January 5, 2024
Press Release
© Arlene Love, Lilith (two views), 1981, Resin and fiberglass on steel stand, 81 x 36 x 26 inches
Breaking Boundaries: Arlene Love's Trailblazing Artistry Across Seven Decades at iMOCA
A Featured Exhibition of the city-wide
ReFocus: Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts Festival
The inaugural exhibition at the Interactive Museum for Contemporary Art (iMOCA) will be a solo exhibition by the legendary Philadelphia artist, Arlene Love. A featured presentation of the city-wide ReFocus: Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts festival, the show will highlight Love's impactful 70-year career. Arlene Love: Selections from Seven Decades will spotlight Love's pioneering sculpture in resin, feminist works in leather, as well as her figurative drawing and photography. Love's enduring fascination with the figure, exploring its physical, erotic, and political nuances since her debut sculpture, has been the cornerstone of her artistic journey. Her pieces, inspired by feminist ideologies and informed by her personal adversities, evoke a powerful interplay of strength and vulnerability. Through poignant portrayals of the corporeal, Love's art captures the essence of intimacy, violence, sorrow, and joy.
© Arlene Love, Hipolita, resin, 65 x 18 x 23 inches
“In 1970, the Women’s Movement gave us the vocabulary to express what we experience. This new raw energy freed me to use the iconography of bondage as my feminist statement on the religious, political, social and cultural subjugation of women.”
Arlene Love: Selections from Seven Decades
A Featured Exhibition of (re)FOCUS 2024
Curated by Amie Potsic
(re)FOCUS celebrates the 50th anniversary of Philadelphia Focuses
on Women in the Visual Arts/1974, a citywide festival recognizing women artists
Exhibition Dates
February 9 - March 10, 2024
Opening Reception
Friday, February 9th, 2024, 4:30 – 8 pm
Artist Talk and Reception
Friday, March 1st, 4:00 – 8:00pm
*Artist's Talk: 7:00 – 8:00pm
Closing Reception
Sunday, March 10th, 12:00 – 4:00pm
Location
Interactive Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA)
1230 S. Broad St.
Philadelphia, PA 19146
Gallery Hours
By appointment, and Fridays 11 am – 6 pm
PHILADELPHIA, PA, USA – Celebrated artist Arlene Love's unparalleled career spanning over seven decades takes center stage in a provocative exhibition, Arlene Love: Selections from Seven Decades, curated by Amie Potsic. A featured presentation of the city-wide ReFocus: Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts festival, the show unveils Love's pioneering sculptures in resin, feminist works in leather, evocative figurative drawings, and photography. Love's ability to depict the human form with profound physicality, sensuality, and poignant political commentary creates an impactful experience, where strength and vulnerability intertwine. The public is invited to free receptions and artist lectures, providing deeper insights into Love's prolific career. The exhibition will run from Friday, February 9 to Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Interactive Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA) in Philadelphia. The Opening Reception is on February 9th from 4:30 pm to 8:00 pm and an Artist Talk and Reception are scheduled for Friday, March 1, from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm, with the artist's talk taking place from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The Closing Reception will be held on Sunday, March 10, from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm.
Arlene Love's fascination with the human figure and its expression of physicality, sensuality, and political commentary has been a driving force since the inception of her artistic journey. Inspired by the language of feminism and shaped by her own life experiences, Love's work captures strength and vulnerability in the portrayal of corporeal experiences ranging from intimacy and joy to violence and sorrow.
Curated by Amie Potsic, CEO and Principal Curator of Amie Potsic Art Advisory, this exhibition creates a unique and thought-provoking experience. "It is an honor to curate this exhibition of Arlene Love's powerful and ambitious work. Inspired by feminist theory and politics in the 1970's, Love's work could not be more timely today as women's reproductive rights have come under attack again in the United States. Her pioneering sculptures of the female form in resin and leather are incredibly unique and convey the power of reclaiming one's body and human rights," says Potsic.
Visitors will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the powerful narratives woven by Love's monumental body of work. Public receptions and artist lectures will accompany the exhibition, providing attendees with a deeper understanding of Love's creative process and the themes that have shaped her prolific career.
Arlene Love is a trailblazing figure in the world of art, known for her award-winning resin sculptures, feminist sculptures in leather, and street photography. With a diverse portfolio of public art across Philadelphia, including the Kimmel Cultural Campus and Rittenhouse Square, Love has created an indelible mark on the city's cultural landscape.
Caryn Kunkle, Director of the Interactive Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA) explains, "it is incredibly powerful to host this artist as our inaugural exhibition in our new location. Love represents a generation of women who had to proverbially swim upstream to pursue their art career. Because of Love and her peers, women today are more readily embraced by museums and collectors. There is an ancient saying, 'women hold up half the sky,' and I feel that is powerfully felt in Love's work."
For over forty years, Love's focus on sculpture has led to solo exhibitions from coast to coast, showcasing her feminist works in leather, bronze, and resin. Her pieces have graced prestigious institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Art, and the Sculpture Center in New York City, among others. Love's sculptures, drawings, and photography are held in esteemed collections including The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the James A. Michener Museum, the University of Scranton, and Franklin & Marshall College.
