SOTA (Spirit of the Artist) on Pine Street in the heart of famous Antique Row only sells art and crafts made in America by artists owner Frank Burkhauser knows personally. A simple concept; socially conscious business practices benefiting the community, artists and the gallery, creating a vibrant, entrancing art experience. DoN and Shoshana joined artist Alden Cole as he replenished his stock of unique luminaries – lamp-like art objects created from new and old parts fitted with energy efficient LED bulbs which magically change color. Burkhauser has been a long time supporter of Cole’s art including his paintings, DoN could tell their friendship is long and deep with great mutual respect. 
SOTA Gallery owner Frank Burkhauser with artist Alden Cole (that’s Alden’s latest luminaries on the shelf over his head – very cool!)
While Alden installed new luminaries and Shoshana shopped, Frank and DoN discussed the philosophy of the gallery. Burkhauser believes if you, “Do something, something will happen.” By keeping the store open seven days a week, rotating stock, staying abreast of trends and giving the art time to find it’s audience, Frank has discovered that marketing comes his way without monetary investment. One thing he notices is that when people visit the gallery the first thing they say is, “Cool!” So, often he will tell first time visitors, “This is the coolest store you’ll ever see.” Or, “This is the store you’re looking for.” Or he’ll count the number of people who say, “Cool!” and say to the next visitor, “You’re the eleventh person today to say how cool the store is.” Frank also explained to DoN how he goes, “craft hobo-ing.” Since he regularly attends craft and art fairs he will often crash on a crafters sofa so he can wake up with the artist and see how they spend their day in the studio, gaining intimate knowledge of how objects are conceived, developed, created and ultimately brought to market. And he gets to know the artist on their own turf, learns their methodology and literally watches as the artist imbues the object with spirit, love and pride. Frank says, “Craft shows are my favorite sport.”
SOTA features wood, glass, ceramics, toys, jewelry, wall art and sculpture, paintings, objet de art… Shoshana discovered a set of hand made measuring spoons which she thought would be a perfect house warming gift, DoN fell in LoVe with the Ginkgo metal wall sculptures (considering the bad press Ginkgo’s been getting for the stink the berries make even though they are ancient beings with their own special spirit) and of course, Alden Cole’s luminous lamps and paintings. 
SOTA‘s Frank Burkhauser, cotourier Shoshana Aron and artist Alden Cole on Pine Street.
Whitney Museum of American Art
Thursday, DoN made good on the promise he made to himself to visit the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Biennial in NYC. DoN took theBolt Bus from the 30th Street Station to 34th & 8th Streets – 22 bucks round trip! The Biennial gathers together four floors of cutting edge American art including paintings, drawings, installations, sculpture, video, sound and experience design. The Ed Sozanski review in the Inquirer led DoN to believe the show would be a disappointment but nothing could be further from the truth; DoN discovered unusual witty installations, incredibly moving video, sublime sound design, wacky sculptures, lovely paintings and pride of place for digital and multimedia works. OK, most of the pieces won’t fit in your living room but certainly including traditional works along-side room sized experiences filled DoN with the spirit of innovation, intuition and inspiration. Eighty-one artists were included in the sprawling exhibition so DoN will share just a few favorites. DoN could not take pictures but click the links to see examples of the work. The show closed 6/1 but selected floors are open until 6/22.
Leslie Hewitt’s large scale chromogenic prints of austere interiors with brittle pictures, forgotten books and ephemera is simple and straight forward with a hint of wit – on the floor was an old book, “How to Take Great Photographs – Eastman Kodak Company“, with a guard posted nearby so the book couldn’t be stolen and on a shelf nearby was an oscillating fan with the words, “Comfort Zone.” Certainly the enigmatic scenes would fit nicely in a 21st century interior along side antiques and computers.
Ellen Harvey’s installation, Collection of Impossible Objects, was a two part affair – upon entering the space DoN faced a plastic wall with outlines of elaborate frames bunched together, lit from behind with florescent tubes and a large square hole which hinted at the painting just around the corner. And what a painting it is – the same assemblage of picture frames but now filled with paintings of flash photos including lens flare and glare, obscured images of the artist and her studio with the background of the painting the same deep red as the wall it’s mounted on – DoN felt a sense of awe and wonder at the proficiency and skill Harvey displayed.
