Philadelphia Open Studio Tours opening party @ ICA
Philadelphia Open Studio Tours Party @ ICA
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Category Archives: Philadelphia Art Alliances
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.
Quattro Amici + @ Off The Wall
Thursday evening after a few hours of drawing at The Plastic Club, DoN headed over to Dirty Frank’s to see the show at Off the Wall Gallery for Quattro Amici +: Anders Hansen, T. Clyde McCobb, Catherine (Kit) Mitchell, Diane Podolsky plus Karl Olsen’s Mid 08 Summer Showcurated by the indefatigable Jody Sweitzer who personally selected and hung the art. Like being in a Paris underground bar, the show is hung salon style with paintings, drawings and prints strewn across the wall almost as if Toulouse, Claude and Pablo were sitting and drinking Absinth at the bar, even a few dogs wandered behind the bar looking for treats. In fact, Karl Olsen’s paintings and pastels have a striking Lautrec quality. Each of the pieces are desirable in their own right; Hansen’s languid watercolors, Podolsky’s stylish mixed media, Mitchell’s bright and colorful landscapes and McCobb’s confident paintings represent more than an artist collective, it’s a school of thought, a way of seeing, a bond of trust and friendship that encourages strength and adventure in art.
Quattro Amici + exhibit at Off The Wall @ Dirty Franks.
Karl Olsen mixed media (DoN LoVeS the reflection of the beer signs on the glass).
Karl Olsen, Susan Stromquist and Mike Guinn at the Quattro Amici + opening party @ Dirty Franks’ Off the Wall Gallery.
Sarah Olsen with Anders Hansen @ Dirty Franks.
All photos by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.
Photo Synthesis @ DaVinci Art Alliance
Photo Synthesis is –
A juried awards exhibition featuring photography and photographic processes
with art by:
Amy Ahearn, Tony Anthony, Keith Auerbach, DoN Brewer, Suzanne Comer, Judy Engle, Carlos Gil, Robert Grunke, Rikard Larma, Marilyn Lavins, Richard Marr, Karen McDonnell & Anthony Cortosi, Lee Muslin, Liz Nicklus, Mickie Rosen, Armand Scavo, Susan Van Selous, D.B. Stovall, Robert Waldeck, Ted Warchal, Julien Weitzenfeld, James Widerman.
Juror and Awards Judge: Internationally acclaimed photographer JON NAAR.
Mr. Naar was present at the opening reception, signing his books The Birth of Graffiti (2007) and Getting the Picture (2005). DoN purchased Birth of Graffiti and chatted with Naar about how to present photographs most effectively. “Naar’s photographs have been published in many of the world’s leading magazines and exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. In 2005-06 at the Jan Cunen Museum in the Netherlands, his retrospective attracted a record-breaking 15,000 visitors (Jon Naar’s website).”
DoN with his entry “light beings (Dora & Pablo)”, photo by Rikard Larma.
Award winning photograph by Suzanne Comer. (DoN agrees it looks like a botanical drawing – just stunning.)
Suzanne Comer with Photo Synthesis juror Jon Naar. Comer was trained as a painter who used photography for reference but is now a primarily a photographer which explains her painterly eye. Comer was thrilled to win an award with such terrific competition at The DaVinci Art Alliance, she positively glowed with pride.
Artist Liz Nicklus with her photo montage/collage.
Liz Nicklus’ “Witness“, mixed media.
Susan Van Selous‘ “Carley’s Daisy“, digital design.
Photo by Rikard Larma @ Photo Synthesis.
Artist Marilyn Lavins with her entry in Photo Synthesis @ DaVinci Art Alliance.
Miller’s T-Shirt was created by Margharita Warhola, niece of Andy Warhol, exclusively for Deb. Andy would have been 80 years old this year and has been gone from our plane of existence for twenty years now – hard to believe. Dr. Deb explained the meaning of photography in her opening remarks, “Phos is Greek for “light,” and graphein is Greek for “to write”–so photography means writing with light.”
All photography by DoNBrewerMultimedia except where noted.
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.