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Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (2026)

09/04/2026

Meet the Artists of Common Ground: Lou Schellenberg + Claudia Rilling

As we continue introducing the artists of Common Ground, we’re taking a closer look at Lou Schellenberg and Claudia Rilling, whose paintings explore architecture and landscape through distinct approaches to observation and composition.

For more than thirty years, Lou Schellenberg has painted the land, buildings, and familiar places around her, many of which she has known for decades. Dividing her year between Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia, Schellenberg works from observation in oils and watercolors, often creating several versions of a place in a single session. Painting gesturally and spontaneously, she seeks to capture what she describes as the “feeling of being in a space,” balancing descriptive observation with an enduring interest in the abstract arrangement of shape and color.

Claudia Rilling is drawn to the interplay between architectural structures and the organic forms of the surrounding landscape. She uses the strong horizontals, verticals, and rectangles of buildings to organize the picture plane, emphasizing the underlying geometry and shape within what she observes. Rilling moves fluidly between processes: some paintings are completed in a single sitting, while others are layered and reconsidered over weeks, months, or longer.

Together, their paintings show how familiar landscapes and the structures within them can be observed, reorganized, and reinterpreted through distinctly personal ways of seeing.

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Common Ground, curated by Celia Reisman, brings together Schellenberg and Rilling alongside Laura Vahlberg and Sophie C. White, presented in conversation with Reisman’s concurrent solo exhibition, Street Views.

Common Ground, Curated by Celia Reisman September 18 – October 17, 2026 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 19, 1–4 PM

Featured: Slides 1–4: Lou Schellenberg Landscape Paintings: Maine, Nova Scotia, Pennsylvania  Slides 5–8: Claudia Rilling Claudia Rilling

Preview Claudia Rillingand available works at grossmccleaf.com.

09/02/2026

Meet the Artists of Common Ground: Laura Vahlberg + Sophie C. White

As we look ahead to Common Ground, we’re taking a closer look at Laura Vahlberg and Sophie C. White, whose paintings begin with direct observation of the environments around them.

Working en plein air, Laura Vahlberg looks for what she describes as “order amid the visual overload of everyday life.” Faced with countless details, she distills the landscape into interlocking shapes, guided by three central pillars: color, composition, and feeling. Vahlberg considers the “emotional residue” that remains after a viewer steps away from the work, seeking a sense of calm and order through a reverent simplicity of color and form.

Sophie C. White has spent more than twenty years making small, representational paintings from life of familiar places at various stages of becoming unfamiliar. Her recent gouaches respond to the rapid transformation of her Fishtown/Kensington neighborhood, allowing her to spend time with places as they change and, in some cases, disappear. Painted on site using only her natural vision as a guide, each work records a particular place at a particular moment, becoming, as White describes it, “sort of an artifact of that moment as experienced by me.”

Together, their paintings speak to a central idea within Common Ground: how differently we can experience, interpret, and relate to the places around us.

___

Common Ground, curated by Celia Reisman, brings together Vahlberg and White alongside Claudia Rilling and Lou Schellenberg, presented in conversation with Reisman’s concurrent solo exhibition, Street Views.

Common Ground, Curated by Celia Reisman September 18 – October 17, 2026 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 19, 1–4 PM

Featured: Slides 1–4: Laura Vahlberg Laura Vahlberg  Slides 5–7: Sophie C. White Sophie White

Preview the exhibition and available works at grossmccleaf.com.

Celia Reisman Gross McCleaf Gallery Claudia Rilling Landscape Paintings: Maine, Nova Scotia, Pennsylvania

08/31/2026

Inside the studio with Celia Reisman:

Ahead of her upcoming solo exhibition, Street Views, we visited Reisman in her studio, where paintings in progress share space with gouache drawings and source material.

Reisman begins with places encountered firsthand, often stopping when an unexpected color, quality of light, architectural detail, or other “quirky something” catches her attention. From there, shapes shift, buildings move, plants are rearranged, and color and perspective change as the paintings develop.

