March 5 April 21 Curator’s Showcase
Processes Intersecting Spaces
Opens Thursday, March 9, 7–8 pm
Thursday, March 23 Summer Juried Show Announced
Sunday, April 2 Rite of Spring
Indoor Closing Event + Outdoor Arts Festival
Starting at 2 pm
April 23 June 2
Mary Liz Memorial Masters Exhibition 18
Charles Emlen • Serge Krupnov • Karen Stabenow
Opens Thursday, April 27, 7–10 pm
Thursday, May 4 Deadline for Summer Juried Show
represents my sincerest desire to transform our singular Wall and modest 3D space into a vibrantly stimulated tapestry worthy of continuous conversation and admiration.
My quest was to compile amazingly talented artists who utilize digital/computer processes and/or tools within their realm of creative thinking and art making. These artists either utilize the digital tools physically or view them as inspiration — and how fun to show them together?!
I sincerely appreciate each and every one of these artists. They allowed me to enter their spaces and have trusted me to weave my web, which is what you see in front of you now. Enjoy!
Cheers and welcome to Off the Wall Gallery!
Every chance we get, we seek inspiration in the artists we know and love — and those we have admired from afar.
PROCESSES INTERSECTING SPACES is a perfect case in point, bringing together three of our favorite artists and two important new voices. The throughline connecting them is digital media: as their creative tools of choice, as source material from our streaming environment — and at times both.
Making return appearances are JOSEPH EGGLESTON, a gifted colorist fluent in the language of oil and acrylic, whose pandemic practice of watching and rewatching favorite horror flicks has spilled right into his atelier; JON LAIDACKER, a traditional and mural artist who is perhaps our most admired master of the still-emerging craft of digital painting; and MICHAEL JICHA, who manipulates and digitally transforms photographs into virtual canvases in the style of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Surrealist painters, the thesis of his unique 1910 PROJECT.
The best part about reconnecting our audiences to Joseph, Jon and Mike is that they can experience their work on larger scales than ever before.
The artists making long-awaited OFF THE WALL debuts complete our vision for this show.
Although she works in various media, PAULA GILLEN shines most brightly when her digital photomontages conjure new worlds and express world views. Her SUPERPOWER WOMEN IN SPACE series distills leading themes of her work with playfulness and panache.
CHARLES EMLEN likewise arrives with riveting prints on our Wall, but in our 3D case the sheer possibilities of his work — spanning multimedia to sculpture — come to fruition. Rarely has an artist taken over this space so wholly and so vitally.
We hope you have come prepared to spend time with this art. Like any place of intersection, there are many different perspectives you will feel driven to explore.
We also trust PROCESSES INTERSECTING SPACES will bring you back to continue interacting with this art, now through April 21.
Jody Sweitzer Togo Travalia Curator Manager
I strive to create a likeness but shy away from exact replication; it isn’t important to me if the viewer knows the source material (although it is fun when people have that AHA! moment).
This idea of valuing likeness over replication made me wonder: what would happen if I manipulated the stills in order to manufacture a ‘scene’ that feels like it is from a film but doesn’t actually exist?
Ultimately, this question led to the larger works in the show. All of these paintings are created from using multiple image stills to make something old anew, like rearranging puzzle pieces. In fact, some sections of the paintings are completely made up but it still captures a feeling of nostalgia and a fondness of where it was derived. I use the long landscape style canvas to recreate the feeling of ‘widescreen’ video format and use figures in different positions to suggest movement. My desire is to try and make it feel like we are peeking in on a moment in time that has been captured with some wild paint strokes.
Maybe by looking at the paintings, you recognize the source material. And it is perfectly OK if you don’t (it may even be better). My hope is you enjoy looking at them to the point that you don’t mind either way.
(final page, top)
“Angel in Diner” oil on canvas 700.
(opposite, above)
“Barb” oil and acrylic on canvas 375.
(opposite, below)
“Beryl” acrylic, wax pastel, graphite and colored pencil on paper 250.
(below)
“Double T[R]ouble” oil and acrylic on canvas 1200.
(next page, top) “Let’s Play Family Just for Tonight” oil on canvas 1200.
(above left)
“Mother and Child” oil, acrylic and charcoal pencil on wood 300.
(next page, bottom)
“My Mom and Dad Are Gonna Be So Mad at Me” oil and acrylic pencil on wood 275.
(final page, second from top)
“Sarah” oil, acrylic and charcoal pencil on wood 300.
(next page, bottom)
“Thing 45” oil and acrylic on canvas 1100.
(on cover)
“Who’s Connie Francis? Honey, Listen and Learn” oil and acrylic on canvas 1100.
(above right)
“Young Red” acrylic and charcoal pencil on wood 125.
It’s important, first and foremost, for me to say: I love to make colorful, messy portraits.
“
While much of this variation already exists, most does not exist and probably never will. Or perhaps it exists only as having the potential to exist. As humans, we have the unique ability knowingly to create things that were not here before and, in doing so, become privy to the notion that there is an immense reservoir of things that have not yet, nor ever will, be seen.
In our 3D space (opposite), Charlie’s installation comprises this work:
“Contemplo Armamento” composite video animation 3000.
