Voice of the People

1851 Ohio Women's Rights Convention: Sojourner Truth advocated freedom from slavery for women.

1920 19th Amendment -first time American women given citizenship. Black women voted, but not Native women until 1924 & Asian women not until the 1950s.

1973 Roe v Wade ruling that legalized abortion 2019.- 27 abortion bans enacted across 12 states.

White Collar Crime

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1776 Adam Smith - “Wealth of the Nation” principle architects of democracy are the people who own society. James madison designed democracy/founder and framer of declaration so the power of the Nation is in the power of the wealthy.

2017 By 2021 70% of the nation's wealth will be in the hands of millionaires and billionaires.

2020 Philadelphia cut spending on street & basic services due to coronavirus shutdowns. BUT, Philadelphia will still pay $36 million, to the Eagles.

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Mental Health

1946 Truman signed the Nat’l M H Act:established Nat’l Institute of Mental Health. ( Cannibus was illegal in the USA prior to 1934) 1950/60’s -Anxiety was at the forefront of medical and psychiatric attention in the United States Today our #1 MH Issue

1981 Reagan-Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Cuts MH funds leads to homelessness/ placed criminal justice

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War On Drugs

1934 Roosevelt criminalized use:Terminology: Marijuana-vs-Cannibis; Targeted Mexican immigrants.

Cannabis was already in all tinctures and medicines.

1970 Nixon classified as Type 1 with no evidence.

1980-Total prison population 41000 - Today over 500,000. with the largest arrests for possession.

1986- Anti drug abuse Act mandatary minimum sentences Terminology: Blacks charged with crack, whites/powder.

Those arrested are evicted from public housing and eliminated from student loans.

OCTOBER 18 – DECEMBER 7, 2024 FEATURING: RHONDA BABB

SANDRA BENHAIM KATHLEEN GRECO GARY GRISSOM

E. SHERMAN HAYMAN CAROLE LOEFFLER

DEANNA MCLAUGHLIN DOLORES POACELLI PETER SPARBER

GEOFFREY STEIN

CAROL TAYLOR-KEARNEY FLORENCE WEISZ

1400 N. American St, Philadelphia 19122 | InLiquid.org

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1400 N American Street Gallery 108 Philadelphia, PA 19122 InLiquid.org Open Wednesday – Saturday, 12 – 6 PM & by appointment.

For inquiries and appointments, contact (215) 235-3405.

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(Above image) Exhibition view, InLiquid Gallery

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(detail) Gary Grissom, Piggyback Riders, Flags, Mural Demonstration, 2017, Dye-sublimation metal print, 30 x 38.5 x1.5", $750

THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE The Voice of the People is

a juried open-call exhibition

featuring 12 InLiquid Member Artists. This exhibition invited

current InLiquid artist members to submit works that explore American Politics. Each

artist brings a unique artistic perspective on the political

choices we make, the systems we exist within, and portrayed security within our political environment.

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THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE Florence Weisz and Deanna McLaughlin bring back pieces that were shown in InLiquid’s 2020 exhibition, Satirical Candidacy. Florence reworked her interactive collaged portraits of Joe Biden and Donald Trump to now feature Kamala Harris alongside Donald Trump. Deanna’s interactive Operation USA invites audience members to pull indicators from a large-scale replication of the classic board game Operation. Each piece is a symbol of a national crisis that persisted through our history, and is still relevant today. Both artists show the similarities between the political choices we made 4 years ago, and the ones we are faced with this year.

As audience members are interacting with Florence’s collage portraits, they’re facing a gallery wall in which Geoffrey Stein’s large scale collages of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are sitting on either side of E. Sherman Hayman’s L’Amer-EEK! — an American flag pieced together with quotes by political figure heads that seemingly disintegrates at the ends. Geoffrey’s portraits are made of clippings from pivotal speeches, court documents, and images that defined each figurehead's career. Each artwork shows that a whole is greater than the sum of its parts, each small piece alone is easy to look over but standing together creates a clear picture.

Peter Sparber’s American Elegy series looms over audience members as they sit faced with portraits of our current presidential candidates. His five large-scale drawings display the myths of the American Political archetypes; Liberty, Property, Authority, Equality, and Insurrection. Seemingly hopeless, heartbroken, and hypocritical.

