Art Exhibition Opening of "Dual Visions"

Press Release : Dual Visions

The June exhibition at the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center (MRAC), titled “Dual Visions”, will feature the work of award-winning, local artists Eric Slade and Albert G. Aldinger III, along with new work in various media and styles by members of the Manayunk-Roxborough Artists’ Co-Op. The opening reception will be Sunday, June 5, 2011 from noon to 3:00 P.M. in the gallery at the art center. MRAC is located at 419 Green Lane (rear), Philadelphia, PA 19128.

 Currently a resident of Manayunk, Eric Slade was born in Florida, lived most of his life in New Hampshire and earned a BFA from the University of Rhode Island (URI) in 2009. He became a Co-Op member in October 2010, after moving to Philadelphia from New Hampshire. He will exhibit a group of oil paintings he refers to as his “Existential Bacchanal” series. Slade describes these as, “re-imaginings of the classic Bacchanalia scenes of the Renaissance depicting men and women of ancient times dancing, playing music, and drinking in a celebration of the God of Wine.” Slade won the Jesse M. Simmons Memorial Scholarship for excellence in studio art and the President’s Achievement Award for Studio Art while at URI. He has exhibited his work in Boston and at Gallery Z in Providence, R.I.

 Several of Slade’s works incorporate familiar Philadelphia landmarks. The foreground of “Bacchanal 1 – Art” depicts stylized nudes frolicking, reclining and embracing in a field. In the center, a woman sits on a purple beer keg, her back to the viewer, facing the Neo-Classical architecture of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Water Works in the middle distance and center city high-rise buildings in the background. Nude human figures drink and dandle by the fountain under the “Love” sculpture in “Bacchanal 3 – Evol(ve)”. The title mirrors a visual irony found in the painting. Most images of the “Love” sculpture, installed near Philadelphia’s City Hall at 15th Street and JFK Boulevard, are taken from the front. “Mine is from the back, so the letters are backwards and the message disappears,” Slade says. In these and other paintings in the series, the artist employs a color-coding of the elements shown. “Oxygen is yellow ochre, hydrogen is pink, carbon is crimson and so on,” he explains.

 The pieces are influenced by artists Henri Matisse, Paul Cezanne, and the ideals of the Renaissance masters. Slade notes that some of the poses he has chosen for his human subjects are, “borrowed straight from classic Bacchanal paintings.” In addition, the artist attributes some of his inspiration for the series to Jean-Paul Sartre’s philosophical novel, Nausea. Interpreting Sartre’s book, Slade feels that, “It deals with the idea that everything that exists is on an equal footing…All of the objects around us were created by us for a purpose, but man has no innate reason for being; we each have to create our own purpose.” Coding his color choices to the elements and, “breaking everything down into its building blocks,” is Slade’s method of illustrating the Existentialist idea of the essential equality of existence.

 Albert G. Aldinger III was born in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia, where he currently resides. He attended Cooke Wissahickon Kindergarten and Holy Family Catholic School before he moved to Bucks County, PA with his mother. He graduated from South River High School in Edgewater, MD. He has been drawing most of his life, and recalls that his favorite childhood toys were, “the watercolor paint set or coloring books.” He devoted himself to painting when he was accepted into the Hussian School of Art, in Philadelphia, from which he will graduate this year with an Associates Degree in Specialized Technology. Last year he received the Ruth and Bernard Petlock Award for Painting, bestowed at Hussian in a student’s junior year for exceptional painting skills.

 Aldinger expresses great enthusiasm for still life painting and for working “en plein air”: i.e., painting outdoors. Among the acrylic, watercolor and gouache works he will exhibit in the June show at MRAC, “Rain Me” presents a man standing in the street, holding a green umbrella, and staring back at the viewer. An orange fire hydrant and a chain link fence, behind which lies a flower bed, complete the quintessentially urban scene. Aldinger’s acrylic painting, “Still Life With Lemon” exemplifies his appreciation of subtle color relationships and attention to detail. The plum and mauve tones in a vegetable grater that stands on a table combine with the shaded tablecloth and the blue paneling in the background to offset the lemon’s pale yellow.

 Aldinger has begun a series of paintings that combine outdoor scenes with historical figures in order to, as he says, “create an almost story-like illustration.” His ink wash painting, “Capturing Atlanta” renders Generals Henry Thomas and William Tecumseh Sherman in their conquest of the southern city during the American Civil War. Aldinger is developing a technique that is less linear and more painterly. The artist observes, “I want to lessen the lines that I use and to really just use color to highlight the differences from object to object and shade to shade…filling the canvas until I can make out what it is that I am painting.”

 MRAC is delighted to spotlight these two relatively young artists, both residents of the area – one homegrown and one transplanted. Both demonstrate their technical prowess, depth of thought and familiarity with tradition while creating representational art in a contemporary idiom. For further information telephone 215. 482.3363 or seewww.mrartcenter.org on the web. Visitors to the June 5thopening are invited to partake of light refreshments and to meet the featured artists and other members of the Manayunk-Roxborough Artists’ Co-Op. The gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. “Dual Visions” will run through Sunday, June 26th. Free, off-street parking is available nearby. From Green Lane, turn left onto Ridge Avenue and then right onto DuPont St. and look for the lot on the left.