Currently showing at the Asian Arts Initiative is an exhibition titled Witness: Artists Reflect on 30 Years of the AIDS Pandemic.  After visiting the show, I was fortunate to be able to speak with David Acosta, the curator of Witness and a central figure in countless Philadelphia arts organizations and community arts projects.  In this, part one of our conversation, Mr. Acosta speaks about his experience curating “Witness”, the purpose of the exhibition, and importance of utilizing art to start conversations about the social and political effects of HIV/AIDS on our communities.  Stay tuned for part two of our conversation, in which he offers advice for artists interested in producing their own community arts projects.

George Apotsos - Faces Unseen

“Getting a really broad section of artists across age, race, gender, sexual orientation was a really important consideration [in curating Witness], and the other critical consideration was anchoring the show with some work that had been produced during the most difficult years of the epidemic. A lot of the artists were proposing new work which was very exciting, but I was really seeking artists who had worked through a period of very heightened preoccupation with AIDS and the politics of AIDS with federal policies, [or] the lack thereof, and so I went out very specifically to look for that work. I know HD Ivey who had done a lot of work in that period, [and] I specifically wanted some pieces I remember seeing many many years ago that had been produced in the 80s during the Reagan and Bush years at a very important juncture in the AIDS epidemic politically in this country, as well as socially.  I really needed them to be in the show because I wanted to create that plane and that continuity.”

HD Ivey - The Victim // Corral

Acosta described Witness as “powerful and moving but not in a very in your face kind of way. A lot of people came to me and said, ‘[Witness] is not sad, it’s just really beautiful.’  Gabriel Martinez’s “Anthology” for example, which is a lovely piece – those are the 12 albums. He took his Donna Summer LPs and basically destroyed them to create this piece. But it’s just beautiful, and it’s a very moving piece because it’s red, and it’s evocative of blood and body fluid. There’s almost a danger to it, but then it’s also celebratory in the fact that this was the music that a lot of gay men were dancing to in the midst of the epidemic. I think even many gay men were dancing to this music unaware that HIV/AIDS had entered these community circles and would wipe out almost two generations of gay men. So there was an implicit trust in myself that the artists [might] create stuff that could be sad [but] I trusted them to be able to have some reflective distance about the epidemic.  So the show allows people to reflect and to go into personal spaces about remembrance and love and loss but not in a way that’s overwhelming.”

Gabriel Martinez - Anthology

He explains that his purpose in curating this exhibition was “not necessarily to call communities to action but to ask communities to bear witness in their own way.  Because there’s been 30 years of the epidemic, it’s difficult to draw people’s attention to something that’s been around for so long, [even though it] remains so incredibly central and devastating to some communities where its still having a huge impact – young gay men in this country, for example, [and] specifically young gay men of color. The infection rate [and] the prevalence in some of these communities is high and rivals in many ways some of the numbers that we see coming out of specific parts of Africa. And so it was a way to also have people recognize that it is still present, that it’s still very much a part of the fabric of our communities, however we define those.  And also the title was [inspired by] a very important exhibition that was held in NYC [in 1989] curated by Nan Goldin called “Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing.” And that show remains one of the first and most powerful shows [addressing HIV/AIDS]. So in a sense I was also paying homage to that exhibition.”

Kwaku Osei - Untitled // Marta Sanchez - The History of Cascarones

 

Susan DiPronio - The Last Witness // Tay Cha - Helping Hands

 

“Witness” is showing through January 25 at Asian Arts Initiative (1219 Vine Street).  It will be open for First Friday festivities on January  6, and the show will culminate in a closing program on January 25 that features performances by the “Shout” writing workshop participants, which is taught by one of the exhibiting artists, Susan DiPronio, and is offered in conjunction with “Witness” as a means to continue  dialogue and reflection about HIV/AIDS in yet another expression of art.

 

Written and photographed by Carina Giamerese: Contributing Writer, Side Arts.

 

Penn Treaty Park is a cornerstone in the Fishtown Community of Philadelphia. They host music every Wednesday in the summer, fireworks on major events and keep the park clean for everyone to enjoy. It’s our time to give back to the park we love to walk to and enjoy the breeze off of the Delaware River.

A percentage of every sale goes to Penn Treaty Park,
please help us support them with many Side Arts Artists on January 7, 2012!

