First Friday Focus

Lori Hill's First Friday Hit List

by Lori Hill

Untitled, Monica Canilao and Kyle Damon Ranson, found mixed media (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Media Bureau

We remember when a couple of playing cards in your spokes and handlebar streamers meant your bike was hot. Turns out Rolling Canvas Art Collective has some better ideas. Fuji Bikes, Jinxed Philadelphia and R.E.Load invited more than 20 artists to participate, and they've tricked out, reconfigured and reinvented fixed-gear bicycles with their formidable creativity. Excellent Philly talent like Joy LessPosh, Adam Wallacavage, Eleanor Grosch and Ben Woodward have created bicycles for the show, and legendary graffiti artist Greg "SP One" Lamarche and ACID USA, a custom motorcycle painting firm, will also contribute works. On the first night of the show at Media Bureau, the art will be auctioned to the public, with a portion of the proceeds going to Neighborhood Bike Works, which provides cycling opportunities for city kids. Mr. Ill and Weez will spin, with complimentary drinks from Philadelphia Brewing Co. And from Aug. 4 to 14, there will be a public online auction at rollingcanvascollective.com. Opening and auction Fri., Aug. 1, 7 p.m., exhibition runs through Aug. 31, Media Bureau, 725 N. Fourth St., 215-592-1059.

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California-based artists Monica Canilao and Kyle Damon Ranson are friends whose artistic vision dovetails in the realms of the mystic and the communal. Their show, "One Long Funeral Song," presented by the Art Syndicate and Space 1026, is an installation dealing with the collision between "black, vampiric conjurings of colonialism and the nature magic of indigenous, poor and creative peoples." Ranson's portraits are raw, rough-hewn images of men and women, often missing limbs or engaged in uncertain situations. There's something totemic or mythical about some of the figures, and yet the beauty underneath is never entirely lost. Canilao chooses ephemeral materials — paper, pulp, fiber — to express ephemeral moments, but often her work deals with the things people leave behind. Their collaboration should be a merging of two distinct but harmonious styles with a new twist in every piece. Opens Fri., Aug. 1, 6-8 p.m., runs through Aug. 29, 1026 Arch St., second floor, 215-574-7630.

Jonathan Dickstein's show, "Sketchplay/Boxplay" — a lively collection of earthenware and works on paper — continues at Red Hook Café. 765 S. Fourth St., 215-923-0178. ... Wexler Gallery finishes out the summer with its mini-blockbuster exhibition of the collection of Ted Nash, featuring works by Dale Chihuly, Harvey Littleton, Jose Chardiet and others. Through Aug., 30, 201 N. Third St., 215-923-7030.