As we say goodbye to the Collection 2.0 artists below, we look forward to welcoming the 16 artists participating in the 2023-2024 Artists in Residence Collection 3.0 program, coming soon!
Please use the arrows above to view the Artists in Residence Collection 2.0.
Announcing Fitler Club’s Artists in Residence Program ‘Collection 3.0’
We are more convinced now than ever that art plays an integral role in connecting people, understanding others, fostering social commentary, and inspiring change. Fitler Club’s Artists in Residence Program was created to showcase Philadelphia artists in a non-traditional gallery space where artists can share their perspectives, their creativity, and their ideas. ‘Collection 3.0’ is composed of pieces from local artists who have loaned their work for a period of eighteen to twenty-four months. All of the Artists in Residence are either from Philadelphia, currently live locally, or have strong ties to the city, and all of the pieces are for sale of which the artist receives 100%. Many Residents have been teachers at Philadelphia’s finest art schools including The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University, and The University of the Arts.
Diane Burko
Arctic Melting, 2016
Diane Burko’s practice is located at the intersection of art, science and the environment. Her work on climate change is informed by frequent collaborations with scientists, travels to endangered ecosystems around the globe, and committed activism.
“I see myself as a subversive artist, creating compelling images which in turn inform the public of the dire threats facing our planet. My inclination to witness, translate, and communicate scientific information is expressed through paintings, photographs and time-based media. It’s how I personally and professionally counter climate doubt–it’s my way of entering into the public discourse with the goal of moving the viewer to reflect, reject fossil fuel dependency, and take responsible action.” – Burko
Diane Burko
(left) Deforestation 1, 2021
42 x 42 • Mixed media on canvas
(right) Deforestation 2, 2021
42 x 42 • Mixed media on canvas
Diane Burko’s practice is located at the intersection of art, science and the environment. Her work on climate change is informed by frequent collaborations with scientists, travels to endangered ecosystems around the globe, and committed activism.
“I see myself as a subversive artist, creating compelling images which in turn inform the public of the dire threats facing our planet. My inclination to witness, translate, and communicate scientific information is expressed through paintings, photographs and time-based media. It’s how I personally and professionally counter climate doubt–it’s my way of entering into the public discourse with the goal of moving the viewer to reflect, reject fossil fuel dependency, and take responsible action.” – Burko
Diane Burko
Petermann Heading South, 2010-11
Diane Burko’s practice is located at the intersection of art, science and the environment. Her work on climate change is informed by frequent collaborations with scientists, travels to endangered ecosystems around the globe, and committed activism.
“I see myself as a subversive artist, creating compelling images which in turn inform the public of the dire threats facing our planet. My inclination to witness, translate, and communicate scientific information is expressed through paintings, photographs and time-based media. It’s how I personally and professionally counter climate doubt–it’s my way of entering into the public discourse with the goal of moving the viewer to reflect, reject fossil fuel dependency, and take responsible action.” – Burko
James E. Dupree
32 years, Pearls of K, 1983-2013
62 x 45 • Mixed media on panel
James Dupree was raised in both West Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and was one of the first African-American graduates of the University of Pennsylvania’s MFA program. He has been a practicing artist since 1972.
In 1984, he opened his Dupree Gallery at 703 S. 6th Street in Philadelphia’s Queen Village section, where he and his wife Anita Brook Dupree raised three daughters.
In 2005, the tireless Dupree bought a dilapidated warehouse on Haverford Avenue in Philadelphia’s struggling Mantua section and lovingly restored it into a combination art and teaching studio, music and living space, and display area. Sadly, his labors came to a near bitter end in 2012, when the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority seized his deed under a soon-to-expire Eminent Domain law, with the idea of awarding his property to a redeveloper.
Dupree mounted a bruising battle with help from the Institute for Justice and local media. After a draining two-year battle, the city finally dropped its condemnation proceedings – largely as the result of its own error in condemning only part of Dupree’s property.
One positive takeaway? When a city councilwoman brusquely asked him who he thought he was, Dupree developed a response that helped diffuse his anger: “Since you don’t know, I am the Black Picasso”, a sobriquet he has since cheerfully embraced.
James E. Dupree
IF I ONLY HAD BLUE EYES II (SHE LIES SHE CHEATS SHE STEALS), 2015
36 x 36 • Mixed media on panel
James Dupree was raised in both West Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and was one of the first African-American graduates of the University of Pennsylvania’s MFA program. He has been a practicing artist since 1972.
In 1984, he opened his Dupree Gallery at 703 S. 6th Street in Philadelphia’s Queen Village section, where he and his wife Anita Brook Dupree raised three daughters.
In 2005, the tireless Dupree bought a dilapidated warehouse on Haverford Avenue in Philadelphia’s struggling Mantua section and lovingly restored it into a combination art and teaching studio, music and living space, and display area. Sadly, his labors came to a near bitter end in 2012, when the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority seized his deed under a soon-to-expire Eminent Domain law, with the idea of awarding his property to a redeveloper.
Dupree mounted a bruising battle with help from the Institute for Justice and local media. After a draining two-year battle, the city finally dropped its condemnation proceedings – largely as the result of its own error in condemning only part of Dupree’s property.
One positive takeaway? When a city councilwoman brusquely asked him who he thought he was, Dupree developed a response that helped diffuse his anger: “Since you don’t know, I am the Black Picasso”, a sobriquet he has since cheerfully embraced.
