About the exhibition:

Ayres on “Working Title”:

I make art to figure things out—memory, culture, time. I’m drawn to images that don’t quite resolve: fragments from art history, childhood, pop culture, and the domestic sphere, all warped through personal experience. I make work for both the casual, pleasure-driven viewer and for the in-joke crowd—the ones who catch the references or the tonal glitches. I try to leave room for interpretation: breadcrumbs for the winkers, and space for anyone to enter on their own terms.

At its core, my work is about the tension between what we inherit and what we make of it—between reverence and kitsch, clarity and confusion. I stay with the image until it gets strange, or funny, or unexpectedly honest. That’s where the meaning starts to surface.

Working Title will be on view in Gallery 3 at Da Vinci Art Alliance from September 4 - September 21.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Derek Ayres (American, b. 1967) is a Philadelphia-based painter trained as a sculptor (MFA, Columbia University). His work has been exhibited at P·P·O·W (New York), ZieherSmith (New York), and Bridgette Mayer Gallery (Philadelphia), among others. In 2025, he received the Soul of Artists Award and completed a residency at Da Vinci Art Alliance. His work has been featured by mepaintsme.com and ilikeyourwork.com. He will be a 2025 participant in Philadelphia’s Center for Emerging Visual Artists POST Open Studios this fall, supported by an Artists for Artists Global scholarship.

About the Presenter

Working Title is presented by See/Hear Now Pop-Up Enterprises Worldwide, the working title for the curatorial and exhibition projects of Derek Ayres and affiliated artists. See/Hear Now has won four consecutive Philadelphia Fringie Awards for Visual Arts for its past exhibitions: Plein Air Guitar (2021), Forever Never Lasts (2022), Best Laid Plans (2023), and Rogue’s Gallery (2024). For the 2025 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, See/Hear Now returns with Working Title, a solo exhibition by Ayres.