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Keith Smith, At Home, Philadelphia Museum of ArtBook Number 141, May 1989, by Keith Smith, American, b. 1938. Snake format artist’s book of gelatin silver prints with colored ink washes, watercolor, and machine stitching. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Purchased with funds contributed by Richard L. and Ronay Menschel, Marion Miller, The Paul & Emily Singer Family Foundation, Peter C. Bunnell, and Trevor Drake and Anne Albright, and with the Lynne and Harold Honickman Fund for Photography, 2015-51-1. © Keith Smith.

Keith Smith at Home

February – July 8, 2018

This winter, the Philadelphia Museum of Art presents Keith Smith at Home, the first major monographic presentation of the artist’s work in five decades. Spanning his entire career, the exhibition brings together over 60 exceptional and varied examples of his handmade artist’s books and experimental photographs, prints, collages, and fabric pieces made over the last half century. The exhibition places special emphasis on his artist’s books, the work for which he is best known. Many of these works are from the artist’s collection and have not been exhibited publicly before.

Keith Smith, At Home, Philadelphia Museum of ArtMargaret Gave me a Rainbow, 2:30pm 21 November, 1971, 1971, by Keith Smith, American, b. 1938. Collage of 3-M Color-in-Color photocopy transferred to buff-colored manila paper, gold star, multicolored thread, gelatin silver print, and rayon braid and tassels, hand and machine stitched to green plain weave cotton with gold rayon faille backing. Courtesy of Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York. © Keith Smith.

Smith is an especially private person, and one whose life at home has been the inspiration for much of his art. Central to the installation is Book Number 82, Keith Smith at Home (1982), showing a sequence of views of his residence in Rochester, New York, where he has lived since 1975. Page by page, it conveys the passage of time: views of the same room shift, household objects trade places, and friends appear and reappear in framed artwork on the house’s walls. Visitors will be able to page through this book digitally on an iPad in the gallery.

Keith Smith, At Home, Philadelphia Museum of ArtMe at My Shed ‑ About to Go after the Mail, 1973, by Keith Smith, American, b. 1938. Gelatin silver print with colored ink washes, machine stitched to secondary support. Courtesy of Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York. © Keith Smith.

The exhibition highlights books that challenge perceptions of what a book can be. Book Number 11, Up (1969) explores the interplay of images by alternating film-positive transparencies with opaque pages. As the film-positive page is turned, it creates the appearance of an image moving from one side of the page to the next. Book Number 91: a string book (1982) consists of cord, punched holes, and blank pages. Strings are extended across each page and spread in different patterns, sometimes taut and other times slack, creating an abstract and rhythmic narrative. Smith considers his string book to be photographic, as it deals with light, shadow, focus, motif, and sequence.

Keith Smith, At Home, Philadelphia Museum of ArtBook Number 11, Up, 1969, by Keith Smith, American, b. 1938. Artist’s book with photographs, drawings, prints, and transparencies. Courtesy of Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York. © Keith Smith.

Smith has referred to his work as an open diary. Self-representation is a key motif, whether appearing lighthearted or uneasy. Some self-portraits reflect the struggles and joys the artist has experienced in coming out as a gay man, as in Untitled, from Roadside Attractions (1979), a multilayered photograph in which two silhouetted male figures caress each other’s shoulders.

Smith has said, “Social intimidation is not as odious as repression that is self-inflicted. When I permitted my work to speak openly, I gained my freedom and my self-respect.”

Keith Smith, At Home, Philadelphia Museum of ArtSelf Portrait, November 1969, by Keith Smith, American, b. 1938. 3-M Color-in Color-photocopy, hand stitching, and pen and red ink. Courtesy of Keith Smith. © Keith Smith.

