Category Archives: Philadelphia Art Clubs

Art clubs are members only groups with a mission to promote the development of artists; DoN is a member of several Philadelphia area art clubs.

Midsummer Invitational @ Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Franks

Rich Harrington @ Midsummer Invitational @ Off  the Wall Gallery

Rich Harrington @ Midsummer Invitational @ Off  the Wall Gallery

Rich Harrington, fine artist, illustration professor & Philadelphia Sketch Club board member is just one of the local art activists featured in Midsummer Invitational @ Off The Wall Gallery, 13th & Pine Streets.  Harrington’s paintings of rusting hulks of old cars and trucks are indefineable: part landscape, part still life and part portrait, the paintings are loaded with secret narratives and unanswered questions.  Harrington is a driving force@ PSC, always prepared to problem solve, take on projects and promote other artists – just ask his students, they love him.

Morris Klein @ Off the Wall Gallery

Morris Klein @ Off the Wall Gallery

Morris Klein is VP of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia and organizes ongoing art show at the Bonte Cafes in Center City, his style of photography is hyper-realistic with enhanced color and edges.  Getting photographers to participate in ongoing events is like herding cats, Morris is always even keeled and fair without being condescending – guys like Morris make such clubs like PSoP last hundreds of years.

Michelle Anne Clements @ Off the Wall in Dirty Franks

Michelle Anne Clements @ Off the Wall in Dirty Franks – curator & gallerist Jody told DoN that Clements is donating a portion of the proceeds of her drawings of coral to Gulf relief.  The alien forms are wonderfully rendered drawings of different kinds of corals, the simple black and white drawings, beautifully presented, pay homage to the complexity of the simple and vital life form.

The Midsummer Invitational @ Off the Wall Gallery includes: Michelle Anne Clements, Rebecca Cross. Rich Harrington, Morris Klein, Kelly A. Kozma, Don McPartland, Karen Rodewald, Peter Smyth, Michael B. Tantaros & Lauren Westenhiser through October.

 

 

Casual Show & Salon @ The Plastic Club, Summer 2010

Casual Show & Salon @ The Plastic Club, Summer 2010

Karl Olsen lights the subject of an impromptu critique of Yeoun Lee‘s paintings during the monthly Salon des Plastiques @ The Plastic Club on the Avenue of the Artists.  Lee took up the challenge from a previous meeting to bring out a few paintings on the sweltering Summer evening to stand up to the observations of Anders Hanson, Bob Jackson, Mike Quinn, Alan Klawens – the guys behind the on-going series of exhibitions at one of Philly’s premier artist clubs.  DoN couldn’t help to harken back to the days when air conditioning was a dream yet to be realized.  Yeoun explained the cosmological influence on her current work with light being represented by a subtle rainbow of color.

Yeoun Lee

Yeoun Lee @ The Plastic Club’s Salon.

Casual Show @ The Plastic Club, Summer 2010

The Casual Summer Show @ The Plastic Club showcases artist favorites.

Casual Show @ The Plastic Club, Summer 2010

Members of the Plastic Club are showing works not directed by a theme allowing for a salon like diversity of styles and medium; curators Alan Klawans and Bob Jackson filled the main galleries with a spectrum of light and color.

Marlise M. Tkaczuk, 3 Monkeys, silk screen

Marlise M. Tkaczuk, 3 Big Monkeys, silk screen in The Casual ShowThe Plastic Club has long represented printmaking with a great print room and print shows; Marlise’s confrontational funky monkeys are part clever and engaging, jumping off the wall.  Check the clubs website for info and links to events.

Apocalypse Soon: 2012 @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

DoN Brewer I Was Here Apocalypse Soon: 2012

 I Was Here, DoN Brewer, digital photograph @ Da Vinci Art Alliance‘s Apocalypse Soon: 2012.

With money bombs, pandemics, oil spills, World War III fresh in our consciousness and the 2nd Wave Depression looming, Apocalyse Soon: 2012 is prescient, nihilistic funk-a-rama drama.  Curator Dr Deb Miller and Juror & Awards Judge, Elin Danien, Consulting Scholar, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology gleaned a strange harvest of occult dreamscapes, blob-a-zoid sculptures and paranoid visions of the end of the future.

“I know it’s the last day on earth
We’ll be together while the planet dies
I know it’s the last day on earth
We’ll never say goodbye

Marilyn MansonThe Last Day on Earth

Curator’s Tour, Lecture, and Opening Awards Reception:  Sunday, August 8, 1pm-4 pm(doors open at 12:30)

Brujo de la Mancha, Mexican Identity in the XXIst Century
Debra Miller, PowerPoint lecture, Calendar Cycles of Creation and Destruction in Pre-Columbian Art
Debra Miller, Curator’s tour, Apocalypse Soon:  2012

 

Photo by DoN Brewer.

