Wednesday, January 30, 2023

ART : SKETCHES

Outside the Lines

Since 1995, Coalition Ingenu (CI) has been an art incubator for the city's homeless and mentally ill. Working with shelters and mental health centers, CI has taught, promoted and advocated for more than 100 artists in 50 exhibits at Project H.O.M.E. and elsewhere. If you've missed them before, go see them now in an exhibit at Klein Art Gallery. It's a fine outing by six artists who have been with the program since its beginning, producing work consistently each year. And it shows how good the CI program can be. As with all visionary artists pulling from deep, inner reaches, these artists break rules with composition and materials. And their art is the better for it. Artist Vanise Clay, for example, says, "There's no such thing as a color combination that doesn't work," and then goes ahead and proves it in her bold, colorful painted and cut paper figures. There's much that grabs you in the sometimes fierce, individual styles on display. Joe Johnson's painted and glitter-crusted works are exuberant showstoppers with their incantatory words, crumpled tinfoil touches and use of gold sticker stars and dots. Ron Lellis' painting, Central Park, 1901 is a tranquil dream with child-like imagery in lovely, upbeat colors (yellow, green, pink, blue). David Kimes' small, doll-headed, animal-bodied sculptures, a group he calls "Pre-hysterics," are a fantasy tribe of fierce babies that bear comparison with Karen Kilimnik's off-putting, baby-doll-faced characters across town at Moore College. Bold, surprising and authentic, the work spills its stories easily and captivates.� (Roberta Fallon)

Through Mar. 1. Esther M. Klein Art Gallery, 3600 Market St. 215.387.2262. www.kleinartgallery.org

http://philadelphiaweekly.com/ae/art/sketches/