Category Archives: Philadelphia Photographers

Decameron, Da Vinci Art Alliance @ Smile Gallery

Carla Lombardi, Gavaciolli, high fire stoneware, Shinoglaze, @ Decameron, Da Vinci Art Alliance @ Smile Gallery on 22nd Street. Decameron is presented in conjunction with the world premier of Karen Saillant‘s new opera of the same name presented by the International Opera Theater and inspired by Il Decamerone by Giovanni Boccaccio. The stories of the ten people who escaped the Black Plague to a country estate is operatic in scope with so much source material from the tens of tens of stories told while the world collapsed around them that the tales of love, lust, morality and sin still ring true and wise in the modern age. The artists reached deep to connect the dots of our common deep past with our futuristic present through drawing, painting, sculpture, collage and photography.

Ona Kalstein, Lisbetta Weeps, 4th day, 5th tale, ink & colored pencil on vellum.

Rosalind Bloom, Danse Macabre – The Black Death, watercolor, acrylic, collage.

Ted Warchal, Tale 5 – 2, Gastanza Sails to Tunis, assemblage, Decameron, Da Vinci Art Alliance @ Smile Gallery.

Ted Warchal @ Decameron, Da Vinci Art Alliance @ Smile Gallery. Tale 6-1o – The Relic of Archangel Gabriel reminds us of a time when zealots professed to own bits of Saints which could be viewed at a price, Warchal’s magical assemblage holds a golden feather and a bone.

Rachel Citrino @ Decameron, Da Vinci Art Alliance @ Smile Gallery. Citrino created a 100 block grid of images relating to Italy and the hundred tales of the Decameron, printed on canvas, the digital collage pops with hits of color amidst the stark black and white memories of a distant world.

Rosalind Bloom, The Embrace..., oil & mixed media collage and DoN Brewer, Heliotrope, digital photograph, digital print. Roz’s painting refers to the boils caused by the Black Plague called Caviciolli like some pasta, but when you got a boil you’re dead in 3 days. DoN‘s Heliotrope does not refer to the color but the magic stone offering the power of invisibility.

Alden Cole‘s painting depicts the rise of humanism and the lesson of living in the moment filled with love.

Sadly, this is the last Da Vinci Art Alliance show at Smile Gallery, Ken Tutjamnong‘s restaurant has become so popular that he needs the room for diners he has been turning away and he can show his own outstanding artwork as he does in the dining room at street level. Admittedly the art drew people to the restaurant and the gallery offered DVAA space outside the club’s gallery to do theme show’s like Decameron.

Photos by DoN.

Philly Photo Day, 10/28/2010 @ Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Gray Area, The Crane Arts Center, Fishtown

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Philadelphia Photo Arts Society presents Philly Photo Day, 10/28/2010 – the concept is shoot & upload one image shot that day to their site, they then printed out groups of submissions on huge sheets of photo paper in alphabetical order. Sarah Stolfa is a PR genius with the show in the fabu Gray Area @ the Crane Building, the raffle of great door prizes, the opportunity to meet other artists, the populist view that people in Philly have taste and can participate in grass roots projects with great results. Martin McNamara of Gallery 339 told DoN he hopes next year’s project will be even bigger; the current show has over 300 submissions. Read about the unique purchasing opportunity @ Philadelphia Photo Arts Center‘s website – $20. for an 8 x 10″!!!

DoN Brewer, #28, Philly Photo Day, 10/28/2010.

Art Ability 2010, An International Juried Exhibition & Sale of Art & Fine Crafts by Artists with Disabilities @ Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Paoli, PA.

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William Parker, Caribbean Dream, colored pencil. William Parker, a Philadelphia artist, is included in the 15th Annual Art Ability International Art Exhibition and Sale of art and fine crafts by people with disabilities in the Bryn Mawr Rehab Center, his portrait of a pretty girl with flowers sprouting from her head is pure exuberant joy. Using a mouth-stick, the ebullient Parker explained to DoN that depending on the subject a drawing such as a face may take two weeks to draw, a simpler drawing only a few hours; the smooth contoured shapes describing the head are sinuous and silky, the color saturated into the paper’s surface with Dada-ist comparisons between lips and roses in subtle tones. Parker said this is a new beginning for him, he did an abstract and thought, “this is really nice!”

