DoNArTNeWs

Through My Window, Da Vinci Art Alliance Members Traveling Art Show now in Millville, NJ Arts District in the Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts through 7 - 10 -2010

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.

Ona Kalstein, Through My Window @ Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts.

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!

Photos by DoNBrewerPhotography.

Susan Barnes, North End Dunes, oil.

The Annual Members Exhibition of the Philadelphia Sketch Club at Newman Galleries on Walnut Street is a wonderful introduction to the many fine artists who belong to America’s oldest art club.  The swirly mix of styles, techniques and ideas is evocative of the Philly art community in microcosm; the mezzanine and third floor gallery holds a heady mix of contemporary art by masters, newbies, wannabes of all ages celebrating the first decade of the 21st Century.

Edna Santiago, Museum Stroll, acrylic on plexiglass.

 Garth Herrick, Red Barn, 11:00 AM at Beaver Farm and Donald Meyer, Study (Structure) Hosta Series, egg tempera.

Linda Townshend, Holstein, oil on canvas.

Idaherma Williams, No Masks, archival pigment print.

Karen McDonnell, Wisdom, mixed media.  Karen  e-mails DoN phone pics of stickers of this little guy in public spaces, her contribution to the Philly art scene by introducing graffiti style into the mix of traditional media is like when photography put it’s foot in the door.  The silver spray paint gives a glamorous luster to the surface of the canvas as if dressed up for the special day when all the artists show their best work.

The 2010 Members Exhibition of The Philadelphia Sketch Club @ Newman Galleries with 156 works by as many Philadelphia area fine artists runs through 6/9/2010.

Photos by DoNBrewerPhotography.

Listening In, Brittany Papale @ UArts, Broad & Pine Streets.

Nostalgia simply oozes from the dual pay phones installed outside UArts, harking back to the late days of public access to affordable communications.  DoN recalls the uproar when a 3 minute local call jumped from a dime to 25 cents - now, public phones are rare, cell phones so pervasive that young people can’t imagine a wired world with huge, magnificent switches manned by teams of technicians opening and closing connections.  Listening In allows you to eves-drop on private conversations in a very public setting.  “Stop phonin’, stop phonin’, I don’t wanna think anymore - I got my head & my heart on the dancefloor.”  Lady Gaga.

“My piece consists of two eye charts arranged in a V, with one facing north and the other south.  Since the eye chart always corresponds to a certain distance from which to view it, I have not only blown up the eye chart 10X but scaled up the optimal viewing distance proportionally.“

Justin Rubich, artist.

The continuing series of sculptures presented in the niches of the temple @ Pine & Broad Streets is always a nice surprise with thoughtful, contemporary installations casually placed right out on the street which really forces the artist to think about the environment of the sculpture.  The quest to be creative yet use materials that the artist won’t be totally devastated if something is damaged has resulted in works made from plastic milk crates, wire & broken glass, cellophane…so far the only damage DoN has noticed has been weather related.  Philly LoVeS ArT!!!

Karl Richard Olsen took home the Gold Medal in the Plastic Club’s Members’ Medals Show for “Norge“, graphite & pastel.  Check out the perfect hoop earring, a simple shape created with confidant strokes, anchoring the image in a time, place, personality, style… it’s amazing how charcoal & pastel can look so liquidy & fluid. Olsen has a major installation for MCGOPA @ The Inquirer Building in Conshohocken.

Robert Bohne won the Dorothy Invernizzi Guinn Memorial Prize for his masterpiece, “Crustacean Feast“.  The award honors realist paintings because Dorothy didn’t get abstract art and this oil painting is a timeless example of atmospheric naturalism of the highest achievement.  As an artist, when viewing a painting which speaks of years of observation, practice, study, patience & wisdom, it leaves a sensation of living forever, feasting in the moment and leaving a mark on the world.

DoN Brewer, Denmark, photograph, Marie Samohod, Night Still Life, acrylic, Morris Klein, Washington Square, photograph and Eileen Eckstein, Finger Painting, photograph.

Tom McCobb, Adirondack Tea Party, oil.

Burton Greenspan, Albert, oil.  Honorable Mention Award for The Plastic Club’s Members’ Medals Show.

The Members’ Medals Show presents 130 artworks throughout three gallery spaces, Alan Klawans explained that volunteers organize and hang the show; the organic mix of paintings, drawings, photos & mixed media often is brilliant with quirky juxtapositions, DoN is confused by the placement of Syd Torchio’s Art Porn, Take 3, a fantastical painting with a grown up fun-house vibe that gets a bit lost in the dim hall, the best view is from the stairs.

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.

