Marie Ulmer  Ulmer, 91, graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 1941, and received her BFA in Illustration and has continued a lifetime of learning through the arts. For most of her adult life Ulmer worked as an illustrator for the Free Library of Philadelphia. Ulmer will be presenting a series of antique prints dating back between 1937 to1941.  The collection contains etchings and wood engravings that capture city scenes and other images of a time long past. This is an introduction to Ulmer's work and a preview to her retrospective that Proximity and Bambi Gallery will be putting together later this year.

Karen Gibson  Gibson earned her MFA in painting at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and her BFA in painting from Edinboro University in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. She currently teaches art history and drawing at the Art Institute in Philadelphia. Gibson's most recent body of work explores the relationship between reproduction and drawing through the use of collage, ink and paint. The series includes images from still-life studies juxtaposed with reproductions from sources including 19th century pictorial archives, reference catalogs and fine-art master works. The seemingly disparate images are reconfigured in the present, into a dream-like world of chaos and loss.

Andrew Leach  Leach's new series of illustrations blends fantasy and reality through the depiction of "self-invented" bird species.  Influenced by the life and work of naturalist John James Audubon, they represent his study of anatomical features like feather patterns, coloration and musculature.  The process by which the boards were created further pays homage to the manner by which subjects were documented before the era of photography. Illustrative details such as scale markers, gender tags and comment leaders were added to balance the invented features. Ultimately, Leach wanted to bring an overall sense of validity and heritage to the fantasy collection.  This series offers a personal commentary on the decline of bird species and their habitats. The natural world has been increasingly marginalized since the nineteenth century's era of scientific exploration and in a way, these invented birds represent Leach's desired return to that earlier time. Leach earned his BFA from Kutztown University and also has his Bachelor of Science from Temple University.  Andrew Leach is currently working as a landscape architect. 

Noel Hefele  Hefele believes our personal experiences are inseparable from the physical and social environments we find ourselves in. We have come to a point where these effects cannot be ignored. In urban places, invasive species, watershed and storm water issues, barren brown fields of post-industrial waste, as well as barren, cold, improperly considered inter-personal relationships, are all very real concerns of citizens caught up in the remnant realities of an industrial culture.  Through his paintings, Hefele weaves visual narratives that clarify complex issues and contribute to the dialogues between people, culture, place and nature.  As an artist and painter, Hefele finds ways to participate in this dialogue. He focuses on the roles of images in constructing shared values as related to the rapidly changing and paradoxical eco-social landscape. Hefele learned how to work, study and practice at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, where he obtained his BFA in 2002. He has been looking for an artistic and academic community and currently has found one in the heart of Fishtown

Alicia A. Curtis  The knots between people, the strings that tie thoughts into words, the stitches that anchor the stars to the sky, all of these are imbued in her work.  Threads bind us all together, both literally and figuratively. This concept first drew Curtis to embroidery and has held her as she explores inter connectivity in this body of work. Curtis, who obtained her M.S. in Elementary Education from Mercy College; New York, NY. and her B.A. in International Studies from Oglethorpe University; Atlanta, GA has been hard at work developing intriguing fabric collages for this upcoming show.   

Veronica Hanssens  Hanssens, who grew up in Northeast Philadelphia now lives a stones throw from Proximity Gallery. Hanssens who attended Moore College of Art from 2001-2003 is now attending the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art to obtain her BFA. Within the past few years Hanssens has discovered printmaking and found it to be the ideal medium for her work, which has always been based around a great love of drawing. Hanssens hopes to spend the rest of her life making images that celebrate the strange beauty that exists everywhere around us.