Paul Wackers at Eleanor Harwood

My friend, Courtney, and I decided to take a respite from the Thunderdome apocalypse air of the end of school and the stress surmounting around final projects and late papers, to take in an art show at Eleanor Harwood.  We went to see a show of real paintings, from a new version of a Painter's Painter, Paul Wackers.  Wackers, from Washington DC, has been building a great reputation as a knockout artist here in SF since graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute and receiving the highest award at the Headlands Center for the Arts, the Tournesol Award, a few years ago.  His last show at Eleanor Harwood garnered him a critic's pick in Artforum, and this show followed the last quite well.  What we both really loved was his mixed use of materials: flat acrylic paint with taped off patterns and his signature spray-painted light beam-ish shapes creating both landscapes and still lives that make it seem fresh to do either.

Solo Exhibition

Paul Wackers:  "idle/idol"

Eleanor Harwood Gallery

1295 Alabama Street, SF

Ends May 14, 2011

Paul Wackers's website

James Gobel Opening

I recently checked out James Gobel's exhibition at Marx & Zavattero Gallery at 77 Geary in San Francisco. It was great to see James, one of my favorite professors at CCA, and to check out what kind of work he's been making when he's not cracking a smart, insightful art whip on us grad students: "I Get What I Want and I Always Get it Again!"

One of many paintings of beautiful, rotund men.

That's James in the black and white stripes. There were lots of real life rotund men, too. More that I have ever seen in one hot, sweaty gallery room before!

The scene, with a new venture for James- flannel covered sculptures!

It's difficult to get an idea of the craftsmanship of James's work in photos. They are not really paintings but pieces of felt closely laid together in exquisite detail, like stained glass. Yarn serves as the lines, and spray paint does the shading. I loved the new details of metallic chain strands and rhinestones!

If you would like to see the show, it will be up until July 17. It's so worth the trip!

"breathe.": Art Show with Welly Fletcher

In true CCA style, a bunch of us affiliated with the school in one way or another went to Project One Gallery to celebrate Llewelynn (Welly) Fletcher's opening exhibition. Curated by Jessica Silverman of Silverman Galllery, along with Brooke Waterhouse, the show was anticipated to be extra cool. The idea behind the theme of "breathe." was different and I appreciated its poetic tone:

"Any moment of our life has the potential to become a meditative space, an inhabited site for pure experience. However, in our society of inter connectivity and multitasking, most of these spaces are never unlocked for their full, singular capacity. “breathe.” invites you to pause and remember that our lives are made up of a series of single breathes thus connecting ourselves more closely to one another and to our shared culture."

I spent most of my time examining Welly's awesome sculptures, which I agreed to help her move into the space, but hadn't had a breath in one, if you will. Her sculptures are meant to be experienced, with space for you to interact and even get inside them, where sounds play lightly as if they are coming from you.

If you'd like to experience the show it is up until July 10 at 251 Rhode Island Street, San Francisco.

Chrissie Bradley goes for the full corpse-pose experience in this beehive-shaped Welly sculpture.
The soft-sculpture shark can be your own private Idaho in the chaos of an opening.
Mark Benson looks like he was really freaking out poor Chrissie inside the shark.
Welly Fletcher
These people were confused; not every sculpture is a Welly to get in!
The other room, a lounge, provided the perfect opportunity for Mark to be alone in the dark with a disco ball.
We found a Sean Leake, too!

Special congratulations to Welly for her new teaching opportunity in Sculpture the fall at CCA!