the steinberg farmer report

San Francisco Dealers head to New York

2008-03-07T09:07:00.000-08:00

Matt Furie: Nature Freak at Jack Fischer Gallery
"There is no motive other than the moment." states Jack Fischer.

Furie's sexually active characters, finely rendered in colored pencil on pristine white board, are a little startling. Are they monsters? Is this consensual? Are these randy creatures of nature just having a forest frolic? You decide. Clearly, Furie's work in a community toy bank pricked his creative impulses; his drawing skill is simply amazing.

The Jack Fischer Gallery will be participating in the Red Dot Art Fair at the Park South Hotel this March 27-30, New York.

Prelude to Spring•Group Show at Himmelberger Gallery
Leave it to David to host a beautifully diverse show. Plus, Himmelberger is known for his generous support of Bay Area artists; we thank them ever so much.

David Kawecki's archetypal sculptures are shrouded in the mysteries of ancient cult life. I could feel swirling superstition and skin raising notions. Kawecki's abstractions are created by welding steel into an amorphous character, these sculptures are masculine bundles of mystic energy.

Octa OOO, 2007, David Kawecki

Eileen Goldenberg continues her "Tea House" series. In some of the newer pieces she has added a portal; she's standing at the breach of something absolutely fantastic. One of the pieces is an astounding 12' in length. This woman can burn some wax.

Himmelberger truly reflects the spirit of generosity and warmth often missing in other venues. Old world charm and a feeling of community suffuse its air.

You'll also see the work of Leo Holub, Jean Weinbaum, and Jacek Sroka in the Prelude to Spring show. The show runs through March 31, Himmelberger Gallery, 445 A Sutter St.
Tea House #206, Eileen Goldenberg 2008

Tim Yankosky and David Fullarton at Hang Art
David Fullerton you make me laugh out loud! Sorry to the black clad, this work tickles my dark humor funny bone. Fullarton lifts normally trite phrases and lumps them into paintings where their meaning is completely shifted. He mocks us and gives us the opportunity to examine what is really important. Really, you can put your Blackberry in the off mode long enough to enjoy a moment of real life.

More beautiful wax work. Tim Yankosky's very personal body of work sends messages of hope, sadness, loneliness, and appreciation. See what you think:

Now I Understand, Tim Yankosky, 2008

Katina Huston, Field of Vision at Dolby Chadwick Gallery
For the first time in San Francisco, Huston shows some of her interesting and stimulating work from 2004. These enamel and human hair works, displayed in their own personal space, literally screamed out to me. I was compelled to peer around the wall. Lo and behold a hairy -eye ball and wall paper of human hair. So clever, so distinctive, so fun to view.

On view through March 26, Dobly Chadwick Gallery.

San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design
This little jewel, housed in the former home of Elizabeth Arden, continues to present unique pieces that showcase extraordinary craft and design work in wood, fiber, clay, metal, glass, etc. We think Ms. Arden would be pleased.

In addition to the innovative craft and design, we're not talking bows and bunnies here, SF Museum of Craft + Design hosts discussions with designers, artists and curators. The next one, New West Coast Design: Innovators and Inspirers is scheduled for March 27. Contact the Museum for more info. Please support this lovely jewel.

Matty Byloos and Kim Schoenstadt at Toomey Tourell
Schoenstadt's work mingles architecture and drawing with a bit of performance; Schoenstadt makes a vinyl cut-out from an architectural reference and following the directions of someone else-be it raffiti artist or acquaintance-she spray paints the surface and then removes the stencil. Most interesting are the small pieces she has constructed by using the stencils that are left over from the paintings. Each fragment may be linked to one of the paintings.

Through March 29, Toomey Tourell will also participate in Bridge Art Fair, NYC, March 27-30.

Deborah Oropallo, Feign at Stephen Wirtz Gallery.
Since I first saw Oropallo's work, at the 1989 Whitney Biennial, I have been enamored.
This artist continues to stretch and grow; she explores new territory and mines old. Oropallo is a creative power house!

Oropallo digitally layers the contemporary images with reproductions of 17th and 18th century portrait paintings that depict men in elaborate dress. The resulting hybrids that are produced on canvas combine the attributes of power and aristocracy in traditional portraiture with the sexually aggressive posturing of the models in costume. The interplay of the combined images creates a dramatic optical illusion.

According to Oropallo, “the adornment of both the women and the men solicit questions of long held beliefs about liberation, desire, bondage, hierarchy, sex and power. The merged images elevate maids, widows, nurses and brides above the rank and file and makes them the new royalty."

Heartless, Deborah Oropallo, 2008

Ends, March 15, Stephen Wirtz Gallery

Premutations, Pretending and Press Works

2008-01-13T14:45:00.000-08:00

Electric Works San Francisco
Katherine Westerhout Detroit
Holy cow, what a delightful place! Had my first visit on Friday (Jan 11) night; I loved it. This is the old Trillium Press (formerly in Brisbane). New digs, now located in the historic Buzzell Building on 8th Street, this gallery features editions, multiples and unique work by emerging, mid-career and established artists. They mount eight to ten shows a year exhibiting local, national and international artists.

For a great report on the goings on at Electric Works SF, check out the Stark Guide

Westerhout's photographs of abandoned, decrepit, foundering buildings are just breath taking; I felt like I could reach in to the photo and peel the paint off of long neglected walls. Her technique is quite accomplished and that eye. My Oh My!

Show closes Feb, 16 , 130 8th St, Electric Works

Haines Gallery
Dustin Yellin, Permutations
We stepped out of the elevator (I had a guest art snoop, the delightful Adele Shaw) and were sucked into Haines by these structures! I absolutely could not resist! Yellin draws on resin that he layers into a solid 3-D image. They prick your brain and then you just can't stop looking at, through, and around them.

Show closes Feb 11, 49 Geary St, Fifth Floor, Haines Gallery

Gallery 415
Claudio Roncoli, The Great Pretender
Here's a little insider tip, Roncoli's show, opening Feb 7, features an iconography steeped in graphic images, 50s advertising, and lots of repetition. He pokes fun at long ago cultural norms, flaunts the male gaze and has us smiling at all that youth and beauty. Hmmmm.

Anyway, Gallery 415 is bringing contemporary Latin American art to San Francisco in a big, big way. Stop by and encourage Christina Bosemark to keep it coming; she is adding wonderful diversity to our art scene.

Gallery 415, 49 Geary St, 4th Floor

A quick note about Miami Basel: The few dealers I chatted with (about MiamiBasel) Gregory Lind and Jack Fischer seemed pleased by their participation and eager to attend again. Jack Fischer Gallery with be at Red Dot, New York. Way to go home team! Keep carrying the "San Francisco loves Contemporary Art" message!

Patricia Sweetow Gallery
Michael Toenges-Painting, Peter Tollens-Painting, Bill Walton-Drawing, Sculpture
Don't go this gallery if you are hungary for oil paint. It will send you completely off the rails. I haven't seen paint this yummy in a long time, I'm talking about Michael Toenges' lush, rib-sticking, eye grabbing geographies. Mountains and peaks and valleys, and drips of glorious oil paint. That's all I can say.

Show closes Feb 23, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, 77 Geary St

Mmmmm, So Luscious

2007-12-19T16:09:00.000-08:00

Kellesimone Waits at Luscious Garage
Hey, the paintings are engaging; I must declare, "Awesome job on finding an alternative space for showing work!" In her Men in Power show, Waits has rendered scary old white guys in oozing grays and pinks...that should take a little sting out of their bite.

If you wonder why we're in the mess we're in, just have a look at Waits' portrait of the Republican presidential contenders; you'll come away determined to work even harder to unseat these rascals.

Now, just what is Luscious Garage? LG is a charming, light-filled shop for people–not just for cars– with books, plants, art, comfortable furniture—you’re welcome to linger. Their highly qualified staff is also passionate about hybrids.

See this work through Dec 31 at 459 Clementina St www.lusciousgarage.com

Gyöngy Laky, Intersections, at Braunstein/Quay Gallery
So many red dots! This work is in a word stunning. Gyöngy Laky's work employs materials from nature, with the occasional inclusion of recycled elements. Her sculptural constructions, referred to as textile architecture, hang on the wall or are free-standing. Laky's themes cross varieties of subjects and social issues, often taking the form of words, letters, or symbols.

Wondering from whence Laky's interest in tree branches sprang, she admits " I was taken by the winter pruning of orchards. I had a strong visual response to the trimmed branches. I was born in 1944 in Hungary during the war. We had nothing. I found the pruned branches beautiful and useful, and the idea that they were considered waste to be burned, abhorrent."

My personal fav: "Multiplied Thinking" is a gorgeous basket of Manzanita branches neatly sawed into small pieces, burnished to a majestic burgundy that shimmers in the light. All this beauty is firmly held in place by sheetrock screws. Don't bother with the web photo, you must see this work first hand.

Through Dec 22, 430 Clementina, www.bquayartgallery.com

Arthaus, Ten Years in the Bay Area
This is the little gallery that could. Arthaus strives to represent artists whose work will stand the test of time. New and mid-range collectors would be wise to seek the services of James Bacchi and Annette Schutz. Their expertise will provide the confidence any collector would desire. For the uninitiated, it can be a minefield out there.

They select artists with a demonstrated body of work, whose works and words have been published and who have enjoyed a museum show (or two). Their screening process is rigorours and calculated. Mind you, they don't often accept new work. This vetting supports their commitment to both artist and collector.

Arthaus crowds for Last Saturday artwalk .

James and Annette are deeply committed and contribute greatly to several important causes and concerns benefited by BREAST CANCER ACTION, ArtforAIDS, Visual Aid, the bay-area Designer Showcases, Dining by Design and Art & Auction.

