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2006 Slideshow 2 Since Monsoon opened its doors in May of 2003, it has amassed quite a collection of articles, photos, editorials, interviews and appearances.
2006 Slideshow 2 (click on the thumbnails to read the articles) Read the full articles by scrolling below! |
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The Monsoon Gallery Archives for 2006 We've gone through all the media surrounding the gallery and created an archival collection of articles and editorials about the gallery, its artists, and its employees. If there's something in particular that you were looking for and you don't see it here, then please don't hesitate to give us a call or send us an email and let us know. |
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Paper: Brown & White - Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaDate: Jan. 9, 2006 Artist: Frank Wyso (Wysochansky) “Brilliant and strange artists mined inspiration in coal region” Frank “Wyso” Wysochansky was a man driven to tell the story of Pennsylvania coal miners. Wyso’s intimate knowledge of miners and their families influenced his art throughout his life. His paintings and sculptures document the tools and working conditions of the anthracite coal mines of northeastern Pennsylvania. Working furiously, Wyso churned out an estimated 5,000 pieces of art created through pen, ink, watercolor, oil, crayon and sculptural forms. He spread melted crayons across canvases and carved out images, creating figural sculptures from Bondo, an inexpensive automotive body repair product that he worked around armatures such as chicken bones, light bulbs, bags of sand, and wire coat hangers. He had little formal training, but a passion for depicting the modest lives and working conditions of fellow miners, says Steve Lichak, senior producer in Lehigh’s Library and Technology Services new Digital Media Studio, who is also an artist and is credited with bringing Wyso’s work to wide audiences. “The intensity, the pure, unadulterated intensiy is what strikes me,” Lichak says. “When you look at it, you see every stroke, laid out almost like a dance on paper. You can envision how he had to move his body to create that stroke.” Beyond the technique was the subject matter: the hardscrabble lives of miners who worked in the cold mines through the winter months, then scratched out a modest existence the rest of the year, when the demand for coal dropped. “He portrayed a real honesty,” Lichak says. “These were gritty, dirty jobs, and the families were poor. They wore old, patched-together clothing, sat in dark barrooms, and carried lunchpails. He portrayed the way they really lived.” Wyso also poured his convictions in a series of more than 2,000 cartoon sketches, which appeared in humor magazines and most predominantly, in the United Mine Workers Journal. Wyso was only paid a few dollars for the cartoons that offered political and social commentary on the lives of the mine workers and the conditions under which they were forced to toil. “That’s a whole project unto itself,” Lichak says. “The cartoons were initially created out of economic necessity as a way of helping to support his meager lifestyle, but they’re still a valid form of folk art and provide a glimpse into the passion that drove his more evolved art.” After Wyso died in 1994 at the age of 79, the artist’s family asked Lichak to help catalogue his work. Lichak had become acquainted with Wyso through a documentary he made on the outsider artist’s work shortly before his death, but he initially resisted the monumental task of chronicling a lifetime of the artist’s work. Several years later, he relented and began to wade through stacks of paintings, drawings, and pieces of sculpture left in Wyso’s Blakeslee homestead. “He would finish a piece of art, frame it, and put it against the wall,” Lichak says. “These pieces were 10 and 20 paintings deep all around the house. Then, when he couldn’t fit one more thing along the walls, he started piling them in the basement and attic and making pathways to walk through. It was literally a maze.” Lichak set up a high-tech studio in the homestead, and spent the next two and a half years beginning to digitally record and catalogue each piece, working his way through more than 3,000 works. “And there is no end in sight,” he says. “The family still maintains hundreds and hundreds of art works around the country, there are thousands of paintings and sculptures now stored in floor to ceiling racks I built. To raise funds to preserve the work and expose Wyso’s art to a broader artists, Lichak helped organize – with the assistance of Lehigh art professor, artist and critic Berrisford Boothe – an earlier show at South Side’s Monsoon Gallery. Gallery director Ranjeet still maintains a large survey of Wyso’s work, which helps fund the archival preservation process. Boothe says of Wyso: “In his insatiable desire to make art everyday, all the time, and without regard for formal concerns beyond the internal impulse, he clearly fits the bill of a ‘visionary.’ His best work follows the wind in his mind…very brilliant and strange. Lichak also worked with Lehigh University Art Galleries curator Ricardo Viera, Religion Studies professor Norman Girardot, and outsider artist expert George Viener of the Reading Goggle Works, Outsider Folk Art Gallery, to bring Wyso’s work to Lehigh for a three-month exhibit. “Steve was so passionate about this artist,” says Girardot, who also serves as faculty co-director of Lehigh’s new ArtsLehigh program. “He felt that this was a human being who deserved his due and he is the one who should be credited with bringing Wyso’s art to people.” “It’s important work,” says Lichak. “These were small men doing big jobs, by hand, under the worst of conditions. And Wyso captured it all – the struggle, the history, the lifestyle. It’s important that it’s seen.” While he continues to catalogue Wyso’s work and locate an appropriate place for safe storage, he is also hoping to work more with a new discovery: Wyso’s 56-year-old autistic nephew, whom Lichak describes as “an unknown genius.” “Like his uncle, he’s an obsessive drawer and the tiny apartment he shares with his mother is filled with his drawings,” Lichak says. “He’s an incredible artist.” |
