First Friday Focus

First Friday Hit List

by Carolyn Huckabay

	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Jun 2, 2009

Little Berlin

Little gallery, big idea: Twenty groups of four Philly artists were given $50 and let loose to collaborate however they wished. The epic 10-week project, "Offerings," was intended to connect Philadelphia visual artists, performers, writers, biologists and anthropologists whose paths otherwise might never cross. When Anthony Angelicola, Daniel Petraitis, Todd Tharpe and Andrew Brehm got together, for example, they visited Niagara Falls and documented their trip, family vacation-style, in a Flickr slideshow (complete with absent brother — in this case, "Cardboard Todd," pictured, who'll make an appearance at the opening). Opening reception Fri., June 5, 6-10 p.m., free, through June 28, Little Berlin, 119 W. Montgomery Ave., 610-308-0579, myspace.com/berlinlittle.

Germ Books & Gallery

The flier advertising "The Quicksand Fontanelle" will either pique your interest or make you feel nauseated — which is just what folk/psych musician Thomas Nšla has in mind. An unnaturally long finger coming from nowhere pokes the center of a brain-pink swirl atop a baby's head. Only this baby isn't a baby: He's got a snake's tongue, an old man's suit and bow tie, and a wry smile suggesting he doesn't really mind the invasion of his soft spot. Never one to shy away from the queasy-making, Germ Books welcomes Nšla for his first visual-art exhibition of paintings, prints, puppetry and video, all meant to bring up the uneasiness that comes from knowing when something isn't quite right. Opening reception Fri., June 5, 5-9 p.m., free, through July 26, Germ Books & Gallery, 2005 Frankford Ave., 215-423-5002, germbooks.com.

Reprising a 1999 social experiment, Basekamp presents "The Hegemonic Bar II: Another Round." Upon entering, you'll be randomly assigned a class (lower, middle, upper), given "money" that corresponds to that class and sent to one of three rooms. If this First Friday role-playing game is anything like it was a decade ago, lower-class participants will nosh on pretzels and beer; the middle class, cheese and wine; and the upper class, vodka and Godiva. The idea is that once our inhibitions have escaped us, we'll open up about mobility, oppression and power struggles between the classes. Role-play event, Fri., June 5, 6-8 p.m., exhibit of role-play-event video, through July 31, free, Basekamp, 723 Chestnut St., second floor, 215-592-7288, basekamp.com.

New home, new exhibit: Recently relocated to the Piazza at Schmidts, Bambi presents group jewelry/object d'art show "Unbalanced Forces," which draws inspiration from Isaac Newton's first law of motion (objects remain at rest till they're acted upon by — surprise — an unbalanced force). Case in point: A delicate silver ring will topple when its bauble is a giant rubber-band ball. Opening reception Fri., June 5, 6-10 p.m., free, through June 27, Bambi Gallery and Boutique, 1001-13 N. Second St., bambiproject.com.

Speaking of galleries named after four-legged friends, trek to Chinatown and climb a few flights of stairs for "N4TUR3," a group exhibit focusing on the "treacherous borders between the natural and the contemporary worlds." Misako Inaoka takes her subject into her own hands: With what she's calling "sinister craft," the artist places objects found in nature — a bird on a branch, a bunch of grapes — together, manipulating kitsch with a hint of cynicism. Opening reception Fri., June 5, 6-10 p.m., free, through June 26, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, 319A N. 11th St., fourth floor, tigerstrikesasteroid.com.

Former Philly dancemaker and current MUSE director Nancy E.F. Halbert presents "E-motion," a series of abstract expressionist paintings of single pale figures contemplating messy, chaotic lives. Adding texture with jewel-toned collage work, Halbert channels a less-agitated Willem de Kooning, creating a frenzy with muddled textiles and hard-line charcoal, placing her central faceless, sexless character calmly in the center. Opening reception Fri., June 5, 5-9 p.m. (artist meet-and-greet, Sun., June 7, noon-5 p.m.), free, through June 28, MUSE Gallery, 52 N. Second St., 215-627-5310, musegalleryphiladelphia.com.

(carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net)

Down the Garden Path
Kaleidoscope
Lucretia Mod
Avenue X
Pennsylvania Ballet
Back on My Feet Benefit
Matthew Palladino and Eric Shaw: New Works
James Frey