We couldn’t be more excited to be part of the upcoming exhibition, Here and There, a travel-oriented pop-up by Field and Various Projects.

The exhibition will include an array of artists and designers invited to create objects based on the theme of travel. Field’s own line of well-crafted objects will be on view, including a limited edition white oak Art in the Age cocktail kit built by Jonah Takagi.

Inspired by classic Danish meets Shaker design, the self-contained kit combines luxury and utility, providing all the essential components for crafting cocktails in the field.  The kit features a carefully curated selection of bar tools and ingredients; including a Stelton cocktail shaker, HS stackable tumblers, Field loop bottle opener, Opinel Folding Knife, Morris Kitchen Rhubarb syrup, and Juniper Ridge White Sage and Wild Mint tea.

Join us Saturday, May 18^th from 6-8pm for an opening reception featuring AITA cocktails.

Various Projects, 2 Bond Street, New York, NY

Contributors to Here and There include: Timothee Colmant, Daniel Gafner, Colgate Searle, Jonah Takagi, Okolo, Hannah Waldron, Katrin Greiling, The Good Flock, Studio Grom and more.

Art in the Age is proud to present The Return of Spring, a group exhibition featuring an eclectic mix of work from environmentally inspired artists and craftspeople based in the Philadelphia area.

Including work by Heirloom Home and Studio, Arden and James, Marisa McClellan, and Ecobota.

Opening Reception: First Friday, May 3rd, 6-8PM

This That & The Other, by New York-based Illustrator and Graphic Designer, Tim Lahan, is a collection of work that explores being on the edge of traditional design and illustration. With his signature wit and graphic simplicity, Lahan alludes to the boundaries of physical spaces, time, gravity, abstraction, and culture.

Lahan’s goal has always been to communicate visually in a simple and direct aesthetic.  His work can be seen in The New Yorker, Jack Spade, McSweeney’s, GOOD, AOL, Nike, The New York Times, and others.

Join us First Friday, April 5th, from 6-8pm for an opening reception.

Beth Beverly, known professionally as Diamond Tooth Taxidermy, created her first successful taxidermy mount in 2000, and has since taken the taxidermy, art and fashion worlds by storm.

Beth defies common taxidermists stereotypes, and has become a leader in the rogue taxidermy scene. All of the animals used in her pieces are sourced according to a strict ethical code, and nothing is wasted.

During the month of March, Beth will create a still life farm within the Art in the Age gallery. The exhibition will showcase a wide variety of pieces that began life on the same local farm, and have been reincarnated with a fresh perspective.

Join us First Friday, March 1st, from 6-8pm for our opening reception.

At the end of the hall, on the third floor of a large unassuming Port Richmond, Phila warehouse, two studios house an unlikely family of wild creatures.  A baby lamb stands, as if for the first time, next to lushly feathered hats, while Harriet, an 80lb goat lies quietly under a chair.

Beth Beverly, known professionally as Diamond Tooth Taxidermy, created her first successful mount in 2000, and has since taken the taxidermy, art and fashion worlds by storm.

We had a chance to shoot a few photos of Beth’s work, and talk about how her unique rogue approach to the taxidermist trade.

AITA: What was your first taxidermy mount? Do you still have it?

BB: The first animals I ever did were birds that I found on the sidewalk.  I’d keep their wings because I didn’t really know what to do with them.  Then the first real mount was a pheasant.  The tail feathers on that hat (pointing to a lush feathered hat on her studio shelf) are from that original pheasant.  I’ve long since parted with the rest, since I really didn’t know what I was doing.  It had seen better days.

AITA: What’s the largest whole animal you’ve ever mounted?

BB: I’ve done a cayote.  Oh wait, it was an 80 lb goat.  You’re sitting right next to it.  Her name was Harriet. That was before I had my studio, I was working out of my house. My friend drove her down from the farm in his trunk, wrapped in Dexter tarps. He didn’t make it to my house until 11 at night.  You see this car pull up, the trunk opens, and two dudes haul this corpse out of the truck and into my house.  My neighbors already think I’m a witch, it’s OK.  We just put her in the bathtub and I skinned her myself.  I was not prepared, and it took forever.  I’m much better equipped for large animals now.

I like to stress that taxidermy isn’t as gory as people think it is, but in that case, it was just bad.

AITA: How does your husband feel about taxidermy projects at home?

BB: He’s glad that I’m not working out of the house anymore.  He finally has the freezer to himself.  Which is good.

AITA: You go to great lengths to preserve all the animal parts.  How does the process work?

BB: They live in the freezer until it’s time to mount them.  Some of the animals are inedible because they’ve died of disease or another less appetizing cause. This includes road kill and pets. I send the meat out to be composted.

If I plan on eating the meat, I buy it at the butcher.

