By Caroline Roosevelt, Columnist, The Times
Well, it’s been a minute since I’ve been able to write about art. I took a brief hiatus to get married, enjoy my honeymoon, and then recenter myself in the real world. Turns out the real world didn’t stop while I was gone, and there’s a lot of art to be seen, after all, First Friday is coming up and there’s a lot going on!
Let’s start in West Chester. Art Trust is hosting a variety of art from contributing artists of the upcoming Chester County Studio Art Tour (coming to studios near you May 18-19!). Check out small works by several artists on view starting May 3rd with a First Friday reception from 5 – 9pm. On Sunday, May 9, stop by for the Selling Art panel discussion from 7 – 8pm.
Dirt Road, by Robert Bohne.
Church Street Gallery will be hosting a solo show by Robert Bohne. Stop in and enjoy his luminescent landscapes and portraiture. Bohne studied at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and Fleisher Art Memorial. His work is in several collections including Delaware County Community College, and DuPont. Enjoy the opening reception this Friday starting at 5pm.
Moving into Delaware, stop by Station Gallery for the opening of a solo show by Helena Van Emerik-Finn, “Anything Goes,” featuring vibrant, bucolic pastels and oil paintings perfect for a springtime visit. Stop in for their opening reception on Friday, May 3rd from 5 – 8pm.
Christine Lafuente’s Wildflowers and Boat
While we are in the Greenville, Somerville Manning is hosting Christine Lafuente’s solo exhibition “Colors of a Day” featuring rich botanical and floral paintings. Her confident short strokes, ones which might normally punctuate any other painting, are the centerpiece of her work, creating abstracted florals that create a rich quality of light. Stop in before it comes down on May 4th.
First Friday Art Loop in Wilmington will feature some new exhibitions at Delaware Contemporary including “Blue-Sky Thinking,” a collaborative spring show between mixed media artist Caroline Coolidge Brown and photographer, Scott Alan McClurg.
Coolidge, who collects material for her pieces like a bird with a nest, creates layered collage paintings. She describes her process on the Delaware Contemporary site: “Through layers of collage and rhythmic organic shapes, I invite the vitality of the natural world to my canvas. I can feel the wind in grasses and the flapping of wings. Added collage allows me to exaggerate the birds’ colorful markings. I find special bits of paper and text to glue into an imagined story of each piece.”
McClurg, who discovered his passion for nature photography in 2000, focuses on the animal subjects distinct personality, “As I began photographing wildlife, I became interested in capturing the personalities of the animals, not merely their abstract beauty, with images that are engaging on many emotional levels.”
Other exhibitions at Delaware Contemporary opening on Friday include the University of Delaware 2019 MFA Thesis Exhibition “CUSP,” John Singletary’s installation “Anahata,” “Hopes&Dreams/Fears&Feels” by Anthony Bowers, and University of Delaware Lynn Herrick Sharp Award Exhibition.
Next Wednesday, tune in to Art Watch Radio WCHE 1520AM from 1-1:30pm as Margaret Winslow with Roxanne Campbell, Teaching Artist and Curator in Residence at Chris White Gallery/Delaware Art Museum. Thanks so much for tuning in! Until next week!
