40th Street AIR

Marie Alarcón's video installation show, BANISHED, opens February 10, 6-9pm

2012-01-24T10:17:00.007-05:00

Opening reception: Friday, Feb. 10, 6-9pm, refreshments served

Additional viewing times: Fridays Feb. 17, 24, & March 2, 3-7pm

Location: 40ST AIR Gallery, 4007 Chestnut St, 1st floor
_______________________

Marie Alarcón is a Philadelphia-based video and installation artist. Her videos are collages of texture and light, often set in the majestic natural environs of eastern Pennsylvania. Inspired by liminality, hybridity and memory, her work is influenced by gender and race and pushes to create new mythologies rather then create "true histories."

Through the use of surreal effects created by pushing the capabilities of the camera itself, she creates intense dreamscapes and fantastical visions in which the viewers can lose themselves. Alarcón also teaches non-fiction and documentary workshops to both youth and adults, and has been involved in community media for the past 10 years.

Banished is a curation of Alarcón's short video and installation pieces dealing with transformation. The idea behind Banished is both cathartic expulsion and violent removal, sometimes initiated by the subject, and at other times imposed by another.

Alarcón will be screening her most recent piece MAGIcicada, a 5 minute video that follows a magical ritual of transformation created through live action, animation, and video collage. She will also premiere She Lost Her Wings Before She Could Fly, a video of devotion and the realities it obscures.

Check out the teaser: http://mariedaphnie.tumblr.com/

Great Press about Invitational Opening!

2012-01-23T11:41:00.007-05:00

(photo of Celestine Wilson Hughes' "Black Madonna" and "Women of the World do not Drown in Three Feet of Water" taken by Emma Eisenberg)

The following article by Emma Eisenberg testifies to the excellent "Friends and Neighbors, Artist Invitational" opening 40st had on January 13.

-------------------------------------------
www.WestPhillyLocal.com

40th St Artist Invitational opening is great success

Posted January 16, 2012

Despite the cold, the intimate gallery space at 4007 Chestnut was filled to the gills Friday night to see new work by West Philadelphia visual artists. The invitational format of the show, in which the artists currently in residence at the 40th Street Artist-in-Residence Program invited other artists whose work they admire, made for a diverse and full bodied show. Althea Baird’s tracing paper and india ink print (pictured left) was a highlight, bearing resemblance to a sepia toned photograph, and spoke to, in her words, “our body’s ability to remember.”

Other favorites were Corina Dross’ detailed portraits of graphic artist Lynda Barry and writer Zora Neale Hurston, designed to look like oversized playing cards, and Celestine Wilson Hughes’ bold glass sculptures “Black Madonna” and “Women of the Universe Do Not Drown in Three Feet of Water” (pictured below) which were shaped like cabinets containing human hearts and were reminiscent of Mexican folk art’s raw renditions of love and death. ”They have to do with women, and with fear,” said Hughes during the brief artist talk.

But it was born and raised West Philadelphian Brian Bazemore’s work that perhaps best summarized the exuberance, delicate hope, and community pride that was palpable in all the works Friday night and in the crowd itself - his approximately 10 ft by 4 ft wooden “testimonial” board made with plywood and spray paint bore the inscription “Use each setback, disappointment and success as a cue to push forward/ahead with more determination than before.”

The show is running until January 27.

40th St AIR Artist Invitational ---- Opens Friday, January 13th, 6pm!!

2011-12-28T21:58:00.014-05:00

40th Street AIR presents...

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS --- A West Philly Artist Invitational!

The 40st AIR program has invited eleven artists to exhibit at our January invitational. The show opens January 13th, 6-9pm, and will be up until January 27th. Come see dynamic and diverse artwork, meet talented West Philly artists and the 2011-2012 40st AIR's residents!

Featured Artists include:
Althea Baird
Brian Bazemore
Zoe Cohen
Rob D'Amico
Corina Dross
Jasmine Hamilton
Celestine Wilson Hughes
Ab Ominable
KellyAnne Mifflin
Thomasin Parnes
Accra Zuberi

The 40th ST AIR gallery is located at 4007 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

*"Wildfire Study" by Zoe Cohen
"52 Borges" by Corina Dross

Marie Alarcón: Artist-in-Residence

2011-11-07T12:59:00.003-05:00

Marie Alarcón is a video artist based in West Philadelphia. She has a background in documentary film and frequently collaborates on community documentary projects. Her video art is inspired by liminality, hybridity and memory, which is informed by postcolonial theory and gender studies. Alarcón uses video to create intense dreamscapes, and fantastical visions as a way of leading the viewer towards insights on culture and identity. She is a 2009, Leeway Foundation, Art and Change Grant recipient and is currently exploring post-digital technology and radical autonomy in the context of public art.

Sarah Lowry: Artist-in-Residence

2011-11-07T12:48:00.004-05:00

Sarah Lowry is a director, performer, dancer, pilates teacher, and community organizer in Philadelphia and beyond. She has been a founding and full-time member of The Missoula Oblongata since 2005. Recent company productions include Clamlump, The 50 Greatest Ladies and Gentlemen, The Daughter of the Father of Time Motion Study. Here in Philadelphia the company has also become known for their annual ‘Secret Shakespeare’ productions in which artists from all over the country join local Philly performers in one giant show. This year’s Antony & Cleopatra began at the Girard Street subway and led a100-person audience on a parade through the five acts performed by 5 difference different companies, with drinks and desserts served along the way (June 2011). In addition to her work with The Missoula Oblongata, she has worked in a variety of capacities with artists here in Philadelphia; Pig Iron Theater Company, Puppet Uprising, and Ramshackle Enterprises, to name a few.
Currently, Sarah is working on a dance/clown/puppet performance piece with Beth Nixon of Ramshackle Enterprises that began with an interest in The Mill Creek, a river that flows underneath the concrete of West Philadelphia, where Beth and Sarah live. This piece is scheduled to premier January 2012. When not performing, Sarah organizes with anti- fracking organization Protecting Our Waters as well with the Philadelphia Collaborative for Reproductive Justice and Support.

Sarah divides her time between her work here in Philly touring with the Missoula Oblongata and biking over mountain passes in Montana.

Martina Plag: Artist-in-Residence

2011-10-02T17:35:00.002-04:00

Martina Plag creates puppetry for adult audiences to address contemporary issues and advocate social change and awareness. She is German and practiced architecture for ten years before pursuing her love of puppetry. Her masks, puppets, automata and experimental short films have been in juried exhibitions and have awarded her seven residencies. In 2008, she established her puppetry atelier: studium-praxis, which under her artistic direction has presented four original productions; two of which were invited to the Joyce SoHO New Dance Alliance Performance Festival and the Festival of Jewish Theatre and Ideas at Theater Three in NYC. Ms. Plag has designed puppets, sets and prototypes for Mum Puppettheatre, Enchantment Theatre Company, The University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Gas & Electric Arts, New City Stage Company, WHITE BOX THEATRE: Philadelphia; Slingback Productions, NYC, the Children's Theatre Company, Minneapolis, MN, Rowan University, Glassborough, NJ , People’s Light & Theater Co, Malvern, PA, and the International Opera Theater in Città della Pieve, Italy.

Beth Nixon: Artist-in-Residence

2011-10-02T14:56:00.006-04:00

Beth Nixon is the human behind many Ramshackle Enterprises. She creates puppets, masks, piñatas, parades, pageants, clown acts, suitcase theaters, magical lands and other spectaculah, on her own, and in collaboration with other humans of all ages and abilities. She comes from Rhode Island, lives in West Philadelphia, and travels frequently to places where exciting building, performing, investigating or facilitating opportunities arise. Mostly she uses cardboard, science, and the imagination. Her performances and puppet installations occur in galleries, garages, street corners, and living rooms up and down the East Coast. She has been an artist-in-residence at dozens of schools, senior centers, addiction recovery and mental health programs. Beth believes in the power of bike helmets, cornstarch, tide pools, emancipatory pedagogy, utopian performatives, and snacks. She has an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. She was awarded a 2010 Leeway Transformation Award for her art and social change work and a 2008 Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts. For more info on Beth’s endeavors please see www.ramshackleenterprises.net

Michael Konrad: Artist-in-Residence

2011-09-25T15:47:00.011-04:00

Above: 2011-2012 40th Street artist Michael Konrad is sheltered by his sleeping bag sculpture made from recycled plastic. For more photos and details about the project, visit www.konradprojects.net/2010/sleeping-bag.

