Though he's been succeeding in leaps and bounds since being named its curator of contemporary art (think Randall Sellers and Elizabeth Murray acquisitions), wunderkind Alex Baker has shoved the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts—a bastion of the figurative—into the 21st century in one swoop, just by buying abstract minimalist Robert Ryman's little old installation Philadelphia Prototype, 2002 (pictured, Ryman installing the work at Larry Becker gallery in 2002). Or rather, big old installation: Prototype stretches across two 17-foot-long walls. The work—purchased from Larry Becker so it could stay in the city it was named after and made in—includes 10 masking tape-linked white vinyl panels whose borders are haloed by multidirectional paint strokes. The effect, once the tape is removed, is a saintly one, with each subtly toned panel, attached only to the wall by the paint itself, faintly glowing on the wall. That level of fixation and paint reduction is but part of the artist's clever design. Though Ryman was a baby of early '60s minimalism with his first works done on aluminum, it wasn't until 1972's major showing of his work at the Guggenheim that art lovers of all stripes hopped onto Ryman's supple crazy train and became fans of works like his "Surface Veil" series. Luckily for us, that express made a stop in Philly.