Friday Night at The de Young

Two Fridays back the de Young had their Friday event with Intersection for The Arts. Here's a view from the outside, taken by Carin Ward.

Seth Koen

Artist: Seth Koen
Gallery: Gregory Lind Gallery
Exhibit Dates: January 24, 2008- March 1, 2008
Address: 49 Geary St, Fifth Floor


Seth's pieces from 2005 are most interesting to me. When I saw the second image I have posted here, my immediate thought was that he should be showing his work in broken decrepit warehouse buildings.





The intense colors of his thread sculptures take on a whole other creative life when placed next to the unfinished ceiling below.







When I see them, I think wormy insect meets cell-like life form.












The white walls in the gallery for this exhibit work well; as his sculptures, here, resemble more fragile bones and 3D outlines of what may come or has been.

Creativity In The Fifties

Artists: Jess
Gallery: Gallery Paule Anglim
Exhibit Dates: February 6, 2008- March 1, 2008
Address: 14 Geary St

Jess, who founded the King Ubu Gallery, later called Six Gallery, was very influential in stirring up a creative environment in San Francisco in the fifties.

February, his drawings and paintings will be at Gallery Paule Anglim.



"Many of Collins' paintings and collages have themes drawn from chemistry, alchemy, the occult, and male beauty..."link

Patrick Dintino

Artist: Patrick Dintino
Gallery: Andrea Schwartz Gallery
Address: 525 2nd Street
Exhibit Dates: January 30, 2008- February 29, 2008

Patrick describes his "'Spectrum' paintings as abstract color bands derived from specific real world imagry painted in oil on canvas with a brush."link



Glacier, oil on canvas, 2006, 12" x 72"


I tend to look at a piece of artwork and then read its title and/or description. With Patrick's paintings, I like this process a lot. It is interesting to view the abstract image, which has some internal order that I am not aware of, and then by reading its title I get a clue as to what the creator's intention is.



California Condor, oil on canvas, 2007, 24" x 24"


After reading the title I don't abandon my first interpretation of the work, but rather gain another one or add an extension onto my first one.





Bald Eagle, oil on canvas, 2007, 24" x 72"



It took some time for me to appreciate his Spectrum paintings. Once I did, I saw them more as music. They have this ability to be constantly moving or cause my eyes to be constantly moving over them. For me, this is in part due to the intensity of the colors and the blurred lines where the colors fade into each other.





Florida Panther, oil on canvas, 2007, 48" x 96"





From a blurb on his bio page:
"Yet the complex play between aesthetic and metaphor is crucial to Dintino’s work. He explores a fresh understanding of how we make meaning through ordering our experiences."Colin Stewart







Grand Illusion, oil on canvas, 2006, 48" x 60"

Whitney Biennial

In my attempt to become more savvy on the Whitney Biennial, I came to the site, whitneybiennial.com. Apart from establishing a new respect for the capabilities of Flash, I had a fun time clicking on images from the different artists and seeing them go.

Aaron Clinger's "The Man Project."



There's a little edge to the whitneybiennial.com's story, causing me to linger on the site longer.


Uncontrol Zhou



"Miltos Manetas felt that by ignoring their own domain name, the Museum was subconsciously commissioning to him personally to do something and spoil their fun. Large institutions such as the Whitney, don't care much about what is happening on the Internet. They consider computers and networks as just another media, a little more complex from the videos and dvd which they learned to appreciate recently. 'Computer is the best invention after the bicycle”, a European Museum director said once to Manetas. Like a bicycle it can do a lot of transport in a cheap and clean way. But it's nothing really different'."link


Amy Franceshini


These are just stills go to the wesbsite to get the movement. It's where it's at.

Headlands Exhibit "Close Calls"

Where: Headlands Center for The Arts
Opening Reception: February 3, 2-5PM.

Headlands Center for The Arts opening reception for their current show, "Close Calls," is this weekend and includes 45 emerging artists in the bay area. Many of these folks you've seen around SF in the past year.

Stand out artists in the grouping:


Andy Vogt




Julie Chang




Lori Gordon




Sean McFarland



Jill Sylvia

Debra Fleming Caffery

Artist: Debra Fleming Caffery
Gallery: Robert Koch Gallery
Address: 49 Geary St, 4th Floor
Exhibit Dates: November 29, 2007- January 26, 2008






"Debbie Fleming Caffery's photographs capture moments of rich beauty in the people and places of Mexico and the American South. A native of Louisiana, Caffery is most comfortable in the shadows, drawn to movements, patterns and deep tonality."link

Tommy Everenden

Artist: Tommy Everenden
Gallery: Brown Bear

I made my monthly/week cruise over to Brown Bear yesterday. I love their addition to my neighborhood. Yet, I haven't had much luck finding art from their shows that I want to post...until now!



The pieces by Tommy Everenden in their current show stand out the most.



It's the way he uses sculpture as well as 2D images together that attracts my attention.



When I first saw them, I felt serious and took on the mentality of, "what does this mean, how can i intellectually interpret this?" Then I began to loosen up and enjoy them more as a dark comedy.
There is definitely a bit of both going on and of the pieces in this show, his are the most original.

*images from Fecal Face Dot Com

Interview with Nigel Peake

Nigel Peake, an architect with a creative eye whose attention is captured by situations, objects, and people that remind me of moments in a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film, talks about his art.




