CARDBOARD COLLAGES
During the pandemic, cardboard boxes have been in great abundance due to all the deliveries coming to our house. I have been using these boxes as the primary material in my collages. I also use scrap paper and palette paper. I discovered the beautiful combination of colors I inadvertently create when mixing colors or getting paint off my brushes by wiping them on sketch paper. In the first two years of the pandemic, I created works to document the historic times in which we currently live. My focus in this body of work called,” Art in the Time of COVID” includes trail-blazing women, politics and art. I created a series of mini-portrait gallery rooms of women who deserve to be recognized although they may not be household names. More recently, I have made landscapes some of which have been inspired by C&O Canal.

WIRE SCULPTURES
My wire sculptures include abandoned wire from telephone installations, plastic mesh bags from grocery purchases, and buttons that a friend’s family had collected over 100 years. I also use beads, pipe cleaners, burlap, door screening and whatever else I find interesting. I love to use wire because I can create movement and make my artwork come alive. When I was young, I liked to cartoon. Many of my sculptures are like three- dimensional cartoons. My inspirations include music, African art, modern art, folktales, children’s books and animals.

ACRYLIC PAINTINGS
While not incorporating recycled materials, I continue an environmental theme in my acrylic paintings of endangered animals.

BIO
Abbey Alpern works in various media including repurposed materials. She studied art at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland and has taken classes through Glen Echo Park in Bethesda Maryland. In 2010, the Voice of America produced a video about her that was broadcast to Chinese speaking countries. In 2013, She was an artist-in-residence at St. Elizabeth School, leading a project based on her mini-art museum rooms.

Link to Voice of America video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smgwu-lO7WY

JURIED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
19th Annual Strathmore Juried Exhibition, Rockville, Maryland, 2010
18th Annual Strathmore Juried Exhibition, Rockville, Maryland, 2009

SOLO EXHIBITION
Glen Echo Solo Art Show, 2023