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When facing Peter’s dominating imagery, Carol TaylorKearney’s flag series offers a glimpse of hope. Her large, colorful pieces are amalgamations of the American Flag and Tibetan Prayer flags. By overlaying the naturally symbolic colors of Tibetan flags and imagery of joy over the worn American flag, she is reimagining them as vessels of an optimistic future in which children are agents of nature, compassion, and peace.

As audience members make their way to the last section in the gallery, they are met with the byproducts of existing within the current American Political landscape.

Imagery from protests, propaganda-style posters, and direct responses to the seemingly never-ending fight for reproductive rights. Each artist in this section is using their voice and artistic expression to cope with the hardships that we endure when faced with moments of oppression, opposition, and nation-wide hardships.

Kathleen Greco creates portraits in which a frayed American flag is seemingly unraveling around a female figure, hinting at the stronghold that the American government has over reproductive freedom. Printmaker and Activist, Rhonda Babb, creates reimagined propaganda-style posters that encourage viewers to think about the impact they have on their own future. Sandra Benhaim and Gary Grissom show composite images of protests and movements, a hopeful display of country-wide mobilization at times of distress. Dolores Poacelli’s piece is a direct reference to voices collecting under one message - the imagery indicative of viewing swaths of protest signs when looking over a crowd. Carole Loeffler shows us the voices of the unheard, with embroidered messages from women imagined.

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CAROL TAYLOR-KEARNEY

BIO Carol Taylor-Kearney is a life-long resident of southern New Jersey. She creates in series, painting on canvas as well as on unique objects such as windows, doors, flags, blankets, and carved-wood panels. These pieces are then put together to form a themed environment.

A graduate of Rowan University (BA in Art Education) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (MFA), she worked as the Coordinator of Graduate Studies at PAFA, taught Studio Art at Rowan University, was the curator at StrataSphere, an exhibition space in Philadelphia, and organized exhibitions at Cerulean Arts, Iona College, Art Fair 14C, and Gloucester County College. Currently, she is the artistic director and part owner of Powell Lane Arts www.PowellLaneArts.com, a gallery in Collingswood, NJ. Taylor-Kearney has been exhibited nationally and her art is part of both public and private collections. Art Fairs she has participated in are the Parallax Art Fair, the Clio Art Fair, and Art Fair 14C. Support includes grants from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and Artist Fellowship, Inc., and artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Peters Valley Craft Center, and the Pouch Cove Foundation in Newfoundland. She is represented

by Atlantic Gallery, an artist co-op in Chelsea, NYC and Cerulean Arts Collective in Philadelphia.

She had written an art blog, presents the #OneMinuteCrit and Powell Lane Arts/Artists’ Talks on Instagram, and YouTube.

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(Opposite page) Carol Taylor-Kearney, American Prayer Flag: Yellow is Earth, 2018, Acrylic paint and oil pastel, 68 x 42", $5,000

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CAROL TAYLOR-KEARNEY

STATEMENT Flags are vessels of ideology. The American flag is a symbol of pride, protection, and identity for those who live under it. Tibetan Prayer flags are emblematic representing one of the five Elements of Nature with their colors: blue is sky and space, white is air, red is fire, green is water, yellow is earth. Their purpose is to spread wishes of peace, compassion, strength, wisdom, and health to the surrounding area as they disintegrate. I combine American flags and Tibetan Prayer flags to communicate an idea.

The idea is to restore the intent of the flag as a messenger rather than an object representing a singular will. I employ worn flags because they demonstrate their participation in the world. I paint the American flag with a color of the Prayer flag then add scenes of children interacting, suggesting the symbolism of the Prayer flag color and the wish to be sent out to the world. On smaller American flags, I feature children’s hands working in actions related to the Prayer flag color on them. These are mounted to painted canvas. Boxes, made from broken windows, contain American flag decals cut into cookie-shapes and arranged between glass panes. In all, I am joining children to Nature and hope for the future. Ultimately, aren't children our projection into the future?

My plan is that these works, hybrids of the American flag and Prayer flags, communicate to each other and create an encompassing experience of spreading positive voices into the world.

