Shelley Thorstensen – of Dust, STREWN: a florilegium

No. 5 Butchie Alley returns this Spring, featuring works by Shelley Thorstensen, in cooperation with Dolan/Maxwell.

I have been in love with Thorstensen’s work since we met as colleagues at Moore College of Art and Design in the 90’s. She has been a constant source of inspiration over the years as I observed her transform and build print shops around the world and also witness the ever expanding oasis of her home studio and garden. She is a treasure and brilliant teacher who seems to have made some kind of back alley deal to know every arcane and esoteric bit of Printmaker magic. Thorstensen is a master printer and colorist. She possesses one of those rare, interstitial visual vocabularies that is akin to breath. As lines accumulate, layered portals open and close, revealing glimpses into an intimate universe that is contained and unraveling at the same time. Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday, May 10th. Thorstensen will talk about the work beginning at 5:30 p.m. followed by a reception through 9 p.m. Shelley will offer a gel-printing workshop on Saturday, June 21st from 12-4 p.m. Lunch will be provided. More info about the workshop coming soon! Check our shop for upcoming details. There will be a closing reception for the exhibition on Saturday, June 28th from 6-9 p.m.

Shelley Thorstensen lives and works in Pennsylvania. As her printmaking is a duet between intangible and tactile, her artwork is a physical representation of consciousness: a duality of body and mind, physical and mental, heart and soul. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Royal Museum of Art, Antwerp, Belgium; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA. She is an ongoing NEA Research Artist at Kansas State University in Electrolytic Chemical Etching and recently exhibited in Portraits of the Brain: Visualizing Behavior: Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem PA. Her work can be seen through Dolan/Maxwell in Philadelphia, PA and at shelleythorstensen.com.

She writes about her work: “My work is a result of the confluence of inner and outer stimuli. It’s a result of personal narrative as much as observed affect. It derives as much from experience as it does from answered and unanswered questioning. I think about the connection between the manmade and what we call natural, the extension and overlap of each modality. Sometimes in my work, things are sure footed, sometimes less so. The forms evolve, they turn and I rely on a sense for which I cannot find a proper name to hesitate the turning, to coalesce a given form. Because I work in the medium of the hand pulled print, color and form can be separate investigations into meaning, effect, response. I am very comfortable with that fluid hierarchy: where form and color are unlinked and either can assume a dominant role, which is not determined until I call the print done.”

Many thanks to Dolan/Maxwell Gallery for cooperating with the exhibition.

Internationally known in the field of modern and contemporary visual art, Dolan/Maxwell is located in a former carriage house in Center City Philadelphia just west of Rittenhouse Square. We welcome interested individuals, experienced collectors and art professionals by appointment.

Dolan/Maxwell specializes in fine prints and works on paper by artists from the 1930s to the present. Their works are presented seriously and in depth with emphasis on Modernist works from the WPA era, Europe and Atelier 17, the New York School, art by African Americans as well as International Contemporary artists. We work closely with the artists and the estates of artists we represent. We augment these works with carefully chosen sculptures and paintings on canvas or panel by artists whose work complements our core and are of particular interest to us. As a founding member of the International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) we have notable expertise in works on paper in all media.

No. 5 Butchie Alley is an outgrowth of Terri Saulin’s home studio. Saulin is celebrating the fourth year of programming. She hopes to continue growing and creating a welcoming space that invites generous conversations, a place to exchange ideas and to build community in the city of Philadelphia. Exhibitions rotate approximately every two months. During the run of each exhibition, the exhibiting artists or Saulin herself offer workshops relating to their studio practice or relating to something currently happening in the community.

Regular hours are Saturday and Sunday, 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. and by appointment.

The gallery is located on an easement directly behind 1175 S 13th Street. Enter Butchie Alley from Federal Street, just before 13th. Look for the Isaiah Zagar mosaic mural.