Philadelphia Open Studio Tours opening party @ ICA
Philadelphia Open Studio Tours Party @ ICA
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Category Archives: Multimedia Art
A Night of Art, Music and Film @ Studio 34
Shoshana and DoN attended “A Night of Art, Music & Film” @ Studio 34. The yoga/healing studio/art space at 4522 Baltimore Ave hosted avant garde music, poetry, the premier of a film and an art exhibit, creating an exciting and interesting vibe in the mixed use space.
Artist, Stefan Kietzman with his paintings in the gallery at Studio 34
Painting by Stephan Kietzman @ Studio 34.
From surrealist abstraction to impressionist landscape, Stefan Kietzman demonstrates his wide range of technique and painting facility.
Photographer/Artist, Alan Massey with his photography installation at Studio 34 (sorry for the lens flare) but DoN wanted you to see the scope and scale of Massey’s unique display.
Detail of Alan Massey‘s photos of sidewalk cracks which seemed to spill out of a broken picture frame and squiggle across the wall. Each photo is an image of an actual crack in city concrete, Massey can tell you exactly where each one is located.
Artist, Maryann Held with her modern pin-up illustrations. A graduate of UArts, Held says the school, “…pushed not just what was good but what makes me happy.” Holla! Held is planning a career in illustration and designing books for kids.
Djo Fortunado working on a background painting for his production of “Gods vs. Men” to be performed at The Rotunda in University City. Fortunado wrote, directed, cast, designed costumes, created sets and even wrote music for what the artist calls a Reggae, Rock, HipHopera. During the evening Djo also served as MC, introducing the eclectic mix of artists and performers. Cool.
Drawing by Djo Fortunado @ Studio 34.
Character studies for “Gods vs. Men” by multimedia artist Djo Fortunado.
Cait Davis, starred, directed and produced “in This Place“, a movie she wrote and designed with a little help from her friends. The abstract narrative follows Cait’s character through trials and tribulations of being young in the city – DoN found himself wishing she wouldn’t smoke so much in the movie. The saturated colors and quirky angles captured by cinematographer Ray Flynn takes the viewer from The Green Line Coffee Shop (a very funny scene) to the bedroom to a dreamscape with precision and technique which truly resembled the qualities usually found in film not video. “In This Place” will be entered in the Brooklyn Film Festival.
A unique aspect to the evening was that many of the artists are high school friends who all attended CAPA, the High School for Creative and Performing Arts (Cait and Alan have known each other since they were two) remaining close and collaborative. So, friendship in the modern age isn’t just who has the longest friend list on FaceBook or being friended by strangers on MySpace, it’s actually showing up and supporting the people you love. PAFA people support each other and so do members of Da Vinci Art Alliance, the Plastic Club and Philadelphia Sketch Club. Being an artist is a competitive business, not for the thin-skinned or weak at heart, but with the appreciation of friends and family, producing art can be a rewarding intellectual experience. Thanks to James Peniston for being such a gracious host and introducing DoN to all the artists.
PANMA presents WEB 2.0 @ The Science Center
Philadelphia Area New Media Association presented a primer on new web applications which was totally fascinating, fast-paced and intelligently presented, including talks by Kelani Nicholeof M, Johnnie Billota of Indy Hall and Nick Floro of Sealworks Interactive Studios. DoN learned so much cool stuff about the web, social networking, design and working with clients – PANMA is a wonderful resource for artists, designers, coders, videographers, photographers – if you are one of the afore mentioned you should join PANMA, it’s free, fun and informative. The presentation took place in the Buckminster Fuller room with a portrait of Bucky that seems to stare at you wherever you are in the room as well as his Dymaxion map of the world – very cool. Do you know what “FOAF” or “OWL” means? DoN does now.
Some of the cool websites we looked at include:
CFEVA Art Show House
Saturday, Shoshka and DoN visited the Center for Emerging Visual Artists Show House at 
Looking up into the turret Pellnat built on the roof.
Looking down from the turret into the house – the walls are covered in colored pencil marquetry and the floors are spray painted through lace and stencils.
The top floor is filled with a knitted installation with tendrils swooping through the room like some kind of giant alien brain cell. The site specific piece was created by Katie Murken.
Scott Pellnat in his “secret studio”.
As if the room isn’t creepy enough, there’s a gravity distortion which turns the room sideways!?!
Close up shot of Scott Pellnat‘s intricate woodwork.
Anne Canfield‘s “Swim Team: Snippets from Yuki’s Memory Book“.
Serena Perrone‘s “Dreaming of Flying Fish“, oil and charcoal on panel, diptych.
Scott Pellnat’s Grandfather Clock – one must crank the handle on the side to raise the clock but the cranker can’t see the clock!?!
Stag by Jake Kehs @ CFEVA Show House. (Kehs is not a CFEVA artist, his work is part of Pellnat’s collection including an amazing wolf sculpture on the first floor ready to pounce from a cardboard mountain.)
Silver point drawings by Caleb Nussear called “#3XUL Diminished“.
CFEVA keeps finding new venues and interesting events to promote Philly’s fine artists including the upcoming Philadelphia Open Studio Tours this October. DoN will keep you POSTed.
Found Objects/New Contexts @ Davinci Art Alliance
Sho & DoN picked up Alden Cole (who has a pic in City Paper – holla!!) and arrived at the Found Objects/New Contexts show to find a constellation of art stars:
David Foss’ dust encrusted bizarro birdcage is so DuChampian, only the passage of time and benign neglect can create such a time/space distortion.
Artist Andrew Dyer – as his MySpace page @ Found Objects/New Contexts.
Renzo Oliva’s “Gladiator“, mixed media piece combines metaphors and anthropomorphism by distilling disparate elements with a similar line weight into an activated object of desire, it really has the feel of drawing. Oliva explained to DoN that Davinci Art Alliance’s Found Art show is his first art show in America, having exhibited in Europe and Asia.
Artists Karey Maurice and Burnell Yow! near their selections for the show; that’s Burnell’s on the pedestal, a mixed media piece using dog bone and doll parts, and the pair of Super Kawai, anime-ish sculptures on the table are Karey’s.
Artists Ted Warchal and award winner Regina Barthmaier; her wire horse sculpture made from rescued electronic parts is evocative of a time-traveling trip towards entropy. In the pic on the pedestal is Regina’s other entry in Found Objects/New Contexts. Writer and art critic R.B. Strauss tells DoN he’ll be writing about Barthmaier’s horse-like sculpture. 
New Philadelphia artists, Ted Warchal, Alden Cole and David Foss @ Davinci Art Alliance. Alden Cole’s Divine Lorraine Awakened is pictured in this weeks City Paper with a color photo on-line, and an interview with Warchal as well. Found Objects/New Contexts is one of the best shows DoN has seen in recent memory, as one guest Jean Adelman said, “Fun, not trivial.”
Rowan University’s Dr. Deb Miller presenting awards at DaVinci Art Aliance’s Found Objects/New Contexts exhibit which is open through 7/29/08.
LoVeDoN
All photography by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.