Category Archives: Philadelphia Art Galleries

Philadelphia art galleries DoN has visited.

The Philadelphia Dumpster Divers @ Outsider Folk Arts in the Goggle Works.

The Philadelphia Dumpster Divers have overtaken Outsiders Folk Arts in the Goggleworks Center for the Arts, a major cultural hub of the Reading region. DoN saw families tumbling out the door after some sort of recital, there’s an art show of students who have taken classes in the center, there’s an enourmous wood shop that smells so good. The Goggleworks is a magnet for artists of all stripes finding access to a wide array of opportunities and is really cool space itself, packed with studios, galleries, show spaces and art. The Dumpster Divers are definitely grooving on the vibe of the place and have installed unique, quirky objects which will inspire many budding artists as well as attracting collectors, since Viener’s artistic eye is well respected.

George Viener is a collector of folk art, outsider art and self-taught art; even though the many of the Divers are professional artists in their own right, collectively the group has a simple basic principle of being creative with what’s on hand, art doesn’t have to be expensive to make and rescueing lost objects ala Marcel DuChamp is de riguer. DoN thinks that counts as self-taught, it’s new, unfiltered raw ideas bubbling to the surface; Dada.
outsider arts

Len Davidson, Queen of the Gnomes, @ Outsider Folk Arts in Reading, PA.

 

outsider arts

Randal Cleaver, Space Time @ Outsider Folk Arts.

 

outsider arts

Warren Muller, Philadelphia light artist @ Outsider Folk Arts in the Goggleworks Center for the Arts in Reading.

Dumpster Divers 17yo

The Dumpster Diver Gallery @ 734 South Street held a gala in honor of their 17th anniversary as an anarchist art collective dedicated to making art from cultural refuse. Like the gleaners in a Millet painting, this disparate group sifts through the remnants of contemporary culture creating junque, elegant objects, witty pronouncements, versatile visions as if gathering potatoes in a French field.  Ellen Benson‘s mixed media constructions from old books and Lincoln Logs throb with vague dreams of lives past; each anthropomorphic object has a funky little personality all it’s own, Benson is on a mission to create 1000 dolls, she’s approaching 500.  

Randy Dalton has recreated the Blue Grotto in the back of the sprawling space;  DoN LoVeS seeing funky old computers like the Mac blue-and-white monitor being used as an art object like some retrofitted Neuromancer future style.  DoN‘s blue-n-white glowed purple and made a zapping sound early in the morning a while back but it’s still in the basement, too beautiful to throw away.  Neil Benson‘s lamp made of stacked tin boxes is a museum piece; each box filled with memetic waves forms depending on the pattern printed on the thin folded metal.   The Dumpster Divers on South Street is like William Gibson‘s future city built on the remains of the Golden Gate Bridge after the grid goes down and a whole society develops meeting every need from noodle soup to watch repair.  

Artists are taking the city over from City Hall to South Street, Kensington to University City, Rittenhouse Square to Pretzel Park; art is more than just on the surface, it’s being built in. 

 ellen benson

Ellen Benson with her dolls @ Dumpster Divers on South Street.

randy dalton

Randy Dalton’s Blue Grotto @ Dumpster Divers. 

 

 

Lauren Sweeney & Eric Fausnacht @ TwentyTwo Gallery

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Eric Fauscnacht paints chickens – large scale paintings with exotic fowls portrayed against decorative backdrops.  His painterly style is decorative and accessable yet strange and magestic, portraying the humble creatures with style, wit and precision.  Shawn Murray‘s gallery is a perfectly beautiful space which features member artists with one or two person shows in the main room and a terrific group of paintings by the other coalition members in the back space.  Libby Rosoff commented on how many animal paintings she has been seeing in various shows.  DoN has noticed a lot of deer in recent shows; the animal image is primal and deep and must be plucking that nerve string in the group consciousness like a viral meme. 

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Eric Fausnacht @ TwentyTwo Gallery.

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TwentyTwo Gallery in Center City, Philly. 

lauren Sweeney & Eric Fausnacht @ TwentyTwo Gallery 

 Lauren Sweeney‘s delicate watercolors paired with Fauscnacht‘s elaborate chicken paintings is fantastical, inspiring and strange, the show makes DoN want to get back into the studio and paint.

reta sweeney

TwentyTwo Gallery member artist, Reta Sweeney in the on-going group exhibit @ 236 South 22nd Street.

ed Bronstein

TwentyTwo Gallery member artist, Edwin Bronstein in the on-going group exhibit @ 236 South 22nd Street. 

 

Lenticular Prints @ Rutgers’ Stedman Gallery

lenticular Prints @ Rutgers’ Stedman Gallery

Mary Ann Strandell @ Stedman Gallery.  The large scale 3D lenticular print, “Loving Monkey“, 2008, is just fabulous.  Pop and nostalgia blended with painterly and studied drawing is like a psychedelic flash forward – imagine these panels really big and everywhere, the images are never quite repeated drawing the viewer into layers of design, signifiers and simulacra.

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Mary Ann Standell, “The Meme Tree“, sumi and gouache drawing with 3D lenticular prints Tiki Town Red, Wander, Making Water, Monkey Orb.  DoN LoVeS MeMeS!!!