Category Archives: Philadelphia Abstract Art

Non-representational art in all media including drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, prints, video, on-line, writing, etc.

Natural

Natural Flow, the Paintings of Gerry Tuten, John Thornton Films

“Through March 12, 2016, The Wayne Art Center is hosting a dazzling exhibition of landscape based abstractions by metalsmith turned painter Gerry Tuten. Although these paintings have echoes of DeKooningTàpies, Soutine, Cy Twombley, and the late garden paintings of Monet, they remain resolutely her own.” – John Thornton

The purpose of The Wayne Art Center is to provide both instruction in the studio, and to build appreciation of the visual and performing arts through our many exhibits, lectures and programs. The Center affords artists an interdisciplinary venue to share, learn, exhibit and perform. Specifically, The Wayne Art Center carries out its mission in the following ways:

  • By providing instruction in all phases of the fine arts, contemporary crafts, music, culinary arts and drama.
  • By offering exhibitions, performances and special events for artists and community of the greater Main Line area and Delaware Valley.
  • By reaching out to our community with instructional programs for persons with special needs. These programs use art for therapeutic value.
  • By providing a gathering place for artists and students to both share and lend support toward improving the cultural climate.

Gerry Tuten, Natural Flow

“My painting is a venture inside and outside of myself seeking freshness and change. I thrive on challenge, action and awakening in my painting. I am intensely curious, exploring the micro and macro levels of the natural ecology. When the image begins to “break up” or erupt, my excitement rises. I transfer this excitement and freedom to the viewer through movement, color and texture of paint over surfaces. Here in the process of painting I allow myself to break all the rules. Trusting my intuition I can let go of the “work of art”. The painting is just a place to free myself – to surrender to process. The medium of paint speaks stronger than words. Clarity is distilled out of movement and change. The paintings come as gifts.

The elements of earth, water, fire, air and space give form to all life and play a prominent role in my inspiration. By exploring organic natural forms and the visceral textures of paint with spontaneity and freedom I play at mark-making and application while trying to stay ahead of my grasping mind. Through close observation my art explores imagery living in the natural world – insects, birds, reptiles, mammals, plants, trees, flowers and minerals in a myriad ways. I am overcome by the abundance and beauty of nature. If I can allow my paintings to run free then I can find delight and joy.

My aim is a constant search for subtle and not so subtle energies in our visual world as well as the tension between things and expression. Painting is a way for me to move through life having a relationship with the Beloved. The paintings are the record I leave behind of my journey into spirit. They are in gratitude for my life. – Gerry TutenJune 2015

The Wayne Art Center
413 Maplewood Ave., Wayne, PA 19087
610-688-3553 · 610-995-0478 fax

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Membership

Philadelphia Museum of Art Introduces New Membership Program for Artists

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is introducing two new memberships designed especially for artists. Starting this month, the Museum will provide a free lifetime membership to each of the approximately 2,000 living artists whose work is represented in the permanent collection. In addition, the Museum will initiate a new discounted Artist Membership, available to all working artists. To launch this program, the Museum is offering the Artist Membership at a reduced price from February 24-28, 2016, during the first five days of the major exhibition International Pop.

Timothy Rub, The George D. Widener Director and CEO of the Museum, said: “Artists are the heart and soul of any art museum, and we must recognize them as such. The Museum should always be accessible to them because they draw inspiration from our collections and, in turn, help us to inspire others.”

An Artist Membership is available for anyone working in any of the many media that are represented in the collection. Artists will be asked to show how they share their work with the public, at the time of the purchase of a membership. This can take the form of a website, Instagram account, Etsy page, Facebook, or publicity material from an exhibition. With the purchase of an Artist Membership, artists will receive unlimited free admission to the Main building, Rodin Museum, the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, plus the two historic houses in Fairmount Park, Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove, managed by the Museum.

The membership will provide admission and special exhibition tickets for all children (18 and under), previews of select exhibitions, members-only tours, trips to regional cultural attractions, programs presented by artists, curators, authors, and scholars, e-newsletters and a discounted $10 general admission for guests. Special parking rates in the Museum’s garage include the first hour free and $8 for the next four hours. Artist Members will also receive 10% off on Museum dining and shopping during every visit, a 20% off Store coupon, a 20% off Granite Hill restaurant coupon, and 20% reduction in the cost of educational programs and audio tours.

On Saturday, February 27, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will host an Artist Membership Welcome Lounge from noon until 5:00 p.m. Activities that day include a group photograph that is scheduled at 1:00 p.m. in the Great Stair Hall, and The Rose Susan Hirschhorn Behrend Lecture: Roadmap to International Pop, presented at 2:00 p.m. by Darsie Alexander. Ms. Alexander is the lead curator of the exhibition International Pop and Executive Director of the Katonah Museum of Art. She will be joined by Erica F. Battle, the John Alchin and Hal Marryatt Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to discuss the ways in which Pop artists took the world by storm.

