Alan Magee: Tapestries Philadelphia, pa - Gallery51 presents Alan Magee - Tapestries from October 24th through December 31, 2010, with an opening reception Sunday afternoon, Octobber 24th, from 3 - 6:00 p.m. A talented and highly acclaimed artist, Alan Magee's uncanny eye and exceptional ability to depict his subject matter is fully demonstrated in this exhibition, which includes twelve of his large-scale Jacquard tapestries, woven by a family owned Belgian loom to Magee's precise digital specifications. Magee's tapestries are extraordinary textiles that often begin as paintings of astonishing detail. Born in Newtown, pa, Alan Magee began his career at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and later the Philadelphia College of Art. Unhappy with the absence of realistic drawing in the Fine Art department, Magee found himself attracted to the level of detail explored and encouraged in the Illustration department. His goal of creating realism in art led to an early career as a creator of book covers for authors such as Graham Greene, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, John Irving, Yukio Mishima, Stanley Elkin, John Neihardt, Ken Kesey, Agatha Christie and others, as well as illustrations for magazines such as Time, the Atlantic Monthly, and the New York Times Magazine. In the 1970s, he relocated to Maine and began choosing subjects from nature and industry, employing his finely honed skills as an illustrator to create a range of fine art. Magee's work has been the subject of eight monographs, and featured in solo exhibitions at the James a. Michener Museum, Doylestown, pa; the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine; the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine; and the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, among others. His work is included in the public collections of the de Young Museum, San Francisco, California; the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, d.c; the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, ar; the Newark Art Museum, Newark, n.j.; the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio; and in many private and corporate collections. Alan Magee's tapestries are produced in association with Magnolia Editions, aka, the Magnolia Tapestry Project, a fine art studio in Oakland, California. For over two decades they have worked closely with artists to produce and publish fine art projects, including unique and editioned works on paper, artist books, and public art. Primarily a printmaking studio, they have also been working since the late 1990s on a set of techniques which put industrial weaving technology in the service of artists. To date, Magnolia has woven editions by artists such as Bruce Conner, Chuck Close, Alex Katz, Ed Moses, Leon Golub, and Nancy Spero, among others. Magnolia Editions tapestries have been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the White Cube Gallery in London. Here is a link to Alan Magee's show at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle: http://www.magnoliaeditions.com/Content/Frye/Frye.htm#grid