Last Chance

Catch it or regret it

by Holly Otterbein

Knapp Gallery

Though it depicts comely girls, families and birthdays, it's not easy to look at. Ashley Flynn's exhibit "Expelled from Eden," a collection of paintings, drawings, photographs and collages, deals with the unexposed, unsavory side of these subjects — lovely girls getting raped, family dysfunction and birthday parties that scar.

Zoe Strauss, who Flynn's been interning for since 2007, unarguably inspires the young artist's portraits. In an untitled photograph at the front of Knapp Gallery, a chubby, pretty brunette stands naked and dignified next to her mother's transportable toilet, medical paraphernalia and framed picture of a golden-haired Jesus. The suggestion of salvation next to such vulnerability is unnerving. In another untitled photo, a woman watches her grandson watch Scooby-Doo, as two completely nondescript naked bodies cling to each other in a bed next to them. Something can't be right about this.

These subjects are Flynn's family. "Those two boys wrestling are my uncle's identical twins," says Flynn, a fifth-year Moore student who is exhibiting at Knapp for the second time. "I like that the picture is suggestive, but nothing's going on."

Other images are much more openly bleak, and seem to drip straight from Flynn's cluttered unconscious. On the back wall of the gallery (pictured), a mural vividly depicts clowns, Medusa, Hurricane Katrina, heroin needles, rape and an enormous amount of unbecoming nudity. See it now before it's painted over forever in a clean, drab white. Ends Jan. 31, Knapp Gallery, 162 N. Third St., 267-455-0279, knappgallery.com.

Lorenzo Homar Gallery

When I walk into the "La Plena Immortal" exhibit, a dozen or so 4-footers are gathered around Antonio Martorell's paintings, light boxes and woodcuts. "That's hot," one kid says. "That be a nice sneaker," says another.

The work's accessibility reaches past children to also embrace non-Spanish speakers — even if you can't read the pieces' swirling, beautiful script, the exhibit is still engaging. Kaleidoscopic skeletons, swords and judges litter the works. In a mirror with a translucent skull etched into it, you can align your mortal facial structure with its. With such macabre themes, Martorell's inspiration is no surprise. He says he was moved by Hans Holbein's 14th-century woodcuts, which forced him to realize that "plagues, religious fanaticism, wars, hunger and natural disaster are just as prevalent" now as the were then. Ends Jan. 23, Taller Puertorriqueño, Lorenzo Homar Gallery, 2721 N. Fifth St., 215-426-3311, tallerpr.org.

My House Gallery

"Baltidelphia," featuring photographs, installations and prints by 22 pairs of artists from Baltimore and Philly, exists in two places at once. Half of it sits on South Eighth Street, while the other half lives in B-more's Hexagon Space. Look out for Sarah Magida and Kristen Neville's collage and needlework on the long-fought-over Edgar Allan Poe, which is right where it belongs — here in Philly. Ends Feb. 6, by appointment, My House Gallery, 2534 S. Eighth St., myhousegallery.wordpress.com.

(holly.otterbein@citypaper.net)