The University City Arts League (UCAL) is preparing for two big weekends as it will be opening two concurrent exhibitions. “Art in the Open,” a group show of eight multidisciplinary artists will open at noon this Friday at the UCAL Gallery (4226 Spruce St), and New York artist Aaron Asis will present “Ci-Lines,” a pop-up satellite installation across the street at the historic St. Andrew’s Collegiate Chapel (42nd and Spruce, entrance at 42nd and Locust) starting next Saturday, Feb. 28. This will be a rare opportunity to get inside St. Andrew’s.

“Art in the Open” is part of an annual event series. Over the course of four days in May 2014, thirty artists created art inspired by the landscape along Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River. Materials used to create their works along the River Walk include sound, spray paint, string and electrical tape. The UCAL gallery will host eight of the artists participating in the program: Noemi Armstrong, Aaron Asis, Lewis Colburn, Heejin Jang, Tom Judd, Eun Hye Kang, Tyler Kline, and Mat Tomezsko. The featured artists hail from as far as South Korea and as near as Philadelphia. This event will be the second of three parts of the “Art in the Open” series. The opening reception will take place this Friday (Feb. 20) from 6-8 p.m. The exhibit will be available for public viewing from February 20 until March 20, from noon to 6 p.m. 

“Ci-Lines” is a temporary installation by Aaron Asis, which draws inspiration from the towering and majestic St. Andrew’s Collegiate Chapel. The exhibit will be a collaboration between Asis and the fifth-grade class at Penn Alexander School. The project will integrate architectural details of the chapel into the installation by tethering a series of cords in tension to the building itself. The chapel’s architecture was modeled on Oxford’s English Gothic style when it was built in 1923 by the Philadelphia Divinity School in association with the University of Pennsylvania, as a part of a mission to educate Episcopal priests. Folks from the the Center for Emerging Visual Artists will also be contributing to the project. The exhibition will be open only for three days on the following dates: February 28, March 1 and March 14, from noon to 4 p.m. Don’t miss this chance to check out the installation and the beautiful St. Andrew’s Chapel which remains closed for the most part of the year (see video below). Note: UCAL is looking for volunteers for the afternoons the project is open to the public. Please contact Lori Waselchuk (tornado1@verizon.net) if you would like to help out.

For more information about both exhibitions, visit the University City Arts League website.

– Rana Fayez

Ci-Lines from Lori Waselchuk on Vimeo.