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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Melissa Caldwell
[email protected]
215-545-4302
Philadelphia Art Alliance Winter 2015 Exhibitions
January 29 to April, 5 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 29, 6 to 8pm
First Floor Galleries
Delainey Barclay: Paper and String
Delainey Barclay's recent body of work focused on air, shadow, light and space. Over time, it has become more abstract and is now also very process-oriented by exploring the materials themselves as well. According to Barclay, to keep the large-scale pieces, which resemble textbook atomic structures, relatable in her installations, she uses childhood craft projects as a basis for the techniques used in assembling the work. Everyday objects that can be found in abundance in most households are the materials from which she has chosen to make all the three-dimensional forms, whether it is from vintage magazines and wallpapers, or string and other craft materials. These are often paired with paintings that explore these concepts in two-dimensional form and cross the boundaries between craft and fine art, making the work approachable and giving it a familiarity.
Although the physical work itself is important, the existing space in and around the piece is of equal importance. Honoring this, shadow, light and moving air can be properly showcased. For one body of work, this is where the idea of humidity comes in to play. Humidity is something that can be both seen and felt. The thought of air having weight and presence becomes more tangible once water vapor is added. The moving spheres made of household materials represent gas phase particles (atoms, molecules or ions) moving freely as if they escaped from the paintings paired with the three-dimensional work.
Barclay's other body of work Delainey Barclay is an oil painter and installation artist based in Wilmington, Delaware. Since receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Columbus College of Art and Design, she has maintained a working studio. She is also a founder of Project Space, an artist run gallery, installation lounge and studio space.
Barclay recently received a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts in visual arts for painting. She has also had solo exhibits, including the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts (2010); The Mezzanine Gallery, Wilmington, DE (2011); Project Space, Wilmington, DE (2012); and the Philadelphia Airport (2014). Featured group exhibitions include Gallery 37, Milford, DE (2014); Main Line Art Center, Philadelphia (2012, 2013); Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE (2012); Blue Streak Gallery, Wilmington DE (2012); Crane Hall, Philadelphia, PA (2012); and Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts (2003-2011).
Image: Space In Between (detail), Vintage Wallpaper, multi-media.
Kate Clements: Charade
In her work, Kate Clements explores the ambiguity of fashion-its capacity for imitation and distinction, its juxtaposition of the artificial and the natural. She sees the life cycle of fashion as a process of creative destruction by which the "new" replaces the "old," yet nothing is truly new. By the time a new style has been produced for mass consumption, it has been casted aside or even rejected by elite society as a bi-product of class division.
Her work focuses on what 'things' we choose to value and how and where we display them. The conventions of display and representation in the museum, the home, and the department store are not all that different. They create a sense of worth in the object through indicators such as velvet and boundaries to manipulate our desires. Clements' work expresses humor through the oddity of the work while simultaneously acknowledging sadness in recognizing the futility of many material objects.
Clements' choice of materials acknowledges and embraces ideas of imitation. Glass represents a counterfeit to jewels; wood vinyl covering cheap plywood creates the illusion of solid oak. Cut outs suggest the absence of an object that is no longer there, present only through its trace. These imitations and absences act as a veil of protection that is ultimately removed when the viewer discovers what attracts them to the work are deficiencies.
Kate Clements received her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2011 and came to Philadelphia in 2013 from the Midwest to pursue her MFA in glass at the Tyler School of Art of Temple University where she was awarded a University Fellowship. Clements has shown nationally at venues including the Bullseye Glass Galleries in Portland OR and the Bay Area, Leedy-Volkus Gallery and H&R Block Artspace in Kansas City, the Pittsburgh Glass Center, and the Bellevue Arts Museum in WA. Her work has been featured in Italian Vogue Gioiello magazine and she was recent recipient of the Academic Award from Bullseye Glass Emerge 2014, A Showcase of Rising and Evolving Talents in Kiln-Glass.
Image: Blue Frame II, 2104; kiln-fired glass
Robyn Weatherley: Trace
In an installation of new and recent works, Robyn Weatherley explores intangible remnants. She addresses concepts of passage, transition, and residual memory in relation to body, psyche and environment. Her imagined vestiges contemplate our unconscious and often invisible interactions with the world. From the seemingly mundane act of breathing to the emotional residues that may be left behind in the wake of a psychological experience, she aims to make visible some of what lies beyond the reaches of our ordinary senses. Her works range from a large installation of individual breaths captured in glass set adrift in delicate boats to works constructed through the meticulous build up and layering of very thin fragile shards of blown glass.
Weatherley approaches her works through the use of multiple techniques and processes in glass and mixed media. She focuses on glass as a material for its historical and conceptual relationship with perceptual devices such as lenses, windows and mirrors. Her use of blown and flame worked glass reflects the integral role the body, specifically the breath, plays in the creation of her work.
Robyn Weatherley earned a Master of Fine Arts in Glass at Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA in 2013, where she was also awarded a highly competitive Temple University Fellowship and Teaching Assistantship for the duration of her graduate studies. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with distinction at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, Canada in 2010. She has worked, studied in Canada, the United States and Scotland. Her work has been exhibited in Philadelphia, as well as Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa in Canada. Robyn currently lives and works in Calgary, Canada and serves as the Managing Editor of Contemporary Canadian Glass; Magazine of the Glass Art Association of Canada (GAAC).
Image: Adieu, 2012; blown glass, paper
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For press images, please contact Melissa Caldwell at [email protected] or call 215 545 4302
The Philadelphia Art Alliance is located at 251 S. 18th St., Philadelphia, PA 19103. For more information: Philartalliance.orgor 215-545-4302.
Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 11am-5pm; Saturday and Sunday 12-5pm
Admission: $5 for adults, $3 for students and seniors, free for members
The Philadelphia Art Alliance is dedicated to the advancement and appreciation of innovative contemporary art with a focus on craft and design, and to inspiring dynamic interaction between audiences and artists.
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