Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Cliff Hengst's new work at 2nd Floor Projects looks great and operates well in the intimate space. A powerful performer, at the opening reception Hengst engaged the audience in quietly singing "This Land is Your Land", Woody Guthrie's folk song.
Gouache paintings on newsprint, posters, and found paper reference a concern with the infamous CA Proposition 8 which amended the California Constitution to read, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Protest signs figure prominently in the work and their text highlights the passion, wit, and intelligence of the anti-Prop 8 protesters. With faces and bodies painted out in black in the artworks, the status of invisibility for same sex couples who would like to marry insisted upon by the pro-Prop 8 faction is made visible. Other pieces evince a concern with budget cuts and the safety net, mirroring growing dissent during a time of economic collapse. The exhibition runs through Sunday 21 February. Hours: 12noon –5pm
Through Sunday 21 February. Hours: 12noon –5pm
– cm [4:05 PM PST]
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Southern Exposure's Alternative Exposure Round III 2009 Grant Recipients have been announced, awarding $60,000 to 17 projects. The 2009 Alternative Exposure grant recipients are:
Adobe Books Backroom Gallery
Alula Editions
AoRTa Magazine
Art Practical
Average magazine
Chris Fitzpatrick & Post Brothers
Critter
Destructibles.org
Happenstand
iiiahh
Pueblo Nuevo Gallery
Ribbons
SMITHS
Stop & Go Rides Again
THE THING Quarterly
The Upper Left Ethnography Project
VOLUME and Kadet Kuhne
– cm [3:54 PM PST]
Monday, January 11, 2010
MOCA board confirms Jeffrey Deitch's appointment as new director today per Art Review.
– cm [12:24 PM PST]
Monday, December 14, 2009
How can we possibly do without Larry Sultan? Amazing artist, photographer, teacher, wonderful man, gone too soon.
– cm [1:04 PM PST]
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Visitors to the Alameda Towne Centre Mall are in for a treat this early holiday season. For a limited time, Super Pop-Up Shop brings art to mart with an array of smart, fun projects to delight and engage young and old. Curated by CCA faculty members Rebeca Bollinger and Glen Helfand, Super Pop-Up Shop features new work in a variety of media by CCA MFA students who have transformed a vacant storefront into a bustling outlet of hands-on activity and given the "Pop-Up Retail" trend a new creative spin. The grand opening last Sunday afternoon was big fun. Some highlights -- a canned food for art exchange (be sure to bring a can for the Alameda Food Bank to participate), a mall-wide scavenger hunt that focuses on personal interaction rather than collecting stuff, a dance move exchange, and lots more. The store is located in a prime spot directly across from the mall Santa house. They'll be open two more weekends including Black Friday this week which should make for some interesting crowds. Get some art and ideas in with your holiday shopping and check it out!
Super Pop-Up Shop
Open: November 27-29, and December 5-6, noon to 5pm
Alameda Towne Centre: 523 South Shore Center West, Alameda, CA 94501
(Near Trader Joe’s and Applebee’s)
http://superpopupshop.com/
– dhl, San Francisco [2:01 AM PST]
Friday, November 20, 2009
We will miss Jeanne-Claude.
– cm [3:03 PM PST]
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
A jubilant mood reigned at the opening of Southern Exposure's new gallery this past Friday and Saturday. The space debuted with the exhibition Bellwether, featuring work by Ant Farm, Renee Gertler, Liz Glynn, Jonn Herschend, Whitney Lynn, Jay Nelson, Nonchalance, Lordy Rodriguez, Christine Wong Yap and SoEx's Youth Advisory Board. But the buzz was all about the miracle performed by the SoEx Board of Directors and Executive Director Courtney Fink, obtaining a beautiful, purpose-designed new home for the venerable alternative space. In the recessionary gloom, the lights coming on at 3030-20th Street, San Francisco gleamed extra brightly.
Southern Exposure Executive Director Courtney Fink (left) with Board Vice-President Amy Charles
Artist and SF Gate blogger J.D. Beltran dances on the corner with her son Sebastian. Beltran posted a great history of SoEx's search for a new space.
Artist (and former Stretcher crew member) Megan Wilson
Executive Director of the DiRosa Kathryn Reasoner
Art historian Whitney Chadwick and artist Robert Bechtle
Revelers Rodney Ewing and Nicole Lattuca
– mt San Francisco [6:46 PM PST]