Bobbie Adams. Annette Alessi, Roz Bloom, DoN Brewer, Pat Burns, Lois Allen Charles, Piety Choi, Rachel Christy, Rachel Citrino, Alden Cole, Francesca Costanzo, Lilliana Didovic, Gerard Di Falco, Judy Engle, Linda Dubin, Laura Guzzo, Louise Herring, Ona Kalstein, Maria J. Keane, Gary Koenitzer, Sandi Neiman, Marlon Majette, Lee Muslin, Liz Nicklus, Arthur Ostroff, Anna Pizzoli, Peter Seidel, Rex Sexton, Francine Strauss, Anna Vosburgh, Ted Warchal, Carol Wisker, Wendelyn Anderson, Karen McDonnell, Anthony Cortosi.
Noyes Museum of Art- Hammonton
5 S. Second St.
Hammonton, NJ 08037
(609)561-8006
The DaVinci Art Alliance: “7″ Deadly Sins
Exhibit Dates: October 1 - November 24, 2010 Opening Reception: October 1: 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. Artist Lecture with Marlon Majette: October 6: 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. Da Vinci Art Alliance is a non-profit artists’ organization located in South Philadelphia. The organization was founded in 1931 to serve the needs of professional artists and artisans in the Delaware Valley. Da Vinci Art Alliance currently has over 150 members and is supported through membership dues, gallery rentals, sales commissions, grants, and donations. Da Vinci Art Alliance holds exhibitions of members’ and non-members’ artwork as well as special events, workshops, performances, poetry readings, and lectures.
DoN is thrilled about his museum debut with the Seven Deadly Sins exhibit in the Noyes Museum of Art, Hammonton, NJ for some wack-a-doodle time-tripping reasons; DoN has a history with Hammonton, showing in the Noyes is kind of cosmic. DoN hung out with GadFly, an early radical blogger who stirred local political shit in a way that not many people have the balls to do today even in our social networked world. GadFly posted blogs that ended up getting him interviewed by the FBI, radio talk show hosts and the town council, who he called nasty names which ultimately ended up being quoted in his obituary, a final insult to his political enemies. Before the internet GadFly wrote letters to the editor in papers locally and nationally, ranting endlessly about corruption, when he discovered blogging there was no stopping his vitriolic sarcastic wit. GadFly’s blog was the inspiration for DoNArTNeWs.
GadFly is now known as Dead Larry, a former life guard, since drowning ironically in a gym pool a few years ago. DoN adopted, his now geriatric, Lady Doofus, the St. Bernard/Chihuahua mix who lived on Dead Larry’s farm but is now an urbane canine retiree in Marion Anderson Historical Village; Lady Doofus may make a surprise appearance at the art gala in her former home town, along with KaTy the ArT DoG who also enjoyed romps in the Pine Barrens swamps. GadFly would LoVe that DoN is presenting his art in Hammonton, New Jersey, his home state (DoN was named most artistic, Deptford High School, Class of ‘71), especially the 7 Deadly Sins part - gossip with DoN at the opening party, 10/01/10, to get the real dirt on Dead Larry aka GadFly.
Hammonton, NJ, once a vital town in South Jersey, is recovering from being hit by the Walmart Bomb, the downtown became a bit shabby but now is truly quaint like a Hopper painting, the Noyes Museum Gallery is a revitalizing force - art to the rescue!
David Foss has a resume as long as your arm, participating in art shows all across the country and leading the venerable Da Vinci Art Alliance with grace and calm. But, Foss’ current one-person show at LGTripp Gallery in Old City, Philly is a tour de force incorporating his recognizable style and exciting new direction in his paintings and sculpture. The gallery is enormous and Foss activates every corner with exciting, bold abstractions from teetering constructions to heroically scaled fluid, drippy paintings to small, introspective pieces. Louella Tripp told DoN, “I’m really excited about presenting Dave’s new work, representing a transition period. He has been developing new work over the past two or three years in an exciting new direction with more structure including elements of formal work in terms of process; mixing solvents, chemicals and paint included in a measured way, the merging is brilliant!”
Throughout the gallery are a series of mono-chromatic sculptures made from found objects resembling alien habitats. DoN can imagine climbing the ladders to find hidden technology or stored food of the gods.
