Velvet da Vinci : The Enamel Experience & International Badge Exhibition.

Artists: Stephen Bottomley, Kathleen Browne, Helen Carnac, Linda Darty, Tamar De Vries Winter, Bettina Dittlmann, Robert Ebendorf, Uta Feiler, Gretchen Goss, Katy Hackney, Mark Hartung, Stephen Hoskins, Michael Jank, Felix Lindner, Rolf Lindner, Joan MacKarell, Sarah Perkins, Wendy Ramshaw, Marjorie Simon, Jane Short, Elizabeth Turrell, Jessica Turrell, Claudia Westhaus.

Comment by AB: According to the "About" page on the Velvet da Vinci website, they're "a gallery of contemporary craft specializing in artist jewelry and metalwork, representing artists from the US, Europe, Latin America and Japan." They opened in 1991 on the 500 block of Hayes Street, one of the first boutique businesses to do so, and moved to their current Polk Street location about three years ago. The gallery is an entirely impressive venue offering a voluminous variety of high level craft, particularly jewelry.

So OK. Tonight we've got a traveling show fresh from Museum der Arbeit in Hamburg, Germany presenting contemporary enamels by over 20 international artists in combination with an exhibition of historic enamel badges from the Museum der Arbeit's collection. In addition to San Francisco, the show travels to Memphis, Greenville, Pittsburgh, Ohio, and New Jersey, and to the United Kingdom in 2009. To see or not to see? See. And well worth it.

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Charles Campbell Gallery : The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs along with Photographs from Various Owners presented by Sotheby's .

Comment by AB: Charles Campbell Gallery hosts a preview for the upcoming international photography auction at Sotheby's in New York (April 7) offering seminal vintage prints from the nineteenth and early 20th centuries by the likes of Edward Weston, Paul Strand, August Sander, Hans Bellmer, Tina Modotti, Walker Evans, Imogen Cunningham, Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Andre Kertesz, and more more more, the toniest of which are expected to goose a million dollars. Hors d'oeuvres courtesy of Bix... and entirely in line with the quality of photographic product being proffered here tonight. Cheers.

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Gallery 16 : Alex Zecca - New Drawings.

Comment by AB: Amazingly intricate straight-line ink drawings by Alex Zecca, the most opulent op-art with more moire patterns than you can shake a mathematical formula at. Zecca tells me he creates a unique template for each drawing and works from that, his process as much about meditation as it is about making art.

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Gallery 1988 : Kathie Olivas - Bittersweet.

Comment by AB: Every once in a while I cogitate on how many more artists are going to make art that looks pretty much like the art that more than enough artists make already. It's all good art; I'm not knockin' that. But beyond the "I can make it too" phenomenon, there's not a whole lotta meat on the bone. So what's for dessert?

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