Saturday, January 31, 2009

Braddock Journal

Rock Bottom for Decades, but Showing Signs of Life

Lisa Kyle for The New York Times

The state has deemed Braddock, Pa., a “distressed municipality.”

Published: January 31, 2009

BRADDOCK, Pa. — As Americans wonder just how horrible the economy will become, this tiny steel town offers a perverse message of hope: Things cannot possibly get any worse than they are here.


Lisa Kyle for The New York Times

The mayor, John Fetterman, below, with tattoos of the dates of killings during his time in office.

Lisa Kyle for The New York Times

The mill town once had 18,000 residents.

Lisa Kyle for The New York Times

Now it has 3,000 and is full of abandoned buildings.

Lisa Kyle for The New York Times

The Carrie Furnace, on the riverbank, operated until 1982.

Hunched on the eastern edge of the Monongahela River only a few miles from bustling Pittsburgh, Braddock is a mix of boarded-up storefronts, houses in advanced stages of collapse and vacant lots.

The state has classified it a “distressed municipality” — bankrupt, more or less — since the Reagan administration. The tax base is gone. So are most of the residents. The population, about 18,000 after World War II, has declined to less than 3,000. Many of those who remain are unemployed. Real estate prices fell 50 percent in the last year.

“Everyone in the country is asking, ‘Where’s the bottom?’ ” said the mayor, John Fetterman. “I think we’ve found it.”

Mr. Fetterman is trying to make an asset out of his town’s lack of assets, calling it “a laboratory for solutions to all these maladies starting to knock on the door of every community.” One of his first acts after being elected mayor in 2005 was to set up, at his own expense, a Web site to publicize Braddock — if you can call pictures of buildings destroyed by neglect and vandals a form of promotion.

He has encouraged the development of urban farms on empty lots, which employ area youths and feed the community. He started a nonprofit organization to save a handful of properties.

In an earlier era, Braddock was a famed wellspring of industrial might. The steel baron Andrew Carnegie put his first mill in the town, the foundation of an empire that helped build modern America. With the loot and guilt Mr. Carnegie piled up, he also built a library here, the first of more than 1,500 Carnegie libraries in the United States.

Immigrants came to work in the mill, and through ceaseless agitation won union representation that enabled their children — helped by the library on the hill — to achieve a better life.

A local boy, Thomas Bell, celebrated this hard-won success in his autobiographical 1941 novel “Out of This Furnace.” The story recounts the strivings of three generations in Braddock’s mill and their transformation from exploited and maligned “Hunkies” from Eastern Europe into full-fledged Americans.

This year, the town will be featured in the film version of another work of art, Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Road.” Set in a post-Armageddon America where food is so scarce that many survivors turned to cannibalism, “The Road” was shot partially in Braddock.

A town whose story has evolved from building America to making Americans to eating Americans for dinner might seem a hard sell. So Mr. Fetterman, who is paid $150 a month, also promotes Braddock as a place to buy extremely cheap real estate.

Erik and Shannon Gustafson heeded that call. The couple were living in Chicago, where Mr. Gustafson was a part-time commodities trader, when they heard about Braddock last winter. They settled on a two-bedroom house whose owner warned them that it had black mold and was probably a tear-down. Her price: $4,750.

The Gustafsons paid the money and discovered that the mold problem was overstated. “Space is cheap here,” said Mr. Gustafson, 30. “We can afford to focus on our hobbies.” He is a graphic designer; she is a photographer.

Joel Rice, a furniture maker, bought a 15,000-square-foot former car dealership that he is converting to a showroom, workshop and home, with a greenhouse on the roof. The building cost $70,000, perhaps a tenth of what he would have had to pay for a tiny shop in Oregon, where he was living.

It will take at least two more years to clear the debris and put in new wiring, plumbing and fixtures. But Mr. Rice, 38, is undaunted. “If all our effort here crashes and burns,” he said, “it won’t be because we held anything back.”

Unlike many stricken steel towns, Braddock never lost its mill. Part of the U.S. Steel system, it still employs nearly a thousand workers. But they no longer live in town, and the stores followed them to the suburbs. Eventually, only the stubborn and those without resources remained.

“Even the bars and liquor stores closed,” said Ron Kutnansky, who was born in Braddock in 1953 and lived there and in North Braddock for decades.

