GILDED SHADOWS
May - September 2024
Rotational Exhibits
Park Towne Place Museum District Residences is uniquely situated on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway among the city of Philadelphia’s most cherished art and cultural institutions. The vision for the community is to fully integrate Park Towne Place into the fabric of the Parkway –providing a unique art experience for residents and visitors alike.
In addition to the permanent art collection on display, rotational exhibits like Gilded Shadows showcase both established and upand-coming artists. Each exhibit includes companion educational and social opportunities to visit with artists who host talks and provide insights on their original works.
The award-winning art program at Park Towne Place is presented by AIR Communities, one of the largest owners of apartment homes in Philadelphia. For more information about AIR, please visit our website at www.aircommunities.com.
All rotational artworks are available for purchase. Inquiries for purchases can be directed to Isabella Aimone at isabella@inliquid.org.
GILDED SHADOWS
@ The South, North, and West Tower
Galleries at Park Towne Place Museum
District Residences
May 24 - September 17, 2024
Curated by Clare Finin
Featuring: Sarah Gutwirth
Summer J. Hart
Claire Owen
Christopher Poehlmann
Shelby Reed
Gilded Shadows presents the work of five artists who explore how humans rationalize the mysteries of the world. The included artists Sarah Gutwirth, Summer J. Hart, Claire Owen, Christopher Poehlmann, and Shelby Reed investigate the human impulse to explain the ineffable mysteries of the unknown through references to scientific categorization, cultural folklore, and invented fairy tales. Through their art, they illuminate the ever-present tension between our desire for understanding and the enigmatic forces that elude explanation. Together, these artists invite viewers to ponder the boundaries between reality and fantasy, and the stories that lie within the shadows.
Christopher Poehlmann Bark/Not Bark Floor Lamp, 2020 Aluminum and auto paint
78 x 24 x 24"
$7, 200
Exhibition Documentation of Gilded Shadows, North Tower
Sarah Gutwirth Maps of Three Continents, 2024 Oil on canvas
40 x 40"
$3,250
Sarah Gutwirth | Bio
b. Philadelphia, PA
Sarah Gutwirth holds an MFA from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, and a BFA from a joint program of Reed College and the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR. She has held numerous teaching positions throughout her career, most recently at Murray State University, Murray, KY, where she holds the title of Professor of Painting Emerita. A traveler at heart, Gutwirth has lived throughout the United States and France and recently retired to relocate back to her hometown of Philadelphia, PA.
Gutwirth has exhibited widely, including at the University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland; the Kleinert’s Arts Center, Woodstock, NY; The Renaissance Center, Dickson, TN; the Site Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, IN; the Sacramento Street Gallery, Cambridge, MA; and the InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA. She has received grants from the Kentucky Arts Council, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, Murray State University, and United University Professions at SUNY. Her work is held in several collections, including the People’s Education Press, Beijing, China; Gainesville College, Gainesville, GA; Richard Brush Gallery, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY; Roland Gibson Gallery, Potsdam College, SUNY, Potsdam, NY; as well as numerous private collections.
Sarah Gutwirth
Cloth of Gold, 2022
Oil on canvas
40 x 35"
$2,850
Sarah Gutwirth | Artist Statement
“My work is really about the history of ideas, about deciphering hidden or obvious connections between our natural world, and our echoing of nature through our created world of art and objects. We have always sought to understand the world by trying to decipher how things are connected to other things. What family do they belong in?
I also love science in the way that a non-mathematical person loves science, in its taxonomic and descriptive identity. I love the 18thcentury version, with its categories and collections, and the earlier version dating back to the Greeks, with its emphasis on the visual correlations and, often strange to us, webs of meaning which have internal consistency but are based on ideas now deemed deeply unscientific.
My most recent work is organized loosely on a grid. The abstraction of that form allows a less literal narrative connection between imagery drawn from associations engendered from a guiding metaphorical frame.”
