Adventures in Art Six Weeks of Openings and Shows (Part II)

Even more shows...
As I mentioned in Part I of this post, as part of my 'job' as an artist, I have been looking at a lot of art in San Francisco over the past six or seven weeks.  Regretfully, I haven't posted about any of it.  Here is a view of some Bay Area Art taken with my very amateur photography skills.  I am starting to feel like my blog is too positive- geez, what a curmudgeon I am- so here's to being more honest with you.  Because what we desperately need is another mouthy, cynical blogger in the world.  So very desperately we do.  What can I say- I'm just calling 'em like I see 'em.  If you get offended, you can take pot shots at me on your own blog.

Seriously, there's something weird about Root Division.  Maybe it's the fact that they have art hanging opposite all the bathrooms.  Anyway, another round of their annual juried exhibition was under way, "Introductions 2011", and several of my CCA peeps were on the roster so I sort of had to go show my support.  Really, the people there seem nice but the implied donation to get in just to the reception is off-putting.  And while it's great that they serve a portion of the community with classes and another with studio spaces, there's something I can't put my finger on.  I just get the creeps there.  Maybe it's the SFAI connections of the staff.  Like I have said before, these MFA school loyalties run deep.  BTW, this is a chalk piece by Jillian Clark, from my CCA graduate class.

Sarah Thibault, another grad from my CCA class, was upping her game with this very classy drawing/installation.  Word on the street is that fancy-but-wild-bearded art gallerist, Jack Hanley, has been in conversation with her about her work and recently took her pieces to the Frieze Art Fair in London.  Go Sarah!

I went to see my old art professor, David Huffman's, show "Shift" at the San Francisco Arts Commission, which is situated downtown by all the fancy buildings like City Hall and the Opera House.  This view across the street is a nice change from the seediness of the Mission or the Tenderloin or wherever else in the city I end up schlepping around to see art.  The show is still up until December 10th.

Fancy marble digs inside and a jam-packed turnout.

David Huffman's installation of a pyramid of basketballs, (I couldn't get back enough with the crush of people to get a whole shot), which was basically a part of his signature sarcastic narrative of black cultural tropes come to life in 3-D.  There were paintings and videos, too, but too close to get photos.  It was a good show but the space was too small for the grand pyramid even without the people inside.  

Art in the Mission:  You know it's a bad sign when there's a sandwich board.  

On the same night as my Arts Commission jaunt, I did a small tour and drove over to Triple Base to see Todd Bura's new show, but I seriously could not find a parking space around the decidedly car-unfriendly Mission neighborhood and said "Fuck It" and drove over to another part of the Mission to Southern Exposure as the third leg of my gallery crawl.  So-Ex was also having its annual juried exhibition with a theme, this time called "Proof".  So-Ex,  just in comparison to Root Division, was equally crowded with onlookers hung with art I liked or didn't like just as much.  A juried show is always a mixed bag.  However, it felt much more welcoming as a space, and that does really stand for something.  Above is a textile triptych piece by current CCA MFA student, Johanna Friedman.

Rachel Foster's prints hung in constellations and an old lady deciphering Rachel's print depicting the average suicide age for literary greats.  

Here's Rachel Foster, herself, who forced me to accompany her to Lafayette, a weird outpost of rural suburbs outside of Walnut Creek, to deliver some of her artwork for a show.  It just happened to be the Lafayette Annual Art and Wine Festival, so we seized the opportunity to people-watch big-boobed blond women and gawk at the terrible art in the lovely weather.

Yeesh.  The worst kind of art might possibly be faux-naive "Outsider" art of Tom Waits and mohawked nerds with guitars.

The best space I saw this year so far was the Chapel of the Chimes, an actual chapel and columbarium (a place which houses ashes), down the street from my house in Oakland.  The fact that they had an art show with a call for proposals within the space was sort of dwarfed by the sheer beauty of the architecture, designed by the renowned architect,  Julia Morgan.  There were rooms within rooms featuring tons of indoor gardens and many of the ashes were encased in vessels shaped like books and held within walls shaped like bookcases, totally changing your expectations of what a columbarium would look like.

