Ada Trillo
On My Way To America
2020
Archival Pigment Print
40" x 26" x 0.75"
Edition 3 of 5

Gallery affiliation James Oliver Gallery

About the work
Over the last five years, I have documented the journeys of Central American refugees as they reach the Mexico/U.S. border. While the media often covers what is happening at the border, they frequently overlook the individual trials, struggles, and humanity of those seeking to escape violence in pursuit of a better life. Spending countless days and nights living alongside those I photograph, I hope to present an honest, unadulterated view of migrant life. It's critical to unveil individual journeys and explore why people have to leave their homes. If presented with the opportunity to exhibit at OyG, I would hope to create a space for engaging dialogue, where people can come to a better understanding of migrant life, and empathize with the stories being told. Although a great victory was achieved when Biden won the presidency, this country is still very divided and the significance of this topic remains crucial. Through the simple act of spreading awareness, I feel confident that we as a country and community can progress towards real change, where all human beings are treated as such, and white supremacy is eradicated.

About the Artist

Ada Trillo is a Philadelphia-based photographer, native to the Juarez-El Paso binational metroplex. In her work, she focuses on borders of inclusion and exclusion as they are experienced through people in sex trafficking, climate and violence-related international migration, and long-standing borders of race and class. Through the elements of documentary and fine art photography, Trillo lays bare our common humanity and dignity and brings attention to the impact borders have on exploited and marginalized people by amplifying their voices. Trillo's work is in the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She is the recipient of the Female In Focus 2020 best series award, and was recently featured in The Guardian, Vogue, Smithsonian Magazine, and Mother Jones, among other publications. She has also been awarded The Me & Eve Grant with the Center of Photographic Arts in Santa Fe and received First Place in Editorial with the Tokyo International Foto Awards. Trillo has exhibited both nationally and internationally in New York City, Philadelphia, Luxembourg, England, Italy, and Germany. She holds degrees from the Istituto Marangoni in Milan and Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Val Rossman
A Relative Matter
2015
Acrylic on dibond
24" x 24"
Courtesy of Gross McCLeaf Gallery

About the Work:

Color?..I think in color and remember in color. CoIors are my way of accessing places, people, experiences and feelings. I recall rooms from my childhood, which are glimpsed through the colors in the paintings. I try to make sense of the world by creating balance in my paintings using color harmonies.? sometimes muted and at other times bold. My art is a chaotic blend of chance and careful planning which is an apt metaphor for life. Each painting is a map leading to an adventure of color, mark and space.

These paintings have multiple layers and I never really know when one will be completed until the very end. While painting I feel like I am traveling through and around the painting being directed by something within the work's magic. When a painting is complete every shape, color, mark and texture has a sense of belonging to the whole. The balance between the expressionistic marks in unexpected places and the slicker geometric shapes is necessary in creating a complex surface. The individual shapes teeter against one another and push and pull with each other. It's interesting how sometimes the smallest mark or line will make a big difference in the total painting. Juxtaposing the line of colored rectangles remind me of a child's board game and provide avenues of moving from place to place within each painting. I love that there is a sense of whimsy even though the work is filled with hard edges.

About the Artist:

Val Rossman has been working as a professional artist for over 30 years. During her career she has had more than 21 one-person shows and been in numerous group shows in Philadelphia, Delaware, New Jersey, Florida and New York. She has won several prizes, including the Award for Excellence at The State Museum of Pennsylvania, and at the Cheltenhan Art Center Annual Painting Show. In addition, she has been on the faculty of Main Line Art Center for the past 20 years as a teacher of abstract art. She has lectured at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and done a workshop at the River Arts Center in Vermont. 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 and Hebrew University.

Val Rossman has been creating drawings and paintings in her studio in Philadelphia for the last 30 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 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.

Sam Nejati
The Solace of Silence
2020
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 20"

FMV: $3,200

About the work

In my work, I seek to externalize the internal realm and the spiritual elements of human existence by visualizing and defining a sense of space, mood, and atmospheric themes

About the artist

Sam Nejati was born and raised in Tehran. He attended the Tehran Visual Academy of Arts. In 1999 he moved to Los Angeles and Later on to San Francisco Bay area. He eventually went on to study art at San Francisco State University (SFSU). Since his graduation in 2012, he has been living and pursuing his painting practice in the San Francisco Bay area.

Nejati creates paintings that seek to externalize the internal realm and spiritual elements of human existence through timeless and universal themes. His work explores the interplay of the cognitive and the spiritual. Nejati's paintings are predominantly atmospheric. They contain the contrary concepts of flatness and depth, solidity and fluidity, permanence, and transience to evoke emotions and create certain moods. He explores these contrary experiences as a way to imbue a physical presence.

Nejati has exhibited mainly in the United States, and his work has been written about extensively, most notably in Works & Conversations, Artwork, and Studio Visit magazines.

Jotham Malavé Maldonado

El Jardin

2020
Oil on canvas
40" x 30"

About the work

I explore my Puerto Rican heritage and humanity through figurative painting, drawing, and sculpture. In PR, our political history, art historical themes, and religious traditions have been buried under oppressive colonial culture and politics for centuries. These are the buried stories that fascinate me. I research and reimagine them in order to keep the socio-political context of my island alive for current and future generations.

About the artist

Jotham Malavé Maldonado (1989, Las Piedras Puerto Rico). Acquires the Associate Degree in Technologies of Telecommunications from the University of Puerto Rico in (2007). He studied at the School of Fine Arts of San Juan in the Department of Painting, which graduated with honors (2014).During his graduation from the MFA at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts he was awarded prizes such as The Judith McGregor Caldwell Purchase Prize for the Academy's Permanent Collection and The Woodmere Art Museum Purchase Prize both prizes will host Malavé's works for their permanent collections. He has had several exhibitions in museums such as the Museo de Arte y Diseno de Miramar, Museo de Arte de Caguas, Museum of San Juan, Museum of Contemporary Art and in alternative spaces such as La Productora in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He currently lives in Philadelphia where he developed his work.

Brian David Dennis
#09 Vanish(ing)
2017
Mixed media
19-3/4" x 23-1/2"
23.5" x 27.5" framed

About the work
The series, Vanish(ing) celebrates long journeys. With simple lines, it illustrates the all consuming focus. It pieces the now, extends into the future and finally recedes into the past.

About the artist
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.

Roberta Massuch
Deco Vase
2020
Ceramic, slip, glaze
13" x 8" x 8"

Gallery affiliation: The Clay Studio

About the work

This sculptural vessel is influenced by the Art Deco architecture of Miami Beach.

About the artist

Influenced heavily by the architecture of her surroundings, ceramicist Roberta Massuch (Philadelphia, PA) creates functional pottery, sculpture, and 2d artworks. Massuch received her BFA in ceramics from Northern Illinois University and her MFA from Louisiana State University. Teaching positions include The Clay Studio (Philadelphia, PA), Tyler School of Art (Philadelphia, PA), and the Community College of Philadelphia. She has participated in residencies at The Clay Studio, Tyler School of Art, Northern Clay Center (Minneapolis, MN), and Arquetopia Foundation (Puebla, MX). Her work has been exhibited at universities, institutions, galleries, and museums across the United States.

Michelle Marcuse
Forms of Structure
2020
Cardboard
7-1/2" x 8" x 9-1/2"

About the work

Having lived in Philadelphia, a city that presents through its architecture, spatial grid, industrial history, physical memory of construction, and disintegration over time, I find a paradoxical fertility occurring within the breakdown of materials, and in the qualities of presence and absence that I see in the built, destroyed, or "disappeared" structures. It is in this manner of build-up and destruction that I tend to generate my work.. My use of discards is deliberate. These raw materials have an expressive quality and are easily manipulated. As elements that are non-precious, free and plentiful, my curiosity and experimentation can take place unhindered.

About the artist

The work of Michelle Marcuse mirrors and symbolically chronicles her childhood experiences, dream states, both past and present, and encapsulates commentary on contemporary living. Growing up in apartheid South Africa during the late 1950s - 1970's, her fragmented architectural forms and decayed environments express the remembrances of and issues surrounding society under duress.

Receiving a Bachelor of Design from the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Israel, [1982], she continued to Michaelis School of Art at The University of Cape Town [1983] and completed her BFA at Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA [1985]. She was invited to exhibit with BLAM Projects Brooklyn, NY [2016], Arte y Amor at Taller Boricua, NYC [2016] and Borderless Caribbean [The Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance, Miami, FL 2015]. Michelle is a recipient of a 2016 Fleisher Art Memorial Wind Challenge exhibition. Her work can be found in public and private collections including The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the collection at the US Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. Most recently she became a Finalist in CFEVA's Visual Artist Fellowship. In December 2018 she was invited to Against Gravity: TECTONICS - Imagined Spaces: an exhibition organized by DORAL Contemporary Art Museum in the framework of Art Basel, FL. February, 2019, an invitation to exhibit with Grizzly Grizzly in Philadelphia is planned followed by an installation in April 2019 at EY - INTUITIVE Art Space in Manayunk and organized by Mount Airy Contemporary in Philadelphia, PA. Marcuse most recently had a solo exhibition at Swarthmore College, PA, in 2020. Upcoming exhibitions at The Kunshan Art Museum, Kunshan, China, and at The AVA Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa are currently postponed until it is safe to travel.

Michelle Marcuse lives and works in Philadelphia where she is Co-Director of HOUSEGallery a mixed use exhibition space in Fishtown.

Zoë Lukas
Strata

2019
Acrylic on canvas
12" x 12" x 1-1/2"

About the work

My work explores visual boundaries and transparency, with pieces created by both adding and subtracting paint and materials to the surface. I layer paint and then sand it down, scrape and pull at the surface to create textures, and work with the interplay of shiny vs. matte; rough vs. smooth; and saturated color vs. soft. My hope is that the viewer feels some of the poetry that I felt when making the work, and through that, that we can share a powerful bond.

About the artist

Zoë Lukas received her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and divides her time between paintings and cakes. During the day, she designs cakes at Whipped Bakeshop, the award-winning Fishtown bakery she founded in 2009 with her husband Brennen. At night, Zoë can often be found in her home studio creating abstract paintings and collages with tools ranging from brushes to pins, old maps, nails, glue and sandpaper. You can find Zoë's work on Instagram @zoe.lukas and @whippedbakeshop.

Pauline Houston McCall
E MESA
2018
Acrylic and oil on canvas
40" x 30"

About the work

I am on an energetic artistic journey documenting the falling and rising of the human spirit.
I love dancing the line between. epic figurative paintings and then trapping that energy into a pure and raw emotion of abstraction.
"E Mesa" is a depiction of a beautiful distilling of erratic movement to sitting still and drinking a pure nourishment of color, energy.movent and clean line.

About the artist

Rising early one morning and watching the pink.sunrise with the simple realization..
I have come to infect the world with extreme, profound beauty through the art making process.

Large, boldly painted figures, pushing and pulling through landscapes of color, tell the story of my African and Native American ancestors.

High contrast colors race across the canvas with broad, expressionistic brushstrokes, resting in quiet shapes that are meant to speak deeply to our souls.

Both abstract and representational, figurative works began the narrative of the falling and rising of the human spirit. There is extreme beauty in both sorrow and triumphs of the body, soul and spirit as we traverse the earth, the universe and beyond.

As a multi-media artist, I have come to tell the story of our humanity through large, lush paintings soaked in color and gold leaf. Drawings that dance and move across paper, wood and stone connect the viewer to the immediate message of the narrative; this is the gentle passage of my artistic journey.

Large figurative sculptures and jutting abstract monumental installations, that graze the sky as well as within interior spaces, are simply another way to speak to the world in the third dimension.

rod jones ii
sheeples camp
2020
Screenprint
18.5" x 15.5"

Edition 1 of 3

About the work

this piece is apart of an ongoing series of prints where collages that i've made are enlarged and screenprinted using CMYK techniques.