James E. Dupree
Valley of the Gods, 2020
48 x 64 • Acrylic and oil on canvas
James Dupree was raised in both West Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and was one of the first African-American graduates of the University of Pennsylvania’s MFA program. He has been a practicing artist since 1972.
In 1984, he opened his Dupree Gallery at 703 S. 6th Street in Philadelphia’s Queen Village section, where he and his wife Anita Brook Dupree raised three daughters.
In 2005, the tireless Dupree bought a dilapidated warehouse on Haverford Avenue in Philadelphia’s struggling Mantua section and lovingly restored it into a combination art and teaching studio, music and living space, and display area. Sadly, his labors came to a near bitter end in 2012, when the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority seized his deed under a soon-to-expire Eminent Domain law, with the idea of awarding his property to a redeveloper.
Dupree mounted a bruising battle with help from the Institute for Justice and local media. After a draining two-year battle, the city finally dropped its condemnation proceedings – largely as the result of its own error in condemning only part of Dupree’s property.
One positive takeaway? When a city councilwoman brusquely asked him who he thought he was, Dupree developed a response that helped diffuse his anger: “Since you don’t know, I am the Black Picasso”, a sobriquet he has since cheerfully embraced.
Mikel Elam
The Hidden Source of All Light, 2020
36 x 48 • Mixed medium collage on canvas
Mikel Elam is a visual artist working primarily as a painter. His work focuses on storytelling through memory and ideas using the fragments of face and figure to convey information and ideals about world culture.
Mikel attended the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Arts/Painting. He went on to study at the School of the Visual Arts in New York City. Mikel’s work has been featured in international publications and media. He also worked as a traveling assistant to Jazz musician Miles Davis. He assisted Mr. Davis in achieving his visual arts aspirations as a painter.
Artist Statement: ‘My work references identity through the lens of a multicultural viewpoint. As an artist of African descent, I personally have felt the imbalances in every aspect of my existence.The last 4 years has especially brought much dialogue to the forefront about race, gender and sexual orientations. Intermix that with technology and a distorted history and we have a recipe for a charred and fictitious reality. I see this explosion as positive and necessary. Without it, we would only continue to pretend “Everything is okay”.
In order to move forward we first need to cleanse the wound. Allow it to heal. From there we rebuild a more conscious environment.Only then can we as a planet look forward to a more pleasant future for the generations to come.’
Mikel Elam
(left) Transference of Self Between Blue and Orange, 2021
36 x 48 • Mixed media on canvas mounted on wood panel
(right) Reassemblage, 2021
48 x 48 • Mixed media on canvas mounted on canvas
Mikel Elam is a visual artist working primarily as a painter. His work focuses on storytelling through memory and ideas using the fragments of face and figure to convey information and ideals about world culture.
Mikel attended the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Arts/Painting. He went on to study at the School of the Visual Arts in New York City. Mikel’s work has been featured in international publications and media. He also worked as a traveling assistant to Jazz musician Miles Davis. He assisted Mr. Davis in achieving his visual arts aspirations as a painter.
Artist Statement: ‘My work references identity through the lens of a multicultural viewpoint. As an artist of African descent, I personally have felt the imbalances in every aspect of my existence.The last 4 years has especially brought much dialogue to the forefront about race, gender and sexual orientations. Intermix that with technology and a distorted history and we have a recipe for a charred and fictitious reality. I see this explosion as positive and necessary. Without it, we would only continue to pretend “Everything is okay”.
In order to move forward we first need to cleanse the wound. Allow it to heal. From there we rebuild a more conscious environment.Only then can we as a planet look forward to a more pleasant future for the generations to come.’
Julianna Foster
(left) Swell Series, Iceberg II, 2018
30 x 20 • Archival digital print
(middle) Geographical Lore, Map I, 2019
22 x 22 • Archival digital print, silver ink, orange paint
(right) Geographical Lore, Crescent Moon, 2020
18 x 22 • Archival digital print
Julianna Foster is currently an assistant professor in the Photography program at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She received a BFA in Design from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2001) and an MFA in Book Arts and Printmaking from the University of the Arts (2006).
Foster has been artist in residence at the Philadelphia Photo Center, finalist at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists in Philadelphia, selected as a Community Supported Artist, a project organized by Grizzly Grizzly Gallery and self-published the book, lone hunter.
Other projects/publications include work in magazines Conveyor, Proof, Cleaver, Good Game and Shot Journal for Black and White Photography. She has exhibited work nationally and internationally, in private collections across the country and Foster has collaborated with various artists on projects that include creating artist multiples, artists books and series of photographs and video.
Claes Gabriel
Boat People, 2020
50 x 62 • Acrylic on canvas
Boat People is a glimpse of the journeys taken by fleeing refugees. The painting depicts individuals on a crowded boat and a central figure wearing a ceremonial white mask. His body contains a boat floating above a sea of red, symbolizing the blood shed from the difficult journey. This painting addresses the idea that we all, at some point or another in history, arrived to this land by boat. The heroism placed on pioneers and the stain placed on outsiders echoes the sentiments felt by the artists experience as an immigrant from Haiti. The Haitian revolution is a recurring theme in Gabriel’s work, whereby 25,000 refugees arrived to the United States by boat. Boat People reminds us that there is unity to be found among all revolutionaries.
Claes Gabriel is a Philadelphia-based artist from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Gabriel immigrated to the States in 1989 and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1999. His three-dimensional paintings ring with the spiritual energy of beings from folklore and his own imagined tales, capturing a deified presence in each piece. Inspired by modernists such as Frank Stella and Sam Gilliam, Gabriel’s work lives beyond the confines of a flat wall; he stretches and sews canvases taut over wooden armatures to construct masks and free-standing statues. After considering the natural shape of the piece, Gabriel uses bright acrylics to pull out patterns, eyes, lips, and personality that seem to rise to the surface of their own free will. Gabriel often says he knows a piece is finished when he can bow to it.
