Artwork Reappears on the Walls of the D’Arrigo Gallery

After months of having been bare, yet another victim of the pandemic, the wall of the D’Arrigo Family Art Gallery outside of the Bennett Lounge within the Hafter Student Community Center is once again alive with spectacular artwork.

An exhibit titled “Textures” was installed Aug.3, 2021, and will be displayed through September. It features the work of Elynne Rosenfeld, the gallery’s curator, and local artist Rhea Dennis.

The last exhibit displayed in the gallery was in November 2020 by the Philadelphia Pastel Society. But pandemic protocols and limited traffic at the Elkins Park, Pennsylvania campus because of COVID-19 concerns prevented people from viewing the exhibit, including members of the Pastel Society who had work featured. 

Rosenfeld hopes a return of exhibits to the gallery will benefit the Salus community as it continues to battle the peaks and valleys associated with the pandemic. 

“I hope it helps people feel that we’re getting back to normal a little bit,” she said. “A lot of it is a state of mind, so if you get to see something colorful and engaging, it can help change your outlook a little bit.” 

Inspiration for the show began when Rosenfeld met Dennis three years ago. At the time both were members of Third Street Gallery in Old City. They agreed that the intricacy and concern for texture their work shared lent a cohesive thread that would translate well to a common wall. 

Rosenfeld received her Master of Fine Arts in Painting from UMASS Amherst and her Bachelor’s of Art from Rice University in Houston, Texas. Active in the Philadelphia arts community, she is a past president of the advocacy group Artist’s Equity. She co-chaired ArtForms cooperative gallery for a decade and was recently first vice president of ARTsisters collective. 

She has always preferred art that includes exploring the beautiful as part of its statement, and has sought to affect the same in her own work. 

“My most recent mixed paintings are abstractions on the actual — bits of sunsets, icicle formations on rock, invasive tree blossoms,” said Rosenfeld, whose work has been featured in more than 20 solo exhibitions and been included in more than 100 group shows. “I arrive at these by layering strokes of reiki symbol kanji beside glued glass beads and beneath shards of tempered glass that I shatter with a hammer.” 

Dennis graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. After working in oils and gouache (paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent and sometimes additional inert material) for many years she became interested in papermaking and developed a unique way of working with handmade paper. She fuses the art of papermaking with her sensibilities as a painter. 

“To create my paintings, I work intuitively. I find meaning in the sometimes-random patterns made by manipulating the pulp,” she said. “While I am inspired by nature, I choose not to replicate it. I have created a private language of personal line and color. As a painter, the surprises of my ‘happy mistakes’ keep my work fresh and vibrant.” 

Rosenfeld said she hopes the pandemic will eventually ease up and artists will bring some of their work to the gallery for future exhibits.