I ran into Sarah McEneaney at the Print Center auction the other night and while the PEW fellow and painter of autobiographical, egg tempera paintings was in-between making bids on a couple things (an Emlen Etting drawing which she got and a Shelley Spector piece, which she also got at the last minute), she told me about her upcoming ICA solo show, something I’m very excited about. (all images are McEneaney paintings in egg tempera)
Here’s a quick preview.
–the show will be in the ICA’s big upstairs gallery. There will be 40 paintings and 16 works on paper;
–the retrospective will have a few older pieces dating back to 1987 but the emphasis is on more recent work;
–Sarah wanted a catalog for the show and parlayed the ICA’s budget for a color brochure into what sounds like a great 80-page book through fund-raising she undertook with the ICA’s support and blessing. (In addition to the ICA funds, money came from the Independence Foundation, Leeway, PA Council on the Arts and from collectors).
–the catalog has a major essay by ICA Curator Ingrid Schaffner who curated the show and eleven short commentaries about individual paintings from poets, curators, and writers like the PMA’s Darielle Mason (an expert on Indian painting); Natalie Anderson and Lisa Sewell; former PMA assistant curator Susan Rosenberg; ICA’s Elyse Gonzales; Janine Mileaf of Swarthmore; Eileen Neff, Sheila Pepe and Rob Nixon. ICA’s Bennet Simpson did a Q&A with a PAFA conservator about egg tempera technique and Sarah wrote something, too, she says.
–everybody’s hoping the show will travel.
–McEneaney, just back from a residency in Virginia will be showing work from that residency at Reynolds Gallery in Richmond.
–and this just in… (also autobiographical) artist Rob Matthew writes to say McEneaney, Spector and he will be in a group show at New York’s Gallery Schlesinger from mid-December to late-January. (Schlesinger is McEneaney’s NY Gallery.) It’s a self-portrait show and the face of Philadelphia will be well represented!
