Lance Pawling, “Be Free Franklin“, embroidery at Inspirations, Off the Wall Gallery (photo lifted from FaceBook)
Lance Pawling, Be Free Franklin, embroidery won Best in Show: Mary-Rowe Memorial Jury Prize in the Interiors Eighth Annual Juried Exhibition. The multi-talented artist was still in art shock when DoN sat with him at the opening, he had found out ten minutes before he had won. The competition is fierce with more than thirty thirsty artists aiming for those bragging rights. The show draws talent from the local art gene pool, saturated with PAFA, UArts, Fleisher, AI, Tyler, Moore and more trained fine artists. And artists from the nearby artists clubs, The Plastic Club and The Philadelphia Sketch Club hang out there after evening workshops.
Be Free Franklin is a perfect metaphor for the inventive art scene at Off the Wall Gallery, ideas strike like lightning from the assemblage of artworks. In this case, Lance Pawling found the key inspiration for his electric colored embroidered portrait of a glam Ben Franklin in an old T-Shirt he found and then describing the founders famous innovative, flamboyant personality in a poetic meditative media like embroidery. The combination of wit, composition and medium conceptualizes the theme in a post modern visual language that is contemporary and old fashioned at the same time. It’s so cool.
Inspirations, Eighth Annual Juried Exhibition at Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Franks
“Inspiration (from the Latin inspirare, meaning “to breathe into”) refers to an unconscious burst of creativity in a literary, musical, or other artistic endeavour.” – Wikipedia
The transference of ideas and thoughts from the art resonates with subconscious elements of beauty, mystery and enlightenment like flowers, faces, and flashes of color. The art chosen by the jury represents the wide view of choices contemporary inspiration in the urban multi-media environment has to offer. Matthew Barnes video is as much a drawing as Hayley Tomlinson‘s colored pencil and graphite meditation. Bill Myers surrealistic photographs speaks the same strange visual language as Syd Torchio‘s fluid figures imagined in layers of paint. The art collection is inspired, there are fifty-three artworks representing the incredibly rich artistic talent of Philadelphia.
Carla Ligouri, Whee, Nick Brown, Pots, Matthew Barnes, video, Inspirations, Eighth Annual Juried Exhibition at Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Franks
Matthew Barnes designed his video installation in Maya, a 3D computer animation program, produced a looping video and installed the animation on a TV. The installation glows in the display case like a strange portal to another realm as dark shapes swirl and turn in an intriguingly subdued flowing motion design. Paired with Nick Brown’s s sensuous pottery decorated with lanquid nudes he draws at The Plastic Club workshop directly into the bisque. He’s the only artist I see doing this, he goes to the model workshops and works on the clay like it’s paper. Then when it’s glazed it’s like a futuristic ancient ceramic found in an archeological dig. The Carla Ligouri leaping rat titled, Whee, won the Most Inspired award.
The display case is like an art collection from the future found in a treasure trove from some Dick-ian time machine with Tecu’ Mish Munha´Ke’s anamorphic sculpture assemblage and Veronica Schmude‘s mixed media with gasmask. As Veronica describes in her artist statement, “…I must say, discovering hundreds of thousands of chemically and biologically rated gasmasks in one abandoned place was pretty freakin’ cool and particularly inspiring.”
Matthew Barnes, video, Inspirations, Eighth Annual Juried Exhibition at Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Franks
Close up still image of Matthew Barnes, video, Inspirations, Eighth Annual Juried Exhibition at Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Franks.
Anders Hansen, Inspirations, Eighth Annual Juried Exhibition at Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Franks (photo lifted from FaceBook)
Anders Hanson‘s, Scenes from a Landscape #4, ink painting is instantly recognizable as his, the imagery possesses a style and energy that is unique to Anders. For years the artist has researched, experimented and delved deep into the possibilities of an image language he could design with a limited palette and tools. The refined results are naturalistic yet alive with a zen-like expressionism.
inspirations, Eighth Annual Juried Exhibition at Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Franks
Bill, Myers, inspirations, Eighth Annual Juried Exhibition at Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Franks (photo lifted from FaceBook)
Resurrection School Cheerleaders, photograph by Bill Myers. In his artist statement he says, “Sometimes your art inspirations walk right up to you, like these two young girls.” Inspiration can be defined as a religious experience, in this image the girls are school girl plaid angels, perfect girlfriends sharing a hat, and in that act transmogrifying into an alien species, extra-terrestrial and sublime. The wit and narrative of the image combined with the excellent photographic print, beautifully framed, is delightfully satisfying, hitting all the right notes in the creation of an object of inspired art.
Inspirations, Eighth Annual Juried Exhibition at Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Franks
Inspirations, Eighth Annual Juried Exhibition at Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Franks, is an experience design in observing art and inspiration through the artist’s vision and interpretation of the theme. The artists wrote statements about the inspiration for their art which appears in the catalog and on the Off the Wall Gallery FaceBook Page. Togo Travalia and Jody Sweitzer team up to produce beautiful collectible posters and promotional materials and they use their social media presence to promote the art show and the artists online. Their efforts create a great experience and opportunity for the artists to get exposure, but more importantly they create the environment to inspire people to want to buy artwork off the wall.
Inspiration at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks
Written and photographed by DoN Brewer except where noted.
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A big THANK YOU to DoN Brewer for his review of INSPIRATION. We are always grateful for his coverage (in a time of diminishing journalistic resources for Philly artists and art lovers), his colleagueship and the GOOD VIBES and very good people he sends our way. It’s especially fitting to say for this show: you inspire us, DoN!
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