There was some art, but it was so small and put into nooks and crannies of the walls so that we could barely detect it in the first place.  This is tiny funereal diorama by Maggie Simpson, which apparently was the controversy of the night because the original display held a real tiny dead kitten inside the miniature coffin.  Not cool in the house of the Lord, I suppose.

The problem with an art school is that we learn so much about art that we are over-educated and constantly confused.  "Is it art?", Rachel and I discussed many times throughout our wanderings inside the infinite walls of the Chapel of the Chimes.  Are the flags art?  Are the cones art?  The draped coffin-shaped thing?  No, was the real answer, but the sad thing (maybe it's not?) about our observations was that sometimes we preferred the random findings to the real art.  

Here's a ceramic piece by our friend, Rachel Dawson, ( bad image), which was completely hidden within the many cubby holes of the shelves of the columbarium.  It was kind of like a treasure hunt to find the art, but we had to cheat our way through most of it because we simply couldn't tell where the work was.

Another night, another art show.  Here I am dragged to the Tenderloin again  to Jonathan Runcio's solo exhibition, "Wide Wide Ruin" at a new space, The Popular Workshop.  Much to my delight, the space was lovely, (look at those ceilings!), and his art was great, as always.  Don't tell him I said that.  I don't want him to get a big ego.  

Some how-does-he-make-it? screen-printing on canvas with beautiful colors.

The scene: prints, sculptures, etc

A metal sculpture.  I like it. I mean, geometry is not my number one love, and neither is minimal sculpture, but I think the whole show worked very well together and it's worth checking out just for Jonathan's color combinations.  It's still up but the site doesn't say until when.  I would guess at least til November 1.  

I went on another art adventure with Rachel the other day and had a positively delightful day checking out art, indulging in food, and going shopping.  I'm sad to say I can only afford to do such things once every couple months because now I am broke as a joke again.  But, the SF MoMA is free for me as CCA staff, at least, and that's where we found not only CCA Painting Faculty, John Zurier's, luscious abstract painting in the Contemporary Collections  section, but also his own dessert in the cafe!  "The John Zurier Popsicle"- that's how you know you have arrived.

Outside in the sculpture garden I indulged in a Blue Bottle coffee served in an artisan-crafted Heath Ceramics mug, and the "Wayne Thibaud Layer Cake" frosted to look as delicious as his cake paintings.  Awesome. 

Down the block we stopped into Eli Ridgway Gallery to see recent CCA Curatorial Grad, David Kasprzak's, curatorial venture, "Better a Live Ass Than a Dead Lion".  The show, as far as I could tell without reading the press release, was about place and environments.  I thought it was a successful show, and not too over-hung.  Elisheva Biernoff's hand-painted double-sided postcards and other works were featured predominantly in the downstairs space, and her slide show screening with mist was great, though her heavy-handed environmental message is better off unread.  

Rachel put on the white gloves to check out Biernoff's art book, featuring an idyllic landscape and the various disasters that could befall it painted into the image.  I would have liked it better if all of the disasters happened one after another to create a total anarchic apocalypse, instead of flood, back to normal, fire, back to normal...

A photo negative piece by Richard Misrach, who I can tell from the price list is a big deal.  Check out the show- it will be up til November 5.


That's pretty much how I can wrap up the last two months of art in the Bay Area.  I don't get to everything, and I should be making art and talking about it less, anyway.   See you at the next round of openings.

The Fall Art Season Is Here! (Grab your calendars and protein bars)

Art's Baaacck!  As it always goes, fall school terms starting up again means the Bay Area art world, (along with all your favorite cheesy shows like Gossip Girl, and the wonderful thing called the "Back-to-School" sale), is awakened from it's not-so-warm San Francisco summer nap.  In August I longed for something to see once I was back from vacation, while everyone important, (i.e. collectors), were still off in whatever rich land they frolic during the summer months.  Well, we're all here now, and my job at art school will start getting mighty full and messy and loud with the students back in it, but thankfully, art is back, too.

I don't even know how I would possibly go to all the events coming up, but here is a list of things I would/could/should do, just like I did last year, so we can compare score cards at the end.

Starting Thursday, September 8, the scene comes alive with a ton of stuff to see and do within a 3 hour time frame.  It's First Thursday, which means something sometimes, like when there are shows worth going to in 49 Geary.  (Every First Thursday there is an agreed-upon smattering of openings within the walls of 49 and 77 Geary.  Lately, though, it seems galleries are changing up the opening dates, and the ones who stick to the First Thursday tend to be stuck on old-fashioned art, as well).

