CCA in the Hallway

One of the things I do at work at an art school is hang a weekly show of student artwork from different painting classes in the nave of the building.  It's just a hallway, but it gets a lot of traffic so it can be exciting to open up what's going on in the Painting Department to the rest of the school.  What has been surprising to a lot of people is the quality of the student work.  I happened to take some pictures of the mostly graduate work from an interdisciplinary summer studio class in New York led by Jovi Schnell and I thought they were great pieces to post.  The hallway doesn't do them the justice a gallery wall would, but you get the idea.

Paitning by Rebekah Goldstein

Some awesome figures by Bruna Massadas 

An embroidered and beaded sculpture by Max Esplin and a small painting by Jake Ziemann

Little black paper box/paintings by undergrad Meg Kenny and a smart abstract "painting" by Melissa Dickenson which is made up of wrapped clear plastic over stretcher bars to create the illusion of an a painted surface.

Open Studios 2011 Part II

As I mentioned below, CCA recently opened all of its graduate doors for Open Studios this weekend.  I got the chance to snap some photos of many of my awesome friends and their work in between manning my own post.  Here is round two of my quick photos from the day.  

* Please note that we stored most of our furniture and old projects in a classroom prior to the event and were told by the powers that be that we had to move everything back as soon as the Open Studios were over before we could partake in any BBQ celebrations afterward.  This means that in some cases I didn't have a chance to document studios before we moved our things back, and there is a possibility that some studios are not presented in their intended state.

Natasha Wheat outside her studio with curious onlooker inside.  There was a neon palette sculpture, fabricated commodities, and framed prints on silk of Panamanian laborers spraying chemicals to grow the exported agriculture South American countries supply to the United States.

Natasha used an extra atrium space to expand her vision into this installation as well, featuring similar objects and concept, complete with cans of dulche de leche and these palette lounging chairs and Cabana boys, Jim and Sam.

Noah Krell's multi-channel video room of several projects with performance aspects.  I thought the way they were displayed was great, even though it is hard to see the images in photos.

Jake Ziemann is a painter who surprised me with this home on the frontier installation.

Jonathan Runcio's geometric sculptures.

Jonathan Runcio collage and spray paint wall pieces.

Victoria DeBlassie's stitched orange peel architectural structure.

Elizabeth Dorbad's ongoing installation project of a disaster-swept carnival.

There was a curiosity entrapment down the hall from me as people walked up a ladder to peer over Mark Benson's studio wall to discover...

Puppies!  (image taken from Mark's website)

Also a quick reenactment of last year's darling photo of the engaged couple, Mark and Michelle, during Open Studios in my studio.  Here they are one year later, and married.

And this is them before they knew any better.

Here is what my studio looked like.

Maysha Mohamedi and Sarah Hotchkiss created a VIP lounge area in an extra space of their studio building.

Stuff on Manyee Lam's shelf- I love that feather headdress thing!

Manyee's hard-to-photograph string installation.

Stay tuned for Open Studios Part III!

Group Show: Winter Group Exhibition at Mark Wolfe Contemporary

Winter Group Exhibition at Mark Wolfe Contemporary, San Francisco (until January 28) 

curated by Ryan Martin

My friend, Marissa, and I went downtown to check out the new show at Mark Wolfe Contemporary, featuring our friends at CCA and curated by Ryan Martin, who I know from my days as an undergrad.  Before we even arrived at the gallery, we had a fun time frolicking around in the financial district of San Francisco, which is a little farther away from our usual haunts.  It was cool to check out some nooks and crannies of the city where the buildings seem so close together they form secret passages.  We also found some ridiculous sculptures outside a unmarked corporate building, and as we jumped around taking pictures we heard a booming security voice in a loudspeaker call out, "Please do not touch the sculptures".  Geez, killjoys.

Here we are at Mark Wolfe.  That blurry figure is curator Ryan Martin.

Bronze cast sculpture by Elizabeth Dorbad

 Paintings by Jake Ziemann

 Painting by Jennine Scarboro

 Painting by undergraduate Jane Kim

One more by Jake Ziemann

Congrats to everyone in the show!