Jurors selected for the 77th Phillips' Mill Art Exhibition

New Hope, PA. The 77th Annual Phillips’ Mill Art Exhibition Committee has announced the distinguished group of artists who have been selected to jury this year’s show. All Phillips’ Mill committee members for Jury Selection are artists themselves. They review each potential candidate and unanimously agree on each selection. The selected jurors will them choose the art to be exhibited at this prestigious annual show and decide on the awards to be given.

The five jurors are:

Oil painter, Gary Erbe resides in Hoboken, New Jersey. He has had many solo exhibitions at galleries and museums in Texas, Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, Missouri, Connecticut, New York City, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Since 1970, his work has been included in over 40 Group Exhibitions. Erbe has been the recipient of many prestigious awards and has been featured in various articles in International Artist Magazine, the Daily News, Art News, New York Times and American Artists Magazine. He is also listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Art, Who’s Who in the East, Who’s Who in the World and Biographical Encyclopedia of American Painters, Sculptures and Engraver of the US. Erbe is a member of the Allied Artists of America, The National Arts Club, Audubon Artists, Artists Fellowship, Inc., The Salmagundi Club, The Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts and Trompe L’Oiel Society of Artists.

Lancaster, PA watercolor artist Richard Ressel will also jury the show. Ressel has been the head of the Art Department at Lancaster Catholic High School since 1977. His paintings have won many awards in both regional and national exhibition and his works can be found in both corporate and private collections across the United States. Ressel has been featured in many publications including, “Best of Watercolor, Painting Texture”, “Best of Watercolor, Painting Light & Shadow”, “The Collected Best of Watercolor”, (Rockport Publishers), Watercolor Magazine, Fall 1995 and Watercolor Magic, Fall 1995. Ressel is a Signature Member of the National Watercolor Society, Philadelphia Watercolor Society, Pennsylvania Watercolor Society and the International Society of Acrylic Painters. He is a Fellow Member of the American Artists Professional League and a member of the Echo Valley Art Group.

Printmaker, Merle Spandorfer will also be joining this group of Fine Art jurors. A graduate of Syracuse University and University of Maryland. Spandorfer currently resides in Cheltenham, PA. Her paintings, prints and artist’s books are in the permanent collections of over 100 museums and corporations including the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Israel Museum, The Baltimore Museum and The Library of Congress. She has exhibited in 30 one-person shows and more than 200 group exhibitions in museums, universities and galleries in Europe, Asia and major US cities.

Spandorfer has received numerous awards including the Pennsylvania Education Association Outstanding Art Educator Award and is co-author of the book Making Art Safely. She has taught at the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, Pratt Institute, Cheltenham Center for the Arts and has lectured at various institutions including the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in China.

Sculpture will be juried by Joan B. Needham who holds a BFA from Moore College of Art and Design. She received a New Jersey Council on the Arts fellowship in Sculpture and is part of the New Jersey Public Arts program with a lobby installation at the Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton, NJ. Joan studied abroad with Laurence Barker, the master papermaker in Spain and introduced Papermaking to central NJ in 1981. She has had a long teaching career that includes Artworks and 32 years as a Professor at Mercer County Community College. Her artwork has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally in Japan, China, England, Spain and France. Collections in which she is represented include the Trenton State Museum, Princeton University, the Newark Library Print Collection, Rockefeller University, The US Embassy in Tokyo, Prudential Life Insurance, Newark NJ, United States Trust Co. NYC, the Albright Knox Art Museum, NY and the Firestone Library, Princeton. NJ.

Juror Virginia Abbott is a professional sculptor of small and large scale bronzes with a studio in Raubsville, PA. She is a member of the National Sculpture Society, the Knickerbocker artists and the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club all in NYC. Virginia has been the recipient of many commissions both private and corporate including a statue of the former governor of Georgia which stands at the capital building in Atlanta and a centennial monument at Doylestown Hospital. Though out her career, she has received many grants, prizes and honors including the Florida Medal and the Ben Franklin Memorial Award from the National Sculpture Society. She also won a first place Sculpture Award at the Phillips Mill Art Show. Abbott’s sculptures have been exhibited at the national Academy of Design, the Allies Artists of America and the American Artist Professional League in NYC.

Artists wishing to enter will bring their work with a prospectus to Phillips’ Mill on Friday, September 8 from 2:00-7:00PM and on Saturday, September 9 from 11:AM – 4:00PM. Jurying will take place on Sunday September 10. The 77th Phillips Mill Art Exhibition will open to the public on Saturday, September 23 and run through Sunday, October 29. The show is open 1:00-5:00PM daily. Phillip’s Mill is located at 2619 River Rd. about 1.5 miles north of New Hope.