Briefly noted: Summer sizzle in and out of town

Cooking elsewhere:

Houston Ripley has a hot show in NYC at Feature Gallery. Ripley’s obsessive inkblot drawings
most remind me of Adolf Wolffli. It’s already up–May 26 to June 29.

Is it a painting? Is it a sculpture? It is what it is–Frank Bramblett at his gnomic best. paint, wood. He makes the paint himself of mixing pigment, encaustic, sawdust, graphite, diatomaceous earth, cement or other materials into an acrylic base. No kidding.

And for a double sizzle (arguably a triple), the amazing Frank Bramblett and the fabulous Zoe Strauss in one exhibit on Long Island???!!! The exhibit is named 3rd and Vine, after the Philadelphia street corner but it’s at Art Sites, 651 West main Street (Route 25), Riverhead from June 9 through July 8. The exhibit, curated by Rafael Ferrer (he’s sizzle #3), is about “artists stimulating artists and making art accessible to all”–apparently even people on Long Island. And why not? A reception for the artists will be held Saturday, June 9, from 5 to 7 PM. Hours are Thursday –Sunday, 12-5 PM. For more information and additional hours call 631 591 2401.

Also in New York, long-time friend Andrea Packard is at The Painting Center until June 16 along with two Gross McCleaf Gallery regulars, Martha Armstrong and Celia Reisman. The subject is the collage aesthetic in painting, and all three are cool landscape painters.

What’s here that’s hotter than coffee

Green Line cafes–there are three of them now, which in my book means INTERNATIONAL CARTEL–are giving their A-One art exhibition program a name–Green Line Art Projects–to reflect that they are taking the exhibition program more seriously. With three locations they hope to feature not just locals in their West Philadelphia cafes but the work of artists from around the country and maybe even around the world. For starters, California Bay Area blogger Chris Ashley has an exhibit, Five Pieces at the Green Line Powelton, open until July 6.