“Manifold Global: Reflected Existence” brought the work of eight artists to Payne Gallery, Moravian University, Bethlehem.

The exhibit was co-curated by Moravian University alumni and artists Matthew Pring and Emily Strong, who co-founded Manifold Global, an online gallery.

“We are just over the moon that they asked us to curate a show in the Payne Gallery,” says Pring, adding, “It was like coming back home for us.”

“We have a little bit of a history of doing collaborations with co-ops and other outside galleries that don’t necessarily have the space,” says Payne Gallery Director David E. Leidich.

Former classmates Pring and Strong share an interest in managing galleries and curating exhibits. They created Manifold Global during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

When art galleries were shut down during the pandemic, the online venue, Manifold Global, provided artists an opportunity to show their work.

“Over the last two-plus years, we’ve done like 14 or 15 virtual exhibitions and lecture series with 30 or so artists,” says Pring.

“For the 3-D gallery we use a host site called Exhibit. They generate purely virtual spaces,” says Strong.

The Payne Gallery exhibition was Manifold Global’s first in-person exhibition.

Participating artists included Ira Upin, Kate McCammon, Richard Hricko, Madeline Rile Smith, Neill Frianeza Catangay, Lauren Packard, Heather Drayzen and Ash Garner, aka THECOLORG.

Works in a variety of media were shown in Payne Gallery, from paintings, printmaking, and collage, to blown glass and large-scale site-specific installations.

Drayzen’s intimate impressionistic oil portraits contrasted well with Upin’s large, highly-detailed oils.

Hricko’s flora prints are a fusion of natural and artificial.

McCammon’s mixed media “Journal Portraits” and Packard’s mixed media and fabric art pieces complimented each other.

Smith’s blown-glass art has a functional musical instrument.

THECOLORG’s multiple installations has symbols of her childhood as social commentary, such as “Successful Trophies – I Did What They Told Me and I Don’t Feel a Thing (The American Dream).”

Catangay’s “One for me, One for you” is an interactive installation. Inspired by the artist’s grandparents’ house in Guam, it’s constructed of wood, mixed media materials and video.

Strong majored in Fine Art and Psychology at Moravian University, graduating in 2015.

Pring majored in Studio Art at Moravian University, graduating in 2017. He received an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in 2021.

Pring, a mixed-media artist based in San Antonio, Tex., is retired from the United States Air Force and the healthcare field.

Strong, a painter who works predominately in oils, has a studio in the Dery Mansion, Catasauqua.

“Manifold Global: Reflected Existence” concluded Dec. 18.

Manifold Global information: https:/manifoldglobal.com

Payne Gallery, Moravian University, 346 Main St., Bethlehem. Gallery hours: noon - 4 p.m. Tuesday - Sunday, Closed Monday.

“Gallery View” is a column about artists, exhibitions and galleries. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@rnonline.com