In Deborah Dancy’s work there is an undercurrent of nuance and tension, as if something is poised to happen. Paintings and drawings are constructed by tangential linear demarcations and erasures; abutting shapes and colors are inserted to provoke and entice, yet disrupt.

Dancy’s paintings, drawings, artist books, photography and sculptural objects examine and mine abstraction’s potential to move across mediums and materials exploring subtlety and confrontation. She is a Guggenheim Fellow and Professor Emeritus at the University of Connecticut.

Dancy’s solo exhibition in the 3rd Floor Gallery at Marketview Arts in downtown York (37 W Philadelphia St, York, PA 17401) runs from January 17 – March 14, 2020. She will be speaking about her work at Marketview Arts on March 12 at 5:30PM in the 3rd Floor Gallery Hall. Dancy will also serve as the Fine Art Juror for York College’s 2020 Annual Juried Student Exhibition. To learn more about Deborah Dancy and view more examples of her work please visit her website: https://www.deborahdancy.com/

A portion of Jerry Gretzinger’s incredible, ever-growing fictional world is coming to York in two weeks. The map will be exhibited in the octagonal Brossman Gallery at York College, giving viewers an immersive experience. To learn more about the process and philosophy behind this project that began more than 45 years ago, listen to the artist himself discuss the project: https://vimeo.com/13596774

If you are interested in learning more, read this article from The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/245858/the-mysterious-life-of-jerrys-map/

But if you want an opportunity to speak with the artist and ask him questions, don’t miss his lecture in DeMeester Recital Hall at 5:30PM on August 29: https://www.facebook.com/events/492468657988572/

Due to the intense interest in his exhibitions Culture of Class: Charm City on the 3rd Floor of Marketview Arts and Culture of Class: Horse Country on the 1st Floor, artist Tony Shore will be delivering a gallery talk on Saturday, July 6 at 4pm. The event will take place in Gallery Hall on the 3rd Floor. Seating will be available and the event is free and open to all.

Additionally, the galleries will be open from 5:00 – 9:00PM on Friday, July 5 for downtown York’s monthly First Friday Art Walk. Please visit the exhibition and think of some questions to ask Tony the next day following his artist talk.

The 2019 Annual Juried Student Exhibition opened Thursday, March 14. The following works were selected for special consideration by our jurors Ellen Lupton and Stephen Towns:

Fine Art Awards(selected by Stephen Towns)

1st Place – Woon Joung Choi: Pieta

2nd Place  – Ryan Lewis: Guns and Roses

3rd Place – Amber Wiesberg: Leaves 1

Honorable Mention – James O’Shea: Imagined Landscape
Honorable Mention – J’avon Weems: Land of the Fee
Honorable Mention – Allison Moats: Collage of Mopar Cars
Honorable Mention – Jack Korver: Fruits, Vegetables, and Poultry

Graphic Design(selected by Ellen Lupton)

1st Place – Jacob Rafferty: Playing Cards

2nd Place – Rebecca Waugerman: Homegrown

3rd Place – Kerrie DeFelice: America’s Darkest Secrets

Honorable Mention – Darwin Bloise: NYC Land
Honorable Mention – Nyasia (Jai) Kiah: The 8 Rules
Honorable Mention – Nyasia (Jai) Kiah: Munari
Honorable Mention – Natalie Spingler: Vote for Our Lives
Honorable Mention – Natalie Spingler: Impending Tyranny
Honorable Mention – Tucker Thomas: Better Looking on Drugs
Honorable Mention – Van Nguyen: CTRL, ALT, EAT
Honorable Mention – Katelyn Leedy: Urban Flora
Honorable Mention – Chase Monico: Stockpile Nuts packaging
Honorable Mention – Jessica Harkcom: Family Bonding

The 2019 Juried Student Exhibition submission dates and locations are as follows:

Monday, Feb 25, 2018: 9am – 5pm, York College Galleries
Tuesday, Feb 26, 2018: 9am – 9pm, York College Galleries
Wednesday, Feb 27, 2018: 9am-12pm, York College Galleries

** Jurying begins at noon on Wednesday, Feb 27. No work will be accepted after that.**

Graphic Design Juror: Ellen Lupton
Fine Art Juror: Stephen Towns

Juror Lectures:
Stephen Towns, Thursday, Feb 7, 5:30pm
Ellen Lupton, Wednesday, Feb 27 5:30pm

Selections will be announced Thursday, Feb 28. Work not selected must be picked up Thursday, Feb 28 or Friday, March 1.

