Each month KQED Interactive visits a number of Bay Area art galleries to check out what's up in the local art scene. You can view a video of what we found.
In December 2005 we discovered more reasons to explore downtown Palo Alto. Before taking the customary stroll down University Avenue, we ventured down some side streets to check out what was happening off the main drag. First, we went face to face with the latest in modern British portraiture at Chelsea Art Gallery. Afterwards, we wandered a couple blocks and got cozy with some little paintings with big themes at Stellar Somerset Gallery. To end our foray into the Palo Alto art scene we visited Modernbook Gallery, a bookstore boutique with a fine arts flair.
The Chelsea Art Gallery is one of the peninsula's newer galleries and exhibits solely British contemporary art. This 4000 square-foot space is owned by London transplant Suzanne Mohan, who works directly with London galleries to bring British paintings and sculptures to the Bay Area. In the spirit of their high-tech location, there are plasma screens displaying a vast array of work available in the U.K. alongside actual works in their gallery.
Chelsea Art Gallery's Face Value (December 1 through January 29, 2006) showcases portraiture work by twenty artists, including the last five winners of the international British Portrait Award Exhibition, which is held annually at London's National Portrait Gallery. Face Value represents new approaches to the genre and demonstrates a range of practices from realist to abstraction and intimate to anonymous.
Where: 440 Kipling St., Palo Alto Gallery hours: Wednesday through Saturday from 11am to 7pm, Sunday from 12pm to 5pm Phone: (650) 324-4450
Stellar Somerset Gallery focuses on painting, sculpture and photography by local and internationally recognized artists. Their intimate setting allows visitors to talk to the gallery owners one-on-one. Or, for artists looking for the right space to exhibit their work, Stellar Somerset accepts limited submissions, too. In addition, they often invite artists into the gallery to discuss their work with the public.
From December 2 to 30, 2005 the gallery is displaying work by eight artists who have refined their skills in The Art of Small Painting. The curators asked the artists, most of whom normally work on large-scale paintings, to mine their studios for smaller paintings. The intimate works range from figurative and portraiture to objects of the everyday and powerful symbols expressed in abstraction. The Art of Small Painting removes the emphasis from the monumental "super-size" mentality and demonstrates the artists' abilities to reduce the scale of their thematic concerns down to a minimum size. These works invite spectators to get up close and look deeply.
Where: 539 Bryant St., Palo Alto Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 11am to 6pm Phone: (650) 328-6688
The name says it all: Modernbook Gallery. They forthrightly describe themselves as "a curated boutique disguised as a bookstore and art gallery." Located right on Palo Alto's bustling University Avenue, the unique space caters to the whims of contemporary culture and lifestyle. They are stocked with a selection of photography, design and architecture books, and obscure periodicals. In addition, they have rotating contemporary photography exhibitions -- both group and solo shows.
Two Views (December 2 through January 5, 2006) is an exhibit curated by Modernbook Gallery founder Bryan Yedinak. The show is a collection of color photographs by locals Seth Dickerman and Henrik Kam. Dickerman's series "Metamorphic Landscapes" captures environmental and atmospheric affects by using a long shutter speed with a handheld camera. Henrik Kam's series of industrial interiors, "The San Francisco Bayfront," was taken at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyards and explores the rustication and decay of this now abandoned area. The two artists' work reflects their contrasting views of space in the state of transition. Where: 494 University Ave., Palo Alto Gallery Hours: Wednesday through Saturday from 11am to 7pm, Sunday from 12pm to 5pm Phone: (650) 324-4450
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