Javier Tellez‘ video, “Letter on the Blind for Those of Us Who See“, caused DoN to openly weep. Based on the Indian parable, “The Blind Men and the Elephant“, a group of blind men are encouraged to walk towards and examine a huge live elephant who patiently stood allowing each person to touch it’s skin, ears, trunk, tail, even eyes – each man described the sensation he experienced: one man hugged the leg and cooed lovingly, one poked gently and swiftly commenting on how the elephant skin felt like drapery fabric, one man who lived his entire life blind commented he wasn’t interested in gaining sight as those who lost vision later in life do because he didn’t want to learn to live life all over again but maybe seeing for an hour or so would be nice but then he’d want to go back to normal. Close-ups of the elephant skin created abstract images coinciding with the unimaginable stories the men told.
Philadelphia was represented by Karen Kilimnik; in the center of the room hung a lovely crystal chandelier, which DoN equates with wealth and prosperity, the walls scattered salon-style with mise-en-scènes of loosely painted stuffed birds, equine portraits and modern icons likeKate Moss. The effect was tasteful, with sumptuous color, elegance and accesability, surely viewers could imagine one of her works hanging over the fireplace in their imaginary mansion. Last year Kilimnik had a show at the ICA in West Philly; DoN felt proud even though he’s never met her.
DoN‘s favorite piece is an experience design by Mika Rottenberg. DoN entered a ramshackle construction of chicken coops with video monitors mounted throughout with farm sounds of chickens and cows and a world populated with women with extremely long hair and polygamy compound style dress. The women were all performing strange rituals such as capturing the mist from a waterfall in a funnel which dripped down a hose to a lady waiting on a table, the water streaming down her hair into a tub surrounded by more long haired women as the water magically transformed into milk. Other screens displayed women contemplating a block of lard, others played with their luxurious tresses, yet others tucked their hands under their armpits and waved them in time with the clucking chickens. To DoN this is a new surrealism as experience design, not a painting, not a sculpture yet still art in the extreme.
Many of the works in the show paid homage to famous artist’s who’ve gone before – DuChamp for sure, Koons mashed with Brancusi, Warhol-ian video, Picasso-esque drawings…but hey, we live in a highly mediated society, famous images are everywhere, inspiration comes from TV commercials, sci-fi movies, the Internet, comic books…certainly the show was not dull or disappointing.
Friday night DoN joined Bob Jackson‘s monthly dinner/drawing session; Bob makes dinner at 5:30 – stir fry with sobu noodles, pepper steak with rice, fresh leechees from ChinaTown (a delicious treat), Bonnie brought white wine and Victoria made fresh raspberry pie!!! Then we all drew or painted a female/male pair of beautiful models until 9:30. DoN plans on entering his work in the Plastic Club’s upcoming Workshop Show.
A great way to see a show for free is to be a volunteer usher; Saturday night Aida and DoN stuffed playbills and took tickets in order to experience the superb eurydice by Sarah Ruhl at The Wilma Theater on the Avenue of the Arts. Eurydice was the wife of Orpheus who sang the saddest song in order gain access to find his beloved in the Underworld, she had fallen to her death after being fooled by the Lord of Hell. The production is hyper-modern with Mimi Lien‘s set design severe with bold primary colors, Oana Botez-Ban‘s costumes developed the characters and established historical references, the lighting by Tyler Micolean is stylish,lean, transformative and exciting, the acting suberb – especially the extremely handsome Benjamin Huber as Orpheus who is not only wonderful to watch but sings the saddest song like an angel. Merritt Janson performs a tour de force requiring dance, acrobatics and acting in order to portray the naive Eurydice who is so trusting and so stupid. But the music was the most amazing part of this surreal experience; Toby Twining composed a score which utilized guttural chokes, whining sobs, creepy droning and atonal choruses combined with sweet cello and soprano singing creating the unknowable language of the dead. Eurydice is truly amazing, director Blanka Zizka is a genius – DoN is so lucky to live in an American city that provides such a high level of culture, drama, music and artistic expression.
Shameless Self Promotion
DoN‘s digital photograph “light being’s (Dora & Pablo)” is included in Off the Wall Gallery’s Enter Digital show at Dirty Frank’s. The reception is Thursday, June 5th, 7-10PM.
DoN‘s oil painting “Nudite Songeuse” is included in the Philadelphia Sketch Club‘s Members Exhibition at the venerable Newman’s Gallery on Walnut Street, the reception is Saturday, June 7th,1-4PM.
DoN Brewer’s oil painting “Nudite Songeuse” @ Newman’s Gallery.
DoN‘s “light beings” one person show continues at The Beauty Shop Cafe through June 14th.
DoN Brewer’s “light beings (Dora & Pablo)” @ The Beauty Shop Cafe.
LoVeDoN