Paper: The Morning Call - Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaDate: Jan. 22, 2006 Artist: Frank Wyso (Wysochansky) “Mining the tough and the tender” Frank "Wyso" Wysochansky is working in his basement studio, a coal-pit-dark den brightened by his wall painting of a Mexican landscape with donkeys. Using a pocket knife, he draws a blocky man and woman on a piece of paper coated with melted crayons gathered from kids near his home in Blakely, Lackawanna County. His subject is one of coal mining's most intimate scenes: a wife scrubbing her husband's shirt while he's wearing it, aching knees on floor, sore hands in a tub of hot water. The picture is tough and tender, radiantly lit and seemingly wallpapered by coal dust. Wyso depicts a practical act in a large mining family unable to afford a shower or a week's worth of work clothes. At the same time he honors his father, who died in a mining accident, and his mother, who raised 12 children pretty much by herself. Bonded by daily ritual, lost in their own world, Anelia and Joseph Wysochansky could be pilgrims - or Mary and Josepn. This rough reverential portrait hangs in a Lehigh University exhibition of mining images by Wyso (1915-1994), a self-taught artist obsessed by a particular, peculiar visions. A grimy dignity clings to these muscular, mystical views of drilling and shoveling, drinking and smoking. Each picture taps a deep vein; each picture appears carved from coal. The show is a collaboration between the Frank Wyso Charitable Foundation and the Lehigh University Art Galleries, which regularly exhibits works by primitive, ecstatic creators. It's coordinated by Steven Lichak, a trustee/curator for the Wyso trust, a senior producer in Lehigh's Digital Media Studio and the director of a Wyso documentary. Wyso's humane views of an inhumane industry remind Lichak of his Lackawanna County childhood, when he heard stories about his mining grandfathers who died from black-lung disease. Lichak, 46, is leading the charge to make Wyso an outsider artist better known outside northeastern Pennsylvania. His partners are four of Wyso's brothers, all of whom are priests, each of whom steered the career of a bachelor brother more interested in making pictures than promoting them. "Frank ate, drank and slept art his whole life," says Father Walter Wysochansky from his parish church in Ambridge, Beaver County. "He was just infatuated with the life of the coal miner. He never married, although, yeah, he was handsome and funny enough to have plenty of girls going wild over him. He married art, and that was it." Father Walter believes his brother was born to create. As a youngster Frank drew on all sorts of surfaces, including sheepskin jackets. He was so talented with a pen and pencil, he worked for a high-school yearbook when he was in elementary school. Wyso's brothers aren't sure why he was driven to draw. Art may have been an outlet for a loner in a big clan. Then again, he may have been inspired by mining's dangerous drama, a reality reinforced by the recent disaster that killed 12 miners in Sago, W. Va. Wyso saw his father's legs covered in leeches, sucking bad blood from sores. He watched his mother stiffen at the sound of emergency whistles: short signals for severe injuries, one eerily long note for fatal cave-ins. He saw wives faint when their husband's bagged corpse was dropped on the front porch as callously as a sack of potatoes. This cruel life was softened by caring deeds. Wives cooked mushrooms picked by their miner husbands on the way home from work. At the end of shifts children flocked to their fathers for hugs and left-over sandwiches. In the summer, when the mines shut down, families had more time to sing, dance and tell stories. They drank wine they made and ate soup with vegetables they grew, cooked with burning coal they cracked. Like many kids of miners, Wyso left school early, at age 13. During the Depression he made money by selling coal he picked illegally. As Lichak points out, dog-hold mining was doubly dangerous. There were no supervisors around to help injured pickers. Caught by mining bosses, they often received brutal, biblical punishment. Cracking coal without permission could mean cracked heads. In 1935 Wyso joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the New Deal's many work-relief programs. On Jan. 13, 1936, he was in a CCC camp in California when his father was killed by a falling rock in a Wilson Colliery mine. Wyso couldn't make it home in time to attend the funeral. He never forgot the loss, or the guilt. For decades he relieved his pain by drawing proud miners and adoring sons. Anelia Wysochansky was pregnant with Walter, her youngest child, when her husband died. Unable to care for such a large family, she sent three of her kids that year to a Ukranian orphanage in Philadelphia. Stanley and Mary left St. Basil's within two years; John stayed for six. He became a priest along with his brothers Constantine, Demetrius and Walter. Frank continued to follow a secular path. From 1943 to 1946 he served in the Marines. After leaving the military, he decided to become a serious artist. Funded by the G.I. Bill, he studied watercoloring and cartooning at a school in Scranton. He set up a studio in the basement of his mother's house, where he lived until his death. He enlivened the dingy space by painting the walls as a festive Mexican vista. Wyso lived on a Marine pension and his mother's generosity. For a decade he earned money by selling cartoons to journals for miners and dentists. To satisfy his soul, he painted Ukrainian and Amish folk scenes, clowns, and monks. Thinking his career would be more profitable with a specialty, his brothers convinced him to concentrate on mining pictures. "We pushed him into a unity of theme," says Father Walter. "We told him to paint what he knew best: his backyard." Guided by his siblings, Wyso transformed a small world into a big world. He depicted miners drilling in a cave and smoking a pipe in a cave-like tavern. He portrayed them huddled in coal cars like ship slaves and lunching with the rats that warned them about dangerous gases. He gave them chiseled faces, flickering colors and shifty, searchlight eyes. He made them folksy characters, primeval creatures. Wyso could be political. He hung miners on crucifixes to ennoble their sacrifices and protest their terrible conditions. He could also be spiritual. In one of his sculptures, a miner hugs a kerchiefed woman and a model of a Ukrainian church. The tabletop bust is more than a tribute to his parents; it blesses that coal-country trinity of mother, mother church and mother earth. Never a salaried miner, Wyso lived a minerly life. He worked in his coal pit of a studio 12 hours a day, six days a week, stopping only on Sundays. Never a hermit, he walked every day to a local grocery store. He cut quite a figure in his cowboy boots, 10-gallon hat and bolo-tie beard. He resembled a well-groomed Wyatt Earp. Wyso never drove a car and never owned one. His impatience prompted him to use pens and inks, which dried faster than oils. He could be abrasive, especially when he thought viewers misread his pictures. "He was a cantankerous son of a gun," says Father Walter. "He could never tolerate a phony. What you saw of Frank was what you got. He was as transparent as can be. He was a noble person." The Wysochansky brothers knew that Frank had neither the time nor the personality to make his career flourish. So they became his art guardians. They paid for his materials; Father John estimates he's spent $15,000 on framing alone. They sold his works in their parishes. They served as his agent-publicists, capitalizing on their door-opening credentials. Even the most jaded curator, after al, will reserve time for a priest. Supervised by his siblings, Wyso received more than 50 solo