Category Archives: Center for Emerging Visual Artists

Bohyun Yoon: Embody @ Center for Emerging Visual Artists on Rittenhouse Square

Bohyun Yoon has created an experience design in the chic art gallery in the Barclay Building, every surface of the gallery is activated with a confounding display of intellectual design, superb craftsmanship, historical references and anthropomorphic symbolism vibrating in unison like a strum on a guitar. Every nuance is considered as the exploded little bodies, each element hand crafted from custom molds, coalesce as shadows of babies cast by a single bright white light bulb on the walls. But, when the light bulb begins making a circular motion, the tiny doll parts swinging with air movement, the whole room suddenly becomes a dream scape of dancing babies, inducing a startling sensation of floating.

On the right is the artist, Bohyun Yoon. Yoon decided to create each doll part mold because he didn’t want to violate copyrights, he told DoN the process took more than 5 months. Each carefully crafted element of the installation is suspended in a way that the sum of the parts creates a whole experience design, Yoon told DoN he wished to,”…create a dialog not a monolog.”

Yoon created these mirror masks to help him learn English by seeing all parts of the face he was listening to; the face recognition technology in DoN‘s camera went wacko. Bohyun Yoon is an art professor at Tyler, is a glass artist (the water filled glass bowl hat and accompanying video is idiosyncratic to the extreme), a video artist and photographer; Amie Potsic explained to DoN that Bohyun Yoon, “is smart and resourceful in his use of materials.”

Buhyun Yoon, Reforming, 9 channel video with sound, 4 minutes, dimensions variable @ Center for Emerging Visual Artists in the Barclay Building on Philadelphia’s beautiful Rittenhouse Square. This Friday, 4/15/11, is the Center City District art crawl, the perfect opportunity to experience Bohyun Yoon: Embody.

Photos by DoN.

Introduction 2011 – Center for Emerging Visual Artists New Development Fellows @ Moore College of Art & Design Widener Memorial Foundation Gallery

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Kimberly Witham @ Introduction 2011 – Center for Emerging Visual Artists New Development Fellows @ Moore College of Art & Design Widener Memorial Foundation Gallery, Feb 2nd – 19th, 2011.

Kimberly Witham told DoN people presuppose she Photoshop’s her work but her mise-en-scène photographs are real still-life compositions, elements of which have a limited shelf life. The pictures of pretty headless birds in cups and on plates dredge up memories of dead birds on the street and questions of why they fell from the sky. About half of the photos included in this ground-breaking exposition are film, half digital, a seem-less transition between mediums made transparent by Witham’s virtuosity, she’s a professor of photography at Bucks County College, a school with a long tradition of excellence in photography education. The road kill element is shocking and beautiful, a sweet, sad commentary on urban wild life.

Maggie Mills, Crops, oil on linen. Maggie and DoN got into an animated discussion about”fracking“, another painting in the show is titled Frack, the practice of injecting noxious chemicals into the Earth’s crust to break it up and release “natural gas“. This clean fuel puts unknown dangers into the families and communities who live where fracking takes place by releasing toxic chemicals into the water table, scary shit, Mills’ painting shows an adolescent crouching, head to knees, while visions of matrix-like drills descend from the sky.

Daniel Kornrumpf uses fiber like colored pencils for his portraits of on-line social network profie pics he’s found over time – a long time since the densely embroidered portraits may take months to produce, unlike a drawing which may take an afternoon. The isolated faces floating in large blank fields of fine linen examines the connection of the isolationism of social networks and the self-portraits that make you think, “Really? That’s their best look?” Instead of attracting attention, ridicule and mockery may result, by the way Plenty of Fish often advertises in the DoNArTNeWs sidebar, please, click through, Valentine’s Day is coming up. Kornkrumpf will continue his unique fiber portraits but is pursuing drawing and painting for the upcoming show at the Ice Box in late spring.

Daniel Kornrumpf

Mami Kato created these futuristic sculptures by unraveling rope she imports from her home, Akita Japan,creating domes of fiber reminiscent of the rice fields at home after harvest and clumps of stems line the horizon. Kato surprised her audience by picking up the light weight, yet densely compact, domes, revealing the Trompe-l’il.

On the left is Alison Stigora, represented in this show with a magnificent drawing of a giant cosmic crystalline flower in mixed media including drawing, prints, chalk and wax but is also in an awesome show at LGTripp Gallery in Old City through February 26th. Next to her is Maggie Mills, behind Mami is a collage of digital prints by Jennifer Williams that is a totally steal-able idea – who knew, collage could be so cool.

Lewis Colburn, The Pursuits of a Gentleman, mixed media installation with ten photographs and steamer trunk. This assemblage was a fave of Spike Howard, Philly’s finest wind farm engineer, for it’s sense of time travel, irony and elegance. DoN loves how CFEVA treats photographers as true artists who belong at the table with painters and sculptors.

