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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.