Jonathan Wallraven: "Smile to Your Life" 

Kokoro Studio, 682 Geary Street, San Francisco

Opening 7-10 pm through September 29

Jonathan Wallraven, a current CCA MFA grad student, is sure to take sneering, hilarious digs at almost everyone with his large scale line drawings and text.  Ala Raymond Pettibon, Wallraven seems to find the perfect thing you never expected his figures to say.  His drawings always remind me of the high school drones who were doomed to peak at age eighteen, while the rest of us just kept dreaming of life beyond those four years of hell.  It takes a lot to drag me down Geary into the seedy Tenderloin, but this might be one reason to do it.

"Some Paintings, Sculpture, & Drawings" 

Patricia Sweetow Gallery, 77 Geary Street 

Mezzanine level, San Francisco

Opening 5:30-7:30 pm through October 15

Patricia Sweetow often shows some great artists from her roster, and here is a chance to see, well, some paintings, sculpture, and drawings from them.  I'm looking forward to work by glitter queen, Jamie Vasta, haunting (usually photo) work from Suné Woods, and abstract "Afro-Futurism" from CCA Professor, David Huffman.  

Yoon Lee: "Minor Inconveniences" 

Marx and Zavattero, 77 Geary Street 
2nd floor, San Francisco

Opening 5:30-7:30 pm through October 22

I have grown quite fond of Marx and Zavattero, as a gallery and as a couple, so I would probably go to most of their openings in any case.  If you add in a pack of talented artists who bridge craft with a pop aesthetic, you have a pretty solid case to visit their gallery, celebrating its tenth year in business.  Yoon Lee, a Korean-born, SFAI MFA graduate, won the Tournesol Prize at Headlands Center for the Arts, making her resume pretty impressive.  I am unsure whether I am into her work, however.  It brings to mind Chris Finley's swooping, exquisite, digitally manipulated images reproduced in paint so much that I am left wondering whether these works say anything new.  However, the fact that I am unsure about them is the greatest reason to go see them in person.

"Idyll", Wirtz Gallery, 49 Geary Street 
3rd floor, San Francisco

Opening 5:30-7:30 pm through September 30

This group photography show at Wirtz Gallery brings together the best of their well-known photographers, including the late Larry Sultan, as well as Todd Hido and Jim Goldberg, among other talented artists.  

"Media Love: A Group Exhibition", Unspeakable Projects

735 Tehama Street, San Francisco

Opening 6-9 pm through September 29

I don't know much about Unspeakable Projects, other than that I have posted about a few shows in the past I wanted to see there, but never quite made it.  Word has it that the space is one of those gallery-in-the-apartment thingees, but they seem to show work by artists that grab me somehow, including buddies Matt Momchilov and Justin Limoges.  Here's a chance to see those artists plus my good friend, Mark Benson, featured above, as well as Mik Gaspay and AMTK.  The show's press release says, " From obscure sit-com moments to cults of immortality, MEDIA LOVE assembles the artifacts and detritus of a media culture that won’t let go."  That sounds like a recipe for love or hate.

"Residency Projects II", Kala Art Institute

2990 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, 

Opening 6-8 pm through October 15

Whew!  Are you tired yet?  Wait, there's one more opening that would certainly be worth attending!  Kala's print-based institution offers competitive residencies and "Residency Projects II" is a culmination of work from the most recent crop of artists to use their facilities and resources.  Elisheva Biernoff's super flat work, like the image above, sculptor Renee Gertler and photographer Jessica Ingram are all a strong lure to make the trek across the bridge into the East Bay.

THIS WAS JUST DAY ONE, PEOPLE!  Stay tuned for show recommendations for the rest of the week.  And as always, remember to bring comfy shoes, breath mints, and your coolest leather jacket.

CCA Wattis Shows: "Undisclosed Destination" and "Hammarby!"

