The Philadelphia Sculpture Gym — a Knight Arts Challenge-winning workshop space where artists can buy memberships to use the tools and heavy-duty equipment — is still a few weeks away from opening, but its gallery space is already hosting its second show. “What If…” features new work by PAFA sculpture major Terri Aluise, who drew on the fairy tales she loved as a child. In revisiting and researching, she says, she was “quite surprised to find that I remembered them all wrong.” The results? A creepy-looking bunny, three napping bears, the Big Bad Wolf made into a rug. “Soft wools, felt and fur just seem to make my creatures more approachable than stark plaster casts,” says Aluise. “In the end, I hope to create a total environment of whimsy with a touch of weird.”
Opening reception Fri., Sept. 7, 6-9 p.m., exhibit through Sept. 30, free, Philadelphia Sculpture Gym Gallery, 1834 E. Frankford Ave., 215-901-1933, philadelphiasculpturegym.com.
