Libby's Niche

Unhuman

2011-03-09T09:34:00.000-08:00

Artist: Trevor Paglen
Gallery: Altman Siegel
Exhibition Dates: February 10 - April 2, 2011

थे Letter Collector

2011-03-08T13:10:00.000-08:00

Gallery: Gallery Hijinks
Artist: Group Show
Exhibition Dates:March 5th - March 26th, 2011

Nancy White

2011-03-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

Artist: Nancy White
Gallery: Jancar Jones
Exhibition Dates: March 25, 2011 - April 23, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, March 25th, 6-9pm

JET TRAVEL

2011-03-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

Artist: PABLO GUARDIOLA
Gallery: Romer Young Gallery
Exhibition Dates: MARCH 12 - APRIL 9, 2011
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 12, 2011

Tracking Transience & Hiding In Plain Sight

2011-03-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

Follow Hasan Elahi through his everyday motions- where he goes, what he eats, how much he spends etc. After being cleared of terrorist accusations , Elahi, began visually recording his everyday through photographs and text online. While the slide show of images on his site Tracking Transience moves and is organized like a tracking devise they are too tastefully shot to be interpreted as more than artistic expression.

Artist: Hasan Elahi
Gallery: Southern Exposure
Exhibition: March 3, 2011

The Armory Show

2011-03-01T10:16:00.000-08:00

Armory Show 2011
Where: New York City, Piers 92 & 94
Dates: March 3-6, 2011

Let the winter games begin!

Meanderings

2011-02-28T15:15:00.000-08:00

Artist: Linda Fleming
Gallery: Brian Gross Fine Art
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 3, 2011 from 5:30-7:30pm
Exhibition Dates: March 3 - April 30, 2011

First Thursdays is coming up, so I'm starting to scout out what openings are worth a visit. Brian Gross Gallery is one I somehow seem to skip by and specifically checked out for that reason. He's showing Linda Fleming, who I haven't heard much about before but after looking through her portfolio, am excited to see what will be hanging on Thursday. Over the next few days, I'll list other March openings.

The Felix Gonzalez-Torres

2011-02-24T22:05:00.000-08:00

Most everyone in San Francisco has a Felix Gonzalex-Torres poster in their house or at least rolled one up and stuck it under their arm on their last visit to the SFMOMA. If not a poster, you might have walked through his gold beaded curtain and felt like a kid for a moment. Looking through his work and thinking about what I've seen first hand, it's fair to say there's a magic to it. Who wouldn't want to be in any of those rooms or escape in thought of being inside an image on one of his posters? Because his work is so approachable and playful, it speaks to one of my favorite aspects of art, the dreamlike quality. Since dreams aren't rooted in our everyday reality and go beyond it, they aren't tied down or burdened with things that our regular lives tend to get interrupted by. Dreams can stay pure and beautiful because that's where they live and won't be pulled down from there. Dreams can also be a palette cleanser by clearing our heads of the mess we get consumed by. Once our palette is cleansed we can then go and look at different kinds of art with a freshness to see all of them. We have a greater capacity to concentrate on the more intellectual pieces and more willingness to adapt to unusual pieces.

Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico

2011-02-22T09:06:00.001-08:00

There's some history to be learned at the de Young for the next few months. February 19, 2011 - May 8, 2011

UNEARTH

2011-02-18T08:20:00.000-08:00

Artist: KARTHIK PANDIAN
Museum: Whitney
Exhibition Dates: DECEMBER 15, 2010–MARCH 27, 2011

Groundwork

2011-02-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

Artist: William Swanson
Gallery: Marx & Zavattero
Exhibition Dates: February 12 - March 19, 2011

Swanson talks about his art in saying, "the situations presented in my paintings are diagrammatic renderings of engineered environments. I like to pose a fictional view of the ever-changing state of nature and its various forms of adaptation." As a viewer I agree that his art conveys such a reality due to it's depiction of a natural environment fused with manmade apparati. Even his style of painting is comparable to computer graphics. Overall, his content makes the viewer sympathetic with the landscape in the same way as they can relate to any organic environment being infiltrated by something manufactured and foreign.

Fantasy Rich Summer Dreamscapes

2011-02-16T08:12:00.000-08:00

Artist: Justin Olerud
Space: Painted Bird (clothing shop)

When I was in Painted Bird yesterday evening, picking up a blouse, I noticed these new paintings on the walls. They are perfect fit for such personalities who shop the store for Mission leisure wear. The energetic but light color palate, wide round brush strokes and intimate subject matter make me want to label them as fantasy rich summer dreamscapes.

Remembering

2011-02-15T09:57:00.000-08:00

Artist: Dennis Leon
Gallery: Patricia Sweetow Gallery
Exhibition Dates: January - February 2010

World Records

2011-02-14T08:58:00.000-08:00

Artist: Maria Forde
Space: Curiosity Shoppe

When I first encountered Maria Forde's work at Little Tree Gallery a few years back I was struck by how clearly the viewer could see the artist's hand in the work. That characteristic sets her works close to craft pieces without being one. In this show, I like the parody she's made on the desire to publicly display human achievement through her raw drawings of what may have originally been photographic images. They're playful through her lack of technicality and relatable in the way children's drawings speak to people.

Baldessari Sings LeWitt

2011-02-11T09:23:00.000-08:00

The personal aspect of this clip reminds me of young artists friends I know. It's not too far from home.

Romancing the Stone

2011-02-11T07:28:00.000-08:00

Artist: Emily Prince (Personal Site)
Gallery: Jack Hanley (NYC)
Opening Reception: Friday, February 11th 6-9pm
including---Live Performance: Words & (minus Randy) does Nilsson sings Newman
Exhibition Dates: February 11th - March 5th

Remember when Emily Prince showed at Eleanor Harwood in San Francisco and then all of sudden she was featured in the Whitney Biennial? There's this thing with San Francisco artists, where they either make it or keep making things. Emily Prince might be one who is making it, even though she showed with Jack Hanley in San Francisco and still is but now in NYC. Either way, I like that she's creating something visually different than before. While her tribute to the american servicemen was unique and socially valuable, it's refreshing to see her moving on. I wish I could be in NYC to check this out.

