Rich Harrington, fine artist, illustration professor & Philadelphia Sketch Club board member is just one of the local art activists featured in Midsummer Invitational @ Off The Wall Gallery, 13th & Pine Streets.  Harrington’s paintings of rusting hulks of old cars and trucks are indefineable: part landscape, part still life and part portrait, the paintings are loaded with secret narratives and unanswered questions.  Harrington is a driving force@ PSC, always prepared to problem solve, take on projects and promote other artists – just ask his students, they love him.

Morris Klein is VP of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia and organizes ongoing art show at the Bonte Cafes in Center City, his style of photography is hyper-realistic with enhanced color and edges.  Getting photographers to participate in ongoing events is like herding cats, Morris is always even keeled and fair without being condescending – guys like Morris make such clubs like PSoP last hundreds of years.

Michelle Anne Clements @ Off the Wall in Dirty Franks – curator & gallerist Jody told DoN that Clements is donating a portion of the proceeds of her drawings of coral to Gulf relief.  The alien forms are wonderfully rendered drawings of different kinds of corals, the simple black and white drawings, beautifully presented, pay homage to the complexity of the simple and vital life form.

The Midsummer Invitational @ Off the Wall Gallery includes: Michelle Anne Clements, Rebecca Cross. Rich Harrington, Morris Klein, Kelly A. Kozma, Don McPartland, Karen Rodewald, Peter Smyth, Michael B. Tantaros & Lauren Westenhiser through October.