proper's notes

bamf

2010-03-04T17:38:00.001-08:00

i wrote the above paper for my color photography class (otherwise i would have started with all city council, which is when i first recognized Evan Roth's genius, and also included postal labels against bush, tsa communications, laser tag, and eye writer).

Mark Jenkins & Aakash Nihalani

2010-02-14T19:13:00.000-08:00

@ www.carmichaelgallery.com/
January 21 - February 18, 2010

street art 2.0

2010-02-05T20:49:00.000-08:00

Roberta Smith noted in her recent New York Times article that "street art," the "vibrant successor" of "graffiti art," "originated in San Francisco in the 1990s among artists on the fringe of the skateboard scene." the article was discussing Jeffrey Deitch's recent appointment to be director of MOCA(la) and noted that Deitch "more or less introduced New York to ... street art."

She is presumably referring to Barry McGee and the mission school. Roberta identified Barry as "a talented street artist from San Francisco" and noted that he "offers a cheerful reinterpretation of 80's graffiti art" in her review of his 1999 show @ Deitch. she further contended "although drips are plentiful among these images and some parts are casually painted out, Mr. McGee does not partake of the looseness and speed associated with graffiti art. His notion of finish is refined, even tight." in her review of his 2005 show, she identified "Barry McGee, who helped ignite the street-graffiti art renaissance that emanated from San Francisco in the 1990's."

in thinking about this over the past few years, i've tied "street art" to the global community that was connected through the web by sites such as Wooster Collective. the recent street art exhibit at the Tate Modern was practically curated by Wooster: four of the six artists/collectives (Blu, Faile, JR, and Os Gemeos) are stars of the blog. Moreover, the "long weekend" corresponding to the show also included Graffiti Research Labs, another Wooster Collective favorite, and a Wooster talk.

as a long time follower of Wooster, i have enjoyed watching the street art community flower globally. looking through a search of their "seen on the streets" postings turns up work from around the world (starting with Ann Arbor, Paris, Antwerp, Washington D.C., Bloomington, Manchester, London, Tehran, Buenos Aires, New York, Puerto Vallarta, Amsterdam, Toronto, Williamsburg, Santiago, Hong Kong, Prague, Istanbul, Rouen, Lima, Trondheim, Lombardy, Rome, Munich, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Kaunas, Tasmania, Milwaukee, Naples, Denmark, Athens, Chicago, you get the idea).

a global street arts community, connected by the Internet (and festivals, like nuart in Norway, the cans festival in London, and fame festival in Italy), may be an outgrowth of what came out of San Francisco in the 1990s, and New York in the 1980s, but seems to be something new: street art 2.0.

available online for free

2009-11-30T18:18:00.000-08:00

the amazing Evan Roth issued an open invitation to participate in his sticker project, with the resulting photos displayed on a loop at the elizabeth foundation for the arts one every day show in new york (which runs through dec. 19, 2009)

tonight i emailed my first submission
(kin to my perv: local, organic).

dec. 2, 2009 update

two more submissions (they sent me 3 stickers)

sf camerawork 2009 auction

2009-11-24T22:25:00.000-08:00

the preview exhibition for sf camerawork's 2009 auction is free and runs nov10-dec4 (info).

i donated carney (argentina) [archivally framed]

"Highlights include: Berenice Abbott, Richard Barnes, Harry Benson, Ellen Carey, Keith Carter, Judy Dater, Robert Dawson, Larry Fink, Ann Hamilton, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Todd Hido, Pirkle Jones, Michael Kenna, Dinh Q. Lê, Michael Light, David Maisel, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Misrach, Catherine Opie, J. John Priola, Herb Ritts, Holly Roberts, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Larry Sultan, Hank Willis Thomas, Catherine Wagner, William Wegman, Edward Weston, Marion Post Wolcott and many others."

the auction is saturday, dec5th, @ 1pm
($30 or free with sf camerawork membership)

Yoon Lee print

2009-08-18T01:17:00.000-07:00

"Expansion II" by Yoon Lee (2009)
9"x27" archival pigment print in an edition of 30 (+2ap/+2pp)

this print, my second print (as proper printing), comes archivally framed in two variations --
ed. 1-15: glossy print face-mounted to plexi, mounted on 4ply museum board, with hidden cleate+spacer frame
ed. 16-30: matte print with uv lamination, mounted on aluminum, with hidden cleate+spacer frame
retail (archivally framed, as noted above) is $1200
available from the luggage store sometime soon

you can see a bigger image of Yoon's print here
my first print, with Tiffany Bozic, is discussed here

superfine @ Morgan Lehman

2009-07-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

Eric Beltz

on my recent trip to NY, we stopped by the superfine exhibit @ Morgan Lehman.

Andrew Schoultz

the show has great work with super fine details.

Hilary Pecis

Aaron Noble

Aya Uekawa

Michael Waugh's text based illustration uses text from the Election Reform Commission

Rachel Thorlby

Joseph Ayers

Iona Rozeal Brown

Tom Molloy

Ryan Wallace

the show runs through August 7, 2009 and is much better in person

the gallery also had two additional paintings by Andrew Schoultz ready to show a prospective collector

if you are in the area, be sure to also stop by the high line

bay area currents 2009

2009-07-10T02:20:00.000-07:00

bay area currents 2009 @ proarts/oakland art gallery

featured beautiful felted wool sculptures by Stephanie Metz

Donna Anderson Kam's pastels on paper

Daniel Healey's tape transfers

Adam Friedman's large mixed media piece

my local organic cluster

Elizabeth Pedinotti's portraits

Joan Osato's portraits

Bert Bergen's sculptures

Alex Potts' sound installation with gourd speaker array

Annie Vought's paper cuts

& John Patrick McKenzie's drawings

curated by Kevin Chen

the show ran at the merged pro arts/oakland art gallery from june 23 to july 24th, 2009. my bay area currents 2009 flickr set has photos of more work.

Swooning

2009-06-17T16:46:00.000-07:00

Michael Kimmelman's June 10th review of the 2009 Venice Biennial seemed to calling for Swoon's Swimming Cities of Serinissima, who were en route. In particular, Kimmelman's summary of the work at the heart of the show -- by the Gutai group ("Japanese avant-gardists from the 1950s/1960s"), Lygia Pape (a Brazilian artist "who came to prominence around the same time"), and Gordon Matta-Clark ("the short-lived American iconoclast of the 1970s") -- could have been written about Swoon and her merry band of travelers:

Devising quasi-utopian projects of hippie-ish experimentalism by often fugitive means, they aimed to engage more than an art audience and to spread joy. They saw themselves as liberationists, optimists, fabulists and troublemakers without exactly being ideologues, who shared an almost alchemical knack for transforming scrappy materials and tests of sensual awareness into fine modernist forms.

Kimmelman notes that these artists bring "cool pleasure" to the main exhibition, and knocks the overall show, noting "the Biennale is meant to be a survey of new art, and while conscientious young artists now dutifully seem to raise all the right questions about urbanism, polyglot society and political activism, their answers look domesticated and already familiar. They look like other art-school-trained art, you might say."

Swoon's crew, by contrast, built a flotilla of boats from discarded trash, running on engines converted for biodiesel, to sail from Slovenia (where much of the wood in Venice originally grew) to Venice, with performances along the route (a play, puppets, music).

This fits more with the "quasi-utopian, hippie-ish experimentalism ... aimed to engage more than an audience and to spread joy" than with "art-school-trained art" (check Tod Seelie's blog of the trip if you don't believe me).

more on the project on their blog, flickr, & facebook pages, in NY Magazine, & all over the web.

mail art update

2009-06-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

just stopped by sf camerawork's ersatz mail art show and my work made it safely.

(previously discussed here)

mail art

2009-05-15T03:16:00.000-07:00

i got travis millard's most excellent new zine tear jerker in the above envelope.

i love the zines of travis & mel. and their envelopes.

in sharing my new zines (1, 2) with them, i printed my first envelope.

i heart my printer.

extreme digital masking

2009-04-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

my submission for sf camerawork's ersatz show, which is seeking "2-D lens-based" mail art work (show runs June 4 to August 22, 2009).

i employed a process i developed and named "extreme digital masking" for this (and other related) work. i think of it as an extreme digital version of the analog masking process whereby part of the negative or positive is covered (masked) during the printing process. spending a lot of time with digital darkroom tools (e.g., photoshop), i push masking to an extreme, masking most of the background image but preserving enough to show the structure, in a way only possible in the digital environment.

(more examples in my san francisco study)

new website

2009-04-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

welcome to the billyverse (my new website, it is a work in progress but in reasonable shape)

50/50

2009-03-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

"50/50 on & not on / no & not no
(ode to Tauba Auerbach)," 2009

my donation to the lab's 25th anniversary auction

11.5" x 23" facemounted to plexi.

blu musings

2009-01-13T23:19:00.000-08:00

the new page in blu's sketchbook (&on his blog) is poignant, and sad. i saw it just as i was thinking his gaza strip, a mobius strip of tanks and bulldozers, met that description, he refined it. the print came out nicely.

perv (local, organic)

2009-01-13T14:31:00.001-08:00

in part, i am using phallic local organic produce to poke fun, in a humorous, sex-positive, manner, at what may be considered perverted in our society. one element of perv (local, organic) only "works" if the viewer conflates a vegetable with human anatomy. blurring the line between human and plant will, i hope, help to break down our (human) disconnect with the natural world. i was planning on combining this with local organic for my mfa submission but received strong discouragement from some local arts folk who i trust.

local organic

2009-01-05T18:21:00.000-08:00

my mfa application portfolio 2009
(click the play button in the picture above & then use arrow keys to go through it)

cookies chanukah

2008-12-20T12:20:00.000-08:00

today i learned that my polaroid photos from a few years back of chanukah cookies

are returned near the top of the google image search for "cookie chanukah" (or a "chanukah cookies" search).

Tournesol 5th Anniversary @ Headlands

2008-11-13T17:50:00.000-08:00

Chris Ballantyne

Clare Rojas

Yoon Lee

Leslie Shows

Ana Teresa Fernandez

Paul Wackers

headlands center for the arts gives the Tournesol award to one bay area painter with a recent mfa degree each year. the award includes a studio at the headlands, a $10,000 stipend, and a solo show at the end of the residency.

headlands is now hosting its 5th anniversary exhibition for the program with work from the first five winners (Chris Ballantyne, Clare Rojas, Yoon Lee, Leslie Shows, Ana Teresa Fernandez) and the current recipient (Paul Wackers).

the show runs November 9 – December 7, 2008. check it in person.

more photos after the jump.

