Margery Amdur's Walking on Sunshine is a surprise when you walk down the steps to the platform.

This creation of Philadelphia artist Margery Amdur is one of 21 art projects SEPTA has created systemwide since 1998, when Art in Transit began at the behest of then-new SEPTA general director Jack Leary. Leary came from Boston, which had an art program in its MTA; he wanted art for Philadelphia, too. Everybody up and down the SEPTA line embraced the idea, according to Elizabeth Mintz, who came on board at the same time as Leary and is the authority’s director of communications and manager of the Art in Transit program.

Margery Amdur's Walking on Sunshine is different in each of the different platform areas

An art program in a transit system may seem superfluous, or even questionable when times are tough financially for mass-transit systems. But funding for Art in Transit comes from the Federal Transit Administration; no city or state money is used. When the Spring Garden station (and the nearby Girard station) renovations qualified as shovel-ready projects for 2010 federal stimulus funds, Art in Transit received FTA funds for both stations. Amdur’s “Walking on Sunshine,” selected from an open call for artists, had a budget of $150,000.

The FTA considers art and design programs one of its important initiatives, right up there with planning and safety. The goal is to build ridership by making stations, bus shelters and other infrastructure attractive to riders. “Good design and art … give vibrancy to a community’s public spaces, and make the public feel welcome,” the agency says on its website. FTA-supported art-in-transit programs exist in 17 other states.

Margery Amdur's Walking on Sunshine - Note the sunflower shape here, inspired by Van Gogh

“It’s not just about fine art; it’s a way to develop a conversation with the communities we serve,” Mintz agreed. “Art is a way to build a relationship with the community. When we reconstruct a station, shiny stainless steel and brick goes only so far. We want to get the personality of the community in there. And the art brings in the community.”

Artists must explore the neighborhood around a transit station to discover landmark moments in the community. There are community meetings where input from artists and the public is welcome. “The object is to encourage community ownership,” said Marsha Moss, an independent public art curator and consultant who administers the Art in Transit program with SEPTA. “Public art is two words,” she said. “If it’s not meaningful to the public, it’s not successful as public art.”

Maargery Amdur, Walking on Sunshine, detail. The imprint of her studio practice is all over this piece.

SEPTA’s art projects vary widely from station to station. From mosaics and murals to Amdur’s floor piece, the artists’ individual voices come through loud and clear. “We try very hard not to do the same project over and over,” said Mintz. “We have a list of what we’d like to see — and not just murals and benches.”

Flower power
As an installation artist, Amdur was comfortable working with floors for her project. “In most of my installations, the floor acted as an additional picture plane to work on,” she said. A floor piece conveys a journey. “I want people to get the sense of journey, metaphorically and literally.”
In her studio, Amdur made drawings that were a mélange of flowerlike shapes in various colors and a variety of more hard-edged shapes that overlap and create a sense of space. The piece takes inspiration from Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings and Andy Warhol’s pop-art sensibility — an improbable combination, but one that works.

Margery Amdur, Walking on Sunshine, with train

Scaled up 400 percent, printed on special fabric and embedded under layers of shiny resin that was poured on-site, the drawings still have a handmade feel. Along the dreamy, 4,000-square-foot walkway, tropical colors and organic shapes seem to float in layers beneath the glassy surface underfoot.
The floor has a 35-year warranty; a new coat of resin will be applied every five years. Although it looks slick, it isn’t. (The surface meets engineering specs for a public walkway.)

Amdur got lots of “wows” the first day as people thought they were walking on glass. And although many young commuters seemed to be concentrating on their cellphones, Amdur saw their eyes glancing down while they talked. “If I can get eyes roaming the floor before they get on a train, that’s great,” she said.

In a recent email Septa consultant Moss said she hoped “that more and more artists will explore these public venues for their work and become actively involved in community development. There’s a huge audience out there whose lives may be enriched, and there is urban design, both above and below the street, that could benefit from creative solutions.”

For more pictures of Amdur’s piece, see my flickr set.

