Miscellany of Recent Sightings

As previously noted, I was disappointed by the March auction show at The LAB, but as always there were a few good works, including a charcoal on canvas drawing of her own hair by Paz de la Calzada (photo at top) and Joseph Rizzo’s “Ape Mummy” drawing (photo just above), which was priced at only $50.

Last month’s show of Barbara Takenaga’s paintings at Gregory Lind Gallery left me wondering about the question of scale. Takenaga had been showing small paintings for awhile. In conversation she told me she had decided that, if she could make small paintings, she could make large paintings. But in my experience, a style of work developed at one scale can look unconvincing when applied on a much larger scale, unless changes are made that are more than scalar. Takenaga's size jumps appeared too linear. What was piquant on a small scale (like the images above, from the gallery website) became somewhat monotonous on a large scale. Maybe I just like my psychedelia in smaller doses.

Shirley Shor’s show at Gallery Paule Anglim (in March) included an engaging floor piece called “Terra Infirma” in which video was projected down onto a sand pile in a box, with computer-generated motions that slid over the undulations in the sand. (See photo above.)

There were also several of Shor's wall works. In one of them (photo above), a vertical slit seemed to open into a magic world of light and color beyond. The slit could be labial, or not. But all the wall works were undermined by their style of facture, smooth and commercial, making them resemble store displays before the logos are applied.

I tend to think of studio visits as outside the scope of this blog, partly because those are private spaces and also because the artwork is often unfinished. But I’ll make an exception and highlight one studio I visited during the CCA open house on April 9th. The artist, Scotty Enderle, offered a gallery-like presentation. As can be seen in the photo below, he has curved the corners of his studio, which opens up the space in a delightful way. One piece was a golden ladder that, alas, won’t take you anywhere (photo above). And a pair of drum cymbals was shown with a visualization of their vibrations (photo below). The entire space radiated imagination.

Adam McEwen at Jack Hanley

For me, the best part of Adam McEwen’s recent opening at Jack Hanley Gallery was the conversation I had with the artist about his obituary series (not included in the show). McEwen is engaging, and conversation makes it clear that there are more layers in his works than might be evident from their flip first impressions. I wish there had been time for him to walk me around the galleries, bringing me inside the work. The show seemed pitched at some other kind of viewer, while I stood by, observing the transaction. I often thought, “that’s sort of interesting,” but didn't experience the unfolding zaps that this artist can deliver.

Here are images of a few works. In the first, I caught Jack Hanley in front of the mirrored piece, talking to a man who, in reflection, looks like a Francis Bacon figure (photo above).

There was a word painting with a blurred warning (photo above) and a blowup of an old Social Security card that seemed to document the illusion of security (photo below).

Fans of the recursive—remember Doug Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach?—will enjoy the floor piece in each gallery that illustrate the arrangement of works, including the floor piece itself (photo below).

Two Solos at Catherine Clark

The two artists currently showing at Catherine Clark Gallery address the public sphere, often by means of intervention. In Packard Jennings’s work, corporations are a favorite target, as they are in this show. One series of pigment prints employs the graphic style of instructional pamphlets to depict a revolt by corporate workers. The action starts with a man throwing over his desk (photo above, from gallery website). Other images in the 16-part sequence show general mayhem, toilets used as crop farms, and a hippyesque nirvana for the final panel (photos below, from gallery website).



The graphics are engaging, but what sort of critique is this? You could read it as satire on naïve dreams of revolution, with the final panel as a grungy Sixties dead end. But Jennings is usually taking potshots from the Left, not picking apart the Left’s weaknesses. Maybe it's just a riff designed to refresh awareness of the artificial, locked-down atmosphere of corporate life—and the potential for subversive action. I gather that Jennings is planning to send copies of the images to corporate addresses. For this purpose, he has placed a receptacle in the gallery where visitors can deposit postage-paid return envelopes from junk mailings.

The other artist, Felipe Dulzaides, has been placing photographic billboards around San Francisco that reproduce details of the area in which they are placed. I enjoy seeing these around town but the photo documentation presented in this show seems a bit flat (example above). Also on view is a video by the artist that I did not have time to absorb on the first visit.

Collage Shows + Arcega on TV

Jack Fischer Gallery, which specializes in “outsider” artists, will hold a reception on Saturday, April 15th, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. It could be the perfect place to repair after you've just wrapped up your taxes and feel like an outsider yourself. The featured artist is John Hundt, a trained artist who for some years remained outside the commercial art world until making a connection with this gallery's owner. Hundt's speciality is collage, usually photo-collage, in a Dada or Surrealist vein. Hannah Höch seems to be an influence. Two examples from an earlier show are reproduced above (images from the gallery website). Work in this vein has such a long history that you might expect it would be exhausted by now. Hundt proves the contrary. The gallery is located on the 4th floor at 49 Geary St., San Francisco.

