First Friday openings

Via Kathleen Greco:

First Friday Gallery Openings

Every first Friday of the month art galleries are open to the public in Philadelphia. It’s a free must-see cultural art experience for students to engage with the contemporary art scene. Here’s a listing of some  recommendations for current First Friday galleries for Friday, September 5^th. 


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Pentimenti Gallery145 North Second Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106  

ARTIST RECEPTION: Friday, September 5, 6:30 - 8:30 PM 

Logical Thinking; Illogical Thoughts 
Simeen Farhat - Sculptures & Installation 

Words borrowed from poetry in English, expressing logic and philosophy, and about life, Farhat’s sculptures are constructed with urethane cast-resin, which are intertwined into forms with undeniable rhythmic and directional force. In her own words, Farhat explains, “My objective in choosing those words is to show the essence of their message through abstraction;  by using overlapping shapes and lines which create tension and movement and stir up emotions”. 

Transferable Views 
Franco Mueller - Paintings, Works on Paper & Installation 

There is a dialogue that exists within the works of Franco Mueller. It is a quiet conversation between shape and space. These paintings and works on paper depict how space holds a shape and how shape holds the space. A partially illuminated background is silent. Mueller builds his paintings with layer upon layer of thin acrylic paint and his works on paper with layers of charcoal and acrylic paint. As each layer permeates on another, a “disturbed surface structure” begins to evolve.  

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Vox Populi319 North 11th Street
3^rd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107  

ARTIST RECEPTION: Friday, September 5, 6:00 – 11:00 PM 

Vox Populi is an artist collective that works to support the challenging and experimental work of under-represented artists with monthly exhibitions, gallery talks, performances, lectures, and related programming.  

Room for the Whole Wide World Elisa Gabor, Sanaz Mazinani, Anna Neighbor, Sarah Palmer, Elisabeth Tonnard 

Room for the Whole Wide World offers five artists’ findings from the field of abstraction, using ideas rooted in photography as a starting point. Within these artworks abstraction is a viable method for discovering larger truths and mapping our desires.

Still Wearing Each Other When AloneJordan Artim, Anthony Cudahy, Aimee Goguen, Matt Morris, Mathew Parkin

Be my Jordan, and I’ll be your Pippen. Be my Mulder, and I’ll be your Scully. Be my Jenko, and I’ll be your Schmidt. Be my Bill, and I’ll be your Ted. Be my residue, and I’ll be your mirror.

“…we shall find out when the light returns what the new season means / when others’ interpretations have gotten back up onto the pedestals we gave them / so long as we are still wearing each other when alone”
                                                                                                                                      

-Frank O’Hara

Between a rock and a hard place.
Laura Bernstein, Lydia Hardwick, Rachel Rotenberg

Between a rock and a hard place. offers a sculptural conversation between three female artists. Their works operate as the remnants from an otherworldly archaeological dig, marked with the indelible imprint and purposeful grace of their three makers. At their core, these are non-functional yet social objects: acknowledging or denying the body, embodying complex human relationships, and birthed through intuition and memory.

Errata
Micah Danges, Luke Stettner

Errata is a two-person show. Stettner’s work for this exhibition includes small photographs, fruit pits, drawings on blackboard surfaces, graphite-rubbed wood frames, and paintings that reference an enigmatic and nearly recognizable grammatical language. Each is a study in essentialism. Danges’ work for this exhibition includes several photo-based collages that explore surface, texture and placement, and are each derived from one of two single images of a greenhouse.

Fourth WallFourth Wall at Vox Populi presents new works chosen by a group of professionals from various locations and backgrounds. Each month, one of these curators will present the work of an experimental artist working in video, film, animation, or new media in the Vox Populi Project Space.

Harvest

Chaja Hertog, Nir Nadler - Video

An abnormal phenomenon occurs in an olive grove as one of the trees evokes an uprising. Inspired by the ancient olive harvesting methods in which aggression and cultivation come together, the film portrays the absurdity of enforced ideologies and the impossibility of taming the wild.

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NAPOLEON 
319 North 11th Street
2^nd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107  

ARTIST RECEPTION: Friday, September 5, 6:00 – 10:00 PM  

devynn emory’s Personal Public: On Gender Variance in Performance Art

September’s exhibition examines the importance of asserting gender identification in art, particularly in performance art where the body is a fundamental part of the work and the artist invites the viewer into this personal, physical space. In conversation with and through investigation of the work of devynn emory, a dancer and choreographer based in New York, the exhibition considers queer performance and its influence on social structures.

