Category Archives: Fine Art Philadelphia

Fine art created by Philadelphia area artists.

Tetsugo Hyakutake – Ephemeral Existence @ Gallery 339

Tetsugo Hyakutake - Ephemeral Existence @ Gallery 339

Tetsugo HyakutakeEphemeral Existence @ Gallery 339.

Tetsugo Hyakutake explained to DoN how he stitches together panoramic images by combining, in the above five separate photos, into hyper-realistic renderings of industrial infrastructure scenes; the naturally black and white man-made landscape, so fluid and frail is punctuated with red signs, warning lights and smeared reflections.  Tetsugo has been studying the Japanese infrastructure for years, and uses color sparingly and symbolically.  Ephemeral Existence at 339 is a large collection of alien landscapes that kind of look like Philly out by the airport but are Japanese highways, overpasses, power stations – slightly Jetson futuristic.  Hyakutake’s photos are highly realistic but actually the landscapes are outside our actual perspective, the panoramas wider than our vision, the industrial installation images glow unblinkingly, water turned into a restrained painters palette, each image is ephemeral narrating our fragile existence on Planet Earth.

Tetsugo Hyakutake - Ephemeral Existence @ Gallery 339

Tetsugo HyakutakeEphemeral Existence @ Gallery 339 through May 7, 2011.

Tetsugo Hyakutake - Ephemeral Existence @ Gallery 339

Tetsugo HyakutakeEphemeral Existence @ Gallery 339.

 

Photos humbly taken with Tetsugo Kyakutake’s permission by DoN.

Dale Levy, Perception @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Dale Levy, Perception @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Dale Levy, Perception @ Twenty-Two Gallery.

Tonight is the Center City Art Crawl but last Friday DoN attended the opening reception for Dale Levy‘s Perception one-person show at Twenty-Two Gallery.  Dale told DoN that Helen Frankenthaler is an influence for her abstract expressionist paintings; the wild colors which appear so immediate actually takes a lot of time as each color dries before the next is added.

Dale Levy, Perception @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Dale Levy, On Edge, acrylic on canvas.

At the opening party a group of Dale Levy’s college girl friends were snapping pictures and hanging out with their old friend in support of her great artistic achievement.  Encouragement and persistence is so essential to an artist’s ability to persevere.  Dale Levy has developed her own recognizable style that looks back to the invention of abstraction but with a contemporary palette and stylish presence.  Make 22nd Street part of your art crawl tonight.

 

Photos by DoN.

 

David Guinn – Mural Dedication, Garden of Delight, Locust Street, between 11th & 12th Streets, Philadelphia, Friday, April 15, 2011, 5:00 PM

David Guinn - Mural Dedication, Garden of Delight, Locust Street, between 11th & 12th Streets, Philadelphia, Friday, April 15, 2011, 5:00 PM

David Guinn – Mural Dedication, Garden of Delight, Locust Street, between 11th & 12th Streets, Philadelphia, Friday, April 15, 2011, 5:00 PM.

Philadelphia owes David Quinn a lot for it’s friendly reputation, as you come off the Schuylkill a beautiful mural greets you, drive down Bainbridge Street and Quinn’s Four Seasons murals offer color in the depth of Winter and accents for Spring, in West Philly he’s brought together community members to form coalitions that revitalize the neighborhood and he regularly exhibits his own paintings in galleries across the city all with apparent calm and secure leadership.  The new mural on Locust looks like a David  Guinn painting instead of a community collaboration; Guinn has more than earned the right to decide what should be painted or maybe the community taste of the Gayborhood is more refined, either way, Friday night is the perfect time to experience a unique Philly tradition – honoring a great artist, leader and taste-maker with speeches and heart felt thanks for improving the vitality of the city with art and beauty.

David Guinn - Mural Dedication, Garden of Delight, Locust Street, between 11th & 12th Streets, Philadelphia, Friday, April 15, 2011, 5:00 PM

An early 21st Century mural by David Guinn, his style is evolving from the cubist realism to fluid naturalism.  In the new mural is a door representing the house of his parents; David Guinn opens a portal for all of us to see the world around us as home.

Photos by DoN.

R.L.Washington – Cross Currents @ Sande Webster Gallery

R.L. Washington - Cross Currents @ Sande Webster Gallery

R.L.WashingtonCross Currents @ Sande Webster Gallery

The rainy Spring evening didn’t stop DoN from gallery hopping in Center City; Sande Webster Gallery is an elegant stop on a perfect loop around Rittenhouse West with CFEVA, Twenty-Two Gallery and 339 Photography, the spacious Walnut Street space is luxurious, accessible and inpiring.  R.L.Washington’s Cross Currents show of lyrical paintings explores urban landscapes and deep emotional interiors, his portraits are seethingly expressive.  Washington explained to DoN,”I put myself into each piece, I put soul into the work or it’s plastic.”

R.L. Washington - Cross Currents @ Sande Webster Gallery

R.L. WashingtonCross Currents @ Sande Webster Gallery.

R.L. Washington - Cross Currents @ Sande Webster Gallery

R.L. WashingtonCross Currents @ Sande Webster Gallery.

R.L. Washington - Cross Currents @ Sande Webster Gallery

R.L. WashingtonCross Currents @ Sande Webster Gallery.

 

Photos by DoN.

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

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.

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

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.”

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

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.”

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

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.