About the artist

rod jones ii is a multidisciplinary artist from Gary, Indiana living and working in Philadelphia, PA. He's earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Printmaking from Truman State University, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Art from the Pennsylvania Academy. He's shown work at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Woodmere Museum of Art in Philadelphia, PA, Truman State University in Kirksville, MO, Tiger Strikes Asteroid in Philadelphia, PA, and Anna Zorina Gallery in New York, NY. He has also been collected by The Woodmere Museum of Art in Philadelphia, PA. He is currently an adjunct professor of Printmaking and Drawing at the University of Pennsylvania and Moore College of Art, and has lectured at Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Pace University, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

TL Cheung

A year of Sundays
2020
House paint, stencil, and ink on vellum mounted on wood panel
16" x 20"

About the Artist:
I have a minimalist's nature. I don't like clutter; I do like compiling objects and creating an order for them. More importantly, the process of searching for the hidden structure that lies underneath the first glance finding the 'bones' beneath the corporeal has become my objective. For me the process of making work is akin to the process of archeology, scraping away at the various layers, exposing the hidden yet often universal construct, creating a new geography, a new structure.

Jen McCleary
Stargazer
2020
mixed media
24" x 18"

About the Work:

The roots of my art lie in the process of collecting images, ephemera, and found objects, which I layer, alter, or arrange to create something complex and symbolic. I work both digitally (photo-collage and graphic design) and in more traditional forms (mixed-media collage/painting and jewelry made from found and vintage objects). No matter the medium, I prefer to work intuitively, letting each piece evolve over time and in unexpected directions. My work is more a form of meditation or playful exploration than a deliberate attempt at communicating a concept, although I do believe that images and objects can act as carriers of meaning and emotional resonance. My work is inspired by science, wonder, and dualities including manmade/natural worlds, light/dark (metaphorically and literally), creation/destruction, and complexity/simplicity. In 2019 I began to learn the craft of wheel-thrown ceramics, which I alter through decoupage and the traditional Japanese art of kintsugi (repairing broken items with gold and lacquer). For me, this process of creation, destruction, and repair mirrors the ups and downs of life and treats the inevitabilities of damage and healing as something beautiful to be celebrated.

About the Artist:

Jen McCleary attended Tyler School of Art (BFA Painting and Printmaking), University of the Arts (Continuing Education in Print Design), and University of Pennsylvania (MLA). She works both digitally and in traditional mixed-media collage and views the two seemingly different media as complimentary and rooted in the same process of collecting and arranging images. In 2019 she began to learn the craft of wheel-thrown ceramics, which she alters through decoupage and the traditional Japanese art of kintsugi (repairing broken items with gold and lacquer). This process of creation and destruction considers the inevitabilities of damage and healing as part of the beauty of an object. She also works as a freelance graphic designer specializing in book cover and layout design.

Judith Jacobson
Blood to Mud: In Memory
2020
Oil and sand painted on stretched canvas
36" x 32"

FMV $2,500

About the work

In Memory:
1918 Spanish flu... September 11, 2001... Covid-19 Pandemic..........

Mortality looms
invisible, stealthy
the flesh it consumes
and... What is FOREVER?
Gradual decay - inevitable deterioration
I observe with curious fascination.
I'd like to say detached.
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.

Remembered flesh, supple and toned
Youthful belief in forever
Mortality looms
invisible, stealthy
the flesh it consumes
and... Where is FOREVER?

About the artist

Judith Jacobson received her BFA in Painting from The Tyler School of Art in 1969, and her MFA in Painting from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1997 at the age of 49 3/4! She is the recipient of The Leeway Foundation Edna Andrade Grant in Painting (catalogue), 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 prominate collection. Judith also participated in panel discussions with other Leeway grant recipients at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.

Judith has been in many solo and group exhibitions. Her work is included in collections throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

Jacques Liu
Distend #14
2013
Mylar, paint
12" x 11" x 4"

About the Work

Throughout every body of work that I make, there seems to be a desire to understand the notion of place. This began with a condition of constant travel for many years: born in Taipei, Taiwan; raised in St. Louis; two years of adulthood in Germany; six years in Detroit Area; et al. 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.

About the Artist

Jacque Liu is a Philadelphia-based studio artist and an arts administrator. He was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and received an M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Art, a B.F.A. from Alfred University, and a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, and is the recipient of numerous awards and grants. His work and projects have been reviewed in The New York Times, Newsweek, National Public Radio, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the artblog, and elsewhere.

From 2014-2020, he served as the City of Philadelphia as Percent for Art Program Manager. There, he managed all aspects of City public art commissions - working with artists, City partners, and design teams to ensure site-specific and community engaged artwork. Jacque has also worked in philanthropic grantmaking at the Pew Center and recent teaching experience includes the Graduate Program at Moore College of Art. At the grassroots level, he is the co-founder of Takt Kunstprojektraum in Berlin, Germany and has been a member of Philadelphia artist collectives, Vox Populi and Grizzly Grizzly. He serves on various boards and panels, including the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the Alliance for Watershed Education, and the artblog.

E. Sherman Hayman
FUNKED/DEFUNCT #7
2001
Sgraffito and mixed media, with manipulated aluminum
17" x 11 3/4"

About the Work:

FUNKED/DEFUNCT, a series of 38 mixed media pieces, is based on old engravings of archaic tools and antique medical instruments, and plays with images that evoke a mixture of mystery, horror, and humor. F/D #7 makes me think of an antique version of a baby's pacifier!

About the Artist:

Born in Newport News, Virginia, and studied literature at Hollins College (now Hollins University) in Roanoke, VA., it was only after this period, when I lived in Paris for a year, that I committed to becoming an artist, and came to Philadelphia to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Major exhibitions over the past years include those at Cerulean Arts (Philadelphia), Goggleworks (Reading, PA), Lake Eustis Museum of Art (Florida), Rosenfeld Gallery, and Arlington Arts Center (Virginia). Selected group shows and invitationals include the Peninsula Fine Arts Association (Virginia), Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery NYC), Projects Gallery (Philadelphia), and The Philadelphia Foundation (with the Philadelphia Art Alliance).

Tom Judd
Pa Has a Gun
2016
oil with collage oil panel
12" x 9"

About the work
This piece is from my Myth of the Frontier series. Paintings which explore the bizarre nature of our interpretation of our history. Especially the settling of the west. This false narrative creates the illusion of a heroic struggle between the white settlers and indigenous people. Thanks to Hollywood and American propaganda we are left with this exaggerated and improbable view of ourselves as a people which to this day permeates our politics and national identity.

About the Artist
Tom Judd is a Philadelphia based fine artist who has shown consistently at major galleries and museums. Born and raised in Salt Lake City Utah, Judd has lived and worked in Philadelphia for over 40 years. His work is included in major collections across the country including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Tom Judd recently finished his acclaimed mural History in Motion at the SEPTA Independence Mall Station at 5th and Market.

Adam Rosenthal
American Basilisk (Rising)
2013
Screenprint on Blue Canson paper
22.5" x 28" x 1.25" (framed)

19.5" x 25" (unframed)

About the work

The Artist and Curator Ernesto Pujol describes Adam as "a quiet colorist, hinting at complicated mythologies and shadow physicality". "His field is one of dreams", Pujol explains, "of an archetypal unconscious, unapologetically mined and reenacted for those that think that we are too old to be aroused or afraid again."

About the artist

Born in Miami, Adam moved to Brooklyn in 1999 where he later earned his MFA at Pratt Institute. His interests include religious syncretism, the rising tide of global warming, disposable technology, and searching out hidden truths in the inherited mythologies we collectively take for granted. He now lives and works in Philadelphia, PA and New York, NY, spends the majority of his time at a safe distance, and has exhibited his work nationally and internationally.

Signed and numbered

Andrea Lyons
A Room Divided
Oil painting on wood shape

35" x 27"

About the work

I have been doing oil paintings on wood shapes for a while now. They have evolved and originally I painted on canvas stretched on wood shaped bars but found myself fascinated by wood itself. I related it to how the wood has similarities to the skin of a human being in the aging of the skin and the aging of a tree, with its bark and the increasing of the rings inside of it. I love the patterns and textures of wood and emphasize it playfully with colors of the paint I use. The shapes I have always been interested in . Some of them are architectural as I often think of the shapes of a home and the interior spaces of it.

About the artist

Andrea has a BFA in Printmaking and Art Education from Tyler School of Art, and a Certificate and MFA from The Pa.Academy of Fine Arts in Painting. She has exhibited mostly in the Philadelphia area although she had a solo exhibition of her work in 1993 at The Julie Heller Gallery in Provincetown,Ma. Andrea has won many awards throughout her career, including The Edna Andrade Award in Painting for an Emerging Artist from The Leeway Foundation for Women in the Arts. This year, she most recently won an Award for Excellence from The Fellowship of the Pa. Academy of the Fine Arts. The Fellowship Awarded her a Purchase Prize Award in 1993.Her past history includes teaching Art in Philadelphia Public Schools for twenty five years.

Linda Dubin Garfield
Memoir 1
2019
Mixed media
20" x 20"

About the work

In the early 90's, I took a printmaking course and fell in love with the process. Unlike other passionate relationships that fade with time, the passion and love I have for printmaking has only gotten more intense. Several years ago, I started exploring mixed media and have found that combining collage and monotype is another relationship that works for me. I also enjoy combining photography and digital imaging with traditional printmaking techniques. The process leads to rich palimpsests using a vocabulary of shapes and motifs. My use of traditional printmaking techniques combined with experimental approaches is a means of expanding my visual language. The possibilities are exponential.

About the artist

Linda Dubin Garfield, an award-winning printmaker and mixed media artist, creates visual memoirs exploring the mystery of memory and the magic of place, using hand-pulled printmaking techniques, photography, collage and digital imaging. Her abstract and dynamic works use multiple layers of ink that waver between background and foreground creating a fusion of surface design and abstract expressionism She also creates installations that include public participatory art, especially when she is exploring themes relating to women in today's culture. In 2005 she founded ARTsisters, a group of professional artists who empower each other and their community through art. In 2007 she started smART business consulting, helping emerging artists reach their goals and their audience, providing consulting and coaching on the business side of art through individual, small groups, and workshop experiences as well as providing opportunities to exhibit work. She also provides art-making workshops to several organizations like Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Centers for Older Adults, Simpson House and Atria Senior Living. Today she serves on several non-profit boards, and appreciates her good fortune to be able to make art every chance she gets.

Marta Sanchez
Life and Death
2020
Oil and enamel on masonite and aluminum
24" x 24"

Courtesy of Chestnut Hill Gallery

About the work

A self reflective narrative of the world around me during the pandemic and social justice.

About the artist

Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Chicana painter Marta Sanchez has been inspired by traditional Mexican folkloric art expressions and contemporary issues. Her works on paper are mostly linocuts and monotypes, which follow the social and cultural traditions of Mexican and Chicano/a Art. Her paintings are mainly on tin or industrial corrugated metal. The materials, scale, and issues connect to present day concerns.

Her work is in the collections of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, The McNay Art Museum, The Fine Art Museum of St. Petersburg, Florida, and The National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. 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 from 2001 to 2006, as well as Mr. Marin's exhibition, "Chicanitas/size does not matter," featuring small works from his collection. Marta's public art commissions can be seen in the Philadelphia area at Simons Recreation Center, and The Children's Hospital in Montgomery, Pennsylvania. The most recent sculptural works for the northern part of the City of Philadelphia is a series of 100 feet steel installations titled "Reclaiming Gurney Street. The piece was commissioned by the Hispanic Association of Contractors and Entrepreneurs to reclaim an opioid encampment to a public rails and trails project for the community.

