Marshall Elliott ‘Dust to Dust’, Randy Colosky ‘Ghost in the Machine’ and Imin Yeh ‘Radiator’.

Ongoing – February 22nd, (Im)Material exhibition at the Headlands Center for the Arts:  Guest curated by Kevin B. Chen this exhibit includes 18 artists whose work surveys the slippery line that divides the known/unknown, tangible/intangible and terrestrial/extramundane.  Exhibition hours are Sunday – Thursday Noon – 5pm.  The Headlands Center for the Arts is located in Fort Barry in the Marin Headlands.

Alec Soth, ‘Miss Model Contestants’, 2012  Image courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery.

February 5th – April 4th, Alec Soth: Songbook at Fraenkel Gallery:  Alec Soth has recently turned his lens toward community life in the country. From 2012 to 2014 Soth traveled the United States looking for signs of social life in our era of virtual social networks. To aid in his search, Soth assumed the increasingly obsolescent role of community newspaper reporter. From upstate New York to Silicon Valley, he attended hundreds of meetings, dances, festivals and family gatherings.  In this exhibition of approximately 20 photographs, Soth has stripped the pictures of their news context in order to highlight the longing for connection at their root.  There will be a book signing with the artist at the opening reception on Thursday, February 5th from 5:30 – 7:30 pm.  Fraenkel Gallery is located at 49 Geary Street, 4th floor.

Details of work in ‘The Way Things Go’: Top – Arin Rungjang ‘Golden Teardrop’ installation and video still,  Center – Maria Thereza Alvez ‘ Wake in Guangzhou: The History of Earth’ and Rirkrit Tiravanija.   Bottom – Camille Henrot ‘Living Underwater’ and Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan ‘Monument of Sugar’.  Images courtesy of YBCA.

February 13th – May 24th, A Special Curatorial Project with Rirkrit Tiravanija: The Way Things Go, Various public programs: Rirkrit Tiravanija is an international artist whose installations often take the form of stages or rooms for sharing meals, cooking, reading or playing music; architecture or structures for living and socializing are a core element in his work.  For this exhibition, Tiravanija invited 12 artists from Asia and Europe, as well as from the San Francisco Bay Area, to contribute works related to the circulation and anthropology of seeds, plants, food, recipes, and related materials of kitchen culture that have circulated across regions and time. In conjunction with this exhibit, various public programs—including lectures at UC Berkeley, the San Francisco Art Institute, and Headlands Center for the Arts, where Tiravanija is a 2015 Artist in Residence—will accompany the exhibition.  Following are the events:

Friday, February 13th: Opening Night Party – The Way Things Go, 8pm at YBCA. Featuring 12 artists working in mixed-media installations, film, video and archive-oriented art.  Purchase tickets here.  

Friday, February 20th: Artist Lecture – Fear Eats the Soul, 7 pm at SFAI.  Tiravanija speaks about his work.  Free, rsvp here.

Sunday, February 22nd: Artist Dinner – Local Source, 6:30 pm at Headland Center for the Arts.  Share a meal and conversation orchestrated by Tiravanija.  Purchase tickets here.

Monday, February 23rd: Artist Lecture – The Way Things Go, 7:30 pm at the David Brower Center, Berkeley.  Tiravanija will speak about the principles and ideas that underscore the exhibition.  Free, rsvp here.

Benoît Maire’s exhibition and bookstore. Images courtesy of Kiria Koula.

Ongoing – March 7th, Benoît Maire Exhibition & Bookstore at Kiria Koula:   Kiria Koula is a gallery and bookstore located in the Mission District.  The gallery exhibition program features new work by national and international emerging and mid-career artists and provides them with a platform for discussions around it.  The bookstore program highlights the artist’s role as researcher and thinker, rather than exclusively a producer of objects.  French artist Benoît Maire is currently featured in both the exhibition space and the bookstore.  His practice revolves around the interaction of objects, images, words and philosophical ideas and how they might co-exist and transform over time.  His process is one of collage, montage and assemblage.  In 2008 he started writing a manual of aesthetics where images, objects and writing are combined to bring forth some contemporary issues on the subject.  Kiria Koula is open Wednesday – Saturday, 11 am – 6pm and is located at 3148 22nd Street.

Gohar Dashti ‘Untitled #5 from the series Today’s Life and War’, Shirin Neshat ‘Roja’, and Tanya Habjouqa ‘Untitled from the series Women of Gaza’.  Images courtesy of the Cantor Arts Center.

Ongoing – May 4th, She Who Tells A Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University:  Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this exhibition presents the pioneering work of 12 leading women photographers from Iran and the Arab world. These photographers have tackled the very notion of representation with passion and power, questioning tradition and challenging perceptions of Middle Eastern identity. The work provides insights into political and social issues, including questions of personal identity and exploring the complex political and social landscapes of their home regions in images of great sophistication, expressiveness, and beauty.  Related programs with this exhibition include:

Thursday, March 5th, 12:15 pm:  Gallery Talk – Dr. Attiya Ahmad, Stanford Humanities Center Fellow and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the George Washington University, provides a unique perspective on the exhibition’s photographs through the lenses of gender, feminist studies, and her scholarship on the Middle East. Located in the Pigott Family Gallery

Thursday, March 19th, 5:30 pm: Artist Panel – Three of the artists discuss their work: Boushra Almutawakel (born 1969 in Yemen, resides in Yemen and France); Tanya Habjouqa (born 1975 in Jordan, resides in East Jerusalem); and Rania Matar (born 1964 in Lebanon, resides in the U.S.). Located in the Cantor Auditorium.

Thursday, April 30th, 5:30 pm – Reframe Iran profiles 40 Iranian artists through text, photographs, and immersive video.  Located in the Cantor Auditorium.