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Transformations

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Transformations, Main Line Art CenterTransformations At Main Line Art Center

 2016 Meyer Family Award for Contemporary Art Recipients: Matthew Courtney (Philadelphia), Sun Young Kang (Bryn Mawr), Zahra Nazari (New York)

Curated by: Amie Potsic, Executive Director of Main Line Art Center through April 17, 2016

Artist Workshops:

Throwing Forms, Building Sculpture | Matthew Courtney | Tues., April 5, 1-6 pm
Persian Reverse Glass Painting | Zahra Nazari | Sun., April 10, 1-4 pm
Book-Making: 1 Sheet of Paper, 5 Ways | Sun Young Kang | Sat. & Sun., April 16-17, 9:30 am- 12:30 pm

Main Line Art Center in Haverford is proud to announce Matthew Courtney (Philadelphia), Sun Young Kang (Bryn Mawr; 2015 Finalist), and Zahra Nazari (New York) as the 2016 recipients of the Meyer Family Award for Contemporary Art.  Selected by Members of Main Line Art Center’s Board of Artistic Advisors and Executive Director through a highly competitive application process, Courtney, Kang, and Nazari will be featured in Transformations, the 12th Annual Betsy Meyer Memorial Exhibition, on view at Main Line Art Center through April 17.

Masters of their primary mediums and inspired by cultural specificity, each artist expands their artistic practice to embrace installation with works that fully engage the audience in constructed objects, the spaces they inhabit, and the concepts they conjure. Through painting, ceramic sculpture, and paper arts, the artists transform, not only their own materials, but the galleries themselves into unexpected environments that dance between the evident and the ethereal.

Now in its twelfth year, Main Line Art Center is proud to present an annual exhibition in memory of Teaching Artist Betsy Meyer featuring the work of forward-thinking artists who are pushing boundaries within their artistic practice. As an artist, Betsy exemplified what is most exciting about engaging with the artwork of living artists: watching them experiment with their media and tackling complicated and tough subjects. As a teacher, she encouraged her students to follow her example and expand their practice into new frontiers. And finally, as a member of the board and exhibition committee, she assured that the Art Center was there for the artistic community of Philadelphia.

The Meyer Family Award for Contemporary Art, presented by Main Line Art Center in conjunction with the Betsy Meyer Memorial Exhibition, consists of an award of $1000 and a solo exhibition to each selected artist. This award and associated exhibition program is an effort to support the talented contemporary artists in the region, to honor deserving artists in the field, and to encourage excellence and experimentation in artistic practice, presentation, and community involvement.

Approximately three artists are awarded annually. The 2015 recipients of the Meyer Family Award for Contemporary Art were Seunghwui Koo (New York), Tasha Lewis (New York), and Kate Stewart (Philadelphia), whose work was featured in Tweak of Nature, presented at Main Line Art Center in Spring 2015. 2016 Recipient Sun Young Kang, was a finalist for the award in 2015. The 2016 finalists are as follows: Jennifer Crupi (New Jersey), Christina Day (Philadelphia), Tim Eads (Philadelphia), Michael Froio (New Jersey), Oki Fukunaga (New Jersey), Erica Loustau (Pennsylvania), and Adrienne Moumin (Maryland).

The Main Line Art Center gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm, and Friday through Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm.  Each of the artists will also facilitate a workshop on their process during the course of Transformations. For more information about these programs, including registration, visit www.mainlinert.org or call 610.525.0272.

