Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia names 55 finalists
The Knight Foundation released the names of 55 finalists for its Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia 2012. Finalists include artists, musicians, collectives, and community groups in the region. Winners are to be announced in the Spring.

Visual arts finalists include: Asian Arts Initiative, Brandywine Workshop, Center City District, Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Chestnut Hill Friends Meetinghouse Project,COSACOSA art at large, Crane Arts, David Clayton, Erica Hawthorne, Fleisher Art Memorial, Franklin’s Paine Skatepark Fund, Geoffrey Johnson, Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, Katarina Dudas, Little Berlin, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia Youth Media Collaborative, RAIR, Inc., Scribe Video Center, Sean Stoops, The Clay Studio, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, The Hacktory, The University of the Arts, The Village of Arts and Humanities, University City District, and Vic Reznik.

Congratulations to all the finalists!

Met hires contemporary art curator away from Tate

Sheena Wagstaff

In a move to strengthen its role in contemporary art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art approved the appointment Sheena Wagstaff – a former curator at Tate London – as director of its new program of 20th and 21st Century art. The Met also plans to utilize the recently acquired Marcel Breuer building at Madison Avenue and 75th Street (otherwise known as the Whitney Museum of American Art) as its modern and contemporary outpost while it undergoes renovations.

Sharon Butler looks ahead to 2012
In a move to foresee the year of 2012, Sharon Butler makes seven predictions about the future in art. Among her predictions are that art funding will be on the rise, however artists will be faced with the ongoing challenge of how to represent their projects as giving back to the community. She also expects MFA enrollment to decline on account of fewer teaching jobs in the arts and a lack of job prospects for those studying art. That said, she expects new jobs to be created in the writing, art handling, and social media fields.

New Philadelphia art marketing campaign

Mayor Nutter with members of the art community today

The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) is set to launch a new marketing campaign – With Art Philadelphia – to bolster the city as a competitive global name in the arts. This effort marks the first coordinated and sustained marketing venture of its kind in the city, and coincides with the opening of the new Barnes Foundation.

People’s Biennial to open at Haverford College
Haverford College is hosting the People’s Biennial which opens on January 27. The show explores artists who work outside of the mainstream art world and includes 36 contemporary names from places not traditionally recognized as art hubs.  Philadelphia’s Maiza Hixson, artist and Curator at the DCCA,  has a video in this show.

Main Line Art Center director to retire
The board of the Main Line Art Center in Haverford has announced that long time Executive Director Judy Herman will retire in August. Herman has been the director for nearly 25 years and helped to greatly expand the art center’s staff and budget during her time as director.

Libby and Roberta Commonwealth Speakers
We told you before that Libby and Roberta were selected to share their knowledge as Commonwealth Speakers through the Pennsylvania Humanities Council. The full list of speakers has been released, as well as the application for talks at your location. Visit your local library or community center and ask them to have Libby and Roberta come talk about art!

Bryn Mawr Film Institute live screening of Da Vinci exhibit
We’ve heard that some operas have been broadcast in local theaters, well now the Bryn Mawr Film Institute brings us a live preview of the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition at the UK’s National Gallery. The preview will screen on January 21 at 11:00 AM.

Vote for Philly artists!
So you’re not in Iowa, New Hampshire, or South Carolina to vote in the primaries? Well you can still vote for something worthwhile – local artists! Visit the West Collects site or Saatchi Online to cast your vote for Philadelphia artists in their respective competitions.

Opportunities

A new reality show called Ultimate Craft Throwdown is casting for creative individuals to showcase their skills on TV. If you think you have what it takes, e-mail CraftCasting@gmail.com with your full name and contact info, city, a short paragraph about you, as well as pictures of you and your work. The deadline is January 20.

Art in City Hall is seeking artists for Meta-Fiber, part of FiberPhiladelphia 2012. The call is open to artists working with fiber and textiles in non-traditional ways.

Goggleworks Center for the Arts in Reading, PA has an open call for its show Vanity Fare Art Inspired by Fashion. The deadline is January 28.

Rhizome Commisions 2012 is on the lookout for emerging artists who create significant works of new media art. Grants generally range from $1000 – $5000. The deadline is April 15.

The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha has opened up applications for their 2013 residency (via Wooloo.org). Applications are open in a variety of media: conceptual, drawing, film, installation, and digital. The deadline is February 28.