A rider’s guide to SEPTA’s Art in Transit

IT TOOK SEVEN punches on a SEPTA eight-ride One Day Convenience Pass ($7) to see 10 Art in Transit projects — a three-hour journey on the Market-Frankford and Broad Street lines, with a stop at Suburban Station. Many of the projects are beyond the ticket gates and thus viewable for paying riders only. The projects vary widely and although they all succeed as public art, some can’t compete with SEPTA’s overwhelming infrastructure of walls, exposed beams, platforms, stairways and gates. The best stay true to the artist’s studio practice while adding boldness and whimsy to the transit system. (Note: * indicates a transit ticket is required to see the piece) See my flickr set for complete photos of all these Septa art works.

Margery Amdur
“Walking on Sunshine”* 2012
Spring Garden Subway Station at Broad Street
Pass the ticket gates and walk down the steps to the platform where six separate floor cloths are embedded on the concrete walkways. Rich colors and lush imagery make this an unexpected delight. Poured resin and fabric.

Barbara Bullock's piece, seen from inside the ticket gate. You can also see it from outside the gate. It has a lot to compete with in the space but holds its own

Barbara Jane Bullock
“Dancers” 2009
46th Street Elevated Station at Market Street
Climb the steps (or take elevator) to the floor above street level. Bullock’s large, painted aluminum cutouts of dancing figures sit on the wall high above the ticket window. This joyous piece of art — evoking jazz, mambo and other musical rhythms — more than holds its own in the metal, tile and glass space.

Robert Woodward's piece at Girard St. Station, detail. This is a surprisingly intimate piece for public art. It pays back a close look.

Robert Woodward
“Looking-Glass”* 2012
Girard Street Subway Station on Broad Street
Once beyond the ticket booth, go down the steps and stop on the stairs to see the “windows” inserted below the stair rail on either side. Embedded in the colored resin are materials gathered from the Girard neighborhood, such as photos, metal washers and shavings, glass lenses and mirrors. Be sure to look closely at this surprisingly intimate public work.

Barbara Grygutis, at Suburban Station. Piece is illuminated at night.

Barbara Grygutis
“Lifelines” 2006
Suburban Station Concourse, 16th Street and JFK Boulevard
Your first sighting of this piece is at street level, where the tips of five glass “leaves” peek out from their underground plaza and suggest shark fins or boat sails. Stand at the observation rail around the space for a great bird’s eye view of the aluminum, glass, light and granite work, and take the nearby steps down to the glass-enclosed sculpture garden for the full effect. Benches accommodate lunchtime crowds, and mirrored glass on the inside of the space enhances the sense of a secret garden.

Ed Hughes, one of four ceramic tiled pillars outside the Septa station at 56th St.

Ed Hughes
“Brighter Moments” 2009
56th Street Elevated Station at Market Street
Four support pillars hold up the El at 56th and Market. Ceramic tiles adorn all four sides of each pillar, with photographic imagery from 100 years of neighborhood history. Up the stairs and past the ticket gates (ticket required), Hughes has adorned several support beams on the platforms with brightly colored ceramic tile that suggests undulating leaves.

Erica and Henry Loustau
“Before, Now, Tomorrow” 2008
“Onward and Upward”* 2008
“Constellation”* 2008
52nd Street Elevated Stationat Market Street
Up the steps (or elevator) at ticket-window level is an abstract, totem-like wall sculpture of a series of colored, powder-coated steel dials, gears and wheels. It’s above the elevator and somewhat invisible in the busy, high-ceilinged space. Beyond the ticket gate (ticket required) and up the steps to the platform are two more sculptures with gears and wheels suggesting transportation and the ticking movement of a watch. The pieces pay homage to a beloved public clock that was once at the intersection.

Richard Goloveyko
“Groundswell”* 2006
8th Street Station, Market-Frankford line
Beyond the ticket gate, walk down to the platform and you’ll be startled by the zany, electropolished stainless-steel benches that seem to float in the space (they are bolted to the walls). Pinched in like a loosely folded piece of paper, they provide a shelf to rest your bags on or lean against. People were doing both when I visited.

