August 5-11, 2004

first friday focus

Ron Tarver, Burning Tree, toned silver gelatin print, at Sande Webster Gallery.

by Lori Hill

Sande Webster Gallery

Andrea Baldeck's images of abandoned structures are ghostly and sad. Adger Cowans' dizzying 1985 shot of the World Trade Center is moving, and his Sparklers is a beautiful portrait of a child twirling himself inside a circle of fireworks. "Day & Night in Black & White," a photography show up through the end of August at Sande Webster, also features Tony Ward, Kevin Reilly, Tony Barboza and Ron Tarver, among others, but two artists stand out for obvious and particular mention. Arlene Love's works here are Philly-centric: a neon beer sign on South Street and Lorenzo's Pizza in the Italian Market. Confrontation on Spruce Street, though, could be anywhere and only in Philly at the same time. A man stands before a woman wearing "2004" novelty sunglasses and seen only in three-quarter profile, while another man looks on amusedly. At first glance the man might be leaning in to kiss her, but then your eye is led down to the woman's clenched fist coming perilously close to his bearded face, giving the scene away — all this in a seemingly spontaneous shot. The other highlight of this show, esteemed Harlem Renaissance photographer James Van Der Zee (1886-1983), spent his career documenting the lives of African-Americans in the early 20th century. His prints at Sande Webster include one of elegant women and men at the Dark Tower, a literary and artistic salon named after a Countee Cullen poem, and another of several students, decked out in sports gear sitting on the steps of a fraternity house. While everyone else was posing the Astors and the Vanderbilts, Van Der Zee was meeting often-ignored Americans in barbershops and brownstones, as well as luminaries like Cullen, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Marcus Garvey. His widow, Donna Van Der Zee, says her husband's immersion in Harlem enabled him to shoot weddings and funerals as well as famous artists and writers. "He lived and worked in the community," she says. "Most photographers came in, photographed and went home."

Reception Fri., Aug. 13, 5-8 p.m., with book signing for Dark Encounter in Mid Air (poems by William Hollis and photographs by Andrea Baldeck), exhibition runs through Aug. 27, 2006 Walnut St., 215-636-9003.

Philadelphia Museum of Art

The PMA has scored a video project by one of contemporary art's most clever and controversial dwellers. Performance artist Andrea Fraser may now be most famous for the (yawn) scandal surrounding her (yawn) sex video of sorts that was making the gallery rounds in New York in recent months (she was even fodder on MSNBC's right-wing blabfest Scarborough Country — see Village Voice art critic Jerry Saltz's piece about his appearance on that segment). But her earlier work is what's been labeled "institutional critique" — ventures meant as pointed satire of the art establishment. One of those works, Museum Highlights: A Gallery Talk, was filmed at the PMA in 1989. Five different times, Fraser took on the persona of Jane Castleton, a schoolmarmish docent in giant eyeglasses and a trim houndstooth suit, and led unsuspecting museum visitors on a half-hour tour not only of the PMA's world-famous artworks, but also the bathrooms, the gift shop and the cafeteria. Sounds like a neat trick, but Fraser took the project quite seriously, as Castleton's script is full of quotes from museum documents and municipal reports. The artist intended viewers to walk away with a sense of skepticism about institutional museumspeak and traditional curatorial techniques. Whether she succeeds or not, the work's likely to at least get some self-conscious laughs.

Exhibition runs through Oct. 3 in the Video Gallery, 26th St. and the Parkway, 215-763-8100.

And Then There's …

Nancy M. Sophy's exhibition at the Creative Artists Network has been extended. Her delicate lightboxes are constructed of paper with faintly rendered poppyseed oil patterns. Through Aug. 23, 237 S. 18th St., 215-546-7775. … Ashley Gallery has joined forces with the new Minerva Gallery for a show of works by Ashley regular C.M. Dupré and her creepy, Renaissance redux paintings. Reception Fri., Aug. 6, 6-9 p.m., exhibition runs through Aug. 31, 263 S. 10th St., 215-925-2209. … Finally, if your gallery-going bones get weary, take a siesta under the trees at the Old First Reformed Church, which will serve coffee, pink lemonade and baked treats in their courtyard-turned-rest stop. Fri., Aug. 6, 6-9 p.m., Fourth and Race sts., 215-922-9663.