Category Archives: Upcycled Art

Moth

Black Moth Tattoo and GalleryRiot, Pen and ink on paper, David Jablow

Black Moth Tattoo Parlor and Gallery

Black Moth Tattoo and Gallery, 18 East Lancaster Avenue Ardmore, PA 19003

David Jablow  Further Adventures 

March 1st – March 31st

On first glance, my drawings are clearly narrative. What is often and easily missed is the very specific platform on which all of them are made. The drawings originate on vintage ‘doodle pad’ sheets from 20th century.

I collect and utilize these somewhat risqué novelty drawing pads. These mass-produced pads of paper feature incompletely drawn women (and occasionally men) with instructions to complete- or doodle in- the missing parts. And that’s what I do.  As a lifelong fan of the art and craft of illustration, representational drawing, comics, and cartooning, I use pen and ink to complete the incomplete images to make them my own.

The practice of ‘repurposing’ items from the past is quite popular. We’ve all seen the cable TV shows and passed by boutiques that take old antique doors and turn them into coffee tables, or crafters who take old military artifacts and turns them into lamps. Giving new life to objects left for dead is fun, quirky, and often times environmentally considerate.

What I’m doing with these old sheets of paper is ‘purposing’ them. I’m doing exactly what the printers had in mind when they originally produced and distributed them. I like the idea that I’m doing this decades after they were made, after they’ve been sitting in drawers until someone decided to post them for sale on eBay or Etsy. Perhaps ‘retro-purposed’ would be a more appropriate term for what I’m doing with these old doodle pads.

Regardless of they’re called or how they originate, I’ve found them to be ideal for my creative process.  When artist’s face a complete blank canvas or paper, they face that paradoxical problem of endless possibilities.  Too many options can often be constraining.

I sidestep this with the help of my muse. I simply access that part of the brain that we use when we play the game of charades. “What could she be doing.” my mind asks. Ideas then flow. I mentally sift through them and make loose sketches to narrow down the options. Which would make a drawing that I’d want to make?  What haven’t I done before? Maybe something funny, maybe macabre, or maybe I feel like challenging myself with some complex perspective angle. I get to draw it all..foliage, animals, technology, different eras of human history.  That’s half the fun. It’s always the same challenge and always new and different. –David Jablow

Free and open to the public Tuesday through Sunday. More information can be found at https://www.facebook.com/events/622854208172944/

Black Moth Tattoo and GalleryAttack #3, Mixed Media on Wood, Wendee Yudis

Works by Wendee Yudis

April 1st – 30th

Wendee Yudis is a serigraph mixed media artist whose paintings and prints have been exhibited in solo and group shows in galleries in NYC, Chicago, and Philadelphia since the mid-1990’s. The females in her work become icons that reoccur in new contexts and combinations to create a visual vocabulary. Many times they question the females’ role in society as well explore the various roles within ourselves. By juxtaposing various images, nuances are implied and tension is created to imply and explore new meanings. She primarily uses printmaking along with painting rather than printing in edition because it allows her more freedom to create spontaneously and to explore the subtleties of printmaking. Yudis typically print images or icons in combination with other images to create not only a dialogue between the images but also to create an illusion of being camouflaged by translucency, patterns, and layers to explore relationships seen and unseen.

Free and open to the public Tuesday through Sunday. More information can be found at https://www.facebook.com/events/628873590917632/

Black Moth Tattoo and Gallery

“A new fusion of custom body art and curated exhibitions brought to Montgomery County by local artist, Steve Martin. Expect more of the great ideas you have come to know me for. With 9 years professional experience I cover a range of disciplines in tattooing; from mandala and geometric designs, Japanese, neo-traditional, traditional Americana, custom lettering, as well as black and grey realism.

Celebrating 2 years in historic Ardmore, we’re turning heads with its premier tattoo parlor. I look forward to bringing to you, the art enthusiast and collector, a select presentation of custom tattoo designs as well as some of the finest works of art month after month. You can expect the professionalism, mindful customer service, attention to detail, and quality products in a clean and safe setting that you have known from me all these years.”

www.BlackMothTattooandGallery.com

18 East Lancaster Avenue
Ardmore, PA 19003
P. 610-642-1500

Thank you to Steve Martin for the content of this post.

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Gerbstadt

David GerbstadtDavid Gerbstadt, Artist Shopping for a New Art Gallery

Artist and author David Gerbstadt of Berwyn, Pennsylvania is shopping for a new art gallery to handle his artwork as a stable artist.   David has been in galleries, solo, and group shows worldwide since 1993. Now in over 15 countries and most of the United States.

