Hespe Gallery : 15th Anniversary Exhibition.

Artists: Steven Albert, Phoebe Brunner, Kim Cogan, Erin Cone, Ethan Diehl, Rob Harrell, Melissa Hutton, Mimi Jensen, Marianne Kolb, Joan Mateu, Alyssa Monks, Kevin Moore, Glenn Ness, Byron Spicer, Robert Townsend, Pablo D'Antoni, Karen Horn, Leslie Lusardi, Adrienne Sherman, Ian Strawn, Eric Zener.

Comment by AB: A medley of Hespe hits celebrate the gallery's fifteenth birthday. Congratulations!

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Meyerovich Gallery : Matt Phillips - Undiscovered Monotypes.?

Comment by AB: Exhibition of "undiscovered monotypes" on display in conjunction with the artist's 80th birthday. Wait a minute. How can they be undiscovered if they're hanging on the ferkin' walls in plain view of everybody? They must mean "rediscovered." Anyway, I wonder where they found 'em? The untold story...

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San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery : A Complicated Dominion - Nature and New Political Narratives.

Artists: Tiffany Bozic, James Drake, Leiv Fagereng, Walton Ford, Tara Tucker.

Review by Mike Lin: Meg Shiffler, the curator & gallery director, describes the assembled works as "depicting an unnatural collision of culture and nature, demonstrating through the device of allegory our attempts to come to terms with contemporary responsibilities and attitudes toward the ever-evolving circumstances of our interdependent existence."

Tiffany Bozic's work "The Silent Dredge, 2007" depicts an unnaturally surreal assemblage of aquatic species from various ecologies entangled in a trolling net, subtly illuminating the impact humankind has on it's environment.? Other pieces in the show work well together, including a beautiful forest sheep sculpture by Tara Tucker and video works by James Drake.

Comment by AB: It's art about endeavors to conserve and preserve our planet vs aggressive military industrial agendas to denude it-- with nature powerless and caught in the middle. Plus one of the more apropos quotes I've come across in a show statement: "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone," says Henry David Thoreau. Obviously not a Republican.

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Renner Gallery : Gregory Bartning - Aer; Mark Jenkins - Liquid Illusion; Elements.

Comment by AB: Two notably competent photographers offer up salient selections of figure photographs, plus Mark Jenkins blends in a handfull of elegant florals. More than satisfying on both counts. In related news, Gregory Bartning takes the opportunity to tell me my review of his work at a previous show wasn't quite up to snuff, and then argues the point. Hey Gregory-- if you have a little spare time on your hands, you might wanna peruse this-- How Not to Sell Art (scroll about halfway down the page). Meanwhile back at the show, all photographs are priced reasonably, most in the $600-$700 range (unframed).

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Paul Mahder Gallery : David Holmes - Progress and the Loss of Cultural Symbols.

Review by Dennis C. Scherzer: Elegant and unpretentious, formal and relaxed, Paul Mahder has created a gallery that has a mind and heart for uniquely expressive original art. The space has depth, light, and mini-galleries for specialized exhibits.

Other galleries are often jammed with works to the point that it's impossible to experience them individually. Many are geared solely to what the gallery owner thinks/guesses that patrons might want to buy. Paul Mahder uses his gallery to introduce new and unique artists to collectors rather than simply supply them with "art."

Paul Mahder is a remarkable photographic artist (and an exhibitor in his gallery). He searches for artists with high levels of technical skill, unique voice, and passion. The gallery exudes passion, the necessary passion that an exhibitor needs to provide for an artist. This passion is the body and soul of the symbiosis between artist and gallery. Without it, a gallery owner is a mere shopkeeper.

Mahder tells me that, "The best artists are prophets?.are able to say something to society that is meaningful." So what does he see in David Holmes?

Holmes photographs the cultural landscape, then hand paints the images in realistic detail. He artistically documents the assemblage of cultural artifacts that create the ever-changing palimpsest of the urban environment. He captures familiar images, such as Woerner's Smoke Shop in the San Francisco Tenderloin ("Woerner's") and a moving glimpse of Manhattan ("Broadway Hustle"). Each piece is an eyewitness view of an urban scene.

Holmes writes, "I am fascinated by the beauty which surrounds us yet goes unnoticed; gritty sidewalks half hidden in shadow, walls of crackled paint and the weathered lettering of old signs." He also includes people in his scenes for the purpose of "lending life and vitality." This inclusion creates "uniqueness" in that, it's "a departure from typical modern realism, which tends to depict urban settings as lonely places, strangely unpopulated. The style is rooted in the classical school of representational art."

Comment by AB: Progress takes its toll, assailing the landscape and replacing what God hath wrought with nothing but reasons to buy worthless mass-produced crap that we don't need and will likely never use... except maybe the liquor and tobacco.

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Headlands Center for the Arts at Herbst International Exhibition Hall in the Presidio: 2008 Benefit Auction.

Artists: Kathy Aoki, Ellen Babcock, Chris Ballantyne, Judith Barry, Libby Black, Mark Brown, Thomas Campbell, Enrique Chagoya, Freddy Chandra, Julie Chang, Alex Clausen, Matthew Cusick, Jacob Dahlgren, Reed Danziger, Debra Dawes, Veronica De Jesus, Catherine Haley Epstein, Tia Factor, Christopher Flach, Dustin Fosnot, Georgia June Goldberg, Lori Gordon, Deborah Grant, David Gurman, Elyse Hochstadt, Amanda Hughen, Ginelle Hustrulid, Misako Inaoka, David Ireland, Packard Jennings, Steve Lambert, Kate Eric, Margaret Kilgallen, Seth Koen, Robert Kostka, Lead Pencil Studio, Christine Lee, Jae Rhim Lee, Yoon Lee, Frederick Loomis, Nicola Lopez, Jessamyn Lovell, Nathan Lynch, Minette Mangahas, Jessica Martin, Daniel McCormick, Barry McGee, Joe McKay, Emily McLeod, Danielle Mourning, Mark Mulroney, Chris Oliveria, Laura Paulini, Ben Peterson, Ryan Pierce, Job Piston, Jon Rappleye, Natalie Rishe, Gustavo, Ramos Rivera, James Sansing, Seher Shah, Jean Shin, Leslie Shows, Laurie Simmons, Skank Bloc Bologna, Sarah Smith, Shinique Smith, Kathryn Spence, Jennifer Starkweather, Thomas Strider, Stephanie Syjuco, Josephine Taylor, Hank Willis Thomas, Lucrecia Troncoso, Daniel Turner, Jamie Vasta, Andy Vogt, Phillipe Weisbecker, Tim Weldon, Benji Whalen, William T Wiley, Vanessa Woods, Mary Elizabeth Yarbrough.

Comment by AB: One of the more delightful and entertaining fundraiser auctions I've been to lately-- and there's been a slew of 'em-- all good. Plenty of admirable artworks on the block, several surprisingly significant, plus all kinds of marvelous non-art options like wine, books, fine dining opportunities, and exercise classes, plus numerous coveys of congenial people milling about (must be that brisk exhilarating Headlands ocean air). News alert! A Margaret Kilgallen etching from 1998 tips the auction scales at $15K, practically enough coinage to net you a decent lifetime impression Rembrandt etching -- but who's Rembrandt?

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Addendum:

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