Friday, July 5th, 2013 was Philadelphia's First Friday! The experience, like every first Friday here in Philly, was great. There were tons of artists and designers on the streets networking, selling work, and just having a great time. There was a flea market and a great deal of gallery openings too! I had the chance to visit Sub^2 Gallery, Pentimenti Gallery, Muse Gallery, Rosenfeld Gallery, an event by Fringe Arts and more.
Sub^2 Gallery had a lot of great art focusing on pop culture and philadelphia. Pentimenti Gallery (my personal favorite) had a great show, "Global Conscious, Local Artists" starring Shiana Craft, Tim Eads, Tim Portlock, Raul Romero, Emily Schnellbacher, and Jay Walker. Muse Gallery curated a solo exhibition, "Diane Lachman: Color Chords" (beautiful works!) and Rosenfeld plucked my heartstrings by including the artist Mike East, an artist who focuses this particular series of works on Philadelphia's urban landscapes. There is a picture above showing me next to a landscape painting depicting some buildings just down the street from where I live...can you say, "excited?!" (Of course, I'm biased because of my love for Philadelphia, but who cares!)
My visit to the Fringe Arts Proposition Tent was even better (literally the highlight of my evening). The entire summer Fringe Arts installs a red tent and surrounds it's contents and events around a specific theme; this month's focus was love, so, of course, being a hopeless romantic (my secret's safe with you right?) I had to go. Each tent includes a local artist, an international artist, and a non-profit. Unfortunately, the scheduled non-profit for this tent "bailed" on Fringe Arts forcing them to set up a last minute love workshop (we expressed our opinions about love in 2d art AKA markers, wide-ruled paper, and a little bit of our own creativity). On the upside, they had a fascinating work of art by Yoko Ono (Yes, I typed that right!) and had Leroy Johnson there sitting in front of few of his paintings and one of his sculptures. The first thing I saw upon arrival was Yoko Ono's "Grow Love With Me"; I was stoked! Then, I walked into the actual tent and there in the flesh was Leroy Johnson, an extremely well-known Philadelphia artist; I plopped right down and talked to the man. I was able to ask him all sorts of questions and he would shoot an answer right back somehow managing to make my friends and I laugh along the way. To say the least, Fringe Arts' Proposition Tent was a huge success making this first Friday a grand one!
Please do leave your comments or questions below! :)