Abington Art Center is proud to host this artist talk, featuring one of our 2024 Fall Solo Series artists, Bobbie Diamond Adams.
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.
This event will also be live-streamed in real time on our Instagram page for those who are unable to attend in person. The livestream will begin at 10AM EST on September 28.
Bobbie Diamond Adams
Bobbie Diamond Adams’ printmaking and papermaking works are abstract in concept.
From the hints of green that emerge from a sea of black textures in one piece, to the stillness and quiet of the lone green ellipse in another, her artistic eye is evident in the connections she makes amongst seemingly disparate or unrelated elements. The process of printmaking and papermaking are both labor-intensive and meditative to Diamond Adams, often layering over and reworking pieces for extensive periods of time. Following an intuitive approach, she notes “I use many different plates, and interweave many layers of transparent ink, assembling and embellishing, as well as overprinting.”
For more information on a particular artist or piece please call 215.887.4882
This event is produced as part of our 2024 Fall Solo Series, on view from September 13 – October 21.
Our Coffee Breaks are sponsored in part by the Jenkintown Lyceum. Bagels are generously provided by Fill-A-Bagel in Jenkintown.
Coffee Break: Artist Talks | Saturday, September 28 | 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Coffee Break: Artist Talks | Saturday, October 19 | 10:00 a.m. – 12:00p.m.
Featured Artists: Bobbie Diamond Adams, Anna Bockrath, Benjamin Long & Mick Ricereto
DIGITAL CATALOG
ARTISTS
Bobbie Diamond Adams, Printmaking and Papermaking
Tile Gallery
From the Alchemy Series | Mixed media, $600
From the Meditations Series | Collagraph Monoprint, $800
“I like to provide hints of subject matter in my titles, but leave specific narrative to the imagination of the viewer.”
– Bobbie Diamond Adams
Bobbie Diamond Adams’ printmaking and papermaking works are abstract in concept. From the hints of green that emerge from a sea of black textures in one piece, to the stillness and quiet of the lone green ellipse in another, her artistic eye is evident in the connections she makes amongst seemingly disparate or unrelated elements. The process of printmaking and papermaking are both labor-intensive and meditative to Diamond Adams, often layering over and reworking pieces for extensive periods of time. Following an intuitive approach, she notes “I use many different plates, and interweave many layers of transparent ink, assembling and embellishing, as well as overprinting.”
Bobbie Diamond Adams’ work is on display in our Tile gallery.
“Though weaving, screen printing, trimming, and folding, I utilize techniques that lend themselves to transformation through accumulations of repeated gestures.”
– Anna Bockrath
Inspired by poetry, mythology, and her own personal history, Anna Bockrath explores the complicated concepts of loss, care, and time through her interdisciplinary work. Bockrath’s creations have an airy and ephemeral quality about them, achieved by using both materials and processes that allow for light and air to permeate. Driven by a fascination with process and materiality, her works are created through acts of iteration, layering, and repetition. This act of repetition in her creative practice parallels the repetitive cycles she experiences in her own life, citing “I relate this use of repetition to my own experience of dealing with loss and the repetitive cycles that are entangled with grief.”
Anna Bockrath’s a certain slant of light is on view in our Community Arts gallery.
“Please just look and let your eyes have the experience…words can take a break this time.”
– Benjamin Long
Benjamin Long’s oil paintings are colorful, punchy, and both visually and conceptually intriguing. Each piece comes with its own complex, almost dream-like composition, which leaves the viewer yearning for context. Recurring motifs of snowman-like figures, beehives, and lit cigarettes and pipes give the work an illustrative quality, reminiscent of the work of the late artist Philip Guston. Long acknowledges the ambiguity of his narratives, noting “maybe someday I will figure out a way to translate a personal visual language into a written one” and invites the viewer to derive their own meaning from the clues provided instead.
Benjamin Long’s paintings are featured in our Kelner gallery.
“I work in response to our disordered, beautiful and sometimes crumbling civilization.”
