Click play button above to see the video of Adelaide Paul
Courtesy of Pew Fellowships in the Arts

DOWNSTAIRS: 
March 5 – May 1, 2010

Coinciding with the 44th annual National Council for Education on the Ceramic Arts Conference in Philadelphia (March 31-April 3, 2010), Wexler Gallery proudly presentsThe Peaceable Queendom, an installation of new work by Philadelphia based sculptor Adelaide Paul in the main gallery space.   The exhibition will run from March 5th through May 1st, 2010.  *An opening reception with the artist will take place on First Friday, April 2nd, from 5-8pm.

Exploring the idea that American culture posits an alternately sentimental and callous relationship between humans and both domesticated and wild animals, Adelaide Paul’s The Peaceable Queendom will include life-sized interpretations of animate beings such as mountain lions, dogs and horses.  Having stated that “muscle is meat and, on great many levels, so are we,” the artist poses her animal subjects in provocative positions, often mirroring human characteristics and emotions.  Working with both found and fabricated materials, such as taxidermy manikins and brightly colored leather, the artist’s most recent body of work begs the viewer to consider the relationship between the consumer, consumed, and consummated, evoking multiple possibilities as to just who is consumed. 

In the artist’s own words:

Paul has a BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and an MFA from Louisiana State University.  Her work can be found in the collections of The Museum of Art + Design, NYC, The Riverside Art Museum, CA, The Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, NY, and The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.  She is the recipient of the PEW Fellowship in the Arts (2007), The Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Grant (2005), the Window of Opportunity Grant from the Leeway Foundation (2004 and 2002), a Residency at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA (2001) and the PEW Fellowship in the Arts (2007).   Paul currently lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.

UPSTAIRS:
March 5 – May 1, 2010

Wexler Gallery is proud host The Hermaphrodites: Living In Two Worlds, a group show curated by Leslie Ferrin, owner of Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield, MA.  The exhibition will take place on the gallery’s second floor and will run from March 5th through May 1st, 2010.  *An opening reception will take place on First Friday, April 2nd, from 5-8pm.  

The Hermaphrodites: Living In Two Worlds will focus on figural sculpture that both embodies the literal definition of hermaphrodites (encompassing both genders) and the conceptual nature of the term as it applies to sculpture that can be categorized equally as contemporary fine art sculpture or decorative art.  The exhibition will concentrate on contemporary artists working with ceramics, who also adopt other processes, materials, and techniques commonly found outside of their discipline. 

Featured artists will include Chris Antemann, Christie Brown, Jason Briggs, Beth Cavener Stichter, Cynthia Consentino, Anne Drew Potter, Judy Fox, Gerit Grimm, Bridget Harper, Sergei Isupov, Myungjin Kim, Dana Major Kanovitz, Matt Nolen, Kelly Garrett Rathbone, Dirk Staschke, Tip Toland, Jason Walker, Kurt Weiser, Red Weldon Sandlin, and Irina Zaytceva. 

According curator Leslie Ferrin:

“The artists in this exhibition produce sculpture that is categorically often confusing when placed in private or public collections.  Depending on the curatorial mission of the institution or vision of the collector, works by these artists can be found in contemporary collections of fine art, decorative arts and even at times, design.  The title of the show was chosen to first draw attention from its social meaning and then challenge its interpretation from various metaphorical perspectives.”

Located in downtown Pittsfield in the heart of the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Ferrin Gallery is a national leader in the presentation of contemporary sculpture with a focus on narrative and social content by artists specializing in ceramics and mixed media.  Established in 1979, the gallery presents changing exhibitions featuring contemporary art, photography and sculpture from throughout the region along with nationally known ceramic sculptors and studio potters. For additional information, please visit www.ferringallery.com. 

Wexler Gallery is an internationally recognized gallery exhibiting the finest in art and design, located at 201 North Third Street in the historical district of Old City Philadelphia.  The gallery is proud to showcase some of the world’s most esteemed artists working in the fields of contemporary glass, paintings, and design, along side emerging talent from these fields. For high resolution images or additional information, please contact Sienna@wexlergallery.com or call (215) 923-7030, or visit www.wexlergallery.com.

Wexler Gallery and Ferrin Gallery are honored to be working together to present this important exhibition during the 2010 NCECA Conference.  For further information about The National Council for Education on the Ceramic Arts please explore www.nceca.net or call 1-866-266-2322. 

January 4 – February 27, 2010

PHILADELPHIA-   Wexler Gallery presents a survey of contemporary studio furniture including works by Timothy S. Philbrick, Silas Kopf, Tom Huang, Wendy Stayman, John Dunnigan, and more.  Historic pieces by master glass artists such as Mark Peiser and Joel Philip Myers will also be on view.  The show will run from January 4 – February 27, 2010.  *An opening reception will take place First Friday, February 5, 2010 from 5 – 8pm.

The exhibition will include one-of-a-kind or limited production furniture objects designed and produced by local and national artists.  Blurring the line between sculpture, craft, and design, featured objects will explore boundaries between the functional and dysfunctional and the representational and abstract. 

