Dolefull House, by Tabaimo, “The Graphic Unconscious”/Philagrafika at the PMA
If you picked up today’s City Paper, you likely flipped through our 2nd Season Arts package, which included to-do lists to suit your every interest, from movies to dance to jazz. But what about gallery openings? Space was tight, and since we dedicate space in our paper to the visual arts every week, our galleries calendar fell on the sword. BUT! The Internet is infinite, so you can check it out here, in full.
In case you’re too overcome with mid-January ennui for clicking on links, here’s a quick rundown of our top picks for shows you can’t not go see, from lovable anthropomorphic critters to Picasso. Picasso, guys.
philartalliance.org
By Darla Jackson, “While You Were Out”
While You Were Out >> Last time we caught up with local sculptor Darla Jackson, she was waist-deep in “A Miniature Ocean,” a Mew Gallery exhibit depicting a tiny seaside scene where an anthropomorphized mother rabbit wore a boat on her head and plucked her babies out of the water. Feb. 11-May 3, Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 S. 18th St., 215-545-4302, philartalliance.org.
Philagrafika: The Graphic Unconscious >> A veritable Fringe Festival for the graphic arts, Philagrafika spans four months, scores of venues and more than 300 artists. Lest you become overwhelmed, start off slow with the international festival’s core exhibit, “The Graphic Unconscious.” And by “slow” we mean you’ll only need to hit up five places to soak it all in. Jan. 29-April 11, various locations, 215-557-8433, philagrafika.org. Click For More »
For a more subversive, less drunk-bus-y First Friday than you may be used to getting in Old City, everyone knows by now to head to Fishtown and NoLibs. (Or just the 319 N. 11th St. building. Six galleries in one place!) In a step that further proves itself as the new center of gravity in Philly’s art scene, there are a slew of kinda-new galleries and boutiques officially opening up tonight in Fishtown:
To celebrate their new neighbors, the New Kensington Community Development Corporation is hosting a holiday walk tonight from 6 to 9 p.m., with all sorts of drinks, art shows, craft shows, sales, DIY decoration workshops, DJs and — aw, gee — hot cocoa. For lots more details, hit up Frankford Ave. Arts Corridor’s Web site.
Vox Populi’s always got a ton of shows going on simultaneously in its third-floor gallery space in Chinatown. But we were particularly drawn to Kara Crombie’s Aloof Hills animation series, which follows a Civil War-era plantation family in a whacked-out, super-saturated adventure.
Crombie’s inspirations are as varied as her multimedia samples: She used a clip from Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, shot background scenery in idyllic South Carolina and clipped a YouTube video of a little boy high on dentist-administered nitrous. “The cool thing about sampling is that unconscious vibe you get,” Crombie says. “You may not know where it’s from, but it has a … vague memory attached to it.”
I asked Kara some questions about her myriad inspirations for the work, which you can read below. And be sure to check out tonight’s opening at Vox. (Opening reception Fri., Dec. 4, 6-11 p.m., free, ends Jan. 3, 319 N. 11th St., third floor, 215-238-1236, voxpopuligallery.org.)
City Paper: I am in love with the concept for this piece, and certainly haven’t seen anything quite like it. How did you come up with the idea? Kara Crombie: A couple of years ago I was reading an article about Christian Revisionists. I got really interested in it and I started checking out their Web sites, which are basically sales catalogs for things like home school textbooks and civil war costumes for 10-year-old boys. I thought, “What do Christian revisionists do for porn?” So I thought about writing a great trashy romance novel for them. The main character would be the beautiful teenage daughter of a plantation owner fighting in the Civil War. Her adventures would lead to many exciting sexual encounters, and at the end she would meet Stonewall Jackson, find God, and renounce her sexual misdeeds. I figured this would be a big hit on the Vision Forum Web site, I could make a million bucks and Christian Revisionists could get some porn. Everyone deserves the opportunity to take pleasure in “deviant” stuff without guilt. Click For More »
In this month’s First Friday Focus, I wanted to draw your attention to the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education’s lovely winter exhibit, “Nest and Branch,” which is all about birds — their beauty, their migratory patterns, even their endangerment.
schuylkillcenter.org
Golden-Winged Warbler and Evening
Grosbeck, by Linda Byrne
Of the nine participating artists, I was struck in particular by the bleak minimalism of Linda Byrne’s Golden-Winged Warbler and Evening Grosbeck. Here’s more on her work (pictured, right), from today’s column:
Linda Byrne’s minimalist Golden-Winged Warbler and Evening Grosbeck eliminates the bird from the equation entirely, presenting instead the stark, empty nest of an endangered species.