– Mick Ricereto
From dilapidated brick storefronts, to rusted fences and street signs, Mick Ricereto encapsulates the decay of the urban landscape in his intricate watercolor works. Ricereto uses watercolor to build each landscape layer by layer, a lengthy and intensive process that acts as a metaphor to the civil environment he captures: each layer is built upon the last. The fragility of the watercolor medium, he notes, doubles as “a nod to society’s delicate balance of survival.” This “tensionless state of constant entropy”, as described by Ricereto, is expressed through his paintings in both observed realism and idealized moments of repose.
Mick Ricereto’s Corner’s Report is being exhibited in our Book Room gallery.
Imagination and Play! is an exhibition that aims to create a fun space for people to let their imagination run loose. Art is often the source of people’s joy and entertainment, evoking a positive response and a sense of wonder in those that create and consume it. With bold colors, energetic paint strokes, and quirky interactive elements, the selected works in this exhibition showcase artists’ unique ability to look at life through a playful lens and share that sensation of joy with others.
Our 2024 Summer Juried Show Juror:
Summer Yates
Summer Yates is a mixed media artist living and working in Bucks County, PA. Her current body of work consists of soft sculpture and wall hangings made from donated and repurposed textiles, plastics, and foam. Yates received her BFA from Moore College of Art and Design and her MFA from The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Play and wonder are vital to her creative process, and is something she highly values within her own work and the work of others.
Abington Art Center is proud to host this artist talk, featuring two of our 2024 Spring Solo Series artists, Grue Shackelford and Chau Nguyen.
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.
This event will also be live-streamed in real time on our Instagram page for those who are unable to attend in person. The livestream will begin at 10AM EST on May 11.
Grue Shackelford
Grue Shackelford is a contemporary fiber artist based in Philadelphia, whose work explores the relationships between memory, intergenerational trauma, and the Appalachian identity.
A West Virginia native, Shackelford is familiar with Appalachian Fatalism, a “pervasive, inborn spirit that is found in everyone and thing that dwells in those hills”. This mentality juxtaposed with the never-ending cycle of trauma that befalls the Appalachian people is something that intrigues them. Through tufts and tangles of multicolored yarn and felt, each of Shackelford’s intricate wall hangings tells a story.
Chau Nguyen
Chau Nguyen is a first-generation Vietnamese interdisciplinary artist, whose work draws from concepts of translation, memory, symbols, affect theory, materiality, and research on Vietnamese histories. They work to convey this notable friction at the intersection of cultural identity, colonial fragments, and transnationalism through their art and their study.
Chau’s artistic practice allows for and relies on experimentation and material transformation as a way to combine their research into postcolonial transnationalism and their personal perspective as a Vietnamese immigrant. With an emphasis on material and its history, their work offers an open-ended and complex look into these concepts.
For more information on a particular artist or piece please call 215.887.4882
This event is produced as part of our 2024 Spring Solo Series, on view from April 27 – May 31.
Our Coffee Breaks are sponsored in part by the Jenkintown Lyceum. Bagels are generously provided by Fill-A-Bagel in Jenkintown.
Abington Art Center is proud to host this artist talk, featuring two of our 2024 Spring Solo Series artists, Duwenavue Sante Johnson and Abbey Stace.
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.
This event will also be live-streamed in real time on our Instagram page for those who are unable to attend in person. The livestream will begin at 10AM EST on May 4.
Duwenavue Sante Johnson
Duwenavue Sante Johnson is a BIPOC embroiderer and contemporary artist, influenced by world travels, environmental patterns and textures, and colorscapes. Not limiting herself to any one medium, Johnson blends practices of painting, printmaking, textile, and craft to create dynamic works of art that encapsulate the human experience.
Art acts as a tool for Johnson, helping her process and understand the complexities of humanity, its divides and cultural histories, and engage with these pathways to create something positive that unites.
Abbey Stace
Abbey Stace is a contemporary abstract artist, whose material abstractions have developed over a lifetime of studying science, philosophy and art. Change and chance are fundamental to Stace’s artistic practice, creating work that is experimental and process-driven rather than literal and narrative-driven.