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Marginal Utility



319 North 11th Street
2^nd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107  

ARTIST RECEPTION: Friday, September 5, 6:00 – 10:00 PM 

Le Horla

Wenxing Ding, Virginia Fleming, Mariel Herring, Adam Lovitz, Scott Schultheis and C.J. Stahl

The title of the exhibition references Guy de Maupassant’s short story in which the protagonist witnesses the passing of a strange ship along a familiar waterway, and begins to experience haunting hallucinations. Written in diary form, Le Horla chronicles the anxiety of an individual whose perception of reality has become ungrounded. With an inability to control his most intimate settings, familiar objects and spaces become actors in discorporate narratives.

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Practice319 North 11th Street
2^nd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107  

ARTIST RECEPTION: Friday, September 5, 6:30 – 8:30 PM 

HominineAndrew Brehm

Hominine takes viewers cave-deep into a prehistoric lovers-stalemate through sculptures and live audio works.Hominine is installation as a sitcom of objects, each part humorously lampooning the eternal struggle of long-term relationships, investment strategies, and modernization. Join the artist for two live-reading performances on opening night or enjoy the sculpture as a recording throughout the month of August.    

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Grizzly Grizzly319 North 11th Street
2^nd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107  

ARTIST RECEPTION: Friday, September 5, 6:00 – 10:00 PM 

‘Cut & Paste’Jenny McGee Dougherty, Selena Kimball, Tyler Starr 

McGee Dougherty's subtle works transcend the parameters of both fiber and paper by collecting marks, scruffs and textures.  She then translates these impressions into a visual narrative of her surroundings. “I read the paper every morning but never finish it.” admits Selena Kimball.  Instead she reworks the pages’ images, texts, crinkles and stains to fashion new histories from the recent past. Tyler Starr's mixed media works investigate the history of geographical sites where an unsolved tragedy has occurred. Basing his collages in research gathered from sensationalized journalism.

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Locks Gallery
600 Washington Square South

Philadelphia, PA 19106  

ARTIST RECEPTION: Friday, September 5, 5:30 – 7:30 PM 

Locks gallery exhibition program presents new works by mid-career artists while introducing the work of emerging artists to a national audience. Survey and thematic exhibitions of work by essential artists of the 20th-century including Louise Bourgeois, Robert Motherwell, Louise Nevelson and George Segal, are regular highlights of the gallery exhibition program.

Forest Park Virgil Marti 

Marti will bring together new works with other recontextualized projects, highlighting his own investigation of the sublime and romanticism throughout history. Marti’s art merges his passion for Americana with his distinctive explorations of the world of domestic interiors.

TODAY

Wolfgang Tillmans @ PMA

Philadelphia Galleries/Spaces to know 2014

ARTIST ORGANIZATIONS//COLLECTIVES

**this is an open post-Please feel free to add for your Peers**

VOX POPULI319 North 11th Street, Philadelphia (3rd floor)http://www.voxpopuligallery.org/Founded in 1988, Vox Populi is an artist collective that works to support the challenging and experimental work of under-represented artists with monthly exhibitions, gallery talks, performances, lectures, and related programming. For over 20 years, Vox has played a unique role in the cultural life of Philadelphia by bringing our audience a diverse range of programming and providing a supportive environment in which artists can take risks and gain valuable professional experience.

***Also Check outTiger Strikes Asteroid (http://www.tigerstrikesasteroid.com/), Progressive Sharing (http://progressivesharing.com/) Marginal Utility (http://www.marginalutility.org/) Napoleon (http://napoleonnapoleon.com/), GrizzlyGrizzly (http://www.grizzlygrizzly.com/), Practice (http://www.practicegallery.org/)… all at 319 North 11th Street

SPACE 1026
1026 Arch Street 2nd Floor Philadelphia
http://space1026.com/
Space 1026 has been a 7 year experiment. It has developed from a handful of founders to dozens of co-conspirators. Together we are becoming Space 1026. Space 1026 is a common excitement for making, producing and creating, not for some outside world of aficionados, but for each other, for our own kind. Space 1026 is two floors of a building at 11th and Arch. That‘s in Philadelphia. It is a network of dozens of artists who‘ve had studios at the Space, past and present. It is dozens of artists who‘ve had shows at the Space over the last 7 years. It is dozens of artists who come to our events, and participate in our community. Space 1026 is a community - a creative community - not an institution.
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Print Center
1400 N. American St., Philadelphia
**The Crane Arts building is home to other galleries including the giant Ice Box (http://www.cranearts.com/)
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Fabric Workshop and Museum
1214 Arch Street, Philadelphia
http://www.fabricworkshop.org/
The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is the only non-profit arts organization in the United States devoted to creating new work in new materials and new media in collaboration with emerging, nationally, and internationally recognized artists.
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Crane Arts Building
2419 Frankford Ave.

http://www.fjordspace.com/

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Philadelphia Institute of Advanced Study
1712 North Second Street, Philadelphia
http://www.pifas.net
Don't be fooled by their 90's-esque website. Click the About tab and watch the magic.
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GALLERIES

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FJORD
709 Walnut Street
http://www.bridgettemayergallery.com

