Midweek News, Chuck Patch, Ken Lum, Shifting Realities, Art in City Hall’s 22nd anniversary, Philadelphia Independent Film Festival and much more

Silver Keeps, book of street photography from the 1970s to present by Chuck Patch!

Art in City Hall celebrates 22 years – congrats, Tu Huyn! 300 exhibitions

Shifting Realities at Taller Puertorriqueño

Margo Tassi’s landscape show, Divergent Views, Wallingford Community Arts Center

Philadelphia Independent Film Festival – Tickets and Schedule here

BigRamp – Air Alone (from my dream) – May 3 Opening.

First Friday: 80s Night – Science History Institute

Quintessence Theatre presents The Return of Benjamin Lay

Panda Fest – Link to the tickets, link to the event

Roberta: Hi everyone. It’s Roberta.

Ryan: And this is Ryan, and this is the Midweek News

Roberta: on Artblog Radio. All right, so I got a book. In the mail. I’m such a bibliophile. I love books. This is by a friend of mine named Chuck Patch. He’s a photographer and it’s street photography. The book is called Silver Keeps and it’s mostly black and white, but some color photographs.

He’s been working in the dark room since age 11 when his father had a dark room in the house and taught him how to use it. And he’s got a, a very good eye and he’s a people photographer. So a lot of beautiful street scenes with people doing oddball things and he just catches them, which is what street photography is all about.

So I want to highly recommend that book. I’ll put a link to the book (see list at the top), and it came from this Italian publisher called Eyeshot, E-Y-E-S-H-O-T. I don’t know exactly where in Italy they are. I think maybe Milano, but I’m not sure. They are in Bologna. Anyway, it came in this surprising and very swanky, stylish way.

The book came vacuum sealed in a silver package that had one of the big images from the book, one of the really standout images in black and white on the shrink wrap packaging. And it had a Ziploc kind of closure.

Anjali: Oh, that is pretty swanky.

Roberta: That is very swanky. I mean, that would not be American design.I’m going to say that’s Italian design. Yes. Very, very nice. Anyway, the book is sold out. available now, I got mine on pre-order. It’s a limited edition, but there may still be copies available.

Next, I want to say I saw two live events. One was last night I went to Taller Puertorriqueño.

They had a panel discussion with four artists who are in their current show, Shifting Realities, and it’s about being an immigrant, very topica, and a lot of really good work. The panel was Marta Sanchez, one of Artblog’s favorite artists, Kukuli Velarde, who is an amazing Peruvian-born American citizen and artist in ceramics and painting.

Eugenio Sala. I was not familiar with him, but he does community projects where he gets people together and to talk about things and it sounded like really good stuff. And Silvana Cardell, who is from Argentina and living in Philly now and makes videos, so there was a lot of talk about home and displacement.

Marta Sanchez is an American-born Latina artist. The rest are all voluntarily here in the country, so they didn’t seek shelter from gangs or any of that kind of thing. But they had commonalities, feeling like they don’t have a home. They go back to their home country and they don’t feel exactly like it’s their home anymore, and yet they don’t really feel like this is their home either.

I thought that was so poignant and interesting, and also they all have a mission. Each one of these artists is mission-driven. The community organizer, Eugenio, the video artist, Silvana, who made a very pointed video about crossing the border where she had people leaping through an opening between two big folding tables. The tables opened and people would jump through the opening. And the tables closed again, and there was a parade, a procession, of people jumping through, like they’re jumping across the border. It was quite well done. Very pointed. Anyway, the show is lovely. It’s up until May 17th and they recorded the panel discussion, so if it’s online, we’ll we’ll put that link in then.

Last week I sent out a note to a buddy of mine, Ken Lum, who’s in the Fine Arts Department of Penn. He’s the head of Fine Arts at Penn. I asked Ken how he was doing and he said he’s been painting. Now Ken is mostly known as a conceptual artist. He’s done a lot and he uses uses any material at hand to make what he wants to make, e.g., signs, like in strip malls that Asian restaurants and whatnot are in. (picture in this post.)