Michael Konrad's sculptures contemplate the different functions of materials in a post-industrial world. Through his exploration of the built environment, Michael’s work is informed by careful observation of common objects and architecture of the city. His work explores the alternate functions of objects and structures in varying states of construction and decay. Through Konrad's sculptures we can imagine an environment where objects once considered disposable become valuable resources in a world that favors re-use over waste.

Michael Konrad received a Master’s degree in Studio Art from New York University in 2005. He has exhibited in various cities across the United States and is a recent recipient of the 2010-2011 Fleisher Wind Challenge Award. More information is available at the artist’s website: http://www.konradprojects.net

Rolf Potts: ArtsEdge Writer-in-Residence

2011-09-22T18:00:00.017-04:00

40th Street welcomes Rolf Potts, ArtsEdge's 2011-2012 writer-in-residence. In the above photo, Rolf demonstrates his skills on the Spanish pipes in Havana.

Rolf Potts is the author of two books, "Vagabonding," and "Marco Polo Didn't Go There." He has reported from more than sixty countries for the likes of National Geographic Traveler, The New Yorker, Slate.com, Outside, the New York Times Magazine, The Believer, National Public Radio, and the Travel Channel. A veteran travel columnist for the likes of Salon.com and World Hum, his adventures have taken him across six continents, and include piloting a fishing boat 900 miles down the Laotian Mekong, driving a Land Rover across South America, and traveling around the world for six weeks with no luggage or bags of any kind.

Visit www.rolfpotts.com for photos and details of his travels.

Philadelphia Open Studio Tour at 40stAIR

2011-09-21T17:19:00.009-04:00

Open gallery and studio event at 40th Street artist-in-residence program. Stop by and see diverse and vibrant art, 4007 and 4013 Chestnut Street, October 1st and 2nd from noon to 6pm.

Join us for the exhibition of the Venus Project

2011-07-31T10:20:00.004-04:00

Dear friends and colleagues,

As part of my year at the 40th AIR residency, I had the fortune to work in 'The Venus Project,' together with artist Maria Anazasi, with a wonderful community of women from the MATER program.

For ten weeks we worked hard to complete individualized felt versions of the famous votive prehistoric sculpture The Venus of Wilendorf. The results are beautiful and inspiring, and the sculptures will be on display at the 40th AIR gallery (4007 Chestnut street, 19104) starting August 8th through August 24th. The gallery will be open between those days by appointment at anab.hernandez@gmail.com or 40th.air.app@gmail.com.

Please, join us on Monday, August 8th, 6-8pm, for the opening reception of this exhibition, where you'll have a chance to meet the artists. Reception will include a live samba drumming performance.

I hope you can make it!

Ana

Resident Erik Ruin's Staring at the Cracks opens Thursday July 7!

2011-07-04T18:29:00.004-04:00

Staring at the Cracks
by
40th Street Artist-in-Residence Erik Ruin
(with Brett Story & Dan Blacksberg)
July 7-24

Local artist combines prints, projections and sound

to tell stories of solitary confinement in temporary storefront gallery

CONTACT- Erik Ruin- erikruin@gmail.com 267.262.0208

Staring at the Cracks

Installation by Erik Ruin (with Brett Story and Dan Blacksberg)

Opening Reception:
Thursday July 7 at 7pm

Closing Reception:
Saturday July 23 at 3pm

at: 4212 Chestnut St., 1st floor, Philadelphia

Temporarily inhabiting an unoccupied suite of offices near Penn's campus, artist Erik Ruin is constructing a unique environment to share the emotions and experiences of formerly incarcerated people. Visitors are greeted in the entrance hall by a wall-paper-like pattern of silkscreened scenes depicting the isolation and repetition of daily life in the hole. Other rooms are populated by shadow-puppet and video projections by Ruin and award-winning Toronto filmmaker Brett Story. Speakers littered throughout the space play snippets of audio interviews with men and women describing their experiences in solitary confinement, interwoven with a unique and haunting bed of sound composed by innovative klezmer and jazz trombonist Dan Blacksberg.

At the opening reception Thursday July 7^th, from 7-9 PM, Blacksberg will perform a live improvisational accompaniment to this soundscape, wandering throughout the space and performing with and against the audio samples.

Additionally on this night, Hakim Ali and William Goldsby, both of Philadelphia prison-activist group Reconstruction and both interviewees for this project, will speak about their experiences and the work they have been doing since their release.

On Saturday July 23^rd, West Philadelphia fixture Ruin will be bidding Philly farewell with an all-day studio sale, live music, and closing reception. 3-11pm

Other viewings by appointment- contact 40th.AIR.app@gmail.com or 40thair.program@gmail.com

to schedule.

LOCATION- 4212 Chestnut Street (below Scribe Video Center), West Philly

BIOs

Erik Ruin is a Philly-based printmaker, shadow-puppeteer, occasional editor of various publications (including the anthology Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority with Josh MacPhee, AK Press, 2007) and a founding member of the Justseeds Artists' Cooperative. He is currently a 40^th Street Artist-in-Residence.

Brett Story is a Montreal based filmmaker with roots in radio, print, experimental super8 film, live performance projections and documentary.

Dan Blacksberg is a trombonist who is working to expand the range of the trombone in jazz and improvised music. He is also one of the premiere trombonists in the world of Klezmer.

Chris Lawrence at AirSpace

2011-06-22T09:20:00.005-04:00

www.chrislawrenceprojects.com

AirSpace
4007 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Exhibition:
June 17- July 16, 2011

Artist’s Reception
Saturday June 25, 6-9PM

Gallery Hours:
Sat-Sun 12-5pm + by appointment

40th Street AirSpace is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of current artist-in-residence Chris Lawrence. Working in a variety of disciplines and materials, Lawrence’s work often references an intersection of DIY construction, improvised shelters, industrial stations and theatrical sets in various stages of frustrated or unavailable functionality. Overlapping fantasies, incongruent timelines and absurd propositions feed nonlinear narrative currents operating throughout his work. During the month of June, Chris will create a new installation work in AirSpace’s gallery at 4007 Chestnut Street. The gallery will be open by appointment prior to the June 25th artist’s reception, for guests to visit the work as it progresses. The gallery will then be open Saturday - Sunday 12-5pm and by appointment through July 16.

Biography
Born in rural upstate New York in 1976, Chris Lawrence currently lives in Philadelphia, where he received an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. He has shown his work in New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Melbourne, Australia, with forthcoming exhibitions scheduled in Portland, OR and Minneapolis, MN. Chris is a current artist resident at AirSpace in Philadelphia, PA and has recently completed a visiting artist residency with the Delphi Art Futures Program at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

AIR resident Andria Morales opens LAST RIDE: The Exhibit Friday May 13, 5-9pm

2011-05-27T21:08:00.001-04:00

LAST RIDE: The Exhibit opens this Friday May 13, 5-9 pm at the 40th Street Artist-in-Residence Gallery, 4007 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia

On Sunday March 27, Beth Beverly of Diamond Tooth Taxidermy hosted a "viewing" for the artist formerly known as Andria Bibiloni at the Rotunda in West Philadelphia. Now, video documentation from the event as well as the sound-blasting tricycle that Ms. Bibiloni was placed on will be exhibited for one month at the 40th St. Artists-in-Residence gallery at 4007 Chestnut St. We cordially invite you to attend the opening reception this Friday May 13 from 5-9 pm. The gallery will hold open hours on Fridays in May from 4:30-7 pm and by appointment.

Many thanks to those of you who attended the March 27 viewing. Friday's opening will be a great opportunity for Andria Morales to thank you personally, and for you to catch a glimpse of yourself in the video. And for those of you who could not attend, this exhibition is your chance to find out what you missed!

Click the links below to read press about LAST RIDE:
http://www.examiner.com/temple-owls-in-philadelphia/last-ride-signals-new-start-for-temple-performance-artist-review
http://www.avclub.com/philadelphia/events/last-ride,232791/
http://www.citypaper.net/arts/2011-03-24-last-ride.html

--
www.escobar-morales.com
www.andriabibiloni.com

Call for Applicants!

2011-04-20T10:49:00.002-04:00

Applications are now available for Residency 2011-2012!

The program is intended for emerging artists who live in neighborhoods west of the Schuylkill River. All applications are due by May 2, 2011, and residents will be selected by an advisory board comprised of artists, former AIR residents, educators, and community organizations. A more detailed description of the application process can be found HERE.
Feel free to email 40th.air.app@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.

Neighborhood Bike Works and 40st AIR Prepare to Make a Big Splash at the Annual Kinetic Sculpture Derby!

