>> An art show to tempt our own hearts, Meat Market Gallery opens Don’t Ready to Die Anymore, a sculptural reinterpretation of pop culture and media tainted storytelling of “real” events, from the mundane to the ones that have marked our history. Or, what would happen if “blogging were a sculptural practice.” An online video project will accompany the show, starting tomorrow at dontreadytodieanymore.com. Visit the opening reception tomorrow from 6 to 8:30 p.m.
>> The Phillips Collection has a big weekend ahead of them. The Great American Epic: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series opens on Saturday, with the entire 60 panel series of this famed artist’s work, which shows the movement of African-Americans from the South to the North after the first World War. In addition, they’ll hold their usual Artful Evening tonight, starting at 5 p.m., with the museum open and tours of the Collection’s French paintings available at 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. As a special treat, stop by their Center for Study of Modern Art in the carriage house behind the museum for Soirée Carte Blanch from 6 to 9 p.m. for an electronica DJ, performance art and cash bar. Advance tickets have sold out, but walk-ins will be let in as space allows (read: get there early). $12 for both Artful Thursday and the Soirée.
>> Painter Laurel Hausler’s solo show, Rackets and Remedies at the Atheneum in Alexandria, opens tomorrow night from 5 to 7 p.m. Inspired by old patent medicine advertising, Hausler’s current drawings (pictured above) use coffee-stained paper, line drawing and oil paint-stained plexi. Ideas for this exhibit were influenced in part by the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum and the collections of Dr. Robert Greenspan. The Atheneum will be holding two related events in the coming month: The Old Town Medicine Show—a day full of quackery, science and magic—and a lecture by Medicine: Perspectives in History and Art author Greenspan. Be sure to check out DCist’s studio visit with Hausler.
>> It’s First Friday in Dupont Circle, and we recommend stopping by Hillyer Art Space for new paintings by Anna U. Davis, displaying the complicated reasoning and emotions behind feminism. Foundry Gallery will be showing multimedia works by Stephen Nordlinger in The Figure is Central. Artist Roberta Thole will have her cryptic paintings, using many natural elements, at Studio Gallery. First Friday receptions are from 6 to 8 p.m.; see map of participating galleries here.
