Art and Community VI: The Color Project
Art and Community VI: The Color Project
September 17 - November 5, 2004
Opening Reception: Friday, September 17, 5:30-7:30pm
Immediately following the Reception Primary Cinema at International House, 8pm:
The Red Shoes, directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948.
(Philadelphia, PA) - The Esther M. Klein Art Gallery is pleased to announce the sixth exhibition of its Art & Community Exhibition Series. This exhibition series promotes the work of artists and organizations that use art and the creative process as a vehicle to enhance the lives of individuals in the spirit of community interaction.
The Color Project, is an interdisciplinary experiment surveying the artistic productions of those using color as a primary source for exploration. The series will focus on color as the umbrella under which contemporary artists, writers, filmmakers and performers reflect upon a wide range of topics. This Klein Gallery initiative includes projects by the Community Education Center in conjunction with Spiral Q Puppet Theatre, Center for Community Partnerships, International House Primary Cinema, The Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, The Rotunda, and University City District. Their different programs address the concept of color in its many forms. Local businesses and restaurants will also be participating in this University City-wide project by coordinating window displays and menu items with the theme of color throughout the two-months of schedule Color Project events.
The Klein Gallery exhibit, Green, will be part of the larger University City initiative called, Art & Community Exhibition: The Color Project -- conceived and coordinated by the Esther Klein Art Gallery. Green presents the work of eleven artists at different stages of their careers. The work selected for this exhibition explores such topics as nature and ecology, the symbolic quality of money, and the temporality of life.
Boston-based artist Vaughn Bell uses living plant materials to address human relationships to nature in an urban context. Three terrarium-like sculptures sitting on the gallery floor present a new, green horizon within a built environment.
In an unusual installation, artist Paulette Bensignor presents a three-dimensional bear surrounded by oil paintings of a forest. The viewer is invited into the space to “live” or contemplate and experience the artist’s work.
New York-based artist Colin Brant takes 19th Century landscape painting and tweaks its primitive and visionary elements into a new way of depicting ideas about nature. Irony and preciseness are present in his peculiar dream-like vistas of the countryside.
Brooklyn–based artist Rebecca Elbridge Chamberlain makes work that references the Victorian diorama. Figurines of varied origins are encased in dome-like structures creating playful and absurd environments.
Iowa-based painter John Dilg creates contemplative paintings using subtle, monochromatic color shifts. Each of his quiet images is the product of devoted observation on a theme, distilled and inscribed initially in pencil on canvas. His paintings simplify and abstract experiences, forcing the viewer to use memory and imagination to decipher meaning.
Colombia-born artist Juliana Forero questions the relationship between urban classes and nature. For this exhibition, she presents a video based on the concept of light and the way it fills the space. In her video, the viewer is “immersed” in green, and therefore a connection with nature is established through light and technology.
Dutch artist Hedwige Jacobs presents an animation specially designed for this exhibition. As many of her other video works -which are based on her drawings- her animation, “Uniform” makes her drawing of the same title come to life for a few minutes.
Japanese artist Keiko Miyamori presents her acclaimed installation “Night Becomes Day”. In it, the artist brings together the natural and the human spheres into a setting that invites the viewer to a spiritual contemplation. Miyamori’s work reflects her desire to reveal the sacred relationship with the physical world and to inspire the viewer to live in harmony.
Philadelphia artist Lisa Murch combines the natural and the scientific in an imaginary world created with simple everyday materials. Bugs and other creatures presented at the Klein Gallery transform the mundane into the extraordinary.
Nancy Simonds’ gouaches on paper create a mysterious surface for contemplation and reflection. Using an exquisite palette of monochromatic green, the artist elaborates on the concept of color as an abstraction touching upon both perception and meaning.
Philadelphia-based artist Karen Stone presents work reflecting on the temporality of life and the beauty of death. Using grass and natural flowers, the artist mirrors natural processes as means to speak metaphorically about the human condition.
Information about the Green exhibition and the events by other organizations is available at www.kleinartgallery.org
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University City District builds effective partnerships to maintain a clean and safe environment and to promote, plan and advocate for University City’s diverse, urban community. University City is the region’s leading community for technology, research, higher education and health care integrated with historic and desirable residential neighborhoods, vibrant commercial and cultural attractions, and strong transportation connections.
Release Date: Friday, September 3rd 2004
