Shoshka. Alden and DoN made the pilgrimage to Crane Arts Center in Fishtown to witness the spectacle of innovation, artistry and experience design the arts space is becoming famous for.The University of Delaware has taken over the old Busy Bee space and the current exhibition of MFA students is insightful and fun. Looming over the first floor are fiber and plaster neuron-like constructs by the afore-mentioned Mark Donahue; similar to the Hopkins House installation, this time Donahue has balanced separate components on top of each other creating strange transmitters communicating in a language all their own. DoNwas greeted by the elegant Virginia Bradley, artist/curator/educator who shares a studio on the third floor with Chris Malcomson - Virginia and DoN commiserated over sharing studio space (more about that in a minute).
Mark Donahue @ UD@Crane.
Untitled, mixed media, Jim Reske. Is this thing cool or what? Simple sun-bleached plywood panels lean against the wall as if Josef Albers were in the house.
rickery, watercolor & ink on stretched & cut paper, Francine Fox @ UD@Crane.
Francine Fox displayed several three inch square paintings that are executed with virtuosity, flare and fluid surrealist imagination. Like seeing a weird image in the clouds or faces in foam on the beach, Fox finds eery fractals of flesh, skin and organs which are all intricately applied to the glossy surface of the wood in delicate strokes of paint.
Anthony Vega with one of his multiple image paintings. Vega uses a projector to capture multiple images within the plane of his painting. Using found or original images he combines blobs of paint into pixel-like splotches which when viewed from a distance morph into pulsating icons that DoN’s brain tried to make sense of but was thwarted by the cacophony of ideas vying for attention. Vega told DoN, “…it’s evidently handmade.”
Sho, Alden and DoN all LoVeD the balloon-stuffed panty hose, each of us explained the concept to at least one of our friends. Like Christo’s temporary installations, these pieces will obviously deteriorate rapidly but will live on in memory and photographs. Of course, one could always make more and have fun doing it.
At Nexus Gallery, our threesome was treated to a video installation by J. Makary and Bilwa as part of the Philly Fringe festival. The gallery transformed into a movie theater with stadium seating presented an extraordinary video: part art movie, part music video, part dance performance with an emphasis on hand gestures and body language. The saturated colors, quirky dance moves and evocative narrative was absorbing and abstract in it’s simplicity of experience design.
Nick of Nexus tells DoN the gallery will be installing a low powered community radio station ala Whitney’s Biennial radio station. People can schedule air time by contacting the gallery. Lo-fi Coolness Rocks!
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.
The Center for Emerging Visual Arts keeps raising the bar on curating art shows in Philadelphia, the current exhibit, Décor/Decorum, of photography, sculpted plates and plaster vignettes is simply exquisite like being plunked down into a scene on a Wedgewood plate only it’s in your eccentric grandmother’s white lacquered cabinet. Photos of the interior of Joelle Jenson’s grandmother’s Florida home are a temporal distortion, the mostly white spaces combine a mix of natural and artificial light, memory and architecture, austere, fresh and clean - when fresh and clean didn’t mean you were hip-hop but a time when everything had a place and was in it, sparkly and shiny. Joelle’s grandmother had glamour shots of herself stratigically displayed thoughout her immaculate home, even producing calendars with her beautiful image, her snow white hair perfectly coiffed, as gifts for family members. Now Grandma is a star in Joelle’s homage to an esthetic quickly disappearing from the American landscape; Joelle confided with DoN that the family used to ridicule their grandmother’s decorating style but when she died and Joelle’s parents moved in they didn’t change a thing. Jenson has completed photographing her husband’s parents home in Florida and is working on a series from her other grandmother’s abode. Jenson produces her work at The Camera Club of New York and exhibits at Wall Space Gallery in Seattle.
Jedediah Morfit’s carved plaster plates and vignette’s mounted on the wall compose a chilly counterpoint to Jenson’s photographs. Morfit “explores irresistible contemporary taboos including craft, religion and narrative” (CFEVA art card). The antechamber gallery features a wall of plates Jed told DoN was about “new temptations of Saint Anthony“, with the plates each featuring a modern tempting diversion. The opposite wall has a striking series of bas-relief sculptures with antebellum women pushing wheelbarrows filled with bones and heads running from a rain of arrows - very powerful. DoN overheard one patron say she felt she was in, “one of those blue plates”. DoN suspects she meant Wedgewood china. Morfit tells DoN these are the first in a series that will feature “tons of figures including flying monkeys”.
Bas-relief wall sculpture by Jedediah Morfit @ CFEVA.
Jedediah Morfit with his plaster plates in CFEVA’s main gallery.
