Artsource Notes

Check back here from time to time to get updates on what we like, exhibits to see, and art related ideas. If you’re interested in more information about what you see here, please email us.

Wednesday May 1, 2013

To Do List: May

Ongoing to June 16th, Bay Area Graduate MFA Thesis exhibits: Spring time means it’s time for Master of Fine Arts Thesis exhibits. Congratulations to the Bay Area artists that are receiving their MFAs this Spring. Support the artists and these Bay Area programs by visiting their thesis exhibitions.

Visitors arriving to last year’s CCA MFA Exhibition. source: www.artbusiness.com

4/27 – 5/25 – San Francisco State University: This exhibition is already open with gallery hours Wednesdays through Saturdays, 11am to 4pm.

5/3 – 5/18 – San Jose Sate University Lift-Off MFA Exhibition: Presented at Ark Art Gallery in San Jose, Opening Reception, Friday May 3rd, 6-9pm. Gallery hours, Tuesday – Saturday 12 – 4pm.

5/4 – 5/26 – Compound Vision, Mills College 2013 MFA Thesis Exhibition: Will be on view at the Mills College Art Museum. The opening reception is Saturday May 4th, 6-9pm, regular Museum hours are Tuesday – Sunday 11 am – 4pm.

5/14 – 6/16 – Stanford University Presented at the Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery with an opening on May 14th from 10 am – 5pm. Regular viewing hours are Tuesday – Friday 10 am – 5 pm.

5/15 – 5/19 – San Francisco Art Institute MFA Thesis Exhibition: Presented at the Old Mint (88 5th Street), with a Gala Vernissage on Wednesday May 15th 5:30 – 10:30. Regular visiting hours are 11 am – 6 pm daily.

5/16 – 5/25 – California College of the Arts Graduate Exhibition is presented in the Nave of the San Francisco campus. The opening reception is Thursday May 16th, 6 – 10 pm, and open daily from 10 am – 7:30 pm.

5/17 – 6/16 – University of California at Berkeley: Presented at the BAM/PFA with an Opening Reception Friday, May 17th, 6-8 pm. Regular hours are Wednesday – Sunday 11 am – 5 pm.

Ongoing to June 2, 2013, Christian Marclay’s The Clock at SFMOMA: As SFMOMA prepares to close for a remodel and expansion they are presenting Christian Marclay’s celebrated video installation The Clock (2010). The video is composed of thousands of film clips referencing the time of day, intricately edited into a 24-hour-long montage that matches real time minute for minute — a tour de force of appropriation that is also a functioning timepiece. Marclay has been known since the late 1970s for his highly crafted remixes of time-based media, from vinyl records and tape loops to digital video. He spent three years assembling this staggering work, piecing together fragments from films both famous and obscure. On Saturdays/Sundays in May SFMOMA will offer continuous 24-hour screenings in order to view the piece in full, check here for exact times. Otherwise you can view segments of the piece during regular Museum hours. Follow @TheClockSFMOMA on Twitter for estimated wait times.

May 11 – June 22, Andy Vogt, Submerged on the Surface at Eli Ridgway Gallery, 172 Minna Street: Based on the sculptural potential of lumberyard detritus and repurposed rough-cut Douglas Fir lath, Vogt’s works take on the materials in both graphic and architectural terms as well as the gray area between. His vision of well-worn, structural demise finds a language in the crisp edges and broken off-cuts of discarded plywood and lath and their shadows.The artist will transform the gallery space producing a mixture of site specific installation, sculpture and drawing using his found palette of materials. Here, shadows become plans for sculptures and edges of lath emerge as a drawing medium in works that blur the ephemeral and permanent. Opening reception, Saturday May 11, 4-7 pm.

