Tag Archives: Art previews

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Fall Arts Previews

I love summer, but I’m excited about this fall. Here’s why:

Duration TBA
Artists InSight: The Big Ideas Project—Three Views: Jenifer K. Wofford, Derrick Ion, Ali Dadgar

Opening reception: Thursday, September 6, 6:30 pm
“Through a proposal process, local artists were invited to create original interpretations of the 07-08 Big Ideas using the concept of Tibetan Buddhist Thangka paintings as inspiration. We are proud to present three interactive contemplative installations by artists Ali Dadgar, Derick Ion and Jenifer K. Wofford.”
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts‘s Room for Big Ideas
FREE

August 20 to October 19, 2007
To Hedonopolis, From Melancolony: Current Topography of Filipino Visual arts
Curated by Rico Reyes
Terry Acebo Davis, Yason Banal, Genara Banzon, Leo Bersamina, Emily Caisip, Crisanta de Guzman, Cirilo Domine, Reanne Estrada, John Yoyogi Fortes, Vince Golveo, Maryrose Cobarrubias Mendoza, Johanna Poethig, Charles Valoroso, Carlos Villa, and Jenifer Wofford
Artist Talk: Thursday, September 6, 3 pm to 4 pm in the Maraschi Room, Fromm Hall
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 6, 4 pm to 6 pm, Thacher Gallery
University of San Francisco
Work by Galleon Traders and friends Jenifer Wofford, Reanne Estrada and Johanna Poethig are included, as well as work by Yason Banal, an artist the Traders met in the Philippines!

October 6, 2007–January 20, 2008
Michael Arcega: Homing Pidgin
De Young press room page: “Contemporary artist Michael Arcega reinterprets the Oceanic collections at the de Young Museum for this exhibition. Arcega is known for sculpture and installations that revolve around language, a subject he dealt with early in his life when his family emigrated from the Philippines to California. At the de Young, he will show common Oceanic objects that have become altered after frequent interactions with Western culture. He compares this phenomenon to the pidgin languages (dialects that blend Western and Oceanic words) spoken throughout Oceania. He calls the works pidgin objects. “In the same way pidgin languages get ideas across, these cultural residues of pidgin objects act as bridges toward understanding the artifacts within the glass cases,” Arcega says.”
De Young Museum

September 19, 2007 – December 23, 2007
One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now
Michael Arcega, Xavier Cha, Patty Chang, Binh Danh, Mari Eastman, Ala Ebtekar, Chitra Ganesh, Glenn Kaino, Geraldine Lau, Jiha Moon, Laurel Nakadate, Kaz Oshiro, Anna Sew Hoy, Jean Shin, Indigo Som, Mika Tajima, Saira Wasim
Berkeley Art Museum
I was delighted when I found out this NY-based Asia Society show was coming to the Bay Area. It’s a museum-quality survey of mostly young, contemporary Asian American artists. What’s not to love? Keep an eye out for work by Galleon Trader Michael Arcega Berkeley-based Indigo Som. The Bay Area also represents with Binh Danh and Ala Ebtekar. And I always look forward to seeing Kaz Oshiro‘s work in person. And, here’s the NYTimes.com review.

September 17 – October 13, 2007
Don’t Try This At Home: A Group Exhibition Obsessively Reshaping The Ordinary
Tamara Albaitis, Lauren Davies, Krishna Khalsa, Stephani Martinez & Zachary Royer Scholz
Gallery Hours: Tues by appt, Wed – Sat, 12 to 5pm
Opening Reception: Monday September 17, 6 to 9pm
Artists’ Talk: Saturday October 13, 2pm
Intersection for the Arts
With CCA alum Lauren Davies and Zachary Royer Scholz, whose work can be pretty amazing.

September 13 – 29, 2007
A World Premiere Dance Theatre Work
51802
by Resident Company The Erika Shuch Performance Project
Thursdays – Saturdays at 8pm
Intersection for the Arts
With Jen Chien, a talented friend, and Danny Wolohan, a distinctive addition to many Bay Area theater pieces I’ve seen.

TBA
Gina Osterloh
Solo show at Margaret Tedesco’s 2nd Floor Projects.
A treat to see work by a really rigorous former-SF-, now LA-based Galleon Trader.

September 08, 2007 – February 24, 2008
Take your time: Olafur Eliasson
SFMOMA
I’m so excited that our local museum of modern art initiated and is premeiring a well-deserved retrsospective by Eliasson, an exciting contemporary sculptor/installation artist.