Also On Display
Correspondence/Lace, 2021, Oil on panel, 10 x 22", $1,350
Correspondence/Titian, 2021, Oil on panel, 10 x 22", $1,350
Floral Arrangement, 2018, Oil on panel, 20 x 32", $1,200
Glimmer and Luster, 2019, Oil on canvas, 24 x 60", $2,850
Kabinet III, 2023, Oil on canvas, 36 x 42", $3,250
Nothing Gold Can Stay, 2022, Oil on canvas, 32 x 42", $2,850
Seasons of Mists (After Chardin), 2023, Oil on canvas, 35 x 40", $3,250
The Silver Branch, 2024, Oil on canvas, 42 x 36", $2,850
Volute, 2024, Oil on canvas, 36 x 42", $3,250
Summer J. Hart
Extinct Mussel Resurrection Spell, 2024
Salt, flour, armature wire, neon pink mason line, QR code links to website portion of piece
50 x 50 x 96"
NFS
Summer J. Hart | Bio
b. Millinocket, ME
Summer J. Hart is an interdisciplinary artist and writer from Maine living in the Hudson Valley, NY. Summer is the author of Boomhouse (2023, The 3rd Thing Press) and the 2024 Nassar Poetry Prize winner. She is a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Poetry and the 2022 Hellen Ingram Plummer Fellow at MacDowell. Her writing can be found in Best Small Fictions 2023, Bedfellows, Heavy Feather Review, Jet Fuel Review, The Massachusetts Review, Northern New England Review, Waxwing, and elsewhere. Her mixed-media installations have been featured in exhibitions and galleries across the country. Hart is an enrolled member of the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation.
Summer J. Hart
Night Garden: Flowers for a World Without the Sun, 2022-2024
Hand-cut acetate theatrical gel, Ash wood hangers
Left to right:
Night Garden, Scrolls 1-3
Dimensions vary
$825 - $1,400
Night Garden, Chandeliers 1-5
68" x 8" hoop and 72" x 8" hoop
$1,800 each
Night Garden is a cluster of five hand-cut photography lighting gel and black out paper chandeliers hung from the ceiling and three hand-cut theatrical gel wall mounted scrolls. Like a starling murmuration or botanical inflorescence, many bodies make a body. What blooms in the darkest nothing? Like any good fable, Night Garden is part enchantment, part cautionary tale.
Summer J. Hart | Artist Statement
“My work is about obsessiveness and obsession, memory, being, and longing.”
Summer J. Hart
Reversing Falls: No One is Safe in this River, 2024 Set of three hand-cut synthetic paper, Ash hangers
Left to right: (Detail) Reversing Falls
Reversing Falls, Scrolls 1-3
Dimensions vary
$900 - $2,500
Owen swallows nested in her hair, 2018 Oil on panel
24 x 20"
$1,200
Claire
Claire Owen | Bio
b. Rochester, NY
Claire Owen is a painter, book artist, and poet living and working in Philadelphia, PA. Owen holds a BFA and MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY.
Owen’s paintings have been exhibited nationally, including at The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; the A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; and the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE among others. Her limited edition artist books are held in numerous public collections including The Metropolitan Museum, New York City, NY; The Library of Congress, Washington, DC; The Getty Center for History of Arts and Humanities, Santa Monica, CA; Philadelphia Free Library, Philadelphia, PA; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England; the National Gallery, Washington, DC; The Gutenberg Museum, Mainz, Germany; and Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Cairo, Egypt among other.
Owen currently lives in Philadelphia with her husband.
Peter was taken by his owl, 2019
Oil on panel
20 x 24"
$1,200
Claire Owen
Claire Owen | Artist Statement
“My work explores cautionary tales once told to children, fairy tales that have settled into our collective imagination. We nod with recognition at the twist of fear in the child lost in the forest. We admire the cunning children use to see themselves safely away from the predator’s jaw. I explore the relationship between humans and animals outside of the one we have with our domestic companions, our pets. I often use the forest as a setting for these possible narratives and as a character itself. From European folk tales to contemporary literature, the forest remains in our imagination a place where the real and fabled intersect. My work is inspired by the poetry of William Butler Yates, the writing of Angela Carter, and the painting of Edward Hopper.”
