The work of Wharton Esherick just asks to be ignored. Sitting in Van Pelt amongst angrily buzzing computers and tired students buzzed on caffeine, an art exhibition doesn’t stand a chance.
Kill two birds with one stone at this charming furniture/clothing store hybrid.
Shopping at Matthew Izzo is like entering a kitschy, candle-scented Wonderland, with wildly different items from African drums to delicate silver chains tempting your wallet in every direction.
MUSIC
Sunday, Nov. 21: Concerts First presents the Next Big Thing Tour, The Trocadero, $15
What do Bedlight for Blue Eyes, the Early November, and the Josephine Collective have in common?
This week Associate Professor of the History of Art and Art History Undergraduate Chair Julie Davis sits down with Street and talks about getting Zen, reincarnated tacos and why Philadelphia is a cultural force to be reckoned with.
I had to come to Fisher Fine Arts to write about it. I had to sit under the quotes from Shakespeare that line the Victorian windows of the main reading room; I had to look at the studded brass decals on the staircase; I had to enjoy the quietude that has led the girl next to me to zip her bag so slowly it doesn’t make a noise.
Designed by the renowned Frank Furness in the 1880s and officially dedicated in 1891, FFA was originally the University’s main library.
Virgil Marti, a well–known Philadelphia artist and curator of Set Pieces, a show currently on display at the Institute of Contemporary Art, has given new life to decorative art pieces long forgotten in PMA’s storage facilities.
MUSIC
Friday, Nov. 12: Maserati with Psychic Paramount and Steve Moore, Kung Fu Necktie, $10
The name of this three–piece from Athens, GA says it all: sophistication, precision and most importantly, lightning speed.
With so many tricky social situations, it can be tough to maintain proper decorum. Here are two experts from opposite ends of the earth (one goes to Drexel and one goes to Penn) to give you their advice on everything from dating to dinner parties.
MUSIC
Friday, Nov. 12: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and Os Mutantes with Old King Cole the Younger, the Trocadero, $17–19
Ariel Pink has been making music for years, recording over 500 lo–fi tracks in his bedroom by using his mouth and even his armpits as percussive instruments.
The art collection of the Barnes Foundation (over 2500 works by artistic luminaries like Matisse, Picasso, and Renoir) is slated to move from the ‘burbs to Philadelphia in about a year.
Sculptor Robert Engman is perhaps best known for “Triune,” a trifold Moebius strip that stands majestically outside City Hall, but his sculpture “Quadrature #1” is one of the most inspiring works I have ever encountered in this city.
Materials:
1 very sharp and sturdy X–Acto knife
1 pair of scissors
1 straight edge
1 high contrast image
Tape
Contact paper in any color or texture
Directions:
1.
Friday, Oct. 29 — Jedi Mind Tricks with Freeway and Reef the Lost Cause, The Trocadero, $20-22
Philly natives Jedi Mind Tricks aren’t nearly as nerdy as their name would imply.
Nothing is strange about Mark Cohen’s Strange Evidence at the PMA. Rather, Cohen presents the ordinary and often mundane to the fraction of the PMA crowd that visits the Perelman Building: a lone newspaper, kids playing, old women bundled in scarves in both black and white and color photographs.
When Emily Steinberg graduated from the Graduate School of Fine Arts in 1992, having earned a BA, BFA and MFA from Penn, she admittedly had no idea what to make of her degree.
MUSIC
Friday, October 22: Rusko, with Dirty South Joe & Flufftronix, the Trocadero, $15–19.50
The dirty basslines of dubstep have taken America by storm over the past year.
The stark white walls and freshly polished wooden floors of Proximity Gallery in Philadelphia’s Fishtown hardly live up to the eeriness that the show’s title, “Hallowed Halloween,” suggests.