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NEW LANGTON ARTS - ARTSPAN AUCTION - HOTEL DES ARTS ARTHAUS - PLAYSPACE - PROJECT ARTAUD PAWNBROKERS - ARSPACE 04.13-14.05 New Langton Arts: Downtime - Constructing Leisure. Artists: Bureau d'Etudes, Tacita Dean, Josh Greene, Doug Hall, Luis Jacob, Tobias Putrih, Pedro Reyes, Steven Shearer, Melinda Stone and Mungo Thomson. Comment: Artists explore what we do in our spare time. The curatorial arm of the gallery puffs that premise with a whiff of good old fashioned down home high falootin' verbosity including "the exhibition addresses the cultural investment in leisure manifested in the physical and social architectures associated with recreation as pastime." I guess that makes it official. So there's a tool shed, a mocked up den, some pictures of beaches, and stuff like that. My favorite - the complex diagramatics of Bureau d'Etudes. Beach art. Bureau d'Etudes art. Sorry - couldn't resist. Functional den art. Tuff Shed art. *** Hotel des Arts and Start SOMA: Painted Rooms 3.0. Artists: Maya Hayuk, Eric Orr, Punkadelik, Klutch + The Vinyl Killers, MATZU, MISK, KENJI, Maria Gillespie, Anthony Skirvin, Bryan Dawson, Josh Feldman, Kelly Tunstall. Comment: The third installment of artist-enhanced guest rooms at Hotel des Arts. Need a mural? Tired of mono-color rooms? Wall paper too frou-frou for you? Try this. My guess is that a number of these artists will make you a wall for not that much more $$ than a painting contractor would charge to paint it eggshell white. Hotel Des Arts is well on its way to becoming a significant contemporary urban art collection. Art (Punkadelik). Art (Kelly Tunstall - I like it). Art (room, Bryan Dawson). John Doffing of Start SOMA. Josh Feldman - art. Art (Klutch from the Vinyl Killers). Art (Eric 'Robot Man' Orr). Art (Kelly Tunstall). *** Lisa Dent Gallery: Daniel Cox. Comment: Daniel Cox photographs a derelict structure in the Sacramento - San Joaquin River Delta area over a two-year period, then manipulates the images to produce reasonably compelling slants on abandonment. Although the work is notable, I'm kinda stymied by the $3500-$8000 tariff structure. According to the Lisa Dent website, Cox received his MFA in 2004 (BA, 1993) and has a handful of decent shows to his credit, but frankly, I expect a longer rap sheet for that kinda cabbage. Hey-- I appraise art for a living, and in the real world of FMV (fair market value), art prices are neither assessed nor determined randomly. Now if I'm missing crucial data here, please fill me in and I'll do a re-do. Photography. Photography. Photography. *** ArtHaus: No Contest - A Sculpture Installation by Adam Kurtzman. Comment: Los Angeles artst Adam Kurtzman sculpts amusing big-breasted stiff-nippled buddha-bellied thick kewpie-headed female effigies in bronze, and in spectroscopically painted cast concrete which, according to gallery owner Annette Schutz, incorporate elements of ancient African tribal art. I couldn't get a graspable elaboration on that from Kurtzman, who's comparably amusing, so I'll stick with Shutz's. For you terminology buffs, a collector of vintage kewpies once admonished me for using the "k" word when referring to the objects in his collection. They're called carnival chalk ware, he informed me, not kewpies. Prices-- big bronze, $20K; complete spectrum, $25K (he'll probably throw in the pedestals) or pick your favorite color for $1200 each. Front. Back. Bronze. Adam Kurtzman - art. His idea, not mine. *** PlaySpace Gallery at California College of Arts: GlamMore. Artists: Hank Thomas, Mail Order Brides (M.O.B.), Mads Lynnerup, Tara Foley, Oliver Halsman Rosenberg, Clint Taniguchi, Suzanne Husky, Kelly Tunstall, Dana Landau, Alissa Anderson, Charina, Galya Rosenfeld, Alisha Trimble, and Yosh Han. Comment: The press release spins the show as a bit of a nose-thumb at the recent SFMoMA show, Glamour, and yes, certain aspects unquestionably spoof the high style high life. But you can spoof something without having to nick something else. Art's most effective when you keep it positive (satire included), unless you're slamming war, apoplectic gluttony, or similar banes on humanity. Regardless of the show's dig, the art's pretty entertaining, and stands suitably on its own even without the preemptive editorialization. Stretch pedestal. Art (Oliver Halsman Rosenberg). Kelly Tunstall - art. Artist - art. Oliver H. Rosenberg hawks $5 hand-embellished Polaroid portraits. O. H. R. documents his art (lotta Rosenberg for one review). It was there, so I took it. Art. Intro. *** Pawnbrokers Gallery, 835 Larkin St., SF, 94109; 999.2051: Where's My San Francisco. Artists: Empte Eyes, Mariah K. Brinton, Silver Warner, Bryan Dawson, Joshua Hartsough, Fury one. Comment: Group show curated by Empte Eyes, an F.T.P. (For the People) production. Another respectable selection of work from a small but diverse group of local urban artists. Mariah Brinton (art, Joshua Hartsough). Art (Empte Eyes). Fury one. Owner Trevor Rogers (art, Joshua Hartsough). Mariah K. Brinton - photography. Art (Bryan Dawson). *** Arspace: Karina Figueroa - New Paintings. Comment: Mostly portraits and figure paintings by accomplished One Shot Tattoo artist Karina Figueroa. Bigguns, around $800; teenies, $100 or less. Fun opening. Big art. Karina Figueroa with portrait of Karina Figueroa. Little art. *** Addendum: Trolling for value at the Annual ArtSpan Benefit Auction. ArtSpan bidders gird for action. Spring Show, Re-Birth, at Project Artaud. One more Project Artaud. |
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