Wexler Gallery is an internationally recognized gallery exhibiting the finest in art and design.  We are proud to showcase some of the world’s most esteemed artists working in the fields of contemporary glass, ceramics, jewelry, and studio furniture.

As specialists in contemporary and historic glass, Wexler Gallery serves a wide client base including established collectors looking for specific pieces to enhance their collections, as well as those individuals just beginning to acquire contemporary glass. Our gallery glass collection includes pieces by master glass artists such as Howard Ben Tre, Tom Patti, Dan Dailey, Harvey Littleton, William Morris, and more.  Alongside the masters, visitors will find extraordinary glass works by today’s emerging talent.

On the second floor of the gallery WALLS at Wexler presents a salon type environment featuring outstanding, affordable paintings, prints and photography.  Visitors will find rotating exhibitions highlighting works by Tanja Softic, Jenny E. Balisle, Chiyomi Longo, Lisa Tyson Ennis, Margot Nimiroski, Mark Bennion, and more.

Wexler Gallery is located at 201 North Third Street in the historical district of Old City Philadelphia. We invite you to visit our gallery or explore our website at www.wexlergallery.com. For high resolution images or additional information, please contact Sienna@wexlergallery.com or call (215) 923-7030.

Wexler Gallery
November 6 – December 24

PHILADELPHIA- In the main gallery space, WALLS at Wexler proudly presents Migrant Garden, an exhibition of recent paintings and works on paper by Bosnian artist Tanja Softic.  An Opening Reception will take place on First Friday, December 4th, from 5 – 8pm. 

Tanja Softic's prints and paintings bring a unique perspective to the universal concepts of life and death, nature and shelter, and memory and identity.  While earning her MFA in the United States, war broke out in the artist’s homeland.  The Bosnian war left Softic a refugee, permanently altering the identity both of her homeland and herself. 
At this point, Softic’s work began to contemplate the effects of time and change and how these experiences are remembered in human terms as well as in nature. Observing the anatomy of plants, animals, medical instruments, utilitarian objects, and architecture, Softic often juxtaposes iconographic images of the natural world with man made environments and tools.   Through her multi layered and richly textured work, the artist seeks to explore the “places where artistic, literary and scientific methods of inquiry interface.”  The artist says her “composite images reflect the fragmented, complicated natures of both memory and the contemporary living experience.”

Migrant Universe, the artist’s most recent series, “addresses factors of cultural hybridity that shape the identity and world view of an immigrant: exile, longing, translation, and memory.”  Referencing both visual and conceptual ideas about maps, star charts, and other interpretations of scale and distance, the artist believes these drawings and prints “suggest a displaced existence: fragmented memories, adaptation, revival, and transformation.”

Softic’s work has been exhibited extensively in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa and can be found in many prominent collections.  She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including the 1996 National Endowment for the Arts / Southern Arts Federation Visual Artist Fellowship and the Open Society Institute Exhibition Support Grant in 1997.  Softic has a BFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in the University Of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and an MFA from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.  She is currently Associate Director of Art at the University of Richmond, VA.

SOFA Chicago 2009
Wexler Gallery – Booth #520

SOFA Chicago 2009
NOVEMBER 6 – 8, 2009
OPENING NIGHT PREVIEW, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5

Festival Hall, Navy Pier
600 E. Grand Ave
Chicago, IL 60611

Wexler Gallery will proudly exhibit at SOFA Chicago 2009.  This year, we will be showcasing three very exciting bodies of work.  Along with an important group of historic secondary market glass pieces, we will showcase a brand new series by master glass artist Mark Peiser and a recent body of work by ceramic artist Dirk Staschke. 

Mark Peiser will discuss his newest body of work, Palomar Series, at our booth #520 on Friday, November 6th at 1pm.  This stunning body of work represents a culmination of almost every technique Peiser has invented, explored, and mastered throughout his career, which has spanned over 40 years.

For additional information, please visit http://www.sofaexpo.com/chicago/2009/visitor.htm. 

September 4 - October 31

Wexler Gallery is proud to present The Self & Beyond, a group show curated by Sienna Freeman, Associate Director of the Wexler Gallery.  The exhibition explores the idea of self as experienced through the body- an organic and temporary vessel in which the psyche is housed during life.  Featured artists include Kiki Smith, Dana Major Kanovitz,
Monica Cook and Melanie Bilenker.  The exhibition will run from September 4th through October 31st, 2009.  An opening reception will take place on First Friday, September 4th, from 5 – 8pm.

Working in a variety of mediums, these four artists explore the idea of self as dualistic in nature: internal and external, physical and spiritual, private and public, cognizant and unaware.  Linked by a common desire to investigate the territories between these places, each creates work that often mirrors their own physical likeness while examining wider issues concerning identity, mortality, sexuality, and human nature. 

Drawing on theories of embodiment from the fields of psychology, sociology, and philosophy, the exhibition also considers the idea of self in relation to the theme of “the double,” a subconscious representation of one’s ego.  Often associated with the uncanny, “a form of terror that leads back to something long known to us, once very familiar," the double has been referenced throughout history in literature and art,  assuming various forms including shadow, reflection, mirror, and twin. 

