Newsletter

What we want to see Friday


First Friday in August might just as well be the beginning of the fall art season, so busy is it with openings and talks. Here’s what’s on. And in another post I’ll tell you about a special fundraiser happening on Saturday.

319A North 11th Street–5 worthy venues

Kate Stewart's collage Room with a View: Dueling Chairs, at Vox Populi
Kate Stewart’s collage Room with a View: Dueling Chairs, at Vox Populi


The new hub of Center City art at 319A N. 11th St. has five openings that could occupy your whole evening: Vox Populi, Screening, Copy, Tiger Strikes Asteroid and AHN/VHS. Everything looks pretty interesting. Here’s one that particularly caught my fancy:

Screening’s 90-minute video, Two or Three Things I know About Gas Station MiniMarts, with footage of five minimarts looping while appropriated movie dialog from Godard’s 1966 film Two or Three Things I Know About Her is the soundtrack. It sounds odd and oddly compelling.

Little Berlin

Postcard image for Bone Tail, group show at Little Berlin
Postcard image for Bone Tail, group show at Little Berlin

Bone Tail, curated by Tyler Kline. Four artists with sculpture, installation, paintings and prints on the theme of myth and fables. I love the postcard image for its illuminated manuscript reference.

Bambi

Postcard image for Andrew Abbott's show Spectatorship at Bambi
Postcard image for Andrew show Spectatorship at Bambi

The army medic got in touch with Bambi’s Candace Karch via her website pitching a show of his work. The artist, Andrew Abbott, has a degree in art but his images come from a visionary spot inside that is akin to the space outsider artists make from. The artist, who lives in Maine, will be at the opening and Karch says she’s hoping some army brothers stop by to talk with him.

Sage

Mugshots of artists participating in Dragnet at Sage
Mugshots of artists participating in Dragnet at Sage

Dragnet. With 48 artists in an open call show, this should be a wild opening. The postcard image showing mugshots of each of the artists shows how much fun the Sage organizers are having with their South Street space. May it last another 6 months!

First Friday Talks

National Constitution Center

In conjunction with the Slought-organized architecture exhibit Into the Open (first featured at the Venice Biennale), a group of big-name architects and planners will speak about architecture and civic engagement. Free and open to the public but reservations required. Call 215 409 6700

5 PM in Posterity Hall. Jonathan Kirschenfeld, principal of Jonathan Kirschenfeld Architects; Laura Kurgan of the Spatial Information Design Lab at Columbia University; and Damon Rich, founder of the Center for Urban Pedagogy in Brooklyn, NY, who also serves as an urban designer and waterfront planner for the City of Newark, NJ

6 PM  in F. M. Kirby Auditorium. Teddy Cruz, whose photo narrative of the U.S.-Mexico border is prominently displayed on the front lawn of the Center, and Michael Sorkin, respected architecture critic and professor

Basekamp

Genesis Project Opening event
Friday, August 7th, 2009
6 – 8 PM
Talk by Douglas Repetto (Dorkbot NYC, Columbia University)

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