public Opening Reception:

Sunday, March 17th, 1-5pm

Artist Talk:

Thursday, March 28th, 6-7pm

Closing Reception:

Sunday, April 7th, 12-5pm

About the exhibition:

Ricocheting between oil painting, shrinky dink, and ball-point pen on paper, Mike Pavol's work of the past couple of years continues to explore representation, process versus product, artifact and reproduction, and things he finds just plain old interesting. And, in his own words, he “continues his perfect record of being unable to reconcile any of it into a cohesive statement.”

About the Artist:

“I came to Philadelphia from Phoenix AZ in 1988 with a head full of modernism (BA Arch., Va Tech 1986), punk rock and youthful stabs at art, all of which barely co-habited.  Taking night classes at Fleischer and PAFA, I fell under the influence of Christine Lafuente, and her enthusiastic pursuit of observation and paint. I plunged in, enjoying the challenge and direction though slightly concerned about where all this was headed.   In 2002, a show of Edwin Dickinson’s work, and the variety of routes he explored gave me the nudge I needed to include all of my concerns and ideas as painter, designer and person. Also, letting the leftovers and the unintended be as important as the target, prompted by a brief meeting with John Cage in 1986, began to leach into my perception and work. Less was I an automaton that channeled unedited visual information (former ideal) and more was I a guy making decisions and choices on how and what to paint. I became less concerned with displaying a cohesive artistic philosophy or perceived consistency, and more with using my experience, intuition, and curiosity to give a direction, while the internal logic and rules of the individual painting provide boundaries and limits, that can be respected or violated.

With my trials and tribulations educating and changing me daily, compounded by my deceptive and flaky nature as a visual artist, one should regard the above statement as suspicious at best, and delusional at worst.  I hope none of this detracts from your viewing of the show.”