Abington Art Center is proud to host this artist talk, featuring two of our 2023 Winter Solo Series artists, Constance McBride and Gail Fox.
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 April 8.
Constance McBride
“From becoming aware of the male gaze and self-objectifying, to harassment, abuse, marginalization and ageism,” artist Constance McBride creates figurative sculptures that explore issues experienced by womxn. Drawing upon her own experiences, McBride’s sculptures are representative of what is often overlooked or left unspoken. She creates natural forms with visible signs of aging and raw expression. These details call for introspection while inviting the viewer to consider what strength and resilience in the face of discrimination looks like.
Gail Fox
“I have always painted nature. For me, there was never a need to search for a subject…My search has always been for particular locations, places that begged recording.”
From vivid seascapes and mountain ranges, to whimsical koi pond compositions, local artist Gail Fox paints large-scale landscapes that are inspired by the natural world around her. Fox is drawn to natural forms, she explains “painting alongside fields, in woods, at stream’s edge, in solitary places, it is the dynamic rhythms of nature, its changing lights, and weather that engage me.” Her intense observation of these natural shifts is evident in the color choices, elaborate compositions, and attention to detail within her work.
Select Works
Top left to bottom right
Constance McBride, Lonely Girl Room 3400, 2021, Ceramic and wire, $1,600. Constance McBride, Lonely Girl Room 4732, 2021, Ceramic and wire, $1,600. Gail Fox, Allegro, 2022, Oil on canvas, $5,200. Gail Fox, Rio Grande, 2021, Oil on canvas, $3,900.
For more information on a particular artist or piece please call 215.887.4882
This event is produced as part of our 2023 Winter Solo Series, on view from February 24 – April 10.
Our Coffee Breaks are sponsored in part by the Jenkintown Lyceum.
“I explore the family bond and emotional narrative from my own viewpoint.”
– Maryanne Buschini
Maryanne Buschini explores ideas of origin, ancestry, history, and community in her figurative paintings. As a child of immigrants, Buschini uses her artwork as a tool to better understand her own connections to her ancestors and home.
Her most recent work looks at the history of the laborers who contributed to the construction of the New York City water system, a project that was an important part of her childhood, having grown up in the area and “seeing the reservoir lake and large dam almost every day…in a town where many of the immigrant/workers had settled.” The artwork is the result of her research, piecing together the family and cultural history of those who lived on the land used for the reservoir and displaying it in a personable way that evokes an emotional response in the viewer.
Maryanne Buschini will be showing her paintings in our Tile gallery.
“Lauren E. Peters is a visual artist working with the concepts of identity and gender through self-portraiture.”
Artist Lauren E. Peters explores identity, self expression, and the ties to gender in her vibrant self portrait paintings. Drawing inspiration from those who “do not live according to the bodies they were born into, who break through the constraints that hold them captive, and stand firmly in their own place on the vast spectrum of femininity” as well as from her own personal experiences, Peters uses the self portrait as a tool to reveal the complex relationship between her gender identity and gender expression.
Despite being self portraits, each painting is radically different from each other. Peters plays dress up, sporting colorful wigs, puffy scarves, and elaborate wardrobes, and notes that “donning wigs and costumes is an assembling of identity” and that her paintings “speak to the performance of gender and appearance.” These physical attributes can influence our perception of the person she is revealing herself to be and plays into the idea of what is revealed and what is left hidden in how we present ourselves in society.
Lauren E. Peters will be exhibiting her paintings in our Kelner gallery.
Bright Orb Dancing in the East Sky (diptych), 2021 | Watercolor, gouache, colored pencil on paper
Saw This, 2021 | Collaged painting with watercolor, gouache, colored pencil on paper
Bright Orb Dancing in the East Sky (diptych), 2021 | Watercolor, gouache, colored pencil on paper
“I am fascinated by space, not as an exact location, but as a mysterious place, an infinite place of wonder with shifting atmospheres and moods.”
– Adina Segal
Visual artist Adina Segal creates abstract mixed-media paintings inspired by her own intuition and the organic forms she finds in nature. Segal takes on an intuitive approach when making her paintings, layering thin coats of watercolor and gouache and letting the work naturally take shape by trusting the process and learning when to pull away.
She notes, “following my intuition and trusting when to stop and when to work back into the painting, is contrary to how I often exist in other areas of my life…I am a planner, a list-maker, someone who likes to know what to expect.” Letting herself create in this way creates compositions that feel fluid, expressive, and unique and allows for new artistic discovery.
Adina Segal will be exhibiting her artwork in our Book Room gallery.
All Dressed Up with no Where to Go, 2021 | Acrylic on canvas
God and the Devil, 2021 | Acrylic on canvas
Mother Nature, 2020 | Acrylic on canvas
“My art seeks to take the viewer on a visual ride through the silent places between thought, thereby allowing revelation and transformation of the human consciousness to occur.”
