- Maxwell's Megarealms
- Published: Nov 18, 2009
Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch wants you to see his studio. But since it's weird to invite strangers into one's personal space, he has set up a condensed version of it inside Fecal Face Dot Gallery and called it Megarealms.
- IN YOUR FACE: Contemporary Brazilian Art at YBCA
- Published: Nov 12, 2009
The tables have turned: instead of telling you what we think about art shows, we're hitting the streets to find out what the beautiful people think. This month, we headed to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to revel in the Brazilian spirit of their latest exhibition, When Lives Become Form.
- Sew Rad: Steve MacDonald at Gallery Three
- Published: Oct 26, 2009
Imagine cranking out dynamic thread drawings of shark jaws, Campbell's soup cans and brass knuckles on a vintage sewing machine. The fact that Steve MacDonald can do such things has blown my mind for years.
- IN YOUR FACE: SoEx is Here (And Staying Put)
- Published: Oct 21, 2009
We headed to Southern Exposure to help celebrate their new space, their thirty-five-year anniversary, and their inaugural exhibition, Bellwether.
- Mama Don't Go: Candice Breitz at SFMOMA
- Published: Oct 15, 2009
Candice Breitz preys on the collective memories of popular culture, using familiar characters to create her video mash-ups, two of which are now on view at SFMOMA.
- Hot and Cold: The End Is Here
- Published: Sep 28, 2009
If any zine were to be part of a museum's collection, it would be this one. And it is. Three inches thick, it's a double-sided cornucopia spilling over with prints, stickers, music, secret treasure maps, and magic horseshoes!
- IN YOUR FACE: Beautiful Dirty Dirty Rich
- Published: Sep 15, 2009
The tables have turned: instead of telling you what we think about art shows, we're heading out to gallery openings to get In Your Face and find out what the beautiful people think. We headed to Marx and Zavattero to find out what all this David Hevel monkey business was about.
- D Tour
- Published: Sep 14, 2009
If nothing else, Rogue Wave's story will make you think more deeply about that little sticker on your driver's license that dictates whether you'll save others' lives if you lose yours. If you don't have that sticker, please get it today.
- Future Colors Don't Run
- Published: Sep 06, 2009
What happened to pen pals? Emailing doesn't hold a candle to the tactile feeling and wonderful anticipation of handmade, postal service-enabled correspondence. Perhaps the decline of pen pal culture was the motivation behind Albert Reyes, Aiyana Udesen, and Matt Furie's current show, Future Colors of America.
- Guest of Cindy Sherman: Q&A with Paul H-O
- Published: Aug 06, 2009
After seeing Guest of Cindy Sherman at the Roxie, I went home and wrote, "Terrific movie that proves most men are big babies."
- IN YOUR FACE: Annual Biennial Opening
- Published: Aug 04, 2009
The tables have turned: instead of telling you what we think about art shows, we're heading out to gallery openings to get In Your Face and find out what the beautiful people think. We headed to Michael Rosenthal Gallery to find out what exactly is an Annual Biennial.
- John Baldessari Will Not Make Any More Boring Art
- Published: Aug 03, 2009
In 1971, conceptual artist John Baldessari was asked to exhibit his work at an art school in Nova Scotia. He sent a piece of paper printed with the words, "I will not make any more boring art," and instructed the school to recruit students to write the sentence repeatedly all over the gallery walls, "like punishment."
- Séraphine
- Published: Jul 17, 2009
Séraphine is a studied, quiet film, and although not a documentary, it satisfied my desire for a documentary-style portrait of the artist.
- Herb & Dorothy
- Published: Jun 19, 2009
Imagine amassing one of the most important collections of contemporary art on a postal worker's salary. You are Dorothy and Herb Vogel, and your passion for art is "equal to the passion that artists have for art." You are obsessed.
- Paul Madonna Steals Honey
- Published: Jun 04, 2009
The Bell Jar Shop is the newest curio store in the Mission. Their modest gallery marked with a saloon-style sign in the back of the shop was the perfect location for an intimate showing of Paul Madonna's tiny 5 x 5 inch drawings of Things Your Grandmother Taught you to Steal to Survive a Depression.
