First Friday Focus

Lori Hill's First Friday Hit List

by Lori Hill

	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Jun 30, 2009

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Philadelphia Book Co.

Now that Philadelphia Book Co. has opened its doors to the public, it's hit the ground running by hosting Art Bonanza, a multimedia First Friday event. The book people have rearranged the warehouse space to accommodate paintings, poetry and fashion and let the art people roam free — wine, cheese and all. Liz Krick teamed up with the Book Co. to organize the event, which will show her paintings and the visual art of a few others, as well as the poetry of Vincent Ancona and the fashion design of Andrew Dyer. Krick is a Pop artist in the truest sense of the word, taking cues from Warhol and Lichtenstein's bright, neon graphic sensibilities while remaining unique on her own. She takes baby dolls and bunnies and mannequins (pictured, detail) and does things ... well, just look for yourself. Michael Moffa comes from a similar place but embeds his visions into collages, acrylic paintings and postage stamps. Most interesting to me, though, is his reappropriation of 1920s fashion templates — flapper ladies with their long strings of pearls and curly bobs reimagined in twisted landscapes and psychedelic patterns. Krick wants everyone to "see art, be art." So she's asking visitors to come dressed as art, however they may interpret the idea. She wants viewers to become part of the exhibit, which could either be beautiful or hilarious depending on the crowd. But maybe the two aren't mutually exclusive. Fri., July 3, 6 p.m.-midnight, 1113 Frankford Ave., 215-291-5880.

Started by those rabble-rousing surrealists in the '20s, the exquisite corpse tradition lives on at Space 1026 this month. For the "Cadaver Corpse" show, curator Tessa Perutz did a postal version, sending more than 50 artists a blank head, torso and legs through the mail in three separate sections. I can imagine Perutz in a studio gleefully pasting all the pieces together like a Duchampian Dr. Frankenstein. The patched-up bodies contain elements of conceptualism and abstraction, and the materials run the gamut from glitter to lipstick to a $5 bill. Look for work from muralists and illustrators, students and professors and others like Joshua Abelow, Cody Hudson, Tyson Reeder, Leslie Kulesh and Jayson Musson. Opening reception Fri., July 3, 7-10 p.m., through July 31, 1026 Arch St. , 215-574-7630.

Affected deeply by the events of 9/11, UPenn Fine Arts graduate and then faculty member Hitoshi Nakazato questioned his own work and relevance, so much so that he temporarily stopped a major project. Eventually coming to terms with his own contributions to society, Nakazato resumed working and has continued, into his 70s, to be a force in contemporary art. Now, Pageant recognizes the artist with "Hiroshima Revisited: An Exploration to Transcend Modernism in Black and White." But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Rewind to spring 2008, when the artist experienced another stall in his work, this time not of his own doing. He had begun what was to become the Pageant show as a site-specific commission for a Japanese gallery to remember the atomic bombing on the Aug. 6 anniversary. The gallery and financial backers unfortunately went bankrupt and the project collapsed. That's when Daniel Dalseth saw the artist's work in his studio and offered Pageant's space as a home for the show. "Hiroshima Revisited" will have 30 panel paintings and six monoprints hanging like banners — quiet, peaceful memorials that speak volumes with inches. While thousands of miles away from its intended audience and installation, the exhibition will surely have its own relevance here in Philadelphia. Opening reception Fri., July 3, 7 p.m., through Aug. 9, 607 Bainbridge St., 215-925-1535.

At the tail end of the month, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts gives Heather Harvey an artist's reception, but you can catch her "Fractious Happy" show (my favorite show title in quite a while), where she scrapes, sands, punctures and plasters the walls with her bold, energetic vision. Reception Thu., July 23, 5-8 p.m., through Oct. 11, 200 S. Madison St., Wilmington, 302-656-6466. ... In tandem with PAFA's retrospective, Seraphin Gallery presents "Strange Clarity," a show of works by Sidney Goodman, who always seems to have something new and stunning up his paint-splattered sleeve. Through July 28, 1108 Pine St., 215-923-7000.

(l_hill@citypaper.net)

Blessed Union
1776
City of Nutterly Love
Kaleidoscope
A Rake's Progress
Collaboration 26