InLiquid, an artists' safety net for 16 years

When InLiquid Art & Design began operations on the Internet in 1999, its reach and scope were limited. But within those limitations, possibilities germinated.

Many, probably most, artists lacked websites to display their work. Many, if not most, may have felt disconnected from the city's chronically underdeveloped gallery scene. Many, maybe most, felt the city's traditional print media were not adequately covering the growing number of artists making their way to Philadelphia.

InLiquid moved to address those concerns and is still at it, with expanding scope and ambition.

As a measure of past and present, the organization's 16th annual Art for the Cash Poor sale will unfold Friday through Sunday at the Crane Arts Building - more than 100 artists showing their work. All pieces priced at $199 or less! Everything must go!

The first big community-building event organized by InLiquid back in the day, Art for the Cash Poor has been a bubbly, sudsy annual rite ever since.

"In the first one, we had about 30 artists who sold artwork," said photographer Rachel Zimmerman, InLiquid's founder. "At that time, I think it was [art for] under $50 at Beau Monde. It was just a big party and a big art sale. They closed down the whole restaurant - they made it into an art space. We charged $5 at the door. It was a cash bar. It was good for the restaurant and good for the artists."

This year, the sale is preceded by a Friday-night fund-raiser for the AIDS Fund and for InLiquid ($40 at the door). The show will be open, free, to the public on Saturday and Sunday. Brewskis available, for sure.

"We make money on selling beer," Zimmerman allowed. Proceeds from art sales go to the artists.

"The idea of Art for the Cash Poor was to make it a very tongue-in-cheek, fun, accessible thing," said Zimmerman, 48. "And also it aimed to demystify buying art. . . . And it's grown. Over the years, we've had from 150 to 200 artists. . . . Actually, we scaled it back a little bit this year to make it a little more accessible."

The ideas behind the mini-fair - to further the prospects of artists and bring them into the public arena and consciousness - are the ideas that lie behind all InLiquid's activities.

The organization, with a staff of six and an annual budget this year approaching $400,000, still operates its website, inliquid.org, where all member artists are listed, with links to professional information, portfolios, and individual websites. Well over 300 visual artists, collectives, and groups are members. The website boasts 55,000 unique visitors monthly.

Calender listings, exhibition opportunities, and other marketing information are all still readily available. But the big transformation for InLiquid over the last 16 years is its movement into the world of three dimensions.

The organization has exhibition and office space at the Crane Building, 1400 N. American St., where it holds six shows a year. It also hosts an annual benefit auction, provides counsel to artists on a host of matters from pricing art to finding commercial galleries, and works to connect artists with outside clients.

"InLiquid has been very instrumental in helping me make my career," said painter Michele C. Kishita, a member. (Artists may apply for membership - the basic annual fee is $192; the InLiquid staff screens their work before accepting memberships.)

Kishita, a member since 2010, said, "InLiquid gave me my first solo show, which was amazing. One gallery found me in the first year. . . . Almost every opportunity I've had has come from InLiquid."

Aside from helping individual artists and organizing traditional exhibitions, InLiquid has also started mounting exhibitions that have a significant social or political dimension.

In 2013, for instance, it co-curated "Juvenile in Justice," a show exploring issues related to young people caught in the criminal justice system, by California photographer Richard Ross, ceramicist Roberto Lugo (who grew up in Kensington), and Philadelphia painter Mat Tomezsko.

In the center of the Crane Building's Ice Box space, a solitary-confinement structure was erected for the show. Outside organizations - from high schools to legal and juvenile-justice activist groups to the city Sheriff's Office were pulled into the project. Talks, films, legal sessions (including a special juvenile-record expungement session) were held.

"We wanted to get people who worked in the justice system to come and talk," said Zimmerman. "We wanted to educate youth in general about the importance of art and art education. We wanted to create an exhibit that was a speaking platform where different voices who worked within the system could use the exhibit as a jumping-off point of discussion."

In January, InLiquid will hold another big exhibition extravaganza, in partnership with the art collective [and InLiquid member] TangentT, on the theme of redacted documents.

"We're what we need to be," Zimmerman said. "It's just being a good partner. As long as the artist is happy and the client is happy, we're doing our job."

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