- Sarah Applebaum is Soft Core
- Published: Jun 02, 2009
Emmanuel and I snuck out of the office early last Friday to visit Sarah Applebaum as she put the finishing touches on Soft Core, her new show at Receiver Gallery.
- Epic Saturday: 18 Reasons' Hare & Hounds
- Published: May 14, 2009
For their annual Hare & Hounds event, 18 Reason Gallery invited artists to create maps that lead to an original artwork hidden somewhere in the Mission.
- Ode to Cheap Trick
- Published: Apr 26, 2009
Gold chains, fat laces, and glitter make cameo appearances in I Want You to Want Me, music and fashion-inspired group show featuring artists with rock star status.
- Artist Hands Out Free Money: Porous Walker's Me vs. Me
- Published: Apr 14, 2009
On the far side of a large installation of drawings and miscellany on wood, a father and son are painted directly on the wall. The boy asks, "Hey Dad, is that art?" and the father replies, "Heck no son, that's your inheritance melting away."
- William Kentridge, This is Your Year
- Published: Apr 04, 2009
Last year, I sat on the floor of an L.A. museum for an hour watching one of William Kentridge's films projected on a blackboard. I watched it over and over, trying to soak it up completely. Who knew when I'd see another one?
- Art Shacks
- Published: Mar 13, 2009
A friend recently compared my apartment to her grade school notebook covered in stickers because my walls are plastered with colorful things I've made. The stuff is just stored there, looking at me, constantly nagging me to find it another home. But for some artists, the homes they occupy become works of art themselves, with no suggestion of a need for a removal.
- Boys' Club
- Published: Feb 24, 2009
When I missed a show of Matt Furie's color drawings last year, I bought one of his 'zines to try and make up for it. His images looks like Sesame Street characters gone awry, a favorite being a blue Grover-type character with multi-colored intestines pouring out of his split gut like a rainbow.
- Ridiculous Things
- Published: Jan 20, 2009
No art world celebrity is safe from the comical jabs delivered by Laura Paperina in her new exhibit at LincArt, Ridiculous Things.
- Year in (Art) Review
- Published: Dec 30, 2008
2008 is about to be auld lang syne, and it was a stellar year for my art viewing pleasure.
- L.A. Paint
- Published: Dec 10, 2008
In a recent interview, Oakland Museum curator Philip Linhares kindly explains why New York may, for the first time ever, be defending its "Heavyweight Champion of the Art World" title.
- Have You Seen This Art?
- Published: Nov 24, 2008
Someone's been stealing art off the walls of San Francisco galleries during business hours with people around and security cameras rolling.
- Awful Mountain
- Published: Nov 13, 2008
Close your eyes and picture something delicately subversive, femininely masculine, perplexing and just plain sweet.
- Crown Point Press: Magical Printmaking
- Published: Nov 03, 2008
Before perusing the latest edition of Crown Point Press's Magical Secrets series of books on printmaking, I stopped by their gallery to check out the latest group exhibition, Invention/Tradition to see if I could detect whether or not "spit bite" actually involves spitting and biting. It doesn't.
- Q & A with Kevin B. Chen from Intersection for the Arts
- Published: Oct 26, 2008
Last summer I visited Intersection for the Arts to see an installation by artists Weston Teruya and Michele Carlson that resembled a chaotic classroom. While discussing the project with curator Kevin B. Chen, I learned that he was nearing his ten-year anniversary at the organization, so I asked Kevin some questions to learn more about his contributions to our local arts community.
- The Young Jerks
- Published: Sep 27, 2008
I decided to let The Young Jerks speak for themselves in this audio slideshow, which can best be summed up in the epic lyrics of Rod Stewart: "Young hearts, be free tonight. Time is on your side."
- Beautiful Losers
- Published: Sep 05, 2008
I'm hesitant to tell you anything about Beautiful Losers because I'd prefer that you just go see it. However, I feel it's my duty to encourage you to flake on your Friday night plans so you can see this film as soon as possible.
- Eureka!
- Published: Aug 25, 2008
When I was a just a wee seventh-grader, I moved to California from a flatter, less-exciting part of the country.
