Four artists

Four artists from South Jersey are taking up residence at the Da Vinci Art Alliance on Catharine Street for September. They’ve titled the show "Mixed Parallels: Quiltman, Cover-ups, Figure Frags and Recalled Deities" presumably to provide some sort of curatorial context, but the pictorial evidence points in another direction.

They – Rachel Citrino, Jo-Anne Echevarria-Myers, Liz Nicklus and Jacqueline Sandro – are accomplished artists with a common state and gender, but their work is quite different. They all deal with mixed media.

Citrino lives in Bridgeton and produces art from collected detritus and fragments of everyday life. She looks to age-old visual myths, noting Etruscan and the symbols of pagan Celtic culture as part of her inspiration. The works she produces are layered, thus the "Cover-ups," but she says her artistic purpose is to uncover. She uses the human figure, digital text and the United States flag all to good effect.

"I want to use words that don’t exist yet so, in the meantime, I make visual art," she said.

Citrino is from Philadelphia and has exhibited at numerous venues in and around the city. She also has had exhibits in Italy and Puerto Rico.

Echevarria-Myers lives in West Cape May and has exhibited her art for more than 30 years. She has worked in performance art and installations and has written children’s books. She has gathered scraps of quilting material to fashion male silhouettes and, for this show, she is "Quiltman." Born in New York and graduating from Syracuse University, Echevarria-Myers studied at the Philadelphia College of Art. Her work is in numerous private collections and museums and Philadelphia galleries represent her.

Nicklus resides in Millville and started out as an oil painter and a watercolorist. She moved on to collage and mosaics. Her current work, as she calls it, is "mosaic collage." She is a graduate of Stockton State College and studied at the Fleisher Art Memorial and with South Philadelphia’s Isaiah Zagar, whose work can be seen covering a number of buildings.

Nicklus, like Zagar, has a number of pieces of public art in Millville, whose use of art and artists to revitalize itself is one of the more successful attempts. In fact, Nicklus describes herself as leaving "New York for the simple life of leading arts activists and reformers in Millville." Like her colleagues, she seeks out materials.

"The elements in my work are like the fragments an archeologist finds at a dig – clues that challenge us to figure out the big picture," she said.

In that sense, Nicklus is "Recalled Deities." 

Sandro lives in Newfield and is a part of the emerging arts community in Millville. She graduated from the Tyler School of Art with a master of fine arts degree. She taught at a number of community colleges and at Rowan University. Currently, she is at Cumberland County College.

Having worked in ceramics for more than 15 years, she has been the recipient of a number of awards.

Sandro, the "Figure Frag" in the show, explains her work: "By using different types of materials and techniques I have created a variety of textures on a form where, in reality, they should not be. It is also important to me to tell a story. The torso, both male and female, serve as a visual journal for my experiences, both biological and emotional."

This is a self-curated show. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume the pieces chosen by each artist is a true representation of their work. The exhibit also is an example of the effort accomplished artists must go to in order to secure audiences.

Ironically, the Da Vinci is across the street from the Fleisher Memorial, also one of the few places where serious and contemporary artists can find a venue.

"Mixed Parallels: Quiltman, Cover-ups, Figure Frags and Recalled Deities"
Through Sept. 28
Da Vinci Art Alliance
704 Catharine St.
215-829-0466
www.angelfire.com
Admission: free