Artist Membership Rates

FREE Artists whose work is represented in the Museum’s permanent collection.

$40 One-year Artist Membership. (This membership is available for $25 if purchased at the Museum from February 24 to 28, 2016.)

On Saturday, February 27, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will host an Artist Membership Welcome Lounge from noon until 5:00 p.m. Activities that day include a group photograph that is scheduled at 1:00 p.m., and a lecture with Darsie Alexander Roadmap to International Pop, presented at 2:00 p.m.

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The Philadelphia Museum of Art is Philadelphia’s art museum. We are a landmark building. A world-renowned collection. A place that welcomes everyone. We bring the arts to life, inspiring visitors—through scholarly study and creative play—to discover the spirit of imagination that lies in everyone. We connect people with the arts in rich and varied ways, making the experience of the Museum surprising, lively, and always memorable. We are committed to inviting visitors to see the world—and themselves—anew through the beauty and expressive power of the arts.

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Wonder

NGCB – EPHEMERAL from Michael McDermott on Vimeo.

Don’t you wonder sometimes?

I’m really honored to be working with Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet again this season. Our new work EPHEMERAL is our grandest to date. Seven dancers, lighting design by Dutch artist Katinka Marac and an evocative score of environmental elements and sonic stillness.

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EPHEMERAL
Christ Church Neighborhood House Theater, Philadelphia
February 19 – 21, 2016. Tickets can be purchased online also running concurrently will be a dance-film festival that Nora has curated.

David Bowie Night

michael2

Last month planet Earth lost one of its a greatest visionary artists of the last century: David Bowie. David’s music and style had a huge influence on me. As I tweeted the morning of his death: “He taught the world it was ok to be different, it was ok to experiment, it was ok to change.”

In two weeks I’ll be part of an all-star night of Philadelphia musicians playing Bowie’s music. I’ll be playing keyboards with some (very talented) friends. I don’t want to spoil the surprise but we’ll be playing two songs from my favorite Bowie album as well as his last epic artistic statement.

DAVID BOWIE TRIBUTE NIGHT
Thursday, February 11at 8 PM
The Fire
412 W Girard Ave, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19123
$8 / 21+

Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State

michael mcdermott, Don't you wonder sometimes?

March 19, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. – March 20, 2016 at 7:00 a.m.

the fidget space 1714 N Mascher Street Philadelphia
$10 – $20 sliding scale

This is going to be a 12-hour long concert of sleep music! Bring a sleeping bag, pillow and blanket, enjoy some dream tea and snuggle in for 12-hours of dream drones and tape loop lullabies. I’ll be performing ambient music all night with visuals from Alex Bond focusing on themes of Bardo, reincarnation, Dream Yoga and sleep (un)consciousness.

To get a taste of the kind of music you’ll hear, please check out my 2014 sleep music album, Quiescent. It’s an eight-hour mix of music for the four sleep cycles.

Thank you to Michael McDermott for the content of this post.

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Paper

Domenic DiStefano Memorial Works on Paper OpenBarbara DiLorenzo, Moments Before Opening, First Prize

2016 Annual Domenic DiStefano Memorial Works on Paper Open Juried Exhibition, Philadelphia Sketch Club, January 2 – 24

Reception: Sunday, January 10, 2016, 2:00 – 4:00PM where cash awards and Philadelphia Sketch Club Medal will be presented to the winners.

Barbara DiLorenzo is the author/illustrator of Renato and the Lion (Viking Children’s Books, 2017). She studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design and painting at the Art Students League of New York. In 2014 she received the Dorothy Markinko Scholarship Award from the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature. She is a signature member in the New England Watercolor Society as well as the Society of Illustrators. Currently she teaches at the Arts Council of Princeton, and is co-president of the Children’s Book Illustrators Group of New York. Barbara is represented by Rachel Orr of the Prospect Agency.”

“DOMENIC DISTEFANO is well-known for his bold and free style of transparent watercolor. An elected member of many prominent art groups, DiStefano has served on the Board of the American Watercolor Society (where he is a member of the prestigious Dolphin Fellowship), and as president of the Philadelphia Sketch Club.

His paintings have received numerous awards. He has served as a juror and given demonstrations and workshops for art groups in the United States and Canada. He is the author of the bookPainting Dynamic Watercolors. One of his paintings appeared in the White House Historical Association’s Calendar for the year 2000 – Rockport Art Association

Jurors:

Domenic DiStefano Memorial Works on Paper Open

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Cairns

Brian Dickerson, Cairns, with an Essay by Miriam Seidel,  John Thornton Films

Brian Dickerson is an artist who knows how to wander, and how to make his way through uncertainty. Seeing the stone cairns of rural Ireland, he recognized them for what they were: mediators of mysterious places, markers for the lost, messages from the past. In Cairns, his new series of constructed paintings, he brings this understanding into a new form.” –Miriam Seidel

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