Philadelphia: Artists' House and F.A.N

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Artists' House and F.A.N
January 5, 2005

By: R.B. Strauss - rstrauss@aroundphilly.com

Artists' House Gallery opens 2005 with an expansive show that runs from delicious still-life pieces to subtle abstract work. Besides First Friday, there will be an opening on Sunday, January 9, from 1pm to 4pm.

Linda Price Thomson's monoprints hold subtle humor amidst graceful compositions. From afar, the work appears abstract. But the closer you get, their enriching clarity comes into focus as she allows her work to become a tactile presence beyond its own creation.

Pastries imbued from within by a preternatural light that would put anyone off from consuming them are just one image that abides well in the rich still-lifes of Nancy Bea Miller. Her take on sweets offsets any notion of the mundane after being immortalized by her brush.

A palette that derives from the subconscious run to rainbows informs the abstract paintings of Joanne Bosack. Ignoring the limited selection of colors that are usually found on an abstract artist's palette, Ms. Bosack gives the spectrum free rein in her warm paintings.

Light and shadow work on a level that transcends the painterly to become almost cinematic in the work of Timothy Clayton. From interiors to still lifes, he frames his work in the ways of effulgence and embraces a touch of near dusk for his work's color undertones.

This exhibition promises a fine direction for the new year.

Artists' House Gallery, 57 N. Second St., 215.923.8440, www.artistshouse.com

Robert Bender returns to F.A.N. Gallery with "Recent Paintings," and a First Friday opening. Portraiture paces still lifes, while he retains an abiding interest in how rustic landscapes are juxtaposed with ambient cityscapes. His is a Philly that is timeless, yet his paintings are of ordinary places that escape attention.

The still life is perhaps the touchstone of Bender's accountability to his muse, the city, and this genre holds the truest flame to what life affirms. Bender's use of light is triumphant, while his compositions are architectural of sorts, in keeping with his cityscapes, all of a whole gone transcendent.

F.A.N. Gallery, 221 Arch St., 215.922.5755.