Chris Ballantyne

Clare Rojas

Yoon Lee

Leslie Shows

Ana Teresa Fernandez

Paul Wackers

Tiffany Bozic print

2008-10-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

i published a new print (as proper printing) with Tiffany Bozic

the prints are a varied edition of 7 (+3a.p.). Tiffany hand painted each print.

these prints were produced for "symmetrical balance," Tiffany's new solo show at fecal face dot gallery.

the show opens tonight (october 25th) in san francisco

5

6

i see a narrative across the seven prints.

the show also features a new series of Tiffany's paintings on maple. if you are in san francisco, this is worth checking out in person.

Andrew Schoultz @ Marx & Zavattero

2008-09-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

i stopped by Andrew Schoultz' installation of his new solo show, "In Gods We Trust," @ Marx & Zavattero in san francisco on august 27 and september 3.

Andrew continues to push chaos with even more depth and layers in this new work.

the work rewards the careful viewer -- note the currency embedded in the sails

below are some highlights.

the show includes a huge installation

(Alex Lukas assisted Andrew with the installation)

more photos in my slideshow:

(or check my flickr set)

and make sure to check out Andrew's show in person (it runs through october 25th). Andrew is one of the hardest working and most prolific artists that i know of and this show highlights some new directions in his spectacular output.

Matt Petty of sfgate also visited Andrew's installation and posted a video here.

eternal summer -- day 27

2008-07-18T19:08:00.000-07:00

i joined michelle blade for day 27 of her eternal summer project.

it was fun. we met in golden gate park.

a mother with six baby quail walked past us.

we watched a junkie squirrel getting fed

short slideshow? ("fast" recommended)

intersection for the arts auction

2008-05-10T20:27:00.000-07:00

"sky suite (ode to Rigo 23)" (2002-2003), digital pigment print, 30x30", edition of 5 + 2a.p.

update: they just posted images here.

intersection for the art's annual birthday party and auction/fundraiser is coming up.
when: friday june 6, 2008 @ 7pm (live auction begins @ 8:30pm)
where: intersection, 446 valencia street (btwn 15th/16th) (map)
tickets?$20 (reserve tickets here)
note: they also have a free preview during regular hours (12-6) on sat may 31 & weds-fri june 4-6.

my submission, above, is the first image i am showing from my study documenting the destruction of Rigo 23's sky mural over the course of four years (slideshow). Rigo 23 is also participating in the show.

"This year's auction features the work of over 80 of the bay area's most celebrated artists" including: Kim Abeles,Brad K. Alder,Brett Amory,Kathy Aoki,April Banks,Claudia Bernardi,Michele Carlson,Victor Cartagena,Thomas Chang,Chris Cobb,Brett Cook,Binh Danh,Lauren Davies,Sergio de la Torre,Luis Delgado,Lauren DiCioccio,Tina Dillman,Ala Ebtekar,Nome Edonna,Amanda Eicher,Tia Factor,Korin Faught,Ana Teresa Fernandez,Erik Foster,Adam Friedman,Matt Gonzalez,Mayumi Hamanaka,Taro Hattori,Taraneh Hemami,Dana Hemenway,Jonn Herschend,Dee Hibbert-Jones,Suzanne Husky,Jason Jagel,Packard Jennings,Ian Johnson,Jordan Kantor,Jeff Kao,Melissa Kaseman,Audrey Kawasaki,Scott Kildall,David King,Samantha Lautman,Christine Lee,Jose Ramon Lerma,Frederick Loomis,James Luna,Kara Maria,Gabriela Martinez,Stephani Martinez,Christina Mazza,Chris McCaw,Michael McConnell,John Patrick McKenzie,Julio Cesar Morales,Abner Nolan,billy o'callaghan,Scott Oliver,Deborah Oropallo,Jennie Ottinger,Kamau Patton,Hilary Pecis,Patrick Piazza,Mel Prest,Moshe Quinn,Michael Rauner,Ricardo Richey,Rigo 23,Airyka Rockefeller,Favianna Rodriguez,Brion Nuda Rosch,Nadim Sabella,Jos Sances,Zachary Royer Scholz,Andrew Schoultz,Sharon Siskin,Tracey Snelling,Deth P. Sun,Stephanie Syjuco,Seiko Tachibana,Weston Teruya,Amanda Williams,Megan Wilson,Jenifer K. Wofford,Christine Wong Yap,Michael Zheng

check it out!

optic illusion

2008-04-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

southern exposure's annual auction/fundraiser

when: this saturday, april 26, 7:30-11
where: somarts, main gallery 934 brannan street (btwn 8th & 9th in soma) (map)
tickets: $30 advance purchase (info here), $40 at the door

my submission, "potato (local, organic sample)" (2006), an original polaroid construction, is the first photo from my polaroid samples series.

"The night features a Live and Silent Art Auction of work from over 165 established and emerging artists," including: G. Cole Allee, Lauren Anderson, Marisa Aragona, Ellen Babcock, Michael Bartalos, Chris Bell, Andrew Benson, Amy Berk, Leo Bersamina, Michelle Blade, Jaren Bonillo, Val Britton, Heather Brubaker, Timothy Buckwalter, Jason Byers, Deric Carner, John Casey, Julie Chang, Ajit Chauhan, Kevin Chen, Youmna Chlala, Ishan Clemenco, Adriane Colburn, Serena Cole, Rand Colosky, Lisa Congdon, Alika Cooper, Christopher Culver, Lauren Davies, Veronica De Jesus, Claire Droney, Chris Duncan, Ala Ebtekar, Amanda Eicher, Kota Ezawa, Tia Factor, Harrell Fletcher, Tara Foley, Rhea Fontaine, Maria Forde, Dustin Fosnot, Emily Alden Foster, David Fought, Amy Franceschini, Benicia Gantner, Linda Geary, Renée Gertler, Maizie Gilbert, Jim Goldberg, Rebecca Goldfarb, Catherine Haley Epstein, Doug Hall, Michael Hall, Oliver Halsman Rosenberg, Nicole Hayden, Stephen Galloway, Tanya Gill, Cliff Hengst, Jonn Herschend, Scott Hewicker, Todd Hido, Elyse Hochstadt, Terry Hoff, Amanda Hughen, Suzanne Husky, Misa Inaoka, David Ireland, Jason Jagel, Packard Jennings, Chris Johanson, Kerri Johnson, Kathyrn Kenworth, Forest Kelley, David King, Ruth Kneass, Noah Lang, Yoon Lee, Katie Lewis, Michael Light, Frederick Loomis, Mark Luthringer, Nathan Lynch, Martin Machado, Michelle Mansour, Laura Mappin, Kara Maria, Vanessa Marsh, Christian Maychack, Christina Mazza, Chris McCaw, Sean McFarland, Dennis McNulty, Cheryl Meeker, Rebecca Miller, Kyle Mock, Mike Monteiro, Julio Morales, Apollonia Morrill, Jeff Morris, Paul Mullins, Kelsey Nicholson, Abner Nolan, Brion Nuda Rosch, billy o'callaghan, Kelly Ording, Kari Orvik, Allison Pebworth, Hilary Pecis, Stephanie Peek, Sasha Petrenko, Josh Pieper, James Pitt, Job Piston, Suzy Poling, Mel Prest, Basil Racuk, Albert Reyes, Lisa Ricci, Rigo 23, Lacey Jane Roberts, Thorina Rose, KC Rosenberg, Michael Rosenthal, Ari Salomon, James Sansing, Andrew Schoultz, Emily Sevier, Leslie Shows, Margaret Silverman, Jennie Smith, Casey Jex Smith, Sarah Smith, Tracy Snelling, Jessica Snow, Chris Sollars, Lisa Solomon, Tabitha Soren, Jennifer Starkweather, Estee Stevens, Michael Swaine, William Swanson, Stephanie Syjuco, Owen Takabayashi, Charlene Tan, Margaret Tedesco, Weston Teruya, The Thing Quarterly, Hank Thomas, Zefrey Throwell, Tracy Timmons, Bruce Tomb, David Tomb, Paul Urich, Andy Vogt, Catherine Wagner, Victoria Wagner, Carrie Mae Weems, Leigh Wells, Gail Wight, Megan Wilson, Jenifer Wofford, Lena Wolff, Sandra Wong, Kelli Yon

check it out! peep some of the art here.

Evah Fan

2008-04-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

("witchcraft," 2008; photo nabbed from gallery web site)
@ richard heller gallery in santa monica

Evah's first solo show with the gallery, "Oatmeal Lumpy," opens this saturday and runs through May 17th. If you are in LA, check it out in person (the gallery also has some images up). And, Evah updated her web site with new paintings and a sweet, organic, hanky in the shop.

Marcel Dzama

2008-04-13T16:02:00.000-07:00

@ david zwirner in chelsea
march 6 - april 19, 2008

Marcel Dzama's current show in NY includes a new series of drawings

pages from his notebook

("an even greater unevenness")

this sculpture

a series of dioramas (inset into the walls of a dark room, hard to photograph)

i have a few more photos in my slideshow.

this is yet another art show that is best viewed in person. the dioramas were my favorites, and are worth the trip to the gallery.

check it out at 519 west 19th street in chelsea (nyc).
hurry though, the show closes this saturday.

perv image search

2008-04-11T18:28:00.000-07:00

search for perv on google image search (try it) and you get the above results if you have "safesearch" on moderate, or off (at least you do today).

seeing that one of my photos from my "perv (local, organic)" study is the third hit in the google image search for "perv," i now understand the sudden boost in flickr views of this photo. check out the rest of my "perv (local, organic)" series here.

Kim Cogan

2008-04-08T18:09:00.000-07:00

@ gallery henoch in chelsea
march 20 - april 12, 2008

for his debut ny solo show, Kim painted warm portraits of new york

which evoke the city without reference to the classic postcard icons

his paintings, devoid of people, present private moments, found late at night, in an otherwise crowded city

i love this stairway

this is yet another art show that is best viewed in person.
check it out at 555 west 25th street in chelsea (nyc).
hurry though, the show closes this saturday.

i have a few more photos in my slideshow and Kim has better photos on his web site.