Sheryl Yeager, Pittsburgh PA, Happy As A Rose, pastel @ Art Ability in Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Paoli, PA. Sheryl is planning a series of greeting cards for her popular animal pastels; the originals are popular, too. Sheryl originally got into art as therapy but now is presenting mature inspired works that touch your inner animal spirit. Yeager’s primitivist style dials right into the art collector psyche with signified shapes, rich layered color and impeccable presentation, a real self advocate, Sheryl promotes her art by participating in art show across western Pennsylvania.

Sheryl Yeager, Giraffe, pastel, 3rd Prize winner for Works on Paper, the Marjorie M. Schwartz Memorial Award.

Arnie Segal, Hippopotamus in a Pink Tutu, sculpture @ Art Ability 2010 @ Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Paoli, PA.

DoN Brewer, light being (Walt), digital photograph @ Art Ability 2010 @ Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Paoli, PA.

DoN had the opportunity to talk with Art Ability Committee member Doris Gordon’s role in putting on the massive art show which had thousands of entries and is showing over 500 works this year? Originally the committee’s goal was to collect art for a permanent collection, and there is a superb selection, but after a few years the concept of an international juried art show by artists with disabilities was conceived and is now, after 15 years, the focus of the group. Doris told DoN that the committee works so well together it took only 3 major meetings to delegate this year’s duty’s from the take-in to the jurying to the hanging to the most excellent, informative catalog.

Daniel Neufeld with his paintings in the Art Ability annual art exhibition at Bryn Mawr Rehab Center. The Patron’s Preview Party was really fun with artists mingling with patrons, supporters and enthusiasts over wine, tasty appetizer stations, roving waiters with hors d’oeuvres, light dinner and yummy dessserts; the attentive sales staff promoting the art guided patron’s through the maze of halls lined with one fantastic piece after another.

Allison Merriweather, mixed media @ Art Ability‘s annual art extravaganza.

Carla Laws, Valid Points, computer graphic.

Cynthia Lyon, Red Hot Ice, oil. Is this awesome or what? The trompe l’oeil effect of the super-kawaii painting is pun fun yet artistically on point with it’s Pop Art reference with placement between hospital charts and everyday objects.

Al Walton, The Fix, woodcut print. First Prize for Works on Paper, In Memory of Jacqueline Van Handel.

Kurt Weston, Stained Glass Cathedral Woods, photograph. Weston is from Huntington Beach California.

Gregory Gans, The Near Shore, photograph @ Art Ability 2010 @ Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Paoli, PA. Gregory Gans’ creates deeply emotive works with photography and post production, his narrative style is like leaves drifting on the water sweeping the viewer into a mystical vista.

d’Elaine Johnson & Robert Davis Art Ability 2010 @ Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Paoli, PA.

Victor Mordasov, Italian Girl, oil.

Beth Livingston, The Fourth of July, mixed media. DoN spotted this awesome piece right away during the drop off of work, the distinctive red stripes vibrating all the way across the room. Every inch of the mixed media piece is packed with information, the spools weaving a panoply of rich color, the corrugated material suggesting waves, the sparkling embroidery of melting stars as poignant as the National Anthem.

Kathryn Pannepacker, mixed media @ Art Ability 2010 @ Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Paoli, PA. Kathryn Pannepacker is included in the permanent collection of Bryn Mawr Rehab but she too has evolved beyond the original kernel idea into a true art star, creating murals throughout the city preserving textile patterns of the world, a woven mural on Ludlow Street, the handmade by the homeless weaving project on South Street and so many more philanthropic, selfless exercises in beauty and kindness that she truly epitomizes the spirit of this show, that art heals the body, mind and soul.

Photos by DoN.

Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2010 – Fishtown & Kensington

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Rachel Citrino – Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2010. DoN called Karen McDonnell, the Queen of Hip-Hop Graffiti, to ask where she recommended to start on the last day of the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours, 2010, West of Broad and she immediately replied, “Rachel Citrino!” lola & DoN drove out Girard Ave,. past Frankfort Ave. to the east end where Rachel has a studio in a beautiful old Philadelphia row-house. The long, narrow interior is filled with Rachel’s mono-prints, paintings, photographs and prints, her brazen color and appealing compositions look great on her pumpkin colored walls; chatting at Rachel’s kitchen island about her process and projects is a memorable highlight from an art saturated weekend.