He’s made them. There was one that was in the Whitney Biennial in 2014 (also in Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, R.I.P.). He is really well known. Very good artist. You should look him up. He’s painting. And what he’s painting are these pictures of language. Language sort of disintegrating.

He’s only made four of the paintings and a couple are already sold. They’re six foot by six foot and they’re on birch plywood. Really nice, like 15 coats of paint on each one, carefully painted. Not masked off but all painted by hand. Very painstakingly put together. It’s conceptual painting, and beautiful.

Anyway, that was lovely to see him and I met him at the gallery at Haverford College, which is where the paintings were in a group show that John Muse’s class at the college had curated. The students went to Ken’s studio and picked out what they wanted from all the work that was available.

And these were hot off the, you know, canvas. So they picked ’em and put ’em in the show and now they’re going off to a gallery. The show is closed at this point, but I have to find out what gallery it is that it’s going to be shown in and put that link into. (Coming soon)

So those are two great things I did. It’s great to go out and actually see some art. As someone who spends a lot of time on the computer and less time looking at art, except through the computer — which is a different kind of experience — it was great to see those, the panel discussion and the show. That’s my report. Onto you, Ryan.

Ryan: I have four today that I want to mention. First one is coming up May 7th through the 10th at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival. There’s a lot of different shows that are happening and a lot of those are shorts as well. So you get to see multiple films in one showing. So that’s a lot of fun and we’ll have links to that.

And the schedule is up and active. First Friday is coming up shortly, not this week, but, but coming up, Science History Institute has Eighties night, which I thought looked really funny.

Roberta: Eighties. night.

Ryan: That’s what I thought. Yeah, it’s like a throwback nostalgia for 40 plus years ago or whatever, but science.

Roberta: Science, but it’s science in the eighties. Let’s roll back the clock.

Ryan:  So it’s going to be like Sony Walkmen’s, and anything tech related that came out in the eighties.

Roberta: Oh, fun.

Ryan: Yeah, so it should be a lot of fun. The only thing to remember about the Science History Institute is that First Friday is only open from five to seven.

So they’re in the early end of things. So if you want to see it go there first before you hit the other ones. And that’s at 315 Chestnut Street.

Big Ramp has an opening coming up as well. That is first Saturday of May. It’s from five to nine at Big Ramp. It’s called Air Alone from My Dream. It’s another collaborative show.

It looks really interesting. Big Ramp is 2024 East, west Moreland Street and there’ll be some music and an opening as well. That looks like a really interesting show as well. Big Ramp does some, some really interesting work.

And my theater pick of the week is going to be The Return of Benjamin Lay.

I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Benjamin Lay, but he’s the Quaker, who was an early abolitionist. He was called the four-foot firebrand or something like that, and was just a…

Roberta: “Quaker firebrand” – that kind of doesn’t go together.

Ryan: Yeah, he was kicked out for a while because he was an abolitionist and so he was early.

Yeah, he just was fairly relentless. Opening night is May 1st runs through the 18th, and there are a couple talk back sessions. Looks like May 3rd is one as well. Looks really interesting. That’s Quintessence Theater at the Sedgwick Theater, which is 7137 Germantown Avenue. Those are my four picks of the week.

Chi: Well I have something to share about this weekend. So Panda Fest Philadelphia 2025 is set to take place at Dilworth Park on April 26th and April 27th from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM each day. And it is an outdoor Asian food festival with experiential activities and tastings and market fairs.

So the general admission tickets are priced $15 while the early bird tickets were $12, and the ticket includes three free gifts, one customized panda pin with fairy features and one inflatable hand bag and one customized hand panel bag. So it’s all for free and. It. It includes access to Panda Inflatable 80 plus Asian Street food and Asian culture performances.

So if you’re interested, just go to their website and to enjoy Asian culture at this weekend.

Roberta: Very cool. Are you going to go?

Chi: Oh, well, I have class this weekend. We have a weekend class. Yes.

Roberta: You’re kidding. A weekend class.

Chi: Yeah. So, so during the final Saturday and Sunday. (of the semester)

Anjali: I wish I could go. And then I have two things.

