Friday, Nov. 11th at 8PM
Performed by Mantra Percussion
Price: $15 general admission and $10 for students and Crane Arts tenants
Location: The Icebox

Michael Gordon:
Musical pioneer and Bang on a Can co-founder Michael Gordon’s music merges subtle rhythmic invention with incredible power embodying, in the words of the New Yorker’s Alex Ross, “the fury of punk rock, the nervous brilliance of free jazz and the intransigence of classical modernism.” Over the past 25 years, Gordon has produced a strikingly diverse body of work, ranging from large-scale pieces for high-energy ensembles to major orchestral commissions to works conceived specifically for the recording studio. Transcending categorization, this music represents the collision of mysterious introspection and brutal directness. Gordon has been commissioned by Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the BBC Proms, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival, among others. The recipient of multiple awards and grants, Gordon has been honored by the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His recordings include Weather, Light is Calling, Decasia, (purgatorio) POPOPERA, Van Gogh, Trance, and Big Noise from Nicaragua. Formed in 1983 as the Michael Gordon Philharmonic and renamed the Michael Gordon Band in 2000, Gordon’s own ensemble performed across Europe and the United States at venues as diverse as Alice Tully Hall and the punk mecca CBGB, on the Contemporary Music Network Tour and at the Almeida Festival in London.

Mantra Percussion:
Formed in 2007, Mantra Percussion has been featured at festivals and music series throughout the country including Moving Sounds Festival, Ear Heart Music Festival, F(x) Miami Marathon, Hi Fi Music Festival, Music on MacDougal Series, and Make Music New York. The group has performed in some of the leading contemporary music spaces in New York City including Le Possioun Rouge, The Tank, and the Tenri Cultural Institute. Mantra’s 2010 collaboration with the Dither Guitar Quartet yielded 3 new works for combined electric guitar quartet and percussion quartet with music written by Philip Schuessler, Daniel Wohl, and Eric Km Clark. Recently, Mantra Percussion commissioned renowned composer Michael Gordon along with Slagwerkgroep Den Haag, and the Dutch Dance company Club Guy and Roni (with support from the Queens Council on the Arts and the Nief-Norf Project) to write an evening-length percussion sextet. Mantra will give the work’s United States premiere on October 14, 2011 at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

More info about Bowerbird can be found on their website at http://www.bowerbird.org/

Oct 29, 2011
Schedule: 1pm-3pm Harbor Coat Press & 3-5pm Moveable Type
Location: 2nd State Press (downstairs in the Crane)

Second State Press is proud to welcome two different print shops for a discussion and demo of their projects and process. Justin Staller and Linda Price from Harborcoat Press will talk from 1-3PM and Kyle Durrie from Movable Type will demonstrate letterpress printing outside the Crane in a ’82 Chevy van converted into a print shop from 3-5PM. Events are free and open to all! Light refreshments will be served. Please rsvp to info@secondstatepress.org so we have a rough idea of how many guests to accomidate.

Harbor Coat Press (1-3PM)
Harborcoat recently published two prints with members of Second State Press. Harborcoat Press focuses on publishing works from contemporary printmakers and artists exclusively using non-toxic working methods. Their latest release features work from two Philadelphia artists, Eva Wylie and Emilia Brintnall, who will be giving an artist talk about their newly published work. Following the artist talk Harborcoat Press master printers Justin Staller and Linda Price will walk the audience through the printing process of their two new releases by discussing the positives, ImagOn plates and process proofs of each piece. For those artists and art lovers who always want to know how it was made, you can’t get a better behind the scenes look than this. For more information about Harborcoat, visit http://harborcoatpress.com/

Movable Type (3-5 PM)
Earlier this year Kyle Durrie of Power and Light Press in Portland, OR turned converted a 1982 Chevy Step Van into a fully functioning letter press studio. She has been traveling the country and visiting print shops all along the way. Durrie will be in Philadelphia on October 29th at Second State Press doing demos and talking shop. For more information about her project, visit http://type-truck.com/