American Water

2011-02-10T21:37:00.001-08:00

Artist: Dustin Kelly
Gallery: Stephen Wolf
Exhibition Dates: February 5 - Mar 5, 2011

Uncertainty of the Expanded Field

2011-02-10T10:07:00.000-08:00

A Talk and Discussion on West Coast Sculptural Production Led by Ginger Wolfe-Suarez
Gallery: Southern Exposure
When: February 10, 2011 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

"In conjunction with Both Are True, her solo show at SoEx, Ginger Wolfe-Suarez speaks about the historical conditions of sculptural production on the West Coast interweaving a trangression of theory and practice. Through images, readings and the performance of historical texts, Wolfe-Suarez examines the concepts of anti-form, looking at ways these notions have influenced artists from Los Angeles to San Francisco to Vancouver and points in between. "
via press release

Good Morning

2011-02-10T08:58:00.000-08:00

Artist: Deva Graf
Gallery: Silverman Gallery
Exhibition Dates: February 4 – March 12, 2011

"A reference to Zen satori the show’s title foregrounds the artist’s ongoing conversation with Mahayana Buddhism. These delicate gestures ultimately come to bear on the history of modernist sculpture, uncovering an unspoken trajectory in Minimalism, such as in the work of Walter de Maria, Fred Sandback, and Robert Smithson. Along the way, Graf engages pressing questions of the site and anti-site, the manifest and the unmanifest, form and the informe."
from the press release

Jancar Jones Gallery

2011-02-09T20:54:00.000-08:00

Artists: Paul Cowan, Cameron Soren, Amy Yao
Gallery: Jancar Jones Gallery
Exhibition Dates: January 7, 2011 - February 12, 2011

The Immortal

2011-02-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

Artists: Facundo Argañaraz and Chris Hood
Gallery: Queens Nails Projects
Exhibition Dates: February 4th – February 26th

from the press release...
"The title of the exhibition references Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “The Immortal,” written in 1949. “The Immortal,” in short, is a story about the infinite flux of the universe’s (and human) permutations and the dreadful character of its endless repetitions. The story lays bare the banality and entropic characteristic of all human enterprise, the erosion of content through time and the impossibility of anything new. Everything has already been said. Considered an important precursor and originator of many Postmodern devices, it deals with themes such as the death of the author, pastiche, intertextuality, self-reflexiveness and disbelief in master narratives."

4 Works

2011-02-03T11:11:00.000-08:00

Taxi Ride to Sarah's Studio, 2010

Artist: Jim Campbell
Gallery: Hosfelt Gallery (NY)
Opening Reception: Thursday February 3, 2011 from 6:00-8:00PM
Exhibition Dates: 3 February - 12 March, 2011

"One of the installations at Hosfelt Gallery uses the same materials as "Scattered Light"- hundreds of old-fashioned light bulbs (with their insides removed and replaced by LED technology). In the new piece, the bulbs hang suspended, forming a tilted plane. The viewer is able to walk between the bulbs and "enter" the piece, and though unable to gain the distance required to understand the image created by the flickering lights, nonetheless comprehends the rhythms they create."
Hosfelt Press Release

How To Spell The Alphabet

2011-01-31T14:38:00.000-08:00

Tauba Auerbach

Three Artists

2011-01-30T19:31:00.000-08:00

Julie Mehretu
Auguries, 2010
12-panel aquatint with spit bite (from 48 plates)
87 x 180 inches

Artists: Julie Mehretu, Julian Lethbridge, Wayne Gonzales
Gallery: Berggruen Gallery
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 3, 2011 from 5:30-7:30pm
Exhibition Dates: February 3 - March 5, 2011

I'm excited to view works in this show from younger artists who are making new moves in the progression of art history. Mehretu reminds me of a bay area artist, Andrew Shultz, Gonzalez, of an older artist, Gerhard Richter and Lethbridge gives an updated version of abstract painting.

Lowman

2011-01-27T18:19:00.000-08:00

Black Maxima, Nate Lowman (2005)

Enter Slowly

2011-01-25T11:44:00.000-08:00

Gallery: The Lab
Curator: David Cunningham
Artists: Anna Barham, Cath Campbell, Maud Cotter,
Laura Gannon, Alexandra Navratil, Linda Quinlan
Exhibition closes: Saturday, February 19th, 2011.

“Architecture is not simply a platform that accommodates the viewing subject. It is a mechanism that produces the subject.
It precedes and frames its occupant” – Beatriz Colomina, ‘The Split Wall: Domestic Voyeurism’

Love to Lose

2011-01-22T02:46:00.000-08:00

Artist: Kambui Olujimi
Gallery: Catherine Clark Gallery
Exhibition Dates: January 8 - February 19, 2011

Looking at these and admitting you like them reveals a kinky side of yourself. They are decorative handcuffs, what automatically comes to mind, right? But then they are in a gallery, a nice gallery, hanging on the wall and asked to be looked at as objects of art, so you think you're simply an observer of the nicer things in life. I guess all art tells us something about ourself and repurposing objects does that too. There is no single reason for something to exist, while we might like to place things in categories, the hideous can be beautiful and the beautiful impure.

Berggruen Inventory Exhibition

2011-01-20T09:52:00.000-08:00

Group Show
Gallery: Berggruen Gallery
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 20, 2011
Time: 5:30pm - 7:30pm

While not in the exhibition, I thought to feature this Christopher Brownpainting as a cycling tribute for my Typekit guys, who love their bicycles.

We Took A Family Portrait

2011-01-17T22:49:00.000-08:00

Artist: Job Piston
Gallery: Silverman Gallery
Exhibition Dates: December 17 – January 29th, 2011
Opening reception: December 18th, 5 -7 pm

"C-prints and a text installation based on his recent trip to Taiwan. These disparate elements unfold as a lyrical meditation on autobiography, familial roots, and nationhood, beginning with a series of landscapes of his grandfather’s garden. These stark photographs juxtapose familial roots against the rapidly shifting Taiwanese urban sprawl, while also invoking the legacy of the New Topographics, which Piston subverts with his own affective history. Against these, Piston presents a series of photograms, created by exposing photo paper directly onto the computer screen. This innovative but imprecise process yields images that are ephemeral and poetic, based on cell phone snap shops of the urbanscape. These works play with the notion of the index, both in the process and in their site specificity, while also creating a delicate archive of globalization. This is echoed in the text piece, a found word poem of signs and phrases that combined offer an insightful cross section of a culture in flux."
press release via silverman gallery

Mauricio Ancalmo

2011-01-13T18:16:00.000-08:00

I'm always impressed with the work exhibited at Baer Ridgeway Gallery and when I stopped in today to check out Lux v. Lumen was not let down. Mauricio Ancalmo's film work is simple but clever in its attractability. The tiny visuals you have to search for in the 2D pieces he has downstairs almost bring delight like a little kid. Observing his video installation upstairs your mind is dizzied while being transported to another's dream and memory realm.

You can view several of his video pieces on Baer Ridgeway's site.

Romer Young Gallery

2011-01-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Joey and Vanessa for making it through five years with Ping Pong Gallery, now called Romer Young Gallery.

"The transition from Ping Pong Gallery to Romer Young Gallery happened in December of 2010 on the eve of Ping Pong Gallery's five year anniversary. The change is one that celebrates a milestone and signals the gallery's growth and evolution. Collaborating closely with its artists and allowing them a great deal of curatorial freedom, Romer Young Gallery continues its commitment to creative experimentation and discourse."

