April, in addition to being the start of beautiful spring weather in Philadelphia, is also the inaugural month for the latest collective featuring work by emerging artists: AUTOMAT. In order to kick off this creative journey, the space is showcasing work by member artists in a debut exhibition entitled “Hello, My Name is AUTOMAT.” The gallery is in good company, surrounded by a shortlist of Philadelphia’s cutting-edge, artist-run locales on the second floor of 319 North 11th Street. Providing examples of the founding members’ tastes and talents, the exhibition includes assemblages, paintings, photos, a video and, perhaps most importantly, yet another fresh outlet for Philadelphia visual art. Zach Zecha, “planes for tomorrow.” Zach Zecha’s mixed media sculpture “planes for tomorrow” resides in the middle of the show and provides both a sense of movement and location with its sparse, linear structure. One side of the piece has a six-paned window elevated on a banister or gate of sorts. All of the wooden elements – the rungs of the lower half and the frames of the window – are coated in mellow shades of pastel blue and lavender. Splashed against the glass are more jarring streaks of red and white paint, as well as a decal of Donald Duck peering through yet another frame. Sheets of reflective silvery material hang down in front of two sections of the window-like tinfoil curtains, reflecting where one could otherwise see through. Zach Zecha, “planes for tomorrow (detail).” This barrier delineates between an apparent ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ as viewers stroll around its scant length, although it consists of little more than a hurdle. On its ‘exterior’ side, two strands of toy, paper airplanes emerge abruptly from the window’s surface, on a crash course with the floor. Where these paths converge at the ground, a pile of downed, yet undamaged, aircraft serves as the third point of a triangle with the flat starting line. Seeing as these vehicles are headed for a certain, anticlimactic end, if any of the planes are indeed ‘for tomorrow,’ like the title asserts, it’s the geometric planes formed by the wall and flightpaths, not the airplanes. Emily Elliott, “Aggregate Particulate.” Initially reading like a painting, “Aggregate Particulate” by Emily Elliott is only coated in black pigment to emphasize the patterns and textures of its many component parts. As its name implies, the rippling aggregation here is assembled from countless grains of rice fixed in place to create a meandering study of fluid dynamics via a solid substance. Resembling a map of wind patterns more than a bin of cereal grains, the various orientations of the rice kernels seem random, aside from the fact that they were glued in place by a human hand. Calling into question the border between intention and happenstance, it becomes quite difficult to determine where the nature of the material ends and the composition begins. Tiffany Tate, “the climb.” For Tiffany Tate’s “the climb,” a bright inkjet print finds us following the course of a yellow chevron across a deep magenta field. This pitched roof shape is, not unlike “Aggregate Particulate,” a trail of tiny yellow particles. Below this shape is a pool of viscous liquid speckled with the substance from above. To anyone who has wiped their finger across the hood of a car in springtime (especially those allergy sufferers among us), the powder reeks of pollen. There is little way of knowing for sure what this dusty yellow stuff is, but the sticky blob below could very well be honey, and therein lies the connection. Viewed like a graph, this ascent and descent could represent bee populations before and after the emergence of colony collapse disorder, but this image actually provides very little in the way of explanations. Having only one show under its belt, AUTOMAT is certainly a destination to watch. Beyond the artwork of its members, the future of this new space is as enigmatic as some of the images debuted within. “Hello, My Name is AUTOMAT” will be on display through May 22.   AUTOMAT is located at 319 North 11th Street, on the second floor, Philadelphia. Keep up with the art collective on facebook.com/AUTOMATCollective.