22 Artists at Twenty-Two Gallery
Eric Fausnacht, Hen Box and Chick Boxes, wood and acrylic, 22 Artists at Twenty-Two Gallery
“My acrylic and oil paintings explore the realms of texture, color and strength in the portraiture of domestic fowl. My paintings of roosters and chickens show a photo realistic style brought together with an ornate baroque background to illuminate the regal portraiture of the subject matter. My work is in private collections throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, and Asia and has sold in art auctions for several charitable institutions.” Eric Fausnacht website.
The chicken boxes are a fun pop interpretation of the artist’s theme, skewing the chickens into cubist shapes yet keeping the painterly feathers naturalistic is a metaphor for the mix of artists represented at Twenty-Two Gallery.
Tyler Lyke, Halloween, painting, 12 x 12″, 22 Artists at Twenty-Two Gallery
The Second Friday Center City art crawl exposes how much the art world is integrated into the fabric of the city. The art supply stores, frame shops and galleries are a conduit to having art in the world. Artist Tyler Lyke is a member artist of Twenty-Two Gallery, his expressionist abstractions are heady and deep, the paint rich and thick with color and textures. Tyler Lyke‘s website is very cool, too.
The artist reception is such a great social activity when artists have their big moment, fingers crossed, that friends and family show up to see what they’ve been up to. Twenty-Two Gallery always has an appropriately festive reception, meeting all the artists and learning about their art adventures is so satisfyingly urbane.
Jessica E. Barber, Pipes at Sunset, mono-print, 8 x 6″, 22 Artists at Twenty-Two Gallery
“I utilize monotypes, lithographs or other prints as a textural base, then create subsequent layers in other media until I’ve achieved the desired result. My goal is not to render my subject exactly as it appears, but rather to interpret the spirit of the form and my internal perceptions related to it.” – Jessica E. Barber
Jessica E. Barber manages to make a difficult process, printmaking, look easy and one see’s past the technical challenges and enters the artist’s vision represented in shape, texture, color and tone. It’s really exciting when an artwork is not just beautiful but transcends expectations.
Patrick Lyons Neilson, Monitor, oil, 9 x 12″, 22 Artists at Twenty-Two Gallery
Monitor documents an era of modernism as it began to disseminate into daily life, transforming utilitarian services like communications into naively futuristic streamlined objects whose purpose is continuously disrupted. Still life paintings are a transmitter of information, sending memes and messages like an old school full-duplex (FDX), or sometimes double-duplex system, allowing communication in both directions, and, unlike half-duplex, allows this to happen simultaneously.
Leander Fontaine, Grazing, Sumi-E, 22 Artists at Twenty-Two Gallery
“I enjoy drawing in a very energetic and impulsive manner, which makes animals and fantasy creatures my favorite subjects. In these drawings, I use black ink (sumi, acrylic and other inks) on drawing papers or “rice paper”. The ink is applied with fountain pens, reed pens, and brushes, and is somtimes simply splattered onto the surface.
The animal drawings are not anatomy studies but show my impression (and expression) of the animals’ overall gestalt or energy. For this reason, I keep them sketchy, abstract or distort them, and often let ink flow out of complete control – allowing the subject to develop some life on its own.” – Leander Fontaine website.
Michele Gallagher, 22 Artists at Twenty-Two Gallery
“I choose to arrange a dramatic simplification of my subject. My painting employs an editing technique that commands the palette knife to sculpt away any unnecessary visual noise.” – Michele Gallagher artist statement.
The cadre´of painters at Twenty-Two Gallery is impressive, showing your art there means you have the skills to compete with some of Philadelphia’s best artists.
Regina Joans, 22 Artists at Twenty-Two Gallery
“Since 2003, Twenty-Two Gallery has been showing local and national, emerging and established artist’s work. The gallery represents 22 artist members that work in many mediums including oil, pastel, watercolor, photography, sculpture, various printing processes as well as mixed media. This bright space with great light, nestled in Philadelphia’s premier neighborhood Rittenhouse Square, has art openings monthly on the “Second Friday” of each month. These openings include a wine and cheese artist’s reception from 6PM to 9 PM each month.” – Twenty-Two Gallery website.
DoN can’t share all twenty-two artists on DoNArTNeWs, visit Twenty-Two Gallery and meet the artists and learn more about the Philadelphia region contemporary art scene represented by the group of fine artists exhibiting their best work. The cultural scene in Center City is anchored by art galleries like Twenty-Two Gallery.
Written and photographed by DoN Brewer except where noted.
Like DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog on FaceBook
Follow DoN on Twitter @DoNNieBeat58
DoNArTNeWS on Tumblr
@donniebeat on Instagram
Previous DoNArTNeWs at www.brewermultimedia.com
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Artists are very fortunate to have you look closely and thoughtfully at their work and then write so beautifully about it sans the quaisi-esoteric artspeak. I have thoroughly enjoyed your comments here and am even more motivated to see the exhibit. Not that I fully understand your comments about still life painting but I love still life so it’s refreshing to read what seems like a unique point of view. To paraphrase you (vis-a-vis Jessica’s work), it’s really exciting when a review of an artist’s work is not just interesting but transcends expectations.
Thanks Judy
DoN apologizes to Regina Joans for the spelling error.
You must log in to post a comment.
{ 1 trackback }