- Chihuly at the de Young
- Published: Jul 31, 2008
In the darkened exhibition galleries deep within the de Young Museum, Dale Chihuly has installed an enchanted candy forest. If you like color and candy, the art might make you salivate.
- A Complicated Dominion
- Published: Jul 12, 2008
Animals are arguably easier to draw than humans but perhaps they become the subject of artists because they allow for a more subtle communication of complex topics. "A Complicated Dominion" is a group exhibition featuring five artists who use animals to tell a human history without ever depicting any of us habitat-destroying jerks.
- Greater New York, Part 2
- Published: Jun 24, 2008
While in New York, I was lucky enough to catch the last night of the
Whitney Biennial. The unlucky part was seeing the exhibit and parts of the collection at an undesirably fast pace just before it closed.
- Greater New York, Part 1
- Published: Jun 23, 2008
I've just returned from New York five pounds lighter, with blisters on every toe and no money. My legs are aching but I couldn't be happier.
- Mental and Material Realms
- Published: Jun 02, 2008
It's kind of like a Martian art gallery. Unidentifiable creatures and unusual forms represent the Mental and Material Realms of two local artists -- Mars-1 and David Choong Lee --
in their current show at Bucheon Gallery in Hayes Valley.
- Fecal Face Dot Gallery
- Published: May 25, 2008
It started as a 'zine -- a handmade book of photocopied art and words assembled by John Trippe, now owner/founder/director/curator of the quizzically named arty Web site Fecal Face Dot Com. Trippe amassed thousands of counterculture art-loving followers through the site, creating enough momentum to open a small gallery in Hayes Valley. Scoff at the name all you want, Fecal Face Dot Gallery is the newest local spot for art that appeals to snot-nosed kids and grown-up art snobs alike. It's got a gross name, but it can be a family place.
- Women in the City
- Published: May 03, 2008
"Alienation produces eccentrics or revolutionaries," announced Jenny Holzer on an old marquis in Hollywood. "Please stop texting," begged Barbara Kruger from an LED screen on the side of an art museum.
- Be Cool, BCAM
- Published: Apr 14, 2008
Never before have I lost my cool in an art museum. Never have I shrieked, paced, or had to step outside for air while viewing an exhibit. Then I went the Broad Contemporary Art Museum in Los Angeles. It all started with a gang of Jeff Koons sculptures...
- SF Ballet: Courtney Elizabeth Q & A
- Published: Apr 07, 2008
Ballerinas are a mysterious breed of dancer. They have unusually fit and slender bodies, hair pulled back so tight it looks painful, and more grace than a pond full of swans. I dressed up as a ballerina for Halloween a couple of years ago. I wore a shiny black leotard with a turquoise ribbon laced up the front and a black tutu, and I thoroughly enjoyed pretending to be a fabulous sugar plum fairy for the evening. While some little girls (and grown-up girls) dream of becoming professional ballerinas, it is only for a select few that the dream becomes reality. I recently had the opportunity to interview Courtney Elizabeth, corps member of the San Francisco Ballet, in honor of the ballet's 75th anniversary.
- The Art and Flair of Mary Blair
- Published: Mar 17, 2008
Mary Blair left the world thirty years ago, but her artful illustrations have characterized generations of childhood memories. She was one of Walt Disney's favorite artists and was among a group who accompanied him on a post-WWII, government funded tour of Central and South America in 1941.
- Zhan Wang: On Gold Mountain
- Published: Mar 03, 2008
Most Chinese translations of American city names are phonetic. The Chinese word for New York sounds very similar to the American way of saying "New York." San Francisco, however, is unique. In Mandarin, it is called Jiu Jin Shan, or Old Gold Mountain, in reference to the gold rush.
- Is it a Fiber Show?
- Published: Jan 29, 2008
As a satellite venue for the New West Coast Design exhibition, Bucheon gallery breaks its mold this month with a soft-sided show of fibrous artworks produced by some very talented left coasters. The exhibition's title cleverly poses the question, Is it a Fiber Show? but doesn't provide a clear answer. It might be a fiber show, but it's also a sculpture show and a steel-wool-and-feathers show. It's an animal show, a ceramic underpants show, a design show, and a fleece cactus show. The show is whatever you want it to be.