“I am troubled by the terrible loss we suffer by our complicity in the extraction of our natural resources,” says Byrne in her artist statement. “Each [bird] is isolated in its vanishing environment to emphasize a sense of loss.”
I chatted with curator Zoë Cohen about the selection process, which you can read all about after the jump. In the meantime, don’t miss Saturday’s opening reception. (Sat., Dec. 5, 5-7 p.m., free, ends April 3, 8480 Hagy’s Mill Road, 215-482-7300, schuylkillcenter.org.) Click For More »
We told you about the Philadelphia Art Hotel, a super-short, quirky artist residency that breaks all kinds of rules, this summer. PAH’s proprietors, Krista and Zak Peel, have since moved into the Kenzo house they spoke about, complete with three floors for the married couple, live-in artists and a gallery, and — perhaps one day — an artist-made mini-golf course. They announced today that they’ll be holding a benefit/gallery exhibit at the Walking Fish Theater (2509 Frankford Ave., 215-427-2822) on Fri., Dec. 4 from 5:30 to 10 p.m., and OH MY GOD, can you please go and donate so they can get that golf course? HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE??
Anyway. The exhibit features “12 miraculous, miniature, museum models” by artists including Karl Erickson, Matt Bergstrom, Cara Levine and Ross Martens. The works have been photographed for a 2010 calendar, too, which will be available for $30 at the benefit and $40 online.
Every Tuesday, Critical Mass sifts through the art blog world so you don’t have to.
— One of the better things to come out of the Great Depression was the temporary public pursuit of what typically is part of the private sector: the arts. As part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Works Progress Administration helped stimulate the weak economy by funding artists of all shapes and styles. In honor of this pretty damn wonderful idea, Phillyistreports that the National Constitution Center is hosting a WPA poster contest, open to all ages.
— In conjunction with First Friday, FunnelPagescurated its own show … of Internet art. Pieces include a photographic storytelling of a whale hunt, a searchable, visual database of all of the nation’s business leaders, and an interactive color bar that changes along with your tweets. Now where’s the Internet wine and cheese?
— Something I’ve wanted for a really long time: a Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff reunion. Unfortunately, according to Make Major Moves, Will Smith’s movie career keeps getting in the way. Maybe the two of them can find some time to sing the national anthem at Citizens Park during next year’s World Series.
— Leave it to Peter Dobrin, the Inky’s go-to music writer, to find a positive in the SEPTA strike. On his blog Arts Watch, Dobrin notes that there was one thing he really didn’t miss about the buses — the noise. But isn’t it a part of the city’s well-wrought orchestra? Almost like the low rumblings of timpani, if you will?
If you happened to be anywhere near the corner of Third and Race streets this morning at 8 a.m., you might have noticed Stephen and Ophelia Clark — the creators of AntiPop Ltd. — plastering boarded-up windows, guerrilla style, with their art. This week’s First Friday Focus gets into the meaning behind the mostly-black-and-white multimedia collages that have popped up in Old City and other neighborhoods as a fitting juxtaposition to gallery-bound First Friday. Here’s a snippet from the column:
“As experience tells us, art and creative expression suffer greatly under corporate control,” says Stephen. This is not a diss on First Friday but a call to action for artists living in a world where expression is trumped by advertising, capitalism and the Internet. “Our concern is for the next generation of artists, since we are witnessing individuality being co-opted by pre-packaged rebellion, creating youth that will be bereft of culture, independent thought and artistic intent.”
Our very own Neal Santos got up bright and early this morning to follow the Clarks as they installed their public exhibition. Watch the video below; then read a Q&A with the artists, who want to make sure you don’t get the wrong idea about what they’re doing. “We’re not political or anti-technology or anti-popular culture,” says Stephen. “What we’re trying to do is put these things into perspective in a world that is seemingly becoming more and more reliant upon them.”
Hannah, “An Exhibition of Nude Photography,” Proximity Gallery.
If you’re in need of First Friday suggestions, take a look at Carolyn Huckabay’s First Friday Focus column (and the slideshow that goes along with it). Then hit up our revamped gallery listings, which are complete with images from the shows, gallery hours, and summaries written up by City Paper staff members.
Afterward, if you think of a way to make the listings better, feel free to leave a comment below or e-mail holly.otterbein@citypaper.net.