shows. Father Walter, for example, secured an exhibit for his brother at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, where Walter led a parish church at the time. A Wyso watercolor hung in a national exhibit curated by John Canaday, then an influential art critic for the New York Times. A French publication listed Wyso as a contemporary American visionary. Oh his own, Wyso conquered a fear of flying. His brothers helped him conquer a fear of rejection spurred by the cutthroat business of cartooning. "I remember him throwing that doggone rejection envelope on the couch," says Father John from his parish church in St. Clair, Schuylkill County, "and saying some choice words." In the early '90s, Wyso found an ally outside the family. Steven Lichak was a Lehigh University graphic designer in his early 30s, a fellow sculptor with a similar heritage. Lichak grew up in Dunmore, Lackawanna County, the grandson of miners killed by black-lung disease before he was born. Wyso's images triggered some of his favorite childhood memories: crawling around abandoned breakers; listening to mining tales in basement kitchens heated by coal stoves. Lichak began making a half-hour documentary on Wyso for WVIA, the public television station in Pittston, Lackawanna County. He videotaped Wyso's uncommon creations with common materials. He made armatures of wire hangers and chicken bones, then covered the skeletons in a fast-drying, flexible compound used to repair cars. "If Frank had a bag of plaster, it was going to be a sculpture," says Lichak. "If he had a bag of sand, it was going to become an armature. He was so prolific, he made every professional artist look like a piker." Wyso guided Lichak through a house bursting with art. He stacked paintings against walls, 15 to 20 deep. After running out of space, he made mazes in the middle of the living room. "What do I need furniture for?" he said, sounding like a classic bachelor and obsessive artist who detested vacuums. Wyso filled emotional gaps by worshipping his mother. After Anelia Wysochansky died in 1983, he kept her bedroom the way she left it, with one notable exception. Over the bed he placed a four-foot crucifix he made with rosary beads as big as baseballs. Lichak finished the Wyso documentary in 1994. Two weeks later, his subject died from cardiac failure. His memorial service featured a prayer card with his portrait of Christ in mourning. Lichak shelved the Wyso project after WVIA declined to broadcast the video (It remains unaired). The Wysochansky brothers refused to mothball their mission. Over the next decade, Father Walter periodically asked Lichak to graduate from Wyso filmmaker to chief champion. Each time Lichak politely rejected the invitation. He was too busy with his work and his family, he explained. He was an artist, not an art promoter. He wasn't especially religious. Lichak: "You know, Father, I'm not the holiest man in the world." Father Walter: "That's OK, Steven. We'll pray for you." Two years go, Lichak accepted Father Walter's challenge. He figured his daughter, Brooke, now 8, was old enough not to require constant attention from himself and his wife, Nancy. Aided by high-speed computers and digital cameras, he could easily record Wyso's zigzags. Most important, he was spirtually ready. Helping the Wysochansky brothers, he realized, was his calling. Lichak's calling has become a second career. He's catalogued nearly 3,000 works of Wyso's estimated 5,000 works. He's built floor-to-ceiling storage shelves, updated a Web site and organized shows at Lehigh and Monsoon, the Bethlehem gallery that sells Wyso pictures and sculptures. Backed by the Lackawanna Historical Society, he's assisting a $40,000 campaign to cast an eight-foot-high bronze statue of a miner based on Wyso's designs. It will be dedicated to Wyso's father, whose death in the Wilson Colliery mine ended his dream of being a church singer. The sculpture is destined for a levee in Olyphant, across the Lackawanna River from Blakely. The site is symbolic, says Gene Turko, a Wysochansky family friend who chairs the Olyphant Coal Miners Memorial Association. It's about halfway between Wyso's home and the church his mother attended every day, sprinkling ashes from a pouch to make the ice less slippery. Lichak has promoted Wyso in interviews with journalists covering the Sago mine tragedy. He's promoted Wyso while promoting primitive, wildly inventive works by Michael Wysochansky, Wyso's autistic nephew. He's encouraged Michel, a 56-year-old janitor, to ease his money worries by making three-foot-wide dollar bills. Like the brothers Wysochansky, Lichak is shepherding dead and living visionaries. "It's a way of giving back to the world that I wouldn't normally have," he says. "Frankly, I don't have a choice. It's the power of prayer, and the love of pure art." | |
Paper: The Bethlehem Press - Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaDate: March 1 & 2, 2006 Artist: Ranjeet Pawar, Rori Franges “Monsoon brings Rain” When Monsoon blew into Bethlehem, the Lehigh Valley art scene didn't know what hit it. Month after month, internationally-renowned work graces the walls of the fine arts gallery. With the artist's themselves often in attendance, mingling and talking, the openings are a must on art devotees' "to see" list for Southside's monthly First Friday celebrations. Recently Monsoon brought more: Rain, a gallery devoted to regional artists. "These artists who are in here now are passionate about their work and are showing it to the world," said Ranjeet Pawar, photographer turned gallery owner with an entrepreneurial background who founded Monsoon three years ago. Of Rain, he observed, "It's an aspect of Monsoon. Water, in itself, is a flow. Fluidity in art is a very important thing." Rain, which opened in November adjacent to Monsoon in the former Woolworth's building at Third and New streets, includes the work of 14 artists, some from the Poconos and New Jersey. Each artist displays in a portion of the gallery, which can accommodate the work of up to 20 artists. "What I really want to get across to the artists in the Lehigh Valley is that they are in control of their futures. They are investing in the space," said Pawar, a Moravian Academy, class of '92, graduate who studied entrepreneurship at Babson College, Wellesley, Mass. Pawar founded Monsoon after returning to the Valley from Colorado, where he was a consultant for a startup company. For a time, he did market research for his father's firm, PennSummit Tubular, Hazleton, which manufactures high-mast steel poles for electrical transmission line structures, stadium lighting, cell phone towers and windmills. "Life kind of brings you back home," said Pawar, 31, who lives in Pleasant Valley in Upper Bucks County. "I travel extensively. I've bicycled through Europe. Anytime I'm near a volcano that I can hike up, I'm there. I've backpacked Australia. Driven through India," said Pawar, numbering among his relatives the chief guard for a king, a former prime minister of India and cabinet-level government officials