Life on a Budget: Art shows, berry foraging, and taking in the view

Long-lost Blog,
I'm back from Eastern Europe and I have plenty to show and tell you!  While I have many pics to post of my Bosnian adventure, sandwiching my travels were weeks of stagnant unemployment that I would like to post, too.  The good news is that I secured a job at CCA starting last week, but the months of zero income over the summer have made for lazy but creative attempts at a culture-filled existence.

Recently I made several discoveries about what truly makes me American.  Some of the most obvious of my inherited philosophies were my prescribed entitlement and my constant, unnecessary purchasing.  Hitting the brakes on my student loans, I truly had never thought much about my spending habits.  Money is the last thing you want to be worried about while you are trying to gain ultimate mastery of your art practice.  However, that way of thinking, I discovered, (or, rather, came to terms with), is problematic in itself, and quite pretentious.  Graduate school is two years of being selfishly unaware of the problems lying just outside in the real world.  I was purposely ignorant of how my artist's lifestyle had to change in order to eat.

To trim the fat, I discovered that there are several things to do with one's time that require little-to-no money.  First up: gallery openings!  Free admission and the added bonus of refreshments make this a no-brainer, and also an important part of my artist's "job".  How else to quell boredom?  Exploring my habitat on foot for free or taking drives for a little gas money are pretty good options, too.  Thirdly, socializing often comes with spending money, but "just looking" shopping is one sad option, and kind friends' pity coffees, beers, and hamburgers are another.

Here are a bunch of ways I managed to overcome my insatiable American habits and still entertain myself.

Before I left for Bosnia, I spent a completely lovely and totally free day looking at galleries.  I saw Stephanie Syjuco's solo show, "Raiders", at Catherine Clark, which consisted of digitally downloaded and printed facades of priceless Asian  art from the entire collection of an unnamed Asian art museum.  The result was beautiful, jarring, and hilarious.

Also at Catherine Clark were some industrially fabricated street signs with antagonistic slogans by Anthony Discenza.

Next door I checked out the show by Castaneda/Reiman at Baer Ridgway, whose installations were part construction, part landscape, and possibly too conceptual for me to willingly understand.

I also discovered a sweet bonus of my recent graduation:  my student ID card still granted me free access to the SF MoMA, where I perused the roof-top sculpture garden and paid for my Blue Bottle coffee with coins in my pocket from my change jar.

On another day I took a trip up to Oakland's Tilden Park, where I enjoyed another perk of recent graduation: everyone else was still at work or school while I explored Lake Anza and some trails I had never been on.

One day my friend, Natasha, and I took our restless legs up to Stinson Beach, where the sun was promising but the wind was like being inside some sort of sand tunnel.  We had fun anyway, but our snacks were pretty gritty.  Later we stopped in Sausalito where local artisan ceramics are beautifully crafted and sold at Heath Ceramics.

On another art adventure, some friends and I went to Ratio 3 to catch Mission School artist, Margaret Kilgallen's, posthumous exhibition, "Summer/Selections."  It should have been titled,  "They Raided My Sketchbooks and Remnants."  While her linework is superior and I love to see any female artist in a predominantly male circle like the SF Mission School, the work was hung badly with visible screws and cheap frames, and altogether not flattering to the artist's memory.

Work by Margaret Kilgallen

I stopped by the vintage store, La Rosa, on Haight Street with a friend who is a regular there.  The store was quite entertaining to peruse, but the prices are insanely expensive.  While I found some great treasures like a woven karate robe and several Nudie-esque western jackets, the triple digit price tags coupled with the pain of walking down super-gross Haight Street made it a once-a-year sort of place for me.

Lucky for me, many of my friends are also neighbors, and we had a relaxing summer BBQ  potluck, providing a long-needed CCA reunion as well as good food for cheap $.  Imagine the luck of me bringing a peach and apple crisp and Julie bringing homemade brown sugar ice cream!

My friend, Rachel, and I explored our Oakland neighborhood as two poor ladies on the prowl for blackberry bushes in the nearby rose garden.

