Visiting Artist Lecture Series Presents

Mark Allen

Wednesday, October 1st
11:00am President’s Hall

Mark Allen is the founder and executive director of Machine Project. Machine Project is a non-profit art and event space in L.A. dedicated to exploring the directions, deviations and connections between art, science, technology, music and literature.Allen, who was raised in Vermont and schooled at California Institute of the Arts (where he majored in art) ran a few galleries in Houston after moving there in 1993 for an artist's residency. The first, called Revolution Summer, had a sort of Marxist theme. "For instance," he explains, "if it took the artist two hours to make the art, then you could buy the art by working for the artist for two hours." His second gallery, LAX, sold the work of L.A.-based artists. When Allen returned to Southern California in 1997, he immediately integrated himself into the arts community, working at CalArts' campus galleries and with collaborators at the C-Level space in Chinatown. At C-Level, he organized a number of successful installations, most memorably a simulated video cockfight in which participates donned rooster suits and fought their opponents via on-screen avatars. Allen teaches at CalArts and UC San Diego and freelances as a computer programmer.

Photographs by Mary C. Rhodomoyer in Elkins Hall

*from September 29 to October 10

Mary C. Rhodomoyer received her MFA in photography from Tyler School of Art in May 2004. She spent several years as both a sculpture major and ceramics major primarily interested in the human condition and installation earthworks. She is employed at Tyler School of Art, Temple University Center City as an Adjunct Assistant Professor and Arcadia University as an Adjunct Professor. She exhibits her work in juried, group and solo exhibitions and enjoys collaborative projects. Recent exhibitions include select works from her series “Site Unseen” a solo exhibition in Ardsley Pennsylvania and a recent juried exhibition "Works on Paper" at Main Line Art Center in Haverford Pennsylvania.


Photographic Series in Progress: Site Unseen & Natural Selections
My photographic projects reflect an intention to capture and explore the subtle but observable changes that happen in natural settings. The landscapes act not as visual observable fact but consider the idea of observation itself. The quality of the landscape is evoked through light and atmospheric conditions. Atmospheric reduction in visual information gives the images a mood and space, a portal for looking that leaves the viewer with the potential for observation and ultimately with themselves. Additional information in the landscape becomes a metaphor for the disruption of that state of being and explores stories regarding a state of paradise lost with the disruption of knowledge and thought. Influences originate from Japanese printmaking and photography, painting, eastern philosophy, and ideas concerning both affinity and the infinite.
maryrhodomoyer.com

Kelly McRaven 2004 Painting MFA

2004 Tyler Painting MFA Kelly McRaven is in the reviews in the newest issue of Modern Painters. Its a review of her solo show from May at V & A in New York.

Kelly McRaven
paintings

May 2nd through June 7th, 2008 Opening Reception May 2nd 7-9

V&A/Vicky Donner is pleased to present new paintings by Kelly McRaven. The exhibition opens on May 2nd, and runs through June 7th, 2008.

Kelly McRaven paints loosely rendered representational paintings that both draw and deviate from the subject matter at hand. She refers to paintings as "lies" and "creates an impression" of what she'd like to make her paintings be. Here, the rules of representation are relaxed to get at a painting that is to be experienced rather than deciphered; however, while her process does not begin with a pointed sensitivity to any current social, cultural or economic agenda, there is room for these contexts to set in. While using inspiration from contemporary abstract painters, McRaven mostly considers the process and vision of iconic artists and their impact on our collective unconscious, and often their senses of humor. Concisely put, there's no pretense here, yet these aren't just pretty pictures.

Like music and comedy, the significance of this work is revealed at the moment of engagement. McRaven quickly applies thin layers of oil paint in broad strokes to lifesize canvases to create work that appears alive, physical, and immediate. An unrecognizable form of a small boat with oversized white sails floats on a tumultuous emerald green sea where a giant wave looms in the background. In another piece, a wispy red and blue sky hangs over a peculiar, gently shaped field where nothing grows. Ultimately, the mysterious, tense canvases of uncomplicated landscapes and absurd subjects - like sailboats and tents - conspire to moderate trends and academic gesture by appealing to and entertaining the viewer.