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(Opposite page) Carol Taylor-Kearney, American Prayer Flag: Blue is Sky and Space, 2018, Acrylic paint and oil pastel, 68 x 42", $5,000

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Carol Taylor-Kearney American Prayer Flag: White is Air, 2018 Acrylic paint and oil pastel 42 x 68" $5,000

Carol Taylor-Kearney American Prayer Flag: Red is Fire, 2018 Acrylic paint and oil pastel 42 x 68" $5,000

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CAROLE LOEFFLER 14

BIO Carole Loeffler is an artist, mother, and educator based in Philadelphia. She imbues vintage textiles with the spirit of nameless foremothers to create a variety of narratives that reflect her lived experience. She holds a BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and an MFA from the University of South Florida. Carole has exhibited her work in over 100 group and solo exhibitions across the US.

Carole Loeffler Goodall - I do have reasons for hope, 2023 Vintage dress, felt, thread 43 x 22" $500

STATEMENT My work utilizes found objects and textiles often donated by women across the US and found in the “buy by the pound” goodwill bins and other charity shops. I am interested in vintage photos, suitcases, quilts, greeting cards, pillowcases, clothing and ephemera from everyday life. Of particular excitement and interest to me is discovering evidence from the previous owner… handwriting on the back of a photograph or greeting card, stitches in a quilt, or on a handmade garment. I feel a strong connection to an anonymous person from an unknown time and place. The power of mark-making and stitches bind us together in humanity and suggest imagined narratives and a renewed purpose. Our stories matter. Our lives are intertwined in the objects we use and own. I am interested in excavating, amplifying, and embellishing the stories of women before me – to bear witness and learn from the matriarchs of the past. How can these objects and the work I create help light a path forward?

Through my hands, domestic textiles become imbued with the spirit of my imagined foremothers – emblazoned with positive affirmations – as if the spirit of the maker comes to life and offers solace and support. I connect with the women contained in vintage photographs and contemplate how best to share their stories. Greeting cards offer examples of long-ago friendships and connections and they become pattern, color, and material for collages.

Suitcases display stickers of the places they’ve been and serve as functional storage, installation props, and literal reminders of the baggage we carry. I am the caretaker of these thrifted and found objects and the messenger from which their stories flow. We are stronger together and I aim to find ways to break down hierarchy and reimagine a world of support and connection.

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Exhibition View, InLiquid Gallery

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DEANNA MCLAUGHLIN 18

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

Deanna has won numerous awards with her artwork and has been granted residency and exhibition opportunities Nationally, and Internationally. Her work is in permanent collections in Museums, Universities, and private collections. She has exhibited at The Philadelphia International Airport, Terminal A, CraftNow, Craftforms International exhibit, Design Philadelphia, and "Spring Break" in New York City, among others. An insatiable thirst to learn new skills while working with a variety of media sustains her never-ending inspiration to create. Experiencing people from other places and cultures has greatly influenced her approach to looking at life with an ever-fresh perspective.

Academic achievements include M.A./M.A.T., University of The Arts. B.S. Art Therapy, Cognate: Psychology, Bowling Green State University. She is also an ERYT500 yoga educator & qigong teacher.

(Opposite page) Deanna McLaughlin OPERATION USA, 2020 Wood, copper tape, electrical wires, buzzers, plumbers putty, batteries, tweezers, acrylic paint 32 x 36.9 x 58" $800

STATEMENT While I do not limit myself to working with one type of media, I fully embrace the qualities each material challenge brings. Working with many kinds of materials to create the desired outcome is invigorating. I am inspired by the insatiable desire to experiment, explore, and continually learn new processes while experimenting with 2-D or 3-D design. These political works offer a reflection of the world around us. Historically artists have integrated politics through their artwork through covert and overt symbolism. In these works, the desire to educate is expressed in "Operation USA". Each piece in the game has an accompanying card educating individuals about the history of current events. Some reach back to the 1600's.

History repeats. Nothing is new. I honor that I am of the single generation of women who were the only generation to have fluid reproductive rights. "The Right To Bear Arms "reflects the absurdity that teachers have "the right" - and burden to carry firearms in the classroom in many States now. . As critical thinking skills are eliminated in school curriculums and select Universities teaching only the Arts close across the nation, consider the many interpretations of "bearing arms".

