Meridian Gallery : Leigh Hyams & Rolando Castell?n - The Ancient Presence (Curated by Theres Rohan); Viv Corringham - At the End of the Road and Always the Water.

Comment by AB: Three-fer features large semi-representational compositions on unstretched canvas based on ancient sites in Mexico by Leigh Hyams (main floor), a soft drawing and watercolor series titled "Early Women" by Hyams (second floor), archived found objects that have been reworked or transformed in various ways by Rolando Castell?n (third floor), and two sound and video installations by Viv Corringham, also on the third floor.

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SomArts : Visual Aid's Big Deal 15.

Artists: Rex Ray, Shepard Fairey, Jennifer Bain, William Wiley, Paul Gibson, Aondrea Maynard, Anne Veraldi, Mike Kimball, J. John Priola, Chris Leib, Sylvia Poloto, Binh Danh, Elena Zolotnitsky, Mark Paron, Ivy Jacobson, Isabel Samaras, John Wood, David King, Michael Rauner, Kara Maria, Igor Josifov, James Aarons, Lisa Ricci, David Ivan Clark, Elliot Anderson, Kirk Maxson, Enrique Chagoya, Eileen Starr Moderbacher, Joel Hoyer, Gregg Renfrow, Donald Bradford, David Gilhooly, Matt Gonzalez, Inez Storer, Richard Bolingbroke, Aaron Petersen, Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens, Tim Buckwalter, Leslie Lusardi, Brian McDonald, Mel Prest, Leo Bersamina, Kevin Mosley, J. John Priola, Saundra McPherson, Charles Gute, Jenny Kahn, Mitch Confer, Tom Bolles, Martine Jardel, Taraneh Hemami, David Liittschwager, Addie Shevlin, Bill Bowers, Maya Hayuk, Robert Concannon, Beth Yarnelle Edwards, Scott MacLeod, Gigi Janchang, Pamela Blotner, Joel Hoyer, Manisha Patel, Julie Blankenship, U.B. Morgan, Mimi Plumb, Bill & Doug Domonkos, Rebeca Liberty Emmons, Michael Johnstone, Amy Levine, Richard and Judith Lang, many many more.

Comment by AB: Visual Aid's annual art sale and auction extravaganza and fundraiser to benefit programs for artists with HIV/AIDS, breast cancer and other life-threatening illnesses offers over 600 works of art and all kinds of other goodies. And with that kinda come-on, SomArts is absolutely crammed with supporters and collectors and Lord only knows who else. In fact, it was so crowded, I had to ask my aura to wait outside. The big deal part of the "Big Deal," in case you're interested, is that for a fixed price of $160, you can choose from whichever of the 600 pieces are left when it's your turn to pick. People wait in line for hours to be among the first to choose their favorites.

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Studio Gallery : Tiny.

Artists: Rab Terry, Brandon Smith, Greg Gandy, Scott Grabowski, Brian Behnke, Laura Williams, Jeremy Mann, Michael-Che Swisher, Sandra Speidel, Christine Hanlon, Christine Benjamin, Sookyi Lee, Bill Dunlap, Michael Loomis, Barbara Kleinhans, Hye Seong Yoon, Chris Grassano, Paul Ferney, Kanna Aoki, Rachel Gillen, Michele Feder, Susan Landor Keegin, Lisa Mistiuk, Eunju Newhouse, Ray Bonilla, danyol, Mei Mei Everson, Tami Sloan Tsark, Zannah Noe, Jessica Whiteside, Shannon O?Rourke, Steve Dehlinger, Piero Spadaro, Hsuan-chi Chen, Ho-Jun Lee, Robert Drysdale, Claudia Rilling, Cheryl Kerr, Maeve Croghan, Sue Everitt, Daniel Ochoa, Maggie Yee, Carol Allen, Richard Whitlock, Dieter Tremp,, Linda Olafsdottir, Ursula X. Young, Susan Saunders, Carol Tarzier, Michelle Waters, Lindsey Kustusch, Murphy Adams, Andrew Perry, Mary Syring, Hyeonggon Kim, Susan Grote, Daniel Valadez, Anna Efanova, Steve Javiel, Kelcie Tinker, Jacquelyn Vierra, Nathan Madrid, Jack Baker, Mary Brown, Patricia Ancona, Pasha De Saix, Julie Mevi, Roberta Matsumoto, Scott Gibbons, David Hamill, Angela Simione, Sofia Harrison, Elizabeth Ashcroft, Chiami Sekine, Lola, Josh Coffy, L. Maude Kirk, Kate Phillips, Jason Coe, Kate Dopheide, Evon Freeman, Sadie Valeri, 3D-Edddy, Richard Benbrook, Dave Higgins, Rebecca Fox, Jim Rosenau, Monique Tse, Linda Braz, Jean Cherie, Ayu Tomikawa, Alice Gibbons, Barbara Wyeth, Linda Pedersen, Jody McMillan, Sarah Jelley, Samantha Zaza, Teerawat Palanitisena, Michael Markowitz, MariNaomi, Phyllis Rockne, Min Bae, Ginne, Brook Jasmine, ShadowBox, Rae Ann, Muscovie Design, Vivena, Tammy Stellanova, Bobbie Pires, Spider, Steven Hight, J.P. Fortin, Amy Moore, Bang, Haelee, Lorna Newlin, Judy Hummell, Jake Wrench.