Flying Kite brings us this fun opportunity: Headlong Dance Company is looking to turn your house into a dance space! The group is seeking interested/interesting individuals to host a performance entitled “This Town is a Mystery” for the Live Arts Festival in September. Find details and application materials here.

The West Collection has announced its 2012 “Make” series. Proposals for 1-2 hour workshops are the name of the game. Propose a good workshop and get paid $500 to teach it! Send your outline to lee@westcollection.org by February 15 to be considered.

Proposals are currently being accepted for the Museum of Art and Peace in Germantown. The quarterly exhibitions feature work involved with social justice and peacemaking ideals. Visit the submissions page for all the information.

Artist News

Theodore A. Harris, "On the Throne of Fire", 2008, mixed media collage.

In the Media: Theodore Harris, Philadelphia collage and assemblage artist, was featured in an interview with Montreal Serai.

From the Extra Extra interview, "Fast Meridian", 2011.

The fine people from Extra Extra sat down with Title Magazine for an interview, and there is also a 30-minute podcast of their discussion as well.

Mayor Nutter participates in the Sustainable City Mayoral Panel, Friday, May 6, 7-8:30pm ($10), part of the Festival of Ideas for the New City, a symposium May 4-8 at the New Museum, sponsored by the NuMu, NYU, Columbia and other New York organizations.  Follow their blog.

Mayor Michael Nutter

Among the other glamorous people involved in the Mayoral panel are David Byrne, the musician and bicycle advocate, who will do a prologue; Sergio Fajardo, mayor of Medellin, Colombia, who will talk about transforming his city from a gangster paradise to a safe city (it is reportedly one of the safest in Colombia now); and Kurt Anderson of Studio 360 who will moderate. Nutter will talk about his Greenworks Philadelphia project.

ICA Director Gould’s panel, Sunday, May 8, 11am, Gavin Brown’s Enterprize, 620 Greenwich (RSVP to Caitlin Stuart 
info@newyorkgalleryweek.com), is part of New York Gallery Week. The panel rounds up representatives from university-based museums around the country to talk about networking and other things having to do with running a major art institution these days.

Coming to a mailbox near you

Joe Boruchow, perfect mailbox adornment

Look for Joe Boruchow‘s specially-beautified mailboxes around the city. This artist’s one-man beautification project keeps on giving!

Pifa over, Warren goes to France

Warren Muller, in Paris this month

Lighting and furnishings impresario of Bahdeebahdu, Warren Muller, goes to Gargas, France, where he and his assistant Rebecca Pulver will be creating a sculpture for the luminary collection of Mathie Lustrerie. Follow this on Warren’s blog,

Hennessy Youngman at PAFA

Hennessy Youngman, mogul of YouTube, with a deep catalog of Art Thoughtz

Art Thoughtz creator Hennessy Youngman  keeps making noise. We hear he will be staging an intervention at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts this fall, dropping advice on the august institution about the role of the artist and other stuff. We don’t know what’s more exciting–Hennessy’s success or PAFA’s contemporary art explosion!

Opportunities

Sally Dennison New York NY "Ingrid", fifth place winner in the 2010 Photo Review Challenge Digital chromogenic print, 24"x16" Fifth Prize

Photographers – 2011 Photo Review Competition wants you. Juror is Robert Mann, Director of the Robert Mann Gallery in New York.  See website for more. All entries must be received by May 31, 2011.

Photographers 2-Philadelphia Photo Art Center wants you for its second annual juried show, “A Love Supreme.”  Juror: Peter Barberie, Curator of Photographs, Philadelphia Museum of Art. For more information and to apply online, see their website. The deadline is Tuesday, May 10th.

Artists in all media – The Wood Turning Center just announced call for artists for the next Challenge show — Challenge VIII Bartram’s Boxes Remix (BBR) –. Open to WTC members and non-members, covering all categories of artists — “wood turners, furniture makers, sculptors, painters, printers, video, installation, performance, and multi-media artists.” Collaborations are welcome. the project is a collaboration between the WTC and Bartram’s Garden. Create objects from wood from Bartram’s Garden–wood downed by recent storms. More information and pdf application here. Snail mail application due Aug. 30.

Artists in all media that fits in the display cases – Passionate for sports? Make art about it?  Be in the Art in City Hall sports-theme show, “Score.”  Snail mail submission. Email artincityhall@phila.gov for pdf with guidelines.  Jurors: Max Mason
, Sean Stoops, 
Richard Watson. Deadline for submission:  Received by Friday, June 3rd by 4 pm.

