Artworks presented by Los Angeles-based Feia gallery on view at Elsewhere in Yowie Hotel through June 6.
Natalie Cecelia
On South Street this week, a small hotel has been transformed into a visual feast to host the inaugural edition of
Elsewhere, a contemporary art fair organized by
Blah Blah Gallery founder Megan Galardi.
The boutique
Yowie Hotel has opened its rooms to showcase artwork from nearly 70 artists presented by 26 galleries from Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, and as far as Toronto and London. Instead of a booth at a convention center, Elsewhere invites gallerists to use the intimate hotel rooms, hallways, and even bathrooms to display paintings, sculptures, textiles, and multimedia works that span the contemporary art field.
Here’s a (small!) sample of the participating artists on view through June 6.
Quleasha Wood, Philadelphia
The Long Branch-raised textile artist (a favorite of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz) has lived and worked in Philadelphia since 2023. Wood’s tapestries and tufted rugs focus on her experiences as a queer Black woman on the internet. So they often depict computer screens, social media posts, and many selfies. New York art dealer and philosopher Darla Migan presents one of Wood’s 2025 pieces titled slow n steady, a jacquard woven tapestry with rhinestones on archival paper.
Qualeasha Wood in Philadelphia on Friday, April 28, 2023.
Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
Emmanuel Massillon, Washington, D.C., and New York
Named to
Forbes’ 30 under 30 this year, Massillon is known for sculptures, paintings, and performance art that combine traditional African symbols with modern societal critiques of racism. That includes sticking needles into a statue to
reference the unethical Tuskegee syphilis study, when Black men from the South were subjected to medical experimentation without their knowledge or consent. On the stairwell at Yowie, London’s Harlesden High Street gallery displays two of Massillon’s striking African masks, their faces riddled with bullet shell casings as a symbolic depiction of gun violence.
Pitseolak Qimirpik, Canada
A collection of small and fascinating stone sculptures come from Qimirpik, an Inuit artist based in Kinngait in northern Canada. He carves designs into dark green serpentinite and incorporates acrylic paint and antlers from caribou. The results are delightful portrayals of animals and spirits from Inuit mythology and culture, like Anaconda and Wolf & Bird Transformation. Qimirpik’s pieces adorn a bright red table and are presented by New York gallery Trotter & Sholer.
Paintings and figurines from Kansas-based artist Emily Blair Quinn on view at Elsewhere art fair at Yowie Hotel through June 6.
Natalie Cecelia
Emily Blair Quinn, Kansas City, KS
This Kansas-based artist investigates womanhood, beauty standards, and whiteness with a special focus on dolls and figurines from Victorian and Gilded Age eras. The room from 5-50 Gallery is full of her big paintings and tiny sculptures. The multicolored figurines are cute upon first glance, but looking closer reveals something unsettling: Trapped inside the princess-shaped resin are porcelain dolls staring back at the viewer. Quinn’s paintings are like horror scenes with some figurines’ faces shown up-close.
Melanie Delach's "In the night I pray to you," on view at Elsewhere art fair at Yowie Hotel through June 6.
Courtesy of Elsewhere
Melanie Delach, New York
Delach is from Long Island and lives in Queens, but she
credits much of her artistic foundation to her time in Philadelphia, when she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. From Los Angeles-based Feia gallery, Delach’s drawings — primarily colored pencil and marker on paper — are enchanting and otherworldly. She’s especially interested in hands, whether stretching or touching or gathering, in pieces with lyrical titles like
A touching you didn’t know existed and
A world where dreams collide.
Elsewhere runs through June 6 at Yowie Hotel, 226 South St., Philadelphia, Pa., 19147, elsewhere-fair.com.