Andy Vogt, “Shadeshape 3″ made from salvaged wood. source: www.eliridgway.com

Andy Vogt, “Shade Study 1″ & “Light Study 2″ both made from salvaged wood. source: www.eliridgway.com

May 16th – 19th, artMRKT and ArtPadSF Art Fairs: There are two contemporary art fairs coming to San Francisco in May. Art Fairs offer visitors a chance to see artists and galleries from outside San Francisco, as well all of the local galleries all in one place. artMRKT San Francisco located at the Fort Mason Center, features 70 galleries from around the globe showcasing historically important work alongside relevant contemporary pieces and projects. The Opening Night Preview Reception benefits the de Young and Legion on Honor museums. ArtPadSF is located at the Phoenix hotel and features new-on-the-scene galleries as well as highly regarded established galleries. Hotel rooms will be transformed into gallery booths by 40 national and international galleries. The ArtPadSF Opening Night Reception benefits the SFMOMA SECA Art Award exhibition. Please let us know if you would like passes to either fair.

Thursday March 28, 2013

To Do List: April

Ongoing to May 4th– Christopher Badger Lunar Mirror at Jessica Silverman Gallery, 804 Sutter Street: This exhibition features a series of sculptures made of polished cast aluminum called ”Lunar Mirrors,” as well as chalk-and-oil paintings. Using the moon as his touchstone, this body of work advances Badger’s interest in objective maps with subjective associations as well as the ambiguous relationship between reflections and projections. In making the “Lunar Mirror” reliefs, Badger starts with aerial photographs of the moon produced by the Apollo 15 crew in 1974. He traces the topographical lines of the photos, makes a vector map, and uses a 3-D modeling program to create digital files from which the works are cast. The resulting aluminum sculptures are then polished to a fine mirror finish so that the viewer can see his/her own reflection, rippled and distorted, in its surface.

Christopher Badger, “Decagon Construction”, chalk and oil on gessoed panel

Christopher Badger, “Rima Dawes” and “Rima Hadley” cast aluminum Lunar Mirrors

Installation view at Jessica Silverman Gallery

Ongoing to May 11th – John Millei Recent Paintings at George Lawson Gallery, 780 Sutter Street: George Lawson gallery has returned to San Francisco, right near Jessica Silverman Gallery, and is featuring the Los Angeles painter John Millei in his current exhibition. The paintings in this show were painted for the intimacy of the San Francisco gallery space (George Lawson also has an LA gallery). They were conceived as a progression, and in some sense perhaps as a kind of private correspondence. They are wonderfully realized abstract works that encapsulate all the movement and color that the medium of paint has to offer. The opening reception is Saturday March 30 from 5 – 8 pm.

John Millei, “Down By the Stream” and “Through the Woods”, both oil and flashe on canvas

installation view at George Lawson Gallery

Saturday, April 27th – Kala-fornia: State of the Art 3 Exhibition and Art Auction, 6:30 – 10 pm, 2990 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley: The Kala Art Institute features a two week exhibition of works by prominent California artists. The exhibition is up from April 11th and culminates on the night of Saturday, April 27th with a lively Gala Auction. Along with original artworks there will be unique art-related items and experiences offered through both live and silent auctions. Advance tickets for $45 are available by clicking here.

images from last year’s Kala-fornia: State of the Art 2 exhibition and auction.

Sunday, April 28th – Headlands Center for the Arts Spring Open House, 12 – 5pm, Fort Barry, Marin Headlands: Three Sundays a year, the Headlands Center for the Arts invites you to roam the various buildings of their campus, engage with artists in their studios, experience new work and works in progress, and stay for a homemade lunch in the Mess Hall. The Spring Open House connects visitors to the working process of artists and fosters casual conversations about the creative process. The Spring Open House features curated happenings and events scheduled throughout the day, including readings, performances, screenings, and guided walks. Click here for directions.

Cynthia Ona Innis, Liam Everett and are only a few of the visual artists participating in the Headland's Open House located at Fort Barry in the Marin Headlands.

(top row) Cynthia Ona Innis, Liam Everett and Joshua Band are only a few of the visual artists participating in the Headland’s Open House (bottom image) located at Fort Barry in the Marin Headlands.

