Zakee Kuduro
Waiting for Henry
Oil on canvas
32 x 33"

Note: This artwork is currently in transit from Brazil. You may still bid.

Zakee Kudro's artwork will be in the exhibition "The Source of Self-Regard" in the InLiquid Gallery October - November 2025 .

Artist Bio:

My earliest encounters with art were unconventional but deeply formative. Growing up in Southwest Philadelphia, I worked in my family's funeral home as an embalmer and makeup artist. As a child, I learned the delicate art of honoring life's final moments-where the details, the stillness, and the profound beauty of life's fragility left an indelible mark on me. These experiences shaped my understanding of art as a medium to express the intricate balance between life and death, instilling in me an eye for detail and a reverence for the sacredness of each passing moment.

However, my art is not an observational reflection from a detached perspective. Having been a juvenile prisoner, my work directly engages with the social, political, and cultural complexities surrounding us. My work represents my emotional and intellectual responses to these themes by deconstructing beauty, struggle, dreams, fantasy, and faith. Each piece I create is a dialogue between color, texture, and form, blending abstraction with figurative elements. I use a bold yet restrained palette, using layered techniques that reveal depth and complexity. These layers invite the viewer to look beyond the surface, peel back meanings, and engage with the intricacies beneath.
Creating art for me is an emotional process, yet it is also intentional. My unconscious mind is the driving force behind the work, but I consciously merge traditional techniques with innovative approaches, allowing recurring themes to surface in new ways. The subject matter of each piece dictates the materials and the form, making each project distinct yet connected-a chapter in an evolving story.
A central focus of my work is the exploration of faith and religion and how these belief systems influence our individual and collective identities. I question how spirituality intersects with culture, power, and beauty, creating pieces that explore the tension between the sacred and the secular. I intend to open dialogues about faith-challenging institutionalized belief systems while encouraging viewers to reflect on their relationships with spirituality and the structures surrounding it.
To me, art is a means of pushing boundaries and generating spaces for dialogue. Through my paintings, I aim to provoke thought and inspire emotional resonance, urging viewers to reconsider their relationship with the world and their place within it. By blending abstraction with figurative imagery, I strive to create bridges between different cultural experiences, fostering a deeper understanding of our shared humanity.
Much of my work centers on underrepresented voices and untold stories, celebrating the resilience and complexity of the human spirit. I am fascinated by how beauty can emerge from our most challenging moments, and my art attempts to capture that paradox. Whether exploring themes of faith, culture, or survival, my pieces serve as invitations to dive into the layered emotions, histories, and meanings that define our lives.

Kelly Micca
SS United States
2024
Oil on aluminum
4 x 6"

Artist Statement:
The preservation of the SS United States, the world's fastest ocean liner that was built entirely in America, had been under threat for many years. Famously she was referred to as Philly's "Titanic" ship sitting across the street from IKEA. For the past few months I've made a daily effort to visit the ship and paint onsite during its final days. Just recently the SS United States had been displaced from her home in Philadelphia and on her way to Florida where she will be sunk and used as an artificial reef. These miniature paintings of the SS United States are a pocket sized memory of her monumental impact on our country's history.

Marguerita Hagan
Frustule Flower, Micro Grow Series
2014
ceramic
6.75 x 7.25 x 4.25"

Artist Statement:

What does light talk about? I asked a plant that once.
It said, 'I am not sure, but it makes me grow'
- Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

Oak trees know. Their roots graft into one flesh so they may share mutual sustenance, benefiting the community as a whole. When one tree is in need, the healthy ones direct their energy in support. This goes brilliantly macro with fungi, the underpins of the terrestrial realm. Their fiber optic-like mycelium likening a high speed internet connects life in the subterranean. Micro-marine organisms connect in exquisite mutually beneficial systems or colonies in the ocean and provide over 50% of all oxygen for the planet. Rich diversity and reciprocal sharing fuel thriving communities and environments. This light-giving flow has enabled all life to thrive for eons.

Inherent potential realized moves everything, even light itself.
It certainly moves me. My work is a response to this light. The interdependent forms and projects grow in a continuous heliotropic adventure, energized with every opportunity and connection.

Artist Bio:

Marguerita Hagan is a ceramic sculptor based in Philadelphia and an activist for the thriving of all life in mutually sustainable communities and environments. The concept of interdependence plays throughout her sculpture, teaching and community arts.

Throughout her career, Hagan has brought to light the beauty and engineering of our planet's diverse ecosystems and our powerful role as stewards. The intricate ceramic shines light on the wonder and respect for the fragile, diverse life with which our lives are intrinsically linked. Hagan's practice is an ongoing discovery, magnifying our awareness, reciprocal responsibility and protection of each other and our planet.

She received her MFA is from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and her BFA in Ceramics at James Madison University. Her projects include collaborations with artists, scientists and community, environmental art-science residencies, lectures. Her work is in collections and exhibits nationally and internationally.

Tremain Smith
Earth, Water, Fire, Air
2021
Oil & beeswax on panel
29 x 23 x 2"

Artist Bio:
Tremain Smith has four works in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her work is in corporate and private collections across the country. She has had dozens of solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Scottsdale, Maine, Delaware, Florida and Hawaii. Group exhibitions include SOFA Chicago, Art Miami, the Painted Bride, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and the USArtists American Fine Art Show.

Tremain has been reviewed extensively, including coverage by the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Chicago Tribune, and the LA Weekly. Her work is included in Encaustic Art in the Twenty-First Century by Anne Lee & E. Ashley Rooney, published by Schiffer Publishing, The Art of Encaustic Painting Contemporary Expression in the Ancient Medium of Pigmented Wax published by Watson-Guptill, and in the art journal New American Paintings. She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Tyler School of Art, Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania. She received a Teaching Artist Certificate from the University of the Arts.

Alongside her studio practice, Tremain teaches, lectures, and leads workshops. She was a panelist at the Eighth International Encaustic Conference, presenting on "The Roots of Contemporary Encaustic". The technique she uses is composed of layers of oil glazes, collaged elements, and transparent beeswax. Her works on paper are made with a hand-ground recipe of gum arabic and oil emulsion.

Tremain's concerns center on art and healing. Her abstract works are mappings of an inner world. She responds to her paintings with writing, following a creative process that combines painting and poetry. Smith explores, discovers, and heals through both languages.

David Beker
061924-dmd-b
2024
Ink on paper
24 x 19, framed 25 x 20"

Artist Statement:
This is a unique, one-of-a-kind drawing created with a machine that I designed and built. The drawing is black ink on heavy-weight, acid-free drawing paper.

Artist Bio:
David Beker is a Philadelphia-based designer, craftsperson, and artist. He grew up in Maryland and studied architecture at the University of Maryland. Afterward, he moved to New York to focus on computer graphics, gaining an MFA from Parsons School of Design in that field. He eventually returned to architecture, receiving a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and becoming a registered architect a few years later.

Wanting a design practice that included more physical making, David shifted his focus from architecture to sculpture, furniture design, and kinetic art projects. He currently teaches courses in architecture and furniture design at Drexel University.

shanina dionna
Safe Space (pt.1)
2019
Acrylic on canvas
64 x 50"

shanina dionna's artwork will be in an InLiquid Exhibition in October 2025

Artist Statement:
This self-portrait captures a moment of quiet reflection in my adolescent home in Coatesville, PA, seated pensively in a thrifted director's chair within my former bedroom studio. Holding Sonja Lyubomirsky's "The How of Happiness" book gifted by a good friend in 2019, "Safe Space (pt.1)" symbolizes both personal growth and the pursuit of healing through resilience. Resonating with the cultural moment of that year, it is informed by themes of mental health narratives in pop culture, self-discovery, and empowerment in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement in tandem with the shifting discourse around mental health in marginalized communities. As the first of a three-part series, this piece has traveled across Philadelphia inviting viewers to connect with the spaces where we find and relish in our deepest courage and authenticity. This work is a tribute to those intimate, safe spaces that cultivate the strength to confront life's challenges, much like the ongoing cultural conversations about race, wellness, and self-acceptance in today's world of relentless societal expectations.

Artist Bio:
shanina dionna (she/they) is an acclaimed, West Philadelphia-based visual artist, non-profit founder, educator, and advocate for mental health and wellness through the arts since 2012. With a dynamic practice that spans portraits, murals, somatic movement, photography, and expressive arts therapy facilitation, shanina's work explores the intersection of identity, social change, and healing. With a history of vetted partnerships including The Barnes Foundation, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Penn Museum, The Colored Girls Museum, Urban Art Gallery, the National Liberty Museum, Mural Arts Philadelphia, the Department of Behavioral Health & Intellectual disAbility Services, and the Philadelphia System of Care, shanina has been recognized for their positive impact on both local and global communities. As a 2023/2024 Black Artists Fellow with Mural Arts Philadelphia, Temple University alum, a current Art Therapy & Counseling master student at Drexel University, and a faculty member at Fleisher Art Memorial, shanina is committed to using their art as a catalyst for dialogue and transformation. Viewers are invited to engage deeply with themes of resilience, empowerment, and collective healing in shanina's work, making each piece not only a visual experience but a profound statement of human connection and well-being.

Eva Shelley
Eva Elaine Flassworks, LLC
Large floral with sandblasting and some blue oil paint, 2024
Lampworked glass and oil paint
19 x 19 x 16"

Artist Statement

I love working with floral designs, creating them out of glass- it's more about the scientific challenge of making the piece that I enjoy most, but I also love creating floral designs. . When I was in my last semester at Tyler School of Art,Temple University, I took a beginner floral design class as an extra elective. It was such a great class, and it super inspired my work. Since that class, I have been creating glass floral designs. My favorite has always been the ikebana style. Thought I need to practice making that style in my own designs. But I love looking at images of ikebana designs to use as reference. I also have a lot of house plants in my studio that greatly influence my work.

Deanna McLaughlin
The Grass Is Greener On The Other Side
2017
Found & Manipulated Shopping cart.
Reversible upholstery/artificial grass orthopedic cushion.
Found lamp guard for champagne bottle holder.
47 x 32.75 x 56"

Artist Statement:
Deanna McLaughlin's artwork is not bound to one type of material or technique. She derives pleasure through the design challenge. Her sculptural work has been developed from found objects, metal, epoxy resin, fabric, wood, and other objects that inspire new design ideas. Mostly she loves to consider how to connect irony in a quirky, fun, and playful way. Problem-solving how to manipulate a single object in multiple ways underscores my love of design and out-of-the-box way of looking at the world from many perspectives.

Artist Bio:
Deanna has won numerous awards for her artwork and has been granted residency and exhibition opportunities nationally and internationally. Her work is in permanent collections in Museums, Universities, and private collections. She has exhibited in The Philadelphia International Airport, CraftNow, Craftforms International exhibit, Design Philadelphia, "Spring Break" in New York City and others. An insatiable thirst to learn new skills while working with a variety of media sustains her never-ending inspiration to create. Experiencing people from other places and cultures has greatly influenced her approach to looking at life with an ever-fresh perspective. Academic achievements include M.A./M.A.T., University of The Arts. B.S. Art Therapy, Cognate: Psychology, Bowling Green State University. She is also an ERYT500 yoga educator &qi gong teacher.

Sahar Hasan
Harmony
2022
Oil on wood panel
18 x 23"

Artist Statement:
Our lives are deeply intertwined with wildlife, their presence echoing a silent plea for preservation. The calligraphy, seamlessly extending from earth to sky, symbolizes the language of nature, a dialogue humanity neglects to engage in. And the horse? He stands as the narrator, bearing witness to the story of coexistence and our responsibility to protect it.

Artist Bio:
Sahar Hasan is a Yemeni-American visual artist, curator, and founder of the Qamaria for Arts project. With a Master of Fine Arts from Brooklyn College, New York, Sahar has held solo exhibitions across the USA, Yemen, and Turkey, and has participated in numerous international group exhibitions and biennials.

As a passionate advocate for cultural dialogue and the amplification of artists' voices, Sahar's work embodies a spirit of unity and connection. In 2021, she became the first Arab artist to receive a certificate from New York State for her artistic achievements, awarded by Nathalia Fernandez.

Sahar has curated several impactful exhibitions, including Threads of Light at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga, Canada (August 2024), and at St. Barth Church in Manhattan, NY (September 2024). She also organized the Do You See Me? exhibition, which provided a platform for young artists affected by war, held at the Brooklyn Children's Museum in 2023.

Through her art and curatorial projects, Sahar continues to foster harmony across cultures and uplift the voices of artists from diverse backgrounds.

Lisa Marie Patzer
London Flag, panel 3/3, 2023
Illuminated Art Panel, red oak frame, glass, duratran print, leds
19" x 25" x 3.5"

Artist Statement

London Flag, panel 3 of 3 is an illuminated art piece created from a series of 35mm slides of an open air market in London in the mid-1950's. Compressing space and time, Lisa Marie digitized and manipulated the slides into a new, colorful configuration, emphasizing iconic elements from the urban landscape as well as the many flags on display. The illuminated art panel was custom built out of red oak that is stained with natural wood finish.

Artist Bio

Lisa Marie Patzer is an award winning digital media artist, designer, and entrepreneur who creates site-specific art that integrates light, pattern, historic imagery, and vibrant color.
Lisa Marie Patzer's artistic practice celebrates memory and history by reimagining archival materials in new visual forms. Using cutting-edge digital techniques, Patzer transforms archival content into luminous arrangements for contemporary audiences. Her process is a form of visual dialogue involving historical research, collaboration with curators, and deep listening to place. Based primarily in the greater Philadelphia region, Lisa Marie's woodshop is located in Media, PA and design studio is in Wilmington, DE.

Don Nakamura
Finger Flower, 2025
Ceramic
4 x 12" diameter

Artist Bio

An accomplished artist, Don Nakamura has received many awards, including Fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He earned his BFA in ceramics from Kansas City Art Institute, and his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, before moving to Philadelphia where he was a Franklin Mint Fellow Resident Artist at The Clay Studio.

Emily Selvin
Janus as A Female
2024
cast glass
7 x 5 x 4"
1 of 2

Artist Statement:
Embracing Femininity: A Perspective on the Timeless Figure of Janus in Glass Art.
This cast glass sculpture delves into how the ancient Roman deity Janus symbolizes the dual aspects of the female experience. Janus is historically depicted with two male faces looking in opposite directions, which serves as a metaphor for the complexities women often face, such as balancing strength and tenderness, independence and community, past and future.
This ancient method of lost wax casting allows for a remarkable level of detail and texture-perfect for articulating the nuances of feminine identity. Carving the wax, casting the glass, and unveiling the finished piece serve as a metaphor for the passage of time and the transformation of self.
Approximately 30 hours are spent carving the wax for this sculpture, followed by four days of firing in the kiln and about 6 hours of cleaning the glass after it comes out of the kiln.

Artist Bio:
Emily Selvin has devoted her life to the arts. She studied Geo-Textile Engineering and Textile Design at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. Following her studies in the sciences, she continued her education at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, studying printmaking and classical painting, and completed prize-winning explorations of mixed media. Since 1997, Emily has operated Selvin Glass, a full-service leaded glass restoration and commission-based architectural glass studio. Designers and architects have sought her work and restoration services internationally. Her sculptural work focuses on nature vs. nurture, using objects she finds in nature and combining them with toys often played with by children. Emily uses glass to illustrate the fragility of life, the often deleterious impacts of adult humans towards our ecosystems, and the memories of the innocence of youth. Her illustrative works focus on the life cycle, specifically how we face death and global gender issues and how they impact all women. In her spare time, Emily makes puppets and marionettes, shoots street photography, and embroiders from her photographic imagery using the finest silk threads she can find.

Gerald Lang
Horse Photogravures portfolio
Photogravure
Edition 3/25
15 x 19.25" each print
Series of seven (7) prints in clamshell portfolio

Please ask for assistance in looking at prints in person.

Artist Statement

Gerald is interested in the vintage photographic process and explores, researches, and applies this to his photography. In this series of The Horse, his love of observing their horses at play in the pastures, the gestures of the foals they raised, and the social interactions between horses were the inspiration. Gerald chose photogravure for the limited edition of ink and archival papers to give an organic feel to the horses portrayed in the images.

Artist Bio

Gerald Lang is a Professor emeritus and the founder of the first digital photography curriculum for students enrolled in the College of Art and Architecture at Pennsylvania State University in the mid-1990s. His work, along with that of his wife, Jennifer Anne Tucker, spans six decades. Individually and together, they are collected globally and most recently in the permanent collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Gianni Lee
Skeletal Sculpture Version 1, 2022
Vinyl sculpture
12 x 2 x 9"
Edition 1/12

Artist Statement

*Skeletal Sculpture V1* is a three-dimensional embodiment of my signature themes: mortality, resilience, and identity. This limited-edition 12-inch work features a winged skeletal warrior rendered in pink and black, outfitted with eclectic armor - including a flowing red scarf and an oversized sword - all characteristics drawn from my visual lexicon developed on city walls. The figure's exposed bones confront the viewer with the reality of mortality, while its defiant stance (wings outstretched and weapon in hand) evokes a sense of resilience in the face of adversity. By stripping the human form down to its skeletal essence, I explore identity beyond surface differences: the skeleton becomes a universal avatar, a reminder that beneath the skin, we share a common framework even as we each imbue it with our own personal and cultural narrative.

My skeletal motifs draw inspiration from humanity's earliest storytelling imagery - the pictorial languages of ancient hieroglyphics and cave drawings. I regard these recurring skeleton figures as my form of hieroglyphs, a multilayered symbolic language through which I communicate personal and cultural narratives. Over the years, armies of these colorful skeletons have populated my murals and paintings, often dancing across city facades in unified formations. With *Skeletal Sculpture V1*, I translate that motif from mural to sculpture, bringing the archetype into tangible form. This shift from wall to three-dimensional space marks a new chapter for my *Skeletal Warriors* - one that honors their origins in street art even as it reimagines them as intimate objects that a viewer can physically hold and inspect. In this sculptural incarnation, the skeleton figure becomes an object of contemplation, inviting the audience to engage with it up close and from all angles, as both an art toy and a totem of the ideas it represents.

Artist Bio

Gianni Lee is a multidisciplinary artist whose work interrogates themes of identity, resilience, history, and technology across fine art, music, and fashion. Based between New York and Philadelphia, Lee creates paintings, murals, sculptures, and sonic landscapes that merge personal narrative with broader cultural commentary. His practice is deeply rooted in Afrofuturism, using speculative world-building to envision alternate realities for Black existence. Through this lens, his work challenges viewers to reconsider contemporary social dynamics while celebrating the endurance and innovation of marginalized communities.

Lee's signature skeleton figures have become a defining visual emblem of his storytelling. Inspired by ancient African hieroglyphics and cave drawings, these skeletal characters serve as modern-day visual hieroglyphs-symbols that communicate cultural resilience, historical erasure, and the complexities of identity. Whether appearing in large-scale murals or detailed paintings, these figures navigate Lee's dystopian yet hopeful landscapes, often portrayed as warriors or spectral messengers. Their presence speaks to survival, transformation, and the ongoing dialogue between the past and the future.

Michael Biello
Orange Buddha
Clay, metal, wood, paint, stain, gold leaf
5 x 5 x 9"

Michael Biello's work will be in the "In the Soft Light" exhibition in the InLiquid Galley April 11 - June 1, 2025

Check out Michael Biello's additional works in the shop.

Artist Bio

Michael Biello is an interdisciplinary artist who draws inspiration from his Italian American roots, his passion for theatre, his longtime commitment to LGBTQ+ cultural activism, and his belief in the healing power of art. Biello is one of the artisan/makers who helped create the revivals of Old City Philadelphia in the 1970's and Noho New York in the 1990's. Biello's work has been exhibited internationally and is in numerous private collections including many in the entertainment industry. In addition to his work in visual art, Biello has a long history as a performance artist and lyricist in collaboration with his life-partner, composer Dan Martin.

Gerri Spilka
Interactions #28: Considering
2023
Quilted painting
30 x 24" x 1.25"

Artist Statement
This is a piece in my ongoing Interactions Series comprised of strong geometric and biomorphic forms and colors suggesting human gestures, conditions, and communications.

Artist Bio
My work has been widely exhibited in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. It is held in private and public collections, including the International Quilt Museum and Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, Park Towne Place Art Collection, the Fox School of Business at Temple University, and Jefferson University and Hospital in Philadelphia, PA.

I started my career in urban planning and community development and co-founded Equal Measure (formerly The OMG Center), a national social research group. Today, in addition to being a studio artist, I am an avid promoter of contemporary textile art in the broader fine arts world. I was instrumental in the traveling of two widely acclaimed textile exhibits, the Color Improvisations 2 in North America and Material Pulses: Seven Viewpoints. I am currently collaborating with a team of leading national textile organizations in Beyond the Surface: Contemporary Artists and Textile Printing, an exhibition that will open at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, NY, in the fall of 2024.

I have a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Education from Carnegie Mellon University. I earned a Master's degree in Psychology from Temple University and hold a Master's Degree in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.

A lifelong urbanite, I grew up in Yonkers, NY, among a large extended family of many working in the textile industry. I currently live and work in the Italian Market neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Mark Loughney
Minimalism #1 (Ramen), 2023
Oil/charcoal on canvas
48 x 36"

Artist Statement
This piece depicts the state of minimal living, minimal sustenance, and subsisting on the margins of society. The interconnectedness of the noodles also symbolizes our reliance on one another to feel a sense of belonging and for social support.

Artist Bio
Mark Loughney is a Philadelphia-based artist whose work confronts the absurdity of the American criminal justice system. His most notable project, Pyrrhic Defeat: A Visual Study Of Mass Incarceration, has seen national acclaim and media attention, with articles in The NY Times, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, Hyperallergic, ArtForum, NPR, Boston Globe, and numerous other media outlets.

Caitlin McCormack
Patron I, 2017
Crocheted cotton string, glue, enamel paint, steel pins
35 x 25 x 5"

Artist Statement
My work externalizes experiences with mental illness, dysmorphia, and assault, producing a taxonomy of emotive vessels. Exploring queerness, isolation, and existential dread through an uncanny, sometimes humorous lens, I contemplate societal reluctance to legitimize gendered craft and regard crochet as a behavioral response to apocalyptic conditions. Inspired by folkloric botanical motifs, museum displays, liturgical objects, sci-fi/body horror cinema, and an abundance of time spent alone with an overactive imagination, each object is an unraveling relic of a memory or fixation, tethered to a surface and made viewable at a distance.

Artist Bio
Philadelphia-based fiber artist and educator Cait McCormack has contributed works to solo and group exhibitions at Elijah Wheat Showroom, Hashimoto Contemporary, The Mutter Museum, Museum Rijswijk, The Mesa Contemporary Art Museum, The Taubman Museum of Art, The Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Feinkunst Kruger, Field Projects, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, and Future Fair in NYC. Their sculptures have appeared in publications including The New York Times, BOMB Mag, Hyperallergic, Juxtapoz, Whitehot Magazine, Smithsonian, and Bust Magazine. In addition to holding teaching positions at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Hussian College of Art and Design, McCormack has participated in artist residencies including Vermont Studio Center (VT), The Peter Bullough Foundation (VA), The Wassaic Project (NY), Byrdcliffe Artist Colony (NY), Monson Arts (ME), and The Provincetown C-Scape Dune Shack Artist Residency (MA). McCormack was the recipient of a Joseph Robert Foundation grant in 2021 and received the Woodmere Art Museum's Maurice Freed Memorial Prize in 2023.

Zifeng Zang
The Echo of You, 2021
Mix media on canvas
30 x 60"

Artist Statement
This piece was created in 2021 with the intention of capturing the grandeur of ocean waves through dynamic techniques. Using my self-made high-fluid acrylics, I achieved spontaneous blending effects, allowing the pigments to form vivid, turbulent scenes that evoke the ocean's power and movement.

Artist Bio
As an abstract painter rooted in Philadelphia, I bring a wealth of education and experience to my craft. My love for art began at a young age. It flourished as I pursued formal education, earning dual BFA degrees from Jilin University in China and West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

My career includes serving as a senior graphic designer and brand manager at 4A advertising agencies and tech giants in China, where I honed my skills in creating imagery, characters, and advertisement scripts using digital tools. Despite this, I always felt drawn to the traditional art of painting. This passion led me to further my education in the field and study painting in the US. I am now focused on developing my abstract style, infused with my personal experiences and unique perspective.

I am a member of the Muse Gallery in Philadelphia and recently completed a one-year artist residency at the Delaware Contemporary Museum in 2024.

Han Wang
Across the Ocean: General Tso's Chicken #9, 2023
Porcelain
7.25 x 9.5 x 4.75"

Artist Statement
This porcelain sculpture explores the interplay between form, tradition, and narrative. Inspired by classical blue-and-white ceramics, the piece is adorned with intricate hand-painted motifs of flora and fauna, evoking a sense of history and craftsmanship.

