Tag Archives: sculpture

Studio Tours

Chester County Studio Tour

Chester County Studio Tour

The annual Chester County Studio Tour is May 19th and 20th. This event has become a favorite among art patrons and this year will be no different. We’re hosting 64 local studios with 154 artists exhibiting their art.

Chester and Montgomery County Studio Tours invites friends, families, art enthusiasts and the curious to experience and meet a variety of outstanding artists as they exhibit their work during these two-day events in May and June. This unique and intimate opportunity gives the visitor FREE, unlimited access to the artists and a clearer understanding of their stories and creative processes.

Meet this year’s Chester County artists. May 19th and 20th

Visit our website.

County Collectors Club

This year’s participating artists will be creating one unique 6- x 6- inch piece of original art and selling it for $75.  County Studio Tour wants to make art affordable for everyone and wants to show that art can be everywhere. Whether this is your first time buying original art or you are a seasoned collector, the tour now has something for everyone. In some instances, a favorite artist might be out of someone’s price range, but now with the County Collectors Club, art is within reach. Some art enthusiasts are out of wall space yet enjoy the thrill of adding new art to their collection. This becomes possible with the County Collectors Club since the pieces are considered small. 

County Collectors Club is not an exclusive club and there are no membership fees or dues. Just come out and enjoy our one weekend of open studios. 

All the pieces are uniform in size and framed with a simple, elegant black frame. To assure quality and uniqueness, all pieces will have a specially-marked certificate printed on the back commemorating this year’s studio tour. County Studio Tour is asking the artist to create only one commemorative piece of art, so plan your day and get out early to ensure you have art on your walls by Monday!

County Collectors Club is made possible by the generous support of local businesses.

Montgomery County Open Studio Tour

Curious to meet Montgomery County artists? June 9th and 10th

Visit our website.

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Crane

Spring Open Studios, Crane Arts

Spring Open Studios at Crane Arts and Crane Old School

Crane Arts and the Crane Old School are opening their doors to the public on Saturday, April 21st, 2018 from noon to 6:00pm. Nine galleries and over 30 artist’s studios will be open. That’s a lot of great art to see! For more information Contact info@cranearts.com or 215-232-3203.

Crane Arts

1400 N. American Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122

Established in 2004, Crane Arts LLC is a unique community that supports the creative production and exhibition of work by both emerging and established artists.

Galleries

ICEBOX | CRANE TENANT GALLERY | PPAC | INDIGO ARTS | FJORD TSA | SPILLWAY COLLECTIVE | INLIQUID | SECOND STATE PRESS

NOTE: MOST GALLERIES ARE OPEN WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY 12-6PM OR BY APPOINTMENT. PLEASE CHECK GALLERY WEBSITES TO CONFIRM CURRENT HOURS.

Crane Old School

The Crane Old School is home to many artists and organizations including Pig Iron Theatre Company. Located at 1417 N. 2nd Street. Philadelphia, PA, 19122

“The mission of Pig Iron Theatre Company is to expand what is possible in performance by creating rigorous and unusual ensemble-devised works; by training the next generation of daring, innovative theatre artists; and by consistently asking the hardest questions, both in our art and in its relation to the world around us.”

Crane Building History

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The Crane Company Building was built in 1905 out of cast concrete faced with brick in the Kensington warehouse and manufacturing area just north of Girard Avenue. It was designed by Philadelphia architect Walter Ballinger, an early innovator of concrete building techniques. The long wedge-shaped building was used as a plumbing warehouse, and had an adjacent three-story stable for delivery vehicles and draft horses. It was later used to process frozen seafood. The enormous concrete-block, first-floor addition which functioned as a walk-in freezer now serves as the Ice Box Project Space.

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Lands

Drew Leshko, Sacred Lands, Paradigm Gallery + StudioDrew Leshko, Penn Treaty Metals

Sacred Lands

New sculptural works by Drew Leshko

Exhibition Dates: March 23rd – May 19th, 2018

Opening Reception: March 23rd, 2018 5:30 – 10:00pm

Paradigm Gallery is pleased to present Sacred Lands an exhibition of new sculptural works by the artist Drew Leshko opening March 23rd, 2018 and remaining on view through May 19th, 2018. The exhibition’s title is a reference to Leshko’s Philadelphia neighborhood of Fishtown and its ancestral roots as the home to the indigenous Lenni-Lenape. For more than a decade Leshko painstakingly documented the rapid re-development occurring in his hometown of Philadelphia specifically the historical neighborhood of Fishtown. Although Leshko’s works are sculptural by nature, he largely considers himself a documentarian, his sculptures echoing the work of legendary documentary photographers Gordon Parks and Bernd and Hilla Becher.