Susan Sontag on Robert Bresson

2011-01-06T12:28:00.000-08:00

"Some art aims directly at arousing the feelings; some art appeals to the feelings through the route of intelligence. There is art that involves, that creates empathy. There is art that detaches, that provokes reflection.
Great reflective art is not frigid. It can exalt the spectator, it can present images that appall, it can make him weep. But its emotional power is mediated. The pull toward emotional involvement is counterbalanced by elements in the work that promote distance, disinterestedness, impartiality. Emotional involvement is always, to a greater or lesser degree, postponed."

-"Against Interpretation" P177

The Man With The Golden Gun

2011-01-06T10:47:00.001-08:00

Artist: Mrzyk & Moriceau
Gallery: Ratio 3
Opening Reception:Friday, January 7, 6-8pm
Exhibition Dates: Jan 7 2011 - Feb 19 2011

I'm Here Now

2010-10-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

Artist: Mark Warren Jacques
Gallery: Gallery Hijinks
Exhibition Dates: October 16th - November 15, 2010

Mads Lynnerup

2010-10-18T19:56:00.000-07:00

Gallery: Baer Ridgway Exhibitions
Artist: Mads Lynnerup
Exhibition Dates: October 21, 2010 - December 4, 2010

Sometimes I like art pieces that incorporate text. While I understand the reason why people knock it, I think you can interpret it from a couple of ways. You can read the words and decide there is one definition, a black and white situation. From that you may think the words only allow one meaning, whereas if there were no words you wouldn't feel led to believe something instead feel free to make your own. But as with most things the reverse is true, the words can open up the meaning.

Reading the print above, I find it interesting that the combination of words the artist chose are likely ones we all contemplate frequently, on our own. The understanding of how to "remain cool, calm and collecting" looks different for each individual but the desire to obtain such a feeling is communal. Looking at the text, I think of images that may express the same sentiment. Images like the ones Hiroshi Sugimoto makes.

Jack Hanley at Frieze

2010-10-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

I'm dreaming about being here>>>>>

Frieze Art Fair, 2010
Regent's Park, London
October 14th-17th

JACK HANLEY GALLERY
Booth F27:

Artists
Ajit Chauhan
Bjorn Copeland
Folke Köebberling and Martin Kaltwasser
Bernhard Fuchs
Eleanor Moreton
Erwin Wurm

Wayne Thiebaud - Retrospective

2010-10-06T11:04:00.000-07:00

The NY Times has a great online article about the Wayne Thiebaud retrospective that will be held at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento beginning October 10th. I'm a late appreciator of Thiebaud's work. A year ago, a collector friend showed me his private collection, letting me hold a painting in my own hands. It was incredible, like touching a piece of history, but not just any history, a significant one for the place and people among whom I now live. Thiebaud's impact on San Francisco's art history is subtle in content yet holds a great cultural significance for our present day. Before my very personal encounter with his work, I would see paintings hanging in banks, along with prints and posters in local businesses. At that time, I interpreted it as typical and predictable. Now looking back, I find myself making up for lost time.

Read the full NY Times article.

Check out the slide show.

Rob Pruitt Exhibition Video

2010-09-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

via Art Observed

EYE AGAINST I

2010-09-07T23:04:00.000-07:00

Artist: Chris Duncan
Gallery: Baer Ridgway
Exhibition Dates: September 11 - October 16, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11th, 4-7pm

"Baer Ridgway Exhibitions is pleased to present EYE AGAINST I, a solo exhibition and large scale installation by Bay Area artist Chris Duncan. Taken from the title of the incredibly influential punk/hardcore record I AGAINST I by the Washington DC based Bad Brains, this moniker references Duncan's early influences of the punk/hardcore community and his current concepts in regards to optics, self-reflection and perception. Building upon op-art and the work of color theorists, this new body of work is about seeing, both literally and metaphorically. While questioning the objectivity of sight, Duncan provides a platform of contemplation of what is real.

For his most elaborate installation to date, Chris Duncan will alter the gallery space through a dizzying array of mirrors, string installations, new walls and scrims. In addition, Duncan has curated a series of readings and performances to be held in the gallery during the course of the exhibition."
via Baer Ridgway

Hermes: Eau des Merveilles

2010-08-20T11:20:00.001-07:00

Monday: Fragrance shopping at Sephora.

The three standing contenders: After inhaling several smells with coffee beans to cleanse the olfactory tools, I came to these.
Chloe eau de parfum
Dolce & Gabana's The One
Hermes' Eau des Merveilles Hermes'

Final results:
Hermes' Eau des Merveilles.
Not to mention, their website is fun.
They feature the Best Coast song "When I'm with You" (click on the second image from the top left).

Now, enjoy the happiness.

Proenza Schouler: Fall 2010

2010-08-20T11:05:00.000-07:00

Loving their fall collection. Furs, poof, short skirst & shorts, asymetrical panti hose, etc. more here.

Paintings, Drawings & Sculptures

2010-08-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

Untitled, Anish Kapoor

"River Boats" Wayne Thielbaud

Following in the same curatorial direction as the current, Fisher Exhibit at the SFMoMA and the Impressionist exhibit at the De Young, the artists represented here share a similar sense of community. The artists circle around each other in their sources of influence and inspiration. If we're honest, we realize this is how art is created and movements are made. Yet, I don't think as appreciators we consider that aspect, as often.

On a more personal note, there's a romantic quality to Thiebaud's paintings that I can't get enough of. Maybe it's because I feel like I really do live in San Francisco now and he represents this city visually in the same way as poets who express their strong affinities to their home lands in writing.

Food For Thought, Curated by Sabrina Buell

2010-08-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

Gallery: SIlverman Gallery
Exhibition Dates: July 23 - August 31, 2010

"The exhibition is inspired by the 1971 Joseph Beuys multiple of the same name, which features an extensive list of food items. With signature irreverence, the piece toys with the various connotations of “artistic consumption,” undermining the idea of aesthetic elevation with base matters. Through this simple and graphic intervention, Beuys explores numerous preoccupations which were integral to his practice: the contingency of the art object, the viability of unorthodox materials (such as butter), the reproducibility of multiples, questions of taste and the informe, amongst others. By interweaving gastronomy with aesthetics, Beuys also provides an apt and timely commentary on art as a disposable and consumable economy.

The assembled works develop Beuys’ original thematic through various avenues, expanding on the idea of food both literally and abstractly. These range from Ed Ruscha’s playful gustatory semantics in Sweets, Meats, Sheets, to Japanese photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki’s sexually charged explorations of the female nude. The exhibition also opens an intergenerational dialogue, including work by emerging artists, such as Corin Hewitt and his process based photographs, as well as Jen Susman and her site-specific installation utilizing mint chip ice cream. Though varied, all of the works ultimately return to the Beuysian idea of art as social sustenance."
via Silverman Gallery

Animal Collective: Guys Eyes [Domino]

2010-08-06T12:03:00.000-07:00

Neon Indian: 6669 (I Don't Know If You Know) [Fader]

2010-08-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

TUNNELVISION Wild Nothing Summer Holiday

2010-08-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

Anish Kapoor

2010-06-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

Kapoor's words from an interview in anticipation of his exhibition at the Tate Modern
"I am interested in sculpture that manipulates the viewer into a specific relation with both space and time. Time, on two levels; one narratively and cinematically as a matter of the passage through the work, and the other as a literal elongation of the moment. This has to do with form and colour and the propensity of colour to induce reverie. Consequently, I hope, an elongation of time. Space is as complex, the space contained in an object must be bigger than the object which contains it. My aim is to separate the object from its object-hood."

images from Kapoor's site

Untitled (Spaghetti Night)

2010-06-17T10:37:00.001-07:00

Artist: Nadia Moss
Gallery: Galerie PUSH

Recently published in Harper's Magazine.