The other night I was so excited to celebrate my good friend, Rachel Foster's, inclusion in a show at the Wattis Institute for the Arts at CCA.  Wattis shows are generally touted as a big deal in our smallish city, bringing in artists who are well-known and often unseen beyond in museum exhibitions in the Bay Area.  Last semester boasted the "Huckleberry Finn" exhibition curated by Wattis Director Jens Hoffman, (formerly of the London Institute of Contemporary Arts),  with a commissioned installation by Kara Walker and pieces by two of my favorites, Hank Willis Thomas and Yinka Shonibare.  This semester's exhibition on the bottom floor of the Wattis is called 101 Collection: Route 2 Undisclosed Destination and was curated by Sharon Lerner as a "collection show", meaning that annually a local collector's "101 Collection" is curated by different guests.  Rachel happens to be part of the 101 Collection, and was shown along side some pretty fancy names, including John Baldessari and Todd Hido.

Rachel showing the announcement

Any time there is an opening at school there is food and a swarm of students around the food

Elisheva Biernoff's large landscape panel combining park, beach, volcanos, and basically environmental trouble

Elisheva's hand-painted double-sided imagined postcards from lost explorers

Two of Rachel's (hard-to-photograph) prints

Two more prints from Rachel

A stack of John Baldessari

Upside-down tree photo print- artist unknown

Upstairs was a sort of pre-exhibition of Belgian artist, (and one of the "Magnificent Seven artists scheduled to exhibit solo shows at the Wattis), Kris Martin's, show, Hammarby! in which he asked his project class made up of several of my friends to create work to be exhibited in the space which adds up to his own exhibition.  This is what the Wattis says about it:
"Over the course of this semester, Martin is living in San Francisco and serving as a guest faculty member at CCA. He is leading a class of 13 graduate Fine Arts students in creating new works on the subject of time, a universal truth with which all artists—and of course all people—must contend. Graduate school is a period when art students are developing their own practices, their own career paths. And so, Martin finds it appropriate to transform the private space of the classroom into the public space of an art gallery, with the latter's new set of expectations around finished pieces and the status of the working, professional artist. The gallery is divided into 13 autonomous-but-public spaces, one per student, via a grid of red lines. Martin is working in a 14th space, the entire gallery, and has given himself the same task that he has given his students: to devise new works that investigate issues of time and duration."  There will be a closing reception for the exhibition on March 29.

Gold painting by Liam Everett

Installation of theater props by Elizabeth Dorbad

Collages by Bean Gilsdorf

Dramatically lit installation by Mark Benson, video piece in the background by Steph Halmos

Maysha playing around with Christine Elfman's dress piece

Buddies: Steph, Me, Natasha, Marcella, and Maysha

More on the blog about Rachel Foster, Elisheva Biernoff,  Mark Benson, and Elizabeth Dorbad

The Art Season Begins: A Whirlwind Weekend Part 1

San Francisco often collectively decides to flood the Bay Area art community with openings on the same day. This last week, starting with September 9, was exceptional in that the city was packed with openings all weekend long. As September is the traditional start of the art world races, the custom was true to form and not only were there many openings but there were tons of good art to be seen. Welcome back, San Francisco, from your summer vacations and languid lounging!

Elisheva Biernoff, "Folly" at Triple Base through October 10.

I checked out Elisheva Biernoff's solo show at Triple Base with some friends. I forgot my camera so I took photos with my fancy new iphone. I'm still learning, but they came out OK.

Here's the scene inside.

Cute Triple Base ladies, Joyce and Dina, in equally cute dresses.

I tried to get some good shots of Elisheva's installation of a crumbling wall painted in painstaking detail with video set inside a window. However, it was so packed I couldn't get a good picture of the piece as a whole. Her painting style, mostly in goache or acrylic, was so immaculate in pattern symmetry and consistency it almost resembled a laminated wallpaper.

Elisheva also paints postcards front and back, depicting traveler narratives, which were set up in the back room.

Some wallpaper-like patterns.

There was also fake "debris" made from paper and painted objects on the floor to go with her beautiful atrophied theme.

I ran into some of my fave art buds, Justin Olerud and Kara Joslyn.

Ruth Laskey at Ratio 3 through October 23

We also saw Ruth Laskey's amazing hand-dyed weavings at Ratio 3. What a craftswoman! I asked Ruth about her process and it takes her almost a month to complete one piece. I love her use of geometry in such an unexpected, homespun way. Her color palettes are quite exceptional, too.

The scene at Ratio 3.

See how amazing they are?