One of the most influential artists of her generation, Kiki Smith has challenged ideas regarding the body as both subject and object for over 30 years.  Using a broad spectrum of materials to create sculpture, prints, and installation works, Smith explores the often unsettling relationship between body and psyche with a continued interest in self portraiture.  Referencing themes commonly found in folklore and mythology, much of her work reflects on personal mortality, bodily decay, and symbolic relationships between humans and animals. 

The daughter of American sculptor Tony Smith, Smith was born in Germany and grew up in New Jersey.  Her work can be found in numerous prominent museum collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.  Smith has exhibited work in three Whitney Biennials and has been the recipient of many distinguished awards including the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture in 2000.  The artist presently lives and works in New York City.

Sculptor Dana Major Kanovitz is an artist who believes “perception and possibility, as much as circumstance, create the self.”  Her creations, haunting life-sized figures of unclad women wielding long blond hair and piercing eyes, bear a striking resemblance to the artist herself.   Interacting with their environment by crouching in corners, dangling on a window ledge, or floating suspended in mid air, her figures “examine a single moment’s particular alchemy of perception, possibility, and reality; they are portraits of an instant of the self.”

With a background in ceramics, Kanovitz earned a BA in Philosophy from De Paul University in Chicago in 1991.  She then completed an 18 month professional apprenticeship in sculpture with master sculptor Alexander Zadorin of the Muhkinskya Institute of Art in St. Petersburg, Russia.  Kanovitz has shown extensively throughout the United States at galleries and museums including Leslie Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield, MA, The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA and the Kentucky Museum of Art + Design in Louisville, KY.  She has also exhibited work at international art fairs including SOFA Chicago and Bridge Art Fair in Miami.  The artist presently lives and works in Chicago. 

Monica Cook paints hyper realistic portraits of female figures, often using herself as subject.  With an interest in capturing the subtle qualities flesh, Cook is “fascinated by how history is trapped in the skin: the stories told in lines etched into faces, bruises and scars from their past.”  Heightening the details on and in the flesh, Cook aims to enhance the mortal presence of the subject and create “a tension between the psychological complexity of the person and their raw humanness.”  

Born in Dalton, GA, Cook earned a BA in painting from the Savannah college of Art and Design.  She recently concluded a residency at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where she presently lives and works. Cook’s paintings have shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions at museums and galleries worldwide, including the Moti Hasson Gallery in New York City, the King Bridge Biennial at The Columbus Museum in Columbus, GA, and the Marcia Wood Gallery in Atlanta, GA.  Her work can be found in many prominent collections and has been reviewed in numerous international publications including Art in America, Le Figaro, Elle Magazine, and New American Paintings.

Melanie Bilenker is a Philadelphia based artist who creates tiny wearable self-portraits from clippings of her own hair, cast in resin and set in precious metals.  Referencing Victorian hair work of the mid-nineteenth century, Bilenker uses the physical remnants of her body to secure memories of “quiet minutes, the mundane, the domestic, and the ordinary moments” in her life.  Her jewelry pieces, which often depict the artist in the mist of intimate activities such as brushing her teeth, taking a nap, drawing a bath, or reading a book, are both adornment for the body and commentary on its ultimate decay. 

Melanie Bilenker earned a BFA in Crafts with a concentration in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia.   Her work can be found in the permanent collection of the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC and has been included in various exhibitions at the Saatchi Gallery in London, UK, the San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design, CA, the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, and the Museum of Art + Design, NY.  Her work has also been featured in numerous publications including Metalsmith Magazine's recent Exhibition in Print, American Craft Magazine, and Lark Books' 1000 Rings and 500 Brooches.

Anthony Tammaro
Technology Meets Creativity

October 2 - 31, 2009

In correlation with DesignPhiladelphia 2009, Wexler Gallery proudly presents an exhibition of innovative jewelry by cutting edge designer Anthony Tammaro on its second floor.  

The exhibition will run October 2 - 31, 2009.  *An opening reception and artist talk will take place on Friday, October 9th, from 5 - 8pm.  During this event, a very special piece by the artist will be auctioned off with 10% of all proceeds to benefit DesignPhiladelphia.

Anthony Tammaro is an artist whose “endeavors include the pursuit of beauty and truth, the creation of aesthetic wearability, the union of movement, body, and objects.”  Interested in exploring the limits of working with innovative new materials and processes, Tammaro takes advantage of a number of technological advances which have developed over the past decade. A designer of both couture and production jewelry, much of Tammaro’s inspiration is drawn from nature, with a fondness for undersea creatures of the mollusk family.

Tammaro earned an MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Pennsylvania and a BFA from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia.  Consistently exhibiting work at galleries on a national level, Tammaro also acts as a consultant for several innovative design companies.  His work has been reviewed by international publications including ELLE Magazine.  He presently lives and works in Conshohocken, PA. 