Artist Bio
Han Wang, a Chinese artist residing in Philadelphia, PA, holds a BFA degree from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in Guangzhou, China, and an MFA degree from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Wang's artistic endeavors have graced various venues in the Northeastern United States, including notable exhibitions at The Delaware Contemporary, InLiquid Gallery, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery, and Philadelphia City Hall. Furthermore, she showcased her creations at the Philadelphia International Airport.

Since her relocation, Wang leverages her status as an outsider in America and draws inspiration from her surroundings. Her work seamlessly integrates traditional and contemporary ceramic techniques, delving into the rich tapestry of cultural history while amalgamating Chinese and other Asian artistic methodologies.

Paul Cava
Still Life #2904, 2021
Archival pigment print
11" x 14.5"

Artist Bio
I was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1949. Following college and graduate school in the late 1960s, my early explorations included poetry, filmmaking, photography, and painting. Over the last three decades, I have arrived at a hybrid practice that both synthesizes my previous efforts and anticipates the revolution of digitally manipulated imagery. Combining photographic imagery with words, collages, drawings, painting, and printmaking into a multi-dimensional visual language, my current work has evolved into personal visual poetry.

I have exhibited paintings, drawings, and photo-based works from 1976 to the present in galleries and museums in the United States and Europe. My work has been collected by a broad range of private and public institutions, including The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Princeton University Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania Convention Center, and The Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. My work has been showcased in numerous publications, including Still Modern After All These Years, Chrysler Museum, Eyemazing Magazine, and Invisible City: Philadelphia and the Vernacular Avant-garde. I was awarded Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grants in 1981 and 1999. In the fall of 2005, the German publisher Galerie Vevais released Children of Adam, a volume combining my photo-based art with Walt Whitman's poetry.

Darla Jackson
PROBABILITY // staring at the sun, 2022
Fired clay, model sunflowers and corn, acrylic paint
2 x 10 x 2"

Artist Statement

Staring at the Sun is a series of ten pieces about overthinking the divide that seems to touch everyone's emotions these days. While we are excited to go back to "normal," we are still trying to figure out how to exist in this world, trying to make a lasting change if we can, and still processing all that has happened. We are looking for clear answers and just not finding any.

As I do, I fumbled my way through my thoughts and emotions, trying to capture that universal uncertainty. I attached these thoughts to "Staring at the Sun", a song by Tv on the Radio. The chaos the words stir up felt fitting. There aren't any answers here, only more questions.

Artist Bio
Darla Jackson (b. 1981) is a sculptor living in Philadelphia. She received a BFA in Sculpture from Moore College of Art in 2003 and, after receiving a John S. and James L. Knight Arts Challenge Grant in 2011 and 2013, founded the Philadelphia Sculpture Gym, a membership-based community sculpture studio.

Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions locally and across the country. She has shown internationally in Belgium and Germany and has lectured about her work at venues including The Barnes Foundation. Jackson has taught sculpture at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Tyler School of Art, Fleisher Art Memorial, and various workshops across the country.

Jackson is currently a Medallic Artist for the United States Mint in Philadelphia, PA.

Elyce Abrams
Surround, 2018
Acrylic on round wood panel
16" diameter

Artist Statement
Flexibility, strength and durability have profoundly inspired my work in the last few years. My paintings, that have always stemmed from moments that occur in my everyday life, come from a personal place, as well as a response to the events of the world at large. I am deeply affected by the adjustments we are all making to a constantly changing reality and the resilience I see everyday.

Through my paintings, I interpret the relationship between happiness and deep concern; hope and sorrow; fear and acceptance; compliance and resistance; confusion and clarity; isolation and connection. By analyzing these competing forces in my work, I am able to further explore and understand their value.

Artist Bio
Elyce Abrams is an abstract artist based in Philadelphia. Her work, in the last few years, has explored the relationship between happiness and deep concern; fear and acceptance; compliance and resistance; isolation and connection. Abrams received her MFA in 2004 from the University of the Arts and her BA/BFA from Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Her work has been included in many solo and group shows - a selection of which are: Spectral, Blank Space Gallery, NYC; Blaze Stochastic, Shenandoah Museum of Contemporary Art, Woodstock, VA; Connection-Isolation, Blank Space Gallery, NYC; Hybrid, Bertrand Productions, Philadelphia, PA; We're All Here, Philadelphia International Airport; Something New Every Day, NoBA Projectspace, Bala Cynwyd, PA; Les Chic, James Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Lost in the Funhouse, Spring Break Art Fair, New York. Her work is included in public and private collections throughout the US and abroad, including the Microsoft Art Collection; Fox School of Business, Temple University; Royal Caribbean Cruise Line; Charles Library, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA; Wuhan Heartland 66 Development, Wuhan, China; Lankenau Medical Center, Wynnewood, PA. Recently, she collaborated on a rug collection with Ruggism, a company based in India.

Deborah Moss Marris
Smoke on the Water, 2025
Oil on panel
9 x 11"

Artist Statement
This work is from a series of paintings which explore the effects both beautiful and deadly from climate change on the interior and exterior landscape.

Artist Bio
Deborah Moss Marris is an artist, teacher, and designer who lives in New Jersey. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions and is included in the permanent collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Wills Eye Hospital, AECom, Korn Ferry International in Philadelphia, and Artists Representing Environmental Art in New York. She is represented by Bluestone Fine Art Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Hardcastle Gallery in Wilmington, Delaware.

As a designer, Deborah Moss Marris has created pieces for NFL Films, QVC, NBC Sports, and was a featured Artist/Designer for ABC Carpet & Home. Along with being an Adjunct Professor at Camden County College, she heads the Visual Art program at Westfield Friends School in Cinnaminson, New Jersey. Deborah Moss Marris received her BFA from Moore College of Art and Design, an MFA from Syracuse University, and is the recipient of three Ford Foundation Grants.

John Howell White
DECANT, 2022
Oil on paper
21 x 21 x 1.5"

Artist Statement
Paintings hover about, unattached to their referents. They differ in time, reference, and ambience, from film and photography. They welcome their viewers through their visual impact and, like ghosts, haunt them through their visual omissions. They conjure an absence, which ferments attachments and invites future visitations.

These works are placeholders, solid forms that contain the residue of the immanence that comes from the search for a future. They invite contemplation.

Paint is ubiquitous, simple, and infinitely fascinating. It allows for a rhythmic oscillation between the permanent and the timeless, the material and the virtual, and the private and the public.

Artist Bio
I have been been a practicing artist for over 50 years. This sampling was produced in my Philadelphia studio in 2023-24., where I benefited from the interplay of cognition, sensation, materiality, faith, and imagery.

I have most recently shown at: Wanamaker House, 2024, Honickman Center, 2024; The Shape of Tomorrow (2021), Parktown Place, Philadelphia; Incubations (2021), Scotts Mills Gallery; Ghost Stories, The Works Gallery (2019), NYC & Archer Law Gallery 35 (2019), Philadelphia, PA; and Related Visions, Provincetown Art Association and Museum (2018), Provincetown, MA, The Cotuit Center for the Arts (2016), Cotuit, MA; and Maryland Hall (2014), Annapolis, MD.

I attended a three-week artist residency at Jentel in Banner, WY, in 2024.

I am an Emeritus Professor of Art Education at Kutztown University. I earned an M.F.A. from Pratt Institute and a Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. My textbook, Experience Painting, is published by Davis Press. 2012, I was named the NAEA Higher Education Art Educator of the Year.

Marta Sanchez
Pecans grow by the train yard, 2019
Oil and enamel on copper
18 x 24"

Artist Statement
I have worked this train yard series for many years. From under the large pecan tree in front of my parent's house in Texas, I watched the trains pass by with various views of the train and its tracks. Combining home with my personal landscape has become one and the same.

Artist Bio
Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Chicana painter Marta Sanchez is deeply inspired by traditional Mexican folk-art expressions. Her works on paper are mostly linocuts and monotypes, which follow the social and cultural traditions of Mexican and Chicano/a Art.

Her work is in the collections of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX, The Woodmere Art Museum Philadelphia and the Francis M. Maguire Museum in Philadelphia, PA, The Fine Art Museum of St. Petersburg, Florida, The National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago and El Museo Del Barrio in New York. Marta's work is part of actor/director Cheech Marin's extensive private collection of Chicano Art. She participated in "Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge" which traveled throughout the United States, touring from 2001 to 2006. The work in this collection resides at "The Cheech "in Riverside, Riverside CA. Marta's public art commissions can be seen in the Philadelphia area, at Simons Recreation Center, Casa Indiana indoor mural and outdoor sculpture, Reclaiming Gurney Street, a collaboration with poet David Acosta, and The Children's Hospital in Montgomery, Pennsylvania.

Marta earned an MFA in Painting from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and a BFA in Painting from the University of Texas at Austin. She taught at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. She currently teaches at St. Joseph University and at the Brandywine Workshop and Archive as Special Program Coordinator. She is the co-founder of the grassroots organization "Cascarones Por La Vida," an organization that has assisted families affected by HIV/AIDS for over 30 years. Her work is currently archived at the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.

Courtesy of Chestnut Hill Gallery

CP Lighting
newGROWTH Floor Lamp, 2022
Aluminum, paint, electric light, linen shade
72 x 22 x 22"

Artist Statement
Poehlmann designs and fabricates each newGROWTH light fixture as if a tree's DNA was predetermined to grow into a light fixture. Functional art has always been his priority, infusing sculptural intent with his objects of everyday use.

Artist Bio
Christopher Poehlmann has been designing and fabricating custom light fixtures for his company CP Lighitng since 1990. His newGROWTH fixture series launched twenty years ago was on the forefront of Modern Rustic style. This work has been widely published and has influenced countless other designers across the globe. Poehlmann's work can be seen in residential, commercial and hospitality interiors (and sometimes exteriors) across the country and internationally.

Jessica Mungekar
In Blue, 2023
Cement, acrylic paint and sealant
24 x 24 x 24"

Artist Statement
In Blue is a textured cement spherical sculpture painted in various hues and tones of the color blue. The intension behind this sculpture is to create a cement sphere that is visually weightless and expansive. Varying hues create depth, mimicking light on water or sky. Deep blues evoke vastness, while lighter shades add airiness. The contrast between the smooth sphere and textured blue enhances its planetary appearance, like a celestial body in space.

Made from cement, acrylic paint, and sealant, this sphere highlights the unique textures of cement while showcasing the interplay of color and form. The final result evokes a planet-like experience.

My signature approach involves hand-building each sphere, creating a hollow interior with a seamless, whole shell. Because I sculpt each one individually rather than using a mold, the shapes are never perfectly spherical but slightly irregular. This organic irregularity adds another dimension to the layered textures, enhancing their visual and tactile depth.

This sphere stands out on its own but becomes even more dynamic when grouped with others of varying sizes, colors, and textures, creating a richer visual and tactile experience.

Artist Bio
Growing up in Philadelphia, Jessica was immersed in art, surrounded by artists and their creative processes, which fostered her deep appreciation for the craft. She earned her BFA from The University of the Arts and the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) before completing her MSW at Temple University.
In 2007, Jessica took a break to stay home with her children. In 2018, she returned to her roots, drawing on her fine arts background to discover sculpting in cement. Captivated by the medium, she started by creating indoor vessels, selling them on Etsy and at local fairs. During the pandemic, she shifted her focus, expanding into sculpting spheres for gallery exhibitions and outdoor landscapes.

Jessica's achievements include artist awards, participation in climate resilience programs, and securing grants for her work. Actively involved with arts organizations in New Jersey and Philadelphia, she remains deeply committed to community engagement. Through collaborative projects, workshops, commissions, and exhibitions, Jessica continues to bridge the gap between art and community, striving to make a lasting impact.

Spencer and Imler
Shimmer 12, 2019
Painted cut paper assemblage
16-7/8 x 16-7/8" paper; framed 25 x 25"

Artist Statement
The shimmer series is an ultra-thin striped painted paper assemblage mounted on paper... so titled because of the moire effect in the camera LED display when attempting to photograph it.

Artist Bio
Allen Spencer and Deborah Imler live and work collaboratively in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Their work has been included in exhibitions at InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ; LG Tripp Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Perkins Center for the Arts, Moorestown and Collingswood, NJ; State Museum Of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA; Woodmere Museum, Philadelphia, PA; James Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Projects Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; and Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ;. Corporate and Public Collections include CBRE Wayne, PA and Mt. Laurel, NJ; Morgan Lewis, Houston, TX; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., East Hanover, NJ; Select Energy Services, Houston, TX; Newark Public Library, Newark, NJ; and Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ.

Jacque Liu
Transfer Air (light blue), 2007
Mylar, paper
20 X 20 X 2.5"

Artist Statement
Throughout all of my work, there seems to be a desire to understand the notion of place. This began with a condition of constant travel for many years: I was born in Taipei, Taiwan, raised in St. Louis, spent two years of adulthood in Germany, spent six years in the Detroit Area, etc. In 2008, I moved to Philadelphia and have lived here ever since, the longest residence since childhood.

To understand place, my eye gravitates towards everyday architectural elements, often focusing on windows, doors, vents, staircases, chairs, and abandoned houses in the vastness of a cityscape. My work, following my eye, becomes an abstraction of details within my encountered landscapes. The process is personal. I recast the imprints of my history of places, but I also re-contextualize a history of the object or site at hand. My works are purposely slow, seeking to be deliberate in its sense of engagement.

Artist Bio
Jacque Liu is a Philadelphia-based artist, arts administrator, and educator. He has broad experience in the cultural sector as an artist, art administrator, curator, college professor, K-12 art teacher, board member, grantee, grantor, panelist, strategic planning committee member, and most importantly as a supporter of the arts. He is dedicated to bringing positive change to our neighborhoods and communities through the arts. At the core of Jacque's approach in these varied roles is his background as an artist, applying creative problem-solving to each of these endeavors.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Jacque received an MFA. from Cranbrook Academy of Art, a BFA. from Alfred University, and a Fulbright Scholarship at the Universität der Künste Berlin. His artwork has been widely exhibited and his projects have been reviewed in The New York Times, Newsweek, National Public Radio, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

John Singletary
Cycles, 2012
Inkjet print from 4x5 Negative
Edition 3/7

Artist Statement
From a series of nudes, 2012-2014.

Artist Bio
John Singletary is a photographer and multimedia artist based in Philadelphia, PA/Chicago, IL. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from The University of the Arts. His work has been collected by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Center for Fine Art Photography as well as other institutional and private collections. He has exhibited at the Pennsylvania State Museum, LG Tripp Gallery, The James Oliver Gallery, The Sol Mednick Gallery and The Delaware Contemporary Museum. His work has been reviewed and/or featured in Lenscratch Magazine, L'Oeil de la Photographie, the Od Review, Movers and Makers (WHYY), and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Singletary is also a contributing writer for The Photo Review Journal.

Larry Spaid
MED #43, 2008
Acrylic on 140 ib rag paper
18.5 x 14.5"

Artist Bio
Larry Spaid is a Professor Emeritus of Art at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. He received an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA in 1973 and a BFA from the John Herron School of Art, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN in 1969. Spaid has exhibited his work since 1976, including 17 solo exhibitions in the US, the UK and Italy. His work is found in many private, corporate and public collections. Public collections include: Ball State University, Muncie, IN: Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN; Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Lessing Rosenwald Print Collection, National Gallery, Washington, DC; Temple University Law School, Philadelphia, PA; Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, PA; Trenton State College, Trenton, NJ; University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA; University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC; University of Tokyo Museum of Fine Arts, Tokyo, Japan; and Widener University and Widener University Law School, Widener, PA. Spaid lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.

Dominique Lutringer
Chochikukyo 5321
Pigment, acrylic on paper
24 x 18"

Artist Statement
This series of abstract paintings offers a personal interpretation of Chochikukyo, a Kyoto villa designed by architect Koji Fujii in 1928. Through a carefully balanced interplay of color, texture, and geometric composition, the works translate the architectural harmony of the villa into a pictorial language.

The vertical and horizontal divisions recall the structure of traditional Japanese interiors, where sliding panels and wooden frameworks define spatial relationships. The restrained color palette-deep blacks, warm reds, and earthy tones-evokes the natural materials and atmospheric depth of the space. Layers of pigment create a tactile surface, referencing both the aged patina of the villa and the organic interaction of light and shadow within its walls.

The use of a small, uniform paper format enhances the intimacy of the series, reinforcing the personal and contemplative nature of the work.

Artist Bio
Dominique Lutringer, born in Strasbourg, France, with both French and German origins, earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Aix-en-Provence. His artistic journey took a significant turn in his early 30s when he moved to Japan, inspired by Yukio Mishima's The Golden Pavilion. This move was fueled by a longstanding fascination with Japanese culture that began during his adolescence.

In Japan, Lutringer's work evolved to focus on color, transparency, and layering. His paintings are celebrated for their dynamic interplay of light, shadow, and form, offering viewers a multifaceted experience of color and depth. Lutringer also explores ceramic making in a studio located in the Shigaraki area, renowned for its long tradition of ceramics in Japan. This medium further enhances his exploration of texture and form. His work is exhibited internationally and held in various public and private collections. Beyond his artistic practice, Lutringer is deeply involved in education. He offers art workshops for children with specific needs and for schools lacking dedicated artistic programs.

Mia Rosenthal
One Gross of Rainbows, 2022
Ink and gouache on paper
16 x 16"

Artist Statement
People have been drawing for at least 30,000 years - there is something fundamental about observing, processing that information, and then picking up a tool to draw it in ones own hand, with one's own voice. I relate to this idea very closely, and feel that I'm part of this flow of history, from then until now, of artists who are fascinated by and draw from the real world. Not in the sense of a need to duplicate, but to explore, learn, select, organize, and build through thought and marks.

Artist Bio
Mia Rosenthal is a works on paper artist based in Philadelphia, PA. Her drawings are included in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Columbus Museum, Newfields (Indianapolis Museum of Art), Woodmere Art Museum, the Arkansas Arts Center, Texas State University and The New York Public Library. She holds an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and a BFA from Parsons School of Design. She was awarded a Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund Grant for the Performing and Visual Arts and a fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center.

Andrew Chalfen
Dazzle Ship III, 2025
acrylic, wood, glue, ink transfer on wood panel.
48 x 12 x 4"

Artist Statement
I am fascinated by patterns, how they ripple, radiate, refract, bloom, interact, cluster, construct, and deconstruct. My works often alludes to aerial views, cartography, architectural renderings, musical notation, urban densities, and focuses on connections, intersections, shifting perspectives, and layers, utilizing the repetition of a small selection of formal elements, subtle variation, timbre of color palate, rhythm, and a combination of generative randomization strategies and intentionality.

Artist Bio
Andrew Chalfen is a visual artist and musician living and working in Philadelphia. His work has appeared at many shows nationally and in and around Pennsylvania, such as the Abington Art Center, The Hoyt Center, and the Delaware Contemporary. His work has appeared on book jackets and album covers. He is the winner of the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series Mid-Atlantic Regional for 2018 and his piece "Vibration Lands" was displayed at SCOPE Miami during the Art Basel/Art Miami fair.

Theresa Rose
No Outlet or Alternatives, 2023
Collage and monotype
17 x 21"

Artist Statement
"No Outlet or Alternatives" proposes the hopeful position that when left with no options, creative solutions can be found.

Artist Bio
Theresa Rose lives and works in her beloved hometown, Philadelphia, PA. Rose earned a BA in Art Education from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Her work has been in exhibitions at Fleisher Art Memorial, the Institute of Contemporary Art, The Print Center, Grizzly Grizzly, and Marginal Utility. She founded Philly Stake (2011- 2016), a micro-granting dinner event that funded creative, community-engaged projects. With a deep commitment to her local community, Rose served her neighbors as Board Member of Passyunk Square Civic Association for the past 7 years. Rose was formerly the Visual Arts Program Director at FringeArts and Public Art Project Manager for the City of Philadelphia. She was inaugural faculty in the Graduate Social Practice Program at Moore College of Art and Design from 2013-2019. Currently, Rose is the Managing Director of RAIR, Recycled Artist in Residency in Tacony.

Sean Kool
New Beginnings, 2025
Acrylic paint, oil pastels, paint marker, & spray paint
36 x 24"

Artist Statement
"New Beginnings" represents what we as humans go through during our experience of life, looking back in the past, dwelling on traumatic memories or downfalls, only to realize that there are new days ahead, new opportunities, and new challenges that make you stronger.

Live in the moment, & be grateful for where you are today.

Artist Bio
Philadelphia artist Sean Kinsey also known as 'SK' or 'Sean Kool', is a visual artist whose work is considered an urban art style of painting as it has similarities to a street art aesthetic, yet the work is intended for gallery viewing. Like many street artists, Kinsey is self-taught and says that his work is about "making people happy and spreading messages of love and positivity." He typically uses symbols of smiles, hearts, and peace signs, along with uplifting words.

Bruce Garrity
Hydrangea, 2024
Oil on linen
16 x 20"

Artist Bio
Bruce Garrity's paintings utilize a broad vocabulary of painterly means in the pursuit of visual drama. These paintings reference Garrity's studio life and practice, the landscape as well as an interest in art historical models. The surfaces of the works range from light washes, direct drawing, scumbles and layerings to heavy impastos of the mostly saturated color palette. Garrity draws on various methods of construction, to bring the works to fruition: direct perception, memory, invention and combinations of these.

His work has been featured in many solo and group exhibitions. The artist's work is in numerous private and public collections.
He has taught at Rutgers University in Camden from 1997 through 2022. He has also been an adjunct faculty member at Stockton University, the University of Delaware, Stockton University, Rowan University, Delaware College of Art and Design.

Garrity received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Drawing from the University of Delaware, and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He lives and works in Penns Grove, NJ.

Mia Fabrizio
Keep Your Head Up
Collage, carved drywall, spray paint
21 x 17"

Artist Statement
Consumed with hidden and exposed structures, my investigation of physical construction, cultural paradigms, and their relationship originates from the framework most familiar to me, the house in which I grew up. Contradictions within this space spark my desire to highlight the fluidity of perceived binaries, particularly those relating to feminine and masculine, public and private, and modern and traditional.
Ascribing to the visual context of home as well as the ethos of homemade, I paint, adhere, carve and chip away at plywood, drywall and paper. I vacillate between tearing apart and tenderly memorializing my personal family experience while raising questions related to immigrant status, feminism, and queerness.

Artist Bio
Mia Fabrizio was born in Conshohocken, PA. She received her B.F.A from Tyler School of Art in 2002 and her M.Ed. from Arcadia University in 2006. She taught art in K-12 classrooms for a dozen years before graduating with her M.F.A. from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in 2020. An interdisciplinary artist, Fabrizio explores identity and social constructs through her mixed media paintings, sculptures and installations.

Currently she has work on view at The Delaware Contemporary from January 17th through May 26th in their winter spring exhibition, The Dinner Table. She is a member of InLiquid and this summer she has be chosen as a 2025 Park Towne Place Artist in Residence. Fabrizio works in her home-studio, in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

Marilyn Arnold Palley
Tome 3165 AmSVOx, 2004
Amber, silver, vermeil, onyx, leather
9 x 2.25 x .75"

See this work in person in the InLiquid Gallery.

Artist Statement
"My Totems are an incantation of the shards of history.

This realization struck me as I wandered the ruins of Rome last year, standing amidst the columns of ancient marble and broken stone. The aura of past generations is manifest as well in the millennia-old amber, turquoise, jade, fossil, coal, stone, shell and biblical Hebron glass that I use in my work. Believed by ancient cultures to have inherent magical properties, these gems and stones are, to me, an exciting medium on which to expand my three decades of work creating fibre and woven sculptural art.

I believe adornment for the human body should be unique, natural, and androgynous. Each piece I create has a 'spiritual DNA', like the inimitable DNA of the people who choose to wear them. There is a particular Totem for each of us in my collection, a Totem where the form, texture, and color create a relationship with the wearer, defining the wearer's whole body as a work of sculpture."

Julianna Foster
Geographical Lore, aurora borealis, 2025
Archival digital print
20 x 20"
Edition 1/3

Artist Statement
My photographic work, rooted in symbolism, transforms memory, representation, and time into tangible, multidimensional forms, challenging traditional views of photography. I create new landscapes that explore the tension between the organic and the fabricated by reworking images through various printing techniques, building objects, and rephotographing scenes. In my current project, Geographical Lore, I document geological elements across the western U.S., blending them with handmade studio environments to highlight the relationship between nature and human influence. This work invites reflection on environmental changes and the fragility of the natural world, intertwining critique and romanticism to address pressing issues like climate change. Through iterative processes and a blend of analog and digital techniques, I blur the lines between authenticity and construction, provoking viewers to question their perceptions and memories of the landscapes they encounter.

