Summer Solstice Benefit 2010 Featured Artist: Charles Fahlen

Museum of Modern Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Oakland Museum of California
...you?

With a purchase of a Summer Solstice 2010 ticket, you could add your name to this prestigious list by adding a Charles Fahlen piece to your collection!

While he is from San Francisco, and returned there a few years ago, artist and sculptor Charles Fahlen spent a large portion of his career right here in Philadelphia, leaving a trail of influential gallery and museum shows as well as several public sculptures in and around Center City.

Charles Fahlen, Major. Public Sculpture at 8th and Locust Street

His distinctly post-minimalist forms are simultaneously monumental and mundane, usually referencing the materials from which they were constructed - industrial items that are commonplace in most hardware or home improvement stores. His enigmatic works seem to transcend time - based on his materials and his construction is is difficult or impossible to correctly guess the date of his works without prior knowledge.

For Summer Solstice 2010, The Fabric Workshop and Museum donates a piece created in collaboration with Fahlen during his time as an Artist-in-Residence at the Workshop. Fresh Start is reminiscent of patterns typical of Southwestern American Indians, and somewhat resembles a woven Navajo Rug, even appearing to be woven. However, Fahlen plays with space on a flat object, breaking his pattern into three distinct sections, as if folded onto itself. Closer inspection proves that the pattern isn't woven at all, but masterfully screenprinted onto .75 inch thick industrial felt. Whether this piece is a tribute to these early American craftsmen or a statement on mass-production and commercialization of these ancient patterns is up to the viewer. Regardless, this is a "fresh" take on an iconic part of American craftsmanship, and like many prints is a perfect marriage of fine art and craft.

Charles Fahlen, Fresh Start

This piece is one of many other treasures waiting to be discovered and selected by attendees of Summer Solstice 2010. Check the Philagrafika website to find your favorites, and RSVP to own them!

-Dan Haddigan