Lower Schoool Making Buttons with visiting artist David Gerbstadt from Westtown School on Vimeo.

“My vocabulary is full of creatures – both real and imagined.  I often incorporate words phrases and doodles into my paintings.  I recycle materials found on the street that become part of and inspire my work.       

“After my near death experience on December, 28 2007 my life changed.  My hospital chart read, man on bicycle vs. 14 wheeled tracker trailer truck.  The doctor’s told me they don’t know why I am here but I am. I believe I was spared to continue to make art, make people happy, and to let people know they are loved.  Since then life has been a consent struggle.  I get through the day with my doctors, art, friends, and my three legged rescue dog Noel.”   

“Art heals me on a daily basis”.

David Gerbstadt, 484-995-1541                                                                                                              davidgerbstadt@gmail.com                                                                              www.facebook.com/david.gerbstadt

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Assembled

Philadelphia AssembledCity is Stage for Philadelphia Assembled

April through December 2017

Beginning in late April, a project entitled Philadelphia Assembled will manifest in a series of activities and actions throughout the city to illuminate and amplify a broad set of hopes, visions, and questions about Philadelphia’s future. Initiated by artist Jeanne van Heeswijk, working alongside an extensive network of collaborators—among them artists, writers, builders, storytellers, gardeners, healers, and activists—Philadelphia Assembled aims to shape a collective narrative about our city and some of the most urgent issues it faces at a time of heightened transformation. Deeply integrated into the fabric of the Museum, the project also questions the place of this institution in the midst of this change.

Philadelphia Assembled

Following this spring season of city-wide programs, the project will culminate in an exhibition opening in September at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This participatory installation, September 10 through December 10, 2017, will transform the Perelman Building’s ground floor galleries, café, and store into spaces that will celebrate the people, sights, sounds, and tastes of a resilient city’s multi-faceted identity. Admission will be Pay What You Wish.

Evocatively referred to as “atmospheres of democracy”, Philadelphia Assembled addresses a number of issues that are central to the future the city by focusing on key themes such as reconstructions—how we deal with questions of social displacement and reentry into society; sovereignty—how we define self-determination and autonomy; sanctuary—how we understand self-care, asylum, and refuge; futures—how to re-imagine our tomorrow; and movement—how we facilitate action and collective learning.

Philadelphia Assembled

Van Heeswijk’s work, which is often described as social practice or socially engaged art, combines art and activism. In this spirit, the project brings together voices of those who care about the changing landscape of Philadelphia and who, in life and work, seek to champion and secure a prosperous and equitable future for all of its citizens.

Timothy Rub, The George D. Widener Director and CEO, stated, “Some of the most interesting work being done by artists today straddles the boundary between art and life.  In 2013, we invited the Dutch artist Jeanne van Heeswijk to consider what an artist might do in engaging Philadelphia’s many neighborhoods and diverse communities. What began as a conversation has grown, and it has been fascinating—and rewarding—to watch Philadelphia Assembled take on a life of its own. We are looking forward to the moment when our galleries are appropriated to become a stage for the city itself. It promises to be exciting and full of surprises and presents an opportunity to consider how we might define the roles and responsibilities that the Philadelphia Museum of Art can play as a civic institution in a changing city in the 21st century.”

Denise Valentine, a collaborator and Philadelphia storyteller, reflected on this process: “We intend to re-imagine the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a place to unearth stories hidden deep in the soil of Philadelphia. We envision a place where narratives of the enslaved, the incarcerated, the displaced, and the disenfranchised are held in as high esteem as Eurocentric ideas about art, history, and culture.”

Philadelphia Assembled

The project’s five “atmospheres” are described below:

Reconstructions

This atmosphere will assemble personal and collective narratives of mass incarceration and gentrification. Its first site, in the Nicetown/Tioga neighborhood, will be realized in close collaboration with Reconstructions, Inc. and the Alumni Ex Offenders Association. This group will offer programs exploring concepts of home, healing and trauma in relationship to imprisonment and reentry, including a teach-in and a neighborhood-wide procession. At a second site, in South Kensington/Olde Kensington, collaborators are examining the impact of gentrification and displacement, working with the Women’s Community Revitalization Project and Healthy Rowhouse Project to re-imagine a community garden at 4th and Master Streets as a dynamic space for discussion.

