by Maegan Arthurs I love a glimpse into a different way of life. It is the same enjoyment provided by a novel that lets you become a character alongside the rest and upon finishing, come back to reality feeling as though you have lost a dear friend but gained something invaluable.  Amina Ahmed and works [...]

Post by Alison McMenamin Two solo exhibitions take over Locks Gallery now through Oct. 8. Neysa Grassi ‘s Rose Gatherer on the third floor showcases the last ten years of paintings by the Philadelphia artist.  The abstract paintings reveal the artist’s attention to mark-making and to the physicality of her process. Rob Wynne’s IN COG [...]

Post by Lee Arnold I spent this summer in Europe and this time around I decided not to visit the major museums but instead explore some of the smaller local spots. Here is a list of six places you may not have heard of that are definitely worth a visit: 1. Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen This [...]

By Kaitlin Kylie Pomerantz Sometimes what artists make that isn’t art is just as interesting as their art. That’s what I learned from the “Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts and Other Artists’ Enumerations” show at the Morgan Library in New York City, a magnificent yet subtle exhibition of non-art scribblings and scrawlings made by [...]

by Dennis D’Alesandro Two shows at Jolie Laide this month highlight the creative dynamics between long-time art school friends. Heavy Metal Sunburn (in the back space) features the paintings of Cranbrook grads Japeth Mennes and Jeffrey Scott Mathews, both of whose works attempt a futuristic sci-fi feel by employing a process-heavy minimalist aesthetic. The colorful [...]

by Alison McMenamin Only visible at sundown, Shock Waves from artist Daniel Oliva is a memorial to the victims of the tsunami that devastated Japan last spring. While the inside of Pentimenti Gallery is currently empty, the installation in the gallery’s front windows is visible from its sidewalk through August 24. For Oliva, the most [...]

by Julian Phillips Rust-ridden, day dream-laden, and dizzying are just a few phrases that can describe the distortions in get it while its cheap at Marginal Utility this month. The exhibit showcases the exploration and experimentation that comes with being a young artist. Gahee Park, a recent graduate of Tyler School of Art, paints with a [...]

by Alison McMenamin Much of the work in Think Global 2 at Pentimenti reflects a shared mindset of lowered expectations, with artists channeling environmental concerns or worries about the world economy. In the exhibition open until July 9, the art is a reflection of a larger, collective mood of doubt. With matter-of-fact titles like “The [...]

by Dennis D’Alesandro Core Samples, a one-person show featuring internet and new media artist Kari Altmann at Extra Extra Gallery, attempts to uncover the common denominators that exist between people, the exterior environment, and all of the images, products, and information that populate our existence. (The show can be seen at Extra Extra until the [...]

by Julian Phillips Although art, philosophy, and entertainment are signs of a healthy and comfortable society, the day to day drudgery of obligations often keeps the subtleties of our lives away from us. These subtleties — reoccurring moments that are unique jewels that time will never make again — are often seen by us as [...]

By Diana Jih Apart from being well-timed, Mat Tomezsko’s exhibition, Danger Danger Danger Danger, at the first First Friday at Danger! Danger!, marked this DIY gallery as the perfect site for celebrating the currents of the West Philly arts scene. Sound checks deep in the cellar and the smell of snacks help guide you into [...]

By Daniel Hoffman Desert Island, the exhibition at Space 1026, is full of artists who have played a role in Desert Island, the Brooklyn comics store owned by Gabe Fowler. The exhibition, curated by Fowler and up through the end of the month, gives us a little glimpse into the lives of these prolific artists. [...]

By Dennis D’Alesandro Douglas Witmer’s strong one-man show at AxD is comprised of two separate bodies of work. A suite of smaller works titled The School Papers shows off Witmer’s excellent color sense and supple surface textures. The other half of the show is called Fruitville, which showcases the artist’s never before exhibited wooden relief [...]

Post by Alison McMenamin At Vox Populi this month, member artist Linda Yun and guest artists Leticia Bajuyo and Joshua Hamilton explore the formation and fragmentation of memory. The two exhibitions are on view until March 27. Linda Yun’s Recall uses the shared, cultural memory of classic films to affect the viewer’s experience. Two televisions playing It’s [...]

By Kaitlin Kylie Pomerantz With little-seen gems from Philadelphia’s historic scientific institutions, as well as side-by-side art history ground shakers including Thomas Eakins’ Gross Clinic, Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase (no. 2), and Eadweard Muybridge’s early motion photographs, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art’s new exhibition, Anatomy/Academy, rephrases the dusty argument over the continued [...]

By Thomas Devaney The “Tibor de Nagy Gallery Painter and Poets” exhibition is dream-like. The dream we enter is the salon atmosphere of the gallery’s early days, creating an overall effect of a group portrait of a handful of individuals who reached out to each other through their art. The exhibition reveals how these poets [...]

By Daniel Forrest Hoffman The beauty of a city, a building, or a home has often been explored through natural signs of age. The “lived in” quality of a place is usually what allows it to speak about itself and its history. Erin Murray’s solo exhibition “Architecture Parlante” at Slingluff Gallery (through Feb 27) explores the [...]

By Alison McMenamin As her third solo exhibition at Locks Gallery, The Home Front: Jane Irish’s Art of War continues a ten-year investigation of anti-war resistance. On view from February 4 to March 12, the exhibition brings together various perspectives on the Vietnam War through Irish’s appropriation of poetry from a Vietnamese civilian and American [...]

By Dennis D’Alesandro Sex Drive is a thoughtfully curated 22-person group show that coincides with the humanities seminar “Sex, State and Society in the Early Modern World.” The show brings together a diverse array of sex-infused artworks that deal with all manner of relevant sexual themes, including fetish, fantasy, infatuation, sin, gender persuasion, public scandal, [...]

Post by Lauren McCarty Mohammed Kazem, an artist from Dubai, arrived in Philadelphia last June as the first Artist-in-Residence in the UArts low-residency MFA program.  Last month, a group of 12 UArts MFA students traveled to the United Arab Emirates to exhibit work in the juried Emirates Fine Arts Society’s 29th Annual Exhibition at the [...]