March 2 to May 4– Kour Pour: Manzareh/ Keshiki/ Landscape at Ever Gold [Projects]: Primarily working with painting and printmaking, Kour Pour’s works encompass diverse subject matter and culturally specific references, ranging from Persian carpets to Japanese prints, and Western Abstraction to Eastern landscape painting. These references are used as starting points for his paintings, in which a source image is often cropped, abstracted, or otherwise modified in palette to create vivid, intricate and layered painted surfaces. Kour’s synthesis of image and process often connects different art histories in an attempt to highlight the cultural exchanges that lead to artistic innovation and disrupt the notion of singular originality. Ever Gold [Projects] is located at 1275 Minnesota Street. 

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 2, 5– 8pm

 

Ongoing to March 23– MFA Now 2019 at Root Division: The exhibition showcases artists in their MFA programs from nine of the top Bay Area institutions: California College of the Arts, Mills College, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Davis, and University of California, Santa Cruz. MFA Now provides a platform for looking at Bay Area artists and institutions in order to promote dialogue between programs and to archive current art-making practices and models. The exhibition will include the work of 25 artists that were selected based on a single image and artist statement. The works included in this exhibition display a quality of content and execution that is indicative of the rigor of advanced art degree programs. Works range in media from large scale installation, to video, sculpture, photography and painting. Root Division is located at 1131 Mission Street.

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 9, 7– 10pm

 

March 9 to June 1– Amulet or He calls it chaos at 500 Capp Street Foundation: This exhibition provides a story about transformations taking place inside “the institution”. David Ireland calls it chaos, as the exhibition unfolds an abstract narrative, shifting viewers’ expectations whenever possible. The works are installed side by side or overlapping and each work is pulled from a distinct narrative thread. Abstract as this may seem, exhibitions allow viewers the opportunity to restructure a narrative, to slow down time. Building moments that represent meaning is a way to tell a story– this exhibition reflects courage and mirrors, desire and pleasure, and it will sustain and survive, even as destruction or construction continues constantly. The works in the exhibition address the power and sensitivity of architecture, gender, politics, and mortality through sculpture, video and painting. Artists included are: Mathis Altmann, Tony Cokes, Moyra Davey, Michel Houellebecq, Hans Haacke, Katharina Grosse, Rashid Johnson, Sherrie Levine, Mark McCloud, Cady Noland, Will Rogan, Jorge Satorre, Cindy Sherman, Gabriel Sierra, Oscar Tuazon, and Andra Ursuţa. 500 Capp Street Foundation is located at at David Ireland House, 500 Capp Street.

 

Ongoing to March 24– JR: The Chronicles of San Francisco at Pace Gallery: JR is a French artist and photographer known for his large-scale urban murals that address socio-economic and political issues. This new series of works, dedicated to the city and people of San Francisco, includes portraits, works on paper, video installations, lightboxes, and etched glass works.  JR imagines how a whole city and its diversity of residents can be represented through art. San Francisco’s long muralist tradition and its stark contrasts—featuring both immense innovation and wealth as well as one of the country’s highest rates of child homelessness—has made it a vibrant and complex site for the artist to explore and capture. Pace Gallery is located at 229 Hamilton Avenue in Palo Alto.

 

Ongoing to March 24– From the Tower: Andy Warhol at SFAI’s Main Gallery at Fort Mason: In anticipation for the Warhol exhibition opening at SFMOMA in May, the exhibition at SFAI explores artworks, images, objects, and stories living within SFAI’s Andy Warhol archives. A series of polaroids, black and white photographs, and screenprints will be exhibited. This exhibition will showcase a range of work from different series, exploring well known themes such as Americana and celebrity to intimate and more personal moments with friends and lovers. SFAI’s Main Gallery is located at 2 Marina Blvd at Fort Mason.

 

Ongoing to March 30– Andy Diaz Hope and Laurel Roth Hope: An Inexhaustive Study of Power at Catherine Clark Gallery: Throughout their respective careers, Diaz Hope and Roth Hope have created work that responds to the environment and conservation, the dissemination of information through mass media, and the relationship between narrative and spirituality. The exhibition imagines an immersive space that employs “the aesthetics of a richly appointed apartment overlooking a world on the brink of societal collapse.” Diaz Hope and Roth Hope reference design elements found in sources such as presidential portraits and religious art, raising questions about how power is evoked and reflected through visual forms. The artists transform the gallery into a suite of decorated and furnished rooms, with overt nods to the “selfie” culture. While seamlessly blending in with their surroundings, their artworks invite deeper reflection, on the political, psycho-social, and environmental costs of material adornment. Catherine Clark Gallery is located at 248 Utah Street.

 

Thursday, March 21, 7pm– Tacita Dean Artist Talk at SFMOMA’s Phyllis Wattis Theater: British artist and filmmaker Tacita Dean will discuss and present a slideshow of her projects. Working primarily in film, Dean’s use of photography seems an act of mourning for the analog world of documents and photographs as it passes into the realm of a massive digital archive. Her recent film portraits express something that neither painting nor photography can capture– they are purely film. Dean‘s work is carried by a sense of history, time and place, light quality and the essence of the film itself. The focus of her subtle but ambitious work is the truth of the moment, the film as a medium and the sensibilities of the individual. She is one of the Young British Artists, was a nominee for the Turner Prize in 1998 and was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2008. This talk is part of the Larry Sultan Visiting Artist Program, co-presented by California College of the Arts, Pier 24 Photography, and SFMOMA. The Phyllis Wattis Theater at SFMOMA is located at 151 Third St. 

RSVP here.

 

Saturday, March 23, 6pm– 45 RPM, 45 Years of Southern Exposure Annual Benefit Art Auction at Minnesota Street Project: The annual auction is a celebration of Southern Exposure’s support for the Bay Area’s diverse art ecosystems through the decades. The grand atrium of Minnesota Street Project will be the stage for highlighting some of the greatest hits from Southern Exposure’s history of presenting cutting edge artworks. The event will also have vintage vinyl spinning by DJ Hot Fruit, pop-up performances, and the chance to bid on more than 100 works of contemporary art from emerging and internationally recognized artists through live and silent auctions. Minnesota Street Project is located at 1275 Minnesota Street.

Buy tickets here.

 

Ongoing to June 9– Stephanie Metz: Figurative Fiber, Alan Rath: Virtual Unreality, Sofie Ramos: Stuff(ed) at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA): Three exciting exhibitions open at the San Jose ICA this month. Stephanie Metz: Figurative Fiber exhibits Metz’s biomorphic abstract sculptures made out of wool and felt. She works primarily in wool and industrial felt to create detailed, complex, and mysterious forms that defy their origins. These sculptures explore the tension created when opposing qualities coexist.

Alan Rath: Virtual Unreality marks the first large-scale retrospective survey of work by Bay Area-based artist Alan Rath. All of his sculptures utilize custom electronics designed and fabricated by the artist. Many of his works modify their behavior in unexpected ways over long spans of time, some taking years or even decades to display surprising new imagery.

Sofie Ramos: Stuff(ed) consists of immersive, colorful installations that allow the viewer to physically walk into a painting. Shapes, surfaces and objects respond and adapt to, fuse with, and adulterate their surroundings. There are no boundaries or edges; the paint moves from the wall to the floor to objects. San Jose ICA is located at 560 South First Street in San Jose.