The patterns in these paintings are anti-pattern-and-decoration, armed for battle, and intense, made of knives and human hearts mixed with valentine hearts. They have ’50s color schemes and buzzy agitation. One of the wallpaper patters reminds me of some wallpaper my mother picked for the kitchen back in the ’50s. The cherries galore quickly beat her down and irritated her day in and day out for the next 10 years.
Local artist Brown has added girls and lace and Japanese marks to a retro text book, “Research Ideas for Young Scientists” (left). “I was thinking about how in science Asian women have taken more steps towards progress and leveling the field with men than other ethnicities,” she wrote in an email. The marks, like science, are Greek to most girls–but not to these Japanese school girls whom Brown added. The book, with its retro look, talks to Murphy’s drawings and to Bicht’s work in the front room.By the way, Brown also has work in “Philadelphia Cheek,” the show of young artists opening tomorrow at Seraphin Gallery, and she will be showing work at InLiquid’s Art for Cash Poor art sale Saturday (see post for more info).
Almost all the work in this group show interested me. The other artists are Donna Quinn, John Hyde, Steve D’Angelo, Elizabeth Bisbing, Colleen Toledano, Kay Campbell, and Elaine Ricklin. So if you miss the opening, call and visit.