AITA: Can you still find whole animals in Philadelphia?  Is it a disappearing resource?

BB: Sonny D’Angelo in the Italian Market sells me pheasant, rabbit, quail and guinea hen. You get a meal and an art project all in one.  I think with the resurgence of butchers and butchering classes, people are interested in seeing the whole animal, and learning how to take care of it themselves.  Instead of buying a plastic bag of boneless chicken tenders.

AITA: How does working with smaller pieces compare to large animals?

BB: It’s different.  Smaller pieces are a lot less man-handling, but require more nimble fingers.  Especially with water fowl, because their skin is like tissue paper and it’s covered in such a thick layer of fat that you need to be really careful when you’re skinning.  You’re fingers can easily puncture through, and you need to sew it up.  I call them duck doilies, because that’s what I end up making half the time.  I still love working with ducks.

Chickens are my favorite because they are rarely fatty, and the skin peels right off.

AITA: Do you have a favorite hat?

BB: I’d have to say right now because I just made him, the goat fetus.  He was never actually born.  I wore him to a pop up gallery where I was surrounded by taxidermy enthusiasts all night, so I was in that mode of “what I’m wearing is cool, it’s normal, it’s acceptable.”  I head back to our hotel, after a few glasses of wine, and get on the elevator with another woman and her husband.  The woman asks what is on my head, and I say “Oh it’s a baby goat” and she looks at me with this horrified look on her face.  Then I say “It’s ok, I didn’t kill it, it was born dead” and in my mind that was the most perfect thing to say.  Needless to say the woman was climbing up the walls of the elevator trying to get away from me.  I forget sometimes that this isn’t for everybody.

These are his legs actually (pointing to the tiny hoofed legs on the table).  I thought these would be neat to hang from a chain, maybe to accentuate the hat.

AITA: Wow, you really don’t waste anything.  It reminds me of the snout to tail, and even the local and farm to table culinary movements.

BB: More like farm to work table.  One of the main reasons I started doing taxidermy was that I couldn’t stand to think that the fur and feathers were going to waste when I saw road kill, or if a bird flew into a building.  So I just started collecting it myself. Through that I started thinking more about my food and where it came from. I wanted to find out more.  I don’t know if I would have been so picky about the food I eat now if I hadn’t started doing taxidermy.  It gives me a real appreciation. It all comes together perfectly.

AITA: It seems like your breaking the stigma that taxidermy is only trophy or sport.

BB: Thanks. I don’t want to exploit animals at all. It makes me bummed out when I see a trophy room.

For what it’s worth, I made a bear skin rug once.  I got the bear hide from a father and son in Montana who bow hunt, and eat the meat.    It took a lot of research.  When I got the commission, I let the customer know that for me to source a bear, it might take some time to work within my ethical code.

Supposedly bear meat is really tasty.  That’s another exotic meat that needs to be tried.

AITA: So  you eat most of the animals that you mount.  What’s the most unusual animal you’ve tasted so far?

BB: I never want to waste meat.  I tried cooking fox once.  It’s a British and French thing.  I found a recipe, but I didn’t take the meat off the bone, and all the marrow came out.  It smelled and tasted really gamey.  So bad I couldn’t even bring myself to taste it.  So I thought maybe my cats would eat it, but they wouldn’t. Not even the alley cats would touch it, which is probably a sign.  Foxes don’t smell great to begin with.

Squirrel is really tasty, even in Philadelphia.  They’ve probably been living on French fries.

AITA: Do other taxidermists you’ve met follow the same sort of moral code?

BB: It’s a business. The more commercial taxidermists will take whatever a hunter gives them.  But I think many of the rogue taxidermists like me, who are doing more alternative work are into using every part, or using road kill.

I’m always surprised at how many taxidermists are vegetarians or vegans, and they just do it because they really really love animals, and they want to honor them and preserve them.

Join us First Friday, March 1st, at Art in the Age for an exhibition of taxidermy that puts a new spin on the idea of farm to table.

Watch Beth on the season premier of Immortalized, Thursday Feb. 14, 10/9C on AMC.

If you were a prohibition era bootlegger, which Art in the Age spirit would you make (fake)?

Post a photo of your AITA spirit of choice on Instagram tagged #aitaprohibition, and enter to win three original prohibition illustrations by Hawk Krall!

One lucky winner will be chosen on February, 28 2013

“NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal US residents (excluding CA),  21 years of age or older. Void in CA and where prohibited.”

This First Friday, February 1st, we will hold an opening reception for Art in the Age of Prohibition at our Old City, Philadelphia gallery space.  In conjunction with the National Constitution Center’s world-premiere exhibition, American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, our exhibit showcases the people, places, and processes that played a key role in forming Philadelphia’s unique Prohibition experience.

