DON SOKER - ELI RIDGWAY - VISUAL AID

GUERRERO - STEVEN WOLF - HIJINKS - ARC

11.12.11 Part I



Art collecting vs speculating in the new economy. Click Here.

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Don Soker Contemporary Art: Judith Maloney - Liminal.

Comment by AB: Images of Greenland ice-melts and ocean horizons off the coast of Rhode Island-- two water-related bodies of work on exhibit by Rhode Island artist Judith Maloney. You can go either way with these-- Zen out in a halcyon trance or fret over global warming.

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Eli Ridgway Gallery: Cordy Ryman.

Comment by AB: Yet another exhibition of rudimentary-esque art. Yes, I get it from an academic perspective; the benefits of a higher arts education are clearly in evidence. Fine. But what's in it the rest of us, the grunts who do the dirty work that makes life just a little bit prettier for all us privileged prisses sitting in our catbird seats? I doubt they understand it. So I ask Cordy Ryman to explain, and I do get the part about this style of art being in part a rejoinder to the hollowness of pure technical facility, but that's not what it is-- it's what it isn't. So in the end, I'm still left not holding the bag. Help! Having said all that on behalf of my cluelessness, the work is well done and I'm obliged to recommend the show. Check it out.

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Visual Aid at SOMArts: Big Deal 2011.

Artists: Jeremy Morgan, David Buckingham, Carol Lefkowitz, Aondrea Maynard, Robin Denevan, Chris Duncan, Lea Feinstein, Lisa Solomon, Timothy Cummings, Monika Steiner, Ivy Jacobsen, Marianne Kolb, Christina McPhee, Mel Prest, Tim Yankosky, Leslie Lusardi, Robin Denevan, Susanne Onodera, Kerry Vander Meer, Suzie Barnard, Heather Wilcoxon, Juan Carlos Quintana, Silvia Poloto, Hiroko To, Cristina Koci Hernandez, x John Wood, Keira Kotler, Sydney Cohen, Mark Paron, Jennifer Bain, Carol Inez Charney, Antonio Torrez-Solis, Christina La Sala, Damien Hirst, Linda Symonds, Joan Weiss, Tyrell Collins, Jeanne Vadeboncoeur, Julie Blankenship, Yuval Pudik, Katherine B. Young, many more.

Comment by AB: I arrive in the heat of the live auction which is exceptionally lively, let me assure you. Big Deal is one of San Francisco's most monumental annual art fundraisers, with over 450 works of art are offered in support of Visual Aid. The organization, founded in 1989, is dedicated to producing, presenting and preserving the work of professional visual artists in need, and whose careers are challenged by life-threatening illness.

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Guerrero Gallery: November 2011 - Group Show.

Artists: Alexis MacKenzie, Amir H. Fallah, Cody Hudson, Dean Drever, Jovi Schnell, KC Ortiz, Kevin Earl Taylor, Marissa Textor, Michelle Blade, Mike LeSage, Paul Brainard, Ryan Travis Christian, Stas Orlovski, Albert Reyes.

Comment by AB: Quality group show in the main gallery areas plus a healthy selection of works by Albert Reyes in the rear gallery.

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Steven Wolf Fine Arts: John Herschend, The Book You Said I Never Returned, plus three to five pastorals.

Comment by AB: According to the premise, this particular art & installation by John Herschend marks the latest chapter in an ongoing saga (fictional or otherwise) concerning a dispute over whether a lent book (Don Quixote) was indeed ever returned. We've got a mock-up of the office where the book was lent, office art, office photographs, a video presentation by the purported lendee pleading his case that the book was actually returned, and related nail-biting diversions. Sidle on by and sleuth for yourself.

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Gallery Hijinks: Alchemist - Scott Greenwalt.

Comment by AB: Scott Greenwalt serves up yet another commendable cull of strikingly grotesque portraits plus other scenes from his own personal reality including a couple of cosmic mandalas. He knows the lay of the land; let me assure you. I'm a fan.

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Addendum:

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