A custodian at the University of Pittsburgh, Mr. Kutnansky finally moved out three years ago, after his home was broken into for the third time. “It’s a fairly big shame what happened to Braddock,” he said. He sold his house for a dollar, no regrets.

As Mr. Kutnansky was leaving, a political novice was starting to shake things up. Mr. Fetterman, now 39, is hard to miss, at 6-foot-8 and 325 pounds, with a shaved head and goatee. He has a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard but came to Braddock in 2001 to work for a county youth program. He won the May 2005 Democratic primary by exactly one vote. (He faced no opposition in the general election.)

The mayor wears his commitment to Braddock not on his sleeve but under it: On his right arm are tattooed five dates memorializing killings in Braddock during his time in office. The victims included a man delivering a pizza and a 2-year-old girl who was assaulted and then dropped into a snow-covered playground. She froze to death while trying to walk home.

On his other arm is a large 15104, the town’s ZIP code.

This impressed many of the younger residents. “I was shocked, because he’s not even from around here,” said Jeremy Cannon, 23.

Mr. Fetterman’s official powers are limited, partly because of Braddock’s “distressed municipality” status and partly because it is technically a borough overseen by a borough council. The council president, Jesse Brown, did not return telephone calls for an interview.

Mostly, the mayor offers encouragement, ideas and energy. With the financial help of his father, who owns a commercial insurance agency in York, Pa., he also makes direct and indirect investments in local real estate. He set up the nonprofit organization, Braddock Redux, and gave it $50,000 to buy a former Presbyterian church to serve as a community center.

Last year, Mr. Fetterman gave the organization another $12,000 — money he says he got by draining his 401(k) — to buy a duplex and another house next door. The next step was securing a grant from the Buhl Foundation in Pittsburgh to refurbish the buildings for six at-risk teenagers who, at 18, were too old for foster care. Run by two members of AmeriCorps, the group house will open this month.

“Where a lot of people would see a series of negatives — a bankrupt community with deteriorating housing, foster kids aging out of the system and confronting a lack of employment — John saw potential,” said Frederick Thieman, president of the Buhl Foundation.

One of Mr. Fetterman’s biggest coups was persuading a small alternative energy company, Fossil Free Fuel, to secure a warehouse on Braddock Avenue.

“This is a very welcoming place for a business, because it has so few,” said Fossil Free’s co-owner, David Rosenstraus.

All this is movement in the right direction, but the uninhabited buildings are still falling down. Dozens are scheduled for demolition. “If struggling communities don’t preserve their architecture,” Mr. Fetterman said, “there’s no chance of any resurgence down the line.” Sometime soon, he worries, Braddock will pass the point of no return.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Jude's painting and sculpture class initiated a hallway show that is now up in the first floor hallway. It features work from lots of grads some not even in the class. It was really sunny but i got some pictures of the work.
The Hogar Collection 362 Grand Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211
tel.718.388.5022
info@hogarcollection.com
www.hogarcollection.com

Gallery Hours: Thursday - Monday 12:00 - 7:00pm and by appointment

Peter Fox (1998 Tyler MFA)

January 30 – March 1

Opening reception with the artist, Friday, January 30, 6-9 pm.

The Hogar Collection is pleased to announce Moving Target, the must see exhibition by Peter Fox. In his first solo show at the gallery, Fox will present new paintings that expand his obsessive, psychedelic and optical abstract drip series in new and exciting directions. Integrating imagery and text with his well-known controlled paint dripping techniques, the show consists of 6 paintings that borrow from both art history and popular culture. Included is a re-visitation of Chuck Close's seminal black and white “Big Self-Portrait”; a 7 x 14 ft. monumental version of Johannes Vermeer's "View of Delft"; a portrait of Sid Vicious; another from his lapel pin that declares, “I’m a mess”; a Jasper Johns-inspired "moving target” and a final painting that borrows its palette from every work included in the exhibition that aptly states and is titled, “Fug Tup”. With a clever and masterful sense of optically dense visual play, the new work investigates and probes a pointed and direct approach to understanding the architectural structuring of a visual language, which is at the foundation of the artist’s main curiosities. Incorporating straightforward notions of recognizable and already defined “superficial” subject matters with quirky and witty word play that broach the boundaries of philosophical semantics and phonetics, Peter Fox’s “liquid pointillist” paintings rise to an unprecedented height in current contemporary abstract painting.

