It started simply enough. Miguel Rodriguez began drawing rooftop scenes, sketching out happenings on top of buildings. Then he wanted to photograph them, so he would set up tripods in windows, seeing what he could get from friends' high-rise homes and workplaces. He "fantasized" about renting a helicopter. Finding that a bit cost-prohibitive, he asked around and a friend mentioned chartered planes. Surprised at the relatively reasonable price, he gave it a shot -- and now he's hooked. Rodriguez has shot power plants along the Delaware, industrial sites, container yards -- all can be seen in the exhibit "Philometric: Isometric Aerial Photographs in Philadelphia's Urban Landscape." "I'm interested in the ugly things, utilitarian warehouses that were designed primarily for function, but when you look at them closely have a serene quality." Rodriguez takes off with a flight instructor at Northeast Philadelphia Airport whenever he can. "It's an old Cessna -- a VW with built-in wings." He goes with the same instructor every time. "We have a rapport. When I see something I want to shoot, he'll go as low as I want to go and fly rotations around it," he says. "But it's interesting how things have changed. Since the war and elevated security procedures, now we only have one pass-by." Like the creators of Japanese woodblock prints, Rodriguez says he was interested in the way this bird's-eye view flattens the landscape and eliminates the horizon line. "What the isometric perspective does is make the picture plane equal -- the viewer is not aware of the objects receding into space," he says. Similarly, Rodriguez also references the televised abstracted satellite images of supposed Iraqi weapons factories that were used by the U.S. military as justification for war both in 1991 and a mere few weeks ago. In Rodriguez's work, dimension and perspective may be lost, depth is not.

Reception Fri., May 2, 5-8 p.m. Exhibition runs through July 4. 729 Walnut St., 215-574-1234.

Pringle Gallery

Diana Gonzalez Gandolfi's personal experiences doubtlessly influence her work. Argentinian-born, she traveled extensively growing up: She lived in Colombia and Indonesia and moved to New York City as a teenager. After graduating from art school, she spent eight years teaching painting to inmates in the Massachusetts prison system. However, she also infuses her work with general emotional and psychological elements that defy personal boundaries. She considers herself a "process-oriented" artist, and her primary medium certainly gives her opportunity for process. Encaustic paint is essentially beeswax kept on a hot palette, applied to canvas or wood or any surface, where it is reheated and molded and sculpted or polished until the desired effect is achieved. Gandolfi also combines encaustics with oil, delicate Japanese papers and stencils for lovely layered works. All are playful and Miro-like, with their scattered organic forms, yet all in a muted palette that speaks to the artist's more sober intentions.

Reception Fri., May 2, 5-9 p.m. Artist’s talk Sun., May 18, 1:30-3 p.m. Exhibition runs through June 3. 323 Arch St., 215-592-7746.

Clay Studio

Throwing some logs on the fire means more than getting backyard kindling for highly specialized ceramic artists. Fueling a kiln fire with wood first entered artists' repertoire centuries ago in Japan, but because it is relatively time-consuming and labor-intensive, the method comes in and out of favor with ceramic artists; it only relatively recently became commonplace in the United States. Now, nine artists prove it's still possible to create wood-fired works with a personal touch. Jasper Brinton, Peter Callas, Bruce Dehnert, Katherine Hackl, Jim Jansma, Dan Ody, Neil Patterson, Toshiko Takaezu and Bill Van Gilder: All contributed to "Echo of the Flame." The "echo of the flame" is the ashy marks left by the fires passing over the vessels, resulting from the way the flames interact with the slips and glazes, and the clay itself -- each mark is unique and specific to the way the artist works the kiln.

Reception Fri., May 2, 5-9 p.m.; gallery talk, 5:30 p.m. Exhibition runs through May 25. 139 N. Second St., 215-925-3453.

And Then There’s …

Highwire Gallery and the Philadelphia Sketch Club team up for "Uptown/Downtown," an east-west collaboration in which artists from each organization will show one work at each venue.

Highwire: reception Fri., May 2, 5-9 p.m., 137 N. Second St., 215-829-1255; Sketch Club: reception Sun., May 2, 2-5 p.m., 235 S. Camac St., 215-545-9298.

Both shows run through June 28. Wait a week after First Friday for John Merigliano's drawings, which get a solo show, "Suspension of Disbelief," at West Philly's University City Arts League.

Reception Fri., May 9, 5:30 p.m. Exhibition runs through June 7. 4226 Spruce St., 215-382-7811.