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DOLORES POACELLI 20

BIO Among many awards, in 2024 and in 2011 I was the recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship for Painting, and in 2000 awarded the Samuel Fleisher Challenge Exhibit in Philadelphia.

My work has been exhibited widely and is part of many public and private collections such as • SAP Software in Germany • Bank of America in Delaware • Cooper Anderson Hospital in Camden NJ • New York Presbyterian Children's Hospital in NY • Park Towne Place in Philadelphia • Liberty Properties in Malvern PA • Murano Condominiums in Philadelphia • Psychology Dept. of Princeton University in NJ • and the State of New Jersey I have studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Fleisher Art Memorial, and have worked for many years as a graphic designer.

I have been teaching art for 14 years.

STATEMENT As we worm our way past the pandemic, these PANDEMIC DIARIES collages remain relevant. They are personal feelings about universal and political events steeped in satire. Each of the sayings is created from cutout letters glued to 14"x11" heavy paper. This series of 102 pieces evolved into the CHATTER series (still using cutout letters this time on wood panels) expressing the constant drone of "news" producing a wordless din.

Dolores Poacelli CHATTER, 2020 Collaged letters and oil paint on wood panels 30 x 66 x 2" $3,500

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E. SHERMAN HAYMAN

BIO E. (Mur) Sherman Hayman is a Philadelphiabased mixed media artist who specializes in the technique of sgraffito: multi-layering of wax/ oil crayons and iridescent oil pastels, then using various tools to scratch through, thus creating texture, pattern, and some pretty innovative colors.

She uses black museum board as a base, and often incorporates manipulated balsa wood for added dimension.

Hayman was born in Newport News, VA, attended Hollins College (now Hollins University), and studied art in Paris, where she lived for two years.

She then moved to Philadelphia to attend 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, Philadelphia; James Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia; Franz Bader Gallery, Washington D.C; and Arlington Arts Center, Virginia. Selected group shows and invitationals include “Nursery Rhymes for Questionable Times” at InLiquid-Crane Arts, Philadelphia; “Deconstructing Bowie” and “Philadelphia Freedom”, The National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia; “One Nation”, The Heller Museum, NYC; Art in City Hall, Philadelphia), Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia; and The Philadelphia Foundation (with the Philadelphia Art Alliance).

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STATEMENT For the past 30 years my studio practice has focused mainly on social issues important to me- gun violence, politics, death customs - but has also covered certain subjects, based on a variety of academic research, that might be described under the category “Cabinet of Curiosities”.

Most of my series have embraced TEXT as IMAGE. As a lapsed English major, I not only incorporate text and illuminate words, but also commemorate odd adages and quotations.

My work is known for its unique and quirky approach, with an encyclopedic mindset, and is always about MESSAGING. Working with a bright, textured palette, combined with sometimes controversial subject matter, there is a purposeful seductive/repellent aspect at play.

My sgraffito technique, involving multi-layers of media scratched through with various tools, invites close-up inspection. …….quand je me heurte à quelque chose que je ne puis changer, que je ne peux résoudre, que je ne peux redresser, je l’élimine. Je l’évacue dans un livre. Après je ne suis plus oppressé. Je dors mieux.

Romain Gary, author, activist, French consul Chien Blanc France, 1970 …….when I run into something I am unable to change, that I cannot resolve, that I cannot make better, I eliminate it. I expel it out into a book.

Afterwards I no longer feel stressed. I sleep better.

Romain Gary, White Dog

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E. Sherman Hayman, L’Amer-EEK!, 2011, Sgraffito and mixed media, 35 x 66", $7,500

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FLORENCE WEISZ

BIO Florence Weisz is a collage artist who explores diverse visual ideas and seeks distinctive materials and innovative ways to express herself. She earned a degree in Fine Art from Douglass College, Rutgers University, has studied, lived and created art in New York, Paris, and Jerusalem. Since moving to Pennsylvania in 2018, Florence has exhibited her art with InLiquid (40 Year Retrospective), DaVinci Art Alliance, ARTsisters, MCGOPA, Tri-State Artists Equity and CFEVA. In 2023 she created a site-specific installation, "Stripes Escape" for The Delaware Contemporary Museum. Her artworks are in private, corporate and public collections including The New Jersey State Museum, Citibank, IBM and the Port Authority of NY and NJ. She is a recipient of a NJ State Council Fine Arts Fellowship Award. She has been gridding and rearranging political faces since the Reagan Administration in the 1980s. She has published four catalog booklets about her “Presidential Manipulations” series which includes Reaganart, Bushart (Senior), Clintonart, Bushart (Junior), Obamart, and finally Trumpart.