“I control the process in the beginning, then instinct adds more color and detail to describe place.” - Celia Reisman

That balance between observation and invention runs throughout Street Views. As Reisman describes it, “If I took you to the locations, you would see all the elements but with a twist: scale change, perspective distortion, rearrangement of light and shadow, and everything recomposed.”

And even within that process, Reisman leaves room for surprise: “My tendency is to add, which can disrupt, but I like adding something that feels out of context.”

Reisman lives and works between Merion, Pennsylvania and Strafford, Vermont. She received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and MFA from Yale University, and has exhibited widely throughout the United States. Her work has been recognized with a Purchase Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Survey Exhibition at the Michener Art Museum.

Celia Reisman: Street Views
September 18 – October 17, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 19, 1–4 PM

To learn more, visit grossmccleaf.com or contact the gallery at [email protected].

Celia Reisman Gross McCleaf Gallery

08/27/2026

Who’s looking forward to fall? 🍂

A selection of small-scale landscapes by Ann Lofquist, reflecting the changing seasons across Massachusetts and Vermont.

Painted from direct observation, these plein air works capture Lofquist’s immediate response to the landscape, from changing foliage and winding streams to rural roads and architecture.

Featured:
1. Ann Lofquist, “October Oaks (MA),” Oil on panel, 8.5” x 17”
2. Ann Lofquist, “Dublin (VT),” Oil on panel, 6” x 17.5”
3. Ann Lofquist, “Round Barn (Sharon, VT),” Oil on panel, 6.75” x 18”
4. Ann Lofquist, “Bray Road III (MA),” Oil on panel, 7.5” x 17”

Gross McCleaf Gallery is open by appointment throughout August. To learn more about available works by Ann Lofquist, visit grossmccleaf.com or contact the gallery at [email protected].

08/24/2026

Four artists, four perspectives on place.

Opening September 18, “Common Ground” brings together paintings by Claudia Rilling, Lou Schellenberg, Laura Vahlberg, and Sophie C. White, curated by Celia Reisman as a companion to her concurrent solo exhibition, “Street Views”.

Each artist begins with places in their immediate environment, using architecture, landscape, color, composition, and spatial construction to transform what they observe into distinctly personal interpretations.

As Reisman asks, “How do we each look at a location and reinterpret it? What decisions do we make to capture and reference a specific place?” Common Ground brings these individual choices into conversation, inviting viewers to consider how four artists can approach the shared subject of place through different perspectives.

Common Ground�Curated by Celia Reisman�Featuring Claudia Rilling, Lou Schellenberg, Laura Vahlberg, and Sophie C. White

September 18 – October 17, 2026

Opening Reception | Celia Reisman: Street Views + Common Ground:
Saturday, September 19, 1–4 pm

Featured:
1. Claudia Rilling, “Old Lancaster”, Oil on panel, 12” x 12” Claudia Rilling
2. Laura Vahlberg, “Autumn Trees”, Oil on linen on board, 6.5” x 11” Laura Vahlberg
3. Lou Schellenberg, “Tightly We Hold On”, Oil on linen on board, 14” x 18” Landscape Paintings: Maine, Nova Scotia, Pennsylvania
4. Sophie C. White, “Morning Glories”, Gouache on paper, 8” x 8” Sophie White

Join our email list for exhibition previews, artist interviews, and more!

Gross McCleaf Gallery is open by appt through August.

To learn more, visit grossmccleaf.com or contact the gallery at [email protected].

08/19/2026

Celia Reisman, “Long View Chester”
Oil on canvas, 20” x 20”

A glimpse of ‘Street Views’, Celia Reisman’s upcoming solo exhibition of new paintings at Gross McCleaf Gallery.

Based on places observed firsthand and reshaped through memory and intuition, Reisman transforms familiar landscapes through heightened color, shifting perspectives, and alterations in scale.

‘Street Views’ opens September 18, alongside ‘Common Ground’, a companion group exhibition curated by Reisman. Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday, September 19, from 1–4 pm.

Celia Reisman: Street Views
September 18 – October 17, 2026

Opening Reception | Celia Reisman: Street Views + Common Ground:
Saturday, September 19, 1–4 pm

Exhibition Previews Available Soon.

