Focus on Galleries

David J. Kennedy at Arthur Ross Gallery. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, at 13th and Locust Streets, has the largest holdings of watercolors by David J. Kennedy but rarely has had the opportunity to exhibit them. Now, some of his fetching views of the city, loaned by the society to the University of Pennsylvania's Arthur Ross Gallery, are the stars of "West Philadelphia: Building a Community." Kennedy, a Scot, was a railroad clerk who taught himself to paint and went on to capture most of Philadelphia on paper. The English artist William Birch already had depicted views of Philadelphia in his popular prints, but did not take nearly as exhaustive an approach as Kennedy, who seemed possessed by his adopted city. It's fair to say he did for Philadelphia what the photographers Eugene Atget and Berenice Abbott did for Paris and New York, but earlier. (Through Oct. 11; 215-898-2083 or www.upenn.edu/ARG.)

Locks Gallery. Locks opens its fall season with a memorial exhibition for Philadelphia artist Thomas Chimes, who died on April 20, 2008, his 88th birthday. Chimes, whose mysterious paintings celebrated his heroes Marcel Duchamp, Thomas Eakins, and Alfred Jarry, among others, and whose career was the subject of a 2007 retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will be represented by landscape and crucifixion paintings made between 1958 and 1965. The show's catalogue will include the artist's poems from that period, never previously published. (Through Oct. 16; 215-629-1000 or www.locksgallery.com.)

Vox Populi. Its September show contains intriguing offerings, including the video Walking After Acconci (Redirected Approaches), by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, who began collaborating as students at Goldsmiths, University of London, and are known for their reenactments of art-historical events. Their appreciation of performance artist Vito Acconci's 1973 filmed performance of himself walking a hall in imaginary conversation with an ex-lover takes on the style of a contemporary music video. (Through Sept. 27; 215-238-1236 or www.voxpopuligallery.org.)

The Print Center. The current "Streets of Philadelphia: Photography 1970–1985," demonstrates how compelling the cityscape was in the funky days of downturn and disco, as seen by Ray K. Metzker, David Graham, Nancy Hellebrand, Stephen Shore, Paul Cava, Harvey Finkle, George Krause, and others. (Through Nov. 10, 215-735-6090 or www.printcenter.org.)

Design Philadelphia. The weeklong annual citywide event that begins Oct. 7, means stirring conversations with design pros, thought-provoking exhibitions, a runway show of responsible design, open studios, and Philly Works, a marketplace of locally produced and designed products. (Through Oct. 13; 215-951-5338 or www.Design Philadelphia.org.)

The Design Center at Philadelphia University offers the exciting "Lace in Translation," works by European designers Tord Boontje and Demakersvan and Canadian artist Cal Lane made in response to the center's Quaker Lace Co. holdings. Look for an extraordinary raffia curtain, a welded filigree oil drum, and a "lace" chain-link fence. (Sept. 24-April 3, 215-951-2860 or www.philau. edu/DesignCenter.)

Moore College of Art & Design devotes its entire fall season to design-centric exhibitions, one of which, "Inside the Architect's Studio: The Process of Making Museums," honors the its 2009 Visionary Woman Award recipients: Nancy Kolb, retiring executive director of the Please Touch Museum, and architect Billie Tsien, of Tod Williams Billie Tsien & Associates. (Oct. 7-Dec. 9; 215-965-4027 or www.thegalleriesat

moore.org.)

And Moderne Gallery's exhibition of George Nakashima's early furniture sounds like icing on the cake (Oct. 9-Dec. 24; 215-923-8536 or www.modernegallery.com.)

Schmidt Dean Gallery. The gallery's first show of the season has the latest from painter Tina Newberry and sculptor Susan Hagen. Newberry's self-portraits continue her intense, often humorous scrutiny of herself, this time in the guise of a Civil War reenactor. Hagen has shifted her attention from American soldiers and domesticity to teenagers. Her small painted-wood sculptures capture kids as the fashion victims they generally are. (Through Oct. 17; 215-569-9433 or www.schmidtdean.com.)

Hiro Sakaguchi. His paintings and drawings may have taken on a darker mood of late - one shows houses swirling in the center of a typhoon - but they haven't lost their wonderful sense of whimsy and innocence, as if the artist is reliving his childhood fantasies. (Seraphin Gallery through Oct. 27; 215-923-7000 or www.seraphingallery.com.)

All About Ulmer. Two gallery owners under the spell of a 92-year-old artist are seeing to it she'll finally get the close-up she deserves - at her alma mater, no less. Candace Karch of Bambi Gallery and Janel Rivera Frey of Proximity Gallery have organized an exhibition for Marie Ulmer, a 1941 graduate of the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Design - now the University of the Arts - in the eighth-floor gallery of UArt's Anderson Hall. They've been cataloguing Ulmer's work, and expect the paintings and illustrations of this lifetime Kensington/Fishtown resident to be a revelation. (Sept. 24 to Oct. 14; www.bambiproject.com or www.proximityart.com.)

Arcadia. The decider behind Arcadia University Art Gallery's Works on Paper 2009, the latest iteration of the gallery's vaunted annual juried show of drawings - open to any artist within a 40-mile radius of the university - will be João Ribas, art critic and curator of New York's esteemed Drawing Center, who has organized exhibitions of the drawings of Rirkrit Tiravanija, Frederick Keisler, and Ree Morton, and numerous group shows. Expect the competition to be stiffer than ever. (Nov. 18-Dec. 20; 215-572-2131 or www.arcadia.edu/gallery).