Gary Steuer

We had never been up in the nosebleed section of City Hall so we asked Steuer what else was up there and he told us there were Police Evidence Unit rooms with guns from crime investigations. And that in fact there were two more floors, 8th and 9th, with offices that were also used for storage — for dead letter files. Why use prime real estate for storage we asked? Apparently, the rooms are not up to code to house office workers and besides there are no elevators up to 8 and 9. You could argue the logic but you can’t argue the money. Bringing City Hall up to code is just too expensive.

Steuer wore a shiny lapel pin that said LOVE in the fashion of the Love Park sculpture by Robert Indiana. We thought that was a great touch. He got the pin at the Welcome Center in Love Park and was proud that the city had actually licensed the pins from the artist and hadn’t picked them up from some non-licensed vendor.

After a year in office, Steuer, a New Yorker and, among other things, former blogger for the Barry Hessenius’s group blog (read a Gary post) and Americans For the Arts blog (he was the director — read a post) was happy to tell us that he’d started a new blog!

“I’ve been dabbling for a while [in blogs]” he told us, adding that we all should be “cross blogging,” a buzz-word we didn’t know but think we’ll use from now on. He’s pretty active on his blog with recent posts on the Barnes parkway issue, the state budget and a new study just completed by Penn Praxis that looks at all Philly’s public art programs.  We’re impressed.

So what has the former art student turned art educator and arts administrator done in the non-cyber world to show his LOVE to Philadelphia’s arts community? It turns out he’s been behind the scenes cheering on the troops, pulling strings to get permits for events like Hidden City and the Creative Time/Jeremy Deller temporary project at the Constitution Center and getting a lot done. He’s also managed to pull a financial rabbit out of a city hat coming up with new dollars that will soon be available to arts groups in amounts ranging from $25,000-$250,000 for capital projects that involve hiring new staff.

The story of how he found this money — Community Development Block Grant money coming in through the recent US stimulus funds — and got it targeted to arts groups makes a great story, if not a page turner. It involves a tip from a reporter, Steuer’s vast knowledge of who knows the ins and outs of public funding at the federal level, and his ability to speak truth to power and convince a city agency (the Commerce Department) that for more than 25 years they had no basis in law for excluding arts organizations from the CDBG funds. Look for guidelines on who can apply in that program soon, he said.

One other big accomplishment is his creation of a new Art in City Hall gallery! Yes, it’s coming!!! Out of the old Mayor’s Action Center on the ground floor level of City Hall, Steuer is carving an 800 square ft. gallery.  The gallery will be inside the new Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, which is also moving down and consolidating to include in one office all the city art programs–Art in City Hall, the city’s Public Art Program, and the city’s Cultural Development program. Plus the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, which is really a private contractor, is also downstairs. “We wanted to send a message that this office was here.”

The gallery is going to be a modified white box gallery with nice lighting. “It’s an accomplishment. We did it without new money” and with the ability to be more flexible than what goes on upstairs in the Art in City Hall cases. As for the Art in City Hall program, there still will be the vitrines, he said, but the new space, in the City Hall corridor that is tourist central (it’s next to the Gift Shop and City Hall tours office), will be an opportunity to present shows that relate to art things going on about town, for example, the Design Philadelphia exhibit when that’s in town; the Philagrafika exhibit when that’s here…Synergy!

Meanwhile, Steuer said he’d like to follow up on the success of Jun Kaneko’s heads in City Hall courtyard. That temporary public art project, too, was done without public money, mostly thanks to the generosity of Sueyen Locks who spearheaded the fundraising to cover shipping, installation and other costs.

The City Hall courtyard, the portals, all look like good spaces to him for other temporary public art installations. Visions of Public Art Fund and Creative Time projects, a la New York, dance in his head (and in ours, too, we confess). Another temporary installation he helped facilitate is coming soon–pyrotechnics from firecracker artist Cai-Guo Qiang scheduled for December on the east side of the Art Museum. The events required clearing hurdles with Fairmount Park and the Fire Department. Presto, things will explode!

Steuer says he’s met with lots of people in the arts community and is looking forward to meeting many more. He says he’s listening to suggestions. So check out his blog and write him a comment. Now, will someone please give him some dollars to work with?

