Philadelphia Weekly

>> PLAY ON

Gene Schmidt plays Bingo like nobody's business. Using cardboard game cards found at flea markets, Schmidt paints by the numbers, lassoing digits in speedy, diagonal arrays that evoke flashlight beams, machine gears and belts and even the paddle-like "flippers" on pinball machines. Schmidt's sunny subversions of one of the Western world's best-known games make high-order play of play. The ghost of Charles Sheeler's Precisionism and the clang of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times lurk here. Schmidt pushes into cosmic realms in three works that all but replace Bingo's manmade orderly grid with Saturn's sublime concentric circles, reminding you of larger, more complex systems that are no game. Speaking of heavenly, Joanne Mattera's nine encaustic wax "Uttar" panels in the front gallery are smooth, icy confections that also play with grids. Two of the panels, one lime green and one orange, remind you that on a hot day, there are no bad choices in the Popsicle box.
>> Through May 31. Pentimenti Gallery, 133 N. Third St. 215.625.9990. WWW.PENTIMENTI.COM

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>> STRINGS ATTACHED

Snyderman-Works Gallery's third biennial Textile and Fiber Arts International--a group exhibit as satisfying as any out there today--proves again that categories of high art and low, fine art and craft no longer matter. The only difference seems to be that with some shows, technical virtuosity is prized for itself, which occasionally results in objects that wow you with technique but disappoint with their content. That said, examples of thought-fueled, amazingly crafted work abound here. Chamisa and Paradox, two knotted, pigmented creations by Jane Sauer, for example, are beautiful and macabre like mutant life forms spawned from some illicit pairing in Matthew Barney's Cremaster series, all tails, horns and sex. And Hungarian-born artist Anna Torma's intimate, story-telling embroidery piece Silence--a personal timeline of angry dogs, diary-like prose, Batman, Wolverine and Hungarian folk art--takes today's confessional impulse to a new, gorgeous height.
>> Through May 30. Snyderman-Works Galleries, 303 Cherry St. 215.238.9576. WWW.SNYDERMAN-WORKS.COM

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>> THE GREAT OUTDOORS

His fabricator told him it wouldn't work, but Ron Klein went ahead anyway, making a Leap of Faith with his large, fragile object in the Bird Park at Third and Arch. Klein's vinyl-coated rubber inflatable, sheathed in Burmese fish net, looks like a big plumb bob crossed with an acorn. It has a sexy bulbousness and a killer point on the bottom. The piece, which is anchored at the top and swings in the breeze has a great "whatizzit?" street presence. A little cartoony and familiar, the object takes charge of the small park like it belongs there. "You should have seen it this morning," Klein says, his eyes wide with amazement. "It was spinning like a top." Klein is a little worried about the outdoor wear and tear as well as possible animal incursions but he's not dwelling on that. "Come back at night. It'll look great," he says.
>> "Ron Klein: Leap of Faith," through August. Bird Park, Third and Arch sts. For more information contact Gallery Joe, 302 Arch St. 215.592.7752. www.galleryjoe.com