Urbis Artium Gallery : Zane Peach - Drawings; Torbjorn Vejvi - Sculpture.

Comment: Zane Peach and Torbjorn Vejvi are plenty competent, however prices seem a tad altitudinous on both counts. Zane Peach makes these exquisite intricate naive-esque black and white drawings (and some highlighted with color, though less intricate) that take considerable time and care to produce, but now and again trend precariously close to Simon Evans which steals a bit of their fire. The dude's obviously got talent and dedication, and based on his work here, the upside looks mighty bright-- especially once he cuts the cord and goes solo. Swedish-born Torbjorn Vejvi, currently residing in Los Angeles, sculpts with distinct style and fresh clean confident originality, but do you fork over big bux for cardboard? $$ aside, good show on both counts and worth a look.

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Triple Base Gallery : Beth Cook - It's Not You, It's Me.

Comment: Beth Cook presents a pseudo-scientific artobiographical retrospective dissection of her personal emotional psychological relational creational self. The opening also features a live dissertation by Cook on dating etiquette-- actually good solid intelligent advice-- which is immediately followed by a Q&A session with Cook (assisted by her partner). The art's deliberate, detailed, conscientious, and preeminently purposeful (my kinda show). The three-dimensional "floor plan" pieces with various "rooms" offering various behavioral options kinda remind me of settings and life choices in that computer game The Sims . Unfortunately, I arrive only a couple of minutes before Cook's talk, so I can't photograph much art. So you'll just have to go. I wouldn't be surprised to see lots more from Beth Cook in the not-to-distant future.

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Lost Art Salon : Reception, Featuring Works by Paul McCoy.

Comment: The event is for members of the SFMOMA Contemporary Extension (aka CX), which according to the SFMOMA CX website is "a dynamic auxiliary of SFMOMA dedicated to engaging young members and enthusiasts with the art of our time." Whatever it is, if it's at Lost Art Salon, it's always fun.

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Presidio Officers' Club Exhibition Hall : Plants + Insects; Art + Science. Through The Green Fuse - The Cameraless Photography of Robert Bueltemann; The Lives of Insects - The Close-up Photography of Edward S. Ross

Comment: You gotta see Robert Bueltemann's incandescent alchemistic plant-life photography. Actually it's not photography at all, but rather Bueltemann's own invention, sort of a twist on Kirlian Photography where he lays live plants on photosensitive surfaces and then passes varying amounts of electric current through them while nuancing lighting and other variables. No camera, no computer, no Photoshop, nuthin' but creative science. In fact, the technique and resulting images are so remarkably inexplicable that I hereby present Robert Bueltemann with the rare and highly coveted "How Do Dey Do Dat?" Award.

This collection of Bueltemann's work is on loan from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Bueltemann tells me he only produces nine prints of each image and that they average in price around $10K each.

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In Color 2 : The Ghana Youth Photo Project.

Comment: Photographer Jamie Lloyd , under the auspices of San Francisco Camerawork's youth mentoring program, corrals a bunch of cameras, takes 'em to Ghana, gives 'em to kids in their early to mid-teens, and teaches them how to take pictures. Either Lloyd is an excellent teacher, the kids are quick studies with talent, or both. Give kids the means to document their lives and you get intimate glimpses that no professional photographer can match. The Ghana Youth Photo Project is ongoing, in case you're feeling generous and wanna donate to the cause.

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Rocket World : Colin Stinson - CS Drop Shop.

Comment: Rocket World officially christens a corner of the store to be a Colin Stinson shop within a shop, from this point forward to be known as the CS Drop Shop . Stinson, an artist and designer currently living in New York City, tells me he started out as an artist, and has sinced branched into fashion, jewelry design, original art, and more. He creates all his art and products in relatively limited editions.

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