Pennsylvania Art Shows- Roberto Lugo at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Ceramic Art, Design, Drawing, Furniture, Installation Art, Mixed Media, Painting / Painters, Pennsylvania Art Shows, Philadelphia, Sculptors / Sculpture
Jul 022026
 

“Alberto Ayala”, acrylic on wood; Portrait of Roberto Lugo’s grandfather; and “Potpourri Boat”, Ceramic sculpture

Art history, American history, and personal history mix in Roberto Lugo‘s exhibition, American Crib: What’s Happening?, currently on view at The Clay Studio. Wandering around the installation you’ll find portraits of Nikki Giovanni and Lugo’s grandfather, Billie Holiday and The Roots on ceramic sculptures, and plenty of places to sit and take it all in – including a graffitied train car.

From The Clay Studio’s website:

Roberto Lugo welcomes visitors into an imagined living space celebrating his Philadelphia roots and cultural heritage. This deeply personal reflection on America’s socio-political landscape celebrates the power of art to communicate. Lugo mixes historical pottery traditions with pop culture, humor, and critical clarity to address complex issues, including cultural identity, mental health, social justice, and the resilience of underrepresented communities.

This exhibition is a part of Radical Americana. A larger multi-location project that brings together art and culture institutions around Philadelphia. Learn more about Radical Americana here.

More than just a retrospective of Lugo’s career so far, “American Crib: What’s Happening?” will be a deeply personal and poignant reflection on America’s socio-economic and political landscape.

And the Lugo’s statement about his work:

My work is intended to be a biographical narrative that tells the many stories of my life. The objects I create speak of personal subjects – my experiences with obesity, racism, and class division. I use the associations with ceramic material and forms of pottery, such as elite fine china and porcelain, to discuss these issues with humor and irony. My strongest concepts are influenced from the juxtaposition of cultural elements in the form of mass media and current events. Using historical ideology within pottery as a vehicle to introduce a modern theme is of great importance because it allows me to add more dimensions to my artwork.

In the video below, also from The Clay Studio’s website, Lugo discusses the work, some of his inspirations, and the installation.

This exhibition closes 7/9/26.

Pennsylvania Art Shows- Alexandria Nazar at AUTOMAT Collective in Philadelphia

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Painting / Painters, Pennsylvania Art Shows, Philadelphia
Jun 262026
 

Tomorrow (6/27/26) is the last day to see Alexandria Nazar‘s paintings for Ducks on the Pond at AUTOMAT Collective.

From the gallery and curator Whitson Ramsey about the exhibition:

There’s a world where it seems an obvious choice to curate a baseball show in 2026, this country’s semiquincentennial, a cute milestone for this kitchen sink of a nation. After all, baseball is America’s Pastime. However, the sport predates America, and America itself is tremendously predated by the land it occupies. Even as a baseball fan myself, the idea of curating a show about baseball did not interest me. But this show isn’t about baseball. This is a show about painting, about bodies, about intimacy. Alexandria Nazar pays close attention to the subtle moments among players, coaches, their environments, and their mannerisms. Her paintings are about the material quality of paint on the surface as much as they are about the subjects they form.

This show highlights Nazar’s sophisticated yet playful handling of paint on a spectrum of canvas sizes. From the smallest work, a nearly monochromatic 7 x 5-inch painting, to the largest: a monumental, five-panel installation covering 17 feet on the gallery’s main wall, these paintings pack a punch and require a long, slow gaze.

On the other hand, a summer show whose content is explicitly relatable allows for a wider audience to enjoy these paintings. I firmly believe art should be accessible to the masses and not gatekept by private collectors and overpriced institutions. A surface-level “baseball show” allows new eyes to explore the subtle beauty of art-making and material exploration. Nazar has a knack for grabbing the viewer’s attention from a mile away. At the same time, she slowly draws you in, noticing the lustful impasto and clever brushwork, intense layers of underpaintings finding their way back to the surface, and a maze of abstracted clusters of intertwined bodies.

Ducks on the Pond is a celebration of paint through a gendered expression of male physique, American sports culture, brotherly love, and camaraderie.

Pennsylvania Art Shows- “Spaces of Encounter” at Temple Contemporary in Philadelphia

 Architecture, Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Conceptual Art, Design, Installation Art, Mixed Media, Painting / Painters, Photographers / Photography, Public Art, Sculptors / Sculpture, Sound Art, Street Art
Jun 252026
 

Curry J. Hackett, “The Gilded Block (Porch)”

mk. “you are so much to me pt. 1.” 2022

A golden inflatable porch by artist Curry J. Hackett welcomes visitors from outside the entrance to Spaces of Encounter, the current exhibition at Temple Contemporary, Temple University’s art gallery. Inside the gallery, Rokh Research & Design Studio founder and PhD student Danicia Monét Malone’s public arts research combines with NYU MA candidate Alyse Tucker‘s art curation to present an interesting selection of artwork, installations, and infographics that explore public art and shared spaces.

