Also this issue: Strikes, Fights, Big City A turbulent New York theater season produced some notable work. -Toby Zinman Lullaby of Broadway This season’s musical theater scene has been a bit sleepy. -David Anthony Fox Alone Again, Naturally -Susan Hagen Artsbeat -Debra Auspitz Green Violin -Steve Cohen The Plotz Retrospective -A.D. Amorosi Don DeLillo -Andrew Ervin Temple University Opera Theater -Peter Burwasser

April 24-30, 2003

artpicks

Bell Esteem

Philadelphia-based artist Marc Brodzik’s latest venture, "Sell Esteem," cannot be found in any museum or gallery. His works are located on the streets of Reading. Brodzik is known for his art installations and mock advertisement campaigns that are, as he says in his artist’s statement, "stealthily manipulated to blur the distinctions separating fiction from reality." Brodzik, founder of GODCO, a fictional corporation meant to parody the promotion-obsessed nature of American culture, is on a one-man mission to remove consumers from the clutches of the corporate world. The "Sell Esteem" exhibit consists of three billboards and 20 bus-kiosk advertisements "selling" self-esteem with the message "I’m OK, Everything Is Fine." At first glance, his works resemble any mainstream advertisement, but Brodzik focuses on positive self-image by portraying everyday people and not air-brushed models. Brodzik writes that his latest work is a "persuasion assault against capitalist mob mentality … waged using the very tools with which the master built the house: posters, billboards, newspapers, radio, television, and film."

“Sell Esteem,” reception Thu., April 24, 5-8 p.m., free, Kramer’s Peanut Bar, 332 Penn St., Reading; exhibit through May 15, Penn St. between Fourth and Sixth sts. and Bingaman Street Bridge., 215-413-3643.

—Kristina Weise