December is always a trip over at Mixed Company (www.themixedcompany.com), 60 North Third Street. Besides being Old City's lone establishment devoted to the most up-to-the-minute art that knows no bounds, there is plenty more here to peruse and purchase, including vintage furniture and complementary décor to make an elegant home that much more so.

Jeff Schaller, one of Mixed Company's top stars, has been collecting accolades, awards and grants over the past year in some mad rush. The capper is that his encaustic paintings have made their way to national attention via TV, as they are now featured on "Friends." Indeed, talk about décor! Now, the sextet may be getting somewhat long in the tooth, but a hit of Schaller has stripped years off any incipient telegenic senility to boost their cachet of hip by, oh, say a jillion points to the nth power. As for Schaller's art, it's growing too, with his ever manic layering of imagery ever more intricate.

Mixed Company is expanding its sights with the addition of their newest artist, Gary Bernard. He adds a touch of real Philly class here in that his work is firmly grounded in this city's historical ambience of representational art, which is a welcome addition to this establishment's roster of The Cool. However, what Bernard sees is not necessarily what he paints. Though he offers portraits and more, none of his work is hobbled by any surrender to strict realism. Instead, Bernard offers a more sweeping, decidedly Romantic poetry to his figures that affords them a classical tinge that was never present in any Philly painter, from Eakins on down.

Hey, between reading this and getting down to Mixed Company, who knows what new goodies have arrived.


PRESS/REVIEW page10 - December 4 • 2002