General comment by AB: "What holiday?" scoffs that smattering of haut gout purveyors who've decided to open shows on Independence Day Eve. I traditionally spend this night at home, relaxing in the rocker by the fireplace, quietly knitting hamburgers for the July Fourth barbecue, my little kitty Snuggles at my feet. But oh no. Not this year. I've got to take out my curlers, stash the afghan, hop in the Hupmobile, and drag my cozy little ass downtown. Why? To sample yet another pu pu platter of creative delights. That's why.

Wanna tag along? OK. Off we go...

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Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery : Dialogue China Part I - Contemporary Chinese Painting, Sculpture, & Works on Paper.

Artists: Zhang Xiaogang, Chen Wenling, Luo Brothers, Zhang Dali, Wang Ningde, Liu Bolin, Xing Danwen.

Review by Jennifer Jeffrey: I keep hearing about how contemporary Chinese art is currently the hottest sector in the art world, and how values in this niche are skyrocketing, but I haven't seen much of it until this. The show, Dialogue China Part 1, is a diverse assortment of works by well-known Chinese artists-- from painting to sculpture to mixed media pieces-- at once bold, sensitive and jarring. I'm riveted by the work of Zhang Xiaogang, as (it seems) is the rest of the world. The people staring out of these works are doll-like, bewildered and sad. Other pieces in the show also merit a second glance, and a third-- among them, the neon silhouettes by Zhang Dali, and the family-portrait style painting by He Jian of a young couple holding a doll. I'm excited to see Dialogue, Part 2.

Comment by AB: Elins Eagles-Smith steps out with an ambitious, impressive, and not inexpensive exhibition spotlighting some of the "more celebrated painters, sculptors photographers and media artists working in China today." And they do it up right. Real right. Pick of First Thursday. Go see.

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Gregory Lind Gallery : Ernesto Burgos, Kyle Ranson & Derrick Snodgrass. Curated by Chris Duncan.

Review by Libby Nicholaou: A three person show featuring Kyle Ranson, Ernesto Burgos, and Derrick Snodgrass, curated by Chris Duncan. ?A glacial sculpture in the room's center is surrounded by color-rich paintings, a collaged mural, and sleeves of tattoos. ?Ranson's multi-canvas portrayal of the "Rape of The Sabine Women" has circular movement and thick brush stokes, reminding me of Edvard Munch's style. ?Burgos' sculpture is a three-d depiction of his paintings, combining older abstractions with modern art materials. ?I'm not sure I understand how everything fits together, but I continue to like Duncan's selections.

Comment by AB: Good art, but a little challenging to transit smoothly from one piece to the next. I'm an abiding fan of Kyle Ranson regardless. He doesn't necessarily paint pretty, but he sure knows how to paint.

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Don Soker Gallery : Summer Selections.

Comment by AB: A little bit of this and a little bit of that, the sum total of which yields this month's Don Soker revue. Always worth a perusal.

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Toomey Tourell Gallery : Ten Year Group Show.

Artists: Michael Ajerman, Clytie Alexander, Dawn Arrowsmith, Philip Willem Badenhorst, Larry Bemm, Lynda Benglis, Eva Bovenzi, Claire Burbridge, Jerrold Burchman, Eric Butcher, Matty Byloos, Xavier Damon, Patrick Day, Brian Dettmer, Robert Donald, Greg Edwards, William Edwards, Mark Erickson, Ned Evans, Clinton Fein, Roni Feldman, Jimi Gleason, Thekla Hammond, German Herrera, Eric Johnson, Igor Josifov, James Kao, Maryellen Latas, Marilyn Levin, Monika Lin, Jeff Long , Gil Mares, Steve Ninteman, Amy Olson, Oran O'Reilly, Maria Park, Mark Paron, Mark Perlman, Matthew Picton , Nathaniel Price, Roland Reiss, Gregg Renfrow, Brian Rutenberg, Jurgen Schadeberg, Lance Scott, Elizabeth Sher, Audrey Tulimiero Welch, Michel Tabori, Shimpei Takeda, Ann Thornycroft, Joe Thurston, Joan Tucker, Ray Turner, Jan Verboom, Stephanie Weber, Joni West, Heather Wilcoxon, Suzan Woodruff, Dale Yudelman.