Gross McCleaf Gallery is open by appointment throughout August.

To learn more, visit grossmccleaf.com or contact the gallery at [email protected].

08/14/2026

In the thick of summer 🌿

Paintings by Naomi Chung bring us into the lush, layered world of gardens, greenhouses, and plant life.

Chung embraces the visual chaos and complexity of these scenes, using color, light and shadow, and repeated shapes to translate the experience of encountering these environments.

As Chung writes, “Each painting expresses its own unique collection of decisions involving color, the handling of brushwork, and an emphasis on repeated shapes and patterns. The resulting imagery aims to resonate like a single chord being struck, complete with nuances of each individual note playing its part to make a harmonious sound.”

Featured:
1. Naomi Chung, “Okame”, Oil on canvas, 20.5” x 18”
2. Naomi Chung, “Fanfare”, Oil on canvas, 35” x 30”
3. Naomi Chung, “Anthurium”, Oil on canvas, 30” x 35.25”
4. Naomi Chung, “Autumn Mum”, Oil on canvas, 54” x 44”

Gross McCleaf Gallery is open by appointment throughout August. To learn more about available works by Naomi Chung, visit grossmccleaf.com or contact the gallery at [email protected].

08/11/2026

Common Ground�Curated by Celia Reisman
Featuring Claudia Rilling, Lou Schellenberg, Laura Vahlberg, and Sophie C. White�September 18 – October 17, 2026�Opening Reception: Sat, Sept 19, 1-4 PM

Gross McCleaf Gallery is proud to present Common Ground, a group exhibition curated by Celia Reisman featuring Claudia Rilling, Lou Schellenberg, Laura Vahlberg, and Sophie C. White.

Conceived as a companion exhibition to Reisman’s concurrent solo exhibition, Street Views, Common Ground brings together four painters who share an interest in architecture within the landscape, revealing how individual decisions of composition, color, space, and form can transform the same subject into distinctly personal interpretations.

Reisman asks, “How do we each look at a location and reinterpret it? What decisions do we make to capture and reference a specific place?” The four artists approach these questions from their own distinct perspectives. Each begins with a specific location in their immediate environment and expands from there, using composition, color, spatial construction, and other formal decisions to reshape what is observed. Seen together, the paintings create a compelling opportunity to compare and contrast the many ways artists translate place into personal expression, while expanding our understanding of what a place can be.

Featured:�Lou Schellenberg,
“Stages on the Edge”,
Oil on panel, 9” x 12”

Additional exhibition previews and works by each of the participating artists will be shared in the coming weeks.

To learn more, visit grossmccleaf.com

Opening Reception | Celia Reisman: Street Views + Common Ground

08/06/2026

Celia Reisman: Street Views
September 18 – October 17, 2026
Opening Reception: Sat, Sept 19, 1-4 PM

Gross McCleaf Gallery is proud to present Street Views, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Celia Reisman.

Based on gouache drawings made on location throughout the Philadelphia suburbs, rural Vermont, and Portland, Oregon, these paintings transform familiar neighborhoods into imagined places where observation and invention coexist.

Through clear-edged forms, heightened color combinations, shifting perspectives, and alterations in scale, Reisman reimagines ordinary streets, backyards, gardens, and architecture as carefully constructed worlds. Drawn from lived experience yet reshaped through memory and intuition, each painting balances abstraction and representation.

As Reisman writes, “The reality I see is transformed into a fictional place with each painting becoming a caricature...What is it that attracted me to that location? What is special about it? It is not grand, or unusual in any way but the light that day, the color surrounding the architecture or the architecture itself along with the display of personal objects all add up to a place that calls out to be seen, embraced, recorded, documented.”

Featured:
Celia Reisman, “Abundance of Fall”, Oil on canvas, 40” x 44”

To learn more about upcoming exhibitions, visit grossmccleaf.com, or click the link in our bio.

Opening Reception | Celia Reisman: Street Views + Common Ground

Gross McCleaf Gallery

09/04/2026

09/02/2026

08/31/2026

08/27/2026

08/24/2026

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08/06/2026

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