Saturday, Shoshka and DoN visited the Center for Emerging Visual ArtistsShow House at 1634 South 13th Street, the former home and studio of artistScott Pellnat. The townhouse is filled with art by CFEVA artists including Anne Canfield, Katie Murken, Julia Blaukopf,Kara Rennert,Caleb Nussear, Darla Jackson, Jennifer Chapman,Serena Perrone and of course Scott Pellnat’s wonderfully wacky constructions. Pellnat is an accomplished woodworker and avid dumpster diver creating mechanical constructs out of marquetry of colored pencils, found objects and wood, there’s even a hidden room behind bookshelves which open by pulling on a book ala the Addams Family revealing robotic creatures pulling ropes and strings producing a dramatic diorama.
Looking up into the turret Pellnat built on the roof.
Looking down from the turret into the house - the walls are covered in colored pencil marquetry and the floors are spray painted through lace and stencils.
The top floor is filled with a knitted installation with tendrils swooping through the room like some kind of giant alien brain cell. The site specific piece was created by Katie Murken.
Scott Pellnat in his “secret studio”.
As if the room isn’t creepy enough, there’s a gravity distortion which turns the room sideways!?!
Close up shot of Scott Pellnat’s intricate woodwork.
Anne Canfield’s “Swim Team: Snippets from Yuki’s Memory Book“.
Serena Perrone’s “Dreaming of Flying Fish“, oil and charcoal on panel, diptych.
Scott Pellnat’s Grandfather Clock - one must crank the handle on the side to raise the clock but the cranker can’t see the clock!?!
Stag by Jake Kehs @ CFEVA Show House. (Kehs is not a CFEVA artist, his work is part of Pellnat’s collection including an amazing wolf sculpture on the first floor ready to pounce from a cardboard mountain.)
Silver point drawings by Caleb Nussear called “#3XUL Diminished“.
CFEVA keeps finding new venues and interesting events to promote Philly’s fine artists including the upcoming Philadelphia Open Studio Tours this October. DoN will keep you POSTed.
DoN posted a 30 second video on YouTube of the Super Mario Brothers music which is enchanting and magical; using the score from the video game soundtrack and sound effects from character/avatar interaction with puzzle elements in the game, the music is post-post-post modern. The video is just part of the Golden Calf exhibit in the fabulously dark installation of paintings, photography and sculpture about decay, destruction, nausea and mysticism. DoN found the art to be emotionally raw and psychologically dismal with elements of claustrophobia, isolation and estrangement; Hagit Barkai’s ”Vomitous” is awesomely powerful, the paintings are Bacon-like in their facility, the subject charged with feelings of fear, powerlessness and despair, the paint application is expert. The artists of Golden Calfare establishing New Philadelphia as the art center of the region, unafraid to tackle the more difficult apects of modern life.
Brian Billingsley’s ”Homage to Me” video and “Untitled (Saturn Devours His Son)” oil on canvas in the Golden Calf Show at Crane Art Center.
Weird little blobby things were all over the place.
Monday’s at World Cafe Live on Walnut Street is open mic night (no cover charge), art friend Henry Martin was on the bill so Shoshka and DoNarrived early to find a comfortable table with the intention of video taping Henry’s performance. The show is emceed by Boy Wonder with acts ranging from singer/songwriters to rap/hip-hop to jazz groups, folk-rockers and rock bands - the featured group was Philly’s own HEADwho totally rocked the house with a five song set. DoN videotaped two songs and hopes to get permission to share the LoVe because HEAD’s lead singerLexi Greene is HOT and sing’s like an illegal clone of Grace Slick and Alanis Morissette, backed up by keyboardist/singer Tori Ryzner, drummer Ryan Jarrell, Mark Greene on bass and Michael Zimney on guitar the tight rocking songs left DoN’s ears ringing and the crowd cheering. Boy Wonder keeps the show rolling with early acts getting to do three songs, then the HEADliner gets five, then more groups get to do three songs, then back to singers/songwriters who get to perform two, the last few performers get to sing one song. DoN will have some clips of Henry and some of the other performers ready soon.
DoN and Sho felt bad for the two guys who had to follow all the rock bands but they totally took on the challenge with an acoustic guitar and an accordian!?! Ironically, DoN bumped into Patrick Welsh in Rittenhouse Square and found out his group is calledThe Writers Club and the accordian player hangs out in the Beauty Shop Cafe (DoN knew he looked familiar). DoN congratulated both guys for the gumption to get up and sing while the buzzed crowd talked over their set of Americana/Ghettotech/Folk songs. Hey, this what they call,”paying dues.” Another standout performer was Elle, a sultry, sophisticated Philly girl singer who has a new album coming out - Elle totally dominated the room with her soulful pop songs.