Gabriel’s first influence was his father, classically-trained painter Jacques Gabriel (1934–1988), whose lush images of peasant life in Haiti depicted the commonplace in the vibrant, modernist language of the extraordinary. Gabriel’s work aims to bring the sublime within reach. Gabriel has exhibited in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Baltimore, MD, Washington DC, and Paris, France. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD. He currently lives and works in Philadelphia.
Claes Gabriel
The Harlequin, 2017
72 x 27 x 72 • Acrylic on shaped canvas
The Harlequin was inspired by Cezanne and Picasso’s many depictions of the commedia dell’arte stock character, a comic light-hearted servant. During Picasso’s notable “Rose Period” he related to this character much as an artistic peer. But by that time the image of the harlequin in society was ridiculed and spurned to the class of the socially downtrodden. We find resonance with Picasso’s affinity with the outsider in this piece. Acting as a totemic depiction echoing the lineage set forth by these artists, The Harlequin speaks not only to the artist’s self-identification with the wise fool isolated from the masses, but to the history of artists making art about art.
In this way The Harlequin acts as a triple entendre. Visually, the characteristic checkered suit finds a palpable sensuality in this contemporary piece, elegantly reinterpreting its historic naivete. The simplicity of the costume and its corresponding simplicity of color and thoughtfully controlled design finds transcendence in the almost Kleinian Bleu and gilded pattern. Spiritual in nature, its totality has an equally arresting and welcoming presence that harkens the deities of antiquity.
Claes Gabriel is a Philadelphia-based artist from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Gabriel immigrated to the States in 1989 and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1999. His three-dimensional paintings ring with the spiritual energy of beings from folklore and his own imagined tales, capturing a deified presence in each piece. Inspired by modernists such as Frank Stella and Sam Gilliam, Gabriel’s work lives beyond the confines of a flat wall; he stretches and sews canvases taut over wooden armatures to construct masks and free-standing statues. After considering the natural shape of the piece, Gabriel uses bright acrylics to pull out patterns, eyes, lips, and personality that seem to rise to the surface of their own free will. Gabriel often says he knows a piece is finished when he can bow to it.
Gabriel’s first influence was his father, classically-trained painter Jacques Gabriel (1934–1988), whose lush images of peasant life in Haiti depicted the commonplace in the vibrant, modernist language of the extraordinary. Gabriel’s work aims to bring the sublime within reach. Gabriel has exhibited in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Baltimore, MD, Washington DC, and Paris, France. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD. He currently lives and works in Philadelphia.
Claes Gabriel
Lady in a Turban, 2017
32 x 32 • Acrylic on canvas
Lady In A Turban was inspired by a painting by the artist’s father, Jacques Gabriel, painted in the 1960’s. He was trained in Paris and was enamored of Matisse and the Cubist movement. Using the minimalist language of Modernism, Jacques Gabriel brought the authentic voice of the ordinary Haitians into the conversation. As a growing artist, the son, Claes Gabriel was infused with the fusion of Modernism and Haitian mysticism. Claes Gabriel recites Oscar Wilde: “Imitation is the biggest form of flattery.” Now bringing the subject into the contemporary lens, this piece carries a chromatic effervescence different from its Modernist predecessors, and a subject matter expressed with the same authenticity of his father’s Haitian inheritance.
Claes Gabriel is a Philadelphia-based artist from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Gabriel immigrated to the States in 1989 and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1999. His three-dimensional paintings ring with the spiritual energy of beings from folklore and his own imagined tales, capturing a deified presence in each piece. Inspired by modernists such as Frank Stella and Sam Gilliam, Gabriel’s work lives beyond the confines of a flat wall; he stretches and sews canvases taut over wooden armatures to construct masks and free-standing statues. After considering the natural shape of the piece, Gabriel uses bright acrylics to pull out patterns, eyes, lips, and personality that seem to rise to the surface of their own free will. Gabriel often says he knows a piece is finished when he can bow to it.
Gabriel’s first influence was his father, classically-trained painter Jacques Gabriel (1934–1988), whose lush images of peasant life in Haiti depicted the commonplace in the vibrant, modernist language of the extraordinary. Gabriel’s work aims to bring the sublime within reach. Gabriel has exhibited in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Baltimore, MD, Washington DC, and Paris, France. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD. He currently lives and works in Philadelphia.
Claes Gabriel
Queen of Time, 2016
50 x 36 x 12 • Acrylic on shaped canvas
Queen of Time is the artist’s way of capturing the moments that made up one very long winter. As the viewer we are taken on the same journey as the artist, finding ourselves lost in the hypnotic complexity of layered color fields and textural fractal-like orbs. “A painting is itself a way of marking time” says Gabriel. As a figurative artist, Gabriel ceremoniously remarks on the idea that time is itself a creature. But not just any creature, a Queen. Her form, a canvas shaped over a delicately carved wooden armature, presents a personification of time as a mask. Gazing into the rich blackness of the face, the mask becomes an entrance into another world, a world beyond pigment and beyond the current moment.
