Sum of its Parts
Sum of its Parts brings together artists Sharon Bloomfield Hicks, Laura Havlish, and Alan Lankin. Each artist creates their work using a personal methodology, resulting in a highly intricate design. With Sharon’s yearning for harmony, we see intersecting lines and colors intertwined. All her choices are strategic, bound for a unified look. In Laura’s work, at the naked eye, we see a very calculated grid of color and patterns; she creates the framework through deconstruction and reassembly. Leaving placement up to chance, Havlish finds visual harmony through the integrated pieces. Finally, Alan relies on call-and-response. He starts each piece with a plan, guided by lines, shapes, and color, but as he renders his thoughts onto canvas, it alters and transforms into something new. Sum of its Parts focuses on the strategic planning and how the artist’s mind is translated into a supersensory experience for the viewer.
Laura Havlish
She/Her
Bio
Laura Havlish is an artist and illustrator based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received a BFA in painting from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. She runs an art collection care business in addition to creating illustrations for her online shop. Her artwork has been included in various group shows in Philadelphia and abroad, including the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts and Woodmere Art Museum. She is a recent member of InLiquid and also a member of Illustrators for Hire, a curated group of freelance illustrators from around the world.
Statement
“In the series 'Divided Lines,' I look at how individual parts come together to form a group. My process begins with intuitive watercolor washes and bold ink marks on paper. These original works are then systematically cut into small square tiles—a system of deconstruction that I use to let go of the “artist's hand” and welcome the element of chance.
Each tile becomes its own statement, possessing its own unique character while still reflecting its origin. Through a reassembly guided by chance, these fragments are joined to form a new, unified image. This process of destruction and reassembly serves as a metaphor for ritual, resilience and the enduring hope of finding harmony through collaboration and community.”
Sharon Bloomfield Hicks
She/ Her
Bio
With deep maternal roots in Jamaica West Indies, Philadelphia-based artist Sharon Bloomfield Hicks channels the felt experience of her bicultural “Jamerican” heritage into dynamic compositions radiating with vibrant colors. She holds a BFA in painting from Tyler School of Art and an MS in occupational therapy from Philadelphia University. She completed an apprenticeship at the Fabric Workshop and graduate work in textile design at Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science.
Hicks has exhibited widely, including solo shows at Da Vinci Art Alliance and Third Street Gallery, and group exhibitions at the Delaware Contemporary, Bridgette Mayer Gallery, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the State Museum of Pennsylvania, Moore College of Art and Design, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Statement
"Guided by a passion for learning and a yearning for harmony, my art takes form at the intersection of vision and healing. Making art is a therapeutic practice. It’s a process of creating balance and wholeness. It’s a process of seeing anew. Drawing from Caribbean traditions such as Jamaican basketry and Panamanian molas, while informed by twentieth-century painters, my art pays homage to my ancestral heritage and the artists who came before me. Using paint and fiber, I explore relationships of color, line, shape, and texture. I intuitively combine contrasting colors and textures with interlocking lines and shapes to create unity, rhythm, and drama.
Belonging is my sense of self and identity reflected back to me in my art. Yet each piece feels refreshing and new. My art expresses uplifting universal qualities. It’s bold, energetic, playful and alive. I like the Jamaican national motto: Out of many, one people. Belonging is not just a round peg in a round hole. It is disparate identities fitting into a whole. Belonging is the experience of harmony and oneness. I create these with my art."
Alan Lankin
He/Him
Bio
Alan Lankin makes paintings and works on paper. He has had solo shows in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and has exhibited his paintings and works on paper at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art and the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia, as well as Rosemont Collage, Salus University and West Chester University in Pennsylvania. He has also shown work at the Bridgette Mayer, Cerulean Arts and the Gross McLeaf galleries in Philadelphia.
He studied art at the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and has had a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. He lives and works in the Philadelphia area.
Statement
“My artworks are abstract explorations of color and shape, line and mass, movement and balance. I begin my paintings with a plan. The original concept is just the beginning, however – I respond to what I see happening in the image. I work improvisationally, intuitively developing the image. My love of color and movement, music and dance are reflected in the works shapes and lines. The finished work often reveals the history of revisions in the pentimenti of the work. My artwork embrace ambiguity and are imbued with multiple meanings. “
