By Marie Fowler
PUBLISHED: September 25, 2006 at 10:00 PM EDT | UPDATED: September 23, 2021 at 10:40 AM EDT
First Friday comes to the Main Line Oct. 6. Not only are the galleries open, but car dealerships, clothiers, markets, dive shops and office supply stores will be transformed into spaces for displaying a “Main Line ARTitude.”
A free trolley running up and down Lancaster Avenue from Algar Ferrari & Maserati in Rosemont through Haverford to Ardmore Toyota Scion eliminates the traffic problem.
Festivities begin at 5 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting and outdoor concert at the gazebo on Bryn Mawr Avenue just behind Ludington Library. Sponsored by Bryn Mawr Trust, The Big Band Professionals, popular area favorites, will inaugurate our first First Friday.
First Friday Main Line began last spring. Jamie Lokoff opened his MilkBoy Coffee House in Ardmore in February and held his own First Friday in April, with live music and an artist.
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“I always thought First Friday was very successful in Philadelphia, and the Main Line has a huge artistic community,” he said.
Sherry Tillman, of Past*Present*Future across Lancaster Avenue, came to Lokoff and confessed she’d long had the same dream. “We just might be the ones to pull it off, kick-start it,” she suggested. “People don’t realize how rich this area is in art and music.”
Judy Herman, director of the Main Line Art Center, came on board, as did Nicole Abel from the Art Center staff and Karen Godwin at Fine Arts Liaisons.
“You have all these talented people,” Lokoff noted. “Bonnie Squires did our PR. Mike Frank arranged the music and performance events.
“I don’t know if I ever expected it to take off, but it did -like jet propulsion,” Lokoff said, still awed. “We went from zero to 60 in four months.”
This particular First Friday, MilkBoy (2 E. Lancaster, #11 on map) will host cutting-edge digital art pioneer Luc Sonnet. “He’s an eccentric guy,” Lokoff acknowledged. “His mind must go a mile a minute.”
Sonnet will sketch on a Wacom tablet, a sort of digital sketchbook, and, via the computer, his work will appear on an 80-inch screen over MilkBoy’s stage. He describes his creations as “imagined images within an infinite universe.” London File, Bobby Thompson and Nick Abbay, will provide musical accompaniment.
Past*Present*Future’s (15. W. Lancaster, Ardmore, #13) front window will showcase multi-media artist Laura Demme’s installation in homage to legendary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Shown at the International Exhibition of Surrealism in Mexico City in 1940, Kahlo’s The Wounded Table has been interpreted by some as a sort of “skewed Last Supper.” A table that bleeds from every knot in the wood, supported by flayed human legs, is the setting for a representation of Kahlo herself, a skeleton and a papier-mache figure of the sort known as Judas, which she and Diego Rivera collected.
Ardmore Toyota Scion’s (219 E. Lancaster, #1) will host the group show that will include Philadelphia sculptor Leo Sewell’s ever-popular animals. Sewell freely admits “a 40-year habit of playing with junk” that began when he discovered the Navy dump near where he grew up in Annapolis. From house cats to a 24-foot stegosaurus, from eagles to the Liberty Bell, Sewell creates sculpture from found objects. Unique animals populate Sewell’s imaginary zoo, and he will even create custom work using items from a patron’s own past.
Other artists exhibiting in this venue include Marilyn Ashbrook, Val Bertoia, Ed Bronstein, Eric Christensen, Jaimie Cook, Bruce Evans, Sandra Giangiulio, Edward Matalon, Donald Meyer, Timothy Martin, Judy Pressman, Mary Ann Tyson and Helene Witman.
The “Dustpan Diva,” actress Trudy Graboyes, will perform a one-woman musical at 7 and at 8:30 p.m. at the Ardmore Initiative (56 E. Lancaster, #4). The diva gives us a history of American musicals from a backstage perspective, while Cold Stone Creamery offers free ice cream tastings.
