Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi : Extension of East of the West.

Comment by AB: Select works of art from "East of the West," an exhibition currently on view at SomArts Bay Gallery. The concept began with curators Taraneh Hemami and Anuradha Vikram posing the question to various artists with roots in the region and beyond, "How can we understand a region as diverse and far-ranging as the Middle East?" The answers are expressed in their art.

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Electric Works : William T. Wiley - Punball, Only One Earth.

Comment by AB: William Wiley does it all-- painting, sculpture, limited edition books and prints, installation, and the capper-- a 1964 Gottlieb pinball machine reincarnated with all original Wiley artwork (produced in an edition of five). You got funk, fun, folk, socio-political commentary, and plenty more in this intensely admirable art carnival overflowing with inimitable examples to see, read, enjoy, experience, and ponder. Wiley's been at it for nearly 50 years now, and he just keeps getting better.

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Crown Point Press : Julie Mehretu - Unclosed and The Residual; Gallery Selections.

Comment by AB: Julie Mehretu's sizable prints, comprised of innumerable minuscule marks, embody an ongoing process of creating, erasing, restructuring, and reinvention. Mehretu sees similarities between the developmental progressions of her finished compositions and rapidly changing demographics of large in-flux cities like Detroit, New Orleans, and Berlin.

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San Francisco Art Institute : Vernissage - Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition 2008.

Artists: Myriads.

Comment by AB: From the looks of things, the San Francisco Art Institute appears to be pushing the evolutionary envelope of artistic achievement, perhaps even ignoring it altogether, in an inexorable quest to get there first, wherever "there" is. This is a tricky way to play though, because when you commit to waxing avant garde or even more so to transcending it, you risk instigating a credibility gap between what's gone before and what's supposedly yet to come. It's also why I love the auto industry. At the North American Auto Show , for example, they exhibit the "concept cars" a good 5 to 10 years in advance of seeing anything that looks even remotely like them at your corner dealership. In other words, our cherished car companies are hard at work in the lab, but with respect to reality, they sell what they've already perfected.

The point is you gotta revere the creative game as it's progressed and coalesced over all these millennia. Experimentation is fine, in fact encouraged, but you can't reinvent the wheel whenever you want to just because you feel like it and expect the art world to fall into lockstep behind you. Intelligible nexus between concept and reality, between then and now, between now and tomorrow, is required in order to credibly evolve the idiom. Sure, elitist theoreticians may love what you do, but does their puffery extend beyond the confines of their chambers? Or perhaps more importantly, will they give you a dime for a cup of coffee if your life depends on it? That's the question.

Anyone who wants to help identify the artists, please email me .

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Reaves Gallery : David Imlay; Gallery Artists.

Comment by AB: Unofficial grand opening (the official grand opening's in June - check calendar for details) of Reaves Gallery at their new location on lower Gough Street. Tonight's event debuts diffuse atmospheric cityscapes by David Imlay on one side of the gallery, and gallery selections on the other side. Imlay's paintings appear to be selling well.

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Eleanor Harwood Gallery : David M. Stein - Improbable/Unlikely.

Comment by AB: David Stein presents a two-fer here. Suspended from the ceiling, taking up the entire central portion of the gallery, is an installation of salvaged architectural models, aptly christened "Semesterville," comprised of two semesters worth of assignments originally produced by students at CCA. Then around the walls we have a quiz. Stein displays actual books with improbable or unlikely titles that he's collected (like "Great Jews in Sports"), alongside bogus titles that he's designed and produced as book covers (like "Managing Thermostat Disputes"), and applied over actual books. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out which is which. Special added bonus-- the gallery provides white gloves so you can inspect Stein's literary legerdemain without compromising it's artistic integrity.

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Queens Nails Annex : Recession - The Alternative Economies of Maximo Gonzalez.

Comment by AB: On the sidewalk in front of the gallery, Maximo Gonzales offers exceptionally affordable original and limited edition works of art from a small push cart. The project, named La Changarritos, is based in concept on Mexico City's countless one-person movable vending carts (called Changarritos) that sell everything from fresh produce to black market knock-offs. He's been operating his push cart internationally since 2005, hawking art by over sixty artists (QNA's middle gallery displays a retrospective selection of that art). In the front gallery, Gonzalez comments on the current state of international political and economic affairs via a military-industrial mural composed of cut collaged devalued currencies. And in the rear gallery, he shows more drawings and collages. Good show; plenty to peruse and cogitate on; worth a visit.

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