Leshko is particularly attracted to overlooked and oft-neglected sites, the unremarkable
buildings which will not be preserved. With past works, Leshko’s been drawn to the
once-thriving churches that have closed their doors as parishioners have been forced to
relocate, and the small local businesses with their classical designs which are now juxtaposed
with modern slapdash renovations, as well as the facades and machines of yesteryear. His
models splendidly isolate anachronistic architecture, encouraging the viewer to consider history
through a unique prism.

Drew Leshko, Sacred Lands, Paradigm Gallery + Studio

For Sacred Lands, Leshko replicates the Kensington Soup Society, a soup kitchen which
opened in 1844 and closed in 2008; Penn Treaty Metals, a metal recycling business spanning
three generations, the name of which references William Penn’s Treaty with the Native Lenape
in 1683; and the Edward Corner Marine Merchandise Warehouse, with its hand-painted signs
providing a physical reminder of Fishtown’s waterfront history. Leshko’s sculptures will be
complemented by his small-scale reproductions of local signage (for bars, restaurants, VFW
halls, and even strip clubs), as well as vintage photographs of historical buildings courtesy of the
Philadelphia City Archives.

Drew Leshko, Sacred Lands, Paradigm Gallery + StudioYesterday’s Tavern, 2018, paper, acrylic, inkjet prints, PVC plastic, chain, wire, pastel, 12” x 1 1/2” x 11”

Leshko’s 1:12 dollhouse scale replicas are meticulously crafted, requiring 120 to 160 studio
hours to create. He begins each sculpture working from a single photograph as an image
reference, but then will discard the photograph in mid-process, relying on memory to complete
the piece. His miniatures act as singular physical documents of the buildings and businesses
which are sadly proving unsustainable. Leshko’s ongoing examination of gentrification and
historical preservation (or lack thereof), asks the timely question “in a soon-to-be-forgotten
America, what is worth preserving?”.

About Drew Leshko

Drew Leshko is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based artist. Working from observation and
photographs, the artist painstakingly recreates everything from building facades to campers at a scale which may be familiar to some viewers as standard dollhouse spec; the treatment to
Leshko’s work is widely different. The minute detail of his work includes city detritus such as
dumpsters and pallets, which are commentary of the ideas of what is worth preserving.
Accumulations of typically overlooked details and minutiae like acid rain deposits and rust
become beautiful adornments.

Leshko’s work has been exhibited in galleries, and museums both nationally and internationally.
His work is included in permanent collections including the Dean Collection (NYC), West
Collection (Philadelphia), Iron State Development’s corporate collection (Hoboken), Urban
Nation Museum (Berlin), and many private collections throughout the world.

About Paradigm Gallery

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.

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

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Unwilling

Unwilling: Exercises in Melancholy

EXPLORE MELANCHOLIA AT HAVERFORD’S CANTOR FITZGERALD GALLERY

HAVERFORD, Pa.- What if we saw sadness not as a giving up or giving in, but a getting out? What if, instead of being seen as a passive pain, feeling deep sorrow was understood to be an act of resistance? What if, given the current political and cultural moment in which so many feel ignored, maligned, or repudiated by the systems and people in power, mourning was not just an understandable reception, but a useful action against those systems? A new exhibit in Haverford College’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, opening March 23, showcases the work of five artists from across different media to grapple with such questions of power, agency, and melancholy.

Unwilling: Exercises in Melancholy, curated by Vanessa Kwan and Kimberly Phillips, proposes a re-consideration of melancholia as defined through our contemporary condition. Resisting its historical definition as an affliction that creates disorder or inactivity, this exhibition reimagines passive sadness as a powerful refusal, a conscious (or unconscious) “standing aside,” a willful production of generative failures and resistant potencies. Each of the five contributing artists begins with the idea that outside the boundaries of “contentment” resides a potent flourishing. Unwilling is a resistance and a proposition: it responds to the profound cultural reckoning we are witnessing in this moment in time, as the boundaries and exclusions of state-defined citizenship become increasingly fraught.

The exhibition crosses disciplinary boundaries. Dance artist Justine A. Chambers explores choreographies of resistance, growing out of a studious and embodied interpretation of all the minor gestures on the way to hands raised in surrender. Sculpture- and performance-based artist Mike Bourscheid mines absurdities in relation to our cultural preoccupations with masculinist productivity, while social practice artist Ginger Brooks Takahashi works to create new networks of value in the production of food, drink, and community. (Her piece in the exhibit is a collaboratively created-and consumed-beer.) The “weeping” willow is at the center of media artist Noa Giniger‘s multi-faceted take on reversals of sadness and the refusal to succeed, and poet and critic Billy-Ray Belcourt positions mourning as a defining aspect of an active and resistant subject and proposes that the future must address this subject head on.

