Bucheon Gallery : Recent Paintings by Jenny Dubnau.

Comment: Jenny Dubnau tells me that her current body of work is about "tweaking" the portrait, or painting it just an iota or two differently than you usually expect. She uses her friends (and occasionally herself) as models, but only as "facial foundations" which she then deliberately reconfigures by altering the expressions and/or embellishing them with add-ons like shaving cream, bruises, a fake mustache, sunglasses, or a mask. The resulting images are generic and artful enough to pretty much eliminate the typical portrait painting rejoinder that "they're pictures of people I don't know," therefore qualifying them for inclusion in tweak-themed collections. Priced $4500-$6500 per tweak.

***

San Francisco Center for the Book : Swiss Impressions - Romano Hanni and the Art of Metal Type.

Comment: The San Francisco Center for the Book is one of our lesser known art treasures, dedicated to the arts of the book and of the printer. This show focuses on the printer, specifically the letterpress and typography of Swiss master printer Romano Hanni. Special bonus-- you can frame and hang much of his work just like art gallery art. Prices start at under $100. His printing has architectural overtones, perhaps incorporating a bit of Kurt Schwitters , a smidgeon Ladislav Sutnar , a dash of El Lissitzky , but mainly it's Romano Hanni.

***

Southern Exposure : Social Construction.

Artists: c a l c (tOmi Scheiderbauer, Teresa Alonso Novo, Luks Brunner and Malex Spiegel) in close collaboration with Johannes Gees, John Knuth, Vitaly Komar (former Komar & Melamid Art Studio), Leah Modigliani, Philip Ross, Lee Walton.

Comment: The premise of Social Construction is that "artist, medium and society" are interdependent. To illustrate that premise, artists produce art that is "substantially or entirely created by other organisms" (the artists don't make it-- someone or something else does). The preordained conclusion appears to be that "human creation has its roots in an unconscious connection to our environment that expands beyond the boundaries of our history, our culture, and our senses of originality and self," whatever that means. Anyway, enough cognitive contortionism; let's talk art.

In a fit of marketing shrewdness, Leah Modigliani commissions artists in China to make paintings of the homes of Bay Area contemporary art collectors (painted quite well, I might add), paintings that those collectors may well wish to buy-- for $1500 each. Interestingly, Ms. Modigliani's aesthetic escapades inadvertently suggest the collecting potential of cheap art from China. Vitaly Komar, meanwhile, chooses beavers and termites to collaborate with, John Knuth engages flies, while Barbara Bartos works with bees, the end buyers in these cases being less clearly targeted than in Modigliani's.

The most bewildering and unwieldy piece in the show is a large large dead tree trunk resting on its side in the center of the gallery (actually a compositional trunk created from parts of over 20 separate deceased trunks). The whole shebang is accented with clock face set into the center of the root base. Explains artist Phil Ross, the inclusion of the clock refers to the ornamental excesses of Baroque and Rococco design.

***

Friday the Thirteenth West, 331 Potrero St., San Francisco, CA 94103; 415.863.2285: An Exhibit of Paintings, Assemblages, and Functional Art by Gregory Conover.

Comment: It's Friday the 13th and we all know what that means, don't we? Right on, Brothers and Sisters! It's time for another strange-but-true art party at Friday the Thirteenth West. This 13th's installment features the work of Gregory Conover whose wacky disco boa flourescent fuzz-ball faux leopard art masterfully upchucks tacky into previously uncharted territory. And just in time, too, because Father's Day is right around the corner.

***

Addendum:

***