This Market East Art Pop-Up Gives Discarded Materials a Second Life

Members’ Work’s front window at Meantime on Market / Photograph by PHL Portraits/On Beat Management

On a sunny day, it’s not uncommon to see Javier López Cabello reach into the water as he kayaks along the Delaware River, pull up a piece of driftwood, and examine it.

He’s looking at its tone and its structure. López Cabello is a sculptural and lighting artist who makes his pieces using found and reclaimed pieces of wood. He’ll collect floating branches, yes, but also felled ones he finds while hiking or walking in Philadelphia’s parks or pieces from demolition sites. He moved to the city three years ago from Chile and his hobby has become a full-time job.

“I like to work with free wood,” he says, laughingly, about his practice.

His sculptures don’t look like they were pulled from muddy river waters. They’re sanded down and finished with a subtle varnish. Some are lithe and knobby, bearing resemblance to vertebrae in the human spine. Others are pocked with tendrils that look a bit like coral. Each one has a placard beside it with the name of the site where he found the wood: Penn Park, the Fairmount Park Organic Recycling Center.

López Cabello is showing his sculptural lighting pieces as part of the exhibit “Past Lives, Surfaced by Skilled Hands” — a show that focuses on work from furniture makers, sculptors, lighting designers, textile artists, and fine artists who use reclaimed and repurposed materials.

It’s being put on by the Philadelphia artist collective Members Work on the 900 block of Market Street this fall and winter as part of the ongoing Meantime on Market artist and small business pop-ups.

The Members Work artists met at the South Kensington makerspace NextFab, where they are all members and have studio space. They were working alongside one another, “using the same tables, using the same tools,” says collective member Aaron Anderson, and that sparked a natural conversation about their artistic practices. There was a lot of common ground.

“I was so shocked by how many creative people there were at NextFab that I had never met before,” says Lauren Soyoung Valentina Kim, another member. “I love walking around and talking to people about what they’re making, what they’re doing.”

Anderson, López Cabello, and quiltmaker Paige Sato were part of an Artisan Accelerator program at NextFab, where they dreamt up a collective where artists could work together and support one another. Members Work hosted its first exhibit at NextFab this past summer.

Art displayed at Members Work Collective’s “Living Room” exhibit at NextFab / Photograph by Gemma Lascano/NextFab

Called “Philadelphia @250: Living Room,” the exhibit took place in an 800-square-foot space that used to be a storage room for NextFab’s carts and dollies. The idea was to highlight the creativity of Philadelphia artisans — their stories and the materials they work with. It included paintings, sculptures, and functional pieces, like lamps and geometric candlestick holders.

It was “an opportunity for other creatives to visit the space and to see the power of working in community,” Sato says of exhibiting work with other artists as part of a collective. “Even though it might seem really disparate — my quilts do not seem to have a relationship to wood or to lighting fixtures — we are all taking things that had a previous life and we’ve made something new out of them.”

Anderson and Sato met Brian Phillips at a Creative Mornings event, where Phillips was presenting. They’d heard about his work with Meantime and were curious about bringing a Members Work exhibit to one of his pop-ups.

“I accosted him basically and said, ‘Oh my gosh, I really want to apply, and I’m really excited about what you’re doing and activating unused retail space,’” Anderson recalls.

Photograph by Gemma Lascano/NextFab

“It does this city no good to have empty storefronts on busy corridors. Absolutely no good,” says Sato, who previously worked in economic development. “What Meantime is doing is just the right thing.”

Phillips reached out, and connected them with the nonprofit Circular Philadelphia, who is partnering on the exhibit. Circular Philadelphia has been working with other sustainably minded businesses and nonprofits, like the street cleaning startup Glitter, Remark Glass, and curbside composter Bennett Compost, to create a circularity hub where people can go to learn about the various reuse, recycling, and zero-waste services.

Samantha Wittchen, managing director of Circular Philadelphia, says she saw a natural resonance between their work and the pieces of art Members Work planned to show. Circular Philadelphia will be in the space from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays.

