Kim Martin @ The Plastic Club. Kim leads an early morning workshop on Tuesdays at the club featuring extended poses. The result is magnificent works like this portrait of Bob Jackson; Martin’s exuberant use of color and expressive gesture is fun to be around.
Glenn Benge, Reclining Figure, chalk @ The Plastic Club.
Workshop show @ The Plastic Club. The venue is one of the few accepting all work which is then juried.
Correction – the show is down. Next – Models as Artists.
Nancy Barch, Chained Mail, mixed media @ Grow – Off the Wall Gallery. The use of disposable materials such as the ceiling tile and old slides reek with hidden meaning and memes. Slides are so anachronistic and ceiling tiles, even though functional at insulation and sound-proofing, are out of style. Barch’s piece sends obtuse mixed messages stimulating social consciousness neurons to fire in the brain.
Grow @ Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Frank’s Bar.
Alisa Fox, Jars, mixed media.
One of the cool things @ Off the Wall is the corner display case where more delicate constructions can be installed. The team of Jody and Togo extend much effort in branding, soliciting, promoting and selling art from publicity to art cards and posters to installation, the production is always top notch. Off the Wall has hosted hundreds of local aspiring and established artists in their thoughtful exhibitions.
Karl Olsen, Free Compost, mixed media including ingredients from mustard to absinthe.
Grow is on display through August 7th and includes work by 30 artists including members of the Plastic Club, Photographic Society of Philadelphia and other regional arts groups. Frank’s has been an outpost for many Plastic Club members and recently Anders Hansen hosted a Salon at The Plastic Club to discuss the Grow show. In branding the show, curator Jody Sweitzer and manager Togo Travalia, put a new spin on the current “green” trend with a focus on recycled materials and ideas.
Karl Olsen used phylo dough, Julia Fisichella‘s amazing photoshop collages are inspired, Ed Snyder’s floral photograph exquisitely illuminated the concept with an image pinched from nature, Veronica Schmude‘s moody interior photograph is brimming with stolen narrative (Veronica is the guest speaker at this Tuesday’s PSoP lecture series at The Plastic Club). The Salon was lively: Shoshanna Aron (just back from Israel) pointed out how being “green” is a new concept – that the old paradigm was consumerism, Bob Bohne introduced the topic of the healing power of art and the importance of community outreach, Alan Clawens highlighted how artists resist creating new work for a theme show and try to squeeze old works into new parameters, DoN mentioned bricolage and Burnell Yow!s amazing show at Smile. The group sipped wine and chatted until sunset and the party moved to Frank’s. The discussion helped DoN realize that thinking outside the box isn’t always the best approach – sometimes all you need is the box.
Ellen Benson, “Snow Day“, mixed media.
The Dumpster Divers “The Games We Played Remade” @ The Historic Smithville Mansion inhabiting the game rooms (the pool room & bowling alley) of the 1875 estate is a melange of mixed media, metaphors, memories and wishes. Alden Cole‘s Chinese Checkers is delightfully addictive, Ellen Benson‘s mixed media works are displayed with room to breath and absorb, Burnell Yow! squishes Barbie heads with badminton rackets – Super Fun!
Burnell Yow! @ “The Games We Played Remade” in The Historic Smithville Mansion.
The bowling alley of the historic space is a perfect venue for the show; The Games We Played Remade is exhibiting some of Philly & SJs best mixed media, green artists in a quirky theme seemlessly matched with a truly beautiful space (there’s a rose garden and a Moose head in the card room) is definitely worth the short drive on Route 38.
The Workshops Show @ The Philadelphia Sketch Club. The reception is Sunday, May 17th, 2-4:00 PM.
The standing male nude is Mina Smith-Segal, the cat is Vince Doktor. Both of these artists host workshops at the Sketch Club; their dedication to leading a professional, creative, disciplined workshop provides the atmosphere for making art. The Sketch Club only charges $9 for three hour workshops with a live model; Mina leads Tuesdays 12 – 3:00 PM, Vince leads Saturdays 9:30 – 12:30.
Benton Spruance, “Miss Kim Sutko – and Art“, lithograph. In conjunction with the Workshops show is a preview of works to be shown for the 150th Anniversary of The Philadelphia Sketch Club. The pool room now has a fabulous installation of paintings of “Parked Cars” by the talented Rich Harrington.
Fred Wagner,”By the River“, oil. The Workshops Show runs through May 24th, 2009, take this unique opportunity to see a wide range of Philadelphia artists all in one place.