JACK FISCHER - MARX & ZAVATTERO - CHANDLER
BAER RIDGWAY - DI ROSA PRESERVE - LITTLE TREE
02.21.09
(with assistance from R.W. Miller and Marian Ferrara)

Chandler Fine Art: Hannah Wachs - The Assistant's Nightmare.

Review by R.W. Miller: Rendered in black and white, the work displayed is at times as haunting as the exhibit's title, The Assistant's Nightmare. We see here lonely and desolate places. Symbols like open doors, windows, and birds in cages are also apparent. The empty places and the neutrality stemming from the lack of color make the works stark and at times spooky. The bird decides not to venture outwards and the landscapes are empty of them. The renderings assembled give one pause to stop and contemplate, and perhaps even to worry.

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Baer Ridgway Exhibitions: Tyler Cufley - Tell Everyone That You're Smiling.

Comment by AB: The expository on announcement card includes the phrase "greasy geese," a masterpiece of alliterative assonance. As for the show, Tyler Cufley comments on our contempory culture, and rather harshly so, but he's right. His polyethylene dumpster filled with tubular flourescent lamps, for example, epitomizes the throwaway nature of our economy, the dumpster made from of non-recyclable items that-- you guessed it-- basically always end up in the dump. Worth a visit.

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di Rosa Preserve: (un)Natural.

Artists: Jessica Cadkin, Ross Campbell, Misako Inaoka, Carrie Lederer, Kathryn Spence, Lucrecia Troncoso, Tara Tucker. Curated by Michael Schwager.

Comment by AB: This is my first time ever in the history of anything that's ever happened anywhere that I tootle my heinie out to the wondrous di Rose Preserve. Basically, I've got about a three hour gap between San Francisco art openings, so why not use the time to go to an art opening? Makes sense, right? And yes, the experience is worth every drop of gas I combust in order to get here. In tonight's genteel episode, seven Bay Area artists respond to the current state of nature and the environment, and of course, those who manipulate them to their own ends. It's all good here; stop by if you be in da hood.

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Little Tree Gallery: Margaret Tedesco - Body Double.

Comment by AB: Margaret Tedesco effects an ode to what may well be the weirdest storefront window in San Francisco (though it's not really a store, but rather a vacant space with stuff in it)-- and it's been that way for years and years, ever so imperceptibly changing on random occasions according to the inscrutible whims of the incommunicado owner. For those interested in seeing the actual window on which Tedesco's video and installation are based, it's about a half a block down 22nd St. from Little Tree, across Guerrero and on the same side of the street.

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