Last Chance to See Families/Cities SHIFT at Susan Teller Gallery

Cups of the Day #122

Mixed Media on upcycled paper coffee cups

Individual cups from "An Immigrants Dream of Home"

at Susan Teller Gallery, For Ideas City Festival 2013

It was an exciting week in New York City. The New Museum's Ideas City festival took over Lower Manhattan and the Lower East Side from May 1st - 4th with an extensive program of events, including a conference, workshops, art exhibitions, special projects, public art installations and a large, offbeat StreetFest on the Bowery on Saturday.


My particular contribution to the festival was at Susan Teller Gallery, 568 Broadway, #502, as part of her current exhibition Families/Cities SHIFT, which includes artwork by five members of the Leech/Gallagher family and four members of the Pinto family. My sister, Kitty Leech and I were on hand from 1-5 PM for informal discussion of life in a multi-generational art family. There are lots of stories to share! Anna Pinto, calligrapher was also there for part of the afternoon.


But if you missed it on that day, not to worry. The exhibition is still open Tuesday - Saturday by appointment through the end of May. Call the gallery at  212 941 7335 for more information.

Gwyneth Leech, Ecuador/New York, A Dream of Home, 2010-12
mixed media with 55 used paper coffee cups, 120 x 24 x 30 inches

An installation for Families/Cities SHIFT at Susan Teller Gallery, NYC

   
 

Jody Pinto, Fingerspan Bridge. Preparatory to the installation of the 

nine-ton bridge of Wissahickon Creek in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia., 1987
mixed media, 60 x 72 inches, Image: Susan Teller Gallery

Families/Cities Shift

The Gallagher-Leech & Pinto Families,
Philadelphia and New York
In conjunction with the Ideas City Festival,
sponsored by the New Museum
www.ideas-city.org/view/family-city-shift

On view: April 5 - May 11, 2013
Open: Tuesdays - Saturdays, 11-6

SUSAN TELLER GALLERY
568 Broadway (Room 502)
New York, NY 10012
212-941-7335
info@susantellergallery.com
www.susantellergallery.com

"This is a show about two families making significant contributions to Philadelphia and New York, the cities in which they live, including and beyond the form of individual works of art.

In the 1930s, Michael Gallagher, an administrator on the WPA, recruited impoverished artists including previously ignored African-Americans. (There, Dox Thrash helped invent carborundum printmaking, a technique that at once repurposed the material while compensating for meager supplies). Angelo Pinto taught at the Barnes Foundation for decades and in the late ’30s developed location photography techniques that freed the process from the studio.

The current generation inherited a Depression-Era ability to make do, reinvent, and inspire, especially regarding venues, resources, and people. They respond to urban conditions and they work collaboratively.

Jody Pinto, environmental artist, Anna Pinto, calligrapher, and Kitty Leech, costume designer, are teachers; Jody and Gwyneth Leech are community activists."

Anna Pinto, Solitude, with poem by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1998

mixed media, 7 x 20 inches, Image: Susan Teller Gallery 

 

 Kitty Leech, Three Men From Waiting Imprints on a Landscape, The Mining Project, 2008
hand-colored photostats, 11 x 8 inches.  The dancers are three WPA printmakers, 

left to right, Hugh Mesibov, Michael J. Gallagher, and Dox Thrash.

Image: Susan Teller Gallery

Michael J. Gallagher, Anthracite, 1939-40
carborundum print, 8 x 10 inches
Image: Susan Teller Gallery 

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Tea Leaves and Letters

I am drinking tea at home this morning while penning a letter on paper to my 86 year old uncle who does not do computers. For as long as I can remember, my favorite implement for both writing and drawing has been a cartridge pen with a calligraphy nib. The letters loop happily from the free flowing india ink, and with the tweak of a curve, the line has a pleasant way of turning into drawing.

Cup of the Day #63

Blue Ribbon Cup by Gwyneth Leech

India ink on white cup

I studied calligraphy at school and the gesture of the curves we practiced over and over remains a habitual and surprisingly productive start to many of my cup drawings. Perhaps it is a response to the  curve of the cup surface itself, or just the pleasure of "a line going for a walk", as Paul Klee put it. Needless to say, my note-taking in meetings turns quickly to drawing. It helps me concentrate at the time, but the pages are often not much good for review.

My mother had a book of fanciful alphabets in her studio library - ornate calligraphic meanders that I tried to copy when I was kid. When my parents moved from their large house in Philadelphia, I got the book. I wonder if I can figure out where I put it in the storage unit we rent?

The storage unit is in a six story windowless building on 43rd Street, a four block walk from the apartment. It is stacked with a near cascade of portfolios, rolled canvases, framed artwork, shipping boxes, storage boxes of letters, photographs and videos, Christmas ornaments, camping equipment, inherited whatnots and linens, and boxes of books. Storage Wars would find slim pickings here, but it all means something to me - I think.

The other day, a man wheeled a trolley past while I had the door open. He glanced in and said, "Ah, moving madness."
It is true. All this stuff represents several moves to smaller apartments, as well as that major downsize when my parents sold the large family house in Philadelphia. I am terrified to dive in there, but I want that book!

Meanwhile, the letter to uncle is already a page of drawings. I have to start over.
First, I will go put the kettle on again and make another cup of tea.

Cup of the Day #63B

Calligraphy Cup by Gwyneth Leech

India ink on white and green printed cup