Cynthia Goodman Brantley
Diptych/Wrapped Forms, 2021
Oil on masonite panels
6.5 x 6.5"

Artist Statement
I am interested in how forms can be described by various means. At the time I did this small work, I was doing a series of paintings depicting shapes I called "Spindles". They were rods wrapped with pieces of wires or yarn of different colors. The geometric forms, as individual shapes came along after the spindles. They are all connected to a theme I explore under the heading: "Invisible Loom", which represents the interconnections of the human experience for me.

Artist Bio
I have been an "artist" for about 60 some years now. I came to Philadelphia from North Carolina, 51 years ago to enroll at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine arts. I completed a BFA and a MFA at University of Pennsylvania. I have drawn and painted all these years. I use oils when I paint and color pencils when I draw. I love both mediums equally, and usually when I first conceive of a work, the medium comes with the idea. I hope to continue my work in the upcoming years.

Bruce Metcalf
Japonisme, 2019
Jewelry
3 x 3"

Artist Statement
A Brooch Drawing upon Japanese paintings in the Rimpa Style

Artist Bio
Bruce Metcalf received a BFA from Syracuse University in 1972 and an MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1977. Metcalf has taught at the Massachusetts College of Art, Colorado State University, Kent State University, and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He has been awarded two NEA Visual Artists Fellowships, three Ohio Arts Council Fellowships, a Fulbright Teaching and Research Fellowship, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. His jewelry has been shown internationally in more than 400 exhibitions since 1971, and can be seen in a number of books about contemporary craft and art jewelry. His work is held in numerous public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. Metcalf lives near Philadelphia.

Arden Bendler Browning
Escape 11, 2020
Acrylic on wood panel
24" x 24"

Artist Bio
Through painting, works on paper, virtual reality (VR) environments, and public art, Arden Bendler Browning's work investigates the way that color and gesture can encourage a meditative experience of time and place. Her work explores movement, the desire for travel, the effect of digital imagery on perception and memory, and finding wonder, escape, and trepidation through immersive spaces. Her work hovers between landscape and abstraction.

Bendler Browning's works have been exhibited and collected internationally. Her works are included in several public collections such as the West Collection, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Microsoft art collection, Dream Hotel Nashville, Frost Tower Collection, Toyota, amongst others. Press includes The Washington Post, New American Paintings, Artist and Place podcast, ArtSpiel, The Studio Visit, BMore Art, Nashville Scene, I Like Your Work podcast, the artblog, Philadelphia Inquirer, Atlanta Journal-Constutition, and Drawing Magazine, and more. Museum exhibitions include the American University Museum at Katzen Arts Center, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Weatherspoon Art Museum, James A. Michener Museum, and Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts. Public works include "Nonstop" (2017), a commissioned Percent for Art project for the City of Philadelphia at the Philadelphia International Airport, and "Elastic Geography" (2021), a Mural Arts Philadelphia project. In 2022, Bendler Browning completed artist residencies at Interlude Artist Residency in Livingston, NY, and the Pouch Cove Foundation in Newfoundland, Canada.

Bendler Browning holds a BFA in Art with honors from Carnegie Mellon University (1997), a Master of Studio Art with high distinctions from Sydney College of the Arts (2000), and an MFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art (2003). She has lived and worked in Philadelphia since 2001, with her husband, creative tech programmer Matt Browning, and their three children.

Krista Svalbonas
Migrator 6, 2016
Uv print n Dibond on wood
22 x 14 x 7"

Artist Statement
The notions of home and dislocation resonate deeply with me as the child of refugee parents who fled to the United States. Born in Latvia and Lithuania, my parents spent years in displaced-persons camps in Germany after World War II before immigrating. Their experience is part of a broader history of uprooted individuals for whom "home" is fluid and influenced by external political forces.

This background has nurtured my fascination with spatial relationships and how architectural forms impact our psychological environments. Photography plays a critical role in this narrative, as my family carried few belongings when they fled the Russian occupation, with photographs documenting a homeland many believed they would never see again. These images and stories shaped my perception of home until the Baltic states regained their freedom in 1991.

My project, "Migrator," began with photographs taken in the three places I've called home over the past eight years: the New York metro area, rural Pennsylvania, and Chicago. Each image captures the essence of the landscape at that moment in my life.

Printed on dibond and CNC-routed, the images are reassembled in sets of three. I constructed wooden sculptural planes at varying heights and angles, creating hybrid structures that reinterpret and reinvent architecture, disrupting space, light, and direction. "Migrator" reflects on the architecture of my past and present while exploring the concept of home.

Artist Bio
Krista Svalbonas holds a BFA in Photography and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies. Her work has been exhibited at prestigious venues, including Paris Photo, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Spartanburg Art Museum in South Carolina, Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston, Klompching Gallery, and ISE Cultural Foundation in New York. Her pieces are included in private collections and public institutions such as LACMA in Los Angeles, the Cesis Art Museum in Latvia, the Gregg Museum of Art and Design in North Carolina, and the Woodmere Art Museum and Temple University in Philadelphia.

Svalbonas has received numerous awards, including the Center for Photographic Art Artist Grant (2022), the Baumanis Creative Projects Grant (2020), the Rhonda Wilson Award (2017), the Puffin Foundation Grant (2016), and a Bemis Fellowship (2015). Recently, she held solo exhibitions of her series "Displacement" at the Copenhagen Photography Festival in Denmark, the Tallinn City Museum in Estonia, the Museum of Textile and Industry in Augsburg, Germany, the Kazys Varnelis Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania, and the Janina Monkute Marks Museum in Kedainiai, Lithuania. She is an associate professor of photography at St. Joseph's University and resides in Philadelphia, where she continues her work.

Courtesy of Marshall Gallery Los Angeles

Chris Curchin
Gaslight Civil Rest/Unrest, 2024
Oil
21 x 21 x 2.5"

Artist Statement
This piece, Gaslight , is part of a series called Civil Rest. I work with a sgraffito technique, layering and scratching through slow drying oil glazes using a collection of nubs: bamboo, bone, sticks, nail, even dental tools. The mark-making has elements of compulsion but also precision, randomness and abandon that contrast with the structural elements.

Artist Bio
Chris Curchin began painting in 1985 after studying film and animation at the Philadelphia College of Art :(RIP) Recent shows include: Pair- in-Process at Hyatt Centric, Philadelphia. The Bruce Museum Fine Art Festival in Greenwich CT. Upheaval at Boston Street Gallery, Philadelphia and The Art of Healing at The Samaritan Center in Vorhees, NJ.

He currently teaches art and music at a non-profit arts-based preschool in Philadelphia.

Jorge Caligiuri
DINAMICO #7, 2024
Tempera on plaster on paper
20 x 24 x 1.5"

Artist Statement
Jorge Caligiuri work is based on a layering strategy of superimposed stratums and fresco paint compositions coming from organic and geometrical abstracted shapes. Through the use of modulation and materiality, these compositions follow a path or pattern in between layers. Space and time or physics and memory are concepts that hide along the subtle cracks on the panel surface. Subdued tones fight against proportion to achieve harmony. His images depart from organic patterns which are later transformed into distorted graphics, enigmatic rhythms, and geometrical gestures. Simplicity, harmony, and a formal beauty using a great variety of some worn and bare supports where the layers of color and the patina of time build a unique skin full of energy, and tension.

Artist Bio
Jorge Caligiuri is an Argentinian artist, painter and Architect with a unique and poetic approach. Born in 1958 in Argentina, he has lived and worked in United States since 2000. Materiality, color and light are inseparable in Caligiuri's work. Using two ancient techniques, Encaustic and Fresco. the artist creates
his own materials and textures, made from mineral powder limestone, plaster and bees wax. Jorge caligiuri is an explorer, drawing his inspiration from the colors of nature with architectural references from the Urban space. The intensity, color and movements of light propose a ceaseless, new interpretation of
color and texture created by Jorge caligiuri giving them a unique and particular identity, creating his own visual
vocabulary in between the human made and the organic expression of nature.

Vivian Wolovitz
Blue Figure, 2021
Etching
20 x 20"
Edition 1/1

Artist Statement
My prints are small scale, intimate etchings and monoprints with figurative and invented visual motifs. I use intricate crosshatching to create subtle tonal shifts and finely drawn lines to delineate shapes and figures which emerge from light and dark grounds.

Artist Bio
Professor of Fine Arts, Moore College of Art & Design 1980-2010 (Chair of 2d fine arts dept 1996-2000)
MFA Hoffberger School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art
BFA Tyler School of Art

Vivian Wolovitz has been exhibiting in regional, national and international venues for over 35 years. She received a Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Grant in Painting and has had artist residencies in Mexico, Greece, and Bulgaria where she participated in Process:Space, a two week invitational residency and exhibition of international artists. Her prints were selected for two highly competitive International Print Competitions at the Philadelphia Print Center. Wolovitz's work is included in numerous private and public collections including PNC Bank, Merck Sharpe and Dohme, Blue Cross, Prudential, Dechert Price & Rhoads, Norwegian Cruiselines, MICA Hoffberger, Moore College of Art, Himont Inc, First Pennsylvania Bank.

Agathe Bouton
Spark #3, 2023
Archival print
20 x 20 x 1"
Edition 1/1

Artist Statement
The Stradust series is a series of digital arts inspired by my original, circular, indigo, relief prints. It builds on this inspiration to illustrate the birth of a star, a new spark of life, and a glimpse of hope.

Each print, une Etincelle/ Spark, is in a limited edition of 10 archival pigment prints, signed and numbered at the back and printed onto Hahnemuhle photo rag metallic paper, 100% cotton and 340 gsm.

Artist Bio
Agathe Bouton (born Paris, France; lives Wynnewood, PA, USA). Received a BFA in Painting and Printmaking in 1987 and her MFA in Arts and Textile Design in 1989 both from École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré in Paris, France.

Her work was recently exhibited at the 2024 Future Fair in New York during Frieze as well as at the Zurcher Gallery in Manhattan during the 2023 Armory show. She has had solo exhibitions at the Biennale de l'Art Africain Contemporain in Dakar, Senegal; Rathaus House in Waldbrol, Germany; Centre d'Arts Plastiques Albert Chanot in Clamart, and Galerie Martine Namy-Caulier in Paris, France; Galerie Od'A in Istanbul, Turkey; River Gallery in Yangon, Burma/Myanmar; the Bettie Morton Gallery in London, UK and Stanek Gallery in Philadelphia.

She has received numerous awards and honors for her printmaking and her work is in the collections of French institution as well as American public collections.

James Labold
Mirrored Athenai, 2024
Kiln cast glass
6.5 x 7.5 x 4"

Artist Statement
My work draws on historical imagery to create narratives reflecting on the bridges between past and present culture. I have been working with glass as my primary medium for over 20 years and over the last 5 years I have been researching 3D printing and incorporated digital fabrication into my existing analog creative practice.
I am interested in how imagery can reinforce and create new cultural narratives. By utilizing open source 3D scans of classical sculptures and historic figures, I embrace the accessibility of new technologies while exploring their limitations. In a historical moment when we are entering a new world of AI generated imagery and much of our human interaction is mediated through digital means: notions of what is real and true are shifting before our eyes. My work aspires to explore these spaces between historic reality and contemporary truth.

Artist Bio
James Labold is an artist, educator, and fabricator, living in Philadelphia, PA. James was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia, where he spent his childhood summers visiting museums with his grandmother, historical sites, New Jersey boardwalks, and a theme park based on candy bars. These were all critical to his development as an artist.
His work draws on contemporary and historical imagery to create sculptures and installations reflecting on the bridges between past and present culture, inspired by the high culture of classical sculpture as much as the low culture of dollar store holiday decorations. Labold primarily works in glass, as well as resin and a variety of mixed media. Found objects are manipulated and remixed through an iterative process of mold making and assemblage. His recent work has been exploring the use of digital fabrication technologies such as 3D printing with traditional analog processes such as lost wax glass casting. A love of history, mythology, and philosophy drives his curiosity into how we define our cultures via images, and how these images can be subverted.

Nancy E. F. Halbert
Around The Block, 2024
Soft pastel
15 x 11"

Artist Statement
I have been seeing colors in blocks lately. I walk my dog everyday through my neighborhood of trees, funky decorated front porches, diverse neighbors, and eclectic houses that stand strong in Philadelphia. Walking with my Bo, helps to ground me, as I worry about the division between this" not so perfect " union. I can only hope it can continue to sit tall, even though I, feel it's "blocked" in so many ways. The beauty of the colors may be the walks only remaining redeeming feature.

Artist Bio
Nancy E. F. Halbert, a former dancer and choreographer, has a Master in Arts Education from the University of the Arts with a prior Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. She learned to draw in paint after retiring from dancing. After studying with premier teachers in the Philadelphia area, she started to show her abstract expressionistic work in exhibitions and galleries. In 2013, she was a fellowship recipient at Vermont Studio Center and was also juried in as a featured artist in Studio Visit Magazine

Nancy has won painting awards in several shows at The Philadelphia Sketch Club. She served as the volunteer director for five years at the artist cooperative MUSE Gallery in Philadelphia. Following MUSE Gallery; she was a member of 3rd Street Gallery and is currently exhibiting with Cerulean Arts Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.

Nancy has been a devoted and supportive art teacher in continuing education programs for over twenty years. She has taught painting and drawing in pastels, watercolor, oils, acrylics and art history to adults and children of all levels.

Tim McFarlane
Untitled, 2023
Acrylic, acrylic marker, paint skins on paper
12 x 9"

Artist Statement
This piece is part of an ongoing series of collage-based works. This particular work, in addition to using various paper surfaces, including magazine pages, it also includes acrylic paint skins as part of it's composition. The skins echo and compliment some of the other colors while adding textures and a nod to painting.

Artist Bio
Tim McFarlane is a painter based in Philadelphia, PA. His abstract paintings and works on paper examine the fluid and contradictory nature of memory and place as informed by time, with an emphasis on color, multi-layered systems and process. McFarlane's observations of the visual impact of human activity and his everyday engagement with man-made and natural environments form the basis of his work. McFarlane's work also includes site specific mixed media installations, murals, photography and digital experimentation.

A 1994 Temple University/Tyler School of Art graduate, Tim has exhibited his work extensively in the U.S. and at major art fairs in New York, Miami, Dallas and San Francisco. McFarlane's works reside in numerous private and public collections.

Courtesy of Bridgette Mayer Gallery

Wendy Liss
Calla Lily, 2022
Ceramic
7 x 14 x 8"

Artist Statement
I create one-of-a-kind ceramic sculptures and sculptural vessels that convey a sense of gestural movement, as in dance or a blooming flower. Along with focusing on the energetic flow of each piece, I work to combine ripped and refined edges with textured and smooth surfaces. It's the dynamic of these contrasting elements that represent the essence of my work. My process consists of hand-building with slabs and coils, then ultimately carving each piece to reveal its final form. I love working three-dimensionally because every time I flip or turn a sculpture another world opens up to me. I approach each sculpture, as I do my life, with a balance between planned goals and intuitive response in the moment.

Artist Bio
Wendy received a BFA ('84) and an Art Education Certification ('85) from Moore College of Art. In addition to working as an artist, her professional life has included face painting, teaching of studio art and workshops, fine art restoration, color consulting and interior decorating.

Courtesy of Wering Contemporary Gallery

Elizabeth Castiglione
Alprazolam, 2023
Oil on canvas
26 x 26"

Artist Statement
My most recent body of work explores images of sunflowers in various states of growth and decay as a metaphor for mental illness. These painting, oil on canvas, range from 24"x 24" to 96"x 60." All my work since 1997 has been a sustained inquiry into autobiographical themes, namely mental illness, memory, and family. Most work can be seen on my website, Instagram, and Facebook accounts.

Artist Bio
Elizabeth Castiglione lives and works in Bucks County with her family at George School, a Quaker boarding and day school for teenagers. She received her BA from Yale University and her MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle. She has taught people of most ages, and is currently considering the possibility of pursuing a Masters degree in Art Therapy.

Kevin Broad
Vik, 2024
Monotype- oil on paper
36 x 30"

Artist Statement
Study of nature has brought an inherent organic quality to my work. My aesthetic focuses on capturing sensations of light and color along with the emotions these can inspire. My style gains strength from my exploration and direct handling of various mediums - paint that I have an intimacy with because I make it myself. Painting is this process of discovery without fear or repression with the potential of bringing forth new forms of expression.

Chantal Westby
Serene, 2017
Ink, natural minerals, branches, and silver
73 x 36 x 2"

Artist Statement
As an artist, my journey is fueled by a commitment to evoke emotions and provoke thought. My creations are not merely visual experiences; they are dialogues with the observer, designed to stir the soul and challenge perceptions. Rooted in the purity of white and the vibrancy of color, my art now breathes in three dimensions, embodying the essence of nature, the pulse of the universe, and the impact of human excess. Light is a central character in my narrative, manifested through the delicate dance of diluted inks and natural pigments that conjure ethereal auroras. My palette extends beyond the canvas, embracing mixed media to unlock new realms of imagination.
Inspiration is a mosaic of the world around me-a tapestry woven from diverse materials, evocative photographs, resonant music, and poignant texts. This collage of influences coalesces on my mood board, awaiting the moment they coalesce into art.

Artist Bio
Westby is a renowned activist and artist from Philadelphia, known for her immersive paintings, sculptures, and installations. With a rich background in art, textiles, and design, she is committed to diversity, social justice, and environmental stewardship. Awarded the United Nations Earth Day Impact Gala's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024, she continues to use her art to raise awareness of environmental issues and inspire action.

Florence Weisz
Inked Growth - Lavender, 2019
Collage: photo of stripes, india ink on mylar mulberry and other papers
19 x 19"; framed 21 x 21"

Artist Statement
The Inked Growth Series are abstract collages consisting of three layers. Each work starts with a cropped detail of my photograph of a person wearing striped clothing. I place the square photo in the exact center of the composition, and then continue its stripes with hand drawn India ink on mylar. I position my alcohol ink papers along with Asian papers beneath the transparent mylar surface to reflect the colors and extend the central image.

Artist Bio
Florence Weisz has been a collagist for over four decades and is pleased to be part of the Philadelphia art community. She has exhibited her work with InLiquid (a 40 year retrospective), CFEVA, DaVinci Art Alliance, ARTsisters, Tri-State Artists Equity, Collage Philadelphia and in a solo show at The Delaware Contemporary Museum, where her site-specific installation, STRIPES ESCAPE, was on view for four months in 2023. Her art was juried into the "Art of the State - 2024" exhibition at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg.

Sandra Benhaim
Langton Experiment 2, 2019
Hand-cut + assembled painted paper collage, on watercolor paper
26 x 32.75"

Artist Statement
My paintings and collages are about place, and they take inspiration from landscape, but are not a representation of any specific location. For some time now, many of my images have been purely abstract, expressing in unabashed, exuberant color my enthusiasm for the natural world. I have also begun to investigate collage much more fully, by creating works on paper and other surfaces. My paintings and collages result from a rather intuitive process, and they are built up layer upon layer, with varied colors, expressive strokes of paint, and textured materials. This procedure allows the gradual, but ultimately triumphant, emergence of my art. My artwork welcomes viewers to "enter" these "worlds" by imagination, memory, and reverie.

Artist Bio

Sandra Benhaim is a visual artist working in oil, mixed media, and collages on canvas, wood panels, and paper. She earned a BFA (on a full-paid four year scholarship) and later an M.Ed, from Temple's Tyler School of Art. Sandra also studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and at Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia. For nearly two decades she was an art specialist teacher in Philadelphia's public schools.

After working representationally for years, she now creates mainly abstract images, often expressing these in unabashed, exuberant color. She has exhibited nationally from Washington state to New York to Florida. Sandra's paintings are in public collections such as PNC Headquarters Tower in Pittsburgh, PA; The Fellowship of PAFA (the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts); Servier Laboratories, Boston, MA; Mondrian Investments, Philadelphia, PA office; Bryn Mawr Dermatology offices in Villanova, PA; RCCB LLC Law offices collection, Conshohocken, PA.

Keith R. Breitfeller
52712B-38x38, 2012
Oil on canvas
38 x 38"

Artist Statement

My work has been influenced by the impressionist, modernist and pointillist. I use figure to ground relationships to deliberately confuse the subject matter, allowing the viewer to find, him or herself, in the artwork. The use of small individual brush strokes and the placement of one color against the next gives an ever changing color palette to the piece.

The theme of my painting has been a search for stillness, a form of mediative calm. Painting is my escape from a world of too much noise and information. It's a way to step away from those inner dialogues that keep us from being truly calm. My work is an oasis away from the complexities of modern living where one can reflect on what is essential.

Artist Bio

Keith R. Breitfeller was raised in Catasauqua, a small town in eastern Pennsylvania, in 1952. Keith had a hunger to explore beyond the boundaries of this little hamlet. He harassed his parents until they allowed him to take art lessons in Allentown, a nearby city. Later, he attended Kutztown College, then furthering his studies in New York
Artist, Marion Pinto. The keystone of his methods was acquired at the Barnstone Studio, a Renaissance-type Master and Apprentice program. The heavy emphasis on the Golden Section and color theory continues to inform his work.

Residing in Philadelphia, Keith has exhibited locally for 30 years with solo exhibits at Vox Populi, Sande Webster Gallery, Abington Art Center, and Perkin's Center for the Arts. Outside of the region, he has shown in Texas, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and in Austria. His work is included in many private and corporate collections in Athens, London, Dubai, and throughout the Northeast. In the last few years, he has completed many commissions.

Brian David Dennis
Regard (discard) No.8, 2024
Mixed media
30.5" x 20.5"

Artist Statement

As an artist, I crave the sweet moments while working when I slip beneath my own conscious control. While making art, I seek to lose awareness of the outside world and of myself. I am free when working from within, untethered to expectation and thought, even if what comes to the surface is the worst experience of my life.

Artist Bio

Brian was born in 1959. He was raised in a home with movable walls designed by his father, an aspiring artist. The openness and fluidity of the modular arrangement captured Brian's imagination. His mother, a kindergarden teacher encouraged Brian's free thinking and constant building.
As a student Brian considered following his passion for stage design, but sought the more personal expression the fine arts offered. He studied drawing and painting at the Pennsylvania Academy. He quickly settled into collage and assemblage. In the mid 80's he began to explore installation using the exhibition location as an essential part of the piece.
A life long resident of Pennsylvania, Brian has lived and worked in Philadelphia since 1984 with his life partner Keith Breitfeller. He began exhibiting with the cooperative gallery, Vox Populi and remained an active member for 15 years. He has held solo exhibits in Austria, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Sande Webster Gallery as well as a prestigious Fleisher Challenge. He has been granted an Independence Foundation Fellowship and other awards. In 2016 he was commissioned by Longwood Gardens.

Patrick Egan
Billie I, 2024
Oil on canvas
47 x 37"

Artist Statement

We, by intuition, know, or recognize, those moments that define us, each of us, to ourselves. Translating those moments into a visual image is a matter of process. The process, composition, consists of pulling together the disparate parts, some tangible, some intangible, that go into a painting.
Laying it out in charcoal points to what it might ultimately look like,
enhanced by a palette which corresponds to whatever feeling arises, either from the imagination or from experience.

Jennifer Baker
Jesus Saves, Truckers and Travelers Welcome, 2019
Monotype on okawara paper (triptych)
18 x 38"

Artist Statement
Jennifer Baker's paintings and monoprints explore a sense of place and the history and memory of its inhabitants. From Jennifer's 30-year project of documenting the changes in her Philadelphia neighborhood of Northern Liberties, to her images of a long-burning mine fire in Centralia, PA, and her recent explorations in western Pennsylvania made during an exhibition at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Loretto, PA, she has chronicled the human effects of irrevocable change on landscape and streetscape. This triptych documents the Chickaree Union Church in Johnstown, PA. The title is from the neon sign in front of the church, which is situated in the small space between two highways, leading into the city of Johnstown.

Artist Bio

Jennifer Baker is a painter and sculptor working in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia since 1978. She attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Philadelphia College of Art (University of the Arts) as well as the Art Students League in New York. Baker has exhibited at Art 101 and Pleiades Galleries in New York and Projects Gallery, Nexus Gallery, F.A.N. Gallery, the Crane Arts Building and The Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia. She has received a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship for Works on Paper and had a Challenge Exhibit at Fleisher Art Memorial. She has also been a finalist for a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. In 2018, Baker received a Leeway Foundation Window of Opportunity Grant and in 2010 she received a Leeway Foundation Art and Change Grant. In 2014, Baker curated an exhibit about the history of Northern Liberties "From World's Workshop to Hipster Mecca and the People in Between" for the Philadelphia History Museum. She is the visual art consultant for "Supper, People on the Move," a multimedia performance piece by Silvana Cardell. Baker created "Portraits of People on the Move," a companion exhibit of stories and photographs of Philadelphia-area immigrants. After opening in Philadelphia, "Supper" and "Portraits" toured throughout the country as well as in the Dominican Republic. In 2019, Baker had her first solo museum exhibition at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Loretto, PA. Her most recent solo exhibit was at Rosemont College's Patricia Nugent Gallery in November 2023. Baker has been a member of InLiquid since 2013.

