Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday | 12pm – 6pm
First Friday Receptions: April 7 & May 5 | 5pm – 7pm
At the April First Friday we will have an art Pop-Up Shop featuring students from our I AM ART program!
This group exhibition showcases four couples all sharing and interesting dynamic: one person is a painter, one person is a poet.
Rachel Ehrgood and Jared Wood
It’s a daily ritual to ask our friends, family and colleagues; how was your day? Our answers are often benign and brief. Whether listening or speaking a whole universe of information, experience, and impression falls between the cracks as we rush to our next obligation. Using paint, text, collage Rachel and Jared will recover our lost answers, whether they deal with the personal, the familial, the communal or the world at large.
Jared Wood, is a Philadelphia based teaching artist. His work is informed by the belief that rigorous creativity is a powerful means of personal and social transformation. He uses words and whatever materials he can get his hands on to transform space and build community. He has shown and executed public projects in England, Philadelphia, Puerto Rico, and The West Bank.
Emily Johnson and Amanda Robinson
Emily and Amanda will showcase a series of poem and painting pairings, highlighting the simplicity of their everyday conversations juxtaposed to the more complex experiences they have a couple. Glass/clear canvas material and acrylic, pen and highlighter will be used to compose images that are both layered and translucent.
Amanda is a Philadelphia based performer, artist and musician. She is half of the creative/writing team of the comedy duo, Ruth & Estelle, alongside Jenna Pinchbeck. When not performing, she works in the Front of House departments at Arden Theatre Company and Walnut Street Theatre. She is a member of The Greenfield Collective, a theatre group focused on creating original, gutsy, heartfelt, inclusive works that engage the community. She holds a BA in Theatre Performance from Susquehanna University.
Emily is a Philly based visual and performing artist who specializes in wire sculpture, installation art, and devised theatre. She is the creator/curator of an experiential installation art series titled, “Yours and Everyone’s,” which aims to give people the agency and permission to breathe through the arrangement of brave spaces and nostalgic environments. She is a member and administrator of Found Theater Company, a Philly based devised theatre collective. She holds a BA in Theatre from Temple University.
Dwayne Thomas and Angelica Jackson-Thomas
Through poetry and movement, Dwayne and Angelica, will use many mediums of art to convey the emotional pouring in and pouring out of self when in a sacred, artistic, and romantic union.
Dwayne Thomas and Angelica Jackson-Thomas are full time actors, full time parents, and rising non-profit leaders in Philadelphia. They are believers in giving their spirits the freedom to lead their worldly navigation, their works, and their conversations. Their work at The Bride represents their spiritual conversations and its fluidity; though not always clear and transparent, it flows and it consumes and within it they understand each other. You may have seen Angelica or Dwayne acting on stages in Philadelphia, some include InterAct Theatre, Theatre Horizon, Walnut Street Theatre, and Bristol Riverside Theatre. They are new parents to a beautiful baby girl, Phoenix Sojourner, and you may see Phoenix represented through this installation. Most recently, Dwayne and Angelica have been focusing their energy onto their family non-profit organization called Journey Beyond which provides global leadership training and travel abroad opportunities for low-income youth in Philadelphia at no cost! To build with Angelica or Dwayne, please contact Angelica at AJacksonService@gmail.com. Blessings and always be true to your spirit! Peace.
Ursula Rucker and Anthony Carlos Molden
Ursula and Anthony will recreate the energy and sacred spaceness of their home studio. Their studio is where much of their conversation, debates and intense problem-solving and pain-healing happens, as well as where their ideas, visions and dreams take shape. Their studio is, simultaneously, a creation and communication hub. They will make a public version of their sacred studio space. Ursula will create and perform new work specifically for this exhibition.
Anthony is a mixed media painter/sculptor.He has been drawing since age 3…and painting with acrylic and oil, vigorously, since age 12. In his 20s, he started working as a scenic on movie, video and theatre sets. Anthony has also had an over 20yr career in construction and creation/restoration of decorative architecture in New York City.
All of the aforementioned experiences lent to Anthony’s current painting style, which is a mix of sculptural relief with a repurposing of found objects and recycled materials. His style has been described as “Afrofuturism and beyond “. All of his paintings are made with 90-100% recycled materials, including paint. This was a 20yr side goal for Anthony…”to make something of value out of the piles of refuse around us everyday.” Anthony currently resides and creates in Philadelphia, PA.
Ursula is a Philadelphia born poet, mother, activist and recording artist. She has been performing, recording and releasing works for over 20 years. Ursula has traveled and toured extensively, throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Africa…sharing her poetry…her heart and soul. She is dedicated to art as/for social change…and committed to freedom fighting, truth-telling and peace-(and a little trouble 😉 making through her chosen art form.
Ursula believes in taking her art as far as it can go…whether it be through teaching ,activism, lecturing, conducting workshops, merging it with music and recording or rocking mics and stages.
To date, Ursula has released five solo albums (Supa Sista, Silver or Lead, ma’at mama, Ruckus Soundsysdom, SHE SAID)…as well as collaborated on over 100 songs, in a wide array of musical genres, with producers/artists from around the world (such as King Britt, Bahamadia, The Roots, 4 Hero, Jazzanova, Louie Vega, Incognito).
Ursula was awarded both the Leeway Foundation’s Art for Change & Transformation Awards. She is the feature of a documentary short called POET. Last year she successfully premiered her first one-woman show/live memoir My Father’s Daughter, and is touring with it. Currently, Ursula is working on her 6th solo album, and planning her first book project.