Pencil in The Painters are Here, January's show held in conjunction with Benjamin Moore paints. I just saw their new color line...ohmigod! This will be a visual extravaganza for sure.

For more info: 411 Brannan St, www.arthaus-sf.com

This post is short on photos, we think you may be in visual overload from all the holiday cheer. Consider this a meditative blog: you simply consider what you've read here and then seek it.

We wish you a happy, healthful, peaceful, and prosperous 2008!

Get ready for more Bay Area art happenings.

Uptown Oakland Art Scene

2007-11-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

Art Murmur

Walking around Oakland’s burgeoning art scene on the uptown streets around Telegraph and 23rd, it’s hard to get beyond the wonder of, well whattayaknow-- how the world is changing. So yes, we're in catch up mode but hey, these folks are on a roll. The streets are safer. The galleries are exciting and well worth repeated visits. The spirit of infinite possibilities is abundantly present; wish we’d noticed sooner. A little bit Will Smith saving the world and a little bit Pimp My Ride, we like because the result is creative energy with a colossal welcome sign attached. Friendly and knowledgeable staff people actually schmooze with you in the galleries, even people from across the bridges are greeted with interest. The art ranges from exclusively made in Oakland to whatever the gallery believes in with enough diversity to enthuse even jaded viewers. Go see for yourself, it’s a real feel good excursion.

Oakland Art Murmur started a year ago and is a great way to explore the area if you enjoy the comfort of being part of a crowd. The Murmur is a coalition effort held on the First Friday of every month beginning at 7pm. Free minibuses run by the city of Oakland deliver art enthusiasts to the doorsteps of the galleries. Hundreds of people attend, there is a street fair atmosphere and we’ve heard that lots of people go home with purchases. Mark your calendars.

Now this isn't a new thought or anything but the large amount of construction on these very streets raises the question of gentrification displacing the growing art community. A good thing is that the Art Murmurers are thinking about this already and have made a commitment to a sustainable neighborhood as a way to prevent yuppification. Some of the galleries are making a conscious effort to partner with the community by offering classes, art education for local kids and space for events. Let’s see what happens.

Industrielle
33 Grand Ave.

Dana Taylor, a collage artist herself, named her shop/gallery for her love of all things French. She features affordable art , notable tchotchkes and a great vibe. Taylor, a third generation Oaklander who cares about what matters, intends to establish a community art space at Industrielle for Oakland school kids. Her current best sellers are screen-printed Ts and undies by Evonoche (hmm, how would they look framed and hanging in the living room?) and Sita Rupe's resin coated acrylic screenprints on antique paper.

Mercury 20
25 Grand Ave.
Mercury 20 is a collective exhibition space owned and run by 20 East Bay artists who show their work in rotating two-person shows.

JoAnn Biagini, a wonderful artist in her own rite, was gallery sitting during our visit and offered charm, useful info and quiet enthusiasm. The current show in the gallery is by Joan Weiss and Kathleen King.

Kathleen King Joan Weiss

Weiss calls her work nature based process abstraction. She paints the same scene over and over until she exhaust the possibilities, saying the final works may end up with little obvious relationship to the beginning sketch or photo because the process takes over. The pieces we saw had a pleasing romantic feeling. She’s great with color.

King is an improvisationist “allowing the idea to express itself in communication with her hands in such a direct way that deliberation cannot interfere”. She builds up layers of marks that interweave, overlap or obscure each other. The complexity of the pieces asks you look longer.

Luka's Taproom & Lounge
2221 Broadway

Right on the corner of Grand and Broadway, everything in this comfy place says eat more. We can vouch for the great food and we hear they show great art on First Friday’s as well. So go nuts, a burger is waiting with your name on it. You know you love it.

Esteban Sabar Galle ry
480 23rd St.

Gary Brewer’s show Ocean Flowers is on. He paints beautiful but ensnaring sea flowers, suspending them in a seemingly limitless space. Some, like the anemone, are seductive and menacing at the same time– reminds us of that bad dream we all have had about the creepy carnival where the clowns try to eat you. Sucks you right in.

Chris Isner’s work is in the back room. His show is titled Bald, Anthropomorph Amputees in Profile and Homo novo and we like it. Fetal forms are hyper sexualized, each with an enormous penis and at least one set of breasts, simultaneously funny and provocative. You’ve got to see them.

Esteban, Esteban, Esteban. What can we say? Esteban Sabar is an entertainer who loves telling a great story whether it’s all true or not.
He says he opened the gallery to sell his husband Marty McCorkle’s paintings.
He says he represents Oakland artists only and there are so many that are so good. He says he might hang an enter at your own risk sign on the back room of his gallery so no one is offended by Isner’s work. There’s something deliciously showbiz and fragile about his playful chatter but this is a man who knows exactly what he’s doing. Meeting him is a treat. Extra spicy? Sure, why not?

Johansson Projects
2300 Telegraph Ave.

If anyone is going to make a living selling art in Uptown, it’s probably Kimberly Johansson. She was working at a gallery in downtown San Francisco when she decided to open Johansson Projects. It’s too early to know if she is going to be profitable, but she says she sold 25 pieces in a single day. We think that’s because of the patch of very green grass she’s planted on the ceiling. Maybe “the grass is always greener?” The gallery is impressive.

We were especially taken with a stunning piece by Amanda Hughen; Hughen works on both sides of translucent mylar in pencil, ink, and acrylic starting with an architectural template that evolves into a painting of rare beauty. We love the elegance and attention to detail of the piece which demands a long look and then another.

Johansson’s next show is Anatomy of Folklore, opening Nov. 15th, 6-9pm by Evan B. Harris and Lawrence LaBianaca. From the previews we’ve seen we’re expecting another winner. Try to catch it. Don’t forget about the first Friday Art Murmur and those nifty busses.

Creative Growth
355 24th St.
The Creative Growth Art Center Gallery is the first established gallery for artists with disabilities in the world, founded in 1980 with support of the National Endowment for the Arts. Creative Growth Art Center has placed the work of its artists in private collections, galleries, and major museums throughout the world including the Collection lÕArt Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland; Collection lÕAracine in Lille, France; the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland; the Ricco/Maresca Gallery and the American Museum of Folk Art in New York City; and the Exploratorium in San Francisco. On the day we stopped in Paul Butler's Collage Party was on. A Winnipeg native Butler and a team of Winnipeggers are here for two weeks and visitors are invited to join in a very freewheeling collage making experience. A whirlpool of festive, brightly colored stuff fills the huge gallery, whatever you want, however you want it. Next week the finished works will be on view and up for sale. Can’t wait to see them.

And one more kudo for an artist changing the world through art

Eileen Goldenberg, an accomplished San Francisco encaustic painter, won a grant from the San Francisco Art Commission for her Tea House Series and used a portion of the funding to reach out to a diverse group of normally underserved audiences and provide special showings designed to introduce them to her medium. Yes! Congratulations Eileen.

Art It's a Gift

2007-11-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

Kelly Reemsten at CaldwellSnyder Gallery
Kelly Reemsten opens her first show at CaldwellSnyder with Recent Paintings, a delicious look at 50-60s fashion and furnishings. Reemsten liberally applies luscious layers of oil paint with an ever present hint of orange. Let me tell you, this woman can paint!

I was fortunate enough to be in the gallery while Kelly was inspecting the installation; hearing her insights and inspirations was remarkable; her work ethic really made me take notice. Reemsten is able to complete a full body of work approximately ever six months. She feels it her obligation to her collectors and viewing public to have new work available.

Now that Reemsten has gone back to LA, don’t fret; Roger Azevdeo, CaldwellSnyder’s charming secret weapon, will effortlessly guide you through the exhibit and give you all the 411 you’ll need for an enjoyable viewing experience. Roger is committed to great art, he believes in the work he sells, and is a huge resource for the Bay Area art scene. Wish there were more like him. www.caldwellsnyder.com

The Gift of Art at Cecile Moochnek Gallery
Cecile Moochnek Gallery, a delicious, lovely, and contemplative space, will host a small works “gift of art” show Nov 14-Jan 31. Moochnek has been in the East Bay for 14 years and exhibits some astounding work. Her roster includes: Judith Williams, Emily Payne, Kate Phillips, Seiko Tachibana, and Tyrell Collins. For a full listing visit www.cecilemoochnek.com

Judith Williams

Recent Work by Kris Cox at Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery
If you love surface, you’ll die for Kris Cox’s work. Cox is process oriented using heavily layered surfaces that he grinds down. Cox describes his paintings as being created "by a process of applying multiple layers of pigmented putties, on wood panels with grids that have been chased into their surfaces". He goes on to say that the "elements which appear irregularly through the layers of putty, lead, wax, asphalt and pigment are a metaphor for memory, while the concentric, multi-chromatic rings are symbolic of time."

Did I ever ooohhh and aaahhh over this work. www.eesgallery.com

Theodora Varnay Jones, Structures, at Don Soker Contemporary Art
Varnay Jones’ use of layering and light are masterful; her work is pure, formally clear and superbly executed. Structures are a multi-dimensional interplay of translucent materials including paper, pigments, gauze, acrylic polymer, fiberglass and wood. Each work portrays inner depths under a ghostly surface of muted colors. Varnay Jones’ technique is innovative, complex and visually satisfying.

Impossible to catch in a photo, please, go see this work. www.donsokergallery.com

Robert Jack, Elements of History, at Brian Gross Fine Art
This flatness of Jack’s casein on wood paintings is alluring; it’s dense and it’s oh so beautiful. Working with tiny brush marks these minimalist, structural paintings are far from simple. Each painting has a limited palette whose arrangement of repeated marks suggest rigorous thought. Slight imperfections and unexpected patterns slowly emerge and take on an intuitive, organic quality. Jack sees his creation as a form of history, recombining, in new ways, natural elements that have evolved over eons of time according to Darwinian theory.

