Category Archives: Philadelphia Sculpture

sculpture in Philadelphia

Philadelphia Open Studio Tours West & East

DoN opened his studio to the public again this year with hundreds of other Philly artists participating in Philadelphia Open Studio Tours. Visitors signed the giant “Hello My Name Is…” sign that he received as part of Newstoday Print Exchange 4. DoN‘s MoM, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and friends stopped by to view recent drawings, paintings and prints. POST is a great way to meet other artists and make new friends as well as sell some art. Thanks so much to good friends Shoshana and Alden with their help and support; it’s a lot of work. KaTy the ArT DoG and her pal Doofie, the St. Bernard/Chihuahua mix greeted visitors with wagging tails and lots of slobber. This year the tour started West of Broad Street so DoN didn’t get to visit friends such as Paul DuSold or Betsy and Burnell but DoN‘s MoM did and is still talking about how Nora the Piano Playing Cat plinked out a tune for her – thanks Nora! Panoramic shot of DoN‘s Nude Room.

East of Broad Street was super-exciting with dumpster diver Alden Cole’s spectacular display of drawings, paintings, luminaries and found object constructions. Alden has returned to his painting roots and is producing interesting compositions packed with metaphors, narrative and deeply personal spiritual art works. Obviously it’s too much to see all the studios in one wekend but I’m sure if you contact Alden he would be more than happy to allow you to explore four floors of art.Panoramic shot of Alden Cole‘s kitchen gallery. Cole is having an exhibition at Smile Gallery in November.

Robert Stauffer in his quirky alley gallery @ 7th & Federal. Stauffer’s mixed media, paintings and photos were super-fun especially viewed in one of Philly’s famous narrow alleyways.

Dr. Doris Peltzman with friend Reta Sweeney at Morris Street Studios deep in South Philly. Peltzman is having a one woman show at the prestigious Carspecken Scott Gallery in Wilmington as well as a group show at Artist’s House. You go girl!!! Doris is truly gifted and dedicated to producing work that stretches her limits with brilliant coloration, bold brushwork and subtle compositions.

Painting master, Francis Tucker, also at Morris Street Studio displayed just a few of his masterworks and demonstrated his proficiency at framing. Tucker was DoN‘s first painting mentor back in the day when UArts was still PCA and still teaches emerging artists skills involving materials and technique.

Artist Arthur Ostroff, also of Morris Street Studios, explained to DoN his plans for a one man show which has turned into a retrospective of his lifes work. The exhibit, Arthur Ostroff Then and Now, will be at Montgomery County Community College West Campus Art Gallery, November 1 through December 19, 2008.

Mixed media collage by Art Ostroff.

Painting by Charles Cushing and sculpture by Carol Cole @ 915 Spring Garden art studios.

Frances Galante‘s studio was humming with activity and filled with masterful landscapes and still iife paintings. DoN asked Galante about including architecture in her works, “I like to include architecture because it shows the human element and gives scale to painting.” This past summer Frances painted at Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine at an artist’s colony.

Frances Galante’s Sailboat on the Delaware.

Ana B. Hernandez’ flamenco inspired hanging sculpture. Ana tells DoN her work, “… attempts to capture the movement and energy as a visual vocabulary of the skirt of the dancer.”

Ana B. Hernande z @ 915 Spring Garden.

Wendy Wolf has a system of layering paint and then scraping away bits to reveal the layers, she then saves the bits in little boxes as a separate art object. Wolf is also a jeweler producing beautiful necklaces and bracelets, she says, “…life is charmed.” An MFA graduate of Tyler Art School, Wolf has been at 915 Spring Garden for more than two years.

The left over bits from a Wendy Wolf painting displayed in clear plastic boxes.

Peter Cunicelli’s studio @ 915 Spring Garden. Each piece is handmade from slabs of clay allowing Peter to create space-age style ceramics perfect for contemporary interiors; Peter is working on producing multiples so he can offer table wares in his unique style. Cunicelli was included in this summer’s Art of the State exhibit in Harrisburg. Congrats!