Another set of collages is on view at Femina Potens, a grass-roots art and performance space with a slant toward women and transfolk. The artist is Francesca Berrini. Sources for these pop-surrealist works include pages from grade school books and illustrations of dinosaurs and space travel. If you are in the area, stop by for a look. The address is 465 South Van Ness, between 15th and 16th Sts., in San Francisco. The entrance is not easily seen from the street—it's down a walkway at the side of the building—but there is a sandwich board to mark the location.

Lastly, there's a local TV show of interest. Artist Michael Arcega will be profiled in one segment of a new edition of SPARK on KQED (Ch. 9). The first showing is Wednesday at 7:30 pm.

Brooklyn Comes to Dogpatch

Friday night, before heading to SF Ballet, I stopped by Ampersand to see the new show, curated by Patricia Maloney. Seven young Brooklyn artists are featured. Despite the crowd at the reception, several works captured my attention. Larry Bamburg did an installation, entitled “2 Deer Down,” that must be seen in person, as it eludes photography. The focal points are small cut-out images of two deer lying on an expanse of linoleum tile (detail above). One of these quivers as if dying, and the other appears to be recently dead, with flies swarming around. The illusion is magical yet unnerving. The effects are engineered by cheap, visible stage machinery that includes a fan, a vibrating rod, and strands of monofilament.

Dana Frankfort, who paintings are getting noticed in New York, offers several of her word-based abstractions. I was amused by the “No” painting (photo above), in which resistance seems to be surfacing into the very act of painting.

A compelling sculpture by Mai Braun shows a human figure, fashioned from shredded newsprint, crouching over a mirrored surface, like Narcissus looking into the pool (photo above). The figure seems to have disintegrated and mutated. The title is “Your Emotions Make You a Monster.”

Finally, Olen Hsu created an installation, mostly out of paper, cardboard, and paint, whose dominant elements are amplifying horns—the size you see on ships (photo above). A string quartet written by Hsu plays through these, faintly.

It’s a show worth seeing.

Affair at TART

Thursday night I went to TART for the opening of a group show, “Affair.” On the landing near the entrance, Mark Orange had placed an English translation of Camus’s novel L’Étranger (The Stranger/The Outsider). Inside the gallery, on a stairway, photos of artist Matthew Barney climbed up toward a row of bright lights—stardom? This installation was an extension of Eric Doeringer’s pseudo fan site for the photogenic Barney. Arrayed on a nearby table were “100 Useful Things” provided by Frank Olive. They were free to take, although the artist would like to get email about how the objects are used. Which could get personal—two objects that disappeared were a condom and a roll of toilet paper. There was also one of those useless miniature notebooks for phone numbers (photo above right). Naturally, that’s what I took, thereby making it useful, at least to look at. Curator Anne Colvin kept an eye on the stock & pulled out new items to replace what was taken.


Further into the space, a video kiosk created by Seth Childs showed a split-screen image of a guy’s fist (photo above), which was fitfully interrupted by distorted images (taken from porn, he said). On headphones, you could hear footsteps and occasional words, including “I love you.” Nearby, on the floor in a corner, Kyle Mock sat behind a set of toy-like electronics and made weird sounds with them and his voice, while wearing a paper helmet (photo below). He also tossed colored origami balls into the middle of the room. Following the performance, he was as normal as you and me—honest! Several other works filled out the space in this informal exhibit.

Obsessive Drawing (NYC)

On March 16th, just before departing from New York, I visited the “Obsessive Drawing” show at the American Folk Art Museum, next door to MoMA. This compact show of five self-taught artists was more compelling than most of what I saw in Chelsea. The work of Eugene Andolsek (b. 1921) consists of intensely patterned drawings using ink colors of his own mixing, applied with astonishing precision (photo above, from the museum website). Most of the six drawings were displayed parallel to the floor, on pedestals. Andolsek is a classic instance of an outsider artist. According to a notice by Ken Johnson in the New York Times, Andolsek began drawing in 1953 as a way to ease his fear of being fired from his office job. Over the next 50 years, he made thousands of drawings, putting them away in trunks. How wonderful that this work has come to light. Andolsek now lives in Pennsylvania, in a home for the aged, and no longer draws.