Brian Gross Gallery will be participating in Red Dot www.reddotfair.com The fair dates are December 6 - 9, 11 am to 8 pm at the South Seas Hotel. www.briangrossfineart.com

Lucy Gaylord-Lindholm, Cookie Cutter, at Jack Fisher Gallery
I won’t even attempt to interpret Gaylord-Lindholm’s work. It is fascinating to see and oddly stimulating. I was made curious and compelled to look more than once. Go, see this work, dare yourself to be curious!

The Jack Fischer Gallery will be participating in the Red Dot Art Fair www.reddotfair.com at the South Seas Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, December 6 – 9, 2007 www.jackfishergallery.com

Dannielle Tegeder, 7(x) = 20x + x5d-1 + (Yellow), at Gregory Lind Gallery.

Dannielle Tegeder's drawings and paintings resemble engineering blueprints for the inner workings of a new civilization. These landscapes are awaiting the occupancy of a post-apocalyptic society. Recurrent forms created to perform particular functions provide the foundation for this world of the future¬ great geometrical mashups.

Tegeder uses gouache, ink, colored pencil, graphite, pastel and various drafting tools on paper. Like her older work, these pieces are invested in the mapping of various spaces—planetary, geological, biological, and architectural—but the materiality of the work is much more actualized rather than merely inhering in the artist's utopian blueprints. And, if you are stumped as to how one displays large work, check out the innovative installation at Gregory Lind. www.gregorylindgallery.com

Gregory Lind Gallery will be participating in Aqua Art Miami and the Aqua Hotel. www.aquaartmiami.com

Let’s Hear if for the North Bay!
Donna Seager Gallery www.donnaseagergallery.com will be participating in Flow at the Dorset Hotel. Seager will feature: art work by Joe Brubaker, Claudia Marseille, Carl Dern, Ann Weber, Lisa Kokin, Aondrea Maynard, Michael Cutlip and others. Donna Seager Gallery also has a very interesting Book program that she will show at Flow. www.flowfair.com

MarinMOCA's new show is Art By The Inch, a 100 foot long painting stretched between two galleries. Painted by Kent Rupp, Louis Bording, Dorallen Davis, Joan Hauck, Kathleen Lack, Margaret Mantua, Beryl Miller, Sandi Miot, Nancy Nelson, Randy Pottenger and Joel Yau, The participating artists have donated their work as a fundraiser for the new museum. Viewers are invited to partner with the artists by choosing a portion of the giant painting to purchase for a donation of $1.00 a square inch. One hundred per cent of the proceeds benefit MarinMOCA. Hurry. Your chance to take home some great work for a fraction of it's normal price and support MarinMOCA will be over November 18th.

Crown Point Press / London Calling

2007-10-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

The Very Best Bay Area Art Experience

Crown Point Press, a true jewel in San Francisco’s art crown, currently shares a mini-retrospective of Robert Bechtle’s work. It’s truly wonderful to see some older editions juxtaposed with the newer ones. We can see some elimination in Becthle’s work and sublime improvements in the print-making process. “20th Street VW” is simplicity rendered by a master.

If you have never visited Crown Point Press please, give yourself this gift. It’s a fantasy trip into the printmakers world. Your SteinbergFarmer reporters were awed to be in the building whilst Nathan Oliveira was busy working –WOW, moment of abundance. Our souls stood still in respect.

Nathan Oliveira, Twin Runners

We contented ourselves by viewing the work of Pat Steir, Laura Owens, Ian Baxter, Julie Mehretu, Anish Kapoor, Robert Colescott (currently showing at Meridian Gallery on Powell St), and others. CPP has hosted more than 100 artists since their 1962 inception. www.crownpoint.com

Mary Heilmann, Joaquin's Close Out

Of course we filled our totes with treasures from the well-stocked bookstore; oh, a few printmaking supplies found their way into our bags as well. Farmer confesses, “ I’ve never left Crown Point without a purchase. This is the ultimate artist’s candy store.”

Here’s your scoop: Amy Sillman opens Tuesday, Nov 6. Be there; this unusual Tuesday opening will provide the perfect opportunity to slow down and enjoy this magical space. You won’t have to run around to other openings and you can take in Sillman’s expansion of her visual vocabulary, blending her figurative work into abstraction, at your own pace. Give yourself time to explore this treasure trove of fantastic art and art making.

Oh, did I mention magical? Well, “Magical Secrets about Thinking Creatively: The Art of Etching and the Truth of Life” by Crown Point Press’s founder, Kathan Brown, provides insight into the creative process from artists who have worked with Crown Point. They’ve even embroidered the catchy tenets onto work aprons.

To round out our visit we discovered a special dry-point kit. You purchase the kit, it contains everything you need to produce a print, create your own work and then send it back for a professional print. Here’s the link: http://crownpointpress.stores.yahoo.net/drypointkit.html

LONDON Calling: Beaux Arts, Seventeen Gallery, Gallery 435
On a recent trip to London I (Gail) visited over three thousand galleries and museums, from upmarket Cork Street, to artsy Hoxton, to the republic of Slough...well maybe it only seemed like that many because there was so much great work. Unfortunately I had to miss the art fairs which were scheduled a week too late for our schedule but I did see more than I ever thought I could. Here are just a few highlights:

Beaux Arts, Redefining Bodies
There is something provocatively primal yet clean about these sculptures, like new age creatures birthing, transparent bodies constructed of plastic sheets covered with digitally precise photographic scans of the human heart and womb. Marilene Oliver uses digital imaging technologies to examine the relationship between seeing and knowing a human being and the desire to discover something fundamentally true about ourselves through knowing the human body. Oh sure, some might say these works are more crib mobiles than serious exploration with their clear colors and movable parts but Oliver says that “the only way to find the information we want is to go inside it” and that the more time “I spend working with and through computers the more I feel the way I interact with others and even myself is changing.”

Marilene Oliver, Heart and Womb

There’s something that feels true and intriguingly different about her vision that holds your interest. Using tools she calls “pivotoptic,” that “allow us to enter the information world at ground level and spin inside it, the more we pivot, the faster we spin, the more information we acquire,” her work strives to both put us inside the body and to comment on the impossibility of attaining a fuller sense of identity by knowing our digitalized selves. Providing new packaging for information that is both encapsulated and in motion at once, Oliver’s work redefines our relationship to what the human body is and exposes our continual drive to know more about ourselves. It takes a special set of skills to make this much information all at once visually exciting. Her creatures have personalities and supply aesthetic intrigue. I’d be glad to visit them again and again. www.beauxartslondon.co.uk

Seventeen Gallery, Susan Collis, Redefining Looking

We were in Hoxton, half way out the door of the Seventeen Gallery when Paul Pieroni, the director pointed out the drips on the floor, one of those categories I don’t usually pay attention to. Someone carried an open can of paint across the room leaving a trail of drops. Whoa. The drips are actually a 32 foot pattern of precisely cut mother of pearl stones set into the floorboards of the gallery. Most people: too preoccupied to imagine the obvious as interesting. Susan Collis: an installation artist who notices the things in front of our eyes we tend to overlook. When it comes into focus, the work is exquisite, a wake up call. Feeling new empathy with that deer caught in the headlights, my perception shifts abruptly. Look. Search for more.
Is this a gallery or a treasure hunt? In a corner, a plastic bucket catches drips from a hole in the ceiling. Not really. Called Without You the World Goes On , there is a concealed pump that lets the same trickle perpetually recirculate. Think about it. What appears to be an old broom leaning against a different wall is not flecked with bits of paint but delicately set with inlaid pearls, jasper, turquoise, garnets and black diamonds. Challenging what we think we’re supposed to do in an art gallery (As Picasso said, “Give me the venue and I will fill it up”, all viewers have to do is view what’s on display).

Susan Collis
Collis insists we search for her work to find these things that exist between what we take for granted and what she has created. Apart from the so beyond boring game of it and the invitation to meditate on what’s present, she challenges our way of defining how we see the surfaces of everyday life. What she calls for is a fundamental change in our assumptions about art and when you find her pieces they are stunning. Spare. Revealing. Compelling. Good. There is no way to be indifferent to her vision. Depending on what you bring, her work matters or does not. www.SeventeenGallery.com

Gallery 435, Pintura Fresca, Redefining Abstract
Pintura Fresca is an international group of abstract painters who met through the internet and are now working together on various art projects. The principal objective of the association is to be a platform and a forum for contemporary artists and in particular, abstract painting. The essential drive of Pintura Fresca is to encourage dialog and demonstrate that articulate abstract expression still thrives and remains vibrant into the new millennium. They propose that in contrast to being dead abstract art has matured and grown in nuance and refinement of thought over the last century. Artists involved, Mark Bennion, USA, Petronilla Hohenwarter, Germany, Eva Ryn Johannissen, Sweden, Mirian Kres, Slovenia, Thierry Le Baill, France, Paul Lorenz, USA, Connie Noyes, USA, Antonio Puri, USA, and Kathleen Waterloo, USA.

Gallery 435 is a nonprofit gallery housed in a huge warehouse in Slough, about 20 minutes outside of London. Gallery 435 is Slough's only public art gallery. It combines the energy and innovation associated with London art spaces to present some of the best and most challenging contemporary work from local, national and international artists. It was established as a voluntary organization in 2006. The Pintura Fresca show was curated to compliment the work on display and could be seen as a piece of art in its own right. Paintings were ingeniously suspended from the rafters to the ground, making full use of the enormous gallery size, creating a display that was accessible, engaging and inspiring. Gallery 435 has developed a loyal community who are interested in contemporary art and is well worth the short train ride from Paddington.

