Braunstein/Quay Gallery : Tom Bolles - Subliminal; Charles Ross - Solar Burns and Dynamite Drawings.

Comment: Soft translucent acrylic epoxy amalgams on aluminum by Tom Bolles verge malleable and candylike in appearance, almost good enough to eat. The totally controlled nature of Bolles's work is decisively offset by the spontaneous random outcomes of Charles Ross's astronomical and science-based art. Ross incorporates "solar burns" (magnified concentrated sunlight) and pocket-sized explosions into his work. I'm thinkin' the dude might be fun to have over on July 4th. Don yer goggles.

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Rena Bransten Gallery : Joana Vasconcelos; Jessica Snow - Hi Jinx.

Comment: First American solo show for Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos who crochets tight precise impeccable lace-like coverings over commercially produced porcelain ceramics of mammals, crustaceans, and reptiles. You gotta see these to believe 'em. She also crochets up, in a style harking back to the seventies, an amorphous amoebic anatomy that hovers from the ceiling. In the front gallery, Jessica Snow intertwines, overlaps, and overlays various colored forms in ways that appear to reference reality, but you're never quite sure. I think that's part of the allure, the other part being Snow's peppy palette.

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ARTworkSF in conjunction with the San Francisco International Arts Festival 2007 : Breaking Ice - Bay Area Artists Consider the African Diaspora.

Artists: Rawn McCloud, Kat Flynn, Sherri Cavan, Lois Llewellyn, Marion Coleman, Maxine Solomon, Amanda Wymer, Rives Granade, Lynn Friedman, Vera Costa, Rachel Sager, Colin Harris, Tammy Wilson, Stephanie Anne Johnson, Bayete Ross Smith, Karen Hampton, Suzun Hughes, John Grew Sheridan, Susan Matthews, Kristine Mays, D'Arci Bruno, Matteo Neivert, Holly Wong, Charles H. Stinson, Maggie Malloy, Glodean Champion, Lorraine Bonner, Opal Palmer Adisa, Jeffrey Blankfort, Fan L. Warren, Karen Ruenitz, Angela Hennessy.

Comment: All kinds of art addresses myriad facets of the African-American experience, from inception to the present day, perhaps a tad strident at times, but generally within the realm of relevance. Plenty to cogitate on here.

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Rx Gallery : I Pity the Dolls.

Comment: Greg Rivera of Brooklyn, New York LUVS Mr. T and to demonstrate the depth of his devotion, he buys up every single circa mid-1980's Mr. T "Cabbage Patch Kids" style doll he can find (in addition to other T-abilia). What's a Mr. T "Cabbage Patch Kids" style doll, you ask? Well my lovelies, gather 'round. You see, once upon a time, way way back in 1984, some enterprising entrepreneur published a pattern book with complete instructions on how to craft your very own Mr. T doll from scratch in the style of the then wildly popular Cabbage Patch Kids -- and apparently plenty of people did. Isn't that marvelous? Of course it is! Anyway, Rivera's collection now tallies some hundreds of moppet tributes to that A-Team anchor man, approximately 175 of which are on display here at Rx tonight along with related T-abilia, T-video, and T-tunes. And yes, the upshot is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

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