Unwilling: Exercises in Melancholy will be on view March 23 through April 27 at Haverford College’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery. To celebrate the exhibit’s opening, there will be several events during its first week. On March 22, ahead of the official opening, a roundtable with four of the featured artists and the two curators will be held from 4:30 to -6:30 p.m. in the College’s new Visual Culture, Arts, and Media (VCAM) building, room 201. On March 23, Justine A. Chambers will perform an all-day, campus-wide, site-specific commission, ten thousand times and one hundred more. And later that day, at 4:30 p.m., there will be a talk with the curators followed by a reception at 5:30 p.m., featuring Ginger Brooks Takahashi’s Wyrt Blod Gruyt, a custom-made beer commissioned specifically for the exhibit and brewed in collaboration with Meredith Rebar Williams and Home Brewed Events. For further event details: exhibits.haverford.edu/unwilling.

Unwilling: Exercises in Melancholy is made possible with support from the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities. The exhibition is organized in conjunction with the Hurford Center’s 2017-18 faculty seminar “The Arts of Melancholy,” which is led by John B. Whitehead Professor of Humanities and Professor of Music Richard Freedman.

Overseen by the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities and located in Whitehead Campus Center, the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery is open Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Wednesdays until 8 p.m. For more information, contact Matthew Seamus Callinan, associate director of the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery and campus exhibitions, at (610) 896-1287 or mcallina@haverford.edu, or visit the exhibitions program website: www.haverford.edu/exhibits.

Haverford College is located at 370 Lancaster Avenue, Haverford, Pa., 19041

Thank you to Rebecca Raber for the content of this post.

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Gardens

PICTURE-PERFECT GARDENSSet between two flowing fountains and tree-lined pathways, the James A. Michener Art Museum’s Pfundt Sculpture Garden captures the essence of Bucks County’s rolling terrain. Credit: Photo by B. Krist for VISIT PHILADELPHIA®

PHILLY GALLERIES SET THE SCENE FOR PICTURE-PERFECT GARDENS

Art Often Comes With A Side of Floral Beauty In Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA – Throughout the Philadelphia region, art galleries and museums sit amid colorful gardens, quiet woodlands and serene meadows that accentuate the art found in both indoor and outdoor galleries. Here’s a look at some of the region’s museums and attractions that celebrate beauty inside and out:

