First Friday Fun

By now the art season is in full swing, and this month's First Friday openings bring a host of interesting new shows to the city's galleries and assorted art spaces.

Leading the visual arts charge is Jeanine Leclaire's Humanitis N.O.S. exhibition at Rodger LaPelle Gallery. Expect to see acrylic paintings full of strong visual narrative clues. The opening is today from 6-10PM. Rodger LaPelle Gallery is at 122 N. Third Street, corner of Cherry St.

Also today, the surreal works of Steven Putz will be featured at the Khmer Art Gallery's opening from 5:30 pm-9 pm. This will be the first solo exhibition of Putz's career, and will be on display though November. In his introductory show, Putz will exhibit about twenty paintings of various sizes, created in his own singular style which he calls Sumi-E/Bokusho—a hybrid of the Japanese black watercolor style Sumi-E and the abstract calligraphy style Bokusho. Putz developed this style while training with his mentor, a Korean painter named Young Won. Khmer Art Gallery is at 319 N. 11th St. at Wood Street.

Ten years in the making, the Chemical Heritage Foundation Museum and Conference Center will celebrate its official opening during First Friday festivities and openings. There's a permanent installation called Making Modernity (includes scientific instruments and apparatus, rare books, fine art, and the personal papers of prominent scientists) as well as artists’ reactions to ten molecules that changed the 20th century in their first changing installation, Molecules That Matter, through January 30, 2009 at the Clifford C. Hach Gallery. Work by the following artists is included in the exhibit: Susie Brandt, Chrissy Conant, Bryan Crockett, Robert Dawson, Melissa Gwyn, Frank Moore, Michael Oatman, Roxy Paine, Dan Peterman, Edward Ruscha, and Fred Tomaselli. The Chemical Heritage Foundation is located at 315 Chestnut Street between 4th and 3rd streets.

Over at the artists collective Muse Gallery, their First Friday opening is for new works by Anne Marble Caramanico, whose artwork is influenced by her training as a biologist and environmental scientist. The Muse Gallery is located at 52 North 2nd Street, between Arch and Market Streets.

The Bridgette Mayer Gallery will have Allen Bentley's Extravagance! This is Bentley's fifth show at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery, and the exhibition will showcase a new collection of 52 x 52" oil on canvas paintings. The Bridgette Meyer Gallery is located at 709 Walnut Street, between South 7th and 8th Streets.

Jeanine Leclaire's image courtesy of Rodger LaPelle Galleries