Sunday March 17, 2013

Notes from New York

March is a busy time in New York….The Armory, ADAA, Volta, Scope, Moving Picture fairs and more. We saw them all in addition to studio visits, Chelsea and Lower East Side galleries. These are a few things we zeroed in on…

Sigrid Sandstrom at Inman Gallery

Kiki Smith at Pace

Bill Jacobson Place (Series) #788, 2013 Robert Klein Gallery

Bill Jacobson at Robert Klein Gallery

Richard Nonas at James Fuentes

Poklong Anading at Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill

Claudia Wieser at Marianne Boesky

Alexander Gutke, 9 to 5, Stormgatan 4_VI Galerija Gregor Podnar

Fausto Melotti at Barbara Mathes

Israel Lund at Roberts & Tilton

Gino Saccone at Galerie Gabriel Rolt

Diana Thater at David Zwirner

Dave Cole at Dodge Gallery

-jbk

Friday March 1, 2013

To Do List: March

March 4th, Visiting Artist and Scholars Lecture with Chris Johanson at the San Francisco Art Institute, 7:30pm: SFAI’s Visiting Artists and Scholars (VAS) lecture series provides students and faculty—as well as the wider Bay Area public—with direct exposure to major figures in contemporary global art and culture. This month’s lecture is with artist Chris Johanson. Johanson is dedicated to exploring the quandary that is the modern human condition, traversing the age of consumerism, and other perilous psychological phenomena such as self-help, psychotherapy, and cult spirituality. A veteran of the Northern California punk/skate scene, Johanson has been creating visual images since he was a teenager. His early raw, figurative drawings often utilized found or discarded materials such as reclaimed wood and paper, which were often found in dumpsters or construction sites. Since then he has expanded his oeuvre to include three-dimensional conceptual sculpture and abstraction, albeit executed with a sensitivity and wit perhaps unchallenged by any other artist of his generation. This event is FREE and open to the public. But space is limited, and advance registration is recommended by visiting this link. All VAS lectures begin at 7:30 pm in the Lecture Hall on SFAI’s 800 Chestnut Street campus. Looking ahead don’t miss these lectures in April – Tom Sachs on April 3rd, and the SFAI Photo Alliance sponsored lecture with Richard Misrach on April 19th.

Chris Johanson, Untitled, 2012, acrylic and latex paint on found wood. Source: Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery

March 16th – June 30th, Summoning the Ghosts: The Art of Hung Liu at The Oakland Museum of California: The exhibition Summoning Ghosts: The Art of Hung Liu is the first comprehensive survey of the artwork of Hung Liu—one of the most prominent Chinese painters working in the United States today. Featuring approximately 80 paintings, as well as personal ephemera such as photographs, sketch books, and informal painting studies from private and public collections around the world, the exhibition celebrates Liu’s career accomplishments and includes work completed in China before the artist arrived in the U.S. The exhibition explores the evolution of Liu’s artistic practice, and investigates the complex interactions between individual memory and history, and documentary evidence and artistic expression, among other themes. Born in Changchun, China, in 1948, a year before the creation of the People’s Republic of China, Liu lived through Maoist China and experienced the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Trained as a social realist painter and muralist, she came to the United States in 1984 to attend the University of California, San Diego, where she received her MFA. One of the first people from mainland China to study abroad and pursue an art career, she moved to northern California to become a faculty member at Mills College in 1990, and has continued to live and work in the Bay Area. She has exhibited internationally at premier museums and galleries, and her work resides in prestigious private and institutional collections around the world. Hung Liu currently lives in Oakland and is a tenured professor in the Art Department at Mills College. ~ OMCA

Hung Liu, “September 2001″, oil on canvas source: museumca.org

March 23rd, 6 – 11 pm, PARADE Southern Exposure’s Annual Art Auction: It’s time again for Southern Exposure’s Annual Fundraiser + Art Auction, PARADE, features a Live and Silent Art Auction of work from over 150 established and emerging artists, delicious food and beverages, music, and creative projects. Parade is not just an auction. It’s a party! It’s an energetic procession of artwork, filled with exuberance, fanfare, and glitz. This famously fun event provides direct and critical support for Southern Exposure’s programs and enables SoEx to continue supporting artists, presenting ambitious, groundbreaking programs, and serving as the center of visual arts activity in the Bay Area. VIP Tickets start at $150, and main event tickets are $40 in advance, $50 at the door. To purchase tickets in advance follow this link or call 415-863-2141.