Kelly McRaven has exhibited in group shows in Philadelphia, New York, Tokyo and Los Angeles for the past 4 years, and was a resident of Skowhegan in 2006. She was born in 1977 in Ohio, and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA from Ohio University and MFA from Tyler School of Art. This is her first solo exhibition in New York.

Kelly McRaven, Sailboat with Green Wave ,
2007, oil on canvas, 64x86 in
© Courtesy of the Artist and V&A, NY

9/26/08 Friday
6 – 9pm
An Evening with Hamburger Eyes

Hamburger Eyes would like to share the joys of zine creation. By providing a simple work area consisting of copy machine and stapler, this hands-on experience will take participants back to the early days of Hamburger Eyes and billions of other zines. They will be bringing photos and be making zines. Visitors are welcome and encouraged to bring their own work, help with our work, make their own work, share, trade, create, get in there and get busy or just kick it and talk shit.

Hamburger Eyes Photo Magazine is based in San Francisco and published on an irregular basis. Inspired by the traditions that began with National Geographic and Life Magazine, Hamburger Eyes hopes to revitalize the sensation of photography as a craft as well as a tool to record and document. Since 2001, the quality of photography and their relentless dedication has been supported by shops, stores, libraries, galleries, and museums across the entire planet.
www.hamburgereyes.com

The Megawords Storefront project – Schedule of Events September 17^th through 30^th 2008

Please note! All events and times are subject to change. Please visit www.megawordsmagazine.com or contact us to verify any questions.

E-mail info@megawordsmagazine.com or call 215.300.7391

Hello-

Don't forget to apply to the North American Graduate Art Survey at the
University of Minnesota's Katherine Nash Gallery! This is an exciting
opportunity to be in national show. There are also awards available.

The deadline has been extended from Oct. 3 to Oct 8.
Please see details and download prospectus at http://art.umn.edu/NAGAS.html

We look forward to seeing your work.

Thanks,
The NAGAS Committee

---

STOöP No. 5

When: Thursday, September 25, 6-9 PM


Where: Tyler Campus, Penrose Rooms 304 and 306


Bring Art! (and food and drink…)

As a continuation of the last STOöP conversation, and in preparation of a more elaborate curatorial STOöP event coming to you in October, we invite individuals to bring examples of their work for a conversation about art’s relation to, well, other forms of cultural production, audience, context, history, in short, the Zeitgeist at large.

(We are re-distributing the attached texts/links to provide a historical example of a very particular extreme of such a relation between art and life as well as some contemporary reactions to that relation.)

Some readings to guide the evening:

UTOPIA

Three artist manifestos from the beginning of the Soviet experiment

Bogdanov, Tatlin, FwOC


**Peter Scheldjahl Village Voice review of Rodchenko at MoMA

…versus…

**review from World Socialist Web of the same exhibition


For those unfamiliar with his work, a nice page of Rodchenko’s photography

**http://www.danyanovikov.narod.ru/rofo/rodlogos.html

And…
A view from the other side of the rabbit hole:

**NY Times obituary of Russian Novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Questions?

Contact Philip Glahn, Mark Shetabi or Chad Curtis

phglahn@temple.edu
Mshetabi@temple.edu
chaddcurtis@gmail.com

The Exhibition:

Volume Attempts: The Space of Books

on view at:
Temple Gallery
259 N. 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA

through October 25, was recently reviewed in several publications, including September/October's Art on Paper, and August's Art Matters. Please follow the links to read more.

Temple Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 11 am - 6 pm.

More information about the exhibition and upcoming programs, including a lecture by Purtill Family Business, can be found at www.temple.edu/tyler/exhibitions.