One of Paige Sato’s quilted jackets / Photograph by PHL Portraits/On Beat Management

“There’s a natural connection between the work that Circular Philadelphia does and the work that this collective of makers and artists is doing,” Wittchen says. “Artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs all play such an important role in thinking creatively and reimagining how to take these materials and make them functional and beautiful for their next life.”

“Their process is pretty exciting to me, too,” Anderson adds. “As a recovering industrial designer, it’s totally interesting for me to geek out on the process of recycling objects and making them into something else. I feel like there’s a lot for us to explore there with our partnership, not just with programming, but also I feel like I’m going to learn a lot just by being in the space with them.”

Wittchen and the Members Work artists are planning to hold both educational events in the space as well as workshops where people can craft using reclaimed materials — potentially great for gift-giving season! She’s also looking at hosting a pop-up refillery in the space once or twice during the show’s run. That way, people can stop by and buy goods like soaps, household cleaners, and laundry detergents in bulk using their own reusable containers. Artists also plan to host events — like sewing and mending workshops or sketch nights — to get people creating (and appreciating) art.

“I’m planning to move in some of my sewing machines — some basic models as well as some more heavy-duty ones. I have a vast array of fabric scraps, and we’ll be able to make little gifts or holiday ornaments,” says Sato, who repurposes old quilts into chic jackets.

The exhibit opens with two tables, one where a Members Work artist sits and one staffed by someone with Circular Philadelphia or one of the other sustainability organizations. When I visit in early October, Morgan Berman, Glitter’s founder, is staffing the front.

Around her are smaller items, clay and wood planters, prints from artists. Further back in the exhibit are Sato’s quilted jackets, purses, hats, and onesies and López Cabello’s sculptures. Each item in the exhibit is either fabricated from an identifiable object or made from reclaimed materials. There are functional items (like lamps, candlestick holders, chopsticks, and guitars), but also decorative art including paintings and sculptures.

Artwork by Aaron Harel/AJZone Design / Photograph by PHL Portraits/On Beat Management

Twenty-two artists — including Anderson, López Cabello, Lauren Soyoung Valentina Kim, López, Paige Sato, Maria Schneider, Troy Musto, Ty Brooks, Christopher Richards, Christien Gerrick, Mel Sage, Aaron Harel, Cody Hughes, Ayla Curit, Hannah Gorman, Kevin B. Huang, Kelly McGovern, Alan Levine, Lia Huntington, Yemisi Ajayi, and Chris Schmucki — will be showing work as part of the exhibit. Many will be on hand throughout the months to chat with people coming to look at their work.

“A lot of times when you step into a retail space or a gallery space, you’re really just focused on that isolated piece of work,” Hughes says. “We’ll be there and can actually really get into the nuts and bolts of all the things that we do. I think I’m sure everyone here is excited to really geek out.”

The exhibit is organized by price, with $20 prints in the front and pricier items in the back, to demonstrate art collecting is accessible for everyone. There’s a living room set up towards the back of the exhibit, where people can sit down and spend time with the art and a workspace for informal artist talks and workshops.

“Right inside the door we have bespoke items that are heavy on design, but also at an approachable price point,” Anderson says.

Prints by Rachel Scarborough/ G+Rizz / Photograph by PHL Portraits/On Beat Management

There’s something accessible about the location, too. Market East is one of the most trafficked corridors in Philadelphia. Commuters get off the El or Regional Rail and head to jobs in Center City. Tourists might stop by on their way from Liberty Bell and other stops in Old City to Reading Terminal Market. For too long, Market East has just been a neighborhood that people hustle through. The artists hope their exhibit — and Meantime’s other activations — give people a chance to stop and experience all Philadelphia has to offer.

“I think Market Street still needs help,” Musto says. “I love the idea of bringing some interactive art to the community, to tourists. There’s a lot of people who come into the city. They’re visiting, and they’re looking for weird little cute things to do. This is one of those opportunities to really kind of put our brains together and get people in under the guise of art.”

“Past Lives, Surfaced by Skilled Hands” is open to the public Wednesdays through Sundays from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. now through December 31st at 924 Market Street.