Vestige - Series

2010-06-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Artist: Riitta Päiväläinen

From her artist statement:
"Who or what is historically remarkable enough to be recorded or remembered. I do not want to emphasise the historical significance or the importance of remembering everybody and everything. As much as I need to remember, I need to be able to forget. The idea of having only "one historical truth" would not make alternative truths possible. In this sense, forgetting can be regarded as a positive potential.
Instead of thinking what or who we have lost, I want, through my photography, to concentrate on what is still to be found. Read more."

The Coming Solitude

2010-06-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

Artist: Hernan Bas
Gallery: Lehmann Maupin
Last Exhibited at The Armory Show in NYC

SF Art Fair

2010-05-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

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Dates:
May 20 - 23, 2010

Times:
Friday, May 21, noon - 8pm
Saturday, May 22, 11am - 7pm
Sunday, May 23, 11am - 6pm

Image via Baer Ridgeway gallery.

Five Grounds

2010-05-21T10:11:00.000-07:00

"Aligned with the “intelligent materialism” associated with findings on self-organizing matter, these paintings map complex feedback systems of natural phenomena in which culture and language take their places in a continuum of material flow. Connections are drawn between caves, crystal structures and architecture; volitional violence and impersonal intensities; or the fragmentation and stratification of matter and thought. As the artist experiments with the materials’ physical and linguistic properties, painting itself becomes part of this feedback loop. "

June 3rd - July 3rd, 2010
Jack Hanley Gallery
NYC

John Chiara

2010-05-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

Photography
John Chiara

Upcoming Exhibition
2010 - July, Group Show, Gallery 4, Baltimore, MD

WONDER BOX

2010-05-07T10:56:00.000-07:00

Artist: Matthew Palladino
Gallery: Baer Ridgeway Gallery
Exhibition Dates: May 8 - June 12, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 8, 4-7pm

CCA Graduate Thesis Reception

2010-05-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

Where: San Francisco campus
Reception: Thurs., May 6, 6–9 p.m.
Hours: 10 a.m.–7:30 p.m.
Info: 415.551.9214 or www.cca.edu/gradthesisevents

The best work of CCA's graduate class of 2010, featuring works in all media, from painting to sculpture, photography, installation, media arts, and more.

Artist talk with Michael Riedel

2010-05-06T10:37:00.000-07:00

David Zwirner

Live with Art

2010-04-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

20x200's THIRD annual Bay Area Collectors' Confab is this coming Tuesday, May 4th, from 6-9PM -- once again generously hosted by our friends @ Chronicle Books.

We Ride At Night

2010-04-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

We Ride At Night

My friend Jason is one of the founders of the We Ride At Night collective and co-curated this exhibit with two other dudes. It was a rad show, check it out online if you missed it in person.

Tyler Cuffy

2010-04-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

Represented by Baer Ridgeway Gallery

“Group Show”

2010-04-20T10:15:00.001-07:00

Artforum Pick
JACK HANLEY GALLERY
395/389 Valencia Street
April 3–April 28

For the past two decades, dealer Jack Hanley has perhaps been the Bay Area’s unofficial goodwill art emissary. He has not only brought important contemporary artists to San Francisco—back in the early 1990s he introduced Jack Pierson, Karen Kilimnik, Zoe Leonard, and others––but he has also done much to activate and to popularize, particularly at art fairs, a funky brand of Conceptualism emerging from the studios near his Mission District gallery. The fact that Hanley is shuttering his West Coast operations to focus on his Watts Street space in New York is cause for reflection. Fittingly, the final exhibition in the San Francisco gallery focuses on recent works by nine artists who currently live and work in the neighborhood, or got their start in Hanley’s northern-California outpost.

The group show is a modest but aesthetically cohesive expression of Hanley’s adventuresome inclinations and hippie-utopian roots, which add a hearty rock-’n’-roll spirit and penchant for easily obtainable materials. Highlights include pleasing geometric abstractions on found wood by Alicia McCarthy; a robotic tree sculpture by Kal Spelletich; an earthy, rust-hued Tauba Auerbach painting; and a collage depicting stalactites by Leslie Shows. Other standouts include digital prints by Shaun O’Dell and the palimpsest of a magazine-appropriated home interior by Carter.

Chris Johanson, though, sums up the show’s spirit best in one half of a diptych that includes a circular cutout, within which he has scrawled the title: Focus Your Energy Away from There to Here Where It Is Better, 2010. Possibly made for the show, the piece, which also includes a second panel with an exploding burst of color, makes a fitting sendoff to a city witnessing the departure of a dealer with similarly youthful verve.

— Glen Helfan
via Artforum

Night Fishing

2010-04-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

Jenny Bird Alcantara

Reflections Adrift

2010-04-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

Artist: Martin Machado
Space: Heart
Curated by: Jillian Mackintosh
Opening Reception: April 9th, 2010 from 7-10pm

"Martin Machado's paints by working from photographs taken during his travels at sea and to various coastal areas. He recently spent six months working as a deckhand on a container ship traveling around the globe, painting in a small cabin space in what little spare time he could find. He often found solace in retreating to his small room and recreating his surrounding environment through paintings done on fiberglass cloth and panel. By merging numerous layers with epoxy, it allows the scenes to blend into one homogenious image. His tendency to experiment with photography, paint, and film is fused with material commonly found on ships. Like a memory, the result is blurred between fact and creation. "
Jillian Mackintosh

Currents

2010-04-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

Artist: Christopher Lane

I had lunch with this fellow today and was given the opportunity to see these pieces in person. He creates these with the highest quality ink pens on archival paper. They are captivating and rejuvenating.

Christopher sat with me and talked about each piece, as though he was seeing it for the first time and that they were created by someone else. It was as though we had found common ground in art yet he was the source of it and I the primary viewer.

He'll be showing in SF relatively soon. It's been 10 years since he's created new work and these are taking him in a new direction. It's a true evolution of human creativity.