there. Because Pawar was having his photographs framed at a Bethlehem area frame shop, he began considering a business of his own. "It brought me into the reality that maybe I should look into the world of art because it is something that I'm very passionate about." He chose the word Monsoon, a Hindi word, because of its symbolism. "In India, the monsoon season, floods or no floods, is a happy time. When the water comes, the crops come, there's food on the table. It's an entirely different perspective. When you think about it, what is Monsoon, really? It is the birthplace of vibrant energy and color. People are, in turn, supposed to feed off of everything that's presented her [in the gallery]." Monsoon is the type of sophisticated and elegant gallery you'd find in Beverly Hills, Palm Beach, Las Vegas, or New York City. Pawar explained the mission of Monsoon: "The world's cultures are defined by their art, what they create and why they create. So, this [the gallery] is bringing the world cultures here." In its second year, Monsoon expanded to what had been Planet Harp. Rain occupies the former showroom of Crystal Signatures, still located in the building. "Rain is harnessing the Monsoon clients," Pawar emphasized. Artists work with Rori Franges, Monsoon gallery manager. Said Pawar, "There's a lot of experience that we have gathered here. From a professional standpoint, in order to deal with art, we're very adept at that. I've been trying to explain to every artist that I meet that they are not just artists, but entrepreneurs. When an artist is making a painting, they have two choices. They can make another one and another one and fill up their home. Or they can make a painting and try to present it and let somebody else bring it into their home. With Rain, it makes them that much more involved in the space. They understand how costly it is to hang a painting on the wall." | |
Paper: Bucks County Herald - Bucks County, PennsylvaniaDate: April 6, 2006 Artist: Chris Carter “Fluidity - The Synergy of Lines” Monsoon Gallery will present "Chris Carter: Fluidity - The Synergy of Lines" April 7 to May 3. Carter, a New Jersey artist, beguiled Monsoon goers at her first show of watercolors, oils, and gouaches spanning subjects from the abstract to the figurative. Her flowing watercolors have been compared to the likes of Gustav Klimt, and the fantastical imagery of her gouaches show that she paints while others dream. | |
Paper: The Morning Call - Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaDate: May 19, 2006 Artist: Carole Pickle “Electric Abstracts” Monsoon is exhibiting Carole Pickle's crackling-good acrylic abstracts. The Emmaus resident has a knack for strong graphic gestures, stormy calligraphy and the kind of noble detritus found in Aaron Siskind's photographs. Pickle's paintings are intriguingly allusive and elusive. "Earth Series" features a kind of bloody illuminated cave streaked with a ghostly flash of neon blue. The artist blends disparate elements smoothly. Several works benefit from prismatic/earthy colors and phosphorescent/psychedelic lighting. Her lightning-bolt effects generate a lot of electricity and action. In "Intuitive Marks No. 3," squeezed purple zigzags whip a coal black mass like a jockey racing a horse. | |
Paper: The Morning Call - Allentown, PennsylvaniaDate: July 20, 2006 Artist: Pennsylvania Society of Goldsmiths (PSG), Lexi Erickson, Susan Shultz “Each piece of jewelry a bling of beauty” There’s a lot of glitter at Bethlehem’s Monsoon Gallery, but not all of it is gold. The first-ever showing of pieces by the Pennsylvania Society of Goldsmiths at a fine art gallery space alos contains metals as diverse as sterling silver, bronze, and copper as well as semiprecious stones arrayed in a variety of colors, shapes and textures. “We are thrilled to be represented by one of the finest galleries in the area,” says the group’s newly elected president, Lexi Erickson, adding that the pieces by 12 PSG members included in “The Fine Art of Fine Jewelry” aren’t your average store-bought bling-bling, but “studio jewelry,” one-of-a-kind or limited edition pieces. “Studio jewelry is far different from jewelry found in a chain store,” says Erickson, who has been teaching jewelry making at the Baum School of Art in Allentown for the last year. “Each artisan has his or her own distinct style and technique, making each piece a tiny piece of precision and beauty. These are handmade fine art jewelry designs.” Represented at the Monsoon show is the work of Erickson and fellow artists Ann Lalik, Wendy Waldman, Karen Normann-DeLarco, Christopher Darway, Angela Duffin, Joan Nelson, Margery Cooper, Andrea Abrams-Herbert, Kirk Kozero, Judith Renstrom, and Susan Schulz. The word “goldsmith,” Erickson points out, is an archaic term for jeweler and shouldn’t be confused with “silversmith,” a person who makes utensils, such as dinnerware, plates and platters. (Paul Revere, for example, was a silversmith.) Since organizing in 1979, the nonprofit PSG had been offering workshops for metalsmithing and metal techniques. At the moment the workshops are at Bucks County Community College in Newtown and Moore College in Philadelphia. While PSG originated in the Philadelphia region – where about 80 percent of its members live –many are beginning to call the Lehigh Valley home, with Erickson and several PSG board members now living in the area. “PSG is one of the oldest guilds in the country,” Erickson says. “Being a member of a guild implies you have an education and knowledge of the art of jewelry. We use the same skills as any fine artist.” While all of the jewelry is of contemporary design, the designers use processes that have been around for centuries, says Erickson. “The process hasn’t really changed in 3,800 years,” she explains. “For example, we use the same controlled melting process used for thousands of years to gives pieces different surface textures.” Erickson came to jewelry in a roundabout way. A trained archeologist and anthropologist whose specialty is the Bronze Age, she became fascinated by the subject of fashioned metals while researching ancient jewelry found on archaeological digs. “I began to wonder, ‘How did they do that?’ So I took a class in jewelry making to learn metallurgical process and I fell head over heels in love with it. Jewelry is very much a cultural thing,” she adds. “It’s all about personal adornment.” | |
Paper: The Morning Call - Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaDate: July 21, 2006 Artist: Ranjeet Pawar “A neighborhood of visionary ventures” When owner/director Ranjeet Pawar launched Monsoon gallery in 2003, he unleashed a tsunami of art world excitement that rippled far beyond the Lehigh Valley. Shortly thereafter, the professional gallery expanded into a neighboring location, and Pawar now fills more than 3,400 square feet of space witha diverse and everchanging selection of fine arts from around the world. In late 2005, Pawar made another splash with Rain Gallery, located in a storefront adjacent in Monsoon. The venture lets artists invest in their futures by renting space. "Local artists need to go through the process of learning about markets, trends, and costs." Pawar says. "Rain artists have an opportunity to make decisions and find out what works, from framing to pricing. Although they don't always want acknowledge it, artists need to be entrepreneurs." | |
