Bio
Born: Philadelphia, PA
Studio / Residence: Wallingford, PA.
Abstract Expressionist Painter
Working In: encaustics, oil, acrylic
Museum collections:
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National Museum of American Jewish History
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Sulmainy Museum, Kurdistan
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Museum de Montbelliard, France
Books:
Upon Thy Doorposts, Belle Rosenbaum—one page, 1993 color plates
New American Paintings, Steve Zevitas--four pages, 1999 color plates, and bio.
Periodicals:
Art Matters: Sept. 2004, one page---Pulling Canvas, Wanda Walls
Art Matters: March 2003, two pages—Parallel Lives, Perpendicular Styles, Buzz Miller
Style Magazine: March/ April 2001, two pages--The Dark Continent, Dr. Lori Verderame
Doylestown Patriot: Jan 2001, two pages Artmobile Tour, John Gatti
County Calendar: Sept. 1995, one page The Chester County Art Association, staff
Pennsylvania Dental Journal: May/June 1994, two pages—Curious Narratives, Dr. R.Galeone
Art Matters: Dec 1993, one page—Doctors as Artists, Diana Myers-Bennet Roberts
Art Matters: April 1992, one page---Evoking Origins, Carolyn Roland
ADA News: March 1989 one page-- Pennsylvanian Seeks Heroes of Dentistry, Stacy Fisch
Art Matters: Feb 1988, one page—More Reviews, Joy Gasta
Jewish Exponent: May 1985, one page-- Elemental Threads, staff
Inside Magazine: Winter 1985, one page—The Beauty of Holiness, Sissy Carpey
Textile Arts Society, Vol II, no. 23, one page—National Museum of American Jewish History
Awards:
1. CAC clay sculpture 1987
2. Jane Law Gallery watercolor 1995
3. Photography Open color print 1997
4. Printmaking ’98 collaged monotype 1998
5. Images ’98 collaged painting 1998
6. Small Works/ Big Ideas painting 2001
7. Members show/ MLAC painting 2002
8. In Person/ CAC encaustic painting 2004
9. Best of Scottsdale contemporary painting 2005
JURIED & INVITATIONAL SHOWS YEAR
WINTER SALON Gallery Sakiko-NY New York NY 2008
GROUP SHOW American Contemp. Gallery Annapolis MD
SECUNDA & FRIENDS Museum deMontbeliard Montbeliard FRANCE
SMALL WORKS Rosenfeld Gallery Philadelphia PA
VOTE ART DCCA Wilmington DE
DEAR FLEISHER FAM Philadelphia PA
60 by 60 Duke Gallery Wallingford PA
RANDOM RUSTED ROUNDS Owl 57 Gallery Woodmere NY
SMALL WORKS Rosenfeld Gallery Philadelphia PA 2007
WAXING PHILOSOPHIC-5 person Wired Gallery Bethlehem PA
TOUCHING THE VOID-5 person Atlantic City Art Center Atlantic City NJ
GROUP Zenith Gallery Washington DC
GROUP Handsel Gallery Santa Fe NM
SOMETHING SPECIAL Gallery Bellaria Bryn Mawr PA
WORKS ON PAPER Main Line Art Center Bryn Mawr PA
ART x 12+ Widener University Chester PA
IN PERSON CAC Gallery Wallingford PA 2006
ABSTRACTION-4 PERSON Creation Art Gallery Juno Beach FL
OIL + WAX Robert Roman Gallery Scottsdale AZ
HOT WAX and COOL ARTISTS Haydon Art Center Lincoln NE
GROUP Owl 57 Woodmere NY
CANVASSING THE COAST BMS Gallery Princeton NJ 2005
OIL + WAX Siano Gallery Philadelphia PA
SMALL WORKS Rosenfeld Gallery Philadelphia PA
OIL + WAX River Tree Arts Kennebunk MA
INAUGARAL Creation Art Gallery Juno Beach Fl
IN PERSON CAC Gallery Wallingford PA
OIL + WAX N. Cal. Arts League Novato CA
THE GESTURE-Movement & Color Robert Roman Gallery Scottsdale AZ 2004
SUMMER SHOW Garrubbo Bazan Gallery West Chester PA
GALLERY ARTISTS Artjaz Gallery Philadelphia PA
TOXIC LANDSCAPES LBI Foundation Loveladies NJ
ABSTRACT EXHIBITION CCAA West Chester PA
IN PERSON* CAC Wallingford PA
GROUP SHOW Posh Gallery Media, PA 2003
SMALL WORKS CAC Wallingford PA
SNAPSHOT Aldrich Museum Ridgefield CONN 2002
REFLECT & RESPOND Krasdale NYC NY
PAISAGES TOXICOS Jose Marti Library Havana CUBA
JULY-AUG SHOW Parellels Gallery Phila PA
JURIED SHOW PAFA Phila PA
WORKS ON PAPER Sketch Club Phila PA
62ND ANNUAL EXHIBITION Woodmere Museum. Chestnut Hill PA
REFLECT & RESPOND Burlington College Mount Holly NJ
FACULTY SHOW CAC Wallingford PA
ARTIE PARTIE DCCA Wilmington DE 2001
ART OF THE STATE State Museum . Harrisburgh PA
TOXIC LANDSCAPES Chatam College Pittsburgh PA