Learn More About The Slingluff Gallery Here

And For More About Penn Treaty Park Visit penntreatypark.org

W. David Smith at Galleria Deptford, Deptford Municipal Building, NJ

In the lobby of the Deptford Municipal Building is a display case for art, this year super-curator Pauline Jonas discovered artist W. David Smith right in the neighborhood with an incredible art collection in his garage and offered the multimedia artist the prime spot near the Christmas Tree.  My first impression was the nostalgic boyhood wonderment of model making, my Great Uncle Dave had dozens of airplane models hanging in his attic studio when I was a kid.  I myself favored monster models like the Creature from the Dark Lagoon.  But these are no ordinary hobby shop models, W. David Smith says, “Actually what it is, is Man Cave Art.”  Confirming my intuition of Smith’s art from a particularly male gaze, but it’s not kid’s stuff or just for boys.  “This is a Chess set, I learned to play Chess back in the 1980s and I was going to buy a set with a traditional theme but I was into space at the time, so I decided to whip up a few pieces, this took some time to do.  This is one of a kind but I also made a larger one that’s more detailed with prototypes for casting.”

W. David Smith, Chess Set at Galleria Deptford

W. David Smith, Chess Set at Galleria Deptford

“The thing behind it, the light up board, is the actual table top, it sits on top and kind of has a glow to it. The bigger sculptures are actually from a Japanese anime called Star Blazers that came out back in the early eighties, I guess, and it really was an adult cartoon.  Subsequently when they brought it over to America they kiddy-fied it, but it still has a really cool, militaristic, all these battles in space and stuff, the same old themes of good and evil and all that stuff.  But the designs are Leiji Matsumoto, I think the gentleman’s name is who designed all this.  Now, I’ve taken a little bit of liberties with his designs only because there’s not enough reference materials out there.  So, I watched a couple episodes on YouTube and I started cutting the pieces out with band saws.  All the pieces are hand made.  There are probably 220 pieces in that ship alone, probably close to eighty in this one likewise 90 to 100 for that larger one.”  How did you get involved with model making?  “I got a job with a model builder where I would be given jobs to create prototypes, like ‘here I need this in an hour!‘  So he kind of gave me ideas, you know I could make these pieces with a vac-u-form or cold cast or along that line, so, all the models I’ve done can actually be used to make a larger scale model for a builder to build.”

W. David Smith, Concept Designer, Galleria Deptford

The installation of W. David Smith‘s art is on display through January along with an excellent exhibit of photography by New Jersey regional photographers.  Galleria Deptford is located in the Deptford Municipal Building 1011 Cooper Street, Deptford, NJ 08096 (856) 845-530 Directions only 15 minutes outside Center City Philadelphia.  The ongoing art exhibits are supported by the community and highlight the cultural diversity of the region but right now is a perfect time to experience unique art work that has not been displayed in public since 1991!  W. David Smith has been keeping it in his Man Cave.

DoN Brewer, Contributing Writer, Side Arts

Photos by DoN Brewer

Visit us today 12-6pm at Paradigm Gallery + Studio to check out “Let Go, Control, Repeat” and enjoy some hot apple cider on us.  ”Check In” on Facebook or Foursquare and receive a free holiday ornament.  We’ll have ornaments next Saturday from 12-6pm as well for Christmas Eve.

Jordan Griska, Center for Emerging Visual Artists

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists spotlight exhibition season for this year ends with a two-person show featuring Tim Portlock and Jordan Griska.  Jordan Griska was introduced by the Director of Career Development Amie Potsic at the opening and the artist spoke about his work.

“My most recent body of work I’ve been manipulating objects that are common or, you know, commonly found and manipulating them in an esthetic way that allows people to interpret their context in a common culture or geo-political climate or reflecting more upon the critique of that rather than just straight up the object.  So for these works I took an honor box, which is the title for this type of newspaper dispensing device, and the idea behind it is that you take one newspaper on the honor system.  So, there are honor boxes, then I’m cutting them and fabricating so they have a mirror reflection.  The idea behind the work stemmed from, um, media’s reflection of what’s going on in natural disasters.”