2007-09-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

Connections--Contemporary Art, Architecture, Urbanism, and Memory

NEW LANGTON ARTS
In Residence
Pete Nelson and Tercerunquinto

After two weeks in residency at New Langton Arts, Pete Nelson and the collective Tercerunquinto each created mega size installations in different sections of the gallery.

New Langton Arts’ Archive For Sale: A Sacrificial Act
Here's something we never thought of before. Banker’s boxes as art. It's not like you can’t make a 30 year art history housed in tables full of file boxes compelling, right? Tercerunquinto, a collective formed by artists Julio Castro, Gabriel Cázares, and Rolando Flores has nailed organizational aesthetics and zeroed in on New Langton’s art’s most valuable asset: its historical memory. It's truly brilliant. Maybe visually bland, but mentally intriguing.
For more discussion: http://langtonblog.wordpress.com

What would happen if New Langton Arts, a cash poor non-profit with 30 years of history tied to the emergence of new art forms, (photographic, audio, and video docs and files full of communications with artists and fiscal paperwork) put all of it up for sale? Tercerunquinto sees it as a “sacrificial act” -relinquishing things that define you in order to survive. What are the possible different offers, the appraisal, and all the other elements that would come into play if New Langton sold their history? It’s simply an instillation, we don’t know if New Langton will decide to do it, but provocative ideas often reap interesting results. Well worth thinking about.

Pete Nelson’s installation about foundations uses the gallery space as his medium. His sculptural pieces involve the links between a time clock, a room size pink inflated blimplike structure and an assemblage of wood, mirrors and a little text. “Foundations” refers to the support for the structures and the invisible groundwork of social expectations and right and wrong. www.newlangtonarts.org

Triple Base Gallery
Double Blind
Jay Nelson and Bryson Gill
September 7 - October 7, 2007

Brought together by a shared interest in site-specific and multi-disciplinary contemporary art practice, Triple Base Gallery’s co-curators Joyce Grimm and Dina Pugh invited artists Bryson Gill and Jay Nelson to create their current show, Double Bind. San Francisco-based artists and long-time friends, Gill and Nelson are presenting new paintings that illustrate both their common sensibilities and recent divergences. They attended California College for the Arts together and often influenced one another in their work. For this exhibition neither saw the other's work in process as an experiment to see what differences or similarities would emerge. The results pull in many directions without any clear visual recipes gathered. Quietly bubbling and percolating, they seem less the same than different. www.basebasebase.com

Lincart
Michael S. Moore and Bob Van Breda

Michael Moore is showing daily watercolor paintings, capturing the changing light and shadows of the high desert in and around the Northern Great Basin along with large landscape paintings. “I spend a lot of time on the desert,” Moore says. The monochrome seeming sagebrush ocean of the northern basin navigating playas in pickups, scrambling around in rocky canyons, staring at rabbits, birds, and bugs. Silence or wind; the occasional truck on the county road. My paintings were always about this country even before I came into it over thirty years ago. It’s nice over here; the light is hard and brilliant, and there’s more weather than a person might reasonably expect. I try to make work about that, about the coalescence of the image and its realization, and about the silence. Slow paintings, which bear watching.”

Conte #40, Bob Van Breda

Bob Van Breda captures the fun in chewed-up pencils. Artsy qualities included, his room full of highly sharpened assemblages are models for mischievious skyscrapers pointing like fingers, upwards and out. As Lincart says, “It’s Pick Up Sticks meets Lincoln Logs as Bob pegs pencil onto pencil, building mock-ups for public art that function entirely on their own as Pencil Sculptures.” Let be honest, makes you want to go play in your own pencil box don’t it? We might not all be trained as architects and I have low expectations for my own results but his idea is contagious. See it at your own risk. You might fall in love. www.lincart.com

Catharine Clark Gallery
150 Minna Street new address
The Depravities of War
Sandow Birk
September 8-October 20

Incurion, Sandow Birk

Many words have been written about this exhibition of 15 large-scale woodblock prints that investigate the Iraq war, after the set of etchings titled Miseries of War by Jacque Callot, 1592-1635. Suffice it to add that this show is more powerful than anything else we’ve seen about this war, with equal parts ironic criticism, tenderness and humor. Just go see it. Intelligent, generous and very present, each print holds enough content to make a great film. www.cclarkgallery.com

SFMOMA
Take Your Time
Olafur Eliasson

While we were in the neighborhood we couldn’t resist the chance to wrap up in a blanket to see Olafur Eliasson’s show at MOMA, Take Your Time. Yikes. What makes art hot when it’s so cold? What did Mom use to say? “If you don’t have anything nice to say, hush up, but we won’t let that stop us, in the minority as we are on this one. So many terrific recommendations but we respectfully disagree, not that Eliasson will give a care….It’s eye-gouging and all but somehow, we thought it just weird. Because he could de-construct a car and cover it with ice we would consider it fine art. Being from Chicago, it did stir up some memories but is it engineering and chemistry or is it art? Wow, sorry, what brought on that fit of judgement? Anyway, what we mean is, the show left us cold. On the other hand, we both enjoyed the Felix Schramm show, Collider, on the 4th floor where a titling wall slices through walls and corridors. Stay tuned.

MarinMOCA
Re-newal, opens Sept 29, 2007
The second show of this burgeoning museum will feature the work of 15+ Bay Area artists. This show, Re-newal, features encaustic works juried by Bob Nugent, Ab Ex painter and Professor Emeritus, Sonoma State University. The opening for this exquisite show is Sept 29, 5-8 pm. Mark your calendars and pop on over to discover and explore this exciting art form and Marin's newest museum. Culture at every turn. www.marinmoca.org

Everybody loves Colescott

2007-08-30T19:55:00.001-07:00

Meridian Gallery, a non profit gallery, will open a must see show September 20, 6-9 pm featuring a ten year retrospective of Robert Colescott's lush paintings. Colescott uses high comedy, painterly abandon, and satire in his sexually and racially charged work. This long overdue survey will feature work from 1997-2007. Don’t miss this energetic, vigorous work that explores stereotyping.

Olympia's Fountain
2000, Acrylic on Canvas

“ I pull the viewer in with humor, but when they begin to understand what they have to deal with in the paintings, they don’t know whether to love them or hate them,” he says. “I've been talking about this stuff for twenty years. It's about white perceptions of Black people".

Phyliss Kind points out how Colescott "mocks our anxiety" about race but he "never doesn't talk about race and he never talks about it only; " his joyous state, replete with "sonorous tumbling, shady joy, sex, love, money, music, art, memories, and comfort food" are present in all their glory, yet so are racism, sexism, poverty, murder, hate, avarice, envy and deceit. All, propelled by an overreaching consumerism, twirl through a spectacular frenzy of color and form to become paintings so masterful on so many levels that one's breath is taken away,”

Born in Oakland, California in 1925, Colescott received a Masters from the UC Berkeley and studied in Paris with Leger. His work is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, SF MOMA, the Hirshhorn Museum etc.. He was the first African-American artist to represent the U.S. in a single-artist exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1997..

The show will run through October 20th and the Meridian Gallery in it’s new home at 535 Powell Street is worth a visit on its own.

Designed by C.A. Meussdorffer,it is in the only building left downtown which was a single-family residence and it’s a treasure.. In this gracious space, Ann Brodzky and Anthony Williams, Directors have made attractive spaces for the Meridian music program and the Meridian Interns Program for at-risk youth learning to make art in a better than first class gallery environment. Their commitment to exploring issues and to make spaces where youth and adults could access experientially a widening of the possible makes it much more than another great gallery. We dare you not to come away inspired. www.meridiangallery.org

Art for Aids 11 Annual Art Auction preview at ArtHaus Gallery

This juried art auction of modern and contemporary art donated by artists, galleries, and collectors can be previewed at ArtHaus Gallery www.arthaus-sf.com
This premiere art event benefits UCSF AIDS Health Project. For online bidding and more information go to www.artforaids.org

Maria
Deborah Oropallo

Ocatavia's Haze Gallery features James Michalopoulos

Opens October 2 ,2007

Michalopoulos is best known for his distinctive architectural renderings. Kevin Allman writes of his architecture, “They slope, soar and sway. Some of them rear back on their foundations, or lurch drunkenly over cracked sidewalks...". Michalopoulos's unsteady houses seem to stagger under their own heavy heritage. There is a palpable energy and mystery in his highly original work; they are a mystical and a powerful evocation of the city Katrina left in tatters.

In addition, Ocatavia's Haze features some of the finest hand blown glass work in the Bay Area. See www.octaviashaze.com for more info.

Bucheon opens Serena Cole and Grant Barnhart September 4, 2007

Exploring the contemporary idea of beauty through fashion magazines as an initial source, Serena Cole uses portraiture to address behind the image and superficiality of a pose The viewer is struck by the sadness and alienation that is portrayed, rather than the glib look of a supermodel. Painted and drawn with a delicate and intuitive hand, Cole captures a different consciousness of the angst of youth today.

Illustrator/artist Grant Barnhart has evolved into a masterful storyteller. The work is reminiscent of an adult fairy tale with imaginary creatures and soldiers fighting giant animals with bows and arrows. It is wonderfully engaging and inventive and can compel the viewer to spend a lot of time with each picture. He is fascinated by the idea that humans and animals can be innocent one minute and brutally violent the next.
Plan to see Bucheon at the Jupiter Art Fair in Portland OR Sept 14 and 15.
To see more of the compeling work of these artists visit www.bucheon.com

A Juicy Tidbit for Steinberg Farmer Report readers:
Marin has a new museum! Yes, the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art will soon open its doors. Please check with us for more information on this exceptional turn of events.