The exhibition features original work by Philadelphia based artist Hawk Krall, including portraits of Smedley Butler, Dr. Benjamin Rush, and Max “Boo Boo” Hoff.  We had a chance to ask Hawk a few questions about his Prohibition series, as well as a few thoughts on Philadelphia and of course, sandwiches.

1. Your illustrations range from famous sandwiches, to pop culture portraits, to legendary city streets.  How do you choose your subject matter?
In general I just draw things that I enjoy, sandwiches / people / areas of the city that really speak to me, and are also visually interesting, which then usually leads to similar commissioned work, where the subject matter is really up to the clients. Food-wise I’m usually looking for authentic, iconic, and unique things that have a cultural element to them.. not just any old bacon-wrapped-bacon junk food concoction. And I guess the same process applies to people and city scenes.

2. Favorite rainy day activity.
Making soup and watching a Storage Wars marathon.

3. Music to play while sketching.
Sketching out ideas it’s usually something high-energy like Bad Brains or ridiculous Russian rap music along with lots of coffee. Painting and inking final pieces it’s talk radio or podcasts, lately lots and lots of Marc Maron.

4. Top 3 sandwiches.  Philly and beyond.
Italian Hoagie from Cosmi’s (South Philly) or Jack’s Place (northeast) or Carmen’s Deli (Bell Mawr NJ). Hot Chicken from Bolton’s or Prince’s in Nashville. And anything from Puebla Mini Mart in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

5. Favorite stereotype about Philadelphia or Philadelphians, or both.
That everyone talks like Rocky and loves Wawa. Don’t know if it’s a favorite or just something that cracks me up. I’m definitely a pro-cheesesteak person, but have never heard anyone who’s lived in Philly for more than 3 months, or anyone not standing at 9th & passyunk utter the words “wiz wit”. Also people think we put cream cheese on everything.

6. In researching the Philadelphia prohibition characters for this series, what was the most bizarre or interesting fact that you came up with?
Definitely Smedley Butler, the fact that Philadelphia hired this crazed Marine who was in the trenches all over the world to run the bootleggers out. He raided and destroyed 900 speakeasies (including the Union League where the people that hired him probably hung out) in a few months and encouraged his officers to shoot people. After being fired from this position he became a pacifist and anti-war activist, and foiled an alleged Wall Street Fascist plot to overthrow the US government. You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.

7. If you were going to grab a sandwich with one of these characters, who would it be, and what sandwich?
Jewish hoagie from Koch’s with Max “Boo Boo” Hoff.

A graphic illustration of Prohibition in Philadelphia, in conjunction with the National Constitution Center’s Exhibit- American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

Art in the Age will showcase the people, places, and processes that played a key role in forming Philadelphia’s unique Prohibition experience. Philadelphia’s cultural history creates the perfect dichotomy of Prohibition. From it’s Quaker roots and Dr. Benjamin Rush’s Moral and Physical Thermometer, to housing some of the most notorious bootleggers of the Prohibition era.

The exhibit will feature original illustrations by Philadelphia based artist and writer, Hawk Krall, as well as photos and ephemera from the Prohibition era.

In addition, lectures and workshops on prohibition cocktails, history, home brewing, and spirits production will be held throughout the exhibition months.

Join us for an opening reception: First Friday, February 1st, from 6-8PM.

The artwork in the exhibition touches on themes of baseball, capitalism, and violence with visual wit, dark humor, and a potent graphic aesthetic, deftly drawing from iconic imagery of pop culture, patriotism, and American history. Each piece in the show takes its title from lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner”—appropriately referencing the song penned two hundred years ago in the Baltimore harbor. The work ranges from austere, graphic images to intense, illustrative work inspired by pop psychedelia. True to form, Post Typography layers each piece with innuendo and symbolism, inviting the viewer to look more closely.

Commissioned by Art in the Age, all of the editions in OSAYCANYOUSEE were hand-printed in Baltimore. Post Typography produced the serigraphs with printers Kim Bentley and Kyle Van Horn at their artist-run printing space, Baltimore Print Studios. A set of four letterpress prints—which reconceive The Star-Spangled Banner in fields of abstract typography (with a special nod to the Baltimore Orioles)—were printed by Post Typography with Mary Mashburn of the Globe Poster Collection at MICA using the same antique wood type used for decades by Globe to print their legendary concert posters.

As the 200th anniversary of the War comes to an end, OSAYCANYOUSEE will be on display at Art in the Age throughout the month of December.

Join us for an opening reception: First Friday, December 7th, 6:00PM-8:00PM

Art in the Age
116 N 3RD STREET
PHILADELPHIA, PA 19106

Join us this First Friday, November 2nd, for our opening reception with Norman Porter Co and handmade jerky samples from Side Project Jerky!