Evelyn Reyes, William Scott, and Susan Wise. Image courtesy of Creativity Explored.
June 1 to 29– CE x CG x NIAD at Minnesota Street Project’s Gallery 107: Florence and Elias Katz founded Creative Growth in 1974 in response to statewide cuts in services for adults with disabilities. In 1983 they opened Creativity Explored in San Francisco and in 1984 they went on to create NIAD (Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development) in Richmond. The three art studios share a common mission to serve and support artists with developmental and intellectual disabilities by providing professional studio space, exhibition opportunities, and representation. CE x CG x NIAD is a rare opportunity to view works by artists from all three studios. Since their inception, the studios have paved the path for artists with disabilities in the contemporary art field. Minnesota Street Project’s Gallery 107 is located at 1275 Minnesota Street.
Lecture: Saturday, June 1, 2- 4pm. The lecture will be a lively conversation on artists with disabilities and the role their art practice plays in the larger contemporary art world. Panelists include Linda Johnson (Creativity Explored), Tom di Maria (Creative Growth), Amanda Eicher (NIAD Art Center), Jack Fischer (Jack Fischer Gallery), Nancy Lim (SFMOMA), and Doug Robson.
Ala Ebtekar, “Thirty-six Views of the Moon”, 2018. Image courtesy of McEvoy Foundation for the Arts.
Ongoing to September 7– What is an edition anyway? at McEvoy Foundation for the Arts: In the exhibition, artistic approaches in photography, performance, illustration, technology, and installation further explore the notion of an edition as an idea reproduced in limited quantities. Featuring limited-edition artists’ books, prints, album covers, film ephemera, and other objects dating from the mid-20th century to the present, the exhibition provides a historical context to editions-based practices while engaging six contemporary artists to contribute creative projects that reflect their personal interpretations of the concept. Themes of politics, ownership, authenticity, sampling, distribution, creative autonomy, and empowerment run strongly through the presented objects and artworks. McEvoy Foundation for the Arts is located at 1150 25th Street, Building B.
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 1, 6– 8pm
(left) Camille Eskell, “Taskmaster Fez: Avadim (we were slaves)”, 2016. (middle) Mournir Fatmi, “Maximum Sensation”, 2010. (right) Faig Ahmed, “Hal”, 2016. Images courtesy of Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts.
Ongoing to June 23– Tradition Interrupted at Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts: The exhibition explores the methods used by artists to conflate contemporary ideas with traditional art and craft in a range of media, from rugs and quilts to metal and ceramic. After hundreds, sometimes thousands of years of crafting and creating, many traditional practices continue to visually define a culture. Merging age-old customs with innovation, the 14 artists in this show redefine or reclaim culturally historic ideas to create contemporary works. Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts is located at 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek.
Related Event: Saturday, June 1, 3- 5pm. In conjunction with the show, exhibited artist and social practice worker Ramekon O’Arwisters will host a “Crochet Jam”. This ongoing community art project is based on his life-long connection to the African American tradition of weaving in inclusive, friendly environments without rules or restrictions. During “Crochet Jams”, participants engage in the folk-art tradition of rag weaving while fostering a culture of cooperation.
Richard Kalvar, “Dog”, 1975. Image courtesy of Magnum Photos.
June 3 to 9– StreetFoto San Francisco at various venues in San Francisco: StreetFoto is an annual international festival dedicated to the art of street photography, a celebration of public life captured in candid frames. Each year the festival attracts visitors from around the globe to a weeklong lineup of lectures, workshops, slideshows, photowalks, and exhibitions. Events will take place at several venues around SF, including the Harvey Milk Photo Center, Photoworks and SF Camerawork. All the events are free, and do not require registration.
Related Event: Thursday, June 6, 5:30- 7:30pm. As part of the festival, SF Camerawork will host an exhibition that draws upon the endless well of talent in Women in Street (WiS). WiS is a collaboration of female street photographers from around the world and a diverse selection of diptychs will be on view as well as an artist talk with WiS founder, Casey Meshbesher.
Brian Belott, “Kid’s Copies”, 2014-2017. Image courtesy of San Francico Arts Commission.