Yoon Lee

2008-03-29T13:35:00.000-07:00

@ pierogi 2000 in brooklyn
march 14 - april 14, 2008

Yoon Lee creates very dense, layered, thickly textured, candy-coated, kinetically dynamic, abstract urban landscapes on huge pvc panels. the above photo shows details from one her smaller paintings, "Diversion," at 4x8 feet:

this show also includes the monumental "JFK" which, at 7x20 feet, took 5-6 months to complete:

at that size, the painting engulfs the viewer and it feels like you can enter the landscape (here Yoon offers some evidence of the scale of this painting)

the details are incredibly dynamic:

this show also features the 4x12 foot "Sweeping Through":

and the 8x4 foot "Untitled," her second major vertical painting:

flavorpill noted that Yoon shares an "interest in exploding topography and the bustling life of architecture with Julie Mehretu, but where the latter employs a t-square, Lee stands ready with a bucket of paint." both create dynamic paintings which push movement and toy with perspectival planes, but their work ends up in very different places.

this is yet another art show that is best viewed in person (Yoon spent approximately 12 months working on the 4 paintings in this show, her new york debut). if you are fortunate enough to be in williamsburg before april 14, check it out at 177 north 9th street brooklyn, ny (open fri - mon).

i have a few more photos in my slideshow. and, check out the photos from her 2006 Luggage Store show here.

jeremy fish vibrator

2008-03-27T22:34:00.000-07:00

fuck (with) vinyl toys?

(grabbed from umbrella)

fecal face thinks barry is "the first contemporary artist designed dildo." makes sense to me. but then, i'm pervy (have you met perv monkey?) art history, take note (somehow i suspect that despite all the focus on the new in art, including new media, this will be ignored).

last chance: Chris Ballantyne

2008-03-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

@ hosfelt gallery
february 9 - march 22, 2008

"when the world was flat," Chris Ballantyne's solo show at hosfelt gallery closes this saturday. the show includes huge works on paper.

(related to his corner mural at park life last year)

the gallery blog reported that SFMOMA acquired this painting. good for them, us, and Chris.

the show also includes this painting on wood

smaller works on paper

original paintings for the prints that park life released last year

and a large wall painting (left/right)

yet another art show that is best viewed in person.
check out hosfelt gallery, 430 clementina (btwn howard/folsom, 5th/6th)

i have a few more photos in my slideshow

art sale 12

2008-03-11T23:55:00.000-07:00

"perv * local, organic," march 2003, 9.75x9.75" digital print on 11.5x11.5" paper, edition of 5 (my submission for the lab's art sale 12, which happens this weekend)

thurs march 13 (1-6pm): preview the show, for free
fri march 14 (1-6pm): preview the show, also free
sat march 15 (6.30-9.30pm): silent auction and live auction ($10-25 sliding scale)
sun march 16 (11am-7pm): sale continues

the auction, on sat march 15, cost $10-$25 for "snacks and refreshments" as well as the opportunity to buy art at bargain prices ("starting bids at $25 and up"). thelab notes that "250 artists will be participating, including Sarah Applebaum, Ajit Chauhan, Alex Clausen, Chris Corales, Gail Dawson, Julie Dummermuth, Tara Lisa Foley, Taro Hattori, Cynthia Ona Innis, David King, Rex Ray, Daniel Ross, Casey Jex Smith, Wayne Smith, Kal Spelletich, Zefrey Throwell, Amy Trachtenberg, Heather Wilcoxon, and many more!"

worth checking out. i have a field trip collecting fossils and will, unfortunately, miss the auction.

last chance: Paul Wackers

2008-03-09T23:27:00.000-07:00

@ Eleanor Harwood
february 16 - march 15, 2008

Paul Wacker's second solo show at Eleanor Harwood is titled "stand still like the hummingbird."

the show shares its title with a book of essay's by Henry Miller. i haven't read it (maybe you have?) i did find this excerpt from the preface on the web: "...when you are convinced that all the exits are blocked, either you take to believing in miracles or you stand still like the hummingbird. The miracle is that the honey is always there, right under your nose, only you were too busy searching elsewhere to realize it. The worst is not death but being blind, blind to the fact that everything about life is in the nature of the miraculous."

the show includes a lot of nice work, including "sculpture"

and "still life"

the gallery has all of the work here. better yet, get to Eleanor Harwood (alabama @ 25th) by march 15 and check it out in person before the show closes.

you can see my blog of his 2006 show here.

last chance: packard jennings

2008-03-04T20:56:00.000-08:00

@ Catherine Clark
january 19 - march 9, 2008

Packard Jennings created an anarchist action figure, complete with a flaming molotov

bolt cutters

and helpful box graphics

he snuck them into big box stores in the bay area in december 2007 and filmed the results as he tried to buy one. the nytimes covered it in a story on shop dropping. a local tv news program also covered it. (press fuels art careers.) packard's video can be seen here (and at the gallery).

the show also features work from Wish You Were Here! Postcards From Our Awesome Future. Packard and Steve Lambert "asked Bay Area architects, city planners and transportation engineers, 'What would you do if you didn’t have to worry about budgets, bureaucracy, politics, or physics?' Ideas from these conversations were then merged, developed and perhaps mildly exaggerated by the artists to create six imaginative poster designs for exhibition in the Market Street kiosks."

part of San Francisco Arts Commission's Public Art Program, the posters appear in triangle kiosks on market street (btwn van ness and embarcadero) from november 12,2007 to march 13, 2008.

and, the show has a creative dissent work station

where you are invited to take this sign

out for fun and photographic excellence. you can also create your own newspaper headlines and paste them in newsboxes. or, perhaps, add a warning label to a bible. then post the results in the gallery.

Packard has templates for many of his projects on his website. check it out. and, if possible, stop by the gallery this weekend to see the work in person and have some fun before the show closes.

mel & travis

2008-02-07T21:56:00.000-08:00

travis millard

and

have a show in la opening this weekend
at richard heller gallery
february, 9 2007 - march, 8 2007 opening reception: 5 - 7 pm

i love travis millard's environmental self portraits, like "family"

his humor. the spawn of his cross-sections.

i love mel kadel's metaphorically active women.

her whimsey.

both variations on rolling

check out the show in person.
were that it were in san francisco.
(photos grabbed from the gallery)

Seren

2007-11-19T23:47:00.000-08:00

Seren, inspired at the opening reception of from the depths, drew a portrait and gave it to Rich Mooi (my best guess is she was inspired by Tiffany Bozic's battle of the deep)

grounded?

2007-11-06T22:24:00.000-08:00

(i learn only to be contented, 2007, 24x36" digital print, edition of 5)

this year's annual juried show at southern exposure & intersection for the arts.

opening: fri nov. 9, 7-9pm
@intersection for the arts: 446 valencia st (btwn 15th & 16th)
&southern exposure: 417 14th (@valencia)
show runs: november 9 - december 15, 2007
(galleries open wed-sat 12-6; tues by appointment)
admission: free

"nearly 550 submission...63 artists were selected for the gallery exhibition."

brendan monroe: insides

2007-10-17T01:17:00.000-07:00

@ richard heller gallery
2525 michigan ave, b-5a, santa monica, ca 90404
october, 13 2007 - november, 11 2007

set/slideshow

last chance: don't try this at home

2007-10-09T17:13:00.000-07:00

@ intersection for the arts
446 Valencia Street (btwn 15th and 16th), san francisco, ca
September 17 - October 13, 2007
featuring Lauren Davies, Tamara Albaitis, Krishna Khalsa, Stephani Martinez & Zachary Royer Scholz

tip: this show is closing soon. check it out if you can.

Lauren Davies' sculptures are meticulous ("anatomically correct scaled versions of West Highland White Terriers"), down to the hair, which was shed by their real life counterparts, her dogs.

she also has sculpted lintballs with lint collected from "family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances." nice reuse.

the show is subtitled "A Group Exhibition Obsessively Reshaping The Ordinary"

Tamara Albaitis produced a series of sound sculptures, including a laughing trash can

and a group of coughing speaker balls

Krishna Khalsa created biomorphic wood sculptures

doily cakes (plaster & doilies) by Stephani Martinez

i have a few more photos in my set/slideshow

Usugrow at 5024

2007-08-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

@ 5024sf
august 2 - 31, 2007

see more in my set/slideshow

n8 van dyke

2007-08-15T00:16:00.000-07:00

@ 5024sf
august 2 - 31, 2007

set/slideshow

tree show iii

2007-07-25T16:22:00.000-07:00

@ giant robot sf
featuring: apak!, melinda beck, robert bellm, bigfoot, kelie bowman, calef brown, aaron brown, catia chen, richard colman, matthew feyld, matt furie, fawn gehweiler, susie ghahremani, mollie goldstrom, andrew degraff, katherine guillen, ethan hayes-chute, jordan isip, rich jacobs, kelly lynn jones, kaori kasai, misaki kawai, kefe (kelly tunstall + ferris plock), joe keinberger, james kirkpatrick (thesis), diana kwok, matt leines, kathleen lolley, maxwell loren holyoke-hirsch, matt moroz, eric nakamura, ogi, pcp, luke ramsey, albert reyes, nathalie roland, brian rush, jeana sohn, daria tessler, elisabeth timpone, aiyana udesen, marci washington, andrew jeffrey wright
july 14 - august 8, 2007

the show features portraits of trees (by apak!, and others)

body parts hanging from trees (by matt furie, and others)

and a bunch more work (tree-related, and not).

check out my blog on fecal face, or my set/slideshow

sky (2000-2003)

2007-07-18T15:05:00.000-07:00

documenting, over the course of four years, the destruction of Rigo23’s sky mural. during that time, it felt like the sky was disappearing. there was a construction boom, of very tall buildings, in san francisco's soma district. still is. one very tall building obscured the sky. another decapitated the mural, and then swallowed it (and sky's sibling, ground). rest in peace.

view my 10 photo set/slideshow

streets of san francisco

2007-07-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

i was walking from friday night at the de young to clement street for dinner when i came across the above vehicle. i recognized ricardo richey's characteristic form.

the margaret kilgallen sticker on the front. rigo23 showcards on the dashboard. a pine cone. i figured it out before i saw the confirming license plate. i'd found the luggage store's vantruck.

varuck? trucan? sirron norris, whose first name mirrors his last, added two bears. i love the piece he painted with andrew schoultz at the valencia gate to clarion alley. his mural on balmy alley. and this varuc.

paris mural

2007-07-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

brendan monroe, koralie, supakitch, and wayne horse have a collaborative mural at carhartt in paris. we checked it out when we were there in april (in addition to perv-paris and the palais de tokyo show).

they did a good job creating a single piece incorporating their different characters and styles. the end result is somewhat like a coat of arms or family crest.

i was particularly psyched to see brendan's characters rendered on a larger scale

and to see the work of the other artists, who are new to me, in person.

this mural was part of a larger european tour, which brendan blogged for fecal face. i have a few more detail shots in my photo set.

palais de tokyo (april 2007)

2007-07-11T22:56:00.000-07:00

we saw michel blazy's solo show at the palais de tokyo, a contemporary art museum in paris, in april.

he sculpts with food. the above piece, a bear rug, is composed of cotton and chocolate cream. the show also included a skelton made of dog biscuits and hot glue.

a piece composed of orange peels, which were decaying and covered with insects

a bird had found its way into the museum and onto the cat biscuit and glue sculpture.

the work and show was fascinating in person.

