Fly

Wangechi Mutu

Mustafa Maluka

I just found this girl's textile/art blog, Fly, today. I like her section "Artists To Know." Everything is derived from her interest in textiles and creative influences.

Cut: Revealing the Section

Artforum picked "Cut: Revealing the Section" at the SF MoMa this month as their critics choice for San Francisco. I checked out the Lee Friedlander exhibit yesterday and caught a bit of "Cut" towards the end. Their right, it is impressive.

The layers of architecture really fascinate me. Looking at blue prints and seeing floor plans, they're like a puzzle. I tried to take an auto cad class once, thinking if I like to draw I could do architectural drawings. Not so much the case, the whole math to it was way over my head. While I don't have the patience to learn it, I appreciate its calculated complexity.

Todd Bura @ Triple Base Gallery

Artist: Todd Bura
Gallery: Triple Base
Opening Reception: Friday, April 4, 2008 7-10pm
Exhibit Dates: April 3, 2008 – May 4, 2008
Address: 3041 24th Street




I'm going to check out Todd's work Friday before heading over to Ghost and Bread. Todd seems to be pretty illusive online, so I've got only a bit of info to share with you for this exhibit.




"Bura’s considered process is indicative of the human impulse to make connections and create order from what is random. When grouped together these varied images 'allow a subtle chain of effects to echo and punctuate one another, calling one another, saying how either nothing or everything is accidental.'"link

Colors of the Muni Fast Pass

Artist: John Kuzich
What: muni fast pass combinations


I was excited to find this article on SFgate.com about John's project. He has been collecting fast passes for the three years and anticipates obtaining 6000 - 8000 when he is done.




Favorite part from the article:
"But Fast Passes didn't initially lure Kuzich with their deeper meaning. Instead, he was enchanted by their color schemes that change month after month and their embedded holographic strips that shimmer in the light. It was later that he realized the common bond they represent, a commodity he describes as "truly San Francentric."

He is still in need of more passes.
If you have some you can send them here:
John Kuzich
660 4th Street #271
San Francisco,
CA 94107

SFAI = Impresario

Great art by students and alumni of SFAI. You can find more on their online gallery.

Holly Coley

Matthew Trygve Tung






Nancy Tobin






Paul Hendrik






Catherine Czacki






Chad Moore






Chris Ballantyne






Colter Jacobsen






Denise Laws






Elizabeth Barnum






Linda M. Ford / Pam Martin






Paul Wackers

James Gobel at Marx & Zavattero

Artist: James Gobel
Gallery: Marx & Zavattero
Address: 77 Geary St.
Exhibit Dates: February 14 - March 29, 2008

This month Artforum covered James Gobel's exhibit, "Bear Hunting," at Marx & Zavattero. You can read the review here.



I had a great summer working at the old Fifes in Guerneville, CA, during Lazy Bear weekend 2007. Constant party, high energy, folks happy to be alive and on vacation.

In processing this exhibit, I found interesting the point Ken Pratt brought up that, "the artist seems to be fully cognizant that the promise of community has been replaced with a form of corporal capitalism." Community is something that continues to become more valuable in my life and capitalism, a market that is never satisfied.



Apart from the social statements Gobel makes through his work, I appreciate his use of multiple mediums such as acrylic felt, wool felt, and yarn.

Brown Bear Show by 3 Females

Artist: Clare
Gallery: Brown Bear
Address: 289 Divisadero St



Brown Bear had their March opening last Saturday! Great pieces that will make you smile.




These are pieces by Clare, photos taken by her as well.





Here's a bit she said about the show on her blog, "my contribution to the show (34 pieces, i think) is 99% brand new work. seriously. i've been working so hard, i haven't slept in the last three weeks. i see snowflakes in my peripheral vision and i've been having some awesome and mind-blowing conversations with my lamp."

Fecal Face Dot Gallery

Gallery: Fecal Face Dot Gallery
Address: 66 Gough @Market
When: Saturday February 23rd 5-8pm





Yes, they want to celebrate their opening later than 8pm!

After party: The Uptown
17th & Capp St.
9-2am

Happy Valentine's Day

Artist: Jessica Martin
Location: Healdsburg, CA
Represented by: Hang Art


Jessica is another artist featured in the Headlands "Close Calls 2008" show.




Apart from her colorful biological and cosmic creations, Jessica has a couple of essays that challenge your brain.



She begins, "Layers of Place" with:

"No one, wise Kublai, knows better than you that the city must never be confused with the words that describe it." Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, p 61.