Florence Weisz, HARRIS and TRUMP and YOU, 2024, Collage Installation: digital pr

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STATEMENT As we examine the candidates during the 2024 presidential campaign, I offer an artwork which lets us go beyond the barrage of media analyses and give our personal input.

We are invited to participate in the electoral process by engaging both candidates in a kind of visual debate...an interaction using the politicians’ own features.

The installation consists of 5 parts – Three framed collages: a photo of the Democratic candidate with blue background on the left, and a photo of the Republican candidate with red background on the right. The center collage displays 3 Harris and 3 Trump empty face frames with Velcro loops centered on each blank square of the grid where their features belong. Two compartmentalized trays provide square Velcro backed printouts of their nine individual facial features.

Gallery visitors are encouraged to use these “face-parts” to express their attitudes toward the politicians: love ‘em or hate ‘em or something in between. Simple instructions invite us to manipulate, rotate and combine the features to create funny, sad, creepy faces in endless permutations.

rints, 20 x 24", $600

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GEOFFREY STEIN

BIO Geoffrey Stein is a recovering lawyer, who has been painting full-time since 2000. He received a Certificate in Painting from the New York Studio School in 2004 and an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London in 2007. Stein has exhibited his artwork in museums and galleries throughout the United States and in London, Dublin, Paris, and Reykjavik. He was the Artist-in-Residence at the Elizabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, NY from 2022-23. Stein lives and paints in New York City and Westport, CT.

Geoffrey Stein, Madame President, 2024, Collage material from altered photographs by Erin Schaff, Pool via Getty Images; Julia Nikhinson, AP; The Independent; AFP via India Today; EIPais; Reuters; pencil, gesso acrylic, and pastel pencil on canvas, 30 x 30", $5,000

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STATEMENT I draw, paint, and collage to discover the things for which I do not have words. I savor the slips of the hand that express my unconscious feelings about the subject. My work explores the tension between what needs to be shown and what does not, the visible and the invisible.

In my studio practice I primarily use collage as a formal element, applying it to add tone or erase previous marks.

Collage allows me to layer multiple images over the scaffolding of a drawing. The inherent randomness of collage brings secondary meanings from text or images, which becomes integral to the finished work.

I use materials from the subjectís world to create their likeness. This is a modern take on the Renaissance tradition of including iconography in portraiture to illustrate the subjectís attributes, such as books to signify education or tools to symbolize the subjectís trade or craft. Instead of using symbols, as a Renaissance painter would, I collage these portraits using materials and text from the subjectís environment or the popular press.

Geoffrey Stein, Individual One (Donald Trump), 2019, Collage material from The Mueller Report: The Final Report of the Special Counsel into Donald Trump, Russia, and Collusion, acrylic, gesso, and pencil on canvas, 30 x 30", $5,000

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GARY GRISSOM 30

BIO I studied painting and art history at Community College of Philadelphia, Philadelphia College of Art (University of the Arts) and the University of Pennsylvania. In the 70s I was a founding member of Bricolage, a performing art collective and Wilma Theater. For twenty years I designed media for numerous theater and dance performances. My media design work lead to a growing interest in photography. During the 80s I started to exhibit photography. For the last 40 years I exhibited painting and photography. In 1990 I was fortunate to receive a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship.

Gary Grissom Youth Strike Harder, 2020 Archival pigment print 16 x 22 x 2" $600

STATEMENT I started making art in the early 1960s using my mother’s paint-by-number colors. During the 1970s, after studying art and art history, I made large paintings of color fields and grids. Color was the subject of my art. By the end of the decade I gradually felt the desire to depict objects, places and figures.

I also started to use the camera as a tool to record visual interests. Both with my painting and photography I strive to integrate and exploit the formal qualities of spatial description, color, patterning and compositional structure that I applied to abstract art.

