DoNArTNeWs

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.

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.

On a cold, sunny early January afternoon, Miss Shirleen surprised Shoshka & DoN with tickets to The Barnes Foundation in Merion, PA.  Just a quick drive to the mansion from the plateau, the guards greeted us and pointed to a parking spot and soon we were wandering the fabulous rooms filled with French Impressionist masterworks, African sculptures and antiquities.

The main hall is the social hub with visitors absorbing and discussing in hushed tones the eccentric array of masterpieces.  Quickly splitting up, the three of us gravitated to lush Monet’s, an oddly hung Seurat or a small Cezanne and soon DoN found himself alone in a room with one of Van Gogh’s famous Postman portraits hung clumsily in the corner.  DoN moved in closer and closer, studying the brushwork, observing color-ways, admiring the pattern of the floral wallpaper in the background, the Postman’s eyes staring straight into DoN’s.  When DoN was about a foot from the painting he felt a tap on the shoulder, jumping like an armadillo, DoN was smilingly admonished by a pretty guard, he had wandered over the black electric tape line, the only barrier between DoN & Vincent.

After about ten minutes a few more visitors joined DoN so he moved on to the next gallery and again had one-on-one time with an Heironymus Bosch, it seems unreal that such an iconic object is so accessible, the phantasmagoria playing out across the canvas like a fever dream.  There’s a Soutine which DoN used to think was ugly and seemed to suck the oxygen out of the room but over time the skewed, garish sailor boy has transmuted into a signification of the meaning of painting.  Toulous Lautrec’s “A Montrouge” is so incredibly beautiful that everything else in the room becomes a supporting player.

DoN doesn’t understand why the Barnes is moving to the Parkway even though it will be within walking distance for many more people.  The commute to the current location is simple, the wacko presentation of art & utilitarian craft in a Main Line mansion is a unique experience and, oh yeah, it breaks Barnes’ last will & testament, beside the fact that the place was practically empty on a Saturday afternoon.  Is there really an audience for the quirky mix of art & industry removed from it’s original locale?  DoN recommends you schedule your visit asap - it’s a trip.

When DoN entered the Cosmopolitan Club on Latimer Street to see the Karl Olsen exhibit the first thing he did was take his hat off, it’s that kind of place.  Quiet and plush it feels like a set from a Ginger Rogers movie with soft tones, tufted fabrics and multi-tiered rooms and a reception area where DoN pictured a Judy Holiday type answering the phone, “Good Evening, Cosmopolitan Club.”  The historic space is the perfect space to show Karl Olsen’s metropolitan style, artistic swagger and consummate artistry.

The gallery walls in the Cosmopolitan Club are 20′ long panels framed with moulding, a chic presentation space for ongoing exhibits of fine art. Currently Karl Olsen is showing a selection of art works from his vast stash of images created in various media from lino-cut prints to paintings to pastels, each piece special since Karl had to winnow out a group which is representative of his style with drawings, paintings and prints.  Olsen is a role model for DoN with his dedication to proficiency to many modes of communication through image making; sometimes Karl will contentedly draw quick figure studies in linoleum block with sharp tools next he’s scrawling broad swathes of color with soft pastels on huge sheets of fine paper then perhaps a wet, juicy painting always with an eye on finding an image he believes signifies his vision of art.

 Karl Olsen @ The Cosmopolitan Club.

DoN loves watching Karl Olsen work, he is very intense and focused on creating movement, emotional contact, energetic mark-making, lucid dream states - you can watch him drift off into an alpha state and let the universal energy pass through him onto the surface.  Olsen monitors workshops @ The Plastic Club and until recently held weekly gatherings at his own studio but Olsen is taking time now to do his own thing and the result is really innovative, exciting art evocative of another era yet really cool and contemporary.

Karl Olsen, Olga, oil on panel @ The Cosmopolitan Club.  DoN has been in the presence of Olga before, she always makes a powerful impact on a room, but at the Cosmopolitan Club, a proper woman’s club of high esteem, Olga is able to fully express the story of an artist’s struggle to a achieve a level of virtuosity she knew the painter held all along.  Olga represents modern sensibilities with bold color and urgent brushwork yet feels timeless with an impressionist style time-tripping to centuries passed.

Karl Olsen @ The Cosmopolitan Club.

The November issue of Philadelphia Magazine had an article called “Five Artists Who Will Make You Rich” by curator extraordinaire Eileen Tognini.  What a task?  DoN is familiar with four of the five artists the esteemed curator gleaned and couldn’t agree more but it made him wonder who he might choose if he could only pick five.

Karl Olsen with model/artist Arthur Ostroff @ the MCGOPA show last Fall.  Olsen is driven to achieve a level of technique, style, originality that is fiercely determined, tenacious yet warmly accessible - everyone loves impressionism but Olsen’s squishy brushwork has a darker undercurrent of emotion like a 21st Century Otto Dix, Olsen exposes the hurt, apprehension & fear of life during war-time preserving a moment of great change in our history.  Photo courtesy of Karl Olsen.

Brooke Hine was one of Tognini’s picks to make you rich.  DoN finds that just spending time with Brooke makes him feel richer; Hine is warm, empathic, vivacious, sharing, curious and extraordinarily creative - some of her ceramic sculpture incorporate cat whiskers, so poetic.  Her ancient/future ceramic concoctions ooze a dystopian narrative of archeological digs in our own future world or some inter-planetary find by an ancient space visitor.  Bones, spines, claws, spikes, hairs, curves and swirls all meld into interchangeable narratives - spooky yet fun.