– James Terrell
Artist and educator James Terrell explores universal human experiences through his vibrant paintings and collages. Using bold colors to capture the viewer’s attention and intricate patterns to slow the viewer’s gaze, Terrell’s work is simultaneously loud and intimate. His art acts as a “reflection of joy, pain, confusion, contemplation, and deliverance” on a personal level and on a greater scale. He notes, “the paintings represent shared life experiences…the experiences, although individual to one’s own heart, are experiences that bind us and bring us together.” Each pattern, each color change, each paint stroke is representative of those experiences and the complexities within us and within life.
James Terrell will be exhibiting his work in our Community Arts gallery.
Abington Art Center is proud to host this artist talk, featuring our 2023 Winter Solo Series artist, Stuart Lehrman.
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 March 11.
Stuart Lehrman
“The Portal Series has percolated in my mind for a long time, originally focused on the idea of a “nest”. When I started drawing it morphed into something with broader meanings, including entry into a void, the eye the passageway into the soul, of course, a “nest’ from one stage of life to another.”
Artist Stuart Lehrman creates work inspired by the natural and human-made forms around him. Observation and experimentation is at the heart of his artistic practice. Creating works from crushed blueberries, ashes, iron shavings, and other experimental organic matter, Lehrman notes that it is through “the constant experimentation with the physical properties of the materials he works with,” that he is able to uncover truths and discover new ways of thinking.
Select Works
Top left to bottom right:
Portal Burnt #130, 2023, Smoke soot on archival paper, $550.00 Portal Burnt #129, 2023, Burnt encaustic on archival paper, $750.00 Portal #41, 2021, Mixed media on wood panel, $2,450.00 Portal #46, 2022, Mixed media archival paper on wood panel, $550.00
For more information on a particular artist or piece please call 215.887.4882
This event is produced as part of our 2023 Winter Solo Series, on view from February 24 – April 10.
Our Coffee Breaks are sponsored in part by the Jenkintown Lyceum.
“Most of the color in my paintings has been distilled down to just one thing, and all surrounding it, achromic.”
– Nick D’Angelo
Nick D’Angelo explores color in his realistic paintings of the Americana. Choosing to keep certain areas of the composition vivid and colorful, while leaving the rest achromatic, D’Angelo is able to highlight areas of unexpected beauty. This also changes the content of his work, by offering a new perspective on how the objects sit and interact with each other. Finding equal interest in the achromatic areas and the areas of color, D’Angelo notes “the absence of color forces us to distinguish the subjects by shape, light, and shadow…color is a great contrast and emphasizes the other objects’ lack of it (and vice versa).”
Nick D’Angelo is exhibiting work from his Paintings Achromic series in our Community Arts gallery.
“I have always painted nature. For me, there was never a need to search for a subject…My search has always been for particular locations, places that begged recording.”
– Gail Fox
From vivid seascapes and mountain ranges, to whimsical koi pond compositions, local artist Gail Fox paints large-scale landscapes that are inspired by the natural world around her. Fox is drawn to natural forms, she explains “painting alongside fields, in woods, at stream’s edge, in solitary places, it is the dynamic rhythms of nature, its changing lights, and weather that engage me.” Her intense observation of these natural shifts is evident in the color choices, elaborate compositions, and attention to detail within her work.
Gail Fox is exhibiting artwork selected from her landscapes, seascapes, and koi fish series in our Kellner Gallery.
Portal #71, 2022 | Mixed media canvas on a wooden panel
“My practice involves the dialogue between order and chaos.”
– Stuart Lehrman
Artist Stuart Lehrman creates work inspired by the natural and human-made forms around him. Observation and experimentation is at the heart of his artistic practice. Creating works from crushed blueberries, ashes, iron shavings, and other experimental organic matter, Lehrman notes that it is through “the constant experimentation with the physical properties of the materials he works with,” that he is able to uncover truths and discover new ways of thinking.
Stuart Lehrman is exhibiting work from his Portal series, a series that explores the idea of passageways, in our Book Room gallery.
“From becoming aware of the male gaze and self-objectifying, to harassment, abuse, marginalization and ageism,” artist Constance McBride creates figurative sculptures that explore issues experienced by womxn. Drawing upon her own experiences, McBride’s sculptures are representative of what is often overlooked or left unspoken. She creates natural forms with visible signs of aging and raw expression. These details call for introspection while inviting the viewer to consider what strength and resilience in the face of discrimination looks like.
Constance McBride is exhibiting sculptures from her Lonely Girl series, a series that looks at Alzheimer’s disease through a gendered lens, in our Tile Gallery.