Visiting Artist Lecture Series Presents

Rashawn Griffin

Wednesday September 24 11:00 am President's Hall

Rashawn Griffin was born in Los Angeles and raised in Olathe, Kansas. He studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and received a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from Yale University. His installations, sculptures, and paintings have been in multiple exhibitions, including Frequency at The Studio Museum in Harlem, curated by Thelma Golden and Christine Y. Kim, and the 2008 Whitney Biennial, curated by Henriette Huldisch and Shamim M. Momin. Future group exhibitions include Galerie Arndt & Partner, Zurich, and Freeway Balconies at Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, curated by Collier Schorr. Griffin lives and works in New York.

Brainstorming help!!!!

Hi Friends!

Well I am in Graduate School in Philadelphia now and I need some help on a project I am working on. I hope you all would not mind taking 3 minutes and writing me a few quick thoughts. Please and Thanks!!!! Really appreciate you all!

I am searching for ideas, icons, associations, stereotypes and images of "Americanism" What is the first thing that screams American to you. Even if it is just the tell that happens when you see an American on the street.

Non American friends what are the ideas that come to mind when you think about America? First things that come to mind... bad or good.... will not take offense. Please dish it!

American friends... what are the ideas you understand us to be viewed by foreigners? Or well what do you think our people represent? Again bad or good.... spill it!

Oh and we can leave out things like Stars, and stripes, dolla bills, red white and blue, statue of liberties etc. but if these are the first things that come to mind... that is cool.. give me the 3rd or 4th thing. Plus anything that can be pictorial is better.... but still just list off what you think of.

Thanks and hope to hear from a bunch of you,
Hugs
Samantha Hookway

Comment here or email: samanthahookway@gmail.com

Hayley Carmo at Gallery 543

Gallery 543, which is at Urban Outfitters Inc. in the Naval Yard. Building 543, along with its exhibition space is open to the public. The show includes work from second year printmaking grad Hayley Carmo, along with Annette Monnier of Black Floor and Copy galleries, Callie Rickards and Lizzy Janssen.


Here are the details:

The Gallery at 543
Monday, September 22 – Friday, October 17
Work by:
Hayley Carmo
Lizzy Janssen
Annette Monnier
Callie Rickards

Opening Reception on Monday, September 22nd 5:30-7:00pm
5000 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19112

Contact Info:
Lauren Addis 215.454.7066
laddis@urbanout.com

Graduate Portfolio Day

Eastern Graduate Portfolio Day

The Art Directors Club
106 West 29th Street
(between 6th and 7th Aves.)
New York, NY 10001
Saturday, Sept. 27, noon-4 p.m.

Interested in applying to Tyler School of Art's MFA program? Come get your portfolio reviewed by Tyler faculty at this Graduate portfolio day in New York City!

Fleisher/Ollman's Annual Winter Invitational

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:

(DEADLINE) NOVEMBER 3, 2008

Now in its sixth year, Fleisher/Ollman’s annual Winter invitational featuring emerging Philadelphia artists, a show which started out as a way to innovate and make connections between old and new, contemporary and canonical, has become something of a Philadelphia institution. Famous for being creatively named, this much anticipated exhibition has become a requisite stop for Philadelphia artists looking to cut their teeth.

Fleisher/Ollman is currently accepting submissions for the next iteration of the exhibition which will be on view at the gallery from December 12, 2008 through January 17, 2009. Artists interested in submitting must meet the following criteria:

• Reside within the greater Philadelphia area
• Not be currently enrolled in an undergraduate program
• Have no commercial representation in the Philadelphia area
• Submit work that has been completed within the last two years

Your submission should include:

• A CD including 8–10 images, saved as jpegs no larger than 900 pixels tall or 1400 pixels wide (you may include a few details of larger pieces if your work merits closer inspection), and/or
• A DVD queued to selection (up to 5 clips, no longer than 2 minutes each)
• A CV or bio
• An image list including titles, dates, media and dimensions of submitted work
• An artist's statement (optional)
• A self-addressed, stamped envelope (if you want your submission returned)

Guidelines:

The docs should be submitted both as print-outs (so that we may reference them while viewing your work) and in digital form (so that we have them handy for future use). Digital files should be named with your last name and a 2-digit serial number so that we can easily view them in the order set by your image list:

• shoemaker_01.jpg
• shoemaker_02.jpg
• shoemaker_cv.doc
• shoemaker_imagelist (...etc.)