November 3-17th, 2011
Opening Reception: 2nd Thursday, November 10th, 2011, 6 – 9 pm
Location: The Icebox & The Grey Area
Hours: Wednesday – Sunday 12-6pm

Curated by Janet Kurnatowski

American Abstract Artists presents ABSTRACTION (Abstraction to the Power of Infinity), curated by Janet Kurnatowski. ABSTRACTION celebrates the perseverance of non-figurative and non-objective art, including the practitioners, pioneers and those currently working in the traditions of abstraction. This exhibition shows the recent work of 78 members of the American Abstract Artists (AAA), along with four guest exhibitors. The works exhibited span a variety of media – painting, sculpture, photography, installation, video, and digital computer art; vividly communicating with color, line, form and texture.

As one of the few artists’ organizations born of the Great Depression, the AAA was a pivotal force in the development and acceptance of abstract art in the US. The group’s continued vitality after 75 years is a testament to the power and reach of these non-objective art forms and points to an infinite future for abstraction. The exhibition is also a tribute to Will Barnet, an esteemed member of the AAA since 1954 and also the AAA’s first centenarian.

The artists included in the exhibition are:
Alice Adams, Steven Alexander*, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Eve Aschheim, Martin Ball, Will Barnet, Dennis Beach*, Siri Berg, Emily Berger, Power Boothe, Susan Bonfils, Sharon Brant, Henry Brown, Marvin Brown, Kenneth Bushnell, James O. Clark, Mark Dagley, Matthew Deleget, Tom Doyle, Tom Evans, Gabriele Evertz, Kevin Finklea*, Heidi Glück, Vito Giacalone, John Goodyear, Gail Gregg, James Gross, Lynne Harlow, Mara Held, Daniel G. Hill, Charles Hinman, Gilbert Hsiao, Phillis Ideal, Julian Jackson, Roger Jorgensen, James Juszczyk, Cecily Kahn, Steve Karlik, Marthe Keller, Victor Kord, Irene Lawrence, Mon Levinson, James Little, Jane Logemann, Vincent Longo, Katinka Mann, Nancy Manter, Stephen Maine, Rossana Martinez, David MacKenzie, Creighton Michael, Manfred Mohr, Judith Murray, Sharyn O’Mara*, John Phillips, Corey Postiglione, Joan Webster Price, Raquel Rabinovich, Leo Rabkin, Ce Roser, Irene Rousseau, David Row, James Seawright, Edward Shalala, Babe Shapiro, Louis Silverstein, Robert Storr, Peter Stroud, Robert Swain, Susanna Tanger, Richard Timperio, Clover Vail, Vera Vasek, Don Voisine, Merrill Wagner, Joan Waltemath, Stephen Westfall, Mark Williams, Jeanne Wilkinson, Thornton Willis, Kes Zapkus, Nola Zirin

Exhibition curator Janet Kurnatowsk is the owner and director of Janet Kurnatowski Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Since opening its doors in 2004, the gallery has maintained a strong focus on abstract art from emerging as well as mid-career and established artists. Special thanks to The Golden Rule Foundation for making this exhibition possible.

*guest exhibitor

Oct 15 & 16, 2011
Location: Crane Arts Building
Hours: 12-6
More Info: PhilaOpenStudios.com

The Philadelphia Open Studio Tours is the largest tour of artist studios and creative work spaces in the region, and one of the premier open studio tour events in the country. There will be many open studios to explore in the Crane building and Indigo Arts will be hosting artist D.R Mullins.
All Tours are free and run from 12 noon – 6pm.

