Artists and Astronauts: June 2011

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Coming Up: Bay Area Shows This Summer

As I mentioned in previous posts, I will be skipping town in a few days to lounge around Eastern Europe, eating phyllo dough-wrapped things and sipping coffee while listening to some haunting gypsy jazz in outdoor cafes for six weeks. This means I will be missing a few art shows which are worth a stop if you are in the area. San Francisco, like most second-tier art cities, has a quiet art season in the summertime while everyone (the collectors) go to their vacation get-aways. That being said, I think these shows will be great and I hope to be able to stop by before the end of their runs.

"Sea Change: The 10th Anniversary Exhibition Part I", Marx and Zavattero, 77 Geary, San Francisco, Opening June 11 5:30- 7:30 though July 16

David Hevel

Marx and Zavattero are celebrating an impressive feat in providing high quality emerging and mid-career art to San Francisco for the last ten years in the form of a two part group exhibition showcasing all represented artists. I am particularly excited about Libby Black's new piece, an eight-foot painting of Brooke Shields kneeling in dirt, which I had to help her strap to the top of her car from the East Oakland canvas maker and drive at 15 miles an hour all the way to her Berkeley studio. The show will also feature work by two more favorites, felt-loving James Gobel and celebrity-obsessed David Hevel.

"Desirée Holman: Heterotopias", Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, Opening June 26 through September 18

Holman film still

Desiree Holman, represented by Jessica Silverman Gallery and a CCA Graduate professor, combines pop culture, fantasy, and identity in a variety of artworks from film to drawing. In this show she shows both real people and avatars to "[construct] a Möbius-like relation between real and virtual", according to the museum press release. Looks like a great reason to stop by the BAMPFA, since I still have never been! And if you ever needed more of a reason to go, there's the frozen yogurt place across the street that prices your goodies by the pound.

"Travis Collinson: Paintings and Drawings", Baer Ridgway Exhibitions, 172 Minna Street, San Francisco, Opening July 23 through August 20

Sofa, King, Cool, Travis Collinson

I seriously can't tell if I like these paintings or not from looking at Baer Ridgway's website, which is in itself a good reason to go see a show. I like how weird the features of his subjects are, reminding me both of Lucien Freud's early work and the drawings of Josephine Taylor. It looks like Collinson is still pretty unknown, with only one small solo show under his belt. Baer Ridgway is taking a chance on a kid. The thing with figurative work for me is that I get excited when people show it, but I can't help but compare it to every other figurative artist I can think of, including myself. If they are good, I will gladly say, "Well done" to Collinson, and if not, I'll say, "What about me?"

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

CCA MFA Class of 2011 Exhibtion!!! (Part II)

As I mentioned in the previous post below, here are some of the images I took of our CCA MFA Class of 2011 Exhibition, both from the night of the opening on May 12 and from the much quieter days to follow. My humble apologies to the artists I missed. (Please double-click on images for larger views).

Angus Haller created a silkscreened printscape of visual noise coupled with a soundscape of musical noise to make an immersive installation for the audience.

Close-up of Haller's screen prints

Julie Henson's super-hard-to-photograph installation room with theater props, mirrors, and lights to reflect her sparkly trees.

Marissa Botelho's equally hard-to-photograph immersive head-goes-in-the-box installation, where she created mini lanscapes.

Inside the box

Marissa also created a video game come to life with her reenactment of Red Dead Redemption's lasso move, and the feeling of disappointment of reality.

Elizabeth Dorbad's epic theater prop/carnival disaster installation

Victoria DeBlassie's intensely laborious sewn orange peel hut

Courtney Johnson's wild child women paintings

Johnson painting

Miss Courtney Johnson herself

Mark Taylor's screen prints of wear patterns on records, along with a box set of prints and a clever projected image on record player.

The box set, with liner notes and song titles he makes up

Rachel Dawson's classy display of all her various projects in one room- psychic analysis video, lit clay sculptures, and photo realist vessel painting.

Mark Benson's "It's art/it's not art" ready-made sculptures of over-stacked dish rack and towel-strewn drums

Benson's special one-night display of inflatable blue dancing guys

C. Wright Daniel's photograms of crumpled paper

Nancy Nowacek's "Get in this room and walk in fake snow" construction

Sarah Hotchkiss's space data center

Katie Dorame's paintings of Westward expansion

Rachel Foster's lovely screen-prints of mysterious imagery

Rachel in front of her Ouija wall

Natasha Wheat's purposely opaque "situational construction" of symbols of labor and consumerism with unreadable neon letters and painted palettes

Wheat's digital prints on silk of laborers in Panama

Allison Rowe poses in front of her RV-turned-mobile-environmental-educational tool

Once more, and with feeling: Congrats to my Class of 2011! I'll miss you!

Here are some more shots of both our MFA show at CCA, as well as SFAI's MFA show from Art Business, some shots by Meighan at My Love For You is a Stampede of Horses, as well as the JD Beltran article in the SF Gate I previously posted.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

CCA MFA Class of 2011 Exhibtion!!! (Part I)

I may be a little behind, but I have a giant post of coverage from my MFA exhibition which took place from May 12-21. Walking around a few days later, it was ideal to take shots after the chaos of the opening. On the evening of the reception, I was stuck at my post next to my paintings, so it wasn't until I walked around to get some photos that I got to spend some quality time with everyone's artwork. I did not get to each artist in this post- some photos were bad and some I missed, so my apologies to anyone left out. We had a stellar class and I'm super proud of all of us!

CCA main building

Here we are! (Double-click for larger image)

Opening night in the main walkway

Sarah Thibault's painting and sculpture

Thibault close-up of texture

Maysha Mohamedi's wall of paintings

Maysha and I: Our art was right across from each other in the main hallway

Here's one of my walls

Here's the other one

I wore a sweet suit!

Dave Sandoval's "Holiday Dinner Karaoke" was a crowd pleaser

Inside, you sat at one of four seats around a table with a microphone and a scrolling prompter of banal family dinner conversation. Like, "Last year we went to Vegas", and the other seat: "Oh, I didn't know that. I like Blackjack".