Rafe Ropek, detail of his gates to the North Philadelphia Transportation Center

Rafe Ropek
North Philadelphia Transportation Center 2008
Glenwood and Broad Street; also at Lehigh Avenue
At the street-level entrance to the subway station are muscular bronze and steel gates with imagery suggesting Latino masks from the Taino culture. The zigzag border pattern adds finish and suggests you are looking at an art piece, not a decorated gate. The gates are closed at night but open during the day, when they are visible as a kind of louvered grillwork separating the station from the street.

Victor Johnson and David Stephens
“Reflections on 7 Steps to Heaven” 2008
60th Street Elevated Station and Market Street
At street level, look up at the two beams that hold up the El. On the beams, and set at rakish angles, are photographic images of neighborhood history.

Elisabeth Nickles
“Cobbs Creek Constellation” 2011
63rd Street Elevated Station at Market Street
Outside at street level, look up for small steel cutouts of moving figures in bright colors. Inside, ascend the steps and pause midway up for the red, yellow and blue medallion high on the wall, made from more of the metal cutout figures. At the first landing is another medallion-like piece on the wall, with mostly blue figures. n

This article ran in the Philadelphia Daily News on May 22 as part of Art Attack, a partnership with Drexel University supported by a grant from the Knight/NEA Community Arts Journalism Challenge, administered by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.

http://articles.philly.com/2012-05-22/news/31813288_1_public-art-art-in-transit-program-fine-art

Fishtown hosted the 7th Annual Trenton Avenue Arts Festival last weekend, featuring the Kinetic Sculpture Derby. Thousands of people attended the two events with over one hundred vendors presenting their works and services.

Trenton Avenue Festival. Photo by Roman Blazic

The festival was held under a warm brilliant sun and a beautiful blue sky. This too could describe the spirit that flowed through the crowd.

Kinetic Sculpture Derby. Photo by Roman Blazic

The Kinetic Sculpture Derby was wisely re-routed through the Fishtown neighborhood. This drew many more people to the pavements, corners and their front doors. Some people, to their delight, got to see this parade of imagination for the first time.

Watching from her stoop. Photo by Roman Blazic

Each year this festival grows larger and more popular. It truly has become a premier city event. (We Fishtowner’s knew that all along.)

Fancy dresses, fancier hair. Photo by Roman Blazic

More fancy dress. Photo by Roman Blazic

A picture is worth a thousand words. There is no better way to express it except to come to the festival and be a part of it all.

Fashion artist Andrew Dyer. Photo by Roman Blazic

– Fishtown’s Roman Blazic is a board member of the Friends of Penn Treaty Park and the group’s event photographer. You can see his photos in the Spirit Newspaper.

You can watch the video at our YouTube channel.

This episode is recorded and edited by the gifted Kim Paynter of WHYY’s NewsWorks.org — thanks Kim! Thanks also to the Knight Foundation for the matching Arts Challenge Award for the Art Safaris. Thanks to the Miami Foundation, Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, University of the Arts, the Barnes Foundation’s Art Now class, to the galleries we visited and to all our supporters who helped us match and exceed the grant amount! Special shout out to our partner WHYY NewsWorks for their ongoing support and for sharing artblog Art Safari episodes on their arts and culture page. You can subscribe to our videos on our YouTube Channel.

Leslie Wayne, One Big Love #50, 2010, Oil on Wood, 9 1/4 x 12". Courtesy of Bridgette Mayer Gallery.

Wayne’s “One Big Love #50” from 2010 encapsulates many of the ideas that are central to the artist’s work. The poured field of paint is a nod to Helen Frankenthaler and the history of Abstract Expressionism, but Wayne pours a thick layer that rejects the AbEx emphasis on flatness. Instead, she uses paint as a sculptural medium. In Wayne’s hands, oil paint is a highly malleable medium, molded into tight accordion formations. Other formal decisions also deviate from the conventions of this history. Wayne’s canvases are organically shaped, rejecting the idea that the painting extends beyond its rectangular borders. With their small scale, her works might be a conscious effort to reject the macho history of Abstract Expressionism. Whether her position is feminist or not, her works are humble, in stark contrast to the heroics associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement.

Leslie Wayne, One Big Love #55, 2010, Oil on Panel, 12 x 9 3/4". Courtesy of Bridgette Mayer Gallery.

