May Exhibitions: May 2 - 23
Moving Celebration: Saturday, May 18, 12 - 5 pm
Gallery Hours: Wed - Sat, 10 - 5 pm
As we are set to begin our relocation to The Mill Studios in Manayunk, please join the staff, artists and community of Gross McCleaf Gallery to say "thank you!" to our legacy center-city outpost.
Come by SATURDAY, MAY 18 from 12 - 5 pm for a day of fun, food, art and friendship. Cheers!
We are moving!
Dear Gross McCleaf community,
We’re delighted to announce that in June, the Gallery will be relocating to the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia, in the Mill Studios - just off Main Street at the Belmont exit from I-76.
This new location meets the moment in today’s shifting art market while being beneficial for GMG, our artists, and loyal clients. At its 3rd site in 55 years, Gross McCleaf will continue providing a comfortable, convenient setting to engage with your favorite art & artists and will now include free and easy parking!
Final in-person shows at our 16th Street space will conclude Thursday May 23rd, while programming will resume in Manayunk post-Labor Day. We’ll remain open for business, both online and for in-person appointments through the summer, while we prepare our new physical space for an exciting fall program and reception.
Meanwhile, stay tuned for upcoming announcements regarding the remainder of our spring show calendar through April and May, and SAVE THE DATE for our open house moving celebration on Saturday, May 18th ~ as we say “thank you” to our legacy center-city outpost and look forward together to our new home.
I’m filled with pride for all we’ve accomplished over these last several years and humbled by the support and encouragement from the broad GMG community. I’m grateful to my team, to our wonderful artists for their partnership, and to our clients for your continued support and patronage.
All the best,
Rebecca Segall, Director
Gross McCleaf Gallery
VIRTUAL INSTALLATION GUIDE
Wondering if a painting is the right fit for your space?
We can help by virtually installing any of our available artworks into your home or office. Our complimentary service allows you to experiment with a variety of sizes & styles, giving you an immediate sense of what works best for your unique taste.
Let us make your art selection process both easy & fun!
Martha Armstrong pictured at the Opening Reception for 'New Paintings: Vermont, Mt. Gretna, Tucson'
Martha Armstrong featured in John Thornton's film Martha Armstrong, a Painter of Well Loved Places
Video Description: "Though I have admired her work for decades, I finally have my chance to make a movie about painter Martha Armstrong. Just as some figurative artists only paint people they know, Martha’s show of landscapes at Gross McCleaf features places dear to her heart. She told me a story about that.," - John Thornton.
Bethann Parker's Studio
Rebellious Care: Conversation with Bethann Parker
Elizabeth Johnson: You told me, that you grew up in a house filled with Folk, Quaker, and Shaker art, and that your mother made wool embroidery pieces. It's clear looking at your work that you push paint to be thick, more sculptural, and thus more palpably real and present, but you also work in the thinnest stains and washes. You make your own art materials: rabbit and venison skin glue, walnut ink, and charcoal. You mix your own pigments, sometimes you use marble dust. Is rabbit skin glue a sufficient archival protection for linen? Is being self-sufficient and experimental through making materials part of your rebellion?
Bethann Parker: It’s an expression. Rebellious acts are expressions of care. Naturally, it pushes against consumerism, but it also binds one closer to land and self-preservation. Making these mediums is an intimate act, a personal alchemy, making me sensitive to them in their raw states and interactions
Rebekah Callagahn's Studio
Endlessly Knowable: Conversation with Rebekah Callaghan
Elizabeth Johnson: Quoting the Levinthal interview once more, you say, "My struggle with beauty is always evolving." You describe preferring imperfection and "the idea of a slight dissonance, or that something could be simultaneously functional and incorrect." Have your thoughts on beauty changed since your last show at Gross McCleaf in 2021? Do you still look for beauty "that's a little harder to ascertain" and ponder the perception of beauty "as being too easy or ineffective?"
Rebekah Callaghan: There’s another Fairfield Porter quote I both love and mull over. He said, “When I paint, I think that what would satisfy me is to express what Bonnard said Renoir told him: make everything more beautiful.” The more I paint, the more kinds of beauty I see in the world. Even driving home on the dreariest day looks more colorful after painting. I try to put these discoveries back into the work.
That’s the easy part. The enthrallment, for me, comes with the second part of the same quote. Porter says: “This partly means that a painting should contain a mystery, but not for mystery’s sake: a mystery that is essential to reality.” This feels baffling yet vital. I recently heard Franciscan friar Richard Rohr describe mystery as being “endlessly knowable,” suggesting it’s not unsolvable but there’s always another level to reach. The pursuit of instilling such mystery, towards both conclusions and curiosities, is what keeps bringing me back to the work.
Dear Gross McCleaf community,
We’re delighted to announce that in June, the Gallery will be relocating to the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia, in the Mill Studios - just off Main Street at the Belmont exit from I-76.
This new location meets the moment in today’s shifting art market while being beneficial for GMG, our artists, and loyal clients. At its 3rd site in 55 years, Gross McCleaf will continue providing a comfortable, convenient setting to engage with your favorite art & artists and will now include free and easy parking!
Final in-person shows at our 16th Street space will conclude Thursday May 23rd, while programming will resume in Manayunk post-Labor Day. We’ll remain open for business, both online and for in-person appointments through the summer, while we prepare our new physical space for an exciting fall program and reception.
“Nature is the inspiration, something to hang on to, to put my feet on the ground.”
- Martha Armstrong
Gross McCleaf Gallery is pleased to present Martha Armstrong’s recent works in New Paintings: Vermont, Mt. Gretna, Tucson. A lifelong devotee of the natural world and the art of painting, Armstrong has honed her distinct perspective, and style of formal expression, through her decades-long practice. This compelling collection of landscape paintings features Armstrong’s favorite muses such as trees, sunsets, clouds, and water from her oft visited and most cherished locales.
“Painting beautiful people and things in beautiful light, indeed finding almost every moment of perception a candidate for this beauty, I wonder if a certain fidelity to the ever-renewed ripening of an orchard through all its necessary stages of metamorphosis isn’t an analogy for the privilege of painting.”
- Scott Noel, The Apples of Pomona, 2024 catalog
Gross McCleaf Gallery is pleased to present Apples of Pomona, an exhibition of new works by Scott Noel showcasing a vibrant array of new oil paintings and several acrylic and pastel works on rag board. Each painting is alive with Noel’s spirited intention to, “vary and reconfigure painting’s visual eloquence to express the beauty of the world”. While the small to medium-sized paintings range in subject from the nude to still-life and landscape, the exhibition is anchored by three monumental, multi-panel figure compositions that demonstrate Noel’s devotion to layered narratives, sophisticated color mixing and his signature painterly touch.
