General comment by AB: Hello again my artful darlings. You know... it's that time of year when everybody who's anybody is off to Miami. So why am I here in brisk bracing invigorating Ess Eff, you ask? Well, that's a long and convoluted tale. Perhaps some cold and blustery winter night, I'll dervish myself into a tizzy of spontaneous concoctiferousness, and fabricate it for you over a Hot Toddy and cookies. But in the meantime, Miami notwithstanding, there's art to be seen. True, many galleries are in temporary hybernation due to the South Florida situation, but no biggie. I've got the goods, some of which are... well... pretty good. Hint-- there is a Pick of First Thursday. Shall we have ourselves a gander? I figured as much...

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Gallery Paule Anglim : A Tribute to Bruce Conner & Terry Fox. ?

Comment by AB: Tribute to Bruce Conner (1933-2008) and Terry Fox (1943-2008)-- two pivotal figures in the evolvement Bay Area contemporary art. On the docket are several paintings and drawings, and two soundtracked atom bomb films by Bruce Conner. On display also are text-based and sculptural assemblages, and mixed-media works on paper by Terry Fox. Worth a visit.

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Micaela Gallery : Winter Salon 2008.

Artists: Peter Bremers, Gary Clemenceau, Scott Kildall, Michelle Knox, Naoko Okabe, Stig Persson, Chantal Royant, David Ruth, Thomas Scoon, Ron Starr and Kristiina Uslar.

Comment by AB: Inaugural expose at Mica?la Gallery's new location, 49 Geary, 2nd floor.? Nice space; good art. Check it out especially for the glass sculptures.

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George Krevsky Gallery : The Test of Time - Highlights in American Art.

Artists:?Rockwell Kent, Jack Levine, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ben Shahn, Reginald Marsh, Richard Diebenkorn, Thomas Hart Benton, Raphael Soyer, Richard Shaw, Theresa Bernstein.

Comment by AB: Group show of American paintings and works on paper, dating mainly from the 1930s and 1940s through the present.

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Hangart Gallery and Annex : Catherine Mackey - Urbanambulations; Hueliday - A Group Show.

Artists from Hueliday: Tim Yankosky, Phillip Hua, Anthony May, Addie Shevlin, Tjasa Owen, Paula Malesardi Hansen, Nicolas Van Krijdt, Heather Patterson, Siddharth Parasnis, Fain Hancock, Liz Maxwell, Ivy Jacobsen, Joel Tarbox, Ann Eby, Eddie Rodriguez, Daegon Keller, Daniel Ochoa, Erik Jacobsen, Andrew L. Rogers, Stephanie Jucker, Christine Canepa, Kelly Defayette, Angela Simione, Joshua Swanbeck, Jessica Martin, Nathaniel Parsons, Stephanie Jucker, Jeanne Lydon, Peter Dimick, Jenny E. Balisle, Frank Ebert, Hang Nguyen, Carolyn Meyer, Piero Spadaro.

Comment by AB: Easy upbeat city scenes cut and pieced in abstract fashion by Catherine Mackey at the main gallery. Over at the Annex, artists are assigned individual colors with which to make art, and the results are spectrally displayed in classic Roy G. Biv manner.

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Cartoon Art Museum : Gene Colan - Visions of a Man without Fear.

Commenty by AB: Significant retrospective of the work of cartoon artist Gene Colan whose DC and Marvel comic credits include Iron Man, Daredevil, Weird Tales, Adventures into Terror, Dr. Strange, Captain America, Wolverine, Kid Colt Outlaw, and many more.

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McKinley Art Solutions at the W Hotel : Jean Wu.

Review and images by Jennifer Jeffrey: The W Hotel is oh-so hip and swanky, and I walk through its glittering lobby tonight in anticipation of seeing the McKinley Art Solutions show of artist Jean Wu in the mezzanine above the XYZ Restaurant. I'm bewildered at first; the walls seem to be hung with a disparate collection of photographs, and so I ask which pieces are Jean's. There's only one. And it's hanging behind a table. Jean is gracious and lovely, and explains that she has several other pieces hanging in the restaurant downstairs, but when I go to find them, it's so dark down there (and people are dining, natch) that they're just dim squares on a wall. As I walk out, I can't help but feel that it was a shame not to have more of Jean's work on display at her own opening...

