Abington Art Center

Solo Series 2010 • Spring

April 24 to July 25, 2010

After celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2009, Abington Art Center is continuing its long history of highlighting regional talent with a series of solo exhibitions by amazing artists. This year’s Solo Series continues with four artists carefully selected by a curatorial committee for simultaneous solo exhibitions in our four gallery spaces.

Included in this installment of the “Solo Series 2010” will be: Judy Engle, Alison Stigora, Atsuko Tajima and Jay Walker.

PREVIEW PARTY: Sunday, April 25; 3-5pm with a wine-bar reception and light refreshments.

Judy Engle • Collage
The first time Judy Engle exhibited work in a Juried Show was in 1989, at Abington Art Center. Engle has exhibited extensively around the region since then including a number of times at the Philadelphia Sketch Club. In her artist statement, Judy Engle explains her attraction to collage, “Something in my blood compels me to combine disparate elements to form compositions that are coherent and right. It’s not uncommon to experience the thrill of transforming that which seems mundane or even ugly, and which might have been discarded, into something eminently reclaimable…”

Judy Engle is a self-trained artist whose work expresses her passion for hands-on approaches to materials. It’s a legacy from her rural family who decades ago raised recycling and reusing to an art form. Instead of scraps of wood, metal, fabric, and yarn, she uses paper in the many forms that come through her oversized mail slot. Since beginning her career as an artist, Engle has exhibited in numerous group and juried exhibitions including: Montgomery County Guild of Professional Artists, Perkins Center for the Arts, Museum of the City of Trenton, Chester County Art Association and Abington Art Center, among others. Engle lives in Philadelphia.

Alison Stigora • Sculpture & Drawing
“Destruction and creation often live side by side,” acknowledges Stigora in her artist statement. By salvaging charred wood that remains after a fire, Stigora finds evidence of experience and survival. Her process is rooted in drawing and mark making, but her use of burnt wood will transform the gallery through sculpture. “Blackened branches become physical lines,” Stigora states as she describes her process for creating her intense site-specific sculptures. At AAC, her sculpture will spill from the gallery’s fireplace… very fitting.

Alison Stigora received her BFA from Southern Adventist University and her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Stigora, who lives in West Chester, has exhibited her work in numerous group shows including Five into One at Moore College of Art and Design. Her solo exhibition at Abington Art Center follows her 2009 solo exhibition at St. Joseph’s University. She rounds out her exhibition experience with teaching and community partnerships including her work at Fleisher Art Memorial.

Atsuko Tajima • Sculptural Paintings on Glass
For a long time, Atsuko Tajima wanted to make paintings that were not two-dimensional. Eventually, she combined techniques of glass, painting and printmaking to achieve her luminous paintings. Tajima’s artist statement eloquently expresses the desire for her paintings, “to become the light in the dark passage, or a reminder of the preciousness of our life time.” Nuances of light, color and surface are real-time experiences that make Tajima’s paintings exceedingly beautiful, “as if they were floating in the air or under the water.”

Atsuko Tajima lives in Allentown. She received her BFA in Light and Glass from Alfred University. She then attended Pilchuck Glass School and Penland School of Craft. Tajima has exhibited internationally including in Russia, Japan and Romania. Her state-side exhibitions have included: the Ruby Green Contemporary Art Center in Nashville, TN; National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia, PA; and the Glass Gallery, Bethesda, MD. Tajima is a recipient of the Contemporary Glass Philadelphia Award. In her work she explores the themes of healing, dream and energy.

Jay Walker • Wood Sculpture
Jay Walker’s wood sculptures are explained in a poem that comments on the artist’s ability to discover the art that exists within the wood: “Finding wood is one thing, / finding a person is another. / Knowing what is art and / what to burn for heat is a fool’s game.” Walker’s solo series exhibition of indoor work will be followed by a monumental creation in the Art Center’s Sculpture Park. “People used to find gods in wood, / some still do.”

Jay Walker has exhibited extensively in Texas where he received his BFA from Texas A&M – Corpus Christi. In 2006, Walker received his MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His exhibitions have expanded to include: the Artist Space, NYC; Pageant Gallery, Philadelphia; The Plastic Club, Philadelphia and Bavaria, Germany. Walker lives and works in Malvern.