Philly Fall Arts Guide: 22 local gallery exhibitions to feast your eyes on

It's a different kind of fall season for Philadelphia galleries. Yes, there are familiar faces here and there, but there's definitely a shift away from the household names and an obvious interest in giving lesser-known artists and artistic movements their due, especially among the college and university galleries.

Being off the radar, or at least a little obscure, has a new cachet, as does anything "immersive."

Elegy for Tesla: An installation by Jeanne Jaffe
Sept. 14-Jan. 30, Rowan University Art Gallery
A multimedia, motion-activated installation by artist Jeanne Jaffe, inspired by the darker side of the life of the inventor Nikola Tesla, including, among other things, life-size sculptures of Tesla as a young and an older man, speech soundscapes that convey a range of psychological states, and an immersive video projection of Niagara Falls, where he invented the first hydro-electrical power station.

856-256-4521, rowan.edu/artgallery, Facebook, Twitter

Material Legacy: Masters of Fiber, Clay, and Glass
Sept. 17-Nov. 29, Philadelphia Art Alliance; Sept. 17-Nov. 29
One of several exhibitions this fall honoring Fellows of the American Craft Council (see "Fellowship in Clay," at the Clay Studio, below, and craftnowphila.org), featuring recent textiles by Warren Seelig, Adela Akers, and Lewis Knauss; hand-built porcelain sculptures by Paula Winokur, and colored glass compositions by Judith Schaechter that play on medieval iconography and the religious traditions of stained glass.

215-545-4302, philartalliance.org, Facebook, Twitter

Little North Road
Slought Foundation, Sept. 17-Nov. 27
A film and photographs by the Brooklyn photographer Daniel Traub that explore the social life and economies of a pedestrian bridge in Guangzhou, China, with additional photographs by his collaborators Wu Yong Fu and Zeng Xian Fang.

215-701-4627, slought.org, Facebook, Twitter

Dufala Brothers: Waste Dreams
Sept. 18-Nov. 11, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery
Recent sculptures, drawings, videos, and photographs by Philadelphia brothers Steven and Billy Dufala musing on the wastefulness of consumer culture, among them an installation of demolition debris.

215-545-6140, fleisherollman.com

Gabriel Martinez: Bayside Revisited
Sept. 18-Dec. 19, Print Center
In one of three shows in the Print Center's Centennial celebration, "The Print Center 100," Martinez, a Cuban American, Philadelphia-based artist working in photography, performance, and installation has created an immersive multimedia exhibition reflecting on the history of Fire Island and the gay population that made it an icon of Queer Culture.

215-735-6090, printcenter.org, Facebook, Twitter

Strange Currencies: Art & Action in Mexico City, 1990-2000
Sept. 19-Dec. 12, the Galleries at Moore
Artists who lived and worked in Mexico City in the 1990s had much to mull - an economic crisis, increasing violence and poverty, and widespread political corruption - and the unorthodox, action-based works they produced were a direct reflection of that upheaval. Moore's exhibition captures the vibrant spirit of that decade in works by 28 artists, among them Eduardo Abaroa, Francis Alÿs, Miguel Calderón, Tania Morales, and Luis Felipe Ortega.

215-965-4027, thegalleriesatmoore.org, Twitter

David Noonan
Through Oct. 2, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts
The first Philadelphia exhibition for this London-based Australian artist whose paintings assemble barely recognizable images of avant-garde performances between 1960 and 1970, silk-screened on linen or hemp.

215-717-6480, uarts.edu/about/rosewald-wolf-gallery, Facebook, Twitter

Fellowship in Clay: Philadelphia's American Craft Council Fellows: William Daley, Rudolf Staffel, Paula Winokur, and Robert Winokur
Clay Studio, Oct. 2-Nov. 29
An exhibition that is part of Craft Now Philadelphia, of works by four ceramic artists who led ceramic departments at colleges in the Philadelphia area - Daley at Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts); Staffel and Robert Winokur at Temple's Tyler School of Art, and Paula Winokur at Arcadia University. See "Material Legacy" at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, above, and "Art in Wood," at the Center for Art in Wood, below, and visit craftnowphila.org.

215-925-3453, theclaystudio.org, Facebook, Twitter

Immortal Beauty: Highlights from the Robert and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection
Oct. 2-Dec. 14, Leonard Pearlstein Gallery, Drexel University
A selection of garments focusing on the international high style of the 20th century, by Charles James, Gabrielle Chanel, Christian Dior, Halston, Oscar de la Renta, and others.

