A new look: SEPTA to unveil September art at Phila. subway station

From NJ.com: A new look: SEPTA to unveil September art at Phila. subway station
CAMDEN – September in Philadelphia will feel like springtime when a SEPTA subway station is set to blossom with original new artwork, designed by a Rutgers–Camden artist.

On Sept. 9, travelers using the Broad Street Line Spring Garden stop will find under their feet an inspired cacophony of colors, flowers, and layered designs borrowed from Van Gogh and reinterpreted by Philadelphia artist Margery Amdur.

Thanks to a commission won through a competitive process sponsored by the SEPTA Art in Transit program, Amdur has created 4,000 square feet of flooring, consisting of five original large scale paintings that will be embedded into industrial resin, so Philadelphians can frolic on top of flowers with no chance of squashing their beauty.

“I have made art all my life,” says Amdur, a professor of art at Rutgers–Camden. “My studio process is labor intensive and I am known for my attention to detail, but I asked myself was it possible to move my studio process into the subway station?”

A longtime traditional painter who uses mixed media, like frosted mylar and resin, to create pieces rich in layer and texture, Amdur wanted to nurture this process, but reinvent it for the digital age. While her work still begins with her tedious hands-on painting and sculpting the mylar, she now scans the 13-foot pieces, and then ships them to Michigan where they are made into a special fabric that will be embedded into the floors at the Spring Garden stop and permanently installed in just 48 hours by a resin fabricator.

Amdur, who has been showing her work in group and solo exhibitions all over the world for decades, is thrilled to have retained the studio quality of the pieces, while also establishing an innovative way to install this lively and complex public piece.

“I hope commuters can appreciate the liveliness under their feet. I have painstakingly visually massaged each painting, as if it were going to be viewed in a gallery setting,” she says.

Connecting the commuters, who might be attending two area high schools and universities, with the art world has been a goal of Amdur’s. Not only did she ride a trolley throughout the city scoping out other public art pieces, but she also interviewed commuters on their preferences for artists. A longtime theme of her work is incorporating a Paint-by-Numbers approach to establish an unfinished feeling that urges viewers to mentally, and during some exhibitions, physically, contribute to the work.

“I like to juxtapose images from popular culture, imagery taken from actual Paint-by-Number kits, with areas left open for interpretation. My work is a question that needs to be answered by the viewer,” notes Amdur. “When asking commuters who was their favorite painter, the vast majority said Vincent Van Gogh. Keeping that in mind as well as the name of the station, Spring Garden, I chose to work with floral imagery, including Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.”

To get future viewers on board with Amdur’s SEPTA commission, Ryanne Mangaser, an intern set to graduate from Rutgers–Camden this fall, has been helping the artist connect with new audiences through social media. A recently launched blog http://margeryamdur.wordpress.com has helped Amdur share her once personal process with a media-driven society. It’s been a learning process for both Amdur’s entrance into the digital world and Mangaser’s emergence in the professional art world. “I’ve been learning a lot,” says the senior studio arts major. “I’m getting an understanding of what has to go into people realizing your work and we’re both impressed with the immediate feedback you can get through online networking.”

While the feedback Amdur might get from commuters won’t be as immediate, it satisfies her to know that her art will be part of everyday life in Philadelphia, and hopefully give a visual boost to weary travelers.

“Public transportation is about getting to the next place, not really appreciating where we are now. I want to momentarily transport people to where sunlight and flowers typically don’t exist.”

A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Wisconsin, Amdur resides in Philadelphia, where she creates her art in University City. Her work has been shown in galleries from Albuquerque to Istanbul and reviewed in various national publications, including NY Arts, New Art Examiner, and Sculpture Magazine. She teaches painting at Rutgers–Camden.

Establishment of the Art in Transit Program for SEPTA grew out of a belief that aesthetic enhancement at stations and facilities can be an integral component of broader community outreach and partnership building efforts, undertaken in conjunction with capitally funded construction and reconstruction projects. SEPTA stations, transportation centers, and headhouses are visible community landmarks. Using permanent art installations as a focal point, the Authority seeks to strengthen its identity as a provider of public transit service, and create an enhanced sense of pride and ownership for riders and the neighborhood surrounding a station.