Art from Forever Ago

Anything goes...
I went to some San Francisco art shows before Christmas and never posted them.  Hopefully you might be curious about some great local art anyways, especially if you're like me and want to go see a bunch of shows and but never make it to most of them.  At least we can always live vicariously through the internet. Looking back, this round of art offerings seemed especially diverse, pointing to the general truth about art in today's scene:  anything goes, and it's all good...or kind of good...most of the time.  I personally find it so refreshing that I could be making so many different kinds of paintings, and no one would bat an eye.  We have come to accept anything from glitter art to gestural abstraction on a fairly level playing field, and I love it.

Joel Dean and Jason Benson, "La Folie", and Bryson Gill, "The Optimist Gene", Triple Base Gallery 

Dec. 2- Jan. 1

Well, like I said, anything is art these days.  These pieces nailed onto other pieces and sculptural paintings as paintings/as sculpture(?) by the collaborative team of Joel and Jason in the Triple Base back room seemed almost too smart to care about what they were made of.

I like that they are different, yet I feel I've seen them before.  And like I said above, it's as if there wasn't any love put into them.

Socks as painting.

Not really into the marks made.

Bryson Gill's solo show in the front room, full of rich oil paintings and sunlight, seemed the remedy to the anti-paintings in in the back.  It was obvious that Bryson painstakingly crafted each painting lovingly, as he considered the composition and color of these paintings that were part still life and part abstraction.

That red just glows.

Paul Mullins, "For Here or To Go", Marx and Zavattero

Oct. 29- Dec. 17

Paul Mullins' large scale paintings of collaged dude imagery were nice to see in person- some art just doesn't photograph the same.  His combination of light pastel colors and KISS and dogs and tattoos was well-executed but not completely my cup of tea.  They left me wanting something more, though I'm not sure I can put my finger on it.  I just wondered through the exhibition, why these particular images?  What is he trying to say?

A close-up of the tiny painted un-collage parts.

Darren Waterston, "Forest Eater", and Leslie Shows, "Split Array" Haines Gallery

Nov. 3- Dec. 24

Well, I don't know what it is, but I kind of like this Waterston sculpture.  Maybe because it's black and matte.  I would probably like anything with black and matte.

I kind of like these Waterston paintings but he had a tough crowd because....Leslie Shows' show in the next room was so AMAZING!

Leslie Shows has been culling her experimental techniques in water media and collage for years and made an unexpected but impressive shift to paint on aluminum.  It surely left the audience wondering, how the hell did she do that?  (Notice the yellow sculptures on the floor- those are molds of objects created with sulfur.  I didn't think they went well with the rest of the show).

What was most impressive to me besides their obvious beauty and my obvious obsession with beauty,  was their seeming photorealism in their depictions of glaciers and rocks. 

A close-up of many many combined mediums to create exquisite and mysterious techniques.

I was a fan before, and I'm still a fan.

December Group Show, Guerrero Gallery

 Dec. 17- Jan. 7

Guerrero Gallery hosted a group show full of a random assortment of known and unknown talent,  but most notably featured a new sculpture by Libby Black.  Her piece, a paper sculpture of a Goyard violin on top of a milk crate with coins inside, brought a sharper political edge to her normally playful pieces.

A quilt by Ben Venom, made out of metal band T shirts.   Venom was recently featured in the last Bay Area Now show at the YBCA.  I have yet to decide whether I am sold on these quilts as much more than a cute craft.   

A piece by Richard Colman, which I didn't realize until now is grip tape on something called 'bonite'.   I kind of like it more for this, but it makes it something much more high/low than a boy making a glitter painting.  I don't know what that means, really, but it's interesting.

Paul Wackers makes nice paintings.

Dude art of alien sex.  Typical.  (By David Jien)

A gold flag by Andrew Schoultz, who recently had a very good December in Miami at the fairs with similar gold prints.  Even Diddy, or whatever he's called now, wanted one.

Nice job, San Francisco.

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.

Life on a Budget: Art shows, berry foraging, and taking in the view

Long-lost Blog,
I'm back from Eastern Europe and I have plenty to show and tell you!  While I have many pics to post of my Bosnian adventure, sandwiching my travels were weeks of stagnant unemployment that I would like to post, too.  The good news is that I secured a job at CCA starting last week, but the months of zero income over the summer have made for lazy but creative attempts at a culture-filled existence.

