Do-it-all artists

A gallery whose participants make clothing, film video projects, or record new music isn't uncommon for modern-day gaggles of like-minded artists, from Andy Warhol's minions to Jean-Michel Basquiat to Julian Schnabel.

But if you seek an internationally renowned gallery that creates painted public trash bins, hosts its own weird comedy nights, DJs dance parties, creates kids' TV programming, marches in the Mummers Parade, and curates scores of exhibitions by nonmembers, turn eyes toward Space 1026, at that Arch Street address in Chinatown.

You might not actually find anyone working in its two-floor gallery, however, because its Philadelphia members - two dozen regular artists plus a formidable roster of past personalities - are usually holed up with collaborators working on outside projects and events at the Barbary, Little Bar, and beyond. Not only is Space 1026 involved with such enterprises as Megawords magazine and Free News Projects publishing, it also sells its own wares - from shirts and silkscreen prints to a new run of Matt Groening-like "Bartz buttons" - online. Every member is involved in all the others' business.

" 'Do it yourself with other people' encompasses the spirit of Space 1026," says painter/illustrator Andrew Jeffrey Wright, one of the six ("or so") people who started the collective and opened the gallery in the summer of 1997.

"We've been associated with many types of art and artists over the years: skateboard art, graffiti art, poster art, punk slop art, comic art, neo-psych folk art, and more. There's always someone in the space that could fall under one of those categories, and many who wouldn't. It's part collective and part commune. As long as it exists, it will change."

Though Rose Luardo doesn't rent space, she's a prime example of the collective's continued evolution and interaction. She's been part of Space 1026's Comcast local children's programming  spearheaded by fellow member Ted Passon; the sketch comedy team the New Dreamz with Wright; and the live band Sweatheart with Thom Lessner. Lessner and Passon are currently filming a video for the not-exactly- faux-metal band the Darkness at Space 1026's studio. Lessner and fellow 1026-er Ben Woodward are responsible for those Litter Critter trash bins scattered on South Street.