Artsource Blog

Check back here from time to time to get updates on what we like, exhibits to see, and art related ideas. If you’re interested in more information about what you see here, please email us.

January To Do List

“Easy Living” production still, 1984, by Chip Lord and Mikey McGowen.

January 4 – 8 – Chip Lord Unfolding Video Festival on Minnesota Street Project Adjacent: Debuting this evening, January 4, the online exhibition space Minnesota Street Project Adjacent features a limited-time streaming event of video works by artist Chip Lord. Viewable until January 8, each program features a selection of works with a never-before-seen introduction by Lord. The 14 videos continue the creative process pioneered by Ant Farm, the collective founded by Lord and Doug Michels which worked on the radical fringe of architecture and art from 1968 – 1978. For the screening schedule please visit the website here.

In conjunction with the festival, Lord will be in live conversation with Rudolf Frieling (Curator of Media Arts, SFMOMA) on January 7. Register for the talk via Zoom here. These events are organized in conjunction with the exhibition Chip Lord: Folding Back Time, Form, + Format
 at Rena Bransten Gallery 
through January 30.

 

Installation view at Gallery 16.

Ongoing to January 20 – The Violets in the Mountains Have Broken the Rocks at Gallery 16:  For the last exhibition in its current location, Gallery 16 presents presents a selection of artists who’ve shown with the gallery over the last 14 years.  The show presents works with messages that have evolved when viewed through the lens of this particular moment in our history. All of the work in this exhibition was made long before Covid 19, but given the extraordinary year we’ve all experienced, these works take on new meaning and clarity. Artists included; Ala Ebtekar, Rebeca Bollinger, Tucker Nichols, Adriane Colburn, Amy Franceschini/Futurefarmers, Cliff Hengst, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Libby Black, Johanna Jackson, Charles Linder, Graham Gillmore, Alice Shaw, Meryl Pataky, Deborah Oropallo, Jason Jagel, Martin McMurray. Gallery 16 is open Tuesday – Saturday, 11 – 5 pm, no appointment necessary, masks required.

 

Kelly Ording “Love Potion” 2020, 56.5″ x 45.5″, acrylic on paper. Image courtesy of Pt.2 Gallery.

January 9 to February 5 – Kelly Ording: Slow Tide at pt.2 Gallery:  Pt.2 gallery in Oakland presents a solo exhibition of works by Kelly Ording.  Ording’s work layers painted geometric patterns (often in saturated colors), over organic shapes that stem from her process of hand-dying canvas and paper surfaces, Ording plays with our natural propensity to seek the familiar in the abstract.  Pt.2 Gallery is open by appointment only, please schedule a visit by emailing the gallery at info@part2gallery.com

 

Nicki Green, “Soft Brick”, 2017, glaze on recycled stoneware with painted MDF and bricks from Peter Voulkos’ kiln at UC Berkeley. Image courtesy of BAC.

January 23 to April 3 – Origin Stories: Expanded Ceramics in the Bay Area at Berkeley Art Center: This group exhibition curated by Tanya Zimbardo, brings together key works by 10 artists and artist groups who consider ceramics in relation to site and place. This survey exhibition features sculpture, video, artist publications, and take-away prints. Select works trace where material comes from in the landscape, while others investigate histories of ceramic production and the movement of objects across borders. Several artists bring a conceptually driven approach to functional ceramics, embracing the potential to invite participation. The exhibition showcases the contributions of both interdisciplinary artists and artists who primarily work with clay to a larger and vibrant contemporary field. Artists Included: Ebitenyefa Baralaye, Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik and Maria Inés Leal García, The Brick Factory, Ilana Crispi, Futurefarmers, Nicki Green, Dana Hemenway, Kari Marboe, Mutual Stores, Stephanie Syjuco.  This exhibition will be installed in the gallery, and featured online. Check for open hours to visit in person here.