Saturday October 29th & Sunday October 30th
Opening Reception: Friday October 28th, from 5pm – 8pm
Location: Gallery 102
Hours: 12 – 6pm

Thursday, October 13 – November 9, 2011
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 13, from 6 pm – 9 pm
Location: Archive Space
Hours: Wed-Sun 12-6pm

We often hear of artists listening to music in their studios whilst working, but what happens when the music directly informs the work itself? How do we perceive and how do we alliterate that music? What type of space does that music provide, and what are we listening to? Most of the music we experience today is digitally processed and or manipulated; this mechanization provides an infinite number of possibilities. These paintings are translations informed by the intangible nature of sound and the presence it instills within us. In this case a psychedelic presence manifests itself in usage of texture, pattern, the subdued, and the immediate.

October 7 – October 27, 2011
2nd Thursday Reception: October 13th from 6-9pm at Crane Arts
Exhibition Location: Gallery 102, Project Room & Crane Old School
Hours: TBA
Links: http://www.dialogo365.com, http://www.casadevenezuela.net

Casa de Venezuela pleasantly invites you to attend its annual Art Exhibition showcasing the work of Latin American and Caribbean artists from our region and beyond.

October 13 – November 27, 2011
2nd Thursday Receptions: October 13th & November 10th from 6-9pm
Location: University of Delaware Gallery
Hours: Wednesday, 12-4, and Thursday thru Sunday 12 to 6

Though the word “grotesque” has in contemporary usage come to refer primarily to the unpleasant or disgusting, The Unsettled instead explores the term as it relates to notions of duality, hybridism, and transformation. The work chosen occupies the physical, mental, and cultural spaces between states of being and emphasizes those unsettling elements that exist just below the civilized veneer of society. It is about those things we attempt to hide from our friends, family, neighbors, and even ourselves, and the transformations that take place as a result of such suppression, It is about the futility of denying our basic natures and examines the mechanisms by which our fears, doubts, and primal instincts – real and imagined – manifest themselves to ourselves and the world around us, on both a personal and societal level. Taken as a whole, The Unsettled suggests that what we think is solid might not be, and dares us as viewers and artists to peek beneath the surface of what we consider normal.

co-currated by Michael Merry and Patrick Koziol, two currentUniveristy of Delaware MFA students

Featuring:

Susan Camp
Erica Eyres
Alex Fogt
Brandon Jones
Patrick Koziol
Michael Merry
Cindy Stockton Moore
Josh Nobiling
Andrew Prayzner
Elaine Quave
Troy Richards
Terri Saulin
Jacob Smiley
Adam Parker Smith
Lindsay Wraga

October 4 – Oct 27, 2011
2nd Thursday Reception: October 13, 2011, 6 – 9 pm
Location: The Icebox
Hours: Wednesday – Friday 12-6pm, (Tuesdays by appointment only)

Crane Arts, LLC’s International Curatorial Exchange (ICE) present:

Soft Dart (2011) is Alexandre Arrechea’s initial proposal for the 54th Biennale di Venezia, where he is currently representing Cuba in a group show located in the island of San Servolo. The piece was originally meant to be projected on metal planks, and this choice of surface reflects the original meaning of the piece and its relationship with failure. The visual effect functions as a substitute for a certain reality. This is a piece that continues and expands the original idea presented in Black Sun (2009), a powerful 3-D animation exhibited at Crane Arts as part of the International Curatorial Exchange (ICE), and curated for Philagrafika 2010 by Anabelle Rodríguez-Lawton. The aesthetic of Soft Dart is somewhat reminiscent of socialist realism. It resembles the triumphalist images of communist graphics about work and progress. The piece functions as a trap for the eye and the ear. In this case, and in contrast to Black Sun, it has a sound component that accentuates the trompe-l’œil. It gives the sensation that it is real until we realize it is all illusion. Presented on the metal planks the piece functions as a double-sided projection, while in the Icebox the projected “soft darts” slide unilaterally over the length of one of the long walls of the lengthy space.

