(Photo courtesy The Penn Museum)
With so much happening on Philadelphia’s arts and culture scene, we want to make Uwishunu, in conjunction with sister site With Art Philadelphia, your one-stop-shop for all that’s happening with local art.
Every month, we gather our top art picks, featuring exhibits and events at smaller, alternative galleries and art spaces, as well as at the city’s major art institutions.
Be sure to gather your rosebuds this May by taking full advantage of local gallery and museum offerings. Tributes to everything from science to dancing to poetry abound.
Take a few swings around the May Pole with our top picks for arts happenings this month.
• 50th Anniversary Exhibition
Opening May 1, Snyderman-Works Galleries, 303 Cherry Street. A staple of the Old City gallery scene, Snyderman-Works Galleries hits 50 years this May. In an exhibition curated by Evan Snyderman, turn a golden eye on the history of the impactful arts venue. MORE INFO
• Natural Impulses
Through May 23, Locks Gallery, 600 Washington Square S. After the city wrapped up its Science Festival celebration, Locks Gallery is celebrating science art. Four artists take experimental media to a whole new level, with a series of works that draw on electricity, honeybees, and other natural processes to create via creation. MORE INFO
• The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and Its Successors
Wednesday, May 6, 6 p.m., Penn Museum, 3260 South Street. Nothing says inspiration quite like the ancient tomb of a king (how else would we get things like Steve Martin’s King Tut song?) A lecture at the Penn Museum discusses the sculpture and architecture behind King Mausolus’s mausoleum – notice the word origin – and its repetition in later buildings and memorials. MORE INFO
• Roger Ricco: Paintings and Photography
Opening May 8, Savery Gallery, 317 N. 11th Street. If you’ve ever seen the jungle shots in Apocalypse Now, you’re familiar with the way color and light can capture the mystical qualities of the natural world. Roger Ricco uses a similar technique to emphasize plants and planets in his paintings and photography, using the darker side of the color wheel, movie stills and more. MORE INFO
• Dance: Movement, Rhythm, Spectacle
Opening May 9, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. If still lifes aren’t your style, why not check out an exhibition that celebrates the movement of life? Heavy-hitters like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Wharton Esherick, and Pablo Picasso capture the rhythm, the history, and the spirt of dance. MORE INFO
(Photo by M. Fischetti for Visit Philadelphia)
More, below.
• Rock, Paper, Scissors: Drawn from the Joann Gonzalez Hickey Collection
Opening May 15, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 118-128 N. Broad Street. Drawing is something we’ve all done at one point or another – mostly in the margins of notebooks during class. Drawing as an artform generally breaks outside the lines, from sketches to final works. The current exhibition throws the two worlds together, as drawing students at PAFA curate a show from the collection of Joann Gonzalez Hickey. MORE INFO
• The Order of Things
Opening May 16, The Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Rearrange your concept of a space by entering into the mind of Albert Barnes. An installation of three large-scale installations at The Barnes Foundation, examines his approach towards displaying artwork as an act of creation in itself. MORE INFO
• Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby
Saturday, May 16, 12-6 p.m., Trenton Ave. and Norris Street. Get your motor running, Fred Flintstone style. The Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby is back, with a new logo and all the old fun of a human-powered sculptural float competition. MORE INFO
• SHADES & TONES
Sunday, May 17, 2-5 p.m., Da Vinci Art Alliance, 704 Catharine Street. What better way to set the mood for an evening of poetry than being surrounded by an exhibition of works inspired by travel? Three poets and five artists bring the color and sound of international experience to a gallery near you. MORE INFO
• Wall Ball
Thursday, May 21, The Electric Factory, 421 N. Seventh Street. Mural Arts is more than just a pretty face for your façade. Through public programming and arts activism, they’ve been enacting change in Philadelphia for years. The annual fundraiser is your chance to give back. MORE INFO
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