PE Pinkman: Neither Here and There, The Alcove Gallery at Drawing Rooms, 3/1/24 – 4/13/24

Response to “Neither Here and There,” an exhibition by PE Pinkman
By Mona Brody
April 4, 2024

A single self-portrait can offer a provocative glance into an artist’s private life. But when one has an opportunity to view and explore 100 portraits from 100 days, a visual cacophony occurs.  Artist PE Pinkman offers the viewer that opportunity in his series, “100 Days of a Pandemic” and “Not Who You See(m)” as part of the broader exhibition on view, “Neither Here and There” displayed in The Alcove Gallery at Drawing Rooms, 926 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ, curated by Anne Trauben.

Views from “100 Days of a Pandemic” by PE Pinkman
The Alcove Gallery at The Drawing Rooms

Pinkman’s series, “100 Days of a Pandemic,” allowed me to be a voyeur of sorts, as I delved into the inner life of a man’s psyche, emotional state, and various identities. This diaristic practice began January 1, 2021, nine months after the Covid Pandemic started and concluded April 11, 2021. PE Pinkman was completely into the throes of a global pandemic, unbridled disinformation, Black Lives Matter protests, an election unlike any in history, unprecedented vaccine development, and general mistrust. 

Day 4, I Can’t Breathe, 14 x 11 in, mixed media on paper, 2021

Day 24, Fake News, 14 x 11 in, mixed media on paper, 2021

Day 1, Do You Feel the Same Way I Do, 14 x 11 in,
mixed media on paper, 2021

It was clear to me that his commitment to this daily practice of drawing one drawing a day for 100 days, while isolated in a small apartment, was a necessary process of reflection and self-healing. This practice allowed him to find the motivation and ultimately the content for this self-directed series. Begun in a time of introspection, the series morphed into an important and profound work of art. 

Francis Bacon’s self-portrait series from 1975, "I've Had Else to Paint but Myself", cries out to me in the same manner as Pinkman’s series. Both artists face solitude and fear in a delicate balance of sanity, fantasy, and response to a challenging world.

Day 48, You Mean I can Be Brave and Afraid, 14 x 11 in,
mixed media on paper, 2021

I've Had Nobody Else to Paint but Myself by Francis Bacon
14 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

Pinkman’s other series of self-portraits from birth to a futuristic view as him as an older man, "Not Who You See(m)" takes us through the stages of his life, experiences, and challenges. Materials and touch allow the memory of youth and the reality of age and wisdom to emerge. 

                                     #22, 14 x 11 in, graphite on paper                                      

                     

#60, 14 x 11 in, graphite on paper

While responding to PE Pinkman’s drawings from this series, I had the desire to revisit Rembrandt’s archive of self-portraits. Rembrandt’s self-portraits have been an important example of documenting and recording self-exploration for artists over the centuries, and they continue to this day.  I am fascinated by the psychological intensity of Rembrandt’s late self-portraits and its relationship to Pinkman’s drawing of how he sees himself now.

Self-portrait looking in a mirror, Rembrandt van Rijn, Age 63,
possibly black conte on laid paper, 1669 

#67, 14 x 11 in, graphite on paper

The last four years have changed us. It’s changed how we communicate and interact with one another, and it’s changed who we are as individuals. PE Pinkman has thoughtfully and skillfully helped us heal through a repetition of his own drawn image.  By experiencing Pinkman’s exhibition, the viewer can reflect deeply into oneself by employing humor, exploring the mysterious, the bizarre, and the uncomfortable parts of the human spirit. This self-understanding gives us permission and strength to manage the chaotic and harmful forces that lie from within and the world around us. 

"Neither Here and There" will continue on view at Drawing Rooms Alcove Gallery until April 13, 2024.

Mona Brody is an artist whose studio is at Manufacturers Village in East Orange, New Jersey. Learn more about Mona here.