Wayne’s built-up paintings resemble natural formations. Her reference to nature is most obvious in “One Big Love #55,” which portrays the shoreline of a beach. Using paint, Wayne mimics the undulation of the waves as they break and meet the shoreline. This interest in natural forces is also present in the artist’s more abstracted works.

Leslie Wayne, One Big Love #74, 2012, Oil on Panel, 10 x 14". Courtesy of Bridgette Mayer Gallery.

In paintings such as “One Big Love #74,” Wayne creates a tension between the flat and three-dimensional. From top to bottom, the work transitions from a field of solid color to painted formations that appear increasingly crunched under stress. Like the wave that travels to the shore, many of Leslie Wayne’s works incorporate time. Each work builds up to the moment when a physical body is generated or collapses. “One Big Love” shares its name with Patty Griffin song’s about young, summer love, which also acknowledges the fleeting moment. Inevitably deteriorating, each work also reflects anxiety induced by the fragile state of the environment.

Neil Anderson, In the Light of Day, 2012, Oil on Linen, 66 x 84". Courtesy of Bridgette Mayer Gallery.

In a separate room, Neil Anderson’s abstract paintings have sinuous, maze-like curves, and their color palette is vibrant and exuberant. The different sections of color recall maps and the topographical. Anderson takes his forms from organic objects that he photographs and then projects onto his canvas. His works have a formal beauty and cohesion, and unlike Wayne, he isn’t commenting on painting as a medium.

Matthew Fischer, Cal, 2012, Oil on Panel, 25 x 22". Courtesy of Bridgette Mayer Gallery.

In the vault gallery, Matthew Fischer has a small showing of four works. Like Wayne, his paintings also seem inspired by natural forces. The works share physicality, created with the artist’s deft brushstrokes. The artist builds successive layers of paint masking portions underneath. In “Cal,” this final layer is used to reinforce the painting’s flatness, creating a barrier between the viewer and other moments in the work.

Neil Anderson, Gran Marais, 2012, Oil on Linen, 52 x 62". Courtesy of Bridgette Mayer Gallery.

For a gallery that shows mostly abstraction, it’s not surprising that the artists at Bridgette Mayer run the gamut, from color field to action painting. While Neil Anderson and Matthew Fischer’s work can be seen at opposite ends of these two poles, Leslie Wayne’s work deviates from this history. Of the three artists, hers is the most thought-provoking, acknowledging this history while still seeing potential in the medium.

Gabe Tiberino, Caught unawares.

Picking the most quintessentially Philadelphian of Tiberino’s paintings here shouldn’t be anyone’s objective; each of the street scenes shares familiarity equally. Joined by a selection of works he’s done of iconic figures such as John Brown, his street scenes are set in Dirty Frank’s, SEPTA and elsewhere. There’s a balance between the paintings of figures and everyday scenes, and Tiberino shows his versatility by employing a number of styles, rather than taking the same approach to each painting.

Gabe Tiberino, John Brown.

“Art as part of the real world” is a key phrase I keep seeing here. Tiberino’s transformation of photographs into mural-style works relies on the awkward candor of the subjects: a disembodied female leg here, a bored-looking face caught off guard there. He never stops directing you to mundane background events, moments, and gestures. The Dirty Frank’s painting, with its sheer size, is the strongest example. The girl in the foreground, gazing forlornly out at you, is riveting in her solitude, but after a few moments, you notice who’s sitting around her, oblivious to her focus. Then you see the regulars in the background, begin to think of them as characters in a tableau, absorbed in some riotous retelling of a lost weekend. Tiberino’s taken you into their world and given you authorship at the same time.

The artist at work re-creating Dirty Frank's. Courtesy of the Tiberino Museum's site.

The textural and visual effects employed by Tiberino are similarly evocative and intentional. He’s transferred the qualities of spontaneously-snapped photographs to canvas – the prominent glare, the unplanned movements, the uncertain positioning of people in relation to one another. The rooftop scene surrounds two men in the midst of a conversation with other guests, but the off-kilter composition brings your attention in turn to each section of the painting, each person off in their own world.

Gabe Tiberino, A night on the town.

