DoNArTNeWs

DoN is extremely grateful and humbled by the wonderful turn out of old and new friends, fellow artists and enthusiasts who came out last Tuesday to hear him speak about his collection of photographs called “light beings”.   Thank you so much to the hard work of Amie Potsic of The Center for Emerging Visual Artists for arranging the event which drew about 70 people to hear DoN talk about the origin of the concept, how the photography and presentation is realized, which cameras DoN prefers and stories about the people in the titles.

To say that DoN’s mouth went dry when he saw the sea of faces is an understatement, at one point his upper lip curled up onto his dry teeth so much he had to reach up and un-stick it.  Everyone said they didn’t notice but DoN thinks they’re just happy it wasn’t them dealing with a bit of stage fright.  Luckily, DoN’s speech went well, even if the people in the back of the room stoically stood their ground while they mouthed, “I can’t hear you.”  People, if you can’t hear, sit in the front row - duh!?!  And the art raffle was a success, too - DoN offered art cards as raffle tickets and sold enough to raffle off an art work.  Ironically the winner of the drawing is one of DoN’s collectors who had already purchased one of the works from the exhibit.  Since the raffle was so successful, DoN is extending the offer because CFEVA has arranged for the show to hang three extra weeks!  If you have already purchased a raffle card you are still eligible to win, contact DoN to purchase your cards for a chance to own one of DoN’s photographs.  If you haven’t seen the show, please go, the space is beautiful, the staff is cute and the coffee will keep you awake all night.

Kathleen Rockwell, DoN, Lori Hess and Carly Valentine @ The Radisson Warwick Hotel’s, The Coffee Bar.

Back in the late 80’s, early 90’s, DoN was a member of The Regional Art Association, a grass roots arts club who met in the dilapidated Clementon Court House.  Kathleen, Lori & Carly’s grandmother, Jean Walsh, kept the group going for almost a decade, when DoN lost his job with a major communications company and returned to art school full time, these fine folks supported and encouraged him to push ahead and realize a dream.

Thank you to Shoshanna Aron, Alden Cole and Les Howard for helping to install the show and their continuing love and support.  Thanks to Ona Kalstein and Ted Warchal of Da Vinci Art Alliance Board of Directors for their confidence and encouragement.  Thanks to Danny Reilly of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia for taking pictures and just being there, Danny is a great photographer, it’s an honor to have him document the event.  Thanks to Lisa, Regina, Faith, Fran, Jean-Paul, Karen & Don, Sheila, Deb, Helen and all of the friends and family who came out to Center City on a hot Summer night to hear DoN.  Without the interest and recognition of art enthusiasts, making art can be a lonely pursuit, but, when you feel the love, it’s totally addictive.

LoVe

DoN 

light being (Anne D’Harnoncourt), DoN Brewer, art card @ The Coffee Bar, 17th & Locust Streets - A Center for Emerging Visual Artists Event.  This image did not make the show because of soot damage to the original photo - a tip:  frame your photos under glass, glare-free if possible.  DoN’s art cards are printed locally by Media Copy in Center City - thanks to Debbie and the crew for their great work.

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 @ 5:30 PM, CFEVA will host a closing party and artist talk for DoN Brewer at The Radisson Warwick Plaza Hotel, The Coffee Bar, 17th & Locust Sts.  DoN is raffling off one of the photographs by selling limited edition greeting cards, signed and numbered, $5. each or 3 for $10.00 - 25% of sales is dedicated to a well deserved commission for CFEVA.  If all 200 cards sell, two pieces will be raffled off.  The exhibit is on display through the end of July.

Thanks so much to The Center for Emerging Visual Artists for their love and support.

Danielle Bursk, Kiss, casein & acrylic on paper.  Danielle’s ginormous drawings seethe with energy and motion yet there is a zen like calm in the action drawings.  The compositions of flowing plumes of marks are like phosphenes flashing and blinking, like after-images inside your eyelids after staring too long, the dramatic drawings look deep inside the mind.

Cecelia Rembert, Eulogy, oil on canvas.  Now based in NYC, Rembert is a CFEVA alum currently working on a series of paintings about storytelling the human experience.  Cecelia’s paintings in the show mostly feature a bird or two reminding DoN of Steven King’s psycho-pomps - the idea that birds are messengers from another realm.  The bird images soar and connect with an internal yearning to be able to fly.