June 6 to March 13– Brian Belott’s RHODASCOPE: Scribbles, Smears, and the Universal Language of Children According to Rhoda Kellogg at San Francisco Arts Commission Main Gallery: Artist and child art enthusiast, Brian Belott came across Rhoda Kellogg while researching children’s art. Kellogg was an early childhood scholar, educator, author, and activist who was in a near-continual state of processing child art for six decades, most significantly as the designer and director of the Phoebe A. Hearst Preschool in San Francisco. Kellogg amassed an extensive and wide-ranging collection of child art—numbering over a million pieces—through her travels in 30 countries around the world and Belott’s curiosity eventually led him to the storage facility holding all of the work. Since then, he has been the steward of the collection, celebrating Kellogg and her inspiring efforts as well as creating his own work. The exhibition brings together work from the collection selected by Belott as well as Belott’s own child art “forgery” paintings and several of Kellogg’s original artworks. Belott’s works on canvas are handmade copies of drawings and paintings originally made by children. Eccentric and uncanny, the series finds an adult artist striving for the impossibility of total freedom from self-consciousness. They are his tribute to childhood. San Francisco Art Commissions Main Gallery is located at 401 South Van Ness Avenue, Suite 126.
Rina Banerjee, “Take me, take me, take me…to the Palace of love”, 2003. Image courtesy of San José Museum of Art.
Ongoing to October 6– Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World at the San José Museum of Art: Banerjee creates vivid sculptures and installations made from materials sourced throughout the world. She is a voracious gatherer of objects—in a single sculpture one can find African tribal jewelry, colorful feathers, light bulbs, Murano glass, and South Asian antiques in conflict and conversation with one another. These sensuous assemblages reverberate with bright colors and surprising textures present simultaneously as familiar and unfamiliar. The exhibition focuses on four interdependent themes in Banerjee’s work that coincide with important issues of our time: immigration and identity; the lasting effects of colonialism and its relationship to globalization; feminism; and climate change. San José Museum of Art is located at 110 South Market Street in San José.
Bernard Lokai, “Strahl,” 2018. Image courtesy of Hosfelt Gallery.
Ongoing to July 3– Bernard Lokai: Painting at Hosfelt Gallery: German painter Bernard Lokai explores the seemingly infinite possibilities of paint applied to canvas. In the work, the tension between abstraction and representation operates as a metaphor for philosophical examinations of appearance and disappearance, permanence and impermanence, creation and destruction. The works are bold expressions of color and mark-making and often combine multiple painting techniques within a single work. From sprayed neon acrylics to thickly applied, gestural brushstrokes in oil, Lokai’s purpose is neither to express emotion nor reference a particular subject. Rather, his practice ceaselessly probes the traditions and tropes of painting in unbounded pursuit of latent meanings and potential. Hosfelt Gallery is located at 260 Utah Street.
Jim Hodges, “Unearthed”, 2015- 2019. Image courtesy of Stephen Friedman Gallery.
Ongoing to September 8– Jim Hodges: Unearthed at Grace Cathedral: Unearthed is a monumental tree stump with its roots pulled from the ground. Cast in bronze with a black patina, the unearthed object hovers between worlds– above and below the earth. During a four month period of display, the sculpture will undergo a process of gradual transformation. The work will first be presented standing tall on its roots. The trunk’s bronze roots will then be buried in the earth, and the trunk gilded in 24-carat gold. After its four months of display in Grace Cathedral, Unearthed will be returned to its original, organic natural state with the bronze roots buried in the earth and the trunk section exposed above the ground as it was originally found. Once buried, the large above-ground trunk will be gilded with 24-carat gold. The golden trunk in situ will mark the completion of the work. The power of the stump lies in its direct reference to the symbolic process of life and rebirth. The magnificent gilt trunk of the tree demonstrates its firm and unshakeable connection with its past. Viewers confront and accept their inability to see the buried roots of the tree, in full knowledge of their hidden intricate beauty. Grace Cathedral is located at 110 California Street.
Related Event: Susan Griffin, Saturday, June 29, 7:30pm. To coincide with the work, a program has been organized that will present a series of musical performances and a public reading that follow along narratives that echo and reflect along the varied themes that resonate from the sculpture.