Public Opening Reception:

Friday, July 6th 2018, 6 - 8pm

Artist Talks:

Sunday, July 22nd 2018, 2pm

About the exhibition:

“The killings of Trayvon Martin (2012), Eric Garner (2014), Tamir Rice (2014), Laquan McDonald (2014), and Michael Brown (2014), were the catalyst for a series that was initially focused on lynchings. After the controversy in 2017 regarding the Dana Schutz painting of Emmett Till, I redirected my research to the white Americans guilty of perpetrating these crimes and other manifestations of racism. Such images are all too plentiful and easy to find online. Once an image is selected, printed, and transferred to a gessoed panel, it is worked into with a variety of media which may include more transfers, acrylic paint, watercolor, colored pencil, and graphite. Cut out bits of old abstract oil paintings and other materials are collaged into the image. The fragmented and torn nature of the collaged elements reflects the fragmented and torn state of our nation. Typewritten index cards hark back to mid-century research methodology and remind us that the past continues to haunt us.”

All work is priced at $100 and profits will go to the Equal Justice Initiative.This exhibition comments on current and historical events through ceramics, sculpture, mixed media and photographic installations, drawings, painting, and prints by artists Colleen Gahrmann, Charlotte Schatz, Sarah Bloom, and Rosalind Bloom.

Taking on the role of curator for the first time, Rosalind Bloom has invited three other artists to join her in an exhibition of work that addresses issues of public concern. The art created by these women acknowledges and explores their own privilege, opens up a dialogue on issues of continued relevance such as gender inequality, other past and present social injustices, and the history of American racial tensions. In the face of hatred and oppression we all need to own our own complicity. Join us as we share, listen and discuss. Each artist will show new work that continues to investigate a given theme or medium.

About the Artists:

Rosalind Bloom is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and has an MA in Art History from Columbia University. She has been a teacher at Villanova University and Rosemont College, a writer, and resident at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Ucross Foundation in Wyoming. She is a founding member of Assemblage Artists Collective, an artist member of InLiquid, and is active with the Women’s Caucus for Art, and the DaVinci Art Alliance in Philadelphia.       

Sarah R. Bloom is an artist and photographer whose work has appeared in The Art of the State Exhibition in Harrisburg, The Perkins Center, Da Vinci Art Alliance and the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center along with various publications. She’s been featured in The Daily Mail, Philadelphia Magazine and The Huffington Post. Philadelphia Magazine named her Best Visual Artist in their Best of Philly Issue 2015, the same year that Instagram flew her out to L.A. to take part in a pop-up art exhibit celebrating inspiring women of Instagram. Bloom's pieces, several photographic diptychs and one mixed media installation piece, address issues of white privilege and its distorted vantage point.

Colleen Gahrmann received her B.A in Art Education from Trenton State College and her M.A. in Art Education with a Ceramic Concentration from Kean University. “Thrown ceramic forms, found objects and discarded furniture set the stage and are an integral part in the narratives that express childhood, gender identity, relationships, moral and political conflicts.”

Charlotte Schatz is a graduate of the Tyler School of Art and is Professor Emeritus at Bucks County Community College. Schatz has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Leeway Grant for Established Artists and a Pollock-Krasner Award. She is represented in the permanent collection of the State Museum of Pennsylvania, the James A Michener Art Museum, the University City Science Museum and numerous public and private collections. “As a socially conscious person, I have - throughout my career - created sculptures, paintings, and drawings that deal with what were then current political/social issues. BUT the horrors repeat. What was once current becomes again the subject of the artist’s outrage.”