Philadelphia Museum of Art - Information : Press Room : Press Releases : 2006

January 18th, 2006

Fleisher Art Memorial Presents The Fly at Fleisher: Modest and Monumental Object, February 4 through April 22, 2006

The Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial presents The Fly at Fleisher: modest and monumental object, February 4—April 22. The exhibit examines the way in which art, utility, and craft merge to inform visual ideas and notations of beauty. Don Kaiser and Stephen Ziegler, both fishermen, will exhibit together giving insight into the art and craft of the fly in fly-fishing. Mr. Kaiser will show digital photographic collages and paintings that place flies in unusual monumental contexts and Mr. Ziegler will present a collection of his hand-tied flies along with watercolor landscapes depicting fishing locations, done on site in notation format.

Don Kaiser is an artist and fly fisherman who ties his own flies. He then provocatively portrays the flies in his landscape photo images. In 1997 Kaiser began exploring digital media as a new form of expression. He has since created a sizable body of digital work that he refers to as electronic collage. This involves the act of combining original digital imagery on the computer. The result is a form of expression that often creates unexpected juxtapositions.

Stephen Ziegler works as an architect, but has a passion for fishing and tying flies. Stephen started fishing at age 9 and two years later he caught his first trout. The trout took a fly fashioned from some of his mother’s black and white sewing thread and buck tail given to him by a friend. From then on fly-fishing and fly tying became a passion. He has been an instructor in the local Orvis fly-fishing schools and has demonstrated fly tying in a number of venues.

Both Don and Stephen are members of The Angler’s Club of Philadelphia. The opening reception is Saturday, February 4, 2006, 5:00-7:00 p.m. Both the exhibition and the opening reception are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday, with additional hours 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Saturday.

Educational activities organized in conjunction with The Fly at Fleisher will highlight the connections between visual art and the aesthetics involved in fishing.

Fly tying and casting workshop Saturday April 8, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
(free and open to fishermen and non-fisherman alike)

Admission to these events is free.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest museums in the United States, with a collection of more than 227,000 works of art and more than 200 galleries presenting painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, decorative arts, textiles, and architectural settings from Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Its facilities include its landmark Main Building on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Perelman Building, located nearby on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Rodin Museum on the 2200 block of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and two 18th-century houses in Fairmount Park, Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove. The Museum offers a wide variety of activities for public audiences, including special exhibitions, programs for children and families, lectures, concerts and films.

For additional information, contact the Marketing and Communications Department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art at (215) 684-7860. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street. For general information, call (215) 763-8100, or visit the Museum's website at www.philamuseum.org.