Alice Wong, “Untitled”, acrylic on vintage album. Image courtesy of Creative Growth Art Center.
December 1st- January 11th- Holiday Show: MORE IS MORE at Creative Growth Art Center: Creative Growth celebrates the holidays with all that is excessive, luxurious, and bold in their annual Holiday Exhibition and Studio Sale. In the exhibition More is More, ogle the opulent layers of beads, jewelry, and trinkets in Juan Aguilera‘s sculptural creations; gratify the desire for more in Paul Field‘s scenes, where sundry characters fill every inch of his drawn tableaux, or with the densely packed repetition of forms covering Ricardo Gaitan‘s work; and push the limits of what’s naughty and nice with nude punk angels crafted of wood by Casey Byrnes and Kim Clark‘s drawn celebrations of bawdy celebrity culture. At Creative Growth’s annual Studio Sale, find the studio brimming with one-of-a-kind textiles, furniture, ceramics, rugs, mosaics, wood, drawings and paintings, prints, and much, much more. Each purchase made gives back to Creative Growth and the artists who call our Oakland-based studio home. Creative Growth Art Center is located at 355 24th Street in Oakland.
Exhibition Opening Party and Studio Sale: Friday, December 1st, 5:30- 9:00pm
Live Music by: JimBo Trout & the FishPeople
Pizza Pop- up by: Fist of Flour Pizza Co.
Beer generously donated by: Temescal Brewing
Klea McKenna, “Automatic Earth”, 2016. Photographic rubbings. Image courtesy of EUQINOMprojects.
Ongoing to January 2nd- Klea McKenna, Witness Mark at EUQINOMprojects: EUQINOMprojects presents Witness Mark. McKenna continues to push the boundaries of photography by subverting the traditional use of her medium. Witness Mark will feature new “photographic rubbings” of the textures of concentric tree-rings and a large installation of hand-embossed imprints of earth and concrete depicting a fractured imaginary landscape. The exhibition also debuts new work that reveals intricate photographic reliefs of textiles. Fraying fibers and unraveling embroidery imprint their flaws onto the photographic paper in crystalline detail. These threadbare fabrics act as surrogates for the very bodies that made and wore them. McKenna’s incisive explorations of broken patterns record the story of each subject through its imperfections. She depicts these ruptures in the landscape and material culture as allegories for human emotional experience. In addition to the gallery exhibition, we will be debuting McKenna’s short film, ALMA, across the atrium in the Media Room. The non-narrative film tracks the movement of a flock of women through a megalithic landscape. EUQINOMprojects is located at 1275 Minnesota Street.
Opening Reception: Saturday, December 2nd, 5- 8pm
Store front. Image courtesy of Adobe Books & Arts.
December 1st to December 22nd- Art Shop (exhibit/ pop- up/ raffle) at Adobe Books & Arts: Art Shop is an Exhibition and Pop-up shop sharing/selling art and handmade goods created by artists working in the Bay Area. This is a wonderful opportunity to buy gifts this holiday while supporting local artists and arts organizations. Paintings, prints, books, zines, t-shirts, hats, pottery, plants, stickers, pins, and more, will all be for sale!
RAFFLE: Spend $25 during Dec 1st-17th and your name will be placed into a raffle to win some great prizes including Alicia McCarthy artwork, Adobe Books merchandise, art books, and more! There will also be a special door prize on opening night! Adobe Books & Arts Cooperative is located at 3130 24th Street.
Opening Reception: Saturday, December 2nd, 6- 9pm
Pop- up shop: December 1st- 17th
Exhibition: December 1st- 22nd
Lena Wolff, “Spell”, 2017. Collage with hand-cut and painted papers, acrylic, watercolor, gouache. Image courtesy of the de Young Museum.
December 2nd, 2- 2:30pm- The Song is Love: FUTURE CHORUS Performance at the de Young Museum: November artist-in-residence Lena Wolff has assembled a chorus of over 25 members who are writing songs in response to the current political climate. Taking a cue from the title of an album by the Quails, The Song Is Love, Lena Wolff looks at the power of art and collaboration to generate empathy and sublime experiences in times of political and ecological unrest. FUTURE CHORUS will rehearse each Sunday afternoon in the Kimball Education Gallery, culminating in this performance. The de Young Museum is located at 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive in Golden Gate Park.
Debra Bloomfield, “Pacific Sea Wall” 2016, pigment ink print (left). Rachelle Bussières, “Eclipse IV” 2017, lumen print on gelatin silver paper (middle). Rebecca Norris Webb, “Badlands” 2010, chromogenic print (right). Images courtesy of Robert Koch Gallery.
Ongoing to December 30th- BLOOMFIELD | BUSSIÈRES | WEBB at Robert Koch Gallery: Debra Bloomfield’s newest large-scale photograph series, Seas, embodies the subtle variations of tones, the brilliant gradations of the sky, and the muted turbulence of the surface of the sea. Rachelle Bussières continues her darkroom exploration and experimentation by cutting, layering and manipulating photographic materials. Influenced by geological strata and astral movements and their transformative properties, her work eschews conventional darkroom techniques. Originally a poet, Rebecca Norris Webb has published six photography books that incorporate both photographs and text. She unearths the elegiac qualities and forgotten narratives tied to specific locations, pointing her lens at seemingly unremarkable sights from unusual vantage points. Robert Koch Gallery is located at 49 Geary Street.
Reception: Thursday, December 7, 5:30 – 7:30pm
Seiko Tachibana, “Connection Blossom F- 2”, 2015. Acrylic and ink on canvas. Image courtesy of KALA Art Institute.
December 10th, 12- 5pm- Pop Up Art Sale at KALA Art Institute Gallery: KALA’s one day pop up sale has arrived! This is a great opportunity to buy gifts by one of KALA’s Resident Artists. Participating artists include: Dan McClain, Deborah Sibony, Donna Westerman, Elizabeth Sher, Helene Cote, Holly Downing, Jamie Brunson, Janine Brown, Ewa Gavrielov, Julia Lucey, Kate Klingbeil, Kerry Vandermeer, Louise Leong, Mary V. Marsh, Carissa Potter, Seiko Tachibana, Sylvia Solochek Walters, Veronica Graham and more! KALA Gallery is located at 2990 San Pablo Ave in Berkeley.
Isaac Julien, still from “KAPITAL”, 2013. Video installation. Image courtesy of Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.
December 1st to February 11th- Isaac Julien, Playtime at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture: Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (FMCAC) announces Playtime, an exhibition of three recent video installations by award-winning British artist Isaac Julien. Each film installation explores the wide-ranging effects of how information, labor, and capital circulate in global, networked societies. The exhibition presents the U.S. premiere of Julien’s seven-screen installation, Playtime (2014), featuring a cast of international film stars, including James Franco, Maggie Cheung, and Mercedes Cabral. The exhibition also presents KAPITAL (2013), a two-screen companion piece to Playtime, documents the public discussion “Choreographing Capital”. In addition to Playtime and KAPITAL, a third artwork by Julien will inaugurate the San Francisco Art Institute’s newly constructed Gray Box media gallery at FMCAC—Better Life (Ten Thousand Waves) (2010)—the cinematic cut of Julien’s monumental installation Ten Thousand Waves, filmed on location in mainland China. Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture is located at 2 Marina Boulevard.