Transformations, Matthew Courtney

Matthew Courtney is a ceramic sculptor living and working in Philadelphia. He received his B.S. from the Philadelphia College of Art and his MFA at Kent State University. He teaches at The University of Pennsylvania, The University of the Arts, and Tyler School of Art. He has received an Ohio Arts Council Artist Fellowship and a Jerome Foundation Fellowship and was awarded a Challenge Exhibition at Fleisher Art Memorial in 2000.  Recent exhibitions include, “On the Precipice” Cerulean Gallery, Philadelphia PA 2014, “Artists Musings: An Installation”’ CCC Gallery, Plymouth NH 2014, and “2015 Reflections from the West,” Lanzhou City University, Lanzhou, China.  In 2015, he was selected by the Dunhuang Creative Center, DCC, to spend two months of the summer of 2015 to work as an artist in residence at Lanzhou City University Lanzhou China, “producing work inspired by the rich history and contemporary life of Gansu Province.”

Transformations, Sun Young Kang

Sun Young Kang is a book and installation artist, originally from South Korea, living in Bryn Mawr, PA.  From small intimate books to room size installations, she uses paper with its duality of strength and delicacy to create physical and conceptual space. Kang received her MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from the University of the Arts in 2007, and was a fellow of the Center for the Emerging Visual Artists in Philadelphia from 2013 to 2015.  A participant in the 2013 Sofia International Paper Art Biennale and the Pittsburgh Biennial in 2008, Kang’s work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally at venues including the Susquehanna Art Museum, Queens Museum, Whatcom Museum, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and the Ganser Gallery at Millersville University. Her work is also included in the PA State Museum Permanent collection, Museum of Modern Art Franklin Furnace Artist book collection, and in numerous libraries’ special collections.

Transformations, Zahra Nazari

Zahra Nazari is a painting and installation artist, originally from Iran, living in New York, NY.  Nazari received her BFA from the School of Art & Architecture in Tabriz, Iran, and her MFA in Painting/Drawing at State University of New York in New Paltz, NY. She is currently a recipient of The AIM Fellowship from the Bronx Museum, NY and received a Visiting Artist Fellowship from the Cooper Union School of Art in New York, NY and a Ruth Katzman Scholarship from the Art League Residency at Vyt, Sparkill, NY. She has exhibited worldwide at: Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ ; China Millennium Monument, Beijing, China; Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA ; Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY; Saba Institution, Tehran, Iran; The Painting Center, New York, NY; Woman Made Gallery & Zhou B Art Center in Chicago, IL.  Forthcoming exhibitions will be presented by the Spartanburg Art Museum, Spartanburg, SC; Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY; Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT; Penn College in Williamsport, PA; and Von Faunberg Art Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany.

Amie Potsic, curator of Transformations, began her tenure as Executive Director of Main Line Art Center in July of 2012.  Prior to that, she served as Director of Gallery 339 and Director of the Career Development Program at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA) in Philadelphia where she curated exhibitions and planned professional development programming for emerging and professional artists. Potsic has curated over 70 exhibitions at venues including The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Moore College of Art & Design. Potsic is also an established photographic artist who has exhibited her work nationally and internationally.  In addition, she is currently Chair of the Art In City Hall Artistic Advisory Board to the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture & the Creative Economy.

Main Line Art Center is our community’s home to discover, create, and experience visual art.  A frequent recipient ofBest of Awards for its beautiful galleries and high-quality art instruction, the Art Center’s visual art classes, Accessible Art Programs for artists with disabilities, and contemporary and innovative exhibitions stimulate creativity, conversation, and joy. The mission of Main Line Art Center is to inspire and engage people of all ages, abilities, and economic means in visual art through education, exhibitions, and experiences.  Last year we inspired 16,000 people at Main Line Art Center and touched the lives of over 80,000 through programs in the community.

Main Line Art Center is located at 746 Panmure Road in Haverford, behind the Wilkie Lexus dealership just off of Lancaster Avenue. The Main Line Art Center is easily accessible from public transportation and offers abundant free parking. For more information about Transformations, please visit www.mainlineart.org or call 610.525.0272.

Thank you to Amie Potsic for the content of this post.

