JOG turns Ten – Congratulations! James Oliver Gallery (JOG) is celebrating their 10th Anniversary! Their celebratory exhibit, JOG10 (up to Nov. 19) features gallery favorites Thomas Paul Raggio, John Wind, Cheryl Harper, Nadine Rovner, Steven Mogck, Dennis Daly, Steven Earl Weber and Mathew Davis, as well as new folks they will be working with: Emily White, and Ira Upin.
Others they will be working with in future are papercuts artist Rosa Leff, featured in Evan Laudenslager’s write-up, Michael Grimaldi, and Kevin Bourgois.

Friend of Artblog and teacher of our Artist and Social Responsibility Project class, Theresa Rose has a wonderful community project she’s curated. 9th Street Stock Exchange, with a title punning on the financial markets, is a collaboration (not competition) between merchants in the Italian Market. Get a ticket for a guided walking tour of the project, only ($5) here.

One of the best-kept secrets of Philadelphia-area art is the annual Art Ability Exhibit, a juried show with more than $7000 in prizes! A project of Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital, this year is the 21st iteration of the exhibition. (An aside, I was a juror in 2015, along with Anthony Vega and Deirdre Murphy. It was such a great experience to see all the work by the artists!).

You’re probably familiar with bus wrappings, those advertisements printed on plastic then seemingly shrink-wrapped to the exterior of SEPTA buses. With the same materials and techniques — but with a totally different aim — neighborhood beautification, not advertising — the UArts Brown Box project has shrink-wrapped 30+ utility boxes in the Washington Square West neighborhood in a project that is three-years old and has been heartily embraced by the Neighborhood Association and the neighbors, some of whom have even contributed to the cost of the project.

We’re Number 38!!! For what it’s worth, Artblog made it into the top 50 on this list of art blogs. We’re in good company, even though it’s unclear why we are 38th (and not in the top 10, say). I’m sure there’s an algorithm.

I was talking with Gee Wesley (podcast coming up soon) and he mentioned that his new experimental bookstore project Ulises is doing a pop up at Reading Terminal this Friday! Catch them on the 1100 block of Filbert St. between 10AM – 5PM.