FINE PRINT FAIR - YBCA - JESSICA SILVERMAN

ROMER YOUNG - RECOLOGY

01.24.14



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San Francisco Fine Print Fair: Preview Benefit for Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts.

Exhbitors: The Annex Galleries, Joel R. Bergquist Fine Arts, Catherine E. Burns Fine Prints, William Carl Fine Prints, Davidson Galleries, Egonolf Gallery, Pia Gallo, Roger Genser, Conrad R. Graeber Fine Art, Jan Johnson Prints, Kiechel Fine Art, R.E. Lewis & Daughter, M Lee Stone Fine Prints, Ruiz Healy Art, Stoney Road Press Ireland, The Tolman Collection, Warnock Fine Arts, The Verne Collection.

Comment by AB: Fans and connoisseurs of fine prints love this show. See the best of everything here-- contemporary, antique, Old Master, American, European, Asian, etchings, engravings, lithographs, serigraphs, woodcuts, color, black & white, and plenty more. More of the good stuff in greater concentrations than you'll see anywhere else in Ess Eff all year long.

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Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Room for Big Ideas: The Chasm Arena.

Artists: Zeina Barakeh with Michal Gavish, Cece Carpio, Cybele Lyle, Dennis Kim with Michelle Lee.

Comment by AB: The Internet through populist movements can impact, influence and even alter the course of history. This exhibit is mainly about that. Options include a sideways waterfall, phone bank along a wall, you getting to see yourself in garbs of other cultures and religions, and more. Stop on by.

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Jessica Silverman Gallery: Tammy Rae Carland - Live From Somewhere.

Comment by AB: Performing live can be simultaneously petrifying and fantastic in all kinds of ways. The focus is totally on you and requires you to believe to the core of your soul that you have a message to deliver. It's either now or not. And for those who succeed, not is never an option. Quality show; go see.

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Romer Young Gallery: Excavator - Joseph Hart.

Comment by AB: According the the explanatory, this mixed-media proliferation has to do with "relics from Hart's youth" considered as sort of tributes to change. Not easy to see this in the work, though it doesn't stop me from enjoying the show. Some say difficult art is the only art, and difficult explanatories are the qualified bona fide art collectors' meow. I'm aware of all that, but just between you and me, sometimes I need a better grip. As much as artists may detest copping to the fact that they're all perfectly capable of describing their art in everyday street-speak terms, give it a shot on occasion. It only takes a moment to thrill me.

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Recology Artist in Residence Program: Stephanie Syjuco - Modern Ruins (Popular Cannibals); Yulia Pinkusevich - The Glory of a Tool is Seldom Judged by Its Handle; Brittany Watkins - The Time Objects Tell.

Comment by AB: Stephanie Syjuco whips up a mid-century modern design frenzy every bit as engaging as you might see at galleries selling the genuine articles. We've got ersatz homages to Herman Miller, Harry Bertoia, Alvar Aalto, Mies van der Rohe, Bauhaus textiles, Isamu Noguchi and more-- all made out of trash, all so real you think they're functional (which they're not). Directly behind this designer Hall of Fame is an aesthetically assembled array of grey-painted throwaways, the totality every bit as engrossing as the most complex Old Master still life. This is definitely among the best shows I've ever seen here.

In the rear gallery, Yulia Pinkusevich concocts an impressive projected shadowy metropolis out of miscellaneous discards plus a display of regimented cement encased shovels, cassette tape wall art, and more. Also on the dance card are sculptures and installations by Brittany Watkins.

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