Here & Now—MM Galleries

2007-07-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

The Medium Is NOT the Message

Here and Now—
Encaustics and Time

July 21 to August 25, 2007, a juried show at MM Galleries
101 Townsend, San Francisco in cooperation with International Encaustic Artists, a non-profit organization 100 artists strong promoting encaustic art globally.

Artists included in the exhibition are: Natasia Chan (OR), Eileen Goldenberg (CA), Ruth Gooch (CA), Regina Herod (CA), Howard Hersh (CA), Nikkole Huss (IL), Lauren Lipinski Eisen (CO), Laura Moriarty (NY), Susan Najarian (WA), Carol Paxton Juliano (CA), David Price (WA), Susan Joan Schenk (NE), Patricia Seggebruch (WA), Adele Shaw (CA), Gail Steinberg (CA), Sheary C. Suiter (AK), Rodney Thompson (CA), Tina Vietmeier (CA), Gary Voss (CO), Daniella Woolf (WA).

Most people have no idea what encaustics is.
When they find out it's a kind of paint made of beeswax, tree resin and pigments applied in a liquid state and fused to a surface with heat, the wax trumps all. From then on, it's all about wax. Yes, wax is eye-catching and all, it easily lends its inherent transparency, textural and layering possibilities to a painting or sculpture but there's got to be more to it than that. Oils, acrylics or digital paintings are interesting or not beyond the kind of paint or medium they are made of. That's why we admire the effort behind this rich and very present show at MM Galleries. Content composition and pushing the medium counts.

Twenty artists from all over the United States were selected for this show by 3 judges. The works range from abstract to figurative, and include sculptural and undefinable pieces. The show demos an infinite versatility by artists who have taken their process way beyond their medium.

Laura Moriarty is from New York's work.Her work pushes the boundaries by being painting and sculpture at once and is as delicious as a lavash sandwich. She calls it "a play on plate tectonics, where everything is continually drifting apart and crashing together, layering one episode on top of another. Geologists know that rocks can tell stories if you know how to read them. I follow a similar curiosity-driven path, drawing far-fetched parallels between my work and the way that scientists collect, classify and display fragments lifted out of time" Laura says she wants to keep her work honest and doesn't want it to be too tied to ideas. We are drawn in by the movement of the shapes but stay because of the relationships between the colors. She is an innovator and a master. Can't wait to see more.

Basin and Range is by Rodney Thompson, a painter from rural northern California. Rodney used a Monet like approach to capture the character of the basin by painting the same scene many times over at different times of day. Open space is peacefulness. His amazing mastery of encaustics allows him to have some fun with a "vast landscape" suggesting spaciousness and unrestrained possibilities." It reminds me of that moment when things come into focus, the one Virginia Wolfe calls "Moments of Being, - that behind the cotton wool is a pattern; that we-I mean all human beings- are connected with this."

Gary Voss, a Colorado artist, viewa the crucible as a source of life, a beginning, as well as a vessel for change and metamorphosis. His pieces use ABS plastic, encaustic, computer modeling and rapid prototyping. The translucency provides a diffused glimpse of the interior encaustic which is in opposition to the distinct forms when viewed from above. Notions of body muscles and joints, with surgical implications reveal themselves slowly, defying us to put aside any preconceptions.
His way of probing and combining the materials is unique but only a portion of what his work is about.

Eileen Goldenberg's Teahouse is one of the series that she won a grant for from the San Francisco Arts Commission, June 2007. What's not to like about a structure of parallel lines and open circles in hot, steamy colors? Surface texture, windows and the graphic use of lines and marks evoke "home and retrospection" for Eileen. Her theme of shelters in time is one that Sheary Clough Suiter, a painter from Alaska, is also drawn to.

Sheary's piece, Interloper, represents her idea of a shelter as a refuge for all of us seeking to understand our place in the world, be it real or imagined. She begins each of her works without a pre-plan, preferring to let her intutition rule to create an under painting. From there, she finds the images (sometimes of shelters, or seekers, or architectural forms) and develops them into a finished form.

Tina Vietmeier, a British born painter who lives in San Francisco, paints the objects of everyday life, at least she used to. Her newest work seems to be taking on more imposing dreamscapes with a spaciousness, light, warmth, tranquility and subtle richness that makes me want to get lost in them. What can I say? Fluid? Emotional? Here and Now, she creates the moment. We get to imagine our own stories.

What I love about Adele Shaw's work beyond her playfullness and intelligence is her theme that
" paintings are silent family members with personality, soul and wit." Adele is a San Francisco painter whose work reflects her "research into interior landscapes of reminiscences, laughter and possibilities." Some people talk about generosity of spirit but her work reflects the real thing. It takes a special kind of touch to make regular everyday things catch you by surprise, but Adele reminds us through very accessible images about the unspoken stuff we carry in our hearts.

My own piece, Moments In Time, No Two are Alike, (Gail Steinberg, CA) was inspired by birthday candles.
I wanted Here and Now to be about an experience so immediate nothing else exists in the world. That's how I got fascinated with that moment when you pucker up to blow your birthday candles out. It occurred to me that all the colors in the universe are encapsulated in the flickering flames of those candles. I know, I know, how painfully unhip....Next time maybe I can come up with something mildly subversive. Stay tuned.

Curious Pratchenko, Fluid Markings, Multi-Media Zen & Encaustic on Parade

2007-03-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

Paul Pratchenko at Braunstein/Quay:

Paul Pratchenko’s work gets curiouser and curiouser. That’s what I like. He’s been painting, since 1965 and is probably laughing his ass off at the crazy ideas people take away from his stunning and carefully polished compositions. So go ahead, laugh. On first take I thought of Alice wandering around Wonderland on drugs, trying to make sense of things just weird enough to be legitimately called “edgy,” without offending the people who live there. Then I realized I’d been looking with my eyes closed, seeing nothing. I begin to notice miniature magical details peeking out of the realistic settings, so natural and unforced that I only noticed them third time around. It became easy to accept his logic because his Alice’s & Adam’s did. He takes you inside a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel or an ancient legend you dimly remember. Any conclusions you form have to stay open-ended. Will his confident hero prevail or perish? Is it the mundane reality or the magic in the piece that is more in sync with the world we know? Please see for yourself. It’s more than worth it. Pratchenko has been widely displayed and collected nationally and internationally. He is a Professor of Art in Painting and Drawing at San Francisco State University. Images and reviews of his work have appeared in Art News, Art in America, New American Painting, ARTSPACE and Flash Art. Reproductions of his work were published by Simon and Schuster under the title Dream Riddles: The Artwork Of Paul Pratchenko. Go see his work at Braunstein/Quay Gallery in San Francisco.

Nadol Pak at Lisa Dent Gallery
Remember the story that starts out “mom died in the middle of making me a peanut butter sandwich?” That line grabs me every time, much the way Nadol Pak’s new work at Lisa Dent Gallery does. Exciting and unpretentious, it's worth a 15th look. Imagine yourself in the story and maybe you will get why looking at Nadol Park’s inked aerial landscapes of imaginary World War II battlegrounds made me think of it. Both the story and the drawings are mischievous and horrific at the same time, Both come off as simple…invented documentaries of social issues built on small detail, inviting us closer. Both are irreverent, creating complex and unexpected compositions one mark or word at a time. The concentration and range of the marks create a huge inner scale…,how can mom drop dead making a sandwich or a map of a bloody battlefield be created by hundreds of obsessive yet fluid marks? Both create spaciousness by incorporating empty space between details and both are impossible to forget. No idea’s original however and names that pop up who work with line similarly are Jack Scott, Jacob El Hanani and Daniel Zeller. Don’t miss this show. It’s got staying power.

Paul Brigham at HANG ART
You’re a hiker in a rainy mountain valley when you notice the relationship between a pebble and a blade of grass….well you might get that lucky if you are Paul Brigham, an artist whose subject matter is his personal experience with the environment. He is a rare one, who respects nature without trying to imitate it , render it realistically, or even label it correctly. For those of us who are not fans of traditional landscapes, his work is fresh and provocative, all about trying to understand the connections within the natural world and how they reflect his own experiences living in California today. His new collection of mountain landscapes is inspired by his direct experience and Asian art but his technique is 21st century multi-media. Layering paint and silk-screen images, he uses sandpaper to reveal elements from previous layers. This technique makes the images appear to be slightly moving. As an experienced watcher who just happens to study Zen philosophy, practice Tai Chi and study Asian aesthetics, his ability to create challenging, joyous and unclassifiable scenes is a gift to us, appealing even to a cynic like me.

Mary Farmer ( yes, THAT Mary Farmer) at ConradWilde in Tucson
Our own Mary Farmer has been included in the Second Annual Encaustic Invitational at ConradWilde Gallery. This is Farmer's second showing, not bad for Bay Area Gal, woo-hoo girl you strut that encaustic work.

Shepherd's Rest

March Madness at Bay Area Galleries

2007-02-28T17:05:00.000-08:00

Dazzling Photos at Ar+space
Ar+space, 1286 Folsom, is featuring 4 artists in 4 weeks in their show, 4 x 4. We were just in time to see Beryl Fine's candid shots of everyday diversity; her street cred must be very strong. Fine seems to have that Arbus "you can trust me" feel as her strong work reveals much about each subject.

Aaron Hegert will open this Sat, March 3, 7 pm until late. Hegert's photos have a painterly feel; his composition is powerful and his production technique is gorgeous. If you love photography, do not miss Aaron Hegert's show.