At a time of great energy and excitement in the city’s art community, “Art in City Hall”—an exhibition program launched in 1984—is stuck doing business the old-fashioned way.

Art in City Hall exhibition case deprives the art of energy and turns it into specimens

The program is hobbled with an inaccessible location and locked into exhibit cases that severely limit what the artists can show (no video, for example). Housed in 13 glass cases in hallways on the second and fourth floors, the art exhibitions are seen by very few people: city employees, those doing business in City Hall and artists’ friends and families who attend openings. The public is welcome, but the display is hard to find and visitors must sign in, get a printed name badge and pass through electronic security gates before heading to the show.

Looking up at the surreal gargoyles and statuary atop the Northeast corner of City Hall. Inside the art is locked in glass cases.

Right now, the 50-artist juried exhibit “In Your Dreams” is on view.  The show captures the artists’ reverie-fueled imaginings and demonstrates that almost a century after the Surrealist movement, dream imagery continues to attract a range of artists.

As with all big art roundups, “In Your Dreams” is a little uneven.   There is standout work, but 13 cases is a lot of space to fill.  And in between works that feel fresh and exciting, there’s dross. Paintings that parrot the Surrealists too closely (the back of a bald man’s head before a lovely cloudy sky too closely evokes Magritte; vessels in the shape of human figures with body parts seen outside the body are typical magic realism imagery).  Some images are too cute (bunnies and bunny slippers staring at each other), and some sculptures seem amateurish, the materials in need of better handling.

Justin Duerr, detail, Guardian Sisters of the Wombic: Calm inside the First Bor, ink on paper. 39x70"

The most gripping work is by Justin Duerr, a true visionary artist. Duerr—who is part of Coalition Ingenue, the advocacy group that helps the homeless express themselves through art—makes fantastical ink drawings on napkins, placemats and butcher paper. In his one work in the show, words and images float together in an inky gameboard-like design that is edge-to-edge manic. Every part of the image feels like it is coming straight at you. Angry birds wearing dresses scream an urgent message. An androgynous figure—depicted several times—speaks an obsessive inner monologue about suffering, escape, loss and being shot. The work is amazing and beautiful.

Tanya Murphy Dodd's photo collage

Elsewhere, Tanya Dodd’s photo collage of an African-American family sitting on railroad tracks in the middle of a dark forest evokes the ghosts of the Underground Railroad. Kip Deeds’ delicate drawing of himself on an impossibly tall ladder with a crowd of faces watching him is a depiction of every artist’s fear of failure.

Kip Deeds, Almost Finished, mixed media. detail

Like many Art in City Hall shows this one has some wonderful art and is worth seeing.  But artists would get more benefit from the city’s art program if their 21st century art was shown in 21st century fashion somewhere more accessible to the majority of art viewers.

“ In Your Dreams ” Through Sept. 11. Free. “Art in City Hall,” second and fourth floors, NE corner. 215.686.9912

I’ve been out sick…caught a virus from my kids, so I apologize for getting back to you sooo late. First off, thank you for the write up on the artblog. Did you see that Kathryn [Pannepacker] will be on the cover of American Craft magazine?

The display cases were built by Wormwood and Haze, good ole Paul Swenbeck and Joy Feasley. They were done in time for last fall’s show: “The Green Exhibit.” It’s been long overdue to have new cases. We still have the old ones on the fourth floor, however…Hmmm.

As you may know, Art In City Hall has never had a budget from the city. We are made possible by private donations, so it was quite an undertaking to raise money for these cases, as well as keep the program afloat especially without an Office of Arts and Culture for so long (since 6/2004).

The material is MDF with recycled plywood framing, including the backing for the wall. We also use dimmable flourescents to conserve energy. The only thing that’s not environmentally friendly is the plexi-glass. The old cases had homosote over that store-display horizontal plywood backing. The glass was larger, which cost an astronomical amount more, so Paul reduced the size of the glass, and voila. There are obvious differences between the old and new, but overall, we’re all very pleased.

As for those old cases on the fourth floor, I’m a little pissed off about what happened to them the other week. When you were there, I’m sure you may have noticed the footprints on the bases of those cases in addition to the old plexi. A film crew had to remove those cases temporarily for their shoot in City Hall (movie: Law Abiding Citizen). It’s great that there are movies done in Philadelphia. There’s just nothing convenient about it for us; in fact, there’s not much convenience at all in having exhibitions in City Hall; but this place, this building, the “people’s building” deserves the people’s art, as much as we can have it presented that is.