(soya noodles, and food dye)

the museum also had a number of photos by bernadette genee and alain le borgne of the inside of military caps showing the variety of things the soldiers keep hidden, and dear.

a third exhibit included a "prehistoric" camper van carved out of granite pieces by daniel dewar and gregory gicquel.

these shows closed. all of the artists were new to me and the work was refreshing. in part, i think, it cleansed the visual palette which, in paris, is otherwise oversaturated with classical work.

check out my set or slideshow for a few more from the above exhibit.

barry mcgee in japan

2007-06-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

fecal face posted my art blog on barry mcgee
@ watari-um, tokyo, japan
june 2 to sept. 30, 2007

check out the blog or my slideshow

rigo23

2007-06-05T23:52:00.000-07:00

rigo23 has a new show at the luggage store.

each of the 8 large works on canvas relates to a historical event in local alternative activism.

rigo23 created zines ($3) for each piece.

the zines include a lot of source material and serve as well-documented alternative press primers on these selected events from the bay area's recent history. i found myself wanting them to also include a photocopy representation of the graphic work - maybe on the zine cover - but that is me.

rigo23's graphic style here is somewhat comic-newspaper.

he does a good job of rendering the characters so that they feel alive. the pencil work on canvas gives it a nice, personal, homemade feel.

lots of mustaches.

the work looks like it is based, in part, on photographs. i like the parts where he chose not to fill in all of the details.

the show is worth checking out in person. it runs through june 23 (i think).
i have more photos of the work in my slideshow.

fan fan

2007-05-15T19:59:00.000-07:00

i got evah fan's 3d bermuda pantaloon zine in the mail today.

costs $5 on her site and boy is it cool. first, i like the photocopy zine concept. (a) they are relatively cheap and easy to make, meaning more artists can publish their work without significant expense. (b) they are an inexpensive way for fan fans to take home art. second, i like this particular zine because it pushes the medium into sculpture. somewhat reminescent of the folded paper fortune game, you find evah's illustrations in the different tents. fun fun.

also, Evah's show performance art opens this weekend (may 19) at sixspace in los angeles.

evah's work, like that of a lot of her peers, is influenced by comic book illustrations and cartoon narratives. but evah's work stands out from the rest of the pack for a number of reasons. one is that evah's work is funny in both ways (haha and strange). this thread runs through her titles and choice of subject matter. another is that evah's work is recognizable: with tight illustrations, repeat characters, a limited color palatte, and consistent use of compositional elements like negative space. and, while i see a lot of artists crowding around a small number of visual styles and subjects, it looks like evah is currently free of copycats.

evah's show runs May 19 - June 16, 2007 at sixspace in culver city. check it out. and the zine. look at more of evah's work here

Jacob Magraw

2007-04-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

is now represented by Richard Heller Gallery. been expecting that an "la-art in ny" fair gallery would pick him up sometime soon. Jacob's website identifies a show at the gallery scheduled for october 2007.

and, "fight club" author chuck palahniuk's new book rant: the oral history of buster casey features one of jacob's works on the cover.

Jacob showed this painting in his motel show last year.

perv (paris)

2007-04-20T14:01:00.000-07:00

we recently visited the louvre

and the rodin sculpture garden

i did some sketchbook work on my perv project.

peep the slideshow.
(recommended speed: fast)

nyt sunday magazine

2007-03-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

brendan monroe did the cover for the nyt sunday magazine today (3.11.7). checkit here. and, there are two more pieces in the article featured on the cover, which you can see here.

gidde up

2007-02-17T00:38:00.000-08:00

i passed this deborah butterfield sculpture

in sfo back in december.

the horse is bronze but looks like driftwood. stanford art museum notes that "the technique used to make the sculpture is especially noteworthy for its convincing simulation of the texture, shape, and color of the wood." which increases the impulse to touch the sculpture. at stanford, they have a separate piece of the bronze driftwood for people to touch.

at the airport, seems people wanted to ride it. so much so, that they added a sign.

check here for an image search for deborah butterfield.

earth-friendly

2007-02-11T00:17:00.000-08:00

brendan monroe

and evah fan each have tote bags for sale in their web stores.

totes are cool. reuseable. wean you from disposable shopping bags; good for the planet and fellow travellers.

and, at $7 each, these are a bargain for prints of their work.

check em: brendan's/evah's

(and, brendan also recently posted his bacterium mug)

hawaii

2007-02-02T16:44:00.000-08:00

i posted a four part travel log on my recent trip to the big island of hawaii on proper's observations.

part 1 covers days 1-3, which included a hike into waipio valley (and wild horse feeding), life-sized polaroids, hilo's farmer's market, and waterfalls and rain forests.

part 2 covers days 4-5, with visits to another waterfall, the hawaii tropical botanical garden, volcano tree monument, and our first hike across the caldera floor in volcano national park and our travel around the perimeter of the caldera.

part 3 covers days 6-7, which included a hike at dusk to active lava flow (with a slideshow) and another hike across the caldera floor (this time with the polaroid sampler). we also saw sea turtles and some cool birds.

and part 4 covers days 8-10, which includes a visit to puuhonua o honaunau national historical park, the peak of mauna kea (the tallest volcano on the island), and whale watching.

close calls

2007-01-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

fecal face posted my art blog on the close calls 2007 show

@ headlands center for the arts
featuring: Mari Andrews, Johnna K. Arnold, Todd Barricklow, Lisa K. Blatt, Jon Brumit, Freddy Chandra, Alexander Cheves, Lisa Conrad, Lauren Davies, Chris Duncan, Sheila Ghidini, Diana Guerrero, Karen Hampton, Jason Jagel, David O. Johnson, Hiroyo Kaneko, Steve Lambert, Vanessa Marsh, Victoria May, Gretchen Mentzer, Michael Meyers, SungHong Min, Lucas Murgida, Anne Faith Nicholls, Sean Olson, Trevor Paglen, Kathleen Quillian & Gilbert Guerrero, Nadim Roberto Sabella, Zachary Royer Scholz, Lisa Stoneman, Dan Tierney.
jan. 14-feb. 25, 2007

check out the blog or my slideshow

life sized polaroids (hawaii)

2007-01-23T13:46:00.000-08:00

uluhe fern shoot, volcano national park, hawaii.

i took a series of polaroid samples on my recent trip to hawaii. the image on the polaroid is the same size as the item photographed (so that if i want to photograph something bigger than a polaroid, i have to create a polaroid construction).

the series includes polaroids taken on the caldera floor of kilauea volcano, which is an active volcano.

i am finding myself more compelled by the life-sized photos -- which do a better job at showing, for example, the plant life making inroads on the caldera floor. it also seems somehow truer to me.

view the full 41 photo slideshow.

art blogging

2007-01-19T11:07:00.000-08:00

fecal face posted my art blogs on three shows earlier this month.

1. anne faith nicholls' solo show

@ shooting gallery
dec. 2, 2006 - jan. 6, 2007

see the blog or my slideshow

2. the anniversary show @ aftermodern

featuring work by ben woodward (inclunding above) and berdardo poggi leigh, tahiti pehrson, ann toebbe, aarow white, jordan isip, becky suss, others (see gallery web site)
nov. 27, 2006 - jan. 27, 2007
see the blog or my slideshow

3. james drake's solo show

@ gallery paule anglim
jan. 3-27, 2007
see the blog or my slideshow

sg 2006 from sf (soma)

2007-01-07T21:05:00.000-08:00

yerba buena.

cookies, polaroid sample (life sized), first night of hanukkah chanukah hanukah chanukkah.

nate's chimp jesus. 4th street, under the freeway (near harrison). polaroid fails to show face details. i tried a few things, this is the best i got.

fifth night of chanuka hanuka chanukkah hanukka channukah. fifth night of khanike. i just learned a variety of more and less common spellings.

plantrees. shipley@6th.

saelee oh tip

2006-11-29T21:43:00.000-08:00

giant robot has saelee oh apples - "each apple is a unique piece done by Saelee with the white paper stitched onto the red. apples are about 4 x 4 inches." $50. available here. the works from the show at the bottom of the are all sold, and a nice selection of her work. 5 apples are available as i post this.

thelab(sf)'s small multiples show

2006-11-20T20:48:00.000-08:00

i am participating in thelab(sf)'s 10th annual small multiples show (post-postcard).

the show is an "open-invitational exhibition" and given that thelab is a good non-profit arts space, lots of local art school folks and kids like me, trying to find our way into exhibiting art, participate (costs $10). thelab provides each participant with a 5"h.6"w.11"d box, which they fill. the work must be priced between $1 and $30 (split between thelab and theartist). all work in the box must have the same price. the post-postcard idea invites artists to make small works - originals, multiples, whatever - that fit into thebox and thepricerange. the show is an open marketplace with hundreds of these boxes.

this show is a natural fit for one of my favorite cameras, the polaroid spectra.

i submitted 14 individual polaroids, framed in the polaroid film cartridges (reuse), with tape and an eyescrew.

priced $15 each (half to me).

i also created 7 polaroid constructions/diptychs. i made frames out of cardboard (reuse), tape, and wire. i am very happy with the results.

priced $30 each (half to me).

i learned a few things along the way.

view the slideshow of my submission. or, the photo set.

this is a great show to checkout in person. handy fortothe giftgiving. there is veryverymuch work, a variety of good work (original and multiples), all priced $30 and less.
2948 16th street @ capp (near mission)
opens thurs, nov. 30 (members preview from 5-6pm, opening reception 6-9)
runs friday (dec. 1) 1-8pm
sat/sun (dec. 2-3) 11am-6pm
free admission

paul wackers at eleanor harwood gallery

2006-11-13T02:44:00.000-08:00

paul wacker's show at eleanor harwood is called "another side of this life."

i blogged it on fecal face. wanna read?

maria forde at little tree

2006-11-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

maria forde's solo show at little tree gallery

includes 32 paintings - one from each year of her life so far.

love the smiles. i blogged it on fecal face. wanna read?

david choe at anno domini

2006-11-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

"frice," david choe's solo show at anno domini, in downtown san jose, opened last friday night.

the show includes
--this work on black velvet, which choe uses to complete the image

--this sweet detailed illustration

choe is a bit pervy.