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 for over seventeen years and now teaches at St. Joseph University. She is co-founder of the grassroots organization "Cascarones Por La Vida," which assists families affected by HIV/AIDS. Her work is currently archived at the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.

Jessica Jane Julius
droplet
2019
Blown glass, crystals, glass bead, and gold leaf paint
20" x 11" x 11"

About the Work:

Droplet is part of a series of work that is a mediation on the function of seduction and curiosity alternating between a scientific and artistic nature.

About the Artist:

Jessica Jane Julius is an artist, educator, collaborator and performer who creates glass installations, objects and imagery that examine how fear is infiltrating the ways in which we navigate the world and presents a look at the anxieties and complexities of our current "culture of fear."

Julius is currently an Assistant Professor and Program Head of glass at Tyler School of Art and Architecture. She is the co-founder of the artists' collective and performance group, The Burnt Asphalt Family, who produces collaborative, participatory and edible works. Together they have performed at prestigious venues including the Corning Museum of Glass, the Chrysler Museum and Urban Glass. Her mixed media works have been exhibited nationally at venues including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Museum of American Glass, New Jersey and MarketView Arts, Pennsylvania. She has been awarded a York Cultural Alliance grant and residencies at The Creative Glass Center of America in Millville, New Jersey and The Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington. Currently, Julius serves as the Vice President of the International Glass Arts Society.

Hanna Vogel
Unrequited Heirloom #12
2019
Steel, abaca and cotton paper pulp, pigment, rust, sealant
18" x 5" x 9"

About the Work:

In Unrequited Heirlooms, clusters of paper-coated wire spheres grow in mitosis-like expansion over their gestural steel skeleton. Their reaching movement and clustered growth promise a vivacious transformation that is belied by their stained and stretched paper skin.

About the Artist:

Hanna Vogel is an artist and educator living in Philadelphia, PA. She grew up in rural Northern California and received a BFA from the California College of the Arts and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. In her work, she uses craft-based materials and techniques in non-traditional ways to make sculptures and installations that explore aspects of entropy in the natural world. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, including at The Huntington Museum of Art, The Spartanburg Art Museum, The Delaware Contemporary, and the Biblioteca Henestrosa in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has presented at conferences and published papers internationally and has received fellowships/grants from Yaddo, the California College of the Arts, I-Park, Sculpture Space, The Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Foundation, and Lighton International Artist Exchange Program.

Erica Ehrenbard
Scape
2013
charcoal & pen on paper, walnut, brass
10.5" x 6.5"

About the Work:

My artistic motivation lies in digesting the experience of being alive. Thus, my work illuminates human sensibilities and connects to people on a core level. I attempt to transfer instinct and psycological states into physical form, expanding upon intrinsic material characteristics to develop objects that feel 'one' with their media. I work extensively with metals and fiber, among other materials, to surpass reasoning and produce work that almost feels as though it produced itself. Yet, the trace of my making inevitably leaves an imprint of my humanity, and thus an inherent connection to those who experience the work.

About the Artist:

Erica Ehrenbard is a sculptor based in Philadelphia with a practice that intertwines fine art, design, research, and metal fabrication. She was born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, earning a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2012. She has been awarded residencies with Vermont Studio Center and Chashama, as well as a blacksmith scholarship with Center for Metal Arts. Erica's work has been acquired by private collectors and she is currently producing a public artwork for the City of Philadelphia.

Erica Harney
RED CLOUD
2017
watercolor, pencil, ink, craft paper
16" x 12"

About the Work:

This is a mixed media watercolor collage depicting an explosive red cloud. The imagery includes patterned craft paper and trompe l'oeil X-acto knife and shadow details, suggesting a play between the ideas of "construction" and "destruction."

About the Artist:

Erica Harney (b. New York, 1984) is a fine artist, curator, scenic painter and educator based in Philadelphia since 2011. She holds a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Alfred University, Magna Cum Laude (2006) and an MFA in Drawing and Painting from the Pennsylvania State University (2010). She has also studied at the Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence, Italy.
The artist the recipient of numerous awards, including a Graham Endowed Fellowship, a Daniel J. Murphy II Award for Creativity, a Christos N. Apostle Grant, a microgrant from Blick Art Supplies. She has been an artist-in-residence at ArtScape in Toronto, Weir Farm Art Center in Connecticut, the Palazzo Rinaldi Artists' Residence in Italy, and has had two partial fellowships at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT.
Harney's work has been exhibited widely in galleries at the local, national, and international level since 2006. In recent years, the artist's focus has expanded to include several large public commissions for institutions such as the Fulton-Montgomery Community College, Penn State Hershey College of Medicine, The Bancroft School and the 3M Corporation. She has curated group exhibitions throughout the northeast, and has organized benefit exhibitions for Opera Philadelphia, The Philly Kitty Rescue and The Killian Mansfield Foundation.
Before the Pandemic, the artist regularly collaborated with visual artists, musicians, writers, and choreographers on a wide range of creative projects. She is affiliated with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and has worked as a muralist and restoration artist in and around Philadelphia. Most significantly, Harney has worked professionally as a scenic painter for theatre, ballet, opera, television and museums until March 2020. Notable production partners include Opera Philadelphia, Opera Delaware and First State Ballet (both in Wilmington, DE), the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster, PA and HBO. She has held teaching positions at Alvernia University, the Pennsylvania State University and Cecil College in Maryland as well as Philadelphia-area art centers. She joined the Lansdowne Arts Board in 2020.
Since the Pandemic, she has recommitted to her personal studio practice and has been focusing on paintings of landscape and architecture, influenced heavily by her extensive experience in painting backdrops for theatre.

Daniel Clark
The Waking
2018
oil on linen
22" x 26"

About the Work:

This painting portrays a remembered scene from the artist's childhood.

About the Artist:

Daniel Clark is a Philadelphia-based Artist and designer, whose original paintings and sculpture work hand in hand with a design practice of interiors and objects. Clark's background in architectural and object conservation results in an artistic sensibility steeped in history with great sensitivity to material and context. Clark received a BFA in Painting from The Tyler School of Art in 2017. He currently works in the field of historic preservation in Philadelphia, PA, while also maintaining an active painting practice and taking on a selection of custom projects.

Jacqueline Unanue
Magical Journey VII
2018
Acrylic on canvas
14" x 14"

Courtesy of Muse Gallery, Philadelphia

About the Work:

In Magical Journey series (2018), I have intentionally changed my palette from earthy colors to luminous ones. These new vibrant colors show significant contrast with the darkness of the current historical moment. Through these new paintings, I am making a magical journey in a way similar to those who made prehistoric rock art using paintings and engravings to reach what they desired. In my case, I wish to reach both individual and collective idyllic happiness and peace that is, in some way, my "political act."

About the Artist:

Jacqueline Unanue is a Chilean American artist of Spanish ancestry who has resided in Philadelphia since 2000. She studied design at University of Chile. At that time, she became interested in the rock art found in Chile. Unanue traveled extensively through Chile's Atacama Desert doing on-site rock art research in the solitary valleys, mountains and cliff areas where original ancient rock paintings and carvings exist. In Spain, she studied the pre-historic paintings of the Altamira caves in the Basque Country, the home of her paternal ancestors.

In addition to numerous individual and group exhibitions in Chile since 1983, she has also exhibited in Spain, Finland, Ecuador, Argentina, and the United States-in galleries in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York.
She was awarded grants sponsored by the Directorate of Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile (DIRAC) for her solo exhibits at Guayasamín Foundation in Ecuador (1997), and at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC (2000). In 2015, she received the Latin American Women in Art and Cultural Tribute recognition in New York.
Her work resides in many private and public collections in the Americas and Europe.

She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Ricardo Guajardo who is also an artist and designer. She was a member of 3rd Street Gallery, Philadelphia for 10 years. Currently she is represented by Muse Gallery Philadelphia.

Donna Sensor Thomas
Convection II
2008
acrylic on canvas
30" x 30"

About the Work:

This works captures the movement in a lava lamp.

About the Artist:

Donna became interested in art at a young age and created her first pieces as a child. By the age of 10 she was haunting art museums, favoring modern art paintings. She continued to create art through high school.

Donna graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in philosophy. After graduation, she pursued a computer career and worked in that field for 12 years.

Travel to Italy and the purchase of a house re-ignited Donna's interest in art and created an interest in interior design. After 3+ years of intense study, Donna earned an M.S. in interior design from Drexel University. Her Master's Thesis was Practical Grace: The Functional Aesthetic of Everyday Interior Objects Created in the Scandinavian and Japanese Traditions.

When the time came to seek employment in the interior design field, Donna found herself soul-searching. She realized that what she enjoyed most while in school were her art classes. So, she decided to pursue painting full-time, working out of her studio in Mount Laurel, NJ.

John Howell White
FISSURE in green
2008
Watercolor on paper
17" x 13 x 0.625"

About the work

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.

About the artist

White is Emeritus Professor of Art Education, Department of Art Education, Kutztown University. He earned his M.F.A. from Pratt Institute and his Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of Experience Painting, a Davis textbook for secondary art students. White was named the Higher Education Art Educator of the Year nationally (2012) and statewide, Pennsylvania (2009). He has conducted research and published extensively about the history and philosophy of art education. He has served as Director of the Higher Education Division of the National Art Education Association and Chair of the National Art Education Association's Research Commission, the Department of Art Education, Kutztown University, and the Council for Policy Studies in Art Education.

G. Kellum
Octavia's Dream
2012
acrylic on wood
26" x 36" x 10.5"

About the Work:

This piece is inspired by the writing of the late Octavia Butler. It is a peculiar combination of the African American Experience in the 20th century and the merging of Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy.

About the Artist:

Glenn was drawn to architecture and illustration for its discipline and structure. Eventually, Glenn was confronted with the fact that architecture was 10 percent drawing and 80 percent mathematics. Abandoning architecture, illustration became Glenn's focal point, giving him a clear perspective on the direction he wanted to steer his art practice. Very early on, Glenn discovered the importance of black and white visual elements as a personal guide when approaching polychromic structure. During this period, he became more liberated when he encountered the works of Sam Gilliam and Isamu Noguchi. These and other like-minded artist have influenced his work but the biggest influence came from his experience with Buddhism and Taoism. These have had a profound effect on the way
Glenn sees things.

Glenn was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1947 and was the youngest of eleven brothers and sisters. After serving in the military for 2 years, he attended the Philadelphia College of Art (PCA), which is now The University of the Arts, and graduated with a BFA in Illustration in 1977. Glenn had his first exhibition at the University of Pennsylvania upon graduating from the university. He has been represented by the Sandy Webster Gallery and Art Jazz Gallery. Glenn has also been part of several prominent group exhibitions including those at the Delaware Contemporary and the Woodmere Museum. In 2018 his work was showcased in an exhibition curated by Design Philadelphia in the BOK Building. He currently has an artist studio in the BOK Building in South Philadelphia where he works.

Robert Zurer
Online Dating
2021
Oil on wood
40" x 30"

About the work

By way of background. All my paintings come from a dialog, a call and response led primarily by the painting. It is not until pretty far along in the process that inklings of meanings start to float in.

Hopefully many meanings can be created from a work of art. The danger of talking about the meanings that came to me is that it might shut down or severely limit the emergence of meanings for the viewer. So if that is a concern please stop reading now.

One of the first narratives that appeared to me was that it was an illustration of Meredith Monk's "Hocket". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q4puw29Xm4 in that It is an exchange of a something between two characters across a distance.

However, at some point in the process, a feeling of dissatisfaction or anxiety entered into the interchange, like being afraid of being able to catch a fly ball unexpectedly hit towards your hiding place in right field. It no longer related to Hocket which is quite joyous.

Amidst this pandemic we are all trying to touch one another across a distance. That is how the title Online Dating came to me.