Brooke Hine’s studio displayed her ubiquitous organic ceramics; always interesting, delicate and absorbing sculptures in a style all her own. Hine recently curated a fabulous show at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists and was also included in the Art of the State show in Harrisburg. DoN LoVeS Brooke!!!

LoVe

DoN All photos by DoNBrewerMultimedia.

CFEVA Introduction 2012
Blick Art Materials

Kelly and Weber Gallery @ Crane Arts Center, Virginia Bradley & Chris Malcomson

Second Thursday @ Crane Arts Center – UD@Crane

Bobbie Diamond Adams, Mark Donahue, Melissa Quinter and Ted Warchal @ Hopkins House

1 Reply

The Hopkins House Art Gallery is hosting a facinating exhibit of contemporary art by established and emerging Philadelphia area artists curated by Bruce Garrity of Rutgers University featuringBobbie Diamond Adams, Mark Donahue, Melissa Quinter and Ted Warschal. The gallery is located on the banks of the Cooper River in Camden NJ in an historic old stone house with sculptures on the lawn (shark fins swim through the grass) and sailboats glide on the river. The art assembled by Garrity in the warmly sun-lit space includes mixed media sculpture, experimental papers and innovative printing techniques on fabrics.

Bobbie Diamond Adams creates collographs on pigmented handmade paper, beautifully presented in hardwood frames, the creativity and craft of fine art prints is evident in each unique piece. Adams also has a “gaggle” of ceramics which the artist refers to as “organized chaos”.

“Ancestral Sands“, pigmented pulp with lithograph and xerox printing by Bobbie Diamond Adams @ The Hopkins House.

Bobbie Diamond Adams “gaggle of pottery @ Hopkins House.

Artists, Mark Donahue and Bobbie Diamond Adams @ Hopkins House Gallery.

Mark Donahue’s sculpture installation is composed of fiber and hydrocal without any armitures; Triffid-like the constructions seem infused with energy as if at night they creep about in the dark. Donahue includes ready-made plaster objects in the installation insinuating wit and satire into the mysterious fabrications. Paired with Melissa Quinter’s enormous orange panel on the wall, the room is like an alien landscape. More about Donahue later.

Melissa Quinter created each of the fabric patterns in her psychedelic quilt by various methods including scanning images, patterns and batiks then changing the colors and saturation in Photoshop and finally printing and quiltmaking. Boldly, the artist splashed day-glo green plasticized paint over the delicate handwork, obscuring and illuminating the pulsating patterns.

Melissa Quinter @ Hopkins House Art Gallery.

Mellisa also has several mixed media pieces in the show; working with fabric, collage and other media, she brings craft and fine art together in vibrantly luminous objects of desire. Working towards her Senior Thesis at Rutgers, this artist has pulled out all the stops mixing materials, techniques and media with abandon and enthusiam. Alden & DoN LoVeD the trippy, drippy paintings, Shoshka was eyeing up the wacky quilts – all of us were inspired by the inventiveness and clear sense of direction found in the art.

Ted Warchal’s wall-hung open boxes filled the first floor gallery space with dark, spooky combinations of images, objects and symbols. Dada-like and surrealistic, the found art constructs are each packed with synthetic narrative, poetic streams of consciousness and dream-like combinations of thought patterns. DoN has viewed several of Warchal’s art works at Da Vinci Art Alliance shows but this collection of variations on a theme is wildly unexpected in it’s intensity and drama. Warshal is expert at combining materials to create the elusive objet trouve.

“Fetish I“, mixed media, Ted Warshal @ Hopkins House.

Hopkins House is only 15 minutes from Center City; DoN suggests you scoot on over to Camden and check out some very cool art by established and emerging local talent.

CFEVA Artists @ Drexel University’s Pearlstein Gallery

1 Reply

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