- Mel Kadel Q&A
- Published: Jan 26, 2008
I fell for Mel Kadel's drawings the instant I saw them. She uses pen and ink on discolored papers, creating contemplative, dream-like scenes with her mostly female characters. There are often twists and piles of patterned layers in the images, drawn meticulously with a subtle, warm palette. Kadel's style is consistent and distinctive, making each piece feel familiar. Several of her drawings are on view in Beautiful Moment, this month's group show at the Shooting Gallery. The excitement of seeing Kadel's work in person for the first time inspired me to ask her for a little interview:
- All-Star Hustlaz
- Published: Dec 20, 2007
My dictionary's first entry for the term "hustler" is an enterprising person determined to succeed. White Walls Gallery's current show, All-Star Hustlaz, features a smattering of artists who bust their collective ass but have not yet received the recognition they deserve. It's a sampling of work by genuine hustlers on the treacherous road to artistic success.
- Off the Point
- Published: Dec 18, 2007
The Hayes Valley Market is a gigantic, temporary gallery. It'll soon be reduced to a pile of rubble but, for now, it's an enormous art space that's difficult to contend with. As an individual artist, you'd be overwhelmed by the space, unless you happen to have several elephant-sized sculptures or an installation the size of a football field in the works. This is why most of the shows in the Market have been group shows like this month's Off the Point, the first annual Holiday Show featuring artists with studios in the Hunter's Point Shipyard.
- Frankenart Mart
- Published: Dec 08, 2007
Would you like to hold hands for two minutes? Need to exchange your lucky penny? Want some magic beans? How about lounging in a pit of stuffed animals? Do you like cats? Hot dogs? Secret candy drawers? If these questions don't mildly intrigue you, you need to loosen up and open your mind to un-fancy art. Spend some time at Frankenart Mart, an all-inclusive art store/gallery/lab in the Inner Richmond that invites participation and a little imagination. And maybe some rumination. (I like rhyming.)
- Biome
- Published: Nov 10, 2007
Art is plastic garbage from the beach scattered on a gallery floor. Art is also a forest of stuffed fabric trees and a drawing of Bigfoot tacked to the wall. After a recent lecture at a local university, gallerist Charles Linder invited the audience back to Lincart, his homey, Market Street art space for an opening reception, which featured the aforementioned art and more unconventionally pleasant surprises.
- Sweet Sunny Temper
- Published: Oct 30, 2007
"Think about stockings, graffiti chicks, origami, crumpled stationary, scented tissues, lip gloss and sweet scented girl rooms..." and you've got Sweet Sunny Temper, a new exhibit in the upstairs gallery of Double Punch, a delicious toy store in North Beach. Painted with a pale pink border of kissing whales, like the decor one might find in a little girl's fancy bedroom, the gallery is designed to bring on a nearly visceral girly feeling. The work of five Bay Area female artists will inevitably be described as "cute," but there are a few subversive edges and conniving winks tucked into the pervasive adorability.
- Alex and Oscar: Flawless Victory
- Published: Oct 23, 2007
Galleries rarely invite interns to exhibit artwork, which is why the fundamental concept of the current exhibit at Hamburger Eyes Photo Epicenter is, in itself, a Flawless Victory. Artists Oscar Mendoza and Alexander Martinez are roommates and Burgerworld Media interns who have been working with the concept of flawless victories. Beyond referencing a popular video game, the artists attribute the term to people or moments (or people having moments) that are perfect in their own way. Mendoza put it best when discussing his personally familiar photo subjects, "If there is someone important to you, they will always seem flawless."
- Olafur Eliasson: Take your time
- Published: Oct 12, 2007
Room for one colour is a space flooded with a warm, uneasy yellow light. Model room is a studio filled with crooked white shelves packed with geometric forms -- wire sculptures, cardboard maquettes, and mirrored illusions. 360° room for all colours is a large circular wall that envelops viewers as its color-changing mood light gradually fades through the color spectrum -- blue creeping into red, then fading to green with seemingly no pattern at all. At the end of a dark, ruddy tunnel, lined with Soil quasi bricks, is Notion motion, an illuminated screen projected with water ripples that shift with the movement in the room. Loud creaks are emitted from wooden floorboards, a few of which are spring-loaded and surprisingly loud juxtaposed with the strangled silence of Beauty -- another room near the tunnel. Blindingly dark, the room features a fine mist raining down from the center, lit only by a very dim lamp. Like a child running through a forbidden sprinkler, you are invited to walk through the misty curtain and watch as others walk under it and disappear into the darkness. This is Olafur Eliasson's new exhibit at SFMOMA, and this is only the beginning.