Also On Display
Gabriel’s Family, 1992, Relief etchings and letterpress, artist made books, 9 x 10.5", $1,000
Sage, 2012, Relief etching, digital print, 8.5 x 11 x 1.5", $600 Seven Gods, Seven Demons, a bestiary, 1989, Relief etching, artist made book, 10 x 7", $600 she cast her promises into the sky, 2014, Graphite on paper, 26 x 20", $600 she invited him here, 2014, Oil on panel, 30 x 24", $1,200 she shifted his weight, 2014, Graphite on paper, 26 x 20", $600 Simon and his crow seldom quarrel, 2018, Oil on panel, 24 x 20", $1,200 take my bread said the boy, 2014, Graphite on paper, 26 x 20", $600 the falconer’s wife, 2014, Oil on panel, 24 x 20", $1,200 the thing in the forest, 2019, Oil on panel, 20 x 24", $1,200w
Christopher Poehlmann
Tendril Pendant, 2024
Aluminum, paint, e26 LED bulb, custom paint, colors available
Dimensions variable
$450 (each)
Christopher Poehlmann
Cabin in the Woods Pendant, 2024
Laser cut steel, paint, white plexiglas
11 x 15.5"
$950
Christopher Poehlmann | Bio
b. Chicago, IL
Christopher Poehlmann was born in Chicago and raised in northern Illinois exurbia. After receiving a BS in Psychology from Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH, Poehlmann relocated to Milwaukee, WI. Milwaukee’s creative climate and cheap rent allowed Poehlmann to start his largely self-trained life as an artist, investigating photography and functional objects in the gray area between Art and Design.
Poehlmann was able to build a reputation as an independent thinker and innovator in the growing world of Studio Craft. Favoring found objects, metals, and plastic further set him apart from many of his wood-centric contemporaries. He has been an ardent proponent of recycling and up-cycling and one of the key leaders in what has now become widely known as Rustic Modernism, which blends organic forms with the tenets of Modernism. Over the past three decades, Poehlmann has staged 18 solo gallery exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows at galleries, museums, and art centers. Poehlmann was an exhibitor at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City, NY, annually for 27 years, debuting new work for his company, CP Lighting. He has been featured in nearly every home and design-oriented publication in the US and abroad. He has also served two terms on the Board of Trustees for the Furniture Society, an international organization dedicated to the awareness and advancement of Studio Furniture makers. He lives and works in West Philadelphia with his wife (a UPenn writing Fellow), two children (when they are home), a cat, and a dog.
Christopher Poehlmann
newGROWTH Mangrove Floor Lamps with Cherry Shade, 2023
Aluminum, paint, Cherry veneer shades, e26 socket
60 x 20 x 20"
$1,850
Christopher Poehlmann
newGROWTH Mangrove Floor Lamps with Maple Shade, 2023
Aluminum, paint, Maple veneer shades, e26 socket
60 x 20 x 20"
$1,850
Christopher Poehlmann
newGROWTH Chandelier, 2021
Aluminum with satin white paint finish, 120v e12 sockets 5' diameter
$8,400
Christopher Poehlmann | Artist Statement
“I see the world through everyday objects of use. The things we live with and interact with have occupied a large space of my waking and unconscious life for decades; it almost feels like it was written in my DNA. Perhaps it was.
Creative pursuits in my family can be traced back to the 1800s, with my paternal grandfather being trained in Germany as a master engraver and fine artist and my grandmother as a fine artist painter of ceramics. Looking back, these inherited tendencies, more nature than nurture, interest me.
I am self-trained as a designer and maker, learning by doing, reading, studying the work of others, and always experimenting. I cannot help myself from imbuing function in my work. What better way to experience a sculptural object than to be able to sit on or read by its light, or conversely, what better way to experience an object of everyday use than to have it also evoke meaning and provoke thought? My interest in Modernism has informed my work even when I started looking at nature for inspiration in the mid-90s. I see now, nearly thirty years later, that my work has played a significant role in developing and promoting what is now known as Rustic Modernism and Organic Design from being exhibited in international trade fairs and featured in hundreds of publications. The work in this show focuses on that unique mix of function and form: organic natural images mixed with manmade, random with rational design morphed with sculpture. This is what excites me, and I hope it engages you as well.”
