Indigo Arts presents a selection of contemporary paintings by members of minority tribes in India. The exhibit includes work by the members of the Gond and Bhil groups of the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, as well as Mithila paintings from Bihar, and Patua story-scroll paintings from West Bengal. Artists include Gond painters Rajendra Shyam, Santosh Shyam, Anuj Tekam and Hiraman Urveti, Bhil painters Bhuri Bai and Anil Bariya, patua scroll painters Montu Chitrakar and Gurupada Chitrakar, and Mithila painters Pushpa Kumari, Pradyumna Kumar and Baua Devi. Exhibit information at: http://indigoarts.com/news_gond2013.html.

These distinct artistic traditions emanate from several different parts of India, and some have developed over many years, but they share several characteristics. They draw on the timeless myths, dreams and folklore of their creators, but they also reflect the daily life of the village. Three of them – the Gond, Bhil and Mithila paintings – developed out of the ancient traditions of house painting. Once painted by Bihari women only on the walls of the khobar or nuptial chamber, the mithila paintings are now rendered in ink and acrylic on paper and canvas and exhibited worldwide. It was a transition made of necessity, in the effort to bring handicraft income to villages devastated by the Bihar famine of the early 1960’s. First generation Mithila artists such as Ganga Devi and Baua Devi, and today’s stars – Pushpa Kumar and Pradyumna Kumar, have gained wide renown.

The Gond and Bhil movements are more recent, dating from the “discovery” of a hut decorated by the seventeen-year-old Jangarh Singh Shyam in the Gond village of Patangarh in Madhya Pradesh. Brought to the city of Bhopal and given paints and paper, Jangarh had a meteoric rise as a painter but a sadly brief career. Since Jangarh’s suicide in 2001 many other Gond artists, including some of his relatives or students, have emerged. Gond and Bhil artists delight in the depiction of a world of wild beasts, both real and imaginary. Alien influences are refracted through the tribal eye, such as the airport scene of Bhil artist Bhuri Bai, and the morphed “tiger that dreamed it was an aeroplane” of Rajendra Shyam.

Other works, like the story scrolls of the Bengali patuas, convey narrative, from the Hindu myths of the Ramayana to current (sometimes distant) events, – the 9/11 attack, the 2004 Tsunami, and even the French revolution and the sinking of the Titanic. Patuas – painter/story-tellers, – such as Montu and Gurupada Chitrakar, sing their stories as they unreel the comic-strip-like scrolls, one window at a time. Both Montu and Gurupada Chitrakar are featured in the 2006 exhibit Village of Painters: Narrative Scrolls from West Bengal at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe and the accompanying catalog by Frank Korom.

Above Image: Rajendra Shyam (Patangarh, Madhya Pradesh, India) “Wild Boar Family”, 2011, acrylic.

It’s always difficult to start in a new shop and get your printing flow.  Different equipment, new people, and where the heck is the tarleton anyway?!  SSP wants to make it easier for you to get started and get printing.  Every Second Thursday, Second State Press we will hold shop orientations for members.  All are welcome to attend each month.

Join us 6-9 PM to get a tour of the shop, have your printing questions answered, and meet other members.

Also, there is still time to get your application in for the Cindi Royce Ettinger Scholarship. Click here for details. Applications are due May 8th, 2012.

Ana Vizcarra Rankin’s site specific installation investigates issues of nomadism, migration and pilgrimage. Her large map paintings are oriented with the South towards the top, referencing the seminal image by Uruguayan constructivist painter Joaquín Torres Garcia, and reconsidering our relationship to the planet and its ecosystem. They fold up like the maps we used before global positioning systems were available on every phone, and sustain wear and tear between viewings. In conjunction with redacted hotel keycards and gilded fetiche objects, Ana’s installation invites the viewer to examine his or her own sense of being in and of the world.

Pictured:
Boars into Barrows, 2013 acrylic gesso and mixed media on canvas 96″x116″

More info: http://www.avrankin.com/

Ashley’s work is an unruly manifestation and hybrid of painting, sculpture, and performance. The space will be both occupied and infiltrated by one of Ashley’s painted, inflated plastic forms. Spray paint meets hard lines and both disappear into the folds and wrinkles of massive volumes that fill the spaces they inhabit. These hybrid objects, both comfortable and uncomfortable in their own skin create an unexpected path in painting, sculpture and performance that incorporates space as a key component to their bodies, as well as our own.
Claire Ashley is a Chicago based artist. She holds an MFA from The School of the Art Institute in Chicago as well as a BA from The Robert Gordon University in Scotland. Most recently, her show Frizzflopsqueezepop was seen at the Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago. She has shown extensively throughout the United States and Europe.

