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.

Two Mission Openings: Southern Exposure and Triple Base Gallery

 I am a little behind in posting these two shows I saw in December, with the end of the semester and Christmas taking a big bite out of my time.  Both are shows already through, but here are some pictures!

Southern Exposure's annual juried exhibition, "Boom", was chalk full of recent or current CCA grads and buddies.  Congrats to the participants; I was told over 700 people applied for the show, leaving only a seven percent chance of getting in!

 The scene at Southern Exposure

 Hilary Pecis and a Boom-themed explosion digital collage 

 Noah Krell's video piece in which he convinces a girl to drag him up a steep hill

Mark Benson and his sculptural piece, "Oversight (Undershirts)" (you can't see the red sock from here)

Carlos Ramirez's ceramic sculpture based on Mario Brothers' game pieces

Lindsey Lyons and her linen painting of floor detritus

Some of the artists/intellectuals:  Noah Krell, Julie Henson, Mark Benson, and bud Mark Taylor

Next up was the annual Holiday party and Flat File show, "Out of the Flat Files", at Triple Base Gallery.  I was part of the show, too, but I didn't take a photo...

The scene at Triple Base, with an extra wall for even more viewing at the event

This guy is amazing!  Edmund Wyss only does machinery- mostly cameras.  This is a photo realistic gouache painting

Gallery Co-Director, Dina Pugh, in the back room with Christmas goodies made from scratch

A Rachel Kaye drawing wall

Rachel Foster's tricky screenprint

Bryson Gill and Jay Nelson

I found some favorite girls outside.

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?