Ona Kalstein by her three entries in the Envisioning Henry IV, Part 1  in the Black Box Gallery @ St. Stevens Theater @ 10th & Ludlow Sts, Lantern Theater Company.  Ona designed images signified with memes, language and typography in a trio of drawings; child-like blood drops spurt from the cracked crown, a “garment made of blood” is saturated with droplets while the King wails and blood soaks the pea fields of the Battle of Shrewsbury with red tear-drops, the simple shapes communicating on multiple levels.  Ona designs hippy-style typography into the image as if they are pages in a coloring book for kids with sophisticated adult language.

June Blumberg’s exuberant composition of the hard partying gang hanging around Prince Hal are a buffoonish bunch of clowns - thuggish, scary clowns with swords and big smiles.  Blumberg won an honorable mention for her painting from the jury committee…the naive primitivism & quirky composition is fun but not jokey.

Alden Cole attended Lantern Theater Company’s Art Director, Charles McMann’s, lecture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance in late February since the play had everyone scratching their heads, Henry IV, Part 1 is not one of Shakespeare’s better known plays, and the lecture sent Cole into an exploration of the Seven Deadly Sins and how they relate to the characters in the play - Hal is slovenly, Falstaff is corpulent and Hotspur is haughty - all based on self-portraits.  To develop the composition Alden acts out the facial expressions, photographs himself, composes the scene in Photoshop then paints in oils on an enormous canvas.  Acedia Luxuria Superbia.

Lilliana Didovic, Lilliana Didovic & David Foss @ Envisioning Henry IV, Part 1.  Didovic painted abstract weapons and Foss layered and destroyed paint to visualize wounded flesh, the metaphors and significations are not forced but real.  The exhibition is loosely divided between “abstract” and “representational” art, like a battle of the art styles, David’s painting is visceral and scarred like a mutilated warrior and Lilliana’s gentle coloration is a contradiction in terms - beautiful weapons.

Mina Smith-Segal with her award winning painting, the brutalist watercolor truly captures the tension & fear of battle.

Hal by DoN, oil on canvas.  Photo by Morris Klein.  DoN Brewer used a variety of media to draw from such as fitness magazines, hairy bear blogs and Google to find inspiration for a new painting based on the play, after being creatively blocked around painting, having a theme to work inspired DoN to paint again.  DoN saw Hal through Jersey Shore eyes with “the situation” and “GTL” representing the young prince, the hairy bear as Falstaff and a leather bar of conspirators based on a painting by John Cawse.

Envisioning Henry IV, Part 1 in the Black Box Theater in the Saint Steven’s Theater is running in conjunction with the Lantern Theater Company’s production of the Shakespeare historical play.

2010 Philadelphia Open Studio Tours -  pdf

Register @ http://www.philaopenstudios.com/Opportunities.aspx

Monday @ noon, a ceremony was held in the fabulous Please Touch Museum in the glorious Memorial Hall to introduce a new public art program called Phanatic Around Town, a project assigning artists a life size sculpture of the famous Phillies mascot, The Phanatic.  The anticipation was high as each artist was introduced and stood next to their covered art work - but then one of the sculptures came to life and the new RED Phanatic was introduced and with a flourish all the artists revealed their secret projects including Lillian Didovic and Ronnie Norpel of Da Vinci Art Alliance, the famous art club in South Philly.

Ronnie Norpel, the new Red Phanatic and Lilliana Didovic with their fantastic Phanatic collabo of images and phrases referring to Philly fan favorites from cheese steaks to the Art Museum to the Walt.  The duo’s work will be on display at The Convention Center on Independence Mall!  Lilliana is probably Philly’s biggest fan; the Phanatic Around Town project is the perfect way for Philly to LoVe Lilliana back!

Lilliana Didovic painted her iconic glamorous scenes of Philly paired with Ronnie Norpel’s poems - Norpel has just released her new novel, Baseball Karma & The Constitution Blues on Three Rooms Press.  Ronnie’s book release party is @ PATOU, 4/16, 9:00 PM.

Lilliana’s hubby has been hinting to DoN for months about her progress on the immense project as she worked in a neighbor’s garage; he and their son, Gordon - in full Phillie’s Fan gear - were present for Lilliana’s new pinnacle of success in the Philadelphia art world.

No! it’s not zombies - it’s all the Phanatics with open arms, perfect for embracing all the fans of the Phillies and the City That LoVeS You Back - thanks to the artists for bringing such joy, it really warms the heart to see a giggling little kid get hugged by the big hairy beast -  With LoVe Philadelphia XOXO!!!

The Phillie Phanatic Around Town as the Mad Hatter by Lorna Kent.

Phanatico Latino by Marta Sanchez.

Photography by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.

Envisioning Henry IV, Part 1