Also on view is a selection of handmade postcards, a format that Smith has experimented with since the 1960s. He made these cards with particular recipients in mind, but, feeling unable to part with them, has kept them. In addition, the exhibition features fabric pieces from the 1960s and 1970s. Among these is Margaret Gave me a Rainbow 2:30pm 21, November 1971, a collage of a photograph of an ear, curtain tassels, and an impression of the artist’s profile made on a color photocopier affixed to an army-issue bedsheet. Smith made Eye Quilt (1965), a full-size quilt screenprinted with a dense pattern of eyes, while a student at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Keith Smith: Word Play is a related installation on view in the Museum’s Library. This intimate display highlights the ways in which Smith uses word play, poetry, typography, and sequencing to create surprising relationships between images and text in his books.

Exhibition organizer Amanda N. Bock, The Lynne and Harold Honickman Assistant Curator of Photographs, said: “While Smith may seem shy personally, his art is candid, intimate, delightfully irreverent, and transgressive. To share a large body of his work with the public is an exciting and rare opportunity, and it underscores our commitment to showing provocative work by living artists.”

Keith Smith, At Home, Philadelphia Museum of ArtAatis with his arm on his hip, August 30, 1973, by Keith Smith, American, b. 1938. Postcard: pen and ink, graphite, and colored ink washes on gelatin silver print, machine stitched to secondary support. Courtesy of Keith Smith. © Keith Smith.

About Keith Smith (born 1938, Indiana)

Smith’s reluctance to categorize his work established him as a rogue member of both the photography and printmaking departments at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he graduated in 1967. His works are often radical departures from conventional books, and may unfold, light up, hang on the wall or in a corner, or be constructed of pencils or the shirt off the artist’s own back. Certain themes-friendship, love, desire, intimacy, and domesticity- recur. He has made over 300 artist’s books and over half a dozen seminal instructional manuals on bookbinding.

Keith Smith, At Home, Philadelphia Museum of ArtPeeled, August 30, 1973, by Keith Smith, American, b. 1938. Postcard: graphite and colored ink washes on gelatin silver print, machine stitched to secondary support. Courtesy of Keith Smith. © Keith Smith.

Smith’s work is represented in leading public and private collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; the Nelson-Atkins Museum; the George Eastman Museum, Rochester; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He is the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships (1972 and 1980) and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1978), and has taught at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester.

Keith Smith at Home, Philadelphia Museum of ArtBook Number 91, a string book, 1982, by Keith Smith, American, b. 1938. Artist’s book with cut outs, punched holes, and string. Courtesy of Keith Smith and Philip Zimmermann.

Public Programs

Representing Queerness
Sunday, March 4 | 2:30 p.m. | Perelman Building
Community Conversations open discussions about socially relevant topics.
Included in Pay What You Wish admission.

Bookmaking Workshops
Saturdays, March 17, April 21, and May 5 | 1:30-4:30 p.m. | Perelman Building
Each session includes a tour of Keith Smith at Home with the exhibition curator.
Each workshop: $20 ($16 members); includes Perelman Building admission

Curator
Amanda N. Bock, The Lynne and Harold Honickman Assistant Curator of Photographs

Exhibition Location
Julian Levy Gallery, Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building
Installation Location, Library, Second Floor, Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building

Support
Support for this exhibition was provided by The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

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

We are Philadelphia’s art museum. 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.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street.

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

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Book 91- String Book; by Keith Smith (1984)

4 Towns 4 Art

4 Towns 4 Art 20154 Towns 4 Art 2015, 3rd Annual Open Studio Tour Features 27 artists, 8 South Jersey Towns Represented

Saturday, April 11, 11:00am – 5:00pm

South Jersey artists share inspirations with their neighbors 4 Towns 4 Art, founded by Haddon Township fiber artist Jennifer Talarico, presents the third annual Open Studio Tour. Eight South Jersey towns are highlighted: Barrington, Collingswood, Haddonfield, Haddon Heights, Haddon Township, Merchantville, Oaklyn, and Pennsauken with 27 artists participating. Studio disciplines include painting, ceramics, fiber arts, drawing/illustration, photography, sculpture, mosaic, collage, and leather work.