About the artist

Robert Zurer is a native New Yorker and has lived and worked in New York City all his life. Very recently he relocated to Philadelphia where he now maintains his studio practice. He is primarily self-taught although he did study privately from 1999-2006 with the painter Wade Schuman (now director of painting at The New York Academy). He is an active member of the NYC Crit Club and has been so since its inception in 2017.

Kirby Fredendall
The Color of the Air on Lake 12
2020
oil on panel
10" x 10"

Courtesy of Candita Clayton Gallery, Box Heart Gallery, and the LAA Art Collective

About the Work:

This series was done to capture the character of the changing light over the water throughout the summer months.

About the Artist:

Fredendall's most recent work explores her relationship to a lake in the Adirondack Mountains. While the paintings can be most directly defined as landscapes, they can be more accurately described as representations of the constantly changing energy of our relationship with not only ourselves, but also with those around us and with our environment. They examine the unbreakable but changeable connections that exist between forces both within us and without.

JS Grites
Noteworthy
2021
Mixed media collage on 0.5" birch panel
12.5" x 10" x .5"

About the Work:

A reflective comment on American culture's current state.

About the Artist:

Hatched in Baltimore, educated in New York City and nurtured in Philadelphia, outsider artist Jsgrites creates images that are at once a product and reflection of the working class, symbolizing its victories as well as failures. The cultural-detritus assemblages that he produces are cockeyed glances at the absurdity of everyday life - its joys, sorrows and contemplations. The materials that he uses have largely been discarded, which is acutely relevant to the culture that he is subjected to and upon which he is commenting. Informed by literature, travel, music, pain and harmony, the pieces are meant to provoke thought and feeling in the moment, while remaining fluidly relevant with the passage of time. Still early in his career, his works have already found homes with collectors around the country and globe.

Linnie Greenberg
Three Wishes
2020
Acrylic
13" x 13" x 2"

About the Work:

I found a path to art rather late in life and so happy to be here.

About the Artist:

Took first collage class 10 years ago and still exploring art in all forms with much joy and pleasure.

Paula Hian
Amandine Dress
Clothing
size small

About the Work

Sleeveless red cocktail dress with ruched point inset detail. Draped jersey knit. Made with Italian yarn, viscose and lycra blend. Made in France. Dry clean only.

About the Artist

Paula Hian grew up with creativity pulsing through her veins. The daughter of a photographer and classical musician, Paula discovered her artistic niche at age five, when she began sketching, cutting, and using a sewing machine to create her own wardrobe. Inspiration came from all around her, as angles of buildings and lines of bridges began to take shape in her mind as something else entirely. Fabrics found their way into her brain before she could figure out where they came from. And the beauty of her surroundings - be it flowers, paintings or simple structural elements - became embedded in her soul.

While continuing to channel this inspiration into actual designs, Paula's passion quickly became a way of life. She majored in art history at Northwestern University and attended New York's prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology as a graduate student.

Paula Hian
Veronique Jacket
Clothing
size small

About the Work

Women's black floral blazer jacket with abstract white flower detail. Slim fit, long sleeve, double jersey knit. Made with Italian yarn, viscose and lycra blend. Made in France. Dry clean only.

About the Artist

Paula Hian grew up with creativity pulsing through her veins. The daughter of a photographer and classical musician, Paula discovered her artistic niche at age five, when she began sketching, cutting, and using a sewing machine to create her own wardrobe. Inspiration came from all around her, as angles of buildings and lines of bridges began to take shape in her mind as something else entirely. Fabrics found their way into her brain before she could figure out where they came from. And the beauty of her surroundings - be it flowers, paintings or simple structural elements - became embedded in her soul.

While continuing to channel this inspiration into actual designs, Paula's passion quickly became a way of life. She majored in art history at Northwestern University and attended New York's prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology as a graduate student.

James B. Abbott
Green Door at The Naval Yard, Philadelphia
2021
Photograph
22" x 17"
A/P

About the art

A color image from a new on going body of work which began in 1986 photographing along Philadelphia's riverfront and bridges.

About the artist

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. He has recently refocused his image making to Philadelphia, the riverfront, and Ben Franklin Bridge.
He works mostly on long term urban and landscape projects, Berlin 1988 -1992 & 2012 - 2013, Cape Cod National Seashore 2000- 2012, Venice and Florence Italy 2013-2019.
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. He is currently an artist in residence with his daughter India Abbott at The Cherry Street Pier in Philadelphia.

Andrew Chalfen
Sentient Test Pattern
2021
ink on paper
unframed: 12"x9"
framed: 17"x13"

About the Work:

"Sentient Test Pattern" is part of a series of drawings I made during the Winter of 2020-21 in which I was exploring different compositional approaches using a more or less set number of design elements. Some of these drawings will be used in larger work that will involve ink transfer to a canvas, which will destroy the paper of the original drawing, leaving only the ink. A few drawings from the series have been rescued by collectors from a looming watery demise.

About the Artist:

I am a visual artist living and working in Philadelphia. I work mainly in acrylics but have been increasingly incorporating mixed media and three dimensional elements into my pieces. I am fascinated by patterns, how they ripple, radiate, refract, bloom, and cluster. The show I propose will feature recent works that allude to aerial views, cartography, architectural renderings, musical notation, urban-like densities, and other natural and man-made patterns, which soften pill out over edges, suggesting unseen continuations.

My process mirrors that of my songwriting and music arranging, involving the repetition of a small selection of formal elements, subtle variation, the timbre of color palate, rhythm, and randomization strategies. The viewer may not know what to focus on first, becoming overwhelmed and subsequently absorbed in the details, an experience reminiscent of mediation or a divine/psychedelic journey.

More recent abstract geometric pieces, including painted sculptures, explore themes of nostalgia, anxiety, climate change, play, and allusions to impenetrable data, all reflective of, and perhaps counter to, accelerating social and psychic instability in the world.

Harry Anderson
Untitled
2020
found objects, iron, brass, handblown glass, light
15.75" x 4" (diameter)

About the Artist:

Harry Anderson's work has always involved the recycling and reuse of objects. They were used first in site specific installations then in the mid eighties the pieces became unified objects in the form of a lamp or light sculpture. Harry is a full time artist whose past teaching credits include Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, PA, North Country Studio Conference, Bennington, VT, Pilchuck, Stanwood, WA and Haystack, Deer Isle, ME. Anderson received his BFA from the University of Illinois and MFA from the Pennsylvania State University. He has received grants from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts among others. His light sculptures, installations, artist books, prints and photographs have been widely seen in both solo and group exhibitions. They are included in numerous private and public collections.

Diane Pieri
3 SUN DAY
2021
painting/collage on paper
13" x 13"

About the Work:

This small framed work is on paper using collage, paint, gold leaf, punch shapes. It is inspired by Indian Folk Art.

About the Artist:

BFA- Temple University Tyler School of Art 1969, 34 solo exhibitions, 215 national/international exhibitions, Pollock- Krasner Grants (1999/1992), Independence Foundation Fellowships in the Arts (2001/2011), Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Grant (1992), Philagrafika(2005), Yaddo (1991), MacDowell Colony (1990), Socrates Sculpture Park(1990), Manayunk Stoops: Heart and Home, Association for Public Art's New Land Marks Program(2006), 12 murals- Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program, 7 murals- College Station, Texas, founded Cooke Museum of Art, Cooke Elementary School, North Philadelphia(2005-2009).
Teaching Artist, Philadelphia Museum of Art- 22 years.

Rebecca Jacob
Manzano Horizon
2019
Oil on linen
40" x 30"

About the work

A horizon line is not just a vanishing point. It can be a symbol of what lies ahead-challenges, expectations and wonderful possibilities. Serenity is thematic in my work and the healing power of nature.

This painting was inspired by the views of the American Southwest.

About the artist

Rebecca Jacob is an oil painter transporting onto linen experiences of various landscapes that have had an influence on her. She grew up taking nature walks, science classes at the Natural History Museum in Philadelphia and vacations were focused on the natural environment.

"My paintings are meant to be enjoyed and lived with, not to impress or follow the current art market trends."

Originally from Medford, New Jersey, Rebecca now lives and works in Media, Pennsylvania.

Jeffrey Holder
Mane-Abstract
2015
Inkjet Print
8.5" x 18"

About the Artist:

Jeffrey E. Holder is a Philadelphia based photographer whose work crosses into both the commercial and the fine art.
His commercial work with clients from around the globe allows him to indulge in his love of travel. He is involved in all aspects of photography from advertising, photojournalism, and documentation.

Jeffrey Holder
Upper Bucks
2015
Inkjet print
40" x 18.4"

About the Artist:

Jeffrey E. Holder is a Philadelphia based photographer whose work crosses into both the commercial and the fine art.

His commercial work with clients from around the globe allows him to indulge in his love of travel. He is involved in all aspects of photography from advertising, photojournalism and documentation.

Leah Macdonald
Kali's Garden
2021
Photo encaustic on panel
20" x 16" x 2"

About the work

My work is a dialogue between my imagination, my curiosity, my imperfections and my desires. I express the tales of womanhood, sharing stories through form, color and texture.

About the artist

I am a portrait artist. I primarily photograph women and embellish the photographs with layers of beeswax, colored wax, painting and drawing. Adding wax for texture and color for mood changes the black and white photographs. Wax embellishes and veils my subjects and I draw to decorate and control the image. The ability to layer mediums and constantly change appearance and texture allows me to stray from reality and reach the playground of imagination. I am interested in images from nature and designs that have floral and intricate forms.

Rebecca Schultz
Stone Ruins: Wissahickon
2020
graphite on paper
14" x 11"

About the Work:

This drawing is part of a series examining the complex relationship between humanity and nature through abandoned stone structures. It depicts a spring house in Wissahickon Valley Park, an artifact of water-powered industry along the Wissahickon Creek in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Portions of this drawing were used in the installation piece Reclamation, which I created with Dana Scott and exhibited at the Da Vinci Art Alliance in September 2020.

About the Artist:

Rebecca Schultz is a multi-disciplinary artist and arts educator living in Elkins Park, PA. Her practice includes painting, drawing, printmaking, and collage; installation; and public art projects. Rebecca's work is driven by a sense of wonder for the web of life and a desire to raise awareness about humanity's impact on the environment. She has exhibited in the Philadelphia region and New York and completed two mural commissions with Mural Arts. Rebecca has two decades of experience facilitating community-engaged art projects, including work in public schools. She holds a BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design and an MA in Education from San Francisco State University; in June 2021 she will begin the Hartford Art School's Nomad MFA program.

Constance McBride
Whisperers
2020
Ceramic
9.5" x 8" x 4"

Courtesy of Ivy Stone Studio

About the Work:

I use clay (a medium historically excluded from the fine art world) to investigate the aging process, a notion rejected by many and specifically linked to failure as it relates to women. Through unidealized female faces and figures, I explore themes of identity and memory. I hand build my pieces with stoneware and paper clay. Colorants including under glazes, stains, oxides and graphite are applied to a figure's surface to further magnify a countenance of grace and wisdom seen in senescent women.

About the Artist:

A native of Philadelphia, PA, Constance McBride's work explores themes of identity and memory with an emphasis being placed on issues most experienced by women. When residing in the Southwest, observations of the desert made a transformative impact on her practice. Her work has been supported by grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, Phoenix Art Museum's Contemporary Forum, Philadelphia Sculptors and the Arts Aid PHL program. Museum exhibitions include Phoenix Art Museum and Udinotti Museum of Figurative Art in AZ, Las Cruces Museum of Art in NM, San Angelo Museum of Art in TX, The State Museum of Pennsylvania and Biggs Museum of American Art in DE. Notable gallery exhibitions include Craft Forms at Wayne Art Center and The Clay Studio National in PA and Beyond the Brickyard at Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in MT. McBride's work has received attention from several publications including Yahoo News, Visual Art Source, Philly Artblog, Philadelphia Stories, Schuylkill Valley Journal and the international platform Ceramics Now. She is actively involved with art communities in the Philadelphia metro area. McBride earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Arcadia University, Glenside, PA.