AA’s bio:

Alexandre Arrechea was born in Trinidad, Cuba, in 1970. He graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana in 1994. For twelve years he was a member of the art collective Los Carpinteros, until he left the group in July 2003 to continue his career as a solo artist. His public art involves concepts of power and its network of hierarchies, prohibitions and subjection. The spectator’s participation in the work adds to his contemplation. The prominence of surveillance systems and the accompanying obsession with control during our time has served as a key source for the work Alexandre began in 2003. Investigation into this issue led him to develop a body of work dealing with loss of privacy, fragility, memory, and the failure of control and power. Works such as the series titled The Garden of Mistrust (2003-ongoing), and Perpetual Free Entrance (2006) deal, to some degree, with troubles of accessibility or approach to art work. At present his interest is the limits of artwork itself. With that purpose in mind he created a particular installation for the 10th Havana Biennial. The work consisted of a house of steel divided into eleven sections. The extensions or separations between walls changed daily, depending of the rise or fall of the Dow Jones index.

The interdisciplinary quality of Alexandre Arrechea’s work reveals a profound interest in the exploration of both public and domestic spaces. This quest has led him to produce several monumental projects including Orange Tree (2010), commissioned in collaboration with Crane Arts for an International Curatorial Exchange (ICE) that was one of the independent projects for Philagrafika 2010. The 3-D animated piece Black Sun (2009), previewed in Crane Arts during Philagrafika 2010, was screened on the NASDAQ billboard in New York City, as part of the Times Square Arts Alliance public art program. The piece functioned as a visual paradox, as it futilely appeared to be attempting to wreck the NASDAQ façade while softly bouncing back without making a sound. As such, the work he’s currently doing is ultimately a provocative exercise of criticisms to the known structures of power in our time.

AR-L’s bio:

Anabelle Rodríguez-Lawton was born in Aibonito, Puerto Rico, in 1973. In 1994 she earned dual B.A. degrees in The Visual Arts, and The History of Art and Architecture from Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1996 she become the first appointed Director of Education in the Museo de Arte de Ponce. In 1999 she relocated to Philadelphia, where she has curated more than fifty interdisciplinary exhibitions of contemporary art, Pre-Columbian archaeology, arts and crafts, ethnographic artifacts, and including electronic music performances. In 2003 she received an academic fellowship from Temple University to develop a Ph.D. thesis in visual anthropology focusing on transnational Puerto Rican artists. Since then she has been awarded multiple grants to travel and study in Japan (Tokyo and Kyoto), Indonesia (Bali and Java), Cuba (Havana), and Europe (Berlin and Venice). In June of 2011 Anabelle traveled to Italy to conduct curatorial research and to complete an audience reception study in the Unites States Pavilion in the 54th Biennale di Venezia for the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Pavilion’s commissioning institution. Upon her return to Philadelphia she has been curating the Diálogo 365 exhibition for Casa de Venezuela, a group show with new and recent artwork by 28 Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean artists from 14 countries. Diálogo 365 will open to the public in Crane Arts and Crane Arts Old School from October 7-25, 2011, with joint receptions being held in both buildings during Crane Arts Second Thursday on October 13 from 6-9pm. Anabelle is currently in the process of developing an experimental initiative in artistic, exhibitionary, and curatorial practices called The ~curARTorial LAB, located in the new Crane Arts Old School. She teaches Art History at The University of the Arts.

Diálogo 365 Chief Curator:
Anabelle Rodríguez-Lawton, Puerto Rico

Selected Artists:
Adrián Abonce, Colombia
Susana Amundaraín, Venezuela
Daphne Arthur, Venezuela
Henry Bermúdez, Venezuela
Simón Bolívar, Venezuela
S. Damary Burgos, Puerto Rico
Nelsón Cabán, Puerto Rico/USA
Cristina Eguiluz, Argentina
Bruno García, Venezuela
Micah Gaugh, Panama/USA
Blanca Gruber, Venezuela
Tlisza & Marcus Jaurique y Zilliox, Mexico/USA
Jane Madrigal, Mexico/USA
Michelle Marcuse, South Africa
Paula Meninato, Argentina
Doris Nogueira-Rogers, Brazil
Carlos Nuñez, Ecuador
Amalfi Ramírez, Venezuela
Tony Rocco, Colombia/USA
Marilyn Rodriguez, Puerto Rico/USA
Freddy Rodríguez, Dominican Republic
Marta Sanchez, Mexico/USA
Maria R. Schneider, Spain
Jacqueline Unanue, Chile
Víctor Vázquez, Puerto Rico
César Viveros, Mexico
Mauro Zamora, Cuba/USA

