SAN FRANCISCO ART GALLERIES OPENINGS

FIRST THURSDAY - 11.03.11 - Part II

(with assistance from Kathryn Arnold and RWM)



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Brian Gross Fine Art: Hadi Tabatabai - Portals.

Comment by AB: Hadi Tabatabai calls these bewilderingly precise artworks "thread paintings." Individual threads are strung in perfect parallel just slightly above painted background surfaces, and then are themselves hand-painted in geometric patterns. I have no idea how he accomplishes this, and y'all what that means, don't you? Yep, you guessed it-- I hereby, herewith, heretofore and post haste present Hadi Tabatabai with the rare and highly coveted "How Do Dey Do Dat?" award. Decidedly worth a perusal.

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Fraenkel Gallery: Robert Adams - Prairie, Forest, Sea.

Review by RWM: Great to get lost here in the foregrounds as opposed to the horizons in these. Beautiful landscape photos of places days where we'd probably all like to be.

Review by Kathryn Arnold: This one I need to revisit-- three series by this highly influential photographer. Black and whites from earlier to more recent works. Like movie stills, captured suddenly in timeless quiet extending into our time and place with momentous silence.

Comment by AB: In the front gallery, witness a decidedly silent, expansive and idyllic small town Great Plains romance circa the early 1970s by Robert Adams. In the next gallery, Adams' 2004 series "Questions for an Overcast Day" isolates our minds via half-eaten leaves and leaf groups that have clearly served as sustenance for insects. Go see.

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Altman Siegel Gallery: Matt Keegan - Lengua.

Comment by AB: Everyday words, phrases and cliches are presented in utilitarian color-code guise and void of context. The rest is up to you.

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Toomey Tourell Gallery: Audrey Tulimiero Welch - South is at the Top.

Comment by AB: Audrey T. Welch spent ten years in Sumatra and Bangkok, and now calls Perth, Australia home. These abstracts, painted during her last year in Bangkok, clearly illustrate the influence of Far Eastern sensibilities.

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Scott Nichols Gallery: Brett Weston - Centennial.

Comment by AB: Retrospective survey of Brett Weston photographs ranges from city scenes to Western grandeur to abstracted landscapes. Weston, born 100 years ago, was the son of famed California modernist photographer Edward Weston.

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The McLoughlin Gallery: Eau La La - Dalia Nosratabadi.

Comment by AB: Dalia Nosratabadi photographs cities and landscapes as reflected in puddles of water. It's precisely that simple and no more complicated.

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Rena Bransten Gallery: Don Ed Hardy - Paintings and Small Sculptures.

Comment by AB: Stylized abstracted skeletal, animal and mystical forms in works on paper by Don Ed Hardy show a heavy Japanese influence. To accent it all, Hardy lays down some more traditional tattoo imagery in blue on white porcelain.

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George Krevsky Gallery: Alan Magee - Tapestries, Scribblings & Prints.

Review by Kathryn Arnold: Amazing to see tapestries and other works! Some seem to fall within the trompe l'oeil traditions while others feel like a dada moment as in the one which seems to mirror a Hanna Hoch.

Comment by AB: A rather curious mix of black & white caricatures on paper with lush ultra detailed realistic tapestries.

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Patricia Sweetow Gallery: Markus Linnenbrink - Too Early and Always and All Over Again.

Comment by AB: Markus Linnenbrink sculpts in two and three dimensions with striped, layered and poured pigmented epoxy resins to yield sumptuous high-gloss kaleidoscopic celebrations.

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Addendum:

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Yes, I do it all for free, but also yes-- it makes me feel really good to know that you appreciate the incredible amounts time and hard work that go into bringing San Francisco artland to your computer screen. So maybe... just maybe... even an itsy bitsy bit of maybe... kindly support the cause. I know you can do it.

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First Thursday - October 6, 2011

First Thursday - September 8, 2011

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