GLASSBORO, NJ: Rowan University Art Gallery presents The Nature of Time, a new installation by stone mason Thea Alvin. On view through July 24th at 301 West High Street, Wednesday – Saturday 11 am – 5 pm, Artist reception July 9th, 2021, 4 – 7 pm. This project complements the anticipated Time Sweeps, her permanent public art work coming soon to the East Garden Courtyard of Discovery Hall at Rowan University.
Made from nearly 14 tons of integrated stone pieces of Pennsylvania Field Stone, which contains fossils, moss, and lichen, the installation consists of three distinctive formations: a winding wall, a stone floor mosaic, and a cairn, which are joined by large format photographs of Thea’s numerous public art projects, ambient projected light, video and a melodic background soundscape.
Time Sweeps is a stone sculpture currently under construction, in the East Garden Courtyard of Discovery Hall at Rowan University. The approximately 264-ton sculpture will be composed of three main features: a 100 ft. long winding wall with an arch, and two non connecting winding walls, and a small passageway between the two walls, often referred to as a squeeze. The sculpture is comprised of primarily Pennsylvania Fieldstone (264 tons), which contains fossils, moss, and lichen, and also includes seven boulders (2-3 tons each) of the primary stone types (igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic) including basalt, conglomerate, gabbro, gneiss, granite, rhyolite, schist. Six of the boulders sit at the end of walls and the seventh are columns of basalt that will mark the winter solstice. The wall will be capped in buff sandstone from Colorado (12 tons) containing dendrites.
Conceived as an “organic collaboration,” between the artist, the land, the stone, and the visitor, Time Sweeps is a uniquely interactive public artwork that provides quiet space for personal reflection and experiential learning.
When describing her design process Thea explains, “Each sculpture is a composed expression of the thoughts of the land itself. I’m in the moment with the chosen material, capturing that angst, that patience, that essence, and setting it in stone. The lines are laid and the rhythm is established on paper, but the melody becomes clear as the structure rises from the ground in situ.”
Using the natural world as her primary inspiration, Thea sees stone as an object in motion; as lines pushed by wind and driven by rain, casting shadows, capturing light. It is her intention to create places of rest and reflection, while honoring the natural faces of the stone by not adding too many marks that suggest that it was forced into position. The beauty of the material is allowed to shine through, imperfectly perfect. Not asking too much of the viewer, but acceptance and gratitude.
Thea Alvin is an artist and stone mason, a designer and builder with determination and creativity. She started her career in stone at age 16, working for her father as a tender, then for years as a mason and then stone mason. She refined her stone style while traveling and working all over the world, from China to Iceland, Canada to Italy, and all across North America. She draws on the traditions in stone and expands those to create large site specific, unique, geologic installations.
Time Sweeps, in progress
Contact: Mary Salvante, salvante@rowan.edu, 856-256-4521
Philadelphia Open Studio Tours Northeast 2021, April 21, 6:00 – 8:00pm
Your virtual studio tour of Philadelphia continues! Grab a seat to visit with over 30 POST new Philadelphia-based artists, with visitors visiting from all over the world and across the country (literally!).
Sign up now and join us on Wednesday April 21, 6-8pm EDT (and each Wednesday evening following this month.) Different artists each Wednesday in a unique, virtual (non-Zoom!) platform.
Getty Research Institute and Philadelphia Museum of Art Announce Two-Part Virtual Event Spotlighting the Iconic Arensberg Collection and Legendary Couple Who Created It
LOS ANGELES and PHILADELPHIA— The Getty Research Institute and the Philadelphia Museum of Art are pleased to announce a two-part virtual event exploring the display of one of the most important private collections in the United States of avant-garde and pre-Columbian art.
During the first half of the twentieth century, Louise and Walter Arensberg carved out a unique place in the history of collecting. No one before them had made such audacious connections between modern painting, Renaissance literature, and pre-Columbian sculpture; and few, if any, used collecting more forcefully as a medium for artistic creation and intellectual exploration.