Magazine: Lehigh Valley Magazine - Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaDate: July & August, 2006 Artist: Ranjeet Pawar, Rori Franges “Best of the Valley” Best Independent Art Gallery to Buy Professionalism and an exquisite selection of distinct works of art make Monsoon Gallery an excellent place for buyers. Customers receive exceptional service and expert suggestions about which colors and tones would harmonize with their temperament, lifestyle, and also suit the reason for choosing a particular piece - whether for its general decorative function, or for its power to touch them on a deeper emotional level. Best Independent Art Gallery to View A visit to Monsoon Gallery is for eyes and soul like a torrential rain for the tropical desert. The selection of eclectic and powerful works of art from all over the world will leave any visitor emotionally invigorated. Monsoon has an excellent working relationship with well-recognized artists, but it also gives an opportunity to emerging painters and photographers to display their work in the adjacent gallery, Rain. | |
Paper: The Morning Call - Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaDate: August 13, 2006 Artist: Ranjeet Pawar “Wave of ingenuity” Ranjeet Pawar’s career path was supposed to lead into business, not art. He never studied art, attending insteading the prestigious Babson College business school in Massachusetts, where he earned a degree in entrepeneurship. His first job was steering a start-up company that focused on the distribution of natural foods and supplements. But Pawar loved to take photographs. An avid traveler, Pawar built a portfolio of nature photography. So when the start-up failed, he fell back on his hobby of photography. Now as the owner of Monsoon and Rain, two eclectic art galleries in the growing area of south Bethlehem – one showing artists on the international scene and the other presenting local artists – Pawar displays a distinctly business-like view of the art world. “What artists don’t realize is they are entrepreneurs producing something they want someone else to be drawn to,” Pawar says. “Many artists lose sight of that.” Pawar has become one of the catalysts for activity in Bethlehem. He often adds his own flair to monthly First Friday events by having special performances such as Indian or tango dancers in the gallery. He is a member of the Fine Arts Commission, a board member of the Downtown Business Association and works on programming with the Banana Factory, the South Bethlehem arts incubator, and the Lehigh Valley Arts Council. He helped get the Southside Film Festival started and has taken part in fundraisers for nonprofits such as the Muscular Dystrophy Association. At Monsoon, Pawar features a different artist each month in a gallery show. During August, he is the featured artist, with a show of his photography combined with his poetry and prose. “I wanted to show what goes on in a photographer’s mind when he’s taking a picture,” Pawar says. “There’s always a story behind images and I placed that poem or phrase within the image. I don’t think photographers usually do that kind of opening up. People will know more intimate details of my mind.” September’s show will be a retrospective of the work of Bethlehem native Paul Harryn, an abstract artist with an international reputation. Pawar says the greatest challenge is convincing the Lehigh Valley to see what it has in its own backyard. “People need to embrace the art, cultures, and Bethlehem,” he says. “Too many locals go elsewhere for art. The community needs to learn that this is an amazing place.” Pawar, 32, whose parents were born in India and whose great-grandfather, Chowdhary Charan Singh, was the Indian Prime Minister in 1979, grew up in Hazelton and moved to Bethlehem when he was 12. After graduating from Moravian Academy, he went to Babson. He took bicycle tours and backpacking trips to exotic locales, where he made many connections because of his friendly, outgoing personality. He “took photos everywhere I went,” he says. After Pawar’s company, Nutri Buy failed, Pawar began showing in galleries from New York to Las Vegas. “I went to a lot of galleries and met the art directors,” says Pawar. “After awhile I realized I could do that.” Pawar lives in Springfield Township, Bucks County, but he says he thought Bethlehem was a good place to open a gallery. “South Bethlehem seemed like it was the future of Bethlehem,” he says. “There is a lot of energy and it reminded me of Manayunk. I’ve traveled the world and this is a very beautiful town.” When the space at 11 E. 3rd St. was vacated by Udderly Delicious, a cow-inspired ice cream shop, in 2003, Pawar jumped on it. He felt the airy, loft-like space with the tin ceiling was perfect for a gallery. Since the ceiling has been painted purple by the former owners, Pawar spent six days hand painting the ceiling copper. Pawar decided to name the gallery Monsoon because it’s “representative of my culture but familiar. The Monsoon season is a good time. Crops grow. Flowers bloom. The whole country is vibrant with color.” More than 1,000 people visited the gallery during the first First Friday event after it opened. Pawar says many thought his gallery was a museum because of the high ceilings and the way work was grouped by artist. “Other galleries aren’t presented in this fashion,” Pawar says. “We took something you’d find in a big city and put it in Bethlehem.” But Pawar says he could see people enjoyed coming into Monsoon. “People love to experience it,” he says. “you can see them make the connection.” Pawar says his philosophy of art is “everything should generate some level of emotional response. You’re not just buying what you see, you’re buying a portion of the artist.” Pawar says after he sold his first painting after three days and sales have been “slow but steady from that point forward.” The gallery features national and international artists such as photorealist Peter Krobath, figurative painter Fidel Garcia, husband and wife team Alexander/Wissotzky and Middle Eastern acrylic artist Khalil Allaik. Indian artists are represented by former Lehigh Valley resident Salma Arastu and Babu Lal Marotia. “I like to travel and find artists,” Pawar says. “I invest a lot of energy in finding amazing work.” In 2004, Pawar expanded into the Planet Harp store next to Monson and opened the wall between the two spaces to create a larger, 2,300-square-foot gallery. “It’s not easy to find galleries this large, but in my mind it’s too small,” Pawar says. But as Monsoon continued to flourish, Pawar realized there were many talented local artists who didn’t have a place to show their work. “Monsoon is very well established and the artists understand the branding of