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.

To Do List: February

Amalia Mesa-Bains “Queen of the Waters, Mother of the Land of the Dead: Homenaje a Tonatzin/Guadalupe” 1992. Mixed media installation including fabric drape, six jeweled clocks, mirror pedestals with grottos, nicho box, found objects, dried flowers, dried pomegranate, potpourri.  Image courtesy of BAMPFA.

February 4 to July 23 – Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory at BAMPFA: For over forty-five years, Bay Area artist Mesa-Bains has worked to bring Chicana art into the broader American field of contemporary art through innovations of sacred forms such as altares (home altars), ofrendas (offerings to the dead), descansos (roadside resting places), and capillas (home yard shrines). Presenting work from the entirety of her career for the first time, this exhibition, which features nearly 60 works in a range of media, including fourteen major installations, celebrates Mesa-Bains’s important contributions to the field of contemporary art locally and globally. Opening celebration is Saturday, February 4 from 11am – 7pm.

 

 

Max Gimblett “Karma” 2022, acrylic, resin, oil size and Chinese pewter leaf on canvas and panel. Image courtesy of Hosfelt Gallery.

February 11 to April 1 – Max Gimblett: The Beginning of Time at Hosfelt Gallery: Max Gimblett is a painter, calligrapher, and Rinzai Zen monk. Gimblett’s paintings are a harmonious postmodern synthesis of American and Japanese art. Often working on shaped panels or canvases – tondos, ovals, and his signature four-lobed quatrefoil – he marries Abstract Expressionism, Modernism and Spiritual Abstraction with mysticism and traditions of Asian calligraphy.

 

Ann Hamilton and David Ireland from “Ann Hamilton/David Ireland” at the Walker Art Center (1992). Photo: Glenn Halvorson, courtesy of Ann Hamilton

February 11 to April 29 – Process + Place: Ann Hamilton at 500 Capp Street:   500 Capp Street joins Headlands Center for the Arts for a project created by Ann Hamilton sited in both locations that highlights the deep connection between the two spaces and their shared stories of material and discovery. During a research residency at 500 Capp Street, Hamilton selected objects from David Ireland’s practice, exploring the typology of their forms and materiality, and scanned each to create luminous images that will be on display along with a newspaper print that will be available as a free, take home memento. Further connecting the domestic scale of 500 Capp Street with the institutional scale of Headlands’ studio buildings, Hamilton is developing a sculptural audio element that will call across the distance to connect the near at hand with the far away—a pulse, connection, collaboration reaching across time, then and now. Opening Reception Saturday, February 11, 12-5pm.

 

Photograph of Mark Thompson (left) and David Ireland using a paintbrush to clean the tin ceilings of the stairwell in Building 944.  Image courtesy of Headlands Center for the Arts.

February 12 to March 19 – Mark Thompson: Semaphore at Headlands Center for the Arts: In 1986 artists David Ireland and Mark Thompson, and a team of collaborators transformed and opened the cluster of former military buildings to artists now known as Headlands Center for the Arts. A lifelong beekeeper, Thompson’s Semaphore harkens back to key works in the Artist’s oeuvre featuring collaboration with living beehives, and transforms the Gym into a multi-sensory installation utilizing sound, video, architectural intervention, and beeswax. With its tight focus and abstracted interplay between human and swarm, Semaphore speaks to the cyclical nature of time and the possibilities of inter-species communication.  Opening reception Sunday, February 12, 3–5pm.

 

 

María Magdalena Campos-Pons “

February 23 to April 29 – María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Finding Balance at Gallery Wendi Norris: The inaugural show at Gallery Wendi Norris’ new exhibition space is María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Finding Balance. Campos-Pons addresses issues of history, memory, gender and religion through her work; she investigates how each one of these themes informs identity. The exhibition borrows its name from Campos-Pons’s monumental 28-panel multimedia masterwork, which is the centerpiece of the show. The exhibition will focus on Campos-Pons’s large-format polaroid works, including a complementary array of multi-paneled works that have never been shown by the gallery.

 

Yaron Michael Hakim “En Bogotá me Quedo” 2022, acrylic on used sailcloth. Image courtesy of SFSU Fine Arts Gallery.

