FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 21, 2003
URBAN – Mixed Media Group Exhibition
Allen BENTLEY, Mark BROSSEAU, Dana HARGROVE, Clark GIBSON
Robert GODFREY, Rebecca RUTSTEIN, Corey J. WILLIS
Philadelphia, PA - The Bridgette Mayer Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition featuring seven artists working in various media. “Urban” will run from December 10 – January 24, 2004 with an opening reception Friday, December 12th from 6:00-8:30 p.m.
What is Urban? “Urban” refers either directly to city landscape, architecture or mapping or the captured energy and motion of contemporary culture. Whether directly- as in the feeling of Allen Bentley’s dancing couples or indirectly as in the case of Corey Willis’s photographs of fish trapped in ice blocks.
Allen Bentley, who is known for his paintings capturing dancing couples usually from a bird’s eye view, will present new large charcoal drawings. The large 48 x 60” drawings have an almost photographic quality. Complex compositions of figures relating to one another and the space around themselves are central in the work as well as an inherent drawing energy. Bentley enjoys drawing his subjects in his studio and the small moments of physical communication that happen between people that translate into larger psychological stories on paper or the canvas.
Philadelphia artist Mark Brosseau will be showing new acrylic on paper works as well as a C-Print. Geometry, space and color are important aspects of the work and the artist states, “My desire is to create spaces that are experiential as opposed to pictorial. The experiences that the spaces are created from can be emotional, conditional, or phenomenological. My hope is that if the viewer visually feels his or her way through the created space, all of his or her senses will become engaged.”
New to Philadelphia, Scottish artist Dana Hargrove will be showing new works from her “Hub” series. Hargrove is interested in travel and communication and how people define their sense of place. The idea of dislocation is a reoccurring theme within Hargrove’s work and she illustrates this in densely layered acrylic paintings. Elegant and layered lines appear to delineate what one would see on an air traffic control screen, mapping out space and destination.
Also new to Philadelphia, New York painter Clark Gibson paints brightly layered oil and graphite on wood pieces showing slices of urban architecture. In Gibson’s paintings, geometry and ordering are mixed within horizontal formats. The works evoke aerial views of city grids and complex building structures.
North Carolina artist Robert Godfrey will show new acrylic on canvas paintings from his “Dream Date” series. Godfrey’s work is most often about love and fire and couples are usually before a landscape, hover above a landscape or are featured in some otherworldly type of place. Godfrey’s narratives are often surreal and raw with emotion and expression.
Philadelphia painter Rebecca Rutstein will be showing several 24” acrylic on canvas paintings created during a recent residency in Banff, Canada. Inspired by the geology of the Banff region, Rutstein’s paintings feature diagrams, mapping and iconography of natural phenomenon. Saturated colors and complex compositions are central in the works.
Philadelphia artist Corey J. Willis will also be showing new works inspired by a recent residency in Skowhegan, Maine. Willis’s newest Lambda prints are from a “small pets” series and feature fish frozen in ice blocks. The most striking feature of the prints is the contrast between the stark black, white and blue frozen ice combined with the obvious personality feature of each of his fish subjects.
“Urban” will run through January 24, 2004. The artist’s will be present at the opening reception Friday, December 12th from 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. Gallery hours are Wednesday – Saturday 11–5:30, other days by appointment. For additional information please contact Bridgette Mayer, 215.413.8893 Fax 215.413.2283
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