Exhibits by Philly Artists, JoAnne Schiavone

The York College Galleries will open the 2009-10 year with exhibitions featuring the work of three Philadelphia artists and of faculty member JoAnne Schiavone.The exhibits, “Represent Philly: Three Artists and Their Collectives” and “Fluid Edges,” will be on display from Sept. 3 – 25 in the Cora Miller Gallery and the Brossman Gallery.

Roberta Fallon, guest curator for “Represent Philly,” will present a talk titled “The Emergence of the Philadelphia Artist Collective” at 5 p.m., Sept. 3, in DeMeester Recital Hall.  Her lecture will be followed by the opening reception for the shows from 6 – 8 p.m.

Fallon is an artist and critic whose influential online art criticism publication, “Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof’s Artblog,” co-written by her long-time friend and collaborator Libby Rosof, has been named one of the top art blogs by Art In America magazine and receives about 55,000 hits per month. She has curated exhibitions in New York City and Philadelphia and has also exhibited her work in numerous solo and group shows throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Fallon is one of the founding members of Philadelphia Sculptors and is an art critic for several publications, including the Philadelphia Weekly, Art on Paper magazine, and Artnet.com. 

Fallon served as guest curator for York College’s “Represent Philly: Three Artists and Their Collectives.” The “Represent” series is an annual exhibition highlighting contemporary art trends in the major metropolitan areas closest to York College. The series will focus primarily on emerging artists in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.

“Represent Philly” features the work of Beth Heinly (http://www.the3oclockbook.com/comicshome/comicspage.htm), Dustin Metz (http://www.dustinmetz.com/new%20site/pages/index.html), and Manya Scheps (http://www.poachedpack.com/), who each participate in one of Philadelphia’s collectives. Their art spans the breadth of what’s being produced by young artists in Philly — from painting on wood and canvas to comic book art to conceptual projects that are humorous social satires, according to Fallon.

Heinly, who earned a B.F.A. from the Art Academy of Cincinnati, is a comix artist and member of Philly Comix Jam as well as the Little Berlin collective. Metz earned a B.F.A. from Temple’s Tyler School of Art. He constructs paintings that are “sculptural and dreamy,” according to Fallon. An affiliate of FLUXspace, he is organizing a series of panel discussions this fall to introduce the collectives to each other and to others in the Philly art world.  Scheps is a printmaker with a B.F.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and member of the PIFAS group. Her most recent project is with the Poached Pack collective.

The second show that will open the year at the York College Galleries will feature the work of artist and adjunct professor JoAnne Schiavone, who will present an artist lecture titled “Open Studio” at 1 p.m., Sept. 4, in the Cora Miller Gallery.

Schiavone has recently been awarded the prestigious MFA Grant from The Joan Mitchell Foundation. This grant is given in recognition of artistic quality to artists chosen from a body of candidates put forth by nominators from the academic art community across the United States. “Fluid Edges” features work from Schiavone’s M.F.A. thesis dealing with “nature and the recycled leftovers of our material culture.”  She is concerned with sustaining “an environmentally ethical lifestyle” and is particularly interested in the power of water and “the edges between the sand and the ocean, the bank and the river, the rock and the stream.”

Schiavone earned an M.F.A. in sculpture from The University of the Arts, Philadelphia. She was an undergraduate at University of Delaware in art education with a focus in printmaking, and after graduating, added two more years of printmaking/book arts at the former Philadelphia College of Art and Penland School in North Carolina.

Schiavone has earned Individual Fellowship Grants from The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and The New Jersey Arts Council, along with a “Distinguished Artist of the State” from The New Jersey Arts Council. She has been included in exhibits at The James A. Michener Museum and The Museum of Art and Design in New York City; The Print Club in Philadelphia; Elvehjem Museum of Art and the Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts in New Jersey; The Whatcom Museum of Art in Bellingham, Wash.; and The American Cultural Center in New Delhi, India.

All events in the York College Galleries are open to the public free of charge. The Galleries are open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Sunday. For more information, contact Matthew Clay-Robison at mclayrob@ycp.edu or call 717-815-1528.