Category Archives: Collage

A collage (From the French: coller, to glue) is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole.

A collage may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made papers, portions of other artwork, photographs and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper or canvas. The origins of collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but this technique made a dramatic reappearance in the early 20th century as an art form of novelty.

The term collage derives from the French “coller” meaning “glue”.[1] This term was coined by both Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in the beginning of the 20th century when collage became a distinctive part of modern art.
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Structure and Gesture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Ona Kalstein @ Structure and Gesture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Ona Kalstein @ Structure and Gesture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance.

Structure and Gesture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Paintings by Jane Liang, photo by John Benigno @ Structure and Gesture a Da Vinci Art Alliance event.

Sandi Nieman Lovitz Structure and Gesture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Sandi Nieman Lovitz @ Structure and Gesture, a Da Vinci Art Alliance event. Lovitz won 3rd prize for her painting on plexi with vivid color, bold brushwork and scratching away of paint, the result is very seductive and beautiful, eclipsing the other paintings in the room as far as brightness and movement goes.

Structure and Gesture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Structure and Gesture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance – W. Lukens, E. Lukens & S. Myers, the tableau of earth tones contrasts with the brighter color creating a subtle ebb & flow of emotion, narrative and excitement through the gallery.

Bud Boehlinger Structure and Gesture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Bud Boehringer @ Structure and Gesture, a Da Vinci Art Alliance event.  Boehringer‘s painting was a jury favorite and is now attracting attention as a prime example of contemporary Philadelphia expressionist painting with a cool vibe, accessible abstraction and joyful abandon.

Structure and Gesture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Lilliana Didovic, Sandi Neiman Lovitz, Pat Wilson-Schmid…there are more than 20 Philadelphia artists included in this exuberant show celebrating art making of all kinds.  The Da Vinci Art Alliance continues to offer cohesive, thematic shows which challenge the artist and the viewer to see, think and communicate more.

Carol Wisker Structure and Gesture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Carol Wisker, Marilyn, mixed media @ Structure and Gesture a Da Vinci Art Alliance event.  Carol Wisker turns ordinary wire screen mesh into a luxuriously lustrous confection, earning her second prize in the juried competition.

Lois Schlachter Structure and Gesture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Lois Schlachter @ Structure and Gesture, a Da Vinci Art Alliance event.  Lois is super-charging her art career after a long run as exhibitions co-chair at The Philadelphia Sketch Club with surrealistically changed landscapes reminiscent of Charles Dumuth over-lapping super-flat planes of color, defining spacial concepts.  Check out her web-site for all the events Lois is participating in; even though she won an honorable mention for the above print, DoN found her large painting in the Da Vinci show to be much more enthralling.  Visit this art gallery gem in South Philly, with the collection of outstanding work by a diverse group of artists, to see what DoN means.

Structure and Gesture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Structure and Gesture @ Da Vinci Art Alliance – check out this line-up of paintings, drawing and print by a cluster of influential Philly artists – Lois Schlachter, Roz Bloom and Alden Cole. 

The Structure and Gesture exhibition features the artwork of:

J. Benigno, R. Bloom, S. Bloom, B. Boehringer, A. Cole, L. Didovic, J. Engle, D. Foss, O. Kalstein, C. Kelly, Y. Lee, J. Liang, M. Loippo, W. Lukens, E. Lukens, L. Mills, S. Myers, S. Neiman-Lovitz, L. Schlacheter, A. Strosser, P. Wilson-Schmid, C. Wisker.

 

Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall

Deanna McLaughlin Dysfunction Furniture @ Art in City Hall

Deanna McLaughlin & Jack Larimore @ Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall, Philadelphia.

Juror, Jack Larimore told DoN he’s a furniture maker first, it’s sculptural yet it’s furniture.  Larimore liked seeing work by Philly region artists he had not seen before especially with an open ended concept like Dysfunctional Furniture – become part of the furniture, the piece above doubles as a font.  Even things we perceive as being dysfunctional may have a function we are unaware of, a great metaphor for life.

Artist Deanna McLaughlin carried a matching mini shopping cart hand-bag to match her lounge chair made from a re-cycled shopping card and thrift store leather belts, the social implications of weaving our own furniture and learning from the homeless is palpable.

Holly E. Smith Dysfunction Furniture @ Art in City Hall

Holly E. Smith, Deceased Vole Coffee Table, wood, chair parts @ Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall.  Smith told DoN the sculpture started with the tail and gradually became an assemblage of objects, eventually an homage to dead voles.  Artist Ted Warchal commented on how the legs of the sculpture are appropriately sized, larger in the rear, smaller in the front.

Hanah Fink Dysfunction Furniture @ Art in City Hall

Hannah Fink @ Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall, Philadelphia.