Where does your inspiration come from?

I am not sure. I think its nice not to know where inspiration comes from. I like the mystery of it all.
However some of the things I like and I can imagine cause me to draw and make things -
branches, cathedrals, benches in parks, forests, train rides, bike trips, walking around my home, walking through a city at night time,
radio documentaries, typing things, misunderstanding, listening to things, flags, sheds, friends, conversations, books and books, stories, stories from old people, sharing dreams, clearings in forests, paths, long grass, fences, visits to the cinema, things that are almost broken, colors, the fall, the spring, the winter, water, paper, photography, film, the process of making something, heavy rocks, chairs, museums, maps, sheds, music, encyclopedias, et cetera



Do you have a stronger preference towards architecture/design or fine art? Or, do you find them to me be interchangeable?

For me there is not much difference, sure there is a different mode of work but it is the same questions and process of solving. I trained as an architect and currently tutor at the architecture school, while also drawing and working on design projects. Being an architecture student can be difficult because you are thrown into a world of new things, language, and problem solving. But the wonderful thing is that it delivers to you many new books to read and new techniques and ways of working. So, when I work for clients I think as architecture student - you are given a brief and then re-interpret it. An example of this is my project with coldcut on ninjatunes, it began as a branding project but resulted in a series of maps.(3&4)


axo of bridge project for the galatta bridge, Istanbul




exploration of the fragment that was derived from a sequence of drawings exploring the gestures in the grand bazaar.



coldcut

coldcut - artwork for the 12" of everything is under control feat mike ladd.


It appears that most of your drawings are done with ink. What do you like about that medium?

This probably comes from training as architecture student, but from a young age I have always drawn with lines and I enjoy the notion of a line holding your attention. As for ink, it is a joy to use. I love the smell of Indian ink and rotring inks. I love the way it holds on the paper and the way it quietly drys. In addition to ink I enjoy the paper and trace and card board as a drawing surface.(5)


part of my desk at home


While working on projects do you listen to music? If so, who?

Music is important not during drawing but for most occasions - but then I also enjoy silence. Like when you enter an empty building or church.
As for bands that i like - in no order : Franky valli and the four seasons, boards of canada, Jeffrey Lewis, beastie boys, dntel, madlib and stonesthrow, manitoba, beach boys, king biscuit time, arvo part, art blakey, clouddead, neil young...it could go on and on.
I also really like listening to bbc radio 4, especially the documentaries about things that i have no idea about - e.g merlin and speed of light.
there is something nice about the sound of a voice through the radio. If I could find some good audio books then I would include them too.



Do you do much traveling? Favorite trip? Where would you like to go next?

I try my best to travel as much as I can and afford. I prefer to go somewhere for a reason. To draw or for an exhibition et cetera.
I am just back from a trip to Antwerp for a show and it is a joy to be in a new place, cycling around unfamiliar streets and finding new things to look at and think about.(6)

One of my favorite trips was on a bike from Edinburgh to Budapest a couple of summers ago. It was a wonderful opportunity to travel slowly though the fields and see the changes in the land, a little like a Steinbeck book. Next in the list would have been the weeks I spent on a boat in Croatia. Next to that would have been an out of the blue trip to New York one Easter.

Where I would like to go next is Iceland for sure. The place seems so beautiful and remote.

However the next trip most likely will be to Philadelphia in April for an exhibition.
But then I enjoy any kind of trip, an hour train ride facing backwards is a joy.


show in antwerp


His blog
His Website

Thanks Nigel!

Eric White

There is a great interview with Chris White on Fecal Face.



He is showing in New York right now and will be on the west coast this spring.

Black and White Images

Here I stand



Yes, Of Course, Thank You...



Minute Beauty

So Long Farewell...For Now

My last round of Argentina street art from this trip.





I spotted the above three on a bike ride following the train tracks. I thought there would be some heavier stuff but these provide a comedic relief.






These three are very typical of what I saw on most buildings. I became so used to seeing them that I almost forgot to get some shots. I took these close up thinking it pulled out more of their personality.

A Wall of Many Opinions

This month Bruce Tomb's graffiti documentation is one of four solo exhibits at Southern Exposure. His site, www.deappropriationproject.net, which launched the eleventh of this month chronicles the visual life span of the wall fronting the jail cells of the former Mission Police Station at 1240 Valencia Street.

I find his photographic records fantastic. Don't be surprised if it leads you to anthropological insights of the neighborhood and city. Below I have posted a few of the thousands he has dated, organized, and tagged on the site.






"The wall as a resource for a range of disciplines has become more evident over time. As a dynamic artifact, time has been a key aspect to understanding its value. The range of imagery and subjects seems to be unlimited, triggering considerable dialog with neighbors and colleagues. As new cultural issues arise, the archive expands to incorporate them, becoming a living record of our culture and concerns."





"Reciprocally, the documentation and organizational technologies used have changed the archive over time, allowing it to evolve in a way different from traditional photography."






"The project began with color print film and slides taken with a 35mm Kodak Retina IIIc. Later images were taken with a Canon PowerShot S110 Digital Elf and a Canon Eos 20D. The Eos has captured the most acute detail, showing the subtle or inflammatory comments handwritten by passersby with pencil and ballpoint pen. Yet while image quality varies wildly between cameras, all photographs are included in the archive."

*All quotes from HERE.