Adam Erlbaum
So Ugly
2020
Oil on canvas
30" x 24"

About the work

This is the third piece in my ongoing Journal series (on view at www.adamerlbaum.com). Each work employs a more or less regular grid. Each work uses an identical palate of six colors. Enjoy.

About the artist

Adam Erlbaum received a BA in Mathematics from The Colorado College in 2002. He then enrolled in non-degree classes at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Erlbaum's experience there assured him that he could apply his mathematical sensibility to painting. He began work at Philadelphia's I Brewster Gallery, while studying abstract painting at the nearby University of the Arts. Abstract painting became Erlbaum's chosen form. He showed his first group of abstracts at I Brewster. Erlbaum continued to pursue abstraction at the Main Line Art Center in suburban Philadelphia, which prepared him for the MFA in Visual Arts program at The Vermont College of Fine Arts. During this time, Erlbaum participated in an exhibition for alumni of The Shipley School held at The Artist's House Gallery in Philadelphia. Always looking for multiple perspectives on his work, Erlbaum returned to suburban Philadelphia to study at The Wayne Art Center. In 2017, Erlbaum moved his practice to Philadelphia's Mill Studios, where he paints today.

Signed and dated.

Brooke Lanier
Remnants 2
2011
oil and wax on panel
11" x 14"

About the Work:

This painting was inspired by the remnants of a sign painted on the side of a building in Fishtown. The layering and the lost message caught my eye. I enjoy how the constant battle between taggers and landlords creates unintentional abstract paintings. I used to love how every time I walked to my studio, the scenery was slightly different. Many of the wonderfully decrepit buildings that gave the neighborhood so much flavor have been replaced by generic condos.

About the Artist:

Brooke Lanier is a painter most known for her depictions of water and her paintings made from hand-crushed brick. She earned her Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from Tyler School of Art, where she spent her first year studying in Rome, Italy. Lanier also holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited her work in Prague, Rome, New York, and across the U.S. In 2007, she received 2nd award in Volkswagen's "Driven" competition for young artists with disabilities; the prize-winning work was inspired by her retinal detachment. She received a grant and had her work displayed in the Smithsonian Institute and the John F. Kennedy Center before going on a two-year national tour.
Today, she continues her studio practice in Philadelphia, where she also teaches and curates art exhibitions.

Shelby Donnelly
Roadside Visage
2010
remnant fabrics, thread, parchment paper
14.5" x 14"

About the Work:

I made Roadside Visage while I was attending Edna St. Vincey Millay's Artist residency, Milly Colony in New York. This piece is made from the fabric scraps from the other pieces I was making at the time. The practice of using remnant fabrics is a practice I still employ in my wearable art pieces to make zero waste garments for my company Wear to Wall LLC.

About the Artist:

Shelby Donnelly is an interdisciplinary visual artist and educator.
Donnelly makes screen printed and sewn textiles, garments, and objects that are contextualized within videos and installations.

Her work stages dramas that come from observing humanity's relationship with ritual, ceremony, and spirituality and how that plays out in everyday existence. Incorporating fragments from cultural sources (film, novels, news)and materials (fabric, paper) her work is a visual response or way of "materializing gestures"-making physical what is typically a fleeting moment in time.

Donnelly has exhibited both internationally and nationally at International House Philadelphia's Ibrahim Theater, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Haus der Kunst Museum.

Donnelly was the 2014 recipient of the Independence Foundation Artist Fellowship and traveled to Morocco to co-curate an exhibition at TALIM. Donnelly attended artist residencies at Millay Artist Colony Austerlitz, NY, the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, FR, Soaring Gardens, Laceyville, PA, and Second State Press Philadelphia, PA. Donnelly holds a B.F.A in Printmaking and Drawing from Washington University in St. Louis (2002) and a M.F.A in Material Studies from Tyler School of Art, Temple University (2008).

Shelby Donnelly lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.

Kevin Hetzel
Limited Education
2020
Collage
16.5" x 13.5"

About the work

I am constantly questioning, exploring, and investigating the fabric of my own individuality and my experience within the world. It becomes clear that the historic context of cultural influences and genealogy have shaped my interiority of identity. My work attempts to restructure the Eurocentric tradition of portraiture and those held in high regard. As familiar bank statements and bills overlap family photographs it is apparent the stronger historical account of my family's financial history over my own family heritage. While my experimentation has made me question my own constructs of identity, the more investigative the work becomes in search for honesty, the more exposure I gain in hopes to attain a broader perspective of culture, society, and life by challenging the boundaries of an identity.

About the artist

Kevin Hetzel (b. 1992) is an artist whose work attempts to challenge and restructure the Eurocentric tradition of portraiture and the notion of those that may be held in high regard. Through the investigation of historic cultural influences and genealogy the fabric and interiority of an identity emerge. Based on the segmentation of social and economic status the defining characteristics of class become a means to describe an identity. It is through collaged bank statements, miscellaneous bills, and family photographs, in combination with various modes of depiction of charcoal and oil that his work exists. It becomes apparent the stronger historical account of financial history over family heritage. Through contextual ideas of recognition of the politicized propaganda that has been created of the individual, their body, and their identity, he seeks to depict the individual, the everyday person as a person. Each piece acts as a body representing the individuality of a body. Through laborious brushstrokes and tedious mark making he connects with working class traditions of production. He becomes a body at work creating a body of work.

Sandi Lovitz
Perfume Bottle Reflections
2020
Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas
20" x 30"

About the work

This is from my series entitled Tapestries, or an intricate or complex combination of things or sequence of events. I build up many layers of paint and add and subtract with different methods so that different layers can be subtly revealed... My inspiration for this series comes from my desire to experiment with the juxtaposition of shapes, contrasts, and rhythms that make up the layers of life.My desire is to invite the viewer into my paintings so they can explore a rhythm, shape, color, or mark that they can personally connect with.

About the artist

Sandi Neiman Lovitz graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelors degree in Art Education and taught art in the Pittsburgh Public School system for two years.She was of President of the Tri-State Pennsylvania Artists Equity for two years and is now on the board of DVAA. She is also involved in ARTsisters, a group of women who are professional visual artists that not only support each other, but also reach out to women and children in the community. Sandi was juried in to the Centennial exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum by John B. Ravenal, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. She was also juried in to the Berks Art Alliance at the Reading Art Museum and was awarded an honorable mention by Lisa Tremper Hanover, CEO of the Michener Museum. She participated in the Square Foot Art Basel Miami and was awarded the Nolan Painting Award at the Main Line Art Center in Haverford, Pa. by celebrated artist, Moe Brooker. Sandi now paints full time in her studio.

Bobbie Adams
Soliloquy
Pulp painting, pigmented paper monotype
unframed: 14" x 19"
framed: 21" x 25"

About the Artist:

I am most interested in examining and pondering, and portraying aspects of the physical world. I have come to love the subjects of my childhood that I ignored back then - anatomy, physics, mathematics - and am intrigued with the challenge of portraying an essence or idea, of fundamental natural phenomena. My abstractions are intended to capture moments, movement, or place, and to create connections amongst seemingly disparate or unrelated elements.

The media of printmaking and papermaking in particular attract me because of the many technical variables that affect the finished work. I use many different plates, and interweave many layers of transparent ink, assembling and embellishing, as well as overprinting. Every color is a separate plate and separate printing. The process and content are both meditative and labor-intensive. I have found this a satisfying way to develop the illusive and ghostly images I am most often seeking in this transient and turbulent world.

I like to provide hints of subject matter in my titles, but leave specific narrative to the imagination of you the viewer.

Pia de Girolamo
True North
2015
Acrylic
31.75" x 41.75" x 2.25"

About the work

In this painting, abstracted forms and a cool palette echo the vast landscape of the far north with its forested mountain chains and glacial lakes.

About the artist

Pia De Girolamo is an accomplished painter living and working in the Greater Philadelphia area whose recent exhibitions featured large-scale paintings based on abstracted mountain landscapes, as well as a series evoking the urban landscapes of Rome and Italy. She has had thirteen solo exhibitions, most recently at the Museo Mastroianni, within the Musei di San Salvatore in Lauro in Rome and the Cerulean Arts Gallery in Philadelphia. She has also shown extensively in group exhibitions regionally. De Girolamo has a BA in Art History from Barnard College, Columbia University and an MD degree from the University of Rochester. She lectures on the relationship between art and medicine as well as the connections between art, nature, and health. Her awarded work has been acquired for collections by the Museo Mastroianni, Rome, PNC Bank, Pittsburgh, and Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA and has been highlighted in Hollywood feature films.

Ryan Evans
Peace Begins with a Smile
2021
Collage
24" x 18"

About the work

"Peace Begins with a Smile" You decide the meaning of life, that's what's so terrifying about it. The unknown, taking that first step, everything an enigma. It all becomes a little easier when you face it with a smile.

About the artist

Ryan Evans is an Artist and Graphic Designer based out of Collingswood, New Jersey. By combining digital & analog print techniques, Ryan creates pieces that evoke nostalgia while remaining timeless.

Kimberly Stemler
tea
2015
Oil on canvas
6" x 6"

About the work

Kimberly Stemler's paintings are densely patterned, focused on color, filled with yearning. Stemler is captivated by the earth's linear quality, the moment of place where sky touches earth and what happens in those remaining spaces that eventually arrive at our feet. She chisels away at the natural world, patching together bits and pieces, composing and rebuilding the landscape.

Repeated fragments, dissected skies, slabs of earth.

Separating the land with paint, Her intent is to look beyond and through.
Capturing moments, glimpses of creation, landscapes, the order of atmosphere and the outside world. It's central formations and ecosystems, fields stumbled upon or driven by- caught in a glance; newly trampled ground on previously uncharted territory. Giving the viewer recollection - a sense of having been there.

This reminiscence also gravitates towards objects that inhabit a past. Stemler attempts to capture their wistfulness, the nostalgic quality that they hold so dear. a celebration of their existence; a commemoration of remembrance.

Stemler's work is about the recognition of the subtleties of life and environment. These are the moments and pieces she attempts to capture and recreate: accumulation and repetition, intricacies found in the structure of organic objects, the concept of time and space through light and layers.

About the artist

Kimberly Stemler was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pa, and received a BFA in painting from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. Living with her husband Jon and their three boys in a rural area of Montgomery County she is inspired by the land. Her work primarily revolves around landscapes that are densely patterned, layered and focused on color. These landscapes, while abstracted, have the ability to give the viewer a sense of connection to place, time, moment. They can feel nostalgic and almost recognizable, like a fuzzy memory. Another focus of her work tends to revolve around objects that are evocative, wistful, and full of remembrance.
Kimberly is the recipient of Best Abstract Award from the Philadelphia Sketch Club's "Absolutely Abstract" group show and the Member Award from the "Small Works" show located at Studio B in Boyertown. Recent juried shows include Community Arts Phoenixville's "Rust to Rise", Montgomery County Studio Tour and solo shows at the Abington Art Center and Cairn University.
Collaborative public work with Jonathan Stemler includes "little red string" temporarily installed in Northern Chinatown through the Asian Arts Initiative in 2009, "alpha and omega", a permanent installation commissioned by New Hanover United Methodist Church, and "Windows of History", located in Souderton, Pa.

Paula Cahill
Pink Sharks on Bikes
2015
Oil on linen
16" x 20" x 1"

About the work

"Pink Sharks on Bikes," is part of a series of paintings about sharks, a subject that I continue to revisit over time. I have had an interest in sharks since early childhood and often used this theme in school projects. In this piece, I strove to explore color and the absurdity of sharks on bikes.

