DELAWARE COUNTY TIMES

Gallery stretches life canvas for bit of insight
By ALEX ROSE
arose@delcotimes.com
Tucked away in an all-but-forgotten part of North Philadelphia stretches a massive warehouse complex packed with artists of every imaginable stripe — some famous, some not so much, many constantly drunk (and a lot of fun).
Tonight, that warehouse will give birth to a new outlet for many of them when one studio apartment there is transformed into “little berlin,” a new gallery aimed at drawing insight from the outside.
“I think that we wanted to kind of create, or build upon, our support system in the art community, and just by making the space public we felt like our community would just grow and expand and everybody would benefit from this space as a platform for the arts,” said Kristen Neville, 25, originally of Havertown, a co-founder of the gallery with friend Martha Savery.
Like Savery, Neville is an artist working out of the studio apartment. The space also serves as a martial arts dojo twice a week for Savery’s fiancé, John Kahn, 26, originally of Rutledge. And now, it serves as a gallery.
“We have a fancy sign and everything,” said Savery, 26, sneezing over a frenzied cleaning Wednesday in preparation for Friday’s opening.
“We knew that we have a lot of friends that do art and lot of people that we know in this network that we have that could easily put on a great show,” said Savery, originally of Swarthmore. “But what we wanted to do was open our doors to … new, energized people who have ideas that aren’t necessarily being seen right now.”
“They put out an open call for show proposals, and I didn’t think there were enough smart shows in Philadelphia,” said Robert T. Pannell, 29, of Philadelphia, the first curator of little berlin.
His is titled “The Reality Show,” though it’s not about fat people losing weight or Hulk Hogan giving his wife and kids grief, brother.
“It’s dealing with different realities,” said Pannell, who originally hails from northern Florida. “I think the real question the show is trying to get at it is, what is truth? Can multiple realities exist simultaneously? I feel like in this age we’re getting a lot of different information from different sources and they don’t match up.”
For example, what the President tells the American people versus what ground troops have to say. Pannell said the scope is not political, though, it touches on everything from identity to intent, stereotypes to desensitization, in a wide range of mediums.
The seven contributing artists, including Pannell, are from such far away climes as San Francisco, Chicago, and Florida, though some are also local to New York and Philadelphia.
Pannell expects about half the artists to be on hand at the show, the first he’s run.
“It was good because you have total control about how you want to present it, how you want to hang it, what you want the audience to get out of it,” he said of the experience. “Most galleries are set up to make money and this hasn’t been set up to do that. In fact, we haven’t even talked about money.”
“It’s just building up on the community and acting as facilitators which, I think in Philadelphia, that’s how it works: people facilitate one another and friends help each other out,” said Neville.
Because Philadelphia has a lot of do-it-yourself galleries, she said, the art scene sometimes appears to be cliquish, which is exactly what little berlin wants to avoid.
“We want people to know that we’re open to outside ideas and influences and that we want to talk about the space and what they want to do with it and what they could see it being and … to contribute to the natural growth of little berlin.”
“Already people are contacting us and getting excited, so just letting it happen rather than forcing things upon it … has actually worked out really well,” said Savery.
“In the future I would love to get people from other countries involved and make it more international, as a more ambitious, long-term plan, to bring things to Philadelphia people would never, ever see unless they were traveling and bring some international artists here. Like an exchange program. A wacky exchange program. (But) we’re just doing our first show, man, just trying to make it through that.” IF YOU GO: The Reality Show opens tonight and runs through Oct. 12 at little berlin, 1801 N. Howard St., corner of Howard and Montgomery streets Philadelphia. Admission is free. Hours are 6-10 p.m. After hours by appointment only. E-mail berlin.little@gmail.com