Jerome Reyes
Until Today: Spectres for the International Hotel
International Hotel, 868 Kearny, San Francisco, CA
Through Dec 4, 2010
Exhibition Curator: Julio César Morales

Bay Area artist Jerome Reyes’ long-awaited exhibition examining the I-Hotel in San Francisco’s Manilatown and Chinatown is on at 868 Kearny at the International Hotel through December 4th, 2010.

The I-Hotel is a rich, powerful part of San Francisco history; if your knowledge of it is cursory, a visit to the exhibition will be elucidating.

While I haven’t seen the show, I’m proud to play a small part in it, sharing photographs of screenprints produced at Kearny Street Workshop*, a free, drop-in community art center that occupied the I-Hotel’s storefront. I photographed the screenprints, which were in the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at UC Santa Barbara, for Activist Imagination, an exhibition at Kearny Street Workshop supported by the Creative Work Fund, the San Francisco Foundation and generous individual donors. It’s affirming to know that the documentation afforded by these past opportunities enables these historic posters to be made public again.

[*KSW is a fantastic non-profit, and I’m grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had to work with them. I am currently developing new works on paper to support KSW in an art sale this winter. Details forthcoming.]

Mary Walling Blackburn
Radical Citizenship: The Tutorials
Mary Walling Blackburn
Presented by Southern Exposure and Anhoek School at Angel Island (San Francisco Bay Area) and Governor’s Island (NYC)
Curated by Valerie Imus

In another quirk of timing, Angel Island (and NY’s Governor’s Island) will be activated with contemporary art events starting tomorrow. The historical significance of Angel Island includes its history as an immigration and detention center, especially for Chinese immigrants seeking economic opportunities in California. It’s one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most under-represented stories, if you ask me. “Radical Citizenship: The Tutorials, a series of one-on-one tutorials for participants with artists, activists, ecologists, and academics from various disciplines.” For more info visit soex.org.