First Friday Focus

Lori Hill's First Friday Hit List

by Lori Hill

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Published: Nov 4, 2008

F.A.N. Gallery

Summer Night (City Hall), by Kate Kern Mundie, oil on panel, 2008 (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Kate Kern Mundie's perspective on urban life is certainly beautiful to witness, especially considering her recent shift in work habits. Mundie always considered herself a plein air painter, taking herself and her canvas outside and getting those perfect in-the-moment flashes of light and shadow. However, personal concerns (including a newborn son) have forced Mundie to pack up her easel and take it inside most of the time. While this initially frustrated her, she has learned to simply shift her artistic focus. After sketching outside, Mundie takes liberties with her subjects, experiments with composition and chooses to fiddle with color choices to keep it interesting —for herself and for viewers. Her City Hall is bathed in twinkling light, an Impressionist take on the traditional skyline vista. That's the other thing about Mundie's work. At first, certain paintings might appear to be a conventional look at city buildings and aerial views of urban edifices. But then there are the little nuances: a sign here, an architectural element there. Mundie even manages to flatter a not-so-pretty stretch of Chestnut Street by making it look like it must have at dawn in the early 20th century. The balance of the works are from Mundie's series on other locales such as St. Louis, D.C., London, Paris and Amsterdam. Opens Fri., Nov. 7, 5-9 p.m., through Nov. 29, 221 Arch St., 215-922-5155, fanartgallery.com.

Gallery Joe

In what could be considered a gallery-size blockbuster show, Gallery Joe presents a retrospective of artist Charles Ritchie's 30-year career. "From the Inside Looking Out" is a collection of mostly small works (about 4 by 6 inches). Since 1977, the artist has kept journals filled with drawings, notations, watercolor studies — he's up to 131. The journals also include records of dreams from which he draws later inspiration. Ritchie's recent work now includes inscribed texts on drawings. He records notes on the work adjacent to the images, which evolve and often become illegible by the time he finishes. For these Ritchie has focused on his workspace, a table filled with the implements of his trade and the light of the room reflected hazily in the multipaned window. Some of these will be on view, along with older works that have never before been exhibited. Ritchie is slow and deliberate; much of his art was created over long intervals in which he considered precisely the perspective for each "looking out." You could spend hours wondering how Ritchie got just the right angle for his "Kitchen Doorway" studies, showing a low-lit, shadowy interior that takes viewers just as far as they want to go from one room to another. Through Dec. 20, 302 Arch St., 215-592-7752, galleryjoe.com.

Asian Arts Initiative

The folks at Asian Arts Initiative know a little bit about being uprooted. Over the last several years, as a result of the Convention Center's ravenous path, the Initiative staff has been told to pick up and move not once, but twice. All of this moving around inspired curator Sean Stoops to explore the issue more closely; an exhibition at the new gallery space, "Transplants," points to the many ways in which people, and specifically artists, adjust to new environs as a result of migration and displacement — and the creative epiphanies that are born. Joanna Kao's Hidden Geometry encloses a couple of lonely landscapes within intersecting angles, with a figure resting just outside the edges, perhaps waiting to find a place to be. A video art installation will run at International House as well. Other artists include Keiko Miyamori, Amarjeet Singh and René Marquez. Through Jan. 16, 2009; print exhibit opening reception Fri., Nov. 7, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Asian Arts Initiative, 1219 Vine St., 215-557-0455, asianartsinitiative.org; opening reception video installation, Wed., Nov. 12, 6-8 p.m., International House Video Lounge, 3701 Chestnut St., 215-895-6533, ihousephilly.org.

And Then There's ...

George Shinn continues his studies of the wonders of digital expression while Ken B. Miller shows his optical experiments in geometric figures and networks at Highwire Gallery. Opens Fri., Nov. 7, 5-9 p.m., 2040 Frankford Ave., 215-426-2685. ... Even if you missed the artist meet-and-greet last week, stop into Twenty-Two Gallery to see Megan Greenholt's and Smita Rao's works in milkpaints, monotypes and mixed media. Their richly colored and textured works are the result of unique processes worth a long look. Through Nov. 12, 236 S. 22nd St., 215-772-1911.

(l_hill@citypaper.net)

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