Home Grown

Opening reception Fri., Sept. 19, 6-11 p.m., free; exhibit runs through Oct. 24, Jinxed, 620 S. Fourth St., 215-978-JINX, jinxedphiladelphia.com.

by A.D. Amorosi

visual art

When the ninja-anime-ish Jinxed on Fourth says it's having some sort of "Home" show, you get a feeling you're headed for Be@rbricks and skull projects rather than cranberry wreaths. But instead it's UArts student/show curator Leanne Biank, her friends and their version of what HGTV should be. In her mind, the idea of her "Home Grown" exhibit is "closer to the reality — or perhaps unreality — of what we call 'home,'" says Biank. "Home can be so many things: a starting point, a new beginning, a place we are looking for but haven't yet found. 'Home' easily conjures up a broad range of thought-provoking imagery." She asked participating artists to create a piece of artwork based on the word and/or idea of "home" — no exacting criteria here. Nathaniel Lee, illworx, Nick Polidore, Matt Dangler, Biank and a dozen or so others will join in on the fun. Dangler, who knew Biank in college and showed with her in West Coast galleries, maintains an illustrative, fanciful aesthetic. "His oil painting and rendering technique is incredible," says Biank of Dangler's The Messenger (pictured) and its array of unknown/unknowable nautical creatures and messenger birds with a solitary triangular eye. "These characters are imaginative but created in such a way that you feel that you could reach out and hold them in your hands," she says. Now that's home.

Opening reception Fri., Sept. 19, 6-11 p.m., free; exhibit runs through Oct. 24, Jinxed, 620 S. Fourth St., 215-978-JINX, jinxedphiladelphia.com.