 

January 25 to 31 – 4 x 8 – bridges, online exhibitions:  In the tradition of San Francisco’s celebration of the visual arts in January, 8-bridges is pleased to announce 4 x 8-bridges – an expansion of the 8-bridges website to include thirty-six Northern California art galleries, each showing four carefully selected works as well as a series of talks, podcasts and zoom walk-throughs.  Galleries included: Altman Siegel, Anthony Meier Fine Arts, Bass & Reiner, Berggruen, Casemore Kirkeby, Catharine Clark Gallery, Cloaca Projects, Creative Growth, Crown Point Press, CULT Exhibitions, Delaplane, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, Et Al, Ever Gold [Projects], Fraenkel Gallery, Friends Indeed, Gagosian, Gallery Wendi Norris, Guerrero Gallery, Haines Gallery, Hashimoto Contemporary, Hosfelt Gallery, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Jessica Silverman, Johansson Projects, Mercury 20 Gallery, Pace Gallery, Pamela Walsh, Pt.2, Ratio 3, Rebecca Camacho Presents, Rena Bransten Gallery, Romer Young Gallery, Sarah Shepard Gallery, SLASH, and SWIM Gallery. To view the gallery presentations and programming, visit the website here.

 

December To Do List

 

Nobuyuki Takahashi “Eternity” acrylic on canvas. Image courtesy of Rena Bransten Gallery.

December 5 to January 30 – Nobuyuki Takahashi: Seven Suns at Rena Bransten Gallery:  For this exhibition, Japanese artist Takahashi has focused on daily observations of his surrounding environment – scenes from a neighborhood walk, or a view out the train window. Yet rather than expressing the modern world’s chaos, through careful elimination of extraneous detail Takahashi offers us an invitation into stillness and consideration. To view the exhibition in person, schedule an appointment here.

 

 

Michelle White, Senior Curator at The Menil Collection in Houston.

December 7 at 3 pm –  Art & Dialogue online lecture by Michelle White, Senior Curator at The Menil Collection in Houston:  Artadia and CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts present a free online public program featuring Michelle White, Senior Curator at The Menil Collection in Houston. In her talk, White reflects on questions about the role of institutions in facilitating new work and providing platforms for research, by pulling from the Menil’s history of artist projects stemming from the 1969 project with Andy Warhol, Raid the Icebox. She discusses her exhibitions with contemporary artists that have come out of the collection and archives of the museum’s unique holdings of historical materials and works of art, including recent exhibitions with Allora & Calzadilla, Mona Hatoum and Leslie Hewitt. Register for the online event here.

 

 

Marsha Cottrell “Untitled (4:23:56pm, 11:38:00am)”, laser toner on paper. Image courtesy of Jessica Silverman Gallery.

Ongoing to December 15 – Homage to the Circle:  Anthony Meier Fine Arts hosts a joint exhibition with Jessica Silverman titled “Homage to a Circle.” The show explores spinning, ringing, orbiting, enclosing, ruminating, and revolving. More than a formal exploration, the show is a social and psychological journey that leads to all sorts of unexpected terrains. This four-woman show includes: Tammy Rae Carland, Marsha Cottrell, Zoe Leonard, and Davina Semo. The gallery is open by appointment only, schedule your visit here.

 

Chris Duncan “W.P. 6 Month Exposure, Oakland” acrylic and direct sunlight on fabric. Image courtesy of Rebecca Camacho Presents.

Ongoing to December 18 – Chris Duncan: Respite at Rebecca Camacho Presents: The gallery presents a solo exhibition of new work by Oakland based interdisciplinary artist Chris Duncan.  In a process akin to a photogram, where a photographic image is made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material and exposing it to UV rays, Duncan layers and folds his base fabrics before placing them outdoors for six-month intervals, without the use of emulsion or chemical accelerant. Marking time by celestial cycle, Duncan distributes and harvests the fabrics on full moons, bookending the embedded light of the sun with the light of its lunar counterpart. The gallery is open by appointment, please email info@rebeccacamachopresents.com to schedule a visit.