their art,” Pawar says. “What I thought to do with Rain was to have a place where local artists could show their art and be in control.” In November, Pawar opened a 1,300-square-foot gallery at 1. E. Third St. and called it Rain to continue with the water theme. Similar to an artist’s co-op, but somewhat different, Pawar rents wall space to the artists and helps them to learn about pricing and displaying their work. “I’m running it like a business,” Pawar says. “I teach them about marketing and branding. To get someone else to invest in them they have to invest in themselves.” Pawar also hired Moravian College graduate Rori Franges to help manage both galleries, but primarily rain. “We both wear a number of hats,” Pawar says. “She’s an intricate part of the fabric that makes up Monsoon. I can’t run a gallery without her.” Unlike Monsoon, where prices can range in the thousands of dollars, most work at Rain is under $1,000. Media is diverse, from acrylic to ceramic to mixed-media. Unlike Monsoon, artists can exhibit as long as they rent the space, although Pawar encourages the artists to change their display monthly. He also highlights a different artist each month in the front window and with advertising. “The idea is to provide opportunities,” Pawar says. “The art is much more eclectic. Rain is what you make of it. When artists invest time and energy, it returns to them.” Mixed-media artist Jean Yeoman of Lower Nazareth Township says she is pleased with her display and has had a lot of interest in her work. “The concept is really impressive,” she says. “It’s really important that artists have a chance to start showing work.” Pawar also sells and rents art to corporations and offers framing services. He is also starting the Monsoon Art Group, in which he will sell the work of artists he represents to galleries around the country, starting with abstract painter Brian Richmond and figurative artist Chris Carter. And recently, he solidified his presence in Bethlehem by purchasing the Design Center, the 20,000 square foot building that houses his two galleries. Pawar also has purchased the building at 201 E. Third Street that last housed Scaramouche Costumes. | |
Paper: The Bethlehem Press - Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaDate: August 16, 2006 Artist: Ranjeet Pawar “Thought that counts” The exhibition, “Thoughs from Within,” by photographer Ranjeet Pawar continues through Aug. 30 at Monsoon Gallery. One of the works, “Sunanda,” taken in Spring 2003 in Pleasant Valley, was inspired by a cousin of Pawar who suffers from a fatal disease known as Thalassemia Major. It requires her to receive blood transfusions on a bimonthly basis. Said Pawar, “While she knows her life will be short, her ability to love and smile is an ability most us don’t learn until we reach the mature years of our life. Once I took this picture, I immediately thought of her.” Profits from the sale of this piece will go toward enriching Sunanda’s life. “My goal is to take her to one of her favorite places, Disney World,” said Pawar. | |
Paper: The Bethlehem Press - Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaDate: August 30, 2006 Artist: Paul Harryn “Paul Harryn retrospective, with view to the future, at Monsoon” Paul Harryn: Retrospective: 1976-2006” will be on exhibit from Sept. 1 – Oct. 4 at Monsoon. A reception will be held from 7-10 p.m as part of SouthSide Bethlehem’s First Friday. Harryn’s professional career began in the mid-1970s, during a time of tremendous energy and change in the art world, particularly in New York City. There was an influx of international artists and styles converging in a creative atmosphere of critical and intellectual debate. This is the well from which Harryn drew his inspiration, insight and work ethic, noted Ranjeet Pawar, Art Director, Monsoon. Trained in traditional materials and techniques at Northampton Community College, Kutztown University and Philadelphia College of Art, Harryn quickly graduated to a conceptual and abstract style for the purpose of more accurately representing the complexities of our evolving society and global culture. At the same time, he maintained his passion for experimental music, jazz and poetry. These are the tools that formed his basic aesthetic and style. Harryn believes that “the responsibility of the artist is to represent the culture within which they live. In this complex and interdependent global society that moves at such a breakneck pace, abstraction helps us to codify and understand the word organism,” Harryn said. This criteria forms the basis for his layering technique. “Imagine if the same statement were repeated in 20 different languages – the nuance, traditions and cultural inflections of each statement would vary. What in that understanding becomes dominant, subservient or irrelevant? Where is the balance in that diversity? In part, that is what my work is about. But is also about beauty, mastery of materials and techniques, improvisation, lyricism and pertinence,” Harryn said. Monsoon Gallery will be representing examples of Harryn’s work over the past 30 years, as well as providing a glimpse into future products of this visionary artist. | |
Magazine: Lehigh Valley Magazine - Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaDate: Sept./Oct. 2006 Artist: Paul Harryn “Monsoon Harbors Talented Artists in the Lehigh Valley” After two and half years and at least 50 layers of darn and dusk-hued paints, artist Paul Harryn finally completed his works entitled “Kimono.” They hang on white walls in his studio, a 200-year-old renovated barn in the Bucks County area. Harryn grew up in the Lehigh Valley and began exhibiting in New Hope, Pa. in 1974. Over 30 years later and after traveling around the world, he will show his art this September in a retrospective exhibit at Monsoon Gallery in Bethlehem. The exhibit will look back on pieces spanning different times in his career, a visual display of his 30-year journey as an artist. In the 1990s Harryn owned a studio on 3rd Street in Bethlehem, just a few doors down from Monsoon. Although 1996 marked his most recent exhibit in the area, he has always maintained his local roots. “No matter where else he’s been, he’s always had a studio in the Lehigh Valley,” says Ranjeet Pawar, Art Director of Monsoon. “He’s developed quite a following, not just in the Bethlehem area but in the industry as a whole.” Harryn creates his art by layering and editing coats of paint. On canvas he will use up to 30 layers; on wood, the piece can reach 60 or 70 layers thick. Without any preconceived plan for the final piece, Harryn begins by painting one layer onto the surface and deciding which parts he likes. He then creates an entirely new painting on top of the first one, leaving his favorite parts, and repeats this process anywhere between 30 to 70 times. “The painting becomes an amalgamation of every good painting on the surface,” he says. The September exhibit will give Harryn the chance to display his art to clients and locals who have never seen his work before. Pawar believes Harryn’s Lehigh Valley connection will make the exhibit special for visitors, “Because he gained perspective and returned to the area,” says Pawar. If you miss Harryn’s Retrospective exhibit in September, you can still catch Hinrich Schueler when he comes to Monsoon with his innovative artwork in October. Schueler comes from Germany and uses movement and color in his artwork. | |