Claes Gabriel is a Philadelphia-based artist from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Gabriel immigrated to the States in 1989 and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1999. His three-dimensional paintings ring with the spiritual energy of beings from folklore and his own imagined tales, capturing a deified presence in each piece. Inspired by modernists such as Frank Stella and Sam Gilliam, Gabriel’s work lives beyond the confines of a flat wall; he stretches and sews canvases taut over wooden armatures to construct masks and free-standing statues. After considering the natural shape of the piece, Gabriel uses bright acrylics to pull out patterns, eyes, lips, and personality that seem to rise to the surface of their own free will. Gabriel often says he knows a piece is finished when he can bow to it.
Gabriel’s first influence was his father, classically-trained painter Jacques Gabriel (1934–1988), whose lush images of peasant life in Haiti depicted the commonplace in the vibrant, modernist language of the extraordinary. Gabriel’s work aims to bring the sublime within reach. Gabriel has exhibited in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Baltimore, MD, Washington DC, and Paris, France. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD. He currently lives and works in Philadelphia.
Mark Thomas Gibson
Ruthless, 2020
65.75 x 89.5 • Ink on canvas
Mark’s personal lens on American culture stems from his multipartite viewpoint as an artist—as a black male, a professor, and an American history buff. These myriad and often colliding perspectives fuel his exploration of contemporary culture through languages of painting and drawing, revealing a vision of a dystopian America where every viewer is implicated as a potential character within the story.
Dark humor is necessary at a time like this, because it helps us to remember: All hope is not lost. The aim of the work is to question and rewrite history, with the intention of reminding the viewer that everything is at stake and that ‘we are all in this together.’
The immediacy and power in making a mark is not so different from writing a book –
it could literally change history, or perhaps more importantly, how history is perceived. By employing a direct and unedited drawing method, Mark riffs on the traditions of improvisation, humor, the comic, and the grotesque by way of image-making and technique.
Mark Thomas Gibson
Springbreak, 2020
66 x 89 • Ink on canvas
Mark’s personal lens on American culture stems from his multipartite viewpoint as an artist—as a black male, a professor, and an American history buff. These myriad and often colliding perspectives fuel his exploration of contemporary culture through languages of painting and drawing, revealing a vision of a dystopian America where every viewer is implicated as a potential character within the story.
Dark humor is necessary at a time like this, because it helps us to remember: All hope is not lost. The aim of the work is to question and rewrite history, with the intention of reminding the viewer that everything is at stake and that ‘we are all in this together.’
The immediacy and power in making a mark is not so different from writing a book –
it could literally change history, or perhaps more importantly, how history is perceived. By employing a direct and unedited drawing method, Mark riffs on the traditions of improvisation, humor, the comic, and the grotesque by way of image-making and technique.
Neysa Grassi
(left) Underbelly, 2008
60 x 65 • Oil on linen
(middle) Pink Storm, 2010
54 1/8 x 54 1/8 • Oil on linen
(right) Echo, 2008
54 x 50 • Oil on linen
Each of Neysa Grassi’s paintings is introspective, poignant or subtle, contrasted or misty. Yet, these paintings are not ethereal. Their surfaces reveal the intense physicality of the artist’s creative process. The multiple layers of paint that have been applied, scarred, concealed, wiped out, and covered again, give them the tactile quality of materials bodily or organic and a perceived scale that could be both micro or macro. While she travels and as she begins her ideas in the studio, Grassi makes gouache and mixed media paintings and monotypes. These works on paper range from a more spontaneous energy to the calculated meditative abstractions she is known for in oils.
Neysa Grassi is a faculty critic in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts’ Post Baccalaureate and MFA programs. A graduate of PAFA’s Certificate program, she has won numerous awards, including a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, a Works on Paper Fellowship from the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ireland and a Residency Award from the Fundación Valparaíso in Mojácar, Spain. She has had over 20 solo shows in galleries in Philadelphia and New York as well as at the Pensacola Art Museum, FL and the Maryland Institute of Art, MD. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Al Gury
(left) Beautiful Woods, 2020
14 x 14 • Oil on panel
(middle) Summer Fields, 2020
18 x 20 • Oil on panel
(right) Peace a Plenty, 2020
21 x 24 • Oil on panel
Al paints figures, landscapes, still lifes and portraits.
As an artist Al strives to integrate a number of elements in his work: richness in the use of paint and color, poetry and expression in the creation and choice of images, and strength in the technical execution and process of executing the paintings and drawings.
Al’s influences come from both art history and the contemporary world: baroque figure painters such as Ribera and Zurburan have been important influences, along with tonalist and colorist landscape painters such as Inness and the Pennsylvania Impressionists. Contemporary observational painting is balanced by a strong sense of conceptual and social content.
Al was one of only five contemporary painters included in an important exhibition of the History of Pennsylvania Impressionism at the Woodmere Art Museum. Al Gury has been sharing his passion for art with students for nearly 40 years.
The moment Al finished his formal studies as a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), he began to give back as a teacher, bringing to the classroom the same passion that he invests in his art. He is currently a full professor at PAFA and Chairman of the Painting Department.
Al Gury
(left) Through the Woods, 2020
24 x 21 • Oil on panel
(middle) Fresh from the Garden, 2020
24 x 21 • Oil on panel
(right) Sunny Landscape, 2020
24 x 21 • Oil on panel
Al paints figures, landscapes, still lifes and portraits.
As an artist Al strives to integrate a number of elements in his work: richness in the use of paint and color, poetry and expression in the creation and choice of images, and strength in the technical execution and process of executing the paintings and drawings.
