Category Archives: Philadelphia Art

Art in Philadelphia, PA.

TeXt / TeXtiLe – Philagrafika @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

4th Generation, Janelle Adamska, acrylic scrim/screenprint and burn-out. Janelle told DoN she uses a wood burning tool to burn out the negative space of the design totally time-tripping DoN back to the old Sears Dream Book with the cool wood-burning tools, remember the smell? The artist fell in love with a borrowed tool so a friend gave her one of her own, Adamska’s scene-stealing piece sure isn’t like drawing a horse head into a piece of pine.

Tic-Tac-Toe, Beverly Godfrey, tapestry, 2009.

Text, Leslie Haas, paper. This simple paper construct is such a great meme with little scrolls stuffed in a box like memories of futures passed crammed with lots of overlapping narratives and keepsakes. Sweet.

Margin Notes, Pat depaula Klein, hand stitched with cotton floss.

Sorry, DoN doesn’t have the artist’s name for these super-kawaii postcards like old fashioned pot holders with stitched cliche’ greetings.

Pondering the Possibilities, Francine Strauss, quilted mixed media wall hanging.

Pop Can Patchwork, Caroline J. Maw-Dies, pop can labels, nails, wood in traditional patchwork/quilt/basket-weave pattern, 2009. Like tramp art of old this collage of metal embodies that home-spun crazy quilt vibe of the DIY movement, instead of bottle top ropes or toothpick clocks Pop Can Patchwork is informed by invasive advertising and cultural collapse. Maw-Dies represents the 21st Century Gleaner, recycling and re-purposing detritus into modern beauty and contemporary design.

Saturday evening Kathryn Pannepacker, curator of the TeXt/TeXtiLe, a Philagrafika event, held a pot luck dinner and movie party @ Da Vinci Art Alliance with a great turn out of artists, good food and chummy conversation. The homey comfortable-ness of the event, lively with old and new friends, is sure to become a tradition – it’s a great way to get people to come see an art show. The movie was about the current DIY scene across the country featuring artists working in art & crafts and “making a living” – DoN flashed back to December’s First Friday, it was freezing and wet out and 2nd Street had maybe a hundred kids trying to sell paintings, T-shirts, hats, fudge…while the movie was fast paced, very informative and offered insight into successful models for art business’, there’s still an underlying sense of a new kind of tactic to simply survive the Great Recession by one’s own means.

Today while walking KaTy the ArT DoG & Lady Doofus, the St. Bernard/Chihuahua mix, through Rittenhouse Square, DoN spotted a tree wearing a colorful crocheted legging – a secret crafter mafia tagging style with fiber instead of stickers or spray paint. Obey!

“Down Stairs” Members Gallery @ The Plastic Club

199 “Small Worlds” @ The Plastic Club

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Sibylie Pfaffenbichler, Sailor on Leave, oil. The artist explained to DoN her inspiration came from the forties and the famous images of sailors returning home. The painting is so exuberant, vibrant and distinctive it really makes you wonder why we don’t dance in the street when our soldiers make it home. Pfaffenbichler is chair of The Philadelphia Sketch Club‘s Annual Flower Show.

Paul Davis Jones, Enigma, acrylic.

Gail Morison-Hall, The Burning Bush, mixed media & Elise Arnold, Untitled One, acrylic. With 199 works of art, Small World @ The Plastic Club would have been even bigger if more artists understood that presentation is half the battle, the exhibitions committee refused several pieces (DoN spotted a few suspect entries who passed muster).

Nick Brown, Orange Juice Cup & Mug, stone ware. Brown brings unfired pottery to life study workshops at The Plastic Club and sketches directly onto the clay, often you can hear him scratching grooves into the design to prevent the glaze from spreading when applied. The resultant objects are like ancient vessels found at an acheological dig – future meets ancient.

Lee Mamaluy, Popping Blooms, oil, Kathryn Russo, At Ease, mixed media and Jeanne Chesterton, Dots, oil.

Robert Stauffer‘s photograph, Thorazine Can Kill The Human Spirit, with broken glass in a mirror lined shadow-box frame is like a history of modern art all mushed up like DuChamp meets Warhol meets Ansel Adams. The broken glass reads like disaster, the desert scene feels like being stranded and the infinite reflections on all sides have secret hidden images to uncover.

Alden Cole, Now n Then #3, Mother & Child, wax/clay, 2010 & 1964.

Bob Makoid, Avian Capers,markers. Makoid told DoN this drawing is extra special to him because his kids surprised him by having the design made into a stained glass window.

Michele Jenkins, New Glasses, oil. DoN LoVeS this painting! Timeless, super-fun, nostalgic, funny, happy and executed with aplomb.

Anders Hansen, Earth Goddess, ink/watercolor, Lois Schlachter, Queen of the Night, acrylic and Joseph De Fay, The Cafe’, ink-jet print.

Lois Schlachter, Balloon Release, acrylic. DoN appreciates Lois’ combination of real & unreal, abstract & illustrative, signs & significations – cool.

Alan Clawans, Small Shed, photograph, DoN Brewer, light being (Farrah Fawcett), photograph (it’s not DoNArTNeWs without some DoN news), Sylvia Schreiber, White Flower, acrylic, Susan Wierzbicki, Saim, acrylic and Elise Arnold, Cats, acrylic. DoN is so pleased to have his entries placed so strategically in the beginning, #3, and the end, #196 – the magic of 3.

Photos by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.

Jessica Barber & Alison Altergott – Making An Impression @ Twenty-Two Gallery

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Jessica Barber, Bonifacio, monotype/oil pastels @ Gallery Twenty-Two’s Making An Impression show featuring prints by Jessica Barber & Alison Altergott. Prints is a bit of a misnomer in this show, both artists use printing as part of their process but expand the barriers into writing, drawing, collage and painting. DoN LoVeS this print which looks very much like a Star Trek Ferengi.

DoN asked Jessica if she created this piece in Madrid because it feels so immediate and plein air, as if she set up her plates & inks right there in the cafe. Actually the artist worked from a photo she took while on a trip to Alice’s annual painting retreat in Majorca with friends from the Plastic Club. Jessica said club president, Bob Jackson allowed her to work late at night in the wonderful print shop “down stairs”, allowing her to create these rich, saturated images which she had framed at Liberty Art & Framing with non-glare glass. Immediacy, tension and vitality exude from the paper with a fresh, active style only the rigorous lithograph process produces.

Jessica Barber explained to DoN she uses a new non-toxic form lithographic process using plastic sheets which the artist applies different resists for the ink, Jessica used non-conventional mark-making tools to develop her images including Sharpies, she said, “ink loves the donor”.

Jessica Barber @ the opening of her collaborative show @ Gallery Twenty-Two. Second Friday for people in cars was frustratingly frantic, west Center City traffic was snarled because of the snow and the South Street bridge being out but DoN walked, easily strolling past cars with “Bad Romance” blasting in his iPod; Jessica was stuck on a bus trying to get to her own opening, arriving safely – fashionably late!

Alison Altergott @ Twenty-Two Gallery. DoN asked about the girls in Alison’s prints, old dress patterns from the 50s & 20s because of the resonance of the strong feminine ideal of the home-maker. DoN thought a feminist home-maker is a contradiction in terms but Alison defended the mystique as a commentary on what we’ve lost compared to the way families live now. Alison Altergott combines handwriting, collage, paint and printing to develop these densely signified images about the ideals of growing up.