OKTOGON

2010-04-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

Artist: Gwenaël Rattke
Gallery: Ping Pong Gallery
Opening Reception: Friday evening, April 16, 6-9PM.
Exhibition Dates: April 16 -May 14, 2010

"Although drawing from a collection of references, preoccupations, thoughts, inspirations and art [German history, Kosmische Musik, Utopian collective communities, political photomontage, Art Brut, Art Nouveau and Surrealism, the “happy apocalypse,” the connection between modernity and the birth of psycho-analysis, to name a few], deeply central to the artist’s work is a longing for communal aspirations. In search of this collective spirit, Rattke works through expressions of solitude, sexuality, and mystical quests. The artist says of his work: "the collages are an amalgamation of things that I see, feel, dream, and possibly long for. They are fragments of subjective experiences, which get translated into images, adjusted through the infinite mechanical possibilities of the Xerox machine, then cut up and reconfigured into new images. Or rather a kaleidoscope of images somewhere between reality and the subconscious."

By way of his dreaming, longing, and imagining, the artist also alludes to (and perhaps undergoes) a symbolic baptism of sorts. The title of the show, Oktogon, referring directly to an intersection in Budapest also loosely refers to the Budapest "Kiraly" baths, 16th century Ottoman baths built during the Turkish occupation of the area. Strange and special, everything in the architecture of the baths is based on the eight-sided shape of the octagon. Credited throughout the ages as a powerful symbol, the octagon represents spiritual rebirth, renewal, regeneration, totality, infinity, transition and eternal life. In these baths the artist discovers a structure both physical and spiritual that gives shape to his ideas in both form and content. For Rattke, the octagon becomes metaphor for the inter-connectedness of all things: real or imagined, past, present and future, and for the overlapping, kaleidoscopic nature of his own streaming thought patterns."
via Ping Pong Gallery

Guerrero Gallery Exhibition 2

2010-04-06T08:55:00.001-07:00

Artist: Adam Wallacavage, Albert Reyes, Alexis Mackenzie, Andy Diaz Hope, Brian Cooper, Chris Yormick, Cody Hoyt, Cody Hudson, Frohawk Two-Feathers, Greg Lamarche, Jacob Whibley, James Hopkins, James Marshall, Jay Howell, Jon Bocksel, KC Ortiz, Kelsey Brookes, Michael Rea, Michael Swaney, Mike Davis, Ryan Jaenke, Scott Anderson and Ted Pushinsky

Gallery: Guerrero Gallery
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 10, 2010 from 7-11pm
Exhibition Dates: April 10 - May 1, 2010

New Territory

2010-04-05T08:18:00.000-07:00

Artist: Mark Warren Jacques (and more)
Gallery: White Walls Gallery
Exhibition Dates: April 3 - April 25, 2010

Last Gasp 40th Anniversary Art Show

2010-04-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

"The Last Gasp 40th Anniversary Art Show assembles a top-drawer lineup of artists – the haut monde of lowbrow. Over the past four decades, Last Gasp has published hundreds of artists in the underground comix and kustom kulture, to pop surrealism and street art movements."
via 111Minna

Artists in the show include: Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup Glenn Barr, Robert Crumb, Richard Corben, Guy Colwell, Ron English, Tony Fitzpatrick, Christopher Felver, Camille Rose Garcia, Justin Green, Bill Griffith, Rick Griffin, Ed Hardy, Frank Kozik, Joe Ledbetter, Carol Lay, Adrian Lee, Michael Manning, Chris Mars, Scott Musgrove, Junko Mizuno, Liz McGrath, Laurenn McCubbin, Mitch O’Connell, Annie Owens, The Pizz, Mark Ryden, Michael Rosen, Trina Robbins, Spain Rodriguez, Dori Seda, Winston Smith, Eric White, Robert Williams, Attaboy, Aye Jay, and many more to be announced.

Matthew Picton

2010-04-02T14:36:00.000-07:00

Artist: Matthew Picton
Gallery: Toomey Tourell
Exhibition Dates: April 1 - April 30, 2010

YAR

2010-03-31T11:39:00.000-07:00

Artist: Thomas Campbell
Gallery: Gregory Lind
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 1, 2010
Exhibition Dates: April 1, 2010 to May 15, 2010

Fresh Fresh: Modart No1

2010-03-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

Read the full story of its inception here.

Modart Book 1 AVAILABLE NOW!!!!!
To order, please mail with your adress: Ines Althoff - Althoff at geemag dot de
Retail Price: 29.90 + shipping (and tax when applicable) payment per Prepayment via Paypal or banktransfer.
Gallery and Institutional discounts available, please contact us.
Forget Art to Feel Art - Get your Modart today.

Is Silverman Gallery the new Jack Hanley of San Francisco?

2010-03-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

Artists: Tauba Auerbach, Carter, Ajit Chauhan, Chris Johanson, Ed Loftus,
Alicia Mccarthy, Shaun O’Dell, Leslie Shows, Kal Spelletich
Gallery: Jack Hanley
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 3rd, 6-9pm
Exhibition Dates: April 3 - 28, 2010

The Jack Hanley Gallery will mount its final show in the gallery’s San Francisco location, April 3 - 28, 2010. The show will include new work from a selection of gallery artists.

The Jack Hanley Gallery opened in downtown San Francisco in 1990 showing emerging international artists. After closing for two years, from 1996 - 1998, the gallery reopened in a new location in the Mission District of San Francisco. Continuing to focus on working with emerging international artists, the new incarnation of the gallery helped to establish the careers of a number of emerging San Francisco artists, as well. In December 2007 Jack Hanley Gallery opened a location in New York. At the end of April 2010, Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco will close thus allowing for the further growth of an innovative and focused program at the New York location.

QNTV

2010-03-24T13:10:00.000-07:00

Introducing QNTV: the first in a series of video screenings at Queen's Nails Projects that showcase work blending performance, music, video and song writing. Join us this Friday, March 26th for a fantastic line up of local, national and international artists whose practices range from conceptual/ performance bands, to straight-up music promos, to videos that feature music as the inspiration for the artist's work.

Screening at 8pm and 10pm, with a performance by Wanda and Wonder between the screenings, around 9pm. Hope to see you there!

Queen's Nails Projects is located at 3191 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94110

Here's the line up!

Austin Young/ Jackie Beat, Baby Got Front, 2007
Andrew Steinmetz/ Jennifer Sullivan, Sexual Healing, 2010
Japeth Mennes/ Judson Claiborne, Moonraker, 2009
Mark Locke/ Jeffrey Lewis, Willamsburg Will Oldham Horror, 2005
My Barbarian, The Night Epi$ode, 2009
Sofia Córdova, Dip Si Dai Ver, 2010
Ely Kim, Boom Box, 2009
Lew Baldwin/Juiceboxxx, Thunder Jam III, 2005
Cody Critcheloe/ Ssion, Bullshit, 2009

Gamekeepers without Game

2010-03-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

Artist: Emily Wardill
Gallery: Altman Siegel
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 1st, 2010 5:30-7:30pm
Exhibition Dates: April 1st - May 15th, 2010

"Gamekeepers without Game, a new film by British artist Emily Wardill. The show will include her feature length film Gamekeepers Without Game projected in 5.1 stereo surround sound, with the corresponding film stills.