For Gallery hours call: Michael Morehouse at 621.4438

MMGalleries

Marina Cain and Kit Schulte have taken over the Michael Martin Galleries and promise to keep the doors open. This beautiful space has suffered in the past from a bit of neglect. This will no longer be the case as Marina and Kit are committed to the Bay Area's art scene.

Opening March 8:
Why E? New Chapters by Justin Quinn and Tara Thacker - Sculptures

Quinn places himself in the role of Ahab who continually redraws his charts which travel nowhere and only to go into themselves The pieces, a combination of graphite drawings on hemp and dry point intaglio prints repeatedly explore chapter 44 of Moby Dick.

Justin Quinn
Chapter 44 or 4349

Tara Thacker’s works in porcelain are abstractions, referencing the natural world. Repetitive labor is central to her process. The works begin with a single element that, once multiplied and combined, reveals new, unexpected possibilities.

Tara Thacker
Sculpture

www.mmgalleries.com for more info.

Until March 10: Mary Snowden, It's a Matter of Time

If you need a fix of expertly rendered, beautifully layered, and politically charged work stop by Braunstein/Quay Gallery at 430 Clementina.

Snowden, a Bay Area artist and teacher for 40 odd years, has taken imagery from a grafittied van, "The Party Professionals" to create an elaborate tableau of parties for those on the margins of society orchestrated by Orphan Annie. Each piece is chalk full of images and innuendo.

Mary Snowden
Party Pros 2

Opening March 17, 3-5pm: CCA at 100: Alumni Looking Forward

In celebration of the California College of the Arts' (CCA) one-hundredth anniversary, Braunstein/Quay Gallery presents a group show of alumni organized by guest curator Mary Snowden, the Chair of Painting and Drawing at CCA. The five artists chosen for this exhibition are among her most recent, memorable, and talented students.

Among the five:

Rajkamal Kahlon (below)

Mr. Backlash, what do you think I've got to lose? I'm gonna leave you with the backlash blues

Sarrita Hunn
Cube (s) (left)

For more infomation check out http://www.braunsteinquay.com

Kim Frohsin, Chester Arnold, David Fullarton, Howard Hersh, Tina Vietmeier, Louis Bording

2007-01-30T12:48:00.000-08:00

posted by Gail Steinberg

Dolby Chadwick
210 Post Street, Suite 205, San Francisco
Kim Frohsin
Two Minutes and Counting, Feb. 1-24
Opening Reception: Thursday, Feb 1, 5:30-8:00 PM

You have to move in to look closely because Kim Frohsin’s tasty women on their small sized canvases are whispering messages you don’t want to miss. I have no idea why, but it’s not frustrating when you realize their messages are incomprehensible. Unexpectedly, that’s reassuring. Like Rita, the waitress in a Ray Carver short story, Froshin’s women seem to be thinking "My life is going to change. I feel it” and as you look, it’s satisfying to pick up on that feeling.

Carrying on the commitment to the figure started by David Park, Elmore Bischoff, and others in the Bay Area Figurative Art movement, Froshin has developed her own challenges for this show :(1) Impose a two minute time limit on herself to capture a woman in one particular moment through a quick life drawing. (2) Then, without losing the immediacy of the drawing, add color and background to set a mood and call to mind the big idea— that what is most personal is most universal. Each painting alludes to an entire lifetime in a single pose giving just enough information to get your imagination working. Reminds me of a quote from somewhere…”there are no answers, seek one lovingly”. Labled as a third generation fig (Bay Area Figurative Artist) Frohsin’s smoky atmosphere’s and faceless women are vulnerable, lusty, mischievious, irreverent and don’t care what you think of them, therefore you’re seduced into thinking about them.

One of my personal favorites is Blue Stage, worked in gouache, ink, watercolor crayons and dry pigments. The woman sits pensively, one hip jutting out provocatively, chin resting on hands, looking where? Up? Down? Straight at you? No doubt, deep in thought. I enjoy the sense that she’s in transition, that anything is possible. Pass the word.

Is Frohsin a revoluntionary painter or derivative? Derivative sounds snarky but who can argue with her process of honoring, reshaping and moving the figurative tradition forward? More names that pop up as influences are Diebenkorn, Olivera, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Carver and Frank Lobdell but like Olivera, Froshin does not seem on a mission to create works that are uniquely new. I think the woman in Blue Stage illustrates Olivera’s idea that arts function is to, “simply reaffirms our presence and the depth of our existence on this earth.” Froshin’s work is strong in part because it is linked to the chain of interest in women’s experiences and like Carver or Oates manages to capture a moment in short and palatable bites.

Catharine Clark Gallery
49 Geary, 2nd floor, San Francisco
Chester Arnold

A Heroes Welcome

Chester Arnold’s current work is like a hurricane in slow motion. When it hits you, you get it. Unique in today’s market, his appeal is to viewers who are able to appreciate his weirdly interesting combination of lush classical painting techniques with biting social criticism. Irony mixes with moans and affection, always in a space dense with movement. Think of Jack LeVine and Max Beckmann, Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegal and you will notice his attention to the miniscule and understanding of space and darkness. His pictures easily contain us, often along with casts of thousands.

In A Heros Welcome, what at first glance seems simply an intriguing composition of abstract shapes and colors, evolves as you look into a powerful if dark statement about how we greet our so called national heros--- Dis-missed.

Like Beckman, Arnold seems to fill his work with hidden ideas, seeking a bridge from the visible to the invisible. The magic is in his presentation of content in a formally beautiful way. He says he trys to "build a structure around the message that has some type of intrinsic beauty to it so that as you take it in, it's going to affect you aesthetically as well as politically or philosophically." Combining with elegant comments on social issues is his mind boggling love and respect for the physical materials and methods of painting. "This is really a competitive world,’” he says, “ to do what you do in any less than the most superlative way that you can is a waste of time." That explains why he pushes to increase his amazing skills and works with only the best materials he can get his hands on. As a student in his class on materials and methods, I was lucky enough to see him demo how he creates the shapes which become the beings in paintings like A Heros Welcome: First an underpainting of multi colored dots creating areas of light and dark which in the next layer are developed into oblongs and egg shapes, highlighted and arranged for serial viewing. Next he gives arms and gestures to the dots…uncanny how well it all works for someone who knows exactly what he’s doing.

Hang Gallery
556 Sutter Street, San Francisco
David Fullarton
The Extent of My Consternation
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 1st, 6-8pm

David Fullarton is another artists whose brain is on fire
All is not lost, but much has been mislaid

but in his case, his funny bone is boss. Everything from the price of salt to the next imminent catastrophe seems gist for his laugh out loud paintings in upbeat colors. Odd words, numbers and images fall into broken grids on bright grounds. His humor is off beat, the kind of quirky stuff where you have an image of a dog and the dog is named “cat” or a cat in a general's costume is issuing instructions for making salami. Not really his topic, I made that one up, but it’s the sort of thing he does...taking things out of their usual context and putting them into new surroundings that change their meaning in delightfully odd ways. He is some deal - you could wake up smiling looking at paintings like his.

Andrea Schwartz Gallery
525-2nd Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
Howard Hersh

Howard Hersh is a big name among encaustic painters. With umpteen solo shows and over 100 group shows to his credit, he’s become a superstar at pouring the smoothest of smooth surfaces and for his trademark way of joining multiple panels into evocative shapes, unique among painters who work with beeswax. I’ll tell you what does me in -

the level of precision and detail he’s perfected. Taking full advantage of the translucent qualities inherent to wax, building flawless layer over layer, his blend of architectural grids and organic marks combine and appear to grow outwards, beyond the panel’s borders. It’s easy to imagine that the finished pieces could just keep growing, like any living creatures, soon taking over the walls of the gallery, stopping traffic on 2nd street, growing upward like Jack’s beanstalk, or continuing in a morphic flow, perhaps to the Pacific. You’ve got to see it.

Tina Vietmeier
I’m nuts about Tina Vietmeier’s new encaustic paintings.The last time I saw Tina’s work she was dunking rolls of toilet paper in molten wax and adding marks to the hardened surface. They were good, interesting plays on the stuff of everyday life, in fact I bought a couple, but the work she’s doing now is way more. Spare, playful shapes in not sweet pastel colors float up and out on big panels. Glistening pools, like poured lakes of wax are inset into larger, rougher areas. You look deep into them, layers deep, and catch reflections of the hidden layers shining up from the bottom. There are also scraped away bits, scratchy, like paper pulled off a billboard making you think about impermanence. She says she has “been paying attention to space: light, weight, matter, fullness, presence, geometry, and quiet.” It shows.

SOMA Artists Studios
689 Bryant Street at 5th, San Francisco, Studio 5
Louis Bording

Remember that uproarious film about an artist who jumped on and otherwise attacked his canvases with brushes and his paint covered body all the while chanting "DeKooning, DeKooning, DeKooning" as he made each mark? Louis Bording, at SOMA Art Studios, made me think of that guy. Though Bording is hardly crazy and limits his mark making to charcoal and brushes he does name DeKooning and Roberto Matta as his major influences. An action painter, he says “the work is in the doing. (DeKooning, DeKooning, DeKooning) “Everything after is an afterthought, if you’re lucky.” Starting with gestured lines in charcoal on canvas, he adds color, take it away, and than the hardest thing…adds gestural lines back in. Fluid and good humored like the man himself, the shapes curve through space like a disjointed roller coaster, with colliding cars weaving in and out in a surrealistic rhythmic dance. “My intention in making these paintings is to create something where nothing existed before,” he says. “There is something unstuck in a process using a mark, line or color where images appear having no basis in reality.” His paintings are in private collections in the United States as well as collections in Geneva, Frankfurt, Prague, Seville, and Rio de Janeiro. When I asked him how he chooses his palette he said color is a big issue with him. He won’t plan, it has to come intuitively as in, which tube on his table catches his eye. “Ahh- so, buy yourself a new quinacridone majenta on me, “I should have said. Big up, everyone.