DoN’s gonna have to get a MySpace page so he can “friend” all this great talent but there was a joke in The New Yorker a while back - “What’s worse than your Dad having a MySpace page? Your Dad’s band having a MySpace page!” Since DoN isn’t a dad or have a band but is a great-uncle of adorable Jaelynn he’s been reticent, but watch for DoN on MySpace soon.
SOTA(Spirit of the Artist) on Pine Street in the heart of famous Antique Row only sells art and crafts made in America by artists owner Frank Burkhauser knows personally. A simple concept; socially conscious business practices benefiting the community, artists and the gallery, creating a vibrant, entrancing art experience. DoN and Shoshana joined artist Alden Cole as he replenished his stock of unique luminaries - lamp-like art objects created from new and old parts fitted with energy efficient LED bulbs which magically change color. Burkhauser has been a long time supporter of Cole’s art including his paintings, DoN could tell their friendship is long and deep with great mutual respect.
SOTA Gallery owner Frank Burkhauser with artist Alden Cole (that’s Alden’s latest luminaries on the shelf over his head - very cool!)
Thursday, DoN visited the Crane Contemporary Arts Center in Fishtown for Second Thursday; Nexus featured Rebecca Gilbert : Dirt Thirst and Virginia Batson: substance, sustenance, Kelly & Weber features Collect. Consume. Rebuild, paintings by Sean O’Neil, The Icebox has Semi, a juried exhibition of works by Tyler School of Art MFA students, Juror: Elizabeth Grady, The University of Delaware has MFA student show in The Triangle Space and Jessica Demcsak - The Crane Adjacent, presented by INLIQUID.COM. I know it sounds like a lot but DoN explored the whole space and has some favorites to share: Rebecca Gilbert at Nexus is showing imaginative prints which are delightful and probably the most accessible and salable art DoN viewed, featuring beautifully crafted small pieces which will enhance any art lovers collection (more about Gilbert later). Virginia Batson is showing some really DuChampian “drawings” using drips of salt water (sweat, tears?) on black paper, also lovely small papers with nubby surfaces and fine line work, again perfect art for contemporary interiors.
Thursday, Alden Cole and DoN drove to Bethlehem to drop off one of Alden’s fabulous luminaries at Home & Planet, an extraordinary art gallery featuring art created from recycled materials. The gallery was getting ready for First Friday, so we got to see a preview of the featured art which includes some really creative metal constructions by artists Ben and Kate Gatski and welder Lana Garner. Gatski’s installation includes works created for the garden as well as moo-valous steer heads, cows and giant flowers all made with found metal. Quite a-moo-sing.
Lana Garner creates signature cityscapes from steel dumpster doors, car hoods and drum barrels - a true dumpster diver. Gritty and bleak, the works portray the urban landscape with humor and inventiveness. Garner was a member of a women’s welding collective called Accoutrements and now lives in South Carolina where she has an old gas station for her studio and an old church renovated to be her home. DoN is fascinated with the scale and scope of these monumental works which are extremely heavy and required industrial strength mountings to hang in the gallery. DoNwas also pleased to see the Philly skyline portrayed in welded metal. Since Bethlehem used to be a steel town, the works by Gatski and Garner are particularly poingnant.
Cityscape on a car hood by Lana Garner @ Home and Planet.
Cityscape on dumpster door by Lana Garner with Alden Cole luminary (left) @ Home and Planet, Bethlehem, PA.
Detail from Lana Garner’s welded art on an old car hood.
Thursday, DoN and Art Friends Alden Cole, Shoshana Aron and Aida Berzins attended the opening of Color, Spirit, Innovation: The Art of Sam Maitin - Selections from a Fifty Year Career atThe Art Institute of Philadelphia, 1622 Chestnut Gallery. Curated by Sam’s wife and artist Bob Jackson, the party was well attended by friends, family and admirers to celebrate the brilliant career of one of Philadelphia’s favorite artists and teachers. Maitin was a modern renaissance man working in mixed media, intent on sending messages, encoding his work with symbolism and speaking out against injustices like the war (Viet Nam that is), rascism (Aparteid that is) and volunteering his talents to various Philadelphia institutions (like The Philadelphia Theater company). Maitin’s art work helped define the modern visual landscapes of the city of Philadelphia (art card). Co-curator Bob Jackson credits Maitin with his own artistic breakthrough and now leads a weekly workshop at The Plastic Club - the legacy lives on.
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