‘Phillips First Thursdays’
courtesy of ‘christaki’

Tomorrow night The Phillips Collection is hosting the first of its weekly “Phillips After 5” programs in August (the “After 5” program is usually year round on the first Thursday of the month). While I’m told the lines won’t compare to the Hirshhorn After Hours program (thank god!), The Phillips Collection has a good thing going for them.

Admission into the Collection’s latest exhibit, Paint Made Flesh (about $12), will earn you access to the post-work entertainment, food and cash-bar. From 5 to 8:00 p.m Minor Thoughts featuring Maureen Mullaney will get you feeling their jazz. And try not to let the Play Night Actors – who integrate themselves into the crowd – fool you. Located a block from the Dupont metro stop (North exit!) at 21st and Q, The Phillips Collection is a convenient spot to swing by on your way home.

The Paint Made Flesh exhibition, if you haven’t already checked it out, would be worth going to see even if there were no After 5 program. (The Phillips Collection is really just sweetening the deal!) The Paint Made Flesh exhibit looks at how oil paint changed the way painters were able to convey the human body. There are many very intriguing paintings from various periods, and each painting has a wonderful description of the work alongside, helping to weave a powerful story.

If you’re too distracted by snacks and jazz to contemplate reading a bunch of little plaques, consider listening to one of the Gallery Talks at 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. called “The Objects of My Desire: Sex and Death in Contemporary Figure Painting.” The talk will discuss how oil paint gave contemporary artists new methods of depicting flesh, transforming traditional representations of the female nude.

But the grand finale comes at 6:30 p.m. There will be a performance titled “Mortified: Adolescent Angst on Stage,” which was apparently featured on The Today Show. The performers expose their real childhood mementos, seeking “personal redemption through public humiliation.” This one sounds both interesting and like it might be a little painful to watch.

Cathy

Cathy was fortunate to spend a year in Paris – traveling to all surrounding countries and touring all that is worthy. Upon realizing that there is no place like home (she does hail from Kansas City – but did not click her heels to get back – thank you, Air France), she returned to America where she set out to explore every last inch of our massive country. From her base in the nation’s capital, she has worked in marketing and event planning for the past 4 years. Mail any and all DC related tips to Cathy (at) WeLoveDC (dot) com.