Locks Gallery
600 Washington Square South
http://www.locksgallery.com/

Fleisher Ollman Gallery
1616 Walnut, Suite 100
http://fleisher-ollmangallery.com

Larry Becker Contemporary Art
43 N. Second Street Philadelphia 19106
http://www.artnet.com/lbecker.html

Bridgette Mayer Gallery

http://www.bridgettemayergallery.com/

LGTripp Gallery
47-49 N. 2nd Street
http://www.lgtrippgallery.com

Pentimenti Gallery

http://www.pentimenti.com/

Seraphin Gallery
1108 Pine Street
http://seraphin.squarespace.com

My House Gallery
2534 S. 8th street, Philadelphia
http://myhousegallery.wordpress.com

PAGEANT SOLOVEEV
607 Bainbridge Street, Philadelphia
http://www.pageantsoloveev.com

Little Berlin
119 West Montgomery, Philadelphia
http://littleberlin.org/

Rebeckah Templeton
173 West Girard Ave., Philadelphia
http://www.rebekahtempleton.com/

Tiger Strikes Asteriod
http://www.tigerstrikesasteroid.com/

Part Time Studios
2031 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia
http://parttimestudios.com

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Painting: Materials and Process F2014

 Painting: Materials and Process Blog F 2014

Genealogies

Nothing but good Art

Sol LeWitt's letter to Eva Hesse

From 2004// Saltz on the use of photography in painting

The Richter Resolution

Photo finish: Calling for a four-year moratorium on a fashionable, far too overworked trend

By Jerry Saltz Tuesday, Mar 2 2004

In defense of the staggeringly radical act of really looking, the wildness of the imagination, and the limitlessness of pictorial invention, I propose a 48-month moratorium on the reproduction of photographs via overhead, opaque, or slide projectors in paintings (this means tracing too). Call this the Richter Resolution, the Polke Principle, or the Tuymans Rule. Whatever you call it, it means that photographs, film stills, snapshots, or whatever may be used as starting points, references, or inspiration, but for the next four years let's pretend there's a ban against the use of mechanical devices to replicate these images in paintings.

This is not a geezer rant about loss of skills, bad drawing, laziness, or cheating. I'm not trying to put the genie back in the bottle. Like brushes and rulers, projectors are tools. This is about how these tools are used, which lately has become unadventurous. I address this mainly to students and do so provisionally, not prescriptively or prohibitively. Basically, this is a celebration of artists who find original ways to use these devices and an indictment of those who have turned this type of depiction into a tedious tic.

By now, almost everyone would agree that the traditional Warhol-Richter-Walter Benjamin defense of the use of photography in painting, the "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" argument, and the chatter about "interrogating representation" or "investigating the problem of the photograph," isn't just dated, it's shtick. We all know that photography is a remarkable and remarkably complex way of seeing and picturing the world; that the space between the photograph, the photographer, and the thing photographed is incredibly rich; that the graphic field of the photograph is often scintillatingly alive, specific, and very post-Renaissance; and that reproducing photographs in paintings once represented a significant repudiation of dearly held beliefs. There's always a buzz about seeing images of images, or in the case of Pop art, icons of icons. But there hasn't been a "problem of the photograph" for more than a decade, only a problem with the people who think there is. The camera, which was supposed to supplant painting, didn't. Instead, painting—ever the sponge and always elastic—absorbed it and discovered new realms to explore.

photo: Robin Holland

Don't try this at home: Gerhard Richter's S. With Child (detail, 1995)

These days, much photo-based painting looks the same (ditto digitally based abstraction, but we'll deal with that another time): a newspaper photo, picture of an urban or suburban setting, an airport or a hotel; a celebrity, fashion model, or porn star; a stadium, pavilion, or modernist interior; a still from a film; a yearbook pic; shots of young people doing anything; or any advertisement. These images are typically rendered in kaleidoscopic color, blurred pigments, or washy black and white. Regardless of who makes these monotonous knockoffs, the results are the same: variations on Richter, Warhol, Tuymans, Polke, Celmins, Fischl, Rauschenberg, Peyton, Doig, Close, Robert Longo, Lisa Ruyter, or any original photorealist. Unlike their lemming-like imitators, all these artists have employed photographs in original ways.

Like all media, painting has certain weapons of mass destruction at its disposal. Fervent fans of painting (like me) think these WMDs are the reasons painting has been around for so long and why it's so bottomless. They include drawing, color, surface, touch, working from the imagination or observation, and the mystical ability to embed thought in viscous substance. This alchemical artillery is typically restricted or curtailed altogether in work that simply reproduces a photograph by mechanical means. The results are what I often think of as fake artand easy solutions.