(top left on the 3D wall)
“Simple Simplex” aluminum print 450.
(above right and standing in case)
“Viral Encryption” painted steel sculpture 1600.
Charlie’s work the Wall:
“Contemplation” (above left) aluminum print 450.
“Double Regalia” aluminum print 450.
“Rhythm Section” (on cover) aluminum print 600.
Visit Charlie online at emlen.com Follow him on Instagram @charlesemlenBig or small, rational or complex, I love them all. Some numbers are incomprehensibly large, others infinitesimally small. Many numbers exist on a much more manageable, human scale, and their relationships to other numbers are what holds my attention.
In this installation there are two monitors. One displays a 10-minute looping composite video. The second shows a random slideshow with roughly 110 unique images. All the imagery in both the video and the slideshow represent various documentative aspects of my work and there’s quite a bit to see. Assuming the video changes every 5 seconds, that alone provides approximately 120 individual scenes. Combining those scenes with the slideshow images yields well over 10,000 unique scene/image pairings! A veritable cornucopia of iterative design. Numbers. :-)
I’m excited about this show for one specific reason: I love numbers!
by
Generation, my art aims to be satirical, irrelevant, playful. My work explores themes of psychology, social commentary and humorous disruptions of original and found imagery. I create my imagery using a camera and models that I pose and direct. My digital photomontages are created using my own photos, mixed with bookplates, vintage magazines and public domain imagery.
IN SPACE is an ongoing series that started in 2018. Yearning to escape earthly issues and conflict, I found breathing room in space.
With this body of work, I have created a fictional single-gender society and I use it as a platform for female empowerment. In my photomontages, women exert control over compositions and space territory, with their strong bodies and spirits. Blending NASA and vintage images, pop art and fashion, along with my own original photographs, I have created a realm where forward-thinking women are in charge — and there’s a trap door to Earth if you get out of line.
These women stand confidently on planets and in situations heroic, surreal or just fantastical.
“
All of Paula’s works are aluminum prints and 300. each:
(below)
“Bravely Shouting into Space”
(at left)
“Domestic Space”
(on cover)
“Hathor Goddess of the Sky”
(opposite)
“Taishya, Riding High over the Ocean of Storms”
“Velveeta Spa Day in Space”
I’m a lifelong photographer. My love of the medium has inspired me to experiment with various styles. These photos are part of a series called PROJECT 1910 , which is influenced by Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Surrealist painters.
The “1910” in the series title references the year when the term “postimpressionism” was first used. I am influenced by various painters, such as Giovanni Boldini, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cézanne.
PROJECT 1910 interprets the PostImpressionist to Surrealist movements. When I set up a photograph, I keep in mind the lighting, color composition and tone of Post-Impressionist painters—specifically John Singer Sargent, Augustus Mack, Marc Chagall, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse and a few other painters I love.
Then in postproduction, I use a primitive form of Photoshop called ACDSee, in which I use the healing and cloning tools. I also use the drawing tool to outline figures in the style of Cézanne and Matisse. With these tools, I am able to manipulate and add color, while also adding texture to the photograph. My vision is to have the viewer appreciate the style of Post-Impressionism.
Visit
All of Michael’s works are digitally manipulated photographs:
(above)
(on cover) “Bien Situé à...” “Cocoon” 200. 500.
(at left) (opposite) “Disguised” “Reine d’Or” 250. 500.
(above) “Sad Little Clown” “Josh and 200. His Budgie” 200.
“Regret” 250.
Mike online at micjicphotographycom Follow him on Instagram @micjicphotography
The medium of digital painting is new. While it has managed to be acknowledged, it has a way to go in gaining genuine appreciation among fine artists.
Over the last decade, I have been creating art using Procreate and an iPad — alongside works on paper and canvas. To me, it is just another medium for creating. All the guidance I received as an academically trained painter is directly applicable to my digital tools.
I exclusively work directly from observation when drawing or painting digitally. My goal is to keep my observational practice as traditional as possible. When advantageous, I use certain tools afforded me by the nature of the modern medium, though only when they are analogous to a tool or action used when working with traditional media. My goal is to create 21st-century work while continuing to use conceptual practices that have been passed down over the centuries.
Jon’s larger digital paintings, created in Procreate, are all available in limited editions of 25. (on cover)
“COVID
Still-Life 2”
280. framed 210. unframed
(opposite, at top)
“Generations: 40 Years on a Shelf (and a Mirror)”
180. framed 125. unframed
(above)
“Generations: 70 Years on a Shelf”
350. framed 250. unframed
Jon’s smaller paintings, also digital paintings in Procreate, are all in editions of 50 and 120. framed / 80. unframed
(far left) “Happy Little Painting”
(at left) “Listen Up”
(at right) “My Two Cents”
(far right) “Some Kind of Fruit Company”
All four of paintings are available in a special signed, limited-edition 4-pack, available at the bar 200.
APRIL 2 2023 2pm
13th & Pine Streets, Philadelphia
An outdoor invocation of spring with performances by local writers, singers, dancers & filmmakers. Free and wild.