Al’s influences come from both art history and the contemporary world: baroque figure painters such as Ribera and Zurburan have been important influences, along with tonalist and colorist landscape painters such as Inness and the Pennsylvania Impressionists. Contemporary observational painting is balanced by a strong sense of conceptual and social content.
Al was one of only five contemporary painters included in an important exhibition of the History of Pennsylvania Impressionism at the Woodmere Art Museum. Al Gury has been sharing his passion for art with students for nearly 40 years.
The moment Al finished his formal studies as a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), he began to give back as a teacher, bringing to the classroom the same passion that he invests in his art. He is currently a full professor at PAFA and Chairman of the Painting Department.
Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib
The Grand Occasion, 2017
18 1/2 x 31 5/8 • Archival pigment print
Nadia Hironaka & Matthew Suib work collaboratively on films, videos, public artworks and immersive installations spanning over a decade, often extending their collaboration to include other artists, musicians and composers. Their practice embraces research and experimentation, encompassing historical fact, popular fiction and creative speculation. Working across moving-image culture and mass media idioms, they build counter-mythologies, alternate or parallel realities, and forward-looking visions of the world around us.
The Philadelphia-based artists have been collaborators since 2008. They are recipients of several honored awards including a 2015 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Pew Fellowships in the Arts and Fellowships from CFEVA and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
Their work has been widely exhibited both domestically and abroad at venues including, Fondazione MAXXI (Rome), New Media Gallery (Vancouver), The Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia), UCLA Hammer Museum, PS1/MoMA, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Arizona State University Art Museum. They have been artists-in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, the Banff Centre, Marble House Project and the Millay Colony for Arts. Matthew Suib is co-founder of Greenhouse Media and Nadia Hironaka serves as a professor and department chair of film and video at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Hironaka & Suib are represented by Locks Gallery. The couple, along with their daughter and one cat reside in South Philly.
From 2007-2010, as an extension of their artistic practice, Hironaka and Suib founded Screening (www.screeningvideo.org). Philadelphia’s first gallery dedicated to the presentation of innovative and challenging works on video and film. Screening was a project devoted to expanding access to these media and exploring the influence of moving image culture on our understanding and experience of the world. Screening’s program has included solo exhibitions of work by internationally renowned artists including Johan Grimonprez, Takeshi Murata, Adam Putnam, Mark Lewis, Kelly Richardson, Mungo Thomson, Lars Laumann and others.
Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib
Vanitas MMXVIII, 2018
4k video, without sound
Nadia Hironaka & Matthew Suib work collaboratively on films, videos, public artworks and immersive installations spanning over a decade, often extending their collaboration to include other artists, musicians and composers. Their practice embraces research and experimentation, encompassing historical fact, popular fiction and creative speculation. Working across moving-image culture and mass media idioms, they build counter-mythologies, alternate or parallel realities, and forward-looking visions of the world around us.
The Philadelphia-based artists have been collaborators since 2008. They are recipients of several honored awards including a 2015 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Pew Fellowships in the Arts and Fellowships from CFEVA and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
Their work has been widely exhibited both domestically and abroad at venues including, Fondazione MAXXI (Rome), New Media Gallery (Vancouver), The Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia), UCLA Hammer Museum, PS1/MoMA, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Arizona State University Art Museum. They have been artists-in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, the Banff Centre, Marble House Project and the Millay Colony for Arts. Matthew Suib is co-founder of Greenhouse Media and Nadia Hironaka serves as a professor and department chair of film and video at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Hironaka & Suib are represented by Locks Gallery. The couple, along with their daughter and one cat reside in South Philly.
From 2007-2010, as an extension of their artistic practice, Hironaka and Suib founded Screening (www.screeningvideo.org). Philadelphia’s first gallery dedicated to the presentation of innovative and challenging works on video and film. Screening was a project devoted to expanding access to these media and exploring the influence of moving image culture on our understanding and experience of the world. Screening’s program has included solo exhibitions of work by internationally renowned artists including Johan Grimonprez, Takeshi Murata, Adam Putnam, Mark Lewis, Kelly Richardson, Mungo Thomson, Lars Laumann and others.
Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib
Routine Maintenance, 2014
4k video loop with audio
Nadia Hironaka & Matthew Suib work collaboratively on films, videos, public artworks and immersive installations spanning over a decade, often extending their collaboration to include other artists, musicians and composers. Their practice embraces research and experimentation, encompassing historical fact, popular fiction and creative speculation. Working across moving-image culture and mass media idioms, they build counter-mythologies, alternate or parallel realities, and forward-looking visions of the world around us.
The Philadelphia-based artists have been collaborators since 2008. They are recipients of several honored awards including a 2015 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Pew Fellowships in the Arts and Fellowships from CFEVA and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
Their work has been widely exhibited both domestically and abroad at venues including, Fondazione MAXXI (Rome), New Media Gallery (Vancouver), The Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia), UCLA Hammer Museum, PS1/MoMA, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Arizona State University Art Museum. They have been artists-in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, the Banff Centre, Marble House Project and the Millay Colony for Arts. Matthew Suib is co-founder of Greenhouse Media and Nadia Hironaka serves as a professor and department chair of film and video at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Hironaka & Suib are represented by Locks Gallery. The couple, along with their daughter and one cat reside in South Philly.
From 2007-2010, as an extension of their artistic practice, Hironaka and Suib founded Screening (www.screeningvideo.org). Philadelphia’s first gallery dedicated to the presentation of innovative and challenging works on video and film. Screening was a project devoted to expanding access to these media and exploring the influence of moving image culture on our understanding and experience of the world. Screening’s program has included solo exhibitions of work by internationally renowned artists including Johan Grimonprez, Takeshi Murata, Adam Putnam, Mark Lewis, Kelly Richardson, Mungo Thomson, Lars Laumann and others.
