Bruce Gast @ The Dumpster Divers Gallery on South Street.
Like some alien tribal mask collection, Bruce Gast‘s found object constructions tell the story of an art collector from a galaxy far, far away who loves to capture and mount the heads of his trophies from space safaris. Each piece has a personality from another dimension, tapping into race memory and cell consciousness like some wacko Venus of Willendorf on a moon of Jupiter.
Bruce Gast @ The Dumpster Divers on South Street.
The November issue of Philadelphia Magazine had an article called “Five Artists Who Will Make You Rich” by curator extraordinaire Eileen Tognini. What a task? DoN is familiar with four of the five artists the esteemed curator gleaned and couldn’t agree more but it made him wonder who he might choose if he could only pick five.
Karl Olsen with model/artist Arthur Ostroff @ the MCGOPA show last Fall. Olsen is driven to achieve a level of technique, style, originality that is fiercely determined, tenacious yet warmly accessible – everyone loves impressionism but Olsen’s squishy brushwork has a darker undercurrent of emotion like a 21st Century Otto Dix, Olsen exposes the hurt, apprehension & fear of life during war-time preserving a moment of great change in our history. Photo courtesy of Karl Olsen.
Brooke Hine was one of Tognini’s picks to make you rich. DoN finds that just spending time with Brooke makes him feel richer; Hine is warm, empathic, vivacious, sharing, curious and extraordinarily creative – some of her ceramic sculpture incorporate cat whiskers, so poetic. Her ancient/future ceramic concoctions ooze a dystopian narrative of archeological digs in our own future world or some inter-planetary find by an ancient space visitor. Bones, spines, claws, spikes, hairs, curves and swirls all meld into interchangeable narratives – spooky yet fun.
Bob Jackson‘s ball point pen figure studies on typing paper are like finding the perfect seashell on the beach or a crystal you want to keep while rock-hounding or that great antique find at a Paris flea market. Jackson’s drawings are expressive and technically precise yet his use of lowly materials raises up ordinary paper to a higher plain because of the lines of ink Bob streams across the page with abandon, lyricism and grace. Jackson is President of the Plastic Club where you can buy his drawings for around 20 bucks.
Karen McDonnell & Tony Cortosi collaborate on each of their hand-drawn, hand-cut stencil spray-paint paintings skewering modern icons, historic figures and art world figure-heads with equal levels or irony, respect, sarcasm, awe and cultural awareness from punk, pop & hip-hop to Shakespeare to Foxy Brown. Their mash-ups are a comment on our time bringing a skate-punk anarchistic rock mentality to the gallery setting without giving up on street-cred integrity.
Eileen Tognini picked Rachel Constantine because she personifies the quintessential PAFA school of atmospheric realism presenting realistic, emotionally charged, technically accomplished paintings and deservedly so, Rachel’s work is absolute perfection. But, DoN would include Paul DuSold in his time capsule of 21st Century art investment; DuSold’s paintings are ripe with vivid life brought into the realm of the sublime. A simple wrapped loaf conveys a story deep with realness, a flower lives only for the moment before fading to obscurity, the portrait a glimpse into a model’s inner thoughts or the patron’s aspirations – Paul DuSold is a modern painter working with techniques passed down through the ages.
Alan J. Klawans, Rope and DoN Brewer, View from Finger Span Bridge @ Philadelphia Society of Photography exhibit and sale in Bonte’s Cafe, 9th & Walnut. It’s really cool when the photographers descend on Bonte’s at 6:00 PM on a Friday night and switch out the photos in the ongoing exhibit, the vibe is so interesting since photographers come from all walks of life, photography is a very democratic art form. But, the work that the Society shows is always above par, adventurous, experimental, thoughtful and professional.
Ed Snyder, Lost at Sea. Snyder’s Angels always offer hope, inspiration and introspection, the stone icons emote messages that will take eons to expire.
Amy E. McCormick, Will the Hard Way and John Wernega, Adorned in Gold.
Eileen Eckstein, Coachem Castle Window and Mina Smith-Segal, Rollerbladers @ PSoP in Bonte’s 9th & Walnut. Eileen is the Society President and Mina leads a drawing workshop @ The Philadelphia Sketch Club.
Morris Klein is the Vice President of The Photographic Society of Philadelphia managing the ongoing exhibit of member works in bi-monthly rotation as well as overseeing the one-person shows at Bonte’s on 17th Street. Morris’ photographs are often dreamy and languid like an impressionist painting as in this view of the city from the Schuykill River.
