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A fine first show in Lambertville

Perkes gallery courts collectors.

'Traditional, Modern, International" at Joan Perkes Fine Art is the commendable debut exhibition of a new gallery that opened its doors April 1 in a Lambertville neighborhood with a decidedly Cape May feel to it.

From the start of this new venture, Perkes says, she was amazed at the phone calls she got from neighborhood people saying they had heard about her plans and wanted to know how they could help. Her enterprise was warmly welcomed as she set up shop in a large 1891 building where, once upon a time, spokes for automobile wheels were manufactured. It is now home to the gallery's three salons and more than 2,500 square feet of exhibition space.

Perkes, a New Hope resident and native Philadelphian, opened her first gallery in Philadelphia in 1969 and has been assisting art collectors in various venues as a gallerist ever since. The idea at the new showcase is to make the place "incredibly accessible" to both new and more experienced collectors - this is not a gallery for landscapes in gold frames. And while Perkes considers the North Union Street address her home base, she maintains her condo in Spain and travels there regularly. Besides bringing Spanish artists here, she also occasionally takes clients there.

Stimulating and interesting works now on view in "Traditional, Modern, International" are by painters Celia Reisman, Alan Goldstein, Cesar Nunez of Mexico, Jan Morgen and David Febland, and by sculptors Christopher Cairns, Harry Georgeson, and Julia and Shane Stratton.

Bruce Katsiff's photos of the Doylestown vicinity are presented with incisive sympathy for the region - that's how he lets you know he's been there and didn't just walk through it.

While several of these artists present immediately arresting work, all of them sustain a solid level of competence and inventiveness.

The abstract expressionist painter Malcolm Bray, who owns the building, shows his work on the second floor.

Urban stitching

A display that may not get a lot of attention but that certainly deserves a serious look is "Material Witnesses: Manhattan Quilters Guild" at the Abington Art Center. Featured here are 31 quilts by 31 fiber artists from not the Deep South or rural Pennsylvania or Ohio, but from distinctly unpastoral New York City.

If working with textiles seems to have an inverse relationship to the ever-changing New York art scene that contains it, keep in mind that these artists belong to a group founded very soon after the 1970s launch of the international art quilt movement. The Manhattan Quilters Guild was cutting edge then, and it is now.

This is its fifth traveling show, and, staged at Abington as part of the continuing FiberPhiladelphia celebration, it offers a number of deeply felt and patiently wrought quilts.

I responded especially favorably to resourceful ones with catchy Manhattan themes by Teresa Barkley and Katherine Knauer, as well as to pieces by Ludmila Aristiva, Beth Carney, Emiko Toda Loeb, Ruth Marchese, Jeri Riggs, Ludmila Uspenskaya, and Adrienne Yorinks. One cavil: Including quilts of uniform size and shape (square), while practical for a traveling show, diminishes the display's impact.

Artists Equity shows off

Philadelphia/Tri-State Artists Equity Association, which encourages exhibitions, best practices, advocacy, and economic advancement for fine artists in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, is presenting its 63d Anniversary Members Juried Exhibit at West Chester University's New Gallery. Sande Webster, the respected art dealer who recently closed her long-running eponymous gallery in Center City, judged works by the 52 artists participating in the show and awarded many prizes.

Lori Banks comes across as a sensual colorist in Salute, her abstract painting on canvas that stands out radiantly with its vermillion and ochre hues, and that took "best in show."

Beyond that, the display runs a full gamut of work, from other effective abstractions by Alan and Libbie Soffer to Teresa DeSeve's Evensong, a placid pastel of a sleeping woman. At least two of these 52 artists took a downbeat approach, sculptor John Costanza and painter Cliff Lamoree both portraying caskets ready for burial. These two poignant works seem to evoke the crises of high art in our time, or wider world problems.

In general, though, optimism prevails in this anniversary event.