For ease of navigation, all files (jpegs, quicktime movies, CV/bio, statement, and image list) should be burned directly to the CD, not inside individual folders. If you are submitting a DVD, please either include your documents on the DVD, or submit them on a separate CD.

Submissions are due by 5pm, Monday, November 3rd, by mail or in person, at:

Fleisher/Ollman Gallery
1616 Walnut Street, Suite 100
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Tel: (215) 545-7562

Questions? Clarifications? invitational@fleisher-ollmangallery.com

Visiting Artist Lecture Series: Gregory Volk

Visiting Artist Lecture Series

Gregory Volk
Wednesday September 17, 2008
11:00 am Presidents Hall

Gregory Volk is a New York-based art critic and freelance curator. He writes regularly for Art in America, and his articles and reviews have also appeared in many other publications, including Parkett and Sculpture. Among his recent contributions to exhibition catalogues are essays on Joan Jonas (Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2007) and Bruce Nauman (Milwaukee Art Museum, 2006). His essay on Vito Acconci is featured in Vito Acconci: Diary of a Body, 1969-1973, published by Charta in 2007. Together with Sabine Russ, Gregory Volk has curated numerous exhibitions, including Agitation and Repose at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York, Public Notice: Paintings in Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, and Surface Charge at the Anderson Gallery in Richmond, Virginia. Gregory Volk received his B.A. from Colgate University and his M.A. from ColumbiaUniversity.

The Mutation: hormones, literacy, and the adolescent publishing scene

A Lecture by William Pym Thursday, September 17, 6 PM

Temple Gallery ‐and‐ Megawords Storefront Corner of 11th and Cherry Streets, Philadelphia

Writer, curator and artist William Pym will talk about the zine as a special form of publication, illustrating his lecture with examples and looking at specific case studies. Pym is interested in the ways in which zines are assembled and digested and he will present his own work, The Mutation, an examination of the force of male adolescent hormonal needs and the young zine writer. The event will continue at Megawords Storefront, where other zine authors will speak and other zines will be distributed.

Dear Tyler Students:

A warm welcome to the new students and welcome back to all those returning students toTyler School of Art. Many of you are already riding the special Tyler bus that was designed by Rachel Ignotofsky during her freshman year at Tyler. This will be a most unique year in Tyler’s history as the Elkins Park arts community will be moving in January to our new facility on the main campus. The building progresses more each day and with it excitement increases to put out the welcome mat and finally have Tyler School of Art located on one campus with the other schools. Last spring Tyler was ranked fourteenth out of more than a hundred art schools by the US News and World Report. Five of our graduate studio programs are ranked in the top twenty in the nation. We know that the talents you bring to Tyler will further increase our rankings in the future as Tyler becomes even more competitive. Our application numbers soared last year and our denial rate was over eighty percent! We have the best and brightest entering class at Tyler and they join their exceptionally gifted upper class students to carry on the tradition of excellence in the fields of studio art, art history, art education and architecture at Tyler School of Art. We have waiting lists for this fall and spring and many who want to transfer to Tyler in order to reap the benefit of a Tyler education. We are pleased to be so coveted by others but want to assure you that we are not looking to increase enrollments, especially in the studio areas. One of the benefits of a Tyler education is the individual attention to students and access to our talented faculty. The move to the main campus facility will only enhance this aspect with the newest state-of-the-art equipment. Plans are also underway to upgrade existing main campus facilities in Architecture and build art history classrooms and studios in the new building for main campus programs.

