First Friday Fun

Not that we don't love Old City (we do), but we figured this week, we should focus on some of the First Friday goings-on that aren't part of the typical First Friday scene. Here are a few places we might be checking out tonight – places where the crowds might even be smaller. (That means more wine for us!)

First up will be the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, over in Rittenhouse, as they celebrate the opening of Regarding Conflict, an exhibition featuring the photography of Shea Roggio and paintings by Lillian Bayley, both of whom address political conflict and its consequent effect on humanity. It sounds heavy, but relevant. CFEVA is located at 237 South 18th Street, between Locust and Rittenhouse Square.

Way southeast from CFEVA is an intriguing, yet mysterious installation at the Duprée Gallery simply entitled Summer Nudes. The only thing we know about it is what artists will be featured (Maggie Coupe, Ed Vagnoni, Debora McCafferty, Kristin Kozlowski, and James Dupree), but, well, we don't really care. Because it's going to have lots of naked. And we like naked. Duprée Gallery is located at 703 S. 6th Street, at Bainbridge.

Heading back toward Old City without actually hitting a slew of First Friday fans, we're also super curious about The Midwives Collective's newest show, The Hesitation Waltz, described as "a culmination of [artist Sarah L. Hunt's] many interests and influences: Victorian silhouettes, automata, the animal dances of the Ragtime Era, and, of course, the stubborn ass." Stubborn Phillyists that we are, it sounds like our type of exhibit. Midwives Collective is located at 722 Sansom, between 7th and 8th Streets.

Image: the most SFW nude artwork we could find. Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase, via Answers.com.