Eileen Eckstein, Balloons, photograph, DoN Brewer, light being (Mama Cass), photograph, Laura Pritchard, Portrait, mixed media, Dorothy Roschen, Red, White and Green, relief tiles and Alan Klawans, Milan, archival pigment print @ The Plastic Club’s Red, White and Green exhibit.
Michael Guinn, 12th Street Still Life, oil.
3rd Honorable Mention Lois Schlachter, My Brother’s Keeper, acrylic, Alden Cole, Good Vibrations, mixed media and Honorable Mention Morris Klein, Love Park, photograph. Juror Rich Harrington has a great eye and excellent taste considering that the theme was ambiguous in that the three title colors had to be used but not exclusively; Harrington chose works who fully met the criteria such as Dorothy Roschen‘s wall sculpture in blatant red, white and green squares for 2nd prize and Peter Petraglia‘s trippy undersea fantasy in a subtle palette for First Prize to Lois Schlachter‘s wildly imaginative abstraction with what seems like millions of colors.
Tracy Landman, Reflections on Stewart, oil, Patricia Wilson-Schmid, Catching the Light, and Lucy Roehm, Radish Trio, color pencil @ The Plastic Club’s Red White & Green exhibit.
The theme is Red, White & Green which one would think should conjure Holiday Cheer but @ The Plastic Club the art is edgy, sarcastic, goth, even scary like Hunter Thompson meets Charles Addams meets Salvador Dali. Some of the work is literal and literate like Roehm’s Radish Trio and some is out and out transcendental like Jake Smith‘s Merry Fish Mess. Above: Anders Hansen, Shiva, ink, graphite & charcoal, First Prize Peter Petraglia, Tubulars, pen & ink, Marie Davis Samohod, Funerary Portrait, mixed media and Karen Frank, Totem and Taboo, Acrylic.
DoN is honored to be exhibited along with such wonderful artists as those in the Plastic Club, their shows are always challenging, pushing the envelop, breaking rules yet there’s no stress, the only expectation is making art. And when the art is all hanging together it feels really good to be an artist rubbing shoulders with some of the best in town. A cool thing about writing this blog is that when DoN took the photos he didn’t know that he was shooting the work of some of his best friends, the Plastic Club uses a number system for labeling, it’s kind of like doing your own blind jury-ing and then finding out you picked only your friends such as Lois, Pat, Mike, Alan, Alden, Eileen, Dorothy, Morris, Anders…
Jake Smith, Merry Fish Mess, acrylic and Theodore J. Amick, Untitled, oil.
Merry Fish Mess, everybody!
Crocheted abstractions from Rachel Udell @ The Various & Sundry Group Exhibit in the Skybox Gallery, 2424 York Street.
Hana Cho, photography @ The Skybox.
The group show at the Skybox had a carnival air as 50 artists and their friends mingled in the huge space called the Skybox Gallery, part of a new artist studio complex at 2424 York Street. Some of the work was a bit on the creepy/grotesque side with nods to horror flicks, HR Giger and Manga but a lot of the work by the young artists was thoughtful and hopeful.
As the 2424 website states, “Located in Fishtown at the corner of York and Gaul streets, right off of I-95, and convenient to public transportation, 2424 Studios consists of over 100 work studios and/or office suites that range from 350 to over 6,000 square feet. The rents start at $399 per month and units are now available! Also located within 2424 Studios is the Skybox, an unparalleled and climate controlled event space of over 6,200 feet that is for tenants use, for community use and for rent to the public. 2424 Studios is now open to the public so please feel free to come by any time to take a look. If you are interested in leasing options, please contact Jessica at 215-284-8804.
It’s interesting how the arts community moves into neighborhoods, transforming them into desirable destinations to visit and live; it’s almost become cliche to take a downtrodden district like Fishtown and restore the area to a creative, affordable, vibrant place to live and work. 2424 York Street is anchoring new development, drawing a younger crowd and offering affordable studio/office space for artists as they get pushed out of neighborhoods they helped to revive – think Manyunk, Old City, South Street, Northern Liberties even Walnut Street used to be lined with galleries. The neighborhood where 2424 York Street is situated also has other art galleries such as High Wireand Proximity, it’s definitely worth the trip to Fishtown to check out the fringe of the Philadelphia art scene.