So also on Sunday, April 27th, it’s the last Open Streets in center city. So there’s going to be an interactive chalk mural, which sounds pretty cool. And then there’s going to be live musicians. There’s also going to be a Double Dutch lesson that’s kind of cool during it. Yeah. So I think that it should be a fun time and it’s kind of a nice thing that they close up the streets and that people are walking around.

So I think definitely check that out. If I could, I would. And then. Second. On the subject of first Friday, the Barnes is hosting an event called, well, they’re premiering Memory Futures, Desi Transcendence. So it’s basically Usiloquy dance designs in collaboration with the composer Rini Raghavan.

And it’s blending Indian classical dance with contemporary music in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. And so. And then attendees can also explore the Cecily Brown exhibit while they’re there, and tickets are $35 with discounts for members and students.

Roberta: Have you been to some of the Open Streets?

Anjali: Yes, I have been. They’re pretty fun.

Roberta:  Yeah. Are things organized or is it just people milling around and you bring a chair and sit.

Anjali: There’s some organization, like some of like the happenings that I listed, like there’s some things like that and there’s…Actually this Sunday also there will be a strolling stilt walker.

So that’s kind of fun. But I think that it’s honestly just a nice way to be outdoors. And kind of see some fun things going on with no cars.

Roberta: Yeah,

Anjali: exactly.

Roberta: That’s the big thing, right? No cars, no buses, no trucks.

Ryan: Yep. Exactly. Bicycles allowed. I think technically, because there’s so many pedestrians, it’s kind of a bit chaotic for that. It’s not a wonderful bike route in general. Yeah. Walnut’s (Street) not my through street normally.

Roberta: I could go on and on, but I have two quickies. So Art in City Hall, which is art in the glass cases on like the third and second floor right outside the council members’ offices, is celebrating 22 years this year. And Tu Huynh, who is the curator and exhibition director for Art in City Hall, he’s done over 300 exhibitions. There was a nice article in the Inquirer. It’s sadly behind a paywall, so you can’t really see it, but congratulations to Tu Huynh! He does a marvelous job. It’s a very diverse program.

Right now, the show is, Life Doesn’t Frighten Me Anymore. I. And it’s organized by the Colored Girls Museum, which is in your neighborhood, Ryan, Germantown. The museum is also celebrating an anniversary. It’s their 10th anniversary, which is really great. Congratulations to them.

We’ll put in some links to that, and the show is up through May 16th, so there’s time to go see it. And it’s city hall, so you’ll have to. Go through the metal detectors and all of that, but it’s open Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM so no weekends. There’s another show I saw a week or so ago in Wallingford at the Community Art Center.

Wallingford is near Swarthmore, out that direction. Media Swarthmore out towards media. 10 artists who work in landscape, either tally or. You know, symbolically, abstract, whatever. For example, Anne Minnick was in the show, and you don’t really think of Anne as a landscaper, but really her paintings are the female landscape, you know, so it fits and marvelous work.

Andrea Packard, Tish Ingersoll, Elizabeth Osborne, who I got to meet and talk with a little bit. Lovely artist. Retired up to Maine now. From living in Philly for many, many years. But she was in town because she was in this show, which was lovely. Diane Burko, Celia Reisman, Jack Ramsdale, and Krinsky John for Macola and Richard Estelle.

It was a great show, beautiful space. The Wallingford Community Center has this cathedral ceiling with all kinds of wooden beams in it. Beautiful new. It’s not old, it’s new piece for the art. So the art looked. Terrific. And there’s now video on YouTube by John Thornton that you can see. So we’ll put in a link to that so you can see the show extra.

My nice. A word I learned when I was in New Orleans, la Little, little something extra. Oh, you know, a little cherry on top. Oh, nice. It must be Creole. I French are Creole. Anyway, well let’s wrap it up then. That’s good. That’s all I’ve got. Thanks for listening everybody. It’s Roberta. Come back next time.

Anjali: Bye-bye. Thank you. It’s Anjali.

Chi: Thank you. It’s Chi.

Ryan: And this is Ryan, and this has been Artblog’s Midweek News. Thanks for listening and we’ll talk to you next time. Bye-bye.

And cut.

Anjali: I just realized every time I say thank you. I like wave, but it’s like, who am I waving to? It just feels natural.