Fitler Vibe: Art Edition
ART. It has the power to unite and teach through life’s most difficult challenges. It encourages us to celebrate creativity and constantly look at contemporary issues from new perspectives. Artist Olafur Eliasson said, “Art can engage with the world to change the world”. There are, of course, many examples of this throughout history; Picasso’s Guernica, Queen performing at Live Aid or The Diary of Anne Frank. Art cannot be extinguished. It endures, coming alive through the people it touches, evoking emotion and creating conversation.
We are proud to announce a new stage that has been set on which Philadelphia’s artists shine. Offsite at Fitler Club, your workspace that embraces cultural pioneers and forward thinkers, is the home of Art@Offsite, a collection of works by the city’s most brilliant artists. King Saladeen, Jane Irish, Leroy Johnson, Eileen Neff, and Shawn Theodore are just a few of the many Philadelphia artists whose works are on display.
Fitler Club not only supports the arts and the thriving art community in Philadelphia, but we encourage our community to engage with the art every day. In this trying time, it seems fitting to launch The Vibe with a short film celebrating our Philadelphia Artists in Residence whose work adorns our walls and connects our communities. We look forward to strolling past these works together again very soon.
With the support of Fitler Club and Philadelphia Contemporary, this short film illustrates the collection and celebrates the thriving arts and culture scene in our amazing city. We’re excited to celebrate the luminaries among us.
JANE Irish is one of Philadelphia’s greatest artists and she was one of the first artists to join Fitler Club’s Artists in Residence program. She is a painter and a ceramicist. Painting in egg tempera on large-scale canvas, paper and Tyvek, she infuses sumptuous interiors with reflections on colonialism and Orientalism. Sometimes her painting surfaces feature raised text; Vietnamese war poetry or historical protest writing. The text on the surface of her ceramics includes collaborations with prominent art critics like Vincent Katz and Carter Ratcliff and poetry from Vietnam war veterans. Irish’s inspiration comes from her own experience and personal connections.
“I paint from the motifs for real. I meet the poets for real, the Vietnamese artists, the scholars, the French writers and colonialists. I am served by the butler of an Italian baroness and I am mentored by anti-war veterans. I somehow tap the tales told to me into my brushstrokes. Sometimes you just pick things up that you experience firsthand. I am a receptor, and I have collected these ideas on power and resistance, and when I see something that inspires it, it gets into my work.”
Her work is included in numerous public collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Smithsonian’s Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden among others. Irish received her MFA from Queens College, CUNY and is represented by Locks Gallery.