Staff Blog
First Friday Focus: Mannequin-bunny mashups, patriotic battery-making, Hex Yes! and more
CP HQ will be closed in the name of America tomorrow, so we're giving you a First Friday rundown a day early. Plan ahead, kids.
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Krick is a Pop artist in the truest sense of the word, taking cues from Warhol and Lichtenstein's bright, neon graphic sensibilities while remaining unique on her own. She takes baby dolls and bunnies and mannequins (pictured, right) and does things ... well, just look for yourself. Michael Moffa comes from a similar place but embeds his visions into collages, acrylic paintings and postage stamps. Most interesting to me, though, is his reappropriation of 1920s fashion templates — flapper ladies with their long strings of pearls and curly bobs reimagined in twisted landscapes and psychedelic patterns.
Krick wants visitors to come dressed as art ("See art, be art," she says to Lori), whatever that means to us. So make like Duchamp's Mona Lisa, tape a mustache to your face and get yourself there. Fri., July 3, 6 p.m.-midnight, 1113 Frankford Ave., 215-291-5880.
Lori also gave shout-outs to Pageant : Soloveev, Space 1026, Seraphin Gallery and Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts this week; click here for details.
More First Friday fun after the jump!
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We'd like to extend a very happy first b-day to Proximity Gallery, a Fishtown space that's caught our eye from the start for its very-local attention to artists whose vision falls right in line with our aesthetic sensibilities. "One Mile," the gallery's anniversary exhibit, gathers work by artists who've shown at Proximity in its infant year — and who live within a mile of each other, and the gallery, in Fishtown. Talk about community development.
You'll remember Chris Clark's muddled cityscape collages, full of gritty dimension (pictured); Marie Desmarais' lovely geometric floral patterns, layered atop structured city maps; Karen Gibson's enchanting jewel-toned mash-ups of her own ribboned paintings; and Janel Frey's saturated nature-meets-man collage work, which, according to Proximity's Web site, "suggest how a world affected by toxins can remain deeply attractive." We agree wholeheartedly. Opening reception Fri., July 3, 6-9 p.m., free, through July 31, Proximity Gallery, 2434 E. Dauphin St., proximityart.com.
If you'd rather learn a skill than earn an arts-and-culture badge tonight, head over to the Chemical Heritage Foundation, where, in honor of Philly's most celebrated Founding Father (we're talking to you, Benny), they'll teach visitors how to make batteries using everyday household items that would have been available when ol' Franklin was alive and kicking. While you're there, check out the ongoing exhibits "sLowlife" and "Making Modernity." 5-8 p.m., free, Chemical Heritage Foundation, 315 Chestnut St., chemheritage.org.
Also on our radar: "Hex Yes!" at Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction; "Focused on Nature" at F.U.E.L. Collection; Ish Klein's puppetry/poetry at GERM Books & Gallery; and "Vox V" at Vox Populi.
Holler in the comments if you've got another First Friday show worth a post-BBQ trek!
Thanks CityPaper for the great year of support!
xo
Proximity Gallery