Currently my painting is a dialog with what I see in my environment. The painting subjects have included landscapes close to where I reside and depictions of family members and activities.

My photography has birthed three unique projects. A series of reflection photographs recorded through urban glass shot at an angle. The images are a result of the reflection, refraction and light diffraction. The bending of light combines views of interior spaces with a reversed mirrored repositioned external environment. Three years ago I started recording a series of non-urban, nonsuburban Pennsylvania photographs. This project is an attempt through image reportage to explore the narrative of cultural splintering. For the last eight years I’ve been documenting Lancaster Avenue and SEPTA’s Number 10 Trolley viewed as a habitat, a place to shop and a transportation artery.

It’s important for me to spend time looking at historical and contemporary art thinking about how it relates to my art practice.

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KATHLEEN GRECO 32

BIO Kathleen Greco is a socio-political feminist artist.

Her interdisciplinary studio practice comprises works on paper, photography, and sculpture.

Greco received her MFA in Studio Arts from the University of the Arts and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design from the Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She pairs relationships of materials and techniques to conceptual themes in her artwork.

Her work has been featured in Artillery, Ginger, Hyperallergic, and the Washington Post. She has lectured at universities and colleges including Lafayette College and the Royal College of Art London, England. Greco was awarded a residency from the Civita Institute in the Etruscan hilltop town of Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy.

Greco's artwork has been exhibited in museums and galleries including the Museum of Art and Design New York, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., Hayward Gallery, England UK, Woodmere Art Museum, Pennsylvania, The Delaware Contemporary, Delaware, the Elisabet Ney Museum, Texas, the Mainline Art Center Gallery, Pennsylvania, and Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany, and (re)FOCUS City Hall Philadelphia. Her sculpture was included in the collaborative Coral Reef Pod World's installation in the Central Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2019, Venice, Italy.

Kathleen Greco Democracy 2016-2020, 2023 Photography 8 x 10" $450

STATEMENT As a socio-political artist, my art is informed by issues that have impacted human history, past and present. I often use the female body as subject and object in my work examining the inside and outside space with the materiality formed between the surfaces, unsettling tension, and resilience. Choreographing relationships and materials I investigate the perception of the body with the intersection of social, feminist, and political themes.

American Flag series. Photographs of salvaged old worn American flags (circa 2016-2000) that were supposed to be burned. I photographed my frayed flag collection on a planked wood background, referencing the political party platform 'planks' from the women's suffrage movement to the present. Toes clench a torn shredded flag grasping for rights. Fabric strips of stars and stripes confine and bind ankles immobilizing and constricting. Reframing the flag, I align social struggles with unraveling human rights during this important timeline in our living history.

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Kathleen Greco Abortion Ban, 2023 Photography 8 x 10" $450

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Kathleen Greco Immigration, 2023 Photography 8 x 10" $450

Kathleen Greco Grasp Women's Rights, 2023 Photography 10 x 8" $450

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PETE SPARBER 36

BIO Pete Sparber originally earned his MFA from Cornell, but then went on to a business career. He continued to paint, draw and show occasionally over the years. After living and working in China and Japan, he and his wife returned to the United States in 2020 and settled in Philadelphia. In 2022 he left the corporate world and has since focused on writing about and making art. He runs a small Instagram-based blog (www.instagram. com/the.current.blog) promoting the visual arts in Philadelphia and writes show reviews and conducts gallerist interviews for The Art Blog (www. theartblog.org).

STATEMENT Series Title -- American Elegy.

America represents many things to the world ... from arrogant power and brutality to liberation, equality and freedom. But inside, we have always been fraught with ideals half realized, heartbreak and hypocrisy. The five pieces, taken together, are an elegy to the American political project during its moment of existential crisis and struggle. Each drawing evokes a question about one of our myths and archetypes: liberty, property, authority, equality and insurrection.

Peter Sparber Property, 2023 Acrylic pen and wash on paper 36 x 50" $2,200

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Exhibition View, InLiquid Gallery

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RHONDA BABB

BIO Rhonda Babb is a screen printer, graphic artist, and photographer. As a graphic designer, she focuses on brand identity and marketing communications for small businesses and nonprofits.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Rhonda received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, PA, where she majored in Fashion and Advertising Illustration.