Bridge and Flow reviews

2007-01-03T18:39:00.000-08:00

FLOW is one of the new shows. They featured 18 galleries with 3 from the West Coast.

•Marcia Wood Gallery www.marciawoodgallery.com Peter Bahouth’s stereoscopic transparencies with very cool viewing stands were snapped up by collectors interested in visual whimsy. Also showing Mary Engel, whose bizarre mixed-media animal sculptures are among the most entertaining things eh-ver. Hey, she sold the pony. Any chance you’d like a poodle?

Sculpture of Mary Engel

•David Lusk www.davidluskgallery.com Tad Lauritzen Wright gets it right in his “Philosophy of Beauty” discourse. Through collage, painting, drawing, and sculpture, Wright explores misguided notions of beauty. It is irreverent, visually dense, and exposes the diluted essence of beauty.

•Julie Baker Fine Art www.juliebakerfineart.com Eric Blum’s exquisite encaustic portraits of women with Veronica Lake hair enthrall. Curiously, he numbers rather than naming the pieces. I would call Blum’s technique flawless. Julie is also co-founder of Flow.

•M% www.Mpercent.com That Matthew Garson—boundless energy and good humor. Garson is co-founder of flow and I’m telling you, he was everywhere. Great job! Please keep Flow going. Here, we had another champion of encaustic work and Lenore Thomas’s abstractions.

•Kenise Barnes Fine Art www.kbfa.com Showing Joanne Mattera’s work. Ahhh, viewing her “Silk Road” pieces is vacation “visual” style. In this reductive series each painting is a voluminous monochrome achieved by applying 20 or so layers of translucent wax. Did I write monochrome? Better take another look.

"Silk Road #20"

•PDX Contemporary www.pdxcontemporaryart.com This Portland gallery always has intriguing work. Marie Watt’s reclaimed stitchings are beautiful geometric pieces rendered in wool, satin binding and thread.

“Wool of the West”

•Toomey-Tourell Gallery www.toomey-tourell.com The big buzz here at Toomey-Tourell is that they sold all the work in their show! Congratulations! Heather Wilcoxon’s work always tickles. She’s whimsical and her richly developed surfaces come alive with patterns and extra-ordinary creatures and shapes. These imaginary creatures spring from Wilcoxon’s full blown imagination. Make no mistake this whimsy takes on issues that threaten our human condition.

"Catch"

BRIDGE ART FAIR 67 galleries, 12 West Coast Galleries

•Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery www.eesgallery.com Johnnie Winona Ross creates abstracted paintings whose satin surfaces are subtle drips of colored pigment that appear in banded stripes. These works are composed of more than one hundred layers of glazed pigments. Ross finishes each piece with by buffing the surface for an ethereal glow.

"Wire Canyon Cutoff #12"

•Andrea Schwartz Gallery www.asgallery.com John Belingheri paints, scrapes, paints, scrapes, paints….his is much reworking of the canvas. Belingheri’s work is generating strong interest and sales. San Francisco’s Tina Vietmeier was also featured.

“Dipthong Hooker Green”

•Brian Gross Fine Art www.briangrossfineart.com Andrea Way’s characteristically abstract works that deftly articulate complex organic patterning are rich indeed.Her compositions are complex layers of nuanced color, and geometry. Way’s work is rhythmic, multifaceted, and formally sophisticated.

"Alcina"

•Birch Libralato Gallery www.birchlibralato.com David Kramer chronicles fear, pathos, and insecurity—whether drawn or oil-painted these sardonic commentaries prick your latent fears. Kramer slathers on the irony.

“Sellout”

Pulse and ~scope review

2007-01-03T17:56:00.000-08:00

Reported here you will find two shows, Pulse and ~scope, from The Art Basel Miami Beach art fair. This was the place to be in December 2006!

•Pulse, launched in 2005, hosted 66 Galleries with 8 West Coast Galleries represented.

•Josee Bienvenue www.joseebienvenuegallery.com One of Marco Maggi’s marvelous stacked and cutpaper installations has been recently acquired by The Hirshhorn Museum. Josee Bienvenue has chosen some smaller works for ABMB. They are intriguing in every way.

•Catharine Clark Gallery www.cclarkgallery.com reported brisk sales. If the crowd swarming her booth is any indication, she made her artists and collectors very happy. Rumor has it 3 collectors were vying for the same Andy Diaz Hope painting.

Here’s Andy waiting for the Pulse bus. Diaz Hope, a San Francisco artist, also participated in Quorum at ~scope. Quorum, a San Francisco based group of artists, encouraged fair goers to give a pint blood for a piece of original art. www.quorum-sf.org

•Rena Bransten www.renabranstengallery.com The witty work of Vic Muniz with his manipulation of images from popular culture and art history use unexpected materials and never fail to amuse and surprise. His energy and imagination are boundless.

•Heather Marx www.heathermarxgallery.com Much of Libby Black's work winks at high fashion. She goes deeper to peel back the glitz and glamor of the luxury lifestyle. Her sculptures are fun and poignant-- Paris Hilton be damned.

"Suitcases" by Libby Black

~scope hosted 92 galleries and with 8 representing the West Coast. This year ~scope occupied a much larger space that filled Roberto Clemente Park. In case you couldn’t find it, the organizers had a giant arrow in the overcast sky pointing to the ~scope venue:

•LightBox www.lightbox.tv Kim Dingle is back and she’s sassy as ever!!! Kim’s bawdy, sassy girls toss their ruffled bottoms in our direction. These girls ain’t got time for anything but “Pink Martinis as Fatty’s” Now, look again, these gals are not wearing Jimmy Choos.

“Pink Martinis as Fatty’s”

•lincart www.lincart.com Fresh from Slick-Paris, Charles Linder is showing in two venues: ~scope and Bridge Art Fairs. Linder is dedicated to the San Francisco art scene; his Lincart works against the sense of regional limitations by taking the work of Bay Area artists to European art capitals and vice versa. Here in San Francisco, lincart’s current show features the beautiful and joyful work of my heroine Beatrice Wood. Andrew Junge’s life sized Hummer constructed from scavenged and recycled Styrofoam is the perfect jab at excess. This installation drew lots of smiles.The cactus garden at ~scope’s entrance is the work of was installed by a Lincart artist. Linder’s own photo of a freshly scraped billboard made me look again, the only remaining word is “NEW” where clearly, there is nothing new.

•Heidi Cho Gallery www.heidichogallery.com Saya Woolfolk’s work is charged with sexual stereotypes and uniquely hidden in child-like soft sculpture. Is that really a penis garden? Woolfolk learned to sew, in beautifully executed hand, from her Japanese grandmother.

Work of Saya Woolfolk

•Dunn & Brown www.dunnandbrown.com D& B filled the entire back wall with Joseph Havel’s 10,000 shirt labels reading “Nothing!” I’m told that Havel painstakingly pinned each label to the wall—lots of pin pricks to achieve great effect.

•Umtrieb Gallery fur Ukuelle Kunst, Kiel Germany www.umtrieb.de
The spidery cutouts of Katja Flieger www.katjaflieger.com had great visual impact. They are quite delicately rendered and change as the lightsource shifts. Flieger, long affiliated with Umtrieb as an alternative space, was reluctant to show with the now “professional” gallery. I’m really happy she was persuaded to show the work.

Katja Flieger's work

•Solomon Projects www.solomonprojects.com Showed Joe Peragine’s installation, “Inflatable Tank”. This right-sized inflatable has us think of the best and work of fighting machinery. Tanks at first appear indestructible; history shows us that they are klunky, easy to disable, and in many cases, death traps for soldiers. Many soldiers have been stranded in a disabled tank. It must be said, “the gun pointing skyward is largely phallic.” One wonders about these toys of war.

Inside the fair, Soloman showed Sarah Hobbs’ chromogenic print of the periodic table whose elements have been supplanted by personality traits. Hobbs’s interpretation is thought provoking and hilarious. She is willingly and openly exploring personal pathos. We giggled and then we squirmed.

"Periodic Table of the Traits"

•douze and mille www.douzeandmille.com Toma Rivas’ temporary temple of art is visual theatre. Rivas scores and peels wallpaper covered sheetrock to construct these thoughtful pieces. You are immediately struck by the common nature of this material yet, within the context of recent disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, this material becomes very precious. Rivas will soon show this work in Germany.

“Unobtrusive”

Art Basel 2006: West Coast Highlights

2006-12-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

I had no idea what to expect from my first ABMB experience; it is one that must be distilled over time. The “I” being Mary Farmer, artist and lover of fine art www.maryfarmer.com . Farmer is one half of the Steinberg Farmer Art Report and the half that made the Miami pilgrimage. All work reviewed herein is through Mary Farmer’s filter. As an artist I frequently look at art, visit museums, and see shows of new and exciting work. I can, without equivocation, say that this was the most overwhelming, visually expanding, content heavy event I have ever attended. It was a 10 on the artist’s orgiastic scale.

Trying to plot a course to see the work was my first challenge. How much territory can I cover, what work is important and exciting, and how will I navigate the venues? Well, forget that wonderful strategic planning; this is a visual candy store you must go where the eyes lead. I fell upon a few themes--those of “Text, Sex and Cut Out.” You will note that I was unable to hold to this construct as well.

