Now ‘til May 31 at Gross McCleaf Gallery, 127 S. 16th St.
While flying by plane may have become the best method of transportation by today’s standards, Trudy Kraft shows in her watercolors that you can also be transported to different places through meditation. Exploring the contrast between quiet repose and speedy movement, Flight Patterns contains many paintings of bright-colored birds both in flight and at rest. Kraft also explores this idea in her artwork’s rainbow patterning, evoking folk and Far Eastern art or exotic symbols like Hindu and Buddhist mandalas. So while you’re hustling this summer, take a gallery break. Go contemplate some art. You may be surprised by what comes from moments of stillness.
Derrick Velasquez: Eighty Layer Cake
Now ‘til June 1 at Pentimenti Gallery, 145 N. 2nd St.
As Derrick Velasquez’s first solo exhibition, nothing steals the cake more in Eighty Layer Cake than his multiple sculptures of eighty layers of compressed vinyl. Velasquez’s meticulously cut, stacked vinyl creates abstractions of curving lines and organic forms. Velaquez explains that it conveys his message of the relationship we have with industrially manufactured materials. Translation: we like to build things so that they’re flowing and pretty. He also explores this differently in photographs of folded and crumpled metal—like larger versions of the pieces of paper lying next to your trash can when you try to tackle vector calculus.
Jennifer Bartlett: Chaos Theory (1971-2013)
Now ‘til June 29 at Locks Gallery, 600 S. Washington Sq.
Calling all you math nerds and code–breakers! See if you can decipher the canonical rules this Yalie uses in composing her abstract works. Jennifer Bartlett’s career–long fascination with systems, color, and shape is captured in Chaos Theory (1971-2013), in which she draws upon mathematician William L. Paschke’s words: “if you do the same simple thing over and over, beautiful patterns can emerge.” Presented as a series of tiled squares filled with mathematical visual rhythms, these works show that she is Fibonacci-turned-artist. There’s no need for you to take ASTR001 to fulfill the quantitative data analysis requirement. Start cracking at Barlett’s work and be sure to visit her second show, History of the Universe, at PAFA on June 27.
Daniel Clayman: Shifting Scale
Now ‘til June 30 at Wexler Gallery, 201 North 3rd St.
Housed in Wexler Gallery, an international art hotspot right in Old City, the highly acclaimed glass-master Daniel Clayman features some of his latest glassworks in Shifting Scale. The exhibit focuses on his creation of sleek minimalist volumes defined by light, simplicity and muted colors. The volumes look like bottles that morphed into alien, abstract mini-pyramids—the symmetrical horizontal stripes that decorate them are like the stairs leading to the pyramids’ pinnacles. Most mesmerizing is the fluctuating foggy and translucent quality of the glass. Just don’t get lost staring at them too long! You might be transported to another place and lose sense of your surroundings, only to be responsible for some very, very expensive broken glass while you were in your reverie.
Now ‘til July 27 at Gallery 339, 339 S. 21st St.
As if we don’t obsess over cute pups enough, this fine art photography gallery has curated Pant, an exhibit of over 20 photographers centered on man’s best friend. Capitalizing on the immediate capability of stop–action photography, dogs run into and out of the cameras’ frames in the various photographs on display. While some are motionless portraits (serving as evidence that they have mastered the command of “sit!”), many show the canine pals curled up with their master or caught in the act of mischievous behavior. When you’re stuck in a dull Philly summer job and rather be playing Frisbee with Lassie on the beach, you can supplement that desire by running on down to this exhibit. You’ll be panting.