David Foss @ LGTripp Gallery in Old City.
This sculpture occupies the far end of the main gallery like a hybrid house/ship/helicopter ready to start lumbering through the room.
Detail of the above sculpture - organic, anatomical, gross and beautiful, the large sculpture attracts attention like a fire alarm.
In the back room gallery space this sculpture is reminiscent of Howl’s Moving Castle with the hanging ladder to safety swiftly moving just out of reach as it lurches to take off.
Exits & Entrances is an appropriate title for the show as David Foss gradually moves into a stylistic new realm that is more translucent, poetic and free. Now instead of his work being dense and compact, his paintings are loose, watery and transcendent. As Foss exits his past, he enters a future as entrancing as a dream; this painting marks a point in the exhibit where Dave begins a new exploration sure to inspire, illuminate and elucidate.
Morning Sun,Darrel Van Mastrigt, acrylic on canvas, courtesy of SCI Graterford.
Inside/Outside @ Art in City Hall is a juried exhibition of art created by Philadelphia prisoners and ex-offenders in cooperation with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Jurors Ona Kalstein and Michele Marcuse traveled to Graterford Prison several times to evaluate and select art created within the high walls of the prison system. DoN was immediately drawn to the immediacy and sense of detail many of the pieces incorporated as if every little bit of the world around us is so important it must be memorialized. The painting above is a typical street scene to any Philadelphian, just close your eyes and think about how much we ignore on your own street and what you would remember if you were not allowed to go home.
Mayor Michael Nutter explained how over the years prisoners have gifted him with portraits as thanks for visiting the prisons on New Years Day each year. After the collection grew the Mayor suggested the Art in City Hall team take on the challenge of displaying the work resulting in an emotional, beautiful, historic and unique exhibition of art.
Bugs, Thomas Schilk, melted plastic spoons. Using found objects, prison artists must glean materials from their environment, Schilk’s Bugs are fun, fantastic and subtle with realism and wit.
E. Sherman Hayman, Inside/Outside, Art by Prison Inmates & Ex-offenders @ Art in City Hall.
Glamorous guns depict the emotional reliance on weapons and the signification of the silhouettes is contemporary and on trend with embellished frames. Showing images of guns in the show is a display of courage by the Art in City Hall team; guns are glamorized in pop & rap culture from Lady Gaga & Beyonce’sVideo Phone music video to Michael Jackson’sSmooth Criminal to movies, TV and games - guns are sexy and scary. By not editing content, the show offers a glimpse into the psyche of those attracted to weapons and violence.
A simple thing like watching a dog play at the beach is a pleasure lost when you’re incarcerated. DoN can’t imagine being kept away from watching KaTy the ArT DoG & Lady Doofus play in the water. DoN believes this painting is by Bernardo Ruiz, the label slipped - if incorrect, please comment.
J. Johndi Harrell, Young Weezy, anyone who knowsrapper Lil Wayne knows this portrait is superb with a hard look at a pop culture hero who’s spent time in jail yet is super-successful in the entertainment world creating a conundrum for young people who worship pop heroes.
Thanks so much to Tu Huynh, Art in City Hall Program Manager, the art shows in City Hall put a spotlight on the creative talent in Philly both Inside & Outside. Kudos to Jane Golden and The Mural Arts Program for their outreach into the Philadelphia prison system and Mayor Nutter for connecting the dots in a way that helps prisoners and ex-offenders as well as the citizenry at large. The show is free through October 29th, 2010 - go see some great art today.
David Foss‘ sculpture made of found materials is like a futuristic robot/humanoid perched in the center of the gallery, the 2012 theme resonates throughout the room with visions of rapture, hell-fire, nothingness and hopefulness. Foss’s sculpture reminds DoN of a futuristic boy transformed by a post-apocalyptic storm into a cyborg forced to find his way through the scorched land with feelers and antennas extended in all directions, the central brain stem in the middle of the body instead of stupidly plopped up on top where any fool could knock it off. David Foss is the director of the Da Vinci Art Alliance and will be having a major show at LGTripp Gallery in Old City in September.
