ROSS MIRKARIMI - LIMN - LOW GALLERY
SHOOTING GALLERY - ONE TASTE - WHITE WALLS
HALLWAY BATHROOM - NEEDLES & PENS - WOODWARD FLATS
SIMMONS GALLERY - MOLLUSK SURF SHOP
9.16-17.05
Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi : Free Dinner - Sara Thustra.
Comment: Sara Thustra is an artist with a lot on his mind, he's got the talent to express that lot skillfully as well as aesthetically, and he holds nothing back. Here he presents a pure honest compelling outspoken distillation of the oppressive underclass downside of life in America. By incorporating statements into his paintings, prints, and installations as simple as "Rich people can live in smaller houses," he insists that we ask ourselves fundamental questions like "When is enough enough?" or more appropriately, "When is not enough too much?" To complement his art and underscore his conviction, Sara Thustra personally provides a free meal for everyone attending the show. This is one of the more impactful art events I've enjoyed in a while, and Sara Thustra is one of San Francisco's most promising artists.
As Americans, we enjoy freedom of speech; as San Franciscans, we enjoy the most remarkably progressive city in America (possibly in the world). Accordingly, artists like Sara Thustra, without fear of reprisal, can express their views full-throttle at no less a venue than that icon of democracy, San Francisco City Hall-- thanks to Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi.
Art.
Art.
Art.
Art.
Sara Thustra (left).
Art.
Art.
Art.
Partial.
***
Limn Gallery : Guo Jin - Kiddy Scheme & the Image of Man; China Avante Garde (part VII) - Contemporary Chinese Art.
Artists: Guo Jin, The Gao brothers, Hong Hao, Huang Yan, Guo Wei, Sun Yuan, Bai Yiluo, Shi Zhongying.
Comment: Guo Jin creates delectable soft subtle palette paintings textured and colored almost like frosting, most with young children as subjects, set against uniform monotonic backgrounds. The group show is mainly photography with a smattering of video, sculpture, painting. Nice stuff all around; worth a visit. Limn does an outstanding job of bringing Chinese avante garde art to San Francisco (and America, for that matter).
The opening coincides with the first game of a Giants/Dodgers series, so I get stuck in traffic, retreat, and have to park three LONG South of Market blocks away, necessitating over a mile of brisk art aerobics (to Limn and back). Not surprisingly, hardly anyone was at the show (maybe they came later). Helpful hint for Limn-- the Giants put out their home/away schedule before you put out yours.
Art.
Art (Guo Jin).
Art.
Art (Guo Jin).
Art.
Art (Guo Jin).
Art.
Art.
***
Mollusk Surf Shop, 4500 Irving St., San Francisco, CA 94122; 415.564.6300: Come Fall.
Artists: Viki Ruchkan, Kyle Field, Randy Colosky, Rachel Kaye, Bolinas Mollie, Kyle Mock.
Comment: I'm already honked about the baseball traffic and the mile walk at Limn (but glad to get the exercise). Now I'm stuck in the car for FORTY minutes (and I hate driving) on the quest from Limn to Mollusk Surf Shop-- Bay to Breakers on wheels. So I'm double honked by the time I get to Mollusk, yet my raconteurial obligation requires me to look at art with a chipper, chirpy, bubbly demeanor. And so I do. The assortment is a little light considering my ordeal (no fault of the artists-- I'll take full responsibility). I like the Randy Colosky dot-o-grams; they've got potential. Kyle Field presents drawings commemorating his recent trip to Denmark, and another artist (couldn't find the name) composes abstracts in what appears to be some form of petit-point .
Randy Colosky explains his art.
Kyle Field - art.
Petit point-esque art.
***
Low Gallery : Lost Civilization - The Excavation Project.
Artists: Randy Colosky, Rita DiLorenzo, Tara Lisa Foley, Jeff Ray, Oliver Halsman Rosenberg.
Comment: The plot is that five artists are given a grant to explore and interpret an archeological site discovered in the process of excavating for the construction of a large casino complex-- visual science fiction. Fair enough. I continue to like Oliver Halsman Rosenberg's lace-like intricate intermingled watercolor drawings. Randy Colosky makes the most of a dead tree from in front of his house. My favorites are a series of three surreally imaginative labor-intensive color-rich gouaches (I think) by Tara Foley ($600 each-- buy).
Art.
Pick (Tara Foley).
Art.
Tara Foley.
Art (Oliver Halsman Rosenberg).
Art (Randy Colosky).
Art.
***
Varnish Fine Art : The Self-Born - Stanislav Szukalski.
Comment: Sculptor Stanislav Szukalski was way ahead of his time-- like about a hundred years. Two huge surveys of his art were published by 1930, but he ultimately faded into obscurity. He's no longer with us, but his scupture sure is-- the examples here being posthumously cast with great skill, attention to detail, and respect for the artist. Bigguns run around $20K. Also on display is a selection of oversized Iris prints, views of Szukalski's studo circa the 1920's, produced from recently rediscovered glass negatives. Unfortunately, the show's over; the sculpture's gone. But I wanted to at least tell you about it. Wanna know more about Szukalski? Contact the nice folks at Varnish.
Sculpture.
Sculpture.
Sculpture.
Sculpture.
***
One Taste : Implied Body - Kimberly Weinberg.
Comment: Metaphysical organic abstracts with anotomical overtones, just like the show's title says. Atypically interesting.
Art.