 

 

One of several landing pages for “Orbits of Known and Unknown Objects”.

Ongoing to December 31 – Orbits of Known and Unknown Objects: SFAI Histories / MATRIX 277:  MATRIX 277 explores and honors the rich legacy of the San Francisco Art Institute on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, tracing connections among artworks, people, and places over the trajectory of the institution’s history. Using objects that relate to the institution as points of departure, the platform shines a light on these salient connections. Visit the website to explore artwork, watch artist interviews, and read about the 150 year history of SFAI as it re-envisions it’s future. Visit the website exhibition here. 

 

November To Do List

Ryan Mrozowski, “Untitled (Orange) B, acrylic on canvas. Image courtesy of Ratio 3.

November 6 to December 18 – Without Stopping, group exhibition at Ratio 3:  Without Stopping brings together paintings by artists whose practices reflect an ever-evolving discipline. Though styles, subject matter, techniques, and materials continuously lose, and regain the favor of artists and their audiences, the dialogues in painting proliferate and endure. Featuring Amy Feldman, Nobuya Hoki, Ulala Imai, Matthew Metzger, Ryan Mrozowski, Kyoko Murase, Noam Rappaport, and Yui Yaegashi. Ratio 3 is open Fridays and Saturdays by appointment. Please schedule a visit here.

 

 

Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Thelma Golden. Image courtesy of Stanford Arts.

Monday, November 16, 5pm – Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Thelma Golden in conversation, live on Stanford YouTube:  Akunyili Crosby was born in Enugu, Nigeria in 1983 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Her work negotiates the cultural terrain between her adopted home in America and her native Nigeria, creating collage and photo transfer-based paintings that expose the challenges of occupying these two worlds. Thelma Golden is the Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC.  Register for the live YouTube conversation here. 

 

Tony Marsh “Cauldron” fired 6 times, assorted clay and glaze material, Sarah Amos “Lift Off” collagraph, thread, yarn on felt.  Image courtesy of Patricia Sweetow Gallery.

November 7 to December 26 – Sarah Amos & Tony Marsh at Patricia Sweetow Gallery:  This exhibition presents Tony Marsh, ceramic sculpture and Sarah Amos, mixed media fiber ‘paintings.’ The two artists are innovators in their respective practices, each applying material, media and process to expand boundaries and break expectations. Tony Marsh has contributed to the practice of contemporary ceramics as an artist, educator and innovator for over 40 years. In this exhibition Marsh presents Crucibles and Cauldrons, aptly named after instruments forged with fire. Sarah Amos will present three mixed media fiber works from her Chalk Lines series and nine paintings on paper from the Night Hive series. Patricia Sweetow Gallery is open Wed – Sat, 11:00 am to 5:30 pm. To visit, book your appointment here.

 

Jay DeFeo, Untitled, 1973, gelatin silver print. Image courtesy of The Wattis Institute.

November 18 at 5:00 pm – Online panel discussion Catching Ideas in Process: Jay DeFeo’s Photography:  The Wattis Institute presents an online panel discussion with Corey Keller, Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Rayyane Tabet, moderated by Emily Markert. Jay DeFeo (1929–1989) was a key member of the Bay Area arts community during her four–decade career. Though best known for her painting The Rose, 1958–66, she worked across a variety of media, including drawing, collage, and photography, often creating works that defy singular categorization. Photography in particular enabled DeFeo to experiment with themes and forms she continually returned to in her practice. She also used the camera to capture her own process, resulting in a body of images that blur the line between documentation and art. Register for the panel discussion here.

 

 

Jeffrey Gibson “Nothing is Eternal” video still. Image Courtesy of the Wattis Institute.

Ongoing to December 12 – Jeffrey Gibson: Nothing is Eternal online film and select off-site viewings:  The Wattis Institute and Jeffrey Gibson present Nothing is Eternal, a newly commissioned video with musical composition. Conceived during this pandemic era, the immersive video work depicts the American flag in unsettling stillness, as a marker of territory, and projected onto bodies, while set to a heartrending soundtrack. At once melancholic and beautiful, Gibson renders the iconic image of the flag as both elastic and unyielding. The slow transformation through time, color, and form reflects both a distillation of our social collapse and the reinvention of self and community, referencing the movement and change that is so desired for this nation.  For online and off-site film screening information, visit here.

