Category Archives: Fine Art Philadelphia

Fine art created by Philadelphia area artists.

It’s a PARTY @ The ICA – POST 10th Season

POST 10 @ ICA - Amy Stevens

Amy Stevens cakes @ POST 10 party at the Institute of Contemporary Art.

POST 10 @ ICA - Amy Stevens

Amy Stevens – CFEVA 2008 Alumni – made the art cakes for the POST 10th Anniversary party in University City.

POST 10 @ ICA

Art Party People – Ed Bronstein (a POST founder), photographer Danny Reilly (who’s having a one-person show @ Bonte’s on 17th this October), Ron (we studied together @ Fleisher with James Dupree), Andrew Pirie (former CFEVA rep)…Shoshka, Alden & DoN ate cake & sipped wine with Margaret Anderson of heavybubble.com, Brooke Hine, CFEVA director Holly LentzGenevieve Coutroubis (with her pretty baby), Tremain Smith (encaustic artist), and so many more.  Hopefully the tradition of having the kickoff parties for future POST events at the ICA continues since it’s the epitome of contemporary art spaces in Philly.

POST 10 @ ICA - Kathry Pannepacker

Textile artist & muralist, Kathryn Pannepacker arrives via moped at the POST 10th Anniversary party @ the ICA.

 

 

Kim Martin & Karl Olsen – Make me Crazy, Make me Think @ The Plastic Club

Kim Martin & Karl Olsen - Make me Crazy, Make me Dance @ The Plastic Club

Collaborative paintings by Kim Martin & Karl Olsen in the upstairs gallery/studio of the venerable Plastic Club allowing the large scale unmounted paintings pride of place.  Many visitors to the club remarked how the space looked so chic, like an atelier in Paris.

Kim Martin & Karl Olsen - Make me Crazy, Make me Dance @ The Plastic Club

Kim & Karl worked together for eleven months to produce the fantastical installation of paintings; the first floor gallery is dedicated to works created by the artists as individuals with the room split right down the middle.

Kim Martin & Karl Olsen - Make me Crazy, Make me Dance @ The Plastic Club

 Al Gury said he liked this collabo the best because of the composition.  Even though the distinct styles are visible, the two halves work together as a cohesive whole.  The simple materials, limited palette, fast hand and apparent mind-meld produced this trippy drawing.

Kim Martin & Karl Olsen - Make me Crazy, Make me Dance @ The Plastic Club

This painting was one of the duo’s latest collaborations with no restraint, no bumping elbows, no hard feelings even if one painted out the others favorite patch, it’s also one of the first collaborations they started.

Kim Martin & Karl Olsen - Make me Crazy, Make me Dance @ The Plastic Club

Karl Olsen’s self portrait is reminiscent of Ralph Stedman, Hans Bellmer and Thomas Hart Benton’s prediliction to distortion, confusing perspectives and introspective investigation.

Kim Martin & Karl Olsen @ The Plastic Club

Karl Olsen & Kim MartinMAKE ME CRAZY MAKE ME THINK
Location:  Plastic Club, 247 S. Camac St., Philadelphia
Opening Reception:  Saturday Sept 26th 6pm – 8pm
Reception and Presentation:  Sunday September 27th 1pm – 4pm
The “Make Me Crazy Make Me Think” exhibition is the culmination of ten months of collaborative work by Karl Olsen and Kim Martin. The concept was to paint our individual self portraits together, side by side at the same time, on the same canvas. The process of painting “ourselves” in this relative setting, the work reflects those dynamics in subtle and sometimes dramatic ways. How we worked, discussed, and managed the totality of each painting was tense, thought provoking, stimulating and included continual compromise with individual and collective interpretation.The result was 11 highly differing pieces averaging 6′ x 6′.

Karl Olsen

Images courtesy of www.coldnose.org – Kim Martin’s website.

 

In conversation with the Oracle

CFEVA - Paul Rider

Paul Rider, Chance 1 – 20, photographic prints each 16″ square.

CFEVA - Keiko Miyamori

Keiko Miyamori, Birdcage, mixed media installation.

CFEVA - Cecelia Rembert

Cecelia Rembert, Given, oil on canvas.

CFEVA - Cecelia Rembert

Paul Rider, Primitive 1 – 3, photographic prints.

Art shows don’t hang around long enough but DoN got to see In conversation with the Oracle at the Center for Emerging Visual Artist‘s gallery twice.  Both times spending time alone with the art was engrossing and thought provoking: Paul Rider‘s photographs of blades of grass read like charcoal mark-making, Keiko Miyamori‘s birdcage installation bring mythological stories to mind of caged beauties or harpies, Cecelia Rembert‘s paintings are bold reminders of how much fun paintings can be.

The cul-de-sac seems to be a particular spot of inspiration for artist’s, Miyamori’s sculptures speak with each other adding color to the myths hidden in the art – the use of found material is particularly romantic, not the lovey dovey kind of romance but the romance of danger and fear as if an adventurer returned with a giant strange bird which has escaped it’s confines.