Stanek Gallery Philadelphia Presents:
The Shape of Light:
Form and Shadow in Motion
Roger Chavez | Barbara Fisher | Leah Kaplan | Michael Quadland
May 3 - June 28, 2025
Stanek Gallery Philadelphia is pleased to present The Shape of Light: Form and Shadow in Motion, a feature exhibition inviting viewers to witness the transformation of static shapes into fluidly evolving silhouettes, while defining the boundaries and depths of each visual moment. Featuring the work of Roger Chavez, Barbara Fisher, Leah Kaplan, and Michael Quadland, the range of media comes together to investigate how light can animate and distort the perception of form, and to explore themes of transformation, transition, and the dramatic relationship between light’s revealing presence and shadow’s essential absence.
Opening Reception: May 3, 2025
5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Philadelphia
Above (top, left): Barbara Fisher, Unfolding, 2023, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 in.; (bottom, left): Leah Kaplan, Twist Swag, 2025, porcelain, 9.5 x 7.5 x 6 in.; (middle): Roger Chavez, Still Life #52, 2024-25, oil on canvas panel, 31 5/16 x 24 in.; (top, right): Michael Quadland, Wading Bird, 2023, bronze on bronze water base, 19 x 8 x 5 in.: (bottom right): Barbara Fisher, Detour (detail), 2022, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
Roger Chavez’s oil paintings bend a grayscale of light and shadow into pensive, seemingly simplistic scenes, evoking an almost meditative state reflecting the deepest recesses of human experience. A collection of teacups, amounting to about three dozen, mostly glazed in a spectrum of whites, has served as Chavez’s motif for eleven years. Rarely changing its contents, the motif’s arrangements elicit responses to how one sees the same source differently in time. Chavez uses prismatic hues to make his grays shift with nuanced color and rich tonality. Each canvas records the many layers of his attempts to realize a tangible search for a painting’s resolution. His paintings ask for substantial time and space for observing, to be seen in the same durational aspect as the painter painted them. While Chavez offers an invitation for contemplation and interpretation across his subtle variations in the nature mort genre, his paintings also convey uncanny auras of timelessness, reflecting on the finitude of mortality.
Roger Chavez, Still Life #51, 2024. Oil on canvas panel, 15 3/16 x 13 3/4 in.
Barbara Fisher’s acrylic paintings are made up of fragments of thoughts, gestural marks, and scribbles hovering in undefined atmospheric spaces, transforming interior narratives into a visual conversation. Although the compositions could be referencing the electrical pulse of the mind, taking place inside a supercollider, or being observed under a microscope, Fisher’s search for harmony within a playful mingling of light and intertwining darkness is evident in each encounter regardless of its intended origin. The organic and the cosmic collide in Fisher's paintings, as seemingly random marks, are bound by a subtle rhythm of continuous electricity. Her use of light, often soft and ethereal, contrasts sharply with the rich shadow tones and harsh lines, capturing the delicate balance between opposing forces.
Barbara Fisher, Rise and Shine, 2023. Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 in.
Introducing Leah Kaplan, local Philadelphia ceramicist, whose delicate porcelain forms celebrate an interplay of light and shadow, transforming each piece into a dynamic, ever-changing experience that transitions along with the daylight. Eliminating glazes and colorants, she expertly pushes the limits of porcelain, facilitating a reality where the material itself becomes a vessel for brightness, blurring the boundaries between form and atmosphere. Filling her work with dramatic subtleties and immense detail, Kaplan captures a flow of energy in each piece by embracing and elevating surprises within her making process. The fragility of the porcelain enhances this interaction, holding remanence of tension from their creation, as if each finished piece is poised on the precipice of movement. Each contrast within her work serves as a metaphor for the complexities of life, where moments of stillness are inevitably intertwined with an undercurrent of conflict, and where clarity is always shaped by shadow. These manipulations are not merely aesthetic choices but represent a deeper philosophy on the complexities of existence and perception.
Leah Kaplan, Quill Chapell, 2025. Porcelain, 3 x 12 x 12 in.
Michael Quadland, a painter and a sculptor, seamlessly blends these two mediums to create dynamic bronze works that couple whimsy with profound introspection, offering a unique response to the hardships and suffering witnessed in the world. His artistic process is driven by a core philosophy: to immerse himself in the materials and allow intuition to guide the creation. Quadland is known for his charming avian-like forms, confessing the awe and inspiration he gains from feeding the wayward pheasants who wander onto his property. Drawn to their colors, shapes, migration patterns, loyalty to one another, and, most prominently, the unchained liberation that birds experience through flight, he channels this freedom into his work, inventing charismatic characters designed to illuminate any space they occupy. The undulating surfaces accept their painterly patinas as the brightness of their surroundings reflect and dance with the shadows, they create upon themselves. Tapping into the power of imagination and using humor and levity to engage with the complex emotions surrounding pain, loss, and resilience, he invites viewers to pause, reflect, and find solace in moments of light, encouraging a sense of hope in the face of darkness.
Michael Quadland, Forward, 2023. Bronze, 29 x 47 x 5 in.