February 25 to March 29 – Have You Seen Me? at SFSU’s Fine Arts Gallery: This exhibition centers on the return of the gaze in contemporary self-portraiture created by diverse artists across diverse media. Featuring work by Marcel Pardo Ariza, Erica Deeman, Yaron Michael Hakim, and Jamil Hellu. Have You Seen Me? focuses on contributions of Latinx Americans, Arab Americans, and Black and mixed-race Americans, with personal histories that include transnational adoption, and the centering of transgender and Queer/BIPOC community, in defiant acts of seeing and being seen. Opening Reception: Saturday, February 25, 1 – 3 p.m.

 

To Do List: January

Arngunnur Ýr “Onomea IV” 2022, oil on birch panel. Image courtesy of Anglim/Trimble.

January 5 to February 25 –  Arngunnur Ýr: Onomea at Anglim/Trimble: Arngunnur Ýr’s new botanical series Onomea is rooted in influences from the lush vegetation of Hawaii. Arngunnur, who is from Iceland, is in the process of building a future residence on the Big Island of Hawaii, and her new work reflects the natural transition from the Icelandic glaciers to explorations of the place that is to become her new home. The works reference the typical flamboyance and jubilation of floral glory, the lushness and abundance of beauty and color, but also suggest an intensity of introspection both pictorially and of the artist herself. The works are intended to evoke a feeling of complexity and confusion while alluding to a deeper experience. Through a labor-intensive process, Arngunnur explores the common depiction of paradise and turns it on its head. The works are psychological in nature, examining the dichotomy of life, transience, and temporal existence. Each flower has a beginning and an end and in these works, the subtle voids and bleached-out plants become a suggestion of an otherness, their ghostlike quality and neutrality become an ironic focal point. Opening reception is Saturday, January 7th, 4-6pm. Anglim/Trimble is located at 1275 Minnesota Street in San Francisco.

 

J. John Priola “Green Lichen & Moss” 2022, archival pigment print. Image courtesy of Anglim/Trimble.

January 5 to February 25 – J. John Priola: Natural Light/Simbiosis at Anglim/Trimble: This exhibition features work made in 2022 from natural occurrences and natural disasters, and it coincides with the release of Priola’s new monograph, Natural Light, published by Kehrer Verlag. Priola continues his love of beauty and the act of seeing/looking into the natural world through innate happenings or natural disasters. This new work is about renewal, existence, and perseverance in the ever-growing human effect on nature. In a small yet revealing way, the aftermath of two devastating California wildfires is one source. In Trunks, images from the Dixie Fire in 2021 reveal detailed and haunting beauty from the wreckage and debris, while an image from the 2018 Camp Fire speaks to recovery and survival in the age of the Anthropocene. Opening reception is Saturday, January 7th, 4-6pm. Anglim/Trimble is located at 1275 Minnesota Street in San Francisco.

 

Alanna Fields “Untitled (Blue)” 2019. Image courtesy of SF Camerawork.

January 17 to March 25 – Dismantling Monoliths at SF Camerawork:  Curated by artist Jamil Hellu, this is a group exhibition of artists who catalyze their medium to challenge conventions. Through critical engagement and intimate gestures, Dismantling Monoliths calls attention to the multidirectional ways in which contemporary artists are recontextualizing the canon of Western history while envisioning fresh perspectives for identity representation, visibility, and inclusion. The exhibition presents works, from photography to video, by Alanna Fields, Xandra Ibarra, Tarrah Krajnak, Forrest McGarvey, Marcel Pardo Ariza, and Aaron Turner. Together, they shatter stereotypes and shift the monolithic historical frame of reference to new dimensions. SF Camerawork is located at Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Blvd, Building A.

 

Beth Van Hoesen “Sister Zsa Zsa Glamour” 1997, watercolor, colored pencil, graphite on paper. Image courtesy of Altman Siegel.

