Tag Archives: Philadelphia Artists

Far

The War of Independence, oil on canvas, 54″ x 60″

Paradigm Gallery + Studio is pleased to present
Far from the Tree

A solo exhibition of new oil paintings by artist Katherine Fraser on view February 23 – April 21, 2018.

In her third solo exhibition with the gallery, Katherine Fraser draws inspiration for Far from the Tree from fables and explores what it means to have control over our own destinies. Universally-known stories and endings are suddenly given the ability to change. The artist’s most cohesive series to date, each character is presented with the agency to alter their own outcomes.

In the work, The War of Independence, the natural beauty of the Acadian National Park
acts as the backdrop. Having grown up in rural Maine, the landscape is a reference to
the artist’s childhood – a symbol of a time when Fraser felt her most strong and
independent.

Fraser says, “When I use the rural landscape in my paintings it symbolizes
the homeland; I use it to create a feeling of peace and protection. I mostly paint solitary
figures, and being alone in nature is the best kind of alone. In nature I feel most myself,
vibrant, and at one with the world.”

Fraser’s figurative compositions ‘depict moments of quiet reflection and insight, of wonder, vulnerability, yearning, determination, humility, strength, and growth’. She cites realist painters Edward Hopper and Bo Bartlett as influences, but also sees parallels between her work and photographers like: Diane Arbus, Mary Ellen Mark and Sally Mann. All of these artists act as storytellers, capturing individuals in moments and settings with a great deal of intimacy.

By Example, oil on canvas, 56″ x 74″

Classically trained, Fraser exclusively works with oil paint for its flexibility and luminosity, striving to make her paintings beautiful, but also to emotionally engage with the viewer. Fraser likes to draw attention to dynamic and conflicting emotions within individual characters. In her overall practice she seeks to portray ‘our continual need to reckon expectations with truth, and the struggles we endure to feel satisfaction with our choices’.

In Far from the Tree, Fraser asks the viewers, “how much power do we really have to
change the narratives of our own lives”?

ABOUT PARADIGM GALLERY + STUDIO

Established February 2010, Paradigm Gallery + Studio started as a project between co-
founders and curators, Jason Chen and Sara McCorriston, to create a space to make artwork, exhibit the work of their peers, and invite the members of the local community to make their own artwork in a welcoming gallery setting. Over the years, Paradigm Gallery + Studio has become a gallery of diverse contemporary artwork from around the world, while maintaining a focus on Philadelphia artists.

ABOUT KATHERINE FRASER

Katherine Fraser has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the United
States. She is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and of the University of Pennsylvania. As a student she received the Thomas Eakins Painting prize, the Cecelia Beaux Portrait prize, and the William Emlen Cresson Memorial Travel Award, among others. Since graduating in 2002, she has received awards including the Lucy Glick Award and the Victor Klein Family Award. Her work has been published in Studio Visit Magazine, Philadelphia Weekly, Die Blumen die Frauen, The Fertile Source, New American Paintings, The Southern Review, the Best of American Oil Painting, and more. Her work may be found in many permanent and private collectionsmnationally and abroad.

Paradigm Gallery + Studio 746 S. 4th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 10147

Thank you to Madison Fishman for the content of this post.

Like DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog on facebook

Follow DoN on Twitter @DoNNieBeat58

DoN Brewer on Pinterest

@donniebeat on Instagram

Affiliate Marketing Disclosure Statement

Donate via safe and secure PayPal in the sidebar.

Virtually

Leave a reply

Charles Rudy with Cornish Red Chicken

Michener Art Museum to Present Innovative Sculpture Exhibition

Virtually Rudy: New Dimensions in Sculpture opens on February 17, 2018

DOYLESTOWN, PA–Beginning February 17, 2018, the James A. Michener Art Museum will present Virtually Rudy: New Dimensions in Sculpture, an innovative sculpture exhibition that joins 20th century art with 21st century technology. Nine sculptures by artist Charles Rudy (1904-1986) will be on display alongside three-dimensional representations made possible through a partnership with the Google Cultural Institute.

Through Google Cardboard viewers, visitors will be able to explore the sculptures in virtual-reality mode. The exhibition will be on view through April 8, 2018.

“This is a first-of-a-kind show–not only for the Michener, but for many art museums in the United States,” said Adrienne Neszmelyi-Romano, director of interpretation and innovation, who co-curated the exhibition with assistant curator Louise Feder. “We are very proud that our museum, which has long been committed to showcasing the work of important regional artists, is also at the forefront of technology, and is taking a leading role in understanding how technology can enhance the visitor experience.”

