March 31-April 6, 2005

first friday focus

Mary Henderson, Two Boys, gouache and Flashe on paper, 4 1/2 inches by 6 1/2 inches.

by Lori Hill

InLiquid at the Bride
It's almost alarming that Mary Henderson is able to manipulate gouache and Flashe paint (a superconcentrated synthetic that creates a flat, matte look) to look like a snapshot. "How'd you do that?" is surely a question photorealist painters have become (resignedly) used to. Like the queen of the technique, Audrey Flack, Henderson creates hyperrealistic images — simple, intimate snapshots of everyday life with photographic precision and detail; fabrics seem to especially intrigue her. But Henderson's work is no mere novelty. Her singular vision elevates the effect from parlor trick to true art.

Take Fancy, a close-cropped view of a little girl teetering on a bicycle. The child has carelessly tucked her frilly, pale-blue frock wherever she can around her legs. The artist masterfully captures the dented chrome handlebars and the soft pale hair on the girl's shin. Henderson uses old family photos and her own travel photography as inspiration. It is, in this way, and maybe in this way only, that Henderson's work resembles the other artist in InLiquid's "Recollection" exhibition. Shannon Slattery also appropriates family pictures, but she doesn't just use them as an impetus. She restores old negatives then manipulates the photographs digitally, adding color, shifting focus — thereby leaving her own imprint on her family's historical record. The result is often jarring: Some figures are in full, shiny color, while others recede into a 1970s-era faded-Kodak background as if no longer able to assert their vitality. It's like watching family vacation slides deteriorate before your eyes.
Reception Fri., April 1, and Fri., May 6, 5-7 p.m., exhibition through May 21, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914.

Highwire Gallery
"What's wrong with depicting a human being?" asks PAFA dean Jeffrey Carr about Corpus VI, a collective of six artists whose work considers nothing but the human form — an anathema to many contemporary painters. But even a brief glance at the work of Rachel Constantine, for instance, reassures us that the figure is not dead but rather stirringly, fervidly alive. Constantine's carefully rendered subjects have the timeless, classy feel of Eakins' The Concert Singer or Sargent's Madame X (indeed, she has a painting called Madam R, a beautiful work with a warm, soft light on the woman in profile).

Clarity Haynes' often eerie work (a young girl staring fiercely, the back of a curly-haired head, a bearded woman) may cause some squirming, but her treatment of charcoals and pastels is anything but distressing. Haynes manages to coax uneven skin tones, fleshy bellies and mastectomy scars out of the simplest of materials. Suzanne Schireson's time as an artist-in-residence in the studio of Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum was well-spent. A diptych of full-length, sleeping nudes is peaceful — but with Nerdrum's unmistakable sense of unease. With her drawing of Pope Innocent X, Elena Peteva (who also studied with Nerdrum, as well as with Sidney Goodman and Bo Bartlett) does Francis Bacon doing Velasquez. Wrap your head around that one. Georganna Lenssen's and Willow Bader's works tend more toward abstraction, with Lenssen's sketchy faces and Bader's thick encaustics — but in keeping with their mission, neither lose the humanity in the process.
Reception Fri., April 1, 6-11 p.m, exhibition through April 30, Gilbert Building, 1315 Cherry St., fourth floor, www.rachelconstantine.com/CorpusVI.

And Then There's …
It's best if you imagine yourself floating gently above Tattfoo Tan's abstract, nature-inspired works — not only is it a pleasant sensation, but it's pretty much what Tan did to create them. The artist steadies himself on wooden planks and chairs so he can hover just above the canvases, then applies alcohol to the surface, which allows the paint to literally float until it dries. Reception Fri., April 1, 6-8 p.m., exhibition through May 22, Peng Gallery, 35 S. Third St., 215-629-5889. … Artists go to town on the hipster version of the public television tote: the messenger bag. Seam Rippers II — featuring bags by John Freeborn, Andrew Jeffrey Wright, Ingrid Rowe and others — takes over ReLoad.
Sat., April 2, 6-9 p.m., 608 N. Second St., 215-922-2018, www.reloadbags.com. … There's still time to catch Cristin Millett's "Teatro Anatomico" show at Esther M. Klein Gallery. Using lights and scrims to create a walk-through installation, Millett explores female anatomy and the human reproductive system. Through April 29, 3600 Market St., 215-966-6188. … Call it FFNW. Mt. Airy's got its own version of First Friday, complete with late gallery hours, receptions and coinciding restaurant deals and performances along Germantown Avenue.
Visit www.mtairyfirstfriday.com for more information.