Through September 6, 2008
Capp Street Project: Mario Ybarra Jr.
Mario Ybarra Jr.’s large-scale mural examines the history, anecdotes, and mythology that surround mural making in the Bay Area.
Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art
I helped out with this mural earlier in the summer, and had a great time working with and learning from the illustrious, LA-based Mr. Ybarra.

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Art & Development, Community

Artists (and) Talking

This month, countless MFA exhibitions are occurring across the country. I’m in one at CCA, as friends and colleagues are in others around the Bay Area…

I’m looking forward to seeing the other MFA shows. It’s nice to be part of the buzz of excitement and celebration, and to see what people are capable of after two years of growth. But during a recent online search, I came across a Flickr page authored by someone who came to CCA’s MFA show to see the “competition.” Maybe it was ironic, but I don’t see the local art schools having a famous rivalry, like Cal versus Stanford or anything.

While it’s true that the art market is paying more attention to younger artists, I feel lucky to be among cohorts who value comraderie over competition.

See it for yourself.

fer·ma·ta: The 37th Annual University of California, Berkeley Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition
May 18–June 10, 2007
Berkeley Art Museum

The San Francisco Art Institute’s Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition
May 19–26
Fort Mason

San Francisco State University MFA Thesis Exhibition
(Oops! It ended a few days ago, but you can view the work on the website)

Mills College MFA Exhibition 2007

April 29th – May 27th
Mills College Museum

Lift Off: San Jose State University MFA Exhibiton
June 29 – August 4, 2007
San Jose Institute of Contemporary Arts

Academy of Art University
(Can’t seem to find an MFA show on the site, but there’s a school-wide Spring Show.)

California College of the Arts 2007 Centennial Graduate Exhibition
(The show closed today, but you can see lots of images at the website.

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On another note, I got to present my work in the MFA exhibition today to a group of visitors from the Oakland Museum of California. They were doing a tour of several MFA exhibitions, and were genuinely fascinated by contemporary art. I had a lot of fun, and hope to have more chances to talk about my work.

It’s a common stereotype that artists don’t like talking about their work. But I’ve become very comfortable doing just that. My previous experiences probably helped — teaching forces you to get used to talking to big groups; doing presentations with clients boosts your confidence.

Plus, CCA emphasizes seminars and critiques–basically, lots and lots of talking. I’m thankful for the chances I’ve had to refine how I talk about my work, and to clarify what I want to convey.

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Art & Development

SF Bay Area Art Listings

What’s going on in SF Bay Area art? Sure, there are museums, but don’t forget commercial galleries, art colleges and ICAs (institutes for contemporary art, like CCA’s Wattis and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, are museum-gallery hybrids with rotating exhibtions and no permanent collections. They’re refreshing successors to the Modern museum). The Bay Area features a thriving alternative art scene for diverse, cutting-edge art. Exhibits are usually free at alternative spaces (but your donations are welcome). Check these listings to stay up-to-date!

EMAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS
Get it delivered…

Artsync. Weekly events calendar, emailed weekly. Includes notable lectures by national and international artists and curators at the local colleges.

Flavorpill SF. Weekly events calendar across different kinds of entertainment. A great source to hear about edgy, grassroots events.

WEBSITES

Artforum’s Artguide. Lists many museums and commecial galleries in town, but doesn’t always have current exhibition information.

KQED’s Spark. Lots of listings of events, spaces, educator guides, artist’s profiles, art tours and more. Don’t miss their excellent TV program about local arts/dance/theater/music, with a focus on artistic process.

ArtBusiness.com. Alan Bamberger is a no-nonsense art consultant. When he goes to openings, he shoots loads of photos and posts them on his site. Since few galleries post installation views, it’s a great resource for photos of what’s currently up in galleries around town.

ATA Webzine. The webzine of a teeny alternative art institution devoted to film/video/new media.

SF Arts. Not comprehensive, but a good start.

Fecal Face. Though it’s all grown up, Fecal Face’s tastes reflect its skate/lifestyle beginnings. A central hub of a certain kind of accessible, hip visual art, sort of like Giant Robot and Juztapoz. Also features tons of community listings.

COLLEGE LECTURE SERIES & EXHIBITIONS

The area is also rich in great art schools, which host amazing lecture series by artists, curators and critics (and architects, designers, writers, etc). And, the lectures are free and open to the public.

The California College of the Arts’ calendar

CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art

SF Art Institute’s exhibitions and public programs

PRINTED GUIDES

In the commercial galleries (such as the cluster downtown at 49 and 77 Geary and the surrounding area), you can find free, printed gallery guides, which list exhibitions at commercial spaces for the next few months.