2011-04-19T20:10:00.006-04:00

With the support of a partnership grant from SCI West, AIR Space artists Jim Garvey, Andria Morales, and Ana Hernandez have been working with youth from Neighborhood Bike Works on a giant mobile sculpture for this year's Kensington Kinetic Bike Derby.

Beginning with small workshops on design, kinetic sculpture, found object art, and simple motors, the artists have been meeting weekly with youth since January to develop a unified concept and hone new skills.

After much brainstorming and sketching, the youth voted to construct a giant prehistoric shark known as the megaladon. In March they got right to work on crafting custom ocean inspired helmets for the big ride.

The weather is warming and the crew is ready to build! Stay tuned for updates on the project, as the May 21 derby deadline is just 4 weeks away!

Read more about the project and check out a beautiful two page photo spread in the latest edition of Grid Magazine.

Pictures from Jim Garvey's Circles and Circuits Installation

2011-04-07T09:26:00.019-04:00

Pictures from Jim Garvey's Solo Exhibition,

Circles and Circuits

Air Space, March 2011

more installation photos here:

distraughtart.com

40th Street Artist-in-Residence Erik Ruin's solo show opens FRIDAY APRIL 8!

2011-04-03T14:54:00.007-04:00

new solo exhibit by West Philly printmaker/shadow-puppeteer Erik Ruin

Projection & Print Installation explores hopes & anxieties for the future.

CONTACT- Erik Ruin- 267.262.0208. erikruin@gmail.com

FOR THE SAKE OF FUTURE DAYS

A Solo Installation by Erik Ruin

April 8-29, 2011

40^th St. AIR Gallery

4007 Chestnut, Philadelphia PA

OPENING RECEPTION- Friday April 8^th, 6-9 PM

w/ live music by Charles Cohen and Jeff Cain (Ghostwriters) and dronescapes by John the Baptist (Kellzo from SGNLS)

For the Sake of Future Days is a densely layered floor-to-ceiling installation incorporating shadow projections, built structures, and various hand-painted, -printed & -cut elements. The central image/ theme is that of a world in the midst of extreme tumult & transformation. The installation functions like speculative fiction showing a world just shy of the terminal end-point of today’s trends toward environmental devastation, economic collapse, income disparity and social fragmentation/alienation. At the same time, it weaves in more hopeful strands/possibilities- people banding together in the face of adversity, the reclamation of public space & resources, the simple acts of generosity and ingenuity that point towards a brighter future.

Future Days is a unique, fully integrated & immersive environment. Ramshackle structures made of salvaged wood, cardboard & windows contain intricate shadow-scenes depicting interiors and inhabitants. Wall paintings incorporate the city-structures into a surrounding landscape- ravaged by war and pollution, yet in the process of being reclaimed, rebuilt and rehabilitated. The whole is dramatically lit, and decorated/complicated with printed/collaged elements and cut, folded and draped paper and fabric.

This installation draws upon and integrates the various strands of my practice as a printmaker, shadow-puppeteer, illustrator, muralist, zine-maker, editor, etc. as well as past installation work, both solo and collaboratively as a member of the international Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative. Photo sets of this work are available online here-

Out Of the Shell of the Old (Justseeds at Space 1026, Philadelphia) http://www.flickr.com/photos/visualresistance/sets/72157606053422306/

Which Side Are You On? (Justseeds at Union Art Gallery, UW-M, Milwaukee)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/visualresistance/sets/72157615873790728/

Liberation (solo installation, Dirt Palace, Providence)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirtpalace/tags/erik/

ERIK RUIN is a Michigan-raised, Philly-based printmaker, shadow-puppeteer, and occasional editor/publisher of various publications, most recently the anthology Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority (w/ Josh MacPhee, AK Press,2007).

As a performer, he has toured extensively in the U.S. and in Europe, and has been featured at such events as the Puppetropolis Festival in Chicago, Black Sheep Puppet Festival in Pittsburgh and at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. He has worked as shadow sequence director for Barebones Productions' annual community-based Halloween extravaganzas. His theatrical work is focused on creating "epic theater" projects (such as the dystopian allegorical musical The Nothing Factory) incorporating dramatic performance, live music, projections, banners and more to create a total experience. He also creates improvised overhead projector performances with experimental musicians such as Katt Hernandez and Charles Cohen.

As a visual artist, he frequently works collaboratively with other artists or with activist campaigns, and has created imagery for organizations engaged in work ranging from urban farming to housing cooperatives to prisoner advocacy. In 2006, he banded together with twelve other radical artists to create the Justseeds Artists Cooperative, a national network which distributes their work and fosters creative alliances with social movements. Justseeds has gone on to exhibit worldwide, and recently won the Gran Prix at the Slovenian Graphic Arts Biennial.

Ongoing projects include the Liberation Banner Project, an open-source, open-edition set of silkscreened banners on the theme of "liberation", supported by a 2006 grant from the Puffin Foundation and further developed during a July 2009 residency at AS220 in Providence, RI.

He is currently an Artist-In-Residence at the 40th St. AIR Program in Philadelphia. Forthcoming exhibitions include a solo installation at the AIR Gallery, and Justseeds installations at the Slovenia and Pittsburgh Biennials.

40th Street Artist-in-Residence Erik Ruin's new show! See it March 25 and 26, 2011!

2011-03-17T14:49:00.000-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- A Waltz-Punk Theatrical Extravaganza in West Philly March 25^th & 26^th

From thecreators of the Nothing Factory

CONTACT- Erik Ruin- 267.262.0208. erikruin@gmail.com

Horrible Dept. Svcs.

~ presents ~

capital i and the royal waltzing we

script by Reid Books & Colin Cascia

scenic design by Erik Ruin

Horrible Dept. Svcs. presents capital i and the royal waltzing we, a musical theatre piece featuring a strange room with no doors or windows, it's inhabitant who throws fits in the form of very quaint waltzes, an imaginary orchestra, a news anchor who tries to get involved, and an ominous butterfly.

From many of the same folks who brought you The Nothing Factory, this promises to be another darkly amazing extravaganza, combining live music, absurdist dance and expressionist scenery.

Location: The Rotunda • 4014 Walnut St.

When : Fri & Sat • March 25 & 26 • 8pm

Brought to you by Puppet Uprising.

Dir. by Sarah Lowry (of the Missoula Oblongata) & Erik Ruin (Justseeds, Flight, etc.).

Script by Reid Books and Colin Cascia,

Scenic design by Erik Ruin

Music by the Horrible Department.

Starring Tom Snell (Bedlam Theatre) and David Kassky.

With special guest performances by

Katt Hernandez & Erik Ruin (Katt’s briefly returned from Sweden! improvised duo for violin and overhead projector)-March 25^th

Fence Kitchen (Tim Harbeson’s unique circus of antique objects & instruments)- March 26^th

For more information, contact Erik Ruin- 267.262.0208. erikruin@gmail.com or see www.puppetuprising.org

Links for further perusal-

http://www.myspace.com/thehorribledepartment

http://www.justseeds.org/erik.html

http://www.themissoulaoblongata.com/

http://www.myspace.com/katthernandez

http://www.myspace.com/fencekitchen

Call for Applicants for the 2011-2012 Residency!

2011-03-15T22:20:00.001-04:00

Resident Artist Andria Morales collaborates with Beth Beverly for LAST RIDE, opening this month

2011-03-08T22:19:00.000-05:00

We welcome you to attend:
LAST RIDE
Performance and reception
Sunday March 27, 2011
3-5pm
The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., Philadelphia

LAST RIDE is a collaborative performance-based artwork by Andria Morales and Beth Beverly. Inspired by Puerto Rican funeral celebrations and taxidermy traditions respectively, the artists have found a common interest in death. Using the Rotunda’s church-like interior as a backdrop, the artist’s work will invite viewers to experience mourning as a celebration.

Andria Morales (formerly Andria Bibiloni) explores the divide between art representative of culture, and art produced from within a cultural community. By immersing herself in situations where cultural identity is consequential, she aims to provoke viewers into a confrontation and analysis of their own preconceptions. The resulting work is multidisciplinary, consisting of mixed media sculptures, self-portraits, performance based videos, and site-specific installations. Andria Morales’s work has been exhibited at Labor K1 in Berlin, Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Projects Gallery in Philadelphia, the Ice Box in Philadelphia, and the CUE Art Foundation in New York. In 2008 she was awarded a Joan Mitchell MFA Grant for her work in mixed media sculpture and installation. Andria is currently a resident in the 40th St. Artist in Residence Program, and teaches at Tyler School of Art.

