Time Is Short

The days may be growing longer, little by little, since Winter Solstice arrived early last Saturday morning. But that won’t help slow the hourglass emptying on our phenomenal WE ARE FAMILY show, which ends after Friday. 2024’s year-ending juried exhibition is the first in an occasional series of show we will be mounting in support of the still-grieving UArts/PCA community, robbed of their institution at the end of May. It has left a huge vacuum in our neighborhood and in the world of Philly arts and our region’s higher education infrastructure. Happily, these past six weeks have been all about 39 alumni and former faculty, administrators and staff and their 68 works. As summed up by this show’s tagline: Our university may be gone. But our art and our hearts stay strong.

JULIE WOODARD MA’15, S’10–24
“The Bridge”
16 x 21 framed
repurposed linen, cotton, silk, leather, merino, polyester, paper, upholstery blends, felted wool, denim, cork and sashiko thread
700.

Coming Together

November promises to be a month where unity wins out. First, we all have to stand together and VOTE tomorrow. Then, we are going to rally and reunite the alumni and former staff and faculty of UArts/PCA. Carrying out this work are the 38 individuals we proudly list above. They are the artists of WE ARE FAMILY, chosen by a UArts jury from nearly 200 entries. They are the ambassadors not of a former alma mater or employer, ignominiously stripped away, but of a singular, resilient community, stretched across generations and dedicated to the pursuit of art and art-making. CONGRATULATIONS to all of you and welcome (and welcome back) to OFF THE WALL! Art will always prevail, and together we will prove just that. Our show goes up Saturday, November 16…will immediately be open for shopping…and will have its Opening Reception Thursday, November 21, 7-10 PM. 

10 Days to Enter, One Community to Celebrate

When UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS shut down, we knew we had to be all about opening a new door. Alas, we cannot connect former students to education, alumni to an alma mater or faculty to new teaching positions. But it is well within our power to create a show that celebrates their art, boundless creativity and shared spirit — even if their school is but a memory and its buildings relegated to reuse that will probably be anything but arts education. Enter WE ARE FAMILY: our juried show for all members of the UArts/PCA (Philadelphia College of Art) community. We are extending the entry deadline a second time, through MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, to ensure as many as possible can submit work to our jury. Their decisions will be shared with entering artists by November 7 and accepted artwork needs to be delivered on Saturday, November 16. If you are not associated with UArts/PCA, no doubt you know someone who is. Share this opportunity so we can share more great art — and remember fondly the vitality that once lived right around the corner from us, at Broad and Pine.

It's Baack!

Opportunity is born...and reborn...at the end of each calendar year — for the artists and art lovers in our community. It's a process that has taken place here at OFF THE WALL every November and December (not counting the pandemic years) since 2017, and it can be summed up in two words...UNDER $100! Far and away our most popular and successful juried show — known for its diversity of voices, plentitude of sales (thanks, in part, to its conjunction with the holiday season!) and track record as a launching pad to future shows in our space — UNDER $100 also boasts our most prestigious award, the MARY-ROWE MEMORIAL JURY PRIZE, and at least $600 (probably closer to $700) in CASH PRIZES. These are funded through our $10 PER PIECE HANGING FEE for accepted artists, which also means there is NO ENTRY FEE! Check out the entry guidelines above, which are also available in Dirty Frank's and here on our website. We look forward to your entries and, to all our collectors, to your attendance, support and acquisitions!

62.62 Fahrenheit

The National Centers for Environmental Prediction announced that our planet experienced this past week the highest average global temperature in recorded history. First, Monday was the hottest day ever. Then it was the Fourth of July. The records will sadly keep tumbling. For the past year, KAREN STABENOW has been our community’s gadfly in regard to these alarming trends. While SUMMER SOLSTICE does not include her call-to-action melting Arctic landscapes, her three paintings do spotlight critical issues, from rising sea levels to Arctic drilling, The artist tells us, “I paint with oil to communicate the climate change in the North and South Poles.... These changes are caused by the use of coal, oil and methane, resulting in melting ice, sea rising, vanishing glaciers, fractured landscapes, extinction, and in the Antarctic, icebergs turn green from the warming iron-rich sea water and algae.”

KAREN STABENOW
“Arctic Drilling”
12.5 x 25
oil on panel
400.

