SILVERMAN - RATIO 3

SHOTWELL 50 - MICHELLE O'CONNOR

10.28.11

(with assistance from RWM)



Art world pros talk about what makes good art. Click Here.

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Silverman Gallery: Matt Lipps - HORIZON/S.

Comment by AB: This show by Matt Lipps gets its moniker from Horizon magazine, a high-end hardbound arts periodical published by American Heritage, most popular in the 1960s and early 70s, though it lasted until 1989. Pretty much everybody saved their copies so it has practically zero value as a collectible. But Lipps finds plenty of value in their contents, extracting its lavish illustrations, collaging them into groups, and photographing them in eerie unnatural lighting. An aesthetically gratifying twist on Dumas' "One for all, all for one." Worth a visit.

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Ratio 3 Gallery: Geof Oppenheimer - Inside us all there is a part that would like to burn down our own house.

Comment by AB: Geof Oppenheimer's profound artistic riffs on topics including politics, history, pageantry, violence and failure are presented in such a way that you can immerse yourself in either the concepts or the creations... or both, for you gluttons. No matter what your preference, this show's a winner, every bit of it-- the haunting video entitled "Anthems" featuring the Rickover Naval Academy Band (not navel, like it says in the credits), the plexiglas "enclosed explosion" sculptures, and the perplexing textual excerpts from interviews with famous world leaders. Recommended viewing.

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Shotwell 50 Inc., 50 Shotwell St., San Francisco CA 94103: The 9th Annual Altered Barbie Artist Reception.

Artists: Tons.

Review by RWM: Barbie Nation. Who needs politics when there's too much fun to be had? Barbie has never seemed so versitile. Events take place through November 18. Click the link above or go to AlteredBarbie.com.

Comment by AB: Barbie gets sliced, diced, flipped, flopped, transfigured, transmogrified, dismembered, reconfigured, rehabilitated, redacted, renovated, supercharged, modified, transported in time, caged, converted, iconified, and too much more in one of the wiggiest wingdings imaginable.

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Michelle O'Connor Gallery: Building Our Own White Picket Fences.

Artists: Midori, Madison Young, Monica Canilao, Harrison Bartlett, Mev-Luna, Amelia Reiff Hill.

Review by RWM: Fences are not for everyone. Interesting statement about belonging and not belonging. Great choices of materials and impressive constructions. The people here care about what goes on beyond and behind all the fences. The private is also political.

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