Like Andolsek, New Zealand artist Martin Thompson (b. 1956) begins with graph paper. Using one color of ink per drawing, he makes pixelated diptychs in which the pixels are reversed in the two parts (photo above, courtesy of the artist, as reproduced by N.F. Karlins on artnet.com). Mathematical formulas inform the patterns, in a way similar to the work of Xylor Jane.

The largest drawing in the show, and one of the largest drawings on paper you are likely to see, was a 4' x 35' panorama in graphite by Chris Hipkiss (b. 1964, England), who lives in France. This aerial view of a fantasy landscape, entitled “Lonely Europe Arm Yourself,” was created over a period of two years. A detail is shown above (photo from the John Michael Kohler Center, as reproduced by N.F. Karlins on artnet.com).

I was not permitted to take photos at the exhibit. A decent brochure was offered, but there was no catalog, and the visual documentation on the museum website is inadequate. The website does offer (at least temporarily) links to reviews that provide further details about the artists.

Add Photography to Your Fears

Today I stumbled on the website of Kevin Bewersdorf (BFA 2004, Rhode Island School of Design). He likes to photograph what he sees, but in doing so he has run smack into that other face of American optimism—paranoia. He has described an encounter with a woman in Naperville, Illinois (near Chicago). The post is a bit long-winded, but it's interesting. Above is a levitation self-portrait taken from Bewersdorf's website.

Last Chance: Hank Willis Thomas @ Lisa Dent

Saturday, April 8th is the final day for the Hank Willis Thomas exhibition at Lisa Dent Gallery in San Francisco. Most of the work on view is based on advertisements that feature African-Americans (photos above and below). Thomas has removed the text and logos to highlight the imagery. The show also includes a stop-action animation, “Winter in America,” that has been shown previously in SF and was included in the recent “Frequency” show at the Studio Museum Harlem. The title and part of the soundtrack are taken from the Gil Scott-Heron song. As I understand it, the video is based on the real-life killing of Thomas's cousin. The work is compelling even on the tiny screen used in this installation. (It deserves to be larger, though.) The gallery is located at 660 Mission St., near 4th St.

New SF Exhibits: SOMA, Dogpatch, Potrero, Mission

There is a traffic jam of new exhibits in San Francisco this week. In addition to the new downtown shows, already noted, the following events are notable.

On Thursday, April 6th, TART will step out of its normally pared-down style with a show featuring 13 artists from San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. The place will be crowded as an art fair, but none of the work will be for sale. In fact, most of the artists will incorporate elements to be given away. The show was inspired by TART’s recent participation in artLA. The reception is from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. TART is located in SOMA at 47 Lusk St., an alley off Townsend St. between 3rd and 4th Sts.

On Friday, April 7th, Ampersand International Arts will open a group show of seven Brooklyn artists, curated by Patricia Maloney. There is a reception from 6:00 to 8:30 pm. The location is 1001 Tennessee St. (at 20th St.) in the Dogpatch neighborhood.

Gallery 16 has collected Post-It notes, napkin drawings, postcards, and other improvised communications in a show called “Instant Messaging.” The show card was a laugh when I pulled it from my mailbox: the image of a yellow Post-It looked real for a second (photo at top, from the gallery email). The reception is Friday, April 7th, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. The address is 1616 16th St. (3rd floor), at the base of Potrero Hill.

In the Mission, The LAB is presenting “The Man Box and Beyond,” an exhibit about masculinity, curated by Allegra Fortunati. There is a reception on Friday, April 7th, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm, with a 7:00 performance by Shaun Leonardo. Male visitors will undergo pat-down searches at the door. Just kidding! The address is 2948 16th St., between Mission St. and South Van Ness Ave.

About a block from The LAB, most artists at the Blue Studio are opening their studios on Friday, April 7th, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm, and also on Saturday, April 8th, from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. I can recommend visiting Sarah Smith and Andy Vogt (shared studio) and also Kristina Lewis. The location is 2111 Mission St., at 17th St., on the 4th floor. Visitors may need to get buzzed in.

On Saturday, April 8th, Jack Hanley Gallery is presenting (in both SF gallery spaces) Adam McEwen, a British-born artist who lives in New York. McEwen, a participant in the current Whitney Biennial, is noted for his obituaries of living celebrities. The death theme has cropped up in other work too (photo above, from the gallery website). This is the first West Coast solo exhibition for this artist, so art-followers, take heed. There is a reception from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. The address is 395 Valencia St. (near 15th St.).

