O’Neil’s method of creating his works is similar to that of musicians sampling sounds to create their compositions. O’Neil appropriates images, often times using amateur photos or images from instruction manuals as sources. The reproduced image is then washed with new color to create monochrome layers juxtaposed with other images. O’Neil’s method is reflected in the title of his first solo exhibit at K&W, ‘Collect. Consume. Rebuild.’ These colorful and emotional paintings have a storytelling quality that relates a narrative, yet still remain poetic, allowing the viewer to determine their interpretation.
‘Collect. Consume. Rebuild’ opens May 8 at Kelly & Weber Fine Art.
Kukuli Velarde references the pre-Columbian imagery of her native Peru to explore issues of colonization, as well as personal issues such as aging. Known and respected as a ceramics artist for works like her Isichapuitu series, which involved 74 variations on a 2,000 year-old Huastecan statue, Velarde now lives at Norris Square in Philadelphia, where for the last few years she has been exploring herself as a painter—a thing she once thought she would never do again. kukulivelarde.com, Saatchi Collection
Painter, builder, community activist, Ira Upin talks about making his large, modular paintings in his recent series ‘Random Thoughts’ and his life in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia since ‘77
a special studioscopic for POST and Uwishunu.com exploring The Crane Building in Fishtown/South Kensington featuring sculptor, co-founder of the Crane Building and Temple University professor, Nicholas Kripal. Semi-abstract large-scale painter Rebecca Saylor Sack, Candy Depew and Christopher Davison.