The James A. Michener Art Museum was the first institution on the East Coast to partner with the Google Cultural Institute 3D Operations team to digitize objects from its permanent collection, making 26 objects–including 15 of Rudy’s sculptures–accessible in 3D in 2015 to a global audience. Virtually Rudy pairs the tangible with the intangible, presenting scan and sculpture side by side for the first time. A graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Charles Rudy achieved national status as a sculptor for his work on public buildings across the country as well as for his prize-winning sculptures. His most notable commissions include the Noah on the Bronx post office in New York and the Sun Seaman’s Memorial in Delaware. In 1936, Rudy and his wife purchased a 70-acre farm in Ottsville, Pennsylvania, where he located his studio. His sculptures of farm animals, several of which are featured in this exhibition, are said to have been inspired by his time spent on his farm. A 1942 Guggenheim fellow, Rudy taught as the head of Cooper Union’s sculpture department for ten years. He also held teaching positions at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art, Michigan State College, and Philadelphia Museum School of Art.

Through a partnership with the Perkiomen School in Pennsburg, PA, 3D-printed reproductions of Rudy’s sculptures will be available for visitors to handle, and live demonstrations of the 3D printing process will take place during visiting hours. The 3D printer and the models will be provided by the school’s Entrepreneur Institute, the students of its additive manufacturing class, and the Perk Tech Hub. Throughout the exhibition, museum visitors can register to win 3D-printed models of the sculptures through periodic drawings.

For more information and to purchase tickets in advance, visit MichenerArtMuseum.org.

Thank you to the James A. Michener Art Museum for the content of this post.

Like DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog on facebook

Follow DoN on Twitter @DoNNieBeat58

DoN Brewer on Pinterest

@donniebeat on Instagram

Affiliate Marketing Disclosure Statement

Donate via safe and secure PayPal in the sidebar.

Intertwined

Leave a reply

Mark Conti, Intertwined, photograph

Intertwined with Nature – an exhibition hosted @ DVAA in Gallery 1

March 7th – 28th

Photography by DVAA member Mark Conti

Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 7th from 6:00 – 8:00pm

Closing Reception: Sunday, March 25th from 3:00 – 5:00pm

DVAA – 704 Catharine St. Philadelphia, PA 19147

DVAA is proud to host Intertwined with Nature, a photography exhibition by DVAA member Mark Conti. Equally drawn to natural and man-made subjects, often finding recurring forms in disparate images, the subject of Conti’s work is varied. These shared forms suggest series-based imagery which grows from common connections that inform one another and are often an unexpected discovery for Conti. The art, then, is ahead of the artist, enlightening and contributing to further growth. Selection and organization in the camera, and subsequent interpretation by the materials, creates images that invite the viewer to reexamine what is before them as if seeing it for the first time, every time.

Technical aspects of the photographic process are imperative for the production of Conti’s work. Unlike other 2D disciplines, such as painting, where composition grows stroke by stroke in an additive way, photography is an organizational activity driven by selection processes. From the early 1970’s through the mid-2000’s, Conti produced his art by using traditional black and white film, personally developing and printing his work in a traditional darkroom. This earlier manner of working informs his current use of digital imaging technologies, bringing traditional techniques to the digital exposure and printing processes.

In Conti’s words: “My goal is to organize forms and gather light in a way that allows the final image to become its own reality and, as much as possible, serve as its own source of light.”

Bio of the Artist: Mark Conti is a photographer of forests and figures, portraits and the poetry of the human figure, cityscapes and landscapes, and with each click of the camera, his depth of emotion is transferred from the lens to the printed image. Conti has experience with a wide range of photographic processes, such as gum bichromate and cyanotypes, but his current work is focused on digital imaging. He produces his own prints, as he believes strongly that this is a critical element of the overall vision of the artist.

Born and raised in the Philadelphia region, Conti studied at Juniata College and earned a degree in photography and English literature. Continuing his studies throughout his career, Mark’s education included attending photography workshops at several noted institutions including Apeiron, Peters Valley and the Art Kane/Cape May Photographic Workshops with such diverse photographers as Ralph Gibson, Art Kane, Linda Connor, George Tice, Larry Fink, Tom Carabasi and Antonin Kratochvil. From there, Conti went on to teach photography workshops at Juniata College and The Cape May Photographic Workshops.

Conti has been making fine art photographs crossing a wide range of subjects for over 30 years. From his early years at Juniata with a gallery show and valuable experience photo-editing the college yearbook, to pursuing freelance commercial work and commission portraiture throughout his career, Conti has been on a storied photographic journey in both black & white and color. A core focus of Conti’s work in his early years centered on perplexing images that presented fragmentary views of the landscape and man-made objects. This work mirrors the disorienting aspects of life and culture in the late 20th century, and the “macro” landscapes and abstract images challenge viewers to react to a fragmented view of the world and compare it to their own experience. Conti’s photography then expanded to include the human figure.