Comment by AB: The gallery's decade anniversary celebration finds the walls festooned with Toomey Tourell's greatest hits.

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Scott Nichols Gallery : Lucienne Bloch - Frida & Diego, A Personal Memoir, Lucienne Bloch; Images of Mexico - Group Show.

Photographers for Photographs of Mexico: Lola Alvarez Bravo, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Imogen Cunningham, Tina Modotti, Paul Strand, Brett Weston, Edward Weston, Reid Yalom. ? ?

Review by Jennifer Jeffrey: Frida Kahlo's face looks back at me everywhere I go lately-- she whizzes past on buses and glowers down from streetlights, advertised and merchandised for the current show at SFMOMA. Stepping into the Scott Nichols Gallery feels like an important corollary in the discovery of this enigmatic artist. Here, the walls are hung with works by Lucienne Bloch, a prolific artist who became very close to Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo after meeting them in the early 1930's in New York. These photographs, drawings and paintings offer a glimpse into another side of this fiery and often controversial couple. Tender, fierce and playful, they give a sense of what it might have been like to know the two as friends rather than icons.

Review by Libby Nicholaou: So much Frida in the San Francisco air right now. Lucienne Bloch's photographs enable an outsider to have a personal view of this vigorously abundant woman's life. ?While Frida revealed many emotions through her paintings, there is one theatrical layer removed here, where she is with friends.

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Stephen Wirtz Gallery : I Dunno.

Comment by AB: There's no info at the front desk. There's nothing on the website. Here's pix. You figure it out. Kinda looks like summer selections.

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Frey Norris Gallery : Koh Myung Keun - Windows on Nature.

Comment by AB: Koh Myung Keun has perfected a fascinating technique of ensconcing oversized transparencies in perfectly joined, seamed, and lit sculptural plexiglas enclosures. The results are wondrous landscapes, seascapes, cloudscapes, and treescapes that appear three-dimensional and mysteriously real.

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111 Minna Gallery : Full Custom Living - The Art of Garage Magazine.

Artists: Eric Haines, John Bell, Jay Watson, Dan Gilday, Pizz, Johnny Ace, Jason Jessee, Estevan Oriol, Incredible Features, Adam Wright, Coby Gewertz, Shawn Barber, Derek Yaniger, Mac, Larry Mills, Boogie, Jenny Lens, Jim Phillips, Chris Martin, Daniel Martin Diaz, Roby Struven, Chas Ray Krider, Marco Patino, Ed Fox, Keith Weesner, Bruce Gossett, Timothy White.

Commenty by AB: Garage Magazine shows what it's made of. Hot rods, dragsters, custom cars, and motorcycles-- the best in mobile kinetic sculpture-- are on display in conjunction with a panoply of artworks that epitomize the subculture.

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SomArts Main Gallery : From the 4 Directions - Indigenous Artists of the Bay Area.

Review by Erica Eller: Diverse collection of Native American art and poetry with a performance art bonus. Some nostalgic, some political, some mystical, often drawing upon a history of injustice to indigenous peoples including the detrimental manipulation of their lands and their cultures. The performance is the unwrapping of a baby to expose a paper-mache carcass, covered with significant photographic images, that's knifed open to reveal a plastic baby-doll which the performer then throws to the ground. The corresponding soundtrack is a recording of disdainful words having to do with themes like consumerism and the atrocities of the current U.S. political regime, spoken over native drumming and chanting. Meanwhile, incense burns. At the end, the crowd is welcomed to put meaningful objects into the carcass, to be buried when the show is taken down.

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CC Rider SF : Eric Kneeland and Duck Man Ghetto.