Chris Cox
Changing Course (11/24/20), 2020
Oil on canvas
30 x 48 x 1.5"

Artist Statement

My paintings are from my series "Chaos & Calm" that I worked on in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Those years were an extraordinary time of chaos in our country, our lives and our world. We had to endure a pandemic and a toxic political environment that divided our country. I have tried to visually record what I felt throughout this time. Many days during those years were chaotic, but sometimes I was able to tap into some much-needed calmness, thus the name Chaos & Calm.

These paintings were created by first applying layers of color for the background that reflected my changing mood throughout that time. After the background was completed, much like the action painters, I used kinetic, spontaneous mark-making to record what was happening on any given day. Each painting is titled and dated for the day the marks were added to the background color of the painting. The paintings are almost like a visual journal of my life during that time.

Artist Bio

Chris Cox is an abstract artist living in Philadelphia and France. She is represented by Muse Gallery. Currently, she has a solo show, Being In Nature, at Muse Galley. Recently her paintings were in the exhibition, Color Fields, curated by InLiquid at The National in Philadelphia. In 2024, Chris also participated in the Fairmount Waterworks curated exhibition titled Wanderings: Observations of Our Watershed.

Chris was selected to be the featured artist for Bluestone Fine Art Gallery at the inaugural Philadelphia Fine Art Fair held in 2019. She was also one of seven artists featured by Bluestone at the Hamptons Virtual Art Fair in September 2020. Her series, Spiritual Journey: A Visual Narrative was also chosen to be in Abington Art Center's 2020 Fall Solo Series. In 2021, Chris had two paintings featured in Woodmere Art Museum's 79th Annual Juried Exhibition and was one of two artists featured in the Cosmopolitan Club of Philadelphia's Virtual Exhibition. During 2023, she was selected for Wayne Art Center's juried exhibitions "Attraction to Abstraction" and the "Regional Spring Open Exhibition."

chriscoxart.com

Nancy Neill
Exhuberant, 2022
Oil pastel on paper
20 x 20"

Artist Statement

My abstract oil pastel series explores the feelings and emotions generated by color. These paintings use warm colors to evoke a passionate and uplifting feeling. For me, the many shades of red and other passionate colors serves to energize, warm and transport me to a better place. Each painting is done in a unique color to evoke a slightly different emotion.

Although the imagery in the series is abstract/non-objective, it gives a feeling of looking outside. Circles, lines and other marks float in space, perhaps suggesting a happy time and place. The paintings are oil pastel on paper. Oil pastel provides one of the most intense colorations of all mediums. Each painting is done in many layers of oil pastel, developing a thick and creamy surface. Earlier layers are revealed using a palette knife to cut back into the surface and create various marks and gestures. I think of my work as passionate and full of movement.

Sarah Gutwirth
Cloth of Gold, 2022
Oil on canvas
40" x 38"

Artist Statement
This painting is a transitional work which navigates between the earlier smaller "Correspondence" pieces and my latest work. Both the Correspondence paintings and the new Natural Philosophy paintings are based on a grid. Cloth of Gold takes the themes of echoing forms in nature and in human-made objects, both in paintings and in decorative objects from the Correspondence works. However it plays on a composition derived from late Baroque still life, where the objects of still life are presented in the landscape. The clear reference to tropes from historical painting is a continuing theme in my work. I would say this is one of my least cerebral and most purely sensuous of paintings.

Artist Bio

Sarah Gutwirth received her BFA and BA in painting in 1978 from a joint program of Reed College and the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland OR. Her MFA in painting is from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1985. In 2017 she was nominated for the prestigious Joan Mitchell Prize for Painting. She has received grants from Kentucky Arts Council, Kentucky Foundation for Women, Murray State University and United University Professions at SUNY. She has had 20 one and two person exhibits over the last thirty-one years and has had work in numerous group shows including in Philadelphia at CFEVA, INLIQUID and the Cosmopolitan Club. Her work has been shown in seven states. She has paintings is in several private and University collections, including the People's Education Press in Beijing. She held three tenure track teaching positions, receiving tenure at two. She retired in 2017 as Full Professor of Painting Emerita at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky. In 2017 she moved to Philadelphia where she was born and raised.

James Oliver
Ducati 1
Acrylic on canvas
18" x 24"

Artist Statement
A painter whose precise visual language pushes the tradition of twentieth century abstraction into a contemporary context. Oliver is a conceptually driven formalist whose work is inspired by his dreams and emotional states, which he abstracts into an undetermined and subjective viewing experience by emphasizing line, color, and form. Even as Oliver turns to a figurative practice in recent series, rendering cultural icons like chopper bikes, Pontiac Firebirds, and his childhood poodle in detailed line drawings, these representations similarly evoke broadly accessible affects abstracted from his mental landscape.

Artist Bio

Born in Upstate New York, raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the son of an advertising executive and an educator, Oliver was exposed from a young age to visual art from its most commercial applications to more visceral exponential lives. As owner of James Oliver Gallery, Oliver has honed his painting and curatorial skills. As a curator he scans the breadth of the world for artists who will enhance the vision of his gallery spaces.

Alex Spalding
Kitten, 2024
Flashe on gessobord, back signed in acrylic
24" x 24" x 1.5"

Artist Statement

"Wild Side" is my collection of figurative paintings and portraits celebrating power, imagination, and human nature untamed. At its core, the work explores contradictions central to our sense of self-beauty and unease, allure and alienation-drawing viewers in to project their own narratives and emotions. In "Wild Side", Using color, stylization, and an absence of context, I create an inviting yet challenging space for viewers to confront unresolved tensions, as raw, feral imagery blends with absurdity, ambiguity, and glamor.

I work with AI as a collaborator, inviting an element of unpredictability and distance. The impersonal choices AI makes offer me a method to examine the collision between personal and cultural symbolism. Then, I refine the imagery, guiding the process by shaping the output with my reflections, personal experiences, or ideas.

Artist Bio

Alex Spalding (b. 1985, Springfield, MO) is a self-taught figurative painter specializing in vibrant, stylized works created with highly pigmented vinyl-based paints. Drawing from vintage commercial illustration and Contemporary fine art, he re-imagines these influences through bold technique and the innovative use of technology.

Before dedicating himself to painting in 2023, Alex was immersed in a diverse range of creative pursuits, including experimental dance music production, managing two net-based record labels, gonzo music journalism, screenwriting, and caricature, as well as minimalist graphic art. This multidisciplinary background continues to inform the style of his work today. Alex lives and works in Philadelphia, PA, where he runs The Mid-Atlantic Collective (or MAC) and Canvas & Curtain: A Persona-Crafting Studio for Visual Artists.

Craig Stover
Lemon Hill I, 2017
Oil on canvas
16.5" x 20.5"

Artist Statement
This painting is one of a series of maps that I made from the memory of a park named Lemon Hill. This small park is right above Boat House Row in Philadelphia. The artist used to walk his dog in this park daily and it's his memory of the winding roads and small buildings that become the basis for these memory maps.

Artist Bio
BFA '93 - University of the Arts
Studio Assistant for Sam Maitin and Elizabeth Osbourne
Worked with Creative Artists Network (now the CEVA), The Philadelphia Art Alliance, Woodmere Art Museum, The Snyderman Galleries, The Avenue of the Arts and The Arts & Business Council
Taught printmaking and painting at Haverford College
Served as Executive Director for Allens Lane Art Center
Winner of Bartol Award for Educational Excellence
Produced and curated 100+ visual art exhibitions
Host of ArtShow (artist interview program on youtube)

Wendee Yudis
Male Gaze, 2024
Photo-silkscreen, acrylic and spray paint on wood panels
24" x 48"

Artist Statement

My art turns the definition of femininity on its head, challenging unconscious gender bias, sexuality, objectification, and body image. I question the roles imposed on women-both those assigned to us (child, wife, daughter) and those we embrace (boss, lover, vixen). Why must we be vixens or victims? Can we be both?

Through a playful yet provocative lens, my work explores power dynamics, featuring recurring female icons layered with nuance. I use typography to highlight gendered language-why is a bossy man a leader while a bossy woman is a bitch?

Influenced by Warhol and Pop Art, I merge feminist themes with a bold, retro aesthetic that critiques cultural norms while celebrating women's agency. Using photo-silkscreen, painting, and spray paint, I layer imagery to create new meanings. My silkscreen process mimics a paintbrush, producing originals that explore translucency, opacity, and pattern-revealing both seen and unseen relationships.

Artist Bio

Featured in Philly Style Magazine and CBS Philly online in April 2024, Wendee Yudis is a Printmaker/Painter whose mixed media paintings/photo-silkscreens have been exhibited in solo & group shows in NYC, Chicago, and Philadelphia since the mid-1990's. Select solo exhibitions include James Oliver Gallery in Phila, HMVC Gallery New York-Times Square, Ceres Gallery in NYC and Gallery 1633 in Chicago. A selection of group shows include Women United Art Movement: I am Woman, The Albright/Knox Museum (NY), Manhattan Graphics Center, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Penn Medicine, CFEVA and The Trenton Museum. Select work was in a national competition in the Pheonix Gallery in NYC by juror Thelma Golden, then curator of Whitney Museum of American Art.

Wendee Yudis received an MFA in Printmaking & Painting from Pratt Institute and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to being a visual artist, Wendee has worked professionally as a Graphic Designer & Art Director for advertising agencies and non-profits in NYC and Philadelphia.

https://wendeeyudis.com/

Alfred Ortega
Two Moons, 2023
Oil on canvas
36" x 34"

Artist Statement

This work was inspired by a brief study of the cosmos, astonishing that there are many planets nearby with numerous moons as well as my attraction to the sea.

Artist Bio

Born in Philadelphia, Alfred Ortega studied painting and sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Ortega's work is currently represented by the Atlantic Gallery, Nantucket; David David Gallery, Palm Gardens, Florida; Millésimé, Philadelphia; and CSM Art, New Jersey. Ortega has exhibited at the Woodmere Museum and Knapp Gallery in Philadelphia. The artist's work is represented in the permanent collection of the Pennsylvania State Museum and in private collections.

Noted for his bold use of color, Ortega's paintings and oil prints emanate primal energy. His prominent, large canvases reveal a dynamic world populated with vibrant forms and figures barely contained within their frames. A master monoprint maker, Ortega's vivid oil prints of abstracts, figures and portraits are animated by an unabashed freedom of form and color and a daring love of life.

alfredortega.com

Walter Francis Elling
Painted USA Flag VIII, 2021
USA flag and spray paint
40" x 30"

Artist Statement

This painting is the eighth in a series of ten, each using actual flags as the canvas. The inspiration struck one morning when I envisioned creating a portrait of George Floyd on a U.S. flag. However, unsure about tackling the portrait, I turned to calligraphy as an expressive medium instead. The piece is rendered in Pan-African colors, with both Chinese and Korean calligraphy intricately woven throughout, expressing a powerful call for "liberty and justice for all." The 10th painting in the series features a portrait of George Floyd on a Bicentennial flag, discovered discarded in Philadelphia's Brewery Town, adding a poignant layer of meaning to the work.

Artist Bio

Walter Francis Elling is an American artist who works in a variety of mediums, including assemblage, photomontage, and painting. His early work in ceramics grew out of a fascination with organic forms, using both thrown and hand built techniques, and developed into works with political, racial, and queer commentary.

His recent work is a commentary on cultural norms and political justice. Using spray paint, found objects and photo-montage, Elling references religious iconography, political messaging and graffiti to create a tension between the real and the ideal.

His latest series is titled "Redefining Democracy in Red, White, Black, and Blue." With homage to Jasper Johns, Elling uses actual flags as canvases to provoke a response to issues of race and queer liberation. Spray-painted messages interweave with a color-altered geometric landscape of the flags themselves, transforming the geometry of the stars and stripes into visual symbols that have lost their potency.

In "St. George of Minneapolis" George Floyd's portrait is painted in red, white, black, and blue on a trash-picked bi-centennial flag, with the stars and gesso appearing as a halo.

Val Rossman
A Prime Escape, 2022
Acrylic on panel
16" x 16"

Artist Statement

My work is a blend of careful planning and unpredictable interruptions. For me this is an apt metaphor for life. As much as each of us tries to script our lives there are often "curve balls" that take us by surprise. This concept is incorporated into visual representations which consist of multiple layers of painted shapes, empty spaces and a variety of marks to create a lush and deep surface.

My love of color has always been a driving force in my work. The dialogue between seemingly random gestures, textures, and shapes provide a visual adventure. My process is dynamic and "in the moment"….a conversation with the piece. I believe that the journey is as important as the destination.

Artist Bio

Val Rossman's career as a professional artist has spanned over 40 years. Her work has gone through various stages, however, her wonderful sense of color combined with a lyrical and often whimsical mentality have always infused her drawings and paintings with a lush and personal aura. The combination of rich and unexpected hues and gestures with sometimes questioning formats give the work an unforgettable presence. She has had more than 28 one-person shows and been in numerous group shows in Philadelphia, Delaware, New Jersey, Florida, Vermont and New York.

In addition to her studio practice she currenty teaches at Wayne Art Center and Woodmere Art Museum. She has lectured at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, did a demonstration at the Barnes Foundation and led a workshop at the River Arts Center in Vermont. She received the artist in Wilderness Grant in Aspen, Colorado. Her work has also been seen on Bravo Cable Television.

Rossman's work has been collected by both individual and corporate clients in the U.S. and abroad. Some of these include Blue Cross of Greater Philadelphia, AT&T, United Pacific Life Insurance, MasterCard International, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Bank, Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, Hebrew University and Lankenau Hospital

valrossman.com

Alfredo Travieso
Sense Extension 1, 2024
#1 Print, resin, bird spikes
31" x 22" x 2"

(Sharp Objects)

Artist Statement

With this series, I am exploring gender roles and identity. I have been interested for some time in how masculinity has become a central issue in today's discussion about politics, specifically considering the "Mano- sphere" and its role in the past presidential election. I am concerned in signifying universalities about the portrayal of men's identifying characteristics, it's portrayal in the media, and the contentious discussion about the control over women's discussion about the abhorrent male stance in women's reproductive rights. The work also explores sexuality, puberty in males and power, as it is related to the image.

Artist Bio

Born July 1, 1973 in Bogota, Colombia.
Alfredo was trained in film and arts in New York City. His studies include a Bachelor's degree in Communication Arts
from Marymount Manhattan College, film directing and production at Parsons New School University, and numerous production collaborations with New York
University's (NYU) TISCH School of the Arts film program. In Caracas, Venezuela, Alfredo premiered his short film
"Homeostasis" at the National Art Gallery, has been involved in (urban/street) art projects, made music videos and visuals for faculty and musicians at the Universidad Central de Venezuela's School of Architecture and worked
in production and installation for Periferico Caracas. He currently resides and works out of the city of Miami,
Florida, where he has curated and shown work. He has obtained his MFA at the School of Visual Arts: Art Practice
program in New York City in 2014.

Lauryn Levette
Funny How Time Flies (When You're Having Fun)
2024
Oil and acrylic on canvas
20 x 20"

Artist Statement
Painting and drawing allows me to express the complexity of the body concerning the Black figure in a western art historical canon. My work exists in a dreamscape to capture the subconscious mind, which is considerably the most vulnerable part of us all. It is in conversation with the Afro-surrealist movement in an effort to subvert the notoriously white male dominant genre. Implementing gestural marks, distorted figures and saturated color palettes allows me to communicate various psychological spaces based on personal narrative.

Artist Bio
Lauryn Levette sets her colorful figurative works in a dreamscape capturing the subconscious mind, elevating agency and power in Black women. Her paintings and drawings reference personal narrative, pop culture, and spirituality to explore themes of the self, the power of introspection and learning to assert comfort and vulnerability in a world that is still learning to value it. Levette graduated with a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2021. Her art has been exhibited in several fairs, auctions, solo and group shows across the U.S. as well as internationally for venues such as Soho House, Untitled, Miami, and WACO's Wearable Art Gala. She is recognized in publications for Artsy, Juxtapoz Magazine and RISD Museum.

Dolores Poacelli
Endangered Species, 2015
Acrylic paint and aluminum enamel on canvas
36" x 48"

Artist Statement

This series is an offshoot of the works I have done using recycled aluminum printing press plates which I sand cut and glue onto panels. The shine creates another level of space. The color punctuating the space and creating a rhythm.

Artist Bio

Among many awards, in 2024 and in 2011 I was the recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship for Painting, and in 2000 awarded the Samuel Fleisher Challenge Exhibit in Philadelphia.
My work has been exhibited widely and is part of many public and private collectons such as
• SAP Software in Germany
• Bank of American in Delaware
• Cooper Anderson Hospital in Camden NJ
• New York Presbyterian Childrens Hospital in NY • Park Towne Place in Philadelphia
• Liberty Properties in Malvern PA
• Murano Condominiums in Philadelphia
• Psychology Dept. of Princeton University in NJ
• and the State of New Jersey
I have studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Fleisher Art Memorial, and have worked for many years as a graphic designer. I have been teaching art for 14 years.

Kathy Davis
Love Over Hate, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
40" x 30"

Artist Statement

In this painting, I'm combining my interest in mark-making and calligraphy with intuitive abstract painting. The repeated message of "love over hate, heart over mind, faith over fear, peace over war" seems especially needed in these tumultuous times.

Artist Bio

Contemporary abstract painter, Kathy Davis, has evolved as an artist through several career reinventions. In many ways, Davis' paintings are the culmination of the years of training, experience, and inspiration she accumulated as a teacher, a designer and writer of greeting cards, and a business owner.

The sale of her art licensing business in 2019 has reinvigorated Davis' passion for painting.

Currently, Davis' painting style is non-representational in nature. Acrylic, watercolor and collage are her preferred media. She is exploring new ground with her love of color and calligraphic mark making. Davis' paintings have been described as fresh, expressive, thought provoking and uplifting. There is both a sophistication and casualness that give her work wide appeal.

As a lifelong resident of Horsham, PA, Davis has exhibited in juried shows at the Wayne Art Center, Coleman Fine Art, Cerulean Arts Gallery, Capitol Hill Arts League, Abington Art Center and American Greetings Corporate Headquarters. She is currently a member of Muse Gallery in Philadelphia.
Davis' work is held in many private collections in the U.S.

Judith Jacobson
Emergence.
Encaustic on cradled masonite panel
15.5" x 12.75"

Artist Statement

Outward trails of inward travels Journeys marked with blemishes and scars of where we've been and how long we've tarried. I stare and glare and dissect. I layer: on off on paint wipe add Darkened surfaces with transparent echoes of time and space. Memories linger vivid! then fade and return with altered sounds and visions. I layer- and feel the ghosts

of translucent darkness emerge, dissolve in and out out and in back and forth. Remembered flesh, supple and toned Youthful belief in forever

Mortality looms invisible, stealthy the flesh it consumes and… Where is Forever? Fragments of beings implode, explode!

Parts become wholes. Fragments become lifetimes that wither and wrinkle and crease and crack like too many layers of paint. And when did I become like too many layers of paint? and… What is Forever?

Artist Bio

Judith Jacobson received her BFA in Painting, with a minor in Philosophy and a Provisional Teaching Degree, from The Tyler School of Art in 1969. She received her MFA in Painting from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1997. She is the recipient of The Leeway Foundation Edna Andrade Grant in Painting, "awarded for work that exhibits exceptional promise and talent." Judith's work was purchased by the founder of The Leeway Foundation and is part of the permanent and prominent collection. Judith was invited to participate in panel discussions with other Leeway grant recipients at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.

She has received numerous awards in Painting and Drawing. Her achievements have been extensive and positively reviewed by the media. Judith has been a Visiting Artist at local colleges, giving presentations of her art and process, and then making studio visits to critique the work of the students. She has also shared her ideas and work in many "Meet the Artist" discussions. Judith continuously donates her art to charitable organizations, to include, but not limited to yearly MANNA live auctions at The Moore College of Art and Design.

Judith has exhibited substantially. Her work is included in collections in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Joseph Opshinsky
Philly Horse Paint by Number, 2025
Cut paper collage
25" x 36"

Artist Statement

On February 20th, 2024, a horse escaped from a riding club in Strawberry Mansion and was later apprehended at the Allegheny Ave exit of Interstate 95 in Port Richmond. This runaway horse, which was seen by early morning traffic on the interstate, is the perfect subject matter for an inspiring equestrian scene as often depicted in classic paint by number kits. The artwork using hand cut paper collage recreates the packaging of a mid-century craft painting kit depicting the improbable run of the horse known as "Freeway" with the Philadelphia skyline as backdrop.

Artist Bio

Joseph Opshinsky draws inspiration from the landscapes of Pennsylvania and the surrounding environs. His cut paper collages utilize vibrant colors and pattern to depict the natural world and its convergence with remnants of the region's industrial past.

In addition to corporate and private collections, Joseph Opshinsky's award-winning collages have been exhibited at numerous museums and galleries over the past decade. Recent exhibitions include a feature exhibition at the Roberson Museum in Binghamton, New York, and juried shows at the Philadelphia Sketch Club and the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, where his piece was selected for inclusion in the museum's permanent collection.

A Scranton native, Opshinsky is a fine arts graduate of Keystone College and The University of the Arts. He currently resides outside of Philadelphia.

Linda Celestian
Natural Phenomena, 2024
Polyester organza, spray paint
30" x 40" x 5"

Artist Statement

I am fascinated by the energy, forms, and colors found in nature.
My sculptures highlight aspects of nature's beauty that may be overlooked. Small details are pulled from intimate studies of natural formations and specimen collections.

Artist Bio

Linda Celestian attended Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, receiving a BFA in Fashion Design in 1987. After a 5th-year study program in fine arts also at Moore, she entered the workforce as a designer. Learning how to design prints and hand-knit sweaters and the ins and outs of Chinese manufacturing was a fun challenge. After 3 years of keeping up with the fast pace of the fashion world, she found herself burnt out and ready to explore self-expression.
She creates forms small and large that describe the natural world she loves to explore and document. She sees her work as bringing to light aspects of nature's beauty that may be overlooked. This is evident in her works that resemble coral reefs, ocean waves, and fungus growths.

M.F. Cardamone
Record Thyme, 2018
Mixed media work on paper
26" x 21"
Edition 1/8

Artist Statement

This piece is part of my Document Series. My subjects are the plants of the world that I enjoy learning These quirky documents are influence by ancient Herbal manuscripts, historical Botanical art and illustration and herbarium specimens (known as natural history specimens) & traditional botanical illustration. I see myself as a botanical investigative recorded and the work as ethnobotanical works on paper that explore the medicinal, historical, ecological and the spiritual parts of plants.

Artist Bio

Born-and-raised Philadelphian Maryfran (MF) Cardamone is a painter and printmaker concerned with botany and interplay with popular culture. Echoing early scientific botanical drawings, Dada surrealism, and the pioneering Pop Art collages of Eduardo Paolozzi, Cardamone's works are inimitable and stunningly rendered.

Cardamone collects plant specimens and combines them with images and words that result in complex visual narratives that reveal the science, history, and beauty of her subjects. This work is part of a series that began with research and native plant collecting that Cardamone conducted shortly after she designed a native Pennsylvania wildlife habitat garden as a result of her studies at the Barnes Foundation Arboretum School. She also finds inspiration in medieval herbals and manuscripts, folklore, traditional Chinese medicine, and Pop Art. To Cardamone, the anatomy of a plant is part of a larger story that involves its historical, medicinal, ecological, spiritual, and mythological aspects.

Maria R. Schneider
Raising Philadelphia, 2023
Acrylic sheets, cement, acrylic paint
42" x 12" x 10"

Artist Statement

My work challenges societal perceptions and weaves intricate narratives by exploring the built environment through the innovative use of plexiglass and paper. Each piece begins with a carefully selected image of a city or building, serving as a portal to its past, present, and potential future. Through meticulous research, I uncover the layered story of each place-its evolution, current significance, and future possibilities.
Employing cutting-edge laser technology, I etch elaborate designs onto plexiglass and paper, creating a physical manifestation of these urban stories. The process of hand-coloring the laser-etched grooves adds depth and vibrancy, resulting in interconnected layers that visually narrate the complex history and potential of each urban space.My primary inspiration stems from urban environments and the spaces we inhabit. The mirror makes the viewer part of the work.

