First Friday Focus
Lori HIll's First Friday hit list.
F.A.N. Gallery
The titles of Tezh Modarressi's paintings — Thursdays Are No Good for Me, I Want to Go Back to Sleep — don't necessarily seem sad, but combined with the works themselves, they make you nearly ache. "I like interiors that look haunting, and a little brokenhearted," says Modarressi. "I make up stories as I am working on a piece about the people that may have lived there and usually the stories are pretty sad." Her muted tones and spare interiors give pause. What happened in these rooms? Comfort in the Sound is a portrait of a desk and chair. There are no books on the desk, no pictures on the wall, and no one in the chair. "I don't mix interiors with people. I want the viewers to wonder who will enter or leave the room." In The Weather Has Changed, a settee and table share a corner with a timeworn chest, begging to be rummaged through. Modarressi often photographs the rooms she paints, using the images as a reference for light. It's that light that makes you think you just opened the door to a lonely house whose time for domestic bliss has long since passed. "This is where my titles come from," says Modarressi. "I think if I painted a cheery interior I might paint over it."
Moira Hahn's Blue Moon (transparent watercolor on Rives BFK paper)
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Opening reception Fri., Nov. 3, 5-9 p.m., through Nov. 25, 221 Arch St., 215-922-5155.
Trinity Gallery
In Moira Hahn's world, exotic birds and wild-eyed cats play in beautifully appointed spaces wearing luxe kimonos and preening themselves. Influenced as much by contemporary Japanese artists like Miyazaki Hayao as 19th-century woodblock printers, Hahn creates fantastical scenes filled with rich color and intricate designs. Amazingly, she does this rigorous detail in watercolor. "I like the spontaneity of it as a sketch medium and the speed with which one can build deep, saturated layers of color in more polished works." Hahn, showing at Trinity Gallery, has worked as an illustrator and animator. But she often looks to the wildlife outside her home to help her give life to the anthropomorphized creatures in her work. Nature and imagination duke it out in Green Hornet, where cats rumble wielding bamboo sticks, and Koi Study III, where mottled fish try to fend off the salivating, teeth-baring kitty perched above.
Opening reception Fri., Nov. 3, through Nov. 28, 158 N. Third St., 215-625-2427.
JMS Gallery
Whether creating sculpture with old railroad tracks or picking up a piece of furniture on the side of the road, Troy Sayers lives to recycle. "I love making something beautiful from an item that was certainly going to be in a landfill, so this art is completely 'green,'" says Sayers, who shows new bricolage work at Chestnut Hill's JMS Gallery this month. Bricolage refers to a trial-and-error process using found materials, and Sayers finds amazing materials. He's crafted beautiful tables and desks from Cutty Sark and Dewars whisky crates, and an old dresser and chair on which he painted Mondrian-inspired details. "I have a clock which I created from the barn doors from our garage carriage house," says Sayers. "I feel this connection of knowing where the materials came from adds a layer to the piece. I mean these doors have been hanging there for over one hundred years. There is a lot of history in that material that comes out in the piece."
Opening reception Sat., Nov. 4, 4-7 p.m., through Dec. 30, 8236 Germantown Ave., 215-248-4649.
And Then There's...
Children's book artists, including Tar Beach author Faith Ringgold, shine in "Picture Stories: A Celebration of African-American Illustrators," which continues at Rutgers' Stedman Gallery . Through Dec. 2, North Third Street, between Cooper and Pearl sts., Camden, N.J., 856-225-6350. ... Performance art is alive and well in Elkins Park. So far in Tyler School of Art 's "In_Tension" series, one artist lived in the gallery for a week, another gave "chaircuts," and now Ben Kinsley performs the Poke Orchestra — where musical duos "poke, pinch, flick, snap, noogie, grab and wedgie" in a choreographed sequence. Yep, it's alive and well all right. Wed., Nov. 8, 8 p.m., 7725 Penrose Ave., 215-782-2776.
Also In This Week's Arts Section
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