SAN FRANCISCO ART GALLERIES OPENINGS

FIRST THURSDAY - 10.06.11 - Part II

(with assistance from Kathryn Arnold, Mairead O'Connor and RWM)



What makes art worth buying? Click Here.

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Toomey Tourell Gallery: Probability, Chance and Temporality - Kirkman Amyx.

Review by Kathryn Arnold: Intriguing works run the gamut from prints to monitor-based, the commonalities being pattern and repetition. Fascinating are the monitor based works which run via programatic elements to record 10,000 dice rolls using a single die-- a cool experiment in controlled randomness.

Comment by AB: Document a specific circumstance, instance or moment a shitload of times in precise chronologic increments and then display the results. It'll get you thinking. Worth checking out.

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Modernbook Gallery: Maggie Taylor and Jerry Uelsmann - Maggie & Jerry.

Review by Kathryn Arnold: Maggie Taylor and Jerry Uelsmann are exhibiting their photographs; both artists have interesting histories and use varying photographic techniques. Maggie's works use color and explore digital manipulations whereas Jerry's black and white renditions are most often, if not always, created via traditional darkroom processes. Magical nature, otherworldly and sometimes mystical, surrealistic yet natural, these artists' works stand alone within the world of photography. A must see.

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111 Minna Gallery: Born Again (Again) - Rob Reger.

Review by Mairead O'Connor: Rob Reger's work presents three different stages of creation-- adolescence, heroes and immortals, with Reger, the creator, playing God. The materials used coincide with the length of time that each state lasts. The collages are ultimately amusing. His work is a wacky mix of components all thrown into a mix that comes out obscure, sexually suggestive and all around fun.

Comment by AB: 111 anomalous collages, the large majority of which are characters you might well encounter while transiting the far reaches of your cognitive outback. They seem to have their own unique personalities-- odd, to be sure, but good odd-- the kinds of folks you might wanna get to know, or perhaps you know some of them already. For those of you keeping score at home, a number of the artworks on exhibit here were created in collaboration with noted collage-meister, Winston Smith.

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Hang Art Gallery: Liz Maxwell and Katherine B. Young - Oscillating Landscapes.

Review by Kathryn Arnold: A blend of naturalistic landscapes together with stylized Rothko-esque works of simplified landscape divisions. Qualities of light play within these pieces, whether it be openings in the hovering clouds as in Katherine B. Young's paintings or the element playing just along the horizon in several of Liz Maxwell's (as in Horizon Series A).

Review by RWM: Katherine Young makes her ocean scenes look easy with water and sky filling the canvas. You can watch the waves or lose yourself in the stark horizon. The waters are majestic. Liz Maxwell revels in an abstract take on nature producing beauties of her own. Missing here are the wind, smells and sounds, but the references and reminders abound.

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Ever Gold Gallery: We Bought The Seagram Building - Lucas Soi.

Review by Mairead O'Connor: Lucas Soi's exhibition at Ever Gold is a commentary on Capitalism and Globalization. The works presented are elements of the story that is the basis of the show, "We Bought the Seagram Building." After several changes in ownership internationally, the Seagram Building was finally bought by Soi, with the help of a handful of bogus documents, retuning it to its original Canadian proprietorship.

Comment by AB: Marvel at Lucas Soi's master plan to take sole ownership of a famous skyscraper... and the eminently painstaking art that recounts it. Stop on by.

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Ictus Gallery: Immaterial - Mary Fernando Conrad.

Comment by AB: Mary Fernando Conrad calls our attention to the trash, discards and throwaways we all leave behind, the patterns they make as they shift about our environment, and their continuing existences and incarnations. One way or another, we must come to terms with our refuse-- whether we choose to notice or conveniently put it out of our minds.

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Addendum:

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Are you inclined to consider supporting the cause? Covering and posting these shows sure is a huge amount of work. But hey-- I do it 'cuz it needs to be done.

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First Thursday - September 8, 2011

First Thursday - August 4, 2011

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