JACK FISCHER - FREY NORRIS - HOSFELT

MARKET STREET - ELEANOR HARWOOD - MILLION FISHES

MISSION COMICS AND ART - [ 2ND FLOOR PROJECTS ]

ROOT DIVISION - WHITE WALLS - SHOOTING GALLERY

07.09.11

(with assistance from Larissa Archer and RWM)



The pros talk about what makes good art. Click Here.

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Jack Fischer Gallery: Scott Yeskel - Mapping California.

Review by Larissa Archer: Rough unprecious oil paintings on wood focus on the hot desolate landscape of the Southern California rural areas. Houses stand alone with drawn blinds in the windows, trailers or 80s era Volvos at the ready. Cars speed down the highway. Taco trucks stand unmanned, surrounded by empty chairs. Yeskel paints his California as a place to escape from, and the sense is that the place is already half-abandoned.

Review by RWM: On the Road to places you may have seen in the Golden State. What does it all mean going North and South in California? The maps presented may help.

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Frey Norris Contemporary & Modern: Mary Anne Kluth - Visitor Center.

Review by RWM: Those amazing rocks created over millions of years by pressures and circumstances that cannot be fully documented, even explained, compare here with novel artistic creations. Pick and choose, but we can have both. Rocks can tell tales; like art, they can be interpreted. It does not have to be either one way or the other.

Comment by AB: Mary Anne Kluth tells me her father is a geologist, has numerous rocks in his collection and plenty of background information and explanations to go with them. Not to be outdone, and to demonstrate what she's learned, Mary Anne arts up an imaginative collection of her own, complete with graphs, charts, maps, on-location landscape shots and, of course, actual examples of the fruits of her fictitious geology-- the art rocks themselves. Well conceived, well executed, and certainly worth checking out. Not your everyday art show.

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Hosfelt Gallery: Time Flies.

Artists: John Andrews, Nelleke Beltjens, Jim Campbell, Julie Chang, Anthony Discenza, Anoka Faruqee, Andrea Higgins, Alfredo Jaar, Baseera Khan, Byron Kim, Stefan Kürten, Michael Light, Crystal Liu, Marco Maggi, John O'Reilly, Liliana Porter, Gideon Rubin, Shahzia Sikander.

Comment by AB: Art that's not only about time as essayed on by artists, but also as considered by the gallery's owners in reflecting on the twelve years of artists they've represented in the course of their tenure at this location.

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Market Street Gallery: Mud/Marriage & Magic.

Artists: Steven Allen, Natasha Dikareva, Alex Hackworth, Lori Koening, John Richard Lloyd, Maggie Malloy, Oli Quezada, Tiffany Schmierer.

Review by RWM: Interesting variety of ceramic works with unusual subject matters and approaches. Something for everyone.

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Eleanor Harwood Gallery: Jesse Thomas - Cerulean Brigade.

Comment by AB: There's some pretty weird shit going on in these dude-heavy paintings by St. Louis, MO artist Jesse Thomas. In fact, the shit is so weird, it's worth checking out. Cruising for a quick stun? Experience that here.

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Million Fishes Arts Collective: Perfect Place/No Place - Re-imagining Utopia. Curated by the MicroClimate Collective.

Artists: Scott Kiernan, Matthew Parrott, John Urquhart, Patick Wilson, Yulia Pinkusevich, Reenie Charriere, Brett Goodroad, Anne Schnake, Sarah Ratchye, Peter Foucault and Chris Treggiari.

Review by RWM: Here is an artful agglomeration you are not likely to see anywhere else. Unusual materials used in a show which may be a bit too intellectual, but is memorable nonetheless. Big fun and odd surprises do not seem to answer all the problematic Utopian questions. Then again, they may never be answered no matter what.

Comment by AB: Peter Foucault and Chris Treggiari's wiggy tricked out Mobile Arts Platform (MAP) van conversion is worth seeing if you happen to cross paths with it.

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[ 2nd floor projects ]: The Violets Have Broken the Rocks - Evan Ellsworth Jourden, Karla Milosevich.

Review by RWM: Nice art about what seems to be interior designs, but one cannot help think it is about "states of mind" as well. Wonderful color schemes and decor.

Comment by AB: Evan Ellsworth Jourden harks us back to the garishly memorable 70s via his painted renditions of period magazine illustrations, while Karla Milosevich sums up the period with a couple of vintage-esque videos, one in particular about things not to do while driving.

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Root Division: A Live Animal.

Artists: Brandon Ballengee, Jeremiah Barber, Joianne Bittle, Bethany Carlson, Karl Cronin, Donald Farnsworth, Todd Forsgren, Dana Harel, Nicole Jean Hill, Michael Kerbow, Anne Klint, Maria Lux, Jon Rappleye, Shelley Reed, Steven Rubin, Susan Silas, Deborah Simon, Sarah A. Smith, Kate Stirr, Youngsuk Suh, Ryan Thompson, James Wendell, Gail Wight, and work from The Endangered Species Print Project.

Review by RWM: Art vs. Science here. Science does not always examine the creation of beauty, but is more likely to discover wonders and explanations. Artists do not engage in such searches and researches, but they can more easily make us care without requiring us to read and study. You may not appreciate the collections of wild dead things on display; they may make you cringe, but we have learned much through this process of documentation over the ages. Sad to see all these archived creatures, however we can appreciate the wilds courtesy of these artist who present them as "tales" of sorts. Not everyone can understand when animals speak, but this art might help.

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White Walls Gallery: Make an Effort - New Works by D Young V.

Comment by AB: Prodigiously productive D Young V crams the gallery to the rafters (and I do mean rafters) with his chilling militant vision of The New Order. You might think he's prognosticating on the future, but no. It's already here. Step out of line and you'll find out fast enough. Worth a visit.

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The Shooting Gallery: Grand Illusion - Works by Anthony Michael Sneed.

Comment by AB: Updated Op Art escapade by Brooklyn artist Anthony Michael Sneed, centerpieced by an imposing kinetic sculpture that looks like a large pipe organ of sorts, its painted or wood "pipes" undulating in and out, activated by built-in motion sensors. Stop on by and check it out.

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Addendum:

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