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Joshua Lowenfels

@ployaarrtt

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Gallery: Powers/ Lowenfels
Current: Venn'acular / September 10 - October 24. 53 Stanton Street. Thurs-Sun 12-6 or by appt.

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The End is Near!!! In May 1910, headlines screamed of global asphyxiation from a poisonous gas emanating from the Halley’s Comet’s tail. Hucksters peddled “comet pills” and gas masks, and people stuffed rags into their window cracks and keyholes. Rooftop “comet parties” raged on, prayer vigils filled churches, and then the night passed, and everyone woke up breathing.
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In art history, Halley’s Comet is most famously the star that blazes over the Nativity in Giotto’s Adoration of the Magi (c. 1305) in the Scrovegni Chapel, painted after he likely saw its 1301 return. It also streaks across the Bayeux Tapestry, where the 1066 apparition hovers over Harold as a bad omen. Here is an original charcoal drawing from May 23, 1910, with the comet whooshing over a house and trees.
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Halley’s Comet, 1910
Charcoal on paper
Dated and signed: E.M.C / May 23, 1910
Size: 9” x 12”
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We are a NYC gallery exhibiting a Venn diagram of Outsider, Self-Taught & Contemporary Works of Art. Thursday-Sunday 12-6pm.
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#contemporaryart #outsiderart #folkart #halleyscomet taken in Steven S. Powers - Joshua Lowenfels by @ployaarrtt

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14 hours ago

Queen/King 🫅💃🤴 part of Venn’acular. Images 1/2 show image and detail of piece in our exhibit; image 3 in situ with another work; images 4/5 works at The Smithsonian.
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Edwin Lawson (1911-1980)
Fashions
Crayon, pencil on paper
Circa: 1975 Size: 17 1/2” x 23 1/2” (sight)
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Edwin Lawson was a professor of architecture at the University of Cincinnati and after his death his wife discovered a trove of drawings that he did of himself cross-dressed in historic fashions. Lawson’s work was featured at the Museum of Sex in the exhibit, Known/Unknown: Private Obsession and Hidden Desire in Outsider Art in 2017 and We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection at The Smithsonian American Art Museum.
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We are a NYC gallery exhibiting a Venn diagram of Outsider, Self-Taught & Contemporary Works of Art. Thursday-Sunday 12-6pm.
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#contemporaryart #outsiderart #folkart #crossdressing #queerart taken in Steven S. Powers - Joshua Lowenfels by @ployaarrtt

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2 days ago

African American Folk Art Textile / Probably Southern United States / Circa: 1870 / Size: 28 1/4” (h) x 81” (w)
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#americanfolkart #folkart #africanamericanart #africanamericanfolkart #textileart taken in Steven S. Powers - Joshua Lowenfels by @ployaarrtt

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4 days ago

You know that immediate “YES!!” that shouts in your brain when you have that love at first sight feeling?!?! That was us with this! As a utilitarian object, it’s an artist’s brush holder, but as a piece of sculpture, it just sings. The thin, tilted, perforated oval top hovers in space above its base and below its well-patinated handle. The whole maintains its original oyster white painted surface. American Modernism.
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Sculptural Artist’s Brush Palette
Wood, plywood, paint
Circa: 1920-1930s
Size: 13” x 10 1/2” x 15”
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We are a NYC gallery exhibiting a Venn diagram of Outsider, Self-Taught & Contemporary Works of Art. Thursday-Sunday 12-6pm.
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#folkart #outsiderartist #outsiderart #americanfolkart #artistpalette taken in Steven S. Powers - Joshua Lowenfels by @ployaarrtt

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6 days ago

Rain or shine Venn’acular continues…
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We are a NYC gallery exhibiting a Venn diagram of Outsider, Self-Taught & Contemporary Works of Art. Thursday-Sunday 12-6pm.
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#folkart #outsiderartist #outsiderart #americanfolkart #folkarttextiles taken in Steven S. Powers - Joshua Lowenfels by @ployaarrtt

