DAVID FOSS | The Blue Beyond | Acrylic on canvas | 72" x 68" | 2011

David Foss

Fields and Structure

LISA SYLVESTER | Grey/Red | Oil on canvas | 60" x 46" | 2007

Lisa Sylvester

text essential

LGTripp Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent paintings by David Foss, the fifth with Director, Luella Tripp. Also exhibiting is Lisa Sylvester in her first exhibition at the gallery.

A grid is a network of uniform horizontal and vertical lines within which space is located and systematically defined. In that control and order, David Foss seeks and finds beauty while Lisa Slyvester examines disorder, impulsiveness, and morality.

In his new series, David Foss steps away from the swirling lines and staccato dashes of his earlier work and moves towards the soothing contemplation of the gentle tension between geometric lines and space. He retains a colorful palette and uses it to record and reflect his feelings. While both artists in the show build up layers of paint, Foss scrapes away select layers to unveil the space, creating windows and passages to his world. The grid lines further speak to the urban, man made environment by which today’s existence is defined; yet his fields of color introduce the enjoyment one finds in nature. Simplicity exists within the systematic space Foss defines, thus allowing contemplation of its quiet rhythm.

David Foss was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, earned a MFA in Sculpture from the University of Colorado in 1986, and a BA in Philosophy/Religious Studies from Augustana College, SD, in 1981. Since moving to Philadelphia in 1989, he has actively participated in the visual arts, first as Director of Art in City Hall, then for the last ten years as Executive Director of Da Vince Art Alliance. He regularly exhibits his work, locally and nationally, in solo and group exhibitions. His artwork has been extensively reviewed in local publications and is included in numerous private and public collections. Foss is represented by LGTripp Gallery.

Lisa Sylvester’s work starts out being contained and defined by a philosophical grid – the moral framework that individuals and society endlessly strive to erect. She then introduces paint; the physical, the tactile, and unpredictable. Disorder ensues and Sylvester embraces it. Text, an essential element, is introduced to the process. After rigorous deconstruction and rebuilding, letters carefully crafted and painted by hand, take on a systematic and decisive placement within the grid. The letters themselves emerge as a key visual component of the piece. At their origin, the texts are based on literary sources such as works by Octave Mirbeau, Henry Michaux and Albert Camus.

Born in Baltimore, MD, Lisa Sylvester pursued a career as an artist by earning a MFA in Painting from Boston University in 1996 following a BA degree from Dartmouth College in 1993. Among other awards, she was a finalist in the Henry Luce Foundation Fellowship Program in 1996, and recipient of the Seedling Grant for Emerging Artists, Leeway Foundation, 2000. Sylvester works out of her studio, participating in group and solo exhibitions throughout the Philadelphia area. She currently resides in West Chester, PA.

This exhibition marks the second year anniversary of LGTripp Gallery. March 2010 the gallery opened with a group exhibition of artists represented by the gallery. It only seems fitting that they are united once again, this time for a works on paper exhibition. Artists are Seonglan K. Boyce, Paul Fabozzi, Fuentes Ferrin, David Foss, Rebecca Jacoby, Jon Manteau, Michelle Marcuse, Catherine O’Connell, Miriam Singer, Donna Usher and Plamen Veltchev. Included are metal sculptures by Stephen Blackburn.

WORKS ON PAPER
March 2 – 31, 2012
Artist Reception, Saturday, March 3, 5 – 7 p.m.
First Friday, March 2, 6 – 8:30 pm

LGTripp Gallery is pleased to present “WORKS on PAPER”, a group exhibition uniting artists represented by the gallery. Eleven artists employ theirs skills, individualistic use of materials and process to tailor their personal expressions on paper. Using pencil, ink, paint, collage and printmaking, the works presented in this exhibition are stylistically and thematically diverse, offering a plethora of visual conversations. Also included are metal sculptures by Stephen Blackburn.

SEONGLAN KIM BOYCE
Using simple geometric balance, Boyce translates a pendulum of harmonic atmosphere on to paper with the relationship of shape and color to create a feeling of immediacy and weightless time.

PAUL FABOZZI
With swarming geometric elements, lines and color, Fabozzi continues to explore modes of translating data into visual signs that ultimately are rhythmic expressions of movement and energy experienced in the urban environment.

FUENTES FERRIN
Eleven years after transitioning from Cuba, Ferrin continues to delight and surprise with unexpected juxtapositions of imaginative imagery. Drawing from the world of fantasy, the characters that Ferrin shares with us embody the whimsical nature of love and its foibles.

DAVID FOSS
Through collage, Foss attempts a weighted atmosphere from the inside of security envelopes. On their own, minuscule patterns seem relatively insignificant. Strategically placed, the compositions become mosaic-like geometric abstractions.

REBECCA JACOBY
Within the confines of a white piece of paper, Jacoby carves out the image little by little with her mark making and collage to create new continents. Her obsessive circle making creates unchartered worlds and endless discovery.

JON MANTEAU
Manteau explores the question of why man must leave a mark behind when he is gone. Swept up in the crashing motions of mark making, an image full of subtle movements, along with jarring and gestural marks, evokes absolution.

MICHELLE MARCUSE
Marcuse creates a historical roadmap to the magical world that she had dreamt as a child. Made on darkened silver leaf and using mono-chromaticity, a timeless atmosphere shrouded in a veil of darkness is transformed and molded through her perception.

CATHERINE O’CONNELL
Based on an empty space in her neighborhood, O’Connell searches her memories of childhood and parallels what this “empty” space had once held. By constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing worlds and taking cues from literature, uncertain and invented spaces eventually emerge.

MIRIAM SINGER
With an obsessive nature, Singer collides cityscapes to create a densely overpopulated scene. These intuitive drawings are inspired and based on her ventures through South Philly.

DONNA USHER
Usher involves the viewer by creating a subtle place of meditation and reflection through circles found in nature. Inspiration is derived from her studies in Australia of Aboriginal dot art and mark making.

PLAMEN VELTCHEV
In his graphic approach to permeate discord and unrest, Veltchev ruminates on the relationship of freedom and a greater force exerting its power over it. He works within the confines of a structured chaos.

In addition to the Works on Paper exhibit, we are also proud to show new sculpture from STEPHEN BLACKBURN.
From an early age, Blackburn has fabricated sculptures with aesthetically pleasing motivations. He welds geometric shapes of found objects and steel to create an extension of balanced composition and capricious amusement.