Tag Archives: Dirty Franks

Dollar

Dollar General, DoN BrewerDollar General, digital photograph on acrylic, 20” x 24” x 1”, DoN BrewerOff the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks, Tenth Annual Juried Exhibition

Artist Statement:

“The Dollar General Store that was located at 25th and South Street was a great resource for my community. The low prices helped to serve the folks both rich and poor who stopped in the store for everything from bacon and eggs to cat and dog food. I would see some people counting out pennies to but toilet paper and I saw wealthy people stocking up on laundry detergent. The staff was so friendly, kind and helpful and all of the young people who worked there were African Americans. Over time I learned their names and they knew mine. There was always a line at the cash register and often I would see friends and neighbors. Dollar General stores are usually located in poorer neighborhoods reflecting what my neighborhood of South Street West used to be like.

Since the development of the abandoned Naval Square and the gentrification of South of South Street the Dollar General went out of business and was replaced by a Petco Unleashed store selling high end and very expensive pet food. The corner store that was once a thriving, busy place that employed blacks is now full of dog food and an all white staff, and is now virtually empty of customers. Petco moved into my neighborhood to directly compete with the two existing pet supply stores, The Philly Pack and Doggie Style that sell the same products and offer the same services. The nearest Dollar General is at 26th and Jackson Streets, too far to walk from my neighborhood. The 17 bus goes to Jackson Street but is still a six block walk through a distressed neighborhood.

The photograph printed on Plexiglas is of the metal racks that once lined the sidewalk outside the Dollar General store that received daily deliveries of basic supplies to serve the community. Now Petco Unleashed only serves the wealthiest of dogs and cats.” – DoN Brewer

Dollar General was awarded the ‘mary rowe memorial jury prize, best in show’ for on the Grid Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks, Tenth Annual Juried Exhibition. I was elated when Togo read my name. I had just walked from Ionic and Chestnut Streets, I had left the PANMA Holiday Party early because I had a feeling. As I was passing the Philadelphia History Museum a strange thing happened. I stumbled and tore off the sole of my boot off.

It’s strange because I was thinking that at almost the exact same spot and time of year two years ago I tore the sole off another pair of boots while at the museum. Do you know what it’s like to walk with your boot flapping? It sounds like the loudest flip-flop ever, it was embarrassing to walk into Dirty Frank’s with tore boots. But then the whole place was clapping, cheering and saying my name. The experience was awesome, I was so touched by the affection of my friends. When I walked home from Dirty Frank’s that cold night, with my shoe flopping and flapping, I was grinning ear to ear. I’m a part of Philadelphia history, my name is 10th on the list of the Mary Rowe Memorial Jury Prize winners.

Read my review of Photography at on the Grid Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks, Tenth Annual Juried Exhibition on DoNArTNeWs.com

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A photo posted by Louis Dallara (@ldallara) on

Grid

On the Grid, Off the Wall Gallery

on the Grid

Tenth Annual Juried Exhibition at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Frank’s

November 23 – December 27. Opening Reception: December 4th, 7:00 – 10:00pm. Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Frank’s, NE Corner, 13th & Pine, Philadelphia, PA 19107

John BaccileKyle BakerJessica BarberGlenn BengeJim Biglan, Meryl Bonderow, DoN BrewerPaula Brumbelow Burnsm, Vincent Bush, Nicole Clifford, Matt CohenJacque FerrettiLeroy ForneyJulia FoxWayne FranksRachel Glidden, Bob GorchovTed Gutswa, Robin Harrison, Robert Yong Lee, Rob LybeckStephen MillnerBill Myers, Michael Nathan, Annette Newman, Tri Nguyen, Alexandra OrgeraGene Renzi, Wendy Rush, Veronika Schmude, Chuck Schultz, Julius ScissorMina Smith-Segal, Ed SnyderLaura StorckMichael Tantaros, Jocelynn TiceNoa & Emi Travalia, Wa-oo-ba-ke, Katherine Weber, and Jaither West

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Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery

Alice Gonglewski, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery

Alice Gonglewski, Union #2-4, popsicle sticks and acrylic paint, $40.00, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks

Coupling is the theme of the 9th Annual Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery and artists took the concept into elusive yet eloquent mind spaces. Alice Gonglewski‘s Union series uses popsicle sticks to create a visual expression of family and home to it’s simplest symbols. The round and straight lines of the sticks, the black and white paint and the open and closed shapes evokes memories of home. I can almost hear the Mister Softee song, an ear worm that stirs memories of prosperity and poverty. The bare sticks represent food, comfort, safety and caring with minimal information and maximal content of narrative.

