Evolution

Philadelphia artist Isaiah Zagar loves to enliven the surface of walls.  For example, his bedazzling assembly of pottery and mirror fragments covers the exterior of the Painted Bride Art Center on Vine Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets. 

In 2001, the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) commissioned Zagar to create a small-scale, portable mural as a logo for its Philadelphia meetings at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.  Like its street-based counterparts, Evolution is an exuberant composition of diverse clay and mirror shards in bedded in tinted cement. 

According to Zagar, Evolution incorporates “ceramics I’ve made and tiles I’ve bought, begged, and scavenged."  You’ll discover the handprints of his friends and family, architectural moldings, tiles from China and Mexico, patterns made from rope and crocheted fabric, as well as images of marine life, insects, animals, and toys.  Zagar counts the late folk artist Clarence Schmidt's outdoor constructions as one of his major influences. 

Commissioned by the Pennsylvania Convention Center