We are pleased to announce and welcome artist Anthony Vega to LGTripp Gallery. Philadelphia-based, Vega is an outstanding, emerging artist with a clear and distinct vision, seriously committed to his art. DOCUMENTS, a collaborative effort with Luella Tripp, is Vega’s first solo exhibition at the gallery along with previously featured artists, Seonglan Kim Boyce and Paul Fabozzi.

Questioning our surroundings and the seduction of our environment has been a catalyst for artists’ investigation for quite some time. DOCUMENTS explores this context by looking at the relationship abstraction has to our contemporary landscape in the work of artists Vega, Boyce and Fabozzi.

Abstraction lends itself as an interesting metaphor for our current visual landscape, from how we see the world to how we cope with our ever-shifting cultural landscape (issues of identity and politic). Abstraction demands a question, it begs to be interpreted, it is curious, namely, in that the representation is hidden, the intention is open or the investigation is alluring. Abstraction (in this context) is a plastic document.

In looking at the questions asked throughout the history of art, it is impossible to investigate any artwork outside of social context (culture) and history. It becomes interesting to revisit the influence many historically important artists have on art today and their relationship to this investigation of landscape. What connections can be made to the intentions and questions of Matisse, Cezanne and Seurat, among others, in the modernist landscape to these three artists in our contemporary landscape? Has the impetus for documenting changed, are the concerns of the past still pertinent, or has the scope and scale shifted? How can we place contemporary artists within this framework?

Anthony Vega explores abstraction through image, metaphor and color. The intention of the work is to challenge our relationship to expectation and narrative, socially through layering, color, pattern and image. This is from a similar position to Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso whose rich exploration of self, culture and inquiry led to a challenging of expectation and an invitation to question.

Paul Fabozzi also plays with nature, observation, and documentation. Fabozzi’s surfaces offer an exploration of contemporary place, time, and spatiality, both inside the mechanism of society and within the experience of the individual.

Seonglan Kim Boyce uses nature, observation and documentation as the catalyst for her work. The geometric forms, composition and color play on a contemporary visual investigation of self, nature and space. This is not unlike the intentions of Paul Cezanne or Georges Seurat whom obsessively investigated visual experience and the means for documenting within their culture.

Image courtesy: PlanPhilly.com

Special congratulations to Miriam Singer and Emilie Ledieu upon the completion of a magnificent mural,’under the clothespin’, at 1500 Market St. The ribbon cutting ceremony Monday morning was an exciting moment as it unveiled a stunning work of art in what had been a rather bland concourse, the pass-through for thousands of commuters every day. It was also the unveiling of the artistry and craftmanship of two young artists who took on a project, unsure of where the outcome would lead, and exceeded everyone’s expectations in creating an impressive work of art.

Read more about the mural at PlanPhilly.com

More information to come…

More information to come…

David Foss

Fields and Structure

Lisa Sylvester

text essential

April 6 – 28, 2012
Artist Reception, April 7, 5 – 7 pm
First Friday, April 6, 6 – 8:30

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.

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.