GEN ART : An Evening at the Ritz.

Comment: A little art and a lotta schmooze comprise this preview peek at The Ritz-Carlton Residences, San Francisco .

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Intersection for the Arts : Intersection's 2007 Art Auction Fundraiser.

Artists: Kim Abeles, Brad K. Alder, Brett Amory, Kathy Aoki, Mike Arcega, April Banks, Sandow Birk, Victor Cartagena, Thomas Chang, Chris Cobb, Brett Cook, Carolyn Ryder Cooley, Jaime Cortez, Matthew Cusick, Binh Danh, Lauren Davies, Lewis deSoto, Lauren DiCioccio, Ala Ebtekar, Nome Edonna, Tia Factor, Chris Finley, Agustin Pozo Galvez, Iranshid Ghadimi, Matt Gonzalez, Robert Gutierrez, Mayumi Hamanaka, Taro Hattori, Taraneh Hemami, Dana Hemenway, Jonn Herschend, Andy Diaz Hope, Packard Jennings, Chris Johanson, Marcia Kure, Samantha Lautman, Candice Lin, Leslie Linnebur, Frederick Loomis, Ginny Mangrum, Kara Maria, Chris McCaw, Sean McFarland, Julio Morales, Aaron Noble, Abner Nolan, Scott Oliver, Patrick Piazza, Michael Rauner, Ricardo Richey, Favianna Rodriguez, Brion Nuda Rosch, Andrew Schoultz, Tracey Snelling, Heather Sparks, Deth P. Sun, Megan Wilson, Jenifer K. Wofford, Christine Wong Yap.

Comment: Intersection's major annual art auction fundraiser offers plenty of options from dozens of our more talented local artists. I'm here at the beginning and the bidding is already in full gallop. My favorite-- crab cakes from 3rd Street Grill (y'all know I'm only in this for the cheese).

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Luggage Store Gallery Annex, 509 Ellis Street: Fernande Conrad (aka Mary Conrad) - Sell Your Stories Here.

Comment: Mary Conrad pens up a peck of "stories" (more like snippets) and then installates 'em willy-nilly all over the gallery in an effort to advance an envelope, although I'm not entirely sure which envelope that might be.

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SF Camerawork : Seeing Beyond Sight - Photographs by Blind Teenagers.

Comment: The photographs and videos are the product of Sound Shadows, a class taught by Tony Deifell, Shirley Hand, Dan Partridge and Jessica Toal from 1992 to 1997 at the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh, NC. The work engages in several respects including how people compose photographs without being able to see what they're photographing, the adaptive techniques the vision-impaired use to navigate reality, and how the "blind" actually "see" much more than many of us think they do. The book Seeing Beyond Sight by Tony Deifell (128 pages, hardbound; Chronicle Books, SF, 2007) has been released in conjunction with the show.

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Hamburger Eyes Photo Epicenter : Patrick Griffin - Human Remains.

Comment: Interesting essay on all the crap we leave lying around (including ourselves). Griffin dimensionalizes his point with a rainbow pyramid of packed stacked trash bags in a corner of the gallery. His color collaged crap shots against plain white backgrounds are my personal penultimate, but it's all good here as he attacks the topic from a plethora of perspectives. Trek on over; you won't be disappointed.

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Rx Gallery : Doze Green.

Comment: Monster-ass Doze Green mural unveiling, its premier public appearance-- 50 feet of exceptional urban attitude. Like it.

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The LAB : Corporate Art Expo '07.

Artists: Anti-Advertising Agency, Acclair, C5 Corporation, Davis & Davis Research, Meaning Maker, Death and Taxes, Inc., Old Glory Condom Corporation, Psychological Prosthetics, SubRosa, Slop Art, Training and Development, Tectonic Industries, We Are War.

Comment: Participating artists assume corporate identities, creating installations that challenge our mindsets about globalization, immigration reform, health care, consumerism, war, sex, and comparably critical concerns. The issues may be overwhelming, but the non-confrontational way they're presented creates an atmosphere where anyone can participate, learn, laugh, and enjoy. Provincetown artist Jay Critchley, for example, constructs a Transamerica Pyramid from condom boxes to focus attention on ways multi-national corporations might help prevent HIV and AIDS, and to drive home the "Make Love Not War" ethos (which the powers that be will never ever give a shit about 'cuz there's nothing in it for them). Excellent show.

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Southern Exposure : Christian Nold - Bio-Mapping.

