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LUGGAGE STORE - PIER 5 LAW - WILLIAM BLAKE

MODERN EDEN - ELL SF - YBCA

10.14.16

(with assistance from Shea Stella)



How damage on art affects dollar value. Click Here.

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The Luggage Store: T�n Kh�nh Cao - What kind of Man Would I Be?

Comment by AB: T�n Kh�nh Cao explores identity issues that pretty much all of us confront at various points in hour lives. To this end, she assumes the male psyche in a series of carefully scripted and incisive self-portraits and writings. Good show.

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Pier 5 Law: 17th Annual Prison Art Show

Comment by AB: Art by prison system inmates. This is one of those shows that really makes you think. The art is often accompanied by descriptive or autobiographical writings by the artists. Always required viewing as far as I'm concerned. The show took place on October 14. Several of these artworks are certainly more poignant today than they were then... if not outright prophetic.

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William Blake Gallery: Inaugural Reception

Comment by AB: San Francisco is now home to the world's largest William Blake Gallery, courtesy of antiquarian bookseller and Blake authority John Windle. For sake of brevity, author, artist and illustrator William Blake (1757-1827) concocted some pretty crazy shit in a variety of mediums during his lifetime. Much of it would look surprisingly at home in any contemporary art gallery today. Check it out; impressive.

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Modern Eden Gallery: Crystal Morey - Delicate Dependencies; Emilio Villalba - Talk to Me

Review and image c/o Shea Stella: In her exhibit at Modern Eden Gallery, Crystal Morey brings us a series of porcelain sculptures featuring hybrid human figures. About half of the sculptures are of female bodies with an animal heads, including a bear head, a crow head, and a ram head. The other half of the sculptures combine women with plants or trees as hair and/or horns. The sculptures are realistically carved making the hybrid look reasonable as opposed to grotesque, in fact they are a delight to view. Even though the concept of the series deals with complex and important issues society faces, the figures individually open up the viewer's imagination to the magical fairyland of myths and legends. Ms. Morey's sculptures are clever, eye catching, and executed with tremendous skill.

The artist was raised in what she calls an "alternative environment" in Northern California, close to nature, which contributes to her inspiration to explore the idea that humans have become the driving force and influence behind natural evolution, as with the Peppered Moth during the Industrial Revolution and our countless hybridizations and engineerings of plants. Ms. Morey's human-animal hybrids represent ultimate evolutionary, engineering and genetics feats and she says her they're meant to serve as a warning that if we continue relating to nature as we do, then there is a potential for destruction and downfall. Her metaphor of hybrid humans to direct attention to the ways in which we are affecting nature is brilliant; however the sculptures themselves do not necessarily serve as a warning because they are simply too delightful!

As for Emilio Villalba, I bet you cannot look at his paintings without doing a double take. The prominent theme of his art is facial features which are offset and repeated, sometimes on a head or as part of a face, and other times against bleak or black abstract backdrops, out of context. The unexpected offsetting and repetition force the viewer to get in close, really use the eyes and engage the mind to understand. I had to use one eye at a time even. After a careful up-close and thorough inspection of the work, stepping back again to take in entire pieces, they boggle the mind all over again.

The repetition of facial features also creates ideas of a disjointedness-- two mouths, three eyes, and rubbed out features. There is darkness, mystery, pain, and a struggle for the true faces to be revealed out of stark landscapes. The form of a face is only visible in relation to the light which illuminates it. Nothing appears complete, there is a veil which drapes itself over the subjects of the painting hiding them from view.

Very engaging, dark, and powerful work which forces the viewer to look hard and think. Furthermore, the painting technique and overall aesthetic of the exhibit is cohesive and compelling.

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Ell San Francisco: Wish You Were Here - Ferris Plock and Kelly Tunstall

Comment by AB: Let's call this one a pre-opening for a new mixed-use space, one of those uses being to show art.

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Yerba Buena Center for the Arts: Erick Meyenberg - The wheel bears no resemblance to a leg

Comment by AB: An artist gets together with a high school military marching band to produce this 3-screen video experience.

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