--this collaboration with mr. cartoon (air brush and oil paint on paper), which is both amazing and too pin up girl for me.

--his twins

these ladies may be familiar. choe painted them on one of the doors next to 5024 on fillmore in sf's lower haight.

before that, he painted them next to, and above, gr2 in la (still up in sept. 06)

the show also includes photocopy enlargements, one-offs, 1000% sized images from his sketch book.

these were huge (as big as 7feetx3feet); many had additional hand shading; priced between $40 and $150. looks to me like his gift of opportunity for local fans. mostly sold at the opening (i think), but not all.

they gave him the whole gallery. this was mostly good.

and somewhat random

my photo set and slideshow have more photos of the work. unfortunately, my flash didn't agree with all of the work.

gallery ad also posted the show, with prices, here. i think david choe is really talented. somewhat volatile. somewhat juvenile. there is a good chance that he will have an interesting career. right now, he can, and likely does, support himself doing graphic design work. his also makes t-shirts and participates in some corporate art programs. i hope this doesn't kill his gallery work. in any event, this is a good show for choe's work. he has a solo show at jonathan levine in january 2007.

check out the show - which runs through nov. 25, 2006 - in person.
anno domini
366 so. first street, san jose, ca

clarion alley

2006-11-06T21:29:00.000-08:00

clarion alley

has a bunch of new murals.
sara thustra.

mary joy scott.

vitche

my photo set and slideshow are incomplete, but give you some idea. you can also view my post on fecal face.

clarion alley runs between valencia and mission in san francisco. it is one block off, and parallel to, 17th (between good vibrations and community thrift). worth checking out in person.

unexpected

2006-10-29T22:30:00.000-08:00

i would not have predicted it. but unicorns keep popping up in my world.

last night at a party, one boy (a machinist) was dressed as one.

today, i stopped by grsf, where megan whitmarsh had a series of drawings from a unicorn zine.

later, in clarion alley, i saw this older 8 bit unicorn painting:

then, i saw this newer painting with unicorns:

4 different suppliers of unicorns in under 24 hours. scary.

earlier this year, i saw an andrew schoultz unicorn at giant robot sf's two year show.

seems like i also saw one at the shooting gallery's erotic show, maybe by anne faith nicholls?

i saw a sara thustra-ish poster of a unicorn, by sy, at needles and pens a while back, and learned that sy published those fucking unicorns.

and recently, jeff soto posted a new painting with unicorns.

dan flanagan at the luggage store

2006-10-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

dan flanagan's solo show - crestfallen - is at the luggage store (509 ellis location).

the show includes handmade inscriptions and shields

24 illustrations of different pocketknives

and handmade baseballs

you can read my full post, on fecalface, here.

and, you can check out my full photo set and/or slideshow for the show.

the show is at the luggage store's 509 cultural center.
509 ellis at leavenworth.
their website says it is open sats 12-5.
show runs through nov. 11, 2006.

mars-one, damon soule, and oliver vernon at white walls

2006-10-24T15:33:00.000-07:00

fecalface posted my blog on
mars-one

damon soule

and oliver vernon

at whitewalls. checkit?.

dustin fosnot and ryan boyle at steven wolf

2006-10-24T12:59:00.001-07:00

ok. fecalface posted my blog on dustin fosnot

and ryan boyle

at steven wolf fine art. checkit?.

coming up this week

2006-10-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

on saturday i went to see a number of good shows. and, i am going to try blogging on fecalface. i will post links.

one show was dustin fosnot and ryan boyle at steven wolf fine art. view my photo set and/or slideshow (the slideshow includes a six frame shark jump)?

another was mars-one, damon soule, and oliver vernon at white walls. view my photo set and/or slideshow?

more later.

the amber room at luggage store gallery

2006-10-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

on saturday i went to see the amber room at the luggage store.

the show included 4 artists.

wang wei (beijing) 's "untitled" piece was amazing.
made of scaffolding

it has the look and feel of a temple

liu ding (beijing) 's "forevermore"

words written with peepholes,
looking out onto market street at 6th

with many vantage points to engage the active viewer

shirley tse (la), "sinks like a submarine,"
polyurethane resin, brass, copper wire, jade, 2006

won ju lim (la), orange extension cord, plexiglass, mirrors, light 2006

it reminded me of an architectural model.

one component was the lighting and shadows. they built a room to house the piece. i didn't photograph it in the chosen lighting, wasn't equipped with a tripod.

i have to love the luggage store. this show was incredibly labor intensive. they had to bring "7000 lbs. or more of scaffolding up [and this week, down] the steps of the luggage store." they built a "temporary" room in the gallery to house one work. and, i appreciate it. it was a good show to see in person.

view the slideshow or the set?

and, i see a lot of artists at the luggage store checking out the exhibits. i got there between 4 and 4:30, the last hour of the exhibit. it's closed now, sorry. i had finished photographing. i was talking to jennifer. it was just the two of us. and then a large group of people showed up. lead by michael arcega. an international group of artists who were on a panel with him or something like that. jean-ulrick desert told me that his apartment costs $200. in berlin. seems like a good tip. nice fellow. and ricardo richey was returning a ladder he borrowed during the day, painting a new mural on turk at market.

great place. they have more info on the show here. their photos show the art more.

mary joy scott at needles&pens

2006-10-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

i went to see mary joy's scott's "stitch in time" at needles&pens on saturday.

the show includes a number of works on handkerchief
(pronunciation: 'ha[ng]-k&r-ch&f, hankerchifs (sp)).

andrew from needles&pens told me that handkerchiefs are used for drawings in prison (or something like that). the show also includes work on paper. and some paintings on the wall.

i am not a fan of skulls, even of the tattoo graphic variety. maybe this also fits with the prison experience.

this piece

reminds me somewhat of tiffany's owl painting from her recent blk/mrkt show. bad time to be a mouse with raptors around.

her attention to detail is impressive

view the photo slideshow or set?

or, go see the show at
needles&pens
3253 16th street (btwn guerrero&dolores in the mission)
"usually open" tues-sun 12pm-7pm
(the show runs through halloween)

open on sunday is nice. thanks needles&pens.

and, as petalum commented on my flickr, "let's hear it for needles and pens!!! always something good in there. breezy and andrew are working pretty hard to keep the mission district's art and culture scene alive, and interesting."

speaking of, they have a nice photo blog with info on the show. and, they have an online store. the pricing - from $100 to $675 - is great. more so for compelling work with this much attention to detail.

my favorite is missed me! (first photo of this posting).
ink and graphite on paper, 12"x14" framed, $350.

coming this week

2006-10-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

mary joy scott at needles&pens
(view the slideshow or the set?)

amber room at the luggage store gallery
(view the slideshow or the set?)

white walls & shooting gallery

2006-10-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

the third show i went to this past saturday i went to twice.

two days of painting at whitewalls/shootinggallery. the galleries were divided into artist's stations. the walls, or beams, or whatever around the artist's stations held some of the artist's other work. so it was live painting plus group show. they fit a lot of the artists they work with over the year into this kind of show.

at 4pm, there were lots of people. many like me, documenting (still, video). music. party atmosphere. loud. comfortable.

i saw artists working. i came back later.

adam5100.

shawn barber

kim cogan

richard colman

sam flores

sylvia ji

henry lewis

damon soule

at 10:30, most of the artists had left. i got to record the end results of day one. and fill in additional information, photograph more of the paintings on the walls.

i think this was a great idea for an open studio.

i put together a slideshow (reset the time to 2-3 seconds) and a set with a lot more artists, work, photos. it ran saturday and sunday (i hiked on sunday.)

fecal face blogged the show. they open with the postcard, which lists many of the artists.

immediate future at sfac gallery

2006-10-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

immediate future is the show for the 2006 murphy and cadogan "fine arts" fellowships. chosen from recent graduates from the local art and other colleges.

i like ryan pierce.

the full painting has nice color balance and nice detail work.

edmund wyss.

(his technical virtuosity reminds me of this coro painting, which i saw later saturday)

brice bischoff put together a 49 polaroid portrait called "disappeared (new orleans skyline)"

it lights up in person. i like polaroid constructions.

the postcard piece is a video by bessma khalaf titled "this land is my land."

i put together a 5-picture slideshow to give you the idea of the video.

there is a bunch more work in the show. this is a great chance to see who some folks think are the pick of the current crop of recent graduates with bachelor of arts degrees.

the show runs until october 28, 2006.
sfac gallery is at 401 van ness at mcallister
(across van ness from city hall)
they are open weds-sat 12-5. "always free."

my set includes a few more photos.

vitche and giant at 5024

2006-10-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

i went to three art shows on saturday. the first was vitche and mike giant at 5024 in sf's lower haight.

vitche

vitche, from sao paulo, brazil, mainly contributed painted sculptures.

this show includes nicely rendered small painted works.

some more complex than others.

folk. whimsy. romatic for some with the use of hearts.

the show includes three large paintings on canvas.

giant

mike giant also stepped up with strong work.

"the body as home."

"collision"

"racer"

"mom"

collector's notes

this show is great. vitche is a peer of os gemeos and herbert. deitch brought os gemeos to the international art markets (armory, art basel). this post gives background on this group. lost art has photos of their work, and others. i have a good os gemeos set&slideshow.

the work runs from $300 to $2200. my pick is the girl with the green shirt ($300) and the puppet with the birds ($1800).

mike moved from san francisco back to albuquerque in the past year or two, has a popular, and entertaining, blog on fecal face. mike is also highly sought after for tattoos. his line work is strong, confident.

his work was priced between $100 and $500. "mom" is "sharpie and pilot pen" for $500. "racer" is sharpie on wood for $200. "collision" is $150. this show has a variety of religious icons.

"mahakala"

five birds. two men on bikes. if you like mike's work, this is a good show for collecting. my picks are shown above.

see the set or the slideshow?

info on the show is posted on fecal face.

check out vitche's suitcase stuffed with sculptures, from upper playground's blog.

kim cogan and joel dugan at 111 minna

2006-10-10T10:03:00.000-07:00

last thursday i went to the opening of five painters at 111 minna.

i like kim cogan. i thought he really produced for his solo show at white walls earlier this year. kenneth baker from the chronicle glowed. so did michael leverton in sfweekly. good for kim (press coverage is coveted).

this show includes new work. "twilight"

"hibernia bank"

"9th avenue"

the work is pretty big. the above are priced reasonably, i think, at $1800, $4000, and $2000. would be hard for me to pick between twilight and 9th avenue.

the set includes three more of kim's paintings.

and some by joel dugan.

i appreciate his technical ability, color balance, emotional resonance. vegetarian me dislikes the subject matter.

who knows, maybe joel does too? is that his point?

see the set?

show info?

coming this week

2006-10-09T21:19:00.000-07:00

first of two-day open studios at white walls and shooting gallery
(view the slideshow or the set?)

vitche and mike giant at 5024
(view the slideshow or the set?)