Emily Wardill (b.1977) is a London-based filmmaker. She has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, including an upcoming exhibition at De Appel, Amsterdam (2010), and past projects at MOCA Miami (2009); Spacex, Exeter (2009); ICA, London (2008); Fortescue Avenue/Jonathan Viner, London (2005 and 2006); and STANDARD (OSLO) (2008). Her work has been screened at the Art Now Lightbox, Tate Britain; the International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Witte de With, Rotterdam; and the London Film Festival. In 2008, Wardill was nominated for the Jarman Award and performed Life is a Dream at the Serpentine Gallery, London in 2007

The film will screen six times a day. An exact schedule of screening times will be available online and at the front desk of the gallery. For more information, please contact the gallery at 415-576-9300 or info@altmansiegel.com."
via Altman Siegel

Rain Shadow Cross Section

2010-03-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

Artist: Christopher Badger
Gallery: Silverman Gallery
Opening Reception: Friday, March 19, 2010 from 6-9pm
Exhibition Dates: March 19 - April 24, 2010

The artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery began with a trip to a small sub-section of Death Valley, which features the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere (Badwater Basin) as well at the highest point in the continental U.S. (the peak of mount Whitney). Fascinated by this dramatic modulation in the natural landscape, Badger mapped the points between these two extremes, resulting in a series of discrete measurements that initially provided the basis for a musical score. The project ultimately occasioned a broader meditation on land, travel and systems of measurement, which yielded a range of works, including digital C-prints, a large-scale floor sculpture, silk-screens, paintings as well as a sound installation.
via Silverman Gallery

IMPLIED

2010-03-19T14:43:00.000-07:00

Artist: REBECCA GOLDFARB
Gallery: Baer Ridgeway Gallery
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 3rd, 4-7 PM
Exhibition Dates: April 3rd - May 1st, 2010

In viewing Goldfarb's exhibition, one is presented with a perceptual experience, creating an opportunity to give further consideration to, in the artist's own words: "the infinite and in-between space where language, thought, memory, and sense interact as ways to investigate the act of thinking and seeing."
via Baer Ridgeway

Serena Mitnik-Miller

2010-03-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

Artist: Serena Mitnik-Miller
Space: Four Barrel Coffee
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 27, 2010 from 6-8pm
Exhibition Dates: March 5, 2010 - May 5, 2010

Her paintings (in this series):

Quilt like.
Tranquil.
Fitting for a Spring exhibition.
Well framed.
Complementary to the interior of Four Barrel.

The Sea All Around Us

2010-03-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

Artists: James Sterling Pitt and Sean McFarland
Gallery: Sight School
Exhibition Dates: March 13th- April 4th, 2010

“What follows is the record of a last voyage through a place we knew, even then, would be gone.”
-Edward Abbey-

"The Sea All Around Us at Sight School is a collaborative exhibition between San Francisco-based artists Sean McFarland and James Sterling Pitt. The word exhibition is used here as a crutch for something much less concrete than that, for The Sea All Around Us is not a show of photography, nor is it a show of sculpture. One must enter to see, but not to see static objects, rather to see perception and representation taking place.
One year ago McFarland and Pitt began occupying the same space, a space that needed organization and interpretation, and a space that will eventually be gone. McFarland’s mode of practice is one of creating meaning through a meta-landscape, or one that embodies its viewer; he exposes landscapes that exist just beyond vision. Pitt meticulously recreates and catalogs the objects in these landscapes, giving them a preciousness and longevity that they deserve. Together, as partners on an expedition, McFarland and Pitt deliver their findings: a powerful sense of place, and a generous glimpse of a time that will eventually exist only through their eyes. "
via Sight School

Spots

2010-03-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

Spots

Leif Ritchey

Opening Tuesday March 16 6-9pm

The Journal Gallery

168 North 1st Street Brooklyn NY 11211
Open 12-6pm Tuesday-Sunday
www.thejournalinc.com
Telephone 718 218 7148 Fax 646 390 3395

Hyperreal

2010-03-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

Artist: Sara Kraft
Art Space: YBCA
Event Date/Time: Thursday, March 18, 2010 8:00PM
Ticket: $25

"HyperReal features a stunning visual landscape that blurs the line between live and projected realities, furthering the crafted integration of interactive media and visual design with live performance that Kraft is acclaimed for. Live audio and video sampling of the performance as it occurs gradually accumulate into dense collages of the recorded “past” seamlessly merging with the live “present”, calling into question the very nature of live performance itself and highlighting the paradoxical sense of intimacy and alienation technology can produce."
via YBCA

James Deavin: Artist Statement

2010-03-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it's a lot to read (for this blog) but it's fascinating. More of James' work on Jen Bekman Gallery's site.

"Second Life is wrongly named. Rather than a pale imitation of “first” or “real” life, Second Life is best understood as a new extension of the human senses, and a tool used in different ways by different people for different things. When some people encounter Second Life, they think it’s a game to be played in isolation; when others arrive, they see it as a community for chat, education, sex, commerce, gambling or other sorts of human interaction. In truth, Second Life is neither just a game nor just a community, but something much more complex.

In technical terms, Second Life is best understood as a three dimensional virtual interface through which to create and explore visual and sonic information. In layperson’s terms, Second Life is an interface with which to explore a new world. What interests me as an artist is how this new world — which could conceivably be filled with any object, perspective or conceptual model — remains dominated by metaphors from one of the oldest worlds in art history: Dutch still life painting.

This exhibition is heavily influenced by two books: Steven Johnson’s Interface Culture: How Technology Changes the Way we Create and Communicate & Hanneke Grootenboer’s The Rhetoric of Perspective: Realism and Illusionism in 17th Century Dutch Still Life Painting. Johnson teaches that people cannot help but conceptualize new media using metaphors of the old. Grootenboer analyzes particular metaphors that dominated the Renaissance, and continue to structure our purportedly more “advanced”, capitalist millennium: abundance, collecting, nature, culture, illumination, perspective, domesticity, domestication, and decay.

This exhibit is designed to allow viewers to establish their own dialogue with each of these themes. Second Life is “infinity made imaginable” (Coleridge) but it contains the same metaphors as those that have been around for hundreds of years. Unlike the real world, the only way to approach Second Life is through the medium of the camera. What this means is that our perception of this online world will always be mediated through visual perspective.

Marshall McLuhan once famously opined that the message of any medium wasn’t its content, but rather its influence over culture. Second Life programmers believe that most users don’t yet understand the full potential of the environment in which they are currently gaming, chatting, shagging and so forth. As a result, the way most of us use and think about Second Life is “a little like renting out the London Symphony orchestra to play a few bars of happy birthday” (to quote Steven Johnson on a different topic). This will change over time, and perhaps one way to understand these photographs is as a piece of Second Life history, markers of a time when people were still viewing the new world through the eyes of the old."

