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

I admit it: I failed at keeping up my blog for the last few months.  It was partly due to my recent introduction to the full-time working week, and also due to my second job teaching art.  It's been exhausting just to get up, let alone make a blog.   Does anyone read it?  I dunno.  I make it because I like pretending I have an audience as enthusiastic about art, travel, and beauty as I am, yet just as caustic and been-there, done-that as I feel most of the time.  That's just the way it goes living in the Bay Area's art-filled city.  Even if you wanted to be optimistic and appreciative of the sheer amount of art that is out there, it's overwhelming in scope and mostly underwhelming in quality.  Maybe that's the school mid-semester blues talking, though... ugh, I digress.

Anyway, I have been taking a lot of pictures out in the world while I am looking at art and forming my  opinions of it.  I figured I might as well share all of it here after I have been out in the field taking it in.  I do also have to mention that I have been rather lazy about holding the iphone straight or waiting for the focus to kick in, so my quality of images leaves much to be desired.  I promise if you stick with me, I'll make a better effort towards better documentation.

Here's what I have seen, whirlwind style, over the past six or seven weeks.

My good friend, Courtney Johnson, bless her heart, volunteered this summer at Southern Exposure for their Mission Voices kids' art program.  They had a culminating art reception featuring work like this cardboard geodesic dome, and the night was capped with a flash mob dance scene that I wanted to hate but totally loved.

CCA had a number of summer art classes for middle school kids  including a class on building dioramas.  Their classroom was a disaster zone that I was glad to not be responsible for, but their reception for the work had amazing little pieces of art I ended up preferring to a lot of the adult work I've seen in these past weeks.

I didn't get a shot of the actual show in the adjoining room, but here's the scene at Andrew Schoultz's private reception for his new exhibition at the SF MoMA featuring his work in conversation with the MoMA's collection of Paul Klee prints and paintings.  The show will be up til January.  It's the biggest thing I've seen from someone I know!

"Jesus, take the wheel!" is all I can say in response to this show I saw at The Lab last month centered around performance.  I hate performance, and when you throw in Bay Area concepts, it almost always turns into a personal/political mess of exhibitionists and an uncomfortable audience who just holds their breath out of politeness until the thing is over.  This piece involves a bunch of dancers and a bunch of chairs, and some super creepy porno music with a voice-over recording telling the dancers what to do next.

I went to Unspeakable Projects for a show about pop culture which featured a ton of people from CCA so the reception doubled as a reunion of sorts for all of us recent grads.  I had never been to this space, which is the bottom floor of a home which is located in an alley.  While it feels strange trying to get there, once inside I thought it was curated and hung nicely and I generally was pretty impressed.  

I took this picture with the intention of writing a quip about how the world of art is so "arty" that even this is a piece to be considered, and sold.  Then I found out it was by my friend, Mark Benson, who also arranged the stantion installation above.  Well, what can I say?  I get it.  Objects can be reappropriated to mean something else, and I value that.  But still, Duchamp-ian art can look pretty funny and/or indicative of the pretentiousness of the art world.

Later that same crazy opening night I was driven over to the tenderloin to check out Jonathan Wallraven's solo show at Kokoro.  While an art space can do very little about the conditions of the neighborhood outside, the simple choice of a space's location can have a big impact on the view inside the gallery.  It took so long to find parking on the streets shared by sleazy clubs and sidewalks crowded with crackheads, that by the time we entered the calm respite of the gallery, my agitation was irreversible.  Jonathan's strange semi-3D cubes of stretched out drawings were interesting but not quite enough for me.

I went to what is now called "Eli Ridgway Gallery" instead of Baer Ridgway Exhibitions, to see their first big opening of the season, a solo show by Brion Nuda Rosch.  The large, two-level space was filled with really similar pieces.  Photocopies of nature with plops of paint on them seemed to say very little, and the same brown, black, and white palette repeated throughout was boring.  There were two-sided pieces on pedestals, but I was distracted by the little white brackets holding them in place, which appeared unconsidered.

Outside of Eli Ridgway and Catherine Clark

This is a terrible image, but you get the idea.  Julie Heffernan's solo exhibition at Catherine Clark was full of saccharine, pastel palettes and rendered figures which offered nothing other than her love for beauty and the old masters.  The whole show was sort of eh, despite the craftsmanship which went into the pieces.

Matt Borruso at Steven Wolf Fine Arts was thoughtful, consistent, and detailed.  The show was made up of three parts; a nicely hung group of weird, tripped-out dude collages, his signature, well-executed pencil drawings made up of collaged creepy heads, and a venture into film, (a split screen showing a sci-fi movie on the left and the movie about Helen Keller on the right, where cosmically the two meet up and show the same scenario of a person "seeing" for the first time).  I loved the hilarity of the movies side by side, but if I did not already like Matt as a person and an artist, I probably wouldn't have invested enough time in the film to get to the punch line.  Of course, since I make detailed pencil drawings too, I favor his drawings over the collages, but all in all, I was impressed by his carefully considered show.

The inside of Steven Wolf

Stoner gore drawing by Matt Borruso

Across the street from Steven Wolf is Guerrero Gallery, where Alex Lucas was exhibiting a large solo exhibition in Guerrero's beautiful space.  The show was full of related works which at first are photo realistic watercolors, but up close are screen prints of cityscapes which have been worked into with paint.  Does that matter?  No, I guess not- I would assume the artist still spends a long time with each one, adding layers of detail, which in itself doesn't matter either, but labor is almost always impressive.  What left me with more eh feeling was the simplicity of the message in the work.  The cityscapes, which have been left to rot or drown in water say to me, "Man has done bad things to the earth.  Let's all imagine an apocalypse that man deserves".  Yawn.  That skater mentality of FTW isn't anything other than played out this far into the post punk years.  I hope we find new messages to be edgy these days.


  Part II coming soon!

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 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.

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!