Beth Beverly is a State- and Federally-licensed taxidermist who has a BFA from Tyler School of Art and graduated from the Pocono Institute of Taxidermy with high marks. Ms. Beverly is passionate about using every part of an animal and being thankful for the ultimate sacrifice each creature makes to land both in her studio and on her plate. She has won numerous awards for her taxidermy creations, including Best in Show at the fifth annual Carnivorous Nights taxidermy contest in New York. Beth’s work has been exhibited at Bahdee Bahdu Gallery, James Oliver Gallery, Wilbur Vintage Boutique and has been featured in a plethora of fashion & art blogs.

Admission is FREE

Resident Jim Garvey's Circles and Circuits opens on Friday March 11, 2011

2011-03-04T12:30:00.004-05:00

40th Street Artist-in-Residence
Jim Garvey
opens his new show
Circles and Circuits

Contact:

40thair.program@gmail.com

Jim Garvey
Circles and Circuits
opening Friday, March 11th, 2011 5-9pm
also on display Fridays March 18 and 25, 3-7pm
AIR SPACE Gallery 4007 Chestnut St. Philadelphia

Jim Garvey, current resident artist at 40th Street Artist-In-Residence program, exhibits recent sculpture, installation, video and mixed media works. Friday March 11th at AIR SPACE, 4007 Chestnut St. West Philadelphia, 5-9pm.

Fusing together many mediums and objects to reach an advanced visual-audible organization, Circles and Circuits questions, and teeters on the line of, work and play, the domestic and public, juxtaposing material concepts of leisure and maintenance, and pleasure or business. Following a linear pathway of process, with an accordion effect of ideas, the work connects the dots between painting, electronics, sculpture, sound, face, place, objects, and more.

Jim Garvey graduated from Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in May 2007, working with masters from the faculty to focus on a body of work that incorporated multiple media. He received several awards and grants, including the Lewis S. Ware Travel scholarship for the work "Transient" an installation weaving paintings, sculptures, and a sound arrangement. Shortly after his return from European Travel Scholarship, Jim graduated from University of Pennsylvania.

Recently working with a Center City flower shop, MODA botanica, painting a multimedia installation work for exhibition at the Philadelphia Flower Show 2010, the work, entitled "Box", won "Best in Show," and several other awards. The wall paintings intertwined with floral arrangements displayed the possibilities of urban beatification. While collaborating with the MODA botannica, Jim's work took a turn in the direction of beatification. His current projects retain this purpose within mural work, and a series of outdoor garden sculptures arranged from found and recycled materials.

Jim is currently working with Neighborhood Bike Works and fellow 40th Street Resident, Andria Biblioni-Morales on an after-school Kinetic Sculpture class for local West Philadelphia Youth. The goal of the project is to design and build a kinetic bike sculpture to ride in this year's Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby. The project received the SCI-West grant for community partnerships and will exhibit and ride the sculpture this May.

AIR Resident Ana B. Hernandez's Solo Exhibit Opens Tonight!

2011-02-11T14:21:00.003-05:00

Please join us at our gallery space, 4007 Chestnut Street, tonight, Friday, February 11th, 5:30-9pm, in the opening reception of "Sand and Salt," a solo exhibition of ideas in progress recollecting Ana's experience during the pilgrimage to Santiago she completed last May.

This show is the first one in the exhibition cycle of artists in residence at 40th Street AIR program for 2011.

To see examples of Ana's work, please visit http://www.anabhernandez.com

AIR Resident Ana B. Hernandez solo exhibit opens tonight!

2011-02-11T11:13:00.000-05:00

This show is the first one in the exhibition cycle of artists in residence at 40th Street AIR program for 2011.

To see examples of Ana's work, please visit http://www.anabhernandez.com

Thanks for coming out for the opening of FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS!

2011-01-15T21:52:00.005-05:00

THANKS TO EVERYONE who came out to AIR Space last night for FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS - West Philly Invitational opening! It was a great success, and AIR was very excited to have so many great people to enjoy the exhibition and the wonderful performance by Justin Duerr and Mandy Katz.

Here is some footage from opening night. Please tell your friends and neighbors about your experience and come visit us again! FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS will be open on January 21st and 28th 3-7pm.

Check our blog and keep posted about our monthly exhibitions!

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS - OPENING NIGHT PHOTOS

Friends and Neighbors - Opening on January 14th Friday 5:30pm

2011-01-08T16:19:00.007-05:00

AIR Space presents FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS -A West Philly Invitational

For our January show, 40th ST AIR decided to invite our friend and neighbor artists from West Philly. Come to the opening and start the year fresh and warm with our friends and your friends. There will be a special performance on the opening night by Geb The Great Cackler (Justin Duerr and Mandy Katz).

Featured Artists:
Lanita Sims
Ronald A. Seals Jr.
Jessica Vaughn
Matt Betts
Vinson Houston
Jared Wood
Johanna Marshall
Amy Walsh
Morgan Fitzpatrick Andrews
Beth Nixon
Mandy Katz
Brad LaMere

*The show will open on January 14th and be available to the public every Friday (3-7pm) in January. It will be closing on the 28th.
**40TH ST AIR Space is located at 4007 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.
***RSVP on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=182664821757635&num_event_invites=0

New exhibit coming up!

2011-01-03T18:01:00.000-05:00

Please visit our gallery (4007 Chestnut Street) on Friday January 14, 5:30-9pm, to see what our five resident artists (Jim Garvey, Ana Hernandez, Chris Lawrence, Andria Morales, and Erik Ruin) have been up to over the past several weeks. They've invited a diverse sampling of West Philadelphia artists whose work stretches across the proverbial canvas and beyond!
Come for the art • enjoy the refreshments • enjoy the art some more!

Exhibiting artists include:

Morgan Fitzpatrick Andrews
Matt Betts
Vinson Houston
Brad LaMere
Johanna Marshall
Beth Nixon
Ronald A Seals Jr.
Lanita Sims
Jessica Vaughn
Jared Wood

Amy Walsh

Some info on the artists (more to come):

Matt Betts is a mixed media and graffiti artist living in West Philly, working on paintings, sculptures and street /mural projects in the Area. He recently worked with Steven Powel, aka Espo, on the Love Letters mural project along the Blue Line.

Vinson Houston was born in Philadelphia, is a former 40th Street Artist-in-Residence Artist, and works in sculpture, installations, and performance. Vinson's work has recently focused on found objects arrangements and paper installations.

Ronald A Seals Jr. is a graphic artist from West Philadelphia who studied at Temple University's Tyler School of Art. His artwork uses amplified color and combines photographs from everyday life to create unique landscapes.

Lanita Sims is a painter who was born and raised in West Philadelphia, and is earning her BFA at Tyler School of Art. Her paintings both explore and question the formation of an individual’s identity based on his or her influences. Her paintings for the show are here: Daddy's Way and 22

Operation Exposure: War is Trauma”: Art Show & Poetry Reading

2010-12-08T00:37:00.001-05:00

Folks, our gallery (4007 Chestnut Street, first floor) will not be open on Fridays December 10, 17, 24, or 31. However, it WILL be open for a sepcial one-night-only event this coming
Sunday December 12!

Read all about it!

Iraq Veterans Against the War & the Justseeds Artists' Collective Present:

“Operation Exposure: War is Trauma”: Art Show & Poetry Reading by Iraq Veterans

Sunday, December 12, 2010 7 - 9 PM

For ONE NIGHT ONLY this collection will premier in Philly! "Operation Exposure", a collaboration between the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative and veterans and supporters from Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), is a direct response to the suicide epidemic and violation of GI’s right to heal within the GI and veteran community. During Veteran's Day, veterans, artists, and supporters met in Rogers Park in Chicago and split into teams. They divided up posters that Justseeds had designed for IVAW and then wheatpasted th city. Teams hit advertising spaces and boarded up buildings with messages of GI resistance and "Operation Recovery" – a new IVAW campaign aimed to stop the redeployment of traumatized troops and focus public attention towards Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), military sexual trauma (MST), and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). For one night only works from "Operation Exposure" will be featured along with readings from members of the Warrior Writers project.

Friday 12/3, 3-7pm: AIR art show + Monday 12/6 @4pm and 7pm: Sabine El Chamaa at AIR

2010-12-02T16:29:00.001-05:00

Please join us tomorrow as we close the current exhibit at our gallery (4007 Chestnut). This exhibit features work by four of our current residents: Ana B. Hernandez, Andria Morales, Erik Ruin, and Jim Garvey.

