Category Archives: Fine Art Philadelphia

Fine art created by Philadelphia area artists.

MLMME5 – The 5th Annual Mary Liz Memorial Masters Exhibition.

Paintings by Bob Arufo in his fourth and final major retrospective paired with Bob Jackson‘s life drawings is beautiful and inspiring.  Arufo’s paintings are luminous and speak of a period in time – vaguely Vargas mixed with Edward Hopper – the sence of immediacy and liveness is refreshing.  Jackson’s use of humble materials, ball point pen and typing paper or drawing paper, shows a singular vision, a practiced hand and a studious mix mark marking and seeing, each drawing framed with thought and restraint.  Shoshka and DoN soaked in the vibe of Dirty Frank’s: a long haired man in a Matrix style leather coat drank cocktails with a green-haired girl, Bob’s wife knitted with light up knitting needles, old Bowie songs playing on the jukebox, and sipping whiskey at an ancient wooden table.

arufo

Bob Arufo @ Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Franks, 13th & Pine.  

arufo

Bob Arufo @ Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Franks, 13th & Pine.   

jackson

Bob Jackson, president of the Plastic Club, in the 5th Annual Mary Liz Memorial Masters Exhibition @ Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Frank’s.  Jackson’s drawings are impeccable. 

 

“PLASTIC AT THE PLASTIC” Women’s Caucus for Art, Members Exhibition

 The Women’s Caucus for the Arts is exhibiting “Plastic at the Plastic” @ The Plastic Club on Camac Street, a mixed media show of beautiful objects and images.  Diana Riukas and Pam Flynn have special exhibits.  The Women’s Caucus for Art is a National Organization of women artists, art historians, curators, collectors, art educators and museum professionals – the show runs through 3/29/09.

plastic @ plastic

plastic @ plastic

Virginia Maksymowicz, “Pane Trasparente“, installation of 30 small cast resin and photos. 

plastic @ plastic

PonderingsPam Flynn in the Tearoom @ The Plastic Club. 

plastic @ plastic

Art & artist.  Neurotica – Works by Diana Riukas in the Main room of The Plastic Club.

 

Dumpster Divers on South Street

An incredible thing has happened.  The business community of South Street offered empty store fronts to artists rent free if they pay the utilities; DoN first heard of this from David Foss, director of the Da Vinci Art Alliance.  The Dumpster Divers jumped at the chance and have installed an exciting mixed media art show of museum quality – a lot of the work has been exhibited in actual museums and are scheduled to show in upcoming museum shows.  The Grand Opening is March 15th but there’s plenty to absorb now as the huge space at 723 South Street is transformed.

DoN says when the grid goes down the artists will become the tribal leaders: storytellers, image makers, re-purposers, builders, makers, artists, musicians and those able to carry the history forward and preserve culture.

dumpster divers

Dumpster Divers on South Street.

dumpster Divers on South Street

Dumpster Diver outsider, couturier Shoshana Arons with Diver multimedia artist Alden Cole @ 723 South Street.

dumpster divers 

Burnell Yow!‘s “52 Collages in 52 Weeks” @ The Dumpster Divers installation on South Street.

dumpster divers 

Art of the Flower @ PSC

DoN is delighted his inkjet print collage was selected to be included in the Art of the Flower show at The Philadelphia Sketch Club.  The annual show includes many of DoN‘s favorite Philadelphia painters and photographers as selected by juror James P. Repenning; helping install the show was especially fun knowing DoN’s “Ginkgo” is included along side exquisite works by Peltzman, Eckstein, Monaghan, Barnes, Tony Anthony, Roschen, Camera…  The reception and awards is Sunday @ 2:00.  Repenning’s work on the art card is lovely but in real life is an incredible mixed media piece with dimension, depth and high style design, executed with utmost craft – really stunning.

flower1

Hearts @ High Wire

February is over, finally.  DoN keeps getting unsolicited e-mails from Yahoo personals that he has 0 matches. 0.  Out of the millions of Yahoo’ers absolutely zero are a match made in cyber-heaven.  Valentines Day is stupid but the show at High Wire in Fishtown was intelligently filled with hugs and kisses.  A whole lot of love.  

high wire

 Alden Cole’s “Take Another Piece of My Heart, Now Baby.” paired with the Frank Sinatra homage is sublime.  First of all, Frank Sinatra is dead, so it’s really about worship, not love. The radiant Alden self-portrait with diced hearts is enlightened to the transient nature of love, good-naturedly doled out in bits and pieces.

jim Bloom @ high wire

Jim Bloom @ High Wire.  “Men Seldom Make Passes At Girls Who Wear Glasses.”

isaiah zagar

Isaiah Zagar , “Julia Loves Folk Art“, mixed media @ High Wire Gallery.

Zagar’s installation was enormous, painterly, informed and cerebral like he was hit by a bolt of pink lightning from the sky and love is shattered into shards of broken memories.