“For the past two years, we have concentrated on educating the community about the ‘open studio tour’ concept,” Talarico explains. “We are now going into our third year with the momentum of name recognition, increased attendance, and strong sales. There has been a learning curve, but this community is truly embracing its artists and we couldn’t be happier.”

4 Town 4 ArtJennifer Talarico By Glenn Hudson

Painter Maria Christopher has shared her SoHA studio on the Tour, and says, “When 4 Towns 4 Art began, it kick started a conversation about art-making in this region. Each year the conversation continues and becomes richer and more interesting.”

Haddonfield artist Missy Schwartz hopes opening her studio for the second straight year will continue the back-and-forth flow of inspiration. “It is exciting for people to actually see where and how I make my art. Artists generally experience a lot of solitude, so it is fun for us to share about our process and hear creative feedback,” she says.

4 Towns 4 Art 2015

The third annual Open Studio Tour is free and open to the public. All members of the community are welcome to visit the studios on Saturday, April 11, 2015, from 11:00am to 5:00pm. Artists will be demonstrating, displaying, and selling their creations. A map and complete listing of artists and locations is available at www.facebook.com/4Towns4Art.

Participating Artists, 2015

Eilandarts Center 10 E. Chestnut St. Merchantville

Nicole Eiland, Sculpture, Book Arts, Mixed Media

Gabrielle Holliday, Photography

Kerry Mentzer, Mixed Media

Peter Kinney, 6531 Maple Ave. Pennsauken – Mixed Media, Photography

Eric Wolff,  300 Highland Ave. Collingswood – Pottery

Donna Maxwell, 300 Highland Ave. Collingswood – Watercolor

Evelyn Taylor Bonner, 10 W. Coulter Ave. Collingswood – Ceramics, Jewelry, Succulent Planters

Chris Bonner, 10 W. Coulter Ave. Collingswood – Ceramics, Mixed Media

Linda Figliola, 135 Lawnside Ave. Collingswood – Leather Bags, Boxes, Jewelry

Stephen Coan, 131 Lawnside Ave. Collingswood – Land Art Installation, Conceptual Images, Sculpture

Laura Rutherford Renner, 208 New Jersey Ave., Collingswood – Representational images on wood

Stacey Douglas, 7 Emerald Ave. Haddon Township – Mosaic, Painting, Clay

Jennifer Talarico,112 Cambridge Ave. Haddon Township – Handwoven and Hand Knit Clothing

Terence Smith, 28 E. Albertson Ave. Haddon Township – Works on Paper

Mark Parker, 118 Geneva Ave.  Haddon Township – Painting

SoHa Artists, 1001 White Horse Pike.  Haddon Township

Richard Bell, Photography

Christine Foster, Photography

Maria Christopher, Painting

Jocelynn Tice,  605 White Horse Pike, Haddon Township – Painting

Matthew Green, 215 E. Haddon Ave.  Oaklyn – Painting

Karla Heartsfield, 15 Tanner St. Haddonfield – Handcrafted Clothing

David Howard, 15 Tanner St. Haddonfield – Jewelry

Bob Jackson, 322 Estaugh Ave. Haddonfield – Drawing, Assemblage

Phyllis Jackson, 322 Estaugh Ave. Haddonfield – Button Necklaces

Missy Mohn-Schwartz, 440 Euclid Ave. Haddonfield – Painting

Frandy Jean, corner of E. Atlantic Ave. and Station Ave. Haddon Heights – Watercolor

Patricia Walkar, 1000 Oakwood Rd. Barrington – Paintings on Silk

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Karmic Choices

Karmic Choices: How Making the Right Decisions Can Create Enduring Joy – by Djuna Wojton

“Open up to more satisfaction in your life, from career and relationships to your own self-expression. With Karmic Choices: How Making the Right Decisions Can Create Enduring Joy, you’ll release the blocks that keep you immobilized and create an exciting and productive life you’ll love. By connecting with your soul awareness through exercises, questionnaires, and the three-step karmic pattern formula, this book will help you:

