Michael Konrad UNOCCUPIED currently at AIRspace

Reign Free, 2012 by Michael Konrad
(tent made from reconstructed umbrella canopies)
click here for additional images of the exhibition

UNOCCUPIED, a solo exhibition of new sculpture, photography and installation is now on view at 40th Street AIRspace through March 30.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the opening! 

If you didn't make it, the gallery hours are every Friday in March from 3-7pm.

Alternatively, you may view the exhibition by appointment (call 917-318-0380).

40th St AIR Michael Konrad opens UNOCCUPIED this week!

Unoccupied: a solo exhibition of new sculpture, photography, and installation.

The show includes a selection of installation pieces made of photographs printed on Tyvek and a major new sculpture of a dome-style camping tent constructed from discarded broken umbrella canopies.

Opening Reception: Friday March 9, 6-9pm

Additional viewing times: Fridays March 16, 23, and 30, 3-7pm
+ by appointment (call 917-318-0380)

at the 40th Street Artist-in-Residence Gallery (AKA Airspace)
4007 Chestnut Street, first floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104

FREE, inclusive art class • a Renaissance is what they call it.... It's not just an Art Class

a Renaissance is what they call it.... It's not just an Art Class
By E.k. Miles and Leila Macbeth

Come join in a 12 week long journey through artistic expression, conversation, collaboration and the re-shaping of space. Renaissance is not just an art class but a movement toward building collectively and cultivating with others while using multiple art forms and the inherent knowledge we all hold. With study and applied knowledge, this class will stretch us artistically, enabling each person to share their talents----blending together narrative, visual, and installation art forms to create collective pieces of work that incorporates each student's artistic voice and talent.

First class meet Saturday, March 3, 2012, 4:00pm until 6:30pm. If you can't make this class, sign up anyway and come to the next one!

Class is FREE!!!!
(most) Materials provided
12 spaces available (first come first serve)

IF INTERESTED PLEASE EMAIL  elyriq@gmail.com to confirm attendance

Registration deadline: March !st

Class meets 3 times a month

((((((inclusive and diverse environment)))

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

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!

(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.

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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!!

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.