Category Archives: Philadelphia Art Galleries

Philadelphia art galleries DoN has visited.

Shoshka. Alden and DoN made the pilgrimage to Crane Arts Center in Fishtown to witness the spectacle of innovation, artistry and experience design the arts space is becoming famous for.The University of Delaware has taken over the old Busy Bee space and the current exhibition of MFA students is insightful and fun. Looming over the first floor are fiber and plaster neuron-like constructs by the afore-mentioned Mark Donahue; similar to the Hopkins House installation, this time Donahue has balanced separate components on top of each other creating strange transmitters communicating in a language all their own. DoN was greeted by the elegant Virginia Bradley, artist/curator/educator who shares a studio on the third floor with Chris Malcomson – Virginia and DoN commiserated over sharing studio space (more about that in a minute).

Mark Donahue @ UD@Crane.

Untitled, mixed media, Jim Reske. Is this thing cool or what? Simple sun-bleached plywood panels lean against the wall as if Josef Albers were in the house.

rickery, watercolor & ink on stretched & cut paper, Francine Fox @ UD@Crane.

Francine Fox displayed several three inch square paintings that are executed with virtuosity, flare and fluid surrealist imagination. Like seeing a weird image in the clouds or faces in foam on the beach, Fox finds eery fractals of flesh, skin and organs which are all intricately applied to the glossy surface of the wood in delicate strokes of paint.

Anthony Vega with one of his multiple image paintings. Vega uses a projector to capture multiple images within the plane of his painting. Using found or original images he combines blobs of paint into pixel-like splotches which when viewed from a distance morph into pulsating icons that DoN‘s brain tried to make sense of but was thwarted by the cacophony of ideas vying for attention. Vega told DoN, “…it’s evidently handmade.”

Sho, Alden and DoN all LoVeD the balloon-stuffed panty hose, each of us explained the concept to at least one of our friends. Like Christo‘s temporary installations, these pieces will obviously deteriorate rapidly but will live on in memory and photographs. Of course, one could always make more and have fun doing it.

At N exus Gallery, our threesome was treated to a video installation by J. Makary and Bilwa as part of the Philly Fringe festival. The gallery transformed into a movie theater with stadium seating presented an extraordinary video: part art movie, part music video, part dance performance with an emphasis on hand gestures and body language. The saturated colors, quirky dance moves and evocative narrative was absorbing and abstract in it’s simplicity of experience design.

Nick of Nexus tells DoN the gallery will be installing a low powered community radio station ala Whitney’s Biennial radio station. People can schedule air time by contacting the gallery. Lo-fi Coolness Rocks!

Super Kawai Lil’ Lamb @ Nexus.

Bobbie Diamond Adams, Mark Donahue, Melissa Quinter and Ted Warchal @ Hopkins House

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The Hopkins House Art Gallery is hosting a facinating exhibit of contemporary art by established and emerging Philadelphia area artists curated by Bruce Garrity of Rutgers University featuringBobbie Diamond Adams, Mark Donahue, Melissa Quinter and Ted Warschal. The gallery is located on the banks of the Cooper River in Camden NJ in an historic old stone house with sculptures on the lawn (shark fins swim through the grass) and sailboats glide on the river. The art assembled by Garrity in the warmly sun-lit space includes mixed media sculpture, experimental papers and innovative printing techniques on fabrics.

Bobbie Diamond Adams creates collographs on pigmented handmade paper, beautifully presented in hardwood frames, the creativity and craft of fine art prints is evident in each unique piece. Adams also has a “gaggle” of ceramics which the artist refers to as “organized chaos”.

“Ancestral Sands“, pigmented pulp with lithograph and xerox printing by Bobbie Diamond Adams @ The Hopkins House.

Bobbie Diamond Adams “gaggle of pottery @ Hopkins House.

Artists, Mark Donahue and Bobbie Diamond Adams @ Hopkins House Gallery.

Mark Donahue’s sculpture installation is composed of fiber and hydrocal without any armitures; Triffid-like the constructions seem infused with energy as if at night they creep about in the dark. Donahue includes ready-made plaster objects in the installation insinuating wit and satire into the mysterious fabrications. Paired with Melissa Quinter’s enormous orange panel on the wall, the room is like an alien landscape. More about Donahue later.

Melissa Quinter created each of the fabric patterns in her psychedelic quilt by various methods including scanning images, patterns and batiks then changing the colors and saturation in Photoshop and finally printing and quiltmaking. Boldly, the artist splashed day-glo green plasticized paint over the delicate handwork, obscuring and illuminating the pulsating patterns.

Melissa Quinter @ Hopkins House Art Gallery.

Mellisa also has several mixed media pieces in the show; working with fabric, collage and other media, she brings craft and fine art together in vibrantly luminous objects of desire. Working towards her Senior Thesis at Rutgers, this artist has pulled out all the stops mixing materials, techniques and media with abandon and enthusiam. Alden & DoN LoVeD the trippy, drippy paintings, Shoshka was eyeing up the wacky quilts – all of us were inspired by the inventiveness and clear sense of direction found in the art.

Ted Warchal’s wall-hung open boxes filled the first floor gallery space with dark, spooky combinations of images, objects and symbols. Dada-like and surrealistic, the found art constructs are each packed with synthetic narrative, poetic streams of consciousness and dream-like combinations of thought patterns. DoN has viewed several of Warchal’s art works at Da Vinci Art Alliance shows but this collection of variations on a theme is wildly unexpected in it’s intensity and drama. Warshal is expert at combining materials to create the elusive objet trouve.

“Fetish I“, mixed media, Ted Warshal @ Hopkins House.

Hopkins House is only 15 minutes from Center City; DoN suggests you scoot on over to Camden and check out some very cool art by established and emerging local talent.

K. Pannepacker Homework/Research @ Smile Gallery

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Friday night, Shoshana, Alden and DoN attended the opening of Homework/Research at Smile Gallery. Kathryn Pannepacker has already completed one enormous mural at the intersection of Belmont and Girard Avenues but it “only” represents the carpets and rugs of 43 countries. So, Jane Golden of the Mural Arts Program has found her another site at Broad and Lehigh to add to her collection of world textile design; Pannepacker will begin production of the mural in early September, her show at Smile Gallery on 22nd Street represents the research into styles and textures to be incorporated into the painting. Kathryn is primarily known as a weaver and fiber artist, who better to develop an educational mural commemorating the ethnic styles of such commonplace yet essential household art? The texture paintings, wax and felt medallions and design examples represent research Pannepacker has gleaned in her world travels, filling the space with color, light, imagination and history. A tour de force!