Artful Inspirations Around Us
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
A sampling of Ted Walke’s work lines the walls.
A Walke on the Wild Side By Christina Heintzelman
In this issue of Harrisburg Magazine, we will give you some ways of thinking about what art “is.” How about a playwright, director, and actor or a lowbrow painting? Would you normally think about these things as art? If not, we are prepared to change your mind.
28 HARRISBURG MAGAZINE APRIL 2021
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cheintzelman@benchmarkmediallc.com
ell known throughout the city as the owner and operator of Gallery@ Second, which operated for eight years in the early 2000s, Ted Walke didn’t go dark when the gallery did. Even though some, including himself, might describe his paintings as dark surrealism and his self-named website is called DarkTed, Walke continues to light up the local art scene with his work and has plans to reopen the gallery. The gallery showcased the best artists in Central Pennsylvania and was a meeting place for the public during monthly Third in TheBurg events in the city. The two-story 1839 Federal-style house showcased a new exhibit every few months on the first floor and featured an ever-changing space upstairs for artists to hang pieces available for immediate purchase. “My wife, Linda, and I still own the building and we were preparing for a new resurgence when COVID struck and the re-opening could not happen then,” Walke said. “In the future I hope to reopen Gallery@Second as my personal studio and gallery with an option to
occasionally host other artists with the same genre of art/style as mine. I am committed to continuing to be a Harrisburg artist (with in-person interactions) as we all emerge from and live with the cloud of COVID.” Walke’s art is now available for public consumption in the tasting room at Zeroday in their new Third Street location. An upcoming show will be at the Art Association of Harrisburg when the Nothing Pretty Collective, of which he is a member, has a group exhibition scheduled for October 2021. The Nothing Pretty Art collective was cofounded in 2017 by Walke and Sean Arce to celebrate the appreciation of contemporary art style of pop surrealism or lowbrow art. Pop surrealism is a populist art movement with cultural roots in comics, tattoo art, graffiti, and cartoons. Lowbrow art has a sense of humor that is sometimes gleeful and often contains sarcastic commentary. Walke describes his style as a combination of both along with dark surrealism. “I am not a fan of categories and genres as I do not want to fall into a particular niche. I am growing
