Community Corner

Last Chance to See SOPAC Art Display

Primal Convetgence Phase II, an art exhibition at the South Orange Performing Arts Center will be on display until Dec. 22.

The South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) brings its latest visual art exhibition to a close on Sunday, December 22nd.

Part of SOPAC’s rotating art series in its Herb & Milly Iris Gallery, PRIMAL CONVERGENCE : Phase II is an exhibit featuring paintings, drawings and constructs by three NJ-based artists – the collaborative team of Gerard Amsellem & Mikel Frank, and Dan Fenelon, and curated by Micha Hamilton.

A free reception will be held during the closing of the exhibition from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 22 featuring a meet and greet with the artists. The artwork on exhibit is for sale with partial proceeds supporting SOPAC.

Find out what's happening in Maplewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The following is from the South Orange Performing Arts Center:

PRIMAL CONVERGENCE: Phase II continues the celebration of the tribal, the transcendental and the mythic in the collection of paintings, drawings, collages, constructs and sculptures presented earlier this year by its predecessor PRIMAL CONVERGENCE.

Find out what's happening in Maplewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Simultaneously ancient and futuristic, tethered by their bold, explosive use of colors and immersive scale, the works of these artists exude a sense of the sacred and supernatural, eliciting an instinctual, visceral reaction and engaging the viewer in a transformative meditation of mind, body and spirit. 

Known in their collaborative teaming as the VISUAL PASSION Duo, Gerard Amsellem and Mikel Frank introduce five (5) new works. Two large new works titled NAISSANCE (2013) and JUNGLE (2013) continue their series of large expressionist collage/paintings manifest as multi-paneled works combining the power of action painting with a nod to Japanese Shoji screens and Renaissance altarpieces. 

Three (3) new single-panel works titled BLUE DOOR (2012), THE FIVE ELEMENTS (2013) and JILL’S DOOR (2011) are further evidence of the creative honesty, understanding and vulnerability they strive to capture and express in their partnership and work. 

Important to all these works is the spontaneous working process these two artists have established, allowing their individual creative sensibilities for art and life to translate into a symbiotic vision through process and palette, creating a third artist.

At the same time, the seemingly stream-of-conscious, figurative paintings, constructs and sculptures of Dan Fenelon are iconographic and totemic, and are evocative of talismanic and fetishistic art often associated with shamanic practices of archaic and indigenous cultures.

Two works titled UNFINISHED VISION (1995) and BATTER UP (2011) are further examples of the artist’s ongoing and playful “wink-and-nod” commentary of idolatry and/in culture.

With a range of work alternately playful and profound, deliberate and serendipitous, one should be careful not to dismiss the primal as primitive, as it would negate the highly developed artistic knowledge and skill these artists have acquired through lifelong passion and practice. PRIMAL CONVERGENCE : Phase II is a celebration of the connective, timeless expressions of the human spirit.

Click here for more information.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here