EVERYTHING IS PERSONAL
OPENING FEBRUARY 13TH
A GROUP SHOW
Curatorial statement
Everything Is Personal
In a moment defined by spectacle, metrics, and curated distance, Everything Is Personal begins from a simpler premise: the most enduring art is rooted in lived experience. Before it is framed by theory or absorbed into a larger conversation, a work of art is first a response, to memory, to uncertainty, to desire, to the quiet pressures of everyday life.
​
This exhibition brings together three artists whose practices are unapologetically subjective. Their work resists the anonymity of trend-driven production, favoring instead a language shaped by intuition, repetition, and emotional truth. While their approaches differ in form and material, each artist treats the act of making as a form of personal reckoning—one that privileges honesty over spectacle.
​
Situated on Philadelphia’s Main Line, a place often associated with refinement and restraint, Everything Is Personal offers a subtle counterpoint. These works do not perform for their surroundings; they insist on interiority. They invite viewers into spaces that are intimate rather than declarative, where meaning unfolds slowly and interpretation remains open.
​
What connects these artists is not aesthetic similarity, but a shared commitment to presence. Their work asks to be met with attention rather than explanation, offering moments of recognition that feel less like statements and more like conversations.
​
In centering artists working locally, the exhibition affirms that relevance is not a matter of geography, but of depth—and that some of the most compelling voices are found close to home, when we choose to look closely.
​
Michele Colonna
Megan Kelley
Art has always been woven into the background of my life. With careers working as a Professional Picture Framer, Print Shop worker, and as a Gallery Associate at one of Philadelphia's Premier Art Galleries, my love for craftsmanship and design are the fabric of my life. I am now building a life where being an artist and expressing my internal truths are no longer a dream, in the background, but also at the forefront of my days.
I work mostly with Acrylic & Puffy Paint for their contrasting lusters and textures. The acrylic is matte and flat, while the Puffy Paint is 3D and High Gloss. This gives me a chance to explore using depth and light as contributing factors to my paintings.
I aim to cultivate a space where emotions, philosophy, spirituality, and societal issues are freely expressed. I believe that art is a powerful medium to help the world, and I believe in whichever way my heart feels called.
mikey wilson
Mikey is a Philadelphia-based natively digital folk artist which just means he is an untaught artist who makes his creations using various apps on his phone or computer.
He began exploring digital art in early 2021 after going through a rough patch in his life that included getting clean from heroin, spending a year in jail, and the death of both his parents.
The community of artists he found online have helped him to express himself and add his voice to the global conversation happening in the digital art world.
dafne berg
I’ve been creating art for as long as I can remember, but in 2018, after meeting my husband, Gregg, I fully embraced painting. His encouragement pushed me to explore my emotions more deeply, transforming personal experiences into vibrant, expressive works.
My art is fueled by feeling—sometimes bold and energetic, other times quiet and introspective. As an expressionist, I tell stories through color, movement, and abstraction, allowing each viewer to find their own meaning in my work.
​
My Argentine roots and life’s challenges have shaped my artistic voice, infusing my pieces with depth, resilience, and passion.
JACQUELINE ROSE
Jacqueline Rose’s vibrant acrylic-on-board portraits offer a fearless, playful fusion of nostalgia, pop iconography, and poetic commentary. In this bold series, Rose reimagines historical and cultural figures—from Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring to Bob Ross, Van Gogh, Picasso, Dali, Magritte, and Rosie the Riveter—through a contemporary, streetwise lens. Her work is immediately recognizable by its expressive eyes, patchwork faces, and tattoo-like inscriptions that scrawl across skin, stitching past to present in ways both personal and universal.
Each figure becomes a kind of living sketchbook—layered with affirmations, irony, vulnerability, and wit. Embedded text like “We don’t laugh because we feel good, we feel good because we laugh” or “In silence, there is much to be understood” transforms the viewer’s encounter from passive admiration to a kind of conversation. These messages, paired with checkerboard motifs, heart icons, and vivid accessories, challenge the sacredness of classical portraiture and assert the relevance of these personas in our modern psyche.
Rose’s stylized compositions are unapologetically expressive, marrying outsider art energy with postmodern satire. Backgrounds alternate between flowered chaos and surreal clarity, grounding each character in a symbolic world of their own. Her technique—flat yet textured, humorous yet sincere—blurs the line between homage and reinvention, inviting us to see the familiar anew.
This body of work is not just about who we see, but what we read into them. It is a celebration of human expression as visual poetry, filtered through the lens of pop culture and raw emotion.