ACTS OF KINDNESS Drexel University Phila PA
SNAPSHOT Arcadia College Jenkintown PA
URBAN BLIGHT Open Space Gallery Allentown PA 2000
CENTERFOLD Lesle Powell Gallery Lawtron OKLA
ELEPHANT ART DaVinci Art Alliance Phila PA
SNAPSHOT Institrute Of Contemporary Art Baltimore MD
GRITTY CITY Borowsky Gallery Phila PA 1999
NEW AMERICAN PAINTINGS Open Studios Press Wellesley MA
IMAGE ’98 * Hub Galleries State College PA 1998
SUMMER EXHIBITION Penna Acad. of Fine Arts Phila PA 1997
FIN de SIECLE Del. Ctr Contemporary Art Wilmington DE
“ Delaware StateUniv Dover DE
DOWNTOWN INSTALLATIONS Berkshire CAC North Adams MA
TINY WORKS Project Gallery Wichata KS
LARGE DIMENSION Art Resources St. Paul MN
PRINTWORK ’96 Barrett House Poughkeepsie NY 1996
SUPER VISIONS CCAA West Chester PA 1995
MULTI-MEDIA EXHIBITION York College York PA
ACROSS BORDERS/SIN FRONTERAS Art Museum Of Americas Washington DC 1994
RIENKS MEMORIAL: COMPETITION Gallery West Alexandria VA
NATIONAL PRINT EXHIBITION Harper College Palatine IL
SELF PORTRAITS Del. Ctr. Cont. Arts Wilmington DE
ARGENTINA INVITATIONAL Museo Estudios Historicos Odontalgia BUENOS AIRES
A PRIVATE SCREENING Ergane Gallery New York NY
OPEN JURIED SHOW Abington Art Center Jenkintown PA 1992
ART AT THE ARMORY 33RD St Armory Phila PA
AMERICAN, EUROPEAN/FOLK ART City Hall Phila PA 1989
ARTWEST Art Center Jackson Hole WY 1988
NATIONAL PAPER/CLAY Memphis State Univ.. Memphis TN
GROUP CLAY SHOW Sande Webster Gallery Phila PA
FOLK FESTIVAL U. Of Penna.. Phila PA 1981
JEWISH RITUAL ART Balch Institute Phila PA 1979
ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS:
GEOSCAPES Rosenfeld Gallery Philadelphia PA 2009
RINCON & BEYOND Central Pennsylvania College Harrisburg PA 2009
ALL MY LIFE’S A CIRCLE Rosenfeld Gallery Philadelphia PA 2007
CIRCLE OF LIFE Gallery Sakiko New York New York NY2007
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONS Robert Roman Gallery Scottsdale AZ 2006
INFUSION Rosenfeld Gallery Philadelphia PA 2005
FUSION/ INFUSION Robert Roman Gallery Scottsdale AZ 2005
OSMOSIS Chester County Art Assoc West Chester PA 2005
ABSTRACT IMPRESSIONS Southern Exposure Gallery N. Palm Beach FL 2004
SAN MIGUEL SUITE Atlantic City Art Center Atlantic City NJ 2003
PROGRESSION Widener University Museum Chester PA 2003
CHROMA Parallels Gallery Philadelphia PA 2002
TOWARD THE SUBLIME Southern Exposure Gallery W. Palm Beach FL 2000
DECONSTRUCTIONS OF THE LIFE CYCLE Hoyt Institute New Castle PA 2000
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONS Artjaz Gallery Philadelphia PA 2000
MAKING IT UP Brown Art Gallery Baltimore MD 1999
NEW WORK Artist’s House Philadelphia PA 1998
DECONSTRUCTIONS Fulton-Burt Gallery Sarasota FL 1997
CONCERNING CREATION Chester County Art Assoc . West Chester PA 1995
CURIOUS NARRATIVES The Borowsky Gallery Philadelphia PA 1994
BABYLON REVISITED Nexus Resource Room Philadelphia PA 1992
EVOKING ORIGINS Del. Ctr. Contemporary Art Wilmington DE 1992
SUMMER SELECTIONS Larsen Dulman Gallery New Hope PA 1989
ONE + ONE + ONE Community Art Center Wallingford PA 1988
ELEMENTAL THREADS Natl. Museum Amer. Jewish History Philadelphia PA 1985
TEACHING & WORKSHOPS :
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING:
Main Line Art Center, PA
CCAA West Chester, PA
CAC Wallingford, PA
LBI Foundation, NJ
Tempe Center, AZ
Soffer Studio, PA
ABSTRACT PAINTING:
Haverford College, Krinski program, PA
Painting for the 21st Century, Jamaica
CURATORIAL: CAC, Wallingford, PA
Siano Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
River Tree Arts, Kennebunk, ME
Northern Cal. Arts, Novato, CA
Robert Roman Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
Waxing Philosophic: Wired Gallery, Bethlehem, PA
BIOGRAPHY:
Alan Soffer has been making art since 1973 in a variety of modalities. Originally, he was known for ceramic sculpture, particularly, religious ritual objects and later for work about ancient healing , deconstruction, and fragmented imagery. His work as teacher and curator continues to augment his primary passion for abstract expressionist painting which began in 1995.
