by Miguel Antonio Horn

January 16 – March 1, 2024

EVENTS:
Wednesday, February 7th

Artist Talk
10:00 – 11:00 am
Room 136 Woodland

Exhibition Reception
11:15 am – 12:00 pm
Art Gallery

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:

Transfigurations is the latest in a collection of artworks spanning over a decade that reflects on the artist’s relationship with his father. It presents the artist’s foray into time-based media in the context of the entire series, which includes monumental and small scale sculpture, and printmaking. The works contemplate the changing nature of  memory, grief, and the natural progression of life cycles through this experience between father and son stemming from a portrait sculpted by the artist of his father. Mirroring this relationship, the artworks bear the visible toll of tragedy and loss and the attempts to rebuild. Each iteration presents a unique stage of this evolution, which here can be appreciated in its entirety. The exhibition extends beyond the gallery walls to the stone amphitheater on campus grounds, where the remains of a storm ravaged sculpture is installed.

Abu, on view in the outdoor amphitheater, is an 8’ tall acrylic sculpture created in 2019. Commissioned by Philadelphia Sculptors Abu was part of the Flow exhibit at the Philadelphia Seaport Museum’s boat marina. It lived in the Delaware river for weeks as part of the temporary exhibit until a storm tore it from its moorings and broke into pieces. This exhibit presents the work in its restored, yet damaged state for the first time since its destruction. In the wake of that event, and just at the onset of the pandemic in 2020, Horn created Growth Rings as a National Endowment for the Arts artist-in-residence at the Brandywine Workshop and Archives. The residency paired Horn with master printer Alexis Nutini of Dos Tres Press to create a varying edition reduction print series based off Horn’s topographical construction methods. Transfigurations builds further on this collaborative practice, working with Chris Landau of LANDAU Design+Technology to combine the imagery from this print series into animated sequences that unfurl the nuances of the prints into evolving projections of form and color.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Miguel Antonio Horn is a visual artist from Philadelphia with Colombian and Venezuelan roots. He received a certificate in sculpture in 2006 from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He creates large-format sculptures using digital and analog processes in a variety of media. His artworks engage public spaces with temporary and permanent installations that address power dynamics, conflict, loss, marginalization and deterioration. He founded El Cubo in the Parkside neighborhood of Philadelphia in 2019 as a space for experimental projects and programming. He is the father of two young children who he raises with his wife and community in South Philadelphia.

For more on Miguel Antonio Horn’s work, please visit https://www.miguelhorn.art/

A Bunch of Monsters
by Orest Luzeckyj
2023 Recipient of the Thomas R. and Eileen Walton Smith Award for Achievement in the Arts and Humanities

September 5, 2023 – March 1, 2024

Woodland Lobby and Lares Intersection

Reception:
Wednesday, September 13th
Woodland Lobby
4:30 – 5:30pm

This exhibition showcases printmaking work by current student Orest Luzeckyj. Orest is the 2023 recipient of the Thomas R. and Eileen Walton Smith Award for Achievement in the Arts and Humanities and much of the work in this exhibition is made possible by the financial support from this award.  Orest’s work explores printmaking processes including woodblock and monoprint. Comprising 66 woodblocks in total, this exhibition showcases a world of exploration of the printmaking process through the imagery of monsters created by Orest to investigate representations of his own inner world.

Please visit the link below to read about Orest’s work with Professor Bonnie Levinthal. Story by Regina Broscius.
https://www.abington.psu.edu/story/46716/2023/02/27/abington-student-trades-improv-drawing-printmakings-discipline

Follow Orest on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/orestluzeckyj/

transmedia + collaboration with the University of Dundee

November 1 – December 1, 2023

Reception
Monday, November 13th
2:00 – 3:00pm

This showcase features sequential artworks created at Penn State Abington and the University of Dundee in Scotland. These schools collaborate on a broadly defined exploration of transmedia storytelling, which grew out of work each had done independently on this topic in the time prior to the start of their partnership in 2018.

The exhibition centers on Steampunk Carnival, the creative output from a collaboration and study abroad visit to Dundee in Fall 2023, but it also includes a history of prior collaboration and independent work. Prominently featured are publications created by Dundee for the Being Human Festival, an annual celebration of the humanities in the U.K., which will be occurring at the same time as the exhibition.

Professors Mary Modeen of the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, and Chris Murray, chair of Comics Studies in the School of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Law, are the twin engines that power the collaboration in Dundee.

To learn more about the work and study abroad programming that supports it, contact William Cromar,  Associate Teaching Professor in Art, williamcromar@psu.edu or Stephen Cohen, Associate Teaching Professor in English, uuc91@psu.edu.

August 28 – October 13, 2023

Reception & Workshop Wednesday, September 27th
Gallery Reception 1:30 – 2:00pm
Tile-Making Workshop 2:00 – 3:00pm in Room 136 Woodland

This exhibition showcases a ceramics course taught on-site at Moravian Pottery & Tile Works by Chris Bonner, Associate Teaching Professor of Art and Yvonne Love, Associate Professor of Art. In these courses, students learn and experiment with ceramic tile making processes using traditional tools and equipment in use at the historic site in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

The Moravian Pottery & Tile Works Course Showcase will feature the tile works of students enrolled in courses in Spring of 2022 and 2023 alongside objects on loan from the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works.

To learn more about these classes, contact Yvonne Love at ymm1@psu.edu or Chris Bonner at cmb30@psu.edu

For questions, please contact Jack Isaac Pryor, Assistant Professor of Theatre at jip5598@psu.edu

 

This project is funded by the Sally Leah Reinitz Endowment for the Cultural Arts at Penn State Abington, the Dr. Moylan C. and Barbara D. Mills Endowment for Cultural Arts at Penn State Abington, the Division of Arts & Humanities, the Academic Environment Committee, and the Office of the Chancellor.

