Profile

In 1983, Penny Pilkington and Wendy Olsoff launched P感慈慌, a gallery whose name plays on their initials with deliberate agitprop, Pop Art implications. It’s a fitting connotation, considering the owners are most interested in showing politically charged work, from the sexually graphic collages of David Wojnarowicz to the feminist photographs of Carolee Schneemann. P感慈慌 also has a strong contingent of figurative painters (including subdued symbolist Bo Bartlett and dreamy storyteller Julie Heffernan) and represents a fair number of obsessive-compulsive types (such as Dinh Q. Lê, known for his labor-intensive woven photographs). Confined to a modest third-floor space (the fifth location in P感慈慌’s history), the gallery is best suited to one-person shows. But as they bring new artists, such as architectural conceptualist Sarah Oppenheimer, into the fold, you can expect Pilkington and Olsoff to move again soon.