The year 2009 marks two great milestones in Temple’s history. It is the 125th anniversary of the founding of Temple University and the 75th anniversary of the establishment of Tyler. We are in the midst of planning special events and exhibitions to celebrate these occasions. A ribbon cutting is planned for March 25, 2009 to officially launch the school. Boris Blai, the first head of Tyler School of Art, would be delighted at the move and expanded facilities of the art programs at Tyler as they make possible collaborative learning opportunities that were at the core of his vision for the school. Professor Jo-Anna Moore, who is on leave this year, and is writing a history of the first thirty years of Tyler, informs us that “Blai hired a few faculty in Tyler’s early years, distinctive artists and scholars: Furman Finck, an academy trained painter and a leader in Progressive Education, a dancer, Charles Weidman, and Leo Ornstein, a musician. Blai’s curricular vision was to include a multi-disciplinary education for the artist, with a heavy emphasis on the craft of materials, and to educate artists to become artist-teachers.” The new building at Tyler will share an atrium with the prestigious Boyer College of Music and be next door to the School of Communication and Theater. Projects with the Fox School of Business, the College of Education and the College of Science and Engineering are being explored and the relocation of the school promises many more exciting interdisciplinary ventures.

I wish you all a productive year filled with artistic and intellectual stimulation. You will be challenged to develop your capacity for creative thinking, expand your talents in new directions, and grow your abilities to be the artistic, art historical, art educational and architectural leaders of the future. Good luck to each and every one of you, and let us know how we can make your Tyler experience the best that it can be.





Therese Dolan
Interim Dean
Tyler School of Art


They forgot to add contact information in order for us to actually share with them "how they can make our Tyler experience the best that it can be", but im sure they meant to. And the whole "productive year" wish, well I think we all wish that. Are we going to get it is the big question. Its all very interesting.

Photographs by Anna Norton in Elkins Hall

*up until September 26

Anna Norton received her M.F.A. in photography from Tyler School of Art and her B.A. in anthropology from Tulane University. After beginning her career in archaeology, she attended the Maine Photographic Workshops six-month Resident Program to focus on her interest in photography. Currently she teaches as part-time professor at University of the Arts, Arcadia University and Pennsylvania College of Art and Design. She also is the Assistant Visual Resources Curator at Tyler School of Art. She exhibits in group and solo exhibitions both regionally and nationally, including About Love at Nailya Alexander Gallery in New York and a collaborative video installation called Living Space at Eastern State Penitentiary. A selection of Norton's work has just been published in Elements of Photography by Angela L. Faris-Belt.

This image is from the series Reckoning, 2007:

As a landscape photographer and native southerner transplanted to Philadelphia, I am exploring the relationship between place, home and cultural identity. The process of learning to see this new place photographically is revealed through the heavy shadows, broken and animated by light and color. Rather than being about geography, these images are about navigation through space, literal as well as metaphorical, in response to place. They represent an internal landscape and illustrate the difficulty of seeing clearly in the present.

These images are captured with a low-resolution point-and-shoot camera so that I can respond intuitively and spontaneously to a quickly changing environment. The resulting digital artifacts create image texture, which refers to both painting and the vernacular photograph. The absence of clarity reflects the internal process of reckoning.

Two other series are included in the show: stills from the video installation with Johanna Inman, Living Space, 2008 and Road to Stillmore, 2007.

www.annagnorton.com

Green Light: A National Juried Exhibit for Young Artists with Disabilities, Ages 16-25

Sarah M Muehlbauer first year fibers grad is participating in a show at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Its up for nearly the whole semester!

September 17, 2008 - January 4, 2009
On view are artworks that reflect the experiences
of young artists with disabilities and reveal how
those disabilities shape or transform the artists'
lives and ultimate destinations. VSA arts sponsors an annual national juried exhibition for young artists ages 16-25 with disabilities; this is the 7th exhibition.

Brochure
Organized by VSA art

at the Ripley Center International Gallery in the Smithsonian @
1100 Jefferson Drive, S.W.
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C. 20560

Architecture of the Quilt

Tonight, from 6 to 9 pm the Philadelphia Museum of Art is hosting an opening celebration for Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt, a show that celebrates the quilting tradition in Gee’s Bend, Alabama. Since the mid-19th century African-American women in this tiny rural community, most of whom are the descendants of slaves, have been producing these visually stunning works, transforming an essential necessity into an art form through quilts that express their stories of family, community and basic human survival.