Then, on Monday, join us for this:

December 6, 2010 - 4:00pm

Sabine El Chamaa Public Exhibition

Sabine El Chamaa, Penn Middle East Center Fall Artist-in-Residence

40th Street Artist-in-Residence Gallery (4007 Chestnut Street)

A "gathering-presentation" of a work in progress, an open platform space where unfinished edits, footage, and trials and errors are exhibited. The public participates in deciphering, in thinking out, and in extricating meaning, and questions from the mix of fictional and non-fictional elements depending on the trajectory taken, the images found, the videos viewed, and the texts read. Recorded, collected, written, photographed before, during, or after, one war or another, the elements presented are part of a research project which attempts to both detect the confines of the visual and verbal frames of war, and to question the possibility of creating an audio-visual textual space that exists outside of the spectacle of war.
MEC Fall Artist-in-Residence, Sabine El Chamaa, will present an installation exhibit culminating her research and residency at Penn. Sabine's work engages with the representation and experience of war. The exhibition will open at 4:00pm and again at 7:00pm.
The space is limited so please RSVP at jinhees@sas.upenn.edu or 215-898-6335.
This event is free and open to the public. Open discussion to follow.

We'll see you at the gallery! See ya on Facebook!

2010-11-20T14:25:00.000-05:00

Hi folks
We have two quick updates:

1. Our gallery (4007 Chestnut Street, first floor) will be open nearly every Friday (except Nov. 26) from 3pm until 7pm. Currently, we are exhibiting wok by four of our 2010-2011 residents. Stop in, say hi, and see some incredible art.

2. We're now on Facebook! We have some photos, videos (including one from last nights SCI West grant awards ceremony), updates, etc. Find us! Be our friend!

40th Street Artist-in-Residence Program has received a $3,000 SCI-West Community Grant award!

2010-11-04T17:41:00.000-04:00

Great news! SCI-West has just informed us that we have received $3,000 to collaborate with Neighborhood Bike Works (NBW). Two of our resident artists have already begun working with NBW, using art as a medium for engagement with youth in particular. This award will help that work to flourish over the next several months, while ensuring a long and healthy relationship between AIR and NBW. This comes at an especially critical time as NBW prepares for several events and can now lean on our professional artists to make sure that the youth remain engaged through the arts.

A little bit about NBW:

The mission of Neighborhood Bike Works (NBW) is to create educational, recreational, and career-building opportunities for youth through bicycling in the Philadelphia area, and to promote cycling as an environment-friendly, healthy form of transportation.

NBW foresees a future in which youth are empowered by bikes. Bicycles can aid in empowering youth in many ways. Bicycles promote self-reliance and self-confidence by giving youth self-propelled independent transportation giving youth the freedom to travel locally - to school, play, and eventually work. Self confidence and self reliance are also promoted by giving youth the ability to maintain and repair their own bicycle in addition to the accomplishment of having earned a bike through their own work.

Bicycles can be used, by youths and adults alike, to cross boundaries - literally and figuratively. Cycling can enable exploration beyond one's immediate neighborhood. Cycling also cuts across social classes, both recreational and utilitarian cycling enables people to meet others with like interests that otherwise would not be realized.

To advance this vision NBW will form partnerships and alliances with other groups, both in the youth development community and the cycling community.

Learn more at http://neighborhoodbikeworks.org

2009-2010 resident Vinson Houston discusses artwork by fellow resident Joanna Quigley in Joanna's studio; back in feb 2010

2010-10-29T05:52:00.003-04:00

40th AIR in POST 2010 (October 2-3)

2010-10-13T19:56:00.005-04:00

AIR participated in POST (Philadelphia Open Studio Tours)! Here are some photos of 40th ST AIR Gallery and the studios! Check out POST homepage <> for more information.

Announcing the Resident Artists 2010-2011!

2010-10-13T19:29:00.009-04:00

Ana B. Hernandez

Ana B. Hernandez was born in Spain from a Spanish mother and a Puerto Rican father. In 1997 she moved with her family to Florida, where she obtained her undergraduate education. In 2003 she moved to Philadelphia to pursue the Masters of Fine Arts in Fibers and Textiles at Temple University-Tyler School of Art. After graduating in the spring of 2005, Ana attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Summer Residency in Maine, and was invited for a two year long artist residency at Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Back in Philadelphia since fall 2007, her work has been included in a diversity of local and national solo and group exhibitions. She was a recipient of the Oasis Arts and Education Fellowship in 2009. Ana is currently a fellow in the Center for Emerging Visual Artists 2010-2012 Career Development Program and a resident at 40^th AIR.

Andria Bibiloni-Morales

www.andriabibiloni.com
www.areyoumyother.com

Andria Bibiloni-Morales explores the divide between art representative of culture, and art produced from within a cultural community. Through research and collaboration, she strives to create new possibilities for communication about sociopolitical and interpersonal issues. By immersing herself in situations where cultural identity is consequential, she aims to provoke viewers into a confrontation and analysis of their own preconceptions. These interventions are dependent on context – how the artist perceives herself, where she is, and how she relates to her surroundings. The resulting work is multidisciplinary, consisting of mixed media sculptures, self-portraits, performance based videos, and site specific installations.

Andria Bibiloni- Morales’ work has been exhibited at Labor K1 in Berlin, Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Projects Gallery in Philadelphia, the Ice Box in Philadelphia, and the CUE Art Foundation in New York. In 2008 she was awarded a Joan Mitchell MFA Grant for her work in mixed media sculpture and installation. Andria currently resides in Philadelphia where she teaches at the Tyler School of Art.

Chris Lawrence

Chris Lawrence is an artist working in a variety of disciplines including sculpture, installation, sound and digital media. Born in upstate New York in 1976, Chris resides in Philadelphia, PA where he received an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. His works, often made from DIY construction materials, repurposed consumer goods and components recycled from his previous installations often suggest building sites, improvised shelters, vessels and industrial stations in various states of completion or disarray. The functionality of these spaces tends to waver between specific, frustrated, absurd or unavailable. Overlapping fantasies, disrupted timelines and fractured memories feed nonlinear narrative undercurrents at play. Lawrence has exhibited his work in New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Melbourne, Australia.

Erik Ruin

http://www.justseeds.org/artists/erik_ruin/

I am a self-taught printmaker, illustrator, shadow-puppeteer and editor/self-publisher of numerous publications. My hand-cut images are intricately detailed yet bold and graphic. I draw from narratives both implicit and explicit to create art that inhabits the complex terrain of myth. My work explores social and political themes, from everyday alienation to international conflicts to more subtle expressions of hope, dread and endurance in an often troubling world. I frequently work collaboratively with other artists or activist campaigns- such as in imagery created for urban farming and prisoner advocacy groups- and collectively, most prominently as a founding member of the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative. I’m increasingly challenging myself to find new ways to combine my varied interests & practices- such as a small artist’s–book-&-CD “label”, a “banner library” on the theme of liberation, and installations and performances that incorporate cut, printed, painted & projected elements.

Jim Garvey

Glen Sacks at the Gallery of the 40ST Artist in Residence

2010-04-03T10:56:00.000-04:00

Glen Sacks at the Gallery of the 40ST Artist in Residence • 4007 Chestnut Street

From April 10 through April 30, 2010, the gallery at the 40ST Artist in Residence program presents recent works by Glen Sacks, one of the five artists in residence.
An open studio event will take place on Friday, April 9 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM.

Sacks is showing large-scale photographs that document street-side memorials, storefront places of worship, abandoned churches, murals that commemorate peopled killed in gun violence and other sites in the urban Philadelphia environment that demonstrate different ways of addressing loss, grief, and spirituality in public spaces.

Sacks earned his BFA from the University of the Arts and MFA from Bard College and has shown his work in New York, Italy, and Columbia. He has received numerous grants and fellowships, including the Rome Prize of the American Academy in Rome, the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and the Mid-Atlantic NEA Regional Fellowship.

Call for Artists! Apply for the 2010-2011 residency!

2010-03-11T20:14:00.002-05:00

Applications are now available for Residency 2010-2011!

The program is intended mainly for emerging artists who live in neighborhoods west of the Schuylkill River. All applications are due by May 10, 2010, and residents will be selected by an advisory board comprised of artists, former AIR residents, educators, and community organizations. A more detailed description of the application process can be found here and the application itself here. Please contact 40th.air.app@gmail.com with any questions.