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Oil

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Philadelphia Sketch Club Small OilsMaria Kurtzman, Winter Quadriptyck, oil on board 152nd Annual Small Oils Exhibitions First Award

The Philadelphia Sketch Club’s 153rd Annual Exhibition of Small Oil Paintings

The Philadelphia Sketch Club‘s 153rd Annual Exhibition of Small Oil Paintings will run April 8 – 30, 2016 in the Sketch Club’s historic main gallery located on 235 South Camac Street, The Avenue of the Artists, Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Sketch Club‘s 153rd Annual Exhibition of Small Oil Paintings affords an opportunity for today’s artists to connect with many of the great artists of the past. Artists can have their work exhibited in this prestigious exhibition, just as Eakins, Anshutz and N.C. Wyeth did.

The 153rd Annual Exhibition of Small Oil Paintings, presented by The Philadelphia Sketch Club, represents one of the longest running and most prestigious juried exhibitions in the country. This year’s show runs from April 8 through April 30 with a free public reception with awards presentation on April 17 from 2 to 4 PM. The exhibition will feature over 150 works by prominent and emerging artists.

The exhibition awards are not just certificates and cash, but also the R. Tait McKenzie Small Oils Medal. Dr. McKenzie was not only an artist who created Olympic medals, he was also a physician who developed many of the modern theories of physical therapy. He designed a medal specifically for this exhibition. In addition to the three Best in Show awards, there will also be special awards for the best landscape, still life, portrait and abstract. Traditionally, the exhibition also features a work by each of the three jurors.

Philadelphia Sketch Club Small OilsR. Tait McKenzie, Small Oils Medal, bronze, 3″ diameter

This year’s Jurors are Alex Kanevsky, Alice Oh and Bill Scott. Originally, in 1863, this show was established to enable artists to display a number of small examples of their works, with the hope that a patron would order a larger painting. The size limitation on the paintings is no larger than 20” x 20”. Prior medal winners in this exhibition have included Paulette Van Roekens, John Folinsbee, Alice Kent Stoddard, Arthur Meltzer, Antonio Martino, Dorothy Van Loan, John Redmond, Doris Silk and Al Gury.

The Philadelphia Sketch Club is a volunteer driven organization, with local artists contributing time and resources toward its mission since 1860. Gallery hours are 1pm to 5pm Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free for the general public.

Founded in 1860, The Philadelphia Sketch Club is America’s oldest artists’ club. The mission of the Club is to support and nurture working visual artists, the appreciation of the visual arts, visual arts education, and the historical value of the visual arts community.

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MLMME12

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MLMME12, OTWGallery

Mary Liz Memorial Masters Exhibition 2016

at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Frank’s

As many of you know, we usually open a show the Thursday after it goes up. This time, our festivities fall a week later, but the staggered logistics have no correlation to the practically staggering talents on display.

We’re speaking, of course, of our 2016 MARY LIZ FELLOWS — painter BOB GORCHOV, photographer WENDY PLOGER and assemblage artist/sculptor WAYNE URFFER -who are a week off the usual trajectory but right on target with their art. High marks are in order because the MARY LIZ MEMORIAL MASTERS EXHIBITION, named for our founding director, is the greatest honor we can bestow on artists in our community.

So without further ado, we cordially invite you to the show’s 12th renewal — MLMME12, for short – which opens its seven-week run THIS THURSDAY, MARCH 10, with a 7-10 PM OPENING RECEPTION featuring our favorite drinks, light hors d’oeuvres, fabulous conversation and a chance to meet the artists. You may already be familiar with one of more of our esteemed trio, who rank among our most accomplished artists.

The paintings of BOB GORCHOV have won over our hearts even since “the red coat” lit up the Wall in December 2008. Ten shows later — yes, MLMME12 is fitting his 12th outing in this space! Bob has lost none of his bewitching use of color or emotional buoyancy. Each time we see a new canvas, it’s like experiencing Bob’s work for the first time. Some might try to make a connection between this immediacy and his background as a self-taught artist, but we resist the notion of pigeon-holing the invigorating creativity that has defined 35 years of painting and drawing.