His studies in sculpture and painting include Arrowmont School in Tenn., 1981 with Lew Snyder; State U of New York, Oswego with Richard Zakin; Parsons School of Design with Andrea Gill, 1983; Bennington College with Sandy Stone; Corcoran Museum School of Art with Paul Soldner, Peters Valley Art Center 1986 with Bennett Bean; Penna. Academy of Fine Arts, 1988, 1996, 1999; Ringling School of Design
The work is clearly influenced by abstract expressionists of the past century, such as, Rauschenberg, Rivers, Frankenthaler, Motherwell, Chagall, Dubuffet, Keifer, Mondrian, and Polke. The body of work that defined Soffer in the early nineties was about ancient healing. The current emphasis on encaustics is a perfect marriage of his two loves- sculpture and painting.
The other major direction of his work in the nineties was ‘the life cycle’, which was inspired through the teachings of Joseph Campbell. This work includes extensive treatment of creation theories, life and deconstruction, and finally rebirth. These subjects required research into science, primitive cultures and the ancient world, before, digesting and expressing the most salient features visually. Soffer continues to find Campbell to be his most important mentor.
Soffer’s exhibitions have traveled throughout the US, Argentina, Cuba, Kurdistan. Significant exhibitions have been at Widener University, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, National Museum of American Jewish History, Hoyt Institute, Atlantic City Art Center, Sande Webster Gallery, York College, Penn State College, Penna. Academy of Fine Arts, the Print Center, Parallels Gallery, State Museum of Penna., Rosenfeld Gallery, and Robert Roman Gallery.
His use of encaustics began in 1998 and continues to be an integral feature of his oeuvre. Reduction and distillation both buries and exposes bits of his images and sentiments infused in the multilayered paintings. Soffer’s use of this ancient technique of hot pigmented wax, through its inherent translucency, supports his vocabulary for expressing space. Space, from the microscopic to the galactic, is a frequent theme.
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Soffer agrees with Carter Ratcliff’s point of view, when he said, “It’s a mistake to take the artist’s statements at face value. These statements are products of the imagination and so need to be interpreted along with the art.” With that idea in mind, the following remarks by four art critics are included.
VICTORIA DONOHUE / PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER [2003, Widener University]
“Soffer is serious artist with a truly poetic gift for making his paintings coalesce into visions of quite remarkable beauty. He is a colorist and very versatile in this; he uses color exuberantly and paints seemingly with abandon, yet his results are nonetheless strongly rhythmic. Such paintings project an engaging physicality, even though they rely on swift effects to declare their presence as the shapes move back and forth between realistic portrayals of the human figure and abstraction- with the accent on abstraction.”
R.B. STRAUSS / METRO PAPER [2002 Parallels Gallery]
“Layers of color lend his art a sense of depth while the choreography of his brushwork yields a dynamic flow from one painting to the next. This sense of traveling into uncharted territory is what makes his work so unique.”
ANNE FABBRI / STYLE MAGAZINE [LBI Foundation]
“Highlights of the show created by the Puffin Foundation (Toxic Landscapes) include three haunting Soffer paintings that depict environments within the lifecycle. He finishes the surface with pencil, paint photographs in these mixed media drawings and collages.”
JANET PURCELL / THE TIMES [Canvassing the Coast]
“Soffer reaches down into his memories, in the manner of abstract expressionism. Symbolistic strokes fly around on the surface and drama is in every stroke.”
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