Our Picks: Your Curated Guide to Art in Philadelphia This Winter

Woe Be Gone, installation view in the snow (2014/15)

Dan Murphy and Isaac Tin Wei Lin, Woe Be Gone, 2014, installation view in the snow, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania.

THROUGH SATURDAY, JANUARY 24

Thomas Pontone and John Mitchell: Cogma

This two-person show at Space 1026 features sculpture by Philadelphia-based artist Thomas Pontone (including Parade, 2015, pictured) and John Mitchell. View by appointment, or attend what is sure to be a buzzing closing reception on Saturday, January 24 at 7pm.
Thomas Pontone, *Parade*, installation view at Space 1026 (2015)

Thomas Pontone, Parade (detail), 2015. Courtesy of the artist.

THROUGH SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7

Jesse G. Engaard, Mami Kato, and Teresa Rose: Wind Challenge Exhibition Series

View work by some of the most recent winners of the annual Wind Challenge juried exhibition series at Fleisher Art Memorial, including Jesse G. Engaard’s performative video installation, Mami Kato’s intimate sculpture, and Theresa Rose’s magical cityscapes (pictured).

THROUGH SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15

Richard Harrod: Bad for the Goldfish

Philadelphia artist Richard Harrod’s third exhibition at Marginal Utility draws inspiration from Winnie-the-Pooh author A. A. Milne’s essay “Goldfish”—a meditation on the cultural symbolism of this domestic pet. Milne concludes that the goldfish is “a symbol of enterprise and endurance, of restlessness… he is contemporary.”

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4 – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28

Dina Wind: Transformations

Noted Philadelphia sculptor Dina Wind sadly passed away in 2014. Bridgette Mayer Gallery represents Wind’s Estate and this exhibition will explore her contributions to the Philadelphia art scene and to late twentieth-century abstraction and assemblage.
Dina Wind, Opera Double Brooch (1996)

Dina Wind, Opera Double Brooch, 1996, varnished steel, 50 x 55 x 8 inches. Courtesy of Bridgette Mayer Gallery.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 23 – FRIDAY, MARCH 6

Zoe Strauss: Sea Change

In Sea Change, at Haverford College’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, celebrated Philadelphia photographer Zoe Strauss traces the landscape of post-climate change America. Lush and leveled landscapes; graffiti pleas and words of encouragement—Strauss’s camera captures lives decimated and dusting off: the fast and slow tragedies of global warming, the damage we can repair, and the damage we can’t.

THROUGH FRIDAY, MARCH 13

Micah Danges: Front/Back

Philadelphia artist Micah Danges’s first solo exhibition at Cabrini College explores an area between image-making and sculpture. His subjects are objects, selected for their personal signifiance and relationship to travel or nature, removed from their surroundings, and then placed into the artist’s own formal environments.
Micah Danges, *Bathroom Scene*, photograph (2012)

Micah Danges, Bathroom Scene, installation view, Fleisher Art Memorial, 2012. Courtesy of the artist.

THROUGH SATURDAY, MARCH 14

Anthony Romero: 4th AUX Curatorial Fellowship Performance Series

AUX Performance Space at Vox Populi presents a program series curated by Chicago-based artist and writer Anthony Romero, which interrogates the voice as it intersects with artistic practice: acts of translation, protest, puppetry, queer utopias, and state sanctioned violence.

THROUGH SATURDAY, MARCH 21

Bill Walton

Fleisher/Ollman presents the work of Bill Walton (1931–2010), who created highly refined sculptures that defy categorization. Elegantly simple, most of his objects are tooled from scraps of lumber, metal, glass and linen that are meticulously—and sometimes deceptively—altered by cutting, planing, leafing, and painting. Look back on Bill Walton’s Studio (pictured) at ICA.
Bill Walton, 2011

Bill Walton”s Studio, 2011, installation view, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania.

THROUGH FRIDAY, MARCH 27

The School of Atha: Collaboration in the Making of Children’s Books

Penn’s Van Pelt Library celebrates the life and work of children’s book designer and art director Atha Tehon. The exhibition is based on the collection of her books and papers recently given to the University of Pennsylvania Libraries by her niece Susan Tehon.

EXTENDED THROUGH SPRING

Joy Feasley and Paul Swenbeck: A Hatchet to Kill Old Ugly

This exhibition at the Fabric Workshop and Museum is inspired by Shaker spirit drawings and magic. Feasley and Swenbeck propose how science, asceticism, and magic are all possible methods of exploring our world, in an exhibition detailing the artists’ fascination with an invisible world that is all around us.
Paul Swenbeck and Joy Feasley, *A Hatchet to Kill Old Ugly*, installation view, Fabric Workshop and Museum (2014)

Paul Swenbeck and Joy Feasley, A Hatchet to Kill Old Ugly, installation view, Fabric Workshop and Museum, 2014. Courtesy of the artists.

Which exhibitions and performances are you visiting this winter? Let us know via Twitter!