Bambi Gallery celebrates last First Friday

The first time a faulty sprinkler system caused it to rain in Bambi Gallery, Candace Karch laughed. Not that it was an easy or painless laugh — Dominic Episcopo’s photography exhibit, “Meat America,” was on her drenched walls — but there was nothing she could do but piece her playful space at the Piazza back together.

The second time 55,000 gallons of water poured down, a week later, she took it as a sign to pack up and take a break after almost six years of curating monthly exhibits. But not without one last First Friday.

“This is not how I wanted to exit; this is not how I wanted Bambi to exit,” she says of the gallery, which first popped up on the Frankford Avenue Arts Corridor before moving to Northern Liberties. “I wanted to leave with a big party — so I’m going to clean up and do it anyway.”

This weekend, Bambi’s last First Friday show will feature paper cutout work by Gail Cunningham and collages by Sienna Freeman. Although that’s not to say you won’t see the gallery’s signature hot-pink lights at some point in the future.

“My life is lived every month — I don’t even know what day it is, what year it is sometimes. I’m just going on sabbatical,” says Karch, who is considering pop-up spaces. “I’m going to go and rest and learn something new and come back like Darth Vader.”