Our thirty-ninth post of the series, Artists in the Time of Coronavirus includes Black Moth Tattoo and Gallery, Jenson Leonard (@coryintheabyss), Niki Bombshell, Rita Bergevin, Ashley Flynn, Rob Lybeck, and Ephraim C. Brown! Thank you for all who submitted! And if you want to participate, send your statement (250 words max) and 2 photos to support@theartblog.org. More details here. Stay safe and stay positive, and come back in the days to come for more “Artists in the Time of Coronavirus.” We have a wonderful community and are so proud of being able to share everyone’s art.
[Note: We have gotten over 300 submissions, so if you haven’t seen yours yet, don’t worry- it is coming, and we can’t wait to post it!]
Black Moth Tattoo and Gallery
Our Arts Community Relief show, May 1st- June 30th, closing reception Friday, June 26th 6-9pm.
In response to the downturn Black Moth had to do something to help with the resources it has. We developed an exhibition exclusively featuring works by local artists to help put their art out there to the public to find a new collector or two. Art is our life and our lives need some significant support these days. These stressful times may dampen our spirits but it certainly won’t stop creators from creating. The past has shown us in difficult economic periods some of the most impacted are the arts and similar luxuries, albeit valuable components in society. This impromptu group exhibition is to bolster attention, to recognize and support local artists, with an immediate opportunity for sales. Art being a universal language, in that it transcends the spoken and written words, it communicates concepts, actions, and feelings to viewers proves it has value to all people. It portrays a time and place of a culture and society, reflecting the notions of past, present, and future, their values, accomplishments, hardships, and histories. It can portray an individual’s and/or group’s aesthetics and appreciations, which are equally fundamental as entertainment as well as for tranquility of mind and spirit. The arts keep life interesting, particularly for those that practice it, but for those that willingly as well as accidentally encounter it. Public works or private made visible to passersby add vibrancy to the environments we inhabit. Supporting the arts shouldn’t just a slogan the marketing heads slap on every campaign, but a reality for all to believe and engage in.
Invited Artists:
Suzanne Francis
Greg Jaskot
Stefanie Lieberman
Leah Macdonald
Jennifer L. Manzella
Gillian Pokalo
Lynnette Shelley
Don Shoffner
Christine Stoughton
Rita Siemienski Smith
https://www.facebook.com/events/923358494787652/
Jenson Leonard
My practice involves the intersection of poetry, conceptual art, and memes. Not unlike the earliest forms of spoken poetry, memes transmit our cultural memory. I scour the web for these preserves…the copies and reproductions of our collective digital id, dragging and dropping(sculpting) my findings into the Adobe Suite to create an intensive bricolage of JPEGS and PNG files that call into question just how poor the supposed “poor digital image” is. With my meme page, Cory In The Abyss, I am authoring an art that is responsive to the sensorial exhaustiveness of audiovisual capitalism. An art that, in the framework of predictive algorithms and data mining manages to be unpredictable and arresting. An art that, in its immateriality, resists the commodifying forces of the gallery system.The goal is not page growth, with all of its vile connotations, but instead the advancement of an art that doesn’t hide in the ivory tower, an art that is functionally populist in the face of today’s most advanced surveillance and carceral technologies and therefore serves to edify the people and not the collector class. Cory in The Abyss is a real time public interrogation into not just what it means to be a citizen in the United States, but what that suggests for our increasingly integrated digital selves.
Niki Bombshell
Born and raised in New Jersey, Niki has always had a creative eye. Since moving to Philadelphia almost 20 years ago; Miss Bombshell has become a bit of a Jacqueline of all trades when it comes to the art world. Niki started her art career in the Philadelphia underground at the early age of 19,Taken under the wing of a graffiti artist that will remain nameless, giving Niki gigs painting live at bars, warehouse parties, and underground art themed ragers. Since spending several years at Moore College of Art and Design to fine tune her craft and learn a few new ones, she took the fine arts route with her career for a few years. Niki then trained to become a curator at a Moore College of Art and Design. Graduating in 2015 she learned the ins and outs of how a gallery works, as well as the chaos behind it all that few people see. Niki’s last noted accomplishment was running an independent art study from her finished basement.
Miss Bombshell
nikibombshell.wix.com/nikibombshell
http://nikibombshell.tumblr.com/
Rita Bergevin
Thank you for giving me the opportunity as along time clinical nursing instructor to share my artwork with you. This is a mixed media portrayal of someone who is a carrier of the coronavirus. I have written a short poem which describes what he is portraying.
Rita Bergevin
email: rbergev@gmail.com
Ashley Flynn
Ashley Flynn is an artistic conduit the likes of which is rarely witnessed. Complex forms and images seem to be propelled by her hands onto paper, canvas, and whatever other surface is available. Her electric and invigorating use of color suits the neon bathed and flourecent shadowed 21st Century perfectly, tertiary color combinations for an age of hybrid amalgamations and digital static. Beast people dance and vogue, a royal rumpus of calvacadeing passions spills forth creating hard won personal mythologies,problematic narratives, and invigorating compositions. Ashleys art drips with sensuality, pathos, and cathartic vibes.
Art as nurturing therapy is central to Ashley’s practice. Whether raising her daughter, providing mentorship and healing at the Journaling for Survivors workshops at the Kensington Storefront, or conjuring art magic in and out of studios, Ashley is an example of an artist as an indomitable force of medicinal nature.
Rob Lybeck
Although ‘in-between’ back surgeries (due to the hospital’s
postponement of all surgical procedures during the length of the
coronavirus outbreak), I am taking advantage of the ‘free’ time by
continuing my life’s photographic passion of improving my digital
darkroom techniques.As a member of Da Vinci Art Alliance, I am missing several physical
gallery exhibitions and the networking and camaraderie that
accompanies them, let alone the possibilities that may have occurred.
Thankful that DVAA’s ‘Hindsight’ members Gallery 1 exhibition is
forthcoming on the July horizon, as well as this current arblog’s
#artistsinthetimeofcoronavirus virtual exhibition.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rob.lybeck.images/
Instagram: @roblybeck
Ephraim C. Brown
‘Coronavirus Warrior’ is a poignant new piece by metal and Assemblage
artist Ephraim C. Brown. This piece is meant to convey the weariness,
desperation and the “Thousand-Yard Stare” of a healthcare worker on
the front lines in the war against COVID-19. The face is deliberately
ambiguous and androgynous, meaning that the person behind the mask
could be anyone. This piece is meant to remind these brave and
dedicated individuals that their service, sacrifice and resilience is
noticed and appreciated, especially among the artistic community. The
iconic photographs, depictions and representations of healthcare
workers that we are now beginning to see may very well be the defining
images of our time and our struggle against an invisible adversary;
and it is justly so as there are few groups that are more worthy of
iconic status than these brave healthcare workers. This piece is for
them.Ephraim C. Brown is a metal and Assemblage artists from the Pacific
Northwest who works under the umbrella name of E.C. Brown Anomalies.
He utilizes found objects, recycled materials and CNC Plasma-cut
designs to create poignant, evocative and mesmerizing works.