Much has been made of the significance of how the Arensbergs’ collection took shape in their Manhattan apartment following the Armory Show in 1913 and of their influential role as patrons in the New York Dada circle. Until now, less has been understood about how their collection expanded and changed in character after their move to Los Angeles in 1921, particularly after they purchased their Hollywood home and turned it into a house museum and research institute. For the next three decades, prior to the establishment of a public modern art museum in the region, the Arensbergs put the European avant-garde, the English Renaissance, and Mesoamerican civilizations into dialogue in dense and playful displays that shocked and inspired visitors—including some of the period’s leading artists, writers, and curators. In 1950, the couple gifted their collection of avant-garde and Pre-Columbian art to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. When Louise and Walter died in 1953 and 1954, respectively, their rare books, manuscripts and personal papers were gifted to California’s Francis Bacon Library (now housed at the Huntington Library).
In this two-part event, Mark Nelson, William H. Sherman, and Ellen Hoobler, authors of the recently published book Hollywood Arensberg: Avant-Garde Collecting in Midcentury L.A. (Getty Research Institute), discuss and illuminate the Arenbergs’ fascinating collection.
Part I: The Arensbergs’ Hollywood House-Museum: Tuesday, December 15, 2020, 6:00–7:30 p.m. EST. Arcadia Library Lecture.
Matthew Affron, the Philip and Muriel Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will moderate a lively discussion with the authors as they share how they mined archival materials, including at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to uncover the unpublished history of the Arensberg collection on the West coast, and ultimately reconstruct how the works of art were displayed in their Hollywood home. Drawing from this new research, the discussion will also examine how this display reflected the collecting tastes and worldview of the Arensbergs.
Part II: The Arensberg’s Collection: Space, Place, Time: Tuesday, March 9, 2021, 3:00–4:30 p.m. PST
In the second of two conversations, Mary Miller, director of the Getty Research Institute, and authors Mark Nelson, William H. Sherman, and Ellen Hoobler will explore how the context of the collection shaped how it was assembled, displayed, and interpreted.
MATTHEW AFFRON is the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
ELLEN HOOBLER is the William B. Ziff, Jr., Associate Curator of Art of the Americas at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.
MARY MILLER is the director of the Getty Research Institute.
MARK NELSON is an author, design director, and partner at the book design firm McCall Associates in New York.
WILLIAM H. SHERMAN is director of the Warburg Institute in London.
Sponsor
The Arcadia Library Lecture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is generously supported by the Arcadia Foundation.
About the Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection in Philadelphia
Louise and Walter Arensberg’s extraordinary gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1950, together with that of A. E. Gallatin, forms the cornerstone of the institution’s modern art collection. Their path to becoming collectors was set in 1913 after a visit to the legendary Armory Show in New York, where they encountered Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2), a painting they would later acquire. In 1915 they eagerly opened their home to Duchamp, inaugurating a forty-year friendship and collaboration between the artist and the collectors.
During their collecting career, the Arensbergs purchased works by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, and Vasily Kandinsky, among others, and assembled the largest collection of Constantin Brancusi’s sculpture outside Paris. As their interests extended well beyond Western art, their holdings of pre-Columbian art were displayed alongside contemporary works. The couple amassed the foremost collection of Duchamp’s work in the world, contributing to making the museum in Philadelphia a place of pilgrimage for generations of artists and lovers of the avant-garde.
About the Getty Research Institute
The Getty Research Institute is an operating program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. It serves education in the broadest sense by increasing knowledge and understanding about art and its history through advanced research. The Research Institute provides intellectual leadership through its research, exhibition, and publication programs and provides service to a wide range of scholars worldwide through residencies, fellowships, online resources, and a Research Library. The Research Library—housed in the 201,000-square-foot Research Institute building designed by Richard Meier—is one of the largest art and architecture libraries in the world. The general library collections (secondary sources) include almost 900,000 volumes of books, periodicals, and auction catalogues encompassing the history of Western art and related fields in the humanities. The Research Library’s special collections include rare books, artists’ journals, sketchbooks, architectural drawings and models, photographs, and archival materials.
About the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is Philadelphia’s art museum. A place that welcomes everyone. A world-renowned collection. A landmark building. 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.
Getty Research Institute and Philadelphia Museum of Art Announce Two-Part Virtual Event Spotlighting the Iconic Arensberg Collection and Legendary Couple Who Created It
Paradigm Gallery is pleased to announce Be Kind Rewind, an immersive solo exhibition of new works by Contemporary artist, Charles Clary, opening* on June 26, 2020 and remaining on view through August 8, 2020. Presented as an immersive video store installation, Be Kind Rewind is comprised of 1,000 new paper relief works from Clary’s ongoing VHS series, making it the largest showing of VHS since its inception in 2016, and explores the cathartic power of shared nostalgia.