Artist Bio

Maria Schneider's art derives from a deep exploration of time and place, through the lens of architectural history. She creates cityscapes and landscapes that merge the past to the present of place. A native of Madrid, Spain, Schneider studied at The Art Student League in New York, NY, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, PA. She is a member of NextFab, a makers-space in Philadelphia, where she works with lasers, LED lighting, and other technologies which she incorporates in her artistic practice. Previously, she completed a Law Degree and an MBA, disciplines that now inform her work. Drawing and experimentation have always been central to her artistic practice in which she marries art and technology using basic elements of drawing and simple lighting techniques. Her new ventures into photography use layering ideas to create mystical landscapes of color and shape. Her work is part of several corporate collections - CubeSmart, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, AIR Communities, Rhino Investments, Raynes Lawn Hehmeyer, Lincoln Harris, myCIO, as well as private collections.

Michele C Kishita
Snowmelt, River's Edge
Latex and silver leaf on birch panel
20" x 20"

Artist Statement

In my practice, I explore ideas of transience, interconnection, transformation, and beauty to give voice to the tales that are silently embedded in my wood panels' grain. Reflecting on its rhythmic undulations that map a tree's annual growth and water intake, I imagine a place, an atmosphere, or a feeling that articulates the visual contrast and harmony where nature and mankind intersect. Formally drawing from the graphic stylizations and compressed spaces of Japanese ukiyo-e prints, I use hard edge abstraction and colors from nature, that are not typically considered "natural," to capture the memory and spirit of the landscape.

Artist Bio

Michele Kishita is a Philadelphia-based artist who uses landscape as her primary subject. Her paintings are strongly influenced by the graphic stylizations and compressed spaces of Japanese ukiyo-e prints. Kishita's paintings are in a number of private/corporate collections, including Toyota, Capital One, and Kaiser Permanente, and her work is featured in Create Magazine, on the Poetry Foundation blog, and the Studio Break and Thyme in the Studio podcasts, as well as in several literary journals. She has participated in artist residencies in New Mexico, Russia, and Iceland and exhibited at the Sharjah Art Museum in the United Arab Emirates and the Museum of Non-Conformist Art in St. Petersburg, Russia. Kishita received both her BFA and MFA in painting from the University of the Arts

Ellen Rosenholtz
48 Brown Hares
Graphite and conte crayon
31.5" x 33"

Artist Statement

Forty-Eight Brown Hares was inspired by a summer's worth of rabbit deaths. This is a celebration of their life force. The circles of life and death memorialized in this drawing.

Artist Bio

Ellen Rosenholtz's graphite on paper series explores native flora and fauna of New Jersey. The work looks at the profound beauty of natural forms as they exist within animals and plants. The multiplicity of images underscores the interconnection of living systems, while geometric patterning enable the viewer to commune with the species through repetition of form. The semi permanence of graphite reflects the fragility of our biodiversity at any moment in time.

Ellen Rosenholtz is a New Jersey, U.S.A based artist whose work is about environmental concerns with a focus on native, invasive, and extinct flora and fauna. She has a B.F.A from University of the Arts and an M.F.A from Vermont College. Artistic accomplishments include a residency at the Rosenbach Museum and Library. She wrote art criticism for both the Philadelphia Weekly and Philadelphia City Paper and was the Director of Programs for the Painted Bride Art Center. Ellen exhibits regularly throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

EllenRosenholtz.com

Jorge L. Vega
A Drive Through Banana Country, 2019
Oil on canvas
30" x 40"

Artist Statement

Most of the visual elements portrayed in this painting are influenced by my experiences growing up in Puerto Rico. Its flora, fauna, its tropical colors, and how that has affected my memories of the island, contributes to its visual interpretation.

Artist Bio

Jorge Luis Vega grew up in Puerto Rico and currently resides in Philadelphia. He has a B. F. A. from Tyler School of Art, Temple University and a M.F.A. from Stanford University.

Jenna Hannum
Food Animal, 2008
Mixed media on watercolor paper
35.25" x 26.75"

Artist Statement

Plutarch wrote, "Boys throw stones at frogs in sport, but the frogs do not die in sport, they die in earnest." After years of off- and on-again vegetarianism and a lifetime of being an animal lover, it was this statement, written in the second century, which gave me pause to consider how we treat other sentient beings as we go about the business of being human.

Artist Bio

Jenna Hannum is a Philadelphia-based artist and educational designer that has exhibited throughout Pennsylvania and nationally. Her work has been purchased for many private collections and has been included in numerous exhibitions, including exhibitions at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, the Woodmere Art Museum, and galleries throughout the United States. In 2011, she was a recipient of the NewCourtland Fellowship, a community-based fellowship that brings together care home residents and school-aged children through the Center for Emerging Visual Artists. Hannum completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, with a concentration in drawing.

Gregory Brellochs
Pulse, 2012
Graphite on paper
23" x 31"

Artist Statement

I find that the immediate and direct process of drawing serves as a means by which I can meditate on the fundamental nature of things. I want the concepts that I am exploring to resonate with the viewer on a basic visceral level. Like Niels Bohr's self titled model once served to make the concept of an atom's structure visually and conceptually accessible, so too am I interested in employing my art and the process of drawing as a way of visualizing and graphically realizing concepts which speak to a layer of reality beyond the senses, bringing such concepts back into a world of physical relationships that we can more readily relate to and grasp.

Artist Bio

Gregory Brellochs is a Philadelphia based artist, Professor, and the Visual and Performing Arts, Chair at Camden County College in Blackwood, New Jersey. Brellochs' work has been recognized through awards such as the 2018 Meyer's Family Award for Contemporary Arts, the Center for Emerging Visual Artists CDP Fellowship, the Wind Challenge Exhibition Series at the Fleisher Art Memorial, and the William D. Davis Award for Drawing at the Art of the State Exhibition in Harrisburg, PA. Brellochs has held numerous solo exhibitions and has been featured in a number of prestigious juried and curated group exhibitions both regionally and nationally. His work is included in the contemporary drawings collection of the Viewing Program through The Drawing Center in New York City. Brellochs earned his B.F.A. from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and an M.F.A. from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

Zeinab Diomande
It's all soup now, nobody wins, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 36" x 2"

Artist Statement

This piece focuses on a warm and hazy environment, a bar-like setting. The figure is engulfed in a tray of smoke adding to the intensity of the situation at hand: spades. All parties playing the game seem to have winning cards and evidently somebody if not everyone is cheating. I chose to add a humorous touch to this painting to remind myself that sometimes things aren't that serious. I tend create environments that you can partially recognize but when looking closer, nothing is rooted in reality. My purpose is never to be too close to what's real, mostly an illusion but never the real thing.

Pete Sparber
Pine in Bloom, 2024
Acrylic pen and paint on canvas
28.5" x 15.5"

Artist Statement

To help us get through the Winter and look forward to the Spring, the piece is designed to help us remember how wonderful our streets will look when the air warms and the flora bloom this coming May.

Artist Bio

Pete lives, paints, draws and writes about art in Philadelphia. He's led an eclectic life, living in cities across the U.S., as well as Tokyo and Shanghai. He holds an MFA from Cornell, a martial arts black belt, and recently ended a career as a senior business executive. He and his wife Karen live in center city. He publishes The Current, an Instagram blog offering a curated review of Visual Arts in Philadelphia, and regularly contributes articles and interviews of artists, gallerists and collectors to the Artblog.

Sally K. Eisenberg
The Waiting is the Hardest Part, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 24"

Artist Statement

Painting and creating in the abstract provide me with the wiggle room to be in the present moment and see what comes up as I place color on my canvas. My paintings evolve. They start out one way and then, through gestures and layering, end up going in a completely new direction. In the words of Edward Hopper, "if i could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint." Creating art is MY communication tool of choice. Painting in the abstract allows me to feel and express my innermost emotions and begin dialogue.

Artist Bio

Sally K. Eisenberg is an abstract artist based in Philadelphia, PA. A lifelong artist, Sally thrives outside the lines, expressing herself through various media, including acrylics, works on paper, mixed media, and photography. Her work brings forth a dance of light, color, and texture, evoking curiosity, and emotion. Solo shows have been held at Twenty-Two Gallery, 1241 Carpenter + Artspace, and Da Vinci Art Alliance. She has been a part of many group shows including Pictor Gallery in NYC, Philadelphia Sketch Club, ARTSisters, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), Fleisher Art Memorial, Naudain Art Collaborative, Da Vinci Art Alliance, 1241 Carpenter + Artspace, and the Long Beach Island Foundation for the Arts. She has been opening her studio for the last few years as part of the Center for Emerging Visual Artist's POST (Philadelphia Open Studio Tours). Sally's work is in private collections throughout the United States.

Francis Beaty
Rift, 2020
Acrylic, paste on cradled wood panel
24" x 24" x 2"

Artist Statement

Francis Beaty is a contemporary installation artist, painter and sculptor known for her interdisciplinary work and introspective style. Her works incorporate found and constructed elements with a unique conceptual inventiveness. She takes daily life as a subject matter and comments on the everyday aesthetic. She creates work with a clarity of content and an uncompromising attitude toward ephemerality and minimalism. Beaty builds installations addressing issues that resonate with the general public, on social, economic and global concerns.
Beaty exhibits nationally and internationally. She is represented by the 10 Dence Gallery in the Netherlands. She has participated in residencies in Japan, France, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Newfoundland. These residencies allow her to expand her vision while experiencing the multitude of artistic expression throughout the world. Her growth as an artist is ongoing. She works in her studio in Philadelphia, PA.

Courtesy of 10 Dence Gallery, Dordrecht, Netherlands

Matthew Ludak
Deer Crossing / Mingo Junction, 2024
Archival pigment print
18" x 27" (image size)

Artist Statement

This photograph, taken in Mingo Junction, Ohio-familiar to some as the location for the opening shot of the 1978 film The Deer Hunter-is part of a larger body of work titled Nothing Gold Can Stay. This documentary photography project explores how economic globalization has left its mark on former industrial cities and struggling small towns across America. Inspired in part by my own family's history of living and working in a small coal mining town in Western Pennsylvania, the project delves into the intricate tapestry of economic desperation, resilience, beauty, and transformation that defines these often-overlooked corners of American society.

Artist Bio

Matthew Ludak is a documentary photographer whose work delves into contemporary social issues, including classism, de-industrialization, environmentalism, and structural racism in the United States. With a BA from Drew University and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ludak melds his background in American history and English literature with a passionate commitment to socially engaged photography.

His work has been exhibited and published both domestically and internationally, showcasing his talent at venues such as The Elliot Gallery in Amsterdam, Prix Maison Blanche 2024, Photo Marseille, the Head On Photo Festival in Sydney, Australia, and the Photography and Visual Arts Festival in Braga, Portugal.

His long-term project, "Nothing Gold Can Stay," has garnered funding from the Puffin Foundation and was selected for the 2024 Critical Mass Top 50 by Photo Lucida.

Ludak has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he continues to explore the intersections of art and social justice through his photography.

Pete Checchia
Madam X, 2022
Photography on canvas
30" x 22"

Artist Statement

Madam X was first exhibited in 2022 as part of my 99to22 exhibition of my dreamscapes works that spanned 1999 through 2022.

Dreamscapes:
are photographic explorations of identity, sexuality, art history, society, the human condition, and the subconscious.
I create these montage works intuitively from my photographic nude studies, portraiture, street and landscape photography, travel photography, appropriated iconographic cultural imagery, and most recently - online virtual shoots.
Through a collaborative process with female models I seek to deconstruct the male gaze, explore male/female power structures and dynamics, and reflect upon larger issues of identity, sexuality, persona, perception, and societal roles.
A series of life-altering night time dreams inspired this work.

The models in Madam X are Nicole Emma Vaunt (in the dress) and Liz Reese (two ghost images)

DeMelas/Checchia
Kitchen Range Lenny, 2019
Photography and paint
17.5" x 22" x 1.5"

Artist Statement

Anthony DeMelas and Pete Checchia infuse their unique aesthetics and techniques together forming new works as DeMelas/Checchia Visual Arts Duo. Both artists are dedicated to disintegrating what they perceive as arbitrary barriers between disciplines by expanding the boundaries of their respective mediums (painting, photography).
"We believe a fluid exchange of ideas and practices is vital to discovering unexpected styles and results. Our mutual commitment to exploration has driven our respective work to unexpected places, where the edges of each form collapse into the other."

Sean Irwin
Garb Series 2, 2020
Acrylic wash, gouache, prisma pencil, micro-glitter
14" x 11"

Artist Statement

My recent body of work has its origins in the Spring of 2019. Kneeling beside my young daughter, I found myself drawing simple, sidewalk-chalk doodles. While she worked on her own compositions, my web of concentric-circle patterns grew across our stoop. I have always believed that great ideas can come from simple, no pressure, acts.

In these works on paper, the drawn shapes become the cast and tool marks once inflicted on the surface of my sculptural forms. The linear and concentric glitter embellishes the paint and pencil work, accentuating and moving through negative space.

Artist Bio

Sean K. Irwin is a Philadelphia-based artist. He works with a variety of materials and methods with recurrent themes of alarm, emergency, new beginning and hope. He has exhibited widely throughout the Northeast. Originally from Western NY, Sean received his BA from SUNY Plattsburgh and an MFA in Sculpture from Syracuse University. He moved to Philadelphia in 2004 and is the owner/operator of Irwin Art Frames. He lives with his wife Laura Ledbetter, their daughter Evi, two cats and two fish.

Douglas Witmer
Untitled, 2021
Acrylic on paper
21" x 17"

Artist Statement

My work manifests decades of inquiry into the materiality of the painted object through refined processes within the framework of reductive abstract painting. I activate elemental compositional structures with sensuous color and various improvised gestural and incidental actions.

My subject is the presence of color. My works are individual visual places offering an open invitation for a personal experience of seeing and feeling.

Artist Bio

Douglas Witmer has lived and worked in Philadelphia since 1995. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions around the world as well as numerous corporate and private collections internationally.

His work has been documented in publications by The Woodmere Museum of Art, The Free Library of Philadelphia, The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University, and The University of Manitoba press, and his exhibitions have been reviewed in The Washington Post, Two Coats of Paint, and Art New England, and other arts periodicals and websites.

Kindred Art Collaborative
One Who Can Hold Their Breath, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 36"

Artist Statement

They might not have an "Iron Neck". They might be able to be "Burned". They might not be able to "Stretch". They might not be able to "Swallow the Sea". But they might be able to "Hold Their Breath Forever".

Artist Bio
Started in 2019
Members:
Carl Cellini
Richard Metz
Mikel Elam

We are currently working on our resume as a group but only have been together for a few years. Each of us have our own substantial resumes and over 50 years of experience in the arts.
• Carl Cellini is a painter, sculptor, musician, composer, martial artist and instructor of martial arts who grew up in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. He has had numerous painting exhibits in the last forty years and his work has been purchased by businesses, schools and individual patrons during this time. He received his BFA from Temple University's Tyler School of Art in 1980. Cellini's latest paintings are gestural and expressionistic, focused on incorporating the movements of the martial arts animals he studies. The process is important to his art making as he strives to invoke something direct and authentic. Carl formed Cellini Studios in 2014 which is a gallery space, studio space and houses a school of martial arts that he owns and operates in Ambler, Pennsylvania.

• Richard Metz grew up in Abington, Pennsylvania. He received a BFA from Temple University's Tyler School of Art and an MFA from Maine College of Art. He recently retired from a career as a high school art teacher. In addition to showing his work frequently and widely, he is a musician and writer, with an interest in radio drama. He has been an environmental activist for many years and remains passionate about protecting forests. He has been chosen to participate in artist residencies across the country for the last ten years where he creates ephemeral painted tree installations.

• Painting and drawing have been a lifetime pursuit for Mikel. Having grown up in Philadelphia, Mikel's art degree is from Philadelphia University of the Arts. In one chapter of his life Mikel went to work as a manager for famed jazz musician Miles Davis for several years. This experience helped shape and define Mikel for years to follow. Although Miles Davis was a renowned jazz musician he was also drawing and painting everyday while traveling the world. He convinced Mikel that he had the ability to be and do many things at the same time. Whether working in the art supply business, or in the past when he was working with Miles Davis or currently, painting and drawing in his studio Mikel is truly living the life of a full-time artist. In recent years his focus on Afro Centrism and world cultures has permeated his individual work.

Carl Cellini
The Shaman, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 36"

Artist Bio

• Career History
Moonstone Art Center - center city Philadelphia 1980/1984 - help create and acted as art and music director
Allen's Lane Art Center After School Program 1984/1989 - created and acted as its director
Allen's Lane Summer Arts Camp Director 1984-1989 - directed
Mantis Computers, Inc. 1989/2022 - started, owned and operated
Mantis Show Room 2001 - owned and operated
Cellini Studios Gallery and Studios 2013/2019 - created, owned and curated
Cellini Show Room and Studios - 2019/current - created, owns and curates
(Showing works of Kindred Art Collaborative and Carl Cellini)
Villari's Martial Arts School of Ambler 2014/current - created, owns and operates
Kindred Art Collaborative 2019/current - created and collaborated with Mikel Elam and Richard Metz - (Kindred Art Collaborative is a group of three seasoned painters that have been working together for over four years - we all contribute to everything we create)

• Education
Temple University's Tyler School of Art 1980 - BFA Painting
Villari's Shaolin Kempo Karate and Jujitsu - Achieved Masters level (5th degree)

• Skills and Qualifications
Painter, sculptor, composer, proficient on over seven musical instruments, martial artist, gallery director, computer expert (servers and networks), instructor in all of the prementioned

Judy DeSimone
8, 2024
Acrylic
15" x 12"

Artist Statement

This is an abstract acrylic mono print using warm colors satisfying a moment during a printing session.

Artist Bio

Judy DeSimone is a retired K- 10th grade art teacher who earned a bachelor of science degree in art education at Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For thirty-nine years she was a Jack of all trades in her classroom with pastels, markers, paints, metal, ceramics, paper-mache, Paris craft, printing, yarn, scenery painting etc. Judy currently pursues her own artistic musings in ceramics, painting silk scarves, printmaking and still paints scenery for her Catholic school. She shows her work at craft and art fairs.

Kathleen Greco
Finding The Calm: Escape, 2024
Graphite, wax pastel
12 x 24"

Artist Statement
In the everyday turbulence of our living history Finding the Calm: Escape explores inner peace and finding space. In the dreamscape forms wander without resistance flowing through negative space. Calming waves immerse the viewer in a discovery of an unexplored healing soothing environment.

Artist Bio
Greco's artwork has been exhibited in museums and galleries including the Getty's PST ART: Art and Science Collide Exhibition Pasadena California, the Museum of Art and Design New York, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., Hayward Gallery England UK, Woodmere Art Museum Pennsylvania, Elisabet Ney Museum Texas, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden Germany, and Schlossmuseum Linz, Austria. Her sculpture was included in the collaborative Coral Reef Pod World's installation in the Central Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2019, Venice, Italy.

Alexis Nutini
Clear View III, 2024
Woodcut monoprint mounted on panel
21 x 27"

Artist Statement
Woodcut monoprint mounted on archival birch panel. The intersecting spirals in the image were generated using a pendulum drawing tool. The analog sharpie drawings were digitized and then CNC(computer numerical control) milled into woodblocks. The plates were used to make the impression using traditional relief printing techniques.

Artist Bio
Alexis Nutini (b. Mexico City, Mexico; l. Philadelphia, PA) received a BA in fine art from St. Mary's College of Maryland, St. Mary's City and an MFA in printmaking from the Tyler School of Art & Architecture, Temple University, Philadelphia. Nutini runs Dos Tres Press, where he publishes his own prints and develops collaborative projects with other artists. The focus of Dos Tres Press is experimentation with relief techniques through hand-carved, reduction woodblock printing combined with the digital technology of a CNC router. Nutini was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in Barcelona, Spain and has exhibited his work at venues in Los Angeles, CA; Manhattan, KS; Nashville, TN; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, both PA; Seattle, WA; and St. Mary's City; as well as in Barcelona, Spain; Brisbane and Melbourne, both Australia; Rome, Italy; and Veracruz, Mexico.

Lauren Rinaldi
Evening, 2021
Oil on panel
24 x 16.75"

Artist Statement
Lauren Rinaldi creates art that explores the intersection and blurring of objectification, female power, and empowerment. Through her oil paintings, mixed media drawings, and sketches, she delves into themes of intimacy, gaze, body image, sexuality, and self-identity. Drawing inspiration from the women in her life, Rinaldi intertwines their experiences with her own to craft a collective narrative that both celebrates women and acknowledges the challenges they face. Although her portraits often use her own body as a model, they convey stories of universal significance in today's world. Rinaldi detaches the imagery from self-portraits or specific individuals, instead presenting psychological representations that highlight societal pressures on women and the numerous, often conflicting, roles and expectations they navigate.

Artist Bio

Lauren Rinaldi (b. 1983, Brooklyn, NY) is an American artist living and working in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She studied painting and drawing at Tyler School of Art, where she earned her BFA in 2006. Since then, her solo shows have included Second Shift (2022); Representative (2020); Still Standing (2018); Hunger of the Cheeky Sisters (2015); At Arm's Length (2014); and An Accidental Masterpiece (2011), all at Paradigm Gallery + Studio in Philadelphia and she has exhibited her work extensively in group shows throughout the United States. In 2012, Rinaldi completed The City of Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program's Training Program and has since worked on a number of public and private murals in the city. In addition to her active studio practice, Lauren is a mother, and is involved in local political organizing and volunteering.

Nanci Hersh
Cradle, 2015
Acrylic, spray paint, pastel on canvas
24 x 30"

Artist Statement
Initially inspired by the shadows cast by a welded sculpture of a large nest on a pedestal like a birdbath, Cradle continues to explore themes around home and family.

What we inherit, gather, retain, or release, along with the narratives we tell ourselves and how they shape, intertwine to mold our identities.

Artist Bio
Nanci Hersh is a contemporary mixed media artist. She creates dynamic, fluid paintings, collages, and sculptures that draw upon life and everyday experiences. Through the process of multilayered narratives, she explores themes of home, family, the natural world, and the intricate webs that bind us together.

Nanci is also a curator, illustrator, educator, arts advocate and former Executive Director of the Delaware Institute for the Arts in Education. She has received numerous honors including three purchase awards from the State Foundation of Culture and the Arts, Hawai'i, and three Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grants. She recently completed and installed "Elemental Flow", a commissioned work of 20 paintings at Barbacane, Thornton, and Company in Wilmington, DE. Her work is included in the Public Collections of Museum of Encaustic Art, Johnson & Johnson, Leland Portland Cement, and OSI Pharmaceuticals to name a few.

Nancy Agati
Blue Streak 3 - February, 2022
Mixed media on paper
From a series of 9, ongoing
30 x 22"

Artist Statement

Blue Streak is made up of plant forms altered many times before becoming the catalyst in the overlapping layers of line, shape, and color on paper. The series is a foray into combining ink, watercolor,
and hand-made pigments derived directly from my garden in an attempt to make sense of the intricate and multilayered patterns and configurations observed in nature.

Artist Bio

Nancy Agati is a Philadelphia artist whose multidisciplinary work includes painting and works on paper, sculpture, site-specific installation, and public art. Agati holds a BFA from Alfred University, School of Art & Design, NY and an MFA from The University of the Arts, Philadelphia 2007. She has exhibited her work widely throughout Philadelphia and nationally, with exhibitions at Stockton University, Galloway, NJ; Philadelphia Art Alliance; Fairmount Water Works, Philadelphia, PA; Hillyer Art Space, Washington, DC; Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Staten Island, NY; and The Calandra Italian American Institute, NY.

John Y. Wind
Imagination Rules the World, 2023
Acrylic, bleach, and metal nailheads on printed canvas
16 x 54"

Artist Statement

This work is from a series of 12 DECLARATIONS, originally created as part of WHISKEY REBELLION, an exhibition of embellished and recontextualized whiskey decanters in the shapes of various Revolutionary War heroes. The Declarations highlight expressions culled from my research and inspired by the revolutionary spirit of the show. They are meant to empower and challenge through a decidedly 21st century lens.

"Imagination Rules the World" is attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, the French military leader and emperor who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century. The phrase was his somewhat cynical take on his own power; for me it is a positive, creative affirmation~

Artist Bio

John Y. Wind is a mixed media artist whose work explores the intersections of art, commerce, portraiture and history. He is also a jewelry designer best known for 'Modern Vintage' fashion jewelry and gifts sold under the John Wind brand. His work is in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, the Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Richard King
Newton Coal, 2024
Acrylic on Wood Panel
24" x 30"

Artist Statement

This piece developed out of my residence with InLiquid in 2024 and was developed from research historic phots and existing surrounding of the neighborhood on the western edge of Center City.

Artist Bio

Based in Philadelphia, Richard's art practice is focused on abstract drawing, painting and sculpture exploring the nature of form, space, and language in the art experience. Educated as an architect, he holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Temple University and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. Richard is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Drexel University's Westphal College of Media Arts & Design.

