By EDWARD WAISNIS May 14, 2025

"PREFACE
With the exorbitant cost of living in the international center of the art world, New York, migration to nearby Philadelphia has been an inevitable (somewhat slow drip) development. Over the course of the last couple of decades, the (re)discovery of the enormous resources–relatively affordable real estate; a well-established food destination; a deep well of history and culture–has been building. The results of which can be observed in several distinct pockets: Fishtown; South Philly; Kensington/Tioga, amongst others–that has afforded the burgeoning of several notable, mostly artist-run, spaces exhibiting their contemporaries.

Generational shift is reflected by these activities, proliferating in major centers–and some not so major; case in point under consideration–from coast to coast, evident from Berlin to London; Shanghai to Seoul. Philadelphia is at the moment of receiving what might be referred to as the Bushwick/Ridgewood effect, thus joining the ranks of favored destinations for creatives. Aided by the immense cache of little-to-not-used retail and industrial space affords the major draw that contributes bastions for the pioneering and the hip, side-by-side.

Sermonizing aside, the following are my dispatches, travelogue style, from the current scene:

BIG RAMP
Traveling in a northwesterly direction for another two-and-a-half miles brings one to our next venue. Tucked into an unassuming industrial courtyard located in the spottily emerging Harrowgate (bordering on Port Richmond) corridor, running between Frankford and Kensington Avenues, that is beginning to be being taken up by the overflow of pioneers seeking less trampled (and less costly) environs away from the adjoining Kensington/Fishtown quarters presently approaching peak saturation, the gallery is exactly what it’s name professes with entry gained down a prominent concrete incline.

Kim Altomare and Melina Ausikaitis have been paired, showing under the banner label: Air Alone (from my dream). Given their shared savior faire with casual arrangements of disparaged, decried and cast aside materials molded and contorted into delicate accretions, volumes and surfaces, they make a harmonious pairing for this exhibition curated by Michelle Anne Harris with the assistance of Will Schwaller.

Altomare accents their dangling three dimensional molded paper pieces with aquatic shades of bleeding color accents, redolent of dye dropped into water, that enhance the undersea quality of their structures.

This attribute is most alive (pun intended) in Squid’s Habit, 2025, the limp cephalopod mollusk summoning skin of abaca paper and pulp paint inflections stretched over, and around, the woven reed skeleton. In addition to drawing inspiration from the fauna of sea and air, Altomare takes cues from the trans body. The pigments–from jewel to crepuscular–in Altomare’s works, completes the picture, so to speak.

Throughout the quality brought by their reliance on descent (talk about descending, just check out the testiculate Mosquito of Plenty, 2025) in the articulation and displaying of their work, contributes to recollection ranging from hanging gardens, underwater lairs and, or course, consciousness of the mobiles of Philadelphia born great Alexander Calder, sans the balancing act.

Flounce, 2025, is something of a showstopper due to airy festive composition and joyous hues. Despite the skimpy lightness of it’s basket weave construct whiffs of Frank Stella’s near-late work are afoot.

Chicagoan Ausikaitis’ activities span performance/music ‡, couture and visual art. Her polymathic activities coalesce in the chunky reliefs on view.

Evoking slabs from an archeological excavation–in fact, derived from the shapes of the tools employed in clothing production–these rough-edged accumulations of accrued layers of upholstery-grade fabrics, discarded paintings, pulped books, et. al. stacked and cut using garment patterns (a signaling to her apparel project). Blanketed between are cassette tapes (The Cure) secreted away within the accretions, akin to valuables secreted away in nooks of an adolescent bedding.

Ausikaitis’s previous work, while reliant on consistent ethos, were prone to character depiction whilst these slabs shy away from literal reads. Nevertheless, the cross-pollination from her utilitarian pursuits is a constant.

Shirt Block#2. Country Corners: Mom probably worked there, 2025 summons the fruits of the labour of seamstress’ of lore enshrined as an object of curiosity and low-key alluring charm."

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