- Pacific Light
- Published: Oct 08, 2007
When you think of watercolor, what comes to mind? For me, it's pastel landscapes. But after ten years of research, curator Mark Johnson and collaborators from San Francisco State University have organized an unusual watercolor exhibit that incorporates video art, urban art, and controversial, mind-bending art. There are several world-famous California artists represented in the show including Wayne Thiebaud, Barry McGee, Ruth Asawa, Nathan Oliveira, Robert Bechtle, David Hockney, and Li Huayi.
- Thread
- Published: Jul 31, 2007
Thread is among the most important materials in the universe. Chances are, unless you're a nudist, thread is touching you right now. It holds our clothing together, makes our bed sheets soft, heals wounds, binds furniture coverings and car upholstery, and makes our window shades go up and down. It is likely that not a day goes by that thread doesn't touch your life, and in the second show at her new Oakland gallery, curator Kim Johansson chose it as the medium of focus. Eight divergent artists are represented in the group show entitled Thread, and are unified by a common medium.
- Anthony Lister: Cracker Got Snapped by the Pops
- Published: Jul 17, 2007
Anthony Lister hails from the lovely city of Brisbane, Australia, and recently relocated to Brooklyn. During his first trip to San Francisco, Lister installed a small series of paintings brilliantly titled Cracker Got Snapped by the Pops at Fifty 24SF gallery, a space that is part of the Upper Playground dynasty. A few years ago, I heard a rumor that Upper Playground -- a store best known for their artist-designed t-shirts and hoodies, was struggling to get by. Well, apparently they won the lottery, because they now have a gallery and two stores at the illustrious intersection of Fillmore and Haight Streets in San Francisco, another store in Portland, and a new one opening in London. Upper Playground is prolific and produces everything from films to furniture. Much of their merchandise is based on the work of notable urban artists such as Albert Reyes, Sam Flores, David Choe, and now Lister.
- Las Vegas Pt. 2: Kaz Oshiro at the Las Vegas Art Museum
- Published: Jun 26, 2007
On a super hot Saturday evening, I toured the Las Vegas Art Museum accompanied by a group of colleagues and a Cirque du Soleil performer who wore a tiny harmonica necklace and had a talent for making weird noises. The entire museum was a jackpot filled with the work of brilliant trompe l'oeil painter, Kaz Oshiro. Oshiro creates perfectly exact replicas of everyday objects like guitar amps, washer and dryer sets, and wood-paneled mini-fridges. There is not enough emphasis in the world to properly explain how realistic the objects are, aside from the fact that several triple stacks of Marshall speakers were painted Pepto pink and baby blue, but you'd swear Marshall had a new line of bubblegum gear if you saw them in a store.
- Las Vegas Pt. 1: Jenny Holzer and Kevin M. Bays
- Published: Jun 25, 2007
When I recently attended the Americans for the Arts annual convention in Las Vegas, I planned to be on the lookout for any instance of art from the moment I arrived. My first encounter came at the airport, where sculptures of giant crabs and lizards came creeping out of the floor, with surfaces reminiscent of cracked desert earth. They were coated in an indiscernible dusty black film that was either intentional or the result of poor maintenance -- I assumed it was the residue of smoke and lost wages in the air.
- Pacific Art Collective: Collabo
- Published: May 22, 2007
"Hippies are drifters, bikers are drifters, migratory birds are drifters, jellyfish are drifters, rain clouds are drifters and even words are drifters. Can art drift? Is drifting a style? Yes. Drifters live in the moment, they create from pure instinct without hidden agendas or pretension and if they have a message it's simply 'let go'." This particular philosophy is tied to an exhibit at Grass Hut Gallery in Portland and, though completely unrelated, appropriately fits this month's urban/street/outsider/drifter art exhibit at Space Gallery.