© Arlene Love; Portrait of Arlene Love, Circa 1987
Later in her career, Love turned her attention to drawing while she lived in a quaint mountain village near Oaxaca, Mexico with her artist husband, Lee Lippman. Her drawings, etchings, and encaustics garnered acclaim in Oaxaca galleries, while her portfolio of etchings found a home in the Linda Lee Alter collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. During her time in Mexico, Love's passion for photography was ignited, leading to an extensive collection of striking street photography and candid portraits. This passion continued upon her return to the U.S. ten years later, with her photograph "Old Lee" finding a permanent place in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Love's remarkable career has been punctuated by over thirty solo exhibitions, which featured her prowess in sculpture, drawing, and photography. She has received numerous awards and grants from esteemed institutions including the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Leeway Foundation, Temple University, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation.
(re)FOCUS: Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts celebrates the 50th anniversary of Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts/1974, a citywide festival recognizing women artists. With over 150 exhibitions, panels, lectures, workshops, and demonstrations, it was one of the first large-scale surveys of the work of contemporary American women artists, signaling the inception of the American Feminist Art Movement. (re)FOCUS 2024 is also a Philadelphia citywide festival showing how women-identified and BIPOC artists have moved from the periphery to the center of the art world. Like its 1974 predecessor, (re)FOCUS is a collaboration among Philadelphia's large, small, and diverse visual arts institutions and takes place from January 27 - May 31, 2024. For more information: https://refocus2024.org/
Arlene Love is an award-winning pioneer in resin sculpture and accomplished painter and photographer with numerous public art installations across Philadelphia. For forty years, Love focused on sculpture, with solo shows from New York to California creating feminist work in leather, bronze, and resin. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (NY), the Boston Museum of Art, the Sculpture Center (NYC), and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Cornell University. Love's sculpture is in the collections of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the James A Michener Museum, the University of Scranton, and Franklin & Marshall College. Love's focus later moved to drawing during the dozen years she and her husband lived in a small mountain village near the city of Oaxaca, Mexico. Her drawings, etchings, and encaustics were exhibited in Oaxaca galleries. While in Mexico, she also worked in a print taller and created a portfolio of etchings, which is in the Linda Lee Alter collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Meanwhile, Love began taking photographs in her Mexican village and in neighboring markets - street photography and candid portraits became her sole passion and continued when she returned to the U.S. An alumnus of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Love has had more than thirty solo shows of sculpture, drawings, and photographs, and is the recipient of awards and grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Leeway Foundation, Temple University, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. For more information on Arlene Love's work go to: https://www.arleneloveartist.com/.
The Interactive Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA) is an interactive museum of contemporary art based in Philadelphia focusing on local, living art practices of all kinds. Founded in 2011, the museum focuses on connecting local artists to local resources in personal and direct ways. iMOCA's new location is an historic home on South Broad Street in Philadelphia featuring an art gallery and artist residency facilities. The museum's inaugural exhibition will be a featured presentation of the (re)FOCUS: Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts festival. For more information on the exhibition: https://www.amiepotsicartadvisory.com/events/2024/2/9/arlene-love-solo-exhibition-imoca
Amie Potsic is the CEO and Principal Curator of Amie Potsic Art Advisory and Host of the Art Watch Radio Show & Podcast on WCHE 95.3. She received her MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and BAs in Photojournalism and English Literature from Indiana University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. She also completed the Comprehensive Appraisal Studies Program of the Appraisers Association of America and is a fine art appraiser. She has held faculty appointments at the University of California at Berkeley and the San Francisco Art Institute and been a guest lecturer at the International Center of Photography, Tyler School of Art, and the Delaware Contemporary. She has exhibited her own award-winning artwork internationally and curated exhibitions for institutions including the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Rowan University Art Gallery, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In addition to curating this exhibition, Potsic will also present a solo exhibition of her own artwork for (re)FOCUS: Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts at The Space Art Gallery. For more information on the advisory: https://www.amiepotsicartadvisory.com/
Arlene Love: Selections from Seven Decades, will run from Friday, February 9 to Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Interactive Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA). The opening reception will take place on Friday, February 9, 2024, from 4:30 pm to 8:00 pm, offering attendees the opportunity to meet the artist and engage with her groundbreaking work. An artist talk and reception are scheduled for Friday, March 1, from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm, with the artist's talk taking place from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The closing reception will be held on Sunday, March 10, from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm. The exhibition will be open by appointment and on Fridays from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. For more information, visit: https://refocus2024.org/interactive-museum-of-contemporary-art
© Arlene Love, The Bride Stripped Bare, 1981, leather over resin/fiberglass, 38 x 18 x 12 inches
For more information about the exhibition, click here: Arlene Love: Selections from Seven Decades
Banner Image: © Arlene Love; Portrait of Arlene Love, Circa 1987