Nature Special
Space 1026 is pleased to present Nature Special, which brings together new and recent work by Scott Porcelli and Ash Limés Castellana. Both artists share a common interest in the outside world, specifically in the many wonders of water, as well as the life and land that exist around it. We are presented with the personal relationship between individual and nature, as both artists have developed their own communication with it.
With Porcelli’s prints and paintings of water birds we catch a glimpse of the wonder and whimsy that seems to occupy his thoughts anytime he hears a birdsong. In Castellana’s more restrained drawings and prints, we see the various patterns and forms that exist in the natural world, which are often overlooked while viewing the landscape as a whole. Castellana and Porcelli combined their worlds in a series of collaborative screen prints with hand drawn elements, which they created together at Second State Press, where they first met.
Limés Castellana’s artistic practice seeks to promote a connection with ourselves and the natural world by encouraging focused attention on a limited landscape. When experiencing a natural expanse, she begins by reducing it into components. Forest, river, form, line, pattern. Looking at something so vast becomes more manageable when broken down into these parts, fading out the activity around it. In this series, she has reduced the landscape to emphasize water and how the solid mass of the land informs its surroundings.Through the process of drawing and printmaking she hopes to record these observations and provide a tool for reflection.
Porcelli’s works are inspired by a love of birds and the Florida Everglades; a colorful backdrop rich in biodiversity. The Everglades are home to over 46 bird species from bald eagles to flamingos which is exciting for bird lovers, and cool. Nature hikes and long walks have nurtured his deep connection to the natural world, and countless daydreams along the way. This series depicts a playful narrative of birds within their hidden habitats. Through his work, Porcelli hopes to key the viewer in on the complex social systems, behaviors, and communities of our aviary friends, through humourous motifs, that provide insight to the connections between birds and their neighbors.
Ash Limés Castellana teaches screenprinting at Second State Press and children’s art education at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has nurtured her printmaking skills with organizations such as The Print Center, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, The Women’s Studio Workshop, Space 1026, and as a Textile Printer at Galbraith & Paul. She holds a BFA in Printmaking and Art History from Temple University. Certain rocks tend to make her smile.
Scott Porcelli is a printmaking instructor and product coordinator at the Center for Creative Works a studio for adults with intellectual disabilities. He is a former studio manager and a fob holder at Second State Press. Scott likes to party, but that really means he spends a lot of time listening to music and drawing in his room. Scott Porcelli holds an MFA in printmaking from Edinboro University of PA.
