MARX & ZAVATTERO - BAER RIDGWAY - SCULPTURESITE
MINA DRESDEN - INTERSECTION - RECEIVER
RENA BRANSTEN - FEMINA POTENS - SOAP
SAN FRANCISCO ART EXCHANGE - FIVEPOINTS
04.04.09
(with Assistance from Sandra Silvoy , and Corey Best )

Marx & Zavattero : I Want You to Want Me.

Artists: Tim Bavington, Libby Black, Kendell Carter, Marcel Dzama, James Gobel, David Hevel, Danius Kesminas/Punkasila, William Powhida, Simmons & Burke, Taravat Talepasand, Hank Willis Thomas, Marnie Weber, Kehinde Wiley.

Comment by AB: Group show focuses on issues of race, class, sex, wealth and politics. I'm there a smidge early, and unfortunately miss the crush as well as a live performance by the dance troupe TEKNIQ.

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Baer Ridgway Exhibitions : Tom Huck - Transformation of Brandy Baghead & Other Evil Delights; Dark American - Group Show.

Group show artists: Charles Krafft, Scott Fife, Derek Albeck, Grant Barnhart, Charles Browning, Bruce Conner, Chris Crites, R. Crumb, Oscar Cueto, Jack Daws. John De Fazio, Bill Fick, Maria Forde, Rebecca Goldfarb, George Kuchar, Mike Kuchar, Brendon Lott, Raymond Pettibon, Lizabeth Eva Rossof and Roger Shimomura.

Review by Sandra Silvoy: Tom Huck puts on a show with woodcuts of prodigious proportions. Huck's message driven works act as short stories, violent yet humorous (because violence without humor is just not okay). He uses characters that are somewhat grotesque in nature to comment on society's ridiculous tendencies. Inspiration is drawn anywhere from Albrecht Durer and sex to metal music, Kiss, and all that is delightfully evil.

In the downstairs group show, Dark Americana, artists express their concerns with our nation's abilities or lack thereof.

Review by Corey Best: Baer Ridgeway Exhibitions has two gallery spaces they've put to good use. In the first room is a solo show featuring large scale works by Tom Huck. Via the medium of woodcut on paper, Tom shows us an intriguing narrative. We see figures carousing, making mayhem and running amuck in a carnival atmosphere.

Dark Americana features 20 artists and is themed on the less savory aspects of American culture. All mediums are represented well. I particularly enjoy the ceramic work by Charles Krafft, and the sculpture by Scott Fife is visually arresting as well. The show runs through May 9th.

Comment by AB: Worth a visit-- both upstairs and down.

***

Sculpturesite Gallery : Benjamin Brown, Travis Sandoval, Jaime Guerrero - 3 In Glass.

Review by Corey Best: Sculpturesite Gallery is currently having a glass show featuring three artists. Benjamin Brown, in glass, steel, and bronze, does interesting work with balance, volume and negative space. Jaime Guerrero tackles diverse subject matters from slippers to Mexican wrestling masks. Travis Sandoval creates well-crafted minimalist pieces incorporating glass, wood, and paint. The show runs through June 13th.

***

Mina Dresden Gallery : Margo Majewska - Turbulence.

Comment by AB: Margo Majewska considers the exigencies of air and air flow in this diaphanous disquisition.

***

Intersection for the Arts : Migdalia Valdes - Every Day in Black and White.

Comment by AB: Ten years ago, Migdalia Valdes vowed to take at least one photograph per day for the rest of her life, plus accumulate other relevant remnants of her daily doings, and combine 'em into all manner of journals, essays, and the like. Plus she prints out significant photographic images for general aesthetic appreciation and enjoyment. The upshot? So far so good. And she's got the juice to prove it-- inundating the Gallery at Intersection to the gills with more documentation and memorabilia than you can shake a Nikon at. If you enjoy burrowing into other people's lives, this would be a capital opportunity to do so.

***

Receiver Gallery : Jimmy DiMarcellis (aka Porous Walker) - Me vs. Me.

Comment by AB: Porous Walker goes intergallactic, plastering Receiver Gallery with magnanimous magnitudes of outlandish appurtenances. Plus special added bonus-- most all of his perpetrations are ludicrously affordable, assuming he doesn't give 'em away first (which makes 'em even more affordable, I suppose). Yes my artful darlings, Walker continues his one-man quest to lighten up the art world, offering an uproarious alternative to those oh so predictable elephantine excesses of earnestness. And if tonight is any indication, he's making some genuine headway. I love this show in all of its glorious outrage. In fact, I'm slappin' a rare mid-month Pick on its ass.

***

Soap Gallery : Treatzone (Matthew and Sandy Lynn Davis) - Familiar Dreams.

Comment by AB: Matthew and Sandy Lynn Davis, aka Treatzone, aka husband and wife, gussy up Soap Gallery with an ecclectic array of art and installation. Digressions include a collection of record albums by female singers where the title of each album is simply the first name of the singer, festive colorizations of otherwise snoozer black & white Victorian portraits, a watercolor of a dude boxing a kangaroo superimposed over a state map of Alabama and hung from an old wooden pants hanger, and more. Why? According to the alibi, it's all about "viewing the familiar through a dreamlike lens." And that, as they say, is that.

***

Femina Potens Gallery : Under the Big Top.

Artists: Anja Ulfeldt, Catherine Murty, Gabe Scelta, Kally Kahn, Rachael Jablo, Lilea Duran.

Comment by AB: Interesting documentary and fine art amalgam is themed on the circus and in its performers.

***

Fivepoints Art House : Winston Smith - Big Brother is (Still) Watching You, 1984-2009, 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee.

Comment by AB: Consummately subversive exhibition surveys a quarter century of Winston Smith's incendiary art. Good stuff.

***

Rena Bransten Gallery : Tommy Støckel - Simulation & Decoration; Doug Hall - In Retrospect.

Comment by AB: I somehow completely missed this show; it's over by the time you're reading this, but I just wanted to acknowledge Tommy Støckel's delightful mini people-filled grid works and archway installation. This seems to be his way of saying that yes, we're all individuals living our own separate lives, but we're also all part of that proverbial big picture. Zoom in on Støckel's collages on paper and you're certain to be transfixed by their intricacies. In the rear gallery a retrospective of photographs by Doug Hall focuses on two bodies of work, one architectural and the other having to do with the unrelenting barrage of mass media influences.

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Addendum:

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