Rachel Mosler "Moonlight is Visible" at AHN|VHS gallery, opening Friday July 3rd, 7-11pm

"Here I came to the very edge where nothing at all needs saying, everything is absorbed through weather and the sea, and the moon swam back, its rays all silvered, and time and again the darkness would be broken, by the crash of a wave, and every day on the balcony of the sea, wings open, fire is born, and everything is blue again like morning."
-Pablo Neruda- It is Born

AHN|VHS presents an exhibition of works on paper by Rachel Mosler.


Drawn in watercolor and ink with stunning care and grace, her compositions range from sparse images of oceanic scenes to architecture or botanical forms in various states of growth and decay. Her work is heavily influenced by a "post and beam house" upbringing on Martha's Vineyard, where "my father carved botanical patterns and planted an orchard in her backyard, while my mother stitched and collected feathers alongside roads". Growing up in such an environment offered little access to the forms of entertainment common to others of her generation, so that leisure activities were instead filled with "quiet observations of nature and time", and careful crafting such as stitching and book binding. Her drawings and sculptures are psychological inquiries into the construction and deconstruction of memories from her childhood.

Mosler's imagery is never quite literal, and often it is the space between drawn or painted forms that calls our attention. The Artist speaks of the forms in her work as "a safe space for tension to settle and rest." These works display such a penchant for careful process and exude an aura of rhythmic contemplation. Much like a life spent staring at the sea.


Rachel Mosler is an artist based out of Red Hook in Brooklyn, NY, and currently works as an Art Therapist. She received her BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003 and her MPS from the School of Visual Arts in 2008. Her work was recently included in a group show at Kentler International Drawing Space in Brooklyn, NY. Prints of her drawings will be featured on Little Paper Planes and the Beholder in the next coming months.


For additional information please contact info@ahnvhs.com

Sketchy Stash installation and edition pics

Thanks to everyone for coming out and making our second show so fun.

Pictures of the installation are up on our website here, as well as photos of the limited edition artist's book produced for the show!
We've made reproductions of one of Bill McRight's pocket sized accordion fold sketchbooks, designed and hand bound by AHN|VHS.
A huge thanks for Silicon Fine Art Print for printing the edition.
We're capping the edition at 20 - grab one soon!


above: entry wall to the show with limited edition books (you see? you totally just thought those were the originals. told you they were good.)

We're A Pick!

Bill McRight's show "Sketchy Stash" is featured in the current Philly Weekly, with a great write up from artblog's Roberta Fallon!



grab your copy while you can, or check it out online:
Here

June Exhibition at AHN|VHS

Bill McRight
Sketchy Stash

June 5 - June 27, 2009
Opening: Friday June 5th, 7-11pm

AHN|VHS is pleased to present an exhibition of sketch books by Bill McRight.

Primarily a printmaker working in linoleum block and silkscreen, McRight's work is known for its extreme intricacy and for his bold, often absurd figures. These sketchbooks are McRight's place for character and concept development, as well as impulsive composition. The figures in his books are drawn and redrawn with altered and increasingly exaggerated gestures and features, interspersed with pages of striking painterly abstraction and bursts of free associative text or overheard phrases. There seems to be a narrative at work, although the books leave no conclusion but to continue to another page. It is rare that McRight takes a figure directly from one of these books for use in a print; these forms are composed on impulse and are made to retain that immediacy. This looseness and experimentation with material and gesture is a surprising contrast to McRight's rigid sculpting of forms in his prints and lino cuts in particular.

This is the first exhibition of the artist's books since his 2005 MFA thesis exhibition at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

AHN|VHS will produce a limited edition reproduction of one of these sketch books concurrent with the exhibition.

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Bill McRight is a print maker working primarily in silkscreen and linoleum or wood block. In 2005 he received an MFA from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. His prints have been published by Cannonball Press. He lives in Philadelphia and is a current member of Space 1026.

new work by jason andrew turner

Jason Andrew Turner, 25 Men Crying, 2009, graphite on paper
currently on view at the u.o. gallery at the naval yard (south philly).

Arden Bendler Browning in New American Paintings!

Happy to announce that AHN|VHS artist and fellow Philadelphian artist Arden Bendler Browning is featured in the lastest issue of New American Paintings! The juried review highlights current movements, trends and general observations on the best of the best of contemporary painting.


"Collapsible #2 (Hurricane)" 2008


Arden's most recent work deals with the endless tension between organic growth and human sprawl, particularly in the urban environment. Her landscapes are rendered using baroque and jagged marks interspersed with suggestive abstraction to create dynamic scenes so steady in their chaos that they achieve a graceful balance. According to Arden, there is no good or bad side in this conflict, but simply the constant cycle of decay and renewal.

