Last Chance

Catch it or Regret It

by Tami Fertig

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Michael Froio's black-and-white photographs capture the insides of Philadelphia buildings — the Civic Center, the Philadelphia Board of Education Building, the Divine Lorraine Hotel and Memorial Hall — in all of their pre-demolition glory. Amid the crumbling walls and piles of debris are hints of what once was, like a sheet slung across an old murphy bed on the seventh floor of the Divine Lorraine.

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Bill Lohre's little green islands jut from the wall (pictured), each one containing its own bizarre, dreamlike world, where carrots grow on trees and cardboard-cut-out ladders disappear into clouds. In his eerie Small Hotel, a pool sits on stilts in the sky, a tiny floating lady dead in the water. Also included in the exhibit are Marie DesMarais' doodle-y paintings on recycled window panes and Joshua Erb and Candace Karch's collaborative photo series of creepy dolls.

Every year for more than a decade, a handful of the country's most prominent wood turners and carvers gather for a few days in Bucks County to collaborate on new works. Their best creations are both completely weird and functional — like a harplike instrument shaped like a gas pump, or a little pot-bellied creature that doubles as a desk lamp, with dangling bits of phone cord for hair.