Fourth open call Germantown Show is ready to rival other Philly art scenes

Pope Francis is coming to Maplewood Mall’s iMPeRFeCT Gallery, cofounder and curator Renny Molenaar boasts — if you’re willing to commune with a six-foot plaster sculpture of His Holiness, now part of the Germantown gallery's 4th Annual Germantown Show. And unlike Pope Francis, the sculpture will be on display live and in person from September 12 to October 3.

The official public invitation for the September 12 opening night at the Maplewood Mall gallery says 6-9pm, but that, as always at iMPeRFeCT, is more of a loose “parameter” than anything else, Molenaar laughs, chatting with BSR after he says he’s purposely painted himself into the gallery so he has to make his phone calls until the fresh white floor dries.

“It never stops at nine, especially big shows like this,” he says. “I expect to have the after-party, and the after-after party.”

The entry period for the annual open-call show, focusing on artists from the Germantown neighborhood, ended on September 8. Molenaar estimates the show will feature over fifty artists — quite a feat in the small storefront gallery, but nothing he and his partner and cofounder Rocio Cabello haven’t undertaken before.

“Doing this kind of stuff is very risky,” Molenaar admits of the annual open call, which accepts all comers and is not curated. “As often as I do it, I always get the jitters.” But the career artist and curator praises the work, whether it’s just great stuff, “a good effort,” or it ultimately needs some kind of censorship, which he hates to do, but will undertake if necessary.

As far as the Philly art scene goes, he says, in Germantown, “you feel like you’re in the boondocks…but the work is amazing.”

Take other burgeoning arts hubs in the city, like Fishtown.

“You go down to Fishtown, and the scene is on another level there,” Molenaar says of the scale of galleries and events popping up. But “the scene does not define the work here,” and he’s consistently pleased with the quality of work coming from artists based in the Northwest neighborhood.

Now that iMPeRFeCT has been chugging away for four years, despite multiple crises of funding and the endless hats Molenaar and Cabello wear to keep the space afloat, “I won’t say it’s easy, but it’s easier to make an impact,” Molenaar says of keeping those doors open.

And the enthusiastic attendance at events there year-round bears out locals’ support of the space. Highlights of this year’s show include a piece made of milk jug bottles by local sculptor Simone Spicer. It’s a work that riffs on Picasso’s 1957 series of paintings that in turn explore Velazquez’s 1656 masterpiece, Las Meninas.

The gallery’s Red Room (aka the restroom) always gets its own show, too, and this month, the self-taught artist Rose Bradley has crafted a compelling and well-characterized variety of hand-painted Papier-mâché masks.

These iMPeRFeCT openings are always potluck, so if you decide to check out this Germantown scene, feel free to bring a beverage or snack to share.

iMPeRFeCT Gallery’s 4th Annual Germantown Show, 5601 Greene Street, Philadelphia, runs September 12 through October 3. The opening night reception kicks off at 6pm on Saturday, September 12.

At right: "Harpy" by Elisabeth Nickles, a bronze sculpture in the show. Photo by Rocio Cabello.