JACK FISCHER - TOGONON - HEIST - MICHAEL ROSENTHAL

MINA DRESDEN - DI ROSA PRESERVE

05.15.10

(with assistance from Sandra Silvoy and RWM)

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Jack Fischer Gallery: Heather Wilcoxon - Being Heather Wilcoxon.

Comment by AB: Heather Wilcoxon journeys us through her curiously amusing encapsulation of reality here at Jack Fischer Gallery. An accompanying video piece embellishes the essence. I'm trying to quantify the work, somehow, and come up with this-- "Sponge Bob meets Basquiat." What do you think?

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Togonon Gallery: Lynn Marie Kirby & Li Xiaofei - Video, Photography and Installation. Guest curator Justin Hoover.

Comment by AB: Two person show, trending largely conceptual, homages the relationship between San Francisco and its sister-city Shanghai, and is also presented in conjunction with the Asian Art Museum's major exhibition, Shanghai Celebration. Nicely done overall.

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Gallery Heist: The Reinvention of Nature - Gaia:

Review by Sandra Silvoy: Brooklyn-based and MICA (Maryland) schooled, Gaia shows his work for the first time in San Francisco. A fusion of printmaking and painting makes up his largely monochromatic work focusing on domesticated animals. Altering the tone is a set of smaller scaled collage works with Big Brother connotations. A medium sized linocut impression of a grizzly bear (possibly of the circus? variety if we are sticking with the domesticated theme) has eyes crudely cut out and a stare that becomes more unnerving because of it. A splash of color does make it into several works on paper, one where a swarm of rabbits are depicted by a daring and somewhat successful use of a rainbow array of colored pencils. I know Gaia is capable of excellent work, exhibited by the art he puts up on the street (and him working along side notables including Blek Le Rat, Shepard Farey, Swoon, D*face, and more), but the show here seems a bit thrown together and not necessarily representative of his true skills. Worth a stroll by all the same.

Review by RWM: Gaia melds animals with mankind by portraying them with arms. He captures the suffering of these creatures as well as our totemic connection to them. We are caught up in their plight, even though they be fearsome bears with scared eyes. Nice use of details.

Comment by AB: I can't make it to the opening, but stop by during setup. Here's several pics from that.

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Michael Rosenthal Gallery: Mutual Migration - New Work by the Provincetown Fellows of 2010.

Artists: Taylor Baldwin, Elizabeth Mooney, Nadia Ayari, Meghan Gordon, Matthew Bollinger, Robin Madel, Sarah Peters, Jacob Yanes, Leslie Murray, Martin Smick, Kirsten Ulrich.

Comment by AB: Group show of artists who've received residency fellowships at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA.

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Mina Dresden Gallery: New Work by Kimetha Vanderveen.

Comment by AB: Subtle finely worked small format abstractions on wood panels by Kimetha Vanderveen... plus several clean white sculptural works. Nicely done.

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di Rosa Preserve: MFA Selections - A Salute to Emerging Artists from Bay Area Masters of Fine Arts Programs.

Artists: Carina Baumann, Sandra Otto, Leigh Merrill, Gina Tuzzi, Jina Valentine, Joshua Short, Aaron Maietta, Andrew Witrak, Joanne Hashitani, Patricia Patterson.

Comment by AB: I tootle on up the highway for an art, food and wine tasting event here tonight at di Rosa. Here's a look at their MFA show currently on exhibit in the Gatehouse Gallery. For those of you keeping score at home, I tasted only the food and wine, not the art.

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