October 16, 2011
Hours: 12 – 4pm
Location: Crane Arts Building

InLiquid, Crane Arts, Kensington South Neighborhood Advisory Council, and ArtsRising Present a full day of arts, environmental education, and fun for all ages, the CAFé festival will feature live music, food, drink, and tables for interactive activities hosted by arts and environmental organizations.

A huge THANK YOU to the Penn Treaty Special Services District for a project grant to support the 2nd annual CAFe!

Rain or Shine.
Ample free parking and wheelchair accessible.

September 8th – Oct. 1st
Closing Reception: Friday September 30th from 6 – 9pm
Location: Gallery 102
Weekend Hours: 12 -5pm
Weekday Hours: By appointment only. Email: fabian.lopez@temple.edu (Tentative hours 12-5pm Wednesday-Friday).

Including work by:

Rubens Ghenov
Christopher Hartshorne
Jerry Kaba
Fabian Lopez:
Ryan Parker
John Roebas
Shanna Waddell

Thursday, September 8 – Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 8th, from 6 pm – 9 pm
Location: Archive Space
Hours: Wed-Sun 12-6pm

Limes’ work layers mixed media including screenprint, woodblock gouache, colored pencil, ink, and oil pastel. She says in her artist statement:  ”I am concerned with the vanishing of a compassionate and emphatic humanity, not only to one another but also to the Earth that we inhabit. “ 

More info available on her website: http://ailimes.com/

September 7 – October 30, 2011
Reception: Second Thursday, September 8 & October 13, 6 to 9 pm
Location: The Hall
Hours: Wed – Sun 12-6pm

Hold is inspired by instability, insecurity, anxiety, and the desire to cling tightly to our belongings. Artist Candace Karch has collected a myriad of items throughout her entire life, each claiming their own sentiment and back-story. A manifestation of clutter, nostalgia, and the eventual necessity to disband oneself from their belongings, reincarnates these objects and gives them purpose. The artist assembles her visual timeline for our feasting eyes, while allowing the audience space to question what makes up their own. Which objects define us, which can’t we part with, and which are so unassumingly loaded with personal attachment and memory? Karch hands her story to us, walking away free from so many of her things.

Candace Karch started saving everything as art supplies from an early age. In high school she won “most individualistic” and rocked an aqua net Mohawk. After graduating from the University of The Arts with a major in photography, Candace Karch, spent the next 12 years traveling. She worked on archeological digs in Greece, gave drinking tours in London, collaged in Paris, watched the Berlin wall collapse, food styled in Prague, and walked inside a glacier. She spent endless days at museums and photographed everything in front of her. It was not until she settled in California that she realized she wanted to open up a gallery in Philadelphia. Bambi Gallery was born in 2005. Karch curated new shows every first Friday for 6 years, proudly showing over 300 local artists. The gallery recently closed and she is back in her studio. Most recently she has been published in The Photo Review and Metalsmith magazine.

November 10th-26th 2011
Reception: November 10th, 2011 6pm-9pm
Location: Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
Link: More Info

Philly Photo Day was Friday, October 28th! Everyone in Philadelphia was invited to take a picture of anything you like within the city limits. Make sure to join us on November 10th, from 6-9pm, at the Philly Photo Day Opening Reception. Every single picture we receive will be printed and hung for exhibition in our space at 1400 N American St. Reprints of all the images will be available for $25.