The painting also takes great care with Philly’s unmistakable light pollution casting its wan glow over Tiberino’s partygoers. Then, in a respite from the crowds, there is the titular piece of the show, with its dappling of pastel sunrise over the buildings of Center City. Looking at the rendering of the cloud mass on the Cira Center and the gentle blend of its colors, you can practically sense the morning chill.

"West Looking East."

The gallery’s team, continuing their mission to raise the profile of body art, chose wisely in selecting an artist who shares their talent for blurring the public and the personal. Tiberino’s work reaches the moments caught in the margins, the seedy, quiet, and colorful characters and hidden stories and makes them everyone’s business.

West Looking East is at Arch Enemy (109 Arch Street) until May 25. Gallery hours are Wed-Fri, 12 PM-6 PM, and Sat-Sun, 11 AM-5 PM.

The West Prize list has been announced, picked from an array of 2,650 submissions. The Philadelphia artists who have won a place in the West Collection are:

Tim Portlock

Joe Girandola

Kim Alsbrooks

Astrid Bowlby

Kay Healy

Tim Eads

Erin Murray

Colette Fu

Mark Stockton

Brian Richmond

Additional winners include Bohyn Yoon, a Korean artist who taught at Tyler, and Tyler Held, who graduated University of the Arts in 2011.

In celebration of International Museum Day, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, PAFA and the American Swedish Historical Museumare free to the public today. The PMA is open from 10:00 a.m. to 8:45 p.m, including the Perelman Building and the Rodin Museum. Programming includes special exhibitions, public tours, and Art After 5, which tonight features Cuban-born jazz drummer Francisco Mela.This year’s theme of International Museum Day focuses – appropriately for Philly in the year of the Barnes’ opening – on the evolving role of the museum in a changing world. The International Council of Museums has more information on this occasion.

Alexander Calder, "The Red Bull."

The sale of Alexander Calder’s “The Red Bull” at the Freeman’s Auction has brought a staggering $530,500, surpassing its expected range of $250,000-400,000. A 40-inch tall painted sheet metal sculpture, “The Red Bull” ignited a bidding war that concluded with a bidder on the phone buying the piece, and, along with Calder’s “Voie Lactee,” was one of the sale’s two highest-selling lots.

Tony Tetro, left, commissioned to forge nine Warhols.

As one would expect, the Warhol Foundation is less than pleased at the use of fake Warhols used as prizes to promote an art forgery forum in Australia. We’re not sure that the provocateurs had to make this many people angry to make their point. Artinfo.com has the whole story here, and you can decide for yourself…

From May 18 to July 28, the Moore College of Art exhibition “Window on Race” coincides with the opening of the Barnes Foundation on the Parkway. The exhibition allows sixteen Philadelphia-based artists to reinterpret Albert Barnes’s “wall ensembles”, including: Gabriel Boyce & Preston Link, Sarah Burgess, Kara Crombie, Steven & Billy Blaise Dufala, Joy Feasley, Mark Khaisman, Nick Lenker, Jacque Liu, Matthew Osborn, Hiro Sakaguchi, Anne Seidman, Kate Stewart, Stacey Lee Webber and Mauro Zamora. More information at Moore’s site.  The reception is Friday, May 18, 5:30-8pm.

Chef, comedian and storyteller Mero Cocinero Karimi.

We see no reason why a gastronomic adventure can’t be considered an artistic event, especially at the hands of Iranian-Guatemalan chef Mero Cocinero Karimi. This famed chef and community builder comes to the Asian Arts Initiative for another installment of “The Cooking Show,” a one-of-a-kind series of stories, music, political discussion and humor alongside delicious and healthy culinary offerings from (among other locales) Tunisia, Iran, and the Philippines. Click here to get tickets.

Boundary-breaking, and also record-breaking. Arcadia University senior Hannah Riotto has produced the largest-known photopolymer intaglio-type in the United States—a 15-foot-long installation depicting the icons of Barnesville, Pa. transitioning to the Philadelphia skyline. Here’s a YouTube video about this bold project, which is on display as part of Arcadia University’s Senior Thesis Exhibition until the end of today.

