New SF Exhibits: Downtown First Thursday

First Thursday has rolled around again, and the first block of Geary St. will be abuzz on April 6th. There will be receptions at the following galleries from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. All galleries are located at 49 Geary St., except as noted.

Gallery Paule Anglim (14 Geary St.) presents solo exhibits by John Beech and Brett Reichmann. Beech’s work is playfully conceptual. His personal website is worth exploring. Reichmann is an artist whose work just makes me roll my eyes.

Patricia Sweetow Gallery presents solo shows by German artists Irmel Kamp and Joachim Bandau. Kamp does photographic portraits of International Style buildings, in many of which you see Modernism ravaged by time (photo at top of posting). Baudau makes exquisite minimalist watercolors and cryptic little sculptures made of lead antimony (photo directly above).

At Steven Wolf Fine Arts, the new show features Stephan Pascher’s multiple-projector slide show of chairs in precarious groups, mostly stacked (photo above, from the gallery website).

At Haines Gallery, I suggest you take a passing look at the Joel Sternfeld photos—not his best work—and then proceed to the back gallery, where more than 5,000 fingerprints collected by Nigel Poor are on display. She is likely to be there, collecting more (photo above).

Catherine Clark Gallery is presenting two solos by Felipe Dulzaides and Packard Jennings. Gregory Lind Gallery is showing abstract oil paintings by Mel Prest, who generally works in stripes.

Crown Point Press, several blocks away, is opening a show of seven new etchings by New-York based artist Mary Heilmann. I am guessing that the reception will be the same night as the shows listed above. The location is 20 Hawthorne St., off Howard St.