Art.
***
The Shooting Gallery : Tiki Art Two - The Second Coming of a New Art God.
Artists: Shag, Isabel Samaras, Bosko, Dave Burke, Niagara, Miles Thompson, Crazy Al Evans, Dave Burke, Davey, Kirsten Easthope, Ewik, Makoto, Munktiki/Paul Nielsen, Munktiki/Stuckie, Tiki Tony, Heather Watts, Derek Yaniger, more. Curated by Otto Van Stroheim.
Comment: Alright kiddies. Are you ready for some diversionary amusement? Of course you are. The Shooting Gallery is now Tiki-land, filled to capacity with Tiki-inspired art, and inhabited with bona fide 100% living breathing Tiki lifestylers. Then we all drink tropical drinks and Red Stripe beer, and off we journey to the South Pacific without ever leaving the comfort of the Tenderloin, bathed in fantasy, de-shackled from reality, if only for this brief inspirational interlude. Those afflicted with congenital TDD (Tiki Deficit Disorder) may purchase a full-color catalogue of the show from The Shooting Gallery for a paltry $19.95. Art priced $50-$7500 (something for everyone).
Art.
Art.
Art (Shag) - Ewik aka Eric Rider (right).
Art.
Art.
Art (Isabel Samaras).
Art.
Art (Shag).
Art.
Going up - art.
Upper.
***
White Walls Gallery : Chris Yormick - Traveling Light.
Comment: Berkeley born artist and graphic designer Chris Yormick travels to SF from his home in New York City to show a series of paint and collage compositions that have an effortless serenity about them, as easy on the attitude as any urban art out there.
Art.
Art.
Chris Yormick.
Art.
***
Moments from the Second Annual Mission Art Walk ...
***
Hallway Bathroom Gallery (415.864.3278): Also! Awsome! and an Installation by Sacha Eckes.
Artists: Jennifer Sturgill, Robert Gutierrez, Bryan Barasch, Chris Corales, Derrick Snodgrass, Sacha Eckes, Mat O?Brien, John W. Wood, Jonn Herschend, Paula Malesardi, Carl Auge, Allyson Mellberg Taylor, Tara Lisa Foley, Kyle Mock, Ryan Wallace, Julia Elsas, Harrison Haynes, Christine Shields, Randy Colosky, Sarah Smith, Dennis Parlante, Ryan Jacob Smith, Sto, Casey Belle Watson, Alex Dodge, Glen Baldridge, Jennifer Poon, Kelie Bowman, Dan Rollman, Patricia K. Kelly, James Gallagher, Alicia Gibson, Denise Kupferschmidt, Kottie Paloma, Paul Urich, Kyle Ranson, Mary Joy Scott.
Comment: A "curator's choice" of Paper! Awsome! submissions not included in the first show, the curator being Brion Nuda Rosch (artists are allowed multiple submissions for Paper! Awsome!, Rosch shows one piece per artist, so there's plenty of good leftovers, and these are some of those). Meanwhile, Sacha Eckes bedecks the bathroom with a cathective reflective installation including a shiny new axe affixed to the back of the bathroom door for sitters to cogitate on while manning and/or womaning the helm.
Hallway gallery - art.
Kyle Ranson - Sara Thustra.
Sacha Eckes - art.
Brad K. Alder.
Tunes - art.
Eckes axe.
Hallway gallery aerial.
***
Woodward Flats : Chromophiastrophe - An Exhibition by Dan Reneau.
Comment: Explosive shrapnel imagery digitally composed by Dan Reneau, then reproduced for transfer with tape and stencil, then painted onto a gallery wall and onto several free-hanging pieces of formica reinforced from the backs (I think), the formica painted with auto paint. Reneau creates his art using techinques similar to those used in auto detailing. I ask where he learned his skills. From his father, he tells me.
Art.
Dan Reneau - art.
Art.
***
Needles & Pens : Elevation - Bill Daniel, Tim Kerr, Vanessa Renwick.
Comment: The art looks good and there's plenty of it. Price range $60-$1000. Rather than attempt an impromptu education, I'm gonna copy off the Needles & Pens website (the requisite appears to exceed my time constraints). "An art show displaying the work of Austin, Texas punk legend TIM KERR (Big Boys, Poison 13, Lord High Fixers, Total Sound Direct Action Committee), hobo photographer extraordinaire BILL DANIEL (Who's Bozo Texino, Texas Punk Pioneer), & the amazing Oregon Dept. of Kick Ass film maker VANESSA RENWICK. This show is going to be, as the kids are saying these days - epic."
Art - like it.
Art.
Art.
Art.
***
The Simmons Gallery : PETER MAX - Colors of a Better World.
Comment: I was all set to talk about Peter Max as a master of art marketing-- which he is-- and every artist can learn from him. But then I see the art. The only one who gets a "Better World" out of this show is Peter Max. The gallery is thick with rapacious marauding "sales consultants" scoping your every move. The art is, at best, a pathetic slapdash rehash of a distant past. Many of the pieces are prints of Max paintings with a few strokes of paint over them, hand-embellished as they say in the trade. However, you don't realize this unless you know art and unless you look close, and here's where lame art is further debased with calculated misdirection. Instead of telling it like it is, these ad-hoc overpaint clones are called "mixed media," presented as "unique works," and priced $3995 to well over $10K. For what? Pitiful pranked up charades of ego gratification. Disgusting.
