May 2007 Philadelphia, PA – The Art Institute of Philadelphia presents “Disappearance,” a mixed-media show featuring six area artists and curated by AIPH students and their instructor, Patrick Coue. The show opens on May 22nd with a reception on Thursday, May 24th from 4:30 to 7pm. The works will be on display through June 5th.

The works in Disappearance explore various approaches to creating a rapport with the human figure from six different artists in various media. The 1622 Chestnut Street gallery space will host drawings by Michael McJilton, paintings by Max Maddox, Brian Boutwell and Janell Olah, video installation art from Nadia Hironaka, and ceramic works from Brooke Hine.

For most of the last hundred years the body has been the bête noire of the visual arts. It has been in turn distorted, deconstructed, and eliminated altogether by the avant garde movements of the last century. It has been an uneasy and divisive relationship – the adherents of figuration were criticized as passé and academically retarded while non-representational artists have been described as out of touch with the essence of their crafts, elitist, and unsubstantial. Disappearance aims to demystify the alienation of the artist from the figure and showcases some original solutions by local artists.

Some common threads emerge from these disparate visions. In the works of Michael McJilton, Max Maddox and Nadia Hironaka, the body is eviscerated of its three-dimensional solidity and acquires a haunting quality. McJilton’s drawings update the Social Realism of the 19th century and evoke the imagery of today’s troubled world. In contrast, Maddox’s paintings explore the interior world of the psyche as a solitary figure melts into the whiteness of the canvas. Hironaka’s video installation completes the sequence as solid figures undergo a phase transition and become ethereal.

A different type of evisceration is explored by the ceramicist Brook Hine. The body sheds its exterior envelope and is abstracted to its skeletal essence.

In Brian Boutwell and Janell Olah’s works the body is not on view but nevertheless plays a central role. The gashes of color on Boutwell’s large canvases are vivid portrait of the artist in the act of creating art. In Olah’s installation the roles are reversed – the cool distance between the art and the viewer is erased and the observer becomes the observed.

This is the second “History of 20th Century Art “ class taught by Patrick Coue to curate a group show at The Art Institute of Philadelphia. This curatorial exercise gives the students enrolled in the class a unique opportunity to interact with established artists and apply the concepts they have learned in class to the Philadelphia art scene.

For gallery hours and further information on the show and the artists, please visit http://gp189.aisites.edu. For more information about programs at The Art Institute of Philadelphia, visit www.aiph.artinstitutes.edu.
About The Art Institute of Philadelphia

The Art Institute of Philadelphia (www.artinstitutes.edu) one of The Art Institutes with 32 educational institutions located throughout North America, provides an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary arts professionals.

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The Art Institute of Philadelphia
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