Charles Clary: Be Kind Rewind
VHS is a reactionary body of work to the passing of Clary’s parents, both of whom he had a complicated relationship with growing up. As they were often absent during his childhood, movies acted as a surrogate babysitter. Clary began thinking about how his nostalgia for a happier childhood could be translated through his work and used as a way to channel his grief. A pop culture fanatic, Clary began to notice cheap, 50 cent VHS tape copies of his favorite movies at his local thrift stores. Analog and carelessly discarded, these films held a lot of emotional significance to Clary, who saw them as “beautiful scarifications”, a traumatic moment healed by a film.
Charles Clary: Be Kind Rewind
Clary sourced every one of Be Kind Rewind’s massive number of works at thrift stores or garage sales, with a large number being old copies of horror movies. A self described ‘horror nut’, Clary always felt a kindred spirit to the final person standing in a scary movie – surviving through the trauma. Not wanting to take away from the cover’s imagery, Clary will design around what he feels is important and then will carefully cut and layer 15 pieces of paper into the slipcase, salvaging and elevating the artifact with a newfound intricacy and depth. Viewers will recognize old favorites like Tron, Labyrinth and Dark Crystal, movies that have become synonymous with Clary’s childhood cinematic history. Lovingly handmade, Be Kind Rewind reimagines a mom and pop video store where visitors can take coordinating tabs to the register to “rent” a tape, making it an immersive and joyful experience. From a first date to the surprise twist ending of a thriller, watching movies has become a communal human experience. Be Kind Rewind reminds us of our collective human spirit through the power of nostalgic connection and in doing so, brings us all a little bit closer.
Charles Clary: Be Kind Rewind
*Due to COVID-19, “Be Kind Rewind” will be available for viewing by appointment only or on https://www.paradigmarts.org/ until further notice. These policies are dependent on the current policies of the CDC, WHO and the Governor and Mayor’s offices. Paradigm Gallery’s number one priority is the safety and wellness of their visitors. For live updates on the exhibition and appointments, please visit the Paradigm website and socials. For any questions on Paradigm’s current policies, please email info@paradigm-gallery.com.
Charles Clary: Be Kind Rewind
About Charles Clary Charles Clary was born in 1980 in Morristown, Tennessee. He received his BFA in painting with honors from Middle Tennessee State University and his MFA in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has shown in exhibitions at Galerie EVOLUTION-Pierre Cardin in Paris, France, Pierogi Gallery and Nancy Margolis Gallery in New York, Spoke art in San Francisco, and museum shows at Mesa Contemporary Art Museum, Gadsten Museum of Art, and Cornell Museum of Art. He has also completed a three week residency in Lacoste France, completed a painting assistantship with Joe Amrhein of Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn NYC, and had work acquired by fashion designer Pierre Cardin and gallery owner James Cohan.
Clary has been featured in numerous print and Internet interviews including, This is Colossal, WIRED magazine (US and UK), Hi Fructose, Beautifuldecay.com, Bluecanvas Magazine, and This Is Colossal as well as a recent feature in American Craft Magazine. He was also featured in the Art On Paper Art Fair with Kenise Barnes Fine Art. He has also been featured in publications including 500 Paper Objects, Paper Works, Paper Art, Papercraft 2, PUSH: Paper, and The New Twenties. Charles has exhibited regionally, nationally, and internationally in numerous solo and group shows. Clary currently lives and works in Conway SC.
About Paradigm Gallery Paradigm Gallery + Studio® exhibits contemporary artwork from around the world with a focus on Philadelphia-based artists. Established February 2010, the gallery began as a project between co-founders and curators, Jason Chen and Sara McCorriston, as a space in which to create artwork, to exhibit the work of their peers, and to invite the members of the community to create and collect in a welcoming gallery setting. Now open 10 years, the gallery still aims to welcome all collectors, from first time to lifelong, and continues to support accessible work that welcomes a wide audience.
Location: 746 S 4th St Philadelphia, PA 19147 Media Contact: Lainya Magaña, A&O PR 347 395 4155 lainya@aopublic.com
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