Laura Storck, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery

Laura Storck, Elvis Pelvis, cyanotype from digital negative, $200.00, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks

The combination of different photography techniques makes Elvis Pelvis pop on a wall with fifty other cool artworks. Laura used an x-ray as the negative for the cyanotype print. Mildly photosensitive solution is applied to a as paper and allowed to dry in a dark place. When the paper is exposed to light the negative, in this case the x-ray, controls the amount of chemical reaction. By mixing technologies the piece couples a view of the interior of a body while exposing the lines of the exterior. The deep blue is rich with tone and texture, the lines are descriptive and articulated, almost holographic. The painterly strokes of the photo-sensitive solution add a sense of immediacy and urgency.

Laura Storck’s photography can currently be viewed as part of Philly Photo Day, in their gallery at North 3rd Street and on a billboard in West Philly. Her exploration into silver emulsion photography is included in a group show called Silver Emulsion Red Hook Coffee and Tea, 765 South 4th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19147. Opening Reception: Friday December 20th, 2013, 6:00 – 9:00pm

Erica Harney, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery

Erica Harney, Rabbit/Credit Card, oil and mixed media on panel, $80.00, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks

Erica Harney has been working on an art project which dove tailed perfectly with the theme of Coupling. By asking people to name two nouns, a Dadaist idea of Exquisite Corpse is created which is then painted as literally as possible. The paintings are refreshingly entertaining, the randomness of the combinations are like real life with problems, delights, challenges and comforts. There are four paintings in the show each coupling dual identities into one composition but Erica Harney has painted dozens of paintings using these restraints yet each painting stands on it’s own merits.

Karen Frank, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery

Karen Frank, Mutual Admiration, acrylic on board, $100.00, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks

Coupling includes various media but the paintings are strong. It really feels like the paintings are active and intense paired with photography and mixed media. Karen Frank‘s seahorses, Mutual Admiration, combines the exotic and familiar with evocative marks and color ways. The piece is dreamy and child-like but the other-worldly context of life under water and the unintelligible form of communication between the beings feels empathic.

Jenn Warpoles paintings mix color, texture and surface to create evocations of emotion, experience and liveness. Abstracted yet anthropomorphic shapes create a visual dialog that speaks of love, despair, attraction and rejection. The small panels are powerful paintings with the atmospheric tones represented in washes of emotional color, a sensitive hand and restrained color palette design an emotional experience.

Jenn Warpole, Coupling at Off the Wall

Jenn Warpole, Untitled #2, oil on panel, $265.00, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks

Hashtags and Archetypes by John Baccile is absolutely contemporary, elevating the computer screen shot from a moment of too much information into a rich and eloquent story. The visual language with overlays and multiple conversations feels so modern – post, post, post modern. Would the couple in the picture ever imagine a future with automatic photograph face recognition, predictive social media penetration and internet fame? John Baccile used a lowly material, the facebook page, and manipulated the elements with a sophisticated info-graphic capturing the past, present and future of portraiture.

John Baccile, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery

John Baccile, Hashtags and Archetypes, digitally altered screen grab, $100.00, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks

The photograph John Baccile used is one hundred years old, the algorithms in facebook look for identity matches in the faces creating an overlay of information and possible matches, it really gives off a Minority Report vibe and how we willingly allow investigation of our history.

Bill Myers photograph documents a modern sensibility towards photography and image making. The composition, color and forms takes the concept of Coupling to an intense contemporary level. The balance of the two figures, each with an emotional openness, evokes an emotional response, an autonomous reflex, from the energetic image layering character studies with line, tone and light. I can think of several artist to compare Bill Myers to but he truly is his own authentic self with a defined vision.