The artist’s fist solo exhibition at Wexler Gallery will include neckpieces from his MFA thesis collection as well as new work he has created since graduating from the Tyler School of Art in 2008.  Also on view will be a number of large-scale photographic prints of the artist’s work, shot by renowned art photographer Adam Wallacavage.

The Wexler Gallery is located at 201 North Third Street in the historical district of Old City Philadelphia. We invite you to visit our gallery or explore our website, www.wexlergallery.com.  For high resolution images or additional information, please contact Sienna@wexlergallery.com or call (215) 923-7030.

Historic Works from the Collection of Joel Philip Myers & New Acquisitions

WEXLER GALLERY
July 3 – August 29, 2009

Wexler Gallery proudly presents an exhibition of important works by master glass artists.  Joel Philip Myers, this year’s recipient of the Millville Rose Society Award from the Creative Glass Center of America at WheatonArts, will be highlighted during the exhibition. A public opening reception will take place on First Friday, July 3rd from 5 – 8pm. 

This historic exhibition will include works from Joel Philip Myers’ personal collection from 1971 to the present. Myers’ work is best known for its expert craftsmanship and exceptional sense of design. According to the artist, his approach to glass is to “allow the material an expression of its own…Press the material to the utmost and it will suggest ideas and creative avenues to the responsive artist." (Joel Philip Myers, Craft Horizons, March/April 1974).

In the early 1990’s, Myers took a break from exhibiting his work in order to take the time to "search for new directions which would require extensive experimentation." This time of maturation marks a period where the artist, who generally focused on themes such as the natural world, landscapes, rivers, and flowers, began to focus on ideas related to “the conditions of our humanity." While the first pieces from this series deal with darker human concepts such as pain, war and suffering, by the late 1990’s Myers had begun two new series called Dialogue and Enticement, which are "more optimistic and cheerful, even amusing." His most recent body of work, the Color Study Series, is an exploration and celebration of the artist’s “long love relationship with color.”

Myers graduated with honors from the Department of Advertising Design at Parsons School of Design in 1954. After spending a year studying ceramic design in Copenhagen, Denmark, Myers earned both a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, NY. From 1963 to 1970, Myers served as Director of Design at Blenko Glass Company, in Milton, WV. From 1970 to 1997, he served as Distinguished Professor of Art at Illinois State University, Normal, IL. Myers has an extensive list of students, including David Huchthausen, who went on to establish themselves as noteworthy artists. His work can also be found in the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Decorative Art, Prague, Australian Crafts Council, and Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Japan. Myers lives and works in Marietta, PA.

In the main space, Wexler Gallery presents “NEOTERIC MATTER 2: New Studio Jewelry,” a juried exhibition curated by Daniella Kerner, Associate Professor at Tyler School of Art, Temple University.  Show runs May 1 – June 27, 2009.  An Opening Reception will take place on First Friday, May 1st from 5 – 8pm.

Coinciding with the 2009 Society of North American Goldsmith's Conference in Philadelphia, PA (May 20-23, 2009), the group exhibition will feature national and international artists whose work pushes the boundary of their craft beyond decoration using new media and digital technology.   

According to Kerner; “Jewelry as an art form for creative, personal, and artistic expression has served as documentation for all civilizations.  Jewelry demonstrates the tools, technologies, and materials of the times.  (It) describes attitudes and values of mankind’s respective social systems and cultures.”  

Myra Mimlitsch-Gray
anti/icono/clastic

May 1 – June 27, 2009

Opening Reception:
First Friday, May 1st
 5 – 8pm

On the second floor, Wexler Gallery presents anti/icono/clastic, a retrospective of work by experimental metalsmith and sculptor Myra Mimlitsch-Gray.  The exhibition will featureimportant works from the artist’s personal collection from 1995 to the present. 

Myra Mimlitsch-Gray engages craft as object, image, and subject, challenging traditional ideals of household articles and their forms.  Interested in “material culture and how objects are positioned within the social hierarchy,” much of Gray’s work investigates “an artifact’s evolution from utilitarian object to social image.”  Blurring the line between craft, fine art, and design, Myra Mimlitsch-Gray’s objects are explorations of the functional and dysfunctional and the representational and abstract. 

Using both semi-precious and precious metals, much of Gray’s work also poses questions about process, production, execution, and imperfection found in the “hand-made.”  In the artists own words:  “I am interested in explorations that empower making and extend the consideration of artifacts, their surrounding circumstances. I investigate distinctions between the sideboard and the pedestal as site; between materials, such as silver and copper; between methods, such as hand-fabrication and other modes of production that yield multiples or a single object. I seek to empower making as content.”

Myra Mimlitsch-Gray is Professor of Art at the State University of New York at New Paltz.  She received her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1986, and her BFA from Philadelphia College of Art in 1984. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including Individual Artist Fellowships from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation (1995), the National Endowment for the Arts (1994), and the New York Foundation for the Arts (1997, 2005).  She received a scholarship for a Residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in 1999, and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship in 1992. In 1998 she was awarded a Chancellor's Medal for Excellence in Teaching at the State University of New York. She recently completed an Arts/Industry Residency at Kohler Company (2007), where she explored sculptural work in cast iron and brass.