111minna (kim cogan and joel dugan)
(view the set?)

murphy/cadogan fellowship show at sfac (9.14.06-10.28.06)
(view the slideshow or the set?)

chris johanson and david huffman murals

2006-10-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

i currently "work" in palo alto. this involves commuting on the lovely caltrain to california avenue in palo alto.

on my walk to work, i see this big chris johanson mural.

the mural is painted on a stucco wall between shops along an alley. it includes a sidebar with classic johanson philosophy:

good use of public art funds there in palo alto.

and, a few months back, david huffman painted an equivalent sized mural next to johanson's.

too wide angle for my camera.

the details include small men in space suits

interacting with the environment

meditating

i saw him paint it. in stages. early on, with the background and the color fields, it suggested kinship with the chris johanson.

my set for this blog has a few more photos.

these murals are best viewed life sized. in person. the light is good at noon, sun/shadow contrast at 4pm is less than optimal. the approximate address is 361 s california avenue, palo alto, ca. internet map?

david huffman has a show at patricia sweetow gallery through Oct. 14.

evah fan at gr2

2006-10-03T10:57:00.000-07:00

i got the postcard in the mail today for evah fan's solo show at gr2 in la.

evah has a different image for the show on her website.

evah is a talented illustrator. her work is humorous. her humor is somewhat odd (the show is titled "i bacon powder," for example). she is one of the small number of artists whose titles add value to the work. one of my favorite paintings of hers is called when you are no longer smart. i do not see anyone else whose work looks anything like evah's.

brendan monroe is also featuring the show on his news page, with links to two new works.

a good boyfriend (and fan), he.

i have seen evah's work in group and three person shows, but not yet a solo show. solo shows are the best opportunity to see work. in part, the work is created as part of a body of work. you generally pick up on the key features of an artist more quickly when you see the work together (in context). your understanding from all of the art informs each individual artwork. and, an artist has more room to fill in a solo show. this allows room to experiment. artists tend to push personal boundaries when they have a solo show. they often give more - breadth, sweat, heart.

evah also notes are her website that the show will include sculptures. she was in a sculpture show earlier this year at junc. with the sculptures, she brought to life one of the characters who recurs in her paintings.

the nyt's recent travel article on west la called sawtelle boulevard between missouri avenue and olympic boulevard "neo-tokyo in the heart of los angeles," noting that it is chock full of "noodle and boba (pearl tapioca tea) houses, tokyo street-wear shops and karaoke bars that are packed until the woozy hours of the morning — not just with fashionable japanese, but with college students and hipsters as well." the article focused on gr, so hopefully evah will see additional traffic.

the show runs october 7th to november 8th, 2006.

my boyfriend is in israel so we are going to miss the opening. hope to make it to la before the show closes.

rachell sumpter at gr-sf

2006-10-02T19:01:00.000-07:00

the fourth solo show we saw last saturday was rachell sumpter's frizzly gur at grsf in the upper haight.

this is my favorite piece in the show.

it shares a title cassiopeia, with a joanna newsom song. makes sense. i feel the people most in this painting. enjoying the comfort of a hug in between the crutch of a smoke.

not sure why she puts them in sami garb. sf gate picked the show for their 96 hours feature. the review quotes sumpter: "i draw people that i know, but wearing native clothes." i find myself drawn to her images but also somewhat offput by the clothing. for example, i know that no animals were killed in the making of the painted fur-lined coats but they still stir up my antipathy to animal fur as accessory.

the show also includes small (5" tall) sculptures - hand-carved and painted balsa wood.

i saw a set of three of these in junc's sculpture show on the web (scroll down) a while back and it was nice to see them in person.

the show also includes a painting of trees, which looks very different than the other work i have seen.

it reminds me of one of the klimt paintings that was just returned to the heirs of the original owners, although looking at that painting, i cannot articulate why.

art business also posted photos of some of the work in a current three-person show in supervisor mirikami's office (along with saches eckes and alika cooper). not sure when that show comes down.

as shown on her website, she also does intricate pen and ink botanicals (none in this show). and, she lists upcoming shows, including the fact that both motel gallery and richard heller gallery are representing her in miami in december.

grsf posted the work in their store. the show runs through october 18.

the sculptures range from $350 to $425 and many are still available. the paintings range from $750 to $1250. if you have been hankering for a rachell sumpter, this show presents good opportunities. and with richard heller and his ilk showing her in the future, her prices are only going up and it will become more difficult to get her work.

art show: donald urquhart at jack hanley sf

2006-09-29T00:35:00.000-07:00

the third solo show we went to last saturday was donald urquhart's "no axe to grind."

true enough.

the press release says he is originally from scotland, gravitated to london's drag scene, and appears to be doing well with "his sardonic ink drawings[, which] graphically exhibit his gay counter cultural heritage parodying camp, hollywood artifice, aubrey beardsley with the drawl humor of an embittered queen."

sure. gay themed editorial cartoon illustration.

i like the fault line tattoo here:

the leather daddy, in drag, with flowers, was well timed for the folsom street fair (as was the chaps-wearing, nipple-elongated, daddy straddling the fault).

the show has local humor:

gets comical-political:

invokes charlie brown.

this is art forum's only current pick for san francisco. new york has 10 picks, la and london 5 each, paris and zurich 4 each. whatever.

the review asserts that the "tart series of black-ink drawings are rooted in retro visions of the city’s queer history and acknowledge its lifestyle mood swings with sardonic wit. with a visual aesthetic that comes off as a mash-up of aubrey beardsley’s monochromatic graphic excess, “candyass” cary leibowitz’s lowercase phrasings, and rufus wainwright’s winking camp....a thematic thread of dreams gone theatrically awry is at the core of urquhart’s vision,...the artist grandly acknowledges the distracting entertainment value of bitchy self-loathing yet never underestimates its pathos."

right.

most of the work - back ink drawings around 16x20 (i made no notes, sorry) - was $2700. good for donald.

the show closes on saturday (9.30).

see the set?

art show: haden nicholl at little tree gallery

2006-09-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

the second solo show we saw on saturday was haden nicholl's "improvising in the field."

"electrocution bucket trap." titles matter in this show. they identify the sum of the parts shown, provide the goal for the active viewer. combine the elements, imagine the trap, work out the details.

the show also includes haden's own instructions.

i do not know much about haden. i liked his work at this year's monster drawing rally. a little research shows he simultaneously has a colaborative piece - live in environment with artist imagining mental hospital - with the most fabulous anna maltz. i haven't been. artbusiness has photos in the long feed here (scroll down).

some - like "incindiary bucket trap" - have many parts to puzzle.

others, like the postcard piece, "basic incendiary," are fairly easy to imagine.

i like the interactivity - the viewer completes the process. the work also reminds me of cartoon backgrounds, but with cartoon violence. i am not all that fond of violence. i know it happens. i feel it in myself at times. worse when i was the violent age (boys 15-25?). it is one of the things that i enjoy in haden's show. the reference points for imagining. but i would rather not fill my headspace with handy tools for contemplating - metaphorically - murder.

i am conflicted. my favorite is "stress release poison trap":

the corresponding instructions:

the work is well priced - two to six hundred or something like that.

view the set?

the show runs through oct. 1 at little tree gallery in sf's mission district. which means the gallery is open on sunday (thurs-sun) and the show closes this sunday.

art show: emily prince at eleanor harwood gallery

2006-09-27T23:32:00.000-07:00

we went to four solo art shows on saturday.

the first was emily prince at eleanor harwood gallery.

emily prince is a conceptual artist with a pencil. her contribution to bay area now 4 was a map dotted with portraits of us military casualties from the current iraq war. she updated the map as the exhibit, and war, continued. [update: this large work is now in the venice biennale] another project - at jack hanley - was generated from post cards people sent in identifying a line color and their birthday.

this show - titled familiar - has bicycles.

and scissors.

(the white spots are my flash - which did not get along with emily's pencil work)

and glasses.

the kinds of things a person might find comfort in.

the illustrations remind me of cartoon background illustrations, only more earnest and rendered solely in pencil. they are not the hyper-realism of ed loftus or rosana castrillo diaz.

view the 15 picture slideshow or set?

the show runs to oct. 6. the gallery is in sf's outer mission (1295 Alabama Street at 25th). i think the gallery is open thurs/fri 11-7. (eleanor's contact info may provide more guidance).

collector's notes

i think emily prince is doing well in the academic/museum art world. in addition to the last bay area now show at yerba buena, she was one of 30 who had studio visits by sf moma's seca this past year (she did not win but will likely be considered again). i think her bigger conceptual projects resonate with art's academia. success in this world often leads to exorbitant pricing.

this gallery - brand new - is also one to watch. eleanor has demonstrated curating success with her work at adobe book's backroom gallery (from late 2002).

i think emily will be known for the bigger conceptual projects like those cited above. this show - a coherent body of work - is more accessible. user-friendly. easily integrated into a home.

at $650 [now $950] for 18x24 (or thereabouts), it is also a great value.
06.07 update: you can still find available work by scrolling down here

my favorite piece was this one:

collector's notes: banksy prints

2006-09-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

six prints were available at the friday opening (9.15.6) of banksy's barely legal show in la earlier this month and quickly sold out. the prints are based on the following paintings: applause, festival, grannies, i can't believe, sale ends today, and trolley hunters.

for the most part, the prints were true to the paintings. trolley hunters was an exception.

the print is missing the blue sky and the yellow of the field.