Philadelphia Assembled

Sovereignty

Exploring the concepts of self-determination and autonomy, this working group is addressing land sovereignty and cooperative forms of commerce and cultural exchange. Philadelphia Assembled will create a “sovereignty room” at the African Cultural Art Forum on 52nd Street, which will serve as a dedicated space in West Philadelphia for creating unity and cultivating economic sovereignty. Established in 1969, ACAF is a community-based organization that manufactures and sells products by entrepreneurs throughout the African diaspora. In the “sovereignty room” ACAF will host skill trainings and exchanges in preparation for a large public “Sovereignty Marketplace” in June. The second site is envisioned as a network of four urban gardens located in North Philadelphia. Programming and installations across these gardens will inform the ways in which plants, seeds, and land reinforce people’s connection to ancestry and serve as vehicles for nourishment, healing, and future growth. Urban gardens involved include Urban Creators, Norris Square Neighborhood Project Gardens, Fair Hill Burial Grounds, and Stretch and Fly Youth Business Garden.

Philadelphia Assembled

Futures

The Futures atmosphere is drawing from anti-colonial ideas to model different ways of exploring the future and community building. The Futures site is an active mobile project, called the Mobile Futures Institute, which involves retro-fitting a small bus into a flexible work space that will travel throughout the city, engaging in neighborhood-based programs on issues ranging from decolonization, to environmental racism, to economic justice. Collaborators are working with community members and organizations to produce events and happenings via the Mobile Futures Institute. Current partners include the Center for Returning Citizens, Black Quantum Futurism, Friends Center, Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia, Norris Square Community Alliance, Mighty Writers, and the Indigenous Peoples Day Movement, among others.

Philadelphia Assembled

Sanctuary

This group has proposed a combination of sites that will explore various models of self-care, asylum, and refuge. The larger site will be realized at a central location in Center City. The site structure is a geodesic dome inspired by temporary housing units for refugees in Europe. The space will be open for a month of summer programs, offering a layered definition of sanctuary through storytelling, advocacy, and direct action. In the months leading up to the fixed site, a portable site will host a series of activities working with identified partner organizations to address the provision of LBGTQ safe spaces, issues of immigration and migration, and harm reduction relating to drug use and sex work. Partner organizations include the Attic Youth Center, New Sanctuary Movement, Prevention Point Philadelphia, and Project Safe.

Philadelphia Assembled

Movement

The final atmosphere is one in which the various Philadelphia Assembled working groups intersect. This group is focused on the project’s production, dissemination, and communication, which is manifesting in audio recordings, a dedicated film series, project-specific graphics, an interactive web platform, and site-specific publications. Another component of the Movement atmosphere is the Youth Dream Trust, which will serve as a coalition of youth across the working groups in partnership with the Village of Arts and Humanities. Working closely with Philadelphia-based collective Amber Art and Design, the group will also orchestrate the performative movement of public sites to the Museum. Carrying objects, ideas, and conversations across the city streets, this public movement will culminate in a communal presentation along the ground floor of the Perelman Building, becoming a civic stage where the city is performed.

For Jeanne van Heeswijk, Philadelphia Assembled is a forward-moving process in which she is one among many participants imagining the city’s futures together. She stated: “My work is trying to get to the essence of aesthetics, to understand it as an engaged, inclusive, and proactive practice. This type of work is about using imagination to better understand how we live together. Rising, claiming, rooting, caring, moving – this is how we build a collective exercise of care.”

Philadelphia Assembled

Members of the public are invited to join the conversation and engage with collaborators by visiting the Philadelphia Assembled website and sharing their experiences via #phlassembled @phlassembled @philamuseum.

Program Events

For a full list of public programs and locations, please visit the dedicated website at phlassembled.net. All Philadelphia Assembled programs are free to the public unless noted otherwise.

Philadelphia Assembled

About Jeanne Van Heeswijk

Jeanne van Heeswijk is an artist who facilitates the creation of dynamic and diversified public spaces in order to “radicalize the local.” Her community-embedded projects question art’s autonomy by combining performative actions, discussions, and other forms of organizing and pedagogy in order to work alongside communities to take control of their own futures. Van Heeswijk’s work has been featured in publications and exhibitions worldwide, including the Liverpool, Shanghai, and Venice biennials. Accolades include the receipt of the 2011 Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change, the 2012 Curry Stone Prize for Social Design Pioneers, and the 2014 inaugural Keith Haring Fellowship in Art and Activism at the Center for Curatorial Studies and Human Rights Project at Bard College. She lives and works in Rotterdam and Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Assembled

About Social Practice
Social Practice is an art medium that focuses on participation and collaboration with individuals, communities, and institutions in the collective creation of a temporary or permanent community. The process involves careful listening, thoughtful conversation, and community organizing. This is also referred to as socially engaged art, social justice art, community art and new genre public art.

