Philly gallery scene for fall: Huge riches in small spaces

A number of new and not-so-new galleries have been hitting their stride this year. If they have one thing in common, it's their compact size.

The small white box (or rectangle) gallery model of the late 1960s is back. Queen Village's Paradigm Gallery + Studio and Jed Williams Gallery; the Callowhill district's Savery Gallery; Fjord Gallery, a recent transplant to Kensington's Crane Arts building; Mount Airy Contemporary; James Oliver Gallery on Chestnut Street; Cerulean Arts on Ridge Avenue near Broad Street; and Lord Ludd, in the heart of Old City, on Market Street - all deserve to be on any contemporary-art follower's must-see list. That's not counting the city's stalwart commercial galleries, college galleries, and numerous artist collectives with regular exhibition programs.

Victoria Burge: Penumbra (Print Center, through Nov. 19). Large- and small-scale photographs, prints, and drawings on printed material that are interpretations of the effects of light, as well as an immersive installation bathing the gallery in flickering light and shadow. (215-735-6090, printcenter.org)

Armin Hofman: Power of Signs/Magic of Color (Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery of the University of the Arts, through Oct. 7). Books, posters, logo designs, environmental reliefs, and other works by this internationally known Swiss graphic designer. He came to teach in America in 1955 at the Philadelphia Museum School (now UArts) before joining the faculty at Yale University. (215-717-6480, uarts.edu/about/rosenwald-wolf-gallery)

New Geometries (Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, through Nov. 12). Recent geometric works that take their cues from historic modernist movements, the art and crafts of indigenous cultures, and folk art, by Martha Clippinger, Gianna Commito, Diena Georgetti, Jeffrey Gibson, Eamon Ore-Giron, and Clare Rojas. (215-545-7562, fleisher-ollmangallery.com)

Bruce Cratsley: Shifting Identities (List Gallery at Swarthmore College, through Oct. 30). A retrospective of the late photographer's still lifes, portraits, images of fine art, street scenes, and celebrations of gay and lesbian culture, organized by gallery director Andrea Packard and photographer Ron Tarver, who has been awarded a Pew Fellowship and a Pulitzer Prize and who teaches at Swarthmore. (610-328-7811, swarthmore.edu/list-gallery)

Sarah McEneaney: When You Wish (Locks Gallery, through Oct. 8). Twenty new paintings that depict aerial skyline views of the artist's Callowhill neighborhood and beyond, and intimate portraits of her studio, domestic interiors, and her dogs and cats. These works mark a switch from her former medium of egg tempera to acrylic. (215-629-1000, locksgallery.com)

David Muenzer: Essai (Lord Ludd, Sept. 24-Oct. 23). New sculpture by a Los Angeles artist. (814-808-5833, lordludd.com)

Ying Li: Geographies (Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery and Sharpless Gallery of Magill Library, Haverford College, through Oct. 7). Textural paintings and drawings of abstracted landscapes and cityscapes rendered in oil paint squeezed straight from the tube and manipulated with brushes and palette knives. (610-896-1287, exhibits.haverford.edu)

Edgar Diehl/Kevin Finklea (Pentimenti Gallery, through Oct. 22). Painted geometric aluminum reliefs by Diehl, a German artist, in his first show with this gallery. Philadelphian Finklea's third solo show here comprises monochromatic paintings on canvas, works on paper, and pieces constructed from leftover wood. (215-625-9990, pentimentigallery.com)

Kocot and Hatton: Color Seen and Unseen (Larry Becker Contemporary Art, Oct. 22-Nov. 26). New abstract paintings on rhomboid-shape canvases by the conceptually oriented artist duo of Philadelphia, from their series Axis + Blue. (215-925-5389, artnet.com/lbecker.html)

Dean Dass (Schmidt Dean Gallery, through Oct. 15). Recent paintings of animals and clouds, selected from a larger project that is the artist's update of "Little Brother and Little Sister," the European fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. (215-569-9433, schmidtdean.com)

Rustle: Michelle Oosterbaan and Anda Dubinskis (Cerulean Arts, Oct. 5-29). Recent paintings by Oosterbaan and pastel drawings by Dubinskis. (267-514-8647, ceruleanarts.com)

Jacque Liu: Big Red Barn (University City Arts League, through Oct. 14). A piece combining video, photographs, and a floating silver balloon, inspired by the beauty of the Maine landscape. (215-382-7811, ucartsleague.org.)

Dread Scott: A Sharp Divide (Rowan University Gallery at High Street through Nov. 5). A survey of the artist's performance and multimedia works made from 1987 to 2014, exploring racial disparities and the complexities of the criminal justice system, including videos, photographs, and recordings. (, 856-256-4521, rowan.edu/artgallery)

THEY (Savery Gallery, through Oct. 28). A group show organized by Marc Blumthal of works in various media by 15 artists - among them Micah Danges, Christina P. Day, Jacque Liu, Matt Neff, Heather Ramsdale, and Jonathan Santoro - who use a minimal format as a means to express protest. (267-687-7769, saverygallery.com)

The Block (Philadelphia Photo Arts Gallery, through Nov. 30). The final exhibition of a yearlong project documenting the history of South Kensington, this one features 500 photographs of contemporary South Kensington by Linda Fairstein, Wyatt Gallery, Will Steacy, and Hank Willis Thomas. (215-232-5678, philaphotoarts.org).

George Segal in Black and White: Drawings and Sculptures (Stedman Gallery, Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, through Dec. 10). Installations of the artist's life-size plaster figures of ordinary people in everyday activities, pastel drawings, and photographs of Segal at work in his studio by his longtime collaborator, Donald Lokuta. (856-225-6245, rcca.camden.rutgers.edu.)

Altered States: 2016 Faculty Triennial (The Galleries at Moore, Moore College of Art & Design, through Dec. 10). John Caperton, curator of the Print Center, was tapped by Moore to select works by the college's faculty of artists and designers. (215-965-4027, thegalleriesatmoore.org)