space 1026

02.18 2025

JAD FAIR PAPER CUTTINGS AND DRAWINGS

March 7th – March 28th, 2025

Opening Reception: Friday March 7th, 2025, 6-10PM

Space1026 is proud to present over 100 paper cuttings and drawings by artist and musician Jad Fair.

A founding member of lo-fi alternative rock group Half Japanese, Jad Fair has astonishingly released over 200 albums and his recording credits include collaborations with Moe Tucker of The Velvet Underground, Daniel Johnston, Kramer, Yo La Tengo and Teenage Fanclub.

Inspired by his brother David Fair, Jad first began making paper cuttings while on tour with Half Japanese. Unable to make drawings in the van, he found he could do paper cuts even while traveling and could find materials anywhere he went. Jad’s artwork is featured on many of his recordings, and his paintings and paper cuttings have been exhibited in Glasgow, New York, Melbourne, Toronto, Berlin, Brighton, Austin, and San Francisco.

A signed and numbered silkscreen of one of his paper cut outs produced especially for the exhibition (and printed at Space1026) will be available for purchase at the reception and Space1026 store, alongside Jad’s latest album “Pure Candy”, a full length collaboration with Samual Locke Ward on Shrimper Records and Chicago’s Stationary (Hearts) Recordings, which coincidentally will be released the same night.

02.03 2025

Hang in There

Opening Reception February 7th from 6pm to 9pm
On View through February 28th
Space 1026
844 North Broad Street, Philadelphia

Hang In There is a snapshot of the UArts community’s students, faculty, and alumni in the aftermath of the abrupt closure of the University of the Arts. The sudden and unceremonious end to this 150 year-old institution has left an immense crater in the Philadelphia art community, the size and shape of which we are only beginning to behold. There is no single “UArts Style” but the breadth and vitality of art in this exhibition demonstrates the diversity of artists who have been connected with the university over the years. 

This announcement–decided in secrecy by a select few–was just one of several recent closures of art- and artist-making institutions in the US, occurring only months after PAFA announced its intention to end its degree programs. Losing these celebrated communities, some older than 100 years, is a symptom of larger political and cultural attitudes towards the arts and institutions. The loss of these institutions displaces a generation of artists and educators, leading to fewer artists and a blander world. Considering the state of things these days, we need the arts and artists more than ever.

The response to UArts closing was a glorious display of community support and resistance, with artists coming together to mourn, and to move forward. The UArts community and their friends have engaged in actions to bring attention to the larger threat against arts and culture that this closure portends.

As a community of artists, alumni, instructors, drop-outs, and burnouts ourselves at Space 1026, we recognize the precious yet precarious circumstances these artists find themselves in. We are reminded of our own displacement when we lost our original building at 1026 Arch St. With UArts graduates, instructors, and students amongst our membership, Space 1026ers share in this collective grief with a dedication to continue cultivating the next generation of artists and their craft here in Philadelphia. This show celebrates the friends and members of UArts; it celebrates the energy and joy of art; it celebrates our steadfast commitment to the places and people we love.

Works by:

01.25 2025

Friday, January 31st at Space 1026
844 North Broad Street Philadelphia
Doors at 8

01.10 2025

Some Paintings

Opening Friday, January 10th
6pm-10pm

Join us, January 10th at Space 1026 for the opening of Some Paintings featuring works by Le Josh and Michael Frechette!

@hsojel
@michaelfrechettepaintings

11.20 2024

Art Auction 2024 Info

Join us for the annual Art Auction here at Space 1026! Mark your calendar for Friday, December 13th and get ready for a festive evening of art, community, and bidding fun!

Doors 6pm
Auction 7pm

Space 1026
844 North Broad Street
Philadelphia

Flyer by SOULPURL 77

But that’s not all—leading up to the auction, we’re hosting a Week of events including hands-on workshops, film screenings, music performances and more!

First Friday Preview
Friday, December 6th
Your first opportunity to see the items for auction
7pm to 9pm

DIY Sewshop with Vaudevillians NYB
Saturday, December 7th
2pm to 4pm
Sign Up Here

Space Bazaar
Sunday, December 8th
Everything must go table sale
One day only!!! You’ll be amazed!!
11:30am to 4pm

New Thingz
Monday, December 9th
A night of new jokes hosted by Andrew Jeffrey Wright
Doors at 7pm, Show at 7:30pm

Block Print Workshop
Tuesday, December 10th
with Jackie Small
6pm to 8pm
Sign Up Here

Film Screening
Wednesday, December 11th
Jon Moritsugu’s Terminal USA (1993)
Hosted by Bruce Bohri
7:30pm

Noun, Nina Ryser and Kate Ferencz
Thursday, December 12th
Doors at 7:30pm, Music 8:30pm

11.14 2024

The Chronicles of Doom

10.02 2024

Commencement: Groundwork

Works by Zoe Strauss and the 3212 Think Tank
October 4th – November 18th 2024
Opening Reception Friday, October 4th from 7pm to 9pm
Space 1026
844 North Broad Street, Philadelphia

Space 1026 is pleased to present Commencement: Groundwork, one of the first steps in an ongoing and developing exhibition by photographer Zoe Strauss.