 

 

Wardell Milan, “The Parade” 2020, charcoal, graphite, oil pastel, pastel, cut and pasted paper on hand-dyed paper. Image courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery.

Ongoing to December 22 – Wardell Milan at Fraenkel Gallery:  The exhibition features Milan’s ongoing series “Death, Wine, Revolt,” which combines photography, drawing, painting, collage, and sculpture to explore themes of over-indulgence, destruction, and revolution. While earlier series such as “Parisian Landscapes” looked inward, to personal questions of freedom and desire, Milan made the works on view in response to the turmoil of the global moment. Fraenkel Gallery is open Tuesday – Thursday from 11 am to 3pm.  Please schedule a visit here.

 

 

Troy Chew, “Ball Street Journal”, oil on canvas.  Image courtesy of Cult Exhibitions.

Ongoing to December 5 – Troy Chew: Yadadamean at Cult Exhibitions: Chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream and Coca Cola presented together on a tabletop easily recalls a setup for celebration. Troy Chew’s portrayal of this assortment of delicacies however, is a coded play on the lexicon of Hip Hop, slang terminology and Bay Area culture. Chew arranges the objects akin to scenes in Flemish still life paintings. By repurposing everyday items from the African Diaspora into fine art compositions, Chew’s paintings embody a smooth detachment from European painting traditions. Cult Exhibitions is open by appointment only, please schedule a visit here.

 

October To Do List

Ryan Wallace, “Do Make Say Think II”, 2020, oil, enamel, aluminum, acrylic, canvas, linen, fiberglass. Image courtesy of Romer Young Gallery.

Ongoing to November 7 – Ryan Wallace: Do Make Say Think at Romer Young Gallery:  New York artist Ryan Wallace creates process-based paintings where he paints, cuts, collages, and re-applies various materials to create gestural compositions. This exhibitions consists of five paintings and continues the artist’s exploration into the perception of space, the combining of authored and accidental gestures, the marking of time and how information is created, copied and presented.

Romer Young Gallery is open by appointment. To schedule a visit use this link.

 

SFMOMA, Asian Art Museum, de Young Museum, and The Contemporary Jewish Museum.

Museums Reopening – SFMOMA, Asian Art Museum, de Young Art Museum, and The Contemporary Jewish Museum: At long last museums in San Francisco are beginning to reopen! Check below with each institution for dates, information and enhanced safety measures to schedule a visit.

SFMOMA:  On view of note – Future Histories: Theaster Gates and Cauleen Smith: Opening on October 17th. Taking archival photography from lifestyle magazines as a point of departure, the central video projections in this exhibition offer new perspectives on the past.

Asian Art Museum:  On view of note – Jean Shin | Pause: New York–based artist Jean Shin created a site-specific installation of and about technology, but without electricity, WiFi, flashing lights, moving images or sound.

de Young Museum:  On view of note – Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI:  Is an exhibition that examines our AI driven world through a lens of contemporary art and proposes new ways of thinking about intelligence, nature, and artifice.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum: On view of note – Predicting the Past: Zohar Studios, the Lost Years: Los Angeles-based artist Stephen Berkman’s immersive photography installation is a tribute to Shimmel Zohar, a mythical nineteenth-century Jewish immigrant photographer, founder of Zohar Studios.

 

 

Christy Matson, “Net” 2020, acrylic, paper, and yarn. Image courtesy of Rebecca Camacho Presents.