Drew Leshko
Action Philadelphia 1970, 2020
13.25 x 18.25 x 5 • Inkjet on vinyl, basswood, paper, acrylic, pastel
Drew Leshko is a Philadelphia-based artist. By carving, cutting, and layering varieties of paper and wood, Leshko creates documentary studies of architecture from his neighborhood in an attempt to create a three dimensional archive of buildings that are in transitional periods. The work examines gentrification and history, how historical relevance is determined, and most importantly, what is worth preserving. Working from observation and photographs, the artist painstakingly recreates building facades from his neighborhood at a 1:12 scale. The scale is familiar for some viewers as standard dollhouse spec; the treatment to the buildings is widely different. The minute detail of his work includes city detritus such as dumpsters and pallets, which are commentary of the same ideas of what is worth preserving. Highlighting quick fixes and simple solutions, Leshko’s work begs the viewer to build their own ideas of why and when these changes had been made. Accumulations of typically overlooked details and minutiae like acid rain deposits and rust become beautiful adornments.
Leshko’s work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Dublin, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Delaware, Detroit, Indiana, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Houston, and Miami. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Dean Collection (NYC), the Hosner Collection (LA), West Collection (Philadelphia), and Iron State Development’s corporate collection (Hoboken), Urban Nation Museum (Berlin), and many private collections throughout the country.
Drew Leshko
(far left) Cold Beer, 2020
11 x 19 x 10 • Variety of paper, acrylic, pastel, plastic,
plaster, inkjet prints, basswood
(left) Cash Loans, 2020
23 x 20 x 12 • Variety of paper, acrylic, pastel, plastic,
plaster, inkjet prints, basswood
(right) Domino Sugar, 2020
32.5 x 17.5 x 5 • Variety of paper, acrylic, pastel, plastic,
plaster, inkjet prints, basswood
(right) Diamond Pawn, 2020
14 x 18 x 9 • Variety of paper, acrylic, pastel, plastic,
plaster, inkjet prints, basswood
Drew Leshko is a Philadelphia-based artist. By carving, cutting, and layering varieties of paper and wood, Leshko creates documentary studies of architecture from his neighborhood in an attempt to create a three dimensional archive of buildings that are in transitional periods. The work examines gentrification and history, how historical relevance is determined, and most importantly, what is worth preserving. Working from observation and photographs, the artist painstakingly recreates building facades from his neighborhood at a 1:12 scale. The scale is familiar for some viewers as standard dollhouse spec; the treatment to the buildings is widely different. The minute detail of his work includes city detritus such as dumpsters and pallets, which are commentary of the same ideas of what is worth preserving. Highlighting quick fixes and simple solutions, Leshko’s work begs the viewer to build their own ideas of why and when these changes had been made. Accumulations of typically overlooked details and minutiae like acid rain deposits and rust become beautiful adornments.
Leshko’s work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Dublin, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Delaware, Detroit, Indiana, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Houston, and Miami. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Dean Collection (NYC), the Hosner Collection (LA), West Collection (Philadelphia), and Iron State Development’s corporate collection (Hoboken), Urban Nation Museum (Berlin), and many private collections throughout the country.
Drew Leshko
White Dumpster, 2016
4.25 x 12.5 x 8.25 • Paper, enamel, pastels, acrylic, inkjet prints
Drew Leshko is a Philadelphia-based artist. By carving, cutting, and layering varieties of paper and wood, Leshko creates documentary studies of architecture from his neighborhood in an attempt to create a three dimensional archive of buildings that are in transitional periods. The work examines gentrification and history, how historical relevance is determined, and most importantly, what is worth preserving. Working from observation and photographs, the artist painstakingly recreates building facades from his neighborhood at a 1:12 scale. The scale is familiar for some viewers as standard dollhouse spec; the treatment to the buildings is widely different. The minute detail of his work includes city detritus such as dumpsters and pallets, which are commentary of the same ideas of what is worth preserving. Highlighting quick fixes and simple solutions, Leshko’s work begs the viewer to build their own ideas of why and when these changes had been made. Accumulations of typically overlooked details and minutiae like acid rain deposits and rust become beautiful adornments.
Leshko’s work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Dublin, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Delaware, Detroit, Indiana, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Houston, and Miami. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Dean Collection (NYC), the Hosner Collection (LA), West Collection (Philadelphia), and Iron State Development’s corporate collection (Hoboken), Urban Nation Museum (Berlin), and many private collections throughout the country.
Drew Leshko
Edward Corner, 2017
49.5 x 52 x 8 • Paper, acrylic, enamel, pastels, plaster, wood, inkjet prints, plastic on panel
Drew Leshko is a Philadelphia-based artist. By carving, cutting, and layering varieties of paper and wood, Leshko creates documentary studies of architecture from his neighborhood in an attempt to create a three dimensional archive of buildings that are in transitional periods. The work examines gentrification and history, how historical relevance is determined, and most importantly, what is worth preserving. Working from observation and photographs, the artist painstakingly recreates building facades from his neighborhood at a 1:12 scale. The scale is familiar for some viewers as standard dollhouse spec; the treatment to the buildings is widely different. The minute detail of his work includes city detritus such as dumpsters and pallets, which are commentary of the same ideas of what is worth preserving. Highlighting quick fixes and simple solutions, Leshko’s work begs the viewer to build their own ideas of why and when these changes had been made. Accumulations of typically overlooked details and minutiae like acid rain deposits and rust become beautiful adornments.