This project was supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Sept 6 – Oct 29, 2011
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 8th, from 6 pm – 9 pm
Location: Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
Hours: Please see schedule on the PPAC website

The Philadelphia Photo Arts Center is excited to announce their upcoming exhibition, The Greater Area, opening on September 6th. The exhibition features the work of Gregory Halpern, Caitlin Teal Price, and Will Steacy. Curated by Sarah Stolfa and Christopher Gianunzio.

The Greater Area depicts contemporary cities as physical and psychological spaces fraught with solitude and caught in the midst of transformation.

The show also highlights photography’s unique capacity to transform the setting of the story, in this case the backdrop of the American city, into the focus of the work itself. The collected works utilize a variety of stylistic approaches that draw upon the histories of both landscape and portraiture photography. The result is an exhibition that combines elements of the city that are simultaneously overlooked and ignored.

The show opens September 6th, with a reception on Thursday, September 8th, from 6 pm – 9 pm; and runs until October 29th.

Gregory Halpern has his 3rd book coming out this fall titled, A. The book leads us on a ramble through the brilliant and ruined streets of the United States Rust Belt. The cast of characters, both human and animal, are portrayed with compassion and respect by this native son of Buffalo.

Caitlin Teal Price currently has work up at Gallery 339 in the About Face exhibition, running now until September 10th.

* Above photo detail: Gregory Halpern

Thursday, September 14 through Saturday, November 5, 2011
2nd Thursday Reception: Second Thursday, October 13th, 6 to 9pm
Location: Indigo Arts
Hours: Wednesday through Saturday 12:00 – 6:00 pm

Fred J. Carter, Ollie Cox, Shawn Crookshank, D.R. Mullins

Indigo Arts hosts an exhibit of the work of visionary artists from the Appalachian region of southern Virginia and eastern Tennessee. The artists have exhibited in several regional museum and gallery shows, but most have not previously been exhibited outside of the area. The exhibit includes paintings, sculpture and mixed media work by Ollie Cox, paintings by Shawn Crookshank and D.R. Mullins, and wood sculpture by the late intuitive sculptor and painter, Fred Carter (1911-1992).

November 10, 2011 through February 25th, 2012
2nd Thursday Reception: Second Thursday, November 10th, 6 to 9pm
Location: Indigo Arts
Hours: Wednesday through Saturday 12:00 – 6:00 pm

Indigo Arts presents a memorial exhibition of the work of the late Nigerian master, Prince Twins Seven-Seven (1944 – 2011), one of the leading members of the Oshogbo art movement, which arose in the early 1960s, and probably the most celebrated African artist of his generation. The exhibition will also include a selection of younger Nigerian artists who were influenced and inspired by Twins Seven-Seven.

August 11th – 21st, 2011
Second Thursday Reception: August 11th, 5:30 – 8:30pm
Location: Gallery 102
Link: http://www.goodlands.org/

This summer, Centro will host its annual Summer Camp art exhibit at the Crane Arts Building. The exhibit will feature the work produced by our talented young people, including photographs, poems, and a live dance performance.

The opening reception is free and open to the public and will include refreshments.
www.goodlands.org

Sept 10th – 18th, 2011
Schedule & Tickets: Philly Live Arts Website
Duration: 35 minutes
Location: Crane Old School White Space

What happens when the children of our war-ravaged future force the outcast amidst their ranks to act as Woyzeck, an abused soldier suffering from apocalyptic visions, in their imagination games? This visceral, haunting, and darkly comic re-imagination of Buchner’s feverish text brings his 19th century play slamming into the 21st.

Sept 7th – 11th, 2011
Schedule & Tickets: Philly Live Arts Website
Duration: 90 minutes
Location: The Icebox

What happens when the children of our war-ravaged future force the outcast amidst their ranks to act as Woyzeck, an abused soldier suffering from apocalyptic visions, in their imagination games? This visceral, haunting, and darkly comic re-imagination of Buchner’s feverish text brings his 19th century play slamming into the 21st.