Even the artist cannot put a finger on what might emerge from the next canvas. “I rarely know how a painting will turn out,” says Bob, “and this is part of what makes the process interesting for me.”

WENDY PLOGER‘s journey from Brooklyn to 13th Street is a story we like to tell. Our friend Gail Stolp, a bartender here at Dirty Frank’s and at Ray’s Happy Birthday Bar, discovered Wendy’s photography and introduced us. Two years passed before Wendy’s work appeared at the end of 2013, to great acclaim, with diptychs humorously pairing disparate street photographs. The next year her intriguing, gender-bending series became the hit of our Autumn Invitational. Now, amazingly, Wendy brings us TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT bodies of work (!): tintypes, created with traditional wet-plate photography, and digital collages “projecting” Wendy’s strong female portraiture against natural settings.

This different pacing for the artist holds a new-found sense of satisfaction. “A few years later, with well over a hundred professional shoots under my belt,” Wendy says, “I have felt the need to slow things down in this age of instant gratification and pinpoint accuracy.”

Fewer and fewer MARY LIZ FELLOWS began their OFF THE WALL careers under the curatorial watch of our founding director. WAYNE URFFER is an exception, having enjoyed a boffo debut here before Mary Liz’s passing in 2004. He’s also only the second artist ever to be named a Fellow for the second time, following in the footsteps of Bob Jackson, a fellow master of the assemblage. Wayne’s work is always richly layered and rewarding. He brings ponderous questions to the floor of our 3D space (and, in this case, the Wall) – ranging from pop culture to religious zealotry, existentialism to addiction but he does so is such an accessible, non-judgmental manner, leaving much to the viewer’s interpretation, that you never feel the weight of agenda.

In fact, you may feel he sometimes enters the creative space with an open mind, too, “My process is to gather materials that capture my interest and allow them broadly to dictate the size and composition of my work,” says Wayne.

You can readily see why we’re so excited about MLMME12. What we love most about this show is that it’s as much about mastering media as it is about the lifeblood of art: experimentation and evolution. Whether you are encountering Bob’s paintings, Wendy’s photos and Wayne’s boxes for the first time — or simply rediscovering them — you’re in for a rare treat.

We look forward to seeing you Thursday!

Togo Travalia, Manager, OFF THE WALL GALLERY at Dirty Frank’s, NE Corner, 13th & Pine Streets, Philadelphia, PA  19107

Thank you to Togo Travalia for the content of this post.

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Natural

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Natural Flow, the Paintings of Gerry Tuten, John Thornton Films

“Through March 12, 2016, The Wayne Art Center is hosting a dazzling exhibition of landscape based abstractions by metalsmith turned painter Gerry Tuten. Although these paintings have echoes of DeKooning, Tàpies, Soutine, Cy Twombley, and the late garden paintings of Monet, they remain resolutely her own.” – John Thornton

The purpose of The Wayne Art Center is to provide both instruction in the studio, and to build appreciation of the visual and performing arts through our many exhibits, lectures and programs. The Center affords artists an interdisciplinary venue to share, learn, exhibit and perform. Specifically, The Wayne Art Center carries out its mission in the following ways:

  • By providing instruction in all phases of the fine arts, contemporary crafts, music, culinary arts and drama.
  • By offering exhibitions, performances and special events for artists and community of the greater Main Line area and Delaware Valley.
  • By reaching out to our community with instructional programs for persons with special needs. These programs use art for therapeutic value.
  • By providing a gathering place for artists and students to both share and lend support toward improving the cultural climate.

