Invisible City: Philadelphia and the Vernacular Avant-garde

Invisible City: Philadelphia and the Vernacular Avant-garde highlights Philadelphia’s significant contributions to visual, literary and musical culture between 1956 and 1976. This interdisciplinary exhibition is centered at the University of the Arts across three venues—Rosenwald–Wolf Gallery, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and Gershman Hall—as well as at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Invisible City features key works by major architects, photographers, sculptors, designers, painters, and conceptual artists of the period, such as Denise Scott Brown, Rafael Ferrer, Ray Metzker, Ree Morton, Italo Scanga, and Robert Venturi. Moreover, the exhibition is enriched by ephemeral pieces such as posters, pamphlets, and films. In examining the history of performance art in the region, Alex Da Corte creatively re-invents Allan Kaprow’s important happening Chicken at Gershman Hall, where it was originally performed in 1962.

We invite you to join us in celebrating this city and the legacy of its creative practitioners as you explore the works in Invisible City. The exhibition is organized by the University of the Arts and curated by Sid Sachs, Director of Exhibitions at the University of the Arts with Jennie Hirsh, Assistant Curator, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at MICA. Support for the research, development, and presentation of Invisible City has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.