Category Archives: Philadelphia Abstract Art

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

Red White & Green @ The Plastic Club

Red White & Green @ The Plastic Club

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

DoN Brewer - light being (Kurt Cobain)
light being (Kurt Cobain), digital photograph, DoN Brewer @ The Plastic Club.

Red White & Green @ The Plastic Club

Michael Guinn, 12th Street Still Life, oil.

Red White & Green @ The Plastic Club

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.

Red White & Green @ The Plastic Club

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.

Red White & Green @ The Plastic Club

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

Red White & Green @ The Plastic Club

Jake Smith, Merry Fish Mess, acrylic and Theodore J. Amick, Untitled, oil.

Merry Fish Mess, everybody!

Da Vinci Art Alliance – Under $200.00

Judy Engle @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

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 Engle @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Judy Engles, photograph.

Judy Engle & DoN Brewer @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

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.

Da Vinci Art Alliance - Under $200.00

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

Francine Strauss @ Da Vinci Art Alliance’s Under $200.00

Gerard DiFalco

Gerard Di Falco, etching @ Da Vinci Art Alliance.

Leon Rainbow

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

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

 Karen McDonnell, Tony Cortosi & Ray Costello @ Da Vinci Art Alliance’s Under $200.00 opening party.

Bill Myers

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.

Jed Williams @ 2424 York Street.

Jed Williams @ 2424 York Street

The Mysterious Distance Between Men of Means, Jed Mauger Williams @ 2424 York Street.

Jed Mauger Williams paintings are in the antechamber of 2424 York Street, the location of the immense Skybox Gallery.  Williams is showing ten works based on themes of his quest for the human figure, pop & mythological and different forms of spirituality.  Manipulating symbols, assigning them spectacular color, signifying icons with saturated layers of various media in tumultuous abandon, Jed makes extraordinary images that are extravagantly engaging.  Even his presentation was deliberately skewed, absurd and charged with a weird cultural angst like some retrofitted beat/pop/rap artist from the past, maybe Paris or Philly, quirky yet hip, kind of ugly beautiful and strange.

Jed Williams @ 2424 York Street

Jed M. Williams – semi-abstract pop images seethe with multiple personalities, modern memes & contemporary style.  Williams’ gallery & studio is @ 6th & Bainbridge but DoN loves how ballsy Jed was in working his way into the hot new art center in Fishtown.

Jed Williams @ 2424 York Street

Greeting From My Home Planet, Jed Williams.

Pop references and graffiti vibes permeate Williams’ paintings yet a darker narrative creates disturbance and tension.  One day DoN picked Jed up @ The PMA, he had a friend deliver returned art work to the gift shop for him to pick up, this way his work was inside the museum like Ray Johnson mailing art to MOMA because he knew they cataloged everything.

David Guinn / Jim Hinz – Meadowlark @ University City Arts League Gallery

Dave Guinn & Jim Hinz @ University City Arts League

David Guinn & Jim Hinz, Hairy Chinese Landscape @ University City Arts League Gallery.

Dave Guinn & Jim Hinz @ University City Arts League

David Guinn & Jim Hinz both painted on the huge paper scroll simultaneously; according to Guinn the idea was to make a mess, not worry, not think about it or make it look good.  Working with big brushes they flowed with their stream of consciousness and let each other paint through and over each others contribution, fearlessly resulting in an abstract expressionist pan-cultural tour de force spanning an entire wall of the gallery.  Jim Hinz told DoN it’s rewarding to work with David Guinn because he’s so easy, willing to mix aesthetics, brings lots of collaborative enthusiasm and let him, “do whatever I wanted to do.”

Dave Guinn & Jim Hinz @ University City Arts League

Recovery, Psychedelic Birthday @ Facing the Void, works on paper @ University City Arts League Gallery, Jim Hinz & David Guinn.

Dave Guinn & Jim Hinz @ University City Arts League

Purple Sandpiper, David Guinn.  David is famous for his bird paintings whether you know it or not; as one of the most popular muralist in Philly he almost always includes birds in his wall paintings such as the Four Seasons series, the Morris Animal Refuge Mural and the dual mural @ 34th & Baltimore Streets.

Dave Guinn & Jim Hinz @ University City Arts League

Jim Hinz, Because You Have To Say It, digital print.

Dave Guinn & Jim Hinz @ University City Arts League

Jim Hinz, The Big Man, digital print from brush & ink on paper.

Dave Guinn & Jim Hinz @ University City Arts League

Mythical Mountain Fountain by David Guinn & Jim Hinz echoes the collaborative paintings the duo created including architectural elements, blobby swirls and real liquid dribbling wetly over the ceramic bowl as if one of their paintings materialized fully formed out of their imaginations.

Dave Guinn & Jim Hinz @ University City Arts League

Jim Hinz & David Guinn @ the opening of their collaborative exhibit, Meadowlark, @ University City Arts League.  The team worked well together because they made no mistakes, felt free to experiment and fail – a lesson we can all learn from.

Ren & Win, “Mysterious Lines” @ Smile Gallery

Ralph “Ren” Dillard @ Smile

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

Ralph “Ren” Dillard @ Smile

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 @ Smile

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.

Ralph “Ren” Dillard @ Smile

 Ren Dillard, Ren’s Labyrinth, oil.

Ren & Win @ Smile Gallery

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.

Vichaya “Win” Mukdamanee @ Smile

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

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.