Accepted Artists Announced
Click here for the complete list of accepted artists.
Click here for the list of award winners.
Juror Biographies
Painting and Graphics
JAMES BRANTLEY. James Brantley is a Philadelphia native. After completing his education in the Philadelphia public schools, he went on to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) for one semester, 1963 – 1964. He was then drafted into the United States Army and served one tour of duty in Vietnam and one tour of duty in the United States, earning an Honorable Discharge in 1966. Mr. Brantley continued his studies at PAFA from 1967 until 1971 and completed a four year Certificate program in painting. He also studied at the Philadelphia College of Art and the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied 19th and 20th Century Art History. James began a career in public service at the Youth Study Center in Philadelphia as a Recreation Leader from 1974 until 1998. James now paints full time; his paintings can be found in numerous public and private collections. He is also passionate about the culinary arts.
RANDALL EXON. Randall Exon is a representational painter whose work has centered on the landscape and the figure in the landscape. “In his paintings, Exon is interested in the ways in which memory and dreams inform us about the past. Evocation is his primary goal as a ‘realist,’ rather than accuracy. Most of his paintings are fictions made up entirely from collected sources and/or personal experience and memory.” He received his BFA from Washburn University in 1978 and later attended the University of Iowa, graduating with an MFA in 1982. He has been teaching at Swarthmore College since 1982 and is a full professor. Professor Exon has received scholarships/fellowships to paint in Indonesia and Ireland. Exon has had one-person and group exhibitions throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom. He is currently represented by Hirschl and Adler Modern in New York.
STANLEY BIELEN. Stanley Bielen was born in the Podkarpackie region of Poland. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and is influenced by the long regional realist tradition called the Philadelphia School. He exhibits nationally and is represented in public and private collections including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Stanley lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Bridgton, Maine. GALLERY REPRESENTATION: gWatson Gallery, Stonington, ME; Kathryn Markel Fine Art, New York, NY; Rice Polack Gallery, Provincetown, MA; Somerville Manning Gallery, Wilmington, DE
Sculpture
WON CHOI. Won Choi is an artist working in abstract sculpture. Her work explores figurative subjects and elements of nature that she sometimes combines together. Born in Daeku, South Korea, she received her initial training in metalsmithing and woodworking from Hong Ik College (BFA) and from Seoul National University (MFA) in Seoul, Korea. She emigrated to the United States and studied metalsmithing and sculpture at Syracuse University (MFA), Syracuse, NY. Her work has been exhibited nationwide and internationally at such institutions as James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA; the Mitchell Museum in Mt. Vernon, IL; the Janos Pannonius University Museum in Pécs, Hungary; Pindar Gallery in New York City; Carspecken-Scott Gallery in Wilmington, DE; Stanek Gallery in Philadelphia, PA; University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD. She was selected for a residency at the Atelier Fourwinds in Aureille, France. She works and resides in Philadelphia, Pa.
MICHAEL GROTHUSEN is a mixed media sculptor who makes objects, installations and has also completed two permanent public commissions for the City of Philadelphia. He has created site-specific works for the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, Philadelphia International Airport, Michener Art Museum, Drexel University, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Carnegie Mellon University, Gallery Joe, Old School at Crane Arts and The Philadelphia Art Alliance. Current projects involving the use of digital technology in the creation of figurative works have been shown at Gallery 114 in Portland, OR, and at the Kimmel Center. The desire to try to levitate in his studio led to a collaboration with painter Buy Shaver on a two-person exhibition, Matter, at Bucks County Community College in the fall of 2018. His contribution was a mobile that consisted of his body weight floating around the room on invisible currents of air. This fall he will have four works in the Beijing Biennale in Beijing, China. Grothusen is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including three Individual Artists Fellowships from the Pennsylvania State Council on the Arts and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. In 1998 he was awarded a Pew Fellowship for sculpture. He received a BFA from the University of Kansas in 1988 and an MFA from Tyler School of Art in 1991. He is an Associate Professor of Core Studies and Fine Arts/Sculpture at the University of the Arts. Images of other works can be seen at michaelgrothusen.com.
Robert Seufert’s paintings can best be described as realistic in style, painted with a very delicate, meticulous use of a painting knife to achieve an unusual effect. Details of individual leaves and other elements of nature are rendered by a stippling process, which has been described as very similar to that used by French Post-Impressionist Georges Seurat (1859-1891), in his innovative technique of pointillism. H e is principally a landscape painter, with most of his subject matter derived from Bucks County, PA.
Mr. Seufert’s paintings are owned and have been exhibited in twenty-three states, Canada, France, Germany and Japan, with nearly two thousand of his original works represented in private and corporate collections.
Since graduating from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, Robert J. Seufert has won over 100 awards for his artwork, including many “Best of Show” and “First Prize”. Over the years, Robert has been accepted and has won numerous prizes in the Phillips Mill Annual Art Exhibition. Mr. Seufert was one of only 40 living artists chosen to be represented in the Phillips Mill’s 75 Retrospective Invitational Exhibition.
After forty-nine years as a professional artist, Robert’s paintings have been displayed in many prestigious galleries across the U.S., including the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Salmagundi Club, in N.Y.C., National Academy of Design, N.Y.C., Audubon Artists, N.Y.C., Museum of the Philadelphia Civic Center, Philadelphia, Pa, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA, Benedictine Art Awards, N.Y.C., National Arts Club, N.Y.C., Allied Artists of America, N.Y.C., National Wildlife Museum, WY., Lehigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, WI., Fremont Center for the Arts, Colorado, South Cobb Arts Alliance National Juried Show, Georgia.
He also has two of his paintings in the permanent collection at the Michener Museum in Doylestown, PA.
Mr. Seufert is currently represented by the Chapman Gallery in Doylestown, PA and Canal Frame Crafts Gallery in Washington Crossing, PA.