Leshko’s work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Dublin, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Delaware, Detroit, Indiana, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Houston, and Miami. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Dean Collection (NYC), the Hosner Collection (LA), West Collection (Philadelphia), and Iron State Development’s corporate collection (Hoboken), Urban Nation Museum (Berlin), and many private collections throughout the country.
Andrea L Marquis
Basket (Alhambra)
17 x 17 1/2 round • Hand-built stoneware and low-temp glaze
Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Philadelphia-based artist Andrea Marquis received her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2009. She received her BFA in 2000 from Syracuse University and in 2002 completed a year of study in the Post- Baccalaureate program at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Andrea has participated in Artist in Residence programs at Peters Valley Craft Center, the Archie Bray Foundation, Tyler School of Art, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and La Maison des Metiers D’Art in Quebec City, Canada. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and was included in the 2015 NCECA Biennial at the Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University. She is currently an Artist in Residence at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia and teaches ceramics and 3-D design at the Community College of Philadelphia.
Andrea L Marquis
Dragons of Eden, 2018
15 x 17 x 11 • Lead glaze and stoneware
Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Philadelphia-based artist Andrea Marquis received her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2009. She received her BFA in 2000 from Syracuse University and in 2002 completed a year of study in the Post- Baccalaureate program at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Andrea has participated in Artist in Residence programs at Peters Valley Craft Center, the Archie Bray Foundation, Tyler School of Art, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and La Maison des Metiers D’Art in Quebec City, Canada. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and was included in the 2015 NCECA Biennial at the Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University. She is currently an Artist in Residence at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia and teaches ceramics and 3-D design at the Community College of Philadelphia.
Andrea L Marquis
Speculative Object: Centerpiece for a Bipartisan Dinner, 2021
19 x 28 1/2 x 13 1/2 • Hand-built stoneware and mid-temp glaze
and 24k gold leaf
Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Philadelphia-based artist Andrea Marquis received her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2009. She received her BFA in 2000 from Syracuse University and in 2002 completed a year of study in the Post- Baccalaureate program at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Andrea has participated in Artist in Residence programs at Peters Valley Craft Center, the Archie Bray Foundation, Tyler School of Art, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and La Maison des Metiers D’Art in Quebec City, Canada. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and was included in the 2015 NCECA Biennial at the Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University. She is currently an Artist in Residence at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia and teaches ceramics and 3-D design at the Community College of Philadelphia.
Michelle Angela Ortiz
(top) Eres Mi Todo, 2015
18 x 18 • Acrylic paint on wood panel
(bottom) Te Amo, 2015
18 x 24 • Acrylic paint on wood panel
Michelle Angela Ortiz is a visual artist/ skilled muralist/ community arts educator/ filmmaker who uses her art as a vehicle to represent people and communities whose histories are often lost or co-opted. Through community arts practices, painting, documentaries, and public art installations, she creates a safe space for dialogue around some of the most profound issues communities and individuals may face.
Her work tells stories using richly crafted and emotive imagery to claim and transform spaces into a visual affirmation that reveals the strength and spirit of the community.
For 20 years, Ortiz has designed and created over 50 large-scale public works nationally and internationally. Since 2008, Ortiz has led art for social change public art projects in Costa Rica & Ecuador and as a cultural envoy through the United States Embassy in Fiji, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Venezuela, Honduras, and Cuba.
Ortiz is a 2020 Art for Justice Fund Grantee, a pew fellow, a Rauschenberg Foundation Artist as Activist Fellow, and a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist National Fellow. In 2016, she received the Americans For the Arts’ Public Art Year in Review Award which honors outstanding public art projects in the nation.
Michelle Angela Ortiz
(left) Mother and Child I, 2019
24 x 18 • Acrylic paint on metal panel
(right) Mother and Child 2, 2019
24 x 18 • Acrylic paint on metal panel
Michelle Angela Ortiz is a visual artist/ skilled muralist/ community arts educator/ filmmaker who uses her art as a vehicle to represent people and communities whose histories are often lost or co-opted. Through community arts practices, painting, documentaries, and public art installations, she creates a safe space for dialogue around some of the most profound issues communities and individuals may face.
Her work tells stories using richly crafted and emotive imagery to claim and transform spaces into a visual affirmation that reveals the strength and spirit of the community.
For 20 years, Ortiz has designed and created over 50 large-scale public works nationally and internationally. Since 2008, Ortiz has led art for social change public art projects in Costa Rica & Ecuador and as a cultural envoy through the United States Embassy in Fiji, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Venezuela, Honduras, and Cuba.
Ortiz is a 2020 Art for Justice Fund Grantee, a pew fellow, a Rauschenberg Foundation Artist as Activist Fellow, and a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist National Fellow. In 2016, she received the Americans For the Arts’ Public Art Year in Review Award which honors outstanding public art projects in the nation.
Jakov Pinto
(left) The Cuts, Bruises, Tears, 2019
54 x 54 • Acrylic, oil, Sumi ink, charcoal and colored
crayons on canvas
(right) Vulnerability Ensues, 2018
54 x 54 • Acrylic, oil, Sumi ink, charcoal and colored
crayons on canvas
Jakov Pinto is a visual thinker, and experimental painter. His artwork is a life journal, where he documents everything and everyone that surrounds him. It’s done out of curiosity and love. When Jakov approaches a new canvas, he experiments with freedom of movements, colors, lines, forms and textures. Accidents and mistakes are welcome to build the layers of the work, which turn into visual memories.