She starts with a simple composition and then allows the materials to interact with each other to create naturally-forming textures, colors and shapes. This approach directly parallels the constant change that is life, noting “this mirrors the serendipitous and unpredictable process that is life…The layers of matter built up and worn away…mirror the accumulation and loss of experiences and memories in the human psyche.” Favoring ambiguity, Stace invites the viewer to derive their own associations and connections from her work.
For more information on a particular artist or piece please call 215.887.4882
This event is produced as part of our 2024 Spring Solo Series, on view from April 27 – May 31.
Our Coffee Breaks are sponsored in part by the Jenkintown Lyceum. Bagels are generously provided by Fill-A-Bagel in Jenkintown.
Asian Fusion, 2019-20 | Oil on unstretched canvas, bamboo
The Kiss, 2022 | MDF panel on wooden frame, lacquer paint, gold leaf
“My ethnographic approach goes against the grain of the Western art historical canon to embrace these fragments of archives.”
– Chau Nguyen
Chau Nguyen is a first-generation Vietnamese interdisciplinary artist, whose work draws from concepts of translation, memory, symbols, affect theory, materiality, and research on Vietnamese histories. They work to convey this notable friction at the intersection of cultural identity, colonial fragments, and transnationalism through their art and their study. Chau’s artistic practice allows for and relies on experimentation and material transformation as a way to combine their research into postcolonial transnationalism and their personal perspective as a Vietnamese immigrant. With an emphasis on material and its history, their work offers an open-ended and complex look into these concepts.
Nguyen’s Of Color is being exhibited in our Community Arts gallery.
Abound, 2020 | Handprinted, handcut and sewn paper
“Creation comes from an intense emotional state involving uncomfortable, non-cooperative responses to perceptions and resilience, while searching for joy and beauty.”
– Sante Johnson
Duwenavue Sante Johnson is a BIPOC embroiderer and contemporary artist, influenced by world travels, environmental patterns and textures, and colorscapes. Not limiting herself to any one medium, Johnson blends practices of painting, printmaking, textile, and craft to create dynamic works of art that encapsulate the human experience. Art acts as a tool for Johnson, helping her process and understand the complexities of humanity, its divides and cultural histories, and engage with these pathways to create something positive that unites.
Johnson’s Seasonal Resilience is on display in our Tile gallery
“Each piece is a fragment of a memory, a place recalled through a haze of blazing sunset and screaming fury.”
– Grue Shackelford
Grue Shackelford is a contemporary fiber artist based in Philadelphia, whose work explores the relationships between memory, intergenerational trauma, and the Appalachian identity. A West Virginia native, Shackelford is familiar with Appalachian Fatalism, a “pervasive, inborn spirit that is found in everyone and thing that dwells in those hills”. This mentality juxtaposed with the never-ending cycle of trauma that befalls the Appalachian people is something that intrigues them. Through tufts and tangles of multicolored yarn and felt, each of Shackelford’s intricate wall hangings tells a story.
Shackelford’s Montani Semper Liberi is on display in our Kellner gallery.
Smoke and Ember, 2024 | Plaster, acrylic, oil, sand
“There is only becoming; a permanent state can never be reached.”
– Abbey Stace
Abbey Stace is a contemporary abstract artist, whose material abstractions have developed over a lifetime of studying science, philosophy and art. Change and chance are fundamental to Stace’s artistic practice, creating work that is experimental and process-driven rather than literal and narrative-driven. She starts with a simple composition and then allows the materials to interact with each other to create naturally-forming textures, colors and shapes. This approach directly parallels the constant change that is life, noting “this mirrors the serendipitous and unpredictable process that is life…The layers of matter built up and worn away…mirror the accumulation and loss of experiences and memories in the human psyche.” Favoring ambiguity, Stace invites the viewer to derive their own associations and connections from her work.
Stace’s Salt & Stone is on view in our Book Room gallery.
2024 Annual Juried Show – Feeling Blue: Navigating Challenges Through Art
Feeling Blue: Navigating Challenges Through Art asked artists to consider art as a tool for healing.