The exhibits are organized by local arts professionals, and I simply help coordinate the shows, so there is a great deal of independence involved, and I’d like to think, some integrity and credibility. Of course, the dark cases often do not support the work that’s shown. Some shows are hits and others misses, which is also the reality/nature of juried shows selected through digitals and/or slides.

The Fifth floor
In addition to the display cases, if you visit the fifth floor north corridor, you’ll find artwork as well. No display cases. Hung right off the walls on hanging rods. This is our community space. Usually nonprofits, grassroots organizations, some not necessarily even art institutions, show their work here. We have student exhibitions, shows for seniors, city employees…You name it. It’s all in the context of community, not necessarily academic although we have professional artists participate some times as well. Currently, the Photographic Society of Philadelphia has an exhibition there. Afterward, Drexel University’s Graduate Interior Design thesis show (amazingly they had no where to show their work). Groups usually send in a proposal for the space, it’s then reviewed, and the exhibition planning begins. In the summer, we’ll host the Health Federation student poster contest; in the fall, Taller Puertorriqueno’s students, Park House Guides art contest with Moore College of Art, and the annual city govt. employees show sponsored by the National Arts Program Foundation. Mural Arts will feature an exhibition on the first floor in October, West corridors, also using the hanging system.

We are hoping to expand with this newly created office. Hopefully in the future, there can be more exhibitions on the first floor to make artwork more accessible to the general public. Perhaps installations in the portals, the courtyard, the incredible stairwells…There are obvious challenges to all that, which we’ll have to figure out, but City Hall has always been this great potential. If we get the right people together and the commitment, we can perhaps better serve emerging local artists and provide more exhibition opportunities. That’s what I’m thinking this Friday morning anyway. The People’s art in the People’s house…not your typical spaces for exhibitions.

The medium is mostly 3-D and colorful. The more sculptural and the more colorful the work, the better it looks in the glass cases. The thing about fiber is it’s very populist in its appeal–just the ticket for this sort of public space.

The choices–curated by Kathryn Pannepacker, whose devotion to area fiber artists must deserve some kind of an award–are varied, and at times edgy, at other times traditional, unfettered by any narrow philosophy of what fiber art is. Pannepacker selected a couple of with fibers made of glass, by Martha Savery-Kahn (of Little Berlin). The green book wrapped with glass is scrumptuous at the same time that it suggests the fragility of words, paper, and the ecosystem. The hand-made-paper dresses of Lesley Haas look spectacular in the cases, also suggesting fragility–this time of our past and fashion and our bodies–not to mention offering the pleasure of adornment and the ways that clothing redefines body shape.

Francine Strauss, Looped, crochet yarn of mixed fibers

Also in the clothing category, a crazy crocheted boa or neck warmer by Francine Strauss seems like a dare–as in would you dare to wear this thing, with its mix of crazy shapes and colors and drape! At the other extreme, the exhibit includes weavings that include a traditional Ukrainian skirt and sash by Vera Nakonechny–totally wearable–and Patricia Doran’s Wild Fire hanging, that was lovely for its colors and textures and references to the natural world.

The exhibit includes several wonderful basketry pieces. Duane Weber’s geometric Sphinx is a shield shape that’s an odd mix of peculiarity, fierce control and geometry that set me wondering what he was up to.  Jane J. Wilkie’s basket of fabric and grape vines won me over with its colors, textures and sheer exuberance.

Patty Greenspoon, Along for the Ride, mixed media fiber

Patty Greenspoon‘s poetic Along for the Ride is a doll toting smaller dolls on her shoulders and portraits on the front and back–that’s five figures in one small object that was surely under 9 inches tall! She becomes a Venus of Willendorf carrying all of womankind on her strong shoulders! The doll includes a variety of traditional needlework techniques, from applique to embroidery. Another doll-like piece by Diana Koss is totemic, a sort of tree of life, the figure’s antlers housing a bird’s nest. and Gretchen Slentz’ Beaded cat (and also her Beaded Bra) are exotic, their encrustations suggesting Eastern tastes, from belly dancers to Persian rugs to Russian ethnic garb.