Art Forum Picks Little Tree

Our little city with INTENSE being doesn't make it on many pages in Artforum, which can be hard for me to bear sometimes. But, checking their online reviews and picks, I came across this write up by Glen Helfand.





Pablo Guardiola

LITTLE TREE GALLERY
3412 22nd Street
January 12–February 16

"The crux of this exhibition of seven prints and a single sculpture is an iconic untitled photograph of a brown paper lunch bag on a table. The bag is crumpled at the top, while its squarish midsection is marked by a grease stain in the shape of a world map. With this image, Pablo Guardiola manages to pack a cargo container’s worth of international allusions into a humble sack. While the bag’s contents remain a mystery, the oil blotches clearly stem from something homemade: There are no crisp corporate logos in evidence, only continental forms with fuzzy edges, and perhaps the promise of some delectable, deep-fried surprise from Mom. The image is wry in the manner of photographs by Gabriel Orozco or fellow Bay Area artist Will Rogan and is similarly steeped in a global milieu. The picture politicizes Guardiola’s other, more ambiguous works—most explicitly in Much More than a Brand of Crackers, a Beer, a Malt Beverage and a Legendary Taíno Leader (all works 2007), in which a bottle cap, with a brightly colored logo that reads HATUEY, is positioned on asphalt, resembling a glowing sun against a murky sky. Hatuey is a soft drink and beer brand named after a fervently anticolonialist Cuban hero. The direct reference to a notable personage is less successful than Guardiola’s more open-ended images, such as Sunset in a Bucket, a picture of a plastic pail almost entirely leached of its red tint by the glare of daylight. Also photographed against an asphalt background, the bucket becomes a reference to cheap goods, manual labor, and photography’s ability to capture and hold light. That latter theme, underlying much of the show, takes its most blazing form, ironically, as a sculpture, made of a fish tank–like Plexiglas box with a floodlight embedded in its top and pointed downward. Titled Some Ideas Should Be Kept Warm, the work is one of barbed minimalism, its hot air and focused beam capable of blistering the surface of the wooden plank that supports the piece."

Inter-Zine

Alex Lucas interviewed by Caleb Neelon on Fecal Face Dot Com!

Alex just finished his January group show at White Walls.






In the interview, he says, "I have put out over 20 titles over the past six years or so, and with a general run of about 100, I figure I have made, by hand, about 2,000 zines or so."







Talking about other zines, he says, "I think some of the best publications out today are free. Dan Murphy and Tony Smyrski's Megawords Magazine is an amazing, free publication. ANP Quarterly. Even Vice, as much as I'd like to say I hate it, once you get past the "Do's and Don't"s (I'm a little salty because I was a "Don't" once) they really explore some interesting topics."





Other San Francisco bay area artists he mentions are, Andrew Schoultz and Nick Meyer.

To get any of his printed work check out his Cantab Publishing site.

Recap on "Close Calls 2008"

Yesterday, the opening for "Close Calls 2008" at the Headlands Center for the Arts was grande! Lots of folks came out from all around the bay area, keeping the third floor of the building warm as they moved from one stroke of genius to another.





Apart from artists I mentioned before, Bianca Kolonusz-Partee and Casey Jex Smith took the cake. I think everyone found the jell-o sculpture of the Mission to be colorful fun.



If you have some transportation, it's a great afternoon excursion up north!


More images here.

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.

My Favorite Shots

Gallery: Hamburger Eyes
Artists: Timothy Walkiewicz, Dan Murphy, Stefan Simikich, Jesse Geller,
Kunle Martins, Tim Badalucco, Emily Riedman-Walkiewicz, Rebekah Maysles,
Sergei Trudnowski and Mark Cross

Check out their Video Flyer

They are calling the last opening at Hamburger Eyes the best they've had yet! Here are my favorite pics from the evening.

Packard Jennings @ Catherine Clark Gallery

Artist: Packard Jennings
Gallery: Catherine Clark
Dates: January 19, 2008 - March 1, 2008

For the anarchist in all of us.

In Times Like These

A day like this calls for Superheros. Thank you, Seth Armstrong.




Got to love the spandex...even in illustration.




Diving from buildings, makes me want to go dumpster diving. Random, I know.



These colorful dudes, made my day!

A Christmas Splattering For You!

Feliz Navidad

I'm taking a break from the norm and just appreciating what's before my eyes via the internet! Click on each artist's name for more.

Patrick Caulfield
After Lunch 1975



Seth Armstrong
Bus Heros 2006


Nigel Peake
From: Shanghai Drawings 1. Part 1


Marie Caudry
vanités being incredibly vain




Marcus Oakley
Worried Noodles