Images from past Southern Exposure Art Auctions

Thursday February 14, 2013

Behind the Scenes at 101 California Street

Last weekend we installed Circles and Lines an exhibit of 10 new paintings by artist Doron Fishman in the lobby of 101 California Street. Fishman’s current practice explores abstraction using sumi ink applied through repetitive procedures. Trained as an engineer, he designs mechanisms of varying complexity to create and assist in installing his work. Take a look at the process of installing his large scale pieces. The exhibit is up until April 5th, make sure to see it!

Thursday January 31, 2013

To Do List: February

Ongoing, the new CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, Kent and Vicki Logan Gallery, 360 Kansas Street: Since it was established in 1998, the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts has become one of the leading art institutions internationally and within the United States through its exhibitions, artist residencies, publications, and public programs. The Wattis Institute is pleased to announce its relocation to a new building. With this new facility, the Wattis is positioned to expand its visitorship and host even more programs devoted to art, culture, and creativity on a local, national, and international level. Many of its initiatives are designed in close relationship with the academic programs of California College of the Arts, of which it is a part. For the inauguration of the new building the Wattis Institute is featuring two exhibitions: Claire Fontaine: Redemptions (through February 16th) and The Way Beyond Art 4: Infinite Screens (through March 30th) presenting the five-channel video installation Hearsay of the Soul (2012) by the acclaimed filmmaker and artist Werner Herzog. Paris based collective artist Claire Fontaine finished her residency at Capp Street Project in the Fall of 2012. After lifting her name from a popular brand of school notebooks, Claire Fontaine declared herself a “readymade artist” and began to elaborate a version of neo-conceptual art that often looks like other people’s work. Don’t miss her concurrent exhibit Sell Your Debt up at Queens Nails in the Mission through February 23rd.

Inside the new CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art

February 7th, Artist Talk with Leo Villareal On the Bay Lights at SFMOMA, 7pm: Light sculptor Leo Villareal discusses his latest project, The Bay Lights, an installation celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Bay Bridge and the completion of the bridge’s new eastern span. Comprising more than 25,000 white LED bulbs and covering an area 1.5 miles wide and 500 feet tall, The Bay Lights will illuminate the north face of the bridge with complex, rhythmic sequences orchestrated by the artist via laptop. The Bay Lights will premiere on March 5th and will remain in place for two years. Phyllis Wattis Theater, SFMOMA, 151 3rd Street, 7pm $10 ($7 for SFMOMA members). Watch the artist’s rendering of the installation and footage from the first testing of the piece:

February 10th – 13th, Codex International Book Fair, Craneway Pavilion, Richmond. Over 175 of the world’s most distinguished book artists and artisans, private presses, and fine art publishers will be exhibiting their art and craft. The fair is sponsored by The Codex Foundation which exists to preserve and promote the hand-made book as a work of art in the broadest possible context and to bring to public recognition the artists, the craftsmanship, and the rich history of the civilization of the book.

