art

There are dozens of food trucks in Philly, but Lee Tusman's only one man, so he's sticking to one neighborhood. The 23-year-old collage-clothing designer and tuna hoagie devotee has attempted to eat at some 60 carts from the Schuylkill River to 40th Street, and from Market to Spruce — an area richly endowed with cheap, fast, culturally diverse foil-wrapped meals. Think Curry on Wheels, Taco Pal, George's (pictured), Crepewalk and House of Pita. It's a lot to stomach alone, so Tusman solicited lunch partners through Craigslist.

He didn't stop at eating. He photographed the carts and interviewed their proprietors, too. "Four-Wheeled Feast," his exhibit for UPenn's community-oriented 40th Street Artist-in-Residence Program, documents the noontime affairs, most notably, through a giant quilt map. The patchwork combines cut-up T-shirts and photographs ("a crazy mishmash of a recipe," he says) and shows a bird's-eye view of University City's mobile merchants. Other parts of the exhibit go into more detail: reviews, menus, interviews, research materials (including Tusman's own comprehensive database and color-coded architect's map) and collectors' items such as "napkins, receipts, stains, wrappers, ripped-up things, signs … everything but the food truck," says Tusman. Fellow truckers need only check out AIRSPACE — the program's new gallery, whose opening coincides with the exhibit's reception — to grab lunch at a food truck with the artist himself. He's curious about a little green one around 40th and Powelton that sells just ribs. The owner sits outside on a lawn chair, waiting for his next customer.

"Four-Wheeled Feast," reception Fri., Aug. 12, 5-10 p.m., through Sept. 2, AIRSPACE, 4013 Chestnut St., www.VoodooArtist.com.