Abington Art Center is proud to host this artist talk, featuring four of our 2022 Faculty Show artists, Mat Citrenbaum, Megan Giampietro, Art Salazar, and Don Stephens.
Our Coffee Break series is a casual conversation with the artists featured in our exhibition programming. Learn more about the exhibiting artists’ process and technique through a talk and a Q&A. Coffee and bagels are provided for free.
Mat Citrenbaum
Mathew Citrenbaum is an artist, instructor, and silversmith based in Philadelphia, who creates custom jewelry and metalworks in his artistic practice. As a long time teacher, Citrenbaum has helped aspiring artists develop their craft, through results-oriented instruction.
“My primary goal for a new student is immediate results. A first time student can expect to produce a sterling silver ring in under 3 hours. My advanced students are guided through a technical progression encouraging them to design beyond their skills.”
Megan Giampietro
Artist and educator, Megan Giampietro, explores the connections between science and art through her intense observation of natural forms. She notes “both the scientist and the artist are inspired to carefully observe the natural world, drawing conclusions, sharing their observations, and seeking to explain the abundant patterns, colors, rhythms, and forms around them”. Working in oils, acrylics, and pastels, Giampietro works to capture the deep rich hues, organic textures and wondrous forms found within nature.
Art Salazar
Printmaking instructor and artist, Art Salazar, creates large-scale silk screen collages. Salazar’s work pushes the boundaries of printmaking, manipulating the paper and combining different techniques to give his work dimension and visual interest. He plays with abstracted forms and shapes to create whimsical compositions, noting “there’s always an amount of humor to my prints”.
Don Stephens
Don Stephens is a Philadelphia-based artist and instructor, who received his BFA from Tyler School of Art and Architecture in 1996. Stephens describes himself as a figurative expressive artist, “utilizing the human experience to express the dance between the subjective and objective”. He works in a variety of mediums to create figure drawings and paintings that evoke a visceral response in the viewer.
For more information on a particular artist or piece please call 215.887.4882
This event is produced as part of our 2022 Faculty Show, on view from November 4 – December 19.
Our Coffee Breaks are sponsored in part by the Jenkintown Lyceum.
Abington Art Center is proud to host this artist talk, featuring two of our 2022 Faculty Show artists, Ekaterina Vanovskaya and Bill Ryan.
Our Coffee Break series is a casual conversation with the artists featured in our exhibition programming. Learn more about the exhibiting artists’ process and technique through a talk and a Q&A. Coffee and bagels are provided for free.
Ekaterina Vanovskaya
Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Vanovskaya received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009 and her MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington in 2015. Working primarily in oil paint, Vanovskaya paints pale, distressed figures in somber atmospheres that evoke feelings of loneliness, longing, and melancholia.
She works to translate her own feelings of emotional longing into paintings, drawing from her childhood experiences and acknowledging that “the physical places I no longer occupy and … do not exist in the same state, as when I knew them, all is imagined…How does our past impact our emotions, responses and ways of being?”
Bill Ryan
“I became serious about art after seeing a retrospective of paintings by Vincent VanGogh sometime around 1970 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.”
Local artist, Bill Ryan, draws inspiration from the works of Cezanne, Picasso, and the cubism movement to create large-scale abstract paintings and collages. His work explores geometric forms and color interaction, through expressionism and intricate composition. He notes “my pursuit is expression that emerges in the moment. I like to be surprised and open to what is unexpected”. This expression is evident in the intense mark making and brush strokes that encompass each canvas.
For more information on a particular artist or piece please call 215.887.4882
This event is produced as part of our 2022 Faculty Show, on view from November 4 – December 19.
Our Coffee Breaks are sponsored in part by the Jenkintown Lyceum.
Coffee Break: Artist Talks | Saturday, November 12 | 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Coffee Break: Artist Talks | Saturday, December 3 | 10:00 a.m. – 12:00p.m.
Featured Artists: Jenny Cardoso, Mat Citrenbaum, Amy Cook, Megan Giampietro, Theresa Hencek, Linda Johnson, David Karasow, Leah Koontz, Patricia Lima, Martha Kent Martin, Shannon Moriarty, Norn Noszka, Bill Ryan, Art Salazar, Payton Smith, Don Stephens, Riley Strong, Ekaterina Vanovskaya, Julia Way, Maya Williams, AJ Wright, Barbara Zanelli
2022 Faculty Show – Exploring Growth
This is the 5th installation of a Faculty Exhibition from Abington Art Center teachers and staff.
In this year’s faculty show, we asked our teachers and staff to contemplate the meaning of growth and the ideas, associations, and questions that surround this concept. Growth is a familiar concept for teaching artists who witness and encourage growth within their own work, the work of their peers, and their students’ work. As we encounter other peoples art, we are forced to consider questions around meaning and process which inherently spark evolution. Although growth is an organic aspect of life, it can also be challenging and even painful. Even when change poses challenges, growth is a positive force. Whether physical, intellectual, or metaphorical, growth is evident everywhere as an inherent aspect of life. The selected pieces interpret growth in an array of forms, from sculptural work and jewelry, to photographs, drawings, and paintings.
As you walk through and explore the work on view we would like you to consider your relationship to growth.
Where are you growing?
Where are you resistant to growth?
How can you invite positive change?
Featured Works
Across The Wissahickon, Jenny CardosoAutumn Hydrangeas, Megan Giampietro In the Moment K-Flower, David KarasowGrowth, Maya WilliamsPeace Bowl, Linda JohnsonHowling, Patricia Lima
