Our friend Swabreen Bakr never fails to wow us with her dramatic photos of happenings throughout the city of Philadelphia, posted on her popular blog iPhotophilly .

We can always count on Swabreen to shoot stunning photos of our First Friday openings, and her recent post featuring our opening with blacksmith Louise Pezzi is amazing!

Check out a few of the shots below:

Click here for more from iPhotophilly

This past First Friday we held an opening for our October exhibition, The Transcendental Life, featuring work by Allen Crawford , Bob Myaing, Geoffrey Holstad, Ron P. Swegman, and Truman Handcrafted.

The opening reception was a blast, and AITA cocktails and Narragansette lagers were enjoyed by all!

Below are a few pictures of the festivities.

Guest curator Leah Kauffman put together an excellent selection of work from a variety of local artists, and her cosmic art show was extremely well received.

Gallery visitors enjoyed ROOT and SNAP cocktails, Narragansett, and some amazing hand-crafted ice pops from Philly based Epsicles.

Click on the links below to check  out some pics of the festivities!

AITA Facebook

Aroundphilly.com

Phrequency.com

The morning of the exhibition, La Colombe owners Todd Carmichael and JP Iberti were in Haiti planting on the coffee farm they helped to establish. Luckily, they were able to make a flight back just in time for the reception. Talk about dedication!

For those of you who weren’t able to make the opening, the exhibition will be up at AITA throughout the month of April. Be sure to stop in and see La Colombe’s amazing vintage roaster and beautiful installation

Here are a few pictures of the opening reception below.

This past Friday, Art in the Age held an opening for a month long exhibition featuring custom motorcycles by Philadelphia’s own Hammarhead Industries.  The event was a blast, and drew a great crowd of motorcycle and design enthusiasts young and old.

If you weren’t able to make it to the opening, be sure to stop by Art in the Age this month to check out the installation.

Below are a few pics of the opening early in the evening, before the crowds of Hammarhead fans packed into Art in the Age.

This past First Friday, we kicked off our much anticipated month-long exhibition with Philadelphia bicycle frame builder, Bilenky Cycle Works.  Opening night attendance was record breaking, and the Bilenky crew was there in force!

This month Art in the Age is displaying four unique Bilenky cycles, each exhibiting specific qualities that set them apart from typical production bicycles.  Art in the Age has also created a mini Bilenky workshop within the gallery, highlighting the early stages of the frame building process, and the fine detail that goes into each build.

Be sure to stop by the AITA store between November 5th – 29th, and see Bilenky’s amazing creations first hand.  We will also be offering a number of limited edition Bilenky items for sale throughout the month, including t-shirts, Merino wool cycling sweaters, signed posters, and even a new record from Stephen Bilenky’s legendary band the Notekillers!

As part of this month’s DesignPhiladelphia extravaganza, The Philadelphia Underground was a series of site-specific video installations in Dilworth Plaza near City Hall. Conceived and Curated by Marianne Bernstein the project aims to bring some of Philadelphia’s best video artists to an unexpected public place. 

Among the participating video artists was Art in the Age videographer David Dunn, whose amazing video work can also be seen on our AITA Vimeo channel.  Other participating video artists included Ricardo Rivera, Peter Parker Brodhead, Adam Carlton Carrigan, Katya Gorker, David Kessler, Diedra Krieger, and Danielle Lessovitz.

For those of you who were unable to attend the event, here is a sample video below.

The Philadelphia Underground from klipcollective on Vimeo.

For the month of October, Philadelphia sculptor Darla Jackson will be showing her incredible wild animal pieces within the “There is a Great Deal I do not Want to Know” exhibition at Art in the Age.  Even if you’re just passing by, be sure to check out her raccoon sculpture, which takes center stage in our Design Philadelphia window display.  

Darla graduated with a BFA in Sculpture from Moore College of Art in 2003, and currently teaches sculpture classes at both the Fleisher Art Memorial and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Art in the Age had the pleasure of visiting Darla’s studio, and witnessing first hand the process behind her mysterious animals.

For the opening event, The Reverend and friends baked an assortment of cookies based on the recipes from his illustrations, which were a huge hit and went fast. For those of you who weren’t able to attend the opening, stop by the Art in the Age store this month to see The Reverend’s illustrations, and maybe pick up one of his beautiful recipes to hang in your own kitchen.

Enjoy some pictures of the exhibition below.

Now that we’ve made it through Philly Beer Week, and most of us are still walking around in a hop-induced haze, it’s time to shed a little light on the history of this Philadelphia tradition.

Philadelphia brewing first gained recognition in 1685, when William Frampton opened up the city’s first commercial brewery. “The Brewers sell such beer as is equal in Strength to that in London,” glowed Gabriel Thomas, “half ale and half stout…and their beer hath a better name.” The price was even more enticing, only fifteen shilling a barrel, at a time where working men earned five of six shillings for a day’s work.  Early Philadelphians also experimented with homebrewing, utilizing pumpkins, persimmons or cornstalks in their brews.  Those who didn’t have hops utilized wild carrot seed, coriander seed, brown sugar or horehound to bolster the flavor.

Early Philadelphia beer drinkers were no light-weights. In 1733, The Pennsylvania Gazette singled out “some otherwise discreet women” for excessive early morning imbibing. “Instead of a draught of beer and toast, or a chunk of bread and cheese, they must have their two or three drams in the mornings.” At that rate of consumption, the market for store-bought brews from breweries in the English style began to boom. Over time, Philadelphians patronized about a hundred taverns, with names like the Turk’s Head, the Rattlesnake, the Indian Queen, the Queen of Hungary, Penny Pot House (later the Jolly Tar Inn), and the Golden Lion. After British rule this was renamed the Yellow Cat.

George Washington, who made his home here for much of the 1790s, took such a liking to Philadelphia porter that when Robert Hare’s brewery burned, Washington sent his personal condolences.

Philadelphia brewing really began to take off in the early 19th-century, when German immigration assured a market of scale – and gentler brews. By the 1880s, there were no less than 90 of this new breed at work, many clustered in the place known as Brewerytown. They included Arnholt & Schaefer Brewing Company, J. Bentz’ Brewery, Goldbeck & Eisle, Henzler & Flach, Peter Schemm and Son and, of course, at Thompson between 32nd and 33rd, the successor to the first to lager beer brewer in America, Bergner & Engel.

Today Philadelphia continues to be at the forefront of the beer brewing industry, with many fine breweries and microbreweries located throughout the city.  Breweries such as the Philadelphia Brewing Company, Victory, Slyfox, Yards, Dock Street, plus many others are creating world class brews that are widely available.  For those of you who weren’t able to make it to one of this year’s beer week events, crack open a local brew and take part in this great Philadelphia tradition.  Even better,  pour a shot of AITA Root into Philadelphia Brewing Company’s Joe Coffee Porter and enjoy a delicious Root and Joe.