Her work can be found in the following Public Collections: the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Cranbrook Art Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Greater Lafayette Museum of Art, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Mint Museum of Craft and Design, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Racine Art Museum, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, the Royal College of Art, the Renwick Gallery-National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England

Dirk Staschke
Making Arrangements

March 6 – April 25

In the main gallery space, Wexler Gallery presents “Making Arrangements,” an exhibition of new work by ceramic artist Dirk Staschke.  Show runs from March 6 – April 25, 2009.  *An Opening Reception will take place on First Friday, March 6th from 5 – 8pm.

Dirk Staschke is ceramicist and sculptor who weaves subtle allegory into a timeless art form.  According to the artist much of his work is “based in human figuration and at times references sculptural history as well as contemporary culture. Often, the work combines these incongruent elements in a manner that asserts larger questions with anthropological undertones… the end result is an odd symbiosis of past and present.” 

Figurative, architectural, and ornamental in nature, Staschke’s work often explores lines between the rational and irrational, the beautiful, and the grotesque.  His most recent body of work is formally and figuratively about consumption, meditating on the thought that we as people constantly consume ideas as well as products.  

In his most recent statement about this body of work, the artist writes: 

“As a species, our arrangements are centered on organizing the planet to fit our needs and desires. We arrange our finances, property, affairs, health, and our eventual end. Along the way we rearrange material resources, usually transforming them into wealth. The cycle is complete, or is it?

In the studio I arrange shape and form, creating opportunities for light and shadow (and perhaps wealth). These arrangements are informed by the mundane ritual of eating that is long celebrated in ceramics. Unlike the potter whose empty dishes present an opportunity, my settings come prearranged as opulent, inedible meals that are simultaneously beautiful and disgusting. In this process, sustenance becomes merely a concept forever locked in its sculptural form and eating becomes a metaphor for excessive material consumption.

Like an extravagant meal, the arrangements we make to further our desires can come with painful unintended consequences. My recent body of work explores notions of gluttony and cultural excess.”

Staschke’s work has exhibited at many esteemed venues and can be found in the permanent collection of The Renwick Alliance in Washington, DC.  Recently, an important piece by the artist was accepted into The 6th World Ceramic Biennale 2009 Korea (CEBIKO). This international event focuses on defining new values and creative direction for the 21st century ceramic arts. Out of 4000 international entries 120 works were chosen.  

Morgan Craig
Prescience

March 6 – April 25

On the second floor of the gallery, WALLS at Wexler Gallery presents “Prescience,” an exhibition of recent works by Philadelphia based painter Morgan Craig.  Show runs from March 6 – April 25, 2009.  *An Opening Reception will take place on First Friday, March 6th from 5 – 8pm.

Morgan Craig creates large-scale paintings of dilapidated and abandoned interior spaces, often portraying the ruins of urban dwellings, factories, asylums, and penitentiaries.  Dramatically composed and sharply rendered, Craig’s paintings are illustrated with an intense sense of light, capturing the energy, movement, and spirit of each space.

In search of capturing the essence of lost time, Craig believes “that the interior of a ruin conveys an even stronger sentiment of mortality, absence, and presence than the exterior… the interiors of these stark monoliths develop a character that is inherently human.” The artist quotes French author Marcel Proust in his statement on this body of work:  “The past is hidden somewhere outside the realm, beyond the reach of intellect, in some material object (in that sensation which that material object will give us) of which we have no inkling. And it depends on chance whether or not we come upon this object before we ourselves must die.” 

Wexler Gallery presents an exhibition of Technology Driven Design by jewelry artist Doug Bucci and furniture maker Gabriel Romeu.  Show runs November 7 – December 27, 2008.  An Opening Receptionwill take place on First Friday, November 7th from 5 – 8pm. 

Douglas Bucci designs original jewelry pieces using CAD and cutting edge production processes, such as rapid prototyping.  A CAD/CAM/RP consultant and designer for several national companies since 1995, Bucci views his process as one that allows for a creative freedom unfound in traditional hand-made jewelry methods. 

In addition to CAD work, the artist has spent much of his time teaching Jewelry, Metalsmithing, Stone setting/ Lapidary, and Blacksmithing to a variety of age groups. Bucci has an MFA from The Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia and currently teaches at Tyler School of Art and The University of the Arts in Philadelphia.   

Gabriel L. Romeu is a self taught jeweler, painter, stone carver, metalworker and woodworker.   Working in industry as a machinist, glazier, mechanic, and carpenter, prepared his later penchant for diverse methods of approaching design problems. 

He studied a liberal arts curriculum, with an emphasis in philosophy, at Penn State and Temple University. His formal art education includes intaglio at the Fleisher Art Museum in Philadelphia, photography at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester and lampworking at the Experimental Glass Workshop in Brooklyn.   Romeu’s has been shown in the United States and Japan and can be found in a number of private and corporate collections.