Article in Daily Pennsylvanian • 2/9/10

2010-02-24T15:56:00.001-05:00

Programs bring up-and-coming West Phila. artists close to campus

by Pamela Ellermann | Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 1:16 am

The 40th Street Artist-in-Residence program, located at 40th and Chestnut streets, provides five artists from West Philadelphia studio space for one year. The program has served over 30 artists since its creation in 2002.

The 40th Street Artist-in-Residence program, located at 40th and Chestnut streets, provides five artists from West Philadelphia studio space for one year. The program has served over 30 artists since its creation in 2002.

Just a few blocks from campus, two programs link Penn with up-and-coming West Philadelphia artists.

The 40th Street Artist-in-Residence (AIR) and ArtsEdge programs aim to provide emerging West Philadelphia artists an opportunity to devote themselves to their art without distraction.

AIR, which offers local artists free work space, was founded in 2003 by artist Edward Epstein in collaboration with Facilities and Real Estate Services.

ArtsEdge, entering its second year, offers subsidized studio and living space for two artists per year — a writer and a visual artist — sponsored by the Kelly Writers House and the School of Design, respectively.

These programs provide artists a space where they can work independently, when emerging artists would otherwise experience geographic and financial constraints, said Ed Datz, executive director of real estate for the University.

AIR, having served almost 30 artists during its lifetime, has undergone several changes. Originally, the program supported four artists on a six-month residency, but has now added another artist, Epstein said. Residencies now run a full year.

The program has also modified its application system, allowing any artist from West Philadelphia to apply in an effort to make the program more inclusive. In previous years, applicants had to be nominated by previous artists or board members, said AIR manager Gina Renzi.

The program’s artists often hold workshops with local schools or contribute to public works, such as a mural at the Rotunda.

Epstein said some AIR artists have continued to work with the schools that they collaborated with during their residencies.

“Basically, we are interested in making the arts at Penn visible,” as well as making West Philadelphia artists visible to the University, Director of the Kelly Writers House Jessica Lowenthal said.

Previous ArtsEdge resident Greg Romero helped coordinate activities between the Philadelphia Dramatists Center and Penn by organizing shows at the Writers House.

This year, residents are working together to hold a panel about art that incorporates multiple genres to exemplify the “energy and creative impulses” that ArtsEdge supports, Lowenthal added.

The program helps foster a sense of community by enabling artists to live and work on the same block, according to Renzi. Previously, artists were housed together. ArtsEdge now offers separate apartments for its residents.

“Trying to imagine how two strangers live together made sense in the abstract,” Renzi said. Practically, it added a “strange wrinkle” to the project, prompting the need for separate quarters.

Before they were accepted to ArtsEdge, the artists in this cycle were worried about finding affordable housing in Philadelphia, Renzi said.

In addition to providing space for artists, Penn Facilities and Real Estate Services helps carry the operating costs, Datz said.

Article in The University City Review • 2/24/10

2010-02-24T15:48:00.003-05:00

40th St AIR Unites Artists with Community

UC Review | 24.FEB.10

By Kaley Lacovetta
Special to the UC Review

Like most artists, Cecilia Paredes always dreamed of having a studio of her own. For years, she worked from her small apartment, sectioning off a meager mock studio space with curtains. Her limited workspace hindered her from creating the large-scale pieces she longed to make. Yet as most local artists know, finding affordable studio space in the city can be an arduous, if not impossible, endeavor. So when Paredes saw flyers for 40th Street AIR’s free studio program, it seemed as if her desire for space could finally be fulfilled.

And after much patience and persistence, Paredes’ wishes were granted. "I kept calling and calling, asking is it time to apply yet," says Paredes. The conceptual artist was accepted into the program last summer, and has recently begun work on her biggest project yet, an enormous labyrinth.

40th Street AIR, an acronym for Artist-in-Residence, seeks to alleviate the plight of the artist by providing free studio space in exchange for community outreach. Artists are provided with rent-free workspace for one year. Currently, AIRSpace has two facilities, at 4007 and 4013 Chestnut Street, for a total of five studios. Both buildings are owned and funded by the University of Pennsylvania. While in the program, artists are encouraged to share their talent with the West Philadelphia community by holding workshops, teaching art classes, creating public art, etc. Paredes contributes by leading a workshop at a local school, teaching 8- to10-year-old children how to create art with found materials in nature. She reminds herself and the children, "You don’t need any money to do art. You can do art from a twig." The outreach opportunity has blessed Paredes. "It proves that it is also the one who gives that receives as much as the pupil or receiver."

The program was founded in 2003 by artist and current director of the University City Arts League Edward M. Epstein in an effort to create "studio space for service," and also as part of a movement to make 40th Street more "artist friendly." Epstein emphasizes art as an essential element of community culture. "Our mission is to help emerging artists in the neighborhood." In fact, in order to be considered for the program, an artist must either live in or be strongly affiliated with the West Philadelphia area. Epstein understands that many local artists remain under-recognized due to a lack of workspace and the difficulty of finding an outlet in the community for one’s art. The program serves to "assist in the career growth and provide exhibition opportunities" for local artists.

West Philly native Vinson Houston is another one of over 40 artists who have benefited from the program. Houston has always been actively involved with the arts in the community, primarily through teaching, both at the Spring School of the Arts and the UC Arts League. It was at the Arts League that Houston met Epstein, who encouraged him to apply to AIR. The program’s goals for neighborhood outreach mirrored Houston’s own ideas. "It’s using art as a form of activism or community advancement."

At present, Houston is using AIRSpace to work on his performance piece titled "La Primavera," the story of a matriarchal agricultural society with a powerful secret hidden deep within its caverns. He has also returned to the Spring School of the Arts to assist the children with their end-of-the-year theater performance.

Other artists in the program include photographer Glen Sacks, performance artist Joanna Quigley, and visual anthropologist Beth Uziak. Sacks works with the People’s Emergency, and Quigley provides free dance classes for the community at the Rotunda.

Currently, the program is looking for individuals to join its newly formed Steering Committee, a community group that will assist in making crucial decisions about the future of AIR. If you are interested, send e-mail to 40thair.program@gmail.com. For more information on 40th Street AIR or to download an application, visit http://40streetair.blogspot.com.

Call for Artists!

2010-01-15T10:05:00.001-05:00

Please note that this program is not being conducted by AIR. We're passing along the info from our friends at The Center for Emerging Visual Artists

Open to all Visual Artists: CFEVA’S New Courtland Artist Fellowship

Deadline March 5, 2010: The Center for Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA), in partnership with NewCourtland, is pleased to offer Philadelphia area artists the opportunity to participate in an exciting, community-based fellowship. Through the NewCourtland Artist Fellowship, eight artists will be selected to bring innovative and engaging art-making to seniors in sites throughout Philadelphia. In order to apply, artists are asked to develop an intergenerational project that brings New Courtland’s residents together with school age children/teens to create a meaningful experience and a high quality artistic project. Work created by residents and their school age partners during the 2010 Fellowship Program will be exhibited with the work of the artist fellows in a large, well publicized exhibition entitled Art is Ageless.

Accepted artists will receive a fellowship award of $2,500. Once artists receive this award they will be responsible for conducting ten 1.5 hour workshops, attending several preliminary and post-workshop meetings, attending one sensitivity training session, and participating in the Art is Ageless exhibition in Spring 2011. Artists will also be separately compensated for purchasing all necessary art supplies and professionally presenting the artwork created in their program for the final exhibition.

For more details and an application please contact Genevieve Coutroubis at 215 546-7775 x11 or Genevieve@cfeva.org.

Holiday Art sale! no piece is over $25! Dec. 12 and 13!

2009-11-19T13:43:00.005-05:00

benefiting People's Emergency Center.

People’s Emergency Center (PEC) nurtures families, strengthens neighborhoods, and drives change. We are committed to increasing equity and opportunity throughout our entire community. We provide comprehensive supportive services to homeless women and their children, revitalize our West Philadelphia neighborhood, and advocate for social justice.

Open Gallery Hours

2009-09-23T17:43:00.002-04:00

Come check out the exhibition currently in AIR's gallery:

Positive Form Found in Negative Spaces

Open gallery hours:
Thursdays, 6:00pm to 9:00pm
4007 Chestnut, 1st Floor

Outreach Project - Joanna

2009-09-17T13:49:00.002-04:00

FREE (IMPROV) MOVEMENT CLASSES!