- Bruno 9Li: Mysterium Tremendum
- Published: May 04, 2007
Pinpointing those attributes of art that tend to mesmerize isn't always easy. In his debut solo U.S. exhibit at Anno Domini in San Jose, Brazilian artist Bruno 9Li appears to have a knack for spellbinding viewers. In a world saturated with digital prints, 9Li's insanely intricate ink drawings on paper may at first appear to be computer generated. However, upon closer inspection the marker-thick lines filling in hypnotic scenes with detailed drawings of animals and various fantastical figures prove that, in terms of art and life, nothing is any good unless it's difficult.
- Liséa Lyons: Something Borrowed
- Published: Apr 23, 2007
"I wonder how the mind decides which memories to keep. There are certain moments you can always return to, never knowing why" -- words from Liséa Lyons' refreshingly succinct artist's statement about her current photography exhibit at Heather Marx Gallery. I once saw a photograph of Lyons' young daughter poised at the edge of a body of water in a way that suggested she could be floating across a lake. Ever since that moment, I've been waiting to see more of Lyons' lyrical work. Something Borrowed is far from disappointing. The show is possibly more touching for those of us who spent time as little girls, skinning our knees, not caring if our perfectly cute dresses got dirty, letting freshly mowed wet grass stick to our bare feet, and having a best friend. These kinds of memories are perfectly preserved in Lyons' untitled photos of her 12-year old daughter, Ramona, who remains fairly anonymous, as only a glimpse of her is revealed in most of the pieces.
- SF MoMA: Picasso and American Art
- Published: Mar 26, 2007
SF MoMA needs more guards. Picasso and American Art is perhaps the most valuable exhibit to populate the museum's walls since it reopened in 1995. The show includes several works by American painting superstars such as Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, and Roy Lichtenstein, to name just a few. The goal of the exhibit is to contextualize Picasso's dramatic and significant influence on American contemporary art. His paintings are displayed alongside the works of other famous painters who mirrored his style at some point in their careers. Many of the inspired-by-Picasso paintings were created within a few years of his originals, providing visible evidence that artists are the biggest proponents of the notion that imitation is a form of flattery. I've affectionately titled this exhibit "The Copycats Picnic," which includes Picasso himself, as African art forms were one of his earliest influences.
- Jeremy Mora "Sculpture"
- Published: Mar 06, 2007
Jeremy Mora is going to need bifocals long before he hits mid-life. His diminutive sculptures are unique and eye-opening and can best be described as dioramas that have escaped the shoebox. Exhibited at the newly revamped Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art Gallery, Mora's small landscape sculptures jut out from the wall at various levels or are riskily installed on the floor. He uses driftwood, Irish tree branches and building materials to create habitats for miniscule figures, which are literally the size of a pin and are purchased from a model train shop in Los Angeles where the artist currently works. Tiny parking cones, trees, and statues meant for escapist environments built by obsessive train collectors are included in the work and transfer quite well into the world of fine art. Words aren't enough to convey how delicate the sculptures appear and it was not surprising to learn that careless opening night reception attendees crushed three of the floor installations. Though Mora was able to glue the pieces back together after the opening, his work is far more complicated than it looks. One of the latest pieces from 2006, Untitled (Rescue) is a grapefruit-sized mass of leaves, twigs, and cement chunks hanging from a delicate green vine made of an algae-like fungus called lichen intricately wrapped around piano wire. This was the last piece Mora created for the show and the idea came about spontaneously during an inspirational studio clean-up.
- Jon Pylypchuk at Jack Hanley Gallery
- Published: Feb 16, 2007
Last Friday night Jack Hanley Gallery reeked of spray paint. Large-scale, multi-layered landscapes of painted paper combined with thick textured materials were the backdrop for subtly placed, fabric-scrap creatures with tiny patches of fake fur hair. The sardonic figures seemed to have been created accidentally, yet pointedly, as if the images were spontaneously thrown together and then figured out later. Like the studio mistake an artist suddenly realizes is brilliant, similar to when Pollock supposedly accidentally dripped paint on a canvas and instantly discovered his moneymaker.