The Wexler Gallery is located at 201 North Third Street in the historical district of Old City Philadelphia. We invite you to visit our gallery or explore our website at www.wexlergallery.com.  For high resolution images or additional information, please contact Sienna@wexlergallery.com or call (215) 923-7030.

Wexler Gallery presents an exhibition of new work by innovative furniture artist Matthias Pliessnig. The artist’s first solo, the exhibition will run from September 5 – November 1, 2008. An opening reception will take place on First Friday, September 5th from 5 – 8pm.

Pliessnig is a designer and builder questioning what is furniture and what is wood. An artist trying to stay “truer to the material, by utilizing the elastic possibilities of the material,” Pliessnig combines boat building techniques with furniture building techniques. Much of his work meditates on the thought that “for centuries we've been subverting wood to our will; lumber mills and furniture factories spit out rectilinear shapes that fit nicely onto trucks, but have little to do with the inherent properties of a tree."

Pliessnig has a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and just recently earned his MFA in Furniture Design/Sculpture from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

The Wexler Gallery is located at 201 North Third Street in the historical district of Old City Philadelphia. We invite you to visit our gallery or explore our website at www.wexlergallery.com.  For high resolution images or additional information, please contact Sienna@wexlergallery.com or call (215) 923-7030.

Recent works by emerging glass artists Greg Nangle, Nicole Ayliffe, Holly Grace, Taliaferro Jones, Josh Cole, and others will also be on view. 

The Materialise.MGX Collection is now on view and available for purchase at the Wexler Gallery!  Please contact the gallery for additional information.

Designed by Patrick Jouin
Technique: SLS
Material: Polyamide (nylon)
Color: white
Folded position: length 25 ¾”  * diam 4 ¼”
Seated position: height 16” * diam 13”

(CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE WORK)

Joel Philip Myers

Taliaferro Jones
Water within Water

Jenny E. Balisle
Paintings & Drawings

April 6th – May 29th

PHILADELPHIA- Wexler Gallery presents “Man Made: In the Natural World”, an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Bosnian artist Tanja Softic juxtaposed withsculptural and turned wood objects by Ron Fleming, George Peterson, Thierry Martenon,Louise Hibbert and more.  The wood portion of this exhibition is brought to the gallery in conjunction with The Wood Turning Center.

Featured in the upstairs gallery, “Timeless Design: A Marriage of New Technology and Classic Modernism”, an exhibition of new rapid prototyping designs and lighting by the Belgium design group MGX.Materialise along with classic modern furniture of the 1950's-70's.

(CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE WORK)

March 2 – 31st

Wexler Gallery presents an exhibition of contemporary European and American glass featuring works by Bertil Vallian, Thermon Statum, Roger Paramore andHiroshi Yamano. 

Included in this exhibition are early pieces by world renowned glass artists William Morris, Tessa Clegg, Hank Adams and William Carlson. 

Holiday Hours: Tuesday December 26th through Saturday December 30th, 11am – 5pm

DEAN PULVER:
fINE fURNITURE

WEXLER GALLERY

November 3rd – December 29th

PHILADELPHIA:  Wexler Gallery presents an exhibition of fine furniture by artist Dean Pulver and wearable sculpture by Marilyn Arnold Palley.  Show runs from November 3rd through December 29th. 

Dean Pulver, a child of Japanese and American heritage, creates one-of-a-kind furniture pieces with design aesthetics drawing from many diverse cultures.  Hand carved and heavily manipulated, his highly sculptural but functional objects evoke the spirit of primitive art.  Using a variety of exotic woods and natural dyes, his work contemplates the universal ideas of silence, control, texture, form, and man’s interaction with material.

With a BFA in Sculpture from the Philadelphia College of Art in Philadelphia (now the University of the Arts), Pulver has exhibited work in numerous solo and group exhibitions through out the country.  Select exhibitions include:   Fuller Craft Museum, "Cut It Out", Brockton, MA (2005), Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, Philadelphia, PA (2003), "Furniture As Art",Guild.com, Madison, WI (2000), "Wood", Berkshire Artisans Gallery, Pittsfield, MA (1995), and "Sculpture On The Creek", Martin's Creek Sculpture Park, PA (1993).

Marilyn Arnold Palley, a fiber artist for over 30 years, is well known for both her large sculptural pieces and her art to wear.  Her most recent body of work, Wearable Sculptures, blurs the line between object and adornment.  Using semiprecious stones including Amber along with materials such as silver, gold, plastic resin, bakelite, and wood, the artist creates unique three dimensional pieces.  These wearable objects called “Totems”  beg to be touched, held, and examined, creating a tactile experience between the object and the viewer. 

Palley, a graduate of Philadelphia College of Textiles & Sciences, has shown work at many prestigious institutions including the Philadelphia Art Alliance (1973), the National Council of Jewish Women, NJ (1973-78), and the Reese Palley Gallery, Atlantic City, NJ (1974-85). Marilyn Arnold Palley will be having a major one woman exhibition at The Danish Museum of Decorative Art (Copenhagen) in 2007.