Sharka Hyland
K.O. Knausgaard, My Struggle (Book 3), 1918
Pencil on prepared paper
11 x 14"

Artist Statement

I am interested in how literary language transcends the distinction between the verbal and the visual.

Many of the images we remember have no physical existence. They are evoked by literary texts in which language becomes, in a sense, a visual medium. These complex images exist only in the reader's mind; the text is their only material support.

For the most part, I draw the text in a size and format that might be found in a book. The conjured image is the subject of the drawing.

Artist Bio
Sharka Hyland was born in Czechoslovakia. Since 1992 she has lived and worked in Philadelphia. Hyland was awarded her MFA from Yale University School of Art in graphic design (1988). She studied Art History at École du Louvre, Paris, (1992) and comparative literature at Albert-Ludwig University, Freiburg, Germany (1983).
Hyland's drawings have been exhibited in group and solo shows nationally and internationally.

Michael Morgan
Kensington Goblet, 2024
Ceramic sherds, resin
11 x 8 x 8"

Artist Statement

During the past few years, I have been systematically digging up the alley behind my property, which was the site of a dump from mid 19th century to mid 20th century . My finds sometimes include old ceramic pipes and dolls, but the vast majority of objects I have found are mismatched pieces of broken ceramic objects. I decided to give these discarded, broken, long forgotten, buried pieces of ceramic trash a new life. I call this series of work "Apotheosis".

Artist Bio

I am a ceramic sculptor. I use either bricks or ceramic sherds to create art. I am originally from Portsmouth, England, where I worked as a gardener for twelve years before studying to become an artist. I completed my BA (Hons) in Ceramics at The Polytechnic Wolverhampton UK in 1988, was at The Clay Studio, Philadelphia from 1988 till 1991, and received my MFA in Ceramics at University of Nebraska Lincoln in 1993. I have completed brick sculptures for both public and private clients throughout the USA and UK. I live in Roxborough, Philadelphia, where I continue to make a living as a practicing artist, until recently I also taught ceramic sculpture at Rutgers University.

Barbara Shelly
Cool J., 2023
Mixed medium - acrylics, magazines, newspaper, markers
24" x 24"

Artist Statement

I come from a long line of activists and art lovers. My Grandmother was in the Red Army in Russia, immigrated to Philadelphia and marched with the suffragettes. My mother was a democratic committee women in a Republican neighborhood in the suburbs of Philadelphia. "My art reflects and represents current events in performing arts and politics. People in the news inspire me, their movement, their expression, their passion for change. There is an emotional part of me in every painting.

Artist Bio

Barbara Shelly is a self-taught mixed media artist. She literally and figuratively tears through the print media, layering it into textured collages using sketches, newspaper, ink and paint. Her creative instincts place the images, covering some for texture and highlighting others. The intentional and unintentional relationships to the subjects emerge in the finished work and leave room for the viewer's interpretations. Her love of the performing arts has been rewarded by her paintings finding their way to her subjects including Spike Lee and Stella Abrera, ABT. Most recently, her painting "Doja Cat" was part of the Empower Her Art Forum, a multinational exhibition dedicated to raising women's voices and the empowering ethos of art, at The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo, Egypt." She is represented by Saphira & Ventura Gallery located at 4 W 43rd St #416, New York, NY

Abel Dolby
997N 300W, 2022
Oil on canvas
21.5 x 29.5" (framed)

Artist Statement

Some of my fondest memories growing up in rural Indiana were moments of being borderline feral at my grandparents' farm. As a young adult, I saw the the farm change from that carefree oasis of my youth to a place where I didn't know if I'll would ever want to return. My intentions in the painting "997N 300W" were to reconcile my complicated emotions surrounding nostalgia and loss through the eyes of a middle aged man.

Artist Bio

I'm a Philadelphia-based artist who was born and raised (mostly)in Indiana. I received my BFA in Studio Art at Indiana University and my MFA in Studio Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. I have been invited and accepted to show my artwork nationally since 2008.

Anna Boothe
Mudra Spin, 2020
Lead crystal
10.5" x 10.5" x 2"

Artist Statement

My glasswork is comprised of one-of-a-kind sculptural vessels, flacons, goblets and other decorative objects. With technical inspiration taken from the late 19th C. French glass-casting technique known as pate de verre, a process that has its roots in antiquity and is defined by the heat fusing of small glass particles in molds, my objects are playful assemblages of colorful elements kiln-cast from lead crystal via the lost-wax casting process, that are then ground, hand-polished and combined. Conceptually and visually, my works elicit a sense of history and ritual. Their prompts derive from ancient cultures and nature. The forms interpret symbols from various sources and are imbued with a sense of preciousness and the intangibility, yet familiarity that is associated with collaged memory. Prominently featured is the hand motif as it represents a ubiquitous cross-cultural human tool of communication through its emblematic gestures of friendship, generosity, holding, letting go, etc.

Artist Bio

With degrees in sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design and glass from Tyler School of Art, Anna Boothe has worked with glass since 1980. Her work is included in the collections of the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, Corning Museum of Glass, Museum of American Glass, Racine Art Museum and Tacoma Museum of Art.

In recent years, Boothe's work has been featured at the Albuquerque Museum of Art, Fuller Craft Museum, Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, and several venues in Venice and Italy's Veneto region. She is represented by 17 US galleries and museum stores. Upcoming in 2025, she will have a solo exhibition at Penn State University.

Boothe taught in Tyler's glass program for 16 years, then in 2004 helped develop Salem Community College's glass art program. She has taught at numerous US universities and schools, a short list that includes RISD, RIT, VCU, Pilchuck, Corning Museum of Glass and Urban Glass. Internationally, she has exhibited and/or lectured in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Israel, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey.

Kurt Herrmann
Protozoan Rodeo, 2024
Oil on stone and sand on wood panel
20" x 15" x 2"

Artist Statement

About 20 years ago I made my first paintings on stone when I impulsively gathered up a pile of cinders from my studio rooftop and stuck them on a wood panel with roofing tar. That initial work from the late 1990's morphed from painting simply on gravel and stones to higher relief objects like wood scraps, found objects, toys, mannequin heads, and at least half a billion bb's. In this most recent series I have limited myself to oil paint on sand, stones, and rope, but we'll see where it all goes.

Artist Bio

Kurt Herrmann (b. 1972, Lock Haven, USA) is a painter from the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania who does both figurative and abstract work, but above all is a colourist at heart. Two of his recent shows were featured in Time Out Chicago and the Philadelphia Inquirer, with recent shows in Tasmania (Penny Contemporary) , New Orleans (Octavia Gallery), Auckland (12 Gallery), Philadelphia (James Oliver Gallery), and Charlotte (Sozo Gallery). His work is in prominent collections across the US, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, including Capitol One Corporate Headquarters (Wilmington, DE), Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY), and Temple University (Philadelphia, PA). Recent commissions include large work for Hotel Del Coronado (San Diego, CA), and a line of beer labels for Elk Creek Café + Aleworks (Millheim, PA). Although his exhibition schedule is increasingly international, Herrmann's rural Pennsylvania roots continue to influence his work. "I'm very aware of the fact that even if a painting was initially inspired by something exotic, or an extremely personal event on the other side of the planet, all my work is filtered through my studio in the hills of Appalachia," he explains. "The colours, silence, space, seasons, landscape, even the rednecks impact everything I make. It's inescapable."

Tony Havrilla
Presidential Suite with Tomatoes, 2024
Oil on board
24" x 18"

Artist Statement

In modern society, where a new voyeurism exists online via social media, my work seeks an understanding of how our human desire to connect with others harms our psyche, stokes jealousy, and calms us. My paintings use a Fauvist approach, utilizing vibrant colors and gestural brush strokes, to paint figures in natural environments. Figures and environments painted are often sourced from social medias such as Instagram, X, or Facebook and then combined on my easel to create images that exist in a universe unto themselves. The importance of sourcing images from social media lends itself to the common desire to be seen, not only on social media, but in our lives. By gathering images in this way, I am exploring what we share and how it is shared to try and understand why we share. The resulting paintings evoke an exploration of an 'Eden' or the idea of a utopia devoid of problems (which social media platforms and influencers often portray their lives as). Through paint I am attempting to reconcile the dichotomy of this unreality online with the mundane human experience. My work contains basic human moments of whimsy, desire, objectification, and ultimately struggle as it copes with bridging these realities.

Bren Ahearn
Active Shooter Directions #18, 2019
Cotton
23.25" x 11.85"

Artist Statement

I use textile crafts to explore masculinity's conflicting messages, and I typically use the embroidery sampler form to document how I've been educated to be a man in US society and to document memories. My more recent active shooter / school shooting pieces ("run, hide, fight") are my next generation samplers: I worked in educational institutions, in which we were trained on how to respond to active shooter situations, and these pieces document my ongoing education.

Artist Bio

Bren Ahearn grew up in a crafty 1970s household in which he made sand art, decoupaged and did other crafts of the day. His work has been exhibited internationally, and he enjoys engaging in conversation with viewers about their reactions to his work.

Jennifer Tucker
Altar Realities Series, Snakeskin, Squash blossom, Poke berries, 2021
Digital: flatbed scanner
19" x 13"
Edition 1/1

Artist Statement

Altar Realty Series evolved out of The Botanical Series. The live plants, flowers and found objects are created intuitively on Epsom Flat bed Scanner. And are Healing Altars with messages open to interpretation by the viewer. Printed on ink jet printer with archival inks on archival papers.

Artist Bio

Jennifer is a MFA alumni from Pennsylvania State University and is a photographic artist of 6 decades. Jennifer is also a practicing herbalist, healer and co-founder of annual herbal conference in Centre County, Hawthorn Botanical Gathering. She collaborates in photography with her husband on the Botanical Series and poet Abby Minor and photographer Susan Moldenhauer. Jennifer's work in collected widely and is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Stuart Lehrman
Basement Blues #2, 2021
Acrylic enamel and oil paint on a wooden panel.
12" x 24" x 1"

Artist Statement

My practice involves the dialogue between order and chaos. I am constantly experimenting with the physical properties of the materials. I am always looking for a new solution to the problem I have given myself. I embrace both addition and subtraction, making and unmaking. The art is partly made up (of mistakes or happy accidents), during the working process. It's a journey of exploration and discovery, each step an interplay of order and chaos, intention and serendipity. These 'mistakes' are useful to make because they may lead little by little to the small truths.

Artist Bio

Stuart Lehrman began his career on the West Coast, showing his work at galleries in San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles, and Dallas. His early work focused on richly colored ceramics and painted wooden and found object sculptures. He relocated to upstate New York in the 1990s and worked as art director for the New York State Health Department. Twelve years ago, he moved to Philadelphia to teach design courses at Jefferson University (now retired). He lives with his wife and works in his home/studio in Cherry Hill, NJ.

Fran Lightman Gibson
A New Day, 2023
Charcoal and hard pastel
30" x 22"

Artist Statement

The Bridge
I watched the cold January night shift into the gray of dawn, the bridge looming as a gateway into or out of the city. Perspective creates its own reality. Ice had gathered along the edge of the river, helping chill the wind. Then the sun peeked over the horizon and the world changed. The cold gray bridge transformed into a warm golden orange. It was as if hope and joy were beaming their way into the city. The audacity of that light, the ice remained on the river's edge, the wind was no less chilly and yet I basked in the illusion of warmth and the reality of my survival.

Artist Bio

My paintings are about the visual and psychological energy of the city expressed through the angularity of its architecture and infrastructure, painted with live, rapid, interesting brushstrokes. This high energy is sometimes offset around the edges of the urban landscape by a very different treatment of trees, bushes, and grassy areas as an impression of dabs, dashes, lines, and scumbled paint.

Although these paintings straddle and integrate impressionist and expressionist ethos, they represent two different stylistic trends. One is more expressionist, bold, and brushy. The other is more linear, graphic, and refined. These paintings beckon the viewer through dramatic perspective and suggest a curiosity and a journey. Landscape or Cityscape, the metaphor of "Take Any Road," is usually close at hand in the work.

Finally, there is a tease in these works to see the next level of detail, but the attempt is to have the viewer create that detail while viewing the paintings.

Tyler Kline
The Baleful Queen, 2025
Gesso transfer, ink, watercolor, oil on birch
16" x 10" x 1.5"

Artist Bio

Tyler Kline is a curator and artist living and working in Philadelphia. Kline grew up in Stone Mountain, GA, studied Architecture and Painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He received a BA in both Anthropology and Sculpture from Portland State University and an MFA in Installation and Sculpture from The Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts.

Courtesy of Chimeare Gallery

Carmen Console
Santa Ana Wind, 2025
Acrylic on canvas
36" x 18"

Artist Statement

This painting was inspired by the awful fires in Southern California.

Artist Bio

Carmen Console has worked full time as an artist since 1978 when he finished art school. Born and raised in South Philadelphia. He was an Illustrator for 45 years working for The Franklin Mint, and then many ad agencies and national brands, then retired to begin a painting career a few years ago. Since that time he has created dozens of works, some commissioned, most inspired. Carmen now lives and works in his studio in South Jersey.

Emma Fogt
Norristown Along the Schuykill River, 2024
Oil on canvas
20" x 25" (framed)

Artist Statement

My paintings explore the interplay of light, color, and form, capturing the essence of a moment with direct and purposeful brushstrokes. Working in oil on canvas, I am drawn to both urban and rural landscapes, from the dynamic energy of New York City to the quiet charm of Bavaria's countryside. Barns, farms, interiors, and still life compositions
serve as my subjects, each reflecting my fascination with atmosphere and structure. Inspired by Fairfield Porter's harmonious compositions, David Hockney's bold palette, Edward Hopper's evocative solitude, Alice Neel's expressive realism, and John Singer Sargent's masterful technique, I seek to balance observation with intuition. My approach
is free yet intentional, focusing on form and value rather than excessive detail. Each painting is a response to the way light shapes a scene, inviting the viewer to experience a familiar place through a fresh perspective. Through my work, I aim to celebrate the beauty of everyday spaces, creating images that resonate with both memory and emotion.

Lisa Graf
untitled, 2005
Ceramic
4" x 3" x 3"

Artist Statement

Working with ceramic handbuilding methods, my work has evolved from vessels to more complex biomorphic sculptures. These abstract forms embody relationships by referencing nature and human gesture. My organic forms relate and interact with one another, communicate, and sometimes combine, evoking a range of states: vulnerability, desire, fragility, playfulness, and connection. In my most recent body of work, forms have merged and become more fluid.

Artist Bio

Lisa Graf is a ceramic sculptor. She is a studio artist at Mudflat Studios in Somerville MA. She creates abstract, organic, biomorphic forms in clay. She is also a UX/UI designer for web and mobile.

Barbara Straussberg
Wissahickon/Intimate Two, 2017
Mixed media acrylic in paper
13" x 13"

Artist Statement

Straussberg's studio practice encompasses painting, drawing, printmaking, paper sculpture and collage. Her approach to making art is intuitive and experimental - employing a variety of techniques such as dripping, rubbing, pouring, tearing, and mark-making. The act of painting is what interests her- the steps she goes through to build up the surface and break it down. She captures the feeling of being in nature by transforming her physicality and the trees and rivers around her into line and paint.

Artist Bio

Barbara Straussberg is an abstract painter and paper artist working in Philadelphia. Her process is material based and explores the intersection of ancient paper art with contemporary abstract painting.

Straussberg's recent solo exhibitions include: "Echoes: The 21st Annual Betsy Meyer Memorial Exhibition", Main Line Art Center, PA (2024);"Paper Revealed", Gravers Lane Gallery, Philadelphia (2022); URBN Headquarters, Naval Yard, Philadelphia (2022). She was awarded a Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Merit Grant Residency at the Vermont Studio Center. Straussberg received a Bachelor of Arts degree with Distinction in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania, and Certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Timothy Gierschick II
Strawberry Nautilus, 2019
Latex on paper
26" x 34"

Artist Statement

Strawberry Nautilus was birthed from a period of contemplating the geometry of a chain-link fence. In the manner of a nautilus, the diamond pattern folds in on itself, when you view it clockwise, and back again looking counterclockwise, in a double spiral. Strawberry refers to the color yes, but also to the fact that various seemingly disparate elements of nature share very deep connections: the placement of strawberry seeds is, like the pattern of the nautilus, according to an innate geometry.

Artist Bio

Timothy Gierschick II (b. 1976, Reading, PA) is an artist living and working in Philadelphia, PA. His paintings and works on paper have been exhibited and collected both nationally and internationally, including by Duane Morris LLP offices worldwide, and Capital One Bank NA. Timothy earned his Bachelor of Arts, concentrating in Printmaking, from Messiah College in 2000. He is also employed by the Barnes Foundation as preparator.

Rona Fisher
Garlic Cloves, 2025
Oil on canvas panel
12" x 15"

Artist Statement

Simplistic, dramatic and graphic, the common objects become important, demanding our attention. Being shown partially, rather than rendered in their entirety, they look big and bold in their small space. The values are rich black through creamy white creating a stark and oddly welcoming landscape. The hues are limited and subtle. The objects themselves create dualities- soft vs sharp, fragile vs strong, transparent vs opaque, familiar yet extraordinary. They are somber yet invitingly full of light.

Artist Bio

Born into a middle-class family in the Philadelphia suburbs to an accountant and an art teacher, my mom, being the art teacher, was an excellent draftsperson and loved making things, but discouraged me from becoming a professional artist. As a young adult, I had one thing in mind only, and that was painting.
After graduating from University of the Arts in 1980, I went along my artistic way, first to San Francisco for 4 years, where I drove a cab and tried to figure out how to have a creative life. I thought, I will need to find a different medium- one that I can support myself with. After experimenting with various mediums, making jewelry became my new passion. After coming back to the states after living in Munich, Germany for 8 years, I spent the past 30 odd years doing just that.
In 2022 the urge to paint again became so strong, it was not to be ignored.
Currently, I am transitioning back to being an artist, soon to be full time.
My kitchen is my painting studio. There I find common objects that pull me in, begging for me to allow them to be shown as something special, even if for just a moment. That is my new mission- through painting to help those who see them to appreciate the seemingly insignificant things, to see them as something rare and beautiful.

Estelle Carraz-Bernabei
Through the Clouds, 2024
Oil & acrylic on canvas
12" x 12"
13.5" x 13.5" (framed)

Artist Statement

"Through the Clouds"
The sun shining through the clouds is a symbol of hope, freedom and limitlessness : a visualization of the vastness of the heavens.

Courtesy of Balance Gallery

Patti Dougherty
Green Star Coral, 2023
Acrylic on paper
5" x 5"

Artist Statement

I use universal symbols like eggs, nests, and marine life to explore the concept of time. The intention is to draw attention to
endangered species and our fragile marine environment. My travels and experiences, especially in Bonaire, influence my work, I use various mediums and materials to capture the intricate beauty of our fragile world.

Artist Bio

My 1860s farmhouse in Elkins Park provides a peaceful, inspiring setting for my work, which blends a love for nature with a passion for nature. After studying glass, ancient civilizations, and the natural world, I started a small business making glass beads and jewelry. Currently, much of my creative focus is on marine life in Bonaire. Where I volunteer as a "reef surveyor" for Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire. Through this role, I observe sea turtles and marine creatures, using these experiences to create paintings and glass works that capture the beauty and fragility of underwater ecosystems. My artwork emphasizes threatened species, environmental challenges, and the intricate details of the seascape.

Kathran Siegel
Snapper, 2024-2025
Acrylic paint on wood
19" x 16" x 4"

Artist Statement

One in a series of works inspired by Asian fans. Mixing 2 and 3 dimensional vocabularies within a culturally familiar format. I saw in these a shaped, uniformly undulating shape against a more dimensional handle.

Artist Bio

Born and raised in New York City, Kathran Siegel attended Bennington College, where she studied painting with Jules Olitsky and Paul Feeley, sculpture with Anthony Caro and David Smith, and printmaking with Vincent Longo. She worked towards an M.F.A. at the University of New Mexico, but at the invitation of Newton Harrison and Paul Brach, (shadow wives: Helen Harrison and Miriam Shapiro) stopped her studies to help develop the program for a new art department at the University of California at San Diego.

While working on an MEd., Siegel took a woodworking class, which led her into 25 years of making studio furniture and other carved and turned objects. Until her retirement from teaching in 2011, she combined her studio practice with teaching art in Florida and in and around Philadelphia, where she currently lives. Her work is in several regional museum and public art collections. She was awarded an NEA Ventures Grant and later an Andy Warhol Foundation Grant. She has published a monograph on the artist, Mildred Thompson, as well as articles on the arts and arts education. Siegel is currently a member of Muse Gallery in Philadelphia.

Lyn Godley
Conflict Zone in Oil_4, 2024
Oil on canvas
9" x 12"

Artist Statement

A sketch in oil, following the Conflict Zone series in watercolors, exploring the space between borders.

Artist Bio

Lyn Godley is a multi-media artist. Her designs, done as a partner of Godley-Schwan (1984-1998) and individually as Lyn Godley Studio (1999-Present), have been exhibited internationally and are in numerous international museums and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art NYC. Since 2000, her studio work has focused on merging light and art, exploring the relationship between art and technology and its impact on the viewer. Her studio practice is linked to her research on how integrating dynamic light in artwork can create a deeper engagement by affecting both the environment and the user. Her work merges painting and new media for public settings. Ultimately, Godley's artwork creates a rhythm and sense of peace to which one can surrender.

In addition to her studio practice, Godley is a full-time Professor of Industrial Design at Thomas Jefferson University, where she has developed cross-disciplinary curricula in Lighting Design with a focus on Light and New Media as Experience. She is also the Director of the Jefferson Center of Immersive Arts for Health, an initiative researching the impact of dynamic light and interactive art on health. She has spoken at National and International conferences on Light and Health, Arts and Health, and Lighting Design Education.

Howard Silberthau
Untitled, 2024-2025
Oil on board
14" x 11" x 1.5"

Artist Bio

I have had several solo shows in Boston and New York and participated in numerous group shows.

I received my undergraduate degree from Vassar College, with a minor in art, and a law degree from New York University School of Law. I later continued to study at New York's Art Student's League and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. I practiced corporate law in New York and Boston before turning to painting full time.

Stephanie Rogers
Gitche Gumee, 2023
Mixed media
40" x 30"

Artist Statement

I begin a painting with a gesture, then on to contemplate composition, form and hue- a meditation of optimistic colorful motion. This painting , Gitche Gumee, evolved into what I imagine may be what the Ojibwe saw when they first encountered their great sea.

Christopher T. Wood
Standard Droppage #20, diptych, 2006
Ink on paper
30.25" x 22.5" x 1"

Artist Bio

Christopher T Wood is an Artist, Designer, Educator, and Pataphysician working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by way of Philadelphia, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. He thrives on collaborations with chance encounters and forces of nature and his endeavors propose imaginary solutions to impossible problems. Recently, Christopher served eight weeks as the 2023 Artist in Residence at The Dome House in Door County, WI, facilitated by the Miller Art Museum, and as the year-long 2022-23 Artist In Residence at Milwaukee's prestigious Pfister Hotel. Other notable residencies have been located in Iceland, Ireland, and Maryland.

With an MFA in Painting and a BFA in Visual Communication Design-Illustration, Christopher has recently shared his expertise through teaching positions at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Architecture and Urban Planning and Peck School of the Arts, as well as at Ripon College. His work, exhibited widely in galleries and museums, is also housed in hundreds of private collections across the United States and several international collections. He is represented at Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art.

Courtesy of Woodmere Art Museum

Bobbie Diamond Adams
Song of China, 2018-2024
Collage, monoprint collagraph, using multiple plates, with handmade pulp painting
41" x 20"

Artist Statement

I observe tiny and intricate details of the world I see, and imagine vast landscapes and endless waters at the same time. My art is intended to suggest that vastness by accumulating many lines and gestures.
This imagery is created using layers of transparent color and a variety of techniques. I love the challenge of all the technical variables, the iterative process and the intensity of the physical labor. I intentionally create art whose subject is open to many interpretations, and have been working in this manner for a very long time.

Artist Bio

Bobbie Adams works in her studio in Tacony, north of Philadelphia. She has had a long career as shop assistant and archives curator in the Printmaking Department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She has a BA in Studio Arts from the University of Rochester and has taken advanced studies at Women's Studio Workshop, Anderson Ranch, Haystack Mountain School of Craft, and MI LAB Japan.

Melinda Steffy
Fugue in C Major (red), No. 1
Watercolor on paper, based on music by J.S. Bach
26" x 34"

Artist Statement

In my "Bach Project" series, I matched the 12 notes of the chromatic scale with 12 hues on a color wheel. Using the mathematical construct of the grid, I translated masterworks by composer J.S. Bach into vibrant color patterns. The music, usually time-based and heard in sequence, becomes spatial, able to be seen all at once. Unexpected patterns emerge, revealing the complexity inherent in the music.