Artists often explore art as a tool for articulating emotions and navigating difficult circumstances. Art plays a vital role in society; it acts as a means for people to process the world around them and channel their response into tangible work for others to look at, interpret, and resonate with. We have all found ourselves in difficult situations, whether it be overcoming obstacles or dealing with something unprecedented, and artists are no strangers to this. Like Picasso with his Blue Period, artists use artwork as a way to navigate the complex emotions that arise from challenges, whether deeply personal or universally shared.
The selected works highlight art’s healing power in the face of adversity. Our Annual Juried Show is on display in our Kellner, Book Room, and Tile galleries from March 8 – April 15, 2024.
Our 2024 Annual Juried Show Jurors:
Lauren E. Peters Visual Artist
Peters is a Philadelphia-based visual artist working with the concepts of identity and gender through self-portraiture. Her self portrait series serves as a tool in navigating the complex relationship between her gender identity and gender expression.
Heather Ziegenmeyer, MA LPC ATR-BC Board Certified Art Therapist & Licensed Professional Counselor
Heather Ziegenmeyer is a certified art therapist and licensed professional counselor who founded Kindred Art Therapy, a local art therapy center that works with children ages 5+, teenagers, and adults through individual and family therapy sessions. Ziegenmeyer uses art as a form of therapy, allowing creativity and expression to act as another natural language: “[my] goal is to create a warm and safe outlet to create, express, and process the challenges we face in life.”
Lisa Kelley Teaching Artist at Kensington Storefront and Prevention Point
Kelley is a teaching artist at Kensington Storefront and Prevention Point, organizations that serve people struggling with addiction and homelessness in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. Kelley’s work is often narrative-driven, inspired by the experiences that impact her emotionally: “sometimes the stories are apparent in the work, and other times the stories are what fuel the art.”
Lisa Auerbach Grace Bauder Caroline Beattie Jessica Bednarcik Reena Brooks Caleb Booth Hollie Brown Charles Compo John Costanza Kirsten Cunningham Eleanor Day Emily Ennulat-Lustine Andrea Finch Katherine Fraser Rah Gerg
Megan Giampietro Raegan Glaser Barry Good Cecelia Grant Jenna Hannum Theresa Heidig Rooney Sarah Kowalski Kendall Laurent Cony Madariaga Paula Mandel Kyle Margiotta James Anthony Mariano Denise McDaid Shane Monaghan Florence Moonan
Ginny Perry Charlese Phillips Jeni Prescott Logan Radcliff Birgit Raders-Eichinger Sondra Rosenberg Jessica Shannon Harin Song Susan Uccelletti Sharon Wensel Kathleen Wert Lisa Wilde Francesca Woolson Nina Yocom
Annual Juried Show Select Works
Affirmation of Life: Art in Today’s Ukraine
Affirmation of Life: Art from Today’s Ukraine is organized by the Ukrainian Cultural Initiative in partnership with Abington Art Center, UGS, UCFP, AJC, and UKRFCU.
This remarkable exhibition showcases a fusion of both traditional and modern artwork, providing a window into the diverse and compelling world of Ukrainian artists. Conceived and spearheaded by Nataliya Proskura and Vladislav Shapiro, both Bedford, MA – based mathematician with Ukrainian ancestry, the exhibition will feature an array of mediums and themes, highlighting the incredible talent present in today’s Ukraine. All the artists presented at the exhibition, currently live and work in Ukraine.
Affirmation of Life: Art From Today’s Ukraine is on display in our Community Art Gallery from March 8 – April 15, 2024. Please also join us for a conversation with journalist Vladislav Davidzon and book presentation of Jewish-Ukrainian Relations and the Birth of a Political Nation Sunday, March 17 at 3pm.
All the proceeds collected during the exhibition will go directly to Ukraine for supporting the artists and their collaborative efforts with students and veterans.
Exhibiting Artists
T.Kolechko S. Kolechko B.Eghiazaryan N. Martynenko
L. Minenko O. Bednoshey O. Omelchyshyna
N. Huliayeva-Smahlo O. Dovban O. Pilyuhina
Affirmation of Life: Art From Today’s Ukraine Featured Works
Abington Art Center is proud to host this artist talk, featuring two of our 2024 Winter Solo Series artists, Karen Hunter McLaughlin and Summer Yates.