@ The Rotunda - Monday Nights
4014 Walnut Street

6-7 PM 15-18 yrs (Starting Oct. 5th)
7-9 PM Adults (18+) (Starting Sept. 21st)

Learn modern, jazz, and ballet technique! Use improvisational movement to create dances! Learn to choreograph!

For those with a lot, little or no dance experience.
ALL ARE WELCOME!
Please dress appropriately - ready to dance.

Class dates for 2009: 9/21 (adults only), 10/5, 10/19, 10/26, 11/16, 11/23, 11/30, 12/7, 12/14, 12/21, 12/28

Please contact kingsley.quigley@gmail.com with any questions.

Come Visit the Artist in Residence Program During POST!

2009-09-10T17:33:00.005-04:00

Studio Tours on October 10-11, 2009
This October, The Center for Emerging Visual Artists is pleased to bring you the 10th Annual Philadelphia Open Studio Tours. Join over 300 professional visual artists, local businesses, arts organizations and galleries to celebrate 10 years of studio art! Artists and event partners in every neighborhood from Chestnut Hill to South Philly will open their doors free to the public in the largest event of its kind in Philadelphia.

This year, the Open Studio Tours is happy to feature the following artists in West Philly:
Maria Anasazi, Katie Baldwin, Sibylla Benatova, Dana Bernard, Richard Boutwell, Anne Canfield, Salvatore Cerceo, Genevieve Coutroubis, Vinson Houston, John Karpinski, Jill Katz, Kara LaFleur, Claudia Mills, Brenna K. Murphy, Amy Orr, PennDesign, Philadelphia Traction Co., Joanna S Quigley, Glen Sacks, Rai del Noce Senior, Kim Senior, Tremain Smith, Jacques-Jean Tiziou, Jacqueline Unanue, John Woodin

Visit philaopenstudios.org for detailed information about participating artists, community partners, and a schedule of events.

Current Residents (August 2009 - August 2010)

2009-08-29T18:56:00.020-04:00

Vinson Houston: My interest in the arts has led me from personal expression to creative education. A goal of mine is to communicate to others the need of community’s creativity for constructive advancement. Fleisher Art Memorial is where my artist career began in August 2000. With this grounding, I began my studies at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PafA) in the fall of 2002. I was awarded the Stimson Award for figurative sculpture in 2004. I began independent studio work in 2005. Though PafA's emphasis was on traditional art practices, I was exposed to post-modern concepts. The influx of post-modern ideas and media informed new ways of working with my environment. Through drawing and recounting of past memories I assembled an artist group performance. This became an award winning theatre presentation, as I was granted the convened Cresson Travel Scholarship from PafA.
My work continued in theatre when I joined the Spring School of the Arts in September of 2006. As an art and science teacher, I encouraged children to constructively use their imaginations. Spring School of the Arts has complimented my contributions with the Jay-Loft Lyn Award for visionary art and ideas. My goal is to lead artistically the enlightened minds in society to express freely through theatre. Creative expression is essential for advancement of individuals. Teaching children to begin this artistic journey of experience and presentation is a key to finding the artist, engineers and architects within ourselves. My artistic experience culminates in an active performance of communicating the joy of memories, and my work for others.

Cecilia Paredes was born in Lima, Peru and currently lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. Recent works include:
Solo Exhibitions:
2009 “Unbounded” Johnson Gallery, Jacksonville, US
PINTA solo show New York, NY
“Of Natural Subject” IILA Rome, Italy
“Animal of my Time” Humboldt State University, California
2008 Treviso Michela Rizzo. Italy
FIA, Caracas international guest artist Galleria Michela Rizzo Venice, Italy
2007 Costa Rica Museum of Art
2006 University of Indiana, Indiana, US
Collective Exhibitions:
2009 Off the Beaten Path
Itinerant show starting Oslo Museum, Norway.
Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Seville, Spain
Second Skin curated by Valerio Deho Treviso, Italy
2008 Getxophoto, Bilbao, Spain
Unlearning Intolerance Series United Nations
and Natural World Museum, New York, US
Royal Museum, Monaco
Contemporary Museum, Santiago, Chile
2007 “Animalistica” Central Bank Museum, Costa Rica
‘Change” Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, Norway
Cultural Center Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2006 Art and Architecture Biennial Canary Islands
Beyond Lilith, Frascati, Italy
Chemin D’Art, Salle des Jacobins St Flour, France
2005 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Contemporary Art Center, Canary Islands
Open Maps, Photography of the Americas, Madrid
Awards and residencies:
2010 GOZO Contemporary, Malta
2008 International guest artist: Ibero American Art Fair
FIA Caracas, 2008
2006 Chemin D Art, invited artist St Flour, France.

Joanna S. Quigley received her BFA from the Tyler School of Art and studied modern dance at Slippery Rock University and the University of the Arts. She has exhibited work and performed at Rooms Gallery (Chicago), ! Gallery (Philadelphia), Little Berlin (Philadelphia), The Community Education Center (CEC) and in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Quigley focuses on using video, sound, drawing and performance to create environments. Using installation, she influences the viewer to use their past experiences as a storyline for her creation. Quigley has lended her artistic vision to the Mural Arts Program at P.H. Sheridan Elementary School in Philadelphia and to Indigenous Pitch's summer camp in New Orleans and North Philadelphia. Currently residing in Philadelphia, she is the choreographer for Out-Going Dance Theater, a member of Club Lyfestile dance troupe and the creator of the Mail Art Collective.

Glen Sacks

Beth Uzwiak is a visual anthropologist currently finishing her PhD at Temple University. Her academic pursuits are in direct response to ongoing experiences working locally and internationally with survivors of domestic violence. Beth has a professional background in community counseling and advocacy, and has used art in therapeutic and social justice capacities. Beth writes, designs, and prints artist books and works-on-paper under her press name, Pierce Imprint. Her work is often ethnographic in practice and integrates collage, sewing, drawing, printmaking, painting, text, and installation. She is interested in the differences between “official” or historical representations of human experiences and how people actually process these same experiences. A recent collaborative installation, for example, combines photography, ceramics, court documents and narratives to explore community responses to eminent domain practices in Philadelphia. More recent work deals with the painful tensions between biomedical explanations for disease, internal bodily functions, and our human responses to death and dying.

Congratulations to the 2009-2010 Residents!

2009-06-26T11:39:00.002-04:00

We are proud to present our upcoming artists in residence:

Vinson Houston
Cecilia Paredes
Joanna Quigley
Glen Sacks
Beth Uzwiak

Check back in the fall for updates about their exciting projects.

Applications are no longed being accepted

2009-06-03T10:21:00.002-04:00

Thanks to the dozens of talented artists who submitted applications for the 2009-2010 round.
Please watch this blog for info on the next application cycle, as well as the various projects of the artists in the program.

2009 Application

2009-02-20T20:47:00.000-05:00

Applications are now available for Residency 2009-2010!

The program is intended mainly for emerging artists who live in neighborhoods west of the Schuylkill River. All applications are due by April 17, 2009, and residents will be selected by an advisory board comprised of artists, former AIR residents, educators, and community organizations. A more detailed description of the application process can be found here and the application itself here. Please contact 40th.air.app@gmail.com with any questions.

Outreach Project Exhibition - Beth

2009-02-17T17:25:00.017-05:00

Check out images of the students' work, currently being exhibited in the storefront of 130 South 36th Street.

Outreach Project Exhibition - Francesca

2009-02-15T20:29:00.001-05:00

Check out the work of Francesca Pfister's Penn Alexander School middle school students at Metropolitan Bakery Cafe. It will run until mid March.

Outreach Projects undertaken by Current Residents

2009-02-14T10:43:00.000-05:00

Community Outreach/Educational Activities undertaken by current resident artists:

Current residents are undertaking the following projects in the community:

* Francesca Pfister has just finished teaching a photography elective to middle school students at Penn Alexander School. The class explored identity in a school that includes multiple races, ethnicities and backgrounds.

* Gabriele Tiberno is teaching life drawing to students in Vanessa Marshall’s art class at West Philadelphia High School. The lessons will culminate in a mural project at the school.

* Sarah Stefana Smith is working with teacher Pam Toller on a photography project with students from Shaw Middle School.

* Maria Anasazi collaborated with the Spiral Q Puppet Theater for a project that involved creating puppets and large handmade books.

* Beth Pulcinella ran a free screen-printing workshop that addressed issues of identity and used screen-printing as an agent towards social change.

Current Residents (April 2008 - April 2009)

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Maria Anasazi is a native of Greece who has lived in the United States since 1980. She is an active member of the arts community in the Mid-Atlantic region and has been teaching since 1993, in schools and various institutions including detention centers and prisons.