See more images on the artist's site here


From the New American Painting website:
Above all, these artists’ works reflect the pluralistic nature of painting today and underscore the notion that anything goes and everything is possible. Represented are realist interpretations of still-life and the figure, compositions with roots in Abstract Expressionism, and works that explore enigmatic narratives, environmental messages, and the psychological landscape...
The works of Robert Goodman, Rebecca Rutstein, and Arden Bendler Browning, share a subtle common strand in their adept layering of forms, incorporation of linear structures that resemble netting or industrial fencing, and a frenetic energy created by bold, curvilinear elements.

My Dog Speaks at Seraphin Gallery

The opening was last Saturday, but for all of you in Philly or those stopping through, check out this show at Seraphin Gallery - features work by our own Bonnie Brenda Scott and Caitlin Emma Perkins!

From the gallery's press release:
Seraphin Gallery is proud to announce My Dog Speaks; An Animal Narrative in Contemporary Art, curated by Seraphin artist Hiro Sakaguchi. Twelve emerging and established artists will participate in this group exhibition in which animals play the central role... Through each work, these artists view, interact, and imagine animals in their own setting, highlighting the ever apparent bond between humans and their four legged, and at times, two legged friends.
Artists: Alina Josan & Amanda Miller(collaboration), Anne Canfield, Bonnie Brenda Scott, Caitlin Emma Perkins, Caroline Picard, Darla Jackson, Eric McDade, John Karpinski, Laura McKinley, Nancy Sophy, Sarah McEneaney, Sherif Habashi


installation shot of Bonnie Brenda Scott's work


Animals and our relationship to them is a timeless and popular theme in art, yet is rarely given such curatorial and critical focus. Seriously interesting stuff.

Rack and File: selected works from the flat file

Thanks to everyone who came out last first Friday for our debut opening!

The show is beautiful, and that's because we've got some great artists to work with.
Here are some installation shots, and check out ahnvhs.com for more work by these and other artists.





photos by Elyse Derosia


prints by Chris Kline, Matt Leines and Bill McRight


prints and drawings by Bonnie Brenda Scott, Caitlin Emma Perkins, Jason Turner, Jena Derman, Eric Veit and Josh Shaffner


prints and collage by Tory Franklin and Arden Bendler Browning


and our bookshelf, featuring zines and publications by Alex Lukas, Mark Price, a slew of great books and records from Free News Projects, and of course, Megawords (wouldn't be Philly without it)

AHN|VHS

Flat File: selected works
AHN|VHS debut exhibition

May 1st - May 30th, 2009
Opening: Friday, May 1st, 7-10pm


Julianne Ahn and Lauren van Haaften-Schick are pleased to announce the opening of AHN|VHS, a new gallery, flat file archive, curated shop and shared studio on the 4th floor of 319A North 11th St., Philadelphia, PA.

AHN|VHS will debut on Friday, May 1st, with the exhibition "Flat File: selected works", featuring works on paper by numerous artists including Mark Price, Caitlin Emma Perkins, Matt Leines, Alex Lukas, Josh Shaffner, Julianne Ahn and Lauren van Haaften-Schick.

AHN|VHS will feature a publicly accessible flat file of prints and drawings that will be viewable and available for purchase in the gallery and on our website, www.ahnvhs.com. Artists are welcome to submit work for consideration in our flat file free of charge and will receive a generous percentage of revenue from sales. In the coming months, we will expand to include guest curated store shelves carrying artist's books and zines, crafts, records, video, and editions in all media. AHN|VHS will exhibit work in all media by artists from the Philadelphia area and beyond, at various points in their careers. The gallery will have limited hours and will be open by appointment.

As gallerists who are also artists, we are creating an exhibition space where the typical dealer/curator/artist hierarchical paradigm does not apply. Our experience in each of these roles will inform all aspects of the gallery, bringing a more nuanced and thoughtful approach to the exhibition and making of art. With the founding of AHN|VHS we hope to create a space where artists, patrons and all art-lovers feel welcome, engaged, and inspired to participate.


For additional information please contact info@ahnvhs.com

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About AHN and VHS:

Julianne Ahn holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in Textiles from Rhode Island School of Design. She currently works as a creative director and maintains her artistic practice in Philadelphia, PA.

Lauren van Haaften-Schick is a Philadelphia based artist and designer. She was the principle Founding Director of Gallery TK, a not-for-profit exhibition and performance venue in Northampton, MA, and is the former Director of a contemporary works on paper gallery in New York.