Peter Fox was born in Philadelphia in 1962 and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received an MFA from Tyler School of Art and a Bachelor of Architecture from Temple University. His work has been widely exhibited in the United States and internationally at venues such as The Hunterdon Museum of Art, ISE Foundation, Roebling Hall, Pierogi, White Box, Postmasters, The Hogar Collection, Eyewash, Curator’ Office, Dust Gallery, Brenda Taylor Gallery, SUNY University Art Museum, and Magazzino d’Arte Moderna (Rome), among others.

*For more information or images contact the gallery.


Directions:
L Train to Bedford Ave, walk south on Bedford Ave to Grand St. Turn left on Grand St, walk 4 blocks, between Havemeyer and Marcy.

L
or G Train to Lorimer St, exit on Metropolitan, walk under BQE towards Manhattan, left on Marcy Ave, 2 blocks turn right on Grand at the corner of Marcy.

JMZ
to Marcy Ave, walk 5 blocks north on Marcy, turn left on Grand St.

By car from Manhattan
- Drive over the Williamsburg Bridge, 2nd immediate exit at South 5th St, left at light on Havemeyer, right on Grand Street, 4 blocks on right.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009


GOCCA is pleased to present: Mary Jo Bole , visiting artist lecture Friday Jan 30, 4pm in Tyler B004

Save a Museum

Hey guys,

I hope this will be of interest to some of you. Brandeis University announced on Monday their plans to close the Rose Art Museum and sell the collection of over 6000 works. The money will be used to shore up the university's ailing finances, according to a press release.

In it's 40 year history, the museum has become a leading exhibitor of contemporary art, and has been a place for challenging shows which would never have been possible at other larger public institutions. Indeed, many Tyler alums have shown at the museum and are part of its permanent collection. This past summer, Tyler professor Odili Odita curated a show and created site specific work for the museum, and Tyler alum Angela Dufresne is part of the current exhibition "Masters of Reality". The museum constantly loans out it's work to museums around the world, including exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The museum's collection is worth far more than the school needs to fix it's budget deficit, and closing the museum is a rash, and possibly illegal, move. It's a terrible blow to the contemporary art community at any rate.

You can read more at the New York Times article

You can also sign the petition here

Or send an e-mail to the president of the school, Jehuda Reinharz, at jreinhar@brandeis.edu, letting him know what a dumb idea this is.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Temple's Radio Station WRTI featured Tyler's new building on Jim Cotter's program "Creatively Speaking." Faculty Nick Kripal and John Clark are interviewed, along with grad student Jess Perlitz, Senior Associate Dean Brigitte Knowles and our starchitect Carlos Jiminez. The feature begins at 8 minutes 20 seconds into the program and lasts until 15 minutes 20 seconds.



8am is way too early for me, but there is coffee involved.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Dear friends and family,
If you happen to be up in the New York area between now and March I am showing an updated version of my thesis show at a place called Urban Glass. The building is worth seeing for it's own merit if you are interested in seeing the process of creating glass art.
All the best and I hope to see you there,

Daniel Ostrov

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Free art space downtown!

A call to artists and arts groups:

Better signs of life than for-rent signs. South Street developers Howard Lander and Steve Giannascoli are donating at least a half-dozen vacant storefronts to arts groups to use as gallery space and "creative incubators" - until the economy improves.

The plan, hatched by merchants Julia Zagar (Eyes Gallery) and Bill Curry (Copabanana), have groups paying utilities but no rent for two months, with a month-to-month renewal option, says Curry.
seeking volunteers by e-mail at copa321(at)mac.com

xo from Rome!

Friday, January 23, 2009

Changing Skyline: Temple's artless new building

The kind of places that make us feel good are those where the buildings follow a natural logic. In cities, we like our buildings to behave like soldiers on review. They're most appealing when they stand up straight and everyone in the row faces the same direction.

College architecture adheres to a different organizing principle. The modern university is the descendant of the cloister, and its structures traditionally revolve around a protected open space, an arrangement that serves to set the campus apart from the quotidian world. The college green, yard or what have you is the academic version of the town square. It's a refuge that lends itself to brainy pursuits and social exchanges, while giving a campus its symbolic heart.