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.
This event will also be live-streamed in real time on our Instagram page for those who are unable to attend in person. The livestream will begin at 10AM EST on February 17.
Karen Hunter McLaughlin
Artist Karen Hunter McLaughlin’s work uses symmetry to expand on long-held interests in the connections between natural science and art. This series investigates kinship with the more-than-human world, and a dive into “Ki”, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s suggested pronoun for other-than-human.
She employs a language of shapes that mimic the threadlike hyphae of mycelium, the same marks often used to illustrate galactic space, brain synapses, and other human, and non-human body systems. They are perfect symbols of the matrixes that support the essential nexus of human connection.
Summer Yates
Summer Yates assembles mixed media wall hangings and soft sculptures that are light, flexible, and brightly-colored. There is an emphasis on the material of her work and how it parallels her intertwined experiences as a woman, artist and mother.
She notes, “As a mother, I’m confronted with my own need to care for and nourish myself… the sculpture, installation, and wall hangings in this show reveal the catharsis I experienced in doing so…the soft, squishy quality of my materials and how I assemble them affirm how I embrace all the parts of myself.”
For more information on a particular artist or piece please call 215.887.4882
This event is produced as part of our 2024 Winter Solo Series, on view from January 19 – February 26.
Our Coffee Breaks are sponsored in part by the Jenkintown Lyceum. Bagels are generously provided by Fill-A-Bagel in Jenkintown.
Abington Art Center is proud to host this artist talk, featuring one of our 2024 Winter Solo Series artists, Mia Fabrizio.
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.
This event will also be live-streamed in real time on our Instagram page for those who are unable to attend in person. The livestream will begin at 10AM EST on February 3.
Mia Fabrizio
Interdisciplinary artist, Mia Fabrizio, creates mixed media paintings, freestanding sculptures, and installations comprised of building materials and domestic items. Her work acts as an investigation into the relationship between physical construction and cultural paradigms, highlighting contradictions within domestic spaces with the intent of exposing the true fluidity of perceived binaries, such as masculine and feminine, public and private, and modern and traditional. She describes her artistic process as “[vacillating] between tearing apart and tenderly memorializing [her] personal family experience.”
For more information on a particular artist or piece please call 215.887.4882
This event is produced as part of our 2024 Winter Solo Series, on view from January 19 – February 26.
Our Coffee Breaks are sponsored in part by the Jenkintown Lyceum.
Acrylic Painting | Adam Jester Tuesdays 6:30pm – 9:30pm September 21, 28, October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2, 9, 16, 30
Using acrylics is a great introduction to the art of painting because it is a quick drying medium that gives you fast results. You will create many energetic paintings that are full of lively brush strokes and bright colors.
$325 Non-Member | $292.50 Member
Intro to Oil Painting | Adam Jester Tuesdays 9:30am – 12:30pm September 21, 22, October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2, 9, 16, 30
This Introductory course, geared toward the absolute beginner, will allow you to learn the direct methods and fundamentals of painting in oil. You will discover essential techniques and the application of paint.
Plein Air Painting | Julia Way Thursdays 9:30am – 12:30pm September 23, 30, October 7, 14, 21, 28, November 4, 11, 18, December 2
Enjoy the fresh air and sunshine while painting the grounds of Abington Art Center. Work with acrylic, oil or watercolor, and we can guide you to paint an image depicting the sweeping vistas and woods from the terrace or the perfect location that you choose.
Intro to Printmaking|Gene Anthony Santiago-Holt Tuesdays 6:30pm – 9:30pm September 21, 28, October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2, 9, 16, 30
Introduction to printmaking is designed for any entry level student. Projects are designed to allow students to explore and demonstrate an understanding of printmaking’s history and several of its core methods. Projects will stress the technical aspects of creating an edition as well as support of the conceptual conversation of each student’s practice. Students will learn to properly use printmaking vocabulary, and will generate multi-state editions as a part of their research.
