Category Archives: Paintings Philadelphia

oils, acrylics, watercolor, mixed media, ink, philadelphia

“Sculpting Nature” Featuring Career Development Program Fellows Susan Benarcik, R. Noel Shaak and John Woodin @ CFEVA

Susan Benarcik @ CFEVA

Susan Benarcik installed thousands of toothpicks on the walls of the CFEVA Gallery @ 15th & Locust Streets as part of Sculpting Nature, a three person show of CFEVA Career Development Program Fellows .  Benarcik’s wooden installation wraps around a corner paired with hanging tear-drop shaped sculptures made from white wire hangers, some of which were rusted from hanging in a private garden (hmm…do the initials E.T. come to mind?).

Susan Benarcik @ CFEVA

Susan Benarcik @ CFEVA

Susan Benarcik’s wire sculptures are light and airy yet angsty and filled with emotion casting shadows of doubt in the gallery’s alcove.

Susan Benarcik @ CFEVA

Susan Benarcik @ Sculpting Nature.

R. Noel Shaak

R. Noel Shaak‘s pen, ink & marker drawings are goth & Goethe mash-ups each telling an entire movies worth of narrative like some steam-punk Gorey for 2010.

John Woodin @ CFEVA

John Woodin talked about how his vineyard photos are actually Long Island and not some exotic European country.  The large scale photographs have a strange geometry, formal compositions drawn from informal resources like walking through a warm East Coast forest in summer.  DoN knew the photos were Woodin before he knew they were Woodin, that’s style.

The cohesive show is an amalgam of styles each somehow tuned into the concept of nature changed by the gaze of people, Benarcik’s sculptures energize the room, Shaak’s drawings whisper weird secrets and Woodin’s photos traverse space and time.

John Woodin @ CFEVA

John Woodin @ Sculpting Nature in the Center for Emerging Visual Artists Gallery through 9/2/2010.

 

DoN Brewer

CFEVA Introduction 2012
Blick Art Materials

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Reta Sweeney, Passages in Paint @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Reta Sweeney @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Reta Sweeney’s Passages in Paint exhibit at Twenty-Two Gallery includes several paintings from a trip to an island off Puerto Rico as a guest of Glenn Curry, editor of Art Matters Magazine.  The deal was to help spruce up a guest house and then have time to paint, a cool gig especially when your friends like Doris Peltzman, Betz Green, Barbara Keogh and others are there to help.  The glow of light in her tropical paintings is a lively counterpoint to the woodsy East Coast landscapes.  The body of work on display pays tribute to Sweeney’s trained eye and finely skilled hand, just beautiful.

Reta Sweeney @ Twenty-Two Gallery

The Second Friday art crawl in Center City offers several destinations, Twenty-Two Gallery consistently presents interesting installations featuring local artists. Reta Sweeney’s drew a crowd of Philly artists and friends in support of her one-woman show of  paintings; Reta’s core group of friends are all dedicated artists who enjoy taking trips to study and paint.  Diane Podolsky curated the show with Shawn Murray, the installation is subtle yet utilizes and activates as much space as possible, even hanging paintings back to back in the window.

Reta Sweeney @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Meeting of the Board II, oil, 16 x 16″, Reta Sweeney @ Twenty-Two Gallery.

Reta Sweeney @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Kumquats, oil, Reta Sweeney @ Twenty-Two Gallery, 236 South 22nd Street, Philadelphia through September 3rd, 2010.

 

 

Photos by DoNBrewerPhotography.

Casual Show & Salon @ The Plastic Club, Summer 2010

Casual Show & Salon @ The Plastic Club, Summer 2010

Karl Olsen lights the subject of an impromptu critique of Yeoun Lee‘s paintings during the monthly Salon des Plastiques @ The Plastic Club on the Avenue of the Artists.  Lee took up the challenge from a previous meeting to bring out a few paintings on the sweltering Summer evening to stand up to the observations of Anders Hanson, Bob Jackson, Mike Quinn, Alan Klawens – the guys behind the on-going series of exhibitions at one of Philly’s premier artist clubs.  DoN couldn’t help to harken back to the days when air conditioning was a dream yet to be realized.  Yeoun explained the cosmological influence on her current work with light being represented by a subtle rainbow of color.