Jordan Griska, Honor Box 1(Blue), Center for Emerging Visual Artists

“So, I was taking this idea of something tragic that was turned into spectacle filtered through the media.  I saw a lot of images of houses half under water or cars and have that idea of that being reflected upon itself.  I can see that in these sculptures and then the idea kind of transformed into something that is inspired by natural disaster into it’s own esthetic and kind of separate itself from its concept and expands into using it in different works.  Other recent projects I’ve done, I took a WWII plane and manipulated that construction and re-purposed it as an active greenhouse over at Lenfest Plaza at Arch Street and Broad.  The idea behind that work is kind of similar in that I’m manipulating something and changing it meaning, allowing people to interpret it in their own way.  And also reflect on its place and role in common culture.”

How do you acquire your objects?  Do you take them?  “No!  The company that makes these is called Showcase and they’re based in Texas, so I had a palette of honor boxes shipped up from Texas.  I’ve made five of them up to date.”

Do you cut them in half and weld them?  “Yeah, fabrication and craft is very important to my work.  Something I try to achieve is a high level of craft so people can focus on what the concept I’m trying to convey or the idea and a minimal interpretation of the craft.  So I took a normal newspaper box, two of them, cut them and using geometry had them fabricated into what you see.”

“It’s a broad audience that can interpret this, from someone at a previous exhibition, they came up here and they were a Katrina victim and they can relate to it in such a personal way to somebody who sees this as the death of paper media.”

Jordan Griska, Honor Box 1(Yellow), Center for Emerging Visual Artists

Jordan Griska‘s work is on view at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to the career development of Philadelphia artists and the arts in Philadelphia, located in the Barclay building on Rittenhouse Square through December 20th, 2011.  Read about Tim Portlock on the Side Arts blog.

DoN Brewer, Contributing Writer, Side Arts Philadelphia Art Blog

Photographs by DoN Brewer

Students, get the best service, selection and price: shop at BLICK!

[Affiliate Disclosure]

while taking a morning walk along South Street, I met two plein air artists, David Ohlerking and Chris Chappell. I wish I took a bit more clips but I didn’t want to distract them while they were working.

it was very interesting to watch how they were painting. it seemed like they were placing the oil paint on the canvas with their brushes and mostly leaving the paint where it is. sometimes they would slightly shift the paint or redistribute it on the canvas. they don’t seem to “paint” as we usually would with a paint brush. instead, they’d thoughtfully lay the paint on the surface and distribute it when they saw fit.

visit their official websites at: davidohlerking.com and chrischappellart.com

Ghost City 13, Tim Portlock, digital print. 72" x 54"

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists spotlight exhibition season for this year ends with a two-person show featuring Tim Portlock and Jordan Griska.  Tim Portlock was introduced by the Director of Career Development Amie Potsic at the opening reception and the artist spoke about his work.

“Wow, this is a lot of people who showed up!”, said Tim Portlock.  The gallery was shoulder to shoulder to see the large-scale prints and smaller studies.  “I just realized in the last year that I’m no longer a recent transplant to Philadelphia.  The reason why I’m saying that is the original impetus for this came out of my move to Philadelphia and the original set of feelings I felt about the city when I moved here.  I was very much aware when I first moved here, because I moved around a lot before I settled here, that at some point you have a different conception of the city that you live in over time.  One of the first, biggest things that struck me about Philadelphia when I first came here was the number of abandoned and sort of dilapidated buildings in the city and that sort of connects to a lot of other things going on with economy and post-industrialization that I already think a lot about.

Ghost City 13, detail, Tim Portlock, digital print, 72" x 54" @ CFEVA

So, I wanted to make work that makes those things stay more conscious in my mind.  Another thing that informs the work is that I’ve had a life long interest, this sounds kind of weird, 19^th Century American landscape painting.  One of the things that interested me about that particular group of artists was they were the first American art movement that really thought of itself as Americans.  In their work they were trying to construct an American identity and present it to the rest of the world.  At least, what I think I’m doing with my work is I’m taking conventions from the 19^thCentury American Landscape artists and applying them to contemporary subject matter.  Now, a little bit about the process, most of my training is as a painter but for a while I took a sort of detour in interactive art making.  So, for a couple years I was actually modifying computer games and simulating historical spaces using that technology.  And then at some point, I kind of evolved away from that; this work is using some of that same technology.