Review and images by Erica Eller: Store grand opening party art show features prints by Eric Kneelander and paintings by Duckman. A huge crowd of people spills from the small store space onto the street. An influx of beers; a rivalry between Pabst and Tecate with cupcakes for treats. Young crowd, street art oriented with Kneelander's calendar series spanning summer to summer as well as some icon portraits. He prefers not to be photographed. Duckman is primarily a street artist but displays a few paintings tonight. He's absent from the crowd.

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Fifty24SF Gallery : Ala Ebtekar, Rene Almanza - Descriptive Verse; Hera - Therapy Dropout.

Comment by AB: German artist Hera tricks out the street-level gallery with art and installation commemorating her renunciation of therapy (and the consequent salvation of her creativity). Upstairs, Ala Ebtekar and Mexican artist Rene Almanza offer up a plethora of works on paper. Ebtekar's are so faint, you can hardly see 'em. Not sure what the deal is there. According to legend, art is a visual medium, meaning that people generally prefer something they can see.

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Southern Exposure : Baby Boomers Fucked Everything - A Psychedelic Light Show.

Artists: Steven L. Anderson, Karl Erickson, Robby Herbst.

Review by Erica Eller: A light show consisting of three overhead projectors and an old slide carousel. The trippy effects are created with dye, oil and water on glass plates that are jostled around over the light by those manning the projectors. Joints are being passed and lighters are being offered by the staff. Music is performed by 'The Faraway Places' a psychedelic jam band in tin-foil attire. Slides consist of satiric cut-and-paste images of members of our current political hit list and other baby boomer celebrities such as Hillary wearing a 'I am Turbo' T-shirt and pointing at herself with both hands. The performance lasts about half an hour. My pick of the evening for its humor.

Comment by AB: A reasonably accurate rendition of a vintage hippie light show. FYI, Bill Hamm is generally credited with originating the psychedelic light show.

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Hotel Biron : Scott Greenwalt - under the weight of shattered hands.

Review by Jennifer Jeffrey: Walk down the short alleyway behind Zuni, and you'll find a tiny wine bar called Hotel Biron, where the brick walls are hung with the grisly faces and sharp-toothed creatures of Scott Greenwalt's imagination. With apologies to the artist for the slight blur in many of these shots, I feel as if the camera shake oddly serves to further enhance the shimmering, lively sense that each of these pieces emanates. Though much of the subject matter at first seems macabre, it never feels threatening; rather, there is a flowing, visceral quality about it that creates a thrilling sense of peeking behind the surface to discover what lies beneath.

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Cafe Royale : Alexis Grant - Recent Paintings.

Review by Jennifer Jeffrey: Painter Alexis Grant is fascinated with automobiles and urban landscapes; her bright canvases offer a familiar peek into neighborhoods around the city-- graffiti-splattered trucks in the Mission, faded sedans in the Bayview. Her show at Caf? Royale feels sunny and lighthearted, a snapshot of summer in the city.

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Goforaloop Gallery : The First Show.

Artists: David Martin, Amada Lechner, Auburn Lahoski, Justin Fiset, Daniel Espeset, Molly Bradbury.

Comment by AB: I motor on out the far reaches of the Mission for this one-- the vicinity of 25th and San Bruno Avenue, a strange stretch of land unlike anywhere I've ever experienced in exotic Ess Eff, peppered with funky corrugated structures, and seemingly surrounded by freeways and interchanges. Down a dodgy driveway I stroll to discover Goforaloop, a relatively new artist studio/gallery venue. And surprise of surprises-- a good sized exhibition space, well maintained, and some pretty peppy art. If I recall correctly, they do their own shows, but also rent out the space. You might keep that in mind for when you have a show but nowhere to hang it.

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Addendum:

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Save gas; experience the San Francisco art scene here. Then take some of those savings and stash 'em in a very special place . See how easy it is to feel good. And I thank you.

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First Thursday; June 5, 2008

First Thursday; May 1, 2008

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