Yeoun Lee

Yeoun Lee @ The Plastic Club’s Salon.

Casual Show @ The Plastic Club, Summer 2010

The Casual Summer Show @ The Plastic Club showcases artist favorites.

Casual Show @ The Plastic Club, Summer 2010

Members of the Plastic Club are showing works not directed by a theme allowing for a salon like diversity of styles and medium; curators Alan Klawans and Bob Jackson filled the main galleries with a spectrum of light and color.

Marlise M. Tkaczuk, 3 Monkeys, silk screen

Marlise M. Tkaczuk, 3 Big Monkeys, silk screen in The Casual ShowThe Plastic Club has long represented printmaking with a great print room and print shows; Marlise’s confrontational funky monkeys are part clever and engaging, jumping off the wall.  Check the clubs website for info and links to events.

Apocalypse Soon: 2012 @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

DoN Brewer I Was Here Apocalypse Soon: 2012

 I Was Here, DoN Brewer, digital photograph @ Da Vinci Art Alliance‘s Apocalypse Soon: 2012.

With money bombs, pandemics, oil spills, World War III fresh in our consciousness and the 2nd Wave Depression looming, Apocalyse Soon: 2012 is prescient, nihilistic funk-a-rama drama.  Curator Dr Deb Miller and Juror & Awards Judge, Elin Danien, Consulting Scholar, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology gleaned a strange harvest of occult dreamscapes, blob-a-zoid sculptures and paranoid visions of the end of the future.

“I know it’s the last day on earth
We’ll be together while the planet dies
I know it’s the last day on earth
We’ll never say goodbye

Marilyn MansonThe Last Day on Earth

Curator’s Tour, Lecture, and Opening Awards Reception:  Sunday, August 8, 1pm-4 pm(doors open at 12:30)

Brujo de la Mancha, Mexican Identity in the XXIst Century
Debra Miller, PowerPoint lecture, Calendar Cycles of Creation and Destruction in Pre-Columbian Art
Debra Miller, Curator’s tour, Apocalypse Soon:  2012

 

Photo by DoN Brewer.

Seven @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Peter Seidel @ 7 Da Vinci Art Alliance

Peter Seidel @ 7 Da Vinci Art Alliance

Seven Dishsoaps, Peter Seidel @ Da Vinci Art Alliance, 7th & Catharine Streets in South Philly.   Peter Seidel won the Da Vinci Art Alliance Gold Medal for his superb painting.

DoN Brewer - 7 @ DVAA

DoN Brewer, Heptagon, photoshop.  DoN was honored to be on the jury committee to select the medal winners, which also freed him to produce whatever he wanted for the show.  Seven will be shown at The Noyes Museum annex in Hammonton, NJ this Fall.

Lois Allen Charles and Lilliana Didovic @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Lois Allen Charles, Seven Waterlillies and Lilliana Didovic, Seven Elephants @ Seven, the current member exhibition at Da Vinci Art Alliance has a wide interpretation of the symbolism of the number seven, yet the discussion around the sign went on long after the show was installed.  The DVAA exhibitions committee really tapped into a concept the members could grok.

Anna Vosburgh - Hope 1 @ Seven - DVAA

Anna Vosburgh, Hope 1 @ Da Vinci Art Alliance – Anna is not only a great painter, she’s a blogger!

Alden Cole - 7 Deadly Sins

Alden Cole , Burning Man, oil on canvas.

Alden Cole - 7 Deadly Sins

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Alden Cole completed his series of self portraits portraying the Seven Deadly Sins, the first three sins are included in a painting Cole produced for DVAA‘s Henry IV, Part 1 @ The Lantern Theater Company’s Black Box Gallery.  These two panels, though, are more explosively emotional, brashly colorful and deeply introspective; Alden acts for the camera then paints the facial expressions with light, color fields and texture as if he’s looking deep into your being, reflecting back the many faces of sin.

Karen McDonnell & Anthony Cortosi @ Seven - Da Vinci Art Alliance

Karen McDonell & Anthony Cortosi

7 screens, 7 colors, 7 minutes – cool.

Anna Vosburgh and Lilliana Didovic

Anna Vosburgh & Lilliana Didovic @ Seven in the Da Vinci Art Alliance Gallery, Summer 2010.

 

 

Photos by DoNBrewerPhotography.