From June 7-17, 2012, University City District presents Heart & Soul: The University City Public Piano Project. This interactive public art exhibition features eight artist-decorated pianos on sidewalks and in parks and public spaces throughout University City.  Eight artists or collectives have been chosen to embellish pianos with their signature styles: Terry Adkins, Joe Boruchow, Justin Duerr, Melissa Maddonni Haims, The Heads of State, Kali Yuga Zoo Brigade, Katie Holeman, and Thom Lessner. UCD’s opening reception and party at at 6 PM on June 6 on the Porch at 30th Street Station, including an unveiling and playing of the eight pianos. From June 7 and until June 17, the pianos are to be placed throughout the neighborhood in various public spaces in University City. For a complete list of Heart & Soul details visit University City District’s site. We can’t wait to see what this diverse group of creatives comes up with!

First Person Arts is creating a new performance art/story installation as part of June’s First Friday. The First Person Arts Story Market invites you to buy a story the way you’d buy vintage clothes or trinkets at a flea market. This idea, a signature of First Person Arts’ great work in bringing unheard stories to the public, is made possible by a partnership with Christ Church Neighborhood House, in whose courtyard the first performance is set on Friday, June 1, from 5pm-8pm. This event is free to enter – stories are priced individually. More info at First Person Arts.

Opportunities

via Wooloo -“Backlash: On Women’s Basic Rights and Freedoms” is a non-juried NYC show at Soho 20 on July 19th that takes a critical look at women’s issues. The deadline is June 1. For more information and details on applying here.

The SGC International Conference 2013 in Milwaukee is calling for proposals in printmaking. Please visit the Print:MKE 2013 conference site www.printmke2013.org for more information on how to apply.

If you hurry up, you’ll be able to avail yourself of Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts’ special, one time only membership sale taking place today, offering discounts of up to 25%. Lots of exhibition opportunities for artist members are part of the package. More information here.

Vox VIII, Vox Populi’s 8th annual exhibition, is fast approaching. Juried by Ruba Katrib, curator at the Sculpture Center, and Marlo Pascual, a New York based artist who has recently exhibited with White Columns and the Saatchi Gallery, the show is July 6-29. The deadline for submissions is June 6; applicants can find a prospectus here and apply here.

Artist News

Alexis Granwell, "Eternal City (displaced and replaced)."

Alexis Granwell’s show in Houston at at Bryan Miller Gallery has gotten some rave reviews, with accolades in Modern Houston and American Paintings’ Must See Shows. 

Peter Rose has two shows at Anthology Film Archives in NYC, “Tongue Ties” and “Sight Sounds.” These trippy works concern reflections on time and language, space and time, movement and vision. The first is Wednesday, May 30 at 7:30, and the second is Thursday, May 31 at 7:30.

Diane Burko, "Bear Glacier." Part of the Politics of Snow series.

Diane Burko is doing something out of a childhood dream. She has been chosen  to be part of the Arctic Circle Residency 2013, an expedition consisting of artists, architects, activists, and scientists. While counting down the days until this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, no doubt, she’s keeping busy with a wealth of events. There is her exhibition opening on June 8, 2012 at the Lew Allen Gallery in Santa Fe, “Diane Burko: Water Matters”; this summer’s exhibition “Looking Back at Earth: Contemporary Environmental Photography” from July 7 – September 9, 2012 at Dartmouth’s Hood Museum of Art, and a show at the Michener Museum of Art, including 15 pieces from her on-going Politics of Snow project in a yearlong series of exhibits from September 8 to December 30, 2012. Next summer, eight of Burko’s photographs are part of a national exhibition at the Chemical Heritage Foundation Gallery, titled “Sensing Climate. More information on her many ventures can be found on her site.

Tremain Smith, "Evolutionary Force."

Tremain Smith, whose paintings are included in the permanent collection at the Met, is now under the auspices of Darnell Fine Art in Santa Fe; her works use a fascinating and unique mixed-media technique, combining layers of oil glazes, collaged elements and transparent beeswax fused by an open flame or an iron. We find her work pretty incomparable.

