Past Exhibits at the Freyberger Gallery
Spring 2008
Our OWN
As part of our year-long 50th anniversary celebration, some of our regional Penn State alumni are participating in this, our second annual Our OWN exhibition. Our seminal Our OWN exhibition last year featured art work by faculty and staff. This year, we highlight some of the creative pursuits of our own alumni.
Lost and Found: Kristen T. Woodward
Reception: Feb. 21, 6:00 pm ? Snow Date: Feb. 28, 6:00 pm
SPRING BREAK campus closed March 10 ? 15
Interested in ?found? papers, which previously had another function, Woodward began to add these objects to her highly charged paintings. These objects added a layer to her work on both a physical and conceptual level. Lottery tickets, luggage tags and food stamps suggest faith, hope and charity, respectively.
Left: Red Dot Target by Kristen Woodward
In Stitches ? Art Quilts Featuring Jane Blair
Reception: April 10, 6:00 pm
Jane Blair's quirky and beautiful art quilts feature traditional, architectural, natural, and "outside the box" images. As lush and dynamic as any paintings, Ms. Blair's quilts are not based in any standard operating procedure, but have the glow and energy as does the artist herself. Her work has been selected as representative of American quilt making in forums in Austria, Japan, Denmark and New Zealand; in three world tours; solo shows and local quilt group shows in most every state in the U.S. A quilt by Ms. Blair was chosen by international jury and judges as one of the best one hundred quilts of the 20th century. Her quilts are featured in the permanent collection of:
- Museum of American Folk Art
- Museum of the American Quilter's Society
- GlaxoSmithkline Inc., Phila. PA
- GlaxoSmithkine, Animal Health, London, England
- Clark Capital Management, Inc. Phila. PA.
- Numerous corporations and private collections
Camille Romig is a lifetime quilter, and explains of her work, ?I want people to feel included when they look at one of my art quilts. I begin with a concept, the Dust Bowl, a fabric motif, the seasons. I use batiks and hand-dyed fabrics to create motion, color and energy. Fabric manipulation and thread-play add texture and interest along with organic approaches to piecing."
Peace Monument Quilt: (left) "My Peace Monument Quilts were conceived through three influences: the inner peace of yoga, the serendipitous discovery of Tibetan prayer flags in a children?s book, and recent visits to both the National WWII and the Vietnam War memorials in Washington, D.C., and the Irish Brigade monument at Gettysburg. I want to make a lifetime series of Peace Monument Quilts to grace any location that is at peace, to commemorate peace, and to inspire peace."
Also exhibiting is Mary Stoudt. A native to Berks County, Stoudt has been inspired all her life to make art, especially quilts. Along with her sister, Ms. Stoudt is co-owner and founder of the Sisters Gallery in Stoudtburg Village, Adamstown, Lancaster County, PA. Retiring from teaching secondary art a few years ago, Ms. Stoudt has blossomed as a fiber and quilt artist, with works being shown and sold locally and nationally. Accused by another teacher as being, ??just too creative,? Ms. Stoudt is just that. With her Contemporary Quilts - (fabric wall hangings) she works intuitively and spontaneously to assemble layer upon layer of fabric, ribbons and dyed yarn, which are stitched, cut and stitched again. Ms. Stoudt?s quilt recently placed second in the National Juried Quilt show at Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, Illinois. Another work was selected for the Dairy Barn Arts Center, Athens, Ohio Quilt Show, where only 83 quilts from 1,157 were chosen. Influenced by artists such as Paul Klee and Gustav Klint, Ms. Stoudt?s inspiration also comes from music, literature and ancient textiles. Her small fiber works, Meditation Flags, small feted rugs & purses, and petite densely stitched ornaments, can be seen and purchased at the Sisters? Gallery or at her downtown Reading studio in the Goggleworks.
Chip Kidd: By Its Cover
Sept. 11? Oct. 16, 2008
Reception: Fri., Sept. 12 beginning at 6 pm
Meet the artist at the reception
Penn State University alumni Chip Kidd is the rock star of book design. A graphic artist, and author of two novels and an anthology of his own work, he has been with Alfred A. Knopf Publications, New York City, for over 20 years Quirky and bold in his approach, authors and art directors have agreed that Kidd?s designs are ?radical?, ?brilliant, ?and prepare readers for the show to come.? A sampling of Mr. Kidd?s sparkling brilliance will be on view at the Freyberger Gallery. This exhibition is part of Penn State Berks 50th anniversary celebration that features thriving Penn State alumni who also have a tie to Berks County. A graduate of Wilson High School, in Lincoln Park, now in his early 40?s, Mr. Kidd?s influences are indeed the product of his generation: comic books, supermarket ads, cartoons, giant brightly-colored cereal boxes filled with sugar and toys. His book designs cut like a stiletto in their sharp and efficient visuals of what lies within. Recently, a show of more than his 1,000 book jacket designs was held at the Cooper Union in Manhattan. Last year, Mr. Kidd gave the commencement address at Penn State University. Amid Capeci, book reviewer, Newsweek (March 3, 2008), writes: ?Kidd (saw) his job as turning the physicality of the book into an art object in itself, and one that conveyed the essence of the work.?
Cityscapes: Der Scutt
Nov. 6 - Dec. 18, 2008
Reception: Thurs., Nov. 6 beginning at 8 pm
?There was a time...when skyscrapers tended to look more or less the alike?if one morning a building on Third Ave. (NYC) suddenly changed places with one on the Avenue of the Americas ? it is not likely that many people would notice?(Today) a new wave in skyscraper design and it is as committed to liveliness and flamboyance as the last generation of tall buildings tended to dullness and banality??
--The New American Skyscraper (New York Times) Paul Goldberger Nov. 8, 1981
One of those ?designers? noted by Goldberger is architect Der Scutt. Best known for the Trump Tower on 5th Ave., Scutt?s more than 50 building projects and renovations in Manhattan, literary, have enhanced the skyline of this great city.
Informed by a wide and deep knowledge of architecture and the history of making buildings, Scutt eschews many ?new? forms of design that would embrace international style and modernism. Instead, the breadth of Scutt?s design is equally balanced with human movement and comfort, monumentality, the gratification of light, and the pleasure of engaging natural elements, like marble, wood and even trees, into his designs. Oh, and don?t forget his almost signature style that embraces circles, squares, geometric form, and the golden rectangle.
?To this day, Scutt remains intrigued with the skyscraper form, especially at this point of dramatic change in its evolution. His approach is geometrically sculpturally, concerned with the manipulation of form and light?his buildings are designed for clients, rather than critics?While many architects tend to view their clients in a quasi-adversary capacity?Scutt views his role as a translator rather than a molder of clients? ideas??
--Loring Leifer: Trumping the Competition, Interiors Magazine, June 1984
Contact: Marilyn J. Fox, arts coordinator (610.396.6140 or [email protected])