Magazine: The Morning Call - Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaDate: September 17, 2006 Artist: Paul Harryn “An abstract observer” Paul Harryn’s first solo exhibition 30 years ago was a controversial affair at Bethlehem’s City Hall. Some of the young artist’s paintings were removed at the behest of the mayor, Harryn was branded a rebel, and the publicity helped skyrocket his career to New York, Los Angeles, and Europe. He always kept a home in his native Lehigh Valley, however. Eventually, Harryn became a key figure in the arts renaissance of south Bethlehem before moving to his current headquarters, the restored ‘Coffeetown Barn’ near Raubsville. The old firebrand never really left, but his current one-person show, “Retrospective: 1976-2006,” still has the feel of a homecoming. It’s Harryn’s first local show in a decade. And this time, the only people taking paintings down are collectors. Looking back at his heady early days in the 1970s, Harryn insists he was never really a revolutionary. “Whenever you’re young and you try to do anything they call you a rebel,” he jokes. “I deal with the same issues in my work now as I did then, but I guess I’m too old to be a rebel.” His work has changed, however. There is certainly nothing in the Monsoon show as scandalous as the piece, described by Harryn as “a bunch of nudes dancing around this heartless demonic figure,” that got under the skin of Mayor Gordon Mowrer. Titled “A Dedication to Their St. Manson,” it was a reference to Charles Manson, who Harryn felt was emblematic of the times. What remains in Harryn’s current work, and plenty of it, is depth, both aesthetic and philosophical. The retrospective includes 30 works. There are pieces from the mid ‘70s to early ‘80s, a time Harryn calls “a period of experimentation,” a time when the word first got out about this young artist to collectors, including the late Philip Berman, who became a lifelong Harryn patron. Later pieces show Harryn’s layered style of “controlled abstraction,” a style that has built his reputation. The show, like Harryn’s career as a whole, is perhaps best understood as a series of series. The first major period in his work was the “Re-Enchantment” series of the early 1980s. He looks back fondly on this stage as a time where “I came into my own style.” He created about 500 pieces at this time, represented in the retrospective by “Re-enchantment: Dream Time,” painted in 1986. On a large canvas blotched with colors, jagged shapes gives way to identifiable forms. You can trace the shape of a face and even, perhaps as a nod to the classical art that Harryn has always revered alongside modern abstraction, the form of the Venus de Milo. “Signals and Cells” was Harryn’s series of the late 1980s to early 1990s. “The Origins of Memory” serves as an excellent example of this period. At 5 feet high and 12 feet wide, the three painting triptych dominates a corner of Monsoon. It is subdued in color, but exploding with energy and power. Abstract white forms rise up from the black background like forces of nature or a half-forgotten memory in a dark corner of your brain. Harryn refers to the next series as his “White Paintings,” but they are certainly not blank or monochromatic. Even the whites are layered in tones of off-white, tan and gray, while abstract forms dance in the foreground like calligraphy strokes. Also known as the “To Tell a Vision…” series, these works were inspired by Asian sumi-e strokes, and they exhibit a delicate calm and beauty. Tucked into the corner of Monsoon’s gallery, as if in subtle refutation of the insidious assumption that modern artists can’t draw, there are also three ink drawings Harryn did in the 1970s. Carefully crafted and highly realistic, “Illick’s Mill Falls” and “The Reid Barn” show a trained hand in representational mode. Indeed, Harryn was trained in traditional methods, as well as modern art at Northampton Community College, Kutztown University and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He says he has chosen to work primarily in abstraction, not because he has to, but because he feels it is the best way to comment on the culture we live in. “I don’t really do that kind of [representational] work anymore,” he says. “I’ve been so preoccupied with abstraction.” Placing art history in the context of the changing world, Harryn explains that abstract expressionism – such as in the chaotic action paintings of Jackson Pollock – was a direct response to global events such as World War II, the atomic bomb and the rapid ascension of the American culture. “Nothing expressed the energy and vitality and the movement as much as abstract expressionism,” Harryn says. Even if these paintings are known for being difficult to decipher, Harryn still believes that art is about communication. “At the core of every artist is the need to communicate,” he says. But Harryn insists that part of the responsibility is the art viewer’s as well. “I think the most important thing that an audience can do is look at a piece of art and ask, ‘What is the artist trying to communicate?’ You have to take that journey,” he says. Journeying through Harryn’s work, as in the best of all abstract are, one finds more ideas that might immediately meet the eye. His most recent series, “The Paris Paintings,” named because of the unique color palette Harryn found on a visit to the capital of France, are a good example. These are his layered paintings, which quite literally take a multi-tiered approach to a painting. Harryn applies acrylic paint to the canvas in one abstract coat and then selects and protects the best parts with a coat of latex before painting another layer. One painting can go through as many as 60 layers, the result being a complex and beautiful visual that is both aesthetically pleasing and contains and underlying message. “The painting becomes the amalgamation of all the good events,” he explains. “The good parts are covered up and protected, whereas the less than pleasing parts are covered up. In a sense, it almost becomes Darwinian. If you think about the Darwinian sense of evolution, there are things that survive and things that are weaker.” Diving deeper into these rich paintings, a cultural context emerges as well. “In the end, our culture, and the global community at large, has become this wonderful amalgamation of all things that come from a different historical standpoint,” he explains. “Yet they all co-exist simultaneously in this fragile balance. And that’s the same way the painting works.” Harryn’s work is in museums from Allentown (Allentown Art Museum) to Brooklyn (Brooklyn Museum of Art) to Los Angeles (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). His work is in the homes of a hundred private collectors, and on the walls of corporate offices. His paintings even made an appearance in a Hollywood film, decorating an apartment in Steve Martin’s 2004 “Shopgirl.” However, at 54 years old, Harryn is clearly not interested in retirement. He still paints every day, for as much as 12 hours a day, buzzing on coffee and cigarettes much like the art school student of decades past. He’s also a musician, playing bass and keyboards to create “modern improvisational” sounds, which he has recorded on CDs. And he also is writer, publishing books about art and a collection of poetry and essays. Asked for how he finds the time for it all, Harryn responds: “I just don’t find sleep very rewarding.” And when asked to name the highlight of his career, he answers without hesitation. “I know what it is. It’s my next painting.” | |