- Andrew Romanoff: The Boy Who Would Be Tsar
- Published: Feb 05, 2007
Russian Prince, Andrew Romanoff spent his childhood living in a Windsor Castle guesthouse and once mistakenly ate some chocolate Easter eggs meant for a certain princess named Elizabeth. He could have been Russia's last Tsar, but he fought in World War II and moved to Palo Alto in 1949. And he illustrates his life on Shrinky Dinks.
Clear plastic sheets that shrink when baked in an oven, Shrinky Dinks were a memorable art project for those who grew up in the '70s and '80s. The Shrinky Dinks I remember had printed pictures of Smurfs that we'd fill in with colored pencil, then shrink and place on little plastic stands to create 2-D figures that would be played with for three seconds and then lost in the bottom of your toy pile.
- Sugar Sugar at Gray Area Gallery
- Published: Jan 11, 2007
Gray Area Gallery is a baby gallery, less than two months old. Their second exhibition, Sugar Sugar, is cute and quirky and makes you want to pinch its cheeks. I was drawn to the group show because of Steven McDonald, a local artist who creates stitched illustrations and sculptures on his Singer sewing machine. Three of McDonald's skateboard decks with embroidered fabric treatments were featured in the show, along with one of his embroidered cuckoo clocks with a design reminiscent of a paint-by-number book. A handful of framed works are also on display, including a tiny embroidered fawn in a gaudy gold frame. McDonald uses a palette of metallic gold fabric and red thread that makes his work appear sumptuous and precious. Though it wasn't included, he is famous for embroidering a fabric-covered, life-sized military tank.
- Anselm Kiefer, Heaven and Earth
- Published: Dec 29, 2006
As I tried to dodge an enormous flying book, I fell into a rabbit hole and woke up in a burning attic. As I feverishly tried to escape the doomed structure, I noticed a wrecked plane surrounded by a fiery forest. After running through a medieval brick corridor, I found myself in a desolate, snowy field. A fallen angel lay in a pile of burnt, oil-soaked straw. As I stared at the angel, I stumbled into what must have been God's bookcase. The books were huge and made of lead, bigger than me and punctured by meteorites. Star maps, long numbers and abstract poppies filled their pages. I noticed a flurry of specks flying toward a light in the distance, and as my eyes followed their path, I realized they were sunflower seeds flying to escape the tragic destruction behind us. I passed another airplane, not wrecked but abandoned. To my far right was an Egyptian pyramid radiating copper wire, and to my immediate right, a treacherous ocean furiously tossed a golden submarine about. It was as though the sky had cracked open and rained down upon the little boat, and it struggled to remain just below the waves. The waves were angry, tempered only by a subtly sexy and calming streak of purple light. I noticed another huge book and hurried past a starry sky to crawl inside its pages, hiding until the fight between Heaven and Earth subsided.
- Kickin It with Joyce J. Scott
- Published: Dec 05, 2006
The Museum of Craft & Design is a lovely little space tucked neatly to the side of Union Square on Stockton Street. This month, as a perfect respite from obligatory holiday shopping, stop by and enjoy the opportunity to "kick it" with one of Baltimore's most revered artists, Joyce J. Scott. It was my first visit to the Museum of Craft & Design, and I found the building to be just as special as the work it showcases. The interior design of the space features exposed brick -- appropriately revealing the structure and craftsmanship of the building -- a seemingly direct comment on the fact that it is a craft AND design museum, rather than an art museum.
- Christo Braun at Micaela Gallery
- Published: Nov 23, 2006
Dancing rivers, a field of mustard flowers, a love letter, and a coral reef are some of the lustrous images gracing the walls of Micaëla Gallery this month. Produced on stainless steel canvases coated with synthetic resin and pigment, Christo Braun's provocative and avant-garde works of art are labeled as paintings, which can be misleading -- they are actually comprised of a unique mixed-media combination that does not include typical painting media. Inspired by nature in all its forms and the emotional imagery nature often displays, Braun's work neatly balances on the line between abstract and representational art, and invokes an extended gaze.
