Corrections or additions?
This article by Pat Summers was prepared for the October 3, 2001
edition
of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Phillips’ Mill
People-watching threatened to upstage art viewing as
the Phillips’ Mill annual fall exhibition got underway this year.
For sheer fascination, the Friday, September 21, opening reception
could not be beat. Artists who had submitted work for inclusion,
whether
accepted or not, attended, and their mixed-medium messages rivaled
the eyeful provided by the show.
With 290 works accepted from a total of 606 entries by 374 artists,
the show comprises wall pieces and sculpture. Of that number, about
90 are installed and the remaining 200 presented unframed in bins.
This 72nd Phillips’ Mill edition may offer something for everyone,
though there’s much more for those who prefer traditional figurative
art to abstract art or more contemporary work. Cutting-edge it is
not, by design and execution.
For both the selection process and the show’s 30-plus awards, the
program identifies five jurors: three in painting and graphics; two
in sculpture. Jurors for painting and graphics are Gary Erbe, Michael
Kuncevich, and Rita Smith; for sculpture, Joseph Winter and Isaac
Witkin. While committee members are specified by activity, and close
to 150 patrons are listed, names of participating artists appear under
the cryptic titles "framed," "sculpture," and
"portfolio,"
with (for the first two categories only) titles and prices of their
works — information on medium is, unfortunately, not included.
Some well-regarded area artists could be considered weathervanes or
wind socks as far as this annual show is concerned: if their work
is accepted, that means the jurors have contemporary inclinations;
if not, well, that’s how it goes at Phillips’ Mill. And, knowing all
this, some artists don’t bother entering.
The mill is awash with art installed on three levels, or four if you
count — as you must — the stairs, where two pieces are hung
to good effect: Idaherma Williams’ colorful woodblock print,
"Window
with Aloe Plant," and Ty Hodanish’s "Yarrow on Ice," a
luscious impressionistic snow scene. Just inside the main entrance
is one of the show’s many professionally-executed watercolors. Charles
R. Ross’s "The Hunter," is an archetype of the watercolor
landscape genre, an evening scene depicting a flying predator
camouflaged
against a darkening sky. The comment made by one non-figurative artist
about many works in this show — "They’re all rendered so
well"
— surely applies here.
Known to this viewer for a string of atmospheric night
scenes featuring street and vehicle lights, Valerie Von Betzen has
included both these in "Swing Shift," and thrown in a fillip
of neon, too. Joanne Augustine’s selected entry to this show will
also be familiar to area art watchers. Her "Summer
Remembrance"
is one of her series of carefully observed watercolor studies of dead
or dying sunflowers in all their strange and nearly-spent beauty.
And Mary Blakey, who seems always to represent unusual subjects and
surfaces with watercolor, comes through again with "Misty
Moon."
Tom Chesar, who often works in egg tempera, used gouache to produce
"Curtis Island Light," a marvelously textured scene with rocky
surfaces and blades of grass finely articulated. John Gretzer’s
"Pumpkin
Field," in pastel, is soft where a field should be soft —
in hue, in overall feel. And Edith Skiba’s "Untitled
Landscape"
is refreshingly minimalist, suggesting Asian traditions with its
fragile
strokes of gray and beige.
It might be a good idea for the woman in Sandra Flood’s oil portrait,
"Just Another Day," to talk with "Kate," the subject
of Simon Mauer’s painting, also in oil, for somehow they seem like
kindred, if not particularly happy, spirits. Joan Kopchik’s
"Ginko,"
a lovely wall piece in handmade paper, copper, and wood, is just about
as abstract as you’ll find in this year’s Phillips’ Mill show.
Kathleen
W. Pearson’s non-objective "Long Distance Correspondence"
communes with "Ginko" from across the room, while keeping
close company with Vincent Ceglia’s rolling autumnal layers of
"Hilltown,
Tuscany."