I tried one more trip to Stinson Beach solo, where the weather said 75 and it was more like 60.  Still, the sound of waves crashing and the soft sand beneath your feet are a necessity for the occasional regrouping.

I made it to the opening of Marx and Zavattero's current 10th anniversary show, "Sea Change Part II", the day after I came back from Europe.  Several favorite artists were on view from their roster, including Libby Black and Taravat Talepasand.

A little painting by Libby Black in the back room

A Taravat Talepasand drawing with some unexpected color

A very clean Patrick Wilson painting

In the back room- Libby Black, her partner Jen, and their son, Jasper, who took me out for burgers afterwards.  Yes!

What else is free?  Oh yeah, making art, as long as I have supplies already.  Duh!

Places to Go, Art to See

Blog Readers (if you are out there):  I'm taking off for Bosnia for six weeks!  My internet life will be on hiatus, along with my gallery-going/blogging life.  I don't know how much art-viewing I will get done in the next seven days, so I thought I would arrange a semi-virtual local gallery tour.  Here are some things I should, would, and may check out before I go, and some that I will miss but would be worth the effort if you are around the Bay.  It's so easy to take for granted the amount of art we have in the city, but if you decide to go looking, it really is everywhere.  (Whether it's any good, however, remains up for debate).

ONGOING EXHIBITIONS:

"New Paintings" with work by Sarah Thibault, Rebekah Goldstein, Rema Ghuloum, Maysha Mohamedi, and Alice Warneke, Truesilver Gallery, 4391 24th Street, San Francisco 

Through June 24, Hours and Info: (415) 359-5692

Painting by Sarah Thibault

This all-female, all-CCA painter squad is a good reason to try visiting one of the many pop-up galleries around the city.  It looks like Truesilver is a gallery-in-the-house kind of deal, with no set hours or up-to-date website info, but it would be worth perusing if you are feeling adventurous.  My CCA buddies know how to use a paint brush in a playful, messy kind of way.

"Treasure Tones" by Victor Landweber and "Reject, Reject" by Daniel Tierney, Steven Wolf Fine Arts, 
2747 A 19th Street, San Francisco

Through July 2, Open Wed-Sat 10:30- 5:30

Four City Blocks laminated cardboard painting by Daniel Tierney

Steven Wolf's two concurrent exhibitions look like an exciting example of artists considering what a painting is.  Victor Landweber arranges paint samples to create taxonomies and narratives according to paint names, and Daniel Tierney creates stacked paintings which incorporate the "painting" and the "plinth/stand" in barely three-dimensional form.  Wolf's gallery space is a beautiful remodeled 100-year-old building in the sprawling new art locale on 19th street and totally worth checking out.

"being-with" Solo exhibition by Liam Everett, Romer Young Gallery, 1240 22nd Street, San Francisco

Through June 25, Open Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat, hours variable

Installation shot, Liam Everett paintings

Another CCA painter, (we like to support each other), Liam Everett, is still in grad school but already has a strong beginning of a career, with an established resume in NY before coming to San Francisco.  I went to the opening of this show, but it was full of people and babies and I was with a painter-hater, so we left before I really checked out Liam's paintings.  From what I can tell, he uses a variety of methods to fold, spray-paint, dye, and otherwise manipulate the fabric of the piece before stretching it, or not in the case of the yellow one above.  I think they are worth a visit to Romer Young (formerly Ping Pong) in their quiet Dog Patch neighborhood space.

"God Only Knows Who the Audience Is", curated by the graduating CCA Curatorial Practice Class of 2011, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco 

Through July 2, Open Tue-Sat, 11-6 or 7

To Move a Body video still by Noah Krell

OK, I'll admit this blog is CCA-centric, but I can't help it!  The Wattis is CCA's museum-worthy arts institution within the school walls which has amazing exhibtions with world-renowned artists, and this show put on by the Curatorial Practice students is no exception.  The exhibition centers around performance-based works from artists such as Eleanor Antin and Chris Burden, (people I learned about in Contemporary Art History), but also includes one CCA grad student, Noah Krell.  Krell's video pieces continue the work proposed by his 60s-70s predecessors with just as much beauty and heart.  I would like to spend some more time with this show and highly recommend it.

