Last Chance

Catch It or Regret It

by Holly Otterbein

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

I'll Teach Your Grandma To Grow Gills

Think of Ashley Payne's mixed media as a self-monitored Rorschach test: The Philly artist blindfolds herself, paints, scribbles or draws whatever comes to mind, removes her blindfold, and then asks, "What do I see?" "Then, at that point, I have a rule," says Payne. "No matter how embarrassing or stupid what I first see is, I have to allow the viewer to see it. I have to develop it."

What gurgles to the surface isn't so surprising or freakish, given that Payne's method leaves her subconscious practically unfiltered. Naked women, plump whales, pink-colored poop and weird amalgams of disparate animals are all in her mind's eye, and most of it is, expectedly, half-evolved, dreamy, hazy. In some pieces, though, it's fair to assume that Payne broke her second, and last, rule — to spend no more than three weeks on a piece. ("It's fun sometimes, spending four weeks on it instead," says Payne. "I feel devious going against myself.") The Way We Give Comfort is one such work — its two female forms, while alien-like and odd, are fully realized, perfect in their strangeness.

A better result arises when Payne plays by the rules, leaving an element or two slightly unhinged. Wissahickon with Suzanne (pictured), for instance, depicts a pleasantly fuzzy white animal with beady eyes and pointy ears, as well as a creature that may or may not be human with a gray, swanlike neck. Like a dream, it's unclear exactly what they are. Ends Oct. 2, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914, paintedbride.org.

Bright Path

This group show is irreverent, but it's also funny and admirable. The rabble-rousers include Duke Riley, whose comic-book name befits his hobby of messing with the Coast Guard in his video Belmont Island. Perhaps John Henry Blatter is more daring, though, for taking on his own: In his audio piece Simulcast, he likens the art world to a fool's horse race. Ends Sept. 27, Little Berlin, 119 W. Montgomery Ave., 610-308-0579, littleberlin.org.

(holly.otterbein@citypaper.net)