2024-25 Exhibitions

Closed September 1

This exhibition opens the door to Brian Lutz’s art studio with never-before-seen thumbnails, sketches, and final original drawings along with prints of his works in context. Full Circle offers an in-depth look at his process of creating print-ready illustrations under the pressure of deadlines. Lutz combines traditional graphite drawing techniques with digital tools to create his works. While he has been drawing his entire life, the illustrations and drawings found in this exhibition were created between 2018 - 2024. Some were created for clients and others for personal practice, yet all helped build his career as a commercial illustrator.

Brian Lutz grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Coming of age in the 1990s, he was obsessed with art, television, film, music, books, magazines, and skateboarding, influences that would follow him throughout his career. Lutz earned an associate degree in advertising art from Penn College, a BA in studio art from Tyler School of Art at Temple University, and an MFA in illustration from the University of Hartford, where he has since joined the faculty as an adjunct professor. After completing graduate school, Lutz began working as a freelance editorial illustrator. His work has been recognized by American Illustration, Communication Arts, Applied Arts, 3x3 Magazine, Creative Quarterly, and Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. He has created art for wonderful clients including Coastal Living Magazine, Toy Machine Skateboards, ProPublica, TIME, POLITICO, Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine/Vulture, and more.

Lecture

• Tuesday, September 10, 3:30 - 5 p.m. in Penn’s Inn, 2nd Floor, Bush Campus Center 

Brian Lutz will discuss his work, creative process, self-promotion, working with clients, and more. The gallery reception will follow the lecture, 5 - 6 p.m.

Mary Michael Shelley documents her life in wood and paint. Her artistic vision is inspired by the everyday world around her and includes portraits of her family, image metaphors for life lessons and feelings, and scenes of local diners, bars, shops, and farms in upstate New York. The works in this exhibition represent the evolution of Shelley’s carved and painted picture stories from 1973 to the present.

Shelley grew up on a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in an area rich in tradition, antiques, history, and craft. After graduating from Cornell, Shelley was inspired to carve wood when her father made a painted woodcarving of her. She has spent over 50 years of her life making objects that will survive, tell stories, and bring pleasure. Her work is in numerous collections including the American Folk Art Museum, High Museum of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Arkell Museum, Fenimore Art Museum, The Absolut Art Collection at the Spritmuseum, and the American Museum and Gardens in Bath, England.

In the last 40 years, street art has evolved dramatically from the aerosol and painted mural graffiti that peppered subway stations and train yards, which was typically seen as vandalism. Today, new forms of visual communication are created in public spaces, often attracting viewers in more contemplative or interactive ways. Street art stickers have emerged as a provocative vehicle for self-expression and an effective way to engage passersby. 

Stickers may be used to “tag” a space, to sell products or services, to publicize social media sites, or to offer social commentary. As one of the most democratic art forms, stickers can be hand-drawn or printed, and are distributed quickly, cheaply, and widely. 

Stickers are “hidden in plain sight.” In urban settings dominated by commercial advertising, publicly placed stickers, by their very presence, re-write the streets and produce what curator Nato Thompson calls elsewhere “creative disruptions of everyday life.” Representing a diverse array of voices and perspectives, stickers offer an alternative to commercial advertising and corporate logos. And although ephemeral by nature, stickers capture the creative, cultural, and political pulse of time and place.

Incorporating the finest examples from two collectors, Oliver Baudach in Germany and Catherine Tedford in the United States, the exhibition includes over 900 original, unused stickers grouped by artists, themes, dates, and geographic locations. Oliver Baudach is the founder and director of Hatch Kingdom, the world’s first museum devoted to sticker art, and is a leading expert in the field. His international collection numbers over 30,000 stickers spanning genres from character design to skateboarding, streetwear, and music. Catherine Tedford, gallery director at St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, has been collecting stickers since 2003, and her collection numbers over 18,000 stickers from around the world. She writes about contemporary and historical political stickers on her research blog Stickerkitty.

Courtesy of St. Lawrence University (Canton, New York) and Hatch Kingdom Sticker Museum (Berlin, Germany).

Co-curated by Catherine Tedford and Oliver Baudach

Lecture: Sticker Shock

Tuesday, February 4, 3:30 p.m.
Penn's Inn, 2nd Floor, Bush Campus Center

Join us for a lecture by Nicholas Stephenson, Penn College Graphic Design Instructor, as he discusses the sticker as a pop culture medium. The gallery reception will follow the lecture. Both events are free and open to the public.