Gallery Hours:
 Thursday and Friday 10-6
 "First Friday" 10-8
 Saturday 10-5
 "Second Sunday" 12-4

Other Hours Available
by Appointment

Presenting

The January show at Isadore Gallery has special meaning for all who are involved. Miles Halpern of Lancaster will be displaying his artwork alongside the sculptures of his grandfather, Michael Lichstein, who died when he was two years old.

When his grandson was born, Lichstein predicted Halpern was going to be artistic from watching his expressive hand movements. Until this time, everyone in the family had an appreciation of art, and perhaps some artistic talents, but they had pursued more practical professions. Lichstein, himself, took up sculpture for the first time when he was close to sixty years old after a career designing and constructing power plants.

Lichstein’s prophecy was fulfilled. His grandson Miles Halpern was a natural artist and became the first in his family to pursue an education in the arts. Halpern graduated sum laude from Skidmore College, and then received a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA from Pennsylvania State University. He is currently teaching Painting and Drawing at Kishwaukee College in Illinois.

Halpern is known for his narrative and figurative artwork. Many of his works are monumental in size and nature and require careful planning. However, this show focuses on his colored ink drawings. “Sometimes I make art that takes me days for me to plan, and sometimes I just let my hand wander and see happens. Without the stress to “get it right,” I take risks and follow my creative impulses as I strive for balance and unity in the composition.” This active and reactive process is liberating as ideas are played out without knowing the outcome. Outlandish forms provide the picture-plane with a structure closer to a land of dreams than reality. “My improvisational works can be witty, nostalgic, colorful, dark, hallucinogenic, sexual, or spiritual all at once. They are open-ended in meaning and deliciously suggestive to interpretation.” One of Halpern’s ink drawings is currently in the traveling “VanGO” exhibit of the Susquehanna Museum of Art.

In the ten years of his artistic career, Lichstein studied wood and stone media at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and welded steel sculpture with Leon Sitarchuk. He had pieces selected for several Regional and juried shows in Philadelphia including the Art Alliance, the Civic Center and Woodmere Gallery. While he worked in both abstract and representational expressions, his abstract work is rooted in expressing a quality that represents and implies organic form and movement. This show will include a sampling of his wood, stone and metal sculptures. We know how proud he would be to have this exhibit with his grandson.

Miles Halpern’s Ink Drawings and Michael Lichstein’s Sculptures will be on display at Isadore Gallery, 228 N. Prince St. in Lancaster for the month of January. Normal gallery hours are Thursdays and Fridays, 10-6, Saturdays, 10-5, and by appointment call 717-299-0126. Halpern will be present for the First Friday reception on January 4 from 5 to 9 PM.