Often, faint pencil marks are visible where the artist has carefully followed projected outlines (see especially nostrils, mouths, and hands). This isn't drawing, or even an idea of it. It's mindless copying. Yet even this nondrawing would be fine if it were purposeful. Usually, it's not. These painters are just trying to get the photo right, like diligent grade-schoolers. There's little ad-libbing, invention, exploration, or discovery, just standard twists, shifts, and blurs. There's no exultation in looking or seeing or space. Yet painting is so powerful that it can run effectively with almost all of its cylinders rendered ineffective. That's why some of this art passes as something rather than nothing—although all of it will look dated in no time.

The point is, cameras see things in a very particular, very identifiable way—with a single "eye," usually a 50-millimeter one. Our eye's lens is variable (to focus near and far) and is approximately 80mm. The perception of space varies from person to person and depends on experience and emotional and refractive state. Nearsighted people tend to be center-oriented while ignoring the periphery. Others have difficulty focusing on details, but notice everything around them. The eye is round; the film plane is flat. Camera lenses correct for chromatic and spherical abnormalities; we don't. Eyes scan; cameras crop. Either way, the instant I see a painting with an image that has been reproduced by rote, I know it: Much of the life of the painting drains away, and I die a little. All I am saying is give the alchemy of painting a chance.

Saltz/Neo-Mannerism

 William Powhida's good imitations of bad art, at Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles.
He's right: Don't paint like that.

Jerry Saltz on Art’s Insidious 

New Cliché: Neo-Mannerism

• By Jerry Saltz

Call it Neo-Mannerism. We all know it. That ever-expanding assembly of anemically boring, totally safe artistic clichés squeezing the life out of the art world right now. Earlier this week, I called out one of them, in a review of the (very good) work of Bjarne Melgaard: bad-boy installations, reeking of transgression but not actually transgressing much. That got me thinking about a trend that's even more widespread and just as annoying.
Scads of artists are trying to be junior postmodernists. A phalanx of work has appeared that might be called "Modest Abstraction" or "MFA See, MFA Do." It's everywhere, and it all looks the same. In sculpture there's Anarchy Lite. Those post-minimalist formal arrangements of clunky stuff, sticks, planks, bent metal, wood boxes, fabric, old furniture, concrete things, and whatnot leaned, stacked, stuck, piled, or dispersed around a clean white gallery. There's usually a subtext about wastefulness, sustainability, politics, urbanism, or art history. That history is almost always straight out of sixties and seventies Artforummagazines or the syllabi of academic teachers who've scared their students into being pleasingly meek, imitative, and ordinary.
Looking at 2-D work, I'm this close to that old Carter-administration-era croak of "Painting is dead." Again. Nowadays we see endless arrays of decorous, medium-size, handsome, harmless paintings. It's rendered mainly in black, white, gray, or, more recently, violet or blue. Much of it entails transfer techniques, silkscreening, stenciling, assemblage, collage, a little spray painting or scraping and the like. There might be some smooshy blocks of color or stripes or other obvious open-form abstraction or geometric motif. A few painters are doing the same thing but with brighter colors, larger areas of paint, hints of gesture, or even drips. All this work has readymade references to preapproved, mostly male painters like Albert Oehlen, Christopher Wool, Michael Krebber, Wade Guyton, Laura Owens, and Sergej Jensen*, or to the Minimalism or Pop movements, and of course it all calls up Warhol, Richter, Kippenberger, or Prince.
Then there are all the fussy collages of cut-up porn, furniture catalogues, ads, Internet screen-grabs, modernist architecture, urban wastelands, endangered species, sixties protests, or (of course) art-historical jpegs. We also see small-scale, colored, neatly framed, or cut-up photographs about photography. All of this Neo-Mannerism is an art of infinite regress. Defensive. Predictable. Safe. Well-defended. Loved by brainy magazines, websites, and curators but so far up its own ass that it can't breathe.
If art comes from everywhere and everyone thinks differently, why does so much of what we see these days look the same? Reams of artists influenced by and using the same art-history, artists, styles, and stuff. You know what that leads to. As Keith Richards wrote of a former dope dealer of his who got addicted to his own stuff, "Brad's dead now. It was the usual old story. If you're dealing in this shit, don't dabble in it." Artists making this generic work are Brad.
It's spreading, too. Even our wonderful smaller galleries on the Lower East Side, in Bushwick, and the like are awash in it. All this art is dying to beunderstood. And it is, instantly, by everyone, in the exact same way. Never mind that Oscar Wilde said, "The moment you think you know a work of art, it is dead to you." It fills galleries and biennials and is already so dead-on-arrival it may as well put a gun to its own head. It's all intellectual wallpaper, pricey placeholders, ham-acting, and showbiz. I know artists are facing knotty times, and I say this with love, but: Enough.

*An earlier version of this post misspelled the name of the artist Sergej Jensen. Also, an earlier photo appearing with this story showed art that did not represent this trend.