  • Heal old issues and go beyond self-imposed limitations?
  • Design new strategies and goals for a fulfilling future
  • Get support from friends, family, and professionals
  • Develop your intuition and access soul wisdom
  • Take actions that positively impact the world

By sharing her new perspective on the laws of karma and attraction, Djuna Wojton helps you to fully manifest the life you desire. Discover how you can incorporate a variety of helpful modalities, including yoga sutras, meditation, energy work, and more. When you follow the three steps—clarify, clear, and create—you’ll be more satisfied with your life than you ever imagined possible.” – Amazon.com

“Reiki (霊気?/ˈrk/) is a spiritual practice[1] developed in 1922 by Japanese Buddhist Mikao Usui, which has since been adapted by various teachers of varying traditions. It uses a technique commonly called palm healing or hands-on-healingas a form of alternative medicine and is sometimes classified as oriental medicine by some professional medical bodies.[2] Through the use of this technique, practitioners believe that they are transferring universal energy (i.e., reiki) in the form of qi (Japanese: ki) through the palms, which they believe allows for self-healing and a state of equilibrium.[3]

There are two main branches of Reiki, commonly referred to as Traditional Japanese Reiki and Western Reiki. Though differences can be wide and varied between both branches and traditions, the primary difference is that the Westernised forms use systematised hand-placements rather than relying on an intuitive sense of hand-positions (see below), which is commonly used by Japanese Reiki branches. Both branches commonly have a three-tiered hierarchy of degrees, usually referred to as the First, Second, and Master/Teacher level, all of which are associated with different skills and techniques.” – wikipedia

Djuna Wojton is a Philadelphia based author, artist, dancer, reiki master and radio personality offering advice, workshops and mindful healing sessions. Congratulations Djuna for publishing your second self-help book.

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RiTUAL Reading Room

RiTUAL Reading Room, 110 Church Gallery

My Winter Coat, Barbara Henry, NJ and A Summer Morning’s Ritual, Pia De Girolamo

RiTUAL, Reading Room110 Church Gallery, 110 Church Street, Philadelphia PA 19106, 267 871 9375, HOURS: Thursday 1:30 – 6:30 pm, Friday 1:30 – 6:30 pm (except First Fridays, 5 – 8 pm) Saturday Noon – 4:00 pm, other times by appointment. 

ARTIST RECEPTION: 
Saturday, December 14, 2013, 
3:00 – 6:00 pm

110 Church Gallery invites you to retreat from the cold into our gallery, transformed into a reading room. Be surrounded by stories, engulfed by pages, dazzled by over two hundred books. Books on shelves. Books on tables. Books hanging. Walls covered with books on display. Take books down, curl up and read. Fall in love with a book, buy it, and take it home.

Each of these books has been constructed from a single-sheet surface that is no larger than 11 x 17 inches. Over one hundred artists submitted books, addressing the theme: ritual.

RiTUAL Reading Room, 110 Church Gallery

RiTUAL, Reading Room110 Church Gallery

RiTUAL Reading Room is a meme based in Social Practice. To get the idea out into the Philadelphia art scene and have participation, the message had to be simple, easy to explain and memorably fun. By adding terms and conditions the curators established a concept that artists could share with each other, all you had to do was follow simple instructions. Making books in the Age of Digital Reproduction is a challenge to artists desiring to express themselves on paper. RiTUALS let’s the artist write whatever kind of book they like and then share the wall space with other artists, their work pixelated into the matrix of the meme, each book like a nerve connecting to the central nervous system of the art show. It really makes you think.

The design is simple and elegant with each book, loaded with information, waits to be unpacked by a viewer. Action is required to view the books displayed artfully in clear bags, concise tagging and information design creates a clever design experience. At the First Friday opening people ‘reading’ the books in random order mostly said, ‘Cool!’ There’s no better word.

