Category Archives: Philadelphia Sculpture

sculpture in Philadelphia

Workshop Show @ TPC on Camac St.

Robert Bohne, Seated Nude, gouache/pencil @ The Plastic Club 2010 Worksop Show.

Paul Clement, Dryad, watercolor.

Barbara Fleming, Solitude, photograph, Syd Torchio, Untitled, acrylic & DoN Brewer, Homme Debout, charcoal & chalk.

Drawings in the Workshop Show @ The Plastic Club by Don McPartland, DoN Brewer & Mike Roberson.

DoN Brewer, La Bella Blonde, charcoal & chalk, Greg Lewis, Untitled, ballpoint, Don McPartland, Untitled, mixed media & Alden Cole, Untitled, oil.

The Workshop Show @ The Plastic Club embraces art of all kinds as long as the piece relates to work done in one of the many workshops held throughout the week in the Studio on the 2nd floor. Friday night is DoN‘s favorite workshop; dedicated artists drag their tired asses up to the studio to draw, paint, etch, collage, drink wine…and the last Friday of the month, President Bob makes dinner.

Photos by DoNBrewerPhotography.

Listening In & Eye Charts on Broad @ UArts

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Listening In, Brittany Papale @ UArts, Broad & Pine Streets.

Nostalgia simply oozes from the dual pay phones installed outside UArts, harking back to the late days of public access to affordable communications. DoN recalls the uproar when a 3 minute local call jumped from a dime to 25 cents – now, public phones are rare, cell phones so pervasive that young people can’t imagine a wired world with huge, magnificent switches manned by teams of technicians opening and closing connections. Listening In allows you to eves-drop on private conversations in a very public setting. “Stop phonin’, stop phonin’, I don’t wanna think anymore – I got my head & my heart on the dancefloor.” Lady Gaga.

“My piece consists of two eye charts arranged in a V, with one facing north and the other south. Since the eye chart always corresponds to a certain distance from which to view it, I have not only blown up the eye chart 10X but scaled up the optimal viewing distance proportionally.“

Justin Rubich, artist.

The continuing series of sculptures presented in the niches of the temple @ Pine & Broad Streets is always a nice surprise with thoughtful, contemporary installations casually placed right out on the street which really forces the artist to think about the environment of the sculpture. The quest to be creative yet use materials that the artist won’t be totally devastated if something is damaged has resulted in works made from plastic milk crates, wire & broken glass, cellophane…so far the only damage DoN has noticed has been weather related. Philly LoVeS ArT!!!

Scott Kip @ Fleisher Art Memorial Wind Challenge #3

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Scott Kip‘s installation of sculptures represents the past, present & future; the center sculpture with s a step stool has the shadow of clockworks rotating and when you look through the hole someone at a sculpture at the other end of the room can see your eye. Each piece is a meticulously constructed models create wonderful optical illusions of abstract art reminiscent to Albers, Indiana and Grooms. The left side of the gallery is the future and the right is the past – from the future the view is confusing, the past you may find another eye looking back at you.

Scott Kip‘s center sculpture projects the shadow of time in the center of a frail super-structure. Scott told DoN it took more than a year to complete the project of hard woods and that he was inspired by the writing of T.S. Eliot. The result is ineffable.

Scott Kipp @ Wind Challenge #3, Fleisher Art Memorial.

Scott Kip

“I make model scale structures out of wood, each lit directly from above. The structures are designed around the path light takes through them, both the light from above and the possible sight lines of the viewer. The work is a meditation on how perspective affects our understanding of the relationships between things and the idea that life (the space between birth and death) is a place.”

“…Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell he passed the stages of his age and youth entering the whirlpool.”

Death By Water, T.S.Eliot

Photos by DoNBrewerPhotography

Selections From Cluster @ CFEVA

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Jacob Koestler ,Window, Rochester, NY, photograph, 2010.

Jacob Koestler lives in Johnstown, PA. near Pittsburgh where he is a member of a shared art space called 709 Railroad Street, his photographs are included in a group show at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, his second time showing in Philly. Three years ago Koestler’s work was included in the first collabo with Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in the space on Rittenhouse Square. In Selection From Cluster, the photographer was invited by Amie Potsic to include the group of photos based on a revenge dream narrative where a rich boy who wants to be a rock star inherits the perfect secluded mansion in Rochester, NY, equipped with all required to live the life of the privileged, surrounded by collaborators, a dream home for him in contrast to the suburban dream home his own father is building for himself. The series is like a metaphor for art killing the father, each generation must claim their own turf.

Michael Sherwin, True North, pigment prints mounted to steel. The series of prints explore fuzzy animism & techno-geek virtuosity – mounting the prints on steel is very cool, calculated & hard yet amorphous and squirmy like finding ancient artifacts from Mars.

“This exhibition exchange is part of an ongoing collaboration by CFEVA and PF/PCA Created in order to strengthen the artistic dialogue between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Cluster was originally presented at The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and curated by Adam Welch. The Philadelphia presentation of this exhibition was curated by Amie Potsic. Participating artists: Dee Briggs, Connie Cantor, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Kyle Houser, Ben Kehoe, Jacob Koestler, Michael Sherwin, Lenore Thomas.” CFEVA Website.

Dee Briggs

The steel draws lines of shadows in the alcove @ CFEVA Gallery, as the airy shape slowly rotated the play of light & dark created a living drawing. DoN observed people dreamily staring, imagining how they could clear out their living room to make space for Dee Briggs sculpture – the artists website is cool, too. CFEVA @ 15th & Locust Sts.

Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Test 32, gesso, ink & pigmented marker on canvas. The large drawing is engrossing like looking at a Chuck Close. Little blobby shapes coalesce and entwine, connecting dots in the brain, melding mind maps spread out across the canvas like an alien landscape, coordinates marks each other trying to signal and cooperate with all elements to capture your attention. DoN loves marker art.

Selection From Cluster is a unique opportunity to view art from PA’s other big city – Jacob Koestler described to DoN a vibrant downtown art scene/district in Pittsburgh with a fun First Friday. Thanks to CFEVA for opening the lines of communication with artists across PA.