SAN FRANCISCO ART GALLERIES OPENINGS

FIRST THURSDAY - 04.07.11 Part II

(with assistance from Geoff Smith, Clare Coppel and RWM)



Art opening protocol for artists. Click Here.

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Togonon Gallery: Dean Dempsey - Selected Photography & Installation.

Comment by AB: Dean Dempsey takes his alter-egos on another wild ride. Who says you can't live multiple lives simultaneously? I'm already lookin' forward to the next exciting episode. Check it out.

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Cain Schulte Gallery: Jessica Drenk + Shawn Smith - 8-bit and Mixed Media Sculptures.

Review by Clare Coppel: Works by Jessica Drenk and Shawn Smith focus on different views of computer technology. Shawn Smith's colorful 3-D repersentations of plants and animals jump out at the viewer. Jessica Drenk uses found materials such as books and toothpicks to create symbolic abstract works, like the way the internet takes random information and absorbs it to create the whole.

Review by RWM: Lego supreme in shapes that are both startling and amazing. Inspiring and impressive as well.

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Hespe Gallery: Eric Zener.

Review by RWM: Overgrown brush, shrubs and trees as both subject and symbol. The woods are messy here without a clear way for anyone to make their way through. Nice workmanship and technique, though a bit overwhelming. You can spend the seasons lost in the thicket or connect with others up high on the branches.

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Jenkins Johnson Gallery: Cliché-Verre in the Digital Age.

Artists: Jo Bradford, Peter Feldstein, Maggie Foskett, Suzanne Izzo, Courtney Johnson, Fredrik Marsh, Abelardo Morell, Fred Parker, Frank Rossi, David Symons, Käthe Wenzel.

Comment by AB: Cliché-Verre, an uncommon artistic technique, is a combination of art and photography dating from the early 19th century. Images are drawn onto transparent surfaces and then photographically printed onto light-sensitive paper. This show is about the state of that art.

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Hang Art Gallery: Action, Reaction.

Artists: Lea Feinstein, Jeff Loehmann, Lela Shields.

Comment by AB: According to the ground rules, this art begins with chance occurrences and the compositions evolve from there.

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Kokoro Studio: Catrine Bodum - Lightweight.

Review by Geoff Smith: Catrine Bodum's work is light and airy with thin veils of color applied in layers to explore the resultant visual effect, and to serve as a metaphor for layers of time and experience. According to Kokoro, Bodum recently transitioned from oil paints to watercolor, and now utilizes the paint's ability to mottle, bleed, stain, veil, and resist on the muslin surface. Bodum describes her works as "containers of information" with the information codified in the successive layers of paint. She is a Swiss/Danish artist who lives and works in both London and Lucerne, Switzerland. She received her BFA from Parsons School of Design, New York City, and her MA in fine art from Byam Shaw School of Art, London.

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Ever Gold Gallery: Ever Wash - An Installation by Guy Overfelt. Curated by Tony Labat.

Review by Geoff Smith: This show should please pretty much every conceptual art fan. Conceptual and installation artist Guy Overfelt's "Ever Wash" show transforms the exhibition space into a minimalist laundromat with a functional washer and dryer available for free use to anyone who visits and simply asks. The gallerists act as attendants on demand, providing the appropriate amount of white powder laundry soap. Examples of earlier Overfelt works are also included, such as one of his modified neon beer signs, a framed red shop rag from Overfelt's working on his beloved Smokey and the Bandit Pontiace Trans Am, and a burnout tire rubber monoprint produced by that very same machine.

At first I have mixed feelings about this show but end up quite liking it. Overfelt is inventive and playful, and totally uninhibited by more conventional thinking about what art should or shouldn't be. He is based in San Francisco and Bolinas, and studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art (BFA 1994) and San Francisco Art Institute (MFA 1996). The show is curated by Tony Labat, Chair and associate professor in the New Genres department at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Comment by AB: Good show; go see; bring laundry.

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Fifty24SF Gallery: KMNDZ - The Heaviest.

Comment by AB: Dark urban with apocalyptic overtones, courtesy of Los Angeles artist and graphic designer KMNDZ.

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FFDG (Fecal Face Dot) Gallery: Magician's Garden - Josh Keyes.

Review and images by Geoff Smith: Josh Keyes displays his considerable drafting skills as well as his ecologically-oriented style. The works in his show surrealistically address how nature, in the form of certain of his favorite animal subjects, may be "magically" transformed by the accelerating and ominous environmental changes we are increasingly experiencing. In a recent Fecal Face interview, by Keyes own account, recent events increasingly fuel his concerns, imagination and art, such as continued global warming, the largest oil spill in history, the nuclear disaster in Japan, and political clamor and influence from the right-- all ultimately resulting in more power for the few who benefit the most from environmental degradation.

His artworks are meticulously drawn and painted and one feels compelled to get up very close to appreciate the intricate details. Keyes recently moved from Oakland to Portland Oregon. He was born in Tacoma, Washington, received a BFA in 1992 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA in 1998 from Yale.

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Addendum:

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It's never too late to support the cause.

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First Thursday - March 3, 2011

First Thursday - February 3, 2011

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