Bearing the name Organon as a means for the process of investigation, the show examines synthetic, creative, and human processes that often mirror the biological and organic processes at work in the world around us. Should there be such harsh distinctions between what is “human” and what is “natural”? What exactly defines the boundaries between the synthetic world of computers and machines as opposed to the mechanisms of plants and animals? There are big questions at the forefront of this show, but this is certainly not to dismiss the artistry of the drawings themselves; they are splendidly convoluted and yet inviting and familiar.

Colin Keefe

Colin Keefe has a pair of meticulous pen drawings that are extremely easy to get lost in. They appear as a midpoint between aerial shots of urban areas and bacterial cultures. It’s as if a large swath of land from the islands in Dubai somehow began to grow on its own volition. Sections of the patterns are organized into grids and right angles, but as the eye follows their path, they begin to melt into more winding and biological masses. Anyone who has flown in an airplane can easily see the parallels between urban sprawl and microorganisms’ reproductive habits. It would be going a bit far to assume Keefe thinks humanity is a virus; however, the way his forms fan out across the paper does tend to imply that even the most industrial of constructions is ultimately a byproduct of life.

Sarah Laing

Sarah Laing also works in pen and ink, but her drawings are more plant and animal hybrids than anything remotely mechanical. The organisms in her pieces resemble cornstalks or some type of tall weeds at first glance. At further inspection, the details actually look like they have joints, bones, or even skin. It’s as if human fingers or other animal-like appendages are emerging from within the plants’ stems and leaves. Even the most divergent of life forms actually share a huge portion of their genetic makeup. The difference between a dandelion and a dog is relatively small as far as DNA is concerned. Laing seems to be of the mindset that – whether animal or plant, human or otherwise – all life shares an astonishing number of characteristics even in the face of  its diversity.

Alana Bograd

Of the three artists in Organon, Alana Bograd is the only one to work with pencil. Her drawings are the most numerous in the exhibition and also the smallest. They are very freeform and seem in some ways like the amorphous entities that result from automatic drawings. All of the warped images are extremely surreal and every one also contains representations of breasts. In this way they are maternal and life-bestowing, as well as mammalian. They are sexualized but not sexy, curvaceous as well as somewhat creepy. All of them are headless but also possess leaves, sharing some of the hybrid characteristics of Laing’s artwork.

All of the creations in Organon play off of biological themes and complement each other in powerful ways. The revelations in studying the works individually and in comparison to one another are almost endless, while the patterns are fractal and cyclical in the most visually stimulating of ways. Rebekah Templeton proves its curatorial prowess once again in this show that is not to be missed.

The show is up until May 26.

Viewers admire the finished product on opening night. Photo credit: Jon Chigot

The project is the brainchild of Thomas Buildmore and Scott Chasse, who met in Boston curating for the Distillery Gallery in 2007. Their plan was to join local and visiting artists together and, allowing only black paint on white walls, challenge them to interactively fill the space. The installation covers Space 1026’s lofty walls entirely with vignettes large and small. Though the stylistic range covered a large scope, graphic to sketchy to slow and finely rendered, a current of graffiti influence ran throughout. Some favorites included a comic take on Cerberus represented as a three-headed poodle, a stencil-like portrait of Ben Franklin holding a boom box, and a striking, graphic silhouette of an oil rig which was repeated throughout the space.

Buildmore’s “Marylin.” Photo credit: Jon Chigot

I sat down with Buildmore to discuss his role in the project and its development over time. A graduate of the Museum School, Buildmore amphibiously skirts the line between curator and artist. Buildmore and Chasse initiate the installation by painting first, respectively. We chatted about what I like to call, “blank canvas anxiety,” that sometimes overwhelming fear the challenge of a blank page presents to the creative mind. Interestingly, he commented that he has noticed that by painting first, he and Chasse effectively dissipate this tension, allowing the artists the freedom to creatively interact. Buildmore discussed his reasoning for the bare bones materials (the high-contrast black paint is a specific viscosity blend of Lascaux acrylic). A painter by trade, he has found that a limit is not necessarily a bad thing as it can be helpful in communicating a concept—talking about the state of contemporary painting in the language of paint.

