This artist is our artist of the month

Germantown artists host networking event

• Written by  Samaria Bailey
• Thursday, 17 October 2013 12:19
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During the Germantown Artists Roundtable Meet and Greet, held at the Imperfect Art Gallery, Artist Gina Michaels, left, discusses the process she used to create a monotype print. — TRIBUNE PHOTO BY SAMARIA BAILEY

The Germantown Artists Roundtable hosted an Artist Meet and Greet on Saturday, Oct. 12 to promote networking of area artists before their showings with this weekend’s citywide Post Open Studio Tour.

Organizers said the event, hosted at the Imperfect Art Gallery on Greene Street, was also an effort to increase awareness of the Arts in the area.

“We wanted artists to meet each other, we wanted to thank them for what they are doing and for people who are not artists to meet them,” said Paula Paul, organizer with the Germantown Artist Roundtable. “[Another] reason we are doing this is that in the past people have skipped Germantown when doing the Post Tour. They go to Chestnut Hill, Center City and they might even go to Mt. Airy. But for whatever reasons, they don’t come to [Germantown]. We wanted to do something to focus a light on our artists and to encourage our neighbors to visit at least one studio.”

Throughout the evening, artists mingled and viewed exhibits currently being shown at the Imperfect Gallery, including artist Michelle Burton’s “Red Room,” a colorful, patterned bathroom installation inspired by Josephine Baker; and metal work and original prints by sculptor and print maker Gina Michaels.

Germantown artists who will be featured in the Post Tour also used the meet and greet as a chance to discuss the works they will be showing this weekend.

Sculptor John Phillips said he will be opening his foundry studio to show bronzed totem sculptures. He said he used his grandson’s toys to create a six-foot totem pole.

“It’s a stack of toys – cars, baseball, and airplanes – all kinds of little toy figures,” he said. “I like to think that it would help people see something they’re not used to seeing – give them a pause. However they are moved is fine with me.”

For Ife Niiowoo, a collage and assemblage artist who has shown her work with the Post Tour since 1999, this weekend’s exhibit will be personal.

A total of 20 Germantown artists who work with various media will be showing their work Oct. 19- 20, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at eight different neighborhood studios. Shuttle cars will be available to take people to and from the different locations. For more information contact Paula at pauladance@aol.com.

“I will be showing collage pieces, paintings and mixed media pieces,” Niiowoo said. “It’s a journey of myself as an artist, as a woman, explorer, mother – all the different roles I’ve played in my life. [And] I use a lot of family photos in collages to tell the story of family and reconnect the dots with parents, grandparents and myself.”

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Samaria Bailey

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