Recently I made several discoveries about what truly makes me American.  Some of the most obvious of my inherited philosophies were my prescribed entitlement and my constant, unnecessary purchasing.  Hitting the brakes on my student loans, I truly had never thought much about my spending habits.  Money is the last thing you want to be worried about while you are trying to gain ultimate mastery of your art practice.  However, that way of thinking, I discovered, (or, rather, came to terms with), is problematic in itself, and quite pretentious.  Graduate school is two years of being selfishly unaware of the problems lying just outside in the real world.  I was purposely ignorant of how my artist's lifestyle had to change in order to eat.

To trim the fat, I discovered that there are several things to do with one's time that require little-to-no money.  First up: gallery openings!  Free admission and the added bonus of refreshments make this a no-brainer, and also an important part of my artist's "job".  How else to quell boredom?  Exploring my habitat on foot for free or taking drives for a little gas money are pretty good options, too.  Thirdly, socializing often comes with spending money, but "just looking" shopping is one sad option, and kind friends' pity coffees, beers, and hamburgers are another.

Here are a bunch of ways I managed to overcome my insatiable American habits and still entertain myself.

Before I left for Bosnia, I spent a completely lovely and totally free day looking at galleries.  I saw Stephanie Syjuco's solo show, "Raiders", at Catherine Clark, which consisted of digitally downloaded and printed facades of priceless Asian  art from the entire collection of an unnamed Asian art museum.  The result was beautiful, jarring, and hilarious.

Also at Catherine Clark were some industrially fabricated street signs with antagonistic slogans by Anthony Discenza.

Next door I checked out the show by Castaneda/Reiman at Baer Ridgway, whose installations were part construction, part landscape, and possibly too conceptual for me to willingly understand.

I also discovered a sweet bonus of my recent graduation:  my student ID card still granted me free access to the SF MoMA, where I perused the roof-top sculpture garden and paid for my Blue Bottle coffee with coins in my pocket from my change jar.

On another day I took a trip up to Oakland's Tilden Park, where I enjoyed another perk of recent graduation: everyone else was still at work or school while I explored Lake Anza and some trails I had never been on.

One day my friend, Natasha, and I took our restless legs up to Stinson Beach, where the sun was promising but the wind was like being inside some sort of sand tunnel.  We had fun anyway, but our snacks were pretty gritty.  Later we stopped in Sausalito where local artisan ceramics are beautifully crafted and sold at Heath Ceramics.

On another art adventure, some friends and I went to Ratio 3 to catch Mission School artist, Margaret Kilgallen's, posthumous exhibition, "Summer/Selections."  It should have been titled,  "They Raided My Sketchbooks and Remnants."  While her linework is superior and I love to see any female artist in a predominantly male circle like the SF Mission School, the work was hung badly with visible screws and cheap frames, and altogether not flattering to the artist's memory.

Work by Margaret Kilgallen

I stopped by the vintage store, La Rosa, on Haight Street with a friend who is a regular there.  The store was quite entertaining to peruse, but the prices are insanely expensive.  While I found some great treasures like a woven karate robe and several Nudie-esque western jackets, the triple digit price tags coupled with the pain of walking down super-gross Haight Street made it a once-a-year sort of place for me.

Lucky for me, many of my friends are also neighbors, and we had a relaxing summer BBQ  potluck, providing a long-needed CCA reunion as well as good food for cheap $.  Imagine the luck of me bringing a peach and apple crisp and Julie bringing homemade brown sugar ice cream!

My friend, Rachel, and I explored our Oakland neighborhood as two poor ladies on the prowl for blackberry bushes in the nearby rose garden.

I tried one more trip to Stinson Beach solo, where the weather said 75 and it was more like 60.  Still, the sound of waves crashing and the soft sand beneath your feet are a necessity for the occasional regrouping.

I made it to the opening of Marx and Zavattero's current 10th anniversary show, "Sea Change Part II", the day after I came back from Europe.  Several favorite artists were on view from their roster, including Libby Black and Taravat Talepasand.

A little painting by Libby Black in the back room

A Taravat Talepasand drawing with some unexpected color

A very clean Patrick Wilson painting

In the back room- Libby Black, her partner Jen, and their son, Jasper, who took me out for burgers afterwards.  Yes!

What else is free?  Oh yeah, making art, as long as I have supplies already.  Duh!