Viewers admire the finished product on opening night. Photo credit: Jon Chigot

As we chatted, Buildmore discussed the difficulty of finding funding. He and his collaborators are resistant to the idea of monetizing the project because, as he puts it, “it’s just not what the project is about.” None of the artists who participate are paid for their work. Think on that for a moment: the show at Space 1026 took approximately four days, with the artists working twenty-plus hours at a time, to install. That’s a considerable amount of time for anyone to work pro bono. Buildmore, Chasse and their collaborators are in it for something else. When all is said and done, and the walls at Space 1026 are covered over with a fresh coat of white paint, Paint it Now will continue. Their work, effort and creative energy become a calcified yet living moment in time. The ongoing project seems to me an effort to distill the flavor of an artistic community into a sort of metaphysical time capsule—a record of cooperative interaction of minds and hands.

Paint it Now is on display at Space 1026 until May 25.

With work by eight young painters from New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Oakland, the exhibit was partly put together in response to a May, 2009, piece by Raphael Rubinstein in Art in America magazine. Rubinstein caused a stir by identifying provisional art as a new theoretical approach to aesthetics.  The provisional art premise has since been adopted for a show of contemporary work at Modern Art, London. Now, Philadelphia co-curators Liam Holding and Sean Robert FitzGerald are taking a crack at identifying just what is provisional art, as it emerges organically and cohesively in the diverse work of several young artists.

"Ghost Snow" by Annabelle Speer

Rubinstein originally identified the provisional as art that incorporates deliberation and indecision into the finished product. Citing artists like the Dadaists, Cezanne, Miro, and writers Samuel Beckett and Franz Kafka, Rubinstein wrote of provisional art as a contemporary response to the rejection of the idea of finished, durable work, in part compounded by the cornering of visual artists in the cultural conversation. With this theoretical starting point one immediate question to the viewer of Considering the Provisional may be whether the artists at work really have enough depth to take on Rubinstein’s vision of “the art of exhaustion.” However, the paintings in in the show are often energetic and exuberant.

"Untitled" by Brendan Smith

At a time when young artists often pursue expression in alternate visual media, those in this show are very committed to paint. Brendan Smith’s tubular, visceral works even have crests of paint licking off the canvas.

"Acreage" by Jenna Weiss

Jenna Weiss’ large abstract piece “Acreage” on unframed cloth tacked to the wall suggests a composition of weight-bearing objects that float in a dizzying vertigo of tensionless space. The ideas of weight and float are heightened by the seeming hastiness of the sketched shapes and the flimsy fabric of the piece.

"Corner Painting" by Hannah Hall

Hannah Hall’s “Corner Painting” is a chipped and taped geometric exploration that captures the simultaneous invitation and obstruction Rubinstein credited to the spirit of provisionality.

"Inner and Outer" by Amy Feldman

Amy Feldman’s Inner & Outer (above) is an altered ‘eye of god’ pattern, spiraling into the canvas. Likewise, Ryan McCartney’s “Lot #3” outlines the presence of a complex and undefined structure, partly obscured by dark mist.

"Lot 3" by Ryan McCartney

Co-curator Liam Holding said that Rubinstein’s concept of the provisional tied the paintings together but didn’t fully encapsulate the show or the artists on show. Holding and FitzGerald selected works that share a commitment to visual storytelling through paint, “sincere” works that restrict themselves to two or three compositional moves and invite viewers into participation. As a step away from complicated visual game-playing and toward “provisional” simplicity that is still built up on complex compositions, these paintings feel like the start of something new.

For more information, visit fjordspace.com. See the show online here.  Considering the Provisional will be up at Fjord Gallery, 2419 Frankford Ave., Kensington, through May 27.

Alana Bograd, curator of Peep! speaking with us at Little Berlin

You can watch the video at our YouTube channel.

This episode is recorded and edited by the gifted Kim Paynter of WHYY’s NewsWorks.org — thanks Kim! Thanks also to the Knight Foundation for the matching Arts Challenge Award for the Art Safaris. Thanks to the Miami Foundation, Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, University of the Arts, the Barnes Foundation’s Art Now class, to the galleries we visited and to all our supporters who helped us match and exceed the grant amount! Special shout out to our partner WHYY NewsWorks for their ongoing support and for sharing artblog Art Safari episodes on their arts and culture page. You can subscribe to our videos on our YouTube Channel.