Juried Exhibition Opening Reception/Announcement of Awards:
Thursday, March 14, 5:00PM, York College Galleries

Awards: 1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd Place, Honorable Mention in both Fine Art and Graphic Design

Exhibition Dates: March 14 – April 2, 2019

Recap:
Submissions for this year’s Juried Show will begin Monday, February 25 at 9AM and end on Wednesday, February 27 at noon. Our jurors, Stephen Towns (Fine Art) and Ellen Lupton (Graphic Design) will make their selections the afternoon of Wednesday, February 27. Students may submit up to 4 pieces in each category (graphic design and fine art) for a maximum of 8 submissions. The work must have been made in the last year and not have been submitted to the Juried Show last year. All FA/GD majors and all students currently enrolled in an ART class may submit.

Work does not have to be matted or framed, but presentation is considered. A nice frame and a mat can transform some work and make it more appealing to jurors and viewers. Some work is definitely better left unframed and it’s never a good idea to put something in a poorly cut or dirty mat or cheap frame because that always detracts from the work. If you’re unsure what to do, consult your professors.

Questions? Contact Gallery Director Matthew Clay-Robison at mclayrob@ycp.edu

The artistry of Stephen Towns is a commitment to create regal, iconic portraits that identify and celebrate the presence African Americans missing from the narratives of American history. He creates images of working class, poor people of humble means, who were denied, forgotten, dismissed, abused, obliterated and erased from historical memory. Each portrayal is elevated to the status of sainthood in compelling portrayals inspired, in part, by Towns’ admiration of European religious altar paintings. The artist blesses each subject with an ornate halo of metal gold leaf, popularly used during the Byzantine and Middle Ages eras as seen in masterful works of Giotto and Duccio. A Path Between Two Continents is an exhibition of compelling and penetrating compositions that are as much historical, as they are autobiographical and analytical. Towns explores his own sense of self, the beauty of African American physiology and the powerful strengths he sees as distinctive cultural identifiers unique and specific to African American culture.The violence and horrors of the African Slave Trade and Middle Passage, between the continents of Europe and the Americas, serve as a conscious reminder of the relentless racism and oppressions that still continue to plague America and the world today.

Towns was born in Lincolnville, South Carolina, a small town south of the City of Charleston, located in what has been identified as the Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor. He grew up in one of the most extraordinary communities of descendants of bonded Africans. A wide range of different African cultures banded together to create their own language, infused with European and Native American words, yet distinctly African in its cultural formation. Gullah Geechee communal history informed Towns’ research using the resources of the National Archives and files of the Works Projects Administration. He re/visions each subject so that he can “examine the nuances and expressions”, positioning them in isolated, meditative spaces. These studies bring the viewer into eye to eye contact with what become monumental emblems of human strength, dignity and power as seen in the Images of Work and Joy Cometh in the Morning series.

In The Bridge: Stories from the Work Project Administration, The Gift of Lineage and An Offering series each person is ‘dressed’, painted and stitched with fabric like an appliqué quilt. This fiber technique is inspired by the vibrant pieced, striped quilts tradition created by African American female and male artisans. This practice is one of the many residual re/creations of traditional African cloth making. Cloth plays a critical role in the philosophical life of African and African Diasporic people. Nigerian scholar Rowland Abiodun (2004) observes that “among all items of dress, cloth is the only one with the attribute of immortality“, further stating how “The socio-religious and aesthetic significance of cloth in Yoruba culture far outweighs its perishability as a material object.” Towns uses textiles to elevate his subjects to a deified state of sainthood thereby ensuring, not just the remembrance of each of his subjects but assuring them each their own immortality. His use of cloth punctuates the politics of remembrance and mindfulness in the resurrection of lost heroes in the battle for freedom, recognition and a sense of agency in American history.

Stephen Towns has mandated for himself a Herculean challenge to create a legacies of remembrance for Americans of African descent. The socio-political and spiritual intent of his artistry is grounded in his use of a symbolic butterfly, as seen throughout all of his paintings, are a lyrical visual trope signifying attributes of change, hope, resurrection, freedom, endurance, liberation, life…and an immortality within the legacy of American history.

