Olivia Cipperman ’19: As the newest addition to the Episcopal Academy’s Crawford Campus Center Gallery showings, Beauty Mark has facilitated much creativity and discussion around campus. The gallery, which ran from September 7th to October 10th, featured eleven artists from the Philadelphia area and presented a variety of pieces in a number of mediums, including paintings, sculptures, and a short film.
According to the curator, Susan Coote, “The idea behind it was to explore the meaning of art. It’s something that has to do with aesthetics and subject matter.” The pieces in the gallery were intended to balance and explore the relationships between these two ideals.
Speaking on behalf of the artists, Coote says, “Half of them, I approached because I felt like their practice was about aesthetics. It was all about the way things looked and their process. The other half were much more conceptual.” The open-ended idea of the gallery is intended to leave much room for interpretation, and the varying styles, mediums, and meanings behind the pieces can attest to this.
Beauty Mark presented several 3D and sculptural artists. Joshua Koffman, an artist and teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, came to Episcopal to explain his vision during the gallery opening. Koffman’s sculpture “Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our Time” showed two seated figures with intricately flowing garments holding religious texts He explains, “The subject matter, Synagoga and Ecclesia, are two typical figures you would see on the architecture of cathedrals and such around the Medieval era depicting Judaism and Christianity. Traditionally, they were always unequal.” He says, “We came up with this design to have them seated and sharing their texts.”
Another sculptural artist in Beauty Mark, Elizabeth M. Hamilton created many installations in the Philadelphia area. Her featured piece titled “See You Tomorrow,” featured a raised, white platform, topped with living grass and a garden of paper flowers on sticks. She explains that “See You Tomorrow” explores permanence versus impermanence as well as the costs of beauty. “The grass is living and very beautiful in itself,” she says, “But it’s also going to die. The flowers stay beautiful, but they give up texture and smell to make that happen.”
Other works of art included the 2D art of “Water Bed,” “Flower Bed,” and “You” by Marcelle Reinecke. By focusing on the color, line, and shape of her work, the paintings balance the gallery’s idea of aesthetic and theme. She explains, “The paintings are all based on personal experience. They’re not depictions of events that happened, necessarily, but they use figurative painting and imagery to describe a feeling.”
The presence of art at the Episcopal Academy has generated positive discussion and feedback. While each piece has different local aesthetics, they utilize both a physical beauty and a deeper concept to become true works of art. Emma Humann ‘19 described, “The variety of different styles and ideas that it [the gallery] projected were interesting.” Several students also expressed appreciation for the opportunity to meet the artists at their appearance in September. Elizabeth Palumbo ‘19 says, “I thought it was a very interactive gallery. It was nice to see the people behind the artwork.” After Beauty Mark’s great success, Episcopal will continue to have a new installation in the gallery each month for the community to enjoy.