The Wind Challenge Exhibition Series
Established in 1978, the Wind Challenge Exhibition Series is an annual juried competition that is committed to enriching and expanding people's lives through art. Three Wind Challenge Exhibitions are held from September through May, featuring the work of exceptional artists living in the Philadelphia region. Over three hundred entries are juried each year resulting in the selection of nine winning artists.
This year's nine Wind Challenge Artists were chosen from a field of 177 applicants to exhibit their work in one of three three-artist exhibitions.
Challenge 3
April 12 – May 31, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 12, 6:00-8:00 PM
The 34th season of the Fleisher Wind Challenge Exhibition Series, The Delaware Valley's premiere juried exhibition program continues with Wind Challenge 3, featuring a new dust installation by Astrid Bucio, woodcuts and performance by Christopher Hartshorne, and new sculptures by Nora Salzman.
The Wind Challenge 3 Exhibition pairs three artists that utilize compound and time-consuming processes to unearth the impact of their work.
Challenge 1 | Challenge 2 | Challenge 3
Astrid Bucio | Christopher Hartshorne | Nora Salzman | Public Programs
Astrid Bucio
When viewing a sculpture or an installation by Astrid Bucio, one is acutely aware that a false step or a strong breath might destroy the work. This is entirely by design, as Astrid seeks to highlight the entropy and reform in our environment. Using the humblest of materials such as dust or light, she shares her awe of process in the world around us. For her Wind Challenge installation, Astrid presents a site-specific dust installation,
much of it collected on-site over the
past few months at Fleisher.
Right: Astrid Bucio, "Chair", Sanded found chair, Installation, 2010
Christopher HartshorneIn combining slow and detailed carving methods with a process of layering from multiple blocks, Christopher Hartshorne challenges and refreshes the tradition of woodcut printing. The bold and large-scale prints brew a chaos – brought to life by sweeping lines and organic forms – that envelops a viewer and invites them in. .
Right: Christopher Hartshorne, "Nebulae", Multiple Block Woodcut, 38 x 92 inches, 2011
Nora SalzmanThe representation of the real constitutes a core concern in Nora Salzman's work. Through the compounded use of sculpture, painting, photography, and methods of display her work attempts to simultaneously obscure, reveal, and disorganize our received notions of the replica and the real.
Right: "Painted Figurine V.1", Acrylic on Polymer Clay, 5 x 9 x 5 inches, 2012
Public Programs
- Thursday, April 12, 6:00 to 8:00pm, artist Christopher Hartshorne invites performers to wear specially made “woodcut helmets” at the opening reception.
- Wednesday, May 2 and May 23, 6-8pmWind Challenge 3 artist Astrid Bucio invites viewers to interact with her during her gallery office hours. Astrid will be on-site in the gallery at these dates and times, maintaining and adding dust to her ephemeral installation.
- Saturday, May 12, 1:30pm-2:30pm
Wind Challenge 3 artists Astrid Bucio, Christopher Hartshorne, and Nora Salzman will discuss their work in the final Family TalkAbout, an open dialogue with students from Fleisher’s Saturday Children & Youth Program as well as their parents and the general public.
- Sunday, May 27, 11:00am - 12:00pm
Case Studies: A walking tour of the Philadelphia Museum of Art that pays particular attention to the different modes of display within the collection. This topic will be broadly discussed by looking at examples of institutionalized display methods, peculiar presentations of irregular objects, as well as pieces that conflate art and display.
This informal tour will be lead by Wind Challenge artist Nora Salzman. Space is limited to ten spots, please RSVP to dkim@fleisher.org.
Challenge 2
Wind Challenge 2 featured new and recent work by video and installation artist Anita Allyn, sculptor and works on paper artist Laura Ledbetter, and fiber artist Erin M. Riley. The Wind Challenge 2 exhibition paired three artists that explored the effects of cultural imagery on our personal lives, while also examining the division between our public and private lives.
Anita Allyn | Laura Ledbetter | Erin M. Riley
Anita Allyn
As an interdisciplinary artist working across photography, video, animation and print, Anita Allyn is compelled by media culture and its numerous manipulations. Taking a cut and paste approach to public images, Allyn actively investigates the space where mediated images become personal.
Right: Anita Allyn
Laura LedbetterLaura Ledbetter’s careful constructions of drawing and cut paper expose a world in delicate balance. Her intimate environments explore man’s culture, class, and the vulnerability of the people that attempt to maintain that facade.
Right: Laura Ledbetter
Erin M. RileyErin M. Riley utilizes Google Image Search and Facebook to find imagery that is common to the internet, and weaves them into tapestries. The newfound physicality of these images forces us to explore the changing lives of young adults, and ask what the long term effects of these documents are.
Right: Erin M. Riley
Public Programs
- Thursday, December 15, 6:00 to 7:00pm, artist, Erin M. Riley will present a lecture that contextualizes and tracks the progression of her current body of work.
- Wednesday, January 25, 7:00 to 8:00pm, artist Anita Allyn invites guest lecturer David Suisman, Associate Professor at the University of Delaware, and visitors to have an open discussion about the installation.
- Saturday, January 28, 1:30pm -2:30pm, Wind Challenge 2 artists Anita Allyn, Laura Ledbetter and Erin M. Riley will discuss their work in the second in the series of The Wind Challenge Family TalkAbout, an open dialogue with students from Fleisher’s Saturday Children & Youth Program as well as their parents and the general public.
In addition to these public events, Laura Ledbetter will lead a storytelling workshop for 3rd grade students from George Washington Elementary. Date to be announced.
Challenge 1
SEPTEMBER 16 THROUGH OCTOBER 30, 2011
Alana Bograd | Sarah Steinwachs | Jennie Thwing
Alana Bograd
Alana Bograd dismembers and dismantles the forms of landscape, architecture, figure
and myth, in her process of painting. Her sometimes psychedelic world strife with mutating
landscapes and intestinal spaces tempts the viewer to trace the evolving facades, layers
and impulsive mark-making left behind by the disobedient child in her.
Right: Alana Bograd, Rational Charioteers, Oil on Canvas,
Sarah Steinwachs
With the knife as her mark-making device, Sarah Steinwachs creates tableaus that are as
intricate as they are delicate from layers of cut paper. Borne out of an impulse to cut
out the spaces of graph paper, the artist embraces the perfection of the grid system, and
the flaws inherent in the hand. Her most recent work, which will be shown in this
exhibition, meanders away from the grid to explore organic forms as the inspiration for her
cut-paper patterns.
Right: Sarah Steinwachs, Ohm, cut paper and acrylic,
Jennie Thwing
Through a unique blend of performance, video, installation and stop-motion animation, the
work of Jennie Thwing explores the hidden narratives and histories that lie just under
the surface of our surroundings. With visual effects that the artist describes as
swarming earth and breathing meat, the videos hint at the spirits inherent in
nature and refuse, and its inherent vulnerability.
Right: Jennie Thwing, "Plastic Landscape" exhibition still from video
installation,