Leslie King Hammond, PhD
Senior Fellow
Robert W. Deutsch Foundation
January 2019

Paul Rucker: In Her Words
October 5 – 27, 2018
3^rd Floor Anteroom, Marketview Arts
Reception: October 5, 2018, 5:00 PM

Epidemic: an exhibition by Dr. Eric Avery and Adam DelMarcelle
October 25 – December 19, 2018
Cora Miller Gallery (on campus)

Artist Lecture:
Can Art Save Lives? A Conversation with Dr. Eric Avery and Adam DelMarcelle
Thursday, October 25, 2018, 5:30 PM, DeMeester Recital Hall 
This exhibit brings together the work of two activist artists, Eric Avery and Adam DelMarcelle, as they bear witness, and call us to action as the opioid epidemic claims the lives of 197 people a day in the United States.

Eric Avery is an artist and psychiatrist with a long history of making art related to his medical work with refugees, human rights abuses, HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. During the time of HIV/AIDS, his prints captured truthful moments in the pandemic sweeping the world and his pioneering art medicine actions demystified HIV testing and AIDS care by conducting testing and exhibiting medical care in the gallery and art museum settings. He has tried to show how art can save lives.

Adam DelMarcelle’s prints and social art actions have been made in Pennsylvania, on the frontlines of the exploding opioid epidemic and have functioned to educate and mobilize community response through compelling his viewers to ask better questions and to always be suspect of the information given by those in power. After losing a brother to an opioid overdose, DelMarcelle committed his life to the betterment of his community through his work as an educator and artist.

An epidemic is defined by the artists as a progressive descent from physical, psychological and community wellness which is often ignored until the suffering and death from our human family can no longer be hidden behind the walls of the power structures’ status quo. Successful interventions during epidemics often require all persons within a community to ask themselves what part they play in the landscape of the problem and how they might best participate in reducing harm and restoring wellness.

During an epidemic, the past can repeat itself and previous lessons have to be relearned. In January 2018, when the Governor of Pennsylvania declared a statewide health disaster for the opioid and heroin epidemic, we were reminded of the hopelessness and terror of the 1990’s, when HIV/AIDS was spreading and many were dying. If history repeats itself in the current opioid epidemic, the hopelessness, stigma and death will be reduced as the understanding of contributing factors grows, treatment approaches improve and community resources are marshalled to respond.

In this exhibit, Avery’s historical prints position the opioid epidemic in a larger context of earlier epidemics. DelMarcelle’s installation of Our Town and current print series will take the viewer through the streets of Lebanon, PA where heroin is being sold and people die. Within the gallery, a Harm Reduction art action space will be used for Harm Reduction education, including Naloxone training, information sessions on needle exchange and safer using methods. Information will be available in the space for those seeking help, support and available treatment options. Harm reduction at its core meets people where they are with compassion and aims to keep them alive.

With the goals of supporting the development of a deeper understanding of the opioid epidemic and to encourage reflective thinking about harm reduction as a needed immediate response, the exhibit bears witness and encourages reflective thinking. An art gallery as a space for healing and harm reduction? Why not? Art can save lives.

Adam DelMarcelle: Our Town
October 25 – November 20, 2018
Brossman Gallery (on campus)
Lecture: Thursday, October 25, 2018, 5:30 PM, DeMeester Recital Hall 

Adam DelMarcelle’s Our Town is an installation that investigates the current landscape of the heroin and opioid epidemic and how communities and institutions are responding to the crisis. Informed by intense research and motivated by his own experience of tragic loss, DelMarcelle has constructed an immersive, deeply moving environment for contemplation that combines video projection, automated carousel slide projections, and audio recordings. DelMarcelle’s design activism has attracted not only the attention of city officials, police and media in his hometown of Lebanon, PA, but also national attention in publications like the Huffington Post.

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Kirsten Leenaars introducing her exhibition, (Re)Housing the American Dream, in the York College Galleries. The exhibition runs until October 12. Kirsten will give a slide lecture on October 10 at 5:30PM in DeMeester Recital Hall. #kirstenleenaars

A post shared by Matthew Clay-Robison (@yorkcollegegalleries) on Sep 6, 2018 at 2:55pm PDT

Have you seen Erin Fostel’s impressive drawings at Marketview Arts? The Baltimore-based artist uses charcoal and graphite to depict people, places and things such as the above Cargo Cranes, with detailed perfection.

Her recent series of architectural drawings began as she mourned the loss of her father, an architect, in 2014. Fostel set about exploring parts of Baltimore City she did not know well, places she thought would interest her dad, and this process of discovery became the foundation of her new work. Her interest is not in simply documenting buidings, but in capturing feeling. By exposing the drawing’s framework, she reveals both immensity of the structure and her own grief.

Come see her exhibition, Vanishing Scale, at Marketview Arts before it ends on August 18. The gallery will be open this evening for August’s First Friday from 5-9pm.