The exhibition’s 22 sculptures include Michael Cooper’s enigmatic
"Better Days Ahead," showing a misshapen hot-water bottle
laced to a bed of heavy needles. Are the needles being comforted,
or does the combination suggest medical contra-indication? "Con
Brio" is a small work that’s a big surprise from papermaker and
painter Anita Benarde, and Raymond Mathis’s forged steel "Process
IV" seems to be a sampler of textures and thicknesses.
And now to the opening party. The Phillips’ Mill affair was not exempt
from the behavior pattern increasingly seen elsewhere. It’s called
piggery, and it looks like this: guest stands at food table stuffing
cheese and crackers and/or fruit into mouth. That’s bad enough. Even
worse is guests staying there and repeating those steps. First, it’s
ugly to watch; second, it’s impossible to get a snack. The waiters
serving snacks on trays never got very far; they were (barely) moving
(and often mobbed) targets. Don’t people eat at home anymore?
Watching the piggery was one sport at Phillips’ Mill. From the sound
of it, backbiting was a related event. Air kiss-greetings followed
by muttered "SOB," or equivalent, were common. So were hardly
sotto-voice evaluative comments about works on display. If whispers
could kill.
Possibly funniest, and most personally humbling, of all was this
sequence:
An artist’s partner, gaily responding to a woman who had greeted him.
Happy exchanges, smiling name-dropping. Then, the same "hail
fellow"
repeatedly muttering "Help me!" to another man he seemed to
know. "Quick, who was that woman?" he said urgently. It was
the wife of the man he had asked. He’ll never forget what’s their
name.
— Pat Summers
Road, New Hope, 215-862-0582. Gallery hours are Sunday to Friday,
1 to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 1 to 8 p.m. Admission $3 adults; $2 seniors;
$1 students. Show continues to October 28.
Top Of Page
Art in Town
Street, 609-924-8777. "Home," a theme show juried by architect
and designer Barry Richards of the Rockwell Group, New York. On view
weekdays, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. To October 19.
609-497-7330.
Solo show of new paintings by Belarussian-born artist Igo Tishin,
his first U.S. exhibit. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 10:30
a.m. to 5:30 p.m. To October 14.
609-497-4192.
Paintings by Calvin Cobb Hart. Born into a family of recognized
painters,
Hart studied art at Boise State University and California College
of Arts and Crafts. Part of sales benefit the Medical Center. On view
in the dining room daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. To November 21.
"Modernism, Mr. Magoo, and More," featuring new and other
works by master animator, artist, and filmmaker Jules Engel. The
Hungarian-born
artist, who began his career at Walt Disney Studios, and was part
of the team that created 1950s cartoon favorites that include Mr.
Magoo, also created lithographs at the Tamarind Workshop and Tyler
Graphics. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
and by appointment. To October 20.
Top Of Page
Art in the Workplace
Lawrenceville,
609-252-6275. "Up the River," an exhibition of works by Bucks
County Impressionists and Modernists, members of the New Hope and
Bucks County art colony now regarded as national treasures. Catalog
by Brian Peterson, art historian and senior curator at the Michener
Museum in Doylestown. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to
5 p.m.; and weekends and holidays, 1 to 5 p.m. To November 25.
More than 40 artists are represented including works by impressionists
Edward Redfield, Daniel Garber, Walter Schofield, and modernists
Charles
Ramsey, Louis Stone, Charles Evans, and Lloyd Ney.
609-921-9000. In the Brodsky Gallery of the Chauncey Conference
Center,
High School Student Advanced Placement studio art show, featuring
works by gifted students from 15 states, chosen from 15,000
portfolios.
Exhibit is open daily, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., to October 15.
Lawrenceville,
609-895-7386. Works by two photographers: Paul Kallich, showing his
Ellis Island Series, and Leo Ward. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday,
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. To October 12.