The scene at last year’s Codex International Book Fair

February 14th – May 27th, Kehinde Wiley, The World Stage: Israel exhibition at The Contemporary Jewish Museum: Kehinde Wiley has turned the art of portraiture into an international cultural performance, reordering connections between art and politics, and between power and class, by creating grand portraits of black urban men from around the world. One of today’s most globally-focused artists, he is known for his bold series The World Stage, which simultaneously explores the black diaspora and the international phenomenon of urban youth culture in which his models find their identity. For the The World Stage series, the artist traveled the globe for his subject matter—China, India, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Nigeria, and Senegal—discovering his subject matter in the byways of New Delhi and the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. The World Stage: Israel features men the artist met in 2010. Wiley scouted his models in malls, bars, and sporting venues in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Lod, through what he calls “street casting.” The men he depicts are from diverse religions and ethnicities—Israeli Jews, Ethiopian Jews, and Israeli Arabs—but all share the same alpha-male presence essential to the artist’s vision. “I look for people who possess a certain type of power in the streets,” Wiley explains. Exhibition opening and launch party, Wednesday, February 13th, 7:30pm, The Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission Street, $100.

Kehinde Wiley, The World Stage: Israel, Benediter Brkou, Kalkidan Mashasha II, Leviathan Zodiac.

Wednesday January 2, 2013

To Do List: January

Ongoing to January 26th, Val Britton window installation at SFAC 155 Grove Street: The San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries presents The Continental Interior, a site-specific installation by Val Britton. Drawing on the language of maps, Britton makes imaginary landscapes that depict physical and psychological spaces. For The Continental Interior, Britton expands the boundaries of her art practice in paper collage, painting, drawing and printmaking by breaking out of the two-dimensional into three-dimensional space, creating a large-scale installation made from hand cut, organic paper shapes that resemble landmasses. This installation is viewable 24/7, so there’s no excuse not to see it.

Val Britton, The Continental Interior installation

Opening January 18th – February 16th, Taraneh Hemami Resistance at the Luggage Store, 1007 Market Street: Resistance surfaces the underground visual culture of protest, making visible the otherwise absent histories of dissent in Iran and its diaspora through the production of collected and found historical archives, hand-crafted replications of a “social media” before the word existed. Resistance builds on Hemami’s Theory of Survival, collected historical archives from local communities and the web of decades of otherwise banned and censored print matter belonging to the Iranian Students Association of Northern California active from 1964-1984. The material reflects the political sensibilities of the Iranian student organizations worldwide in books, periodicals, newspapers published both inside and outside of Iran. The opening reception is Thursday January 18th from 6-8pm. Also not to miss and still on view is Hemami’s public art installation at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts entitled Free. A neon sign repeats the word “free” in English and Arabic in a circular shape, as in a Sufi prayer, an incantation, a chant, or a declaration. It shines on intricate mirrored vinyl patterns, interacting with the architecture, integrating with the structure, as it alters the identity of the building, while echoing the call for freedom across the globe.

“Heros Martyrs Legends” from Theory of Survival and “Free” a public art installation at YBCA

January 25th and January 26th, SF Dump Artist in Residence Exhibition Openings, 401 & 503 Tunnel Ave: Michael Damm, Julia Goodman and Jeff Hantman are the current artists in residence at Recology San Francisco. This exhibition is the culmination of four months of work by the artists who have scavenged materials from the dump to make art and promote recycling and reuse. During his residency Michael Damm has created a new video installation for his ongoing series, Incidental Films for an Accidental Audience. In these projects, Damm uses rear projection to present site-specific videos at night in large windows or doorways along transit corridors. Using the night sky as inspiration, Julia Goodman has created a body of work entitled Rag Sorters and Star Gazers that incorporates the stars as literal and metaphorical guides. A separate body of work is rooted in Goodman’s papermaking practice. These pieces explore the intertwined relationship women have had historically with rag paper, and include the role of San Francisco female laborers in this history. Jeff Hantman combines a range of techniques and materials to create three-dimensional paintings that bow and bulge out from the wall. While at Recology, Hantman has expanded his practice to include free-standing sculptural works. Now viewers can walk around his forms and view the frameworks that underlie his characteristic curved shapes, seeing interiors which are as visually compelling as their exteriors. Reception and viewing hours are: Friday 1/25, 5-9pm reception. Saturday 1/26, 1-3pm reception. Additional viewing hours Tuesday 1/29, 5-7pm along with an artist panel discussion the same night at 7pm at 401 Tunnel Ave.