Category Archives: Philadelphia Sculpture

sculpture in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Dumpster Divers @ Outsider Folk Arts in the Goggle Works.

The Philadelphia Dumpster Divers have overtaken Outsiders Folk Arts in the Goggleworks Center for the Arts, a major cultural hub of the Reading region. DoN saw families tumbling out the door after some sort of recital, there’s an art show of students who have taken classes in the center, there’s an enourmous wood shop that smells so good. The Goggleworks is a magnet for artists of all stripes finding access to a wide array of opportunities and is really cool space itself, packed with studios, galleries, show spaces and art. The Dumpster Divers are definitely grooving on the vibe of the place and have installed unique, quirky objects which will inspire many budding artists as well as attracting collectors, since Viener’s artistic eye is well respected.

George Viener is a collector of folk art, outsider art and self-taught art; even though the many of the Divers are professional artists in their own right, collectively the group has a simple basic principle of being creative with what’s on hand, art doesn’t have to be expensive to make and rescueing lost objects ala Marcel DuChamp is de riguer. DoN thinks that counts as self-taught, it’s new, unfiltered raw ideas bubbling to the surface; Dada.
outsider arts

Len Davidson, Queen of the Gnomes, @ Outsider Folk Arts in Reading, PA.

 

outsider arts

Randal Cleaver, Space Time @ Outsider Folk Arts.

 

outsider arts

Warren Muller, Philadelphia light artist @ Outsider Folk Arts in the Goggleworks Center for the Arts in Reading.

Burnell Yow! – Dolls of the Apocalypse @ Outsider Folk Art

In Philip Dick’s dystopian future sci-fi classic, Dr. Bloodmoney, Happy Harrington, a deformed mutant with telekinetic powers trundles around in a wagon pulled by a donkey and gleans from the post-nuclear highway with his robotic prothetic “arms”. Yow! takes DoN to that future place when transmogrified beings wander Earth looking for charms, spells and spare mother-boards. Tapping into the zeitgeist that trash is future treasure, these dolls represent the Apocalypse that has already happened all around DoN is slo-mo without him really noticing. Dolls of the Apolalypse incorporate actual Barbie Doll body parts – using a terrific technique, Yow! tricks the eye into believing the work is cast metal. Plastic is the new Apocalypse.

 

burnell yow! doll

 

Burnell Yow!, Dolls of the Apocalypse in The Philadelphia Dumpster Diver Show @ Outsider Folk Arts in Reading, PA.

outsider arts

Dumpster Divers 17yo

The Dumpster Diver Gallery @ 734 South Street held a gala in honor of their 17th anniversary as an anarchist art collective dedicated to making art from cultural refuse. Like the gleaners in a Millet painting, this disparate group sifts through the remnants of contemporary culture creating junque, elegant objects, witty pronouncements, versatile visions as if gathering potatoes in a French field.  Ellen Benson‘s mixed media constructions from old books and Lincoln Logs throb with vague dreams of lives past; each anthropomorphic object has a funky little personality all it’s own, Benson is on a mission to create 1000 dolls, she’s approaching 500.  

Randy Dalton has recreated the Blue Grotto in the back of the sprawling space;  DoN LoVeS seeing funky old computers like the Mac blue-and-white monitor being used as an art object like some retrofitted Neuromancer future style.  DoN‘s blue-n-white glowed purple and made a zapping sound early in the morning a while back but it’s still in the basement, too beautiful to throw away.  Neil Benson‘s lamp made of stacked tin boxes is a museum piece; each box filled with memetic waves forms depending on the pattern printed on the thin folded metal.   The Dumpster Divers on South Street is like William Gibson‘s future city built on the remains of the Golden Gate Bridge after the grid goes down and a whole society develops meeting every need from noodle soup to watch repair.  

Artists are taking the city over from City Hall to South Street, Kensington to University City, Rittenhouse Square to Pretzel Park; art is more than just on the surface, it’s being built in. 

 ellen benson

Ellen Benson with her dolls @ Dumpster Divers on South Street.

randy dalton

Randy Dalton’s Blue Grotto @ Dumpster Divers. 

 

 

Carol Prusa @ Stedman Gallery

carol prusa

Carol Prusa draws the pattern on the surface of the dome then highlights with paint, drills holes and installs fiber optics that change pattern.  So spacy!  Prusa spends hours meticulously drawing the hypnotic patterns.  The passage of time and space is inherent to the work on view @ Stedman Gallery on the Rutgers Campus in Camden.

Art of the Flower @ The Philadelphia Sketch Club

The Art of the Flower show at the Philadelphia Sketch Club is an annual, open juried competition for 2 or 3 dimensional works of art on the theme of the flower by prominent and emerging regional artists.  This year’s juror, James P. Repenning, chose not only traditional styles of flower painting but also abstractions, photography, prints and even a neon sculpture.  Rik Viola, committee co-chair, pulled together an exceptional show with a new twist on flowers in art with an opening reception that was well attended and exciting.  The awards were kept secret until they were announced at the gala which added an aura of anticipation since even the winners didn’t know until the announcement.  The exhibition runs through March 22nd and will be followed by the annual Small Oil Paintings show.flowers

The winners wall at The Philadelphia Sketch Club’s annual Art of the Flower Show which overlaps the famous Philadelphia Flower Show.  1st Place, Emerging Amarylis, monotype by Rona Richter, 2nd place, Roses with Reflection, pastel by Beverly Jensen, 3rd place, Dried Flowers in a Burl Vase, pastel by Ben Cohen, 4th place, White Iris, photography award by Elizabeth Bard. Honorable mentions went to Tony Anthony, Robert Bohne, Doris Peltzman, Jessie Joern, Gus Sermas and Eve Hoyt.

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DoN Brewer‘s inkjet print collage, “Gingko“.

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3-Dimension award winner – Luminous Flora – Neon by Eve Hoyt.

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Cactus Flower, ink and watercolor, Peter Petragia.

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Glories, color pencil & ink, Hal Taylor.

Black Rose, etching, Thelma Grobes.

White Orchid, digital print, Valerie Hutton

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Artist Gus Victor Sermas with his mixed media drawing, Flower 1, at The Philadelphia Sketch Club’s Art of the Flower show through March 22nd, 2009.