The Wexler Gallery is an internationally recognized gallery showcasing the finest in contemporary glass, studio furniture, ceramics, jewelry and decorative arts. We are proud to represent some of the world’s most esteemed artists working today, including Wendell Castle, Albert Paley, William Harper and Dale Chihuly.

The newest addition to the gallery is WALLS at Wexler, featuring outstanding, affordable paintings, prints and photography. Visitors will find rotating group exhibitions on two floors of the gallery.  

SOFA Chicago 2006, Booth #821

New Acquisitions in historic & Contemporary Glass

William Morris
Side-Striped Vessel, 2000
Hand-blown glass with powder
7 X 5 X 11”

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Chris Anderson
Family Stories: Historical Dislocations in the Domestic Landscape

WEXLER GALLERY

PHILADELPHIA:  WALLS at Wexler Gallery is proud to present an exhibition of new work by painter Chris Anderson.  Included in this show are select pieces from Anderson’s Family Stories: Historical Dislocations in the Domestic Landscape.  Family Stories reflects Anderson’s personal experience living in rural and suburban America and growing up with its myths, pleasures and banalities. Using an inherited treasure of family artifacts – tiny objects, old photographs, books, newspaper clippings – as her muse, Family Stories contemplates American cultural traditions, ideas and ideals in the American home.  Show runs from October 5th through October 28th.

Anderson studied visual art in Rome, Italy at the Tyler School of Art; in New York at the Pratt Institute of Art; in California, at Scripps College (BA) and the Claremont Graduate University (MFA).

From 1996 through 1998, Anderson lived and worked as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in the Arts in Berlin. The Fulbright Commission awarded her a lecturing/research grant as the only visual artist among over a hundred grantees.  Other awards and honors for her work include fellowship grants from The National Endowment for the Arts (Painting), New York Foundation for the Arts (Painting), Artists Space (Artist's Grant), Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation (Painting), New York State Council on the Arts (CAPS Grant), and many research and scholarship awards, including several from The City University of New York and The Council for International Exchange of Scholars (Fulbright).

Ed Zucca

Sculptural Doorstops

Leah Woods

A Personal Wardrobe

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Wexler Gallery is proud to announce an exhibition of new work by innovative furniture artists Ed Zucca and Leah Woods.  Featured in this show are select pieces from Zucca’s sculptural doorstop series as well as seven new furniture pieces by Leah Woods.  Show runs from May 5th- May 27th 2006.

The imaginative furniture of Ed Zucca stems from his early fascination with structure and design.  Zucca, who describes himself as an "artist who works in the medium of furniture," uses mostly native hardwoods and often includes non-traditional materials such as metal, Plexiglas, and fur.  His pieces, which generally revolve around themes involving robots, televisions, spacecraft, and extraterrestrials, are included in several prominent public collections, such as the permanent collections of The Connecticut Commission on the Arts and The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  

Leah Woods is best known for her one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture that play with ideas relating to surprise, mystery, and expectation. She integrates these ideas with the forms and functions of cabinets, desks, and seating to create unexpected, thought provoking environments.  Inspired by fashion images and concepts, much of Woods’s recent work contemplates the idea of fashion as fetish as well as a form of 'personal transfiguration'. 

The Wexler Gallery is proud to present an exhibition of new works by ceramic artist Dirk Staschke.  A percentage of the proceeds from this exhibition will be donated to The Clay Studio in Philadelphia.  Show runs March 3rd, May 2nd 2006.

Included in this show are select pieces from Staschke’s “Ornament” and “Fruits of Labor” series.  The artist states that “the majority of the work is based in human figuration and at times references sculptural history as well as contemporary culture. Often, the work combines these incongruent elements in a manner that asserts larger questions with anthropological undertones ranging from social to political. The end result is an odd symbiosis of past and present.”

With an MFA from Alfred University, Staschke has taught at a variety of institutions such as New York University, Nassau Community College, and the University of Montevallo.  His exceptional ceramic sculptures have been featured in numerous exhibitions across the country, including solo shows at Philadelphia’s Wexler Gallery in 2004 and New York’s John Elder Gallery in 2003.

Dirk Staschke on his “Ornament” series:

Being a child of postmodernism, I feel somewhat conflicted by the opposing notions of beauty. My thoughts about ornament oscillate between that of a sumptuous sanctity of beauty and superfluous crap. My skepticism of manmade beauty stems from the daily bombardment of images and objects that have been studied and refined to fit my specific demographic and price point.  At times it seems that beauty is only a formula for enticing consumption. We also consume ideas as well as products.

The larger scale and pristine surfaces in my work are reminiscent of public sculpture. Unlike public sculpture, my work incorporates ornament and the figure by reconfiguring and distorting them in order to build sculptures that convey an irrationality of form without regard for setting or context. Figures are often shorn off unexpectedly or joined in a strange and grotesque manner. It is this overlay of the rational and irrational, the beautiful and the grotesque, that most interests me.

