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Eileen Goodman

Into Light

April 1 - 29

Keith Breitfeller

Respite

April 1 - 29

Short & Sweet III: Group Exhibition

Graham Cuddy, Henry Murphy, Kimi Pryor, Rhonda Wall and Nasir Young

March 1 - April 13

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Closed Wednesday 3/29 for Installation, See You Tomorrow!

Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 10 - 5 pm

127 S 16th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102

215 - 665 - 8138

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Blue Glasses And Dishware, 12.25″ x 12.25″, Watercolor On D’Arches Paper

Eileen Goodman: Into Light

In her latest solo exhibition, Into Light, Eileen Goodman’s watercolor facility is on bold display. Since her transition away from oil paint in the late ‘80s, Goodman has skillfully tamed this temperamental, aqueous media for use in her abundant, large-scale still life paintings. When creating work, she is focused on the basic components of observation, color, light, and shadow. It is only upon reflection, after deep shadows have defined their purpose, that possible interpretations come to light.

Beginning with an arrangement of objects, such as fresh flowers or vegetables, Goodman utilizes photography to preserve their appearance and capture a particular tone. She then crops and adjusts a printed version of the photograph to construct a desired composition. Once satisfied, the painting commences with washes of transparent pigments on white paper. Select areas are thoughtfully conserved for future highlights while the rest of the image is pushed into the paper, delineating shape and space.

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2020 L, 30" x 30", Oil On Canvas

Keith Breitfeller: Respite

Color and abstraction have been the driving forces in Keith Breitfeller’s studio practice since his formative years. His signature method encourages regular experimentation within a set of laid-out parameters and has evolved over time to produce a consistent body of simplified, gradient color field paintings.

Respite delivers a blissful array of Breitfeller’s quietly varied compositions. While works appear in different sizes and colors, inconspicuous differences occur beneath the persistent layers of ‘ticked’ spots that pulsate with chroma. Some paintings incorporate obscured shapes, creating shadowy forms when viewed from certain angles and lighting, while others are conceived as sets of rotating colors. Breitfeller also utilizes reflective materials, complementary or analogous color combinations, and expressive paint application. An intentional measure, the field of color stops short of the edges of the canvas, exposing a glimpse of the complex world beneath.

These details serve to draw the viewer into any number of imaginative experiences. One might feel they are being absorbed into a peaceful blizzard of blues, enveloped by a grove of blooming, pink dogwood trees, or showered...

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Henry Murphy, Tree, 6.25″ x 6.25″, Oil On Wood

Short & Sweet III: Group Exhibition

Gross McCleaf is pleased to present Short & Sweet III, a collection of mini-exhibitions featuring artworks by Graham Cuddy, Henry Murphy, Kimi Pryor, Rhonda Wall and Nasir Young.

Graham Cuddy finds pleasing color and design relationships in his quilt-like paintings. Reminiscent of domestic and functional Folk Art, his handkerchief-sized constructions involve delicately painted color blocks on natural linen, overlaid with distinct hand-stitched patterns of starbursts, grids, and curvilinear lines. 

Henry Murphy also takes cues from Folk Art and blends it with American Modernism in his representational paintings. His approach includes references as disparate as Grandma Moses and Fairfield Porter, Bill Trayor and Charles Burchfield. His pictures are sweet, painterly depictions of rural and urban locations. 

The city of Philadelphia is Nasir Young’s muse. His paintings are love letters to the many ordinary sights surrounding him, with every pavement crack and graffiti tag carefully represented. Each work is finely painted with care and honesty.

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Stuart Netsky featured in John Thornton's Artist Stuart Netsky, Beauty, Love, and Excess

Stuart Netsky, a 1995 Pew Fellow, has been a presence in the Philadelphia art scene for decades, and I finally got to meet him at his March 11th opening at Gross McCleaf. His new work, which combines the Rococo with psychedelia, is complex, beautiful and fabulously excessive!

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Elizabeth Geiger featured in John Thornton's Elizabeth Geiger, a Perceptual Painter Channels Cubism

Elizabeth Geiger is a superb still life painter and a member of the Perceptual Painters, a group known for working from direct observation. In her current show at Gross McCleaf, Liz is showing work with a distinctly Cubist inflection. I wanted to get to the roots of her apparent switch from perceptual to conceptual painting.

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