About the artist

Paula Cahill is a contemporary American artist. She is known for paintings that are based on her memories of scuba diving at deep, dark depths of the ocean.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Paula relocated to the Northeast where she received merit and academic scholarships while pursuing an education in the arts. She holds an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and a BFA from Tyler School of Art and Architecture. She also studied at the Art Students League of New York and Parsons School of Design as a transfer student.

In 2019, Paula served as an undergraduate critic and speaker at Temple University. In addition, she was a visiting artist at the Westtown School in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Jonathan Stemler
waveforms and gravitons aka mr. prickles
2016
Steatite and blue spruce
4" x 6" x 3.5"

About the work

For years now I have been trying to develop a kind of visual language.
Finding constants, universal truths and attempting to create a rich contextual environment. Establishing type and archetype where objects, shapes, and drawings become more than simple metaphor and start to become wholly developed conversation. I would like my artwork to be approachable; one should never feel unqualified to have an opinion about it. I want complicated work to feel easy to the viewer.

About the artist

Jon lives in Montgomery County with his wife Kimberly and their three sons. He owns and runs a manufacturing facility in Perkasie, Pa and is also a consultant for a movable bridge engineering firm. In addition to this, Jon designs, fabricates, and installs large scale work for other artists. Onsite machining is also part of his skill set such as his field work on "Oculus", a permanent installation by Santiago Calatrava at the World Trade Center in New York.

Previous shows were exhibited at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown and Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia with Matthew Stemler. Permanent Installations with Kimberly consist of "alpha & omega" NHUMC in Gilbertsville, Pa and "Windows of History" located at Univest National Bank in Souderton, Pa.

Much of his work is kinetic; it is playful, significant, and beautiful. It is to be accessible intellectually and artistically to all audiences. Both Jon and his work are absent of loftiness, condescension, and pretense. Instead, one finds both the artist and his work to be simultaneously powerful and humble.

Teresa Shields
Peachy Sprout
2020
Fiber art
7" x 5" x 1.5"

About the work

I divide my studio time between embroidery and felt-making. I look at nature - plant forms, geometry, colors, cell structures, bones, antlers, wings - to see the underlying connections that these things have in common.

My felted work is experimental. By using math to calculate shrinkage of wool fibers and partially-felted shapes, I reverse-engineer geometric or biomorphic three dimensional sculptures.

Felt-making has taught me patience. I have leaned into the process as I have become more experienced. Turning fine wool roving into solid material has always felt magical. Although my work is based on life experience, it is not directly autobiographical. Many of the themes relate to women's experiences, how we are viewed and treated. It is sometimes serious, other times quirky and playful, and teeters on the edge of viewer interaction.

I've been around fabric and stitching my whole life. I like it because of the human connection. I am the first generation in my family to elevate stitches into art.

About the artist

Teresa Shields received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and MFA from Massachusetts College of Art. She has shown her art in many group exhibitions in the U.S. and has won awards including first place in Madeley 2020 in Conroe TX, the Jurors Award at SDA's Small Works: Surface Design Association at 40 in Portland, OR., and 3rd Place at the 3rd Annual Conroe Art League National Invitational Show in Conroe, TX, and the Jurors Award at Studio Channel Island's Abundance exhibit in Camarillo, CA. May 2016 to November 2017, Teresa was resident fiber artist at Abington Art Center in Jenkintown, PA where she presented her interactive fiber installation 'Trending Threads' in their Solo Series Fall 2017 show. December 2018 to January 2019, 'Red Pepper' was exhibited in Wayne Art Center's Craft Forms 2018. Teresa's embroidery 'Crowning' was juried into Woodmere Museum's Second Nature: The Poetics of Re-presentation. Teresa is represented by Graver's Lane Gallery in Chestnut Hill, PA and is a member of InLiquid.

Fran Gibson
Angles and Energy
2020
oil on canvas
40" x 45" x 1.5"

Courtesy of Cerulean Arts

About the Work:

This is the year of living vicariously.

I started several paintings at the beginning of 2020 with the understanding that I was revisiting a familiar place, My City: Philadelphia.

By the time March came around, and the pandemic began for real, I was way invested in life on the streets.

At that point, with the quarantine in full gear, I was afraid that the city was feeling abandoned and isolated. I worried for my fellow Philadelphians, living inside for an extended time.

By June, I decided to drive through the city and see for myself, only to find that life had started up again, reemerged and renewed in a unique way. New construction started or many projects continued. People were still the main attraction, in crosswalks and on sidewalks going to local shops and restaurants. They were tasting the places that were all so familiar.

I never stop feeling the enriched energy but will always remember the quiet drone of underlying isolation and discomfort.

When I walk through my city, Philadelphia, I hear the rhythms of The Roots, the harmonies of Boys to Men, the kick-ass smack of Patti Labelle, the audaciousness of Pink, the celebration of oneself in Walt Whitman, and the complex river patterns in Thomas Eakins' Schuylkill River. It's crowded on the streets with all that activity, but it's always the same. Philadelphia, my city.

When I paint the city, it's from a deep feeling of understanding the place I never left and always return to say:

I know your strengths - I know your faults - I have an abiding love of you, My City: Philadelphia.

Lois Harvey
Protector
2015
ceramic
17" x 26" x 6"

About the work
I am interested in the relationship between different types of structures. My sculptural ceramics can be seen as abstract hybrids of botanical and man made structures. The hand made forms depict imagined organisms or constructions that echo botanical physiology while simultaneously mimicking infrastructures of human society. Through breaking up then reassembling different types of familiar yet abstract structures, these works seek to explore the human relationship to the natural world.

About the artist
Lois Harvey was raised in Georgia and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Harvey received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 3D Studio Art from Georgia Southern University in 2014. She has been an Artist-In-Residence at The Hambidge Center for Art in Rabun Gap, Georgia and a staff artist at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lois currently works in her studio in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

Bette Lesher
Path to Old Main, Penn State
2015
Watercolor
23" x 29" x 1"
A/P

About the work

This painting was created in honor of nephew Ryan Lesher who died at the young age of 16. His desire was to attend Penn State University like his brothers. Print sales have raised money for the Ryan Lesher Foundation.

About the artist

Bette Lesher is a self-taught Philadelphia artist and print maker living and painting in the city for over 30 years. She is a representational watercolor artist and photographer.

Peter Cunicelli
Red Vase
2020
Brown stoneware
11" x 11" x 11"

About the work
My work is a reflection of my interest in contrast, the contrary, and opposition. It's as simple as my choice of a matte, monochrome outside contrasted with the mottled, multi-colored shiny glaze on the inside. The full, rounded, voluptuous sides are joined by clean, crisp lines. At one angle, a piece can be fluid, beautiful, and dignified. Turn it just a bit and the fluidity is stifled and it becomes awkward.

About the artist
Peter Cunicelli is a Philadelphia artist who has been working with clay since 2000. As a student at The Clay Studio, he discovered hand built vessels and soon began rolling out slabs of his own. During this time, he began developing forms by studying traditional thrown forms and cutting templates. He has experimented with a variety of glazes and techniques and has worked in Raku, wood fire, porcelain, paper clay, cassius bassalt and other stonewares. His current studio practice builds and expands upon the desire to create forms that push the boundaries of form that are balanced between the dramatic and the refined.

Michael Frechette
Small Stream at Ridley
2019
Giclee print on German etching paper
34" x "31

About the Work:

This is a spot I walked past many times in the fall of 2019 in many conditions.

About the Artist:

Born in Detroit in 1965, Michael Frechette has been making art in Philadelphia since 1985.

Ara Zeibarian
Worried
2020
acrylic on canvas
19" x "24

About the Work:

In this work the artist explores his life as an essential worker during the pandemic plus the social upheaval in America and Armenia's losing in a war with Azerbaijan.

About the Artist:

Born in 1969 to Armenian parents here in Philadelphia and received his BFA from Tyler School of Art in 1992 with a degree in Painting.

David Graham
Marilyn Monroe, Palisades Park, NJ
1991
chromogenic color print
31" x 30"
1/25
FMV: $3,000

About the work
I photograph the American cultural landscape as well as Americans themselves. This print is from "The Land of the Free".

Bout the artist
Work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Princeton University of Art, Houston Museum of Fine Art, International Center of Photography, NYC. Eight monographs including "American Beauty" and "The Land of the Free", Aperture, "Only in America", Knopf. Professor at the University of the Arts.

Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, NY, NY. Etherton Gallery, Tucson, AZ. PDNB Gallery, Dallas, TX.

Maureen Drdak
Atman 2
2019
Acrylic and 23.k gold on Twinrocker handmade paper
27" diameter

About the work

"ATMAN 2" draws upon Asian conceptions to represent the release of the soul from the material world. The soul, or Atman (Sanskrit), is represented by a golden bindu (dot) floating upon the cosmic void. The undulating circular forms of the paint registers reference the forms of the saggital sutures of the cranium, from which in Tibetan and Hindu thought the soul is thought to emerge at the time of death. Drawing upon ancient Asian metaphysical conceptions, the work is a contemporary meditation of impermanence.

About the artist

For the past decade Drdak's work has employed the unique synthesis of repoussé metalwork and painting. This congress of materials-the first of its kind-was pioneered by Drdak and definitively established during her 2011 Fulbright research fellowship to Nepal where she studied with the finest living masters of this elite practice; the grandsons of the famed Kuber Singh Shakya of Patan, Nepal. Drdak is the first and only artist to date working with this material synthesis. Drdak travels widely in pursuit of her visions; her research has taken her to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, India, Nepal and the Himalayas; Drdak's work references universal paradigms of mythic archetypes--both ancient and contemporary forces converge in her work. A graduate of the both the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia-- she is the recipient of numerous honors, including the 2011-2012 U.S. Fulbright Senior Scholar Award for Nepal. Drdak has received personal support from H. F. Lenfest and Eugene V. Thaw for Lung-Ta, an interdisciplinary collaborative with international composer Dr. Andrea Clearfield inspired by the Tibetan Kingdom of Lo in the Nepalese Himalayas; Lung-Ta premiered at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 2009 and the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel in May, 2012. Her work is found in numerous public, private, and university collections within the US and abroad.

Jessica Demcsak
Fragment of Place
2020
Acrylic on wood
4" x 4" x 4"

About the work

Jessica Demcsak began creating architectural paintings on wood during her MFA program in 2002. These explorations about the home, memory and meaning transformed into documentations of storms when she visited New Orleans two weeks before Hurricane Katrina. She re-visited New Orleans after the storm to document the architecture. After New Jersey's Super Storm Sandy, Jessica began painting on firewood which was the most vital material to have during the loss of power.

Her recent work has been informed by the increasing and intensifying storms due to climate change. The work honors the homes, buildings, and families that have been destroyed and the memories and ghosts that remain.

About the artist

Jessica Demcsak is a New Jersey artist. She received her BFA in Painting from Mason Gross School of the Arts in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1999, her MA in Art Education from Kean University in 2001, and her MFA in Painting from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 2004. Demcsak has exhibited in the New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania area. Her work has been included in New American Paintings Magazine as well as New Jersey Monthly. In 2005, she received a Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Grant. She currently resides in Bridgewater New Jersey with her husband and three children.

Kenny White
PureHell onstage at AfroPunk Brooklyn, NY 2009
2009
Archival inkjet print on cotton rag
20" x 24"

Edition 3 of 10

About the work

I made this photo in 2009 during I believe was the third annual Afro Punk Festival in Brooklyn NY at B.A.M. while hanging with my childhood friends who are all the surviving members of the band PureHell.