These photographs combine the earlier works’ fragmentary view of the landscape with the human form. Executed with conventional materials and special techniques using infrared film, his figure work contrasts strong landscape elements with the body, setting the figure in sharp relief from the environment – suggesting isolation while focusing attention on the body’s relationship to the land. Conti’s most recent work explores contour, texture, and color melded with the strong forms present in his earlier work. Executed with digital cameras and pigment print materials, these images combine aspects of both photography and printmaking which have expanded Conti’s boundaries.

ABOUT DVAA: MISSION: Da Vinci Art Alliance (DVAA) provides artists with a community that fosters artistic expression and growth through our exhibitions and programs. VISION: DVAA is a supportive community of artists and creatives focused on capturing the spirit of Leonardo da Vinci. A luminary artist, scientist, architect, engineer, musician and humanitarian, Da Vinci’s curiosity inspires creativity, innovation and collaboration among our membership. Like Leonardo, we ask big questions, ponder complex ideas, experiment with form and create new ways of engaging with and sharing our art.

Thank you to DVAA for the content of this post.

Like DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog on facebook

Follow DoN on Twitter @DoNNieBeat58

DoN Brewer on Pinterest

@donniebeat on Instagram

Affiliate Marketing Disclosure Statement

Donate via safe and secure PayPal in the sidebar.

Tu B’Shevat

Leave a reply

Amie Potsic, “Enchanted Forest Installation view #1”, Archival Pigment Print on Silk, Dimensions variable, 2015, © Amie Potsic 2015

Artists present environmental art celebrating trees and drawing attention to Climate Change

Celebration of Trees, An exhibition in celebration of the Jewish New Year for Trees, Tu B’Shevat

AMIE POTSIC | LINDA DUBIN GARFIELD

HOWARD BRUNNER | LESLIE K. BRILL | BARBARA ROSIN

January 31 – February 25, 2018

– EVENTS –

OPENING RECEPTION:
Tu B’Shevat, Wednesday, January 31, 6:00 – 8:00 PM

FIRST FRIDAY: Friday, February 2, 5:00 – 9:00 PM, First Friday event followed by Shabbat Dinner

ARTIST TALK AND RECEPTION: Sunday, February 11, 2:00 – 4:00 PM

CLOSING RECEPTION: Sunday, February 25, 2:00 – 4:00 PM

LOCATION: Old City Jewish Art Center, 119 N. 3^rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106

http://www.ocjac.org | rabbizash@ocjac.org | 215.627.2792

Admission is free and by appointment

Philadelphia, PA – Old City Jewish Art Center (OCJAC), located at 119 N. 3^rd Street, Philadelphia, PA presents Celebration of Trees, a group exhibition featuring Amie Potsic, Linda Dubin Garfield, Howard Brunner, Leslie K. Brill, and Barbara Rosin. The exhibition will include a site-specific photographic installation and series of complementary photographs by Potsic as well as prints, paintings, and mixed media works by all the featured artists. The show begins on January 31st and runs through February 5th. The opening reception will be on Wednesday, January 31st from 6:00 – 8:00 PM in celebration of Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish holiday that commemorates the New Year for Trees. There will be a reception on First Friday from 5:00 – 9:00 PM followed by a Shabbat Dinner. Artist Talks will take place on Sunday, February 11^thfrom 2:00 – 4:00 PM. The closing reception will be on Sunday, February 25^th from 2:00 – 4:00 PM. Gallery hours are by appointment.

Amie Potsic’s work references the sensory experience of being within the forest while encouraging us to appreciate and preserve its future. Her incarnate environmental explorations entice the viewer to connect with their own perception of nature in a manner that is simultaneously intimate and enchanting. “Facing massive deforestation due to industry and global warming itself, the ill-fated future of our forests is undeniable unless we intervene. To focus attention on climate change, support improved environmental policies, and encourage an appreciation for forests and their fragility, my work emphasizes the cyclical beauty of the seasons and the delicacy of nature,” says Potsic.

Celebration of Trees is presented in honor of Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish New Year for Trees, at a time when forests are increasingly important in the fight against Climate Change. We observe this holiday “by eating fruit, particularly from the kinds that are singled out by the Torah in its praise of the bounty of the Holy Land: grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates. On this day, we remember that ‘Man is a tree of the field’ and reflect on the lessons we can derive from our botanical analogue,” explains Rabbi Zalman of Old City Jewish Art Center. In organizing this exhibition to commemorate Tu B’Shevat, OCJAC and SmART Business Consulting chose these artists because their work encourages the appreciation of trees.