Gee’s Bend has historically been among the most isolated and impoverished places in the U.S. - a peninsula enclosed on three sides by a massive ‘bend’ in the Alabama River. Originally a plantation, it was abandoned by the owners during the Civil War. After emancipation, many of the freed slaves continued to make their living off the land as tenant farmers or sharecroppers. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke in Gee’s Bend in 1965, urging locals to register to vote. Those who marched with King in nearby Selma were sent to jail, fired from their jobs, and often lost their homes. The ferry service that was a vital link connecting the town to Selma was abruptly cut off by the local government, and only resumed in 2006 (!!)

In spite of all this, these women have maintained a joyous artistic and cultural tradition. Their style is distinctive, bold, and sophisticated– more like Matisse or Mondrian than anything you’d see in a ‘traditional’ quilt show. They’ve passed their skills down through at least six generations to the present. The New York Times has called their quilts "some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced."

Philadelphia is the final stop on a nationwide tour of these quilts. And ten of the Gee’s Bend quilters are joining us for the opening celebration tomorrow night. Some of them are in their 90s, but having met them all this morning I can tell you they’ve got tons of energy! Their stories are incredible. Meeting them is a rare treat.

REMINDER: CAA MFA Fellowship

Due October 1st, 2008.

West Prize Reminder

The West Prize is due October 1st, 2007.

Pictures

Artblog's Libby and Roberta, well press in general, got a hardhat tour before all the grad students have been able to even get in the building. Though its true we have been able to access very outdated blueprints of the place, all the planning has been done from a place high in the sky or deep in the ground or somewhere that is dark and creepy or at least far far away.

It all seems very detatched for some reason, THE MOVE. Its like THE FOG.

I stole some pictures from Roberta Fallon's flickr page, they should all link back if you click on them so you can see more, I included, the entrance picture, an aerial view of the whole building, the atrium and of course one of the new fibers studios complete with floor to ceiling windows and walls with only usable pinning/tacking space from 4'-8' and a personal sink for who knows what purpose. Maybe I will stop spilling mugs of coffee on the floor because I will have a convenient place to dump them? Probably not.

Despite all my fears and all the things that are already going wrong, are not ordered, not having studio access over winter break, not having sane faculty this semester because of this craziness, well despite all of that and much more, the building is incredible to look at from the road. So I am sure it will be worth it to deal with all of this all for ONE SEMESTER access to the damn place. It better be good.

Visiting Artist Lecture Series at Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park

Xaviera Simmons
Wednesday, September 10th 2008
11:00 am, Presidents Hall

Xaviera Simmons produces photographs, installation performances and videos that expand on notions surrounding landscape, aesthetics, participation and history. Simmons received a BFA in photography from Bard College in 2004 after two years of pilgrimage retracing the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. In 2005 she participated in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York. This year Simmons will participate in an artist residency at Platform Garanti in Istanbul and will develop a project commissioned by the Public Art Fund. Simmons is the 2008 recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize awarded by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

Go To Yoga at Tyler!

Yoga Happens Every Monday and Thursday From 12-1pm in the Beech Hall Fitness Center!

job fair

Fall Part-Time Job Fair
Tuesday, September 9th
12:00 noon - 4:00 pm
The Bell Tower ( Rain location - Mitten Hall Great Court)


As in the past, we're reaching out to the you all to help us get the word out to the students. This semester's event will be outside and in the center of campus. The employers are excited and we hope the students will be, too.

So, please - talk it up! Post the information in your departments, announce the event in class and help spread the word about the event. Beginning Thursday, 9/4 a list of attending employers will be available on the Career Center website - www.temple.edu/careercenter.

Thank you again for helping us to reach out to the students - we look forward to seeing them next Tuesday!