Bette Uscott-Woolsey, Sound Effects, embroidery/dye

Following a system of rules, a la James Siena’s drawings, Bette Uscott-Woolsey created Sound Effects, an intense, small square of markings with threads. The pattern is quilt-like, but the tight structure implies a weight and density that is a nice surprise.

Shelby Donnelly, Document, silk, ink, thread

Uscott-Woolsey’s square is one of several flat pieces that stand up well in the cases. So does June Blumberg’s Yellow Lion & Flower Monkey, really a painting except that it’s made of collage fabric as well as paint. The expressions on the lion’s and monkey’s faces in what looks like a domestic space charmed me. Shelby Donnelly’s notebook page, Document, of pink silk, the page lines and margin line executed as reckless quilting stitches, has three-ring binder holes bordered by what looks like a buttonhole stitch. I was surprised by the choice of pink silk, but the execution was delightful.

Jane J. Wilkie, Bowl in Raspberry Lime, fabric, grape vines

It has been quite a while since the cases received a makeover, with sheetrock backing instead of the old aluminum-slat hanging system, but that transformation from mobile-home aesthetics into something closer to white-box gallery aesthetics has generally not been enough to boost the ugliest vitrines on earth into something art friendly.

So, it must be the art!!!

The show includes 50 artists. The rest of them are: 

Wendolyn Anderson, Virginia Batson, Linda Celestian, Karen Donde, Stephanie Dorfman, Marie Elcin, Elizabeth W. Fram, Adrienne Gale, Alyson Giantisco,  Melissa Maddonni Haim, Ted Hallman, Nancy Herman, Sara Horne, Toni Kersey, Pat diPaula Klein, Maris Fisher Krasnegor, Marilyn E. Lavins, Betty Leacraft, Susan Leonard, Craig Matthews, Emily McBride, Bette McCarron, Leslie Meeks, Nancy Middlebrook, Valetta, Pam Pawl, Christopher Ray, Sheila Ruen, Ellen Sall, Sophie Sanders, Lee Harper Schultz, Kathy Selbst, Marci Smoger, Pete Stevens, Jacqueline Unanue, Helen Webber, and Kiersten Wildermuth.

Kathryn Pannepacker on the windiest day of the year on North Broad

Pannepacker has been one of the driving forces behind the fiber extravaganzas that have been happening in Philadelphia for the past few years. She recently created a new Wall of Rugs, the second version of this idea, on North Broad Street, for the Mural Arts Program. Roberta and I, visiting her as she worked on one of the windiest day of the winter, were struck by how she made the people who stopped by and chatted with her a part of the project. Pannepacker asked about their native lands, researched the rug patterns from those lands, and then followed up on the random conversations by adding those patterns to the wall. She simultaneously had a weaving project right out there on Broad Street, creating a rug from plastic bags! She definitely has her pulse on the people of Philadelphia!

As far as art “of the people, by the people, for the people” in City Hall, the “for the people” element has taken a turn for the worse. To get into City Hall these days, you have to go through a checkpoint (being paid for by Homeland Security). The first time I went, the line was long and slow. So this week was my second attempt to see the current Art in City Hall exhibit.

I imagine this new situation might be a barrier to anyone but friends and family of the artists involved, which is too bad, because the summer show Art of the City goes down like a mint julep on a hot summer day.

Sarah Steinwachs, Detritus and Light, drawings

Curated by local artist and current Art in City Hall Exhibitions Committee
Chair Cavin Jones, the exhibit has some offbeat choices that turn what could have been a snore into something worth a detour.

Anne Minich’s dark Cloud, with its little airplane and unlikely rocky mound put our lives here on earth into some sort of perspective–and broaden the theme of the show beyond the cityscape.

Miriam Singer, Imaginary Map 6, pencil, marker and monotype on paper

The layered life of the cityscape, though, is a theme that anchors the show. The urban grid and its jazzy stops and starts is the subject of Miriam Singer’s two mappy pieces. Singer’s work is an accretion of time and space. She carries the paper around with her to work on as she moves around the city, until layers of print and mark-making and scars like folds and small tears from the paper’s travels reach critical mass.

Other abstractions in the show didn’t stray far from the grid, focusing on windows and bricks.