Strauss is known internationally for her vision of the world highlighting the constants and the changes that reside in the same place as shown through her photography. Strauss’ photographs challenge the authority of the image through repetition, context shift, and historical reframing. While rooted in reality, her images assert themselves as subjective pictures of the world as we feel it as well as how we see it, and cast doubts and propose questions about the veracity of the documentary image.

This exhibit is an introduction, a prologue if you will, of work that points to specific concerns about place and space and makes us ask basic questions about our perception of what is reality. The world we are living in together, at this very moment, is always a balance between here and there. The question Strauss poses is are we seeing, evaluating, and judging things in their entirety or are we the parable of the blind men and the elephant? What are the limits and objectivity of documentary photography? As we stand on the ground, this exhibit asks us to recognize that as it is above, so it is below.

Commencement began as an examination of what it is to be a person living in America among the ever increasing anxieties and critical situations around the globe. It was initially conceived in 2016 as the foundation for a Guggenheim Fellowship Award, which Strauss received the following year. With the cataclysmic upheaval in society and politics since then her concerns over civic and environmental crises became less conceptual and more of an immediate reality.

Since then, Strauss turned her focus towards developing the 3212 Think Tank. Named for the Doomsday Clock’s prediction of our proximity to the end of civilization as we have known it (three minutes to midnight). The 3212 Think Tank is a classroom study space for researching, learning, and discussing the impact of the ebb and flow of our society and culture. It operates within a public high school serving as a laboratory for students to critically think about the world around them.

As a way to illustrate and acknowledge the evolution of our lives, culture, and the world in which we all live and co-exist in, some of the photographs in the exhibit will change during the course of the show. Which is to say that like life, some things enter and some pass away, and other things arise to take their place.

Zoe Strauss was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1970. She began taking photographs after receiving a camera for her 30th birthday. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, The Bruce Silverstein Gallery, NYC, DePauw University, Greencastle Indiana, SFMOMA, San Francisco, The International Center for Photography, NYC just to name a few.

She has been a part of group exhibitions at the Indianapolis Installation Festival, Indianapolis, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, NL, the Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton, UK, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PPOW Gallery, NYC and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Strauss has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, the Tiffany Foundation Grant, the United States Arts Fellowship and more.

She currently acts as mentor to upper lever public high school students at the 3212 Think Tank at Science Leadership Academy at Beeber in Philadelphia.

08.08 2024

I Don’t Believe In Time Anymore

A retrospective of the work of the late, great Daniel Hughes of Philadelphia, “I don’t believe in time anymore” was a quote by the artist texted to friend. When Daniel passed away suddenly in September 2022, he left behind a massive amount of work, a prolific catalogue now frozen in time. With this show, we hope to showcase the work of Daniel Hughes and continue to preserve his legacy.

Join us Friday September 6th from 6-10p at Space 1026 for the opening ceremony.

844 North Broad Street
Philadelphia

RSVP & More Info

08.01 2024

Apotropaica

Apotropaica

Mandy Cano Villalobos & Gina Tibbott
August 2nd – 25th

Opening reception Aug 2nd 6-10pm

Apotropaica – an object, assemblage, or act assigned the purpose of warding off evil.

The desire to ward off misfortune and evil persists in every human culture throughout history. Charms, talismans, sanctified ointments – these apotropaic elements testify to our enduring belief in the unseen forces that shape our lives. Their general grotesquery gives away their purpose: grinning gorgons stand watch over medieval cathedrals; a frightening face decorates ancient pottery. Their ugliness guards against those atrocities we wish to evade.

This practice also appears in assemblages and hordes. Throughout history, hordes of protective objects have served as communal fortresses against malevolent forces. In ancient Greece, devotees offered small terracotta or bronze votives to Asclepius, the god of medicine. Molded legs, breasts and eyes represented afflicted body parts, and functioned as physical prayers for divine healing. Witch bottles, dating to the 17th century, were protective containers filled with various items such as nails, hair, urine, and thorns. Buried under hearths or near doorways, these bottles were believed to capture and neutralize malevolent spells and spirits directed at the household. In the Season 1 Episode 4 of Hoarders, ‘Jake’s Fresh Start’ (2009), a young man collects the hair of a deceased pet as an offering against evil. Hoarding is human. So too, is the assigning of meaning to tangible barriers between ourselves and evil.

The bulk of objects presented here are made from ceramic and plastic – two of humankind’s most environmentally-impactful innovations that share a physical permanence. In this permanence, they embody a collective assertion to control the chaos and unpredictability of life.