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7 days ago

On a snowy winter’s day in the early 1980s, dealer Tim Hill stopped into legendary dealer Clark Garrett’s home in Fairhaven, Ohio. The snow continued to build, and Tim spent the night—beside the fireplace was a fantastic NFS carved stone lion—when he woke up the next morning after coffee and some negotiation, he left with the lion. Venn’acular continues….
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Folk Art Limestone Carving of a Lion
Ohio River
Circa: 1900
Size: 18”
Provenance: Clark Garrett; Hill Gallery
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We are a NYC gallery exhibiting a Venn diagram of Outsider, Self-Taught & Contemporary Works of Art. Thursday-Sunday 12-6pm.
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#folkart #outsiderartist #outsiderart #americanfolkart #folkartanimals taken in Steven S. Powers - Joshua Lowenfels by @ployaarrtt

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8 days ago

The composition of this simple, yet compelling landscape reminds me of Rembrandt’s marvelous Three Trees etching, which may have been a metaphor for the Holy Trinity. Venn’acular continues….
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American Impressionist Landscape
New Hope School (?)
Oil on chamfered board
Circa: Second half 19thC
Size: 9 1/2” x 7” (sight)
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We are a NYC gallery exhibiting a Venn diagram of Outsider, Self-Taught & Contemporary Works of Art. Thursday-Sunday 12-6pm.
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#folkart #outsiderartist #outsiderart #americanfolkart #landscapepainting taken in Steven S. Powers - Joshua Lowenfels by @ployaarrtt

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9 days ago

Josh’s Banger Box Unboxed September 20 - full video taken in Steven S. Powers - Joshua Lowenfels by @ployaarrtt

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12 days ago

taken in Steven S. Powers - Joshua Lowenfels by @ployaarrtt

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12 days ago

Pop art sculpture took ubiquitous objects and recontextualized them by changing their scale, materials, and stripped them of their utility. The spring-loaded clothespin was invented in 1887, and its basic design has not changed since. One cannot see a work like this and not think of Claus Oldenburg’s Clothespin in Downtown Philadelphia or the lesser-known gravestone of Jack Crowell, who owned the National Clothespin Company in Vermont. Venn’acular continues…
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Pop-Art Clothespin
Artist Unknown
Fiberglass-Reinforced Plaster
Circa: 1950/60s
Size: 47 3/4” x 16 1/4” x 13”
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We are a NYC gallery exhibiting a Venn diagram of Outsider, Self-Taught & Contemporary Works of Art. Thursday-Sunday 12-6pm.
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#folkart #outsiderartist #outsiderart #americanfolkart #popart taken in Steven S. Powers - Joshua Lowenfels by @ployaarrtt

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13 days ago

Join us Live, this Sunday at 4:15 PM
For the Famed, Favored & Greatly Missed
”Time Capsule Unboxing”!!!! taken in Steven S. Powers - Joshua Lowenfels by @ployaarrtt

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13 days ago

The drawing “Fashionable Fall Favorites,” dated “Fall 1934,” foreshadows glam-rock of the 1970s and looks like it could be a costume sketch for David Bowie or Marc Bolan.

Part of a small body of provocative Depression-era works that we acquired by Virginia Ahrens (1914– 1978). Ahrens grew up in rural Wisconsin and inwardly yearned for a more glamorous life. The drawings, from the mid-1930s to early 1940s, illustrate fantasy nude and semi-nude fashions that are often fully annotated with various fabric colors and materials.
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This secret life went unfulfilled, and Ahrens went the expectant route of a woman from her age getting married, having kids, running a household, becoming an alcoholic, and dying from an alcohol-related accident at the age of 64.
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Virginia Ahrens (1914– 1978)
Fashionable Fall Favorites
Dated: Fall 1934
Size: 8” x 5 1/2”
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We are a NYC gallery exhibiting a Venn diagram of Outsider, Self-Taught & Contemporary Works of Art. Thursday-Sunday 12-6pm.
.
#folkart #outsiderartist #outsiderart #americanfolkart #queerartist taken in Steven S. Powers - Joshua Lowenfels by @ployaarrtt

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13 days ago