Dedicating June as Community month, we are offering our walls to the underprivileged and a few unknowns; two local talents, one not having yet made it into the exhibition ring the other excluded from mainstream exhibitions by negating circumstances.
The first half of the month June 4th thru June 16th, we are partnering with City Year Greater Philadelphia. City Year is an International Organization whose initiatives are tailored to meet community and school district needs. City Year corps members as tutors, mentors and role models, help children stay in school and on track, and transform schools and communities across the United States, as well as through international affiliates in Johannesburg, South Africa and London, England.
Approached about giving some Philadelphia high school students an exhibition, I quickly saw the tremendous value, believing an auspicious venue as such The Knapp Gallery would bolster the artistic dreams of our next urban artistic generation.
Ikru Salmon, near Homeless, peanut butter a dietary staple, carves, paints, writes and performs poetry. Preferring the abstract, drawn to the convex and concave nature of shapes, Ikru survives through his art. Committed to his craft, determined to overcome, identifying his art with the homeless, believing his creativity a gift direct from God the Creator, Ikru sells his art on the street for his daily bread. Unseen Beauty, a relief wood carving (35" x 19"), made from a gifted block of wood, evidences the beauty Ikru sees often missed by others. "I see the beauty that others don't. Many homeless do."
Bonnie Shanas - "As a student of psychology and enthusiast of human nature, I have always been intrigued by underlying allusions and the universal body language. The genuine truth expressed through the subtlety of the unspoken gesture is my inspiration for sculpture of the human form. Through these images emerging from a cloth of wire, I strive to capture and share these intimate yet universal expressions. The unimposing transparency of the material is intended to offer a moment or a memory, which each observer can make his/her own." Lucid Dreams 28" x 33 1/2"