Yerba Buena Center for the Arts - San Francisco Art Openings

YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS

BIG DEAL & BLOW UP
LEON BORENSZTEIN AND CREATIVE GROWTH
RICKY JAY BROADSIDE COLLECTION

OPENING 01.21.05

Comment: Hello Yerba Buena, goodbye sanctimoniousness; it's time for another rollicking round robin three-fer. We've got preposterous historic broadsides from the collection of Ricky Jay, outside-the-bounds-of-art art from the artists of Creative Growth, and big big big art from normal-sized artists.

Black Rock style biggies fill the main exhibition space including a rhinoceros constucted out of road-weary orange traffic cones, a Spanish galleon built from manila folders, and a giant flying squirrel made with orgami-ized folded photographs. Scott Snibbe's "Blow Up" fills an upstairs viewing room. You're supposed to blow on this bank of mini-fans, controlled by computer, to make a bank of full-sized fans move in harmony with your blow-- but I watched closely, and the big fans only kind of knew what the little fans were up to. Curious nonetheless.

I've seen actor, sleight-of-hand artist, historian, publisher, author Ricky Jay ambling about antiquarian bookfairs and similar events for many years. Now I finally know what he was up to. He's been accumulating historic broadsides (sheets of paper that advertise events, kind of like the ones people staple to phone poles, except Jay's pre-date staples and phone poles). Wanna buy a chicken incubating machine, or see a flea circus, a bullet catcher, a singing mouse, or an equestrian beekeeper? Jay's broadsides tell you what it is, and where it's happenin'.

Creative Growth encourages artfulness among adults with physical, mental, and developmental disabilities, and some of that artfulness is extremely compelling not only aesthetically, but in what it teaches us about the true potential of fellow human beings who many of us sell short. Leon Borensztein celebrates these talented artists in a series of sensitive black and white portrait photographs; the artists chip in a healthy selection of inspired creatibles.

Artists: Scott Snibbe, Sheri Simons, Christopher Taggart, Jim Denevan, Michael Arcega, Johnston Foster, Judith Scott, Donald Mitchell, Dwight Mackintosh, William Scott, Leon Borensztein, others.

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Big art.

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Road cone rhino.

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Blow 'n' watch.

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Watchin' the blow.

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Broadside maestro Ricky Jay.

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Decapitation contemplation.

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Creative Growth artist portraits.

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Art (William Scott).

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Outsider art author/authority John M. MacGregor.

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Creative Growth art.

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Big folded photo floating squirrel art.

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Big bird art.

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Manila folder boat.

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Bird feet tree art.

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Big photographs of big outdoor art.

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Broadside partial.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
415.978.2787








Articles © Alan Bamberger 2005. All rights reserved.