Ongoing to October 23 – Christy Matson: Never Done at Rebecca Camacho Presents:  Los Angeles based textile artist Christy Matson employs a hand-operated, computer-programmable Jacquard loom to create intricate weavings to which she applies unconventional fiber techniques such as paint and layered composition. Through the duality of the machine and the hand, Matson reflects on the history of weaving in conjunction with art historical approaches such as geometric abstraction and collage. Watch this short video of Matson discussing her painterly approach to weaving on this link.

Rebecca Camacho Presents is open daily by appointment, schedule by phone: 415-800-7228 or email: info@rebeccacamacho.com.

 

 

Still from “Lessons of the Hour” by Isaac Julien. Image courtesy of McEvoy Foundations for the Arts

October 14 to Mar 13, 2021 – Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour  at McEvoy Foundation for the Arts:  Lessons of the Hour is an immersive ten-screen film installation and photography exhibition by British filmmaker and installation artist Isaac Julien, that explores the life of the visionary African American writer, abolitionist, statesman, and freed slave Frederick Douglass. Incorporating excerpts from Douglass’ speeches and dramatizations of his private and public milieus, the centerpiece of the exhibition, Lessons of the Hour — Frederick Douglass (2019) offers a contemplative, poetic journey into Douglass’ zeitgeist and a forceful suggestion that the lessons of the abolitionist’s hour have yet to be learned.

McEvoy Foundation for the Arts is open Tuesday – Saturday. To visit schedule an online reservation here.

 

 

Emma Robbins “Treaty No. 2” 2018, Fire Rock Casino playing cards and porcupine quills. Image courtesy of the artist and BAC.

October 10 to December 19 – We Have Teeth Too, curated by Natani Notah at Berkeley Art Center:  This group exhibition features an interdisciplinary selection of current works that touch on human rights violations across North America. New sculpture calls attention to the ongoing fight for educational institutions to repatriate Native remains to the communities they were wrongfully taken from, while delicate works on paper bring more awareness to the detrimental effects of radon poisoning happening in the Southwest today. Works in this exhibition span a wide range of mixed media including sculpture, painting, and photography with ties to the complex histories of portraiture, quiltmaking, Indigenous quillwork, and regalia.

Monday, October 12 at noon –  join the Instagram Live curator walkthrough with Natani Notah as she offers a live talk from the BAC gallery to discuss works in the exhibition.

 

 

Thursday, October 22, 7-9 PM – Root Division Annual Benefit Art Auction:  This year Root Division invites supporters to join them virtually for their largest annual fundraising event featuring over 100 established and emerging Bay Area artists. Proceeds benefit local artists, free art classes for Bay Area youth, and the continued success of Root Division’s unique model for keeping artists working in the heart of San Francisco. Auction artwork will still be installed in the gallery for appointment viewings, but the bidding will be online and the “live” event will be virtual. For general admission, all are welcome to join for no cost.  Check this link to see VIP packages with additional benefits.

 

 

Shinpei Kusanagi “Stop Talking to Yourself, You Will be Alright” 2019, acrylic on canvas. Image courtesy of Altman Siegel Gallery.

Online until October 31 – Shinpei Kusanagi: Something is happening which is not happenings at all, Altman Siegel viewing room online:  This is a solo presentation of works by Tokyo-based artist Shinpei Kusanagi online, and features new paintings that embrace possibilities for energy and movement within a world standing still. Kusanagi’s process includes staining untreated canvases with layers of translucent color. He then incorporates improvisational brushstrokes in vivid hues and markings that materialize from rapid motions as well as pooling stillness. The compositions hover on the surface and then move into deep space. Visit altmansiegel.viewingrooms.com to view the exhibition.

 

 

Opening October 1 – 8-bridges:  A group of Bay Area galleries have joined forces to launch 8-bridges, a virtual platform named for the eight bridges that connect the San Francisco Bay. The platform will offer monthly rotating exhibitions by Bay Area galleries. For the month of October, founding committee members and guest gallery Rebecca Camacho Presents will have presentations on the platform. 8-bridges will also spotlight San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora as its first institutional beneficiary, directing visitors to learn about and donate to the institution throughout October.

 

 

 

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