From the press release:

… Spaces of Encounter explores public space across North and Latin America and the Caribbean through the lens of public art. The exhibition brings together research and artistic material from Albuquerque; Cartagena; and Indianapolis, examining how people interact with public artworks across different urban contexts. Visitors are invited to reflect on who is welcomed into shared spaces—and who is made to feel excluded.

At the center of the exhibition is a guiding question: What does public space ask the body to believe about safety, care and belonging?

“For Black residents navigating environments marked by surveillance, neglect or misrecognition, aesthetic conditions operate as cumulative exposures that influence how safety, care and civic participation are felt in the body,” says Malone.

Through documentation, archival material and sculptural elements, Spaces of Encounter considers how public art mediates lived experience and contributes to collective memory. One featured work includes preserved fragments of a dismantled Black Lives Matter street mural in Indianapolis, foregrounding the fragility and afterlife of public artworks. Even when removed or destroyed, such works persist through memory, documentation and community impact.

“We’re interested in the afterlife of public art—what remains when the physical object is gone,” says Tucker.

The exhibition is particularly resonant in Philadelphia, a city shaped by one of the nation’s most expansive public art and mural programs. As development continues to transform neighborhoods, Spaces of Encounter offers an opportunity to reflect on how public artworks are preserved, displaced or erased—and what those changes mean for communities.

“Our gallery commissioned Spaces of Encounter to demonstrate Tyler’s commitment to being a beacon for art, architecture and community imagination in North Philadelphia and beyond,” says Temple Contemporary’s Director of Exhibitions and Public Programming Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta, PhD. “By blurring inside and outside, the interior versus exterior, it smartly knits together the intimate, culturally specific meanings with public moments of spectacle that anyone can enjoy.”

This exhibition closes 6/27/26.

Pennsylvania Murals- “Magic Hour” by Brad Carney and Ursula Rucker in Philadelphia

 Art, Artists, Painting / Painters, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Public Art, Street Art, Writers
Jun 242026
 

Magic Hour, by artist and educator Brad Carney and poet Ursula Rucker, was created in 2021 for Mural Arts Philadelphia.

From Mural Arts about the work:

Magic Hour by artist Brad Carney and poet Ursula Rucker was created to reflect personal moments and shared feelings from community experiences during magic hour. Magic hour is a transitional moment each day at sunrise and sunset where the light embraces us and gives us pause to view the awe of the light. The design represents a scene of transition. The sun is just about to set, people are coming and going, embracing the moment of illuminating light.

The mural, placed across the street from the Berks SEPTA station, is also reflective of a location of transition for many commuters going to work, school, and home. The mural aims to provide a moment of pause to those in their daily commute and passers-by, just as magic hour does — reflect in a moment, shed light on our lives, and embrace the day.

Each figurative element represents an expression of joy or wonder as the viewer connects within themselves or with others. The landscape draws from nature, historical buildings, and local contemporary settings reflecting the past, but also looking ahead at the collective bright future. The words and images in the mural are meant to stand alone. They can be formed into one’s own narrative, or be something that the viewer thinks about and interprets as they walk away from the mural.

Delaware Art Shows– Permanent Collection– Sonya Clark at Delaware Art Museum

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Conceptual Art, Delaware, Painting / Painters, Wilmington
Jun 182026
 

Sonya Clark, “Whitewashed”, 2017, Sherwin-Williams house paint

Walking around the rooms of the Delaware Art Museum‘s contemporary collection you could almost miss Sonya Clark‘s Whitewashed. Painted onto one of the walls, her version of the U.S. flag uses only shades of white.

From the museum about the artist and the work:

Sonya Clark possesses the ability to deftly assemble works of art both beautiful in creation and weighted with content. Whitewashed is painted directly onto the gallery wall. Visually subtle, the work engages the viewer’s recollections of the United States flag. Whitewashed is made using three Sherwin-Williams house paint colors-Incredible White, Storyteller, and Natural Choice. The shades of white replace the red, white, and blue of the American symbol.

Clark has worked with the American flag, the Confederate flag, and the Confederate Flag of Truce throughout her career. In doing so, she addresses the physical makeup of these objects and the histories, experiences, and access these symbols uncover or veil.

Pennsylvania Murals- Isaac Tin Wei Lin’s “Start From Here” in Philadelphia

 Art, Artists, Painting / Painters, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Public Art, Street Art
Jun 172026
 

Isaac Tin Wei Lin created Start From Here in 2015 for Mural Arts Philadelphia.

From the Mural Arts website about the work:

Start From Here is a deconstruction and distillation of Isaac Tin Wei Lin’s previous abstract work which used calligraphic brush marks in single colors. In this piece similar marks were layered in different colors creating a chaotic tapestry. The layered marks are then presented individually like Lego pieces laid out before assembly, allowing them to be seen as parts of a whole.

Start From Here is a reference to operational and instructional manuals for building something. The colors of the marks were chosen based on color theory, what looked good to the artist and national flags. The title plays into the idea of newness and beginnings, while the use of colors of national flags speaks to the idea that (unless you are Native American) we all come from somewhere else as immigrants or refugees, and as the artist’s parents did, are here to start a new life.

You can also find his work on Instagram.