January 17 to February 25 – Beth Van Hoesen: Punks and Sisters at Altman Siegel: This exhibition presents the portraiture of San Francisco legend, Beth Van Hoesen. A keen observer of detail, Van Hoesen’s prints and works on paper express a mastery of line that captures the unique eccentricities of her subjects and the vibrant Castro community in which she lived for nearly 50 years. This exhibition focuses on her portraits of punks from the late 1980s and early ’90s, and a series of portraits commemorating The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an order of queer and trans nuns. Started in the late ’70s, the Sisters are known for their activism, community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges. All sales of the Sisters portraits benefit the Rainbow Honor Walk, the nonprofit organization that sponsors a monument of bronze sidewalk plaques in the Castro honoring lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals who have made a significant impact in global history. Altman Siegel is located at 1150 25th Street in San Francisco.

 

Ja’Tovia Gary “Citational Ethics (Saidiya Hartman, 2017)” 2020, Neon, glass, wire, and metal. Image courtesy of ICA SF.

January 21 to June 25 – Resting Our Eyes at ICA SF: Curated by Tahirah Rasheed and Autumn Breon this exhibition is focusing on the liberation and celebration of Black women through the lens of leisure and physical adornment, Resting Our Eyes features new and existing works from 20 multi-generational Black artists working across sculpture, photography, video, mixed media, painting, and textile. Through embodied experiences of space and temporality, spectrums of abstraction and representation, these artists contend with the limitations and failures of the colonial gaze by casting Black womxn at the center of their visions through leisure and adornment. Collectively, these works invite us to see Black womxn as fully realized and free. Artists included are; Derrick Adams, Sadie Barnette, Traci Bartlow, Knowledge Bennett, LaKela Brown, Genevieve Gaignard, Ja’Tovia Gary, Lauren Halsey, Simone Leigh, Helina Metaferia, Ebony G. Patterson, Alison Saar, Lorna Simpson, Hank Willis Thomas, Lava Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, Adana Tillman, Leila Weefur, Carrie Mae Weems, and Deborah Willis. The ICA SF is located at 901 Minnesota Street.

 

Heesoon Kwan “Leymusoom Bridge” (detail). Image courtesy of Berkeley Art Center.

January 21 to March 12 – The Letters of Mina Harker at Berkeley Art Center: Curated by Naz Cuguolgu, this group exhibition takes its title from the book by Dodie Bellamy, and investigates speculative fiction’s potential for alternative world-building. The exhibition celebrates Mina, the central woman character from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, who demands her own agency and voice in Bellamy’s narrative. Individual works by Bay Area artists come together in the space to form a chosen family and to suggest a speculative narration. Via diasporic artistic practices, the exhibition aims to look at the definition of monster as a symbol for the outsider and to rather construct an alternative universe with a new and otherworldly language. Artists included are; Dena Al-Adeeb, Sholeh Asgary, Kerri Conlon, Red Culebra (Guillermo Galindo& Cristobal Martinez), Behnaz and Baharak Khalegi, Heesoon Kwon, Tracy Ren, Chelsea Ryoko Wong, and Rupy C Tut. Opening reception is Saturday January 28th, 2–5pm. Berkeley Art Center is located at 1275 Walnut Street in Berkeley.

 

Exterior view of Fort Mason Festival Pavillion where FOG Design+Art is located.

January 18 to January 22 – Fog Design+Art at Fort Mason Festival Pavillion: Celebrating today’s most significant creatives and leading contributors to the worlds of design and visual arts, this fair assembles 45 leading international galleries; prominent 20th-century and contemporary design dealers; and a weekend of programs. Building on FOG’s longstanding commitment to cultural institutions, the fair’s Preview Gala is honored to continue its crucial support of SFMOMA’s exhibitions and education programs. FOG represents a key moment in which the local and global community congregate to engage in critical dialogue, artistic exchanges, and a shared passion for creative pursuits.

To Do List: December

Ektor Garcia “Untitled (butterfly stack)” 2021, cast bronze, copper wire.  Image courtesy of Rebecca Camacho Presents.

Ongoing to December 17 – Ektor Garcia: Rehacer at Rebecca Camacho Presents: Mexico City based Ektor Garcia takes inspiration from traditional Mexican craftspeople and the crocheting practice of his grandmother. Garcia’s works suggest an embedded past and future in each object. Simultaneously raw yet refined, Garcia mines personal and cultural histories, refracting this inheritance with a potent mixture of irreverence and a deep respect for all people using their hands to create objects of beauty and resourcefulness. The artist’s fluid transition through seemingly disparate materials only echoes his nomadic process, one defined by constant movement from place to place, his hands however remaining fixed in eternal activity, wrapping wire, smoothing clay or weaving fibers. Eschewing the idea of finality, garcia’s sculptures hover in time, snapshots of a moment, prone to alteration at a later date depending on the artist’s whims.