As an urban school, Temple University has always had trouble choosing between the two. Sometimes, it acts like a city neighborhood that happens to be dominated by academic buildings. Other times, it makes halfhearted attempts to mimic the cloister. The result is a messy hybrid, a collection of autistic buildings incapable of communicating with one another.

Temple has obviously been handicapped by its history. It evolved in fits and starts from a commuter school with a clutch of buildings on North Broad Street to a sprawling residential college. By now, no one doubts that it is a 24-hour academic environment. Yet no matter how many high-scoring high school seniors choose Temple, the university keeps squandering opportunities to use architecture to give them a gracious campus.

The new Tyler School of Art at 12th and Norris Streets is the latest, most frustrating demonstration of Temple's cluelessness. The decision in 1997 to move the nationally renowned art school from its bucolic, but overcrowded, setting in Elkins Park to North Philadelphia offered a terrific opportunity to redress the weaknesses of the campus.

Simply on the basis of its importance to the Temple brand, Tyler deserved a primo spot and a top-notch building. The university managed to hire an unusually fine architect, Houston's Carlos Jiménez, who is known for designing buildings that convey an almost monastic sense of enclosure and purity.

Unfortunately, Jiménez's design, which was carried out with Philadelphia's H2L2, does little more than satisfy Tyler's basic needs. The $55 million building provides students with generous, light-filled and highly functional spaces. There are even several poetic moments that elevate the architecture above Temple's usual. But this enormous, sprawling building, whose exterior resembles a run-of-the-mill high school, fails to forge a desperately needed sense of place.

Much of this is due to Temple's failure to think more than one step ahead. Despite Tyler's importance to the university, Temple dumped what should have been a statement building at the far end of the campus universe, plopping it down seemingly at random, so that its main entrance looks out onto the dumpsters for the Biology-Life Sciences Building. Similarly, the residents of Yorktown are now stuck looking at the butt end of Tyler, since its sizable loading dock looms over their immaculate, middle-class enclave, an oasis in North Philadelphia.

Had university planners been less lazy, they could have arranged for Tyler to occupy the corner at 13th and Norris Streets, which fronts one of the main campus walks. It would have meant demolishing Presser Hall, part of the College of Music. But the functions of this small, undistinguished building could have easily been incorporated into Tyler.

Rotating the building would have enabled Jiménez to exploit the potential of this prime corner. The orientation would have given Tyler more prominence, avoided the insult to Yorktown, and made the entire block more coherent. That placement also could have been the first step in establishing a hierarchy of buildings, with Tyler at the forefront.

Instead, Jiménez was belatedly asked to remake Presser Hall's entrance. That light-absorbing brown box can't help looking like a wart against Tyler's pale tan bricks. Rather than engage the corner, the Presser ensemble presents another big blank wall to the campus.

Jiménez did give Tyler a welcoming, transparent main facade, threaded with strips of blue glass. The see-through wall shows off the lobby's bright walls, a rare instance of lighthearted design at Temple. But because of the absurd way the building was sited, this important facade locks its gaze on the Engineering and Architecture Building. Not the front, mind you, but the back wall.

The same incoherence is evident in the morbidly obese Alter Hall, the new building for Temple's Fox School of Business. Designed by Michael Graves & Associates, it comes off as a mausoleum for the egos of the nation's financial titans. It faces a row of once lovely Victorian townhouses that were embalmed a few years ago by the Vitetta firm as part of a graceless facadectomy.

In comparison, Tyler is a valiant attempt at quality architecture. Jiménez gives the art school's new home the rough feeling of a factory loft - although it might have benefited from being even rougher. His ruminating, finely wrought aesthetic may be unsuited for a building of this scale. Perhaps that's why the design is most successful in its parts, like the broad main corridor and soaring painting studios.

The corridor, which Jiménez likens to a street, is the building's most noble space. It is supposed to look out on a landscaped courtyard. It won't be a campus green exactly, but it could provide students with a place to loll in the sun and eat lunch. Right now, though, Temple is planning to seal it with a fence on 13th Street.

Perhaps the new planning consultants that Temple just hired, Philadelphia's Olin and MGA Partners, can persuade the university to keep the gracious courtyard open to the whole campus. It would at least be a start.


Contact architecture critic Inga Saffron at 215-854-2213 or isaffron@phillynews.

