I've made many friends via flickr over the past year. I've found many people here in Philadelphia as well as elsewhere. Cali, NY, Chicago, Texas... I've even met a lot of the Philly area flickerites at various events. Sometimes even running into them randomly which is always fun.
I've been documenting a lot of the streetart here in Philadelphia and a good percentage of the stuff I see on the street ends up on my flickr. I've been following the work of many street artists from around the way as well. I really like a ton of NYC based artists and I got a chance to meet one of them Friday night.
I went to The Center for Emerging Visual Artists [237 S. 18th St] on Friday night after seeing C-Monster's post earlier in the day.
I spoke to Celso [soft "C"] for about ten minutes. We spoke about the differences of the scene between Philly and NYC. I told him about the Anti-Graffiti Network here and how they do a rediculous job in taking down / covering up all the stuff that goes up on the walls around town. I told him that there weren't too many large pasteups in town. I told him that I had seen two Swoon pieces here in Philly and he took out a business card to jot down the location. I also told him about an alleyway by City Hall where a good amount of pasteups are left up. But beyond those, not much. I told him how I missed all the wonderful graffiti that I see in NYC everytime I go back. He replied, "Some people just like that look" referring to the blank walls. We nodded in agreement that that wasn't the way we liked things.
It was wonderful to meet an artist whom I admire. You really don't get the chance to do that too often. Fortunately, I've been able to meet a shitload of great photographers here in Philadelphia. I wish I was a rich philanthropist so that I could support their work. But alas, I'm scrapping away myself putting together some scratch here and there.
Celso had three works on display which you can see above where he deftly got a photo of me, perhaps sensing that I was a blogger and that I'd make use of it in the days to come or here in a slightly nicer shot. I was hoping he'd have a large installation of his pasteups, but the three silhouette oil paintings were lovely.
The Collaboration II show is going on through the 22nd at the Center. It's a free small two room gallery. I very much enjoyed the two Fawad Khan works. Faceless Soldier and Faceless Soldier II. Both 72" x 55" made with ink, oil and shellac on heavy primed paper. The bloody red dripping over the solder's body are quite stunning.
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