You can also find a copy of a printed map of spaces to see art for free, in a project lead by Intersection for the Arts and the De Young Museum. I think an online version is still in development.

CRITICISM

In addition to daily papers, alt weeklies, glossy mags and industry rags, there are a growing number of review websites.

Stretcher

Shotgun Review

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Community, Values

Recommended: Events

Thursday 4/19

5-8pm: Opening Reception: Faction at Playspace Gallery
Faction is an exhibition/zine/screening by CCA Curatorial Practice students. Yours truly has work in the zine. Don’t miss work by Stephanie Syjuco, Luke Butler, Zachary Scholz. At CCA’s Playspace Gallery.

Also tonite: Opening for Beasties at Crucible Steel Gallery at Cellspace. After being reminded of what a “furry” is in the post Kenneth Eng debacle, I’ve been a little creeped out by animal art. But Josh Short is prodigious, smart artist, and promises to delight with a giant cardboard beast that might have good content on recylcing and the Mission neighborhood context.

Friday 4/20

Midday: Ann Markusen talks at Cal
Fascinated by the cold logic of economics, that sweet, indifferent science? Ann Markusen, who recently published a report about artists working in different sectors, will be speaking at Cal 4/20 mid-day…

6-9pm: Opening reception: Breakthrough at SF Arts Commission Gallery

Billed “An Amateur Photography Revolution,” this show by JPG Magazine seems to hit some current notes… Crowdsourcing… People as art producers, instead of art consumers… More.

7-10pm: Opening Reception: Cult Classics, Not Best Sellers at Queen’s Nails Annex
Keith Boadwee & Patrick Rock. Two one-man shows. Leave the kids at home.Queen’s Nails Annex.

Saturday 4/21

Noon: Jim Campbell speaks at BAM
Artist and M.I.T. techie Jim Campbell speaks at the Berkeley Art Museum at noon. Campbell’s current show at the Hosfelt Gallery was astounding. Life-affirming, even. The gallery images are nice, but the exhibition’s amazing. See it yourself. It’s up through 4/28.

Noon: San Francisco World’s Fair on Third Street, SF
Art on the edge of the city, curatorial activity on the edge of where art meets life meets cultural production meets ecology and transportation. (Nice title in contrast with the former paternalistic usage, BTW.) Features Poppa Nuetrino of New Yorker fame. Free, outdoors, eclectic in a good way. Continues through Sunday… See the website for a map and schedule.

1pm: Art on Market Street Walking Tour
You’ve seen the SF Art Commission’s Art on Market Street posters, now go on the tour. With Amanda Hughen, Jennifer Starkweather, and David Buuck. Link

1-3pm: Walter Kituundu Artist’s Lecture and Kid’s art workshop at MOCFA

OK, I’m in the show at MOCFA right now, but even if I wasn’t I’d be excited to hear the self-taught artist/photoharpist/instrument maker talk and make music. I saw him a few years ago at Meridian Gallery. The instruments are stunning and his music is gorgeous. Bring the little ones to make mini instruments. Part of the Beats Per Minute exhibition at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art.
(Next week will be my workshop. We’ll be doing papercuts of your favorite word, and maybe even some gothic lettering. Gothic as in medieval, not Marilyn Manson, k? For kids and adults!)

Sunday 4/21

Earth Day, well, is actually everyday. Yes to bikes. No to crappy plastic goods (plastic=petrol!). Yes to re-ducing and re-using, too! No to bottled water. In the US, almost 2.5 million water bottles are used every hour, but only one in five get recycled. And plastic, compared with glass, is much more difficult to recycle, uses lots of water in the recycling process, and the resulting plastic is really degraded. I read it in Recycle: the essential guide, an easy book for getting to know your PETs. Besides, safe, clean, affordable tap water should be a public right, not a private commodity.

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Community, Values

Going: Philip Kan Gotanda’s “After the War” at A.C.T.

After the War is about life and love in the Fillmore district after WWII. I’m fascinated by many of its subtexts: racial politics, the strained relationships between APIs and African Americans, jazz, culture as a space of connection, SF Bay Area (re)development, California history…

Since I hope that dancers, actors and choreographers would be interested in going to gallery openings, I’m trying to make a point of attending performances. It’s also nice to support work that deals with identity issues and isn’t relegated to second-stage status. To show that this work can be viable means supporting it with your dollars.

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