Michelle Post Dysfunction Furniture @ Art in City Hall

Michelle Post @ Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall.  Post uses salt & pepper shakers, some quite collectible, like sequins on her altar-like tissue box, a bizarre bedazzling of function, craft and stream of consciousness.

Lauren Frazer Dysfunction Furniture @ Art in City Hall

Lauren Frazer, Beauty is Only a Promise of Happiness, fabric, stuffing, plywood, synthetic human hair.  “Furniture plays an important role creating theatrical context for my sculptures”.  Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall.

Herbert Simon Dysfunction Furniture @ Art in City Hall

Herbert Simon, Chair Forward, welded steel, found objects. Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall

Kay Healy Dysfunction Furniture @ Art in City Hall

Kay Healy, Stuffed, screen-printed fabric.  Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall.

Burnell Yow! Dysfunction Furniture @ Art in City Hall

Burnell Yow! The Puzzling Love Life of the Superhero, mixed media.  Yow!s mirror reflects the puzzle of what we see in the mirror and the quest to get all the pieces of life fit together, even if it’s just because they touch without matching.  Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall.

Juror Albert LeCoff said Dysfunctional Furniture re-emphasizes what a strong region Philadelphia is for sculpture with an innovative use of material, one of the real surprises was Kay Healy’s fabric sculptures and the use of materials.

Art in City Hall is a great civic program with a new art space in Philadelphia City Hall of the 1st Floor; coordinator of Art in City Hall, Tu Huynh is featured on the web site for The National Arts Program.  Thank you Tu for bringing art to the forefront of the civic consciousness in Philly and national attention to our artists.

Dysfunctional Furniture
December 16 – February 25.
Juried by Jack Larimore and Albert LeCoff and featuring artists: Gretchen Altabef, Carlos Avendano, Michael J. Brolly, Charna Eisner, Hannah Fink, Laura Frazure, Kay Healy, Lydia Hunn, Tara Inman-Bellofatto, Jack Larimore, Henry Loustau, Deanna McLaughlin, Ife Nii Owoo, Michelle Post, Matthew Alden Price, Leo Razzi, Maria Schneider, Adam Shuman, Herbert Simon, William Skrobut, Holly Smith, Chris Todd, Michael Wiley and Burnell Yow!
Art Gallery at City Hall, Room 116 and
1st and 2nd Floor display cases.

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

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists - The Imagined: Gregory Brellochs, Danielle Bursk, Brook Hine

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Danielle Bursk @ The Center for Emerging Visual ArtistsThe 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

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

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

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

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

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.

Toni Nash @ Dumpster Divers on South Street

Toni Nash @ Dumpster Divers on South Street

Toni Nash, Leaning Tower of Brass @ Dumpster Divers Art Gallery on South Street.

Toni Nash @ Dumpster Divers on South Street

Toni Nash, Hand of Time @ Dumpster Divers on South Street.

Toni Nash explained to DoN that her found object construction expresses the concept that people always look to their hands to acknowledge the passage of time.   Nash uses hand imagery in her work, “…because what can you do without hands?  A baby see it’s own hand, I see stuff and it talks to me, then I interpret what it says.”

Toni Nash @ Dumpster Divers on South Street

Toni Nash, Last Sunset of the Millenium @ Dumpster Divers on South Street.

Nash was intrigued with the last sunset of the 20th century but not the first sunrise, she became involved in an art project involving Legg Eggs and transforming the Titanic ship to look like a rocket and forgot to watch the sun come up on the new millennium.  It’s fun chatting with Toni in the eclectic gallery on South Street with the collection of art made from recycled materials surrounding us and hipsters wandering in off the street to check out the unusual art, Nash hosted a long running talk show in the Philly region and has zillions of stories to tell about meeting stars.  The gallery is decorated for the holidays with some wack-a-zoid toy assemblages which are enthralling kids on South Street, stop in and meet the artist, she’s really cool.

Deja Vu – 6th Annual Juried Competition @ Off the Wall Gallery

Deja Vu - 6th Annual Juried Competition @ Off the Wall Gallery

 

Deja Vu - 6th Annual Juried Competition @ Off the Wall Gallery

 

Deja Vu6th Annual Juried Competition @ Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Frank’s.   DoN is honored to be represented in this show, the requirements were stringent and the jury big league. the opening party is Thursday, December 2th, 2010, 7 – 9:00 PM.

 

DoN Brewer Deja Vu - 6th Annual Juried Competition @ Off the Wall Gallery

 

DoN Brewer, I Was Here, digital photograph, inkjet print @ Deja Vu 6th Annual Juried Competition @ Off the Wall Gallery.