"The Elements" features fresh paintings by Neil Anderson at Bridgette Mayer Gallery (709 Walnut St., 215.413.8893). In keeping with the title, this work is imbued with a quality that holds the entire natural world close through the very act of painting.
Here, a new world is born, and though the titular elements are compartmentalized within singular pieces, the total effect yields a suite that finds a fifth element - color. Every composition bursts into our world according to respective visual cues laden with radiant intricacies and glorious heft. The show runs through October 29 with a First Friday reception.
The simply titled exhibit, "Paintings," is at Larry Becker Contemporary Art (43 North Second St., 215.925.5389) through November 12. It features two new artists to the gallery, Rebecca Salter and Fernando Colon Gonzalez. Rather than offer them respective space, their work is intermingled throughout the place and offers both a nifty contrast and a close-watched confluent integrity.
Rich and layered, Salter's paintings boast a subtlety that fits the season well. Colon Gonzalez's paintings consist of bold, single-color backgrounds that contain designs that are at once familiar yet just a little askew. "Paintings" finds a fresh pair of artists arriving in Philly at the height of their powers.
Well, Gallery Siano has done it again. Their October show is one that people will be talking about for some time. "The Urban Canvas" features paintings by Vincent Romaniello, along with work by a handful of other Philly painters that he has chosen. Romaniello's progress as a painter has been a visual journey that your humble correspondent has enjoyed for years. Whereas his abstract paintings in the past boasted a serene quality, his muse is now a bit more strident in the best sense of the word. The opening is on First Friday at Gallery Siano (309 Arch St., 215.629.2940).
"Five Big Ones--2001/2005" refers to a half decade's worth of work by one of University City's top artists, George Shinn, with a concentration of paintings from this year. The flow of the work over the past five years finds Shinn wandering fresh tracks into the new millennium with his characteristic humor, only now leavened with an edge since some of the countenances he offers possess a dire cast. World wise and world-weary join the fun he has exemplified in the past. This show is at Highwire Gallery (1315 Cherry Street, 4th Fl., 215.829.1255), with a First Friday opening.
Once again, Arleen Race Wolf takes the detritus of industry - sections of discarded machinery, pipes and other scrap metal - then welds it into intricate work that is at once tensile and delicate for her latest sculpture in "A Festival of Shape & Color" at Muse Gallery (60 North Second St., 215.627.5310), opening on First Friday. In short, junk is reborn.
This time out, though, beyond metallic density and intensity the artist is focusing just as much on color. Beyond any notion of patina, each piece boasts a wide array of hues courtesy of Wolf's buoyant palette.
As soon as I saw the cluster of figures across the gallery, I knew just what they were. And I was proven correct when I saw the title that artist Shelley Spector had given to her assemblage/sculpture. It was "Minyan," which is the number of men required by Jewish Law to recite Kaddish, the memorial prayer for the dead. Yet Life (yes, with a capital "L") is what this installation, "I Am on your Shoulders," is all about.
It's also about tradition and memory, faith and friendship. This is a powerful piece that offers the basic truth of what art embodies on a basic emotional and spiritual level. It's at The Painted Bride (200 Vine St., 215.925.9914) through October 22.