2009 British Television Advertising Award Winners

2010-03-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

Screenings: Sat, Mar 20 • 2, 4, 6 & 8 PM & Sun, Mar 21 • 2 & 4 PM
Arts Space: YBCA

"These sly, sexy, sometimes hilarious and sometimes somber British commercials and PSA's have a wild creativity often lacking in our homegrown efforts. Chosen annually by top advertising executives and producers across the globe, the program this year includes dancing marionettes, monkeys, and nudists as well as Snoop Dogg, Rob Lowe, and Anjelica Huston hawking products to UK audiences. You’ll also catch an 80s flashback for Virgin Airlines, and a spectacular skydiving stunt for Honda that was broadcast live. This program recently screened at the Walker Art Center in Minnneapolis, and sold over 20,000 tickets! (2009, 80 min, digital video)."
via YBCA

Sktech Tuesdays

2010-03-15T08:49:00.000-07:00

Artists: Paul Madonna / Sasha Petrenko / Fred Rinne / Micke Tong / Sacha Eckes / John Casey / Paz de la Calzada b/ Mats!? / Annie Galvin / Kent Myers / Bo Heimlich / Michael Capozzola / Michelle King / Daniel Herlihy / Mildred / Wednesday Kirwan / Jesse Balmer / Leslie Winchester

DJ: DJ DEW
What: Sketch Tuesdays
Where: 111 Minna
When: Tuesday March 16th, 6:00 till 10:00.
Hosts/Curators: Brad K. Alder, Jay Howell & Angela Holmes

Off Space

2010-03-12T10:33:00.000-08:00

I discovered Off Space today, only to realize, since 2007 they've been putting together projects of the sort I've been searching for in San Francisco. Here's their description of it all.

Their next project is....Proliferations

Cupcakes & Creatures

2010-03-12T10:08:00.000-08:00

Artists: John Casey / Alexis Mackenzie / Jon Carling / Jen Siska / Lisa Congdon / Kevin E. Taylor / Kylea Borges / Ryan Coffee / Jessica Niello / Kristine Reano
Gallery: Bell Jar
Opening Reception: Friday, March 12, 2010 from 6-9 PM

Why you are attending this opening v. just going to view the show.

All of these artists are lovely people
Bell Jar serves complimentary sparkling wine
The store in front has several beautiful objects for your fancy.
It's an early start to your inevitably adventurous Friday evening.

Criminal Press Reading

2010-03-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

What: Listening Party
Gallery: Ever Gold
When: Saturday, March 13, 2010 from 7:00pm - 9:30pm

"The second reading at Ever Gold Gallery by Chicago based Criminal Class Press. It was received very well last time and was packed! Come check out these amazing writers as they read tales from the dark realm of the soul."
via Ever Gold

Alchemy

2010-03-11T13:53:00.000-08:00

Artists: Ellen Babcock / Brice Bischoff / Michelle Blade / John Chiara /Randy Colosky / Adam Hathaway / Christopher Sicat / Lindsey White
Gallery: Southern Exposure
Opening Reception: Friday, March 12, 2010, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Exhibition Dates: March 12, 2010 - April 24, 2010

Curated by Sarah Smith, SoEx Curatorial Committee member

"Alchemy presents new work by artists who act on schemes of transformation and whose investigations are imbued with metaphor and poetry. By using basic and humble materials and processes, they create work that revives, transforms and restores our sense of wonder. "
via Southern Exposure

Teen Age: You Just Don't Understand

2010-03-11T11:09:00.000-08:00

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS BY 15 MARCH 2010

Teen Age: You Just Don't Understand
Curated by Ken Goldberg
An art exhibition at the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco during ZER01’s 2010 01SJ Biennial Art Exhibit and Festival in Fall 2010. Seeking proposals for works of art by collaborative teams that include at least one person under 18 and one person over 21.

“Here we are now, entertain us.” - Nirvana

“High school's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses.” –J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye.

Teenagers push the boundaries of accepted behavior in every era. They thrive despite raging hormones, clueless parents, ridiculous authority figures, and the dawning recognition that the entire status quo is absurd. They will define the future of new media.

Teen Age: You Just Don’t Understand is the working title for an exhibition that aims to illuminate and challenge the shifting roles of new media in contemporary life, from Facebook to Flickr to texting to Twitter. We seek to encourage collaboration between teens and more experienced artists. Submitted artwork can address any contemporary issues at the intersection of art, technology, and culture and can be in any format or medium (electronic, painting, photography, sculpture, etc.), but must be submitted by collaborative teams that includes at least one person under 18 and one person over 21.

Accepted works will be exhibited at Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco to coincide with the 2010 01SJ Biennial: "Build Your Own World": http://zero1.org/01sj/2010-biennial

Submissions are due 15 March 2010

Submission Guidelines:
Submit the URL of a website that briefly describes your proposal listing these 6 characteristics:
1) Title
2) Concept Description (up to 500 words)
3) Images (up to four)
4) Bios of team members (up to 200 words each)
5) Format and Technical Requirements: list hardware and software needed to present your work, spatial and sound requirements, what equipment you will provide, and what you will need from the gallery
6) Contact information

Sorry, no attachments or other formats accepted. Please email the URL to Catharine Clark Gallery info@cclarkgallery.com with the subject line “Teen Age Exhibition Proposal.”

Works must be completed and delivered to Catharine Clark Gallery by July. More specific information about opening date to be announced at a later date.

For questions about submissions, contact Catharine Clark Gallery at (415) 399-1439 or email info@cclarkgallery.com

My Favorites of SFMoMA's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

2010-03-11T08:42:00.000-08:00

Wallace Berman "Silence Series #7"(image from Corcoran's online Gallery. Actual piece at the SFMoMA is #10)

John Baldessari "Fire, Money, Water, Sex"
photo credit

Lew Thomas "The Vacuum"

Matt Mullican
Unitled (full & detail)

CANDIDA HÖFER

2010-03-10T10:15:00.000-08:00

Artist: Candida Hofer
Gallery: Rena Bransten Gallery
Exhibition Dates: March 11 - April 10, 2010

View more of her photography on artnet.

Mel Ramos

2010-03-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

FEMME
OIL ON CANVAS
36 1/4 X 25 1/2"
2009

Dove Tale, from Leda and the Swan
Embossed foil lithograph
h: 28 x w: 22 in / h: 71.1 x w: 55.9 cm
1969

Artist: Mel Ramos
Gallery: Modernism
Exhibition Dates: MARCH 4 - APRIL 24, 2010

The top image is on view for this month's exhibition at Modernism. The second image is from 1969 and available through Woodward Gallery. I enjoyed the contrast between the two images and following his work through time, hense posting the second which is not part of this exhibit.

Plastastik

2010-03-09T10:51:00.000-08:00

Artist: David Mark Grant and Chadwhick Heath Moore
Gallery: Ever Gold
Exhibition Dates: March 4 - March 25, 2010
Opening Reception Photos here.