Cool off with underwater photography featuring the work of Kim Lohan at the Aqua Hut Dive & Travel (51 Rittenhouse Place, Ardmore, #5).
The Electric Farm, with Joey Mutis III on the guitar and Paul Gehman on the upright bass, will be at Suburban Office Equipment (49 E. Lancaster, Ardmore, Map #6), performing songs from their latest recording. Their hit, “Unspoken Love,” was played during a steamy scene on the CBS crime drama, NUMB3RS. The group describes their sound as taking “soft pop into a folksy space rock situation.”
Chester County native and watercolorist Nicholas P. Santoleri will be at Merion Art & Repro Center (17 W. Lancaster, Ardmore, #14) from 6 – 9 p.m. to personalize his limited edition prints. Traditionalists love Santoleri’s quiet, evocative images. The artist takes us on a tour of the Main Line and surrounding countryside via impressions of Rosemont College, the chapel at Villanova, the Diamond Rock School House, the Knox covered bridge and Washington’s Headquarters at Valley Forge.
From 5 – 10 p.m., an Opening Reception for In Depth, an annual exhibition featuring the work of selected member artists, is on tap at the Main Line Art Center (Old Buck Road & Lancaster, Haverford, #21). The intent of In Depth, according to Art Center Director Herman, is “to push artists to grow and exhibit a body of work, so viewers can see the artists developing their own voices.”
Ceramic artist Sharon Bartmann will show, from her Oil Can series, hand-built raku works, a process rooted in the Japanese aesthetic that prizes the accidental effects that occur during the firing. Bartmann has collected real oil cans over the years, drawn, as she says, “to their simple forms and industrial details.”
Painter Joan Becker explores the figure on a large scale. Herman finds Beck’s “pattern, texture, and movement very vibrant.” Both Jacqueline Chachitz and Tony Devaney Morinelli exhibit abstract works. It is the first time Morinelli (performing arts director at The Shipley School) has shown his abstracts, which Herman finds “of the Newman school, large and quiet.” New York painter Susan Miller is represented by “large, ethereal landscapes and lots of trees,” according to Herman.
Four very different photographers complete the show at the Main Line Art Center. Working in black-and-white, Kenneth Sharp provokes the eye with unusual juxtapositions. A waterfall rushes down stairs or a tree sports an electrical outlet. Using color, Amanda Stevenson Lupke “captures the moment,” in Herman’s view, producing “an incredibly strong body of work on dancers.” Marsha Treiger photographs flowers, producing totally patterned images, while Laura Jean Zito exhibits expansive landscapes.
Visitors to King’s Collar Shirtmakers (28 W. Lancaster, Ardmore, #17) won’t see a tailor, but rather Brazilian-born artist and sculptor Francisco Ferenczi at work. Ferenczi, who maintains a studio in Quakertown, is a former nuclear engineer who works in a variety of media and styles. Most striking are his alabaster cats with their decidedly pre-Hispanic feel and his Tarot figures. (Do avoid the eerie skeleton!)
Fittingly, Brazilian music provided by Minas enhances the mood. Brazil native Orlando Haddad and Denver native Patricia King have played Lincoln Center in New York and the Keoting “the energy, the potential to bring the community alive. I think it will be a great Main Line tradition.”
Other members of the Main Line ARTitude Committee include Alice Affleck (BMFI); Nancy Gold (King’s Collar Shirtmakers); Kathy Lawless (TD Banknorth); Matt McGlynn (art direction/design); Eric Persson and Brenda Viola (Lower Merion Township); Ricki Petersen (Creative Way/Wren Fellini); Marty Phillips, Joe Smith, and Therese Trainer (Bryn Mawr Trust); Moira Shaughnesey (Ardmore Initiative); and Christine Vilardo (Aqua Hut Dive & Travel).
Artists, musicians and other performers who wish to be included on future First Fridays may apply on-line at the Web site, www.FirstFridayMainLine.com.
Most galleries will be open from 5 until 10 p.m., but times vary. The Web site provides a map and links to each event.
Don’t let the trolley leave without you!
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