About the artist

Since my teens, I have always carried a camera with me - either a Kodak Instamatic or some sort of Polaroid Land camera - just to take pictures of my environment. I now work mostly in the digital format, although I still maintain and use a number of film cameras. My subject matter varies from my friends, the people I meet on the streets, to the people who make up my immediate and extended family, to myself. As a documentary photographer, I try to capture people in the act of being themselves, or being who they imagine themselves to be. Even when shooting a traditional assignment such as a wedding, I find that this approach is very satisfying, both for my clients and for myself. I also like to shoot objects and environments that I find interesting and that have made an impact on me. When it comes to my personal work, although I am making pictures that have meaning for me, I am still always looking for reactions - whether positive or negative - from the people who view my images. If my pictures provoke a response, to me that is always a good thing.

Jocelyn Gabrynowicz Hill
Girl Stuff
2017
Mixed media
5" x 4" x 3"

About the work
"Girl Stuff" is one of my "foamies" series. It is small, bright, and light.

About the artist
I live and work in Philadelphia. Making art makes me happy.

Pete Checchia
Flapper
2019
Giclée print on canvas
30" x 20" x 1.5"

About the work

Flapper, 2019.
It is what I term a Dreamscape
Model - Brittany Papale

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 nighttime dreams inspired this work.

About the artist

Photography, Art, Curating

My career as a photographer, visual artist, and curator, gives me the opportunity to explore many creative avenues and to collaborate with exceptional artists and organizations.

At Pete Checchia Photography & Arts, my gallery and photo studio, I program solo shows, group and themed exhibits, events, benefits, popup shops, and I have a special yearly guest curator show.

My photography work focuses on the classical music world with clients that include Carnegie Hall, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, New York String Orchestra Seminar, and the Marlboro Music Festival. I shoot publicity work, editorial work, events, live concerts, rehearsals, classroom shots, and many other images for schools, orchestras, and other arts and music organizations.

What ties my overall work together, from my work as an exhibiting visual artist, to work as a photographer, to curating/gallerist work, is the idea of collaboration. Sometimes that collaboration is more ethereal as with photographing an inspiring musical performance, other times it's more fundamental as with collaborating with art models and mixing our ideas. Collaboration can also take the form of direct work with other artists in different mediums like my DeMelas/Checchia collaborative duo work with painter Anthony DeMelas which now celebrates our 15th year working and showing together.

I explore art in multiple genres, disciplines, and mediums including video art, installation art, 3D constructions, mixed media, paint, performance art, and of course photography.

DeMelas/Checcchia
Graffiti Lenny (Ragazza)
2019
Photography with paint on canvas. Wooden frame.
17.5" x 22"

About the work

Multimedia.
Photography printed on canvas with paint. Wooden frame.
Model Lenny Langley.

About the artists

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).

James Oliver
Chopper #2
2020
Mixed media on canvas
12" x 12" x 1.5"

About the work
James Oliver is 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.

About the artist
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.

About The National Liberty Museum

The National Liberty Museum is dedicated to preserving America's heritage of freedom by encouraging people to find their own place in the story of liberty.

About the Item

Sayaka Suzuki
"Three Cups of Tea"
wall-hung sculpture made of cast glass, green tea, fabric, threaded wire, colored pencil & acrylic paint on wood
6" x 18.5" x 7"
2010

FMV : $1,200.00

About the Item

A Paisley Heart from artist Dori Desautel Broudy's series "Building Blocks" are a fun, versatile, beautiful conversion of my original artwor, (perfect for collecting on a mantle or to brighten a bookshelf or desk)-to the "Coffee Table Block" (my spin on the coffee table book), every Building Block is created with the utmost precision and attention to detail. Diamond cut, one-inch thick with a protective backing to prevent scratching, every piece is made in the USA and held to nothing less than museum-grade quality.

FMV : $385.00

Smokie Kittner
Untitled
2020
Pastel on rag paper
6" x 6"

Favi Dubo
Winner
2018
Oil on paper mounted on cardboard
Triptych: 6" x 26" x 1.5"

About the work

Painting a very structured world while exploring different materials to bring out an organic feel.

About the artist

Favi Dubo is a Philadelphia area PAFA artist for forty years concentrating on abstract for twenty years. Art teacher as well as historian my works have been displayed numerous places from Maryland to Maine as well three published books and recently set designs for local theatres.

John Schlesinger
Untitled Chandelier
2021
Salvaged rebar, neon, silicone rubber, found laboratory glass and laboratory clamps
21" x 18" x 20"

About the work

John Schlesinger presents site-responsive installations rooted in the ceiling and walls of the space. Made from twisted salvaged demolition rebar, Schlesinger constructs strangely bent neon which mimics and riffs on the rebar. Recycled laboratory clamps hold the fragile neon close to the steel. Cast bronze sculptures and resin-soaked photographs mounted to shattered glass complete the mix.

Independent of the usual neutral gallery lighting the installation illuminates itself both from the back and the front...eerily reminiscent of a deep-water fish living in darkness below the sunlight.

About the artist

John Schlesinger is a veteran photographer turned sculptor and installation artist. He has won a Rome Prize, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, an Aaron Siskind Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. His work has been reviewed in Art in America, the Village Voice, Aperture, Bomb Magazine, Art News, and the New York Times.

Collected broadly, Schlesinger's output can be found at the Walker Art Center, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Houston Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Hamburg Kunsthalle, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, and the MOMA. He recently completed a CFEVA Fellowship in Philadelphia.

Currently he is finishing on an installation "After the Fall" at the Cherry Street Pier on the waterfront in Philadelphia.

Anne Canfield
The Royal Wedding
2010
Etching
10" x 10"

Jenny Laden
Moon and NYC
2006
Oil on wood
29" x 15"

About the artist

Born In Philadelphia, in 1970, Jenny began painting at the age of 9. After mastering paintings of oranges and boots, she moved onto the human figure. In 1988, she moved to New York City to attend Barnard College where she studied art and art history. In New York, she learned the art world ways through her work at White Columns, as Development Associate, and later as Assistant Director. In 1996, she entered New York University to receive her Master's Degree in Fine Art. She has exhibited in New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, McClean, Richmond, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Berlin.

Laden currently lives and works in Philadelphia. She is partial to good light and hot sauce.

Howard Silberthau
Copy of Sarah's Quilt
2019
Oil
42" x 42"

FMV: $5,000

About the work

This painting from a series continues to utilize the grid but also reintroduces color (in a muted form) and a more noticeable brushstroke.

About the artist

Howard Silberthau received an undergraduate degree from Vassar College and a law degree from New York University School of Law.
He continued to study at New York Art Student's League and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Silberthau also practiced corporate law in New York City and Boston before turning to painting full time.

Gina Michaels
Tara 61
monotype
20" x 15"

About the artist
Gina Michaels' bronze sculpture and monotype prints have been featured in numerous solo, group and public art exhibitions. In New York her work has been exhibited at Ceres Gallery, Prince Street Gallery and Paula Barr Chelsea. Other shows include Palm Springs Art Museum, La Salle University Art Museum, El Paseo in Palm Desert, California; Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey; Woodmere Art Museum, James Oliver Gallery, Jefferson Hospital, iMPeRFeCT Gallery, Gratz College, Projects Gallery, Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Fairmount Park, City Hall and University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; Keystone Art and Culture Center in Lancaster, PA; Washington Square in Washington, D.C. Fellowships include Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, and the New Courtland Fellowship in Philadelphia. Gina received an M.F.A. from University of Pennsylvania, a B.A. from Oberlin College, and studied intensively at the New York Studio School. Gina lives and works in Philadelphia.

Frank Gaydos

Round and Round it goes.....
2018
Terra cotta clay
16" diameter

About the work

I enjoy making large platters that are from 16 to 24 inches in diameter.
They can be used as both functional objects and/or hung as decoration when not in use.

I consider the work as decorative objects intended to visually enhance their surroundings.

Lately I have been exploring color along with hand-made, self designed stencils.

It is exciting to see how the designs change from one phase to the next, drawing on the past, experimenting for the future.

Smashed Label

xBenadryl 6

2014
Oil stick, paint marker, spray paint, and acrylic on canvas.
12" x 24"

About the artist

Smashed Label is for the wrong, for the pieces that don?t fit, the oddballs, the flukes, the underdogs, the underestimated, the
weirdos, the disenchanted, the misunderstood, the misguided, the offbeat, the lost, the misfits, the aliens, the outcasts, the ridiculed and the rejected traveling without roadmaps. Press on.

Be yourself in the midst of any and all scrutiny or judgement. Be different. Smash labels. Create your own.

Brothers Crae and Corei Washington founded their company Smashed Label in 2011. Crae is the artist and Corei, the businessman. The pair began with creating graphic design concepts for logos and business cards as well as graffiti inspired screen-printing for clothing.

Jeffrey Stockbridge
Carol, Kensington and Cambria Street, 2010
2010
Framed archival pigment print
38" x 30"

About the artist

Jeffrey Stockbridge (b. 1982) graduated from Drexel University with a BS in Photography in 2005. His work has been included in recent exhibitions at The National Portrait Gallery London, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, The Houston Center for Photography and The Wapping Project Bankside. Stockbridge is a recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Grant, an Independence Foundation Fellowship and a CFEVA Fellowship. His work has been featured in publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, The Telegraph UK, Light Box, Vignette Magazine, Feature Shoot and The Rust Belt Rising Almanac. Stockbridge lives and works in Philadelphia, Pa.

Lee Lippman
Untitled #4
2014
Oil encaustic and crayon on archival paper
30" x 20"

About the artist

Lee Lippman (1927 - 2020), lived and worked in Philadelphia most of his life, except for twelve years in Mexico with his artist wife, Arlene Love. In his youth, he studied in Mexico with the famous muralists, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. He also experimented with new media at the Instituto Polytecnico Nacional. Lippman worked on a mural crew with Siqueiros before returning to school at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), where he was awarded the senior prize for painting. His work is in collections in various places in the United States, including (among others), The Phillip Morris collection, many Pennsylvania universities and colleges, the Hollis and Generalis collections in Philadelphia, the Nelson collection in Denver, and collections in Mexico. For many years he worked as an art director and graphic designer and began painting full-time in 1975. Lippman played the clarinet and tenor saxophoneperforming with small bands in Philadelphia.

Lee Lippman

Untitled #7
2014
Oil encaustic and paint stick on 300 lb. prepared Arches paper (archival)
30" x 20"

About the artist
Lee Lippman (1927 - 2020), lived and worked in Philadelphia most of his life, except for twelve years in Mexico with his artist wife, Arlene Love. In his youth, he studied in Mexico with the famous muralists, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. He also experimented with new media at the Instituto Polytecnico Nacional. Lippman worked on a mural crew with Siqueiros before returning to school at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), where he was awarded the senior prize for painting. His work is in collections in various places in the United States, including (among others), The Phillip Morris collection, many Pennsylvania universities and colleges, the Hollis and Generalis collections in Philadelphia, the Nelson collection in Denver, and collections in Mexico. For many years he worked as an art director and graphic designer and began painting full-time in 1975. Lippman also played the clarinet and tenor saxophone performing with small bands in Philadelphia.

Michael DeLuca

Big Puffy

2019

Pastel on paper

17" x 17"

About the Artist

Michael understands drawing as a medium unto itself. Working exclusively with pastel on paper, he uses 2-dimensional graphic shapes as subject matter to explore ideas of gesture, motion, and cause & effect. His shapes are flat, but malleable; minimal, but full. Sometimes they're observed, and sometimes they're invented. Either way, it's their ability to expand, stretch, slouch, or bend that interests Michael the most.