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111 Minna Gallery : Anderson Resende - Felizes; Claudio Ethos - Insomnia.

Review by Jennifer Jeffrey: Walking into 111 Minnia, I'm immediately drawn to the uneven proportions and dramatic scalings of Claudio Ethos' work. Erratic ink spatters provide depth and texture to his surreal, dreamlike scenes. I could stand in front of his mural for hours and ponder the creature sitting on the swing with the gnarly tree behind it; it carries echoes of childhood fairy tales, and I think I could keep finding new things about it if I looked at it long enough.

In the next room, Anderson Resende's drawings are startling in their intensity, managing to be both gruesome and tender at the same time. They remind me of the movie Pan's Labyrinth, especially of the scene with the eyeless monster in the basement. I like them.

Comment by AB: Ethos achieves his irregular spray paint effects by running a thin string through the nozzle of a spray can before spraying. Thanks to Brad K. Alder for that artistic tidbit.

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Varnish Fine Art : The Oyster Pirate Workshop - Vehicles of Emancipation.

Artists: James Lichnovsky, Joel Mejia, Michael Page, Christian Rothenhagen, Shawn Webber, Jason Wheatley, Sri Zeno Whipple.?

Review by Jennifer Jeffrey: Varnish is showing work by the Oyster Pirate Workshop, a collective of seven people who create art together. Two or five or all seven of the artists might participate on any given piece; they decide in concert when each is complete. The name of their collective seems quite apt, as their works depict a dizzying assortment of creatures, objects and ephemera that look as if they've been sprung from Davy Jones locker. Sea horses sidle up to bowing geishas while a peacock looks on. It's a louche, cockamamie party, and you'd be well advised to keep an eye out for scallywags, matey.

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David Cunningham Projects : Visions of Peace - The Students of Marshall Elementary School.

Comment by AB: Marshall Elementary School is a small K-5 Spanish Immersion School just around the corner. Marshall takes pride in a diverse student body that embraces and supports peace and diversity. This show demonstrates Marshall's students' creativity and commitment to imagining a better world (they got busy bigtime). And David Cunningham demonstrates that owning a gallery is about more than just selling art.

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Mina Dresden Gallery : BankShow 2008.

Artists: David Henshaw, Marie D'Abreo, Austin Hastings, Tessa Merrie, Todd McNaught, Frank Edwards, Rik Catlow, Joe Tennis, Richard Turgeon, Rick Munoz, William Suayan, Erik Webber, Tess Lispi, Michael Smith, Virginia Conte, Miguel Rodriguez, Jake Louderback, Kathryn Anderson, Benjamin Ullman, Matt Fisher.

Comment by AB: Billed as a show of art by "employees at a bank," it's not your typical art show. But it's not your typical employees at a bank either. It's art mainly by people involved in designing the Bank of America's website-- so they do have creative qualifications.

David Henshaw - art. Henshaw tells me the subject of this kinetic contrivance is his girlfriend and that the piece has 1024 permutations. I ask him how many of those he's experienced, but I don't think he gets it. Or maybe he does and he opts to ignore. Such are the inscrutable inexplicabilities of art.

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Fifty24SF Gallery : Jeremy Fish - Ghosts of the Barbary Coast; Miss Van - Still A Little Magic.

Comment by AB: Well, let's start at the beginning-- Pick of First Thursday goes to Jeremy Fish for his riotous multi-media artumentary ode to San Francisco. There's paintings, sculptures, painted cut wood panels, a big-ass saloon scene mural, a boxed limited edition set of screenprints, revamped antique photographs, and more. Plus Fish's haberdashorial decorum is impeccably suited to the occasion. Yo!

When it comes to creative chops, Jeremy Fish has carved himself a niche so distinct, delightful, entertaining, proficient, accomplished, and... uh... I better stop before I bore you into catatonia with superlatives. Anyway, there's nothing quite like him, and word is out too, 'cuz the line to see the show stretches halfway down the block. Oh... and in case you're wondering whether I would have still picked this show if there had been 30 openings tonight instead of 15, the answer is unequivocally unambitigatively absotutely YES.

In the street level gallery, meanwhile, Miss Van lips it up with her twisty theatrical portraiture.

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Addendum:

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You know... it's never too late to give the perfect gift . Happy Holidays y'all!

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First Thursday; November 6, 2008

First Thursday; October 2, 2008

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