SAN FRANCISCO ART GALLERIES OPENINGS
FIRST THURSDAY; 05.07.09
PART II
(with assistance from Jennifer Jeffrey,
Lynnore Goldfarb, Alan Kaufman and RWM)

General comment by AB: Wasn't Part I of our mega First Thursday excursion positively palpitating? Well, check this...

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Fraenkel Gallery: Bernd & Hilla Becher - A Survey, 1972-2006.  

Comment by AB: Bernd and Hilla Becher photographed together for nearly fifty years. During that time, they perfected a unique methodology for presenting the art of heavy industry. By factoring out oversized industrial structures from their surroundings-- water towers, blast furnaces, grain elevators and the like-- and presenting them against minimal and homogeneous backdrops, the Bechers afford viewers opportunities to compare, contrast, consider and appreciate these behemoths on purely artistic and sculptural merits. Excellent and impressive survey.

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A440 Gallery: Leon Kennedy - American Spiritual.

Comment by AB: A440 Gallery makes its debut at 49 Geary in the space formerly occupied by Jack Fischer Gallery, and showing paintings by Leon Kennedy. Kennedy paints in a distinctly Outsider style on bedsheets, wood and other found objects. Welcome to the big top, A440!

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Toomey Tourell Fine Art: Gregg Renfrow - Atmosphere.

Comment by AB: By layering poylmers and pigments on translucent grounds of cast acrylic, Gregg Renfrow imparts subtle dimensionality and soft cosmic glow to his paintings, effecting an essence kinda like the Northern Lights.

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Scott Nichols Gallery: A Tribute to Don Worth (1924-2009). 

Photographers: Don Worth, Ansel Adams, Ruth Bernhard, Wynn Bullock, Mark Citret, Imogen Cunningham, Lyle Gomes, Leland Rice, Alan Ross, Brett Weston, Edward Weston, Jack Welpott and Minor White. Review by RWM: Wonderful images are on display to celebrate the work and life of the late photographer Don Worth, who also had an interest in music and nature. Worth was an assistant to Ansel Adams and shared with him an appreciation of the outdoors. Some of Ansel Adam's photographs were also on display here. The photographs have intricate detail celebrating the wonders of nature. The assembled works fascinate, even without color. Wondrous.

Comment by AB: Don Worth began his photography career in 1946, became Ansel Adams' first full-time assistant in 1959, and taught photography at San Francisco State from 1962-1993-- in addition to pursuing his personal photographic endeavors, of course. This retrospective survey is about Don Worth himself as well as the photographers who influenced him.

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Micaela Gallery: Taliaferro Jones, Douglass Freed, Josh Hershman - In Camera.

Review by Jennifer Jeffrey: Walking into the Micaëla Gallery tonight feels a bit like dipping a toe into the ocean. The walls in the front room are hung with photographs by Taliaferro Jones, depicting rippling bodies of water; sculptures by Jones flank the photos in shades of aqua and deep navy, some ruffled as if in motion, others still as glass (actually, they are glass). In the next room, long rectangular canvases by Douglass Freed depict sea and sky in muted gradients of color, the line between land and air shimmering in a hazy abstraction. Works by Joshua Hershman round out the show in the back room, near-translucent sculptures representing vintage cameras mounted on wooden tripods, a pleasing juxtaposition of modern and antique.

Review by RWM: The attraction of the water in sculpture and images is to be experienced here. There are faraway places on the mysterious horizon, water and sky depicted during the day and night. Water magic abounds.

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Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art: James Sansing, Jerad Walker - Unified Theory.

Comment by AB: James Sansing's imposing monotone concrete, wood, fabric and cable installation in the main gallery nicely complements Jerad Walker's colorful upbeat takes on water, grass, sky, and geometric elements.

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Modernism Gallery: Gottfried Helnwein - The Murmur of the Innocents.

Review by Jennifer Jeffrey: I've walked into Modernism, and I can't seem to leave. A young girl of perhaps 9 or 10 is the central figure in a riveting series, called The Murmur of the Innocents by renowned artist Gottfried Helnwein. She is large-eyed and blond-haired, with a gravity that belies her years, both mesmerizing and painful to look at. I make the rounds of the gallery with the rest of the visitors, each of us transfixed. First she looks directly at us, then she's lost in her own sadness, oblivious to our stares. Around the next corner, she's sullen, then defiant, then helpless in a blindfold; finally she's bloody and bandaged, and we don't know why. I finally tear myself away, but she stays with me, along with the questions I cannot voice.

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Dolby Chadwick Gallery: Douglas Schneider - Suburban Birthday Party; Kim Froshin - Wigs and Silhouettes.

Review by Jennifer Jeffrey: A smartly-dressed crowd mills about the shining hardwood floors of Dolby Chadwick tonight, carrying rosy pink drinks in V-shaped glasses. In the main room, paintings by Douglas Schneider create a seamless extension of the urban scene, a time-warped still life of the objects and people that make up the modern landscape. In one, a Krispy-Kreme Doughnuts sign shares space with a girl sitting forlornly on a bouncing ball, while a 50's-era sedan rusts quietly into the background. In the side gallery, works by artist Kim Froshin reveal an absorbing study of female bodies in motion and at rest. Her colorful, blocky figures seem to be at odds with the canvas, turning away to seek solitude or rest.

Review by RWM: Fascinating assemblages of realism, fantasy, symbols, and abstraction by Douglas Schneider. You can lose yourself here in the psychology, as well as appreciate the exploration of memory and the past.

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Gallery 291: Elisabeth Sunday - The Taureg Portfolios.

Comment by RWM: Sleek and fashionable. Foreign but sad. Fascinating and elegant, even without color.

Comment by AB: Using Taureg women of Northern Africa as her subjects, Elisabeth Sunday distills out the myriad associations and implications we have about veils, until only grace and beauty remain.

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Fecal Face Dot Gallery: Damon Soule - Same Loud No.

Comment by AB: Damon Soule doesn't mosey on out here to blustery Ess Eff all that often, and this show at Fecal Face Dot marks one of those not-that-often moments. Soule continues to refine his art-making abilities to the point where his current work ratchets your brain into exquisite acmes of ecstasy. I'm slappin' a BUY NOW on this baby.

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Addendum:

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Hey-- it's worth a try.

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First Thursday - April 2, 2009

First Thursday - March 5, 2009

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