Comment by AB: The parameters are as follows-- 225 works of art measuring 7 by 7 inches or less and priced under $400. The selection includes paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, jewelry, mixed media works, ceramics, and even restored vintage clocks. And with that number of artists (plus some buyers)... you guessed it... standing room only. The good news? A respectable percentage of the panoply is commendably admirably proficient. See for yourself.

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Garage Biennale : Overlap in Green.

Artists: Amber Hasselbring, Andrea Polli, Laurie Palmer, Lea Redmond, Judith Selby-Lang, Susan Leibovitz Steinman, Misako Inaoka, Laura Parker, Adrienne Pao and Robin Lasser, Jeroen Nelemans.

Comment by AB: Produced in cooperation with the Green Museum , tonight's event "explores the intersection between ecology and the realities of living in an urban environment, as expressed through artistic production." Diversions include a pedal-powered flour mill, a display illustrating relative sizes of carbon footprints of major energy consuming nations, a demonstration about growing apple trees from seeds, and more.

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Root Division : Historiographie - Collective Reconstructions of Imaginary Pasts.

Artists: Rebecca Frediani, Dana Hemenway, Carrie Maseredjian, Kasey Smith, Zan Truman.

Comment by AB: The five artists in the show comprise the Bay Area collective Cadresquad. According to the prospectus, the group here "reconstructs" imaginary scenarios relating to actual events such as the life and times of the Sutro Baths or the atom bombing of Hiroshima. The show's pretty disjointed, and if you don't have a guide with you to explain each reconstruction in detail, you're just plain outta luck. Interesting concept though.

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Eleanor Harwood Gallery : Zoe Crosher - Autoportrait.

Comment by AB: Speaking of reconstructing pasts, Michelle du Bois, a sixty-something year-old woman gifts artist Zoe Crosher over a thousand photographs she either took or had taken of herself during the 1970s and 1980s. The images range from tourist photos from her travels in the Pacific Rim to family snapshots to quaint quirky cheesecake poses. Crosher, with no assistance from du Bois other than her photographs, has taken it upon herself to recreate du Bois' past according to various narratives that she gleans or distills from the photographs. Crosher has already published sequences of du Bois' images in one book and has a second in the works. Similar concept to that of the Root Division show, however this time around, much more effectively materialized.

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Receiver Gallery : Jason Villegas - Hunter Gatherer.

Comment by AB: Festive rangy m?lange of fabric, drawings, video, and sundry found fragments by Brooklyn artist Jason Villegas is offered up as an ode to capitalism, consumption, sex, death, war, weapons, fashion, data, and basically everything else. All-encompassing art at its wacky acme.

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Orange Alley Project : Jessica Rosen - Photo Collage Installation.

Comment by AB: A garage on Orange Alley in The Mission has been converted into an art gallery. Jessica Rosen, showing her photo collages at the inaugural event, tells me that this is part of a larger project called the Mission District Garage Art Walk, the object of the project being to show art in converted garages throughout The Mission several times per year. Noble endeavor.

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