She returned to Moore for a Certification in Interior Decoration. Concern for the environment led Rhonda to earn a Master's Degree in Sustainable Design from Philadelphia University, now known as Thomas Jefferson University. She studied screen printing under Lisa Marie Hamilton and Tony Rosati at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in their Continuing Education Program. She is a member of a cooperative printmaking studio and artist collective, BYO Print.

Rhonda lives and works in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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Rhonda Babb We Dissent!, 2022 Hand pulled screen print 14 x 11" $160

STATEMENT I spent my career in the professional arts working for clients as a brand marketer and graphic designer. Despite my relative success as a commercial artist, something was missing. I am here to do something else and have a more profound personal mission.

Though I didn't know it then, in 2005, I took the first steps on a journey that would change my life.

Somewhere between Hurricane Katrina and Al Gore, it became clear that our world was in trouble. In the mid2000s, climate change was an imminent threat that we were only starting to recognize. A disquiet and an urge to use my skills for something more positive drove me to learn as much as possible about sustainability and living a life of meaning. I poured myself into my studies - enough to earn a Master's in Sustainable Design. Yet, it still felt like I needed more purpose. Fast forward to 2020 and the pandemic. This pause gave me time to reflect and allow the artist within to emerge.

At last, I have regained my artistic voice through the joy of being a printmaker. Everything has led me here.

Printmaking is messy and precise. I could easily print my designs digitally, but I would lose the hands-on quality I crave. When my hands are inky, I feel alive and at my happiest. For inspiration, I draw on influences such as Corita Kent, Andy Warhol, Shepard Fairey, Anthony Burrill, and Keith Haring. Printing allows me to experiment and learn. It is all at once scary, thrilling, and liberating.

I am deeply troubled by the inaction and political divides our world is experiencing. I feel a certain amount of powerlessness and know I am not alone. My art gives me back some sense of power and agency. I aspire to create work that engages viewers and asks them to see things differently. I want people to recognize that they have the capacity for change. It would be successful if my art could influence even one person to be a force for hope and positivity in the world.

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Exhibition View, InLiquid Gallery

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SANDRA BENHAIM 44

BIO Sandra Benhaim, a native Philadelphian, is a painter working in oil, mixed media, and collages on canvas, wood panels, and paper. After working representationally for years, she now creates mainly abstract images, often expressing these in unabashed, exuberant color. She has exhibited nationally from Washington state to New York to Florida, and has had 11 solo exhibitions.

In addition, she has participated in numerous juried group shows, earning awards along the way.

Sandra’s paintings are in public collections such as PNC Headquarters Tower in Pittsburgh, PA; Mondrian Investments, Philadelphia, PA office; Servier Pharmaceutical Labs, Boston, MA, among others.

Philadelphia’s Del Frisco’s Grille commissioned a 96”H x 78”W painting on stretched canvas, which was installed in November 2018.

STATEMENT I’m a visual artist who is fascinated with color, inviting viewers, via my paintings, to places they haven’t been.

My paintings and collages are an expression of my passion for nature: I’m striving to use an abstract visual language to express, in unabashed and exuberant color, my translation of nature. Through intuitive and improvisational activity and mark-making on various layers of myriad surfaces and supports, I will often incorporate collage elements into my artwork along with expressively painted areas.

My abstract paintings, collages, and works on paper take inspiration from landscape and my surroundings, from my hometown Philadelphia area to farther places like Arizona and New Mexico. These images express in exciting and spirited color my enthusiasm for, and translation of, the natural world.

My collage, Imagining Bella at the Women's March, imagines the late American lawyer, politician, social activist, and a leader in the women's movement, Bella Abzug, alongside, and in a collage of, images from Philadelphia Women's marches.

Sandra Benhaim Imagine Bella At The March, 2023 Mixed-media collage on bristol 16 x 20" $350

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InLiquid

InLiquid is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to creating opportunities and exposure for visual artists and works with more than 300 artists and designers. It serves as a free, online public hub for arts information in the Philadelphia area. Find out more at www.inliquid.org.

All rotational artworks are available for purchase.

Inquiries for purchases can be directed to Isabella at isabella@inliquid.org.

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Exhibition view, InLiquid Gallery Back cover: Exhibition view, InLiquid Gallery

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