- Oakland Art Murmur -- October 2006
- Published: Oct 31, 2006
Human blood, water color, gold leaf, coffee, wax, and graphite -- what do these things have in common? They are all materials used in artworks viewed at October's Art Murmur. Many of San Francisco's art openings are slated for the first Thursday of the month and, following suit, several emerging Oakland art galleries have established the first Friday of the month for their gallery openings. Unlike San Francisco, where stylish hipsters wander around galleries schmoozing and drinking wine, Oakland's streets are riddled with art students drinking malt liquor disguised in paper bags, dropping loose change in the accordion cases of street corner troubadours placidly serenading gallery crawlers.
- Dustin Fosnot: Roadside Attractions
- Published: Oct 17, 2006
What drew me to Dustin Fosnot's exhibit was mention of a rotating mechanical shark. You can't go wrong with mechanized sea creatures, and Fosnot's show was hardly disappointing. Though the shark was not what I expected, it was a fine example of art that does not take itself too seriously. Set atop a rectangle of Astroturf and installed lovingly inside a retro Coleman cooler full of mystical dry ice, a blue rubber toy shark --looking antique and well-loved by its owner -- repeatedly dove in and out of the small foggy sea as a tiny seagull perched on the side of the cooler and watched. To be accurate, I should say that the shark was actually a dolphin with sharp teeth, and a vaporizer was used to create the dry ice effect, but who's keeping track?
- David Hevel: Fierce
- Published: Oct 03, 2006
"Look at the earrings on that giraffe" is not a phrase one often overhears at an art opening, and the fact that I heard it uttered at David Hevel's new exhibit, Fierce, was only one of the many reasons why the show was "off the chain," as the kids are saying these days. Where, oh where, do I begin? I entered the packed gallery to hear Justin Timberlake rocking everyone's body over the speakers and stopped dead in my tracks to gawk at a seven-foot-tall sculpture of a realistic life-sized tiger rearing up on its hind legs in a giant pot of cascading faux flora and huge glittery gold butterflies. For a moment, it was like nobody else was in the room -- just Beyoncé's animal likeness and me. Fantastically overwhelming, forcibly glee inducing, and straight up hilarious, the tiger was mesmerizing. The pedestal-like flowerpot overflowed with giant gardenias, birds of paradise, and greenery so lush I didn't even notice the gaudy fakeness of it all. It felt like walking around Liz Taylor's Animal Safari. Lily pads among iridescent aqua-blue puddles and two swans surrounded the tiger, its jaws dripping with sticky golden drool, off-setting its long brunette wig, ostentatious crystal necklaces, and wildly humanistic eyes.
- Hamburger Eyes: The Odyssey
- Published: Sep 23, 2006
Hamburger Eyes is a photo magazine and a collective of photographers and wise-guys that travel the world capturing images that could easily accompany the phrase "Check this out." The flashing of a photo of your drunken friend in an Elvis wig, for example, might follow your version of that phrase. My version of that phrase would lead to me digging up a photo I have of my mom standing next to a sunglasses-wearing donkey and a Rastafarian.
- Matthey Barney: Drawing Restraint 9
- Published: Aug 10, 2006
Matthew Barney is greedy for your time. After a good four hours spent between two separate visits to MoMA, I am now the proud owner of a limited understanding of what Barney's work over the past two decades is all about. Drawing Restraint 9 is the umbrella term title of Barney's latest exhibit at SF MoMA, and before visiting, consider the following questions: Do you enjoy art made of self-lubricating plastic? Are you curious about whaling ships? Do you want to see Björk sans eyebrows? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, Drawing Restraint 9 is for you.
- Brian Ulrich: Copia
- Published: Jul 28, 2006
At one point in my life I thought photography was a sham. All you have to do, I reasoned, is press a button and cross your fingers in hopes that the shot comes out in focus. What kind of skill does that take? I am now enlightened and realize that photography is a technical and skillful craft that is difficult to master. Composition, lighting, subject matter, printing techniques, and many other components are to be considered when creating an aesthetically pleasing photo, and even when an artist makes all the right choices, the image can still turn out ineffectual.
- Nicholas Prior: Age of Man
- Published: Jun 27, 2006
Viewing Nicholas Prior's exhibit of 15 selections from his photographic series Age of Man is like taking a seasonal journey into an uncomfortable childhood album. The photos are rife with creepiness so, naturally, I loved them. The subjects themselves are not creepy, but Prior gingerly places them into scenes where sinister things abound.
