BRAUNSTEIN/QUAY - BAER RIDGWAY - ART PEOPLE

GALERIA DE LA RAZA - KITSCH - PAUL MAHDER

11.21.09

(with assistance from RWM)

Braunstein/Quay Gallery: Arthur Okamura - Now, Then and Beyond.

Comment by AB: Gratifying memorial retrospective of paintings with soft soothing meditative Zen overtones, mostly recent works, by Arthur Okamura (1932 - 2009) who first showed at Braunstein/Quay Gallery in 1981. I had the pleasure of visiting the artist at his home/studio in Bolinas several years ago and you can read about that here

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Baer Ridgway Exhibitions: Brion Nuda Rosch.

Comment by AB: Brion Nuda Rosch does strange things to ordinary stuff, so when you experience his art you're never quite sure what the deal is. But that, in fact, IS what the deal is. In related news, the award for Most Convoluted Circumlocution goes to the following barrage of verbosity, here excerpted from the show's expository for your reading entertainment-- "Often simplifying the analogical process we bring to a work to understand it, by forcing the viewer into the very beginning nodal points of comparison via juxtaposition of disjunct objects in sculpture or found photographs in collage, the process reveals the more complex meanings inherent in these objects or environments." First off, I can't believe they have the cojones to use the word "simplifying" in a sentence like that. Plus, by the time I'm done reading it, I've forgotten how it started, so I have to go back to the beginning and start all over again... and so on and so forth ad infinitum. I do like the art, though-- particularly the cryptic otherworldly paint and collage works on paper. Stop by and see for yourself.

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Galeria de la Raza: Pachanga 2009.

Artists: Manuel Acevedo, Pilar Aguero-Esparza, Keith Aguiar, Raul Aguilar, Efren Alvarez, Blanka Amezkua, Elena Anaya, Jose Arenas, Mitsy Avila Ovalles, Jesus Barraza, Tan Khanh Cao, Victor Cartagena, Carolyn Castano, Melanie Cervantes, Enrique Chagoya, Lawrence Colacion, Jaime Cortez, Rudy Cuellar, The Date Farmers, Einar & Jamex De La Torre, Hector Dio Mendoza, Juan Doe, Veronica Duarte, Ala Ebtekar, Ana T. Fernandez, Juan Fuentes, Rupert Garcia, Nereida Garcia-Ferraz, Guillermo Gcmez-Pena, Matt Gonzalez, Pablo Guardiola, Gabriela Hasbun, Ester Hernandez Giovanni, Francisco Higuera, Nancy Hom, Jody Jock, Tim Keefe, Tony Labat, Robin Lasser & Adrienne Pao Nery, Gabriel Lemus, Liz Lerma, Carmen Lomas Garza, Amanda Lopez, Steven Lopez, Miguel Luciano, Juan Luna Avin, Angel Javier Machado Leyva, Scape Martinez, Miriam Martinez Miju, Julio Cesar Morales, Angelica Muro, Gabriel Navar, Kottie Paloma, Txutxo Perez, Johanna Poethig, Silvia Poloto, Billie Quijano, Nicole Repack (AKA Jocelyn Superstar), Albert Reyes, Boyd Richard, Eugene Rodriguez, Rolando Rolando, Shizu Saldamando, Andrea Seuss, Santos Shelton, Daniela Steinsapir, Paul Valadez, Cristina Velazquez, Rio Yanez, Mario Ybarra Jr.

Comment by AB: Pachanga, Galeria de la Raza's annual fundraiser event and celebration features both live and silent auctions with art by over 70 established and emerging Bay Area artists. Highly recommended, an excellent buying opportunity-- and for an eminently worthy cause.

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Kitsch Gallery: Second Group Showing.

Artists: Alex Braubach, Ivan Bridges, Alex Luke, Jamie Williams, Kelly Nicolaisen, more.

Comment by AB: Newly opened Kitsch Gallery, positioned as an "alternative space," habits a spacious mezzanine suite-- the second floor of a former warehouse-- on 17th Street in The Mission. A pretty peppy posse is here on hand an in full prance, rapt in conviviality, and enjoying a rather fresh and satisfying aggregation of creatibles. Like it.

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Addendum:

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