100 of each print were sold in la. edition of 500. not clear where the other 400 are. you basically had to be there at noon when it opened (on friday) and stand in line for an hour to get a print. or, be invited to one of the previews (about half sold at the previews).

the prints were unsigned (not uncommon with banksy), 2-4 color silkscreen (i think) on good paper, $500 a piece, one of each print, per person, maximum.

as noted in an earlier posting, the nyt cited the $500 price as evidence that banksy was no longer a rebel (missing the fact that the original work was selling, to celebrities, for six-figures).

and, as it turns out, $500/each was a good deal for the prints. how good is still unclear.

grannies - my favorite print - sold (buy it now) for $1500 on 9.15.6.

on 9.21.6, grannies closed with 24 bids at $2550.

i put together a handy chart showing all sales to date.

as i write this, festival, with 4 hours to go, has 9 bids and is at $810. and sale ends today has 4 days left, 5 bids and is at $750.

interestingly, banksy's kate moss print, in edition of 20, recently sold (buy it now) for a little over $17,000.

the seller's case for this price was "in years to come these are sure to be on a par with the original warhol marilyn interpretation - originals of which fetch 6 figure sums (and they were in editions of 250!!) most of the "kates" were sold in sets of 6 to famous artists and collectors and very few singles were ever sold. an a/p (artist proof) recently sold at a london gallery for £14k...."

i don't know about that. the kate moss image is too much of a take off of warhol. i know the art world loves referential art, but think that banksy's more clever street work, on canvas or silkscreen, has the better claim to being the signature piece.

the most iconic, for me, that i have seen as a print is the boy throwing the flowers.

i think it was an adbusters cover. banksy has used it a lot. the girl hugging the bomb, the military helicopters, and the girl with the heart balloon would all be contenders (the girl with the heart balloon was shown, on a wall, in woody allen's match point).

i think banksy has a shot at being warhol's peer. the press loves banksy and the art world responds to press. his star is rising much more than it is falling. i have already said i think banksy will make it into the art history books. six figures for a 5 color silkscreen print seems highly unlikely to me. but who knows?

at some point, the price of art disengages from the reality of its creation. banksy is there.

if i ran an art investment fund, i would have been at the preview and purchased one or two good original banksy's at the extraordinary price. it would be a good value given banksy's trajectory. but those folks probably don't get to hang the art on the wall and enjoy the investment.

logic suggests that the prints are a reasonable value at the current ebay prices. some risk. the prices are high - shepard fairy still sells signed screen prints for around $30. the collector base may exhaust itself. who knows? of course, a much better investment if purchased at the show.

stretch mix (project)

2006-09-25T18:08:00.000-07:00

this posting is moving to proper observations

"it smells of sulfur still today"

2006-09-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

"vice president dick cheney is a 'blood-thirsty beast.'"

true enough.

this posting is moving to proper observations

choe at blvd

2006-09-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

did you see my post on internet tuning? well, my google alert yielded more choe fruit.

first, it pointed me to a feature on choe in seattle's the stranger.

second, it pointed me back to blvd. clicking through, i found that the gallery now has the work online.

the show includes big panel pieces (4'x4') of choe's twin 1 and twin 2.

the blue-haired twins may be familiar. choe painted them on one of the doors next to 5024 on fillmore in sf's lower haight.

in a nice moment, we ran into david choe when he was cleaning up from painting the above. i like my street art local and fresh. someday i will document such happy coincidences with photos.

wanna see the full door?

they were also still up at gr2 in la when we went there a few weekends back. not sure how that happens, but i like it.

the show also includes a portrait from choe's 3 months in a tokyo prison. tiny vices features some of the other work, which provides some context (e.g., he used soy sauce, ink, urine). choe produced a zine with some(?) of the work, which i missed.

collector's notes

none of the work was listed as sold when i checked earlier today. that may change now that it is posted on juxtapoz.

i think the above work is a reasonable value for david choe. he is a talented and somewhat unpredictable painter. he takes "risks" - some of which do not work for me. but he always has work that i find to be compelling. i am not alone - wooster collective often promotes david choe. and i have heard some artists i respect also compliment his work. two primary risks for his artistic career are (1) he gets into more trouble than a 3 month stay in a tokyo prison; and/or (2) he spends his creative energy working for advertising. those are both risks with a number of emerging artists (the second, perhaps, more than the first).

each twin above is $3500 (48"x48", acrylic, spray enamel).

the tokyo prison portrait is soy sauce, ball point pen on paper, 9"x11" ($1000).

the show has some $300 and $400 pieces. my pick would be his smaller whale which looks like it is from 2003. 8.5"x11", pencil/watercolor on paper, $300. i like his whale icons (an image which he repeats) and this piece, while sad, is fully realized and compelling to me.

kids getting up

2006-09-20T13:11:00.000-07:00

outside of thinkspace last friday night, i saw a true youngster getting up.

i caught it all in a slideshow.

i like ert's candy stencil.

and her installation candy.

mildred put down a stencil

similar to his painting in the thinkspace show

i like this icecream sticker (not sure who made it).

ok, the sweet girl at the top wasn't really putting up.

or, rather, she first unpeeled the stickers from the trash can. then celebrated her victory by showing just how she did it, miming an instant replay with a silent commentary. when that got boring, she wasn't sure what to do. hold the sticker? put the sticker back? put sticker on parent for safe keeping?

file under "children are sweet."

thinkspace

2006-09-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

we went to thinkspace the past two friday nights. the first was the opening night for their new "picks of the harvest" show. there is a lot of art. it was crowded. not so crowded that you couldn't see the art, but nearly. the second friday - after the banksy show - was part of an art crawl. it was not crowded. not uncomfortably empty - there were people there. although i prefer empty for viewing art. andrew and shawn create a nice environment for looking at the work.

so, there were more than 100 artists in the show. the lat covered the show and the gallery.

i liked this medium piece. aka nicholas digenova.

he is having a show in ny right now that i would love to see.

i loved this travis millard couple

care to see the left or the right bigger?

alex pardee is great.

as is mike maxwell

he is in a three person show at shooting gallery that i need to check out in person. show runs through 10.05.06.

my set from the show is here. i only photographed a small portion of the show, knowing that thinkspace has all of the work here.

collector's notes

most of the above work was priced under $300. it is a great show. a wide variety of talent. a lot sold. a lot has not yet sold. this show has a lot of good value. like mike maxwell's abe lincoln piece for $250? i do.

lat on bozic

2006-09-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

the lat covered tiffany bozic's solo show at blk/mrkt (previously blogged).

this is great news for tiffany. art generally does not get that much press. as a consequence, the few shows that are covered garner extra attention (while the show is open) and recognition (after the show has closed). this is also a good sign for collectors.

the review highlighted her untitled painting of an owl:

"Superbly rendered in thin, almost translucent acrylic on smooth maple panels, the paintings have the air of Audubon-era nature illustrations but with a surrealist twist. Limbs and vines, bones and branches, roots and veins, flowers, fur and feathers mingle and morph into dense, organic clusters, set against stark, empty landscapes."

"One of the finest examples is an untitled painting, roughly 2 feet square, of a white owl with a bloodied white mouse in its claws, hovering, wings spread, against a snowy white backdrop. A ribbon of feathery red blood vessels issues from the body of the mouse to wrap around the owl's claws; two additional ribbons spill from the owl's eyes, winding around each wing. Despite the shock of blood, it's a curiously peaceful image, pointing to the profound connectedness, even harmony, between predator and prey."

michael

2006-09-18T17:49:00.000-07:00

this posting is moving to proper observations

banksy's barely legal show (la warehouse, 09.06)

2006-09-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

we went to banksy's show at an la warehouse over the weekend. i have not seen much of banksy's work in person, so this show was a real treat.

it was nice to see his reworked flea-market paintings in person:

and, the gay cops in the back of the van are hot:

the nyt, ever vigilant, reported that the "how's my bombing" sticker on the back of the van has an 800 number for a navy recruiting office in phoenix. banksy also included the original stencil for the liplocked cops.

the show included recent street work on canvas:

and, many of banksy's greatest hits.

(including the stencil)

overall, it was a nice show. the setting was large enough to house an elephant and leave sufficient space for the fans to checkout all of the work. they screened a 7 minute film comprised of some of his stunts (ny museum placement of banksy's work, disneyland, paris hilton cds, etc.) and some quick shots of his work in public. i have seen a lot of it on the web but it was nice to see on a big screen and without bandwidth issues. banksy's film crew was also present, interviewing folks about banksy and the work.

i took a nearly complete set of the entire show with my digital camera (not included are the sculptures, elephant, and sketches). view the slideshow?

the media

somehow i was not invited to banksy's wednesday night preview of his la warehouse show (for the press). once again, banksy worked the media. google news identifies a number of news sources that covered the event, from the usa, uk, canada, australia, china. the show made the nyt and even al jazeera.

collector's notes

the original work was priced from around $25,000 for a very small piece to $500,000 for a truck with multiple stencils (also including the kissing cops above). most of the original paintings were priced between $100,000 and $300,000. we heard that most of the work sold out at banksy's thursday night preview for la's a-list.

they also had prints of some of the work in the show, including the lovely painting of knitting grandmothers.

ironically, the nyt posited that sales of prints at $500 each "would seem to go against Banksy’s rebel image." they could have made a stronger point by identifying the sales of original work to hollywood's elite for $100,000 to $300,000 a pop.

the response in the nyt from banksy's "spokesman" (i still want that job) was “yes, there probably is some contradiction....it depends on what he does with the money, right? maybe he makes more art. maybe he’s getting more ambitious.” banksy's take in the la weekly interview was "when someone buys my work, they know that they’re indirectly funding street damage, and you’d be surprised who’s cool with that."

my view is that it might as well be banksy who makes that kind of return on his paintings. banksy is the godfather of stencil painting. he helped to create the genre within street art. his work is beautifully rendered. he inspires plenty of kids working in the streets. and now, he is helping to bring stencil work - and other street art - to the upper echelon of the fine art world. banksy is the top of his field. if anyone should command that price for a painting - and many do - i am happy to see that it is banksy getting up. i hope he keeps his head. so far, so good.

and, i recognize that at some point the price of art is more a fact of the status of the artist than the art itself. the brand name of the artist places the value of the work into a different category. banksy is now an art world superstar - commanding sums more akin to the movie stars who purchase his work. banksy is certainly not contending that his prices are somehow related to his labor. on the contrary, he seems to tease, noting in the la weekly interview that "some of the paintings have taken literally days to make." his spokesman reiterated the point to the nyt, noting that "some of them took literally hours to paint."

nevertheless, these works were probably a good buy. right now, all indications are that his career is taking off, not peaking. the work in the show was very strong. there is a lot of demand for his work and that will only grow as his celebrity continues. banksy arguably has a spot in the art history books as the grandfather of stencil work and the first street art celebrity of the 21st century. at that point, it seems, big works for $300,000 may be a bargain. will be interesting to see where banksy goes from here. whether he crosses over to the big contemporary art fairs (banksy at art basel?), the venice or whitney biennials, big museum shows?

the prints are also likely a good value. i heard the prints were edition of 100, only available at the show. from looking at ebay, it looks like the prints were edition of 500 but only 100 were released at the show. they need to work out these kinks - and present a clear message to the public - or they are going to get sued.

nevertheless, these same prints could be found, within 24 hours, on ebay with sellers seeking $1500-$3000 per print. the market will ultimately tell but having followed the pricing of banksy's prints to date, the asking price for the new prints is not unreasonable. however, it does feel a bit like the other economic bubbles in the market. time will tell.

given that banksy's original work is out of my range, i took a series of polaroids (many shown above). these will allow me to create my own banksy installation at home. view the polaroids?

study (disappearing sky)

2006-09-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

remember rigo23's sky? the big mural that used to be across minna from sfmoma.

i loved that mural. bold. simple. clever. fun. visual space claimed for art (not advertising). when i first saw the crane (from the construction of the paramount) blocking the sky, i took a photo. seemed emblematic of the time. the sky was full of construction cranes (still is).

i decided to make a photo study of the disappearance of sky. and, its sibling ground. the sky study has eight primary photos which show what happened to sky from april 2000 through september 2003 (the last sighting).

view the slideshow? or the set?

the study also includes photo constructions.