215-895-2548, drexel.edu/westphal/resources/LeonardPearlsteinGallery, Facebook, Twitter

Thomas Pacquette: Wilderness
Through Oct. 3, Gross McCleaf Gallery
A continuation of a traveling museum show, "On Nature's Terms: Paintings of Thomas Paquette Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act," of oil and gouache paintings of U.S. wilderness areas, from low-country swamps to Western high peaks.

215-665-8138, grossmccleaf.com, Facebook, Twitter

François-Xavier Gbré: The Past is a Foreign Country
Through Oct. 9, Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College
Site-specific immersive installations of wallpaper prints of architecture in West Africa and France - the first solo exhibition in North America of the Ivorian artist whose photographs of government buildings, abandoned factories, and monuments offer a personal experience of public space.

610-896-1287, haverford.edu/exhibits, Facebook, Twitter

From the Ground Up: Drawings by Emily Brown
Through Oct. 17, Hicks Art Center Gallery, Bucks County Community College
Deftly painted landscapes in ink on paper by the Philadelphia artist.

215-504-8531, bucks.edu/news/culture/hicks/

Anna Bogatin
Oct. 17-Nov. 28, Larry Becker Contemporary Art
New paintings of compositions utilizing vertical and/or horizontal stripes.

215-925-5389, artnet.com/lbecker.html

Steven Baris: The Smoothest of All Possible Space
Through Oct. 17, Pentimenti Gallery
New paintings on canvas, Mylar, and Plexiglas that borrow their geometric vocabulary from the layouts of distribution centers.

215-625-9990, pentimenti.com, Facebook

Madeline Peckenpaugh: Recent Work
Through Oct. 18, Seraphin Gallery
Large-scale, expressionistic abstract paintings inspired by natural and urban sites.

215-923-7000, seraphin.squarespace.com, Facebook, Twitter

Ted Lott: Architectonic
Through Oct. 25, List Gallery, Swarthmore College
His first show in the region, of mixed-media sculptures that suggest whimsical domestic structures.
610-328-7811 or swarthmore.edu/list-gallery.xml, Facebook, Twitter

Art in Wood: Philadelphia's American Craft Council Fellows
Center for Art in Wood, Oct. 30-Jan. 16, 2016
Works by jewelers Sharon Church and Bruce Metcalf, wood-turner David Ellsworth, and furniture-makers Michael Hurwitz and George Nakashima (see "Fellowship in Clay" at the Clay Studio, and "Material Legacy" at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, above, and visit craftnowphila.org).

215-923-8000, centerforartinwood.org, Facebook

Marcus Harvey
Through Oct. 24, Locks Gallery
Gestural impasto paintings on mounted photographs and humorous plasterlike resin sculptures that play on classical Greek sculpture and the paintings of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, by a British artist included in the Young British Artist exhibitions of the late '90s.

215-629-3868, locksgallery.com

Experience of Place
Through Oct. 31, Bridgette Mayer Gallery
Photographic works intended as personal interpretations of "place," by Sharon Harper, Eileen Neff, Michael Eastman, Jessica Backhaus, and Brea Saunders.

215-413-8893, bridgettemayergallery.com, Facebook, Twitter

Courtly Treasures: The Collection of Thomas W. Evans, Surgeon Dentist to Napoléon III
Through Nov. 8, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania
A remarkable 130 paintings, sculptures, photographs, and decorative objects formerly owned by Thomas W. Evans, a Philadelphian who settled in Paris in 1847 and became the surgeon dentist to Napoléon III and Empress Eugénie and whose estate established Penn's Thomas W. Evans Museum and Dental Institute.

215-898-2083, arthurrossgallery.org, Facebook, Twitter

Screen Time
Through Nov. 7, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
Photographic works by Asha Schechter and Sandra Vaka Olsen challenge the definition of the photographic image and explore the effects of the digital screen on the process and product of contemporary art-making, guest-curated by Tina Kukielski.

215-232-5678, philaphotoarts.org, Facebook, Twitter

reForm
Through May 20, Temple Contemporary, Tyler School of Art
In response to the Philadelphia school closings announced in 2013, Temple Contemporary commissioned artist Pepón Osorio to create an installation specifically addressing the loss of the Fairhill Elementary School in North Philadelphia. Collaborating with former Fairhill students, parents, and teachers, Osorio has reimagined a classroom and school hallway incorporating objects and materials from Fairhill.

215-777-9139, Facebook, Twitter

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