2023 Bertha Lear Annual Student Art Exhibition

April 3 – April 17, 2023

Exhibition is on view in the Art Gallery, Woodland Lobby and 2nd Floor Cafe, Library, and Woodland Corridor outside the Art Studios.

Reception and Awards Ceremony
Monday, April 17th, 2023

Room 112 Woodland and Virtually on Zoom.
Zoom Link: https://psu.zoom.us/j/94587243314?pwd=YkpDOTZuVnYxbTN2WVgraFhtdXlNdz09
12:20 – 1:10pm

The 2023 Bertha Lear Student Art Exhibition features sculpture, painting, drawing, ceramics, photography, printmaking and new media work completed in the 2022-23 academic year by students enrolled in studio art courses at Penn State Abington.
The public is welcome to visit the exhibition during library and art gallery hours.

2023 Bertha Lear Award Winners

BERTHA LEAR PURCHASE AWARD FOR BEST IN SHOW
THEODORA DAGKLI ANDONOPOULOS

Cheese (Installation view)
India ink on paper
Dimensions variable
2022-23
**This work will be translated into a comic book that will be digitally printed for the Penn State Abington collection and for distribution**

Guardian Angel
India ink on paper
16″ x 20″
2023

 

BERTHA LEAR AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN CERAMICS
ANASTASIYA DENISOVA

Elegant & Smooth
Ceramic
Various sizes
2023

Elegant & Smooth
Ceramic
Various sizes
2023

 

BERTHA LEAR AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN DRAWING & PAINTING
CHEYENNE GETZ

Untitled
Oil on canvas
18″ x 24″
2022

Glass Ceiling
Oil on canvas panel
16″ x 20″
2023

 

BERTHA LEAR AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN NEW MEDIA
ARIELLE KEARNS

Nox Notare
Digital comic
2023 – ongoing
Visit this story on Webtoons by clicking the link below
https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/nox-notare/a-new-mission/viewer?title_no=759175&episode_no=1

 

BERTHA LEAR AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRINTMAKING
OREST LUZECKYJ

Monster
Woodcut
10″ x 14″
2023

Monster Arrangement
Woodcut
14″ x 19″
2023

Monster Arrangement
Woodcut
18″ x 24″
2023

 

Also on View:

‘A Room Full of Stories’
An Exhibition of Senior Capstone Projects

A Room Full of Stories is an exhibition that showcases the works of Penn State Abington seniors enrolled in the art program, in which we share personal experiences through a multitude of media. Each of these creations tells a passionate story, allowing us to connect and appreciate one another, as well as the viewer. Using art as a form of self-expression and storytelling is an asset for us and we are extremely grateful to our academic institution for allowing us to display a room full of stories.

Featuring the work of Jahmir Choy-Herndon, Theodora Dagkli Andonopoulos, Desiree Davila, Anastasiya Denisova, Riley Harris, and Arielle Kearns

In addition to the 2023 Bertha Lear Reception and Awards Ceremony on April 17th, a separate reception will be held to celebrate senior capstone projects.

A Room full of Stories Exhibition Reception
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
4:00 – 5:30pm

a solo exhibition of work by Gerard Brown

January 9 – March 3, 2023

Exhibition Reception Wednesday, January 18th, 12:20 – 1:10pm

Artist workshop Friday, January 20th, 12:20 – 1:10pm, Room 136 Woodland

 

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:

‘Know the Enemy’ gathers work by gerard brown from the last twelve years. One theme in the exhibit is how reading and writing can mediate between diverse identities and states of mind. As an artist, brown has used his painting as an opportunity to meditate on ideas that emerge from his reading by transcribing passages from artists and authors that inspire deeper contemplation. To slow the act of reading, he encodes these texts, which requires a letter-by-letter engagement with his sources. The resulting paintings celebrate literature’s capacity to help readers overcome isolation (as with a passage by James Baldwin) or explore the way politicians (such as Richard Nixon and members of the Trump administration) have weaponized language to polarize our nation. In this exhibit, drawings and needlework imagine the act of learning to communicate with non-human readers. Taken as a whole, the exhibit offers a chance to reflect on our collective involvement in language.

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

gerard brown is an educator and painter. Although he earned his BFA from Boston University and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he still cannot account for the powerful effect paintings have had on him since he was a teenager cutting classes to wander around the Hirschhorn and National Gallery. He paints passages of writing that fascinate and confuse him, using codes and ciphers and laborious techniques that allow for reflection and meditation. Occasionally, the messages of these writings compel him to use other techniques and to collaborate with other artists. In failed efforts to better understand his interests, brown has written criticism (for the Philadelphia Weekly, Juxtapoz, Ceramics art and Perception, and others) and organized exhibits (for the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Galleries at Moore College of Art & Design, the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia, and others). He has had the privilege of teaching at Art Center College of Design, The University of the Arts, and the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, where he currently serves as an Associate Professor.

 

JANUARY 20th WORKSHOP: ‘How to hide anything’

What does the number on that guy’s tattoo mean? What is up with those sneakers? Does that haircut mean something? Taking William H. Sherman’s 2010 essay on cryptanalyst William f. Friedman as a starting point, this workshop will briefly explore ways that messages can be generated using codes and ciphers, with special attention to the connections between contemporary social media and historical examples. From examples of how hate groups secretly signal one another to how incarcerated persons communicated from solitary confinement, we’ll investigate the messages that are all around us – many invisible unless you know how to look for them – and generate a few messages ourselves.