Gregory Brellochs, Gamete, graphite on paper.

Gregory Brellochs, XYZ, graphite on paper @ Dalet Art Gallery.

DoN did not meet Mr. Bullochs at the opening but the masterful drawings speak for themselves, the liquidy graphite forms cloud shapes, horizons and dream scapes then turns to large scale scientific illustration of imaginary microscopic life forms, the overall effect is introspective and alluring like the shapes that float into your mind as you drift off to sleep.

Ana B. Hernandez @ Material Motion.  Ana’s swirling scarlet fabric sculptures exemplify the tone of Material Motion, @ Dalet Art Gallery on 2nd Street, the fluid shapes float above the crowd, melding into the mood of the room.  The deep red speaks to the large graphite drawings in a secret language of color and shapes.  Material Motions is curated and organized by the fabulous team at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists; Amie Potsic has such a dream job of pairing artists with venues and Ann Koivunen works tirelessly to promote the arts in Philly, even though the work is demanding, the level of professionalism and care for the artists is gratifying and inspiring.  Works by fabulous Philly photographer James B. Abbott and Christine Elfman’s ethereal paintings complete the coherent theme the enormous space that is the Dalet Art Gallery allows, each corner is activated  and inviting.  Later this summer the gallery will be hosting the Princeton Photography Society.

Apologies to Danielle for posting photos sideways - oops!

Photos by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.

While you’re visiting Center City this weekend to celebrate Memorial Day consider dropping in the Coffee Bar @ 17th & Locust to see DoN’s show of photographs titled “light beings” presented by The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - their gallery @ 15th & Locust is uber-cool.  And Bonte’s Waffle Cafe’ @ 17th & Sansom is hosting Photographic Society of Philadelphia’s solo artist show of Alan Richter photos.  The Photo Society & CFEVA both tirelessly promote photography as an art form and Philly photographers as artists with on-going shows and promotion; without organizations like these the Philly art scene is a much tougher field to navigate.  And somehow photography and coffee just go great together.

light being (JRR Tolkien), digital photograph by DoN Brewer @ The Coffee Bar, 17th & Locust in The Radisson Warwick Hotel through the end of July 2010.

Brenna K. Murphy @ Wind Challenge Exhibitions #3, Fleisher Art Memorial.

Brenna’s installation @ The Fleisher Art Memorial is part drawing, part conceptual art, part performance art, part photography & part crafting like a recipe for 21st Century modern art.  Murphy uses human hair to draw on the walls, sews hair into her photographs and over time will wash the hairs off the wall to put in the bowls on the floor, an idea she came up with when she was de-installing her last show.

Brenna K. Murphy draws onto the photograph by sewing hair into the paper, creating an illusion of a documentary photo, DoN thought she had installed huge drawings of furniture like the ones in the gallery.

Detail of hair drawing on the wall @ Fleisher Art Memorial by Brenna K. Murphy - DoN had to do some Photoshop magic to get the delicate lines to appear for the web, in real life the stray strands are poetic and serene.

Human hair wall drawing of a dresser with a small bowl on the floor, each Wednesday Brenna plans to wash off some of the hair and put it in the bowls.  Brenna Murphy’s drawings are loaded like meme bombs filled with memory, loss, dreams, beauty, ritual, divinity all playing out on long stands on hair.  Filaments of the imagination.

Jacob Koestler ,Window, Rochester, NY, photograph, 2010.

Jacob Koestler lives in Johnstown, PA. near Pittsburgh where he is a member of a shared art space called 709 Railroad Street, his photographs are included in a group show at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, his second time showing in Philly.  Three years ago Koestler’s work was included in the first collabo with Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in the space on Rittenhouse Square.  In Selection From Cluster, the photographer was invited by Amie Potsic to include the group of photos based on a revenge dream narrative where a rich boy who wants to be a rock star inherits the perfect secluded mansion in Rochester, NY, equipped with all required to live the life of the privileged, surrounded by collaborators, a dream home for him in contrast to the suburban dream home his own father is building for himself.  The series is like a metaphor for art killing the father, each generation must claim their own turf.

Michael Sherwin, True North, pigment prints mounted to steel.  The series of prints explore fuzzy animism & techno-geek virtuosity - mounting the prints on steel is very cool, calculated & hard yet amorphous and squirmy like finding ancient artifacts from Mars.