Gerry Tuten, Natural Flow

“My painting is a venture inside and outside of myself seeking freshness and change. I thrive on challenge, action and awakening in my painting. I am intensely curious, exploring the micro and macro levels of the natural ecology. When the image begins to “break up” or erupt, my excitement rises. I transfer this excitement and freedom to the viewer through movement, color and texture of paint over surfaces. Here in the process of painting I allow myself to break all the rules. Trusting my intuition I can let go of the “work of art”. The painting is just a place to free myself – to surrender to process. The medium of paint speaks stronger than words. Clarity is distilled out of movement and change. The paintings come as gifts.

The elements of earth, water, fire, air and space give form to all life and play a prominent role in my inspiration. By exploring organic natural forms and the visceral textures of paint with spontaneity and freedom I play at mark-making and application while trying to stay ahead of my grasping mind. Through close observation my art explores imagery living in the natural world – insects, birds, reptiles, mammals, plants, trees, flowers and minerals in a myriad ways. I am overcome by the abundance and beauty of nature. If I can allow my paintings to run free then I can find delight and joy.

My aim is a constant search for subtle and not so subtle energies in our visual world as well as the tension between things and expression. Painting is a way for me to move through life having a relationship with the Beloved. The paintings are the record I leave behind of my journey into spirit. They are in gratitude for my life. – Gerry Tuten, June 2015

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Membership

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Philadelphia Museum of Art Introduces New Membership Program for Artists

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is introducing two new memberships designed especially for artists. Starting this month, the Museum will provide a free lifetime membership to each of the approximately 2,000 living artists whose work is represented in the permanent collection. In addition, the Museum will initiate a new discounted Artist Membership, available to all working artists. To launch this program, the Museum is offering the Artist Membership at a reduced price from February 24-28, 2016, during the first five days of the major exhibition International Pop.

Timothy Rub, The George D. Widener Director and CEO of the Museum, said: “Artists are the heart and soul of any art museum, and we must recognize them as such. The Museum should always be accessible to them because they draw inspiration from our collections and, in turn, help us to inspire others.”

An Artist Membership is available for anyone working in any of the many media that are represented in the collection. Artists will be asked to show how they share their work with the public, at the time of the purchase of a membership. This can take the form of a website, Instagram account, Etsy page, Facebook, or publicity material from an exhibition. With the purchase of an Artist Membership, artists will receive unlimited free admission to the Main building, Rodin Museum, the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, plus the two historic houses in Fairmount Park, Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove, managed by the Museum.

The membership will provide admission and special exhibition tickets for all children (18 and under), previews of select exhibitions, members-only tours, trips to regional cultural attractions, programs presented by artists, curators, authors, and scholars, e-newsletters and a discounted $10 general admission for guests. Special parking rates in the Museum’s garage include the first hour free and $8 for the next four hours. Artist Members will also receive 10% off on Museum dining and shopping during every visit, a 20% off Store coupon, a 20% off Granite Hill restaurant coupon, and 20% reduction in the cost of educational programs and audio tours.

On Saturday, February 27, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will host an Artist Membership Welcome Lounge from noon until 5:00 p.m. Activities that day include a group photograph that is scheduled at 1:00 p.m. in the Great Stair Hall, and The Rose Susan Hirschhorn Behrend Lecture: Roadmap to International Pop, presented at 2:00 p.m. by Darsie Alexander. Ms. Alexander is the lead curator of the exhibition International Pop and Executive Director of the Katonah Museum of Art. She will be joined by Erica F. Battle, the John Alchin and Hal Marryatt Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to discuss the ways in which Pop artists took the world by storm.

Artist Membership Rates

FREE Artists whose work is represented in the Museum’s permanent collection.

$40 One-year Artist Membership. (This membership is available for $25 if purchased at the Museum from February 24 to 28, 2016.)

On Saturday, February 27, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will host an Artist Membership Welcome Lounge from noon until 5:00 p.m. Activities that day include a group photograph that is scheduled at 1:00 p.m., and a lecture with Darsie Alexander Roadmap to International Pop, presented at 2:00 p.m.

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The Philadelphia Museum of Art is Philadelphia’s art museum. We are 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.

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