Anasazi studied art in the San Francisco Bay area where she started exhibiting her sculptural and installation work in 1990. She has had solo exhibitions at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Arlington Arts Place (VA), and Montpelier Cultural Arts Center (MD). Her work has been featured in many group exhibitions , including South/Center, Miami, Florida; Frumkin/Duval Gallery, Los Angeles, California; The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; and School 33 and Maryland Art Place, both in Baltimore, Maryland.

She has received numerous awards from the Maryland State Arts Council for her work with the Artists-in-Education Program, and she was the recipient of an Individual Artist’s Award in 2001. Recently she received an Art and Community Visual Arts Residency Grant from the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art. Her work has been reviewed in Art Papers, The Washington Post, Fiberarts magazine, and Surface Design.

Anasazi holds a BFA in Graphic Design from California College of the Arts and an MA from the Creative Arts Department of San Francisco State University, California. She also received a certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy from JFK School of Psychology, in Orinda, California.

Francesca Pfister’s photos and videos are an archeological exploration of the everyday. These visual records, of permanent marks or ephemeral traces found on the physical world around her, examine human presence. Struggling between embrace and rejection, awe and disgust, her work investigates personal points of reference within the shifting formulations of cultural identity and an increasingly nomadic condition of contemporary society.

Ms. Pfister has an Art History degree from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, as well as a professional certificate in Museum Studies from NYU in New York. After working for several years as a curatorial researcher and educator for museums and other nonprofit organizations in New York, she moved to Philadelphia and shifted her involvement in the arts. Pfister has studied photography at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, as well as at the Centre Iris in Paris. She recently earned an MFA in Photography from The University of Pennsylvania, where she is a lecturer. Ms. Pfister’s work has received numerous positive reviews. Her MFA project work, exhibited at Icebox Project Space in Philadelphia, was reviewed by Libby Rosof in artblog; fallonandrosof.blogspot. her triptych Pink Stacks was noted by Benjamin Genocchio as a part of his review for the New York Times of the Perkins Center for the Arts Pink at Perkins show. Her photography has also appeared in several architecture publications, including the third edition of Deborah Gans’s The Le Corbusier Guide and the upcoming Penn publication, VIA: Occupations.

Beth Pulcinella is currently an art instructor and program coordinator at the Southwest Community Enrichment Center and a workshop artist at Spiral Q Puppet Theater. She was also a co-founder and collective member of Paint the Town House Painters, an art teacher at the Academy of Fine Art Summer Youth Camp, and a lead artist at Spiral Q Puppet Theater. Her numerous art exhibitions and performances over the decade include recent anti-war wheat paste installations in Philadelphia and puppet shows at the Puppet Uprising and Philadelphia Fringe.

Pulcinella volunteers as a program coordinator and fundraiser for the Pentridge Children’s Garden, a community garden that provides a safe space for neighborhood youth to learn about gardening and explore their creative selves. She previously served as a board member for Puppet Uprising, a collective that hosts quarterly puppet cabarets in West Philadelphia. She earned her BFA in Crafts with a concentration in Fibers from the Philadelphia College of Art and Design, for which she received the 1998 Fibers Award. She is currently in her third year of an apprenticeship with master gardener Blanche Epps.

Sarah Stefana Smith is a photographer whose creative work is influenced by her political work. Educated at Spelman College (BA) and Goddard College (MFA) she is a member of the Anti-Displacement Support Committee, working to support groups fighting gentrification in South, North, and West Philadelphia. Since 2006, she has also been a part of the Media Mobilizing Project (www.mediamobilizing.org), a group that engages in collaborative media making with organizations and individuals whose issues and experiences are purposely submerged from view. The media that they create is designed to clarify the issues at stake, document lived human realities, and act as a tool to inspire and unite those who have a vested interest in change.

Smith has been a recipient of the Leeway Art & Change Grant (2006, 2007) and has exhibited her work in a variety of venues including Spelman College and the High Museum of art (Atlanta), and the African American Museum (Philadelphia).

Gabriele Tiberino was born in 1983 in Philadelphia, PA. He grew up in a family of artists in the West Philadelphia area. Gabriele has been encouraged to draw and paint since age three. When he was seven years old, he had his first one-man art show in a portrait gallery on South Street. Throughout grade school, high school, and college Gabriele has placed work in art shows in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. At age 16 he attended the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for Art and subsequently began volunteering with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

Gabriele graduated from the Creative and Performing Arts High School in 2001. In 2005, he earned a degree from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and received the best figure painter award in the ASE. Over the years Gabriele has collaborated with many notable artists including Salvodor Gonzalez, Paris Stancell, Don Gensler, Anne Northrop, and most recently, Marcus Akilana. Gabriele currently has work available for viewing at the Sande Webster Gallery.

Gabriele believes that art functions in a society best when it serves to uplift the community. As an artist, Gabriele tries to apply this belief to canvas when translating the everyday lives of Philadelphians into portraits. His numerous cityscapes tell the story of Philadelphia, a city caught between transition and traditionalism. Gabriele plans to continue as a working artist in Philadelphia by creating art that inspires and uplifts the people.

Past Residents and Community Outreach Projects

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Past Residents include:

Frances Bradly
Louise Barteau Chodoff
Zoe Cohen
Jessica Doyle
Pheralyn Dove
Edward M. Epstein
Jennifer Ferrell
Laureen Griffin
Linda Goss
Jerushia Graham
Theodore A. Harris
Christopher Hartshorne
Jacqueline Holloway
Grace Hyunyung Jung
Delia King
Betty Leacraft
Sinae Lee
Jill Maio
Wil Medearis
Philip Ofili
Alex Paik
Jonathan Prull
Michael B. Schwartz
Gretchen Shannon
Kate Stewart
Mary Tasillo
Lee Tusman
Jeremy C Vaughn
Elysa Voshell
Shira Walinsky
Scott White

Residents from the Fall 2007 round completed the following projects:

Frances Bradley taught an illustration class to youth and adults at the Southwest Community Enrichment Center. The class focused on using art to counter negative media images of African Americans.

Pheralyn Dove taught language skills to students at Shaw Middle School as part of the Sonia Sanchez Literacy Program.

Laureen Griffin’s project, entitled “Gender Portraiture,” invited various members of the community to pose for photographs wearing costumes that challenged gender norms. Laureen also facilitated discussions of gender issues as part of her Trans-gression group and held a forum with University of Pennsylvania professor Heather Love on the same topic.

Michael B. Schwartz facilitated the creation of a community mural at The Rotunda. Various groups in West Philadelphia participated in the design and execution of this very colorful work, called “Collective Imprints,” which now adorns the balconies of The Rotunda’s performance space.

Past residents' outreach efforts include:

a curriculum on printmaker Dox Thrash taught by Christopher Hartshorne in collaboration with Shaw Middle School teacher Pam Toller

an art class taught by Sinae Lee for clients of Drexel Community Health Services

a puppet-making workshop for clients at a drug rehabilitation facility offered by Jonathan Prull in conjunction with Spiral Q Puppet Theater

a book arts workshop at the Southwest Community Enrichment Center offered by Mary Tasillo

Zoë Cohen’s interactive public art work, “Listening Station,” conducted at various sites in West Philadelphia including the International House

drawing and painting workshops conducted at Jennifer Ferrell’s studio with elementary-grade students from Dolores Gmitter’s class at Powel School

an African-based textile dyeing project conducted by Betty Leacraft in collaboration with Shaw Middle School teacher Pam Toller

a computer animation curriculum taught by Scott White in conjunction with Sadie Alexander/Penn partnership school teacher Cara Crosby

a book-making workshop taught by Elysa Voshell at the Sadie Alexander/Penn partnership school

a mural project at the Pearl Street Walkway (55th and Vine Streets) designed by Alex Paik and Kate Stewart

a tapestry project at Cliveden Convalescent Center led by Linda Goss and Gretchen Shannon

a found-object sculpture project led by Jill Maio in Dolores Gmitter’s class at Powel School

a mural created by Delia King at Vare Recreation Center, 26th and Morris Streets; a reverse glass project created by youth at Safe Haven, 57th and Race Streets, with assistance from Delia King

classes taught by Lee Tusman at the Red Cross House at 40th Street and Powelton Avenue

bookmaking classes by Jerushia Graham at the People’s Emergency Center (PEC)

a Mural project by Grace Jung at the Police Athletic League (PAL)

comic book illustration classes by Jeremy Vaughn at Bryant School