  • Abington Art Center  This vibrant cultural organization, known for its summer concert series, occupies part of the 27 acres of historic Alverthorpe Manor in Montgomery County. Inside, three galleries show as many as six regional and national art exhibitions annually. Outside, Katasura trees dot a meandering walkway through Sculpture Park, which is open and free to the public 365 days a year. 515 Meetinghouse Road, Jenkintown(215) 887-4882abingtonartcenter.org
  • The Barnes Arboretum & Foundation In suburban Merion, the Barnes Foundation’s 12-acre arboretum is astonishingly diverse for its size, with more than 2,500 varieties of woody and herbaceous plants, many rare. The arboretum opens to visitors May to September. The Barnes Foundation on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway honors its horticultural legacy with landscaped lawns, trees, park, fountain, contemplative walkways and outdoor seating on its 4.5-acre site. That location’s Garden Restaurant also features outdoor courtyard dining, while internal gardens throughout the building encourage visitors to imagine they are strolling directly into the landscapes they’re admiring on the walls. Arboretum, 300 N. Latch’s Lane, Merion, (215) 278-7200; Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway(215) 278-7200barnesfoundation.org  
  • Brandywine River Museum of Art  It takes just one glimpse of the Virginia bluebells, Cardinal flowers and holly and bayberry bushes that border this onetime gristmill to understand why this landscape has served as muse for so many local artists. The Brandywine River Museum is internationally known for its unparalleled collection of works by three generations of Wyeths and its fine collection of American art. Outside, visitors can join guided walks through the wildflower and native plant gardens, which were dedicated by Lady Bird Johnson and, during the annual plant sale on Mother’s Day weekend, can take home seeds cultivated right on the grounds, as well as lovely in-bloom plants. 1 Hoffman’s Mill Road, Chadds Ford(610) 388-2700brandywinemuseum.org  
  • James A. Michener Art Museum This Bucks County destination is home to the Edgar N. Putman Event Pavilion, a 2,700-square-foot indoor-outdoor space designed by architecture firm KieranTimberlake. The pavilion showcases museum programs—jazz nights, lectures, lively family events—within an elegant, all-glass structure that extends into the Patricia Pfundt Sculpture Garden. Inside, the museum’s eight galleries accommodate special exhibitions and a 3,000-piece permanent collection, including many Pennsylvania impressionist paintings that capture the essence of the county’s rolling terrain. 138 S. Pine Street(215) 340-9800, Doylestown, michenerartmuseum.org  
  • Penn Museum – After viewing the impressive collection of international art and artifacts inside this historic University of Pennsylvania museum, visitors can relax in two magnificent gardens. The Warden Garden, now wheelchair accessible, features a classic koi pool, expansive lawns and mosaics created by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The Stoner Courtyard, built on the philosophy that places for nature are necessary in our built-up world, includes sculptural pieces by A.S. Calder, a cobblestone walkway and a beautiful marble fountain. Inside, guests marvel at ancient objects including African and Native American masks, Maya sculpture and Egyptian mummies. 3260 South Street(215) 898-4000penn.museum
  • Philadelphia Museum of Art Best known for its international exhibitions and world-renowned collections of more than 240,000 works, the crown jewel of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway is more than a museum. It’s also the unofficial gateway to Fairmount Park. The museum’s bi-level sculpture garden, with its combination of terraces, lawns, flora and water features, showcases an ever-changing sculpture collection overlooking Fairmount Park, the Schuylkill River, the four-acre Azalea Garden and the grand, neoclassical Fairmount Water Works. Works on display include large-scale pieces by Claes Oldenburg Ellsworth Kelly and Sol LeWitt. 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway(215) 763-8100philamuseum.org
  • Rodin Museum Movie-theater magnate, philanthropist and Rodin collector Jules Mastbaum, known for his eye for elegance, hired architects Paul Cret and Jacques Gréber to create this jewel-box museum. The venue’s intimate settings are perfect for taking in the extensive Rodin collection, one of the greatest single collections of his work outside Paris. Visitors seem to enjoy the front garden’s reflecting pool and tapestry of magnolia trees, shrubs and colorful flowers—some dating back to the 1920s—as much as they do The Thinker and Eternal Springtime. 2151 Benjamin Franklin Parkway(215) 763-8100rodinmuseum.org  
  • Second Bank of the United States – Inside this Parthenon-like structure is a first-rate collection of approximately 200 historic portraits of Founding Fathers, early leaders, explorers and others, many by Charles Willson Peale. Just steps away are several gardens. The Signers’ Garden, with native plants and trees, commemorates the creators of Declaration of the Independence. The 18th-Century Garden replicates formal English gardens of the day with geometrically patterned raised flowerbeds, walking paths, and a pergola. The Rose Garden and Magnolia Garden are secluded, colorful and fragrant refuges. Second Bank, 420 Chestnut Street; Signers’, 5th & Chestnut Streets; 18th-Century, Walnut Street between 3rd & 4th Streets; Rose and Magnolia, Locust Street between 4th & 5th Streets; (215) 965-2305nps.gov/inde  
  • Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library Textiles, paintings, prints, furniture and ceramics dating from 1640 to 1860 make the former home of Henry Francis du Pont a favorite for fans of Americana. Nature enthusiasts are drawn to the 60-acre garden nestled in the 1,000-acre country estate. Highlights of the garden include eight acres of azaleas, naturalized bulbs displays, peonies and primroses. Trails lead from the garden through rolling meadow, woodlands and waterways. If the kids get antsy, a short trip across the Troll Bridge leads to the Faerie Cottage in the Enchanted Woods. 5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware(800) 448-3883winterthur.org
  • Woodmere Art Museum – At the top of the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, this gem of a venue tells stories of Philadelphia’s art and artists, including N.C. Wyeth, Benjamin West and Violet Oakley, as well as new and emerging contemporary artists. The 19th-century stone Victorian mansion sits on six acres dotted with sculptures by Dina Wind and other Philadelphia-area artists surrounding Harry Bertoia’s sinuous fountain sculpture, Free Interpretation of Plant Forms9201 Germantown Avenue(215) 247-0476woodmereartmuseum.org

VISIT PHILADELPHIA® is our name and our mission. As the region’s official tourism marketing agency, we build Greater Philadelphia’s image, drive visitation and boost the economy.

On Greater Philadelphia’s official visitor website and blog, visitphilly.com and uwishunu.com, visitors can explore things to do, upcoming events, themed itineraries and hotel packages. Compelling photography and videos, interactive maps and detailed visitor information make the sites effective trip-planning tools. Along with Visit Philly social media channels, the online platforms communicate directly with consumers. Travelers can also call and stop into the Independence Visitor Center for additional information and tickets.

Thank you to Visit Philly for the content of this post.

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