Magazine: PPL MagazineDate: October 2006 Artist: Hinrich Schueler “Artist’s colorful PPL ties” When PPL Electric Utilities foreman Bruce Johnson heard that a German artist was looking for a place to stay while he showed his work in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he readily volunteered his house. Johnson had hosted Hinrich Schueler last year while his abstract paintings were at the Apollo Grill in the city. This month, Schueler was in the Lehigh Valley to unveil his collection at Monsoon Gallery, also in Bethlehem. “It was a lot of fun to have Hinrich and his wife stay with us,” said Johnson, who has worked for PPL for 40 years. “They are incredibly nice people and very helpful around the house.” Schueler’s “Dreamscapes” series feature earth tones – oranges, greens, blues and reds – layered to create a soothing image. “These hues are applied in the classical manner of watercolor painting, which is worked out in many layers,” said Schueler in a statement at Monsoon Gallery. “Some of my works show up to 60 layers of different, translucent and highly thinned colors.” Schueler’s work has another tie to PPL – Bryce Shriver, president of PPL Generation, has five of the paintings hanging in his office. They met his three criteria for artowkr: it can’t resemble engineering schematics, it should be inspiring and he has to like it. “When you look at these paintings, you see something different every time,” Shriver said. “That’s what I like about them – they take you someplace you wouldn’t go on your own.” Johnson met Schueler through the Bethlehem Schwdbisch Gmnd Association. Schueler needed a place to stay, and Johnson wanted to continue his many relationships with Germans. He has dozens of friends in the country after various trips, and he often has visitors from overseas. He first traveled to Germany after his friend, a college professor, invited Johnson and his wife, Sally, to come along on a trip with students. After resisting the offer several times, he went for it. “We had the time of our lives,” Johnson said. “I fell in love with the country, and I’ve taken six or seven trips over there. It’s a wonderful place to visit. They speak English very well, and they really treat us fantastic.” Schueler’s artwork will be on display at Monsoon Gallery through October 31. “His paintings are very soothing to the eyes,” Johnson said. “They make you feel tranquil and are a good way to relieve stress.” | |
Paper: The Bethlehem Press - Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaDate: November 29, 2006 Artist: The Baum School of Art, Heather Sincavage, Ranjeet Pawar “Baum in Bethlehem” The Baum School of Art travels to Bethlehem for “The Baum School of Art Faculty Exhibition: Sharing Inspiration,” opening with a First Friday reception 7-10 p.m. Dec. 1 and an invitation-only reception 6-8 p.m. Dec. 2 at Monsoon Gallery. It’s the first time the school’s faculty has collectively exhibited their artwork in a fine art gallery outside of Baum. “With the richness and diversity of the Southside’s growing art scene, we felt it an exciting venue from which to build a partnership,” said Baum School Executive Director Ann Lalik. The Baum School is a non-profit community art school at 5th and Linden streets in Allentown. Students may pursue college credit through Lehigh Carbon Community College and Penn State Lehigh Valley. Baum faculty exhibiting include: Renzo Faggioli, William Wentz, Nicole Demjan, Lexi Erickson, Adriano Farinella, Rosemary Geseck, Ann Lalik, Jennifer Nahan-Gidley, Edward Nowak, Lydia Panas, Pamela Pike, Pamela Ptak, Heather Sincavage, Katina Sossiadis Bozikis, Thomas Unger, Dana Van Horn, and Charles Vlasics. | |
Magazine: : The Morning Call - Allentown, PennsylvaniaDate: December 21, 2006 Artist: The Baum School of Art, Heather Sincavage “Baum teachers make boxed-in feel free at Monsoon” Startling viewing boxes dominate a provocative exhibit of objects by Baum School of Art teachers at Monsoon in Bethlehem. It’s the first time faculty members have participated in a group show off-campus. War battles peace in Katina Sossiadis Bozikis’ gripping shadow plays of genocide. Sketching and collaging in gouache, she depicts stealing, burning and raping on rice paper or vellum stretched over illuminated boxes. The most lashing work is “Burning of Smyrna,” a nightmarish view of the 1922 destruction of a largely Christian Turkish city – now called Izmir – that forced Bozikis’ relatives to flee Greece. A ghostly male puppet chokes a ghostly female puppet, an angel carries burning buildings on a time-bomb globe and paint drips like blood. Time battles space in Tom Laudenslager’s ceramic furnaces of perception. He cunningly arranges found objects – watch parts, a rusty can, a curved postcard of a piazza – in slotted vessels that mimic everything from a miniature adobe hut to an avant-garde television set. In “Bound Together” twined nails hang like a pendulum in a prison cell, a skylight casting a ticking shaft of light. Violation battles protection in Heather Sincavage’s “The Apothecary Chest.” Her self-portrait zigzags over staggered boxes stacked on a segmented table. At one point her painted hand appears to hammer painted and real nails. Rear cubbyholes filled with talismans – animal skulls, children’s books, photo of a masked Luciano Pavarotti – are tentacled by stockings dyed maroon. Tea bags stained to remember used tampons complete an inventive, involving marriage of hope chest and Pandora’s Box. Non-viewing boxes are pretty theatrical, too. “Coque Feliz,” a primitive, futuristic necklace by Lexi Erickson, includes a pendant set with a swooshing, holographic piece of malachite. Colin Schleeh’s wood-veneer vases are graceful, sexy and a clever use of a maligned material. Susan Ward’s 26-inch glass bowls are explosive, implosive universes of fossilized leaves, Dutch and oriental landscapes and deft simulations of lacquered coal and skin-like tin. | |
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Gallery, 11 East 3rd Street Bethlehem, PA 18015 Located in Southside Bethlehem's Arts District, via 378 and 412. Art Director: Ranjeet Pawar Gallery Manager: Rori Prushinski |
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