We are going abstract with our September exhibition, “Cutting Edge.” This show displays a mixture of nonrepresentational paintings and sculptures that accentuate where geometry and organic imagery come together. “Cutting Edge” features pieces from Linda Celestian, Paul Daniel, Karen Delaney, Lisa Katharina, Saurabh Oza, and Sherri Trial. ​

 

    Linda Celestian is a Wilmington-based artist with over 31 years of experience. She holds an MFA in Fashion Design from Moore College of Art and completed a year of graduate study in Painting and Sculpture. After working in fashion for four years, Linda returned to art full-time. Linda’s three-dimensional fiber creations are comprised of different forms of energy, movement, and colors to replicate that found in nature. Layers of poured fluid paint and various mark-making techniques create depth and intrigue. Her work encourages viewers to reflect on their relationship with nature, inspiring them to learn more or deepen their existing connection.

 

    Paul Daniel is a kinetic sculptor based in Baltimore, MD. He received an MFA from the Rinehart School of Sculpture, Maryland Institute College of Art, and has received a number of awards for his work. Nature plays a part in Daniel’s work, as the final step in bringing each sculpture to life is a gust of wind that puts the piece into motion. His style combines industrial materials and scientific design with organic whimsy and pops of color. While he is known for his larger-than-life work, Paul is including more compact pieces in this show. Despite their smaller size, these studies also dance and spin with wind pressure as seen with his outdoor exhibits. 

 

    Karen Delaney has been a sculptor for thirty-four years exhibiting in galleries and group shows nationally and internationally. Her works are in private collections and in several public institutions, including a permanent 13-foot-tall sculpture on the Danube River in Hungary. Karen’s sculptural figures in “Cutting Edge” are inspired by two things: ancient monoliths and grange circles, as well as the bird life found on the Chesapeake Bay. Like many of the megalithic structures situated around the world, her pieces are four-sided, unadorned, and rise swiftly from ground to top. As sculptural forms, they make a uniform and direct statement that is both dynamic and primitive. Though her sculptures are not realistic portrayals of birds, they embody a bird’s postures and gestures when they interact as a flock.

 

    For 15 years, Lisa Katharina taught art in the classroom and at The Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Barnes Foundation. She worked at The PMA as a Museum Educator and a Facilitator in the museum’s Teacher Resource Center, where she assisted classroom teachers with incorporating art into curriculum development across diverse subject areas. For this exhibition, Lisa created abstract artworks that embrace a coastal color palette and utilize a soak-stain technique. Drawing with the edge of a broken scallop shell, or a dipping pen, she added rearranged calligraphic lines and shapes, some created by outlining keepsake pebbles and large stones from her own collection of beach treasures.

 

    Saurabh Oza is an award-winning artist based in suburban Philadelphia. The love, energy, and sense of community he experienced growing up in urban India helped him appreciate beauty in often overlooked places, which he seeks to recreate through his paintings. Bold colors serve as both accent and atmosphere in Saurabh’s work, and the geometric character of his images produces a feeling of wonder and contemplation. While his pieces have a striking similarity to each other, it’s in the fine detail and close observations that you find the uniqueness of each scene. 

 

   Sherri Trial has been a lettering artist for over 30 years and has exhibited extensively around the US, as well as in New Zealand, Moscow, and Tokyo. She is largely self-taught, with only a few workshops taken that have guided her through her career. Sherri’s work combines poetry and visual art, bringing words to life through evoking imagery. Her pieces create a mood from a single thought. Shapes, colors, designs, and images weave through our languages, and her goal is to interpret and bring the elements together.