\nSadie Pennington, assistant manager of Middle Child Clubhouse, has spearheaded the event since its inception in 2021. She said the auction came out of a desire to support independent music venues during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. A lover of art herself, she rounded up a group of over a dozen artist friends who created food-themed works.\n<\/p>\n
\nBetween decorative rugs adorned with the signature Middle Child smiley face logo, lunch-themed collages, hoagie prints and sandwich sculptures, the first auction raised over $6,000 for the National Independent Venue Association that year. Pennington and Matt Cahn, owner of Middle Child, knew they were onto something great.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI feel like we\u2019re very much an artist and community-oriented restaurant, where so many of our regulars, employees and friends are musicians and artists of different sorts,\u201d Cahn said. \u201cIt always felt natural for us to do something like this. \u2026 These are all people that we know personally, people that work with Middle Child, and it\u2019s been really amazing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
As excitement has grown over the years for Gallerytessen, featured artists have only felt more emboldened to push the boundaries of the theme. Two of the most sought after pieces last year were a neon sign of two penguins hugging and a glass ham, which sparked a bidding war between a store regular and an employee. Pennington even won her own share of bidding wars.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI got some good stuff out of it last year,\u201d she said. \u201cThe event is really just to bring people together, look at the artwork and be together in person, which is kind of a dying thing in general.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallerytessen has also given artists an opportunity to work with each other. Two longtime contributors, neon light artist ElectroRomantic and Ian Chapin collaborated this year on a lamp shaped like a stick of butter.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \nAlso included in this year\u2019s collection are a sculpture of eggs<\/a> with faces in the yolks by Annie Timchak, a drawing of a diner waitress pouring coffee called \u201cWELCOME IN HON<\/a>\u201d by Conner Phillips and a giant \u201cTaylor Pork Roll<\/a>\u201d package by Braden Young.<\/p>\n A lamp shaped like a stick of butter, created by Electro-Romantic and Ian Chapin, will be part of the collection.<\/p>\n Above, a drawing of a Philly diner waitress by Conner Phillips titled ‘WELCOME IN HON.’<\/p>\n \n\u201cFood and friendship is the theme, but even that is totally open to interpretation,\u201d Pennington said. \u201cI think that\u2019s another exciting element of art exhibits in general. \u2026 What does that mean? That\u2019s the exciting part about it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nPennington and Cahn work with the artists to choose a different local nonprofit to support. Since 2021, over $18,000 has been raised for South Philadelphia Community Fridge, Resources for Human Development and the Nationalities Service Center.\u00a0Cahn and Pennington said the artists\u2019 choice of Juntos<\/a>\u00a0this year is the ultimate \u201csign of the times.\u201d<\/p>\n \nWhile the organizers don\u2019t have a target donation in mind, their goal is to hit $4,000 total.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\u201cThere are so many undocumented workers and there\u2019s a lot of fear in the restaurant community right now,\u201d Cahn said. \u201cAnything that we can do to try to quell that fear, whether it\u2019s doing ICE trainings at the restaurant or donating to causes that can support them from a legal and educational standpoint is something that we want to do right now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n![\"Middle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Electroromantic__Ian_Chapin.width-704.png\")
Provided Image\/Electro-Romantic and Ian Chapin<\/p>\n![\"Middle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/middle_child_auction_Conner_Phillips.width-704.png\")
Provided Image\/Conner Phillips<\/p>\n