Bill Myers, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery

Bill Myers, Standing Strong, digital photography, $50.00, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks

Robert Yong Lee, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery

Robert Yong Lee, Untitled (Ann Arbor, 2009), silver gelatin print, $150.00, Coupling at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks

Bob Lee‘s black and white photograph examines the idea of Coupling in a composition filled with memes, matches and metaphors. The seated figure before the painting has a jacket draped over his arm like the figure in the painting, while the seated man is looking down, the painted man is looking into the distance. The standing man on the left is reading while the statue of the standing woman is straining to listen. The two tableaus are divided by architectural elements that themselves represent similar yet opposite forces. This is the kind of art you can really spend time with finding deep and elusive narratives.

Coupling will be on the wall at Off the Wall Gallery through December 27th, there is a holiday party at Dirty Franks, 13th and Pine Streets, tonight, December 20th. I have two photographs in the show, too, I wrote about them in My Photo Day on DoNArTNeWs. The whole experience of the Coupling show was wonderfully creative; I was inspired to make new work and I was part of the creative team behind the show. The art I’ve described in this post is just a sampling of the excellence in the show and the diversity of talent in the Philadelphia contemporary art scene.

The experience of watching people actually look at the art show and really spend time looking at the work is the most satisfying feeling of all. I know I keep talking about Social Practice but Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks has truly integrated itself into the fabric of the community by being inclusive and relevant through art and communications that is fun, high art in a dive bar, yet the result is intellectually satisfying in a really authentic feeling of community.

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Written by DoN Brewer. Thank you to Togo Travalia for the photographs in this post and for the excellent advertising and promotion of the show and individual artists through print and social media. I know of no other gallery who promotes each artist with such care. I really appreciate the effort and the love.

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2013 Autumn Invitational

Off the Wall Gallery, 2013 Autumn Invitational

Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Frank’s, 2013 Autumn Invitational Art Show and Sale. through November 22nd, 2013. Opening Reception: October 3rd, 2013, 7-10:00pm.

Jim Biglan, Bob Gorchov, Anders Hansen, Yeoun Lee, Jesse r Lentz, Bill Myers, Lance Pawling and Syd Torchio present new work from Off the Wall Gallery‘s award-winning and top-selling artists.

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disorder: eating

disorder: eating, DoN Brewer, Feast Your Eyes, Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks

disorder: eating, QR Code, inkjet print, YouTube video, DoN BrewerFeast Your EyesOff the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks

The Eighth Annual Community Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks is titled Feast Your Eyes, a themed group art show ostensibly related to food. DoN‘s entry is a QR code that links to a YouTube video called disorder: eating that was produced in 2002 and uploaded to YouTube in 2006. When DoN made this video food had become an annoying, painful need that all the joy had seeped out of.

The video uses found video footage from early food porn TV shows that was recorded on a VCR then transferred to a computer. The clips of people eating food are played in reverse, repeated, slowed down and zoomed in creating a disorienting, revolting vision of the opposite of eating. What if food came out of your mouth instead of going in? When DoN heard that two of the judges were so grossed out they couldn’t look he knew he had struck a nerve. Art should scare the kids.

The video is a comment on the culture of food in mass media and how not all people appreciate the fact of life of the necessity of eating. The ugly/beautiful aspect of the imagery reflects the disconnect many people feel towards the importance of food. Super-model Kate Moss famously said, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”

Thank you so much to Off the Wall Gallery for awarding disorder: eating the Most Bio-Engineered Award, the prize is a book titled Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook (P.S.) by Anthony Bourdain, the famous TV chef who visited Dirty Franks and introduced the art bar to the world. The Summer show is winding down, go buy some art to feed your mind and spirit. And continue your support of the Philadelphia art community and Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks by collecting art by local contemporary artists. A framed print of the disorder: eating QR code is only $20.00.

Read DoN‘s food wordplay blog about Feast Your Eyes on DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog.

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Art and writing by DoN Brewer.

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