Artist Bio

Melinda Steffy (she/her) centers her creative practice around information and translation - looking at various ways humans communicate and pass along information over time. She develops her own systems for converting music or spoken language into abstract geometric artworks, encoding the data in color and shape. Her artwork has been exhibited at Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Philadelphia & New York), Moore College of Art & Design, Woodmere Art Museum, InLiquid, Philadelphia City Hall, 20*20 House, Rowan University, Villanova University, Finlandia University, and the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, among many others. She was commissioned by Eastern Mennonite University to create 100 paintings based on a Mennonite hymn in honor of their Centennial, by Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church to create a series of works based on J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio, and by Manheim Township Middle School to create a large-scale artwork based on their school song. Melinda currently serves as Co-Executive Director of CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia and runs her own consulting practice, Concentric Strategy.

Erlin Geffrard
From Across the street, 2025
Mixed medium, oil painting on wooden window
28" x 23" x 1"

Artist Statement

"From Across the Street" captures a fleeting yet powerful moment of connection. I witnessed a man and a woman exchanging warm glances, their admiration for each other evident even from a distance. With a playful smile, the woman asked, "Are you flirting from across the street?"-a simple yet profound expression of affection. This piece reflects the beauty of Black love-its spontaneity, tenderness, and the unspoken bond that transcends space. The 1920s wooden window serves as a reminder of the shifting neighborhood demographics, symbolizing the intersection of history, change, and enduring connections.

Edith C. Zapata
Alley, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
28" x 22"

Artist Statement

Alley is 1 of a 7-piece SHELL COLLECTION , inspired by the trip to my native country Caracas Venezuela after 7 years as an immigrant. It is a reflection of the fears, hopes and desires every morning as I begin my journey to work, which would be responsible for paying for my career as a Graphic Designer. Upon returning, stopping at the beginning of this alley, feeling gratitude and admiration for the achievements and different perspectives on life after experiences that would mark my career as an artist.

Artist Bio

Multidisciplinary artist from Venezuela, based in Philadelphia.

Her work is based on generating creative ideas through art and design. His style combines contemporary elements, achieving authentic abstract and expressive works, whether inspired by nature, everyday life, human emotions, or under the instructions of a brief.

Mirjam Seeger
Mont Saint Michel Reflection, 2021
Oil on canvas
30" x 30" x 1.5"

Artist Statement

I work in abstract landscapes which are mostly inspired by my own travels and based on my own photographs. My paintings start as simplified drawings of a landscape photo and evolve into a colored image while working on canvas. All my paintings are originals. The coloring is influenced by my background in glass work. I was a painter of stained glass windows for over 20 years at Willet Stained Glass studio of Philadelphia.

Artist Bio

A painter of both glass and canvas, Mirjam has fused the two painting techniques in all her work.
She was a glass painter for Willet Studio in Philadelphia for 20 years, painting stained glass windows for buildings all over the US. Mirjam left glass painting to dedicate herself exclusively to oil painting.

Being Swiss, she spends considerable time in Switzerland, her country of origin. She derives much of her inspiration for her paintings from the mountains of the Engadin where she has her second home.

Lately her travels to Bolivia, Chile and Death Valley have sparked her fascination with deserts and desert light, which will be the subject matter of her future work.

Eric Kunsman
585.427.9848 - Stoney's Plaza, 2852 West Henrietta Road, Henrietta, NY 14623, 2018
Archival pigment print (lucia print on edition etching rag)
24" x 24"

Artist Bio

Eric holds his MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and holds an MS in Electronic Publishing/Graphic Arts Media, BS in Biomedical Photography, BFA in Fine Art photography, all from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.

Currently, he is a photographer and book artist based out of Rochester, New York. Eric works at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) as an Assistant Professor in the Visual Communications Studies Department at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and is an adjunct professor for the School of Photographic Arts & Sciences.

Michael Grothusen
Shield, with Copper Drain Umbilical, 2024
Hydrostone
26" x 22" x 5"

Artist Statement

A shield is the membrane between interior and exterior. The current body of work, Shields, juxtaposes two basic ideas that are at odds with one another. Shields are an extension and surrogate of the body, a type of body armor or exoskeleton that offer protection during conflict, but behind them is a vulnerable and sentient body.

The shield protects and the umbilical cord that was our original source of life. My work is an investigative process that is rooted in a tactile connection to material. It is diverse in terms of scale, scope, and content.

Artist Bio

Michael Grothusen is a sculptor based in Philadelphia.

His works have been exhibited regionally and nationally including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia International Airport, Eastern State Penitentiary, the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts. He has completed two permanent public commissions for the City of Philadelphia. One person exhibitions include Carnegie Melon University, Drexel University, Bucks County Community College (with Buy Shaver), and Dickinson College.

He has received grants and fellowships from the Pew Fellowships in the Arts, the Pollock/Krasner Foundation and three Individual Artist's Grants from the Pennsylvania State Council on the Arts. He received a BFA in sculpture from the University of Kansas in 1988 and an MFA from Tyler School of Art in 1991. He was a professor of sculpture at the University of the Arts from 1996 until 2024 and is currently on the faculty at Tyler School of Art, Moore College of Art and Design, and Lehigh University.

Sandi Neiman Lovitz
I Hear Red, 2023
Acrylic and red sand on gallery wrapped canvas
24" x 24"

Artist Statement

I was only five years old when I started my journey as an artist. The color of that gorgeous blue robin's egg passed through me like a lightning bolt and opened up my passion for color. My box of crayons became my treasure chest.
That lightning bolt struck again eleven years later when I saw, in person, an abstract painting by Franz Kline at the Carnegie Museum of Art. The power and expression of that painting gave me the
freedom and permission to see beyond the traditional realism I had been taught and explore and push boundaries I never realized were possible.
I paint spontaneously. I react to that first burst of color that I put on the canvas. Further marks and colors are influenced by my visual language, which empowers me to go where words cannot in expressing who I am at my core.
"I paint layers of colors and rhythms that breathe life into my paintings and open up stories for the viewer's imagination and curiosity."
When I paint I feel alive and connected to my true self.

Artist Bio

Sandi Neiman Lovitz graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelor"s degree in Art Education and taught art in the Pittsburgh Public School for a number of years before moving to Philadelphia.
Sandi continued to teach private classes and exhibit her paintings. Her passion for art led into various businesses that all involved the creative process.

AYGZ (Eg-z)
Schrodinger's Candle, 2024
Painting on canvas
42" x 35"

Artist Statement

The desire to connect to something spiritually grater than yourself through liturgy, but not being certain as to what you are in search of

or

The attempt to connect to some TV big larger than yourself spiritually, not knowing fully what's on the other side.

Artist Bio

A graduate from Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University, under the pseudonym AYGZ (Eg-z), Jesse Weinstein has developed a visual language across a wide range of platforms from painting, printmaking, both analogue and digital illustration, has realized two comic books, and his prints have appeared on limited-edition T-shirts and hoodies. He has been profiled in The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Jewish Exponent. He is a recently welcomed member of Inliquid, a gallery and organization having just celebrated 25 years of its contributions to the Philadelphia art scene.

Tom Herbert
Brooklyn Girl, 2017
Mixed
25" x 31"

Artist Bio

Born in Brooklyn N.Y., Tom Herbert earned a BFA from East Carolina University, in Greenville North Carolina, majoring in Graphic Design.
He has lived in the Philadelphia area since college, working in the graphic arts field as a illustrator and designer, and currently pursues fine art on a full time basis. From art school to the present, he has had an abiding interest in collage, mixed media and pen and ink.
He works in abstraction exploring patterns involving horizontal, vertical and diagonal grids. This layering, fracturing, and reassembling of the working surface creates strong graphic images. He works out of his home studio in Jenkintown, and shows his work in local and regional shows.

Erin Elman
Archaic Amphora II, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
20" x 16"

Artist Statement

As a lyrical abstractionist, I incorporate spontaneous expression and illusionary space with obscured objects and implied imagery. I continually seek the moment in my paintings and I am influenced by a pantheon of artists that explore the full range of human emotion and history using color and process that is universally relatable. My practice allows me to balance numerous contradictions I encounter in my daily life: intentionality vs. spontaneity; gesture vs. control; conscious vs. subconscious; materiality vs. the ethereal; representation vs. the evocative; contrived vs. authentic. The works are the evidence of my internal struggles and conversations - languaged through composition, marks, gesture, and color.

Artist Bio

Erin Elman was born in Brooklyn, NY where she was raised by two remarkable New York City public school teachers who exposed their daughters to all of the great art and culture of New York City. She received a BFA in Art from Carnegie Mellon University and also studied in Rome where she fell in love with Etruscan art and ruins. She received an MA in Art Education and an MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking, both from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Elman has artwork in numerous public and private collections, including the Tate London. She lives in a stone cottage in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia with her family.

Darrin Maier
Dream Person 5, 2024
Acrylic paint on stretched canvas
24" x 20" x .75"

Artist Statement

This piece reflects a fusion of abstract and figurative elements, revealing how dream entities manifest and interact within our inner worlds. By blending surreal and visual figures. I aim to provoke introspection and dialogue about the nature of dreams, the human psyche, and the unseen connections that bind us to our deepest selves.

Artist Bio

I am a dynamic artist with a decade of experience in painting, specializing in abstract portraits. My work is distinguished by vibrant colors and an innovative approach to form, capturing the ethereal essence of dreams and memory. Through my use of bold hues and fluid shapes, I explore the intersection between the subconscious and the tangible, creating pieces that invite viewers to delve into the complexities of human emotion and experience. My unique vision offers a fresh perspective on abstract art, inviting an introspective journey through the realms of the imagined and the remembered.

Katy J. May
Portrait in Motion, 2023
Paper collage
26" x 22" x 1"

Artist Statement

Collagist Katy J May creates abstract, close-up portraits utilizing magazine paper and found objects. The color palettes, facial expressions, and interlocking shapes work together to express the inner life of the central person. Utilizing the paper shape and content, monochromatic color palette, and paper placement emphasizes the person's conflicts and preoccupation, lack of concentration and overstimulation. Subtle imagery embedded in or swirling around the faces can illuminate the person's thoughts, feelings, and history. None of the paper fragments were drawn or Xeroxed. All were cut/torn and assembled by hand. This image is a story of a person and their inner life both in a moment and throughout their lifetime.

Artist Bio

Trained in illustration at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Katy J May creates artwork reflective of an illustrator's sense of space and story. Katy J May has been living in northern Virginia, outside Washington, for nearly 20 years. She has shown in galleries in VA, DC, PA and CA and has been published in journals such as University of Pennsylvania's literary journal, XConnect. She is the creative director of Plan B Press, a small poetry publisher.

@kjmaygallery

Nancy Freeman Tabas
Lost Lake, 2023
Oil on canvas
20" x 20"

Artist Statement

Art takes me to a different dimension which is pure joy. I love the process of art and rejoice in every medium I work with; be it oils, pastels, clay, or any other material that will help to translate my idea. My artwork is a projection of my
personality energetic, spontaneous, full of life and passion. Every creation, like every day, is new and exciting to me. People and scenery intrigue me, I love to travel and am always looking for the perfect view or flea market. I like to find worth in the worthless, capture it in paint or recycle it to make it into a prize possession for the
place that is called home.

Artist Bio

Nancy Freeman Tabas an award-winning artist specializing in painting and jewelry
making. Nancy's art creates a visual world of light and color in oil, acrylic, and
encaustic paint. Her jewelry creations focus on vintage jewelry pieces that are
joined with her bead collection and upcycled into a modern design.
Nancy has shown throughout the Delaware Valley and in various locations in Vermont, New York City, and Miami. Her work can be found in collections throughout the United States and Europe.
Tabas' art is inspired by the world around her. She loves to travel and is an avid
hiker, cyclist, treasure hunter, and volunteer. Nancy has served on a multitude ofboards including Universities, Art Centers, and a small middle school in North Philadelphia.

Scott Troxel
Cherry Tree, 2024
Maple wood, spray texture, cherry wood, acrylic paint, clear coat
10" x 7.5" x 2"

Artist Statement

"Cherry Tree" (Small Pops Series) is a modernist, solid wood wall sculpture that brings bold statement to wherever it is placed. The piece has uses a Textured finish (on 2" thick solid maple). The name refers to the repurposed cherry wood accenting the piece.

Artist Bio

Scott Troxel draws on the aesthetics of bygone technology and the forward-looking designs of the Atomic Age and mid-century modernism to make dynamic, retro-futurist wooden sculptures that evoke nostalgia for the past as much as they look to the future.

In his latest body of work termed "Small Pops" (2023-2025), Troxel focuses on smaller, chunky, minimalist inspired work that taps into his mid century modern sensibility. The Small Pops Series uses 2" deep solid wood combined with bold color palettes, wood grain and sometimes
surface textures.

Nhi Vo
Untitled (G1 - G9), 2021
Photo transfers on water color on birch ply
6.5" x 6.5" x 2"

Artist Statement

There is a certain type of discipline present in my work. Laborious repetitions appear to rule the measure of it. Each piece has the image of obsession, a narrative of accumulation of small acts carried out over an extended period of time. The articulation of repeated vocabularies, stories, and definitions often plays in patterns as an exploration of the visual dimension of language. Often, the agglomerate subjects lose their legibility, resulting in an autonomous image(s).

Laura Krasnow
Memory Reclaimed #3, 2015
Digital photography, collage on paper, original print
10" x 10"

Artist Statement

From the series "memories_lost_and-found".
Declarative memory (sometimes referred to as explicit memory) is one of two types of long-term human memory. Declarative memory refers to memories which can be consciously recalled such as facts and knowledge. While declarative memory is similar to explicit memory, declarative memory is memory that a person can state in words, while explicit memory is the deliberate recall of information that the person recognizes as a memory.

Declarative memory can be divided into two categories: episodic memory, which stores specific personal experiences (memories that store chunks of observational information attached to a specific event), and semantic memory (memories that store general factual knowledge that is independent of personal experience) which stores factual information.

Artist Bio

Laura Krasnow, born in New York City, has lived and traveled throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

In addition to being a freelance photographer, she has worked as an assistant editor in feature films, and been trained in film preservation and restoration. Her artwork has been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe, and is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, and The Brooklyn Museum.

Her passion is art, science and technology. After obtaining an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she returned to school to study math, physics and computer science. Laura has attended seminars at the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics, and the Centre for Brain and Mind, both in Canada.

Demetra Tassiou
Plankton, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
21" x 21" x 2"

Artist Statement

Plankton is one of my artworks, part of the series "Elements".
Water element and plankton is small organisms existing into the ocean feeding the larger fish. I want to emphasize the importance of water for nurturing life.

Artist Bio

Tassiou, a Greek-American artist, turns inward to reconstruct her ties to her homeland. Her abstracted, memory-driven compositions layer impressions of natural scenes, offering a dreamlike reimagining of a place both lost and retained in her psyche. Her work invites viewers to consider how landscapes are not merely physical spaces but repositories of identity, nostalgia, and cultural heritage.

Claire Owen
Will You Follow., 2008
Graphite on paper
Framed under plexiglass
21" x 27"

Artist Statement

In my painting I maintain an interest narrative, by exploring cautionary tales once told to children, now carried forward in the fairy tales of children's literature. These tales, she believes, have settled into our collective imagination, remaining with us as adults. We nod with recognition at the twist of fear in the child lost in the forest. We can admire the cunning children use to see themselves safely away from the predators jaws. I often use the forest as a setting for her paintings, and as a character itself. From European folk tales to contemporary literature, the forest remains in our imagination a place where the real and fabled intersect.

Artist Statement

Claire Owen is a painter, and poet, living and working Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received degrees in illustration and printmaking from Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester New York where she grew up. She moved to Philadelphia in 1977 and established her own imprint, Turtle Island Press which produced fine print, limited edition artists books. She taught studio and book arts at Drexel University and Tyler School of Art. Since retiring in 2015 she continues her studio practice in painting, as well as poetry. She is currently a docent at The Rosenbach Museum and Library.

ToyBoxDollz The Art Teacher
Screen Time Zaid
Acrylic paint & augmented reality
Edition 2/4
40" x 16"

(Download the app Pocket AR to view the augmented reality)

Artist Bio

Screen Time Zaid is a powerful painting that portrays a young woman lost in the digital illusion of social media, unable to see the vibrant beauty surrounding her. Her face is veiled by a glowing screen, symbolizing the distractions of the online world, while the background bursts with rich, lively colors she fails to notice. The vivid wonders around her highlights the irony of modern connectivity-where being constantly online can mean missing out on real-life experiences. This piece serves as a poignant commentary on how social media can blind us to the beauty right in front of us. This painting is one of 4 pieces of the 2024 Zaid: VIral collection.

Polly Dressler Bech
Moving Through, 2010
Fiber/art quilt
28" x 30"

Artist Statement

I've been creating most of my life, in one form or another - paintings, clothing, collage, computer graphic art - but I didn't try to make a quilt until I was almost 30 years old. It took me awhile to get the hang of it, since I was raising my children while working on quilts a few hours a week. Something about the whole process of constructing a quilted art piece just worked for me, so I kept working at making them.
Most of my recent pieces have started with solar printing my own fabric. I collect leaves in my yard, or on my walks through town, and take prints of them on fabric. These prints capture the essence of nature for me, because this is my natural world, being surrounded by trees.
A love of, and respect for, the natural world has been a theme in my life and can be seen in my work. I also just love playing with color schemes, light and dark, mixing this traditional art form of quilting with newer surface design techniques.

Clayton Campbell
Almost Arcadia, 2022
Digital art work on archival paper
Artist's proof
17" x 22"

Artist Statement

Almost Arcadia is one of 25 images from a series of digital art works of the same title that explore our national origins of manifest destiny and environment stewardship of nature. The series revises the Emersonian notion of the North American wilderness as the new Arcadia, by juxtaposing inter-relationships of nature, the spiritual, and the political.

Artist Bio

Campbell is an early innovator with photo based technologies including xerox, photostatic printing, and mail art projects. In 1995 he began to work with the first commercially available digital cameras and photoshop software. His digital art, digital photography, and mixed media photo based projects have been exhibited and collected internationally including the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Paris; WYSPA Institute for Art; Gdansk Poland; International Center of Contemporary Art, Bucharest; Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing; University of Capetown, South Africa; Unit 24 Gallery, London; Nam Jun Paik Center, South Korea; Higher Bridges Arts Center, Enniskellen, Northern Ireland; Museum of Mobile, Alabama; Los Angeles Museum of Art; the Wonder Institute, Santa Fe; Vladem Contemporary Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe; The Exploratorium, San Francisco.

Recent projects have been included in The Wrong Bienniale, 2023; Loop Cohort 4 and 6, Miami, 2023; The Eye of Photography, Paris, 2021-2025; Atlas of Affects exhibition at Slought Gallery, Philadelphia, 2022. He currently is collaborating on a new digital art project, Making Our Miracles, with curator Cansu Peker, for the Wrong Bienniale, 2025.

Jon Manteau
Cultural Appropriation (Exhibit One), 2025
House paint and spray paint on carved African mask
24" x 8" x 4.5"

Artist Bio

Jon Manteau was born in 1963, just outside of Philadelphia. He spent his formative years as a "Philadelphian", living in various parts of the city. His mother taught him to draw, bestowing upon him "the gift". His stepfather taught him the values of hard work and discipline. While in high school his passions were comic books, graffiti, visual art, music, baseball and girls. After high school, Manteau moved to New York City, where he studied at Parsons School of Design and the New School for Social Research.

Manteau moved back to Philadelphia and completed his undergraduate studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (in 1987). He then spent the next 7 years moving back and forth, between New York City, Brooklyn, Hoboken and Philadelphia. He received his Masters of Fine Arts degree, in 1996, from the University of Delaware.

He has taught at the University of Delaware, Temple/Tyler University and as an Associate Teaching Professor of Studio-Art/Liaison to Studio-art at Penn State University Brandywine. He has been a college professor for 30 years. Manteau has had 11 solo exhibitions in the last 18 years. He's exhibited nationally and his works are in collections, throughout the United States and Canada. He has been a working artist for over 40 years. Jon lives and works in Philadelphia.

Patrick Hay
Mean View, 2024
Mixed media painting and assemblage
9" x 7" x .5"

Artist Statement

I am an artist and art teacher living and working in Delaware County PA. As an artist and a teacher It's my belief that everyone should make something. These are the things I have made. My work, in any medium, is primarily about storytelling. It is my intention that one of your stories connects with one of my images. It is that connection that gives my work meaning. Have fun looking. I hope you find one of your own stories!

Courtesy of Patrick Michael Accessories

T.W. Moore
Embodied, 2022
Photography, archival pigment print
17.5" x 21.75"

Artist Statement

My current work originates from a continued interest in men - their bodies, personas, desires, tensions, and intimacy. My approach includes juxtaposing the figures, both current and from my archives, with other elements to stimulate new narratives. These images are matched, often by chance, to further explore visual relationships that transcend time and space.

Artist Bio

T.W. Moore is currently based in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware after many years in Philadelphia. In addition to his art practice, he has taught photography at the University of the Arts, curated photography exhibits, and fundraised for several non-profit organizations. He has served on the boards of AIDS Delaware, Tilt Institute for the Contemporary Image, The Photo Review, and The Print Center.

Drew Callaghan
Essence of a Woman, 2006
Digital photography
18" x 24"

Artist Statement

For too long, the female form has been reduced to an object-fragmented, idealized, and stripped of depth. Men, conditioned by a culture that prioritizes aesthetics over essence, often fail to see the full scope of a woman's presence: her intelligence, her confidence, her lived experience. My work seeks to challenge that perspective by portraying women as they are-whole, unapologetic, and entirely in control of their own image.

In this portrait, an accomplished journalist and social media writer sits nude in an empty room, bathed in golden light. Her presence is undeniable, her posture relaxed yet self-possessed. With her feet propped on a radiator and smoke curling around her, she is neither posed for approval nor performing for the viewer. She simply is-a woman comfortable in her own skin, her intellect and confidence as integral to her beauty as the body she inhabits.

Artist Bio

Drew Callaghan discovered photography at the age of 14 through his father, a gifted amateur photographer who introduced him to the art of composition, the mechanics of the camera, and the magic of the darkroom. Those early lessons-learning to process black and white photographs, watching images emerge in the developer tray-instilled a deep appreciation for the craft and a lifelong passion for capturing the world through a lens.

Diane Lachman
Orbit, 2022
Photograph printed on metal with protective surfacing
Edition 1/6
12" x 18"

Artist Statement

My photographic pandemic project began in March 2020, when we were sheltering at home. Looking through the lens of the camera inspired me to escape the reality and isolation of the pandemic. As I photograph the prisms, the refraction of light creates natural colors and reflections with the rays of the sun. Reflection is a property of light, but it is also time to question and examine my thoughts and surroundings. Changing my viewpoint completely changes what I see. In my studio, I noticed a shift in my perspective. While color and light remain my source of inspiration, I work with freedom and awareness in expressing personal emotions and reactions to world events through my art.

Artist Bio

Diane Lachman's inventive abstract paintings and photographs emphasize the expressive power of color. She studied at RISD and earned her BFA and MFA from the School of Design at University of Pennsylvania, where she taught Color Theory and Drawing from 1993 to 2014. Her work has been the subject of fourteen solo shows. In 2024, she had her second solo photography exhibit, "Kaleidoscope," at Muse Gallery in Philadelphia. Her vibrant photographs capture the refraction of natural light through prisms.

She is a member Muse Gallery and was the director from 2019 through 2022. Lachman's paintings are represented in numerous private and corporate collections including New York Presbyterian Hospital, The Student Center at Temple University, Park Towne Place in Philadelphia, and Lankenau Hospital.

@dianelachman

Chris Macan
Chester county fields, 2000
Color infrared photograph
13.5" x 16"

Artist Statement

This image if from my series of colour infrared photographs. I have long been interested in studying the landscape through a mix of visible and non visible light, and find the false colours created in this process to be both fascinating and beautiful.

Artist Bio

Chris Macan in a photographer with a strong interest in utilizing alternative, obsolete, and low tech processes in the creation of his artwork.

Jed Williams
Oshun's Lair, 2024
Oil, acrylic sharpie/mixed/collage on canvas
32" x 42"

Artist Statement

This work, "Oshun's Lair"was part of an exhibit at my studio (JWS) focused on the spiritual aspect of Yoruba culture. I first became interested in the Yoruba culture because I have several friends in Philadelphia who are of Yoruba heritage; moreover a philosopher friend of mine shared an essay inspired by aspects of Yoruba culture, gods and beliefs. This essay dovetailed with my fascination with mythology, legends, and spirituality in general. I should also like to inspire viewers to start their own inquiries and research into African cultures and the legends previously unknown to them.

