Tag Archives: Adobe Books Backroom Gallery

Sights

See: Art Season again

Though it feels like the dead of winter, there are lots of art shows and events on the horizon, on both coasts. 

—

Ortega y Gasset, the artist’s collective I am in, will have a new home at the Old American Can Factory in Gowanus! Exciting exhibitions are lined up for this Spring. Don’t miss them; sign up for updates!

3/13–4/12: Thinking & Touching Time, curated by Zahar Vaks, Ortega y Gasset Projects @ Old American Can Factory, Gowanus, Brooklyn

—

2015: Land and Sea’s project space, Oakland, CA:

AS A SPACE, LAND AND SEA WILL TAKE A STANCE TO LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD, BY USING OUR LITTLE PLATFORM TO PRIMARILY PRESENT WOMEN, LGBTQ AND FOLKS OF COLOR. ITS OAKLAND. ITS 2015. LETS SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

 

Little Syria Parade, in Lower Manhattan’s first Arab-American neighborhood, envisioning an early-20th century Manhattan skyline.

Little Syria Parade, in Lower Manhattan’s first Arab-American neighborhood, envisioning an early-20th century Manhattan skyline.

2/25: Edge of Arabia presents Brian Zegeer’s Little Syria Parade, Lower Manhattan
2/27–3/27: Michelle Blade: If the Spirit Moves You @ ‘Pataphysical Society, Portland, OR

2/28: Art + Process + Ideas (A+P+I) residency Open House at Mills College, Oakland, CA

 

Works on paper by Anthony Ryan (left) and Annie Vought (right).

Works on paper by Anthony Ryan (left) and Annie Vought (right).

3/6–28: Annie Vought & Anthony Ryan @ Adobe Books Backroom Gallery, San Francisco

Through 3/8: Trajectory @ Van Der Plas Gallery, LES, NYC

Through 3/19: Hydrarchy: Power, Globalization, and the Sea @ SF State Fine Arts Gallery, organized by Mike Arcega

 

WhoWeBe_Superpanel_flyer

4/4: Who We Be: Superpanel on Art, Protest and Racial Justice, with Jeff Chang, Alicia Garza, Ben Davis, Steven W. Thrasher, and Christian L. Frock, moderated by Elizabeth Travelslight, Bay Area Society for Art and Activism @ San Francisco Main Library

Standard
Art & Development

Press Junket #2: 5/28 Adobe Books, 6/5 Camron-Stanford House

lending library

5/28: Lending Library opens at Adobe Books, SF

Tomorrow night, you’re invited to shimmy your way into Adobe Books’ Backroom Gallery, where I, along with 6 other artists, are exhibiting our research materials and studio relics at the behest of curator Dena Beard.

This is part two Dena’s Lending Library project, and it features

tools, materials, and resources from artists Amy Franceschini, Colter Jacobsen, Kevin Killian, Tom Marioni, Emily Prince, Stephanie Syjuco, and Christine Wong Yap.

It’s a fantastic honor to be included with such a dynamic group of artists. Congrats to Amy Franceshini, who was recently awarded a Guggenhein Fellowship, and Colter Jacobsen, who was just short-listed for the SECA Award!

Lending Library
May 28–July 2, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, May 28, 2010, 7-9 pm
Adobe Books Backroom Gallery
3166 – 16th Street (b/Valencia and Guerrero), San Francisco, CA 94103

•••

June 5: The Great Balloon Giveaway, at Camon-Stanford House, Lake Merritt (Oakland)

The Great Balloon Giveaway, artist's rendering

Next Saturday afternoon, you’re invited to The Great Balloon Giveaway, a social sculpture and public project presented by Invisible Venue and the Mills College Art Museum.

This work is inspired by imagery from the recent Oscar-winning animated film “Up” and re-contextualizes the political histories of the house through the free distribution of 1,000 helium balloons to passersby, with volunteer youth assistance from Chinatown community organization City of Oakland’s Lincoln Square Recreation Center. The Great Balloon Giveaway is made possible with the support of FLINC.org and Trader Joe’s.

