Wilson Rodríguez “Terraza Ancestral”, acrylic on paper. Image courtesy of Slash Art.
Ongoing to June 26 – Arboreal at Slash Art: This is Slash Art’s inaugural exhibition at their new space at Minnesota Street Project. This group exhibition, curated by Juana Berrío, brings together artists around the idea that humans are like trees – we belong to a closely connected yet diverse forest. The exhibition proposes an “arboreal” way of understanding the world and invites us to rethink the relationship we have with the forests and with one another. The artists’ works draw on Indigenous knowledge and experience, notions of inner sound and resonance, Buddhist pragmatism, the practice of walking, activism, and biology. While trees appear to be static, unable to move from one place to another, their bodies contain the many interconnected layers and nuances that make life possible. Artists in the exhibition: Bill Fontana, Helen Mirra, Delcy Morelos, Wilson Rodríguez, Emerson Uýra, and Cecilia Vicuña. Slash Art is located at 1150 25th Street and is open by appointment. To visit, please schedule an appointment here.
Jayashree Chakravarty, “Personal Space” painting on paper and Lam Tung Pang “A Day of Two Suns” video installation. Images courtesy of the Asian Art Museum.
On View – Memento: Jayashree Chakravarty and Lam Tung Pang at The Asian Art Museum: The inaugural Hambrecht Contemporary Gallery installation, Memento, includes two works that speak to contemporary global issues of urbanization and political uncertainty. The immersive video installation A day of two Suns (2019) by Hong Kong–based artist Lam Tung Pang (b. 1978) captures a changing Hong Kong. On both sides of a suspended diaphanous paper screen, unsynchronized images from four projectors combine with shadows of museum visitors, inviting us into an emotional landscape. “This work is prophetic and nostalgic,” notes Head of Contemporary Art Abby Chen about the newly acquired work. “It documents a city, and a system, in the process of fading and awakening.” Personal Space (2001), a layered, dreamlike painting by Kolkata-based artist Jayashree Chakravarty (b. 1956), is an imaginary map built up from painted strips of paper. At eight feet tall and more than 30 feet wide, the colossal scroll furls and unfurls, establishing an architectural presence in the gallery. As you circle the work in an attempt to chart a course through the chaos of streets, signs, and natural landmarks, you experience the disorientation the artist felt as the rapidly expanding city swallowed the countryside of her youth.
Ebony G. Patterson “… between the stems sits a red cap above and below crown imperials…” mixed media. Image courtesy of SJICA.
Ongoing to September 5 – Ebony G. Patterson …when the cuts erupt…the garden rings…and the warning is a wailing… at San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art: This exhibition is the first major solo exhibition of Ebony G. Patterson on the West Coast. It features a large-scale, five-panel work displayed with custom wallpaper, a sculptural and tapestry installation and two large works on paper hung as a diptych. Patterson has long been fascinated by the garden and its metaphorical possibilities. The garden is a “postcolonial” symbol in her work, where the invisible remnants of violent histories interrupt visible space. The garden offers many rich possibilities for
Sanford Biggers “BAM (Seated Warrior)” bronze. Image courtesy of San Jose Museum of Art.
Ongoing to April 25 – Barring Freedom at the San Jose Museum of Art: Barring Freedom features works by twenty US-based artists that challenge how individuals see and understand our nation’s prison industrial complex—a nexus of policing, surveillance, detention, and imprisonment. While this group show was conceptualized before the current crises, first COVID-19, with its ongoing and unequal effects, and then the brutal onslaught of police killings of Black people in the United States, these recent events have brought into sharp relief the horrific consequences of mass incarceration in the US, which has the highest number of jailed individuals across developed nations. The San Jose Museum of art is open Friday–Sunday, 11am–5pm.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021, 4 to 5:30 – (RE) Enacting a Revolution with Dred Scott and Erin Gray: In conjunction with the exhibition is this conversation about art, revolution, and reenactments. Dread Scott’s recent large-scale art project, Slave Rebellion Reenactment, was a community-engaged performance reenacting the largest rebellion of enslaved people in U.S. history. Professor Erin Gray, UC Davis, will join him in conversation. Register for the conversation here.
Elisheva Biernoff “Signal”
April 1 to May 28 – Elisheva Biernoff: Starting from Wrong at Fraenkel Gallery: This exhibition features twelve meticulously detailed paintings measuring no larger than 4 x 5 inches each. All completed since 2017, Biernoff’s recent paintings are carefully observed, two-sided works based on found and anonymous photographs. Each of Biernoff’s paintings requires three to four months to complete, belying the instantaneous nature of the source material. Aptly beginning with a work titled Wrong 1966, Biernoff’s new paintings depict photographs that may be considered to have failed in a variety of ways. These “failures” include various forms of fading, sun flares, and color shifts, with elements that appear to be damaged or missing. In Him, 2018, a man in a suit is obscured by sunlight coming from behind, rendering him anonymous, and breaking photography’s classic taboo against placing a subject in front of bright light. A mysterious Polaroid verges on jarring abstraction in Instant, 2021, as dark grey patches of “damaged” emulsion appear to rend a light-dappled oceanscape. Fraenkel Gallery is located at 49 Geary Street. To visit, please book an appointment here.
Clockwise from top left: Danielle Dean, Genevieve Quick, Rene Yung (photo by Andria Lo), David de Rozas. Images of artists courtesy of Headlands Center for the Arts.
Wednesday April 21, 6 to 6:45pm – Online Open Studios with Danielle Dean, Genevieve Quick, Rene Yung and David de Rozas: Visiting an artist’s studio at Headlands Center for the Arts is one of the most magical experiences. The informal conversations about process and practice, bumping into someone you know, the serendipitous connections that arise in the buzz of ideas and aesthetics. Headlands Center for the Arts is hoping to capture that buzz in an online open studios event with Headlands Artists, and they invite you to drop-in from wherever you are. Register now, and on the day of you’ll be able to pop-in to virtual rooms via Hopin to chat with Artists, and each other. Register for the online event here.
Lance Rivers “Untitled (Bridge pillars)” watercolor and ballpoint on paper. Image courtesy of Creativity Explored.
Friday, April 23, 5:30 – 7:00: Art Changes Lives A virtual benefit for Creativity Explored: Creativity Explored gives artists with developmental disabilities the means to create and share their work with the community, celebrating the power of art to change lives. This year’s annual benefit features a virtual cocktail reception, featuring surprising entertainment, community connections and interactive activities. Then tune into a live auction, and a short program celebrating Creativity Explored’s talented artists and their life changing services. Stick around after the show to dance and mingle with the CE community. For tickets and event registration, please visit here.