Red, White and Few

Happy Fourth! But it's symbiosis, not independence -- FLOSS BARBER reminds us -- that is the key to all ecosystems. Making her debut in our space, Floss is among a coterie of SUMMER SOLSTICE artists whose work focuses on vulnerable fish and wildlife. "Fish and crabs are vital to our environment and the fishing communities of local Delaware Bay," says the artist. "They transfer energy up and down the food chain, fulfill important ecological roles and help stabilize our ecosystems. By employing the colors of the American flag, I can grab the attention of the community to draw attention to the need to preserve endangered species." Do your part. Conservation is patriotic!

FLOSS BARBER
“White Perch: Morone americana”
9 x 12
oil and acrylic
100.

Down the Shore

We’re going to use this week to spotlight our jury’s award winners. What better place to start than the work that took down ULTIMATE JERSEY VIBE? Over the past 15 months, ASYA LIVSHITS has been an ascendant force among painters in our community — beginning with a first appearance at Dirty’s as part of our pro-Ukraine pop-up show in May 2022, quickly followed by her head-turning OFF THE WALL debut in REEMERGE that summer. She hits another high-water mark with three oils in SUMMER SOLSTICE. Like many of her colleagues, Asya acknowledges that creating art in all four seasons may not last if we do not change. “A lot of my work is set in nature. Seasons and light consequently play major roles in my art,” she explains. “This makes me more aware of climate, and my work speaks to the crisis we face.”

ASYA LIVSHITS
“Ocean City”
11 x 14
oil on board
400.

Toasting Our Award Winners

Summer is officially underway...and so is SUMMER SOLSTICE, the show, which opened last Thursday evening to acclaim, enthusiastic crowds and continuing sales! Please visit in person and also look for us to feature works from the show in our posts over the next seven weeks. We'll start at the top, as critiqued by OUR JURY. The five members of our panel — IRVING XCHEL CHAN GOMEZ, JON LAIDACKER, NATALIE HOPE MCDONALD, KAREN RODEWALD and JODY SWEITZER — elevated eight of our artists with their JURY CITATIONS. In this lofty company, HOLLY WYNN took BEST OF SHOW for her captivating take on iconic imagery, speaking both to climate change and to the artist in every season. “Living in a place with four seasons does affect my creative process,” says Holly, “particularly in the winter, when bouts of seasonal depression make it hard to put my energy and care into my art. This piece captures the isolation and loneliness that come in and leave me feeling uninspired and unsure what to do.” Please lift your glasses to Holly and her heralded colleagues:

BEST OF SHOW: Holly Wynn’s “My Own Little Iceberg” (PICTURED HERE)
SOLSTICE AWARD (from Druid Society of Dirty Frank’s): Joseph Eggleston’s “Samsara”
ULTIMATE JERSEY VIBE: Asya Livshits’ “Ocean City”
MOST SUBMERSIVE: Maryanne Buschini’s “Floating”
MOST NOSTALGIC: David Helwer’s “Gathering Eggs”
MOST SUSTAINABLE: Jennifer Barrile’s “Salem Harbor”
BIGGEST REALITY CHECK: Robin Brownfield’s “Say Goodbye”
MOST PROMISING DEBUT: Som-Mai Nguyen’s “Flood 2”

Today in Every Way

TODAY IN EVERY WAY: We haven’t even wrapped the kickoff to our summer juried show, but we will swivel the spotlight this afternoon so it shines on FRANK SHERLOCK, our resident bard of DIRTY FRANK’S and past Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, who is releasing his new poetry chapbook, TOMORROW SOMEHOW, today (6/25) with a 5-7 PM RELEASE PARTY. So please join us for your favorite drinks, poured by the incomparable HEATHER RAQUEL PHILLIPS...a nice spread of food, courtesy of JEANNE PHILLIPS...the opportunity to PURCHASE Frank's new collection, which is all too happy to sign and inscribe...a FREE BROADSIDE for the first 25 buyers...and, to top it all, an OUTDOOR READING at 6:00. If you’re in town or on your way back, we can think of no better way to cap a lovely weekend. See you soon!

