Solar Flare

SOLAR FLARE

presented at Courtyard by the Marriott | April 5 - July 14, 2024

Solar Flare offers a vibrant dialogue between the works of Cathleen Hughes and Gilvan Nunes.

Cathleen Hughes’ new series of paintings, “Solar Angle” offers an homage to the movements of light, water, and human activities throughout Philadelphia’s Navy Yard itself. Hughes alludes to the passage of time and visible light spectrums through shifting, angular compositions and dynamic geometries. In contrast to the linear rhythms of Hughes’ paintings, Gilvan Nunes’ ceramic vases and plates are an explosion of flora and fauna. Each of Nunes’ compositions acts as a lush microcosm that celebrates themes of growth and biodiversity through renderings of real and imaginary life forms. Acting as visual counterpoints to one another, each artist reflects a vision of complex patterns of life, recording cycles of transformations unfolding beneath a shared sun.

Cover image: Gilvan Nunes Cornelia & Cardinal, 2023 Ceramic 13 x 14 x 6" $1,600 Opposite: Gilvan Nunes Promises, 2023 Porcelain 11 x 9 x 7.5" $1,200

CATHLEEN HUGHES “These new works represent my continued interest in space, time, and matter along with scale. ‘Solar Angle’ reflects the vibrancy of the environment at the Navy Yard, where my husband was an electrical engineer for 40 years. I would like to give a nod to all he has done and to the beauty of the ever changing Navy Yard.”

Opposite: Cathleen Hughes Solar Over Water, 2024 Acrylic on canvas 24 x 48 x 2" $1,000 Right (detail): Cathleen Hughes Solar Angle 5, 2024 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 17 x 1.5" $750

Hughes has created 150 murals across the city for the Mural Arts Program over the last 20+ years.

Her abstract paintings have been exhibited internationally and belong to numerous private and corporate collections. A Philadelphia native and a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, she now resides in Fishtown. Hughes’ works illustrate her pursuit of educating and promoting peace through art.

Left: Cathleen Hughes Solar Angle 2, 2024 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 17 x 1.5" $750 Opposite (left to right): Cathleen Hughes Solar Angle 4, 2024 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 17 x 1.5" $750 Cathleen Hughes Solar Angle 6, 2024 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 17 x 1.5" $750

Opposite: Cathleen Hughes Exhibition view Left to right: Cathleen Hughes Solar Angle 3, 2024 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 17 x 1.5" $750 Cathleen Hughes Solar Angle 1, 2024 Acrylic oncanvas 40 x 17 x 1.5" $750

GILVAN NUNES “Gilvan Nunes’... work has evolved into a robust and colorful explosion into a fantastic nature. Nunes continues to investigate alternatives to painting in his own time, free of collective principles; as the artist that found his own pictorial system.”

Left (detail): Gilvan Nunes Amara Vase, 2023 Ceramic 10 x 6" $1,200 Opposite: Gilvan Nunes Exhibition View

Left: Gilvan Nunes Blume, 2023 Ceramic 17 x 11 x 5" $1,600 Opposite: Gilvan Nunes Freedom Vase, 2023 Porcelain 12 x 9.5" $1,200

“Gilvan’s art is a vigorous [expression] that erupts without a project, whose results of the procedure suggest floral motifs and landscapes. The beauty of these [works] despite their trivial reasons does not contradict the complexity of the true pictorial action of his work. The manual process is, therefore, the way he expresses his visual thought and lets his artistic sense flow, resulting in his poetic works of art.”

– Fernando Cocchiarale, Art Critic and Curator, former Director of the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art (MAM), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

1400 N. American Street, suite 314 Philadelphia, PA (215) 235.3405 www.inliquid.org

Open Wednesday - Saturday, 12 - 6pm & by appointment For inquiries and appointments, contact (215) 235-2405

1001 Intrepid Avenue Philadelphia, PA

All works in the show are available for purchase on Artsy.