BRAUNSTEIN/QUAY - SOAP - FEMINA POTENS - MINA DRESDEN
BARBER LOUNGE - GALLERY THREE - WHITE WALLS
(with assistance from Pakayla Biehn, Kathryn Arnold and RWM)
08.08.09

Braunstein/Quay Art Gallery: Super Flat | Redefining the Contemporary Print.

Artists: John Altoon, Kimberly Austin, Tom Bolles, Robert Brady, Patricia Tobacco Forrester, Gyöngy Laky, Dennis Luedeman, Cork Marcheschi, Grace Munakata, Paul Pratchenko, Kyle Reicher, Beverly Rayner, Jane Rosen, Richard Shaw, Ursula Schneider, Michael Stevens, Peter Voulkos.

Review and images by Kathryn Arnold: Works on paper (except for one, and all of them prints) at Braunstein/Quay Gallery encompass a wide range of subject matters. One work is not truly officially a print, but stands out with all of its luminous marble-like elements (see photo).

A spacious exhibition-- the works are representative of a variety of artists, many of them connected to the Bay area, and are beautiful as well as skillful representations of the print medium. A work by Jane Rosen titled Bend catches my eye-- feels like a Jim Dine with the Elgin marbles in its treatment of surface-- a lithograph with additions directly from the artist's hand. There is a sense of poetry in the capturing of this majestic animal (the horse). Other works are playful, seizing the opportunity to work with print.

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Soap Gallery: Flotsam's Wonder Tonic - The Art of Mike Shine.

Review and images by Laura Chenault: The front of the gallery is filled with small framed pieces by Mike Shine, but it is the buoy-inspired room divider and graphically painted back half of the space that instantly draws me in. Ropes are used to string together bullet shaped paintings that look to divide the space. Shades of green come to a point in one corner overlooking a green tent. Mike has grouped dozens of small driftwood paintings on one wall while another features a trio of painted skulls with flame-grained wooden shields. The pieces that are interactive are the most appealing-- roulette-like wheels featuring Vikings and other figures. On one wheel, Mephisto's tongue is the marker that indicates which rune or symbol you land on-- a mystical delight.

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Femina Potens Gallery: Egoless.

Artists: Annalee Lanier, ABR, Britt Howard, Beth Grin, Emily MacDonald, Ehren Reed, Erin McElroy, Lilea Duran, Sera Mac, Jeeti Singh, Julie Sutherland, Lydia Danieller, Stephanie Mufson, Shelley Monahan, Sarah Lippincott.

Review and images by Laura Chenault: A unique variation on the traditional collaboration-- five groups of three artists creating fifteen collaborative pieces. Instead of working together, each artist starts a piece, passes it to the second member of her trio. They alter the work and pass it for a final time so that each person has had a hand in the three pieces they create as a group. The results are varied and pictures show the creation in each of its stages providing insight to the individual artists' aesthetics within the group.

ABR, Emily MacDonald, and Stephanie Mufson create an intriguing piece with a large painted background that has a honeycomb-like tent sticking out. A hole reveals a buffalo. Smaller versions of the tent are reproduced on the wall, revealing other images. A pink and white bikini with silk-screened girls is a sassy and cute creation by Julie Sutherland, Sera Mac and Shelley Monahan.

Two images by Beth Grin, Erin McElroy, and Sarah Lippincott elegantly combine three-dimensional objects with paint. One prominently features cupids hanging over rock formations that flank an image of a deer. Text is created with an old school label maker and is graffitied onto the mountainsides. Another piece by this trio features a skateboard-turned-landscape with a branch becoming a tree in front of a starry sky.

Annalee Lanier, Lilea Duran, and Ehren Reed concoct a couple of engaging pieces. One features a field of collaged photographs. Stained walls and weathered doorways are literally punctuated by a group of nails. Hanging from the nails are a trio of boxes that are stitched together and wrapped. This stitching detail is prominent in a second work by this trio that features maps, repetitive circles, and tiny photographs. The circular forms created by gears, thread, and framed text counterbalance the very square architectural photographs nicely.

Jeeti Singh, Britt Howard and Lydia Danieller's mixed media on paper piece incorporates stencils, photographs, and what looks to be neon green spray paint. Their mounted rows of boxes are the most intriguing. Identifying the evolutionary stages of the final piece is difficult, but it's graphic, engaging and well constructed. This conceptual collaborative show is successful as an endeavor to confront the ego and the individual artist in a powerful way.

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Mina Dresden Gallery: Street & Sky - Nick McPhail.

Review and images by Laura Chenault: Nick McPhail captures a beautiful side of Los Angeles in this appropriately named show. Oil paintings in all sizes feature street scenes from Los Angeles. Angled roads are prominent in many of the paintings providing deep perspective. Trees are often nicely featured, usually lightly punctuated by bits of buildings and swaths of asphalt. One small piece focuses on a van while another depicts a pick up in front of a moderne hillside house-- not your typical design, though, with its wall of stairs leading up to the front door. While the works characterize Los Angeles, they are definitely not the touristy glitz of Beverly Hills or the Sunset Strip, instead capturing neighborhoods and streets that comprise the unseen side of the city.

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Gallery 3: Suicide Machine - New Works by Bryan Schnelle.

Review and images by Laura Chenault: Suicide Machine fills the small gallery & stairwell with images reminiscent of old fashioned profile silhouette portraits. Bryan Schnelle's vision has transformed them into a nice conceptual show exploring themes of narcissism, image and beauty. Becoming somehow scary and yet not, the repeated faces throughout the space are blacked out except for their eyes, mouths, and noses. An intriguing show and a well executed installation.

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White Walls: Recognition - Hugh Leeman and Michael Holman.

Review and images by Laura Chenault: Hugh Leeman and Michael Holman both create bold paintings layered with social commentary. Hugh Leeman's bright confident painting fills half of this gallery. Many of his pieces feature figures that you might see on any urban street-- musician, a worker in a hard hat, a guy smoking wearing a knit cap. An especially powerful piece is a modern Pieta with a black Jesus in the Madonna's arms. They are both traditionally encircled by intricate, golden halos.

Michael Holman's paintings each prominently feature the Confederate flag as the main or background image. One group of paintings is embossed and gilded in silvers and golds. A pink Louis Vitton patterned piece with the word "Native" in gold sits next to a pink and black flag with portraits of a young Asian soldier superimposed over the bars and stars. Both these painters explore racial and cultural themes and are well paired together.

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The Barber Lounge: Off the Wall.

Artists: Carlos Michael Finn, Gabrielle Gamboa, Georgianne Fastaia, Try Serino, Dave Otto, Owen Geronimo, Eve Shen, June Li, Kevin Pincus, Liz Maher, Jim Winters, Manny Fabreges, Cameron Chernoff, Hilary Williams, Kelly Reiling, Jeff Paul Riley, Cecilia Welden, Fely.

Review and images by Laura Chenault: This large full service spa is filled with artwork by a wide range of artists working with a variety of subject matters. Paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs are displayed on every wall. Hilary Williams shows some complex layered screenprints that are nicely displayed on a neutral gray. There are some intriguing drawings by Liz Maher including one perfectly suited for the space featuring Lilliputian stylists attending to a mass of ribbon-like locks. A grouping of grayscale images of traditionally dressed Asian women by Jim Winters mimic film stills. Captions reading like subtitles offer commentaries like "Unmarried people don't know happiness."

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