Locks Gallery is pleased to present 1968. There will be a reception on Friday, May 7th from 5:30 to 7:30pm.
1968 marks the founding year of Marian Locks Gallery. The exhibit offers a snapshot of the period, one that was significantly defined by new materials and processes. In tribute to our founder, 1968 features artists long associated with the gallery and their contemporaries that created breakthrough work in the decade following 1968.
Perhaps fitting for its era, the 60s art world awakened to unconventional materials - artists experimented with industrial and commercial materials such as lead, Plexiglas, synthetic fabrics and automotive paints. Works in the exhibit reference the shifting political and social landscape.
Edna Andrade’s Earth Day (1970), Richard Artschwager’s paintings on celetox, Judy Chicago’s Lifesaver series, Thomas Chimes’ vinyl box constructions and Jasper Johns’ lead reliefs all acknowledge the progressive ideas each of these artists pursued with subjects and materials.
The basic support for paintings was rethought by artists like Ralph Humphrey (shaped canvases) and James Havard (substituted a molded plastic support for canvas).
Painters such as Noel Mahaffey, John Moore, Elizabeth Osborne and Warren Rohrer tackled traditional subjects such as the landscape, the figure or interiors with new expressive energy - stirred by Pop, and influences from an older generation of artists such as George Segal, Agnes Martin, Alice Neel and Alex Katz.
Marian Locks (1914–2010) championed both emerging and established artists in a long career spent nurturing talent and creating a lively forum to present new art in the city. Beginning with a modest space and young artists, Marian Locks helped shape the contemporary art scene in Philadelphia—a legacy that continues today
