HIGHLIGHTS
This August in Philly, there are some unexpected gems in what is a typically quieter art season. If you want to experience artwork that recasts the familiar in fantastical ways, spend time at Paradigm Gallery + Studio in Old City with Megan Rea’s reimaginings of Italian frescos. North of the city, at the Woodmere Art Museum, the 82nd Annual Juried Exhibition showcases exceptional Philadelphia artists meditating on what it means to “belong.” Finally, the Institute of Contemporary Art in University City presents an emotionally intense video and photography installation by Polish artist Joanna Piotrowska.
Nightshades at Paradigm Gallery + Studio, @paradigmgs
On view through: September 1st, 2024
Curated by: Anaïs Cooper-Hackman
Featuring: Megan Rea
Layering and scraping oil paint over her own handcrafted paper, Megan Rea invites us into fantastical worlds through surfaces that resemble ancient stone or plaster. Meandering irregular edges add to the illusion that these paintings might be preserved artifacts from an eroding ancient wall. Inspired by 13-15th century Italian frescos, Rea’s imagery isolates often-overlooked background architectural elements in medieval artworks, bringing them to the foreground as the subject of the painting. Rea’s compositions are both selective and restrained. She uses repetition and symmetry to draw attention to fountains dripping with Renaissance metaphors about eternal life alongside imagery inspired by Italian Saints, reimagining them with otherworldly details.
There is an act of discovery when viewing her work, a sense of unearthing something both familiar and utterly strange. Otherwise, inanimate structures take on a lifelike quality through subtle allusions to the human form. Fountains with soft curves float like river sprites in a thick atmosphere of vibrant colors. Lush water splashes down anthropomorphized fountains, and fish rise forth from similarly-themed fountains like characters in a mythic fairytale, blurring the line between what is alive and what is stone.
The Woodmere Annual: 82nd Juried Exhibition at the Woodmere Art Museum, @woodmereart
On view through: September 1st, 2024
Juried by: Joanne Grüne-Yanoff
Featuring: Robert Beck, Belinda Haikes, Heather Marie Scholl, Flo Berardinucci, Terrell Halsey, Scott Smith, Matthew Borgen, Marilyn Holsing, Kathleen Studebaker, Frank Burd, Kindred Art Collaborative, Susie Suh, Nick Cassway, Cherie Lee, Mat Tomezsko, Veronica Cianfrano, Gail Lloyd, Jason Varney, John Costanza, Rochelle Longwill, Hanna Vogel, Kate Crankshaw, Barbara Martin, Lisa Volta, Destiny Crockett, Constance McBride, Peggy Washburn, James Dupree, Pat McLean-Smith, David Washington, Kathleen Eastwood-Riaño, Marge Miccio, Julia Way and Victoria Davis, Mikel Elam, Nicole Michaud, Elizabeth Whatley, Jessica Eldredge, Henry Morales, Meg Wolensky, Patricia Goodrich, Ginny Perry, Irene Yoon, Jody Graff, Peter Quarracino, Nasir Young, Gary Grissom, and Susan Ragland
Joanne Grüne-Yanoff’s artistic practice goes hand in hand with workshops she creates to explore themes of community and identity. As the juror for The Woodmere Annual 82nd Juried Exhibition, she prompts reflection on these ideas by asking artists to respond to the question, “What is belonging?” Tying the exhibition together are poems and Grüne-Yanoff’s large hanging installation, Community Is a Safety Net Is a Trampoline.
The exhibition is a kaleidoscope of emotions, experiences, and perspectives, rendered in a rich tapestry of photographs, drawings, paintings, collages, sculptures, video, and mixed media. Throughout the exhibition, the warmth and security of community are portrayed through poignant depictions of families and friends: loving embraces, shared games, and communal meals. Many artists draw inspiration from their homes, cultural identities, or the natural world to express their sense of belonging. Others employ symbolism and poetic language to convey more abstract notions of connection.
Unsurprisingly, given our times of social isolation, economic displacement, and political upheaval, the exhibition also confronts the darker side of belonging. Images of solitude, alienation, and the fragility of human connection haunt the gallery spaces. This show asks each viewer to confront their own vulnerabilities and reflect on the responsibility each of us shares in contributing to collective care.
Joanna Piotrowska: unseeing eyes, restless bodies at the Institute of Contemporary Art, @icaphiladelphia
On view through: December 1st, 2024
Curator: Hallie Ringle
Featuring: Joanna Piotrowska
Joanna Piotrowska creates an uncanny environment to display her film, photography, and collages at the ICA. The walls are bare and white in traditional gallery fashion, but the geometry is more complicated: rooms are nested within rooms, calling to mind the interior of a home. Plush muted-pink carpeting muffles the sounds of visitors and creates an absence of the usual echo of large gallery spaces—an audible experience so familiar that you don’t notice it until it’s gone. Meanwhile, a voice creeps in from the far gallery, speaking of intimacy and submission, of touch and the senses. The audio comes from a textural black-and-white film of a lamb being handled by caretakers in many ways, from loving and thoughtful to unsafe and uncaring. This video piece is uncomfortable yet compelling, and it viscerally drives home that one cannot touch without being touched in return.
This exhibit demands time for its mysteriousness to unfold. Where and when were these photographs taken? Was it the 1970s or yesterday? Why are serious-faced adults hiding in blanket forts but with no children around? Is that person being assaulted or caressed? An ambiguity of interpretation underlies every aspect of this show. By combining, manipulating, and cropping images, Piotrowska creates a sense of unease and invites multiple interpretations. The show is like a manifesto, an essay on intimacy reflecting on the complexity of touch, vulnerability, and power dynamics.
About the writer: Claire Haik is an artist and educator living in Philadelphia. Her work focuses on natural imagery and examines the hidden processes beneath the visual exterior of nature. You can see her work and learn more about her here.