Satellite Events

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About the Exhibition:

Louis Gribaudo, Nancy Neill, and Julie Zahn explore chance, pattern, chaos, and order. Like a dancing fire whose predictable form still manages to hypnotize onlookers, each artist in The Fissure in the Flame employs repetitive processes and vivid colors to pull viewers into the image. Neill layers oil pastels on paper and cuts through the viscous pigments to reveal breaks in the deep red that coats her canvases. Utilizing our unavoidable draw to red as an energizing color, she creates a warm swath of landscape with small breaks in the wave for our eyes to rest. Gribaudo cycles through small and repetitive processes to allow for the minute differences to reveal themselves as the binding tie holding a canvas together. Finding inspiration from entropy, the chance encounters and unpredictable imagery that reveals itself through his process is the driving force behind his work. Julie Zahn layers pigments through various processes and mediums, mostly utilizing techniques found in printmaking. Inspired by beauty in nature, the negative space on Julie’s prints are as impactful as sunlight slipping through leaves as they’re brushed in a breeze. 

All three artists connect their imagery through the cracks in between moments, the breaks in the waves, and the details that slice through the sum of its parts. 

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Louis Gribaudo 

He/Him 

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Artist Bio: 

Louis is a Philadelphia, PA based artist and musician. In 1978 he was awarded a full scholarship to The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he studied figure drawing with Marshall Glasier. In 1990, he made the decision to concentrate solely on painting watercolor landscapes and did so until 2006. Through that sixteen year period, his paintings became more abstract and these ideas set the precedent for his current work. In 1994, at the Wayne Art Center, he won the Myrtle Jarvis Watercolor Award for his large watercolor of Sylvester’s Cove, Maine, and in 2007, at The Main Line Center for the Arts, he received the Canson Paper Prize for the mixed media work entitled “Memories of 54”. In 2016 he had a solo show at The Philadelphia Sporting Club. Recently his paintings have been included in the group shows at the DVAA Gallery, Hindsight, Light, Subjective Perspective, Perennial Visions, Through the Grid, Collective Awareness, In July 2021, his work was picked for the curated show; Up Against a Wall at the Awbury Arboretum. Also in the summer of 2021, he participated in a two person show with Joellyn Ross at Atria. In 2022 he was in the two person exhibit; “Caligiuri and Gribaudo” at the Design Cener East Market, Philadelphia, PA., and recently, he was featured at a juried show at Culture Works, where he will have two paintings included in the upcoming summer show entitled: “Sound and Vision” His paintings and commissions are included in many private collections; 2 of his paintings were purchased by the The Capital One Cafe in King of Prussia, PA., and Saatchiart has made large prints of his work for hotels and Senior Living Facilities.

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Artist Statement: 

I employ a process driven call & response approach to painting, with the aesthetic goal of balancing shifting degrees of chaos and potential through the orchestration of organic and geometric structures. No matter what the imagery may consist of, the subjects of digression and time are constant themes in my work. I am inspired by diverse sources: patterns(natural & man made), sound waves, cycles, waves, frequencies, urban decay, architectural artifacts, geometry, geology, astronomy, tribal & corporate symbols, icons, technology and commercial graphics. By making art, I endeavor to reveal the power and mystery that is common to them. I am drawn to the history of things; to the possibility of different outcomes based on combinations of planned decisions and random events. I am intrigued with how small, repetitive actions consistently applied over the course of time, create complex systems that are greater than the sum of their parts. I work by imposing a set of limitations at the start of each painting. This provides an outline for countless variations within the set. As an abstract painter, I use specific shapes and colors, and the ideas of how to compose them, with the intention of creating a poetic language that will stimulate personal thoughts and feelings in each individual viewer. I am fascinated by how simple geometric shapes occur in nature, and over the course of time, entropy affects not just objects, but also feelings and thought processes." I am also a musician/composer, and I have always seen specific colors associated with musical notes and chords. So, color is a very important aspect of my work, and many of my paintings are based off of music running through my head while I paint.

I like wild cards…random disruptions to patterns, frequency distortions, spontaneous decisions. When making a painting, these anomalies sometimes create the dynamic tension that pushes the work into a higher level, and sometimes they create a new problem to be solved. I find that editing is a big part of my overall approach. I use acrylics, vinyl, tape, ink, printed paper, pencil, pen and crayons to make paintings. I apply paint many different ways, sometime I squeegee it on with old credit cards and strips of PVC; I press it on with different objects I find in the street, I use razor blades, sandpaper, water, and heat to alter the surfaces. I do gestural brush drawings that sometimes act as a basis for the final painting. 

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Nancy Neill 

She/Her

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Artist Bio: 

Nancy Neill is a contemporary abstract painter who was born in Akron, Ohio. She has had ten solo exhibitions and has been included in numerous group shows. She has traveled extensively in the US and internationally, and currently lives in the Philadelphia area. Nancy has had several awards and been included in a number of publications. Her work is in the Woodmere Art Museum’s permanent collection and in many private collections. 

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Nancy had a solo exhibition at Cerulean Arts Gallery in 2022 and at Muse Gallery in 2022 and 2024. She was in the 2020 Hamptons Art Fair represented by Bluestone Gallery.   Nancy participated in the Art of the State exhibition at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, a group show at the Cerulean Arts Gallery curated by Liz Osborne, and also in a group show at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts curated by Bridgette Mayer.

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Nancy received a B.S. degree from Miami University in Ohio and a master’s degree from the University of Chicago.

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Artist Statement: 

My abstract oil pastel series explores the feelings and emotions generated by color. These paintings use warm colors to evoke a passionate and uplifting feeling. For me, the many shades of red and other passionate colors serves to energize, warm and transport me to a better place.  Each painting is done in a unique color to evoke a slightly different emotion.  Although the imagery in the series is abstract/non-objective, it gives a feeling of looking outside.  Circles, lines and other marks float in space, perhaps suggesting a happy time and place.

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The paintings are oil pastel on paper. Oil pastel provides one of the most intense colorations of all mediums. Each painting is done in many layers of oil pastel, developing a thick and creamy surface. Earlier layers are revealed using a palette knife to cut back into the surface and create various marks and gestures. I think of my work as passionate and full of movement.

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Julie Zahn 

She/Her

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Artist Bio: 

Painter and printmaker Julie Zahn was raised in Bethesda, Maryland. Her mother, artist Ann Zahn, operated a professional printmaking studio. After college, Julie spent several years in a countryside town in Japan painting landscapes and still-lifes. After returning to the States, she enrolled in the 4-year Certificate program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She was awarded a travel scholarship upon graduation and spent a year in Kyoto working with an antique screen restorer. Toward the end of her stay there, she discovered katazome or Japanese stencil dyeing, a paste-resist technique traditionally used for textiles. Attracted by its painterly quality, she adapted it to paper using acrylics and pigments with gojiru, a soybean binder, creating paintings with a printmaking element. She uses katazome, woodcut and painting to create her distinct, recognizable work. Her studio is in East Mt. Airy and she exhibits regularly in Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

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Artist Statement: 

I have been working to create a natural oasis on my urban property for many years. My surroundings permeate my work and I use images from what I see or imagine might be there. I have also painted landscapes for many years. But the garden, which I walk through to get to my studio, is my most constant and immediate source of inspiration: the way the pathways meet the rocks, plants finding their way through the metal gates, the ever-changing light and weather, these impressions all feed my visual compositions. Birds entered my work unexpectedly a few years ago. I needed a wedding gift for my brother whose hobby is birdwatching. With their arresting poses, energy and antics, birds provided everything I want in my work: drama, design, beauty. They immediately became a favorite subject.

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