Abington Art Center

Solo Series 2010 • Winter

February 6 to April 18, 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 begins with four artists carefully selected by a curatorial committee for simultaneous solo exhibitions in our four gallery spaces.

Jill Allen’s exhibition of ceramic sculptures coincides with the National Council on Eduction for
the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference in Philadelphia. Cynthia Back, Bruce Campbell and Mickie Rosen’s exhibitions are part of the Independent Project component of Philagrafika 2010,
an international festival that celebrates contemporary art that references printmaking in dynamic, unexpected ways, running late January to mid April, throughout the Philadelphia region.

PREVIEW PARTY: Sunday, February 7; 3-6pm with a wine-bar reception and light refreshments.

Jill Allen • Ceramic Sculptures (closes April 3)
Clay and wire are manipulated into unusual “gadgets” and glazed with “other-worldly” surfaces in Jill Allen’s sculptures. The shapes my seem familiar, but are not what you expected. They look useful, but not quite. In her artist statement, Jill Allen explains, “We yearn for the next invention, a better zapper or a faster cranker. And yet we feel depressed or left behind if we can’t manage the pace. The objects I create are inspired by the fast paced evolution and obsoletion of modern technology, the creative act of human invention and my own desire to attach a sense of humor to it all.”

Artist and teacher, Jill Allen (Philadelphia, PA) earned her MFA from the University of South Carolina in 2005 and her BFA from the University of Illinois in 1997. Currently, Allen teaches at Montgomery County Community College. She has also taught at Abington Art Center and other regional art centers. Allen’s work has been on exhibit around the country including at The Clay
Studio, Philadelphia, PA; Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, NM; Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore, MD and Contemporary Craft Museum and Gallery, Portland, OR.

Cynthia Back • Printmaking
Detail, pattern and color fascinate printmaker Cynthia Back and, coupled with her love of nature, attract her to exploring rivers, bays, rocky coastlines, wetlands and forests. Back’s reduction relief prints demand a great amount of planning and, in contrast, her collage work allows her to capture the fleeting scenery that one may experience when looking at the world from the window of a moving car. Back says, “My attraction to collage comes from a fascination with the many ways I am able to play with images, determining the appropriate processes, juxtaposing shapes and colors, and changing the feel of the work by the aesthetic choices I make.”

Cynthia Back (Lansdowne, PA) is a printmaker and painter who has exhibited widely throughout the United States and Europe. She is the recipient of numerous awards including a Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grant in 2005, a Puffin Foundation grant in 2003, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant in 1996; fellowships to The Ballinglen Arts Foundation Ltd., Co. Mayo, Ireland in 1997 and 1999, Fundacion Valparaiso, Spain in 2000, and Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in 2000. Her work is included in numerous private and corporate collections, including The Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Newark Public Library and the Free Library of Philadelphia. Back received her BFA at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and studied at Wimbledon School of Art and St. Martin’s School of Art in London, England.

Bruce Campbell • Language as Object
The sparse text in Bruce Campbell’s artwork are meant to provoke a sense of questioning, reflection and remembrance. A new text-based installation entitled “Beyond the Folds” is being created specifically for Abington Art Center’s Solo Series. Text will be projected on a structure, a variation on previous works where Campbell sees language as, “very much not the ‘black-and-white’ truth-of-reality-presented-as-an-answer but more a partner…that can open an internal dialogue about questioning the systems we exist within.”

Bruce Campbell (Philadelphia, PA) is a relatively recent arrival to the Philadelphia art scene. He has his MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. Rebekah Templeton Contemporary Art mounted his first solo show in Philadelphia in 2008. Campbell’s work has been included in numerous group show across the country including in Boston, Salt Lake City, Fort Worth and Kansas City. In 2005, Bruce Campbell was in residency at the Art Farm in Marquette, Nebraska.

Mickie Rosen • Digital Collage
Rosen calls her mixed media works, “Photages” which are created by combining manipulated digital photographs with elements from her drawings, monotypes and collagraphs. She equates the “happy accidents” that occur when experimenting in Photoshop to the “surprise and excitement that happens when pulling a print off my etching press.” The origins of the photo are mysterious as she transforms what the camera captures by making composites and abstractions.

Mickie Rosen (Elkins Park, PA) spent the majority of her career as an art therapist and group psychotherapist before retiring in 2000. She graduated from Tyler School of Art at 38 years old with a BFA and one photography course under her belt. Rosen also attained a MS in Art Therapy from Hahnemann University. She has exhibited her prints and oil pastel paintings extensively and has been getting a lot of attention for her digital fine art photographs including awards from the Phillips Mill Annual Juried Photography Exhibition and the Tri/State Artists Equity Exhibition at the Berman Museum.