A Study for ‘In Place of Light,’ Sherwin Rio, 2022, digital image. Image courtesy of 500 Capp Street.

December 3 to February 25 – Sherwin Rio: As Above, So Below at 500 Capp Street: Sherwin Rio is an interdisciplinary artist working in San Francisco who makes site-specific and research-based work in sculpture, installation, video, performance, and audio. For his exhibition at 500 Capp Street, Rio is inspired by David Ireland’s affinity for enclosure, particularly his deep interest in the House’s basement, a space he called “The Grotto” where he sourced dirt for his work and spent many hours in solitude. Framed by David Ireland’s dual relationship to architecture above and below, Rio is creating works that provide alternative, inverse ways of experiencing a house—indebted to the past, the unseen, and the underground. For tours of the exhibition, please reserve tickets here.

 

Heesoo Kwan “Mago Leymusoom” (still) 2022. Image courtesy of SFAC Gallery.  Image courtesy of SFAC Gallery.

December 9 to February 11 – Sowing Worlds at SFAC Main Gallery:  The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) Main Gallery, in partnership with Alternative Space LOOP in Seoul, present Sowing Worlds, an international group exhibition featuring works by five artists based in the Bay Area alongside five artists based in South Korea. The effects of climate change have become ever clearer: massive wildfires, record breaking temperatures, floods, increasingly powerful storms, droughts and other calamities are taking place all over the world. The exhibition brings together artists who are thinking expansively and critically about living with climate change. The works in the exhibition explore sustainable agriculture, the intertwining legacies of colonialism and its effects on the land, and ancestral connection to a place in flux. Featuring work by Binta Ayofemi, Cristine Blanco, Heesoo Kwon, Emma Logan, Sun Park, Eunbi Kwon, Nayoungim & Gregory Maass, JongHeon Bae, Da-Seul Lee, and Go-Eun Im and was curated by Jackie Im, Sun Mi Lee, and Ji Yoon Yang.

 

Installation View of “The Sinking Ship/Prosperity” by Jota Mombaça. Image courtesy of KADIST SF

Ongoing to January 28 – Jota Mombaça: The Sinking Ship/Prosperity at KADIST SF: Jota Mombaça is the current artist in residence at KADIST SF. While in residence, Mombaça plans to visit the Port of San Francisco, study shipwreck records at the Maritime Research Center archives, and take a diving lesson on how to sink. These activities are part of a body of research the artist refers to as The Sinking Ship/Prosperity  which considers speculative memory, the dynamics of excess, and grieving time, among other water-related subjects. This exhibition continues a cycle of work that Mombaça began earlier this year: in the tired watering (2022) and expands on and makes material connections to this body of performance works.

Thursday, December 8, 2022, 6–7:30 pm: Performance by Jota Mombaça and debut of waterwill (2022)

 

Top Row: Cathy Lu, Maria A. Guzmán Capron, Marcelo Pardo Ariza. Bottom Row: Binta Ayofemi, Gregory Rick.  Images courtesy of SFMOMA.

December 17 to May 29 – 2022 SECA Art Award Exhibition at SFMOMA:  Since 1967, the SECA (Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art) Art Award has honored more than seventy Bay Area artists, supporting them at early stages in their careers. The award distinguishes Bay Area artists whose work has not, at the time of nomination, been accorded substantial recognition from a major institution. The 2022 SECA Art Award Exhibition celebrates Bay Area artists Binta Ayofemi, Maria A. Guzmán Capron, Cathy Lu, Marcel Pardo Ariza and Gregory Rick.

 

Lhola Amira “IRMANDADE: The Shape of Water in Pindorama” (detail), 2018. Image courtesy of the de Young Museum.