RiTUAL Reading Room, 110 Church Gallery

110 Church GalleryRiTUAL, Reading Room

RiTUAL as a social practice experience is intellectually satisfying from the ad campaign with the sample instruction books to the on-line campaign to the virtual display, the idea is to express a concept within constraints. The books nearest the door are hung from display pins so the wind won’t blow them over, object-like books such as the tea-bag book are on pedestals and tables and the rest are displayed on slim racks with taut string keeping them in place.

The origami-like fold of the paper creates a four page book, with 8 sides and the opposite side of the paper can be a poster. There are books of prints, poems, recipes, photos, patterns, drawings, paintings, embroidery and sculpture. And there are stories told in eight pages that will make you laugh or cry. The tactility of handing the books and sharing the discoveries with others opened up communications so that people interacted instead of the anonymity of the library.

RiTUAL Reading Room, 110 Church Gallery

110 Church GalleryRiTUAL, Reading Room

RiTUAL Reading Room, 110 Church Gallery

110 Church GalleryRiTUAL, Reading Room

RiTUAL creates an environment saturated with information, ideas and design. The cable knit sweater book by Kate Flake is an expression of the information technology of sewing  communicated as memetic code. A meme of cozy comfort is translated into the book in a language different from words; a thread of thought creates a story in an un-named tongue that is easily understood and re-interpretted into words.

RiTUAL Reading Room, 110 Church Gallery

110 Church GalleryRiTUAL, Reading Room

Pia DeGirolamo’s books are delightfully informative and rich with style and taste. And by taste I mean food. Tomato Sauce Ritual teaches how to be resourceful and make yourself some decent Italian food; you live in Philly you should know how to make sauce. The illustrations, text and paper all add to the narrative in ways that are visually tasty.

RiTUAL Reading Room, 110 Church Gallery

110 Church GalleryRiTUAL, Reading Room

Thank you to Stella and Margaret from 110 Church Gallery for taking up this idea that involves depending on a lot of artists to create something new and making the exhibition a reality. The show has hundreds of books, there is an on-line catalog with pages about the artists and their books. RiTUAL is a lot of information that required deep thought and attention to detail to make happen.

110 Church Gallery consistently presents art that is thought provoking and unique, with RiTUAL the curators have communicated with the arts community in a way that they responded to with exciting and beautiful concepts of their own. Creating a spirit of community is the essence of the art show and if you spend time reading the books in the gallery you will learn about the people of our community and their rituals.

RiTUAL online catalog

Written and photographed by DoN Brewer except where noted.

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RiTUAL

RiTUAL, Reading Room, 110 Church GalleryRiTUAL, Reading Room, 110 Church Gallery, 110 Church Street, Philadelphia PA 19106, 267 871 9375, 

HOURS: Thursday 1:30 – 6:30 pm, Friday 1:30 – 6:30 pm (except First Fridays, 5 – 8 pm)
Saturday Noon – 4:00 pm, other times by appointment.

ARTIST RECEPTION: 
Saturday, December 14, 2013
3 – 6 pm

EXHIBITION: 
Friday, December 6, 2013 through
 Saturday, January 25, 2014

FIRST FRIDAYS
: Friday, December 6, 2013
, Friday, January 3, 2014 
5:00 – 8:00 pm

110 CHURCH gallery invites you to retreat from the cold into our gallery, transformed into a reading room. Be surrounded by stories, engulfed by pages, dazzled by over two hundred books. Books on shelves. Books on tables. Books hanging. Walls covered with books on display. Take books down, curl up and read. Fall in love with a book, buy it, and take it home.

Each of these books has been constructed from a single-sheet surface that is no larger than 11 x 17 inches. Over one hundred artists submitted books, addressing the theme: ritual.

RiTUAL. A ceremonial act ~ Rites used in the course of worship ~ The performance of ceremonial acts ~ The prescribed form of conducting the ceremony ~ A method of procedure that is followed without variation ~ performance with gestures, words, and objects, often in a sequestered place.

Pricing: $20, $75, $250 or free.

RiTUAL On-line catalog

CODE, DoN Brewer, RiTUALCODE, one sheet book, DoN BrewerRiTUAL, Reading Room110 Church Gallery

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