“This exhibition exchange is part of an ongoing collaboration by CFEVA and PF/PCA Created in order to strengthen the artistic dialogue between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Cluster was originally presented at The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and curated by Adam Welch. The Philadelphia presentation of this exhibition was curated by Amie Potsic. Participating artists: Dee Briggs, Connie Cantor, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Kyle Houser, Ben Kehoe, Jacob Koestler, Michael Sherwin, Lenore Thomas.”  CFEVA Website.

Dee Briggs

The steel draws lines of shadows in the alcove @ CFEVA Gallery, as the airy shape slowly rotated the play of light & dark created a living drawing.  DoN observed people dreamily staring, imagining how they could clear out their living room to make space for Dee Briggs sculpture - the artists website is cool, too.  CFEVA  @ 15th & Locust Sts.

Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Test 32, gesso, ink & pigmented marker on canvas.  The large drawing is engrossing like looking at a Chuck Close.  Little blobby shapes coalesce and entwine, connecting dots in the brain, melding mind maps spread out across the canvas like an alien landscape, coordinates marks each other trying to signal and cooperate with all elements to capture your attention.  DoN loves marker art.

Selection From Cluster is a unique opportunity to view art from PA’s other big city - Jacob Koestler described to DoN a vibrant downtown art scene/district in Pittsburgh with a fun First Friday.  Thanks to CFEVA for opening the lines of communication with artists across PA.

DoN Brewer @ his artist reception.  All event photos by Peter Prusinowski.

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists hosted an artist reception for DoN Brewer and the Philadelphia Art-erati turned out in full force - friends & colleagues from the past, present & future converged on the Coffee Bar @ 17th & Locust to support DoN’s explorations into photography.  Amie Potsic of CFEVA (& fellow photographer) and Ann Koivunen worked with the Coffee Bar to have a POST (Philadelphia Open Studio Tours) artist show in their recently remodeled cafe - the buttery walls and excellent lighting is so satisfying and easy on the eyes the photos have never looked better - and out of 30 artists the team presented, they picked DoN.  What an incredible honor & pleasure to represent Philadelphia Artists in the venerable Warwick Hotel, a landmark & planetary crossroad; DoN overheard languages from all over the world, it is so gratifying to have the work stand on it’s own, this being the largest collection of DoN’s “light being” series to date.

Muralist David Guinn, his Dad & Plastic Club former President Mike Guinn, the back of Ted Warschal’s head, Cynthia Arkin (manager of The Plastic Club website), UArts’ Regina Barthmeier, DoN, Ona Kalstein and Rob Stauffer (Rob mounted, matted and framed most of the show, his outstanding presentation skills enhances the work immeasurably) @ the Artist Reception for “light beings“.

Enhabitues of the Philly art scene, Regina & Lisa lounge below light being (Thelma) @ the artist reception for DoN Brewer’s light beings show @ The Coffee Bar - these intrepid art crawlers have been extremely supportive of DoN’s career and have been present at almost every art event important to his reputation.  Having friends be there when you need them is so important to an artists ego - Merci!

Ann Koivunen of The Center for Emerging Visual Artists manages the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours submissions (going on now) and took DoN’s feeble attempt at image size accuracy and created the terrific transparent labels, a beautiful bio book and documentation - Thank you Ann for your patience!

light being (Leo Seeger), DoN Brewer @ The Coffee Bar, The Radisson Warwick Hotel through July 2010.  This image has appeared in several art shows from the Philadelphia Sketch Club’s Absolutely Abstract Show to The University of Princeton Medical Center’s ArtFirst show to The Beauty Shop Cafe @ 20th & Fitzwater - DoN LoVeS it when people start seeing “light beings” in the wild.

Thanks to Shoshana Aron, Alden Cole & Les Howard for helping hang the show, Rob Stauffer for framing and the Center for Emerging Visual Artists for their tireless support of artists in Philadelphia.  DoN will be announcing an artist talk date soon.

Special thanks to Peter Prusinowski for photographing the event and his support and friendship, it’s such a good feeling to be recognized as an artist by peers - Philadelphia XOXO.

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.

Kara Rennert, Le Dresseur (foreground) & Le Cirque, ceramic, low fire glaze @ CFEVA’s The Landscape Within.