December 17 to December 3, 2023 – Lhola Amira: Facing the Future at the De Young Museum:  This exhibit launches a new program of special exhibitions that will interpret the African art collection as a living and evolving practice through the lens of contemporary art. This solo exhibition features the newly created, site-specific spiritual portal Philisa: Zinza Mphefumlo Wami (2022). Philisa are unique portals, sacred spaces for the cleansing of wounds, honoring ancestors, and fostering connection. Visitors are invited to enter this sacred grove with support for whatever may unfold.

 

To Do List: November

Stephanie Syjuco “Cargo Cults: Head Bundle (Small)” 2016, pigmented inkjet print. Image courtesy the Anderson Collection.

Ongoing to March 5 – Stephanie Syjuco: White Balance/Color Cast at Anderson Collection at Stanford University:  White Balance/Color Cast derives from Syjuco’s established interest in photographic standards of imaging, color calibration charts, and photography’s suggestive powers. The commonly used term, white balance, refers to the process of removing an image’s color cast, shifting the image to what could be considered a more “neutral” or accurate representation. In Syjuco’s case, she uses these traditional imaging terms to question how photography and imaging standards—such as the quest for “correct” color—reflect deep seated biases, positioning whiteness as its center.

Thursday, November 3, 6:00 pm – Stephanie Syjuco in Conversation with Kim Beil:  Syjuco will discuss her exhibition on view, her artistic process, and how her work addresses belonging, racialization, difference, and visibility. Kim Beil is the Associate Director of ITALIC (Immersion in the Arts: Living in Culture) program at Stanford and an art historian who specializes in the history of photography.  Reserve tickets here.

 

Chris Johanson “Untitled” 2022, acrylic and household paint on canvas. Image courtesy of Altman Siegel Gallery.

November 3 to December 17 – Chris Johanson at Altman Siegel:  Contemplating the cycle of life, and of the material possessions we accumulate, Johanson’s focus on repurposing found objects has deepened. Trading wood substrates for canvases constructed with found stretcher bars and recycled drop cloths, materials more resistant to paint than commercial canvas, Johanson has intentionally slowed down his process, using painting as a means of mindfulness and meditation. In slowing down, Johanson has eschewed text and figuration for thoughtful abstraction, utilizing form, color, and movement to reflect on themes of bereavement, connection, and impermanence. His swirling color fields, each shade unique, create peaceful rhythms, underscoring the artist’s exploration of artmaking as a healing, therapeutic process.

 

 

Kongkee “The Tears” 2020 animation still. Image courtesy of Asian Art Museum.

November 18 – Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk at the Asian Art Museum: Kongkee, an award-winning animation director and visual artist, takes you back to the future in an odyssey 2,000 years in the making. Explore an immersive animated futurist fantasy — part comic book, part motion picture — making its North American debut. Kongkee’s Warring States Cyberpunk traces the legendary Chinese poet Qu Yuan’s soul on a journey from the ancient Chu Kingdom to an imagined 21st century Asia of cyborgs, electro rock, and surprising romantic reunions.

 

 

Marco Castillo “Familia Castillo Valdes” 2022 mahogany.  Image courtesy of Haines Gallery.

November 5 to January 7 – Marco Castillo: Parlor Games at Haines Gallery:  Castillo’s ongoing investigation into the visual lexicon of post-Revolutionary Cuba sees him embodying a fictional designer from this time. Colorful works on paper from his Libreta de notas (Notebooks) series showcase these experiments in abstraction, each synthesizing the period’s aesthetic modes. At the center of the exhibition is Familia Castillo Valdes (2022), a multipart mahogany sculpture from Castillo’s latest series Juego de sala, which engages with forms and materials from Cuban modernism while examining the consequences of the revolution on domestic life.

 

Richard Learoyd “Mirror, Eye, Candle, Lemon” 2021 unique Ilfochrome photograph.  Image courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery.

Ongoing to December 23 – Richard Learoyd at Fraenkel Gallery:  Learoyd’s recent work deepens his exploration of classical themes, using exacting techniques to create pictorially lush, one-of-a-kind photographs. The exhibition features approximately twenty works— nudes, still lifes, and portraits—made over the last three years using the artist’s room-sized camera obscura in London. His meticulous process uses cumbersome technology to make rich, grainless images that are painterly in their nuanced attention to pose, detail, tone, and texture.

 

 

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