OCEAN CITY – Visual artists from across the region exhibited their works against the backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean during the three-day Boardwalk Art Show last week.
Joanne Coffman and Lynn Sullivan of the host Ocean City Arts Center, sitting in the sun at the registration table, said it was the 61st annual show.
“It attracts visual artists who are not too artsy,” Coffman said. “Paintings, photography, all media… oil, watercolor, pastel, acrylic.”
“Everything is two-dimensional,” Sullivan added.
Michael Brodzik and his wife Samantha brought his pieces from Magnolia, continuing a tradition for the 10th summer.
He himself described his work as a mixture of pop art and contemporary art with a touch of graffiti.
“I’m a huge graffiti fan, a huge fan of pop art and street art and I fused it all together,” he said.
Most, if not all, of his paintings feature paint drips.
“I love the expression it conveys,” he said, noting that it is unconventional. “It’s a little more of a flashy style.”
Working with acrylic and spray paint on canvas, he says his pieces are popular and the sales keep him coming back.
“This is my best show of the year,” he said, noting that he does eight to 10 shows in the tri-state area.
“I like that I stand out. There’s a lot of beach-themed stuff here, so I’m really the only one on the boardwalk doing this kind of art,” Brodzik said.
Alexa Gryga, a public school art teacher south of Philadelphia, showed her linoleum carvings and watercolor paintings.
The Kutztown University graduate, who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in graphic arts and a degree in education, said most of the proceeds from the exhibition will go toward furnishing her art room at school.
“I always say that a government-funded classroom has no color,” Gryga said.
Her parents own a house in nearby Ocean View and she has visited the coast every summer since she was a child.
“I am a born beach babe,” she said.
Gryga said she has been participating in the show since 2017 and noted that she enjoyed the long hours that attracted a lot of attention.
Helena and Patrick Cicero of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, were at the end of their week-long stay at America’s largest family resort when they stopped to look at some prints.
Helena said she discovered the stalls on her morning bike ride and decided to stop by again with her husband.
Emily Arenberg, a graduate of Cape May County Technical School from nearby Cape May Court House, has traditionally worked with paint but began making resin-coated pieces a few years ago.
Arenberg studied oil and watercolor painting at Marymount Manhattan College, but most of her works shown in the exhibition are resin on wood.
“After graduating, I discovered resin art and became completely interested in marine-themed resin pieces,” she said.
Arenberg applies paint to the wood and then adds pigmented resin to create the impression of sand and waves.
It was her second year on the show.
“I’m really happy with the attention I’ve received, and I enjoy doing exhibitions because it allows me to interact with clients and know where my art is going,” she said.
Perhaps to compensate for her small size, Philadelphia-based Andee Axe creates large paintings of flowers and beach scenes in bright colors.
Her work features an epoxy coating, her “secret formula,” which makes it shiny and opaque.
Axe said she has been participating for three years and won the purchase price the first year.
– STORY and PHOTOS by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel Staff