Solstice Now...and Tomorrow

Summer solstice just officially happened — at 10:57 AM EDT, to be exact — so HAPPY SOLSTICE! (And, yes, the days get shorter from here.) But we have a way you can extend this nature-embracing celebration right through tomorrow night. Why not join us for the OPENING RECEPTION for SUMMER SOLSTICE, THE SHOW? Our 7-10 PM reception will mark Off the Wall’s 17th Annual Summer Juried Show as we welcome 38 amazing artists, eight of them new to our space. Their art does more than lift up a single day or season. Many of the 70 works on display signal a dire warning that if we do not quickly make inroads on climate change, we will lose the privilege of enjoying four distinct seasons. But it’s not all ominous tidings. Tomorrow evening (and every day through August 18) you can experience inspiring artwork that will feed your soul and spur you to action, while also enjoying your favorite drinks, energizing conservation and the delectable light hors d’oeuvres that are the order of the day. Plus, we will announce the jury’s eight award winners. We look forward to seeing you soon!

End of Our Show

We have not shined a bright enough or wide enough spotlight on the artists of MARY LIZ MEMORIAL MASTERS EXHIBITION 18 (MLMME18). Nevertheless, we bid a fond farewell to these immense talents, fully confident that we will see and show their art again soon. In some cases, very soon; Karen Stabenow, in fact, will be back with several pieces in our SUMMER SOLSTICE juried show, which goes up Saturday and opens next Thursday. But what better way to start saying goodbye than with a coda painting of sorts from Serge Krupnov, who made a tour de force debut in our space with 15 sales. Serge is a master of evoking a sense of time and place in his canvases, which resonated deeply with our audiences. In this case, he chooses the end of summer — even, ironically, as we officially greet that season with the theme and timing of our next outing.

SERGE KRUPNOV
“End of Summer”
oil on panel
500.

Welcome to the Longest Day

We certainly honor D-Day, 79 years on, and those who gave so much for freedom. But in this case, we’re talking about the longest day of the year — and proudly introducing the 38 artists of SUMMER SOLSTICE. While our 17th annual summer juried show deals with creating art in all four seasons, the existential crisis that is climate change clearly rose to the top as the urgent theme of many of the 70 works chosen. We cordially invite you to meet our artists, including a talented octet making their Off the Wall debuts, and see what they have to say at our OPENING RECEPTION: 7-10 PM on THURSDAY, JUNE 22 (incidentally the day after the actual Solstice). In the meantime, enjoy the extra sun and, above all, CONGRATS to those listed above!

Come Celebrate!

Today in particular and all month long, we will shine a spotlight on PRIDE at DIRTY FRANK’S and OFF THE WALL — not to mention, up and down 13TH STREET, the Main Street of our Gayborhood. If you are dropping by after the parade and amid the many festivities, please make the NE Corner of 13th and Pine a destination. The amazing HEATHER RAQUEL PHILLIPS is behind the bar...proceeds of Strawberry Blonde by Evil Genius will benefit The Trevor Project...and Off the Wall artist M.K. KOMINS is set up just outside doing caricatures en plein air. We look forward to lifting our glasses with you this afternoon and throughout June. CHEERS!

Last Call for Your Art

Today represents your final chance to enter this summer's OFF THE WALL juried show...and to share with our jury how your art celebrates summer itself — and speaks to making art in all the seasons. Since enjoying four distinctive seasons may quickly become a thing of the past, many entrants are also choosing to speak to climate change, which makes perfect sense. Your point of view matters. So if you have not entered and want to, please look at your body of work to find the connection you want to make. You can submit up to five works that meet our size requirements (48” or less in combined dimensions: height + width) to offthewallgallery@gmail.com by 11:59 PM TONIGHT (Thursday, May 25). You should also send questions our way, including requests for a brief extension, which we may be able to accommodate. SUMMER SOLSTICE runs from June 18 to August 18, and accepted, ready-to-hang work must be dropped off on Saturday, June 17. We look forward to considering your outstanding art!

30 Days to Enter

Between now and May 25, our summer juried show, aptly entitled SUMMER SOLSTICE, seeks outstanding art in all media that celebrates the opportunity to create in a climate that experiences all four seasons. And acknowledging that our climate is changing — along with every other one on earth — we also invite artists to speak to this change and to advocate for ways to slow climate change. As always, the summer version of OFF THE WALL’s popular juried shows has no entry fee and no hanging fee. The only stipulations are SIZE — 2D work must be less than 48" in combined dimensions (height+width) — and, in the jury’s eyes, PRICE. We connect artwork accepted into our shows with many buyers, but we have the greatest success when your work is competitively priced. Email images to offthewallgallery@gmail.com, along with all required information. Details are above and, for an easier-to-read version, at offthewallgallery.org/call-for-entries. We look forward to considering your art!