You, dear reader, may find this report a bit on the overtly positive side. It was my choice to share the work I found most compelling. With so much to choose from why not make this an art fantasy come true? So, here’s what Steinberg Farmer Art Report would like to share with you:

First some basic facts about Art Basel Miami Beach. Art BASEL MIAMI BEACH (ABMB) is 5 years old, featuring 200 heavy weight galleries and 22 emerging galleries. Including the satellites over 1,000 galleries are represented with estimated 38,000 visitors which is 44% increase over 2004.

“Crazy Zeros” Comment overhead when asking about sales and prices. Seasoned collectors clamored for a coveted piece. Speculators were on the prowl for the big score. Millions in sales were recorded during VIP opening and many works fetched record high prices. “We are selling everything,” gushed Richard Arregui of Fredric Snitzer Gallery Miami. LA’s Blum & Poe nearly sold out in the first hour. Satellite fairs were held in unused warehouses, temporary tents and boutique hotels. These ancillary events are growing exponentially, 2006 boasted twice as many fairs as 2005. Pulse (2 years old), ~scope, NADA (4 years old), and Aqua ( in its 2nd year) have been around; Bridge, DiVA, Photo Miami, INK Miami, Flow, PooL and Zones are all new this year! Dita von Tesse’s jaw dropping striptease that ended with her astride a huge bright red lipstick that bucked like a mechanical bull was the most talked about performance. Frenzied-hottest-Relentless....best descriptions of the fair. The economic impact of creative commerce is on par with a Super Bowl! More than 6,000 artists working in 20th and 21st century art were represented. “America’s Largest Art Markets” screamed the Miami Herald “More masterpieces change hands, more new artists are discovered and more art sales take place @ABMB than any other North American fair. Collectors bring Collectors”, said Tim Fleming of Photo Miami.

San Francisco, wake up. Not only is Miami booming, it is beginning to sustain itself year round. Miami has embraced the arts and consequently new galleries are being supported, a new performance art centers has opened, and Miami Art Museum is expanding. Miami is recognizing its local talent and anyone who is anyone in the art world attends the ABMB December art fair extravaganza. “ABMB has turned into a platform for the city”, stated independent curator Nina Arias. Basel spokesman Peter Vetsch says, “ The market is strong, and there are so many events to choose from, that you really must approach it like a menu. One must really focus on what they want to see.”

To start with, here's a rundown of the events at AQUA. Other fairs will be covered in separate blogs. AQUA, the brainchild of Jaq Chartier and Dirk Park showed the most and the best of west coast work.

Of the 42 galleries , Gregory Lind Gallery www.gregorylindgallery.com featured remarkable work; he definitely raised the bar for San Francisco galleries. San Francisco-based artist Will Yackulic, creates complex networks of text and buildings forming a post-natural landscape. In gouache paintings on paper, each composition is constructed of small, blue and white cubes that form building blocks of an imagined architecture. Yackulic's topographies are saturated with background text.

“One is Good, Two is Heavy”

At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com Melody Owen alters photos with a delicate lace-like collage overlay.

"Hotel #2"

•Sunday www.stirusfreeus.com showed paintings by Alexia Stamatiou, lifted from a Biblical scripture (1 Corinthians 15:52) representing the artist’s interest in ideas surrounding the “rapture” – a fantastical event accepted by certain facets of contemporary Christianity Most refreshing take on the rapture this fully indoctrinated Southern Baptist has ever seen.

“In Expectation”

•Greg Kucera www.gregkucera.com showed Mark Newport’s recent work exploring different facets of masculine identity. He asks, "How do I know how to be a man?" The word "strong," can refer to a man’s ability to express little or no emotion. Here, Newport has embroidered the superheroes of comic book covers. Are they strong, are they men?

•LIMN Gallery www.limn.com
Sheng Qi is one of the artists that have made a large contribution to the development of contemporary Chinese art. He explores humanism and cultural boundaries. His figures are rent dense with Chinese the characters of his native language he covers his red blind folded nude, “Red Army 003”, with them. Western text is introduced via numbers; in this case, numbering is indicative of the camouflage Sheng Qi has used as his canvas. As in “inspected by”

•Platform Gallery www.platformgallery.com
I must give many, many thanks to Jaq Chartier and Dirk Park for bringing AQUA to Miami. It can only be imagined how difficult it is to bring forth a full-blown art fair. And a totally cool one at that.Hands down, Chartier ranks as one of my art heroes. Her work always captivates and requires my extended viewing; I still remember seeing my first Chartier.

"Little Grid w/Scarlet#5"

Platform gave me a good laugh with the rants of William Powhida. Powhida reproduces things we all think. He cleverly records his wish lists, carnal thoughts, enemies list and other streams of consciousness. His crowded drawings are filled with damning text through which he unleashes his personal crises and disappointments. Powhida explores the dark humor I so enjoy

"Seattle Enemies List"

•Gallery Joe www.galleryjoe.com
Charles Ritchie’s magical dream repositories caught my eye. These small works are Ritchie’s visual and written record of dreams. His intimate treasures are fantastically rendered in pencil on paper.

•James Harris Gallery www.jamesharrisgallery.com
Geoffrey Chadsey confronts us with his schlong stroking office worker. Just a guess --this must be the fantasy of many an office worker. Chadsey’s work is a balancing act of the beautiful (his painting skill) and the ugly, this is definitely masculine introspection.

Please check Art Basel 2006: West Coast Highlights 2, 3, and 4 for reports on the other fairs.

Other World at Eleanor Harwood Gallery

2006-11-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

Something must have guided Mary and me to the Eleanor Harwood Gallery (1295 Alabama Street in the Mission, San Francisco) just at the moment when Christine Shields, curator and Eleanor were contemplating pieces for their Other World show, (opening Saturday, December 2 closing January 1). Spread all over the floor were works on paper from 13 artists, all exploring mysteries of the spirit world in refreshing ways. Like magnets, they drew us in. Not a believer in the occult? Skeptical about ghosts? You’ve undoubtedly never been to a family reunion, but don’t fret darling, this show will give you a glimpse of “truth is stranger than” brought to you through the active imaginations of a collection of the most skillful and intuitive among us. We feel honored to act as messengers. Never fear. If Other World doesn’t raise your spirits, you can always go back to sleep; but take a peek. If nothing else, you'll enjoy the visual surprises.

Look at one of Colter Jacobsen’s memory drawings (double drawings mounted side by side, one copied directly from a photograph and the other drawn from memory afterward). A figure is embracing a stream of light or is (s)he reaching for a ghost? Silvery, shadowed and solemn both drawings are understated and gentle, bringing home the mesmerizing, hypnotic effect of the artist’s personal narrative. The two images are the same yet subtly different. We could look at them for a long long time, years. Their strength is in their meditative, relaxing effect produced by the muted greys and blurred edges. Is this what a guardian looks like?

J's God Daughter

“Beardslee Castle”is from Donal Mosher’s series of spirit photos taken at MiddleVille cemetery in upstate New York each Halloween over the last six years, shot with a disposable camera. His aunt, Denice Brown is a ghost hunter who taught him the guidelines for spirit photography, mostly involving showing respect for the dead and stepping aside to let the spirits show themselves. There is a beautiful plainness about the photo, a glimpse of a subtlety rarely made visible. The most important visual elements are the glowing orbs, white, almost phosphorous, encircling the trees Whether you believe in ghosts or not, these orbs are visible. We can’t deny their energy, allowing us to be more fully engaged, at least just now.

Ghost Hunter's Diary

“What did I do wrong?” asks the woman playing a harp made of swinging wine bottles. She has no wings, she ain't no angel. Georganne Deen, an influential LA artist, excels at superceding the tasteful, successfully blending Cinderella fantasy and bad ass street smarts to evoke comic books and surrealism, with an eerie message from the beyond. “What did I do wrong?” The juxtaposition of a pretty surface with gothic fierceness challenges us to find connections between text, story, surface and images in a uniquely personal way. We love Deen’s irreverence. Who was it that said “if you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much space?”

A Baroque Prayer

Talking about ferocity, "feral empress of the underworld" by Christine Shields, is a wild creature inspired by the dream worlds in a red gown, boots with spurs and boxing gloves, drawn with cell vinyl on paper. Though only about 5” x7”, Ms. Avenging Empress is huge in effect with eyes that can boar holes through your teeth. She feels like a totem pole, at least 40 feet high. There she hovers, in full command of her space, scrappy, with a dangerous edge and a poetic soul in her brilliant feathered dress, guarding whom?

feral empress of the underworld

"Sedgewick" by Jovi Schnell is a gouache painting on paper incorporating stamped collage. A senior lecturer at California College of the Arts and the San Francisco Art Institute, Schnell integrates symbols of nature (an owl, the sun, the tree of life), technology (a heavy metal machine, cranked up and ready) and humanity. With hooded eyes keeping vigil and one hand on the crank this creature is ready for anything. Standing on one leg, we can see that stability is iffy yet the Rube Goldberg like machine is solid, a fortress, invincible, unstoppable. Tight lines and high contrasts build repeated shapes moving them through the space and bringing to mind Mayan sculpture, cubism, and in a strange way, art deco. Who is Sedgewick? How about a vote for Andy Warhol’s superstar, Edie, a spirit whose message might well be the inevitability of endings? Schnell’s little Sedgie looks simple, perhaps akin to a Willie Wonka chocolate machine from afar but reveals itself to be a complex and sinister system close up. We’re till thinking about it days later. That’s a good thing.

Sedgewick

Mary will attend the 2006 Art Basel/Miami in December. She will share her sights and insights on the whole shebang in our December newsletter: who to watch, what galleries are moving and shaking and what art world folk have been up to.

By the way, the idea to create this newsletter was inspired by our friend and mentor Joanne Mattera, a New York artist who writes "biased, myopic, incomplete and journalistically suspect" art fair reviews that are always interesting. Thanks Joanne.