Arden Bendler Browning @ Introduction 11

A Fishtown native who’s studio is in the Crane Arts Center, Browning obviously takes full advantage of the large work space to create massive paintings, this color field of speeding urban images, like you see out of the corner of your eye as you zoom down the Expressway, is abstract expressionist yet a kind of contemporary cubism with obtuse angles and cracked spacial warps. DoN easily sees Arden Bendler Browning taking the opportunity of the fellowship that CFEVA offers and running with it, her work is complex yet accessible, perfect for contemporary collectors.

DoN inquired of new fellow Don Edler as to how he came to win the CFEVA fellowship and he generously explained how he meticulously researches grants and awards, looks at winners of previous competitions, discovers which other awards or grants they’ve received and applies for them, too. By making applying for grants part of his business plan, Edler makes it almost sound easy and is proof that persistence, patience, targeted yet broad research into funding, exhibition and publicity works like a charm.

Congratulations to the new fellows!

DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog

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CFEVA Introduction 2012
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The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – The Imagined: Gregory Brellochs, Danielle Bursk & Brooke Hine

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Brooke Hine, Shadow, resin, zip-ties, acrylic @ The Center for Emerging Visual Artists, 15th & Locust Streets, Philadelphia.

The Imagined show is over now, the Center for Emerging Visual Artists is on holiday break, it’s Christmas Eve, 2010, and DoN is grateful and thankful for the excellent art memories the good people at CFEVA generate throughout the year. If it wasn’t for the team at CFEVA, a huge gap between artists and the public would be difficult to straddle; CFEVA manages Philadelphia Open Studio Tours as well as educational seminars, fellowships, art exhibition opportunities and more. Art girlfriend, Brooke Hine Facebook-ed DoN, last week, reminding him to stop in the gallery before her art show came down the next day; the CFEVA team was having a meeting in their underground lair, so DoN had total private access to the uber-cool, sleek, modern space arrayed with master-works by true art stars. The Imagined is laser-focused on craft, narrative and virtuosity with drawings, sculpture and mixed media; the art resonates with each other, feeding the sense of being lost under-ground, away from it all, alone with mysterious thoughts and things.

Brooke Hine, Philly Blossom Series, wood, acrylic, resin, porcelain @ The Imagined, CFEVA Gallery.

Brooke Hine.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things, porcelain, slip, glaze, stain, cat whiskers @ The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – The Imagined: Gregory Brellochs, Danielle Bursk, Brooke Hine.

Brooke Hine‘s work is paradoxical: hard & soft, internal & external, beautiful & ugly, light & dark, whimsical & creepy, preternaturally intelligent & child-like naivete, technical virtuosity & inquisitive exploration and she’s an artist that is one tough, sexy, street-smart, chick with a thick skin and soft heart. DoN LoVeS Brooke Hine! No cats were harmed in the production of this blog post.

Danielle Bursk @ The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – The Imagined.

Is this cool or what? Danielle’s drawings are like no-one else’s, instantly recognizable as a Bursk, yet each heroic drawing holds it’s own mystery and unfathomable conception of consumption of time and energy.

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – The Imagined: Gregory Brellochs, Danielle Bursk, Brooke Hine.

Gregory Brellochs, Ganglions, 48″ x 48″, graphite on paper.

Gregory Brellochs, Sensafe, graphite on paper, 52″ x 217″ x 70″.

You know how sometime you see art and can’t imagine it in your home? Brelloch’s immersive drawing is so magical, the feeling of primitive forests from dark tales of earlier times matched with the subtle surrealism is quite seductive, like everyone should have an art chamber to meditate in.

DoN looks forward to the New Year and the continued success and optimism for the future of art in the Philadelphia region The Center for Emerging Visual Artists provides to artists, collectors, enthusiasts, educators, businesses and government. The services CFEVA offers to the community are essential, consider supporting their efforts by attending shows, spending money on art and making donations, they deserve it.

Jon Paul Hammond

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I first met Jon Paul Hammond on an art crawl to the galleries one Friday evening a few years ago; somehow, without a car, he could travel to multiple venues all across the city in one evening and have a glass of wine with the art-erati, himself a visual sensation drawing attention from the art. Jon Paul was a culture vulture, like me, and we instantly became confidantes, dishing the dirt on the pretensions and hoaxes we often encountered as well as superlatives for thought-provoking art we liked. It was comforting to know that when I ventured out alone to an art show, I was sure to see a friendly face, a hug & kiss and a funny anecdote from a friend. Jon Paul is missed in the Philly art community and his passing reminds me to re-invigorate my art adventures, support my artist friends, search out emerging talent, explore new neighborhoods and challenge my endurance because tomorrow I may be gone. A lovely memorial webpage has been established in Jon Paul’s honor with thoughtful commentaries from his friends.

DoN Brewer & Jon Paul Hammond @ The Warwick Hotel’s, The Coffee Bar, DoN‘s “light beings Art Talk“, Summer 2010. Jon Paul Hammond offered me encouragement to continue making art and have pride in what I do; what is an art world without knowledgeable art enthusiasts? I’ll miss Jon Paul’s exuberance and style and his insightful opinions as I explore and report on the Philly arts scene.