Saturday, June 5, 12-3 pm
The Great Balloon Giveaway
Camron-Stanford House, Lake Merritt, 1418 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA

The Great Balloon Giveaway is one of three projects that comprise Here and Now, a series of installations in three historic buildings dating from the early inception of the State of California that also includes site-specific projects by Elaine Buckholtz and Floor Vahn.

Get the details on Here and Now, curated by Christian L. Frock in various locations around Oakland, CA. And join us at the closing reception: Saturday, June 26, 8-10 pm at Mills Hall!

Standard
Community

Press Junket: 5/6 at Wattis, 5/8 SoEx Auction, 5/14 at Sight School

If you can’t get enough art at the MFA shows, I’ve also got a mini program of art events happening nearly every week this month. Join me on a short tour of ICAs, alternative non-profits and artist-run spaces.

…

Opening Thursday, May 6: We have as much time as it takes
Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice Thesis Exhibition

I’m looking forward to exhibiting the light and text installation Unlimited Promise at the Wattis. Participating artists: Nina Beier and Marie Lund (Berlin/London), David Horvitz (USA), Jason Mena (Puerto Rico), Sandra Nakamura (Lima), Roman Ondák (Slovakia), Red76 (Portland, Ore., USA), Zachary Royer Scholz (San Francisco, Calif., USA), Tercerunquinto (Mexico), Lawrence Weiner (New York/Amsterdam), and Christine Wong Yap (Oakland, Calif.,
USA).

May 6–July 31, 2010; Hours: Tues. & Thurs., 11 am–7 pm; Wed., Fri., & Sat., 11 am–6 pm
Reception: Thursday, May 6, 2010, 6–9 pm

Wattis Institute, 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco, CA

…

Design by Dan McKinley


Cloud No. 3, 2006, collagraphic monoprint, 22 x 30 inches / 56 x 76 cm


.
Saturday, May 8: Space Odyssey: Southern Exposure’s Annual Fundraiser + Art Auction

I’ve donated a large framed print to support this art organization committed to contemporary art by emerging artists.

Saturday, May 8; 6–10:30 pm [see the schedule]
Preview Exhibition: May 3–6, 2010, noon–6 pm

Southern Exposure, 3030 20th Street, San Francisco

…

Opening Friday, May 14: Irrational Exuberance (Asst. Colors): Solo Show

New installation, sculpture and work on paper inspired by discount culture and popular psychology.

Exhibition: May 14 – June 12; Gallery hours: Wed.-Sat., noon – 5 pm
Opening Reception: Friday, May 14, 7–10 pm

“As Is: Pop Art & Stuffhood” Closing Reception and Dialogue with special guests including critic and curator Glen Helfand and artist, writer and theorist Ginger Wolfe-Suarez: Saturday, June 12, 2–4 pm

Sight School, 5651 San Pablo (at Stanford), Oakland, CA

…

Opening May 28: Lending Library at Adobe Books

Lending Library is a group exhibition curated by Dena Beard featuring tools, materials, and resources from artists Amy Franceschini, Colter Jacobsen,
Kevin Killian, Tom Marioni, Emily Prince, Stephanie Syjuco, and Christine Wong Yap. [Can I just say what an honor it is to be included with this group, which includes a newly-minted Guggenheim Fellow?]

May 28–July 2, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, May 28, 2010, 7-10 pm

Adobe Books Backroom Gallery, 3166 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

…

Then, during the first weekend in June, come to Lake Merritt, where 20 third graders from the City of Oakland’s Lincoln Square Recreation Center will be giving away 1,000 balloons in my largest public project/social sculpture to date.

…
June 5: The Great Balloon Giveaway: Here and Now

One-day event: Saturday, June 5, 12-4 pm
A site-specific installation and social sculpture at Camron-Stanford House (c.1876), Lake Merritt, 1418 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA 94612. T-shirts sponsored by Oakland-based retailer FLINC.org.

