My drawings look perceptually at multiple locations in Philadelphia and are then worked through memory, eventually becoming a fictional cityscape created with a playful approach. I walk by the river and explore streets, describe noise and time through a stacking of shapes, color, and repetitive patterns. Squares provide the basic measurement of this imagined urban landscape in which a finished and unfinished moment in time coexist on the same field. Sometimes it may appear as a crowded future, only without people, or it may appear empty, like something from the distant past.
One day is added to the next day with markers, pencil, prints, glue, and paint, and imagery is added from smaller drawings, intaglio, screen prints, and sketchbooks. A fragmented day or a day that merged into the next are represented by a visual labyrinth of shapes. A drawing I made in the park yesterday changes drastically tomorrow. In the beginning my process is additive, but often the drawing increases in density and I hide and remove imagery and color. I am interested expressing the fragmentation of a fictional city as a collage of noise, pattern, and density. The city metaphorically building and disappearing at once, as a metaphor for the way time changes and fluctuates.
Artist Biography
Miriam Singer received her BA in Sociology and Studio Art from Brandeis University in 2000, and her MFA in Painting, with a concentration in Printmaking, from Massachusetts College of Art in 2003. Since moving to Philadelphia in 2004, she has exhibited at LG Tripp Gallery, Friends of the Print and Picture Collection, Art in the Airport, James Oliver Gallery, Gallery Siano, Inliquid at Painted Bride, Art in City Hall, Topstitch, Spector Gallery, Gallery at Minnow, and Padlock Gallery. Singer uses a combination of printmaking and drawing media to create her unique works on paper and designs for public art projects. Noted public art projects with The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program include Southeast by Southeast, 2013; Under The Clothespin, 2012; and Take Me to the River, 2010. Singer's accumulated imagery becomes layered and busy with impressions of the cityscape. Singer is currently a LG Tripp Gallery Artist and a current member of Space 1026.
Education
2003 Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA MFA in Painting, concentration in Printmaking
2000 Brandeis University, Waltham, MA BA, Studio Art, Sociology summa cum laude
Awards & Honors
2000 Mitchell Siporin Award, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Brandeis Arts Festival, Materials Grant, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
1999 Remis Summer Fellowship, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
1998 Sachar Foundation for Independent Research, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Bibliography
2014 Fabbri, Anne, “A gallery stroll in Old City,” Broad Street Review, September 14, 2014
2012 Hahn, Ashley, "Under The Clothespin Revealed," Plan Philly April 3, 2012
2010 Newhall, Edith, "2 at LGTripp," The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 31
Transit Daydreams, Philadelphia International Airport, Philadelphia, PA Part of Philagrafika 2010
On The Rise; Inaugural Exhibition of Philadelphia Emerging Artists, The Art Gallery At City Hall, Philadelphia, PA
Urbania, Luke and Eloy Gallery, Pittsburg, PA
Premiere, LGTripp Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2007 De’rive Dreams, Inliquid at Bride, The Painted Bride Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA Curator: John Murphy
Survey: Summer 2007, Gallery Siano, Philadelphia, PA Curator: Luella Tripp
Art of the City, Art in The City Hall, Philadelphia, PA, Curator: Cavin Jones
In-Habit, Honeymilk Gallery at Topstitch, Philadelphia, PA Curator: Carrie Powell
February Exhibition, Gallery Siano, Philadelphia, PA Curator: Luella Tripp
2006 What a Relief!: The Woodcut in Contemporary Printmaking, The Philadelphia Print Collaborative at Spector Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Curator: Shelley Langdale
Logan’s Run: prints, drawings, paintings, and other from artists under 30, Padlock Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Curator: Damian Jared Weinkrantz
2005 Birds, Birds, Birds, Gallery at Minnow, Philadelphia, PA Curator: Bryan Winters
Lubrica Mi Vida, Diane Ashley Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Curator: Damian Jared Weinkrantz
