The Disappearing Ground exhibits work by PAFA alumni Noah Shem Klein (MFA '03), Patrick Maguire (MFA '13), and MaryKate Maher (MFA '04) that speaks sincerely of our temporal and precarious relations to the environment, ourselves, and others.

Noah Shem Klein’s works are created in-part during a range of social interactions; from expressive arts exercises with clients in early recovery from substance abuse to building family “sculpture collages” with spiritual seekers, and drawing dreams at the breakfast table with his children. In Klein’s collages, a lexicon of personal imagery emerges from pools of printed, drawn, and reassembled media. Gestalt forms materialize in strong figure-ground relationships in an attempt to symbolize the subtle and gross connections in life.

In Patrick Maguire’s paintings, portals and planes lure viewers into the vast landscapes of the subconscious. Through pulsations of repetitive mark making, Maguire builds familiar yet elusive spaces for visual passage. Sublime corridors of vibrating color guide the viewer deeper into his pictures, implicating them in the emergent visual happening.

In MaryKate Maher’s ongoing series, Map for the Temporary Inhabitant, human-sized sculptures of cast and stacked forms propose an unnatural mix of monumental landscape and post-industrial urban development. The sculptures’ rough, stone facsimiles are often interrupted temporarily by smooth ovaluar inserts of aluminum with gradient dye sublimation prints. When considered at their conceptual scale as maps, these objects postulate vast terrestrial landscapes punctuated by desert-hued salt flats and toxic algae blooms.

Noah Shem Klein is an artist and mental health professional in the California Bay Area. He received his MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (2003) and BFA from Tyler School of Art (1998). He has been working for the last ten years in the mental health field with a focus on recovery from addiction and substance abuse. He is currently pursuing a license in Marriage and Family Therapy.

Patrick Maguire is a Philadelphia based artist. He received his MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (2013). His works have been shown in multiple group and solo shows across the United States. Recent shows include Fleisher Ollman (Cryptopictos), A Mind in a Field of Time (Marginal Utility), I You We Who Me, (University of Alabama Auburn), We're on a Road to Nowhere (University City Arts League).

MaryKate Maher was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1979. She received her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (2004) and her BFA from Arcadia University (2001). She also studied at the Glasgow School of Art (1999) and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2008). Maher has received fellowships from Franconia Sculpture Park, New York Foundation for the Arts, The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and Socrates Sculpture Park. Exhibitions have included A.I.R. Gallery (NY), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (NY), Interstate Projects (NY), Real Art Ways (CT), NURTUREart (NY), Franconia Sculpture Park (MN), with international exhibitions at Kunstwerk Carlshutte (Germany) and Das Gift gallery (Germany). Her work has been written about in Artsy, Brooklyn Magazine, Hyperallergic, L Magazine, and BOMB. Maher lives in Brooklyn, NY.