optic illusion

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

("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

@ 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

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

@ 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

@ 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

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

@ 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

"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

@ 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

@ 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.