Ghost City 14, Tim Portlock, digital print, 72" x 54", CFEVA

For a lot of people this work looks photographic, some people can tell immediately that that it’s using computer game technology.  It really depends on your experience with that, like when you play a lot of computer games you might see some things that ring true as a computer game.  I start off the process by going around my neighborhood and photographing buildings that are either abandoned or foreclosed, you can actually find this information online.  I use those images as reference images and then use the technology that I know and recreate these buildings and these spaces using that technology.   Now, these spaces don’t actually exist, they’re sort of like an artist’s re-thinking different elements that actually do exist in Philadelphia, you can think of these spaces as Philadelphia-esque.  Some people ask me, “Where is that?”  Well, it’s based on Philadelphia but it’s not really Philadelphia.  And this is actually very consistent with 19^th century landscape painting, the Hudson River school of painters took liberties with what they saw, too.”

Tim Portlock’s digital prints on view at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists gallery in the Barclay building on Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, through December 20^th, 2011.  Read about Jordan Griska on the Side Arts blog.

DoN Brewer, Contributing Writer, Side Arts Philadelphia Art Blog

Students, get the best service, selection and price: shop at BLICK!

[Affiliate Disclosure]

When I get out to First Friday, I’m usually looking for something a little bit different. Don’t get me wrong, I love stopping in galleries like Artists’ House, and I stared for quite a while at Adam Vinson’s tiny realist oil painting “Pear and Marble” last Friday. However, as a photographer, I’m often drawn more strongly to three dimensional work, which is why the current exhibition at Wexler Gallery is one of my top picks this month, along with shows at Brave New Worlds and Gallery ML.

Roy Lichtenstein

Sydney Cash // William Morris

Brent Kee Young // David Trubridge

I found some interesting jewelry and glass sculptures on the ground floor at Wexler Gallery, including a dish set by Roy Lichtenstein, a hypnotizing light sculpture created by reflections and shadows by Sydney Cash, and this blown glass bird sculpture by William Morris.  However, my fancy was really tickled once I stepped up the stairs to the gallery’s second floor. I loved this delicate and sculptural glass chair by Brent Kee Young and was mesmerized by the lines created by David Trubridge’s Garden Bench.  One of the exhibits that just opened on Friday is Hideaki Miyamura‘s beautiful collection of ceramic vessels and sculptures that exemplify his uniquely iridescent and almost holographic style of glazing.

Hideaki Miyamura

Hideaki Miyamura

Next, for something a little different, I checked out “Sonic Generation” at Brave New Worlds which celebrates the 20th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog (and, of course, Tails!). I never had a video game console growing up, but I still managed to play the first world of Sonic about a million times and watched the cartoon every Saturday. There’s just something about that hedgehog and his blue mohawk-resembling spikes that is so badass! The show is small, but anyone in the Sonic Generation should take a few minutes to stop by, reminisce, and pick up a few affordable prints and posters. You can also download David Landis’s (FREE) papercraft pdf that gives you step by step instructions and all the graphics you need to create your own three dimensional Sonic fan art.

Kasey Tararuj

Glen Brogan // Chris Beaumont

David Landis

Finally, for something completely different, my final pick is the last body painting show at ML Gallery until the springtime. This space is one of only two in the world dedicated to body art painting and photography exclusively, and model JEM (*warning – site is NSFW!) was there on First Friday to model some body paint in the flesh.  I loved Nix Herrera‘s intricate airbrush stencil of a hundred dollar bill on a woman’s torso, and Lawren Alice‘s series of monarch butterfly inspired designs (photographed by Noah Musher) were bold, graphic, intriguing, and perfect to hang in your home.  The intersection of paint, body art, photography, and the human form represented by the artists showing at ML Gallery is visual feast not to be missed.   Actually, drooling is probably a more appropriate response.

Natasha Kudashkina // Lawren Alice

JEM.model painted by Lawren Alice

Mike Lynch // Nix Herrera

Hideaki Miyamura‘s ceramics are showing at Wexler Gallery until January 28, 2012.

Sonic Generation is showing at Brave New Worlds through the end of December.

Gallery ML‘s current body painting exhibition is showing through the end of December.

Written and photographed by Carina Giamerese: Contributing Writer, Side Arts.