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The Dufala Brothers in Urbanism: Reimagining the Lived Environment

Presented by Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA)

July 1-September 4, 2011

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Philadelphia has long been a cultural center and, indeed, when PAFA was founded, Philadelphia was the most vibrant city in the Republic. A cradle for American art for over two centuries, it is now a city where hundreds of artists live and where hundreds more are being trained in its art schools and universities. Philadelphia is also a center that, over the past decade, has attracted artists away from other major cities, providing not only a richly supportive artistic community but also affordable working spaces and good transport and communications. The city provides a dynamic and vital environment that can be perceived in much of the work that is currently emerging from artists’ studios. In this context, Urbanism provides an opportunity to look at four emerging artists from Philadelphia who, in various ways, re-focus the idea of the urban through a lens that explores the dreams, experience, and potential of the lived environment.

Employing a variety of media, Steven and Billy Blaise Dufala, known as the Dufala Brothers, create three-dimensional works that touch upon the absurd, while giving new meaning to discarded and homeless objects. Refashioning the everyday in ways that are unexpected and humorous, a dumpster can become a coffin and a toilet bowl can be transformed into the seat of a tricycle. In this repurposing of common objects, the Dufala Brothers question not only the nature and logic of consumer culture, but they also challenge us to think again about what art is and what it can be. Born in Philadelphia, Steven Dufala and Billy Blaise Dufala both studied at PAFA. They are both on the teaching staff of PAFA.