother’s Keeper, acrylic, Alden Cole, Good Vibrations, mixed media and Honorable Mention Morris Klein, Love Park, photograph.  Juror Rich Harrington has a great eye and excellent taste considering that the theme was ambiguous in that the three title colors had to be used but not exclusively; Harrington chose works who fully met the criteria such as Dorothy Roschen’s wall sculpture in blatant red, white and green squares for 2nd prize and Peter Petraglia’s trippy undersea fantasy in a subtle palette for First Prize to Lois Schlachter’s wildly imaginative abstraction with what seems like millions of colors.

Tracy Landman, Reflections on Stewart, oil, Patricia Wilson-Schmid, Catching the Light, and Lucy Roehm, Radish Trio, color pencil @ The Plastic Club’s Red White & Green exhibit.

The theme is Red, White & Green which one would think should conjure Holiday Cheer but @ The Plastic Club the art is edgy, sarcastic, goth, even scary like Hunter Thompson meets Charles Addams meets Salvador Dali.  Some of the work is literal and literate like Roehm’s Radish Trio and some is out and out transcendental like Jake Smith’s Merry Fish Mess.  Above: Anders Hansen, Shiva, ink, graphite & charcoal, First Prize Peter Petraglia, Tubulars, pen & ink, Marie Davis Samohod, Funerary Portrait, mixed media and Karen Frank, Totem and Taboo, Acrylic.

DoN is honored to be exhibited along with such wonderful artists as those in the Plastic Club, their shows are always challenging, pushing the envelop, breaking rules yet there’s no stress, the only expectation is making art.  And when the art is all hanging together it feels really good to be an artist rubbing shoulders with some of the best in town.  A cool thing about writing this blog is that when DoN took the photos he didn’t know that he was shooting the work of some of his best friends, the Plastic Club uses a number system for labeling, it’s kind of like doing your own blind jury-ing and then finding out you picked only your friends such as Lois, Pat, Mike, Alan, Alden, Eileen, Dorothy, Morris, Anders…

Jake Smith, Merry Fish Mess, acrylic and Theodore J. Amick, Untitled, oil.

Merry Fish Mess, everybody!

Judy Engle @ Da Vinci Art Alliance.  If Eileen Tognini says packing tape art is in - then DoN says listen to her!  If you can’t afford a Mark Khaisman before his packing tape drawings increase in value, then buy Engles layered clear tape collage @ Da Vinci Art Alliance for under $200.00 - in real life this small piece is 3D and deep, with layers and layers of tiny bits of color.  Another great steal-able idea.

Judy Engles, photograph.

DoN LoVeS how DVAA displays art - Judy Engle’s photo paired with DoN’s digital print is so elegant and thoughtful, the pieces really work together.  DoN was inspired to print “Autum Oak“, a digital photograph from a few years ago after seeing Amie Potsic’s tree photos @ Area 919 - the most expensive of DoN’s Under $200.00 entries is $129.00.

Lilliana Didovic, Alden Cole & Karl Johnson @ Da Vinci Art Alliance’s Under $200 show.  The DVAA always has such terrific, fun events, even though it was a snowy night, plenty of artists showed up to party - the board is to be commended on their careful attention to detail and making everyone comfortable and welcome.

Francine Strauss @ Da Vinci Art Alliance’s Under $200.00

Gerard Di Falco, etching @ Da Vinci Art Alliance.

Leon Rainbow @ DVAA - he not only produces these funky paintings, Rainbow provides web design services to the esteemed organization.  DoN is grateful for the publicity the links provide, the slide-show of member’s art on the website is cool.

Karen McDonnell & Tony Cortosi collaborate on these stencil & spray-paint images replete with peeling paint, drippy spray, coarse edges and mashed up cultural icons - the Carmen has such a skate punk sneer mixed with Hollywood glamor - Grrrl!.

 Karen McDonnell, Tony Cortosi & Ray Costello @ Da Vinci Art Alliance’s Under $200.00 opening party.

Photographer, Bill Myers @ Da Vinci Art Alliance.  Bill is also an active member of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia; Myers creates photo montage with clashing images mushed into contextual morphs - incredible.There are some really great art bargains for sale at the Da Vinci Art Alliance’s Under $200.00 show.  You can own a David Foss for $100, an Art Ostroff for a Benjamin or so…the Lee Muslin prints are gorgeous, an incredible Dexiang Qian for exactly $200.00!?!  The art show itself is amazing - all the participating members really put in memorable, desirable pieces and James Warhola signed his book Uncle Andy’s Cats;  he took a moment with each autograph to draw a kitty in the front pages and engaged everyone in a personal way - Warhola signed books for 3 hours!  He was still signing books when DoN left.

The Mysterious Distance Between Men of Means, Jed Mauger Williams @ 2424 York Street.

Jed Mauger Williams paintings are in the antechamber of 2424 York Street, the location of the immense Skybox Gallery.  Williams is showing ten works based on themes of his quest for the human figure, pop & mythological and different forms of spirituality.  Manipulating symbols, assigning them spectacular color, signifying icons with saturated layers of various media in tumultuous abandon, Jed makes extraordinary images that are extravagantly engaging.  Even his presentation was deliberately skewed, absurd and charged with a weird cultural angst like some retrofitted beat/pop/rap artist from the past, maybe Paris or Philly, quirky yet hip, kind of ugly beautiful and strange.

Jed M. Williams - semi-abstract pop images seethe with multiple personalities, modern memes & contemporary style.  Williams’ gallery & studio is @ 6th & Bainbridge but DoN loves how ballsy Jed was in working his way into the hot new art center in Fishtown.

Greeting From My Home Planet, Jed Williams.

Pop references and graffiti vibes permeate Williams’ paintings yet a darker narrative creates disturbance and tension.  One day DoN picked Jed up @ The PMA, he had a friend deliver returned art work to the gift shop for him to pick up, this way his work was inside the museum like Ray Johnson mailing art to MOMA because he knew they cataloged everything.

David Guinn & Jim Hinz, Hairy Chinese Landscape @ University City Arts League Gallery.

David Guinn & Jim Hinz both painted on the huge paper scroll simultaneously; according to Guinn the idea was to make a mess, not worry, not think about it or make it look good.  Working with big brushes they flowed with their stream of consciousness and let each other paint through and over each others contribution, fearlessly resulting in an abstract expressionist pan-cultural tour de force spanning an entire wall of the gallery.  Jim Hinz told DoN it’s rewarding to work with David Guinn because he’s so easy, willing to mix aesthetics, brings lots of collaborative enthusiasm and let him, “do whatever I wanted to do.”

Recovery, Psychedelic Birthday @ Facing the Void, works on paper @ University City Arts League Gallery, Jim Hinz & David Guinn.

Purple Sandpiper, David Guinn.  David is famous for his bird paintings whether you know it or not; as one of the most popular muralist in Philly he almost always includes birds in his wall paintings such as the Four Seasons series, the Morris Animal Refuge Mural and the dual mural @ 34th & Baltimore Streets.

Jim Hinz, Because You Have To Say It, digital print.

Jim Hinz, The Big Man, digital print from brush & ink on paper.

Mythical Mountain Fountain by David Guinn & Jim Hinz echoes the collaborative paintings the duo created including architectural elements, blobby swirls and real liquid dribbling wetly over the ceramic bowl as if one of their paintings materialized fully formed out of their imaginations.

Jim Hinz & David Guinn @ the opening of their collaborative exhibit, Meadowlark, @ University City Arts League.  The team worked well together because they made no mistakes, felt free to experiment and fail - a lesson we can all learn from.