Stalking Turtle Doves

Or perhaps it’s something else with wings. But this intent feline peering could well have a pounce at the end, don’t you think? Yesterday, I mentioned the three UNDER $100 artists who sold out sets of four. Well, HOLLY WYNN tied them with an equal number of red dots; the only difference is she had five pieces accepted into the show! Add to this bottom-line success a JURY PRIZE, dubbed “Sneak a Peek,” since all the work focuses on different species watching the world go by. (Or in the case of the pupper, clearly looking at his owner.) This series shows a new dimension of the artist’s work after a prize-winning debut — a painting about pandemic paranoia — last summer in REEMERGE. 2022 definitely marked Holly’s arrival to our community of artists and art lovers. BRAVA!

HOLLY WYNN
“Observing”
5 x 7
oil on canvas
70.

Three French Hen-nessy's?

For those who chimed in that we may have bagged out on the long-deserted Xmas Countdown, we are back for more during the last three days of our Mummers/New Year’s hiatus. In searching for a theme for THREE, the cognac has, alas, kicked...so we’ll turn to a certain French elderberry liqueur that was the subject of a painting from OFF THE WALL neophyte (no more!) LAUREN DOYLE. Joining fellow UNDER $100 stars Cyn Why, winner of the Mary-Rowe Memorial Jury Prize, and veteran Betty MacDonald as the artists to sell out sets of four works, Lauren enjoyed a smashing debut with her watercolors varnished onto wood backings. The artist often portrays branded beverages, but trust us: if you happen to be a gallery inside a bar, you just know this still life and a companion piece of a crushed can of PBR had fans galore!

LAUREN DOYLE
“St-Germain in Blue”
12 x 9 x 2
watercolor, ink and varnish
95.

A Different Kind of Tapestry

We grew up, once upon a time, hearing America described as a “melting pot” or a “tapestry” — the idea being that in this nation diverse, disparate elements come together to make up one vibrant whole. Now we live in a world of divisions, where nothing blends seamlessly and stark contrast is the order of the day. We invoke this topic of discussion on the second anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, amid the yahooism swirling around the House Speaker votes, which recklessly engender political wheeling and dealing aimed at undermining the basic workings of the Legislative Branch (just as 1/6/21 eroded the Executive Branch). Perhaps no artist in our community can speak to where we are and who we are with greater passion and persuasion than JIM BIGLAN. One of his three UNDER $100 pieces (all sold!) is this fabric artwork, incorporating collage. Most powerfully, the artist tells us, “I made this weaving experiment from bits of an actual American flag.”

JIM BIGLAN
“Merica”
16 x 10
loom weave and collage
90.

Four Forecasting Birds

Since it should technically go to the Epiphany, we'll continue our Xmas Countdown with CAROL TASHJIAN’s Weather Diary collages. (And, yes, UNDER $100 has come down from the Wall, but the show continues to be available for online shopping during our Mummers/New Year hiatus.) This head-turning new series, which the jury singled out with a BAROMETRIC BREAKTHROUGHS award, feels like a pandemic project of sorts but had its genesis just a couple of seasons ago. “During the July heat wave, I began saving the daily weather reports and loosely mimicking, in ink, the weather patterns depicted on the map,” reports the artist. “What’s come of it from there is technically collage, but my thinking process is closer to the geometric improvisation I use in quiltmaking.”

CAROL TASHJIAN
“Weather Diary 1403”
10 x 8
mixed-media collage (newspaper weather reports
on manila folder with ink and black paper cutouts,
sealed with PVA Size and mounted on panel of the
same dimensions)
80.

The Calm Before

We can check off the three-decade tradition of postering our beloved Wall before the Mummers march. We can also look forward to festivities galore as we welcome 2023 — well aware, too, that much of the world is already enjoying the New Year. Our best wishes and love to the artists and art lovers who comprise and sustain our wonderful and growing community. May your first marks on a tabula rasa be bold and exuberant, portending progress and growth ahead! #HAPPYNEWYEAR2023