Abstraction Show 2021

Juror, Ann Tarantino

Ann is a multimedia artist investigating the impact of human behavior and geography on architecture and natural landscapes. Through drawing, painting, installation and site-specific public art, her work directly engages viewers in a dialogue concerning the nuances of contemporary life in response to space, time, culture, and materiality. Tarantino’s fascination with pattern and information charting renders her work as both literal and conceptual maps. Her work has been exhibited widely in the United States and abroad, with public art installations appearing in various settings including museums and galleries, botanical gardens, and city streets.

Recent exhibitions and projects include commissions for the Pittsburgh International Airport, collaborations with the Borough of Millvale, PA and Pittsburgh’s Office of Public Art; Cloud Countries, a new installation created for the Pittsburgh International Airport; a public-scale painting commissioned by the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority’s DotART program; and a solo exhibition of new paintings with Davis Editions (Phoenix, AZ).

Ann was featured in New American Paintings in 2005 and 2007, and was a 2016-17 recipient of a Fulbright Core Scholar Award for artistic practice in Brazil. She earned an honors degree in Visual Arts from Brown University and her Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in Painting from The Pennsylvania State University.

Show Winner

Erin Welsh

I’ll Leave the Lights On

Juror’s Comments: This joyful, exuberant painting is small in stature but big on layers and dynamic energy. The repeated circular forms create a patina or history of shape and texture, resulting in a piece that speaks to history, memory, and the passage of time.

Awards

2nd Place

You Are Not Your Thoughts, Melinda Curley

Juror’s Comments: This painting has a wonderful material texture that makes viewers want to reach out and touch it. Viewers can feel the energy of the paint application and recurring moments of color and texture.

3rd Place

Space Walk, Michael Pelikan

Juror’s Comments: This piece appealed to me for the mystery created by the textures and value shifts. Are we looking at a lunar landscape, the underside of a pile of leaves, or a close up of human skin? Photography is by nature inherently abstract although frequently we look to it for “truth.” I appreciate the ambiguousness of this image.

Honorable Mention

Bound, Dotty Ford

Juror’s Comments: This small print feels like it could be fabric, a collection of pressed papers from long ago, or an unraveling sweater. Handheld in size, it is mysterious, quiet, and calming.