Rachel Citrino‘s studio in Fishtown, a short walk from Girard Ave., is filled with bright color wall-to-wall.

Piety Choi @ Highwire Gallery

Kensington was our next art stop, a short drive up Frankord Ave, to a cool cluster of galleries and studios on a warm afternoon. Highwire Gallery is showing a group show called Exploring Invisible Piety Choi, Maria DiMauro, & Karen Steenwhich, a totally entrancing collection of enigmatic paintings, Choi’s recognizable style is so calm and thoughtful, her multiples are dreamy, the symbolism drawing DoN into her creative world with ease.

Piety Choi, Encountering Beauty @ Highwire Gallery in Kensington.

David Stanley Aponte @ BYOPrint.

According to co-founder Lauren Fischer, Aponte is a master print-making guru with a wealth of knowledge to contribute to this unique operation – a community print-making shop you can rent by the hour or the day, be a full-time member or just hang out when you’re in the mood. The BYOPrint team will help you realize your dream of an intaglio, woodcut, silkscreen, monotype, collograph and more; Lauren told DoN, “We’re about making prints happen.” The space in a loft overlooking a motorcycle repair shop is cool bonus.

Lauren Fischer‘s workspace @ BYOPrints in Kensington.

BYOPrints, the DIY all-purpose print shop in Kensington participated in this year’s Philadelphia Open Studio Tour.

Extra Extra bookshop & gallery showcased A Diamond is Forever – Alexandr Skarlinski , Daniel G Baird , Dave Murray , Jordan Tate & Michelle Ceja – above in the corner is 85% of All the Art I Made Turned into A Diamond by Dave Murray, a glamorously spare presentation of an en-cased diamond with a story. “Extra Extra is an artist-run space dedicated to the exposure of under-represented artists challenging the limits of the visual and performing arts.” The multi-media and light art is enthralling, this space is one to re-visit and be rejuvenated.

Abbey Lee Sarver @ Extra Extra bookshop & gallery in Kensington – her website is groovy, too. Sarver’s mixed media pieces in the loft bookshop is awesomely engrossing, playing mind games with generic archetypes transmuted into futuristic artifacts. The bookshop sells handmade and special edition books, curator Derek French told lola & DoN that the artist collective, a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization, set up shop in Philly instead of their hometown Baltimore because it’s not as combative here.

Part Time Studios in Kensington featuring recent work by in-house studio artists. The cluster of art spaces in Kensington allows young artists to work at their art by teaming together and re-imagining the old world work spaces into new millennium intellectual outposts in Philly’s north-east.

Stopping for coffee at Rocket Cat Cafe across from the Warlocks Motorcycle Club made a cool continuum of the art smart vibe we’d been experiencing all day, sitting and watching hipsters pet their beards is a fun past-time, too.

Our final stop of the day was the Studios at 2424 East York, where we met two fine artists that the fine people at POST had arranged to display their art in the halls of the terrific arts building anchored by the uber-cool Skybox Gallery, Ellen Abraham and Marge Feldman took full advantage of the long hall showing a large collection of paintings; Ellen Abraham‘s style is cartoon expressionistic and Marge Feldman‘s God’s-eye view paintings are other-worldly yet familiar. As it turns out Abraham is a fellow member of Da Vinci Art Alliance, DoN encouraged her to enter the upcoming Decameron show. It’s so great that POST helped artists to find great new spaces to make them part of the famous art crawl, if only there was more time (and energy) to explore all the hidden art treasures to be found throughout all of Philly’s neighborhoods.

Ellen Abraham @ Studios @ 2424 York Street during the annual Philadelphia Open Studio Tour.

Marge Feldman @ Studios @ 2424 York Street during the annual Philadelphia Open Studio Tour.

Thank you so much to the Center for Emerging Visual Artists and Philadelphia Open Studio Tours for creating such a wonderful experience design, the catalog with maps is a keeper, the posters around town were divine especially when DoN spotted an artist he knows in the picture, the advertising and promotion was probably the best ever by a local arts organization with a terrific web resource, inviting all of the city to come out and support their local artists.

Photos by DoN.