"Grant’s paintings and drawings suggest abstract apocalyptic environments. These often appear as menacing rainbow islands, usually inhabited by chimerical heaps of patterned fragments. His acrylic and gouache paintings are painted on box panels, paper and book covers and are inspired by the critical discourse around energy, environment, consumption, and geopolitics. His work ranges from small panels covered in opaque, hard-edged patterns to larger pieces showing fantastical landscapes and oozing mountains of debris. Grant is currently enrolled in the SFAI Masters program and works at the famous Vesuvio Café.

Moore’s work comments on the environmental consequences of the plastic era. This becomes evident in his large-scale installations and sculptures, which often remind of giant deep-sea creatures. He uses scavenged materials such as plastic bottles, bubble wrap and neon lights to assemble grotesque organisms, frequently suspended in space by wiry tentacles. The sculptures are complemented by medium sized and large drawings and paintings. These are reminiscent of rippling surfaces on oily puddles and impenetrable walls made up of countless tendrils, created through a compulsive adding and subtracting of bold marks and delicate lines. Moore holds a Masters degree from SFAI. "
via ever gold

FOURSQUARED

2010-03-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

Artists: Chorboogie, Jet Martinez, David Chong Lee and Apex
Gallery: Project One
Exhibition Dates: March 3rd to April 5th 2010

"These San Francisco artists, all using different mediums to create sections of a mural, colorfully transforming Project One. Also in the gallery each artist will have key pieces, giving the viewed a “legend” to discover each artists hand in the mural."
via Project One

New Thoughts

2010-03-08T12:47:00.000-08:00

Artist: Stephen Sollins
Gallery: Brian Gross Fine Art
Exhibition Dates: March 4, 2010 - May 1, 2010

"Sollins' use of precious materials and re-contextualization of everyday objects forces us to reconsider the mundane. His highly conceptual works are alternately stark and impersonal, and seductively beautiful, yet all evoke feelings that are profoundly human."
via Brian Gross Fine Art

Rob Carter

2010-03-08T01:05:00.000-08:00

Stone on Stone (gothic heights)
10 x 11.25 inches
digital c-print

Stone on Stone (fire)
10 x 14.25 inches
digital c-print

Artist's background
Born in Worcester, UK, 1976
Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York

2000 - 2003 Hunter College, New York, NY - MFA Studio Art
1995 - 1998 Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Worcester College, Oxford University Oxford, UK - BFA, First Class Hons, Fine Art
1994 - 1995 Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education Cheltenham, UK - Diploma in Foundation Studies, Art & Design

more at ebersmoore

Jonathan Runcio

2010-03-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

CMY 05
2009
sprayed ink on canvas
25 x 20 inches

Artist's Background
Born in Montreal, Canada, 1977
Lives in San Francisco, California

EDUCATION
B.F.A. in Painting, California College of Arts & Crafts, 1999

more info at ebersmoore

Artnet Coverage of The Armory Show

2010-03-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

Jeremy Blake’s Sodium Fox, on view at Honor Fraser

"Like many galleries at the Armory Show this year, the Los Angeles gallery Honor Fraser devoted itself to a single artist, in this case a series of ravishing works by the late digital video artist Jeremy Blake (who tragically committed suicide in 2007). In addition to selections from Blake’s "Winchester Mystery House" suite of videos, the gallery also featured a lovely photo frieze, Every Hallucination on the Sunset Strip, an homage to Ed Ruscha that points to the affinity between Blake’s narcotic style and the dean of L.A. Pop’s dark sense of irony. But the most ravishing work on view is certainly Sodium Fox, a video exploration of occult themes. It’s $55,000 in an edition of six."
via Artnet

See all galleries in this selection here.

Inaugural Group Show - Guerrero Gallery

2010-03-05T10:47:00.000-08:00

Artists: Brian Willmont – Christopher Russell – Richard Colman – Aaron Noble – Ryan Scott Schaffer -Tim Diet – Ryan Wallace – Rogelio Martinez – Adam 5100 – Hilary Pecis – Mark Mulroney – Ala Ebtekar – Eric Yahnker – AJ Fosik – Mike LeSage – Allister Lee – Cleon Peterson
-Ryan Travis Christian – Marissa Textor – Shepard Fairey – Bill McRight

Gallery: Guerrero Gallery
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 6, 2010 from 7-11PM
Exhibition Dates: March 6, 2010 - March 27, 2010
Address: 2700 19th Street, SF CA

Guerrero Gallery is a new space owned and curated by the former business partner in White Walls, Andres Guerrero. The gallery's been a year in the making and we're looking forward to what that provides.

COMMON PLACES

2010-03-05T09:02:00.000-08:00

Artist: Bernardo Roman Palau
Gallery: Jack Fischer Gallery
Exhibition Dates: FEBRUARY 20 - MARCH 27, 2010

Fight!

2010-03-05T08:57:00.000-08:00

Artist: Andrea Heimer
Gallery: Rare Device
Opening Reception:
Exhibition Dates: March 2 – 28, 2010

'Recently, Andrea and her husband wrote a song for their band called “Fight!” and at once she became hooked on the concept—mulling it around and finally deciding to interpret it in her own way. Fighting is a wildly dynamic event that takes all forms: play fighting, life and death fighting, staged fighting, sports, making up after fighting, fighting between people, animals, even objects. In most cases, no matter the situation or who’s involved, the result is the same—someone wins and someone loses. When a fight is over a decision has essentially been reached, the parties involved know where they stand and a certain order is understood as a result. But before order is achieved the fight must occur. “Capturing that moment of action fascinates me, “ says Heimer. “Two halves of the same equation struggling against one another for a necessary result, one that will be a surprise to both because no matter what, no fight is a sure thing.” In a twist of fate, Heimer was injured in a riding accident while preparing for this exhibition of her work. The accident left her right hand temporarily out of commission in an unwieldy cast. As a right handed artist it was quite a blow. “The resulting struggle fits in well with the theme of the show,” says Heimer, “Me fighting ferociously with my left hand as I attempted to paint a few last pieces. I won’t tell you who won, but I am happy to report I’ve created several left-handed paintings. With any luck they’ll be the last! “'
via Rare Device

Wall Drawing

2010-03-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

Artists: Sol LeWitt / Gerhard Mayer / Marietta Hoferer / Marco Maggi /
Jim Campbell / Nicole Phungrasamee Fein
Gallery: Hosfelt Gallery
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 20, 2010 from 4-6 PM
Exhibition Dates: 20 March - 24 April 2010

"Sol LeWitt made his first wall drawing in 1968. In doing so, he asserted that the art object he was creating could be executed on any wall and that the artwork would change in each venue where it was recreated. By acknowledging that the wall was integral to the drawing itself, LeWitt changed forever the relationship of artworks to the spaces in which they are installed. Furthermore, he firmly ascertained the radical premise that art could be executed by someone other than the artist himself. These revolutionary answers to the basic sticking points of the (im)permanence, marketability and transferability of paintings on walls opened up tremendous possibilities for artists who have followed. This exhibition begins with two LeWitt wall pieces from the early 1970s, made with graphite and black crayon, and explores different approaches to working directly on the walls of the gallery by five contemporary artists. "
via Hosfelt Gallery