Patrick Coughlin

Japanese Architectural Study 4

2016

Japanese earthenware, Washi

9" x 12" x 10"

About the Artist

Patrick Coughlin (born 1981, New York) is an American artist. He has exhibited work in China, Italy, and throughout the United States. Originally from rural, western New York, Patrick's research practice is heavily influenced by that community's relationship to material culture, and labor. Patrick's studio practice currently resides in Philadelphia Pennsylvania where he is a professor at Saint Josephs University, and The University of the Arts . Prior to moving to Philadelphia Patrick lived and worked in Jingdezhen, the ceramic center of China. As an assistant in the design studio he worked with local craftsmen in the production of ceramic design goods for a global market while also assisting in the management of the Education Center, facilitating international exchange and instruction. He has attended residencies in Tokoname Japan, Rome Italy, and across the United Sates, and has been a visiting lecturer at Ewha Womans University in Seoul South Korea, The University of Montana, and Buffalo State University in the United States.

Ellen Tiberino

Winter Sun

2017

Mosaic

17" x 13"

About the Artist

Ellen Tiberino is a mosaic artist born and raised in West Philadelphia. She comes from a family of renowned visual artists. Ellen has exhibited in numerous galleries in Philadelphia and New York. Including the Sande Webster gallery, Gallery 22, Rosemont College and the African American Museum. Ellen has conducted numerous workshops for different organizations including Mural Arts programs, Living Cities, People's Emergency Center and independently in different communities.
Her work can be found in various collections. Ellen Tiberino's work is inspired by her love of nature, travel and family.

Stephen Millner
Patience Stone
2014
Mixed media, assemblage photography, sculpture
5" x 7

About the work

The Japanese words Tatemae (do what we pretend to believe so that others will like us) and Honne (do what we truly believe is in our soul) have special relevance for the artist. We are often programmed since childhood toward Tatemae-to be slight in our creative aspirations so as to be popular, rather than insightfully truthful. I was fortunate to have parents who allowed me to create art that was true to my soul (Honne), whether it (or I) was liked or not.

My objective as an artist, then, has been to make art that is true to my creative inspiration, free of artificial value judgments. My mixed media and assemblage work incorporates predominantly recycled items: scraps of wrapping paper, newspaper articles, maps, advertising, photographs, envelopes, signs, stickers, stamps, tags, etc.

About the artist

Stephen Millner graduated from Yale University with a Fine Arts Degree and studied under notable artists as Gabor Peterdi (printmaking), Walker Evans (photography), and John T. Hill (photography). Others were artist Jack Tworkov, art historian Vincent Scully, and cultural icon Buckminster Fuller. He began his art endeavors as a photographer, printmaker, and metal sculptor. His works have been shown in galleries throughout the Mid Atlantic region. Millner was the first President of the Artists of Yardley, serving for five years. His art has been on the cover of such magazines as Prime Number, U. S. 1 Worksheets, and Meadowland Review. The covers of the following books feature his art or art arrangement: Marie Kane's Survivors in the Garden and Beauty, You Drive a Hard Bargain, Israel Halpern's The Way This River Rewinds Itself, and the anthologies The Questions Are Enough, a 2009 collection of poems from Dr. Christopher Bursk's Master Poetry class at Bucks County Community College, and Making Our Own Light, Bucks County Poets Laureate 35th Anniversary issue. Millner has also designed display art for the James A. Michener Art Museum, the Trocadero Theatre in Philadelphia, the Wildwood International Kite Festival in New Jersey, and the Wright Flight Centennial Kite Festival in North Carolina. Along with his wife, Marie Kane, Millner was the recipient of the Bucks County Muse Award in 2017 for contributions to the Bucks County literary community.

Nicholas Kripal
Halving
1998
Terra cotta and pigments
30" x 20" x9"

FMV: $8,000

About the artist:

Nicholas Kripal (1953-2016), was the chair of the Crafts Department Tyler School of Art, Temple University, area head of the department's Ceramics Program, and Vice President of Crane Arts LLC, Philadelphia.

He was an artist who utilizes the ceramic medium as a source for sculptural installations, and he created work in the arena of site-specific/site-related installations that explore architectural iconography as a source for their format. These installations have been seen in Contemplations on the Spiritual Site Projects: Glasgow, Scotland (2001), Site Projects: Kristus Kircke, Cologne, Germany (2002), Site Projects: Sala Uno, Rome, Italy (2001), and Site Projects: The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, NYC (2002). Along with sculptor Jeffrey Mongrain, he has created site installations for St. Patrick's Church, Indianapolis, IN (2004) and Corpus Christ Church, Baltimore, MD (2005). Solo exhibitions have included, Award Winners, Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, CT (2008), Museo Casa Principala, Vera Cruz, Mexico (2004), and Ceramic Sculpture: Eclipsing Process, Art Gallery, University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia (2003). Kripal was the recipient of a PEW Fellowship in the Arts, a Pollock-Krasner grant, and three Pennsylvania Foundation for the Arts Fellowships. He was also awarded Artist-in-Residency positions at the La Napoule Art Foundation, France and Art Park, Lewiston, NY.

InLiquid is working with the Estate to find homes for Nick's works. If you would like to learn more please contact saraz@inliquid.org.

TJ Walsh
My Blood Is Alive With Many Voices That Tell Me I Am Made of Longing (Rilke)
Mixed media on canvas
10" x 10" x 2"

About the artist

TJ Walsh, BFA, MA (b. 1985) is a: Painter, Art and Higher Education Administrator, Mental Health Professional.

TJ received his BFA Graphic Design/Painting, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Received his MA in Counseling Psychology at Eastern University, Saint Davids, PA.

TJ writes and speaks about topics of art, culture, faith and mental health. His work has been exhibited and published internationally. He is on the faculty at Eastern University in the graduate school's Counseling Psychology department teaching Personality and Psychosocial Assessment and Psychopathology.

Arlene Love
The Contralto
1961
Cold cast aluminum/fiberglass
3' h

About the work

My work, regardless of medium has always focused on depiction of the human image. The only exceptions are my series of drawings of the bullfight 1989-1997.This ritual of life and death with honor had fascinated me for decades. Most of the drawings show the bull as victor, even though we know the bull must die. Both the bull and the man will die - the bull within twenty minutes. The man - sooner or later.

From the Venus of Willendorf to the photographic image, I feel that the vehicle of expression most immediate and most compelling is the image of a human being. It is the image that expresses the most profound and basic emotions. It speaks back to us of our own vulnerability and humanity.

About the artist

After graduating, the next forty years I focused on sculpture, with solo shows from North Dakota to California. My work has been included in juried exhibitions in the Museum of Modern Art (NY), Boston Museum of Art, Sculpture Center (NYC), Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Cornell University, among others. My sculpture is in the collections of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, James A Michener Museum, the University of Scranton and Franklin & Marshall College. In Philadelphia, my bronze Winged Woman is in the garden of the Dorchester facing Rittenhouse Square. Eight Figures, life size bronzes reside permanently in the Kimmel Center. The gold leafed Face Fragment is in front of the Monell Chemical Senses Cemnter at 3500 Market Street.

Angela McQuillan
Pink Aggregate
2013
Yarn and wire
18" x 12" x 12"

About the work

My creations are not bound to any one type of medium, instead I explore different materials, textures and surfaces to express my own interpretation of the world around me. Through my scientific background I have gained a deep appreciation for biological forms and anatomical subjects. I have always found beauty in microscopic images and in cross-sectional explorations of bodies and plants. I am drawn to the multiplicity of repetitive patterns which occur on both small and large scales in nature. I use scientific imagery as a starting off point to explore my own imaginative internal characters and landscapes. These biomorphic forms offer a unique visual language that breathes and communicates on the deepest levels of our perception. In my works, I explore how the subconscious mind creates associations and meaningful connections with nature through the manipulations of forms suggestive of the processes found in the living world. There is a certain degree of artificiality in my vibrant color palettes and use of manufactured materials. This level of artifice serves to provide an element of fantasy, or departure from what is tangible or real. These bizarre life forms cannot be classified in any scientific textbook, instead they are surreal dreamscapes derived from introspection and my own personal vision.

About the artist

Angela McQuillan received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004 and a B.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from Tyler School of Art in 2011. Angela's body of work consists of mixed media paintings and sculpture, that focus on biomorphic abstraction and the visual language of living organisms. Her art practice as a whole is a study of various ways that art and science intersect and inform one another. Her ideas involve experiencing the living world with infinite curiosity and appreciation, while coming up with unique solutions to problems through artistic and scientific investigation. Angela was a member of the artist collective 'little berlin' from 2011-2013. Angela currently lives and works in Philadelphia.

Paul Romano
Careless Whisper
2016
Oil and paper on wood, artist-made frame
24" x 24" x 2"

About the work

My work is representational, created in a wide variety of media; painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and video. It is a result of personal experience, art history, music, myth and narrative, filtered through allegory, archetype and symbolism. While choosing realistic form, I am not as interested in reality as I am in the ideas of imagination; evocation over accuracy. The audience is left with abstract narratives that ask more questions than give answers. Despite jumping mediums through bodies of work, my methodologies and sensibilities are consistent. Subject matter and formal concerns are strongly linked throughout my oeuvre, giving it a distinct voice.

About the artist

Paul Romano is a fine artist and designer living and working in Philadelphia. Romano studied at the University of the Arts and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His work became known
to a wider audience when he began working in the music industry, where he was able to combine brand design and fine art. He has designed artwork for over 300 albums and has received two Grammy nominations.

Romano's work is part of private collections around the world and has been shown extensively in galleries across the US, including Last Rites Gallery in New York, NY, Arch Enemy Arts and Paradigm Gallery, both in Philadelphia, PA, Thinkspace Gallery in Culver City, CA, and The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, CA. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Juxtapoz, and Decibel Magazine. Romano has also lectured at venues including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts, and Brick and Mortar Gallery.

John Schlesinger
Untitled Photograph
2021
Neon, laboratory clamps, rebar and inkjet print

About the work

John Schlesinger presents site-responsive installations rooted in the ceiling and walls of the space. Made from twisted salvaged demolition rebar, Schlesinger constructs strangely bent neon which mimics and riffs on the rebar. Recycled laboratory clamps hold the fragile neon close to the steel. Cast bronze sculptures and resin-soaked photographs mounted to shattered glass complete the mix.

Independent of the usual neutral gallery lighting the installation illuminates itself both from the back and the front...eerily reminiscent of a deep-water fish living in darkness below the sunlight.

About the artist

John Schlesinger is a veteran photographer turned sculptor and installation artist. He has won a Rome Prize, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, an Aaron Siskind Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. His work has been reviewed in Art in America, the Village Voice, Aperture, Bomb Magazine, Art News, and the New York Times.

Collected broadly, Schlesinger's output can be found at the Walker Art Center, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Houston Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Hamburg Kunsthalle, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, and the MOMA. He recently completed a CFEVA Fellowship in Philadelphia.

Currently he is finishing on an installation "After the Fall" at the Cherry Street Pier on the waterfront in Philadelphia.

Dolores Poacelli
Monoprint #92
2021
Acrylic and collage on bristol paper
Paper size: 17"x14"
Image size: 10"x8"
Framed size: 20"x16"

About the work

Relationships
(I always say) are never easy:
especially those between
color, shape, texture, space . . .
and tension.
The relationship of the part to the part,
the part to the whole and the relationship
of the piece to the viewer . . . no matter
what materials I use is all important.
I use titles to emotionalize these abstract
pieces to help communicate a connection
between the individual and
the universal whole.

In the metal pieces I use recycled aluminum
printing press plates which I sand,
cut and glue onto wood panels, they are
about energy and light, patterns and
motion, all influenced by the microcosm
of life forms, biology, and a
hint of satire.

Deborah Caiola
Self
2001
oil on canvas

FMV: $2,500

Susan Abrams
December Woods #1
2003
copper toned silver print on paper handmade by the artist
16" x 20"

About the work

This photograph was taken in the woods as a snowstorm on Christmas Eve turned to rain. It has the painterly, dream-like quality typical of much of my work from this period utilizing applied emulsion on handmade. The melding of the image and the paper occurs in the darkroom. The aim is to draw the observer into a journey of seeing.