Photo by Danny Reilly.

light being (Jon Paul Hammond), digital photograph, DoN Brewer, 2010.

Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2010 – Fishtown & Kensington

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Rachel Citrino – Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2010. DoN called Karen McDonnell, the Queen of Hip-Hop Graffiti, to ask where she recommended to start on the last day of the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours, 2010, West of Broad and she immediately replied, “Rachel Citrino!” lola & DoN drove out Girard Ave,. past Frankfort Ave. to the east end where Rachel has a studio in a beautiful old Philadelphia row-house. The long, narrow interior is filled with Rachel’s mono-prints, paintings, photographs and prints, her brazen color and appealing compositions look great on her pumpkin colored walls; chatting at Rachel’s kitchen island about her process and projects is a memorable highlight from an art saturated weekend.

Rachel Citrino‘s studio in Fishtown, a short walk from Girard Ave., is filled with bright color wall-to-wall.

Piety Choi @ Highwire Gallery

Kensington was our next art stop, a short drive up Frankord Ave, to a cool cluster of galleries and studios on a warm afternoon. Highwire Gallery is showing a group show called Exploring Invisible Piety Choi, Maria DiMauro, & Karen Steenwhich, a totally entrancing collection of enigmatic paintings, Choi’s recognizable style is so calm and thoughtful, her multiples are dreamy, the symbolism drawing DoN into her creative world with ease.

Piety Choi, Encountering Beauty @ Highwire Gallery in Kensington.

David Stanley Aponte @ BYOPrint.

According to co-founder Lauren Fischer, Aponte is a master print-making guru with a wealth of knowledge to contribute to this unique operation – a community print-making shop you can rent by the hour or the day, be a full-time member or just hang out when you’re in the mood. The BYOPrint team will help you realize your dream of an intaglio, woodcut, silkscreen, monotype, collograph and more; Lauren told DoN, “We’re about making prints happen.” The space in a loft overlooking a motorcycle repair shop is cool bonus.

Lauren Fischer‘s workspace @ BYOPrints in Kensington.

BYOPrints, the DIY all-purpose print shop in Kensington participated in this year’s Philadelphia Open Studio Tour.

Extra Extra bookshop & gallery showcased A Diamond is Forever – Alexandr Skarlinski , Daniel G Baird , Dave Murray , Jordan Tate & Michelle Ceja – above in the corner is 85% of All the Art I Made Turned into A Diamond by Dave Murray, a glamorously spare presentation of an en-cased diamond with a story. “Extra Extra is an artist-run space dedicated to the exposure of under-represented artists challenging the limits of the visual and performing arts.” The multi-media and light art is enthralling, this space is one to re-visit and be rejuvenated.

Abbey Lee Sarver @ Extra Extra bookshop & gallery in Kensington – her website is groovy, too. Sarver’s mixed media pieces in the loft bookshop is awesomely engrossing, playing mind games with generic archetypes transmuted into futuristic artifacts. The bookshop sells handmade and special edition books, curator Derek French told lola & DoN that the artist collective, a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization, set up shop in Philly instead of their hometown Baltimore because it’s not as combative here.

Part Time Studios in Kensington featuring recent work by in-house studio artists. The cluster of art spaces in Kensington allows young artists to work at their art by teaming together and re-imagining the old world work spaces into new millennium intellectual outposts in Philly’s north-east.

Stopping for coffee at Rocket Cat Cafe across from the Warlocks Motorcycle Club made a cool continuum of the art smart vibe we’d been experiencing all day, sitting and watching hipsters pet their beards is a fun past-time, too.

Our final stop of the day was the Studios at 2424 East York, where we met two fine artists that the fine people at POST had arranged to display their art in the halls of the terrific arts building anchored by the uber-cool Skybox Gallery, Ellen Abraham and Marge Feldman took full advantage of the long hall showing a large collection of paintings; Ellen Abraham‘s style is cartoon expressionistic and Marge Feldman‘s God’s-eye view paintings are other-worldly yet familiar. As it turns out Abraham is a fellow member of Da Vinci Art Alliance, DoN encouraged her to enter the upcoming Decameron show. It’s so great that POST helped artists to find great new spaces to make them part of the famous art crawl, if only there was more time (and energy) to explore all the hidden art treasures to be found throughout all of Philly’s neighborhoods.

Ellen Abraham @ Studios @ 2424 York Street during the annual Philadelphia Open Studio Tour.

Marge Feldman @ Studios @ 2424 York Street during the annual Philadelphia Open Studio Tour.

Thank you so much to the Center for Emerging Visual Artists and Philadelphia Open Studio Tours for creating such a wonderful experience design, the catalog with maps is a keeper, the posters around town were divine especially when DoN spotted an artist he knows in the picture, the advertising and promotion was probably the best ever by a local arts organization with a terrific web resource, inviting all of the city to come out and support their local artists.

Photos by DoN.

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