SFMOMA ARTISTS GALLERY - SANDRA LEE - DON SOKER

MARTIN LAWRENCE - 60SIX - NOWHERESVILLE

ICTUS - NEEDLES & PENS

01.02.13 Part I

(with assistance from Kathryn Arnold, Tami Tsark and RWM)



Wonder what the SF art scene was like in 2009? Click Here.

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SFMOMA Artists Gallery: Carol Lefkowitz, Toru Sugita, Juan Miguel Santiago.

Review by Kathryn Arnold: Pools of cool hues appear to descend in suspended space in Carol Lefkowitz's series of works in this show... some on paper others on canvas. The less saturated background elements create a depth of field, like shadows from the surface. Compositions feature no beginning and no end as one peers into these glistening fields.

Toru Sugita brings various printing methods into play such as etchings with aquatint and woodblock. Masterful and casual, compositions with images that feel familiar yet unnoticed with such specificity.

I find myself fascinated by Juan Miguel Santiago's small boxes-- are they unfired earthenware? Yet some appear glazed. The interior spaces of the 'red' ones evoke places such as Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas or garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. The nearness of forms congesting the interior open spaces seem like unspoken allegories. The boxes propose a sense of contained solitude.

Review by Tami Sloan Tsark: Toru Sugita's gorgeous etchings and engravings take you deep into the atmosphere of "l'endroit" which he portrays. His signature shadows (which he describes as things that "make spaces visible") give the viewer a sense of present space with a reminder of something past. In his work, you gain a sense of the immediacy of a moment "on its way out."

Juan Miguel Santagio's work, while modest in its presentation, is engaging. His "memory containers", are beautiful ceramic columns of space encased in cubes which he describes as "shifting perspectives from different points of view." I'm going to keep my eye on this artist's work!

Carol Lefkowitz's paintings are comprised of ethereal shapes which take you into curtains or planes which she describes as "metaphorical net(s) of my paintings' evolution." The artist presents the work as "activity of painting... hauled up in its process-- transparency, opacity, rhythm, stillness... depth, flatness, immersion and submersion." There is a dreamlike quality to the shapes and spaces that contain them.

Review by Tami Tsark: Toru Sugita's gorgeous etchings and engravings take you deep into the atmosphere of "l'endroit" which he portrays. His signature shadows (which he describes as things that "make spaces visible") give the viewer a sense of present space with a reminder of something past. In his work, you gain a sense of the immediacy of a moment "on its way out."

Juan Miguel Santagio's work, while modest in its presentation, is engaging. His "memory containers" are beautiful ceramic columns of space encased in cubes, which he describes as "shifting perspectives from different points of view." I'm going to keep my eye on this artist's work!

Carol Lefkowitz' paintings are ethereal shapes which take you into curtains or planes which she describes as "metaphorical net(s) of my paintings' evolution." The artist describes the work as "activity of painting...hauled up in its process --transparency, opacity, rhythm, stillness...depth, flatness, immersion and submersion." There is a dreamlike quality to the shapes and the space that contain them.

Comment by AB: My fave-- etchings & engravings by Toro Sugita. This dude is good; check him out.

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Sanda Lee Gallery: Jungsan Senim - Solo Show, Painting and Performance.

Review by Kathryn Arnold: An afternoon to remember-- a powerful metaphorical performance relating to the cycle of life/death/life culminating in a climatic act of pouring earthen colors (for example the color of mud) over his head, staining the pristine monk garments in which he has ritualistically dressed. Unearthly and earthy at the same time. Bravo!

The artworks on exhibition also contain metaphor. This year Jungsan Senim has incorporated razor blades and all their connotations of pain. Yet the razor is one of the few items, historically speaking, a Buddhist monk (and Jungsan is a Korean Buddhist monk) is able to own so perhaps non-western metaphors speak also.

The razors look beautiful, defying aspects of pain, creating a dichotomy of the pleasure/pain principle. Luckily for the viewer they are contained within plexiglas framed structures and are untouchable. Much can be said about Jungsan Senim's work-- so much in fact that it is best to take a trip to the gallery.

Comment by AB: Worth a visit.

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Don Soker Contemporary Art: Peter Boyer.

Comment by AB: Twenty-year survey of layered segmented abstractions by former designer/builder Peter Boyer. A group of more recent small works on concrete panels are also worth a look.

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Martin Lawrence Gallery: Masters of Pop.

Artists: Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat, Edward Ruscha, Mark Kostabi, more.

Review by RWM: Grand show erases time and brings one into contact with all sorts of famous Pop Art personages. Some very famous artists on display here for a show that is mind boggling.

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Gallery 60SIX: Distraction - Heike Liss, Huey Crowley, Laina Terpstra.

Comment by AB: Heike Liss furs up everything including a handgun, a pail, a ladder and amorphous forms. Do we need more fur than we already have? Perhaps. Cogitate on that matter here. Also on the docket, Huey Crowley appears to riff on George Grosz while Laina Terpstra goes bold, hard-edge and abstract-representational in black and white.

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Nowheresville: Moments That Move - Amani King, Judy Parker, Mark Rogero. Curated by Melissa Guerrero.

Comment by AB: Curator Melissa Guerrero shows cell phone photographs by her three favorite Instagram practitioners. So what is art? In recent decades, it's been whatever you want it to be... assuming you can make a respectable case for it... as has been made here. In this Digital Age, more so than ever before, the paramaters of what constitutes art are redefined continually.

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Ictus Gallery: Rituals of Water - Rodney Ewing.

Review by RWM: Great to see concern over water which is quickly becoming a precious resource. Not fully contained as a metaphor here. Some argue that water should be a commodity; others more knowingly argue that it should be a right. Wars can be started and fought over it. Our relation to water takes all sorts of turns among the people gathered and depicted here for this exploration of its impact on some members of the developing world, and of our community, both historically and today. Sad and sweet message, but to the point. Water, firstly a right and then a commodity if you ask me. A source of problems as shown here, nonetheless.

Comment by AB: Rodney Ewing is an undeniable talent. His art is direct, defiant, uncomfortable, unpretty, unrelenting, in your face... and a hard sell. And so the galleries cower. Confronting the truth is never pleasant, especially when there's no hint of a happy ending. Perhaps we'd all rather wallow in pap? Certainly seems that way sometimes. I wonder who's gonna step up and give Ewing the exposure he deserves?

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Addendum:

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