Artist Bio

Jed was born in Philadelphia, USA, in 1975 and brought up in Paris, France; he is a French and American dual citizen now based in Philadelphia, USA. Jed comes from an artistic background-his father was the celebrated poet C.K Williams and his mother is a jeweler. A noted and prolific Philadelphia painter, Jed graduated from the University of the Arts (BFA in Painting and Drawing, 2000) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Certificate in Painting, 2005), both located in Philadelphia. Since graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy he has been exhibiting his work in both solo and group capacity in many different venues in Philadelphia, Phoenixville , New Jersey, New York City, Brooklyn, Miami, Portland OR and other cities. Jed also has had work in private collections in the US, France and Eastern Europe; and one of his paintings was acquired Ruttenberg Center for Autism.And, from 2010 to 2020.

Bethanne Frazer
Red Swingline, Ode to Milton, Paradise Found, No.1., 2025
Conte crayon, Block printing ink, blood, acrylic paint, acrylic medium varnish on Gessoed wood pane
10" x 8"

Artist Bio

Bethanne Frazer is a native Brooklyn, NYer and has resided in Philadelphia for the past 10 years. Frazer attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Thomas Jefferson University and CUNY Brooklyn College. Bethanne is a visual artist, painter, printmaker, photographer and videographer. Bethanne is a psychotherapist and art therapist in private practice.

Donna Backues
Mountain Spirit, 2016
Acrylic, watercolor, ink, gouache, graphite on birch board
26" x 26"

Artist Statement

Imagined Landscapes

This peice is part of a larger body of work titled Imagined landscapes. These are inner landscapes of the mind and memory but still inspired by real places in the world. Mountain Spirit was painted after a trip to Taos, New Mexico. In the sky there is a reference to Van Gogh's Starry Night.

Artist Bio

Donna Backues has a BA in Studio Art & Graphic Design from Southern Illinois University, an MFA from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and an MA in Urban Studies and Community Arts from Eastern University. Donna lived in Indonesia for 18 years working as an artist, a teaching artist, and as a grassroots community development practitioner using her art in various capacities. Her work included founding a community preventative health training program and partnering with local artisans to design indigenous products for export to support small home industries.
Since moving to Philadelphia, Donna has worked as a painter, illustrator, community artist and teaching artist. Currently she is the Community & Family Wellness Coordinator for a non-profit working with the Asian immigrant and refugee population in Philadelphia. Donna taught for The Mural Arts Program and The Village of Arts and Humanities. She has been awarded artist residencies through the Philadelphia Art Museum's Delphi Art Futures & Art Partners program, Rutgers Camden Center for the Arts, Fleisher Art Memorial and Spiral Q.

Orlando Saverino-Loeb
Tile Study #3, 2003
Acrylic and charcoal on canvas
13" x 27"

Artist Bio

Orlando Saverino-Loeb is a Philadelphia born artist. His work is influenced by surrealist imagery, the compositions in 19th century Romanticism paintings, and extended stays in Italy. He deconstructs the environments he's experienced, and rebuilds them as reflections on humans and their activities. He uses characters, symbols, and visual metaphors to create a sense of familiarity that facilitates the creation of unique new ideas and insights in the mind of his viewer.

Cathleen Hughes
Solar Angle 4, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
40" x 16"

@cathleenhughesart

Christina Penrose
Picasso and his shelved wives and mistresses, 2017
Gouache/ Japanese paper, photography, collage on canvas
12" x 12"

Artist Statement

My paintings are subconsciously motivated images provoking a beginning. "If you know exactly what you're going to do, what is the point of doing it?" is a quote from Picasso, which I very much agree with. My imagery and color are a result of experimenting with various transfer methods, collage and paint application. This process inspires underlying themes, which are at times autobiographical, political, environmental, or mystical. Another source of inspiration comes from painting the landscape, especially when I travel. Painting the landscape keeps my eye in tune with the natural elements, and in turn is revisited later as a resource for work in the studio.

Artist Bio

Born in São Paulo , Brazil
PAFA 1975-79
Cleveland Institute of Art (Lacoste, Provence. France) 1981 1883
University of the Arts (BFA) 1990

@tinux301

Dianne Koppisch Hricko
Orb
Encaustic
9" x 11"

Artist Statement

One of my few encaustic works, Orb continues my exploration of layering, this time with pigments, wax, and sheer printed organza. I'm drawn to the interplay of opacity and translucency, as well as the textural possibilities of the surface. The addition of metallic pigment adds a compelling dimension, and working with colored wax to build the image was an exciting process.

Artist Bio

Dianne Koppisch Hricko is a printmaker and painter and textile artist. She exploits the layered transparency possible in these mediums building rich and ambiguous surface. Color has always been a driving force in her work. Dianne maintains a studio in the Crane Arts building, lives in Philadelphia with the printmaker

Richard Hricko
Ombre II, 2020
Etching, chine colle
Artist's proof
16" x 15"

Artist Statement

My work presents composite views that honor nature, industry and the course of growth, decay and recovery. Dense compositions seamlessly synthesize acts of observation and imagination, offering a glimpse into the struggle between the natural and built environment. A democratic organization of imagery argues that both can flourish in a symbiotic way.

Each work represents a self-sustaining microcosm, conveying the awe-inspiring stamina and tenacity of nature that is even more poignant in the urban environment. The assembled elements are indigenous, unexotic plants and objects that may also serve as metaphors for the spirit of the post-industrial neighborhood. Castoffs are reworked to transform the common into the precious and evoke the resilience of nature and the human struggle to sustain itself in spite of great obstacles.

Artist Bio

Hricko received his BFA in Printmaking and Painting from Rochester Institute of Technology and his MFA in Printmaking from Tyler School of Art and Architecture of Temple University. In 2020, he retired from his position as Professor and Program Head of Printmaking at Tyler. In the early 2000s, he co-founded Crane Arts in Kensington, Philadelphia, where he currently maintains his studio.

Nicolas Tosi
granit blocks, 2004
Canson platine fiber

Edition 1/20
24" x 18"

Artist Bio

Nicolas Tosi is a French photographer renowned for his work in interior design and travel. Born in Paris, France, he currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with various French magazines, contributing to publications such as Elle Décoration and Marie Claire Maison.

Eva Shelley
Pastel pink floral with black and white, 2025
Borosilicate glass
5" x 5" x 8"

Artist Bio

Once you find something that truly moves you, if can enhance your personal life, encourage you to grow, and leave you wanting more. That's what glass does for me. It's my first love. It's given me life and joy. And I know that comes through in my work.
My name is Eva Shelley and I've been working with glass since 2000. I started by taking private lessons at the Crefeld School, a private high school in Philadelphia. I then took individual glass classes at Salem Community College in New Jersey. From there, I attended Temple University's Tyler School of Art, majoring in glass, and graduating in 2005 with a bachelor of fine arts (BFA). My focus at Tyler was furnace work, and I also learned both hot and cold casting, as well as fused and slumped glass.
Since graduating, I have been a freelance glass artist, creating glass art and glass jewelry. I've worked on a variety of different projects including pieces of jewelry for loved ones, glass sculptures for events, and company gifts for employees.

Liddy Lindsay
AVA Firebirds, 2024
Gouache (digital print)
16" x 16"

Artist Statement

The AVA Firebird is a painting inspired by the mosaic in the Theater of the Academy of Vocal Arts.

Artist Bio

Liddy Lindsay is a Philadelphia based artist. Lindsay attended Tyler School of Art and the Academia of Belle Are in Perugia, Italy, During a 25 year decorative painting career that includes murals painted for the Reading Terminal Market, Winterthur Museum and the Ebeneezer Maxwell Mansion. In 2010 Liddy Lindsay created the Opera A-Z which is available as a print, scarf. It is also a book- The Opera A-Z, A Beginner's Guide to Opera.

YoannyAR
Equilibrio, 2013
Photograph
Edition 2/15
12" x 18"

Artist Statement

Work with photography, video and performance dealing with topics about the plasticity of the individual identity and the effects of the social and political environment on the individual.

Materializing and embodying psychological states, Aldaya cuts, hides or disables the figures and forms, linking materiality and texture in a constant manipulation and transformation of that which portrays. His work uses references from religious iconography where we find rituals, sacred objects and representation of deities that are presented formally or metaphorical. The theatricality and the capacity for the hybridization of the self also play a role very important in his work where matter and the body become battlefields in the creation of individual, social, political and cultural identity.

@yoannyaldayaramirez

B. B. Olshin
CANNED ART - Canned Couture, 2025
Mixed media
8" x 24" x 6"

Artist Statement

"Canned Couture" is a set from a large collection of pieces that are indeed "canned art" - recycled metal food cans are used by the artist to "host" small scenes, constructed with watercolour, craft paper, and other materials. The pieces use irony (e.g., in the "canned fish" works) and humour, combined with the idea of playing with scale and choices of material, to engage viewers and ask them to think further about how art can appear in many different settings and contexts. One of these pieces was recently published in a French magazine, and the works have proved popular to audiences locally, as well. In "Canned Couture", I am experimenting again with alliterative titles, and also seek to capture - well, to "can" - some interesting aspects of couture or fashion. Here, we have a canned "catwalk" with a model in the latest fashion, as well as a canned shoemaker, dressmaker, and haberdasher: all the ingredients for a successful bit of haute couture... in a can.

Artist Bio

Olshin completed his M.A. and Ph.D. in the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (I.H.P.S.T.), at the University of Toronto, in September of 1993. His dissertation involved the history of cartography, examining early maps and sea charts. During these years, he also completed a series of watercolors in Toronto, did design and drafting work for an architecture firm in São Paulo, Brazil, and worked for an architecture atelier in Tokyo, Japan, designing, drafting, building architectural models, and doing restoration work. He also travelled through other parts of Japan during this period, and then journeyed to Hong Kong and Tahiti, doing numerous sketches, watercolors, and oil paintings.

Richard Metz
Elderly Oak Leaf, 2010
Egg tempera, damar, soil, pigment and gum arabic
20" x 16"

Artist Statement
Old Brown Leaf is from a series of leaf/face paintings done with experimental techniques. The concept was to push, in an intuitive way, a closeness with the land, the soil, and the flora.
This is done both with the image, a combination of a dried oak leaf, taken from the Wissahickon watershed, where I live and a human face, as suggested by the leaf form. This was also done with the medium, in which I created my own paint with both the soil where I was living, and also natural pigments and natural mediums like gum arabic and damar.
The resulting piece is intended to evoke an intensity of living, an expressive emotion from this strange creature that may physically exist somewhere, but certainly does inside me.

Artist Bio

Richard Metz is a 65 year old artist, writer, husband, father, environmentalist, and former art teacher. He has a BFA from Tyler School of Art and an MFA from Maine College of Art. He has been making work and showing in the Philadelphia area for 40 years. He has worked in a range of mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, performance art, costumes, and ephemeral outdoor painted installations. He has been selected for many art residencies around the country. His art work has appeared in almost a dozen literary magazines. Recently, he published a book of poems and paintings titled " A murder of Crows".
Richard has worked with Carl Cellini and Mikel Elam as the Kindred Art Collaborative for 3 years.

Su Knoll Horty
Color Pops 18, 2016
Oil on canvas
16" x 20"

Artist Statement

The sensation of color, the lushness of oil paints, the thrill of creating, and the surprise of abstraction are what drive me to paint--Add drama to the canvas, and I'm hooked!
At the inception of my paintings, I select colors inspired by nature, random places, or other artists' paintings, whatever catches my eye, stirs my curiosity, or challenges me.
I explore fluidity, in all its measures: organic form, undulating movement, saturated 'liquid' color, and stylized gestural marks. It's through this fluidity that I find color to be most expressive. Color relationships are very important to me, as are tonal variations. I place color next to color, with the goal of finding just the right combination so that each will make the other shine, or as in this series, "Pop!"

Artist Bio

In 2012, Su completed the CE Core Curriculum Program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Pafa). Su continues to study with Abstract teachers, Kassem Amoudi, and various instructors at The Art Students League of New York. Su has been published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Wild Roof Journal, The Woven Tale Press, as well as being interviewed on ArtWatch and Morning Edition radio.
Su is a member of The Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Su is also a member of the Philadelphia Sketch Club where she received two Honorable Mention awards for her entries in the Absolutely Abstract shows, in 2012 and 2013, as well as being a juror in the 2015 Absolutely Abstract show.
Su exhibits regularly and has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows.

Connor Kirk
It is not Dirty, it is Filthy, 2024
Oil pastel and charcoal on paper
30 x 20"

Artist Statement

This work draws inspiration from ancient Bantu "Garbage Event Rituals," in which performers would enact poetical "defenses" of trash. First, a large field would be covered in thick layers of village waste. Performers would then act out pre-written critiques and defenses of the contents in the field.

Sample defenses:
Critic: "This place is dirty."
Defense: "It is filthy."
Critic: " Why don't you clean it up?"
Defense: "We like it the way it is."

This work was made using discarded packing paper found on the side of the road as its starting point.
It is the sacred duty of the artist to defend the beauty of the world. When things are given no value, we reach down, pick them up, and recognize them as precious.

Artist Bio

Of my earliest childhood memories, one of the most vivid is, while playing with paper and pencil, accidentally drawing what I perceived to look like a little bird. The picture was absolutely simple, composed of one long curved line enclosed at the "beak." Yet it seemed to me like it might at any moment fly right off the page.
Since the drawing came about spontaneously, I immediately became taken with the idea of repeating/recreating it. I filled page after page attempting to capture the essential beauty and purity of that first "chance" drawing, but each attempt came up short.
Perhaps in some strange way, I've still been trying ever since.

In my early teens, I began to compose and perform music, eventually studying formally at Franklin & Marshall college where I received a Bachelors of Music in 2022.
It was there where I developed a deep fascination with the artistic avant-garde, discovering the works of artists like John Cage, Laurie Anderson, Duchamp, Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns. Artists who blurred the lines between artistic mediums and life itself.

Since graduating, I've continued my work as a multimedia artist, producing bodies of work such as the 2023 conceptual album/novella "The Burning of Hunger City" and a stream of visual works consisting of videos, photographs, drawings, paintings, and assemblages. In addition to this, I write consistent essays and poems exploring artistic philosophy for my Substack, the "On Fire Diaries."

My latest body of work, an installation entitled "Ten Invisible Drawings" premiered at Barshinger Center, Franklin & Marshall College on November 9th, 2024. Another showing at the college is already scheduled for early 2025.

Sharon Bloomfield Hicks
Yin and Yang 9, 2021
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 20"

Artist Statement

"Yin and Yang 9" is a work from my yin and yang series which includes paintings, fiber, and mixed media works. The project began when I noticed that shapes in my paintings resembled those in the yin/yang symbol. At the same time, I noticed my creative process alternated between opposing periods of struggle and periods of ease which related to the push and pull of yin and yang energies running parallel in my health and life. The relationship of yin and yang is one of opposites. According to Chinese medicine health requires a balance of yin and yang energies, or harmony. For the project, I alternated between painting and fiber, hand-stitching and tufting machine, slow and fast, intuitive and planned processes. When each work was complete every color and shape belonged, creating a new balance and harmony.

Artist Bio

Sharon Bloomfield Hicks is a Philadelphia-based artist and member of the Portuguese-Jamaican diaspora. Her work is distinguished by bold color combinations, large shapes and active figure-ground relationships. While informed by in-depth studies at the Barnes Foundation including paintings by Matisse, Modigliani, and Picasso; her aesthetic sensibilities often reflect her Caribbean roots. Training at the Fabric Workshop and Museum plus graduate studies at Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science contribute to the graphic nature of her style. Adhering to a belief in the interconnection between art and healing, she uses fiber and paint to create fresh uplifting work which expresses the harmony and well-being she desires to see in the world.

James B Abbott
Tuscan Landscape in Moonlight, 2024
Photography
Artist proof, pigment ink print on moab metalic paper
12" x 9"

Artist Statement

For over ten years I have taught and photographed in Italy working on several bodies of work at the same time. From the small Tuscan town I was based in I would approach the surrounding landscape differently each year. This image is the begining of my newest approach to this landscape which is to work after sunset with only the moon as the primary source of illumination.

Artist Bio

Bio James B Abbott Photographer
James B Abbott, a photographer, arrived in Philadelphia in 1981 and, from his first loft seventy five feet from the Ben Franklin Bridge began photographing the bridge and its neglected riverfront neighborhood.
Abbott graduated from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI, and over the course of thirty years has received numerous, grants, awards, residencies, commissions, and maintained a freelance photography practice. His fellowships include two Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Fellowship Awards, a fellowship with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, 2013 Artist fellowship from the Independence Foundation for his Berlin: Landscape of Memory Project. In 201. Past appointments include serving as
photographer to the Stieglitz Center at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gallery Director for Aperture's Burden Gallery and Exhibit231, as well as teaching at the Penland School of Crafts, University of the Arts, Philadelphia University, and Tyler School of Arts. And for the last ten years Abbott had been teaching in the Italy Intensives Program of East Carolina University in Certaldo, Italy.

Sarah Peoples
American Still Life with buttered toast, apricot, white sand and rock, 2025
Plaster, epoxy clay, ash, bone, resin, glue, paint, sand, found objects
16" x 9.75" x 3.5"

Artist Statement

"American Still Life with buttered toast, apricot, white sand and rock" is part of a larger body of work inspired by Dutch Vanitas Still Life paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries. These historically significant paintings relied on symbolism to serve as a reminder of the transience of life and the importance of leading a virtuous and pious existence. The "American Still Life" sculpture's detailed composition and dedication to realism has a cinematic effect; the top half strives for a manifest destined perfection, while the lower half of the piece depicts decay. Yet, both behold contrary symbols depending on the viewers perspective. An intense preoccupation with symbolism has led to a menagerie of thematic choices such as the two pieces of "toast" being crafted from ash and bone.

Artist Bio

Sculptor Sarah Peoples from Philadelphia makes thought-provoking works and with community involvement. She holds a certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and a BS from the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated with a Masters degree from PAFA in 2012. Peoples has exhibited her work in prestigious galleries and museums worldwide, including AUTOMAT Collective in Philadelphia, PEEP Space in Tarrytown, NY, and MWoods in Beijing, China, where her work is part of the museum's permanent collection. Her talent was recognized with the 2018 Fleisher Art Memorial Wind Challenge award.

Bettina Clowney
Teapot
Watercolor and pencil
13" x 18.5"

Artist Bio

Bettina was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1946, the daughter of Air Force colonel Stewart Scull and office manager Helen Balmer Scull. She fell in love with painting and art history as a child. She graduated from Temple University's Tyler School of Art and went on to exhibit new work almost every year of her adult life. Bettina often said she painted because she had to. In mid-career, she spent 14 years studying iconography from a Russian master, and subsequently created traditional and modern icons for churches and collectors alike. Her work is in collections around the globe.

Margery Amdur
Sliver #1, 2025
Digitally printed textiles, wire, thread
9" x 36"

Artist Statement

The sewing machine, my current tool of choice, serves as a drawing vehicle and a means of attaching layers of fabric. By adjusting the machine's tensions, the threads respond by forming glitches. At first glance, they may appear as blemishes; however, upon closer inspection, the embellishments and details work together to create highly intricate and ornate surfaces that are primarily abstract.

Artist Bio

Margery Amdur has been creating site-specific installations for over thirty years. Originally from Pittsburgh, she earned her B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University and her M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work has been featured and reviewed in national and international publications such as Sculpture Magazine, New American Paintings, Fiber Arts, and Creative Practices for Visual Artists. In addition to more than sixty solo exhibitions, Margery completed fourteen national and international projects between 2017 and 2024.

Shanti Hands
BURLS, 2024
Acrylic on fabric
15.5" x 13.25"

E. Sherman Hayman
Hot Diggity - Warhol
Sgraffito and mixed media
17" x 14"

Artist Statement

Working on the series "Hot Diggity - Yoshi" saved my sanity, after our beloved terrier died unexpectedly many years ago, as I did 7 iterations of him, depicting him as different dogs I have known... This particular piece is the Andy Warhol version!

Artist Bio

E. (Mur) Sherman Hayman is a Philadelphia-based mixed media artist who specializes in the technique of sgraffito: multi-layering of wax/oil crayons and iridescent oil pastels, then using various tools to scratch through, thus creating texture, pattern, and some pretty innovative colors. She uses black museum board as a base, and often incorporates manipulated balsa wood for added dimension.

Pia De Girolamo
Fontana e Pino, 2019-2020
Acrylic
13" x 13" (framed)

Artist Statement

Fontana e Pino is part of a larger series of work made after I a long stay in Rome several years ago. I aimed to project the essence of place using interacting forms and color combinations. In the case of the Roman and Italian urban landscape, these forms encompass a variety of geometric shapes, including apartment blocks, triangular roofs, and domes but there is also an interplay with natural forms like the iconic umbrella pines and other trees that line the street or are found in the parks.

Artist Bio

I am a painter whose primary medium is acrylic on canvas. I live in the Greater Philadelphia area. I produced work for 15 solo exhibitions, most recently at Cerulean Gallery in Philadelphia December 2024, and notably, at the Museo Mastroianni of the Musei di San Salvatore in Lauro, Rome in October 2018. I received a BA in Art History with a concentration in Architecture from Barnard College, Columbia University and an MD degree from the University of Rochester. I lecture on the intersection between Art and Medicine and the interrelationship of Art, Nature and Health.

Susan Wallack
Self-Portrait With Obstacles, 2023
Mixed media
11" x 14"
16" x 20" (framed)

Artist Statement

The mystery of "Self-Portrait With Obstacles" is that I cannot say with certainty what about myself I've divulged or hidden. It is a choice in my work to keep the images unbound, and open to interpretation.

williamCromar
utah variation series (set of 7), 2024
PETG 3D Print
3" x 3" x 5.25"

Artist Bio

William Cromar is an artist and educator based in Philadelphia. He hybridizes a peculiar past in architecture, music, animation and artmaking into a unique body of sculptural and installation art. Largely by exploring spatial psycho-perception, this work develops paradoxical manifestations the human need for, and perhaps the futility of, finding order. He was one of three collaborators who received a Silver Medal at the 1983 International Biennial of Architecture in Sofia, Bulgaria for the film order through geometry, produced with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1995 he was awarded an exhibition in the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial's Challenge Exhibitions, a prestigious regional competition sponsored by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He was selected as a Finalist for the Pew Fellowships in the Arts in 2000.In the past 20 years he has shown nationwide, freelanced as a successful architectural modeling consultant, taught and lectured at the University of Pennsylvania, served as Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture at Philadelphia University, and was a visiting critic at Wesleyan University. williamCromar currently coordinates the Penn State Abington College Art Program, where he also teaches new media, encouraging future artists to create senseless acts of beauty on the Mackintosh.

Sarah Zwerling
River, night, 2012
Archival print
10" x 23.7" (framed)

Artist Statement

With digital photography and printing, this image captures the beauty of the Schuylkill River at dusk, where the sun shimmers on the water's surface.

Artist Bio

Sarah Zwerling is a Philadelphia-based multidisciplinary artist who explores her personal relationship with the natural and built environment through processes of photo collage, sculpture, and installation. Zwerling received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and her BA from the San Francisco State University. She is the recipient of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship and The Leeway Foundation grant. In addition to exhibition projects, she has completed site-specific commissions, including a large installation at the Philadelphia International Airport that captures the distinct result of the joint ownership of twin homes in Philadelphia. In 2018, Comcast Center Campus installed Zwerling's Connection, a site-specific digital photo collage, a sequential, panoramic photo series of Philadelphia neighborhoods. In 2024, the Comcast Center commissioned another installation,
Shift, a multi-layer print on glass.

Phyllis Gorsen
Pink Flower, 2025
Mixed media on canvas
6" x 6"

Artist Statement

Flowers capture the raw beauty and energy of nature. They celebrate the spontaneity and enchantment that the natural world offers. Through this piece, I aim to highlight the serene energy of nature, with the juxtaposition of colors and shapes reflecting the tranquil yet dynamic elements of the landscape. The flowers convey the joy and peace that nature inspires, inviting the viewer to pause and appreciate the intricate beauty found within the wild.

Artist Bio

Phyllis Gorsen, born in Philadelphia, PA, received her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 2014. Her work has been exhibited nationally, including galleries and museums in New York, Philadelphia, and California. Her recent exhibitions include a solo public art exhibition at the New York Port Authority and a two person show at James Oliver Gallery and solo show at Boston Street Gallery in Philadelphia. She has also curated several exhibitions in the Philadelphia region. Over the last couple of years, Gorsen has been featured in many publications including: The Jealous Curator, The Philadelphia Inquirer, ArtBlog and Create! Magazine. She has also been featured on The Inspired Painter and Arts to Hearts Project podcasts. Many of her paintings are in collections throughout the United States. Gorsen currently works out of her studio in Philadelphia.

Barbara Schulman
Classic, 2020
Mixed media textile assemblage
16" x 16"