Keiko Miyamori, City Root Maquette #2, root, bricks, metals in plastic block (the drawing, a detail of which is reflected on the block, is from Sean O’Rourke’s sweet cartoony pen and ink of San Francisco)

Keiko Miyamori’s two root sculptures go beneath the surface, pushing the show in still another unexpected direction. The roots encased in plastic are of the Only God can make a root variety, even amid the detritus of concrete and other urban materials. The theme also shows up beautifully in three lovely drawings by Sarah Steinwachs, two of them of detritus and light and one of light on windows (Only God can make light).

Walter Edmonds, Past/Future, oil on canvas

For Louis Allen Charles, Walter Edmonds, and Leroy Johnson, the changes of the city over time are things to ponder. Charles’ Summer–Old Philadelphia, circa 1914, offers an outsider perspective on an old, busy city street with tall modern buildings in the distance looming like ghosts above. Edmonds seemingly cheerful illustration on canvas of a neighborhood, on close inspection shows a weedy sidewalk with boarded up buildings and the march of gentrification–and change. And Johnson’s construction from found objects, with rooms, views and layers of lives, suggests a social structure as well as a building structure on the verge of collapse.

Laura Jean Zito, Biker by the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, b/w gelatin silver point

The layers of space come through loud and clear in Laura Jean Zito’s photograph of bikers with a background of the city’s visual clutter and space confusion. The photograph has sharp lights and darks and a wonderful feel of spinning out of control.

Chelsea Combs, The Sound of Pants Drying, silver gelatin print

A photo by Chelsea Combs takes a thoughtful tack. “The Sounds of Pants Drying,” was a nice conceptual stab at the urban scene; the pants, like the homeless person they seem to represent, use the upwell of cool air from the subway tunnel to dry off. On a more literal note but with a related theme, Deborah Gross-Zuchman’s collage of obscenely large vegetables with a starving child below is a political poster about hunger in the land of plenty.

The exhibit has 39 artists, and the City Hall political meter — or maybe it was the PC-meter — was on high alert, so the list of artists arrived with a zip code next to each name. As usual, the exhibit was in those awful glass cases on the second and fourth floor, but this show seemed to rest pretty comfortably within and somewhat overcome those limitations.

Anyway, I think it’s a shame that this program, which mixes its democratic agenda with some serious work, is such an uneasy fit in City Hall.

Gobble, gobble. I thought this could pass as turducken. Have a good one.

Oh, and the duck is now on exhibit as part of the Metals and More show of works by 18 Philadelphia sculptors in City Hall. The exhibit, curated by artist Charles Burwell, runs to Feb. 2007 on the second and fourth floors of City Hall. Also in the show, besides Leo Sewell, who I believe did this duck, are: I. George Bilyk, Steve Donegan, James Fuhrman, Nadja S. Gustafson, Warren Holzman, Paul R. Hubbard, Marilyn E. Lavins, Gina Michaels, Zoila Perry, Marie Rim, Eric Schultz, Adam Shuman, Christopher Smith, Stan Smokler, Anyta Thomas, Dina Wind and Arleen Race Wolf.

Put on your hiking boots because to see the exhibit requires pacing hundreds of feet of hallways and ascending two flights of stairs. Apart from those logistics, what’s in the exhibits is almost always worth the trip.

Right now you’ll find the cases full of drawings and paintings by local childrens’ book illustrators. The reason to go is to see how these folks handle narrative. Mostly the strategies are straightforward story-telling of classic tales. Interestingly, though, there’s lots of room for individuality and humor. Two cases in particular talked to me. Lee Wilkinson’s illustrations in Case 9 which seemed to combine vast, minimalist fields of color with figures and odd scale shifts to evoke something poetic. In fact, I found their affect quite like some of the work I’ve seen at Vox Populi over the last several years (I’m thinking Jen Macdonald and Kelley Roberts in particular).

But the mystery of the show came at the end of the line in Juliet Wayne’s Case 13. Instead of book illustrations, Wayne installed the case like a little dollhouse theatre with an upstairs and a downstairs and a red and pink game board path pulling it all together. With its kindergarten materials (construction paper and flannel cut-out) and earnest affect, it trumped the show. The piece was outsider-y and both creepy (a little) and charming.

Wayne’s artist’s statement, affixed to the case, told this story. The artist played the game of “LIFE” as a six year old and lost. She lost because she didn’t wind up with a career (doctor, lawyer etc), something she calls prophetic because she “still [doesn't] have an occupation.”

I’m not sure what that all means. Maybe she considers book illustration less an occupation than a game? (image top is Case 13; image bottom is detail)