Karl Olsen lights the subject of an impromptu critique of Yeoun Lee’s paintings during the monthly Salon des Plastiques @ The Plastic Club on the Avenue of the Artists. Lee took up the challenge from a previous meeting to bring out a few paintings on the sweltering Summer evening to stand up to the observations of Anders Hanson, Bob Jackson, Mike Quinn, Alan Klawens - the guys behind the on-going series of exhibitions at one of Philly’s premier artist clubs. DoN couldn’t help to harken back to the days when air conditioning was a dream yet to be realized. Yeoun explained the cosmological influence on her current work with light being represented by a subtle rainbow of color.
The Casual Summer Show @ The Plastic Club showcases artist favorites.
Members of the Plastic Club are showing works not directed by a theme allowing for a salon like diversity of styles and medium; curators Alan Klawans and Bob Jackson filled the main galleries with a spectrum of light and color.
Marlise M. Tkaczuk, 3 Big Monkeys, silk screen in The Casual Show. The Plastic Club has long represented printmaking with a great print room and print shows; Marlise’s confrontational funky monkeys are part clever and engaging, jumping off the wall. Check the clubs website for info and links to events.
I Was Here, DoN Brewer, digital photograph @ Da Vinci Art Alliance’s Apocalypse Soon: 2012.
With money bombs, pandemics, oil spills, World War III fresh in our consciousness and the 2nd Wave Depression looming, Apocalyse Soon: 2012 is prescient, nihilistic funk-a-rama drama. Curator Dr Deb Miller and Juror & Awards Judge, Elin Danien, Consulting Scholar, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology gleaned a strange harvest of occult dreamscapes, blob-a-zoid sculptures and paranoid visions of the end of the future.
“I know it’s the last day on earth
We’ll be together while the planet dies
I know it’s the last day on earth
We’ll never say goodbye”
Marilyn Manson - The Last Day on Earth
Curator’s Tour, Lecture, and Opening Awards Reception: Sunday, August 8, 1pm-4 pm(doors open at 12:30)
Brujo de la Mancha, Mexican Identity in the XXIst Century Debra Miller, PowerPoint lecture, Calendar Cycles of Creation and Destruction in Pre-Columbian Art Debra Miller, Curator’s tour, Apocalypse Soon: 2012
Seven Dishsoaps, Peter Seidel @ Da Vinci Art Alliance, 7th & Catharine Streets in South Philly. Peter Seidel won the Da Vinci Art Alliance Gold Medal for his superb painting.
DoN Brewer, Heptagon, photoshop. DoN was honored to be on the jury committee to select the medal winners, which also freed him to produce whatever he wanted for the show. Seven will be shown at The Noyes Museum annex in Hammonton, NJ this Fall.
Lois Allen Charles, Seven Waterlillies and Lilliana Didovic, Seven Elephants @ Seven, the current member exhibition at Da Vinci Art Alliance has a wide interpretation of the symbolism of the number seven, yet the discussion around the sign went on long after the show was installed. The DVAA exhibitions committee really tapped into a concept the members could grok.
Anna Vosburgh, Hope 1 @ Da Vinci Art Alliance - Anna is not only a great painter, she’s a blogger!
Alden Cole completed his series of self portraits portraying the Seven Deadly Sins, the first three sins are included in a painting Cole produced for DVAA’s Henry IV, Part 1 @ The Lantern Theater Company’s Black Box Gallery. These two panels, though, are more explosively emotional, brashly colorful and deeply introspective; Alden acts for the camera then paints the facial expressions with light, color fields and texture as if he’s looking deep into your being, reflecting back the many faces of sin.
Carol Wisker with her award winning mixed media creation, Machine: War Games Series, when the show first opened at Smile Gallery, Carol won Best in Show. The huge gallery space at RRCA is a wonderful opportunity to see most of the original show hanging together again. 3rd Friday in Millville was really fun with live entertainment tucked into every park, alley and plaza including a glee club performance!!! The creative vibe of the monthly event with art shows, restaurants and shops welcome visitors warmly with small town ambiance and upscale art.
Ted Warchal @ Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts special exhibit, Through My Window, A Da Vinci Art Alliance Members Exhibit. Ted, Ona & DoN are members of the Board of Directors of Da Vinci, thanks to all the artists & volunteers who arranged for the art to show up on time and to Dr. Debra Miller & David Foss for the expert installation, the RRCA is a wonderful exhibition space.