Top Of Page
Area Museums
New Brunswick, 732-846-5777. "A People Cried Out: The 1956
Revolution
and Fight for Freedom in Hungary," an exhibit with photographs
from the Budapest Museum of Military History, curated by Karoly Nagy
Middlesex County College, commemorating the 45th anniversary of the
Hungarian Revolution. Museum hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m.
to 4 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. Show runs through November 4.
Donation
$5.
908-735-8415. "Compelled," a multidisciplinary exhibition
of sculpture, painting, fiber, and ceramics by artists including
Chakaia
Booker, Ruth Borgenicht, Giovanna Cecchetti, Paul Edlin, Jacob El
Hanani, Jane Fine, Gary Gissler, and Seong Chun. Museum hours are
Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. To November 4.
215-340-9800. "Artists of the Commonwealth: Realism in
Pennsylvania
Painting, 1950 to 2000," an exhibition featuring the work of
nationally
recognized realist artists and educators who were born and trained
in Pennsylvania, or who spent their professional careers there.
Featured
artists include Diane Burko, Sidney Goodman, Alice Neel, Philip
Pearlstein,
Nelson Shanks, Andy Warhol, Neil Welliver, and Andrew Wyeth.
& Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Wednesday evenings to 9 p.m. To
January
6. $6.
Branch Station, 908-725-2110. "Small Impressions," a national
juried exhibition featuring printmaking, photography, and alternative
media selected by printmaker Zarina Hashmi. Reception is Saturday,
October 6, 2 to 4 p.m., for the show that runs to October 27. Open
Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m.
Brunswick, 732-932-7237. Exhibitions include: "Peeling Potatoes,
Painting Pictures: Women Artists from the Dodge Collection," to
November 4. "From Whistler to Warhol: A Century of American
Printmaking,"
to November 25. "Robert Motherwell: Abstraction as Emphasis,"
to December 9. "Boxed In: Plane, Frame, Surface," to December
2. "Mother Goose’s Children: Original Illustrations for Children’s
Books from the Rutgers Collection," to December 9.
Museum hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.;
Saturday
and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Admission $3 adults; under 18 free; museum
is open free to the public on the first Sunday of every month.
Spotlight
tours every Sunday at 2 and 3 p.m.
Top Of Page
Art by the River
908-996-9992.
"Sweet Summer," a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Lisa
Mahan. Seaside towns, beach houses, figures, and still lifes are among
the subjests of Mahan’s oils that reflect the moods of the seasons
through color and light. Gallery is open Thursday to Sunday, 11 a.m.
to 5 p.m. To October 15.
609-397-0804.
Fall show featuring Mike Filipiak, John Loeper, and Harriet
Ermentrout.
Open Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. To November 11.
Top Of Page
Art In Trenton
exhibit features Sarah Grove Antin, Helen Bayley, Lisa Fuellemann,
Charles Viera, M.A. Zullinger and others. Gallery hours are Monday
through Thursday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday 1 to 4 p.m. To October
22.
609-989-3632.
The 32nd annual show of the Garden State Watercolor Society juried
by Bruce Currie and Joanne M. Kuebler. Tuesday through Saturday, 11
a.m. to 3 p.m.; Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. To November 4.
609-890-7777.
Recent works by Gyuri Hollosy. In his latest series, "Never At
Rest," Hollosy turns his attention to the kinetic rhythm and
energy
of abstract figures in space. Recalling the Baroque sculptures of
Bernini, Hollosy unpacks the subtle, expressive gesture to show how
figures move — through water, air, across the ground —
yielding
to gravity or emotion. Gallery hours are Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m. To October 5.
609-586-0616. Fall/Winter Exhibition to February 24. Open Tuesday
through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., year round; Sunday is Members Day.
Adult admission is $4 Tuesday through Thursday; $7 Friday and
Saturday;
and $10 Sunday. Annual memberships start at $45.