Sponsors

Philadelphia Assembled is made possible by the William Penn Foundation, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Wyncote Foundation, Nancy M. Berman and Alan Bloch, Lynne and Harold Honickman, Mr. and Mrs. Milton S. Schneider, Constance and Sankey Williams, the Mondriaan Fund, and The Netherland-America Foundation.

Philadelphia Assembled

Collaborators

Philadelphia Assembled is initiated by artist Jeanne van Heeswijk and organized with Carlos Basualdo, The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Senior Curator of Contemporary Art; Amanda Sroka, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art; Phoebe Bachman, Project Coordinator; and Sheldon Abba, Project Site Manager. Core collaborators include: Amber Art and Design, artist collective; Yana Balson, Associate Director of Exhibition Planning, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Kirtrina Baxter, community organizer and activist grower; Pascale Boucicaut, culinary artist and organizer; Maurits de Bruijn, graphic designer and web developer; Counter Narrative Society (CNS); Helen Cunningham, educator and conflict mediator; Gretchen Dykstra, Senior Marketing Editor, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Morgan Gengo, Marketing and Audience Development Manager, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Shari Hersh, Mural Arts Senior Project Manager and Founder of the Restored Spaces Initiative; Russell Hicks, entrepreneur; in•site collaborative, a research, design, and mapping collective; Nehad Khader, film curator and artist; Jason Killinger, graphic designer; Dianne Loftis, researcher and compiler; Charlotte Lowrey, Project Assistant for the Contemporary Caucus, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Zein Nakhoda, filmmaker; Michael O’Bryan, artist and youth facilitator; People’s Paper Co-op, a collaborative initiative for re-entry; Elisabeth Perez-Luna, journalist and public broadcasting producer; Damon Reaves, Associate Curator of Education, Community Engagement and Access, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Chris Rogers, educator and organizer; Kristin Schwab, community cook and organizer; 75B, design collective; Traction Company, artist collaborative studio; Denise Valentine, storyteller and activist; Phantazia Washington, LGBTQ activist and facilitator; A. M. Weaver, artist and curator; Gee Wesley, artist and curator; Jared Wood, artist; Karina Wratschko, Special Projects Librarian, Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Billy Yalowitz, playwright and community-based performance artist.

Community Partners and Program Hosts

African Cultural Art Forum, Alumni Ex-Offenders Association, The Attic Youth Center, Broad Street Ministry, The Center for Returning Citizens, Coalition for Racial Justice (CoRaJus), Community Futurisms: Time & Memory in North Philly (Community Futures Lab), The Culinary Enterprise Center, Deep Green Philly, The Enterprise Center, Experimental Farm Network, Healthy Rowhouse Project, Historic Fair Hill, Laos in the House, Mighty Writers, MOVE, Mural Arts Philadelphia, New Sanctuary Movement Philadelphia, Norris Square Neighborhood Project, North Central CDC, Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance, Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, Philadelphia Coalition for Affordable Communities, Prevention Point Philadelphia, Project SAFE, Reconstruction Inc., Soil Generation, Take Back the Night Philadelphia, Ulises, Urban Creators-Life Do Grow Farm, The Village of Arts and Humanities, W/N W/N, and the Women’s Community Revitalization Project.

Locations

In the City: April – July 2017

Movement to the Museum: July – August 2017

Perelman Building, ground floor: September 10–December 10, 2017

Philadelphia Assembled is a project undertaken in collaboration with stakeholders from across the city and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The views expressed by individual participants or in materials developed as part of Philadelphia Assembled are representative of the project’s collective conception and production and are not, necessarily, the views of the Museum or any other individual involved.

Social Media
Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/Tumblr/YouTube: @philamuseum @phlassembled

We are Philadelphia’s art museum. We are a landmark building. A world-renowned collection. A place that welcomes everyone. We bring the arts to life, inspiring visitors—through scholarly study and creative play—to discover the spirit of imagination that lies in everyone. We connect people with the arts in rich and varied ways, making the experience of the Museum surprising, lively, and always memorable. We are committed to inviting visitors to see the world—and themselves—anew through the beauty and expressive power of the arts.

