First Friday Focus

Carolyn Huckabay's First Friday Hit List

by Carolyn Huckabay

Mario Nascati Jr GIRL NEXT DOOR: Khmer Art Gallery's "After Life" explores the Cambodian diaspora in Philadelphia through the eyes of its youngest members (Untitled, pictured).

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Browsing photographer Mario Nascati Jr.'s solo exhibit "After Life," what you'll notice first are the kids. Barefoot toddlers peeking out from behind ramshackle doorways, serious-looking 5-year-olds digging in the dirt, thrift-store-clad girls staring straight into the lens of the camera, unfazed. Says Nascati of the series he's built slowly over years of observation in local Cambodian communities, "There seemed to be an absence of adults." Inspired by a stint as an instructional aide in a Philadelphia classroom full of Cambodian students, the South Philly-born Nascati, 56, began to pick up on an undeniable trend: Despite the pressures of adjusting to a new language, new culture, new country, the Cambodian diaspora has produced a community built on resilience — which shines through even its youngest members. "Despite [being] plunged into a strange place," Nascati says of the kids he photographed, "there was no reticence. They always offered little hands to me." Opening reception Fri., Feb. 5, 6-9 p.m., free, ends Feb. 28, 319 N. 11th St., 215-922-5600, khmerartgallery.com.

Jason Andrew Turner's not too keen on artist statements. "They're just so awkward," he says. "When you're writing about something you're passionate about, there's a fine line between being a pretentious know-it-all [and being] off-point and over-thought." When pressed, Turner might tell you that his work — on view at Reward's "Slow Wide Turns" exhibit — is "born out of optimistic existentialism." But he'd rather you see it for yourself. When you do, you'll find images of landscapes peppered by conspicuous triangles and nude women whose soulful — yet somehow vacant — faces tell knotty stories. "I like to think that the girl drawings are just a piece of a bigger puzzle, a character on a page of a story," Turner says, "and that all the landscapes are beginning to merge into this giant narrative that we don't know the ending to yet." Which just goes to show that a statement incomplete is a statement nonetheless. Opening reception Fri., Feb. 5, 6-10 p.m., ends Feb. 28, 55 N. Second St., 267-773-8675, rewardproject.com.

Germ Books + Gallery's February exhibit doubles as a benefit for the Nikola Tesla Inventors Club. "Art Inspired by Nikola Tesla" compiles variously madcap visual representations of the Serbian inventor who, says curator Mark Passio, "fused science with spirit" in everything he created. Opening reception Fri., Feb. 5, 5-9 p.m., ends March 21, Germ Books, 2005 Frankford Ave., 215-423-5002, germbooks.com. ... In November, Arcadia U. chose 22 pieces of art for "Works on Paper," its much-celebrated annual juried show. But that means a whopping 1,200-plus artworks got the boot. Enter Little Berlin's "Works on Paper Rejects," open to anyone who didn't make the cut. Opening reception Fri., Feb. 5, 6-11 p.m., ends Feb. 27, Little Berlin, 119 W. Montgomery Ave., 610-308-0579, littleberlin.org.

(carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net)