September 12th - November 1st 2025
Gallery Hours: 24/7
miniMAC (miniature Mount Airy Contemporary)
25 West Mt. Airy Avenue, Philadelphia PA 19119
www.mountairycontemporary.com
miniMAC is pleased to announce Placings, an exhibition of artworks by Kaya R. Wielopolski and Seher Erdoğan. Both artists work with place and environment through observation or personal history, as well as through formal composition that works with defining or recalling spaces. Kaya finds harmony between the lines, shapes and colors that she observes in her present environments. Seher is driven by the friction between creating order and breaking from it, as she connects to the material culture of her birthplace in Turkey.
Kaya says of her work, “Mini Abstractions are inspired by natural and man-made structures and patterns I observe and sketch in the environments around me. I work to create a harmony between them as I layer line, shape, and color into intimate and at times whimsical compositions that play with the push and pull of positive and negative space.”
Seher says of her work, “I explore this tension through patterns that juxtapose oppositional forces and reveal multiplicity within the seemingly singular. This conceptual approach is grounded in material explorations that connect personal history with formal structure. I make wall pieces pairing clay and wool—materials both timeless and ancient—that connect me to the material culture of my birthplace, Turkey. I grew up surrounded by mesmerizing kilims and exquisite tiles. While my work doesn’t conform to any single tradition, it is grounded in reimagining this heritage.”
Kaya R. Wielopolski is an art educator and artist. She received her BA in Environmental Studies from Binghamton University in 1997, her MFA in Printmaking from the University of Montana in 2003, and her art teaching certification from Pratt Institute in 2005.
During her time at The University of Montana, Wielopolski worked as an Adjunct Professor for drawing and was a print assistant for Matrix Press working with such artists as Miriam Schapiro, Tony Fitzpatrick, Peter van Tiesenhausen and others. She also assisted with a Sol LeWitt installation and painting at the Gallery of Valley of the Moon in Rock Creek, Montana.
For the past 21 years, Wielopolski has taught art in New York City’s public schools while also facilitating citywide professional developments for fellow public school art teachers and participated in developing and writing the NYC Department of Education’s visual arts curriculum.
Over the years her K-8th students have consistently be shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Queens Museum of Art, Times Square, Port Authority, Tweed Courthouse, Flushing Town Hall, galleries in Chelsea, local libraries and other venues throughout New York City.
Wielopolski has also shown her own work in various exhibitions across the United States, including “Art in the House” at The Easton Arts Council in Connecticut and the “Thirty-First Annual Small Works National Art Exhibition” at Harper College in Illinois. In the summer of 2009, she awarded The Cooper Union School of Art Summer Residency and participated in the “Summer Exhibition: Artists in Residence” at The Cooper Union School of Art in New York.
More of Kaya’s’ work can be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/kayawielopolski/.
Seher Erdoğan is a Turkish artist, architect, and educator based in Philadelphia. Her sculptural wall pieces combine clay and wool—materials that echo the material culture of her birthplace, Istanbul—and explore the interplay between structure and intuition.
She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture from Yale University, and practiced in New Haven and New York before shifting her focus to teaching and visual art. After years of experimentation across media, she began to concentrate on her current creative practice in 2019.
Seher has exhibited her work locally and produces commissions for private clients across the United States. She continues to teach architecture at University of Pennsylvania and works out of her studio in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood.
More about Erdoğan’s work can be found at https://sehererdogan.com/.
miniMAC is a project of MAC (Mount Airy Contemporary). MAC has been curating shows in northwest Philadelphia since 2009.
