Fran Gallun’s shimmering landscapes are showing at the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art. What’s that? you ask. It’s the art museum in Rodeph Shalom, which has put on some swell shows in the past. This show, Imagining Israel, is another reason to revisit (or visit) the place.
You may have seen some of this work in her recent solo show at Rosenfeld Gallery, and some in a 2009 solo show (reviewed on artblog) at Fleisher Art Memorial, where she has been teaching for 25 years.
Gallun’s landscape abstractions, spiritual quests for connection to ancestors and the land, have a Turner-like ability to mesmerize and suggest the ineffable. These works, mostly collages made of layered painted paper strips, sometimes with vintage photographs embedded, capture the ripple of oasis mirages in the desert in breathtaking technicolors, always barely out of reach but pulling and pulling toward an elusive resolution.
You don’t have to be Jewish to feel the vibe.
Imagined Israel: Mixed Media Paintings by Fran Gallun
Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art
Rodeph Shalom
615 N. Broad Street
to April 15
