Fifty24SF Gallery : Mr. Cartoon, Estevan Oriol, Rob Abeyta.

Comment: Mr. Cartoon , Estevan Oriol , and Rob Abeyta are up from Los Angeles. They work solo and collaborate on projects including CD packaging, music videos, fashion, tattoo art, murals, film, photography, graphic design, lowrider design, painting, and more. In fact, I can't find much that these three don't do. Furthermore, they do what they do extremely well, and they do it for some extremely recognizeable names including Eminem, Justin Timberlake, 50 Cent, and Beyonce Knowles, to name a few. Mr. Cartoon is a renowned tattoo artist, perfecting a type of tattoo that originated in the California prison system; he also paints murals and designs and makes lowriders. Estevan Oriol is a photographer, music video director, and filmmaker who purveys honest urban insight with his intense imagery. Rob Abeyta is a photographer, layout artist, painter, and designer, creating misty collagy compositions that occasionally verge spiritual.

Most notable about this show is the documentary aspect of Los Angeles street life, revealed convincingly through the photographs of Oriol. His work points up the fluid transformative continuum of lifestyle that germinates deep downtown ultimately to sculpt the minds of millions of pop culture partisans the world over. Those of you who go out of your way to live lives of comfy gated unfettered obliviousness may wish to tootle on down and broaden your perspectives.

Another smooth coup for feisty Fifty24SF.

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Locura Gallery : Ramses - The Evolution of Creation.

Comment: I come up blank on this one. It's one of these shows where art is given arbitrary significance, from which arbitrary conclusions are then drawn (meaning is assigned to art rather than conveyed through art). Furthermore, Ramses attempts to bite off way too much for one show including issues of overindulgence, consumerism, materialism, political imperialism, abuse of the earth's natural resources, and abuse of power by religions. Those may be the threads, but I can't find the garment; too much premise and not enough art. Intentions aside, Ramses is skilled with collage and graphics, and his hermetically clean images of partially eaten apples-- colored vinyl applied to white gloss aluminum panels-- will be even cleaner once he eliminates those sporadic tiny air bubbles trapped beneath the vinyl.

Locura Gallery, curated by Lisamarie Inesi, does not work from a specific location, but rather presents shows at various venues in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles. This is a novel way to sidestep the constraints inherent in having to operate a permanent gallery space.

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Blue Room Gallery : 8 Sculptors & the Figure.

Artists: David Baughan, Christina Bertea, Jesse Clark, Sheryl Cotleur, Daniel Goldstein, Marilyn Rodriguez, Florian Roeper, Elizabeth Stephens.

Comment: Figure sculpture by eight sculptors and several paintings and that's that.

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Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi : A Retrospective on the Black Panther Party From the Archives of Alden and Mary Kimbrough.

Comment: Exceptional and historically important rare vintage Black Panther posters from the collection of Alden and Mary Kimbrough. These power packed images represent American political art at its radical militant finest, dating from way back there in the Sixties, still remarkably intense today, perhaps even moreso now than then, considering the course of history. Check it out. This countercultural snippet is way too good to be missed, especially if you make political art and you wanna learn how to max the sting in your message.

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

Artists: Plenty.

Comment: Who's gonna make it and who's gonna ain't? Plenty of freshly degreed talent to prognosticate over down here at Herbst Pavilion, Fort Mason Center between now and May 28. One of the event's contestants posted a notice for the show on the Fecal Face Dot Com art calendar, postscripted with a goad to "feel free to voice your opinion about how SFAI sux or how MFA's are luxuries." Well, SFAI doesn't sux because they're turning out some pretty competent artists, and whether or not an MFA is a luxury is largely irrelevant because talent ultimately talks in the art world, not how many degrees you have, though intense study of any kind and under any circumstances is generally beneficial (of course, political connections are nice for openers, but then you still gotta haul out the mettle). And think about this-- when you study the world's great artists in art school, nary a nanosecond of class time is spent on where those artists were educated, who their teachers were, or how many degrees they have. In any event, SFAI might consider offering future MFA candidates a seminar in basic public relations.

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Ampersand International Arts : Dharma Strasser MacColl - Migration; Maiko Sugano - (Art) in Everyday Life.

Comment: Fish swimming inside fishbowls nested inside larger fishbowls, a crafted wooden tower stocked with curious objects, and glued woven works on paper variously composed from feathers, mylar, and clay highlight this appealing show. As per usual, Ampersand artist statements are so confounding that I read halfway through one artist's statement before I realized that it wasn't talking about the other artist's art. Then again, that's an interesting concept-- a group show where you have no idea which statement goes with what art, and you have to match 'em up and if you get 'em all right you win a prize.

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