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The Mezzanine Gallery: Summer-Fall Exhibitions
Material Culture presents: Friends An Exhibition Featuring Works by Jim Bloom, Vladan Gradistanac, Mr. Imagination, Maryann Matlock Hinkle, and Prince Twins Seven Seven July 1-Aug 30, 2013 Jim Bloom (1968- ) Jim was recently the subject of an essay titled “Stories of Wit and Irony” by Ron Schira in Raw Vision Magazine (Spring/Summer 2012 RV 75, p. 44-47). Jim was born in Allentown but has spent most of his adult life in Philadelphia. From childhood on, Bloom has been making visual art that is directly related to his own experiences, as well as his interests in film, story-telling, and the visual languages of his culture. Using collage drawing and painting, Bloom conjures an immediacy of action, story and relationship. We are excited to have recently acquired over one-thousand works by Jim Bloom. Strangers are Strange, an exhibition of works by Jim Bloom will run September 21- October 27, 2013. An exhibition catalogue will be available for sale. Vladan Gradistanac (1970- ) Vladan holds a BFA from the University of Fine Arts in Belgrade, Serbia where he taught art history and painting. A painter and photographer, his work has been exhibited in both the United States and Europe. While living [...]
Obama Folk-Art Exhibit Featured in ICON Magazine
The article below is featured in the Philly arts magazine ICON this month (November). It was reprinted with permission from ICON Magazine. You can review the entire issue, and past issues, at iconmagazineonline.com West African sign painters portray America’s first African-American president as pitchman-wingman By Geoff Gehman In 2009 a West African artist with one name made Barack Obama his lobbyist. Sheff painted portraits of Obama to advertise his sign-painting store in Accra, Ghana. Then he placed the pictures outside his ramshackle shop, hoping that customers would be more inclined to employ a sign painter endorsed by likenesses of America’s first African-American president. Lehigh University Obama Folk Art Exhibit That July an American entrepreneur-ethnographer named George Jevremovic stopped by Sheff’s shop. He was hunting for Obama images for his collection of West African signs where caricatures of celebrities--Martin Luther King Jr., Michael Jackson-- promote businesses--barber shops, cell-phone stores—they have no business promoting. Jevremovic was seduced by Sheff’s unfinished picture of Obama. The collector thought the likeness seemed regal even without a mouth, a politician’s favorite asset. To him, the painting had the vitality and nobility of Gilbert Stuart’s famous unfinished portrait of George Washington, a model for [...]
Dalai Lama at the Kimmel Center
July 16th, 2008