Category Archives: Philadelphia Sculpture

sculpture in Philadelphia

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.

Rosalind Bloom & Sharri Jerue,“Faces and Figures”, Curated by Dr. Debra Miller

Rosalind Bloom @ Smile

Rosalind Bloom @ Smile Gallery, 22nd & Walnut in Center City, Philly.

Rosalind Bloom @ Smile

Rosalind Bloom‘s model’s dummy poses in pain and peril a top a slippery slope of rock and ice.  Bloom mixes metaphors and media creating deeply intimate portraits of human emotion as if the dummies are trying to find their place in a confusing world.

Rosalind Bloom & Sharri Jerue,“Faces and Figures”, Curated by Dr. Debra Miller

Sharri Jerue, Indecision, mixed media @ Smile Gallery.

Rosalind Bloom & Sharri Jerue,“Faces and Figures”, Curated by Dr. Debra Miller

Sharri Jerue is a scenic designer who usually has to realize other people’s ideas but in the Faces and Figures show @ Smile, Sharri is able to mix and mash her ideas into anthropomorphic heads, using found materials with abandon.  The inspired combination of wacky heads and puppets in peril is the brainchild of Dr. Deb Miller who saw the neural network between simple shapes and ideas and racial memory based deeply in our brain stems stimulated by paintings and sculpture.

Rosalind Bloom & Sharri Jerue,“Faces and Figures”, Curated by Dr. Debra Miller

Curator Dr. Deb Miller, artists Rosalind Bloom and Sharri Jerue at the opening of Faces and Figures @ Smile Gallery in Center City.

 

 

Photos by DoNBrewerPhotography.

The Philadelphia Sketch Club’s 2010 Members Exhibition @ Newman Gallery

Susan Barnes - North End Beach

Susan Barnes, North End Dunes, oil.

The Annual Members Exhibition of the Philadelphia Sketch Club at Newman Galleries on Walnut Street is a wonderful introduction to the many fine artists who belong to America’s oldest art club.  The swirly mix of styles, techniques and ideas is evocative of the Philly art community in microcosm; the mezzanine and third floor gallery holds a heady mix of contemporary art by masters, newbies, wannabes of all ages celebrating the first decade of the 21st Century.

Edna Santiago - Museum Stroll

Edna Santiago, Museum Stroll, acrylic on plexiglass.

The Philadelphia Sketch Club

 Garth Herrick, Red Barn, 11:00 AM at Beaver Farm and Donald Meyer, Study (Structure) Hosta Series, egg tempera.

Linda Townsend - Holstein

Linda Townshend, Holstein, oil on canvas.

Karen McDonnell & Anthony Cortosi

Karen McDonnell, Wisdom, mixed media.  Karen  e-mails DoN phone pics of stickers of this little guy in public spaces, her contribution to the Philly art scene by introducing graffiti style into the mix of traditional media is like when photography put it’s foot in the door.  The silver spray paint gives a glamorous luster to the surface of the canvas as if dressed up for the special day when all the artists show their best work.

The 2010 Members Exhibition of The Philadelphia Sketch Club @ Newman Galleries with 156 works by as many Philadelphia area fine artists runs through 6/9/2010.

 

Photos by DoNBrewerPhotography.

 

Material Motion – A CFEVA Event @ Dalet Art Gallery in Old City


Danielle Bursk - Material Motion

Danielle Bursk - Material Motion

Danielle Bursk, Kiss, casein & acrylic on paper.  Danielle’s ginormous drawings seethe with energy and motion yet there is a zen like calm in the action drawings.  The compositions of flowing plumes of marks are like phosphenes flashing and blinking, like after-images inside your eyelids after staring too long, the dramatic drawings look deep inside the mind.

Cecelia Rembert - Material Motion

Cecelia Rembert, Eulogy, oil on canvas.  Now based in NYC, Rembert is a CFEVA alum currently working on a series of paintings about storytelling the human experience.  Cecelia’s paintings in the show mostly feature a bird or two reminding DoN of Steven King’s psycho-pomps – the idea that birds are messengers from another realm.  The bird images soar and connect with an internal yearning to be able to fly.

Gregory Brellochs - Material Motion

Gregory Brellochs - Material Motion

Gregory Brellochs, Gamete, graphite on paper.

Gregory Brelloch - Material Motion

Gregory Brelloch - Material Motion

Gregory Brellochs, XYZ, graphite on paper @ Dalet Art Gallery.

DoN did not meet Mr. Bullochs at the opening but the masterful drawings speak for themselves, the liquidy graphite forms cloud shapes, horizons and dream scapes then turns to large scale scientific illustration of imaginary microscopic life forms, the overall effect is introspective and alluring like the shapes that float into your mind as you drift off to sleep.

Ana B. Herdandez - Material Motion

Ana B. Hernandez @ Material Motion.  Ana’s swirling scarlet fabric sculptures exemplify the tone of Material Motion, @ Dalet Art Gallery on 2nd Street, the fluid shapes float above the crowd, melding into the mood of the room.  The deep red speaks to the large graphite drawings in a secret language of color and shapes.  Material Motions is curated and organized by the fabulous team at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists; Amie Potsic has such a dream job of pairing artists with venues and Ann Koivunen works tirelessly to promote the arts in Philly, even though the work is demanding, the level of professionalism and care for the artists is gratifying and inspiring.  Works by fabulous Philly photographer James B. Abbott and Christine Elfman‘s ethereal paintings complete the coherent theme the enormous space that is the Dalet Art Gallery allows, each corner is activated  and inviting.  Later this summer the gallery will be hosting the Princeton Photography Society.

 

 

Apologies to Danielle for posting photos sideways – oops!

 

Photos by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography.