Category Archives: Photography Philadelphia

Philadelphia photographers and photographs.

Laurel Hill Cemetery

Last Thursday morning, DoN painted on the bluff overlooking the Schulkyl River from Laurel Hill Cemetery, another amazing place to paint even if Laurel Hill is a garden of death, despair and desolation – so emo! DoN is working hard to be ready for the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours with new landscapes, drawings, photographs and videos – watch for new images on DoNArTNeWs. DoN discovered his Kodak digital camera has a pre-set for panoramic views, here’s one of the Laurel Hill Cemetery.

Click the pic to see a large version.

“Memorial Hall from Laurel Hill Cemetery“, oil painting by DoN.

CFEVA Artists @ Drexel University’s Pearlstein Gallery

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Wednesday evening, Shoshana, Alden Cole and DoN attended Far Away From the Beginning A Departure from Childhood Idealism, an outstanding exhibit of contemporary art curated by Tara Caton, in cooperation with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists at Drexel University’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery at 33rd and Market Streets. Tara Caton, a former intern at CFEVA, is graduating from Drexel with a degree in “Entertainment and Arts Management” and produced the show as her Senior Thesis Project. Caton tells DoN she, “looked for artists with commonalities of themes, a number of artists work with dark memories from childhood, a childhood perspective with adult melancholy, fantasies, toys, play, dreams and memory.” Tara selected all the works, wrote the text, produced the brochure and art card and installed the art; she will be the first to graduate with this degree and said it was a huge honor to do such a big job for an undergrad project. The exhibit in the Pearlstein Gallery includes many familiar CFEVA artists including Anne Canfield, Darla Jackson, Joelle Jenson, John Karpinski, Jedediah Morfit, Caleb Nussear, Scott Pellnat, Peter Prusinowski, Serena Perone, Matthew Neff, Cecelia Rembert and Nataliya Slinko. Far Away From the Beginning is on exhibit through September 5th.

Curator Tara Caton at The Leonard Pearlstein Gallery.

Artist Scott Pellnat with his adorable little girl explaining his sculpture which looks like it’s made of cast iron but is really “off the shelf” plastic parts. “Why create your own figures when you can buy a Barbie?”

Each section of Pellnat’s sculpture is rearrangeable so you can customize the surprisingly light pieces of surrealist art to suit your mood.

Jedediah Morfit explaining his bas-relief sculpture; working in common, forgotten, traditional genres (museums are full of them) Morfit re-fashions the method into new and vital art.

Detail from Jedediah Morfit‘s “The Price of Doing Business“.

Anne Canfield’s “The Mermaid and the Tiger Meet Halfway“, oil on linen.

John Karpinski is attracted to the paradox of comics and how they say a lot with so little. Through comics adults can regain time from their childhood; John’s childhood favorite comics were Daredevil # 158 and What If? # 15.

All photos by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.

CFEVA Introduction 2012

Blick Art Materials

NTPE4

Photo Synthesis @ DaVinci Art Alliance

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Photo Synthesis is –

A juried awards exhibition featuring photography and photographic processes

with art by:

Amy Ahearn, Tony Anthony, Keith Auerbach, DoN Brewer, Suzanne Comer, Judy Engle, Carlos Gil, Robert Grunke, Rikard Larma, Marilyn Lavins, Richard Marr, Karen McDonnell & Anthony Cortosi, Lee Muslin, Liz Nicklus, Mickie Rosen, Armand Scavo, Susan Van Selous, D.B. Stovall, Robert Waldeck, Ted Warchal, Julien Weitzenfeld, James Widerman.

Juror and Awards Judge: Internationally acclaimed photographer JON NAAR.

Mr. Naar was present at the opening reception, signing his books The Birth of Graffiti (2007) and Getting the Picture (2005). DoN purchased Birth of Graffiti and chatted with Naar about how to present photographs most effectively. “Naar’s photographs have been published in many of the world’s leading magazines and exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. In 2005-06 at the Jan Cunen Museum in the Netherlands, his retrospective attracted a record-breaking 15,000 visitors (Jon Naar’s website).”

DoN with his entry “light beings (Dora & Pablo)”, photo by Rikard Larma.

Award winning photograph by Suzanne Comer. (DoN agrees it looks like a botanical drawing – just stunning.)

Suzanne Comer with Photo Synthesis juror Jon Naar. Comer was trained as a painter who used photography for reference but is now a primarily a photographer which explains her painterly eye. Comer was thrilled to win an award with such terrific competition at The DaVinci Art Alliance, she positively glowed with pride.

Artist Liz Nicklus with her photo montage/collage.

Liz Nicklus’ “Witness“, mixed media.

Susan Van Selous‘ “Carley’s Daisy“, digital design.

Photo by Rikard Larma @ Photo Synthesis.

Artist Marilyn Lavins with her entry in Photo Synthesis @ DaVinci Art Alliance.

Miller’s T-Shirt was created by Margharita Warhola, niece of Andy Warhol, exclusively for Deb. Andy would have been 80 years old this year and has been gone from our plane of existence for twenty years now – hard to believe. Dr. Deb explained the meaning of photography in her opening remarks, “Phos is Greek for “light,” and graphein is Greek for “to write”–so photography means writing with light.”

All photography by DoNBrewerMultimedia except where noted.

Decor/Decorum @ CFEVA

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The Center for Emerging Visual Arts keeps raising the bar on curating art shows in Philadelphia, the current exhibit, Décor/Decorum, of photography, sculpted plates and plaster vignettes is simply exquisite like being plunked down into a scene on a Wedgewood plate only it’s in your eccentric grandmother’s white lacquered cabinet. Photos of the interior of Joelle Jenson‘s grandmother’s Florida home are a temporal distortion, the mostly white spaces combine a mix of natural and artificial light, memory and architecture, austere, fresh and clean – when fresh and clean didn’t mean you were hip-hop but a time when everything had a place and was in it, sparkly and shiny. Joelle’s grandmother had glamour shots of herself stratigically displayed thoughout her immaculate home, even producing calendars with her beautiful image, her snow white hair perfectly coiffed, as gifts for family members. Now Grandma is a star in Joelle’s homage to an esthetic quickly disappearing from the American landscape; Joelle confided with DoN that the family used to ridicule their grandmother’s decorating style but when she died and Joelle’s parents moved in they didn’t change a thing. Jenson has completed photographing her husband’s parents home in Florida and is working on a series from her other grandmother’s abode. Jenson produces her work at The Camera Club of New York and exhibits at Wall Space Gallery in Seattle.

Joelle Jenson@ Décor/Decorum @ CFEVA

C-Print by Joelle Jenson @ CFEVA.

Jedediah Morfit’s carved plaster plates and vignette’s mounted on the wall compose a chilly counterpoint to Jenson’s photographs. Morfit “explores irresistible contemporary taboos including craft, religion and narrative” (CFEVA art card). The antechamber gallery features a wall of plates Jed told DoN was about “new temptations of Saint Anthony“, with the plates each featuring a modern tempting diversion. The opposite wall has a striking series of bas-relief sculptures with antebellum women pushing wheelbarrows filled with bones and heads running from a rain of arrows – very powerful. DoN overheard one patron say she felt she was in, “one of those blue plates”. DoN suspects she meant Wedgewood china. Morfit tells DoN these are the first in a series that will feature “tons of figures including flying monkeys”.