Jakov Pinto
(left) The Deep Red, 2019
54 x 54 • Acrylic, oil, Sumi ink, charcoal and colored
crayons on canvas
(right) Acceptance, 2018
54 x 54 • Acrylic, oil, Sumi ink, charcoal and colored
crayons on canvas
Jakov Pinto is a visual thinker, and experimental painter. His artwork is a life journal, where he documents everything and everyone that surrounds him. It’s done out of curiosity and love. When Jakov approaches a new canvas, he experiments with freedom of movements, colors, lines, forms and textures. Accidents and mistakes are welcome to build the layers of the work, which turn into visual memories.
Mary Powers-Holt
(left) Evening Thistle, 2020
25 1/8 x 37 1/8 • Arcylic on linen with maple float frame
(right) Boats to the Other Side of
the Lake, 2020
31 1/8 x 41 1/8 • Arcylic on linen with maple float frame
Mary Powers-Holt’s work is involved with the landscape and inspired by abstract patterns against atmospheric color. The paintings are about a solitary discovery of place and the unconscious forms generated from the experience. An emotional undercurrent is important to the imagery and the use of paint is mostly expressionistic within this framework. The landscape is a launching point for imagination and interpreting the experience through painting as a form of meditation.
Mary Powers-Holt was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has lived and worked in this area all her life. She studied painting, drawing and sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Art History at the University of Pennsylvania through the Academy and Penn’s coordinated B.F.A./Certificate program. As a student at PAFA, she was awarded the J. Henry Schiedt Traveling Scholarship for work exhibited in the Student Annual.
Mary Powers-Holt is a member of the Cerulean Arts Collective Members Gallery and has exhibited her work in three solo shows in the gallery with her most recent show in November 2020. She has exhibited at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Alumni Gallery in the exhibit “12 x 12.”
Mary Powers-Holt
(left) Sky and Lake Reflections, 2020
41 1/8 x 30 1/8 • Arcylic on linen with maple float frame
(right) Fire Sky Patterns, 2014
31 1/4 x 31 1/4 • Arcylic on linen with maple float frame
Mary Powers-Holt’s work is involved with the landscape and inspired by abstract patterns against atmospheric color. The paintings are about a solitary discovery of place and the unconscious forms generated from the experience. An emotional undercurrent is important to the imagery and the use of paint is mostly expressionistic within this framework. The landscape is a launching point for imagination and interpreting the experience through painting as a form of meditation.
Mary Powers-Holt was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has lived and worked in this area all her life. She studied painting, drawing and sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Art History at the University of Pennsylvania through the Academy and Penn’s coordinated B.F.A./Certificate program. As a student at PAFA, she was awarded the J. Henry Schiedt Traveling Scholarship for work exhibited in the Student Annual.
Mary Powers-Holt is a member of the Cerulean Arts Collective Members Gallery and has exhibited her work in three solo shows in the gallery with her most recent show in November 2020. She has exhibited at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Alumni Gallery in the exhibit “12 x 12.”
King Saladeen
Fruit of Labor in America, 2020
72 x 138 • Acrylic, oil pastels, spraypaint and mixed media
King Saladeen was born and raised in West Philadelphia. He is a self-taught painter whose works have been exhibited all over the world. He began drawing at the age of 5 and he has been working full time as an artist for the past 8 years. Saladeen’s work functions as a visual language through which the artist expresses love, purpose and hope. Murals by Saladeen are on view at the Philadelphia International Airport and Fitler Club’s Field House.
The sky’s the limit for the kid from Philly that just wanted to make the world happy with every pen and brush stroke that passed through his hand. As his brand continues to grow, so does his personal expectations to be the best version of himself in everything that he sets his mind to. What is left to achieve for this artist that has never allowed boundaries to define the scope of his work or his dreams?
Ruth Scott Blackson
(left) Hot Mess Express, 2021
26 x 32 • Watercolor on engineering card stock
(middle) Black Mass, 2009-2013
58 x 39 • Black ballpoint pen on drawing paper
(right) Long Summer of Nausea, 2014
26 x 40 • Sharpie on graph paper
Ruth Scott Blackson has been a practicing artist for 10 years. In 2006 and 2009 she was successful in obtaining an English Arts Council award for projects, which culminated in residencies and exhibitions hosted in Russia and France. In 2009 her work was included in the Younger Than Jesus Artist Directory, New Museum, PHAIDON.
Her work has recently been selected for the 2015 exhibition series at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, while in the latter part of 2013 she had her first solo show in Old City, Philadelphia. She relocated to Philadelphia in 2011 and is a member of Delaware Valley Chapter Guild of Bookworkers.
Dejanaya Spicer
(left) Self Portrait, 2020
29 x 49 • Permanent and oil marker drawing on acrylic painted canvas, 16 hrs
(right) Overthinker, 2021
31 x 41 • Permanent and oil marker drawing on acrylic painted canvas, 19 hrs
Lovesick AG are stories of desires, hurt, guilty pleasures, and romance, told through silhouettes & markers. Each piece recants a story or lingering feeling, where love, lust, or heartbreak inspired the work.
While we are often left to think that we are alone with our feelings & emotions, Dejanaya believes there is a lovesick artist within us all. Each of us in different stages of course, but we all ultimately desire love, attention, and excitement. Dejanaya hopes her art and her stories help others navigate, explore, and cope with their feelings & emotions.
’If no one else feels you, I feel you.’ – Dejanaya Spicer