Members of the Breckenridge and Wagner families at the unveilng of the Historical Marker at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, the oldest art club in America. The Breckenridge family donated an important painting of the family matriarch to the Philadelphia Sketch Club that was found folded up in the bottom of a trunk. The painting has been meticulously restored by the prestigious Newman Gallery and is on display in the meeting room.
Go to DoN‘s YouTube page, DoNNieBeat, to see a short video clip of the evening. It was really a fun night in West Philly; Shoshana and DoN dressed up and mingled with the crowd of artists while video projectors displayed examples of many of the POST artists works, an efficient way to honor the artists in the prestigious art museum.Last weekend was the West of Broad Street Philadelphia Open Studio Tours, DoN exhibited new drawings, photographs, paintings and video with a special display of NTPE 1 & 4 prints. NTPE = Newstoday Print Exchange. Newstoday, now QBN.com is a website dedicated to mostly multimedia and graphic designers who exchange ideas, chat and help each other. The Friday Photoshop Battles are hysterical. For NTPE, artists and designers send a print to people on a list and each then sends one to you. DoN participated in the first event and the most recent, fourth, exchange. NTPE is a wonderful experiment in trust, commitment, ingenuity and style with each artist doing their best to impress even the most jaded fellow designer.
Philadelphia Open Studio Tours opening party @ ICA
Shoshka. Alden and DoN made the pilgrimage to Crane Arts Center in Fishtown to witness the spectacle of innovation, artistry and experience design the arts space is becoming famous for.The University of Delaware has taken over the old Busy Bee space and the current exhibition of MFA students is insightful and fun. Looming over the first floor are fiber and plaster neuron-like constructs by the afore-mentioned Mark Donahue; similar to the Hopkins House installation, this time Donahue has balanced separate components on top of each other creating strange transmitters communicating in a language all their own. DoN was greeted by the elegant Virginia Bradley, artist/curator/educator who shares a studio on the third floor with Chris Malcomson – Virginia and DoN commiserated over sharing studio space (more about that in a minute).
Untitled, mixed media, Jim Reske. Is this thing cool or what? Simple sun-bleached plywood panels lean against the wall as if Josef Albers were in the house.
rickery, watercolor & ink on stretched & cut paper, Francine Fox @ UD@Crane.
Francine Fox displayed several three inch square paintings that are executed with virtuosity, flare and fluid surrealist imagination. Like seeing a weird image in the clouds or faces in foam on the beach, Fox finds eery fractals of flesh, skin and organs which are all intricately applied to the glossy surface of the wood in delicate strokes of paint.
Anthony Vega with one of his multiple image paintings. Vega uses a projector to capture multiple images within the plane of his painting. Using found or original images he combines blobs of paint into pixel-like splotches which when viewed from a distance morph into pulsating icons that DoN‘s brain tried to make sense of but was thwarted by the cacophony of ideas vying for attention. Vega told DoN, “…it’s evidently handmade.”
Sho, Alden and DoN all LoVeD the balloon-stuffed panty hose, each of us explained the concept to at least one of our friends. Like Christo‘s temporary installations, these pieces will obviously deteriorate rapidly but will live on in memory and photographs. Of course, one could always make more and have fun doing it.
At Nexus Gallery, our threesome was treated to a video installation by J. Makary and Bilwa as part of the Philly Fringe festival. The gallery transformed into a movie theater with stadium seating presented an extraordinary video: part art movie, part music video, part dance performance with an emphasis on hand gestures and body language. The saturated colors, quirky dance moves and evocative narrative was absorbing and abstract in it’s simplicity of experience design.
Nick of Nexus tells DoN the gallery will be installing a low powered community radio station ala Whitney’s Biennial radio station. People can schedule air time by contacting the gallery. Lo-fi Coolness Rocks!
Super Kawai Lil’ Lamb @ Nexus.
Shoshana and DoN attended “A Night of Art, Music & Film” @ Studio 34. The yoga/healing studio/art space at 4522 Baltimore Ave hosted avant garde music, poetry, the premier of a film and an art exhibit, creating an exciting and interesting vibe in the mixed use space.
Artist, Stefan Kietzman with his paintings in the gallery at Studio 34
Painting by Stephan Kietzman @ Studio 34.
From surrealist abstraction to impressionist landscape, Stefan Kietzman demonstrates his wide range of technique and painting facility.
Photographer/Artist, Alan Massey with his photography installation at Studio 34 (sorry for the lens flare) but DoN wanted you to see the scope and scale of Massey’s unique display.
Detail of Alan Massey‘s photos of sidewalk cracks which seemed to spill out of a broken picture frame and squiggle across the wall. Each photo is an image of an actual crack in city concrete, Massey can tell you exactly where each one is located.
Artist, Maryann Held with her modern pin-up illustrations. A graduate of UArts, Held says the school, “…pushed not just what was good but what makes me happy.” Holla! Held is planning a career in illustration and designing books for kids.
Djo Fortunado working on a background painting for his production of “Gods vs. Men” to be performed at The Rotunda in University City. Fortunado wrote, directed, cast, designed costumes, created sets and even wrote music for what the artist calls a Reggae, Rock, HipHopera. During the evening Djo also served as MC, introducing the eclectic mix of artists and performers. Cool.
Drawing by Djo Fortunado @ Studio 34.
Character studies for “Gods vs. Men” by multimedia artist Djo Fortunado.
Cait Davis, starred, directed and produced “in This Place“, a movie she wrote and designed with a little help from her friends. The abstract narrative follows Cait’s character through trials and tribulations of being young in the city – DoN found himself wishing she wouldn’t smoke so much in the movie. The saturated colors and quirky angles captured by cinematographer Ray Flynn takes the viewer from The Green Line Coffee Shop (a very funny scene) to the bedroom to a dreamscape with precision and technique which truly resembled the qualities usually found in film not video. “In This Place” will be entered in the Brooklyn Film Festival.
A unique aspect to the evening was that many of the artists are high school friends who all attended CAPA, the High School for Creative and Performing Arts (Cait and Alan have known each other since they were two) remaining close and collaborative. So, friendship in the modern age isn’t just who has the longest friend list on FaceBook or being friended by strangers on MySpace, it’s actually showing up and supporting the people you love. PAFA people support each other and so do members of Da Vinci Art Alliance, the Plastic Club and Philadelphia Sketch Club. Being an artist is a competitive business, not for the thin-skinned or weak at heart, but with the appreciation of friends and family, producing art can be a rewarding intellectual experience. Thanks to James Peniston for being such a gracious host and introducing DoN to all the artists.