609-292-6464. "American Indians as Artists: The Beginnings of
the State Museum’s Ethnographic Collection," October 6 to
September
15. "The Garden State: A History of Farming in New Jersey,"
to October 7. "The Farming Landscape," to November 11,
"Natural
Selections: Sculpture by Elaine Lorenz," to December 30. "Art
by African-Americans: A Selection from the Collection," to August
18, 2002. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:45
p.m.; Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Website: www.njstatemuseum.org.
Area Galleries
609-466-0817.
Show by nine artists of The Art Group, formed in 1992. Members are
J.N. Betz, Judith Koppel, Nadine Berkowsky, Liz Adams, Seow-Chu See,
Helen Post, Stephanie Mandelbaum, Edith Kogan, Gloria Weirnik, and
Edith Hodge Pletzner. Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday,
9 a.m. to 3 p.m. To November 10.
Road, 609-921-3272. In the main gallery: a solo show featuring
paintings
by Gail Bracegirdle, member of the Philadelphia Watercolor Society,
to October 30. Upstairs: "Perceptions IV," with colorful,
water-based works by Connie Gray and new travel paintings by Diana
Patton, to October 14. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m.to
3 p.m.; Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m.
609-333-9393.
Michael McGinley’s exhibit of recent paintings that explores issues
of faith and spirituality in contemporary industrial society. Open
Wednesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. To
October 13.
609-490-7550. Annual faculty exhibit featuring recent works by Tim
Trelease, Catherine Robohm Watkins, Joan Krejcar Sharma, and Michael
Maxwell. The gallery is open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. To
October 12.
609-896-5168. "Moments of Seeing" featuring the black and
white ink paintings and drawings of artist and medical doctor
Frederick
Franck. Now age 92, Franck’s subjects have included Albert Schweitzer,
Pope John XXIII, and Japanese Buddhist sage Daisetz Tsuzuki. Gallery
hours are Monday to Thursday, 2 to 8 p.m.; Friday to Sunday, 2 to
5 p.m. To October 28.
Pennington,
609-737-7592. "Sense of Place," an exhibition featuring the
fine art and illustrative photography of Phil Moylan, Andy Chen, Marc
Stempel, and George Vogel. To November 10.
Top Of Page
Campus Arts
Photographs Look Like," the annual teaching show for Art History
248, featuring recent and historic gems from the permanent collection.
Daguerreotypes dating back to photography’s inception in 1839,
ambrotypes,
tintypes, stereographs, and cartes-de-visites are featured, together
with cutting-edge contemporary works in Cibachrome, Polaroid and
digital
formats. To November 11.
Also "Seeing Double: Copies and Copying in the Arts of China,"
an exhibition of Chinese art, to November 4. On extended view in the
Bowen Gallery, Richard Serra’s "Weight and Measure" etchings.
The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday
1 to 5 p.m. Free tours of the collection are every Saturday at 2 p.m.
"The Light of Ancient Athens: A Photographic Journey by Felix
Bonfils, 1868-1887," an historic series of 42 large-format
photographs
taken in Beirut by the 19th-century French photographer. More than
800 Bonfils photographs were donated to Princeton in 1921 by Rudolf
Ernst Brunnow, professor of Semitic philology. Open weekdays 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m.; Wednesday evenings to 8 p.m.; and weekends, noon to 5 p.m.
To October 7.
University,
609-258-3197. "For the Love of Books and Prints: Elmer Adler and
the Graphic Arts Collection at Princeton University Library,"
celebrating the 1940 founding of a unique collection. Gallery is open
Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; weekends noon to 5 p.m.
To October 7.
Library Place, 609-497-7990. "Spirit States," an exhibition
of paintings by Ben Frank Moss. The artist, who studied at Princeton
Theological Seminary, has an MFA from Boston University and is a
professor
of studio art at Dartmouth College. Open Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m.
to 9:30 p.m.; Saturday to 4:30 p.m.; Sunday 2 to 9:30 p.m. To October
18.
Corrections or additions?
This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com
— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
Facebook Comments