Mark thy calendar …

… Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Frank's - The Mary Liz Memorial Masters Exhibition 14 | Facebook.
This link doesn't tell you much, but the opening for this show is on Sunday. I don't know Jim Biglan's work, but I do know Felix Giordano's. That work may sometimes seem primitive, but don't be fooled. Giordano is a product of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the first and oldest art school in the country. Here's one of his portraits:

Here's another:

These are more conventional than much of his work. His most original stuff derives from, of all things, comic books. Those of us who, like myself, grew up reading things like Mandrake the Magician know that the images in the comics offered an unusually good take on the world around us, precisely by virtue of their stylization. Giordano's signature works (I hope to be able to post some examples later on) sometimes even include dialogue balloons. The effect in many cases can be strangely melancholy. The point is that the imagery in those comic books formed a visual language that accurately reflected mental and emotional spaces peculiar to America in the 20th century. The best art gives a window onto a world no longer with us that we are surprised to discover appeals to something deep inside us. Giordano's best work does exactly that.

Dirty Frank's, by the way, is one of Philly's legendary watering holes. Back in the early '60s, when I was just out of college,  a guy named Charlie Williams used to hang out there. He went on to become better known as C.K. Williams, prize-winning poet. So if you you're in the neighborhood of 13th and Pine between now and April 20,  stop in, have a beer, and take a look.