Music Theory for Adults | AJ Wright Wednesdays 6:30pm – 9:30pm September 22, 29, October 6, 13, 20, 27, November 3, 10, 17, December 1
Learn about music and why it sounds the way it does. By the end of the class you will have written a short composition and know the basics of how to write a classical piece of music. We’ll cover the circle of fifths, chord progressions, harmonies, and more!
$325 Non-Member | $292.50 Member
Tonight’s concert is on! We are excited to welcome York Street Hustle to our outdoor stage as we kick off our summer concert series. For the comfort of our guests, masks will be available at all welcome tables.
Tonight’s concert is on! We are excited to welcome York Street Hustle to our outdoor stage as we kick off our summer concert series. For the comfort of our guests, masks will be available at all welcome tables.
Mama Liked The Roses, 2021 | Aluminum wire, leather lace, fabric, wire, silkscreen, collage, spray, wood, drywall, foam core, digital photographs, acrylic paint, latex paint and found objects
“My work operates at the intersection of architecture, sociology and visual art.”
– Mia Fabrizio
Interdisciplinary artist, Mia Fabrizio, creates mixed media paintings, freestanding sculptures, and installations comprised of building materials and domestic items. Her work acts as an investigation into the relationship between physical construction and cultural paradigms, highlighting contradictions within domestic spaces with the intent of exposing the true fluidity of perceived binaries, such as masculine and feminine, public and private, and modern and traditional. She describes her artistic process as “[vacillating] between tearing apart and tenderly memorializing [her] personal family experience.”
Fabrizio’s work is on display in our Tile gallery.
Filagree, 2023 | Indigo dye, watercolor pencil, interference watercolor, on botanical dyed paper
Earth Embrace, 2023 | Rust, Monotype Print, Collage with pronto plate litho on Rives
Pareidolic Figure, 2023 | Indigo dye, watercolor pencil, interference watercolor, on botanical dyed paper
“This work is motivated by a fascination with the mycorrhizal network – the symbiotic association between the plant world and fungi, drawing on the deep connections between trees, plants and mycelia. The new work draws on concepts of how they invisibly share what the other lacks, how they rescue each other.”
– Karen Hunter McLaughlin
Artist Karen Hunter McLaughlin’s work uses symmetry to expand on long-held interests in the connections between natural science and art. This series investigates kinship with the more-than-human world, and a dive into “Ki”, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s suggested pronoun for other-than-human. She employs a language of shapes that mimic the threadlike hyphae of mycelium, the same marks often used to illustrate galactic space, brain synapses, and other human, and non-human body systems. They are perfect symbols of the matrixes that support the essential nexus of human connection.
Hunter McLaughlin’s new series, Golden Thread, is on view in our Book Room gallery.
“My work is autobiographical, its content thinly veiled by the mundane domestic debris that clutters the picture plane.”
– Nicole Santiago
Artist Nicole Santiago creates paintings that are rooted in personal experiences, yet read universally. Her use of familiar scenes, a desk littered with empty soda cans and medicine bottles, help stretch her compositions beyond the limits of her own experiences and engage with broader audiences. She notes, “while storytelling is an integral part of my work, it always remains subservient to the broader formal concerns of the picture itself.”
Santiago’s narrative paintings are on display in our Kellner gallery.
Dine, 2023 | Photograph of platter, polyester, and hanger
Get Outta My Mouth, 2020 | Acrylic, vinyl, and ribboning
“In a celebratory fashion, the work reflects the complexities of ‘holding it all together’ and total surrender.”
– Summer Yates
Summer Yates assembles mixed media wall hangings and soft sculptures that are light, flexible, and brightly-colored. There is an emphasis on the material of her work and how it parallels her intertwined experiences as a woman, artist and mother. She notes, “As a mother, I’m confronted with my own need to care for and nourish myself… the sculpture, installation, and wall hangings in this show reveal the catharsis I experienced in doing so…the soft, squishy quality of my materials and how I assemble them affirm how I embrace all the parts of myself.”
Yates’ series, WAM! (Woman Artist Mother), is on view in our Community Arts gallery.