Amie Potsic, “Enchanted Forest #1”, Archival Pigment Print, 12” x 24”, 2015, © Amie Potsic 2015

Amie Potsic is a photographer and environmental artist based in the Philadelphia area whose work addresses cultural, personal, and natural phenomena through the lens of social responsibility. With 18 solo exhibitions and over 100 group exhibitions, Potsic has exhibited her work internationally at the Art Park in Rhodes, Greece; The Royal College of London, England; Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Colombia; Medfoundart di Cagliari, Italy; the Museum of New Art in Detroit; The Woodmere Art Museum, The National Constitution Center Museum, The Painted Bride, The Gershman Y, James Oliver Gallery in Philadelphia; Mission 17 in San Francisco; and 626 Gallery in Los Angeles. Her work has been published in or awarded by publications including The San Francisco Chronicle, Art Matters, The PhotoReview, andThe Philadelphia Inquirer. Potsic received her MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and BA’s in Photojournalism and English Literature from Indiana University. She has held faculty appointments at the University of California at Berkeley, Ohlone College, and the San Francisco Art Institute and has been a guest lecturer at The University of the Arts, The Delaware Contemporary, and The International Center of Photography. Potsic is the CEO and Principal Curator of Amie Potsic Art Advisory, LLC as well as Chair of the Artistic Advisory Board of the Art In City Hall program of the Office of Arts and Culture of the City of Philadelphia.

Founded in 2006, the Old City Jewish Art Center was envisioned as a platform to build Jewish community through the arts. Building steadily since then, the OCJAC gallery has become an exhibition space for serious artists, holds monthly First Friday art receptions with a Jewish twist and provides social and Jewish holiday programs throughout the year. OCJAC is now a landmark gallery in the Philadelphia art scene and is the only gallery dedicated to Jewish artistic expression and cultural exchange in Philadelphia. Using the arts as a springboard, the Old City Jewish Art Center advances and promotes the universal messages of Judaism and spiritually to the broadest possible audience.

Amie Potsic, “Enchanted Forest #5”, Archival Pigment Print, 24” x 48”, 2015, © Amie Potsic 2015

Celebration of Trees will be on view January 31st through February 5th. The opening reception will be on Wednesday, January 31st from 6:00 – 8:00 PM in celebration of Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish holiday that commemorates the New Year for Trees. There will be a reception on First Friday from 5:00 – 9:00 PM followed by a Shabbat Dinner. Artist Talks will take place on Sunday, February 11^th from 2:00 – 4:00 PM. The closing reception will be on Sunday, February, 25^th from 2:00 – 4:00 PM. Gallery hours are by appointment.

For more information, please contact Amie Potsic at apotsic@yahoo.com or 610-731-6312 or Old City Jewish Art Center at rabbizash@ocjac.org or 215-627-2792.

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

Like DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog on facebook

Follow DoN on Twitter @DoNNieBeat58

DoN Brewer on Pinterest

@donniebeat on Instagram

More DoNArTNeWs at www.brewermultimedia.com

Affiliate Marketing Disclosure Statement

Donate via safe and secure PayPal in the sidebar.

Burgundian

4 Replies

Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata, 1430‑1432. Jan van Eyck, Netherlandish (active Bruges). Oil on vellum on panel, 5 x 5 3/4 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art, John G. Johnson Collection, 1917.

A Guided Tour of Philadelphia in the Year 1430

by DoN Brewer

Party like it’s 1430! Art is a time capsule, and a lens on society, join me on a tour of Philadelphia to experience life like a Burgundian. Philly was a forest but in the year 1430, at the apex of the Late Middle Ages in Europe. In a country called Burgundy that once existed between France and Spain, a region that was a magnet for artists, there was ground-breaking innovation in technology in the arts.

Just like young artists do today, moving to cities, attending great art schools like The University of the Arts, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, seeking to achieve their creative and career goals, artists in 1430 would have become apprentices and joined guilds; the arts in Burgundy were already well established in the royal courts, King Philip the Good inherited a well oiled arts department including sculpture and painting studios. Jan van Eyck was the duke’s personal friend and confidant, the story of his diplomatic trips to court the Queens of Europe, like a swipe right/left app, to consolidate power and find romance with art is really a trip.

Let us take a look around Philadelphia to find the influences of Burgundian life from the year 1430. In the three paintings I analyzed for A Guided Tour of Philadelphia in the Year 1430, there are architectural elements that resemble buildings we inhabit like Philadelphia City Hall with it’s French Gothic courtyard, grand steeples, turrets and towers of churches along Christian Street, and The Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral with glorious stained glass and vaulted ornate ceiling.

