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Easton architect Paul Felder, juror for an exhibition exploring the concept of “shelter” at the Williams Center for the Arts gallery, will discuss the show noon Wednesday, Jan. 26, in Williams Center room 213. Lunch may be brought or purchased for $3.
Felder and many artists featured in Sheltered will meet the public at a closing reception 3-5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 30. Both events are free.
Sheltered presents 20 artists’ understanding and exploration of the need for shelter. Works include paintings, prints, sculpture, ceramic, quilts, and mixed media work. Some depict physical shelter, but others address psychological or emotional shelter.
In Eve Ingalls’ “What Was Left,” the artist writes that the piece is based on the idea that the first architectural wall was created by Adam when he put his arm around Eve’s shoulder to comfort and protect her emotionally and physically during their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Kathy Bruce’s “Armour is Armor, Armor is Amour” is based on metaphor and the word play of armor, a protective layer, and amour, love. Herb Simon’s sculptures explore two types of domestic shelter, one in an urban setting, “Five Story Walk Up,” and the other, “Tract Houses with Triumphal Arch,” in a standardized suburban setting.
Shirley Thomas’ paintings use a common building material, sheetrock, to visually represent inadequate “shelter,” and in the process asks questions about the quality of shelter. Krista Steinke’s and Sherman Finch’s “349 Utopia Drive,” a video work, presents an ironic portrait of suburbia and the quest for the American Dream. Blaise Tobia’s Iris print, “Exchange Value,” documents the sale of two houses and seeks to question — by emphasizing what is normally taken for granted — just what is concrete and what is abstract in the realm of property, shelter, and “value.”
Felder is an architect, planner, and educator. He is a principal in The Architectural Studio, a nationally recognized Easton-based firm he founded in 1974. His recent works include the Saint Pio Cultural Centre in Barto, Pa., and the Henry A. Ahnert Jr. Alumni Center at East Stroudsburg University. He has taught architectural design and planning at Pennsylvania State University and Lehigh University and is an adjunct faculty member at Lafayette. Felder gave a presentation, “Post-Freudian Modernism: the Failure of Architecture in the 20th Century,” at the 2000 meeting of the American Institute of Architects.
Artists in the exhibition are: Kathy Bruce, Easton; Matthew Daub, Fleetwood, Pa.; Patricia Goodrich, Richlandtown, Pa.; Debbie Heeps, Fogelsville, Pa.; William Hudders, Easton; Amy W. Hufnagel, Newton, N.J.; Eve Ingalls, Princeton, N.J.; Harry Lynn Krizan, Allentown, Pa.; Virginia Maksymowicz, Philadelphia, Pa.; Monica C. Nohr, Scranton, Pa.; Jill Peckelun, Allentown; Heather Phillips, North Adams, Mass.; Matt Povse, Honesdale, Pa.; George Shortess, Bethlehem, Pa.; Herbert Simon, Shavertown, Pa.; Krista Steinke and Sherman Finch, Bethlehem; Shirley Thomas, Lehighton, Pa.; Blaise Tobia, Philadelphia; and Ven Voisey, North Adams.
The gallery is located in the Williams Center for the Arts, Hamilton and High Streets, Easton, Pa. Exhibition hours in January are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 2-5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call (610) 330-5361, email artgallery@lafayette.edu, or visit www.lafayette.edu and choose “Cultural,” “Williams Center for the Arts,” then “2004-2005 Exhibition Schedule.”
The Williams Center gallery is funded in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts.