General comment: I go to a lot of art openings. The artists are usually there, so naturally, I ask a lot of artists a lot of questions. My questions are almost always of the uncomplicated embryonic entry level variety like, "Your statement says your art's about (fill in the blank). Can you explain that a bit?" or "What's the unifying feature or theme of your art?" or just plain "Can you tell me a little about your art?" You'd think I'm investigating the origins of life in the universe; I mean they stare at me like I'm a Smirgle from planet Zork.

Am I the only one who asks questions like this? People ask me questions about art all the time. And do you know what they ask? The exact same questions I ask artists. So here you go with helpful artist hint #3163-- craft a simple answer or two for rookies who aren't sure what they're looking at. It doesn't take much to give a dabbler a handle. Why should you care? Because (a) everybody likes art, (b) everybody wants to learn about art, (c) everybody wants to feel comfortable around art, (d) you never know when you're talking to a buyer, (e) nobody buys anything they don't undertand, (f) everybody wants to understand art, and (g) we can never have too much art.

Have I made myself clear? Excellent. And now for a brief message from our artists...

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John Berggruen Gallery : Walton Ford.

Comment: First, John Berggruen Gallery has the simplest bestest artist statements. They read so fast and easy, you have plenty of time left over to enjoy the art, and they use just the right amount of big words to keep the cognoscenti in the game. Anyway, Walton Ford makes glorious oversized Audubon-esque natural history prints and watercolors with editorial historical overtones. Then he antiques 'em up by yellowing the edges and flecking 'em with faux foxing (humidity-related age spots often found on old prints and book pages), but sorry-- totally not believable (nobody cares apparently, as all the watercolors are sold).

In case you're interested, Andrew Brandou does similar watercolors AND he ages the paper like a pro (see The Shooting Gallery review on First Thursday, February 2, 2006 , down near the bottom of the page). That dude's so good he could forge prints and documents for a living.

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Hespe Gallery : Phoebe Brunner - Across California.

Comment: Somewhat of an odd California landscape painting mix with subject matters ranging from straight-on representaton to visionary interpretations with unnatural cloud and vegitation formations. It's one of those is-you-is-or-is-you-ain't kinda deals.

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Dolby Chadwick Gallery : Katina Huston - Cyclone.

Comment: Katina Huston explores light, shadow, and degrees of abstraction using bicycle wheels as her vehicle. The medium is ink on mylar-- not one you see everyday.

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Heather Marx Gallery : Timothy Nolan - Sequence.

Comment: Timothy Nolan tells me he bases his dimensional black and white paintings and installations on microscopic fabric thread patterns, intertwining fiber patterns, and on a teenie-tiny level, the atomic bonds that hold molecules together. If memory serves me correctly, I think Nolan's broader theme or commentary has to do with the concept of oneness-- that everything is connected to everything-- I think.

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Rena Bransten Gallery : Nicholas Woods - New Work; Jenny Smith - New Drawings.

Comment: Jenny Smith's delicate agglomerate drawings of conjoined independent elements set against pure white backgrounds apparently represent ecosystems, calling our attention to ecological awareness and the need for progressive social change in that regard. Somewhat of a stretch, but sure, why not? Meanwhile, the improbable impenetrable disquieting Nicholas Woods fantasyscapes remain unflinchingly cryptic even after I read the synopsis.

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Jack Fischer Gallery in cooperation with Fraenkel Gallery: Bill Dane Photographs - Outside Inside.

Comment: Engaging series of photographs mainly taken through glass, sometimes from inside, other times from outside, combine reality and reflection. Maybe they're abstract, maybe representational, maybe both, maybe they're whatever you want 'em to be. And none of that digital trickery either; you get 'em exactly the way they come out of the camera. Under $1k each-- reasonable.

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Patricia Sweetow Gallery : Peripheries of Narrative.

Artists: Michele Carlson, Susan Chen, Katie Lewis, Weston Teruya, Jamie Vasta.

Comment: CCA MFA grad quintet. Pick of the show (not to be confused with Pick of First Thursday) goes to Katie Lewis for her swarming pushpin art. Lewis goes mind-blowingly intricate by sticking a wall full of pushpins, then connecting 'em up with thread in seemingly infinite infinitesimal orderliness (I'd be curious to learn the genesis of this eclectic predilection). The Jamie Vasta glitterscapes make the "like" list too, but will that sparkle last? Investigate before you buy.

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Toomey Tourell Gallery : Clytie Alexander, Marilyn Levin.

Comment: Two takes on abstract, the mildly hypnotic Clytie Alexander drill-press panels winning out in the battle to pique my interest. These swiss cheese color field rectangles hang several inches out from the wall; the light shines through them and incorporates the shadows into the art. It's kind of a two-fer; you buy the art, they throw in the shadow for free. Alexander tells me somebody else does the hole punching, and then she colorizes what's left. The majority are sheet metal; two are paper. Marilyn Levin's paintings are nice too, by the way.

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111 Minna Gallery : Octonarius Lunius.

Artists: Amanda Wachob, Jack Long, Yosuke Ueno, Henry Lewis, Wednesday Kirwan, Tom Allen, Tara Lisa Foley, Jamie Dorfman.

Comment: Your basic Juxtapozian jaunt except for Henry Lewis whose consummate bestial surrealities are in the process of transcending the idiom and crossing over to the other side. In the Strangely Entertaining Department, Jamie Dorfman paints accurate little black and white pictures of everyday objects on your basic store-bought eggs, then mounts 'em up in tidy black shadow box affairs. I think they're $200 each-- something nice for the trophy case.

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Baxter Chang Patri Fine Art : Duet - New Paintings by Shell Cardon and Katherine Leighnor.

Comment: And the trophy for Best Dapper Dans and Glammie Girlz goes to Baxter Chang Patri tonight-- no other gallery comes close. How they manage to consistently corral such a cornucopia of characters, I'll never know. As for the art, Katherine Leighnor works the layered look deep, rich, and luminous while Shell Cardon drips her way to progressive erruptive coagulate splashes of action.

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Cafe Royale : Scott Chernis - Photographs.

Comment: Cafe Royale celebrates its sixth anniversary with a show of New Orleans photos by Scott Chernis, mainly about Jazz and the city's essential indispensable music scene. Chernis wants to make sure Hurricane Katrina's disasterous aftermath remains fresh in our minds, and is donating profits from the sale of his images to New Orleans organizations that help musicians reconstruct their lives.

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Mighty Gallery : International Chiptune Resistance.

Artists: Nullsleep, Flight404, X|K, Cameron Soren.

Comment: Art show in the gallery that adjoins club Mighty, but this is all about the turntabular mastery of Bitshifter, X|K, and Nullsleep. Some of the most superb energy-infused jockeywork I've heard.

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Gallery Tudo Azul, 136 Fillmore St., San Francisco, CA 94117: Alexander Kori Girard - Braided Peoples.

Comment: Alexander Kori Girard was born in New Mexico, but tells me he's not really from anywhere-- he's a gypsy in the truest sense of the word. He's currently here in SF creating art, and plenty of it. What distinguishes Girard from other artists, aside from his art, is that he puts his shows together entirely on his own without outside help (other than friends). He rents the space, does the PR, hangs the art, gets warm bodies through the door, handles the sales, and does whatever else he has to do to survive as an artist. The art here is a trifle uneven, ranging from modest to impressive, but his major works show flashes of magnificence, so I'm gonna prognosticate a big fat YES on this dude. Buy it while it's affordable-- very affordable-- most under $200. Oh, I almost forgot. For resourcefulness, perseverance, ingenuity, and dedication above and beyond the call of duty (as well as for what appears to be a bright creative future), Pick of First Thursday goes to Alexander Kori Girard.

Genealogical note-- Girard is the grandson of famed textile designer Alexander Girard .

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Micaela Gallery : Laurie Lipton - Better Out Than In.

Comment: Major league dreamscape pencil drawings by Laurie Lipton, born in New York, living in London since 1986. Her work is complicated, consummate, imaginative, and astonishing to look at especially when you zoom in for a micro. Pretty near perfect. Top price is $13K. Some pieces are also available as limited edition lithographs for around $1000.

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Addendum:

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You know artsters, sometimes I think I've backed myself into a corner. So many of you are so incredulous that SF Art Openings is a soliloquy, and so many of you tell me it's so helpful (or maybe you're just being polite) that whenever I dare suggest ramping down the coverage, you implore me to hang in there. So OK. I get it. I'm with you. But hey-- think about maybe transitioning that oral enthusiasm to the material plane and flipping a chip in my direction every now and again. Talk is cheap; commitment sets you free. As always, your support is eternally appreciated.

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First Thursday; May 4, 2006

First Thursday; April 6, 2006