From a Tree Grows a Forest: an Exhibition Honoring Professor and Artist Edward S. Eberle, The Terrarium Gallery at Drawing Rooms, 3/1/24 - 4/13/24

Response to "From a Tree Grows a Forest: an Exhibition Honoring Professor and Artist Edward S. Eberle"
By Claire McConaughy

March 21, 2024

Edward S. Eberle 1944-2023

There are many influences on an artist’s body of work, but a foundation of encouragement, sharing, nurturing and love from a teacher can be the platform from which one’s creative work can truly rise. The exhibition “From a Tree Grows a Forest: an Exhibition Honoring Professor and Artist Edward S. Eberle” has at its heart, artworks made by Ed Eberle from the 1980s to 2017, and works from six of his former students who together pay tribute to their teacher and his influence on their art and lives. There is also a touching video made by his son, JPC Eberle, of the artist as he throws and forms the clay that he spent his life following. JPC's video features many closeups of Ed's hands forming sculpture which show his deep connection to clay that was more than a material; it was an extension of himself. Ed's former students in this exhibition are a sampling of the many artistic lives he touched during his time teaching at Carnegie-Mellon University, the Philadelphia College of Art and through his ceramic studio in Pittsburgh. Curated by Anne Trauben, the group of artworks show the connections between the teacher, students and true friends who respected and enriched each other’s lives in art.

The focus of the exhibition is Eberle’s unique ceramics. The featured pieces in this review range in size from a 4.5" x 15" x 15” shallow bowl to a vessel that is three feet tall and two feet wide. Eberle’s greater body of work includes explorations with drawings and very large ceramic sculptures that are shown in the catalog as being almost human size and having the presence of visitors in his studio. Eberle’s vessels are covered with stream of consciousness drawings of which he says “… I don’t have a specific story to tell. The story, if there is a story, is only seen after the piece is finished, but it won’t be one story, it will be many stories, if there’s a story at all.”1 With or without a specifically intended story, the drawings are complex and completely captivating. They scrawl across the curves and bumps of the surfaces, many figures interlaced and overlapping as if they are simultaneously depicting the past, present, future, and a disorienting fantasy world. The scratchy black terra sigillata and stain lines on matte grey-white porcelain clay are loose and uninhibited, covering the surfaces without logical sequence, and can be picked up in any area and followed in an unfolding narrative/non-narrative. Images are of figures (some have wings, or monk’s robes, or are multi-headed), patterns, men and women’s faces (some with halos or books for hats), animals, birds, and expressive marks and brushstrokes. They are derived from this world, but the world they exist in doesn’t rely on logic. 

Edward S. Eberle, Draw A Line With A Feather, porcelain,
terra sigillata, 8.5 x 5 x 5.5, 2019

Eberle’s works in the exhibition are mysterious and metaphysical the way “Alice in Wonderland” is disorienting and magical. A special version of this disorientation is shown by the porcelain sculpture “Complex” (2017). “Complex” is a simplified head with facial features entirely covered with scratchy black drawing that reminds one of old age wrinkles, facial tattoos, or an image of what someone could look like if the stories and people of their life were visible the first time you met them. There is a hole at the top of the head surrounded by black, which could be a portal to and from the inside of the head/sculpture/person and everything else/people/nature/God/the universe and back again.

Edward S. Eberle, Complex, front, side and back views, 2017,
9.5 x 7 x 8.5, porcelain, terra sigillata and stain

His drawing is key to his ceramics and several ink drawings on paper are also on view in the exhibition. One large ink drawing, “Landscape” (1990), shows Eberle’s expressive mark making bouncing across the paper in movements like animals playing or dancers in a more abstract expressionist style.

Edward S Eberle, Landscape, 29 x 40, paper, ink, acrylic, 1990

This is an opportunity to see Eberle’s mark-making shown in the stoneware piece, “Number Two” (1990), and “an Appearance” (late 1980s), as a pre-cursor to the surreal depictions in the more recent works.

Edward S. Eberle, Number Two, stoneware, terra sigillata, stain,
35 x 24 x 13, 1990

Edward S. Eberle, an Appearance, 4.5 x 15 x 15, porcelain,
terra sigillata, stain, late 1980s

The artistic and very deep connections Eberle made are evidenced by his six students’ artworks shown alongside his masterful ceramics. Both Graham Marks and Ian Thomas work in ceramic sculpture. Marks' pieces are painterly glazed candelabras that are wonky, and delightful. The pieces are made of ribonny ropes and organic shapes that pour through each other like activated painterly lines that culminate at a flower-like blossom for the candle. They move like marine plants gently swaying under the sea. Ian Thomas’ pieces are simplified head-shaped vessels that have incised comic faces that emote quirky moods, such as “Smile” and “Indifference” (both 2022). The faces’ expressions are drawn in a lighthearted way, as if a kid grabbed a stick and, through a few quick strokes, made the clay into a live, feeling entity.  