For this week’s First Friday Focus column, I interviewed Daniel Heyman, one of 17 artists involved with the First Person Festival’s “Shelter” exhibit at the Painted Bride. (It’s not the first time City Paper’s featured Heyman’s work; Drew Lazor wrote a cover story about the artist’s interviews with Abu Ghraib torture victims and the complex work that followed.) For “Shelter,” Heyman visited a veterans’ house in North Philly and created works of art based on his interviews with two previously homeless men whose lives have been affected by war. In case you haven’t picked up a CP yet, here’s a clip:
“I wanted to make sure the project really fit in with my work,” says Heyman. “Since I already have a deep interest in issues surrounding war, and have worked with African-American men on other projects, the veterans house felt like a perfect fit.” For two very different men, Heyman created two very different pieces: Lonnie, a simple, respectful portrait done in gouache ink and pencil on Japanese mulberry fiber paper, and Tony’s Shelter, a tower of symbolic images on plywood, meant to resemble a house of sorts. The distinction with which Heyman represents these men — one stoic, straightforward portrait; one disjointed wood sculpture — is a testament to their individual struggles. “I think from the outside we view people in trouble as all the same,” he says. “But their lives and their personalities couldn’t be more different.”
But Heyman had a lot more to say. Read our Q&A below, and don’t forget that “Shelter” opens tomorrow at the Painted Bride.
Tony’s Shelter, by Daniel Heyman
(click for larger image)
City Paper: Why did these men’s stories speak to you? Daniel Heyman: When I met both Lonnie and Tony, I was interested in each of them because their lives are so different from my own in many ways, but very similar to my own in other ways. Both of them spent several years of their early adulthood overseas, and these experiences were formative ones, experiences that shaped and directed their lives in ways both forseen and unforseen. I found this very interesting, especially in the case of Lonnie, who spent years in Asia. They each had a feeling for instustice, as well, particularly Lonnie, who spoke plainly about the racism he was subjected to in the Army, and how that made him feel.
CP: Have they seen the work? What was their reaction?
DH: I believe that Tony saw the initial print of his portrait on paper, but he has not seen the structure, and I am both curious and nervous about his reaction. Lonnie saw his portrait as it was being done, and I think he liked it.
CP: Lonnie’s piece, in gouache, is hugely different from Tony’s. Why did you choose portraiture, which is much more traditional, for Lonnie? It seems like a very stoic choice, especially in comparison to Tony’s Shelter. DH: It just happened, I think. I did Tony’s first, and I had the idea of working in a print material. When I was done with it, I regretted not using color as Tony’s face and skin color fascinated me and was so rich in nuance. I think this is why I wanted to paint Lonnie, so I could capture the feel of human skin, or its vibrancy and vitality. … Also, as they are very different people, I really wanted to seperate the artwork and express that these are two people, thrown together out of circumstance, but really with very little in common. I think from the outside we view people in trouble as all the same. Yes, each of these guys had been homeless before they came to the vets transitional house, but their lives and their personalities couldn’t be more different. Also, and I doubt this was conscious, Lonnie is a generation older, and so out of respect I probably felt I needed a more “grown-up” kind of approach. Click For More »
First Friday Fete is a new Critical Mass feature where we tell you the galleries not only hosting the best First Friday shows, but also throwing the best parties. (And yes, “fete” is totally a snobby synonym for “party.” We gotta make this classy somehow.)
-2424 Studios (2424 E. York St., 215-423-1800) made the list for keeping it simple. Their opening of “Five Dudes” includes the two essential elements of a party: beer and music. Yards Brewing Co. will be serving up the booze, and Tantrum Tonic will provide the music. Plus, we’ve been told they’ll be anything but skimpy with the beer. The artwork featured includes Michael Xander’s comic illustrations (pictured) and paintings, which are influenced by local landscapes, as well as paintings and illustrations by Noel Hefele, Ron Johnson, Shane Leddy and Matt Maloney.
-The opening of Brave New Worlds’ (45 N. 2nd St., 215-925-6525) “What Makes a Man Dress Up Like a Bat?” gets a shout-out because of the free stuff they’ll be giving away. In addition to the normal First Friday goodies, attendees will be able to pick up the latest issue of Philly Comix Jam. The artwork featured includes comic illustrations by the PCJ.
-And finally Hudson Beach Glass(26 S. Strawberry St., 267-319-1887), who’ll be opening “Goofy Goblet Show,” featuring glass goblets in the shapes of shoes, watermelons and seed pods by several artists. They’ll also be opening their new bar tonight, filled to the brim with wine, snacks, coffee and tea. Plus, they’ll be showing their first video installation: Dale Inglett’s Transient Being. Oh yeah, and sometimes they do live glass-blowing. Which is pretty badass. And kind of hot.
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