Abington Art Center is proud to host this artist talk, featuring one of our Fall 2022 Solo Series projects, Souls Shot Portrait Project.
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.
Souls Shot Portrait Project
“This project links fine artists with families or friends of victims of gun violence. The artists meet with the victims’ loved ones to learn about the lives they lived. Our goal is to present diverse works that in some way relay graphically, or through narrative, the essence of the person being portrayed.
Our mission is to bring attention to and memorialize the lives lost and tragically altered due to gun violence. Portraits have the unique ability to call out the souls and profoundly affect those who see them.”
Abington Art Center is proud to host this artist talk, featuring one of our Fall 2022 Solo Series artists, Chantal Westby.
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.
Chantal Westby
Chantal Westby is a French-American visual artist, born in northern France. She lets her artwork and life influence and harmonize with each other, finding inspiration through observation, ideation, and extensive questioning. Westby uses her art as a language in itself, communicating and expressing the richness she finds in life and the world around her, as well as using her art as a tool to raise awareness on important issues, like global warming.
For more information on a particular artist or piece please call 215.887.4882
This event is produced as part of our Fall Solo Series 2022, on view from September 16 – October 24.
Our Coffee Breaks are sponsored in part by the Jenkintown Lyceum.
John Lee describes himself as a responsive painter. Working primarily in oil paint, Lee works to unify color divisions in his explorations of interior spaces, still lifes, and self portraits. Finding exhilaration in landscapes and colors as they naturally appear, Lee aims to not only capture the landscapes in their truth, but also translate the feelings of inspiration he experienced to the viewer.
Throw Up, 2021 | Plaster, plastics, aluminum on canvas
Reflexion, 2021 | Plaster, paper, glass, plastic on canvas
Sea, 2021 | Plaster, seashells, PLA on canvas
Chantal Westby is a French-American visual artist, born in northern France. She lets her artwork and life influence and harmonize with each other, finding inspiration through observation, ideation, and extensive questioning. Westby uses her art as a language in itself, communicating and expressing the richness she finds in life and the world around her, as well as using her art as a tool to raise awareness on important issues, like global warming.
Lunar New Year Parade 2, 2022 | UV photo print mounted on 3mm aluminum
Lunar New Year Parade 4, 2022 | UV photo print mounted on 3mm aluminum
Lunar New Year Parade 1, 2022 | UV photo print mounted on 3mm aluminum
Kim Keller is a photographer, based in Washington, DC. Her series, “Parade Project” explores the tradition of parades and public celebration. Keller recognizes that even in the midst of a global pandemic, racial injustice, and active shooter crisis, the popularity of parades and public celebration persist, acknowledging that “the forces that draw us together are as powerful as the fears that would keep us apart.”
Our Superman, Nancy Bea Miller, 2021 | Oil on canvas
Generations, Corrine Dreyfuss Hackman 2021 | Charcoal and acrylic
Sunday Mornings, Karen Ruggles, 2021 | Printed on canvas
The Souls Shot Portrait Project links artists with the families of victims of gun violence, as a way of not only memorializing the lives lost, but also advocating for gun safety. Their mission is to raise awareness, “expand its reach, and hopefully reach the blessed day it will no longer be needed.”
Abington Art Center is proud to host this in-person artist talk featuring 2022 Spring Solo Series artists William Timmins and Zsudayka Nzinga.
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.
William Timmins
Timmin’s paintings are often derived from the internal thoughts, feelings and emotions evoked by beauty. Rather than convey this beauty in a conventional, representational form, he references music, dreams, memories, nature and artistic influences for inspiration, and attempts to convey the beauty and his joy in the abstract, via color, shape, texture, mark making and space. He leaves it to every individual to view and interpret the images through their own personal lens.
Zsudayka Nzinga
Nzinga is a multi disciplinary mixed media artist and designer. She considers her studio practice to be cultural anthropology in that she aims to capture and archive through her work the history and culture of Black Americans. She is very interested in what happens when Black American artist work and narratives are included alongside American art without requiring the Black artist to center their identity in trauma or politics and whether the sight and existence of Black faces is enough to make their work, voice and existence inherently political. Her works seek to normalize the day to day of Black Americans and celebrate culture while also highlighting moments shared by all humans.
“We all sit in the house, we all water our plants, we are all living an existence with more similarities than differences.” Nzinga says.
Nzinga work challenges viewers to include Black stories in American stories. Told through the lens of personal experience, she uses acrylic, decorative paper, hand dyed paper, linocut stamp, ink, vinyl, marker, metal, fabric and thread to create images of proud and beau.
For more information on a particular artist or piece please call 215.887.4882
This event is produced as part of our Winter Solo Series 2021, on view from February 25 – April 4.
Our Coffee Breaks are sponsored in part by the Jenkinstown Lyceum.