"New Work" by Tucker Nichols, Gallery 16, 
501 Third Street, San Francisco

Through June 30, Open Mon-Sat 10 or 11-5

Painting by Tucker Nichols

Gallery 16 is a print shop/gallery which affords the artists it shows the benefit of creating large scale expensive prints to work with in a variety of ways.  I am no expert of Nichols, but he's an established local, and the show looks like it could be good.

"Dad and Mom, Don't Worry About Us, We are All Well" by Song Dong, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 
701 Mission Street, San Francisco

Through June 12, Open Thu-Sun 11-8 or 6

Song Dong installation at the YBCA

I saw this amazing installation by Chinese artist Song Dong at the Yerba Buena, but with a student ID priced ticket, I would go see it again.  In the main exhibition, Song Dong essentially artistically arranges his mother's belongings, who became a hoarder after the death of her husband.  Through the mourning process, the artist and his mother use the concept of the installation to reflect on life and death.  The exhibition leaves the viewer feeling  a sense of voyeurism, along with guilt over consumerism and reflections on politics, family, and space.  I went with someone who asked me if this was art.  The answer is, Yes, of course, but the conversation is a long and complicated one.  A piece which makes one feel anything is halfway to being art, and I feel the aesthetics of it also contribute to a powerful installation.  It's coming down soon- go see!

"Solo Exhibition of New Works: AMTK", Unspeakable Projects, 735 Tehama Street, San Francisco

Through June 30, Open Thu 3-6, Sat 1-4

 Painting by AMTK 

Unspeakable Projects is another one of those gallery-in-the-house dealies, but in today's economy, who can really blame them?  I am not that familiar with either the gallery nor the artist (is is a duo? man or woman?) but I have seen their paintings online and at the recent SF Artpad fair at Unspeakable Project's booth.  I like the weirdo style of the paintings, and I think Unspeakable has a good thing going so far.  

"Raiders" Solo Exhibition by Stephanie Syjuco, Catherine Clark Gallery, 150 Minna Street, San Francisco

Through July 16, Open Tue-Sat 11-6

Installation of objects by Stephanie Syjuco

Man, I was supposed to go to the opening of this show last night, but I was too tired and sick and otherwise opening-ed out.  Stephanie Syjuco is a really interesting artist and also a former professor of mine at CCA.  Her work focuses around ideas of appropriation and value- sometimes even "piracy" as she would call it.  This show is a full scale installation of an entire Asian art collection from a museum, in which she has taken free images of the collection online and reproduced them as 2-D versions printed on paper and mounted on wood.  I really like the idea of re-selling such things- what is a commodity worth and who decides?  What's the difference between the model and the original?  Surely they are crappy versions of the crafted things, but they are crafted by an artist and sold in a gallery... it gets nice and complicated.

"Castaneda/Reiman: Still Life Landscape", 
Baer Ridgway Exhibitions, 172 Minna Street, San Francisco

Through July 16, Open Tue-Sat 11-6

Castaneda/Reiman 

I am not sure if I think this show looks interesting or not, but Baer Ridgway generally has good taste which borders on high conceptualism without alienating its audience.  And, it's right next door to Catherine Clark, so why not go?

"Inarguably Uncertain: The 41st Annual University of California, Berkeley Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition", Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley Through June 26, Open Wed-Sun 11-5 

(or Fri til 9 with cheaper tickets)

Rivals! Rivals!  Well, with only seven students they are hardly eclipsing my alma mater, CCA, and maybe it's worth seeing what the grads over in Berkeley are doing?  I saw the SFAI "Vernissage" show, by the way, and let's just say I'm glad I went to CCA.  These silly art wars run deep.

All photos from gallery websites, except Noah Krell noahkrell.com and Sarah Thibault artsfarts.tumbler.com