Art Opening: “All That Is Solid Melts Into Air”


Friday, January 13
Doors 7:30, performances at 8:00 PM

Artwork by Erik Ruin
Music by DM Hotep, Julius Masri, and Jesse Kudler

Suggested donation $5-10, no one turned away for lack of funds

“All that is solid melts into air, all that is sacred is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.” —Karl Marx

A series of reckonings with the state of the state, the self, society, the environment, the interpenetration and complicity of them/us all. A celebration of that which evades capture. Banners, screenprints and papercuts by Erik Ruin

For the night of January 13th, the exhibit will be accompanied by an audio-visual environment that overlays/juxtaposes quietly transcendentalist video observations of everyday life alongside hand-drawn animations and cut paper projections. Live ambient music will be provided by DM Hotep (of the Sun Ra Arkestra), Julius Masri (aka Mephisto Halabi) and Jesse Kudler.

Erik Ruin is a Michigan-raised, Philadelphia-based printmaker, shadow puppeteer, and paper-cut artist. Praised by The New York Times for his “spell-binding cut-paper animations,” Erik’s work oscillates between the poles of apocalyptic anxieties and utopian yearnings with an emphasis on empathy, transcendence and obsessive detail. He frequently works collaboratively with musicians, theater performers, other artists and activist campaigns. He is a founding member of the international Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative and co-author of the book Paths Toward Utopia: Graphic Explorations of Everyday Anarchism (w/ Cindy Milstein, PM Press, 2012). Current projects include the Ominous Cloud Ensemble, an ever-evolving, collectively-improvising large ensemble for projections and music. See more here.