Comment: Christian Nold designs a device that combines GSR (Galvanic Skin Response-- an indicator of emotional arousal-- commonly used in lie detector tests, for example) with GPS (Global Positioning System) technology. So the deal is you don the Nold-o-meter, mosey around town, and it records your GSR as a function of your geographic location. Then Nold uploads your emotive locomotive data along with similar data from others into a computer and uses it to "map" the area (San Francisco, in this case), not geographically, but rather emotionally, according to neighborhood-by-neighborhood variations in multi-peoplic GSR. Will there be as many hills and valleys as there are in the topographic version? Stay tuned.

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Ar+space Gallery : Print Exchange 2007 - A 225 Image Bonanza.

Artists: Yuka Eze, Chris Gould, Pat Gould, Angus Haller, John Harkins, Homero Hidalgo, Johnerick Lawson, John McGuiness, Naoki Onodera, Vero Orozco, Shalo P., Raquel Reyes, Zavereta Reyes, Owen Takabyashi.

Comment: This is one of them math shows. 14 artists each make a print in an edition of 15. 1 print is for the official record books, then each artist gives one of the remaining 14 prints to each of the other 13 artists, keeps one for him or herself, and then they all art each other's and their own prints up in a collaborative frenzy of mildly gargantuan proportions. The final total is 225 images (the title of the show), the formal equation being 15 prints/artist x 14 artists = 225 prints. Wait. That totals 210 prints-- not 225 prints. Erk. So let's say there's somewhere between 210 to 225 images on display here. And let's say next time, hire an accountant.

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California Modern Gallery : Open Hand, Open Heart.

Fashion Designers: Molly Rebuschatis, KAYO, Jasmin Zorlu, Jeremy Parr, Miss Velvet Cream, Jason Christopher Peters.

Comment: Fashion show and silent auction fundraiser for Project Open Hand , an organization providing home-delivered meals, groceries, and nutrition counseling for people living with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses, and for seniors. As you might expect, there's all kinds of cute people running around in all manner of natty now outfits and accessories, none of which I know anything about. To make matters worse, this is my first fashion shoot and I have no clue what I'm doing. At art openings, you shoot stationary targets; at fashion shows, you shoot moving targets. That's the main difference. So here's what I got...

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210 Studios : Xzistance on the Edge of Chaos.

Artists: MaxxMoses (Maxx Moses), Chorboogie (Chor Boogie), Joshua Mayes, Pose 2 (Pose2).

Comment: I think I got all the possible permutations on the artists' names, but I'm still not completely sure who's really who. Anyway, the piece de resistance, an ably conceived and executed 80-foot mural painting on canvas, is professionally stretched around the perimeter of this lanky studio space. Pose2 (I think) tells me it's priced $80K (about $1K per foot) and that he'd like to see it go to a museum.

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ArtSFest : 4th Annual Spectra Ball.

Artists: Aaron Landman, Monika Steiner, Alanna Spence, monique passicot, Allysun Ladybug Sparrowhawk, Mr Rogers, Amir Salamat, Natasha Dikareva, Amy Wright, Nena St. Louis, Andrew Jones, Nicolo Sertorio, Ann Simms, Ori Gerstel, Annie Galvin, Pamela Merory Dernham, Art Hazelwood, Peter Max Lawrence, Avelynn Mitra, pierre riche, Benjamin Turner, Rachael L. Jablo, Caroyl La Barge, Rachel, Lyra Hospodar, Charli Ornett, raymond difley, Christian Davies, Rebecca Shortle, Clay Chollar, Rena Buchgraber, Daniel Grant, Robert Reed, Danyol, Sara Cole, Dennis Parlante, Seth Armstrong, Emily Keyishian, Shawna Peterson, Glen VarnHagen, Spencer Brown, Itsik Hazan, stephen hayes, John Jenkins, Steven Allen, John Whitmarsh, stuart sheldon, Joseph Battiato, Taiko Fujimura, Karen Gutfreund, Tantra Bensko, Leonardas Surgaila, Tara L. Shorey, Lindy Kehoe, Taylor Tschider, Marcia N. Kent, Terrence Gasca, Mardi Storm, Timothy Rose, Mari Marks, Troy Ziel, Marina Shterenberg, Vera Costa, Mark Henson, Walter Funk, Melissa Chow, Wendy Lowengrub, Metalman Ed. Plus over 50 performances, group and solo. Plus etc etc etc.

Comment: The annual ArtSFest Spectra Ball (and silent auction) is one of my favorite artscapades of the year. It's kinda like going to a circus except here, you're part of it. You got artists, performers, musicians, dancers, theater, fashion, spoken word, installations, an abundance of curiously costumed celebrants scurrying around (I always wonder where they all come from), and more more more-- everywhere, all the time. You can party in the big auditorium downstairs, the medium auditorium upstairs, the VIP balcony, all kinds of little rooms off to the sides, up and down the halls, and even on the stairs. The best part? 100% gracious congenial people-- and you can't say that about very many scenes these days.

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