Saturday, January 31, 2015

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with Resident Althea Baird: Cosmic Soul Force

On MLK day, current resident Althea Baird worked with local young people, adults, elders, and artists to create a powerful art demonstration entitled "Cosmic Soul Force". The project was youth led co-facilitated, with collaborators ART F//ACTION and Ash Richards.

In her own words, "We will write alone and together to create a speech that speaks to the freedom dream we are unfolding, to the destruction of the forces of oppression, and the transformation of power and spirit. This speech will be painted onto double sided signs for anybody that wants to roll to the protest."

Check out more about the project here. Video on Youtube here. Pictures below.




Sunday, January 25, 2015

Friends and Neighbors Opening!

Our annual Friends and Neighbors Exhibit opened at the 4007 Chestnut gallery last Saturday, January 17. Check out some photos below of the reception and artist talks. 


If you missed the opening, no problem. Gallery hours for this exhibit are January 31 and February 7 from 2 to 6 pm, or by appointment (email 40th.air.app@gmail.com). 






Friday, January 9, 2015

Friends and Neighbors Exhibit opens SAT JAN 17! Emerging Artists from all over Philly!

The 40th Street Artist-in-Residence Program
5th Annual
Friends and Neighbors Exhibit


Exhibiting work from friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues of our residents

January 17 - February 7

Opening Reception: 
SATURDAY JANUARY 17 • 6-9pm
Artist Talk at 7pm
Refreshments provided

Gallery Hours: Saturdays Jan 24, 31, Feb 7 • 2-6pm
+ by appointment - email 40th.air.app@gmail.com

at AIRSPACE Gallery
4007 Chestnut ST, 1st FL • Philadelphia

Twitter: @40thStreetAIR

Exhibiting:

Yemaya Gabriel
Yemaya Gabriel was born in Philadelphia, PA in 2009. She is a visual artist and musician of both the violin and piano. Gabriel studied at the University City Arts League and has studied with Philadelphia-based artist Jacqueline Unanue. Gabriel is most interested in drawing and making objects out of clay, paper and other found materials.

Carlos Gonzalez
My name is Carlos Gonzalez, and I am from Mexico. For the last three years, I have been drawing with charcoal. But I'm primarily a tattoo artist and have been living in the US for the past 17 years.

Ms Lisa
My name is Lisa Barkley, born and raised in West Philadelphia. I started taking an interest in art at an early age. My Aunt Inez showed me how to make all kinds of crafts from which I later developed a love of Mosaic Art. You can use buttons, pennies, gravel, just to name few, and make beautiful art. I started trying beans that come in all sorts of colors and eggshells which can be painted in many colors. Combined with my love of fashion I came up with the lovely pieces that you'll see at the show.

Emyluz Almodovar Ortiz
Emyluz Almodovar-Ortiz is currently a student at The Community College of Philadelphia. She is the Co-Facilitator/Intern at Art Factory.

Rachel Hoppenstein  
Rachel Hoppenstein paints and draws in her home studio in West Philadelphia. Also a yoga teacher and occupational therapist, her work explores forms in the human body. She uses diverse media, including oils, acrylic, ink, pencil, pastel, nail polish and other beauty products. She received her BA from Brandeis University and a Certificate from Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts.

Lucy Pistilli
A mother, artist, curator, and teacher, Lucy Pistilli's community work has focused on collaborating with mental health patients and children.  Growing up in Philadelphia and studying art in post-industrial Kansas City, MO, she developed a fascination in the beauty of imperfection, humility, and humanism.  She recently teamed with Brian Bazemore to found The Pedestrian Project, a collective that encourages artists to engage directly with under-represented communities through collaboration, actualizing philosophy that art should be accessible and not reserved for elitist populations. Pistilli collects discarded family photography and utilizes it as a primary subject matter in her work, finding definitive qualities in images people have weeded out and nostalgia in the captured moments of awkwardness of strangers. She has said: "I see life's greatest beauty in its simultaneous strangeness and familiarity, in the struggle to comprehend and connect and the unpredictable and ephemeral moments in which this is achieved."

Kaitlin Kylie Pomerantz
Kaitlin Pomerantz is an artist living in West Philadelphia. Using a variety of mediums, her work explores the relationship between humans and the environment, attempting to capture what a modern "nature" might look like and mean. Kaitlin facilitates the ongoing botanical arts project We The Weeds. She recently completed the RAIR residency at Revolution Recovery recycling plant in North Philadelphia. She is working towards her MFA at University of Pennsylvania.

Antonio Rojas
Nazbalam Cascada del Jaguar

Soy Antonio Rojas, de la ciudad de Mexico ; el proposito de nazbalam arte y cultura es plasmar la riqueza que nos distingue reflejando asi la diversidad cultural, creativa de nuestros antepasados identificandonos en todo el mundo .y tratar de mantener viva nuestra cultura y nuestras raizes. I'm Antonio Rojas, from Mexico City; Nazbalam the purpose of art and culture is to capture the richness that distinguishes us so reflecting the cultural, creative diversity of our ancestors identifying ourselves worldwide, and trying to keep our culture and our roots alive.

Samarah Tahir
Samarah Tahir was born in Philadelphia, PA in 2003. She is a writer and performance artist. Tahir studied at the Freedom Theater in Philadelphia from 2010 -2012 and Philadelphia’s Young Performers Art Camp from 2012 - present at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. Tahir is most interested in writing short stories and performing in plays and dance shows.

Barbara Zanelli
Barbara graduated with a B.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1999, and then moved to NYC. She met success in shows at Figureworks and Get Real Art, but felt drawn to study classical painting in Florence, Italy. She lived there for one year studying drawing under Mario Pachioli. In 2004 she moved to Philadelphia, on a full scholarship, to study at Studio Incamminati with master painter Nelson Shanks. She left the atelier in 2005 to work on a series of large paintings. After travelling and painting extensively, Barbara has returned to Incamminati to finish the Professional Program. While studying, Barbara continues to show her work and take on commissions. Continuously challenging herself to find new expressions through painting and drawing and the combination of the two, Barbara has been working on all different types of approaches from gestural, alla prima to slowly developed realist painting. She currently paints plein air, figure paintings, portraits and combined paintings from life, photo and imagination. She also works on traced monotypes, a drawing technique used by many painters of the past including Gauguin and Degas. Barbara strives to merge intuitive feeling and gesture with a studied, trained or cerebral approach, but never too much of either. Being an artist, for Barbara, means not being afraid to create the ground she is about to step on, taking risks and following instinct.