Seven @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Peter Seidel @ 7 Da Vinci Art Alliance

Peter Seidel @ 7 Da Vinci Art Alliance

Seven Dishsoaps, Peter Seidel @ Da Vinci Art Alliance, 7th & Catharine Streets in South Philly.   Peter Seidel won the Da Vinci Art Alliance Gold Medal for his superb painting.

DoN Brewer - 7 @ DVAA

DoN Brewer, Heptagon, photoshop.  DoN was honored to be on the jury committee to select the medal winners, which also freed him to produce whatever he wanted for the show.  Seven will be shown at The Noyes Museum annex in Hammonton, NJ this Fall.

Lois Allen Charles and Lilliana Didovic @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Lois Allen Charles, Seven Waterlillies and Lilliana Didovic, Seven Elephants @ Seven, the current member exhibition at Da Vinci Art Alliance has a wide interpretation of the symbolism of the number seven, yet the discussion around the sign went on long after the show was installed.  The DVAA exhibitions committee really tapped into a concept the members could grok.

Anna Vosburgh - Hope 1 @ Seven - DVAA

Anna Vosburgh, Hope 1 @ Da Vinci Art Alliance – Anna is not only a great painter, she’s a blogger!

Alden Cole - 7 Deadly Sins

Alden Cole , Burning Man, oil on canvas.

Alden Cole - 7 Deadly Sins

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Alden Cole completed his series of self portraits portraying the Seven Deadly Sins, the first three sins are included in a painting Cole produced for DVAA‘s Henry IV, Part 1 @ The Lantern Theater Company’s Black Box Gallery.  These two panels, though, are more explosively emotional, brashly colorful and deeply introspective; Alden acts for the camera then paints the facial expressions with light, color fields and texture as if he’s looking deep into your being, reflecting back the many faces of sin.

Karen McDonnell & Anthony Cortosi @ Seven - Da Vinci Art Alliance

Karen McDonell & Anthony Cortosi

7 screens, 7 colors, 7 minutes – cool.

Anna Vosburgh and Lilliana Didovic

Anna Vosburgh & Lilliana Didovic @ Seven in the Da Vinci Art Alliance Gallery, Summer 2010.

 

 

Photos by DoNBrewerPhotography.

Art Institute of Philadelphia Grad Show @ The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Carly Valentine - Art Institute of Philadelphia Grad Show

Carly Valentine @ The Art Institute of Philadelphia Grad Show at The Philadelphia Sketch Club.

Carly Valentine - Art Institute of Philadelphia Grad Show

Carly Valentine @ The Art Institute of Philadelphia Grad Show at The Philadelphia Sketch Club.

Carly Valentine - Art Institute of Philadelphia Grad Show

Carly Valentine - Art Institute of Philadelphia Grad Show

Carly Valentine @ The Art Institute of Philadelphia Grad Show at The Philadelphia Sketch Club.

Carly Valentine’s black and white photography looked gorgeous mounted on the historic walls of the venerable Philadelphia Sketch Club Gallery on Camac Street.  Four times a year the club hosts the grads of AI to show their work in the gallery with a gala party; a great reason to dress up and have a drink.  Valentine’s deeply narrative work, mostly self portraits, nod to modern art with Magritte-like compositions, beaux arts frames and costumes from another era.  The rich blacks, creamy ecru and dreamy metaphors filled books, the walls over the fire place and the entire “winners wall” of the gallery.  Carly was unaware of the historic significance of exhibiting in America’s oldest art club, her grandmother, DoN‘s good friend Jeannette Walsh, was long time president of the Regional Art Association in Clementon, NJ (the foundation of DoN‘s art career), who was a fine artist in her own right, as well as a blue grass musician and entertainer.  Jean would be so proud to know Carly is excelling not just in fine art and photography but in being a really nice person, a trait no school can ever teach.

Gabriela Girova - Art Institute of Philadelphia

Gabriela Girova @ The Philadelphia Sketch Club.

John Moore - Art Institute of Philadelphia

John Moore‘s painterly photographs combine natural elements with ethereal industrial constructs creeping into the composition.  The grad show at PSC was very gratifying with a focus on business, including business cards, book arts, web sites and unique presentation for their photography, information useful for art students emerging into a competitive market.  DoN appreciated that Moore bucked the trend and “forgot” his cards, DoN wrote his name on another grad’s card.  The graduates had a crash course in installing a show at The Sketch Club which concurrently has Phillustration 2010 running, they had to take down a complete show, install a new one, then re-hang the first show in the same order – welcome to the art world!

Art Institute of Philadelphia Grad Show @ The Sketch Club

Tamara Brown

Tamara Brown’s carved books with photo emulsion images inside the books are fabulously evocative and transmogrifying, combining text and technique in a unique mash up.  LoVe iT!