Invisible Venue and Mills College Art Museum present
Here and Now
Curated by Christian L. Frock

Also: Elaine Buckholtz, “Out of the Blue (Mills Hall Reconsidered),” 2010. A site-specific light installation at Mills Hall (c.1871), Mills College.
Floor Vahn, “Sonic Pardee Home (Reconstituting Memories of Pardee Past),” 2010. A site-specific sound installation at Pardee Home Museum (c.1868), 672 11th Street, Oakland, CA 94607

June 10
Various locations, Oakland, CA
Closing Reception: Saturday, June 26, 8-10 pm, Mills Hall

Standard
Community, Research

Sign/Design

DON’T MISS:

Museo-rama: Joint Member Day, SF, CA

Tomorrow, Saturday, March 20 is Joint Member Day. If you’re a member the Asian Art Museum, Cartoon Art Museum, Contemporary Jewish Musuem, Museum of the African Diaspora, Museum of Craft and Folk Art, SF Camerawork, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, or Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, you and a friend can visit participating museums for FREE admission, special events and exclusive discounts.

I’m curious about Dispatches from the Archives and The View From Here photography exhibition at SFMOMA. I’m all for exhibitions that help Americans understand China’s pluralism, and the Shanghai exhibition at the Asian Art Museum introduces the cosmopolitan city through its Western-influenced hybridized modern art and design (with a few pieces of contemporary art). Still, I thought the didactic texts shied from the mention of colonialism; this westernization seems possible because cities were forced open to British trade by the Treaty of Nanking after China lost the First Opium War. Also, pop culture afficionados: don’t expect to see lots of vintage-kitsch Shanghai lady adverts; those make up only a small fraction of the exhibition.

It’s A Sign: New Bohemia Signs at Adobe Books’ Backroom Gallery, SF, CA

Design nerds ho! The immaculate hand-painted stylizations of New Bohemia Signs, San Francisco’s own anachronistic, fedora-donning, sign painting shop, are on view at Adobe Books’ Backroom Gallery through April 3. It’s like Steven Heller’s New Vintage Type came to life in shiny, seductive enamel paint. You can purchase individual functional signs for your indie mart or design tchotchke shelves, or larger aggregations for the aesthetics, and to make an undeniable statement about your good taste.

The signs are really cute. They are examples of great graphic design, but ultimately, just signs. I had hoped to make some smart-sounding statement about semiotics or wayfinding (especially in relation to “The Secret Language of Signs,” Slate’s recent series on signs), but really, style and legibility seem to be the main point of the work. If there is something more interesting to tease out, it’s probably in regards to context: A shop selling books (so antiquated!) exhibiting hand-painted signs produced by another independently-owned, brick-and-mortar small business, and the printed/painted letters they love.

Rockin’ Paper, Swingin’ Scissors at Rowan Morrison Gallery, Oakland, CA

Sort of in the same vein of totally adorable/collectible is Ryohei Tanaka’s show of papercuts at Rowan Morrison Gallery through April 3. Ryohei’s based in Tokyo now; I went to CCA with him in the late 1990s. Back then, he was a total drawing maniac, whose work was characterized by density and a cuteness that was simultaneously attractive and appalling. Now, his explosive prolificness has resulted in figures, monsters and robots in cheery colors and a traditional Asian folk art/paper craft. Small cuts start under $100; if that sinks your battleship you can walk away, as I did, with a navy screenprint of assorted figures on a white cotton rectangle (I think it’s a Japanese work scarf or tea towel) for $8.

WINSOME:

The website for Scott Oliver’s Lake Merritt project is up!

COMING SOON, to New York:

Gormley fatigue.

FASCINATING:

“Everybody Have Fun,” Elizabeth Kolbert’s round-up of recent books on the problematic intersection of happiness research and policy in the current New Yorker Magazine (March 22, 2010).

Standard