Local Artists Make Good (Art, That Is)

The Northwestern Pennsylvania Artists Association 8th Biennial Exhibition at Erie Art Museum

AnArt Review

Hosted at Erie Art Museum, approximately 50 artworks in all mediums showcase the best of the Northwestern Pennsylvania Artists Association during its current biennial exhibit.  

The NPAA is a nonprofit 501c(3) organization for professional artists living within a 50-mile radius of Erie, PA. Their mission is to create opportunities for established, emerging and student artists through exhibitions, education and scholarships. The exhibition was juried by Madeline Gent, the Executive Director at the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, according to EAM’s website. 

Situated within the museum’s Custom House, the show offers a worthwhile glimpse into the art and imaginings that  local artists fashion with their hands, heart and talent.

Inspired by local outdoor splendor, Stephanie Wood’s oil painting, Chautauqua View, displays a lakescape. Containing trees on either side that frame the water, atmospheric perspective allows for another forested area in the distance to be a faint bluish color, all underneath a heavy cumulus-cloud sky.  

Formulated from earthenware, copper and wrought iron, Dan Byler’s Homage to Wrought Iron is an approximate seven-feet tall sculpture. As if sprouting from a square base, a thin copper tube/stem blossoms at its top into almost flying-saucer like layers and circular black orbs. 

Woodworker Rob Weber’s contribution, Triptic Reclaimed, offers three circular vessels with lids, the lines on their exteriors patiently fashioned by a lathe. Thomas Hubert’s Red Flame Teapot, composed of porcelain and spalted pashaco, is a two-foot plus Surrealist creation of bright red and red and white striation lines fashioned as if by Salvador Dali for the Mad Hatter’s tea party.

An ostrich egg? Yes, the most unique medium within the show, Lori Ditrich’s contributions are two painted bird shells. About the size of a football, though oval, Crop Circles is a bright-colored creation of green, blue, white and fluorescent lime-green that shows blue-and-white bullseyes. Transforming Pachyderm shows a jungle scene  full of large white leaves and a bright-orange elephant.

Of all the creations on view, the first place award for the entire exhibition went to Kim Slocum for her acrylic painting, Waiting. Featuring a seated solitary woman who has her back to the viewer, in a white-walled room it appears as if she’s facing a corner, framed by two window frames. Recalling the model in Andrew Wyeth’s masterpiece, Christina’s World as well as Edward Hopper’s simple, almost silent unembellished canvases, one can only speculate as to her  expression and emotions.   

My favorite?  Brian Pardini’s Medusa, a found art object, a sculpture of unmanipulated wood composed of two large thinnish, branches. Third place winner for the NPAA exhibition, the seemingly simple composition produces a freakishly visceral reaction when studied. It’s creepy. With arms outstretched and hair more resembling horns, this approximately seven-foot tall artwork looks more like it belongs within the Blair Witch Woods than within the walls of the Erie Art Museum.

The Northwestern Pennsylvania Artists Association 8th Biennial Exhibition continues through March 17, 2024. For more information visit erieartmuseum.org