Graham Marks, Candelabra, ceramic, 13 x 10, 2022

Ian Thomas, Smile, porcelain, woodfired, 9.5 x 7 x 7, 2022

Ed Eberle fostered his students’ art practices, whether they were working with clay or other mediums, and several of them in this exhibition present drawings, paintings, and needlepoint.

Denise Suska Green and James Pustorino share large scale abstractions filled with color, shapes, and movement. Their surface relationships differ greatly in style and material, but their underlying spiritual interests have a kinship. Suska Green uses handmade paper of nuanced color and organic forms evoking nature. “Surfsong” and “Cove” (both 2020) have references to environmental beauty while using materials sourced from repurposed domestic textiles and linen garments. Her use of recycled natural materials shows a dedication to the environment that is treasured and revered for something more than our human use of it. James Pustorino offers a large abstraction of bold, vivid color exploring narrative through space and composition in “Container for the Universe” (2023). The convoluted movements twist and turn into each other creating interlocked passages. The segmented abstract shapes pull the viewer through a speedy roller coaster ride that flips and twists without paying attention to gravity or general laws of physics. Even though he uses synthetic materials and heightened color on geometric shapes, the painting shows Pustorino’s sketchy drawing that allows the viewer to feel a human presence in the image while the overall image feels like a macro view from the eye of the universe.

Denise Suska Green, Cove, handmade paper, 69 x 41.5, 2020

James Pustorino, Container for the Universe, acrylic and pencils on dDuralar,
80 x 75, 2023

Greg Kwiatek’s square needlepoint, “Untitled II” (2021) is elusive. The mysterious object feels more like an ancient Yantra than a 21st century endeavor. The description of the piece involves geometric relationships gently, meditatively, repetitively stitched on a grid, making one assume that process is a key element in the piece. Based on its symmetry, the composition looks like the result of planning, but the artist states that decisions are made intuitively. It becomes a diagram of harmonic relationships that is clear and bright in its simple geometry, and reflects craft, precision, and dedication.

Greg Kwiatek, Untitled II, needlepoint, 15 x 15, 2021

Vast open spaces of thought and reflection can come from seemingly minimal images. Scott Vradelis’ rectangular, color relationship paintings allow for aesthetic interpretations of moments, experiences, memories or the concept of non-content. His color choices are compatible and soothing. Seeing the slate-grey/blue rectangle, overlaid with a rich burgundy rectangle of pulled brushstrokes in “Poem for Studio Cricket Variant 7” (2021), in-person is truly the only way to experience Vradelis’ work. The scale relationships between rectangles that can function as windows or frames also have impact on the experience of the work, as each one feels specifically determined, perhaps because they are based on weight of color and value in a purely visual sense, or on the weight and value of an intangible essence. 

Scott Vradelis, Poem for Studio Cricket Variant 7, pigment in acrylic binder on
prepared dibond panel with aluminum angle backing, 25.5 x 41, 2021

“From a Tree Grows a Forest…” is a perfect title to capture the extent of the beloved professor and artist Ed Eberle’s legacy, which has clearly grown to forest dimensions. 

Images from “A Drawing Thrown”, 2016 video by Edward. S Eberle and JPC Eberle

"From a Tree Grows a Forest: an Exhibition Honoring Professor and Artist Edward S. Eberle" will continue on view at Drawing Rooms Terrarium Gallery until April 13, 2024.

Claire McConaughy is an artist. While not a former student of Professor Eberle, she was aware of his influence and the admiration he received from his students, friends, and fellow artists. Learn more about Claire here.

1. Contemporary Craft, “Ed Eberle in His Studio”, Video produced by Terry Rorison and David Newbury, YouTube, August 25, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Qqqv4J_1s