The Landscape Within @ The Center for Emerging Visual Artists is a “spotlight exhibit” of art which transports the viewer to worlds within - alien landscapes, thought bubbles & dreamy reveries.  The gallery space @ 15th & Locust encapsulates the work of three artists whose work is completely different (sculpture, painting & photography) yet communicates themes of desolation, introspection and confusion like TV channel surfing and somehow a narrative emerges by combining cartoons, war news and commercials.  DoN enjoys being alone in the echoeing gallery absorbing the contents in quiet solitude but the art party Thursday evening drew a swell noisy crowd to celebrate the accomplishments of sculptress Kara Rennert, painter Sean O’Neil & photographer James B. Abbott.

Kara Rennert, Rat Princess #1, ceramic, low fire glaze.

Even though Kara Rennert‘s sculptures of mythic women seem to have Kara’s eyes she insists she finds inspiration for the female faces in magazines and online.  Each sculpture is one of a kind and not made from molds, if Rennert tries to duplicate a favorite she finds that the new piece is somehow better than the first.  DoN commented that the elongated fingers of the figures seem Medieval, Kara explained that the hands are simply more expressive when the fingers are unusually long and perhaps she’s unconsciously obsessed with the sense of touch.

Sean O’Neil, American Dream #2, acrylic on canvas.

Amie Potsic told DoN that when she saw Sean O’Neil’s paintings she thought, “I wish I’d done that!“  O’Neil’s large paintings combine All American memes: home-sweet-home, boys to men, war mongering and altered states. Even though Sean’s style is sort of super-flat, there is no irony or kawaii, in fact some of the paintings are scary.  DoN’s nephew has decided to join the army, he wishes the young man could see war through the eyes of an artist; there surely is glamor in donning a uniform and shooting high powered guns but his world is sure to be turned upside down.  Sean shares studio space with cake artist Amy Stevens; DoN wonders if she leaves tasty treats for her studio mate and why he’s not as big as a house.

Sean O’Neil, Meet Your Master, Beautiful Boy & American Dream #2, acrylic on canvas.

James B. Abbott, Peaked Hills Dunes in Winter, toned silver gelatin print.

James B. Abbott is a long time habitue of 3rd Street in Old City but many of the mysterious images in The Landscape Within exhibit are the result of his Dune Shack Residency on Cape Cod.  Imagine this: you are driven to a remote salt box shack on the curly peninsula with only well water to drink, an out-house, a few weeks supply of food and your old Graflex Polaroid camera with the goal of doing nothing but attempting to capture the denuded landscape.  James told DoN that the extended daylight on the Cape allowed him to work mornings and evenings and nap in the afternoon.  The panoramic combo compositions are so evocative of the wintry landscape DoN could almost hear the wicked wind but the single landscape shots with the vestiges of the polaroid negative process along the edges like Space Invaders are simultaneously abstract and editorial.  Like many artist, Abbott made a living as a commercial photographer, bending to the whims of editors and clients but is now able to use that experience to produce his own product - great photographs.

James B. Abbott, Beach Forest Pond, Cape Cod National Seashore, toned gelatin silver prints @ CFEVA’s The Landscape Within.

Final thought - art isn’t just for adults.  When DoN saw a kid running around he thought, “Uh-Oh!“, there goes Kara Rennert’s doll-like figures perched on pedestals but it turns out little 5 year old Sophia is a big fan and as she left with mom, Nina, she hollered back to Kara, “I love you!“

DoN Brewer with artist Arthur Ostroff @ DoNBrewerMultimedia, POST - X, 2009.

Artist, Mina Smith-Segal checking out DoN’s central command post.  Mina leads the studio workshops at the Philadelphia Sketch Club.

Artist, Clif Anderson visited DoN’s open studio with his lovely wife Henny.  Clif is a terrific musician and artist, his work will be on display at Bryn Mawr Rehab Center’s annual exhibit, Art Ability fearturing work by artists from around the world - opening 11/7/2009.

Neighbor Melody, DoN & artist/framer/teacher Rob Stauffer @ DonBrewerMultimedia POST-X 2009.

Photographer, Morris Klein @ DoN’s POST open house.  Klein is VP of The Photographic Society of Philadelphia.

Saturday afternoon, DoN hosted more than 25 visitors to his studio - art dogs KaTy & Doofie (the St. Bernard/Chihuahua mix)  guarded the gate and made sure all visitors are dog lovers.