Bob Jackson’s ball point pen figure studies on typing paper are like finding the perfect seashell on the beach or a crystal you want to keep while rock-hounding or that great antique find at a Paris flea market.  Jackson’s drawings are expressive and technically precise yet his use of lowly materials raises up ordinary paper to a higher plain because of the lines of ink Bob streams across the page with abandon, lyricism and grace.  Jackson is President of the Plastic Club where you can buy his drawings for around 20 bucks.

Karen McDonnell & Tony Cortosi collaborate on each of their hand-drawn, hand-cut stencil spray-paint paintings skewering modern icons, historic figures and art world figure-heads with equal levels or irony, respect, sarcasm, awe and cultural awareness from punk, pop & hip-hop to Shakespeare to Foxy Brown.  Their mash-ups are a comment on our time bringing a skate-punk anarchistic rock mentality to the gallery setting without giving up on street-cred integrity.

Eileen Tognini picked Rachel Constantine because she personifies the quintessential PAFA school of atmospheric realism presenting realistic, emotionally charged, technically accomplished paintings and deservedly so, Rachel’s work is absolute perfection.  But, DoN would include Paul DuSold in his time capsule of 21st Century art investment; DuSold’s paintings are ripe with vivid life brought into the realm of the sublime.  A simple wrapped loaf conveys a story deep with realness, a flower lives only for the moment before fading to obscurity, the portrait a glimpse into a model’s inner thoughts or the patron’s aspirations - Paul DuSold is a modern painter working with techniques passed down through the ages.

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.

 Ralph “Ren” Dillard, PAC, oil @ Smile Gallery curated by Lilliana Didovic.

Ren Dillard, Blue Smoke, oil.  Ren explained to DoN that he is finally finding his voice in painting, a spoken word artist (he has promised to perform at the show’s closing on 12/7), his art is about meditation, human commonality, promoting nationalism and personal pride.  Dillard’s work has a defined narrative concerning urban life and cultural icons but is also searching inward to find peace through meditation, introspection and transcendental non-judgmental.

Ralph “Ren” Dillard, We Are One, oil.  From hip-hop heroes like 2Pac to inner dream-scapes, Ren’s painting seems to be searching for truth, justice and the New American Way.  The trans-cultural tribalism of the city and the struggle to remain calm in the face of the storm is certainly reflected in the dichotomy between thug life and the art of living well.

 Ren Dillard, Ren’s Labyrinth, oil.

Vichaya “Win” Mukdamanee & Ralph “Ren” Dillard - Mysterious Lines @ Smile Gallery.  The tableau of two artists from opposite sides of the world bouncing ideas back and forth with the urban pop aesthetic of Ren’s paintings and the abstract expressionism of Win’s prints is a synopsis of contemporary culture.  Win’s bold, architectural black and white prints are a striking counterpoint to Ren’s wildly colorful meditations yet the conflicting styles reflect a youthful, modern perspective of the world.

Win Mukdamanee, City Element # 4, print 3 of 8.

Win Mukdamanee studied art at Suankularb Wittayalai School in Bangkok Thailand (with Smile Gallery’s owner, Ken Tutjamnong’s, former professor) and is now pursuing his Master’s degree at Pratt Institute in NYC.  Primarily a sculptor, Win’s prints certainly exude an architectonic flavor yet are painterly, vibrant and fluid.  Mukdamanee quickly applies ink in splashy yet controlled strokes on plastic film then runs in through a press on beautiful papers, then frames the resulting image in quiet white mats.

Vichaya “Win” Mukdamanee @ Smile Gallery, 22nd & Chestnut Streets.

Frankly, it was difficult for DoN to get good photos of Win’s work since the black under glass reflects back the photographer, all the more reason to visit Smile and contemplate the juxtaposition of styles which curator Lilliana Didovic has so capably displayed to both artists advantage.

Ed Bronstein is an artist member of Gallery 22 owned & curated by Shawn Murray and is probably Philly’s most prolific plein air artist.  It’s a wonder he gets any painting done though, since he is so gregarious and popular that when he’s painting outdoors people (DoN included) stop to talk.  The collection of 46 paintings at Gallery 22 attests to Ed’s drive to get the job done; many of the paintings are totally plein air but some, like the dog paintings, are completed in the studio.  Bronstein sometimes also works from memory in the studio after beginning a painting in the field, he is so familiar with the territory he could probably create a Philly scene with no reference material at all.

Ed Bronstein @ Gallery 22.  Ed told DoN that usually he has to paint the doggie portraits from photographs since as we know dogs don’t stay still for very long, even when they’re sleeping.  Ed captured many of these dog images at the Schuykill River Park also known as the dog socialization area - one of KaTy the ArT Dog & Lady Doofie’s favorite spots to hang out.

Scenes of Philadelphia by Ed Bronstein @ Gallery 22.  DoN recognized the view from Bartram’s Garden in the lower painting since he sat in the same spot but tried to paint out the oil tanks, focusing on the trees.  Bronstein saw the sculptural beauty and urban aesthetic of the oil tanks and captured the scene with bold color and swift brush strokes.

Ed Bronstein started this painting in Fitler Square but then worked on it for months in the studio.  Libby Rosoff of The Art Blog commented on how hot the colors are compared to the plein air works.  Ed will be having a meet and greet in the gallery soon, check their website for dates & time.