Abington Art Center is proud to host this in-person artist talk featuring Michael Rydak and Susan Smerker.
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.
The making of woven cloth is at the core of Radyk’s artistic practice. He has been researching weft cut textiles including corduroy and fustian. Fustian is a fabric made by weaving two or more sets of wefts, or fillings into a textile. Theses weft floats are cut creating a plush and active surface. The word has come to denote a class of heavy cotton fabrics, some of which have pile surfaces, including moleskin, velveteen, and later renamed and rebranded as corduroy.
Radyk’s goal is to bring the artists hand and contemporary sensibility to the process of fustian cutting and weaving. He finds inspiration in repurposing and the reinvention of a variety of industrial and machine-made materials he can integrate into his work. The ubiquitous nature of the materials he uses are interesting to him because they usually defy desire: heavy cotton, re-purposed plastic tape and gimp, recycled polyester, industrial dyed feathers, retro-reflective safety tape, phosphorescent and holographic tapes.
Smerker has always been drawn to the figure and portrait as subject matter. Working primarily in oils, she sets out to achieve a likeness or essence of her subject, whether it is a quick sketch or a more formal portrait.
Inspired by the people and personalities closest to her, she often use friends and family members as models, a tradition practiced by many painters. When Smerker has a model in front of her that she knows very well, it leaves her free to experiment with the paint. To her, there is nothing more satisfying and challenging than working from a live model and she exercises this skill as often as she can. She always enjoys learning and investigating ways to move forward with her craft. What keeps her engaged in the creative process is the challenge she encounters each time she conceives an idea and then attempts to bring it to life on the canvas.
For more information on a particular artist or piece please call 215.887.4882
This event is produced as part of our Winter Solo Series 2021, on view from February 25 – April 4.
Our Coffee Breaks are sponsored in part by the Jenkinstown Lyceum.
The making of woven cloth is at the core of Radyk’s artistic practice. He has been researching weft cut textiles including corduroy and fustian. Fustian is a fabric made by weaving two or more sets of wefts, or fillings into a textile. Theses weft floats are cut creating a plush and active surface. The word has come to denote a class of heavy cotton fabrics, some of which have pile surfaces, including moleskin, velveteen, and later renamed and rebranded as corduroy.
Radyk’s goal is to bring the artists hand and contemporary sensibility to the process of fustian cutting and weaving. He finds inspiration in repurposing and the reinvention of a variety of industrial and machine-made materials he can integrate into his work. The ubiquitous nature of the materials he uses are interesting to him because they usually defy desire: heavy cotton, re-purposed plastic tape and gimp, recycled polyester, industrial dyed feathers, retro-reflective safety tape, phosphorescent and holographic tapes.
William Timmins, Painting
Book Room Gallery
Short Stories, 2018 | Acrylic on Canvas
Cityscape, 2019 | Acrylic on Canvas
Generations, 2018 | Acrylic on Wood
Timmin’s paintings are often derived from the internal thoughts, feelings and emotions evoked by beauty. Rather than convey this beauty in a conventional, representational form, he references music, dreams, memories, nature and artistic influences for inspiration, and attempts to convey the beauty and his joy in the abstract, via color, shape, texture, mark making and space. He leaves it to every individual to view and interpret the images through their own personal lens.
Smerker has always been drawn to the figure and portrait as subject matter. Working primarily in oils, she sets out to achieve a likeness or essence of her subject, whether it is a quick sketch or a more formal portrait.
Inspired by the people and personalities closest to her, she often use friends and family members as models, a tradition practiced by many painters. When Smerker has a model in front of her that she knows very well, it leaves her free to experiment with the paint. To her, there is nothing more satisfying and challenging than working from a live model and she exercises this skill as often as she can. She always enjoys learning and investigating ways to move forward with her craft. What keeps her engaged in the creative process is the challenge she encounters each time she conceives an idea and then attempts to bring it to life on the canvas.
Nzinga is a multi disciplinary mixed media artist and designer. She considers her studio practice to be cultural anthropology in that she aims to capture and archive through her work the history and culture of Black Americans. She is very interested in what happens when Black American artist work and narratives are included alongside American art without requiring the Black artist to center their identity in trauma or politics and whether the sight and existence of Black faces is enough to make their work, voice and existence inherently political. Her works seek to normalize the day to day of Black Americans and celebrate culture while also highlighting moments shared by all humans.
“We all sit in the house, we all water our plants, we are all living an existence with more similarities than differences.” Nzinga says.
Nzinga work challenges viewers to include Black stories in American stories. Told through the lens of personal experience, she uses acrylic, decorative paper, hand dyed paper, linocut stamp, ink, vinyl, marker, metal, fabric and thread to create images of proud and beau.