More Info: http://www.claireashley.com/

We are happy to announce Rainbows, a performance by Jeff Huckleberry in conjunction with Claire Ashley’s peepdyedcrevicehotpinkridge. The performance will take place during the opening reception on May 9th, from 6-9pm in the Grey Area.

Jeff huckleberry received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Jeff has been performing art for the last 20 years, both nationally and internationally. He enjoys the bicycle, the hammer, the saw, the wood, his wife and son, his family, his friends, his work. (…except sometimes he doesn’t enjoy these things as much; it depends.) He is the son and grandson of far more practical people, which he tries to express in his art. Some people say he is more handsome without his glasses, and his mother thinks it is time to stop getting naked in front of people. Oh, and something about death.

www.jeffhuckleberry.com

Happy Collaborationists is the curatorial collective of Anna Trier and Meredith Weber. “Happy C” provides exhibition opportunities for performance, installation and media works – including but not limited to solo exhibitions, public programming and private event planning. Together Anna and Meredith also collaborate on their own performance art practice under the name Meredith and Anna.

Influenced by Latin American and African mythology and folk art, in this exhibit Henry Bermudez creates wall-sized cut paper collages combined with giant cut-out photos featuring Kelicia Pitts, a fine art model and local curator. The installation also represents the latest art collaboration of Ms. Pitts’ ongoing “The Kandy Project,” in which she acts as the primary model/subject for a visual artist’s body of work.

For Bermudez, The Kelicia Project. Una Nueva Posibilidad connects his memories of being a young art teacher in the village of Bobures, Venezuela to his present day experiences teaching art at a youth program in North Philadelphia. Bermudez reflects on the similarities and differences of the communities of African descent in each place and the significance of these two moments in his life as an artist.

Henry Bermudez attended the National Schools of Art in both Venezuela and Mexico and studied in New York City’s Art Student’s League, as well as in Rome, Italy. His work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout Latin America, Europe, Asia and the United States. He was selected to be the Venezuelan representative for the 1986 Venice Biennale and has been the subject of numerous articles. Since returning to the U.S. in 2003, Bermudez has been based in Philadelphia, has worked with the Mural Arts Program on several major projects, and maintains an active studio and exhibition schedule.

This is the thesis exhibition of nine MFA students from the University of Delaware. These works range across a broad spectrum. From inquires and critiques on dominant society, the history of classism, ham, effort, value, and the anxieties of American culture.

A show consisting of Artists:

Trey Andrade, Marian Barber, Cory Bluemling, Shane Jezowski, Michael Marks, Sandra Petrie, Sean Quinn, Carrie Mae Smith, Steven Earl Weber, Anthony Vega

About Spiral Q:  Spiral Q builds strong and equitable communities characterized by creativity, joy, can-do attitudes, and the courage to act on their convictions. We imagine a city whose streets reflect the full spectrum of its residents’ creativity. We see a responsive and engaged society that rallies consistently to overcome the challenges of discrimination and oppression. We envision a world of abundance that mobilizes its resources to nurture shared vitality.

More Info: www.spiralq.org

Recent work and ongoing explorations: Beth Prusky, Dganit Zauberman, Kristin Schattenfield-Rein and Jude Lang.

An intimate performance event merging installation art and dance, this is an experience for ten audience members and five performers. It is an invitation to view movement and perceive the body both as an object of art as well as a social creature.

Shatter ::: dawn explores the body as a container for multiplicity of meaning, shape shifting into recognizable cultural images and abstract shapes. 

It creates an intimate environment that breaks the idea of art consumer vs. entertainer; it breaks our habit of passivity and opens the senses and perceptions of the audience in a quiet and engaging way.

*the piece involves full nudity and is not suitable for children.

More info: www.herebegindance.com

The Philadelphia Photo Arts Center is proud to announce the exhibition and opening reception of the PPAC Teen Photo Exhibition. Exploring the creative possibilities of digital photography, students from area schools had the opportunity to develop their own artistic style, while learning to use top of the line digital equipment at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center. The student photographers spent several months learning and discovering the medium through their own lens. This exhibition is the culmination of the hard work and artistic exploration by Vladimir Adrien, Bernadette Anderson, Naomieh Jovin, Elika Lantigua, Heidie Mojica, Christina Parks, Amber Rivera, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Angel Santiago, Siani Stockton.

*A special book and prints will be available for purchase during the course of the exhibition.

More info at: http://www.philaphotoarts.org/