Also On Display
RoughHewn Bench, 2020, Welded and carved aluminum with powder finish, 18 x 48 x 20", $3,600
Single Family House Pendants, 2024, Welded and carved aluminum, powder coat, E26 lamping, UL listed, 7 x 6 x 6", $650 (each)
Shelby Reed
The Only Way Out Is Through1-3, 2023
Ceramic, porcelain, resin, wood, acrylic paint, wire, mirror
18 x 15 x 4"
$1,000 (each)
Shelby Reed | Bio
b. Langhorne, PA
Shelby Reed is an artist from Bucks County, PA. She attended The Tyler School of Art & Architecture at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, where she earned her BFA with a concentration in ceramics and an entrepreneurship certificate from The Fox School of Business. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Ceramics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.
While Reed works primarily in ceramic, she also implements mixedmedia materials and processes, including wire, resin, plaster, foam, yarn, wool, spray paint, beads, and more. These individual materials and repeated ceramic forms combine to create her colorful, organic, and maximalist sculptural works.
Reed has participated in several opportunities at craft schools across the country. She was selected for studio assistantships at Penland School of Craft, Penland, NC, and Pocosin Arts School of Fine Craft, Columbia, NC. She was also chosen to attend a three-week summer intensive at Ox Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI. Lastly, she was chosen to attend the Maxwell/ Hanrahan Residency at Peter’s Valley School of Craft, Sandyston, NJ.
Her most recent project is an exhibition for the Philadelphia, PA, International Airport, where she created five new large-scale sculptural works to be displayed in the airport’s international terminal. The pieces are installed in Terminal A-West and will remain on display until July 2024. Her work was also selected for this year’s juried student show as part of The National Conference on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) in Richmond, Virginia.
Shelby Reed
Specimen Series 1, 2023
Porcelain, underglaze, resin, beads, plastic dish
27 x 27 x 4"
$1,800
Shelby Reed | Artist Statement
“My work explores escapism, memory, and storytelling through the creation of a fantasy world. Fantasy allows for a place of freedom and safety. The pieces directly reference and pull from real life, familiar yet unfamiliar. The forms utilize mimicry as they are parallel to nature and the known yet are fictive, altered, alien, and other.
Femininity and queerness are central to the creation of the forms, surfaces, and imagery. The forms, surfaces, and imagery also reference the body and florals but are alien and segmented. Otherness and the idea of an alter ego appear in the work through reflected imagery and the use of mirrors. Desire, the unknown, and fear are other things I am thinking about.
The pieces create moments of precariousness and constraint that capture a moment in time. The role of materiality and precariousness serve to create fear or unease in the audience as they share space with the work. I am also thinking about accumulation, still lives, set building, simulation, theatre, specimen, and dissection. Storytelling, ambiguity, and mystery become important when the pieces begin to interact with each other and the viewer.”
Also On Display
Heart Vessel, 2024, Ceramic, bronze, thread, resin, mica, augmented reality, 20 x 13 x 12", $800
Looking Through, 2024, Acrylic yarn, netting, 48 x 36", $5,000
Offerings, 2024, Ceramic, bronze, thread, resin, mica, 13 x 6 x 6", $300
Wall Garden Display 1, 2024, Ceramic, wood, fabric, thread, aluminum, mirror, 22 x 15 x 6", $1,000
Wall Garden Display 2, 2024, Ceramic, wood, fabric, thread, aluminum, mirror, 22 x 15 x 6", $1,000
Exhibition Documentation of Gilded Shadows, West Tower
InLiquid
InLiquid is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to creating opportunities and exposure for visual artists and works with more than 280 artists and designers. It serves as a free, online public hub for arts information in the Philadelphia area. Find out more at www.inliquid.org.
All rotational artworks are available for purchase. Inquiries for purchases can be directed to Isabella Aimone at isabella@inliquid.org.