(see it bigger?)

i like physically piecing together photographic prints. additional detail photos and photo constructions from the study are here.

i met rigo23 along the way.

it was one of those perfect moments. i had my tripod set up and was working on photographing the concomitant destruction of the ground mural. i saw rigo taking pictures. he came up and introduced himself. he liked my project. i shared my photos. we became friends.

one of my projects as a photographer has been documenting street art. i use a medium format camera (among others). i pay attention to lighting, framing. i return and rephotograph work - sometimes repeatedly - until i get something that i think is sufficient (or the work has been destroyed). the previously blogged kilgallen and mcgee from the lacma parking garage is a good example. i also recorded most of os gemeos work in san francisco from a few years back (the first thirteen in the linked set are from sf). most have now been painted over. with this work, my policy is to make the work available if the artists want to use it (for books or whatever).

i do not think of this documentation work as my "art." instead, it is part of a somewhat preservationist mission to make sure we have good documentation of amazing work that is somewhat ephemeral.

i also work on my own "art" as a photographer. currently online, i have my ongoing study of san francisco from 2006 and another from before. i also have another study called rest in peace. (i have more online and off)

my disappearing sky and disappearing ground studies are somewhat of a hybrid. they document rigo's murals. and, they add through documentation over more than three years. in thinking about this for some time, i am comfortable that the studies are sufficiently transformative for me to think of them as my "art."

i would like to show this work in a gallery. rigo is ok with this. prints are 20x20 (i think; could go 30x30 or 40x40). anyone interested?

tiffany bozic's solo show in la

2006-09-11T22:58:00.000-07:00

we went to the opening of tiffany bozic's solo show at blk/mrkt in culver city. the show runs through october 21 and is definitely worth checking out.

i am a junkie for tiffany's work. i generally respond to art which makes a strong showing in three categories:
(1) unique voice -- not repeating someone else's work;
(2) artistic excellence -- i value illustration and rendering skills, artistic craft; and
(3) emotional resonance.

tiffany's new show is spectacular on all fronts.

first, her voice is clear. you recognize her paintings. in part, none of her peers can replicate her work. in part, the content is uniquely tiffany's. as the la weekly said "Tiffany Bozic is a new traditionalist informed by Audubon and Rousseau.... Bozic has built her young career on surrealist, anatomical/botanical fantasies; beautifully rendered yet sometimes haunting and gruesome, void of irony and absolute with sincerity."

second, her skills are exceptional. beyond old master. she generally devotes 2-4 weeks on her bigger paintings. she puts in overtime. check out the detail -- for example, the eye -- on this painting:

(see the full painting here)

third, you feel life in her paintings. read and respond to the body language when viewing the work. this show includes a number of pieces which focus on the joys of love and coupling.

tiffany's work often incorporates metaphor. for example, the cover piece is of a "monkey eating eagle."

the bird exists in nature - it is the national bird of the phillipines which, according to this site, usually eats flying lemurs. the representation is graphic and disturbing. the rendering is beautiful and loving. a closer inspection shows that the bird's legs are intertwined with - a part of - a plant. the flora and fauna inextricably linked.

i took copy photos for tiffany of the four smaller paintings before she took them to la. i also brought my lights and cameras down to take photos of the installation.
(note: the photo takes a few seconds to load when you scroll --> --> --> patience)

the miceball in the background is amazing in person.

the individual mice are rendered beautifully.

(a differenttake)

collector's notes:

i think the work is a good value. as noted in an earlier blog, the show is receiving good press. in addition, the show was la weekly's art pick of the weekend - no small task in a crowded field.

(update: the show was also reviewed favorably in the lat.)

the postcard piece (phillipine eagle above) is expensive ($11,000). the artist - who typically earns only 50%-60% of the sales price - has invested one month full time and is only paid if and when the work sells. and, she has to cover the costs of the materials. in this light, the price appears to be expensive but reasonable given the quality of the work and the costs of a months full time work. it is a signature piece (used on the postcard, in the ads). it is huge. my guess is that tiffany will only produce 5-10 big paintings a year. as demand exceeds supply, her prices will increase and the market will provide tiffany with more economic freedom to continue to invest time into her art. tiffany does not repeat herself with new paintings and since she produces a small number of signature pieces, these pieces should hold their place in her catalog. she is still emerging and her work will only get more expensive as the market finds her.

the individual mice on eggs (shown above) are more affordable at $300 each. these are also beautifully rendered so that you see and feel the life of each mouse. i am happy that tiffany is able to also produce the smaller work - like the hummingbirds from the last show - which expand the field of people who can afford her work.

looking further
the photos i took of the work are here. i did not take quality photos of the five bigger paintings or the six masks (and am hoping they will appear elsewhere on the web since i know good photos exist).

note: ert from juxtapoz has now posted more photos of the show here.

banksy news

2006-09-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

so, we went down to la for tiffany bozic's opening at blk/mrkt. we had an extra hour after trying to take some copy shots of the mice egg installation on sunday (sweet, more on this later). and decided to look for some banksy.

good chance he was in town given his recent handicraft at disneyland. and, there is banksy's big show at a warehouse somewhere in la this coming up weekend. we heard there was work on melrose so we went looking.

first we found a new(?) banksy on melrose.

and two older rats: out of bed and dressed and advertising is yucky.

then, on the other side of the building with the new banksy (shown above), we saw shepard fairy putting up an obey over banksy.

see the slideshow.

i wouldn't want to go over banksy. but i think they are friends and maybe banksy is one of the other guys on the roof when shepard is doing this (i do not know what he looks like).

also spotted a bird looking for shoes or something.

and a clare rojas in culver city (next to some gallery or other).

coming up -- tiffany bozic at blk/mrkt

2006-09-07T21:13:00.000-07:00

tonight is the internet preview for the tiffany bozic show. if you contacted blk/mrkt to request to be on their list for this show, then you got the email. and tomorrow (friday), you get the opportunity to purchase in order of your placement on the list.

fecal face has tiffany bozic featured in two columns which are currently side by side:

one uses tiffany's postcard piece at the end of a long list of art shows to see this week. the other discusses cohen's art, a project where someone named "aye jay" got a number of artists to collaborate on work started by his(?) 6 year old son. the small image shown next to the link for the article is a bozic bird (side by side with another very different bozic bird). read all about cohen's art?

john trippe also includes a photo of a musician and a painter standing in front of the bozic painting featured at fecal face's recent 125 anniversary of the internet show (buried with a bunch of other photos on his blog).

flavorpill features tiffany's (older) open heart painting with a description of the show in the table of contents for the current mailer.

good to see the support. hopefully the local and art press will also step up.

internet tuning

2006-09-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

these sometimes work. alert for david choe fan (below) -- solo show at blvd in seattle. my guess was that blvd would have a good web presence -- post the work, identify efficient means to purchase. they do not: e.g., http://www.blvdart.com/artists.htm (coming soon)!

these searches, with tuning and luck, can be useful ways of getting all sorts of information. need information? try it.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Google Alerts
Date: Sep 6, 2006 7:33 PM
Subject: Google Alert - "david choe"
To: proper's notes

Google Alert for: "david choe"

First Day of School
TheStranger.com - Seattle,WA,USA
... his MFA at UW last year) at the Lee Center for the Arts; photographer Chris Engman's debut at Greg Kucera; and, opening next week at BLVD, David Choe, the San ...

kilgallen and mcgee -- lacma parking garage (rip)

2006-09-04T22:55:00.000-07:00

did you see the paintings by margaret kilgallen (rip) and barry mcgee in the lacma parking garage? originally painted as part of the "made in california" show (2000). destroyed in 12.05 with the parking garage they decorated. they could have been saved -- by the fucking art museum -- but were not. (lacma saved one of margaret's wood panels and took photos -- like me). according to tyler green's op-ed in the lat, hiring a concrete-cutting firm to cut as many works as could have been saved "would probably cost less than $100,000." given that barry's bigger pieces fetch more than 100k and that margaret's work is now irreplaceable, the museum should have found a solution.

i went to la and photographed the work (twice) before it was destroyed. i am generally happy with the photos, which are good evidence of how short-sighted the decision was to destroy this work.

view the slideshowor the set

pcp at gr-sf

2006-09-04T20:34:00.000-07:00

pcp

pcp at grsf (through sept. 30, 2006)

pcp (heisuke kitazawa) reminds me of jordan crane . in a good way, like they could be artistic siblings. not in a bad way, like "this guy is biting jordan crane." complimentary. i like his work. generally what he is doing.

i like narrative work; fully-realized illustrations; i like the way he
dislodges the narrative image in some of the work with additional
layers (which also reminds me of kozyndan). his characters are alive.
you can read their body language. they elicit an emotional response.
they could be animation stills.

we talked with pcp. he was friendly and sweet.

i have been hesistant with purchasing digital art. in part, there is an inclination to focus on "original" work, which is often a better value. with so many talented artists producing original work (editions of 1), it is easy to exclude all prints. in some cases (e.g., giclees), digital work may simple be a poster or print of an original work. in other cases (e.g., photograph, silkscreens and the various print processes), the print is the end work. with pcp and others pushing the digital art boundaries, i see that the digital prints are not a copy of original work but original work created in small multiples -- using new tools the artist's toolbox.

pcp draws, scans, photoshops, prints, paints, scans, photoshops...
until he is happy with the final image. he then prints the image,
paints in the white and yellow (which do not print well), and paints
a layer of clear acrylic on top. he sells his work in edition of 5 and
i think is a reasonable value (e.g., the postcard piece above, and you know where to find me -- 12"x18", acrylic, digital print on wood, edition of 5, were priced at $500).

grsf posted the work.
pcp also has a website with lots of fun stuff: hypehopewonderland.