Roamin' Holiday

Local artist Anthony Campuzano makes the ICA his summer home.

by John Vettese

Jessica Kourkounis MOVIN' OUT (ANTHONY'S SONG): The artist, photographed in his Kensington digs, has packed up and headed west for the Institute of Contemporary Art's "Summer Studio."

[ visual art/workshop ]

You can see Anthony Campuzano reflected in his studio.

The workspace sits on the fourth floor of a Kensington warehouse, where somebody scrawled "Pew!" in white paint on the door. He smiles when I point this out — a buddy did it after news broke that Campuzano was granted a 2009 Pew Fellowship.

Inside, a desk at the window is piled with yellowing newspapers, from which he abstracts headlines and stories into thought-provoking text art. They are joined by other ageless objects of inspiration, like notes and photos.

Tacked to the wall are working versions of his drawings — an original idea, a first variation, a second. Then one that approximates a finished piece we may recall hanging at his recent Fleisher-Ollman Gallery exhibit, "All Right-Still!" Works from past shows sit in nooks behind partitions.

With a workspace so intertwined with its artist, it's difficult to imagine uprooting it. But that's what Campuzano is doing; this month he takes his desk, table and couch, his materials, books and inspirational effects, re-creating his studio at the University of Pennsylvania's Institute of Contemporary Art.

"Summer Studio With Anthony Campuzano," opening tonight, is partly an exhibit, partly a month of interactive programming, and a touch of the artist himself being on display. This last bit makes Campuzano nervous.

"I actually have a drawing I'm going to do that addresses that," he says. Working title: Stage Fright.

But he repeatedly returns to the thought that, while he may act as the host, "Summer Studio" isn't about Campuzano as much as creating an open, inviting, informational and exciting atmosphere for whoever wishes to participate.

The series was hatched to fill a programming gap in the institute's summer schedule. Campuzano, who coordinated the "Melody, Melody and Meg" event for his 2009 ICA exhibit "Touch Sensitive," jumped at the chance to fill it. "Melody" was an evening of art discussion, music (featuring Meg Baird and a backing band of Philly scene all-stars Kurt Vile, Chris Wilson, Chris Smith and Jesse Trbovich) and screenings of two films named Melody.

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"I had one night and I wanted to do all of these things," says Campuzano. "And we pulled it off. It was really a thrill. It's kind of interesting this time, because we actually have more time to do a similar array of things."

The initial idea for "Summer Studio" was summer camp-esque: a group of weekly classes, a series of lectures. Like most artists, Campuzano has participated in numerous programs of that ilk, as a student and a teacher. But, "it developed into two parallel things," Campuzano says. "Highly organized events, and also the idea that you can just come, hang out, look at things and talk."

Among the events are four classes: Campuzano leads this weekend's Sculpture Scavenger Hunt (on Saturday, participants shoot photos on disposable cameras; on Sunday, they turn the developed film into something three-dimensional). He also teaches a drawing class beginning Wednesday, and co-teaches an art history class with Frank Bramblett, Campuzano's former professor at Tyler School of Art, starting on July 17. Paul Ramirez Jonas leads a nontraditional technique workshop on July 22.

"Summer Studio" also features a weekly film series curated by Philadelphia's Jack Sloss, and two music events: Megajam Booze Band performing at tonight's opening, and a tribute to The Fall (one of Campuzano's favorites) on July 29.

Programming isn't all day every day, though, and Campuzano hopes to create an atmosphere that's inviting even during off hours.

"You can come and sit, read a book, talk to me, that's fine," he laughs. "I'm going to be at times busy, at times reflecting, reading. Museums are sometimes like static places, and I think with the ICA being a free museum, and also a total contemporary museum without a collection, it is an alive place."

Clear Wireless donated WiFi to the ICA for the month, for those who want to roll up on lunch break with their laptops. Bramblett and Jonas will exhibit their paintings in a pinup exhibition featuring two of Campuzano's professors, two mentors (Fritz Welch and Anissa Mack) and two peers (paintings by John Finneran and Kate Abercrombie).

And across the room, at his relocated desk, Campuzano will be working. He hopes to use the month to resurrect an abandoned project based on "Studio V" by French cubist Georges Braque. The contours and shapes in Braque's original will be rendered in solid colors, filled in with Campuzano's diaristic recollections of studios he has worked in over the years.

"It is interesting because this is another studio that I can talk about," he says. "Which is a really fancy studio, y'know."

(j_vettese@citypaper.net)

For a complete schedule of "Summer Studio" events, visit icaphila.org/events.