Artist and musician Andrew Chalfen is fascinated by patterns, how they ripple, radiate, refract, bloom, interact, cluster, construct, and deconstruct. His works allude to aerial views, cartography, architectural renderings, musical notation, urban densities, and other natural and man-made patterns, while not literally being any of those things. Rather, his pieces reflect his psychological states during their creation, a kind of topography of thought and mood as he works through various aesthetic themes that have long held his attention. Shapes often spill out over edges, suggesting unseen continuations beyond, while others seek containment. His recent mixed media work with painted dowels focuses on connections, intersections, and layers, a non-representational way of depicting how we relate to the world and to one another.
Chalfen’s process mirrors that of his songwriting and music arranging. He utilizes the repetition of a small selection of formal elements, subtle variation, the timbre of color palate, rhythm, and a combination of randomization strategies and intentionality. Every work is a process journey, in which he refines elements that grab him from previous pieces, and then pushes into unknown territory with experimentation and risk, always iterating. He follows his instincts, deviates from them when necessary, and trusts the process to guide the work to a successful outcome and maybe even a breakthrough or two.
Viewers may not know what to focus on first, becoming overwhelmed and subsequently absorbed in the details. The experience is reminiscent of mediation. Certainly working on these pieces in the studio is a meditative, flow state way of being, where Chalfen can take his time to think about and explore through art-making themes of nostalgia, anxiety, play, musicality, fragility, impenetrable data, accelerating planetary chaos, and physical and psychic fragmentation.
Andrew Chalfen is a visual artist and musician living and working in Philadelphia. He has been featured at two solo shows in 2023 thus far. His work has appeared at many exhibits nationally and in and around Philadelphia, PA, such as at the Abington Art Center, The Hoyt Center, the Delaware Contemporary, Viridium Gallery, and many Philadelphia locations via his art collective InLiquid. His work has appeared on book jackets and rock album covers. He is the recipient of several awards and is the winner of the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series Mid-Atlantic Regional for 2018 and his piece "Vibration Lands" was displayed at SCOPE Miami during the Art Basel/Art Miami fair.
2015
Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA
Course in Oil Painting
2003
University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Course in Graphic Art and Digital Design
2001-2002
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
3 courses in Graphic Art and Digital Design
2020
Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE
Popular Vote Award for Vibration Lands
Prisma Art Prize
Finalist for Symphony Wave
Colored Pencil Society of America
Creative Art Materials/Caran d’Ache Award for Distinction for You Are Here
2018
Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series Mid-Atlantic Regional Finalist
2020
Kostianovsky, Deborah, "On Hearing Wildflowers- Artist Spotlight on Andrew Chalfen," InLiquid.org, December 3, 2020
2019
Krieger, Deborah, "Patterns of Obsession, mesmerizing two-person exhibit at Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens," Art Blog, April 2, 2019
2021
Artfolio2021, Catalog
Juried by Beatriz Esguerra
2017
Chalfen, Andrew Look Up Coloring Book, Thunder Bay Press, 2017 (a collection of 84 pen and ink drawings)
Collections nationally and internationally
Album Cover Design
• I Think Like Midnight “This Land Is Your Mind,” 2018
• I Think Like Midnight “Kompromat” Wilber Records, 2018
• I Think Like Midnight “Warm Seclusion Structure" Quadrapus Records, 2014
• The Trolleyvox “Your Secret Safe/Luzerne” Transit of Venus Records, 2008
• The Trolleyvox “Present the Karaoke Meltdowns” Transit of Venus Records, 2006
• The Trolleyvox “Leap of Folly” Groove Disques Records, 2002
• The Trolleyvox “Ephemera for the Future” Groove Disques Records, 1999
2021
Winter Solo Series, Abington Art Center, Jenkintown, PA
2015
Selected Drawings, Aksum Restaurant, Philadelphia, PA
2022
Synesthesia, InLiquid @ The National Building, Philadelphia, PA
2019
Patterns of Obsession, Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, Philadelphia, PA
2014
Paintings and Drawings: Andrew Chalfen & Nicole Donnelly, Seeds Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2022
Order/Disorder B, Extraordinaire Gallery, online exhibition, St. Louis, MO
Neoteric Abstract X, Limner Gallery, Hudson, NY
1st Annual Juried Show, Powell Lane Arts, Collingswood, NJ
Celebrating Color, Juried exhibition, Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Pawtucket, RI
Drawn to Macon V, Macon Arts Alliance, Macon, GA
2021
Biafarin Awards, 2021 Online Group Exhibition, Ontario, Canada
Hope and Possibility, Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Ellarslie Open 37/38, Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, Trenton, NJ
Juried Exhibition
Small Wonders, Fine Line Creative Arts Center, St. Charles, IL
Juried Exhibition
Textures and Patterns, Las Lagunas Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
Juried Exhibition
2020
Purely Abstract, Fine Line Creative Arts Center, St. Charles, IL
Juried Exhibition
Abstractions, Cape Cod Cultural Center, South Yarmouth, MA
Juried Exhibition
Riverfront 20/20, Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE
Juried Exhibition
Small Works, Big Talent, Las Lagunas Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
Juried Exhibition
Congruence, I Like Your Work Podcast, Online
Juried Exhibition
Banished for the Good of the Realm, InLiquid Online
2019
Hatch, InLiquid at Park Towne Place, Philadelphia, PA
2018
Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series Finalists, SCOPE, Miami Beach, FL
For the piece Vibration Lands
Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series Mid-Atlantic Regional, Arch Enemy Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, InLiquid with Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA
New Now, InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2017
Natural, James Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2016
Natural, James Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia, PA