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Dear Friend of the Arts-


Quincy Jones has started a petition to ask President Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts. While many other countries have had Ministers of Art or Culture for centuries, the United States has never created such a position. We in the arts need this and the country needs the arts--now more than ever. Please take a moment to sign this important petition and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues.

http://www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html

Tuesday, January 20, 2009


Brand new school, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA.


Here it goes!

Monday, January 19, 2009


For Immediate Release:

"Japan and the West: Japanese and Japonist prints from the Permanent Collection of the La Salle University Art Museum" on view in the 20th Century Gallery Hallway, November 20, 2008 - February 20, 2009

Artists: Utagawa Kunisada * Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec * Toyohara Chikanobu * Mizuna Hidekata * Bertha Clausen Jaques * Akira Matsumoto * Kunisada II * Toyohara Kunichika * Félix Hilaire Buhot * Utagawa Kuniteru * Ogata Gekko * Mary Cassatt * Yoshimitsu Nomura * Ryohei Tanaka

A selection of prints by 19th and 20th century Japanese, French, and American artists from La Salle University Art Museum’s permanent collection demonstrate the influence of Japanese aesthetics on Western artists and the counter-influence of Western art and materials on Japanese prints.

Prints by Utagawa Kunisada (Kunisada I) (1786­­–1864), and Kunisada II (1823–1880)created with vegetable dyes are juxtaposed with later works by artists such as Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900), who employed aniline dyes imported from Europe. In the later 19th century, French artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) and Félix Hilaire Buhot (1847–1898) reinterpreted compositional strategies from Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts into their lithographs and etchings while Japanese artists like Kunichika and Toyohara Chikanobu (1838–1912) experimented with Western perspective and modeling. In the late 19th century, Western artists used Japanese ukiyo-e formal devices to move Modern Art in the direction of flatness and abstraction; in the 20th century, Modernist Japanese artists, such as Akira Matsumoto (1936), incorporated the originally Japanese-inspired flatness and abstraction of Western Modernism into their work bringing this trend back full circle.

The La Salle University Art Museum is located on the lower level of Olney Hall on the campus of La Salle University at 19th St. and Olney Ave. Hours are 10 AM to 4 PM, Monday through Friday and 2 to 4 PM on most Sundays during the University’s Fall and Spring semesters. Admission is free, though donations are accepted. Classes and group visits by appointment. Special tours can be arranged. For further information call 215-951-1221 or visit our website at http://www.lasalle.edu/museum.

Friday, January 16, 2009

This is the work that Sarah Muehlbauer made as part of the The Philadelphia Experiment Workshop:



Under the methodologies of Land Arts of the American West, we were asked to consider the way in which we travel through space, not merely our destination. As I explored the site of the Ben Franklin Bridge, I was struck by the concentration of motion it facilitates and began to ponder the impossibility of stillness within the territory of the bridge. As I traversed the pedestrian walkway, waves of vibration engulfed the bridge and flooded my body.

The physical impact of locomotion.

Trembling seems to symbolize a larger scope of impact that transportation development has on the earth. It extends a physical trace of that exchange between the built environment and the individual, beckoning awareness.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

2009-2010
Wind Challenge Exhibitions at Fleisher: Call for Entries

Deadline for entries: 5:00 p.m. on March 2, 2009

The Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial announces the call for entries for next season's Wind Challenge Exhibitions. This juried, regional competition, presented by the Fleisher Art Memorial has gained a national reputation for excellence since its establishment in 1978. Each season, Fleisher exhibits the work of selected artists in three three-person exhibitions.

(current students not eligible, next year!)
Performing Land Arts: The Philadelphia Experiment Opening
Friday, January 16, 6 - 8pm
Temple Gallery, 259 N. Third Street, Philadelphia
Please join Field Reports organizer Chris Taylor and Kate Wingert-Playdon, a professor of architecture, Tyler School of Art, in celebrating a special charratte created by university students over the course of an intensive workshop this January. Participants examined Philadelphia as a landscape and interpretive site, and will exhibit site-specific installations and proposals that put the working methods of Land Arts of the American West into action in Philadelphia.

