Holiday Home, Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos (UN Studio, Amsterdam)

The Dutch are still trendsetters in domestic aesthetics. Continuing its "Architecture + Design" series, the ICA is especially suited to a critique that architect van Berkel describes as "hyper-modernist." The perception of time will be part of the visitor's experience. A concurrent show, "Gone Formalism," looks at the way that Formalism emphasizes properties of art like color, line, shape and texture over content. The new Formalism, though, seems to tax this vocabulary with a poignant or neo-romantic tone—perhaps it's a "Broken Formalism."

Opening reception Fri., Jan. 20, 6-8 p.m., exhibit runs through March 26, Institute of Contemporary Art, 118 S. 36th St., 215-898-5911.

On New Year's Eve, the Art Alliance was the scene of a runaway party in which two paintings by Antonio Puri were stolen and another was damaged. Layered, stained, poured and batiked colors in these works—some very large—integrate mandala forms with a kind of cosmic energy field. Puri and the Art Alliance have scheduled a reception to end the show on a more positive note.

Closing reception Fri., Jan. 27, 5:30-7:30 p.m., exhibit runs through Jan. 29, Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 S. 18th St., 215-545-4302.

Taking as a touchstone a reconstruction of Carlos Ginzburg's 1974 "Qu'est-ce que l'art? Prostitution" ("What is Art? Prostitution"), Osvaldo Romberg organized this international sampling of artists whose work deals with art and sociology, art and technology, or art and anthropology. Low-tech, ironic, anti-decorative and provocative.

Jan. 28-March 25, Slought Foundation, 4017 Walnut St., 215-222-9050.

It's a good moment to collect Nevelson, a signature mid-century assemblage sculptor. Pieces in this show will likely disappear into private hands. Perhaps now they seem more decorative and less challengingly geometric than when they were made. Or have they always been so marvelously harmonious?

Through Jan. 31, Locks Gallery, 600 Washington Square South, 215-629-1000.

I last saw Elyce Abrams' paintings by flashlight when the electricity failed at her UArts thesis show. You won't need extra illumination to appreciate her latest work, in which light dances through layered membranes of color. Also: Dana Hargrove's iconic installation of five suspended wooden houses.

Feb. 1-25, Bridgette Mayer Gallery, 709 Walnut St., 215-413-8893.

Since Cubism, the idea of the series as a formal exploration has enjoyed ever-increasing vogue. Gallery Joe, with its emphasis on drawing, is an ideal venue for a show of serial works by a big roster of artists, including Astrid Bowlby, Douglas Florian, Susan Tiger and Michelle Oosterbaan.

Through Feb. 4, Gallery Joe, 302 Arch St., 215-592-7752.

I liked it better when the Morris Gallery was devoted to artists based primarily in Philadelphia; however, it would be foolish to boycott this traveling exhibition drawn from a private collection. It represents Goldin's intimate record of the bitter glamour of a marginalized sector of society. They could be compared to Toulouse-Lautrec's brothel paintings.

Through Feb. 12, Morris Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 118 N. Broad St., 215-972-7600.

Opportunities to see authentic, not-for-tourists African art are way too rare. A saxophonist and ethnomusicologist specializing in African-derived musics, Professor Starks collected these pieces, which range from utilitarian objects to masks, from the Fang, Dan, Punu, Songye and Kota.

Through Feb. 17, Leonard Pearlstein Gallery, Drexel University, 33rd and Market sts., 215-895-2548.

Every made or natural object—even some from Burma, Madagascar and the Amazon—whispers its secret name to Ron Klein. He, in turn, incorporates this magic language into teeming narratives. Seed pods and fragments of machinery are pinned to the vast walls of DCCA, in almost-whorls or careful spirals. Klein's work coincidentally complements the swarm theme of the concurrent FWM show.

Through Feb. 26, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, 200 S. Madison St., Wilmington, Del., 302-656-6466.

Stuart Netsky, consistently one of Philly's most intriguing artists, has a Post-Pop sensibility, though he wields his lush vocabulary of color and pattern beyond irony into the realms of expressionism and abstraction. He's known for works involving surprising materials like latex-upholstered furniture and classical motifs cast from vitamins. Earlier pieces will be included in this retrospective, along with recent paintings. PEI Director Paula Marincola interviewed Netsky for the catalogue.

Through Feb. 26, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, 333 S. Broad St., 215-717-6480. A concurrent exhibition of Netsky's work is at Locks Gallery, Feb. 3-29.

March of the Penguins is a swarm in action: nonhierarchical, complex and meaningful. Swarm theory addresses decentralized masses of objects or entities. It's influenced many artists, and Matthew Ritchie, Yukinori Yanagi and others made work especially for this show. Sarah Sze, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and others are also included.

Through March 18, Fabric Workshop and Museum, 1315 Cherry St., fifth floor, 215-568-1111.

The schlock title telegraphs "Audience Appeal!" but I suspect even the most cynical will find much to admire in Wyeth's seven-decade career. In the 1960s, when Minimalism and other non-objective styles ruled, Wyeth's meticulous egg-tempera records of farmland and folks at Chadds Ford triumphed against the odds. In 1986 he revealed 243 intimate paintings of a neighbor, Helga, secretly executed over a 15-year period. Sold as a body of work, they passed through several hands and for some years have been on view at the Brandywine Museum. Recently purchased by an unidentified American buyer, the Helga works will no longer be on public view and are not the focus of the PMA show; however, there's plenty more where Helga came from.

March 29-July 16, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th St. and the Parkway., 215-763-8100.