Weaving was the major economic force in the cities of Burgundy, trade of wool into textile the fabric of society, which we take for granted now with fast fashion. Weaving is still present in the arts today in Philadelphia, especially social practice artists like Kathryn Pannepacker, Lisa Kelley and Leslie Sudock.

Leslie Sudock is the instructor at Ready to Hand SOARI Philadelphia and she is a master weaver. Through her arts practice she connects Philadelphian empathy, sanctuary, and wealth of knowledge to the community.

“I have introduced SAORI weaving to public school children in the Philadelphia recreation system, to homeless and physically-challenged neighbors in churches, shelters and health facilities, and to the general community through my participation in Arts Street Textiles: handmade with the homeless. My own excitement at discovering SAORI continues undiminished, and I love enabling others to experience the peace, pleasure and freedom to be found in weaving SAORI-way.” – Leslie Sudock

Kathryn Pannepacker and Lisa Kelley thread the needle of the opioid crisis in Kensington with weaving and textile design classes. As a mural artist, she has used weaving as the central idea and main communicative device to connect concepts of reality to the wider community. Just as master weavers of Burgundy portrayed the economic status of the royal houses to the world, Kathryn Pannepacker and Lisa Kelly, by using weaving and textile, exposes the empathic thread of the economy that is now shredded and how through the economics of creating art stimulates healing in the community.

Kensington Storefront is a new Porch Light community space at 2774 Kensington Avenue, Philadelphia. It’s a place to make art and connect to health resources in your community.

We believe that hands-on art-making provides a pathway for individual and community healing. This new Porch Light space at 2774 Kensington Avenue, Philadelphia, is a place for creating art and connecting to resources to live a better, healthier life.

Porch Light is an initiative of Mural Arts and Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health in partnership with NKCDC, Impact Services Corporationand Prevention Point Philadelphia—along with many other community members and organizations.

GET INVOLVED
— Apply to use the space!
https://goo.gl/forms/xpVh1SbbT4UH4Z6r1/

LEARN MORE
— Strengthening community wellness through public art: https://www.muralarts.org/program/porch-light/
— Southeast by Southeast–another Porchlight project in Philly: https://www.facebook.com/PRMHCSEbySE/

There are many Philadelphia artists comparable to the traditions of arts and painting that we see in the transformative era of the Late Middle Ages. The artist and teacher Katya Held, an accomplished portrait artist who studied with the master Nelson Shanks at Studio Incamminati recently sent me a link to miniature paintings by artist Ludmila Bognycheva. Miniatures were the main source of communications through illustrated manuscripts and devotional objects and alter pieces in 1430. Being able to communicate an abundance of information distinctly with minimal data is an art that transcends technology from weaving to painting to writing; a correlation can be made between the the technological breakthrough of oil painting on economic growth with the growth of the internet, the world wide web.

Fashion and fine textiles are a part of everyday life now, but some artisans make fibre, jewelry, and design speak in a modern language. In Burgundian times status was announced with wardrobe, today high fashion is available at the consumer level. To differentiate from the masses one must choose wisely to stand out in the crowd. Philadelphia fashion designer Diane Litten creates multi-useful fashions that are transformable, jewelry made with coils and magnets, and stretch wacky hats with fibrous dreads.

In our art tour stop at the Jan van Eyck painting, I mentioned the portrait of Queen Isabella of Portugal‘s style and beauty, fashion and physique, and the spatial illusion in the composition. It was really important that the picture accurately portrayed the Queen, Jan van Eyck lived in Portugal for months to make the portrait; a prototype dating app. It’s not hard to imagine the luxuriousness of the lifestyle in Spain, like Burgundy there were fabulous textiles, furs, lace, the best of everything.

Fine foods Jan van Eyck would have eaten on his grand diplomatic trip are available in Philly, the royal houses were great consumers of meat, imagine the feasts in the high castles by visiting a Brazilian steak house. Roasted meats served on swords, carved at the table connects over space and time through the recipes from the the wedding feast of Philip the Good to Queen Isabella of Portugal, at the change of the decade 1430 in a land called Burgundy.

Music! Piffaro, The Renaissance Band

“Piffaro delights audiences with highly polished recreations of the rustic music of the peasantry and the elegant sounds of the official wind bands of the late Medieval and Renaissance periods. Its ever-expanding instrumentarium includes shawms, dulcians, sackbuts, recorders, krumhorns, bagpipes, lutes, guitars, harps, and a variety of percussion — all careful reconstructions of instruments from the period.”