Artist Birthdays- John Baldessari

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Cleveland, Collage, Conceptual Art, Mixed Media, Ohio Art Shows, Painting / Painters, Photographers / Photography, Printmaking
Jun 172026
 

John Baldessari, “One and Three Persons (with Two Contexts-One Chaotic)”, 1994-2012, 14-color screenprint

California artist John Baldessari was born today, June 17, in 1931.  The print above was part of The Cleveland Museum of Art‘s 2024 exhibition, New Narratives: Contemporary Works on Paper.

From the museum about this work:

John Baldessari often incorporated appropriated (or “found”) imagery into his artwork, such as the photographs of architecture and rubble appearing in this print. He juxtaposed these elements with outlined figures in a typically obtuse manner to suggest a narrative or simply a feeling with strange or even ominous undertones. The artist’s interest in the formal qualities of art, such as dimensionality, highlighted by his use of the irregularly shaped sheet of paper, white cut-outs, and silhouettes, adds to the sense of suggestion and uncertainty in the print.

Pennsylvania Art Shows- “Some American Dreams” at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Ceramic Art, Collage, Conceptual Art, Drawing, Fiber Arts, Installation Art, Mixed Media, Painting / Painters, Pennsylvania Art Shows, Philadelphia, Photographers / Photography, Printmaking, Sculptors / Sculpture
Jun 102026
 

Donald Lipski, “Who’s Afraid of Red, White and Blue #37”, 1990, White wool gabardine, made in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum

Rose B. Simpson, “Tonantzin”, 2022, Linen, cotton, clay, and thread, made in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum

(L to R) Rev. Howard Finster, “George Washington Meets Martha Custis, 1984, Pigment on cotton t-shirt; James Luna, “High Tech War Shirt”, 1997-98, Smoked hide, nylon setting, silk suiting, horse hair, metal, shell buttons, bead work with watches and necklace (shell, thermometer, and plastic toys); Hock E Aye VI Edgar Heap Of Birds, “Who Owns History”, 1992, Pigment on cotton t-shirt (all works made in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum)

S.A. Bachman, “Are You Telling Yourself A Little White Lie?”, 1988, Edition of 5, Halftone photographic silkscreen pigment on nylon, made in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum

Pictured are just a few of the many excellent artworks currently on view in Some American Dreams at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. Exploring the concept of America and the American dream, all the works were created by an impressive list of artists who were Artists in Residence at the museum over the past four decades.

From the museum and curator Hilde Nelson:

In her 1986 essay “Waking Up in the Middle of Some American Dreams,” poet June Jordan calls for a multiplicity of American dreams rather than a singular paradigm. For Jordan, those in pursuit of these dreams include:

the white people the black people the female people the lonely people the terrorized people the elderly people the young people the visionary people the unemployed people the regular ordinary omnipresent people who crave grace and variety and surprise and safety and one new day after another.

On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, this presentation of works from The Fabric Workshop and Museum’s collection explores the complexity of American-ness through lenses of history, memory, and mythology. Made by past Artists in Residence in collaboration with the FWM Studio, the projects reimagine symbols of nationhood and belonging, critique ongoing legacies of inequity, and offer expanded visions of kinship and community.

The works on view represent four decades of making at FWM. They meditate on themes including indigeneity and race, alternative origin stories, landscape and the environment, the construction of historical narrative, memory and resistance, and images of cultural affiliation. Sections of the exhibition invite additional voices, drawing their titles from a chorus of American poets, songwriters, essayists, abolitionists, and historians.

The artists featured in Some American Dreams break down borders and categorical distinctions to propose a polyphony of American dreams shaped by hybridity, friction, and affinity. They ask: what if America is not one project, but many? And how might these Americas be affirmed, resisted or remade, in Jordan’s words, to envision “one new day after another?”

This exhibition closes 6/14/26.

Ohio Murals- Lizzi Arronhalt’s Mural in Canton

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Canton, Canton, Ohio Art Shows, Ohio Street Art, Painting / Painters, Public Art, Street Art
Jun 042026
 

Ohio artist and muralist Lizzi Aronhalt created this mural in 2023. It is located on the Arts in Stark building in downtown Canton.

Elsewhere, an exhibition of her landscape and cityscape paintings, is currently on view at Cyrus Custom Framing and Art Gallery in Canton until 6/30/26.

You can also find her work on Instagram.

Pennsylvania Murals- David Guinn’s “Garden of Delight” in Philadelphia

 Art, Artists, Painting / Painters, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Public Art, Street Art
Jun 022026
 

Overlooking the Sartain Street Community Garden, David Guinn‘s mural Garden of Delight was created in 2010 for Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program.

About the mural from Mural Arts Philadelphia’s website:

On the left side of the mural, rendered in line drawings, are three vignettes from the immediate neighborhood. Two trees in the center lean into each other, symbolic of an embrace. The garden spills out from the space between them. This is to symbolize the spirit of community gardens and the people who work together to nurture these gardens. Guinn created the mural with transparent colors, to simulate the feel of a watercolor painting. The bottom extends the actual garden’s space up onto the wall and vice versa.

You can also find Guinn’s work on his Instagram.

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