Participants:
Gretchen Batcheller, Temple University, Fine Arts
Andrea Marie DeVico, Temple University, Architecture
Marisa A. Lopez, Temple University, Architecture
Sarah Muehlbauer, Temple University, Fine Arts
Jess Perlitz,
Temple University, Fine Arts
Jenna Price,
Temple University, Fine Arts
Nicole Rinier,
Temple University, Fine Arts
David Rueter, Oberlin College, Politics
Marcello Lopes Schiffino,
Temple University, Architecture
Kristina Simcic, Temple University, Architecture
Kaitlin Westphal McDonald, Temple University, Architecture
Xiao D. Zhang, Temple University, Architecture


For more information, visit www.temple.edu/tyler/exhibitions or email exhibitions@temple.edu

Tuesday, January 13, 2009



Vox Populi is currently accepting proposals for guest solo exhibitions for the 2009-2010 exhibition season. Deadline for receipt of submissions is January 30, 2009.

Vox is particularly interested in offering exhibitions to artists who work in experimental materials and or employ alternative methodologies, whose work is less likely to be shown in a commercial setting. Offers will be made only to artists living outside of the Philadelphia area, for one or two month long exhibitions.

Vox offers the visiting artist important support in terms of visibility and marketing, and the exhibition is accompanied by a modest honorarium. Proposals will be reviewed by the artist-membership of Vox Populi and notifications will be made in spring 2009.

Applications must include the following:
A selection of10-20 jpegs (1024x768 pixels) or DVD cued to selection (up to 5 pieces, each no longer than 2 minutes)
Corresponding numbered checklist of works; including title, date, materials and dimensions
Current resume
Artist statement and/or proposal (optional, but encouraged)

Emailed submissions will not be reviewed. Please only submit requested materials as submissions will not be returned.

Submit materials to:
Vox Populi
Guest Artist Exhibition
319 North 11th Street
3rd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Gallery in VA

2008 Open Exhibition Winner, Travis Graves

2009 Open Exhibition Call for Proposals
Show Dates: October 28-November 29
Artist's Reception & Gallery Talk: November 12, 6-8pm; Gallery talk at 7pm
Deadline for Entries: February 2, 2009
Entry Fee: $40

Chosen artist will recieve a $500 stipend and a small catalog to accompany the exhibit.

This is an annual exhibition opportunity for an artist to have a solo exhibition in the gallery.
This is an Open Call for proposals for an exhibition in the fall of 2009. This call is open to all artists from North America working in all visual media. Proposals for exhibitions by both individuals and groups will be considered. The individual or group associated with the chosen proposal will receive a solo exhibition at the Target Gallery from October 28 - November 29, 2009.

Juror Panel: Paul So Founder, Hamiltonian Artists, and painter; Philippa Hughes, founder Pink Line Project and art collector, Lia Newman Director of Exhibitions and Programs Artspace in Raleigh, NC and sculptor.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Rebekah Templeton
c o n t e m p o r a r y a r t

173 W. Girard Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19123
267-519-3884


Up All Night
by Dan Schank

Wake Up Late (Detail), 2007, mixed media

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 8th, 6 - 9 pm
January 8th - February 28th


Rebekah Templeton Contemporary Art is proud to present Up All Night, an exhibition of mixed media paintings by Dan Schank.

Schank's latest paintings use a delicate balance of cut paper and gouache to create enticing and intricate landscapes. Bright colors and playful patterns illuminate a sumptuously inviting post-apocalyptic world. Up All Night references a coy sense of rebellion and humor, as well as the situation under which many of the works were created. Devoid of humans, the tattered, flaccid remainders of personal domestic life populate Schank's landscapes. In this world, clothes are found in piles or hung from trees, ties blow in a strong breeze from the branch of a tree, and simple building foundations stand without purpose. These dire conditions are brought to light with fondness and a boyish wonder.

Dan Schank earned his BFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and his MFA from the University of California at San Diego. He lives and works in Philadelphia and is currently teaching at The University of the Arts.

Up All Night opens on Thursday, January 8 with a private view with the artist from 6 to 9 pm. The exhibition features mixed media paintings created with a combination of gouache and cut paper on board. The exhibition closes on Saturday, February 28, 2008.

Please check out our recent feature in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The article can be found here.


For further information or images of the work please visit us on the web at www.rebekahtempleton.com or email us at info@rebekahtempleton.com.

Thursday, January 1, 2009