Thanks, Mary
Claire Dismukes

Webisode 9: NIC*FISH

FLUX TASK 2 with Oliver Herring

FLUX TASK 2 with Oliver Herring
Sat. Sept. 6, 5-10 pm
3000 N Hope Street Philadelphia, PA 19133

The Yousri Scrolls - September 5th - October 31st

TODAY! September 5th, 6-9pm
162 N 3rd St.
Philadelphia, PA 19106
www.knappgallery.com

image: the arrival, Bassem Yousri

taken from the Knapp Gallery's website:
The Knapp Gallery is excited to announce The Yousri Scrolls, a poetic and reflective show for the months of September and October.

This fall, The Knapp Gallery is eager to introduce Egyptian artist and Fulbright recipient Bassem Yousri to an international audience. The Yousri Scrolls will be the first opportunity for an American public to see these striking, exotic and evocative works in person.

Primarily employing papyrus and fire treated wood; the artwork of Yousri evokes Ancient Egyptian tomb murals and painted coffins. The bright pigments he applies contrast with the faded, worn surfaces of his canvases creating an attention-grabbing juxtaposition. Yousri’s elegant rebuff of modern surface treatment and style promotes the ideas and messages of a modern individual reflecting upon the rich cultural and artistic past of his Native country.

By utilizing the traditional materials and methods of his Egyptian upbringing, Bassem Yousri manages to promote a sense of timeless eternity in his works. He reconsiders historic themes and iconography to create a contemporary pastiche of techniques and images. Not simply an appropriation, Yousri’s artwork combines and heightens classic motifs by applying a fresh edge and discerning modern eye to the ancient and mythical symbols he draws upon. The method proves unforgettable, unique and attention grabbing.

We hope that you will join us for this international painter’s American debut!

The Knapp Gallery is committed to exhibiting the most sophisticated, contemporary fine art. Simultaneously, we are introducing our exceptional, innovative artists to national and international markets.

Artist’s Statement

Since my childhood, Ancient Egyptian art fed my visual vocabulary with all sorts of spiritual and mystical imagery. A captivating sense of eternity is inherent in those artifacts emanating from deep faith in an after life. It’s an eternity that has been disrupted by colonizers from different eras starting with the Romans to the Arabs, French, Turks, and English. Today’s Egypt is a disorientated one between Islamic fundamentalism and cultural Americanization. The horizon is hazy and the color isn’t clear.

A lot of questions have been raised in my mind; amidst all the current cultural confusion, what’s left from those bygone traces of richness and fertility? What did time add or steal from that identity that was shaped almost 7000 years ago? Moreover, Could time itself be portrayed? Could its power of modification be grasped and understood? These are questions that initiated my new body of work I am presenting in this exhibition, in which I attempt to grasp the effect of time on objects, cultures and civilizations. The group of works is inspired by Ancient Egyptian art, especially the “Fayoum Portraits” which date to the Roman period, in the late 1st century B.C. or the early 1st century A.D. onwards.

My emphasis is on the material; I use papyrus, wood, and fire. The wood is beaten up and carved in the form of remnants or ruins. The fire has the role of shaping the pieces of papyrus, darkening parts of it, creating holes in other parts, and merging it with the destructive effect of time. I am not attempting to recreate older pieces or copy exact motifs; what I am undertaking is to reincarnate the effect of time, manipulate and watch it antiquating my most recent pieces in an attempt to experience and control its ability of alteration.

— Bassem Yousri

Printmaking Call

Download the Prospectus Here

The Boston Printmakers
2009 North American Print Biennial
Boston University 808 Gallery
February 15 - March 30, 2009

Odili Donald Odita - PDS faculty

ICA
Fall shows:
Douglas Blau-First Floor
R. Crumb's Underground-Second Floor
Kate Gilmore-Project Space
Odili Donald Odita: Third Space-Ramp Project

Fall Opening Reception Thursday September 4 @ 6-8pm

Welcome to Tyler

First day of classes for the first years, I am sure you are overwhelmed already but we second years are here to help!