David Foss & Nicole Koenitzer.
Betsy Alexander’s Sci-Fi homage drew some teenage geeks into the gallery who seemed mesmerized at the depth of knowledge in the obscure references. Burnell Yow! told DoN he was hesitant when Betsy voiced her encyclopedic idea - but beam me up!
DoN Brewer’s drawing of Paris rooftops is paired perfectly with Lilliana Didovic’s Boathouse Row painting.
The concept pf Through My Window is that more than 20 artists were offered a window to do whatever they wanted with, the result is a uniquely Philadelphian art perspective: Bobbie Adams, Betsy Alexander, Jesse Best, DoN Brewer, Rachel Citrino. Alden Cole. Lilliana Didovic, Jerry di Falco, David Foss, Carl Johnson, Ona Kalstein, Nicole Koenitzer, Gail Kotel, Rikard Larma, Lee Muslin, Liz Nicklus, Kathryn Pannepacker, Michael Shane Simmons, Mike Sweeney, Ted Warchal, Carol Wisker & Burnell Yow!
Our annual members show in July is on the theme of Seven; there is no entry fee for submissions, all work will be included, per rules on attached prospectus. The exhibition will travel to The Noyes Museum of Art in October!
CALENDAR FOR JULY MEMBERS SHOW:
Delivery of labeled art work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 27, 2010, 5-7 pm & July 7, 6-8pm
Installation of show. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 8, beginning at 11 am
Opening Reception and Awards Presentation . . . . . . . . . July 10, 6-9pm
Pick-up of unsold art work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 25, 4-6 pm & July 26, 5-7 pm
*The PPT lecture on “Depictions of the 7 Deadly Sins in Northern European Art of the 15th-17th Centuries” will be presented by Da Vinci President Deb Miller, supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.
All events are free and open to the public. Please plan to attend, and to invite guests!
While Alan Klawans, the Exhibitions Chair of The Plastic Club, awarded honors for the excellent Black & White show, DoN observed sunlight creeping across Vetiado # 48, a mixed media painting by Louisa Velben. The painting glittered as if diamonds are embedded in the surface but the illusion was shiny paint bubbles in the thickly painted and swirled liquid.
Pulled From The Darkness, Erik Melendez, charcoal.
Karl Richard Olsen, Portrait, graphite. Bill Meyers, of PSoP, volunteer posed at the Plastic Club, the likeness is striking yet loose and free.
Rebecca Miller, Overrripe: Compost 3, graphite. Miller is completing the Master program @ PAFA, studying with the extraordinary Scott Noel; this piece was created by drawing on gessoed board, draw with graphite, layer watered gesso over the drawing, let dry, draw some more…the result is an award winning drawing. Miller also took home a prize the same day from The Philadelphia Sketch Club for an oil painting. Seeing young new talent emerging from local art schools with the skill of masters participating in the grass roots arts movement in Philly is extremely satisfying.
Alden Cole, Dancing in the Dark, pencil and Leroy Fornoy,Night Bus, oil. Pairing these two graphic pieces is genius - Cole’s trippy Starlings dance ecstatically and Fornoy’s painting has a Manga skate-punk nihilist vibe.
One of the great aspects of this show is the variety of media displayed, now that photography is accepted in the art circles as a legitimate art form, many Photographic Society of Philadelphia members have the opportunity to show with their work along side traditional media - some photographers even entered paintings!
Arthur Ostroff, Floreal Ancienne, ink jet print.
Riikka Salo, Windows to Spruce, photograph.
Lois Schlachter, Exhibitions Chair of The Philadelphia Sketch Club, and Alan Klawans, Exhibitions Chair of The Plastic Club, at the Black & White Show. The Philadelphia Sketch Club opened their 147th Annual Exhibitions of Small Oil Paintings the same afternoon - between the two art clubs there are over 300 new art works by contemporary Philadelphia area artists to see. The juxtaposition of two strong theme shows is visually and psychologically invigorating, one show is limited to size and medium, the other limited to no color, the problem-solving and creativity of the artists is inspiring, entertaining and lucid.
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