Quite a week! But wait, there's more. On Sunday, April 9th, the graduate studios will be open at CCA from 12:00 to 5:00 pm. CCA has a strong program, so this will be worth checking out. The address is 1111 8th St. at the base of Potrero Hill. A studio map will be available at the main entrance.

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.

Scope Art Fair (New York)

On March 12th, I visited the Scope art fair in Manhattan. The previous Scope, in Miami, covered several floors of a cramped hotel. People could barely move through the halls—and forget the elevator. The Manhattan venue was on one level and not so crowded, but the layout and signage were disorienting. Dozens of galleries were present, but I didn’t see much to engage me. Scope's post-fair puffery tells a different story, of course.

At one gallery, porcelain works by Christopher Adams were selling out. These were mostly small pieces, affixed to a wall, that replicate exotic plants. They are beautifully fabricated, but they seemed to come from one of those too-too gardening shops.

OK—maybe I should have contributed something to Matt Bakkom’s witty museum (photo at top).

There are always good works to see, of course. At Kustera Tilton, there were a couple of Jeff Sonhouse’s paintings, including a study for a larger work that was included in the “Frequency” show at the Studio Museum Harlem (see a previous post). At Morgan Lehman, there was a good work on paper by Franklin Evans (photo above). Some of Evans’s work can seem arbitrary and over-busy, but the successful pieces are captivating. Jeff Bailey has also had good work by Evans.

Galerie Römerapotheke (Zürich) showed some of Jana Gunstheimer’s very interesting work, much of it based on an imaginary company, NOVA PORTA. Her medium is watercolor on paper. A short commentary on her work can be found on the artfacts.net site. Some images (rather poor quality) are available on the Römerapotheke website. Better image quality can be found at Galerie Conrads (Düsseldorf), from which I have borrowed the one above.

Galerie Schuster (Frankfurt) had some striking ink drawings on cardboard by a young artist from Vienna, Eva Grün (or Gruen). Another artist of interest here was Christian Holtmann, and the works I preferred were not on the wall but in a portfolio at the desk. These were tiny paintings on paper that have the internal scale of large works. I purchased one of them, inexpensively (photo above).

Alphabet City

Recently I noticed this building on Jessie St. in San Francisco (photo above). It looks like the color consultant had stopped taking his anti-depressant. What a missed opportunity!

LA Art Fair (in Manhattan)

Last month, a group of 16 galleries from Los Angeles inaugurated their own 3-day show in Manhattan—called LA Art—on the weekend of the Armory Show and other art fairs. At the time I visited (March 11th), there were only a handful of visitors. I hope things picked up, because the fair was worth seeing. At Q.E.D., I was fascinated by Daniel Pflumm’s 20-minute video, “Birds” (2006). Pflumm was born in Switzerland and lives in Berlin. The video, which almost looks high-definition but isn’t, begins by showing reptiles (photo above, taken from the artist's website) and proceeds to montage through clips from TV advertising, corporate logos, landscapes and cityscapes, and other imagery. The ad clips are seductive, with their bright colors, happy faces, and sophisticated animations that make products feel sensuous, magical, life-affirming. One thing that becomes apparent is the sheer speed at which TV ads register their message. A lot happens in just a few seconds.

Pflumm's personal website shows some stills from his videos. The site also includes an animated GIF that declares, “The internet is just another shopping mall.” But just to the right is a link to a Panasonic catalog, and there is even an ad-within-ad “Powered by Google” graphic. It's an ambiguous world we live in.

At Richard Heller, I saw a couple of interesting drawings by Brendan Monroe (photo above), who has a background in comics.

ACME had some good works on paper by artists such as Jennifer Guidi, Aaron Morse, and Tomory Dodge (wall photo above).

Angles Gallery had one of Linda Besemer's flat paintings that seem to bulge and are made entirely of acrylic paint with no support: “Multibulge Sheet #14” (photo above).

At Rosamund Felsen, one of Kaz Oshiro intriguing trompe l’oeil pieces was sitting casually on the floor (photos left and below of the front and back).
One of the strongest displays was at Daniel Weinberg, who had works by Paul Feeley, Thomas Nozkowski, James Siena, Chris Martin, and others. I forgot to take photos because I got into a conversation here. Inexplicably, the gallery doesn't have a website.

Art in a Lobby (NYC)

When I left MoMA on my recent visit to New York, I noticed artwork in the lobby of an office building across the street, so I went in. This turned out to be Gallery W52, and the work on display was by Rossana Martínez. A group of interesting objects was attached to one wall, as in an artist's studio (photo above, adapted from the artist's website). I took a few close-ups of my own (below). The limp cube looks like something I've seen before...but where?