For additional information, contact the Communications Department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art phone at 215-684-7860, by fax at 215-235-0050, or by e-mail at pressroom@philamuseum.org.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street. For general information, call (215) 763-8100.

Thank you to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the content of this post.

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DC>3D

Dave Carrow, DC>3D at Marginal Utility

Dave Carrow, DC>3D at Marginal Utility, Philadelphia

Opening Reception: First Friday, February 3rd from 6:00 – 10:00pm. If you cannot make it to the opening this Friday, you can catch it again on the following First Friday on March 3rd, same times.

Marginal Utility, 319 North 11th Street, 2nd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Marginal Utility is a non-profit gallery that presents the work of locally and internationally recognized emerging and established artists.

Hours: By Appointment, Saturday + Sunday 12:00 – 5:00pm

Marginal Utility is proud to present DC>3D, a solo exhibition by the New Jersey based artist Dave Carrow.

Dave Carrow has been a friend of MU and its’ predecessors since the beginning, and has exhibited with the curators previously. This is an opportunity to keep that relationship current. Included will be sculpture, hybrids of sculpture/ furniture, related objects, accessories, and photographs.

Artist’s Statement
“I am using a combination of elements; formed/fabricated assemblies which contain kinetic and interactive components, found objects- curiosities and collectibles of various shapes, colors, origins and materials- which are designed and constructed to invite participation, display a sense of humor, and play with the notions of scale and time.” – Dave Carrow

Subscribe to Marginal Utility electronic mail list at: www.marginalutility.org/contact
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Facebook: www.facebook.com/marginal.utility

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Out

Out of the Box, Open Juried Art Show at The Plastic Club

Out of the Box, Open Juried Art Show at The Plastic Club

UNLEASH YOUR INNER CREATIVE BEAST AT THE PLASTIC CLUB

The Plastic Club is inviting artists to break new creative ground for the club’s next juried art exhibition. The February show will feature the theme of ‘Out of the Box‘ – highlighting ‘work related to the notion of invention and inspiration’. The exhibition will run from February 5th to February 23rd, with an opening party on Sunday, February 5 from 2 PM to 5 PM.

The prospectus explains that the subject may be ‘personal, political, scientific, or otherwise’. Submitted work may also be ‘a piece that is itself an experiment, new subject matter, or new medium for you as an artist’.

“Some example ideas,” the prospectus explains, would be “a piece that represents a new direction in your practice or features a material or medium that is new for you; a portrait of an inventor or innovative thinker; a depiction of an inspirational place, event, or historical turning point; subject matter about a break in convention; an illustrative or abstract response to any of these concepts.”

The show’s prospectus is downloadable from The Plastic Club‘s website, www.plasticclub.org.

The show’s juror will be interdisciplinary artist Jacob Rivkin, a teacher at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design and a member of Philadelphia’s OOF Collective, an animation collective.

Jacob Rivkin Bio

“I am an interdisciplinary artist living in Philadelphia, PA. I currently teach Fine Art courses in the University of Pennsylvania School of Design and at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. I am currently a member of the OOF Collective. I received my MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2013 and BA from Vassar College in 2007. My animations and sculptures focus on understanding how, and if, environments and its geological qualities imbue sentiment and distinct character to its inhabitants.

My animation work has screened at the Animation Block Party in Brooklyn, NY, Vox Populi in Philadelphia, PA, and the Peephole Cinema in San Francisco. My sculptures have been exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery in Vancouver, BC, The Chemical Heritage Foundation Museum, Philadelphia, PA, the Arlington Art Center in Arlington, VA and Julius Caesar Gallery in Chicago, IL. Awards include the Juror’s Prize at the 25th Annual McNeese Works on Paper Juried Exhibition in 2012, a Fulbright Grant in 2008 to study Chinese traditional landscape painting in Hangzhou, China, and the Weitzel Barber Art Travel Prize in 2006 to study Buddhist sculpture practices in Western China. In 2014 I was an Artist-in-Residence at the Hacktory in Philadelphia. My studio is located at the Queen Memorial Work Studios in Grays Ferry.” – Jacob Rivkin

The Plastic Club, located on quaint Camac Street, the Avenue of the Artists, was founded in 1897 to promote the visual (plastic) arts. Although initially formed as a women’s group, membership was expanded to include men in 1991. The Plastic Club has over 200 members from the Philadelphia area, long-distance members hail from three continents.

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