Illusions and Other Protective Spells brings together the work of three artists who engage in a metaphorical materiality, connecting their imagery to the most visceral and vulnerable aspects of human experience. The work conjures ideas of home and displacement, social and cultural subjectivity, experience and its transcription into memory, and the interplay between fragility and strength. The images have an environmental magnitude, and speak to a sense of place or placelessness, as well as to the emotional dimension of space, including the concept of home and the visualization of an interior world. A prominent medium of fiber is employed by each artist, imbuing the formal aspect of the work with a richly symbolic and immediate tactility.

Melissa Joseph conjures works in felted wool that describe a reckoning with past and place. The works transfigure memories and images from Joseph’s family archive into works that resemble clouds or dream bubbles. The unique materiality of the wool is employed to reference both the selective specificity of individual memories, and the distortion of recollection. Joseph’s artistic practice draws on her experience as a bi-racial woman, addressing belonging and family through the lens of social confines, expectations, and inequities.

Melissa Joseph received her BA from New York University, New York, NY, her AAS from Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY, her MAT from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, and her MFA from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA. She has exhibited at Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA; PAFA Museum, Philadelphia, PA, Bemis Contemporary Art Center, Omaha, NE; Textile Arts Center, New York, NY; The Painting Center, New York, NY; Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA; The Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE; and many other institutions. She is the recipient of the BRIC Media Arts Fellowship, PAFA Alumni Trust Award, and many other awards.

Mimi Jung’s work in poly cord and paper on plywood resembles veils of obscuring and in turn revealing cloudscape, over surfaces suffused with the glowing vibrancy of the woven elements that protect them. The dimensionally illusive undulations in the stitching give the impression of a flowing but protective barrier. Jung’s pieces generate a conversation about how and for whom self-preservation and defense against harm are employed and necessary.

Mimi Jung received her BFA the Cooper Union for Advancement of Art and Science, New York, NY, and completed postgraduate study in Communication Design at Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst, Basel, Switzerland, and in Fine Art at Städelschule, Frankfurt, Germany. She has exhibited at such venues as National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, and numerous international design fairs and galleries. Her work resides in numerous public collections, including UPlanet, Gwangmyeong, Korea; 505w19 Collection, New York, NY; The Ludlow NYC, New York, NY; and many more.

Emma Safir creates mixed-media works incorporating digital collage, fabric smocking, and appliqué. Lush digital prints are interwoven in dazzling, often humorous arrangements, creating a dancing repartee between photographic imagery and abstraction. The works utilize their tenuous connection with photography to imply the distance between experience and memory. Vision, place, and objectivity are scrambled into blurred, dreamlike images, and soft, indecipherable forms. Safir’s work has been selected to be a part of the 20/20 Photo Festival, taking place throughout the city of Philadelphia during the month of September.

Emma Safir received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, and her MFA from Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT. She has exhibited at such venues as Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA; Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT; and University Galleries at William Paterson University, Paterson, NJ; as well as many others. She is the recipient of a Critical Practice Grant from Yale School of Art, a Flair Foundation Artist Award from the Banff Center, as well as many other awards.

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