Bassem Yousri - Knapp Gallery

The Knapp Gallery

Bassem Yousri (second year painter)

September 5th – October 31th
First Friday Opening September 5th, 6-9pm

162 N 3rd St.
Philadelphia, PA 19106

tel: 267-445-0279 fax: 267-455-0279
thurs-sat 11-6, sun 12-5
wednesday by appoinment only.

Egyptian icons (from knapp gallery's website)

While Ancient Egyptian art was, in fact, a ritual towards the passage from death to eternity in the afterlife; Bassem Yousri derives from this art a distinct kind of symbolism that suits the postmodern age with its disbelief in eternity. Furthermore, divine hands cradled the Ancient Egyptian when he lived among his surrounding nature and community and practiced his religious rituals without knowing any kind of spiritual defeat. He was “living in the truth” as Akhenaton used to declare. Bassem’s people on the other hand, in which you find a 21st century amalgam of Eastern and Western taste, are deprived from that “truth” in it’s spiritual meaning; as life forces upon them a sense of alienation, loneliness, and psychological division and pushes them away from the embrace of the community and its collective consciousness. They remain lonely and separated even if they live among the crowds.

The papyrus that Bassem uses as the painting surface of his iconic portraits brings us back to that ancient age; the age of the birth of consciousness. The profile views of the portraits, with their repetition and steadiness, also emphasize the same connection with the past. The faces don’t carry a specific expression; they are more symbolic than representational. With this steadiness and the decadence of the surface under the effect of fire, a strong allusion to the meaning of time and the ancient past is pushed forward, accentuating, at the same time, the psychological fragmentation of the human being in our age, even if his outside is tinted with bright vibrant colors that Bassem might have inspired from his Eastern taste.

This is how Bassem’s figures and paintings are forged into some kind of contemporary icons. They reflect the human condition in a world where the principles of a civilization are destroyed under the heavy rock of pragmatic values while a strange nostalgia constantly guides mankind towards the power of the unknown, leaving him psychologically shattered. His lips are struggling between the desire to scream or ultimately remain silent.

— Ezz el Din Naguib, Egyptian artist and critic

Bassem Yousri’s Paintings introduce us to a painter with exceptional skills. He manipulates them to formulate an artistic style of his own, inspiring from his country’s history and cultural heritage, exploring and emphasizing, at the same time, his identity. This fact becomes obvious when we observe his use of the strong contours that define his figures and shapes that often possess symbolic meanings. His contemporary compositions reveal a vigorous freedom in handling the surface, both, visually and conceptually. The use of Papyrus as a painting surface underlines a connection that has historic and artistic significance; his work strongly reminds of Ancient Egyptian art and initiates an intimate conversation with it.

This formula signifies a sense of maturity and awareness of the path Bassem has chosen for himself. His career will definitely evolve through the constant experiments he is doing in his painting parallel to the body of work he is presenting in this exhibition. These two facts show us that Bassem understands that making art under the shadow of globalization doesn’t have to erase the artist’s fingerprint or take away his artistic personality; his identity. Moreover, he realizes that a true artist avoids being a repeated copy from others; he strives to represent his own point of view. This is what makes his work a real addition to the world of creativity.

— Dr. Sabri Mansour, Painter and instructor at the School of fine arts in Cairo, Helwan University.

Julia Robinson - The Infernal Cake

Julia Robinson - The Infernal Cake
Article By Inga Walton

Julia Robinson reconfigures Dante's epic poem as a grotesque and compelling ‘Infernal Cake'.

Holllerin out to Shelby Donnelly on this one....just found this snoopin around on craft blogs/Craft Culture. Also in the recent FiberArts magazine.






Image: Julia Robinson The Infernal Cake Cathedral/bridal satin (70m), thread, silk ribbon (approximately 100m), beads, stuffing, MDF, timber, fixings. Dimensions (variable): 275 x 200 x 200 cm Photograph by Christian Capurro, J. Dillon & Über Gallery