Historically, public sculptures serve to commemorate or adorn with an underlying ideology or paradigm e.g. (monuments to political figures, war heroes or saints). I am removing ornamental sculpture from its original context of beautifying a building or symbolizing an idea and reorienting it into a freestanding sculptural object.  My sculptures are devoid of recognizable attributes of specific individuals and in doing so question traditional notions of fame and greatness.

We form society collectively but experience it individually.  In this aspect, the work is also an open-ended question concerning how we as individuals fit into the larger context of society.” – Dirk Staschke, 2006

Dirk Staschke on his “Fruits of Labor (blue and whites)” series:

“My work has been motivated by societal observations that typically involve paradox and irony. In this body of work, I am interested in the tension between our need for cultural specificity and the effects of increasing globalization.

My current sculpture is subtly informed by a trip to China in the fall of 2004 and by the history of chinoiserie ceramics. Chinoiseries are European decorative works produced under the influence of Chinese art in the 17th and 18th centuries. At that time the Chinese also started making works that catered to European tastes. It is this crosspollination of ideas that most interests me about this period. Through the exchange of ideas, each respective culture becomes a little more like the other. Chinoiserie ceramics could be considered an artistic crystallization of what we now call globalization.

This work borrows from the decorative history of East and West, fusing them into precarious forms, which mimic portions of industrial and urban landscapes.  Western influences include forms derived from Cornucopias and Corinthian columns, or other symbols of prosperity and affluence. The Eastern influences are appropriated blue and white porcelains. At times, these elements are literally glazed together in the firing process.

Using purchased objects in the work alludes to notions of trade and consumerism. The objects I have chosen are associated with growth and nourishment through their domestic roles as planters or food receptacles and so on. Trade and consumerism are also forms of growth. In some regards the work is an attempt to reconcile disparate interpretations of the word “growth”.  What is good for industry is not always good for the individual.

Ever growing financial dependency is not without its concerns. Throughout the world, angst about indigenous economies and energy supplies changing to a more globalized structure can create fear and mistrust. The sculptures I create do not propose to pass specific judgment on East or West.  Instead, my intention is to create work that serves as a point of contemplation of our mutual fears and desires concerning globalization and its social and economic outcomes.”

– Dirk Staschke, 2006

The Wexler Gallery presents a spacious museum-like setting for an ongoing exhibition of the finest in contemporary ceramics, glass, studio furniture, jewelry, and decorative art.  The gallery re-evaluates the distinction between the so-called decorative arts and the fine arts by taking functional art out of its traditional context and into that of fine arts gallery where its aesthetic and cultural value can be appreciated as a separate function. Much of the work shown in the gallery possesses a functional aspect, yet it is the communicative force of the work’s aesthetic values which grounds it in the realm of art.

William Harper

Yuji Kubo
Japanese Master Lacquer Artist

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WEXLER GALLERY
December 2nd 2005 – February 3rd 2006

PHILADELPHIA- Wexler Gallery is proud to present new work by Japanese master lacquer artist Yuji Kubo.  The Hirosaki City based artist belongs to a generation of skilled and innovative artists who have mastered the varying techniques and patterns for which Tsugaru lacquer is well known.Kubo has introduced new patterns and colors of lacquer, and has successfully created lacquer pieces on an unusually large scale. Kubo has shown in multiple group and solo exhibitions including Tokyo’s “New Lacquer Ware” in 1987.  Following this exhibition, Kubo was recognized with the Good Design Award by Japan Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

Lacquer ware was one of several technologies imported to the Tohoku area by the 4th generation leader of the Tsugaru clan, Tsugaru Nobumasa (1656-1710) in his efforts to stimulate cultural and industrial development within the predominantly agrarian culture.  Among the distinctive qualities for which Tsugaru lacquer is famous is its durability, the result of solid construction with linen reinforcements, varying preliminary applications of lacquer undercoat, and up to 50 coats of lacquer, each requiring drying and burnishing.  In 1975, Tsugaru lacquer ware was designated as a traditional craft by Japanese government.

The Wexler Gallery presents a spacious museum-like setting for an ongoing exhibition of the finest in studio furniture, glass, and decorative art.  Located at 201 North Third Street in the historical district of Old City Philadelphia, the Wexler Gallery represents some of the world’s most esteemed artists working today.  For high resolution images or additional information, please contact sienna@wexlergallery.com, or call (215) 923-7030.

September - November, 2005

In connection with the Wood Turning Center’s international exhibition “WOOD 2005 Collectors of Wood Art Forum & World Turning Conference”; The Wexler Gallery presents a survey of turned and carved wood objects featuring the works of Ron Fleming, Rudiger Marquarding, and Dennis Elliot.  WOOD 2005 is a region-wide celebration of wood art taking place in and around the Philadelphia area during the month of September, 2005.

The Wexler Gallery presents a spacious museum-like setting for an ongoing exhibition of the finest in studio furniture, glass, and decorative art.  Located at 201 North Third Street in the historical district of Old City Philadelphia, the Wexler Gallery represents some of the world’s most esteemed artists working today.